Liberal Democrats surge in polls and send alarm bells ringing for the Conservatives

[-:Undertaker:-]

Liberal Democrats surge into first place in the polls..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/elec...tion-race.html

Nick Clegg’s sparkling performance in the TV debate between the three party leaders has enabled the Liberal Democrats to grab the lead in the Election campaign.

And it has boosted Gordon Brown’s hopes of clinging to power by forming a coalition government with the Lib Dems – in return for a seat at the Cabinet table for Mr Clegg. In one of the most astonishing Election turnarounds for a century, a BPIX poll for The Mail on Sunday shows that support for the Lib Dems has soared to 32 per cent, one point ahead of the Conservatives on 31, with Labour trailing third at 28. The result of the poll – the most authoritative conducted since the televised debate – represents an unprecedented 30 per cent rise in the Lib Dems’ ratings in a week.

And it is the first-ever opinion survey that has shown the Liberal Democrats, or their predecessors the Liberals, in first place. The short-lived SDP-Lib Dem Alliance was briefly ahead in the Eighties. But you have to go back to 1906, before opinion polls or television existed, for the last time the Liberals had the most popular support. They won a landslide Election under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and polled nearly 50 per cent of all votes. Polling experts say it is possible the Liberal Democrat lead is a blip that could fade before the Election.

Alarm bells for the Conservatives as poll slips..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/elec...-currency.html

The Conservative leader’s focus on Europe will please Right-wing Conservatives, but may lead to accusations that he is moving towards a “core-vote” strategy. It may also turn attention to his decision to abandon a promise to hold a referendum on the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. Labour and the Liberal Democrat's backed the Lisbon Treaty. The Lib Dems also remain in favour of Britain joining the euro. Speaking on his battle-bus, Mr Cameron said: “I think we can take on the other leaders because when it comes to Europe there’s a cosy Lib-Lab consensus saying: 'Let’s say yes to everything that comes out of Brussels.’?”

He added: “We do not want to join the euro. We want to keep the pound as our currency. What the British people want is Britain in Europe but not run by Europe. They do not want a state called Europe." Next week’s televised leadership debate will focus on foreign affairs, and Mr Cameron is likely to try to capitalise on the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg’s strong support for European integration. Mr Clegg is a former MEP and also worked for the European Commission.

Well this is amazing that the Liberal Democrats are now coming first in the polls, the ironic thing is that with this FPTP voting system we have if an election were repeated with these results we would have Labour retaining most seats (despite being third) and the Liberal Democrats having the least seats of the major parties. The issue is though, can Clegg keep this up? - I think though that Cameron has now for sure lost the election no matter what happens now because even before the debate he needed a 6% swing across all marginals and needed to take around half of the Liberal Democrat seats to gain a small majority - that is not going to happen now.

As a conservative myself in my beliefs and so forth, its now ironic almost cyncial that David Cameron and the Conservatives are now crawling back to the Europe issue in an attempt to win back core support they have lost to the UK Independence Party (UKIP). I'd just advise anybody; dont be fooled because it was Cameron who went back on his promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty as well as Clegg and Brown. In the words of Nigel Farage on Question Time the other night just after the debate;

Thoughts - do you think the election can still be salvaged by the Conservatives?

[Fez]

We have no idea. The last two weeks of campaigning are important in any election, and I think the last week will be the most exciting week to be politically active.

[jam666]

Quite frankly, the alarm bells can ring all they want but the fact is that the liberals need to gain over 265 seats to have a majority of 1 which is NOT going to happen. The election of course can be salvaged, infact id say the conservatives are doing absolutely fine. In my view the opinion polls can say what they want but the fact of the matter is that the public will decide on may 6th and not a survey of 1000 people whos answers cannot be a collective view of the countrys voting incentives.

However, Mr Cameron does need to step up slightly in the next two leaders debate and act exactly how he acts in PMQ's.

[alexxxxx]

I think the polls2 will go down after the next debate when clegg is put under more pressure.

[Smits]

I know theres been a big rise in support for the lib dems around here, even though they were pretty well supported anyway, i see more and more lib dem posters and signs in windows.

[Sameer!]

Lib Dems done better as expecte but Labour done much worse then I expected. David Cameron done preety good and I fully agree with Jam.

[MattFr]

Pretty dangerous stuff this. Lib Dems would destroy this country. Bye bye electricity.

[MrPinkPanther]

It truly is an amazing feat, in the space of a weak we have seen a huge Liberal surge. I thought Nick would do the best in the TV debates but wow, I never expected it to make this much of a difference and I doubt even the most hard core of Liberals did. I've noticed this change on a daily basis, when canvassing I've found people a lot more willing to listen to our views and we get less and less people saying "Ah but they won't win".

What I feel needs to happen on this forum and others is "small parties" need to unite. Liberal Democrats and UKIP need to work together to oust Labour and Conservatives, it is only together that we can enforce real change in the form of PR. These opportunities don't come often so please, on May 6th if your party has no hope of winning the constituency then vote Liberal Democrat and we can get rid of this two party system forever!

[jam666]

It truly is an amazing feat, in the space of a weak we have seen a huge Liberal surge. I thought Nick would do the best in the TV debates but wow, I never expected it to make this much of a difference and I doubt even the most hard core of Liberals did. I've noticed this change on a daily basis, when canvassing I've found people a lot more willing to listen to our views and we get less and less people saying "Ah but they won't win".

What I feel needs to happen on this forum and others is "small parties" need to unite. Liberal Democrats and UKIP need to work together to oust Labour and Conservatives, it is only together that we can enforce real change in the form of PR. These opportunities don't come often so please, on May 6th if your party has no hope of winning the constituency then vote Liberal Democrat and we can get rid of this two party system forever!

Are you entirely barking mad?. There is NOT A CHANCE that you will even become the opposition as you need over 265 seats to have a majority of 1. Im telling you now, UKIP or whoever else will not unite with you liberals as you are the complete opposit of what partys like UKIP want to achieve so no it wont happen. The two party system exists as they actually have feesable manifestos so that they can RUN the country and not DESTROY the country like your party would if you ever got into power (which will never happen).

[MrPinkPanther]

Are you entirely barking mad?. There is NOT A CHANCE that you will even become the opposition as you need over 265 seats to have a majority of 1.

Breakthroughs like this have happened in a number of other countries. Liberal Democrats currently have around 30% of the vote. If they continue to grow then they will become the largest party in the house (I never said they would have a majority although it is possible).

Im telling you now, UKIP or whoever else will not unite with you liberals as you are the complete opposit of what partys like UKIP want to achieve so no it wont happen.

Just because UKIP and Liberal Democrats have opposing views on Europe it doesn't mean they are complete opposites. They are both libertarian parties. Anyway, I didn't say they should "unite", all I said is they should put aside their differences and in areas where the party (UKIP in this example) has no chance of winning they should vote Liberal Democrat. Its a means to an end. In the next election they could then vote UKIP and help make large gains but under FPTP it's impossible.

The two party system exists as they actually have feesable manifestos so that they can RUN the country and not DESTROY the country like your party would if you ever got into power (which will never happen).

Hang on. Wait a second. Firstly you are saying the Conservatives manifesto is feesable and then you are saying all other parties ones aren't?!? Boy are you naive!