The Liberal Democrats have surged in the polls to about a third of the vote - in some polls that's enough to put them first. It's now a three-way fight. But, notwithstanding the soft sell that Lib Dems adopt in Labour constituencies, the Liberal Democrats are *not* to Labour's "left". They do propose one or two decent policies - scrapping Trident, raising capital gains tax to pay for some (a tiny amount) of the deficit, rolling back some curbs on civil liberties etc. - but otherwise they are Thatcherites /sans/ social authoritarianism. They alone say that no area of public expenditure will be spared cuts, and are as vigorously in favour of privatization as the Tories. Their record in local government stinks. If they end up in coalition with Labour, as seems increasingly likely, the experience in Scotland suggests that they will likely pressure Labour from the right.
-- *Richard Seymour*
Writer and blogger
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