Guardian endorses Lib Dems

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02 May 2010, 12:46 pm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... t-has-come

All I can say is that were I a UK citizen, I would be donating, campaigning, and voting for the Liberal Democrats.

visagrunt
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03 May 2010, 2:27 pm

In other news, the sky is blue and water is wet.

I am a Lib/Dem by nature, but this would be a bigger news story if, say, The Telegraph had come out for them. Then again, that headline would be displaced by the page 1 photo of pigs flying and the ski conditions in the inferno.

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03 May 2010, 9:43 pm

visagrunt wrote:

Come on! A major paper endorsing a third-party in a First Past the Post system like Britian? It'd be analogus to the Toronto Star endorsing the NDP rather than the Liberals for once!

just_ben
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04 May 2010, 5:04 am

Too little too late, the election is in 2 days. I thought the Guardian was always a liberal paper; why did it take them so long to endorse the Lib/Dems?

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Tequila
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04 May 2010, 7:32 pm

just_ben wrote:

Too little too late, the election is in 2 days. I thought the Guardian was always a liberal paper; why did it take them so long to endorse the Lib/Dems?

Because they are very Labour-friendly.

And I wouldn't really call The Guardian 'liberal', more 'social democratic'.

Master_Pedant
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04 May 2010, 9:04 pm

just_ben wrote:

Too little too late, the election is in 2 days. I thought the Guardian was always a liberal paper; why did it take them so long to endorse the Lib/Dems?

The Liberal Democrats have, in some polls, surged ahead of Labour. While FDR shows the perils of polling, I think the Liberal Democratic postion will be much stronger in the new Parliament.

Furthermore, the Guardian took so long to endorse the Liberal Democrats because they preceived of a vote for the Lib Dems as a "wasted vote". This is much the same reason why the social democratic Toronto Star never endorses the NDP and instead goes for the lesser of two evil philosophy and backs the Liberals.

visagrunt
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05 May 2010, 1:38 pm

Master_Pedant wrote:

Come on! A major paper endorsing a third-party in a First Past the Post system like Britian? It'd be analogus to the Toronto Star endorsing the NDP rather than the Liberals for once!

I think the inevitability of this endorsement can be found in one simple sentence:

Quote:

The Guardian has supported proportional representation for more than a century.

The Guardian's support for the Lib Dems is certainly due, in part, to the quality of the campaign that they have waged, but rooted far more in the ideological belief that FPTP is no longer a viable method of electing a House of Commons, and by extension, a Government.

FPTP has a longer lifeline in Canada, because of the very real presence of a third party, and the extraction of the BQ's seats from any party's ability to form a majority. But you better believe that next time around, there will be increasing calls from The Toronto Star and papers of its ilk to have voters act strategically.

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visagrunt
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05 May 2010, 3:29 pm

I am reminded of that delightful summary of British print media from Yes, Prime Minister.

Quote:

I know exactly who reads the papers, The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country, The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country, The Times is read by people who actually do run the country, the Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country, the Financial Times is read by the people who own the country, the Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country, and the Daily Telegraph is run by people who think that it is.
...
Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big tits.

To that, I would add that The Independent is read by people who think that whoever is running the country, it should be someone else, the Evening Standard is read by people who don't know there is a country outside the M25 and the Daily Express is read by people who don't know who is running the country but are damn sure that it used to be run better.

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