Local MP calls Lib Dems 'toxic'

Simon Danczuk MP

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk, writing in the New Statesman, has said that "Labour should stop flirting with the toxic Lib Dems".

He says: "Harriet Harman is right to say there should be 'no cosying up to the Lib Dems', but there remains a residual persistence in some quarters to continue some sort of dalliance. This appears to be built around the fanciful notion of a 'progressive alliance', which is completely at odds with the reality of Clegg’s party.

"There simply is no point pretending the party of Clegg, Laws and Alexander is a progressive force. Despite their pantomime conference caricatures of nasty Tories every year the reality backstage is that many Liberal Democrats in the Coalition are extremely comfortable with their Conservative counterparts. You didn’t have to look far from the main stage at last year’s Liberal Democrat conference to witness a love-in between Greg Clark and Ed Davey. These people deserve each other.

"Joining forces with a party whose Effective Opposition handbook advises activists to 'be wicked, act shamelessly, stir endlessly,' can only be seen as a regressive step."

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/labour-should-stop-flirting-toxic-lib-dems