From: Lib Dem voter
Category: Life
Date: 03 May 2005
Response to point one: whether the war would have happened anyway doesn't excuse Blair and Brown's involvement in it. It doesn't make it legal nor right. In what way could it have been worse? In what way has their involvement made it in any way better?
Point two: it is a debatable fact that Iraq as it is now is better off without Saddam Hussain. True Saddam was an evil dictator, but was this really the best possible outcome, and the best transition from dictatorship to democracy? Bombs and democracy don't mix well. The level of instability and lawlessness seems quite a high price to pay. A govenment that can't even fill its own cabinet does not bode well. I would love to be proved wrong - but the experience of most ethnically/religiously divided nations across the world is not particularly heartening.
Point three: not all Lib Dem policies require higher taxes. Not having ID cards is not an expensive policy. Protecting civil liberties is not expensive (it's much more expensive to lock people up undefinately without trial). And there are talented MPs. Every major party has them, every party has their duds as well. Besides which, the Lib Dems aren't going to win the election - which is why they make a particularly good protest vote - they aren't going to have to fund any of their policies, but the more MPs they have, the more they will be able to influence Parliament and provide something this country badly needs - Opposition.
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