Originally Posted by Zichao

There's a difference between someone who happens to vote Lib Dem once and someone who defines themselves as a Lib Dem voter.

Yes; the latter will usually become a party member. We weren't talking about them.

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You're still failing to account for the biggest category of all: floating voters.

I haven't been talking about anyone else.

Notional voters who really have no political convictions and therefore no party preference are basically unpredictable, and that makes it impossible to say the Lib Dem action in office will make them more credible and allow them to attract more votes.

Er, didn't you just say, "But at ther last election, the Tories were reviving and probably regained most of the votes they had lost over the last few elections because of their "nasty party" tag. So I don't think many LD votes came from people who are "natural Tories". At the same time New Labour was discredited and deserving of punishment; therefore it is most likely that such extra votes that the LD's gained were basically from the left."

I'm talking about people who haven't got any party loyalty, and aren't even firmly right or left wing.

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Yes. You don't have to be either to think that labour was deserving of a kicking. Therefore an anti-labour vote may inflate either Tories or Lib Dems depending on which was present in the constituency. But of those, the Tories would have gained more from being better established and more widely spread. Whereas, for example, those who are viscerally anti-Tory, those feeling betrayed by New Labour, those alienated by the war, which the Toprioes also supported, would have gone for the Lib Dems. I think that the increase in LD votes came mainly from the left, and will therefore react badly to discovering that their anti-Tory vote is being used to drive an extreme programme of Tory cuts.

Was reported on Newsnight last night that 40% of LD voters in the last election say they will not vote for them again. Can't remember who the poll was by though.

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Yes. You don't have to be either to think that labour was deserving of a kicking. Therefore an anti-labour vote may inflate either Tories or Lib Dems depending on which was present in the constituency. But of those, the Tories would have gained more from being better established and more widely spread. Whereas, for example, those who are viscerally anti-Tory, those feeling betrayed by New Labour, those alienated by the war, which the Toprioes also supported, would have gone for the Lib Dems. I think that the increase in LD votes came mainly from the left, and will therefore react badly to discovering that their anti-Tory vote is being used to drive an extreme programme of Tory cuts.

But that's still people with pre-existing convictions. Most voters don't really have any strong feelings either way.

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Since when was that any of your business, douchebag?

People who cannot properly spell "douche bag" should also be despised:

July 21, 2010

What It's Really Like To Be A Copy Editor
by Lori Fradkin posted @2:30 PM

The word is douche bag. Douche space bag. People will insist that it’s one closed-up word—douchebag—but they are wrong. When you cite the dictionary as proof of the division, they will tell you that the entry refers to a product women use to clean themselves and not the guy who thinks it’s impressive to drop $300 on a bottle of vodka. You will calmly point out that, actually, the definition in Merriam-Webster is “an unattractive or offensive person” and not a reference to Summer’s Eve. They will then choose to ignore you and write it as one word anyway.

I know this because, during my three-plus years as a copy editor, I had this argument many, many times.

When I left to take a non-copyediting position at another company, I sent an e-mail to some of the editors telling them to spell it however they wanted going forward. I no longer cared. Which was kind of the case to begin with. I never had a personal investment in that space between the words, but as part of my job, it was my duty to point out that it should exist. [...]