It was pre-WW2 that the Liberal party were very popular. WW2 changed people's perceptions, however. It pulled people together, and it built up greater sense of community, and people started voting more left-wing, and so Labour become a whole load more powerful.

The problem was, that although Labour are an economically left-wing party, they're also more authoritarian than the other mainstream parties out there, and so the Government started to play more of a role in people's lives, as trashleg put it (though I'm not 100% agreeing with this, myself).

You can't force people to vote. Dictatorships and puppet regimes do that.

If someone does not choose to vote, then they've mandated that they do not care to be represented by a person of his or her peers.

If 6% of the population vote in a free and fair election, than their will is the will of the people. If people cannot be motivated to vote, that is their own lazy, stupid fault.

im more intrested in learning how its done and works now, its like this: you have to know what the problem is before you can fix it, and although i have a rough idea, i want to know more, so i can do more,

i go beyond that, i like to think i have humanitys best intrests and wellbeing at heat, to do whats right to make the human race better.

thats the impression i get of Labour aswel, lol, although they even gave up the ecenomic stuff under blair!

Well, they had to, else they would suffer the same fate as the Liberal party.

The fact of the matter is, the Labour party does better off of the working class. Since 1950, the working class has halved in proportion (it used to make up 2/3s of the electorate, now it only makes up 1/3). Labour didn't always win elections when the working class was so large, they would have no chance now under the old Labour, as much as it pains me to say it.

There's a reason why Margaret Thatcher lasted so long, and why Major kept on Conservative rule until the Blair reforms, and that reason is that Old Labour became weak, and they were unwanted by the electorate.

Yes, there should definitly be a winner. If people cant be bothered to vote then thats there own problem when X is voted in instead. They only have themselves to blame. Also its unfair on the people that did actually vote.

i dont know, i think there are more liberal people in the uk than you think, if there was a party like old labour, but with a better leader and a better understanding of there idealogy and how they would implement it and how it would benefit people, i think they could win an election.

i struggle to really relate to any one party. its sad. i would say most people ever want something different to everyone else though, its rare for even two people to agree on everything. which is why sometimes i thnk party politics is odd... i dunno.


samuel, il reply to your wall post tomorrow. im too tired to read all those words.

I seriously doubt it, myself. And I think the odds will be greatly stacked away from Labour in the future.

If it wasn't for Scotland and Wales, England wouldn't have had a Labour Government EVER until 1997 (and even that wasn't until the Blair reforms). And now, the Conservatives are making massive gains in Wales, and parties like the SNP are taking Labour votes in Scotland.

What's more, there's been a lot of talk recently about shrinking the number of MPs. This will be done by lowering the number of seats, particularly in inner-city areas and in Wales and Scotland - both of which are typically more pro-Labour, and as such, this kind of move will weaken the party even further.

Also, David Cameron has promised to look into the West Lothian Question when the Tories get into Government - this will weaken the powers of Scottish MPs, and thus weakening the power of any Labour whip, or something like that, on many English-only issues.

It doesn't look good for New Labour, atm, let alone 'old' Labour.

ok, what about another party with Liberal ecenomic views? or social views even?

btw, if Labour do diminish significantly, wouldnt that make us a de-facto dictatorship? as only the Conservatives would get in, no-one else seems to vote for 3rd partys, even the Lib Dems dont look like getting anywhere near being elected?