Agust Flygenring - semsagt.net

Not yet liberal enough

Fyrir skömmu sagði ég Charles Kennedy vera uppáhaldspólitíkusinn minn í Bretlandi. Og að ég myndi kjósa Lib. Dem. í þessum kosningum ef ég væri breskur kjósandi. En þótt Lib. Dem. séu nær eini flokkurinn sem er hvorki orðinn fasískur eða undir forystu Tonys Blair, þá er hann síður en svo fullkominn.

Undir fyrirsögninni "The bravery of the Liberal Democrats is undermined by their cynicism" fjallar Economist um Lib. Dem. í hálfsmánaðargömlu tölublaði (Not yet liberal enough). Sammála flestri gagnrýninni sem þar kemur fram. Í greininni segir m.a.:

They have shone most brightly as the only mainstream party consistently concerned with civil liberties. A government with a large majority, tormented by the constant fear that it might not be doing enough to thwart a terrorist-inspired catastrophe, is not a reliable guardian of liberty. Nor are the Tories, who cannot risk getting too far out of step with the authoritarian instincts of many of their supporters. So it has been the Lib Dems who have usually offered the most coherent and principled critique of the government when it has needed to be held to account, as over the recent control orders for suspected terrorists. It is further to their credit that when Labour and the Conservatives have seemed locked in a battle to see who can come up with the toughest-sounding policies on immigration and asylum, it has been the Lib Dems who have made the case for welcoming the contribution of immigrants and urging generosity towards asylum-seekers.

Og eftir að hafa farið í saumana á því hvernig stefna flokksins getur vart talist "alvöru", þar sem enginn býst við að flokkurinn verði annað en í stjórnarandstöðu (og fæstir búast við öðru en að þeir verði stjórnarandstöðuflokkur númer 2), segir í lokaorðum:

This may seem harsh given the party's need to pick up votes wherever it can and the near-certainty it will not have to form a government (the last Liberal prime minister was David Lloyd George in 1916-22). It is nonetheless disappointing that despite some promising stirrings, the Lib Dems have yet to come close to matching their admirable social liberalism with a rigorous economic liberalism. That is a combination that, for different reasons, neither Labour nor the Tories seem capable of emulating. Yet it might prove surprisingly popular.

Mikið rétt! En það breytir ekki þeirri staðreynd að Lib. Dem. er kjósanlegasti flokkurinn í Bretlandi í dag.
Agust skrifaði 15.04.05 17:24

Flokkun: Stjórnmál