I'd wait until we see just how much damage is done before casting my view on how people will vote at the next GE. When people end up hacked off through being out of work with no 'real' job prospects, once abysmal health services have become the norm again, once we've well and truly seen a crippled retail industry by virtue of increased VAT, once people have sensed how there is no welfare for those genuinely in need, once the black economy has taken hold and after higher crime rates affect our liberty.

Let's just wait for declining educational values in our dilapidated schools, a greater divide between rich and poor, escalating inflation, increased homelessness with no measures to address the lack of affordable housing.

Let's just wait and see how the 'Big Society' pans out, we've seen nothing yet....it's all to come. My guess is the real extent of the damage will be felt in 3 to 4 years, by which time Cameron and Clegg's Big Society idea will be nothing but a major embarrassment to them both.

It can't work, because even if the whip is taken away from them they'll sit as Independents till the General Election, and theres sod all we can do about it unless they're on a criminal charge. They could sit for up to 5 years drawing their salary and beng called Hon Members.
No, the only way to get rid of them is to pass a Law which says if the whip is withdrawn, it forces a by election. That should also go for any MPs thinking of crossing the Floor, because they've discovered their principles.

i find it very difficult to understand what this big society is all about, does glegg&cam mean they want us the poor hard up people to run the country for them, becaurse they hav'nt the know how, or does cameron need another scapegoat to blame as well as the lib/dems, for the mess we are going to end up in.

I cannot see how on this earth, this coalition will manage its full five year term, more that 90% of what they have proposed has yet to be enacted, assuming they get through that mere minor hurdle, they then have the anger of the electorate to contend with, it'll be a very angry lot too...once this lot has put the boot in.

Cameron and Clegg are just getting carried away with it for the now, they've yet to answer for the consequences in the future.

All they've done so far is said how they'll pull the plug, we've yet to see how they'll seal the leaks.

You can bet your bottom dollar that Labour will deflect all responsibility for the cuts that will be imposed over the next few years. They will tell us that everything that is to be done would not have been done under them, nor will they tell what pain they would have unleashed on us if they were in power.

None of the Labour candidates are willing to design policies that would make another Iraq more unlikely, or to protect civil liberties, or ensure that our secret services are not co-operating with torture.

To get elected, Labour are simply counting on what David Cameron counted on to get elected: a deeply unpopular incumbent government.

I see nothing in the Labour leadership contest that is deserving of Labour being given another chance to lead this country.

I hope Labour is forced to atone for their sins and make serious efforts to allay the fears I and many other people have about another Labour government, before they ever get into power again.

unless we have a gun in our hands.

I completely second that Graeme; and Sam your deluded. Where exactly do you get the 14% figure from, exactly where does that come from? I'd be very interested in seeing precisely which figures you refer to when quoting figures like that and the methodology behind how they are worked out?

dont you got to love this poll , i said the sec clegg said during the election campaign he wanted to see lab wiped out , i figured there wasent much center left about clegg and hed lead to the destruction of the lib dems .polls like this wil destroy the coalition over time as lib mps get vary nervious indeed.

I don't think Cameron has the guts to call the election just yet. I can imagine him holed up in his bunker for the full 5 year term.

Sam - this make little sense to me. Of course the public will be completely hacked off by a government that only cuts every public service possible, and delights in doing so. This government deserves to be kicked out. And also Sam - Labour will of course, as a result, be elected again, and probably quite soon.

Sam,

The deficit is very much down to the credit crunch.

Public sector net debt was about 36% of GDP in early 2007 (lower than in 1997). Look at the graph in:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=206

and see how the line goes almost vertical when Northern Rock gets into trouble (followed later by RBS, Lloyds TSB, etc.) The cost of bank rescues alone was £850 billion. Then there was making sure that a recession didn't turn into a depression, when the banks stopped lending to each other.

The supposed "goldmine of attack strategies" will be of little use to Con-Dems when they start alienating even Daily Mail readers by forcing redundancies in police, education, and other valued public services.

This is the kind of thing that happens in Australia.

When people get tired of the Coalition they have no choice but to vote Labour.

The same will happen here it's just a matter of time.

I agree with Nick, LOL!

Watching Clegg before the election; for example, the VAT increase, or the press conference with the Yorkshire Post about cutting the deficit. It is easy to see he believes in absolutely nothing, he'll say anything to anyone completely contradicting what he said 5 minutes before.

The problem is that the Liberal Democrats are really two parties. The social democratic side to them have obviously flocked to Labour now.

In five years time things could be stabilised, policies such as decentralising NHS may have actually worked well, and the public may not have felt the cuts in public services as harshly as they thing they will do. Which, along with people coming to terms with Lib Dems in coalition with the Tories, and perhaps even thinking they done well in their small part of the coalition, the the polls in 5 years time (assuming that's when the next election is) could be pretty decent for the Lib Dems.

Although they are in an existential battle in my view. If over the course of the next few years the coalition is seen as brutal the Lib Dems will be massive losers, or if they can't show that they're actually doing anything and it's just seen as a Tory government.

I wouldn't rule out the people who consider themselves liberal who vote for the Lib Dems, voting for the Tories if increasingly become more centrist.

I think Labour is the right party to run Britain. The only thing is the labour party needs a party leader who can devise a policy to cut down the structural deficit in a manner that is progressive and not detrimental of people's means of livelihood and progress. They also need to come with their policies after carefully listening to people all around the country and they need to promote their vision of a fair and broadbased society where everyone gets a chance to progress. They do need to cut down on having all these bureaucratic bodies which are not necessary at all and just contribute in making governance more complicated and time consuming.

And not introduce things like mots for teachers to teach (Licenses for teachers to teach : an Ed balls idea) and id cards etc. These were wasteful practices that involved a lot of expenditure and would have cost the treasury so much.

Yes Matt, some valid points, Labour must use this time constructively, although they must also get down to voicing discontent sooner rather than later. The coalition is undoubtedly using the current period where labour is without a leader to rush things through. If these rushed through measures turn out to be disastrous (which seems a certainty) people will look to Labour and be critical in saying we raised no constructive opposition. We need the right leader, the right measures and an effective voice to get people to see what the alternatives are to these harmful measures; what's more we need it right now!