I believe in minimal government involvement in a) the economy & b) society. Just as there are few Labourites who can make the first claim, there aren’t all that many Tories who can make the latter.

This argument is going to go round and round until someone gets bored

Small l liberals believe in small-scale voluntary activity not big one-size-fits-all state solutions. The Tories are the only party offering this.

The Lib Dems remain an unelectable ragbag of a party, who seem to exist largely to exert pressure on the other two parties. You wouldn’t want them in government because they’d be too busy being all things to all people. You wouldn’t want them in opposition because they just aren’t effective enough – they spend too much time arguing amongst themselves to genuinely oppose the government – which the Tories have been guilty of too, but at least they can turn themselves around when needs be.

As for Labour coming fifth and losing their deposit, I think the appropriate soundtrack for the moment comes from the chorus of this song!

Yes, I tend to be pro-EU, in a critical sense. I supported the Lisbon Treaty because it came close to my desire for the EU to have as much power as (I consider) necessary & devolve as much as possible, to make the whole business work (in the way that I’d like). I don’t have a policy position over whether there should be a referendum, but if there was one I’d probably vote Yes… though I agree there are hard questions that need to be asked after the Irish business.

I tend to be supportive of immigration, but only because I don’t think it will be as destructive as some claim: if it did, I’d be against it.

You can read my comments here, & observe that I agree with LFAT at least half the time. What does it mean that I’m economically liberal & I agree with much of what is written here? Does it make me some right-wing outrider who is in the wrong party? You may well think so, but only if you cleave to an image of the Lib Dems being far left…

In fact, I, with the opinions I’ve openly expressed, fit perfectly well within the mainstream of the party. If you visit sites like Liberal Democrat Voice, you’ll see that my point of view is held by many, & no one is the raging politically correct socialist you seem to be envisaging.

If you held a gun to my head, I would take Cameron over Brown… & so would many in this party, about half (see also the thread about second preferences in the London mayoral election). I think Cameron is more liberal than Brown, but I don’t regard him as liberal, and his party is even less so. The elephant in the room is the reactionary wing of the Tory Party, which can’t be PR-ed away.

I am a liberal and as much as I dislike some Toryism, the Conservative party is still by far the closest to classical liberalism that it is possible to find in mainstream politics.

Until the LDs become properly liberal, they aren’t going to beat the Tories in the south of England.

I believe that there are liberals everywhere, in the city & in the country, making up a higher proportion of the country than those who vote for Lib Dem candidates, & a large number of these broadly liberal-minded people have voted Conservative, which is a loss & something that must be addressed.

I’m not happy today, but at least I’m not one of the few remaining Labour loyalists, unable to face the obvious truth that their repulsive policies have turned anyone with a speck of human decency off.

They assumed that the people were as nasty & vindictive as the Daily Mail, & it turned out not to be true, so they’re reaping the “rewards”.