Would a strong showing by the Lib Dems be good for Britain?

Since the recent leader debate in Britain which was won by Clegg, the Lib Dems have been surging in the polls. Obviously, all 3 parties in Britain are basically corporatist big government parties (although there are some in the Conservative Party who are for less government, Cameron is a centrist). However, the Lib Dems support proportional representation, which they would likely get if the election results in a Lib-Lab coalition.





Last year, Britain held an election under proportional representation to choose their representatives in the European Union's Parliament. The Conservatives and the UK Independence Party finished 1-2. Obviously, UKIP is the real conservative party in the UK and proportional representation would greatly benefit them (as well as the other smaller parties), even if many of them don't recognize it. Although most people in the UK think that proportional representation would result in a perpetual coalition between the Labour Party and the Lib Dems, I think it might also eventually result in a Tory-UKIP coalition.





The big losers under proportional representation would be the Conservative Party (especially the "one nation" wing of that party) and, to a lesser extent, the Labour Party (though the Labour Party now recognizes that they must accept proportional representation to stay in power).





I think the adoption of proportional representation in Britain would probably be beneficial in the long run, to Americans like myself. We would be able to point to the success of the system in Britain to argue for its use over here to break the stranglehold of the centrist Democratic and Republican parties that both refuse to address the real issues facing this country (the national debt, the entitlement crisis, our failed foreign policy, and our program of deliberate planned inflation that causes business cycles).





I've long been hoping for a hung Parliament in the British election, to prevent the export of Cameron-style "conservatism" to America (Phillip Blond, the Cameronist ideologue, recently toured America to support from many "moderate" Republicans in this country, who of course are only "moderate" about domestic policy). If the result of a hung Parliament will be a Lib-Lab coalition that implements proportional representation, I think I have even more reason to hope for that result.|||Yes it would, It's time for Labour to leave the political Forum. After the Tories had three terms they were beat, but the Country was in good. The Labour group have partied Hard and spent all the cash, the Liberals need to take there place and add sense into the Left part of the House.|||Brits don't give a rat's @$$ whut you think.|||In answer to your question, yes, I think it would be good for the country, because it would establish the Lib Dems as one of the big parties - a 'big three' rather than a 'big two' (previously the Lib Dems have been sort of stuck out on their own...not enough votes to be considered alongside Labour and the Conservatives, but way more votes than the other parties). If we can establish a political system where all three large parties have something approaching equal support (and yes, this will take some time), then there could be a point in the near future where elections could genuinely be won by any of the three main parties, and yes, this is good - more variety means more choice, more competition, more communication between parties and more debate - all good things for any country's political system.





I would also like to see a change of election method - this is something the Lib Dems seem committed to, so hopefully if they get more seats, or some influence in a hung parliament, then this would happen.





I wouldn't take the European elections as a real indicator of how general elections would work if proportional representation was used, though - a very small number of people voted in those elections.





Nonetheless, I'd welcome the change.