A new politics?

As everyone knows, I recently fought an election campaign for the St Austell and Newquay constituency, which was won by the Liberal Democrat candidate Stephen Gilbert.

One key element of his campaign was to continuously tell people not to vote for Labour or MK as he was the only candidate who could defeat the Tory.

To quote some of his leaflets at random – “Labour and Mebyon Kernow are out of the race in St Austell and Newquay – a vote for them will only help the Conservative win,” “a vote for Labour or Mebyon Kernow will let the Conservatives in through the back door,” “Labour and MK are out of the race … the only way to stop the Conservatives is to back Steve Gilbert and the Liberal Democrats,” etc, etc.

I am now pretty bemused, to put it politely, to see the Liberal Democrats enter into a coalition with David Cameron’s Conservatives .

I am already hearing from progressive voters who now regret voting tactically - vote Lib Dem, get Conservative!