Where can you buy eye of newt and toe of frog?

The fiscal position today is in no way comparable to that in 1997, when the buidget was in surplus and the national debt was falling rapidly both in absolute terms and as a share of GDP.

I believe that you may be confusing it with the position in 1993, but that was AFTER the recession, not immediately beforehand.

It is undoubtedly the case that the UK is fiscally ill-prepared for the recession, and that the responsibility for that falls squarely on the shoulders of the man who was Chancellor for a decade after inheriting the strongest fiscal position (both in terms of budget and Debt/GDP) for well over a century.

It will be interesting to see how the public respond to “unfunded tax cuts” – whomever proposes them.

Paul H-J

The answer to this depends on whether you support a tribal top-down two-party system or pluralist politics in which a range of views can coexist competitively.

Aren’t we all liberal democrats?

“More votes & share of the vote than the election-winning year of 2005? Come on. That’s clearly a good result for Labour.”

It certainly is considering the recession, mid term etc. The late swing must have come from only loosely attached former LibDem voters who chose to support Labour.

It’s a good result for Labour, but a very bad one for the LibDems who do well in nearby constituencies. Large numbers of their voters must have been persuaded that it was very much a two horse race and while they might vote LibDem so long as the Conservatives were not in contention they were willing to back Labour if Labour really needed their votes to keep out something worse.

It would seem that LibDem voters, in this constituency at least, were not as ready as some have suggested here to support the SNP as an equivalent to the LibDems for the negative voter looking for the party best placed to give one or both of the bigger parties a kicking.

I’d like to know why the LibDems are doing so badly, and not just in Glenrothes, and I won’t be satisfied that I understand voter churn in Scotland until sombody gives me a credible explanation.

Why do people vote LibDem? Why is the LibDem vote soft? Is it all tactical? Are there no “real” LibDems?

i’m sure others feel the same.

let me be the first to predict that the recession will be shorter and shallower than most are predicting and that the next parliament will be hung.