Hey! Voters! Leave them Libs alone!

The Conservatives are playing a twisted, deceptive game with their coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats.

Presently, pretty much everyone is blaming Nick Clegg for the public service cuts that are being made by the coalition. It's understandable, really; he said he was different, he said he would make university cheaper, he said he the Lib Dems in parliament would counteract big cuts to the public service. But he joined a coalition agreeing to raise tuition fees, hack away at libraries, etc. etc.

But it's not like the Tories won votes by more honest methods. In 2010, Cameron said "I'll cut the deficit, not the NHS". This year, under Conservative healthcare reforms, hospitals are having to make savings of 50%. In 2010, Cameron said in order to re-ignite the economy, he would tackle youth unemployment. Now, unemployment is rising for everyone, everywhere, including youth.

I'm not saying Nick Clegg is perfect or wonderful. But I am saying he's taking a disproportionate amount of the blame for government policy. What's happening now, effectively, is the Tories are making their idealogical cuts to pretty much everything, then letting the media pin everything on Clegg, so that they have a scapegoat. And everyone's falling for it.

The thing that is most frustrating about this is that so many people voted against AV as a protest against the Lib Dems. Well, congratulations! Not only have you got us stuck with a less democratic voting system, possibly forever, but you actually ended up supporting the party who were really responsible for the thing you were protesting against!
I know that wasn't the only reason people voted No to AV. But it was a huge part of it.

In summary, then, it's perfectly understandable to be angry towards the Lib Dems at this current point in time. But don't let the Tories hide behind them, and get away with so much of the blame which they deserve.