Round 2: Which Lib Dem leader is the shittiest?

[Bernard Marx]

Here's another one! Not quite as expansive or varied as the Labour poll, but worth a look regardless. 

Which Lib Dem leader is the most odious? As far as I'm concerned, there are two candidates on this poll that are infinitely worse than the rest by a long, long way, but I've yet to decide whether Clegg or Swinson takes the crown. Both are the most complicit when it comes to enabling incumbent or incoming Tory governments and both have an obvious penchant for being bereft of principles, but I can't identify who is truly the shittiest of the two.

I'll vote and comment once I've decided. The rest of them range from decent to nondescript, I think. 

[RobFilth]

Clegg may have been a spineless unprincipled weasel who harvested the left vote from Blairite Labour just to end up enabling a bunch of callous austerity freak Tory shitheads, but came across more authentic in debate than the brazen liar Jo Swinson.

We could've had a far less economically damaging Brexit with Customs Union access and alignment with the Single Market with a Government of National Unity had Swinson not lied and conspired against it because of "Waah! Wahh! Corbyn!" with all the Blairite scabs like Tom Watson or those who had defected on route with the funny tinge group.

I'm glad that all of them lost their seats. It was sweet karma for helping enable this Tory far right Government which we currently have.

Prior to Swinson and Clegg I would've probably picked Ming who was an utter disappointment after Kennedy.

Then again, Kennedy was the best LibDem leader during my lifetime.

Swinson undoubtedly the worst, I absolutely f*cking hate her.

[Bernard Marx]

Aug 28, 2021 15:20:33 GMT RobFilth said:

Clegg may have been a spineless unprincipled weasel who harvested the left vote from Blairite Labour just to end up enabling a bunch of callous austerity freak Tory shitheads, but came across more authentic in debate than the brazen liar Jo Swinson.

We could've had a far less economically damaging Brexit with Customs Union access and alignment with the Single Market with a Government of National Unity had Swinson not lied and conspired against it because of "Waah! Wahh! Corbyn!" with all the Blairite scabs like Tom Watson or those who had defected on route with the funny tinge group.

I'm glad that all of them lost their seats. It was sweet karma for helping enable this Tory far right Government which we currently have.

Prior to Swinson and Clegg I would've probably picked Ming who was an utter disappointment after Kennedy.

Then again, Kennedy was the best LibDem leader during my lifetime.

Swinson undoubtedly the worst, I absolutely f*cking hate her.

Yep, I gave in and voted for Swinson too, primarily because there was always the possibility of avoiding the prospect of enabling the Tories from the off, yet she could nary disguise her thirst to do so. As much of a twat as Clegg was, he wasn't quite as incompetent when it came to media performance, and he was responding to an election that had already been planned in advance. The 2019 election need not have happened at all if Swinson had complied with a GONU, and her unbridled arrogance in proclaiming herself the next Prime Minister only to lose her bloody seat on the night itself puts her on an even lower pedestal than Clegg. It took him three elections to lose his seat since becoming leader (despite destroying the party during his second)- it took her that one night to do so. 

She is arguably more shameless too. The sheer amount of lies told by her party during the 2019 election campaign was astonishing. My constituency has always been either a conservative or Lib Dem voting area, yet they prominently resorted to attacking the Labour Party on leaflets anyway with fraudulent statistics scattered all over the place, only for the Tory candidate in my constituency to receive 30,000+ votes, surpassing the Lib Dem vote by double their number. Her patronising veneer did her no favours, and her sole objective was to prey on the culture war of Brexit in order to enable a Johnson government. She lost her seat, but she sure as f.uck succeeded in her objective.

In much the same way that Clegg became a chief chairman of Facebook after losing his seat. she also got her wish. She embodies the absolute worst elements of technocratic politics. 

[Bernard Marx]

As for Ed Davey- he's profoundly uninteresting and ultimately played a strong part during the coalition era, so he's not exactly a great candidate either, but he's tellingly a better opposition than Labour are at the moment.

[mott1]

Swinson (whom I too voted for) is caning this one!

I genuinely think she may be the most incompetent political leader I've ever seen, and that includes Ian (Duncan) Smith! Almost makes Davey look better than he is.

Nick 'Facebook' Clegg did massive damage with his stint in the coalition particularly with the shameful tuition fees debacle, but people should perhaps wonder how he'd still have been panned if he'd refused to go into coalition, leaving us in a permanent cycle of minority governments and new elections.

As for Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy, I admired them both, despite their personal flaws - we all have them. A shame neither are still with us. I spent an evening with the latter when he must have already been ill, but you'd never have known.

[ClockworkOcean]

Here in Scotland, we recently faced the horrifying prospect of Swinson making a comeback with a leadership bid for the Scottish Lib Dems. Mercifully, she decided not to bother.

[Bernard Marx]

Aug 29, 2021 12:49:58 GMT ClockworkOcean said:

Here in Scotland, we recently faced the horrifying prospect of Swinson making a comeback with a leadership bid for the Scottish Lib Dems. Mercifully, she decided not to bother.

Didn't Nicola Sturgeon allegedly cheer when she lost her seat? Must admit, I'd have done the same thing and more. The only bit of good news amidst a shockingly dismal night,

[mott1]

I knew Swinson had run out of ideas when she did an Abbey Road style pedestrian crossing photo shoot - with drag queens! As inclusive and liberal as I am I did doubt if that would win over the Red and Blue heartlands, considering she was going for the job of PM...

Her leadership, following Clegg's disaster, was rather like turning up in the ambulance to rescue the stricken patient, only to run them over!

[Bernard Marx]

Aug 30, 2021 9:39:31 GMT mott1 said:

I knew Swinson had run out of ideas when she did an Abbey Road style pedestrian crossing photo shoot - with drag queens! As inclusive and liberal as I am I did doubt if that would win over the Red and Blue heartlands, considering she was going for the job of PM...

Don't forget her resignation speech, when she emphasises her importance in "breaking glass ceilings" rather than economic policy, or anything with an iota of substance for that matter.

[Bernard Marx]

Aug 29, 2021 9:31:36 GMT mott1 said:

As for Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy, I admired them both, despite their personal flaws - we all have them. A shame neither are still with us. I spent an evening with the latter when he must have already been ill, but you'd never have known.

Interesting to hear that you met Kennedy! Didn't he die under a month after he lost his seat in 2015? What a tragedy. A truly principled individual and easily the party's best leader.

I can't believe how much Clegg (and indeed Swinson) completely undid all of his hard work. Personally, if I were a Lib Dem, I'd be utterly furious with the coalition debacle and everything that's come since- I'm not remotely surprised that Kennedy himself disagreed with it.