Lib Dems on C-SPAN's Coverage of British Parliament

I was watching an interview with Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos on C-SPAN tonight, and I kept the RealPlayer on for the highlights of the last Question Period from the British House of Commons.

The two main questioners were Michael Howard of the Conservative Party and Charles Kennedy of the Liberal Democrats, the UK Parliament's third party. Kennedy seems to be the only one asking real questions of Tony Blair. It's a surprising mirror of the Canadian House of Commons, where the main two parties quibble and snipe at each other, don't answer direct questions and just embarrass themselves. But when Kennedy asked questions about education and other issues Blair actually did give good answers. Mostly because he still doesn't feel terribly threatened by the Lib Dems, and his centered labour party is sitting on exactly the same space on the political spectrum as the Lib Dems.

But I think this year the Lib Dems will actually become the second party in the UK house. The Tories were in favour of the war in Iraq, so they can't attack Blair and be taken seriously in the public eye. The Tories also have a hard time criticizing economic policy or the failing pension plan because everyone still remembers what the Tories would really like to do with what remains of the British pension plan if they could get hold of it. (Under Thatcher in the 80s it was privatized, much as Bush would like to do in the US, and has been nothing but a disaster.)

Meanwhile, the Lib Dems can attack both parties equally, don't have as much of a nutcase reputation as the New Democratic Party does (being centrists from the start, they don't attract the more flamboyant candidates we often see. Not naming names.) The roots of the Lib Dem platform, in my mind, seem firmly grounded in plain common sense, and in keeping a watchful on the power of government, something which the nanny-state Labour Party and the Law and Order-happy Tories have poor records on.

On the other hand, the hope among most Labour constituents seems to be that Blair will step down as leader within a year or two, and they will have their old party back, and may just hold their nose and vote for Labour.
Technorati Tags: Britain, Politics, Elections, LibDems