Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[crazy canuck]

I recall back in the noughties when I'd dream of a golden age where the Tories are dead and buried and the Lib Dems take their place as the other main party.
If only the Lib Dems had their shit in order then we could actually be heading there.

But yes. The Tories have a floor that is even harder to break than the Labour one.

The thing is - if this happened the Lib Dems would eventually be pretty much exactly like the Tories.

I can point to an example of this: British Columbia.  There wasa long-time "Conservative" Party that ruled the province for a number of years called the SoCreds.  SoCreds collapsed in scandal, leading to a left-wing NDP government.  With a giant void on the right side of the spectrum the provincial Liberals stepped in - but this pretty quickly made the Liberals the "Conservative" party in BC.

For readers who won't be able to spot the error, the BC Social Credit party was not a Conservative Party.  It was a coalition party of supporters of both the Federal Conservative and Liberal parties.  That coalition of supporters then went to the BC Liberal party which had no affiliation with the Federal liberals.  It went on to hold power for more than a decade.

That party continues to this day as the coalition party opposing the NDP.  Although it has undergone a name change.

TLDR, coalition parties do work, but beware the ideological purists.

[crazy canuck]

The thing is - if this happened the Lib Dems would eventually be pretty much exactly like the Tories.

I can point to an example of this: British Columbia.  There wasa long-time "Conservative" Party that ruled the province for a number of years called the SoCreds.  SoCreds collapsed in scandal, leading to a left-wing NDP government.  With a giant void on the right side of the spectrum the provincial Liberals stepped in - but this pretty quickly made the Liberals the "Conservative" party in BC.

My understanding is that ex-SoCred folks directly took over the BC Liberal party. It's not that the BC Libs "stepped in", it's that the SoCreds continued as they were, wearing the skin of the BC Liberal party which they took over after the collapse of the SoCreds.

That's not the only place BB goes wrong. The BC social credit party included federal liberals. The coalition just moved to a new brand after the Social Credit brand became tainted.

And now the coalition party is moving to another new brand after another tainting.  Although this move has not been very smooth.  And the Conservative part of the coalition seems to be bolting for a Conservative Party.   BC might to undergoing its own Reform moment and the NDP could not be happier.