Live UK political debates

[Kasz216]

highwaystar101 said:

Kasz216 said:

kowenicki said:
The Guardian has ditched Labour and is supporting the LIb Dems.... wow.

This all feels fairly significant.  What with the UK usually described as a 2.5 party system.  Have the Liberal democrats ever actually overtaken one of the big 2 or even been close?

They have frequently been close, but this time round they are actually getting results. Right now they are above Labour in most opinion polls and they have come fairly close to the Conservatives in a few others. This is certainly the strongest they've been.

But on the other hand, I know a couple people who were going to vote Labour strategically just to keep the Conservatives out. When the Liberal Democrats came into the spotlight the same people switched from Labour to Lib Dems as they felt that there was more of a chance by backing them.

So their popularity may just be a temporary snowball effect for this election only... In fact, I shouldn't say "may", it will.

Isn't that how all politcal parties work though?