A riddle for you. "When is a Liberal Democrat not a Liberal Democrat"?

[non sociopath skin]

Answer: When he's a member of "Focus Team".

There was a by-election in Wallsend, North Tyneside on November 15th to fill a vacancy on North Tyneside Council occasioned by the resignation, for family reasons, of the Labour member who'd ousted a long-standing Lib Dem during the purging by Joe Tyneside of Cameron's Cronies last year.

Well, there was a Labour Candidate, a Tory Candidate, a Green Candidate - but no Lib Dem. Instead, the fourth candidate was from something called "Focus Team" - although his name was strangely familiar ...

And guess what ...

http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk/pls/portal/NTC_PSCM.PSCM_Web.download?p_ID=540038

So a victory for the Focus Team!

Except that, later that week, on the Lib Dems' Local Government website:

http://www.libdemvoice.org/tag/michael-huscroft

Ok, it's not exactly electoral fraud but it is a bit ... sad, isn't it?

Respec', I guess, to the Tories for being honest enough to fly their own colours in enemy territory - but I couldn't help wondering whether, if Cameron bombs out next time, we can expect by-election candidates from the English Christian Democratic Community Activists and Taxpayers Alliance or some such. Nice thought!

The Skin

[Iggy]

1. When They Put Up with the STATUS QUO

which is mostly what goes on in Bloggo world.

[non sociopath skin]

2. Iggy, our Liberal Democrat party has done more with put up with the status quo ...

... they've become a key part of it!

The Skin

[Iggy]

4. BEENGO!!!!

glad somebody gets it...

[LeftishBrit]

3. When they're in coalition with the Tories, that's when!

'we can expect by-election candidates from the English Christian Democratic Community Activists and Taxpayers Alliance'

Sounds about right. At one point IIRC, Cameron was proposing renaming the party 'Progressive Conservatives', an oxymoron which used to be the name of the main Conservative party in Canada. Since the name-change 150 years ago from 'Tories' to 'Conservatives' hasn't yet been properly implemented, I should say that any attempt to change the party's name would probably not work!