My response to Ed Miliband's request to join him and Labour - their lies, hypocrisy and arrogance

Labour really do not learn, do they?

Repeatedly, various Labour folk are inviting Lib Dems, sometimes angry Lib Dems to join the Labour Party.

Now Ed Miliband, their new leader (who has been around and part of the previous government for years) is trying to entice Lib Dems to join him in the new re branded Labour Party.  We've heard all this nonsense before though.

Ed Miliband has already laid out the welcome mat for Lib Dems back in August, it didn't work back then.

His brother David, also tried to invite me and other Lib Dems in September to join the Labour Party - you can read my response to him HERE.

Before that we had Derek Simpson of the UNITE Union trying to get Lib Dems to rip up their membership cards and join Labour, I explained to him why I wouldn't be doing so.

This is the Labour Party that they wanted me to join, the same Labour Party who;

through their reckless borrowing have left us with huge debts and daily payments of £120 million (yes, that is correct per day), that's just to cover the interest payments on their loans!

think it's acceptable for their deputy leader, Harriet Harman MP to personally insult other MPs!

are close to bankruptcy themselves with debts of £20million!

were proud to introduce tuition fees for students!

were complete hypocrites over NHS Direct - Labour planned to scrap it and replace it with a 111 service yet criticised the coalition for doing the same!

took us to an illegal war in Iraq wasting billions and billions of our taxes!

raised pensions by just a mere 75p a week!

So, when I think back over the last thirteen years and the damage Labour did to this country, no, I will not rip up my membership card - in fact I have just renewed my membership, with an increase in my monthly direct debit - nor will I leave the party and join Labour.

Already the Lib Dems in Government have achieved;

restoring the earnings link to pensions

taking 900,000 people out of paying income tax from April 2011

the ending of child detention

the scrapping of the third runway at Heathrow airport

Four major achievments in just six months, you can read more about what the Liberal Democrats have achieved through being part of the Coalition Government HERE.

The more Labour target us to join them, the more they target our voters the more determined we will become to fight their lies, their hypocrisy and their arrogance.

My reply to Derek Simpson of Unite's invitation to rip up my membership card

I can hear the trembling of many of my friends and colleagues now as they read the title of this blog post, but have faith my people, I will be polite and not tell Derek Simpson to shove it up his......

So Derek, you are urging me and my fellow members of the Liberal Democrats to rip up our membership cards?

Let me ask you a few questions first, if I may?

Why have you not been so vocal about the sheer outrageous level of the borrowing by your own Labour cronies when in Government, plunging us into the biggest debt we have ever known?

Why do you feel bringing British Airways to its knees and on the brink of bankruptcy by continuously striving for strike action will achieve anything positive?

Why did you not cut Unites ties with Labour over the illegal war in Iraq?

You see, there will be reasons why you won't answer those questions and I will not rip up my membership card, nor will I resign my membership of the Liberal Democrats because Nick Clegg and our party have entered into a working coalition government to sort out the mess that Labour have left behind after thirteen years of being in government.

It was Labour that stopped the rainbow coalition government being formed because of their refusal to work with the SNP, however in reality bringing so many parties together would not have had a balanced or steady work flow to achieve anything whereas the grown up approach of both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives has already seen dividends.

Don't get me wrong Derek, I am not in favour of the Conservatives and I will be doing everything in my power over the next eleven months to beat them in every constituency and region across Scotland to get Tavish Scott as First Minister and the Liberal Democrats as the Government of Scotland.

Being in a grown up coalition doesn't stop that.

There will be policy announcements and changes that my moral compass doesn't agree with, but very few people join a political party because of just one individual thing, as you very well know.

I am a Liberal Democrat, proud of being so and proud that we are in government.

I am unhappy we are having to waste time sorting out and paying for your Party's frivolous attitude to spending over the last thirteen years.

So, no I won't rip up my membership card you can shove that request up where the sun don't shine!