Thread by @andrewtipler

THREAD: I think we need to talk about the lefts stance on Party rebirth, & the holier than thou attitude that #Labour has on #libdems & tuition Fees. Given the rise of the far right & how much we actually agree on we really should be working together, so lets try to clear this up

For many of us @LibDems, we left @UKLabour when they voted & took us into Iraq.
Now the Labour left make the argument that Labour is not the same party that it was with Blair, & because Corbyn voted against Iraq; all must be forgiven. The party should be allowed to start afresh.

Fair enough. But if this was the case, why was Tim Farron nailed to the tuition fees cross by Labour campaigners at the last election? He voted AGAINST Fees in the same way Corbyn voted against Iraq.

Sure some of the Libdems front bench voted for the fees, but Barry Gardiner voted in favour of going into Iraq. And Tom Watson. And Nick Brown. And Peter Dowd (I could go on)
The Labour party leadership really isnt any more clean of Iraq than the Libdems of tuition fees.

Indeed the majority of Labour MPs voted for Iraq; yet more Libdem MPs DIDNT vote to increase tuition fees, than voted FOR it.
This position from Labour on Tuition fees is incredibly hypocritical. It's nothing but a useful stick for Labour supporters to beat LibDems with.

I was one of the students that both marched against fees, and went on to pay £9k a year. Hell I even left the Libdems over it. However with hindsight I'm not sure that we could avoid fees being borne by the student.

Sure we'd all love to see free education for all, but with an NHS black hole of £22bil; I find it very hard to justify adding another £8bil to this in hand outs to middle class students ifs.org.uk/publications/9…

Lets remember that the average degree increases peoples earnings over their lifetime by £400k blogs.spectator.co.uk/2014/02/how-mu…

I believe putting our efforts into saving the NHS, which benefits ALL; is a higher priority than free tuition fees. Yes the system could be improved upon (Graduate tax), but the concept is sound.

The unfairness has come about from three Tory moves in the last few years since the end of the coalition. Firstly, lying and moving the goalposts that income threshold at which monies must be paid back would rise in line with earnings (theguardian.com/money/2015/nov…).

Secondly the scrapping of maintenance grants (theguardian.com/money/2016/aug…)

and thirdly, the selling off of the student loans book earlier this year (theguardian.com/money/2017/feb…)

By attacking Libdems, Labour actually handed the Tories the 2015 election. The Tories won twice as many seats off the LibDems at that GE as Labour won.
Labours best chance at sneaking in in the next GE, is for Libs to take as many seats off the Tories as possible. Work together

The biggest threat to our country is #Brexit. It will infect every facet of our nation, slowly deflating our economy; stretching NHS until it snaps, diluting our statue in the world. Rather than bickering, we need to come together and do everything in our capacity to save the UK

So move on from the Coalition. It happened. It was actually the most stable government we've had over the last decade. It made mistakes. God it made many.
But the party has been punished. Continuing this whataboutary helps nobody.
We need to work together to stop Brexit NOW.