The Green Benches

I have voted Lib Dem on many occasions including at the last General Election. I will NEVER vote Lib Dem again. Remember, NO ONE VOTED FOR THIS BILL. Glenn Crawford.   

 

 

Who voted Orange book, no one that’s who, arghghhh fib dem’s RIP Tony Williams.

 

The Lib Dems have, in the past, pretended to a greater sense of social justice than New Labour. Not difficult! But it’s clearly a lie, and one I won’t fall for again. Conor McBride   

 

Fib Dems are finished. Peter Watson

 

I am a GP and campaigner for mental health services. Until this year, I believed I could count on Lib Dems to understand issues and support what people like me are trying to do their support for the Health Bill shows they are prepared to put Party before People. The fragmentation of services this Bill brings in has been mitigated only by adding layers of red tape & bureaucracy that will tangle up my efforts and put mental health reform back decades. Dr Theresa Eynon   

 

Never will i vote for Tory liberal democrats again. Gary Lines  

 

I’m already never voting Lib Dem again because they refused to stop the Welfare Reform Bill. Lisa

 

i will never support your party if you are cowards again as you where over student fees, show some metal and actually stand up for your beliefs do not forsake your integrity again as you will never again be respected otherwise. Mick Richardson

 

Welfare Reform Bill as it stands has much that will really harm British citizens that need, through circumstances beyond their control in so many cases. Governments are there to protect not harm in times of true need. Same goes for NHS. I cannot support Lib Dems who do not stand up for what is right. Christine Hubbard

 

The fact that the Lib Dems allowed the horrifying welfare reform bill to pass means they will never again get my vote under any circumstances. This NHS bill is just another display of the depths they have sunk to. Ian Jarvis

 

I honestly don’t think they realise they are plunging kids back into poverty with their welfare reforms. The NHS is the last straw. Never again. Sam Matthews

 

After the welfare reform bill and having to look at those sneering Lib-Dems that was enough for me anyway.  Never ever vote for them again no matter what they promise..!! David Yuill

 

I’ve actually voted Lib Dem in the past when, disillusioned for various reasons, I let my Labour membership lapse. As a definite left-of-centre type, I actually felt more of an affinity toward some of their ideas than for New Labour’s but this bill was never stated in Lib Dem manifestos. Mind you, neither was selling one’s soul in a Faustian pact with David Cameron & Co. No wonder the Liberal Left folk feel they need to distinguish themselves. History will never forget the Lib Dems part in paving the way for privatizing our NHS and neither will I. Please, Liberal Democrats put the values of personal and political integrity above a desire for power. Kate Woodrow Cheong

 

My concern is not that the bill is bad but that such a fundamental and high risk change should be put before the electorate and properly mandated. Patricia Laing

 

Dear Lib Dems – I hope that Claire Rayner haunts every last one of you miserable little opportunist fuckers! Hannah Slade

 

Betrayal…one day i hope you know how we all feel. Traitors to the people who believed in you. Despicable doesn’t come close to what you are doing to this Country just to have a taste of power. Lindsay Black

 

It is difficult to explain how angry I feel about this bill. I was an NHS nurse for over 20 years, so I feel i know what it means to the people of this country. Clegg, Williams and the rest of the sheep like Lib Dem MPs who give us their patronizing excuses why they have to vote for it make me feel sick. How dare they dismantle our brilliant NHS to keep their little taste of power? Our MP Tessa Munt (Wells, Somerset- Majority 800) is the classic example of a betrayer of all the people who hoped for a new kind of politics when they voted for her. Madly at least we know what the Tory’s stand for, the Liberals seem to stand for nothing. I will never vote for them again if this bill is passed. If it is, I hope they are destroyed at the next election; we do want their kind of party, full of lies in our Parliament. Steve Jameson Wells Somerset

 

It is utterly galling that the Lib Dems expect us to believe they have any kind of benevolent force in staying the evil hand of the Tories when they will not even debate an issue which is so important to so many voters. It’s been said before and I have no doubt it will be said many times again, they truly are utterly spineless. Just shows how in the pocket of big business and lobbyists they all are. Enjoy the next couple of years in “power” as you will never, ever see the like of them again! Lisa McKeon

 

This bill is for the sole benefit of private healthcare companies and will hurt the most vulnerable. Have voted LD in General (2005) Election and locally but never again. Billy Kingman

 

Having worked in the NHS as a midwife for 14yrs, it has become an important and much loved part of my life. I now feel as though I am in mourning as I see the coalition destroy this altruistic and amazing service. I have voted LD in the past, but never, ever again. Nick Clegg and Shirley Williams, hang your heads in shame. Angela Rushton

 

I have always voted Liberal Ds in 32 years which includes merger with SDP to become Liberal Democrats.  If the Lib Dem MPs vote in favour of this NHS bill I will never do so again.  What are you thinking?!  Never should health or education have an element of profit. Any profit should be returned to the service not placed in the pockets of private individuals. Sue Inwards

 

As a voter, I’m starting to feel like there is no-one left for me to vote for. My party of choice has got into bed with, and started copying, the Tories. Give me some small amount of faith back into Liberal Democrats and stop this train crash of a Bill. Caroline Banks

 

I have supported the Lib Dems for more than two decades now, delivering leaflets and campaign material, displaying posters and so on. I even joined our local Lib Dem committee in the run-up to the 2010 General Election, fired up by Nick Clegg’s “Don’t let the Tories in” rhetoric. I read all the material that I put through all those doors – not one mention of the Welfare Reform Bill, putting the terminally ill onto Work Placement schemes, allowing private companies to take over core NHS services or front-line Policing.  They have let us down really badly – we have no significant alternative now to the Tories or the Tory-Lite New Labour Party. Rob W

 

I once voted lib dem when living in York as the local Labour MP always voted with Tony Blair despite telling his constituents he would not.  Now I will never vote Lib dem again unless they vote against the NHS bill. The only choice most people need in the NHS is to be treated to the highest standards at the hospital or surgery closest to where they live.  All NHS facilities should be the best they can be. Jen Williams

 

I have voted Lib Dems on many occasions, but I think, like the Dodo, they need to become an extinct species for this betrayal. Tom Stronach

 

I voted LD at the last election and now I am deeply ashamed of having done so. I was taken in by their promises of a better, more honest and honourable form of politics. But once within a sniff of power they have shown themselves to be as self-serving and duplicitous as all those they opposed. They fooled us and now the NHS will suffer for our folly.  Never again.  Darren Tunstall

 

I am so frightened by this bill and the move towards an American system of insurance based health care.  I have heart problems and have in effect lost my “no claims bonus”. I cannot now get life insurance so I will NOT be able to get health insurance! Andrew Whiles

 

Those who voted for either of the two participants in this coalition did not vote for this bill – it was on neither party’s manifesto. This bill is fundamentally undemocratic. I will never vote for the Lib Dems in any form of election if this bill passes, and I will actively campaign against them. Their leadership, both in the Commons and the Lords, have proved intent on privatising the NHS even in the face of dissent by the majority of their own party. Nick Clegg talks about fairness – well fairness means to each according to need, not everyone the same. The Health Service is vital to the poorest and the most in need in this country. Private medicine does not care for emergency or pre-existing illness related healthcare – the changes to the system will directly and detrimentally affect the services offered by emergency healthcare, and people with pre-existing conditions will die because they cannot afford to pay for the costs for treatment. Their blood will on the hands, if not the conscience, of this callous and financially motivated administration. Ben

 

I’ve voted Liberal and Lib Dem all my life, got involved in local campaigning about 4 years ago, and stood as a local candidate in the 2010 elections. If this goes through then never ever again. Tim Mawby

 

I am a lifelong Lib Dem voter. From my first election at 18. I still supported them, with reservations, when they were marketing themselves as a calming influence on the Conservative agenda. I willNEVER vote Lib Dem at any level if they continue to support the current agenda of destruction on the NHS, Legal Aid Reforms and Benefit Reforms. If there is no viable alternative locally I will do everything in my power to support a new independent or Green candidate to run. I will campaign against any Liberal Democrat candidate locally if necessary. I don’t think I am alone in the sense of shame I feel at having made this Con Dem alliance possible with my vote. Amber Peachey-Moore.

 

My local LD MP is a good local MP (Paul Burstow) but now I can’t even bring myself to vote for him. The craven attitude of the component of this coalition farce has enabled the Tories – election winners without mandate – to bare its Thatcherite teeth and gut the services of this country while lining the pockets of its rich donors. Nick Clegg should be thoroughly ashamed at what he’s helped do for on sniff of the knicker elastic of power. The will not have – and don’t deserve – any power for the next generation at least because of what they’ve helped do.  Labour dragged us into a needless war and enacted off-the-books PFI schemes that are now strangling this country. So I switched my vote to the LDs. Now with the actions of Clegg, I feel thoroughly disenfranchised. Daniel Shires.

 

As much as Labour disappointed me, people who say the NHS was ‘privatised’ under Labour are wrong – they placed a 2% cap on private profit. THIS bill places a 49% cap on private profit from our hospitals and allows for private companies to provide our health services. They will decide which services they want to provide, who they want to provide them to, and how much money they want to charge for the service. The competition aspect means there will be costly legal disputes if a company thinks a service has been unfairly tendered to another. Such costs have blithely not been factored in, I imagine are warned of in the risk register. This is not about what is best for patients and patient care but about inviting US style ‘healthcare’ businesses to make money from the NHS. It will be terrible for equality and for the most vulnerable in society. This evident news blackout over the passing of the bill leaves me wondering what on earth is going on that people do not realise this is important. I will never ever vote Liberal Democrat again and I hope the party is completely finished. The Lib Dems propped up a Tory Government that had NO mandate to make such changes and after seeing all the Lib Dem Lords support the Bill I have serious doubts about the political independence of the Lords as an institution. Shirley Williams in particular is an untrustworthy and shady character who loves to be perceived as the darling of the party at Lib Dem conferences but has failed to do her job and listen to the will of the Lib Dem grassroots. How could anyone vote for a party that has shown themselves to be willing to compromise their values in every way? Lucy Greenwood.

 

Ignore the Coalition denials: this is systemic change which will, over time, bring about the break-up of the NHS, the introduction of charges and top-up payments (leading to a US style two-tier, massively insurance funded system) and the wholesale transfer of public assets to the private sector (aka privatisation). No 10 reported that Cabinet members on both sides and, in true Etonian fashion, ‘banged their desks’ in delight when they heard the bill had passed. Their funders are laughing on the way to their banks.  The Lib dems will not only lose votes, they’ll lose grunts like me who leafleted and acted as tellers at polling stations in the past.  This is, quite literally, sickening and was not done in my name. Andrew Cooper.

 

It really didn’t take the NHS bill; the increase in tuition fees was enough to make me decide never to vote for them again. Charles January.

 

Unlike a Nick Clegg pledge, this is one which is made in all sincerity and will be upheld. Pete Hazell. 

 

I will never vote Lib dem and my wife who used to, to keep the Tories out will vote Labour instead as Tories and lib dems are in it together up to their necks. Terry Ledlie. 

 

Sadly you leave me no alternative, my vote goes elsewhere.   Steven Greenwood. 

 

I stood as a Lib Dem, I voted and I trusted the LDs. But just like the Tories under Thatcher & Major then Labour under Blair & Brown they’ve let us down. Not sure where to go to now – Greens perhaps. Alex Marshall

I will never support or vote for Liberal Democrat or Conservative. Traitors and deceivers both! This govt have us let down, they’re stealing the ground from under our feet! Supporting our great National Health Service! Avril B