So here are a few arguments, graphics and links to help.
So with many a hat tip to Mark Pack:
You #YellowTories achieved nothing and just voted with the Tories.
Our achievements:
Our Green acheivements in the face of tory hostility:
Yeah well you didn't stop the Tories from doing anything or restrain them in any way!
21 extreme Tory policies the Lib Dems blocked
Don't blame me, blame Clegg: 'There's so much I want to do, but can't', says Cameron as he reveals to the Mail how Lib Dems are holding him back
Well, you could have chosen Labour, you also chose Tories because you are Tories!
1) The maths didn't work
2) At a stretch something could have been cobbled together with the support of the SNP. Labour ruled out working with the SNP in anyway.
3) Labour weren't serious, Ed Balls told us that they couldn't even get their own MPs to vote for AV (their own policy) even if it was part of an agreement.
Here's Labour minister, John Reid explaining why Labour shouldn't form a coalition and there should be a Con-LD one.
Hopes of Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition foundering in face of revolt by MPs
Refusal to enter Lib Dem coalition was Labour's final failure
Blunkett: Lib-Lab coalition 'would lack legitimacy'
Tom Harris, the Labour MP for Glasgow South said of AV: "This cannot be delivered; Labour MPs will not support it. I do hope some senior Lib Dems are reading this" (ref)
Ah well, you could have done a confidence and support deal with the Tories or let them rule as a minority.
I think that's highly likely to have led to a snap election (in October 2010) and a Tory majority government. Tories would have said:
Give us a strong mandate for stable government
LibDems won't step up
(BTW Labour are still unelectable and we are the only ones with any money left to fight an election!)
Anyway, you bought in austerity which was a choice!
Here's the governor of the Bank of England saying election victor will be out of power for a generation
And the IFS analysis of each parties spending cuts
And what was this magic anti-austerity alternative that was available?
2009: Deepest budget cuts since 70s to fill '£45bn hole'
2010: Darling: I'll cut Deeper Than Thatcher
And here is Gordon Brown, after the 2010 election saying the first priority of any coalition should be an "agreed deficit reduction plan" (youtube)
Ah well that was the Blairites/Brownites, not the next leader!
2014: Labour will keep austerity, says Miliband
No not that leader!
2017: Labour manifesto ‘would keep £7bn of planned Tory welfare cuts’
Oh.
In the 2024 GE campaign, Darren Jones, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury said:
“I think that there is a public interest in him fessing up about his role during this period of time and people understanding the fact that when they were having to suffer the consequences of austerity that followed under the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in coalition years, that Rishi Sunak was at the heart of this,” he said.
PM must face questions about hedge fund at heart of financial crash, says Labour
And we cut less than Labour would have.
Ah well, you introduced the bedroom tax!
No , Labour introduced the bedroom tax for social tennants of private landlords in 2008 in the form of the Local Housing Allowance. The coalition extended it to social housing as well.
Well anyway you are just Yellow Tories who jump into coalition with the Tories at the first opportunity.
Well except when we are in coalition with Labour you mean?
Ok the biggie, tuition fees.
That infamous pledge said:
"I pledge to vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament and to pressure the government to introduce a fairer system"
Clearly it was made for opposition but however we did not keep to the first part of the pledge however we over delivered on the second. We didn't just "pressure the government to introduce a fairer system" we DID introduce a fairer system!
90% of parliament was elected on a platform of raising fees (Labour had set in train an enquiry that was on course to recommend unlimited fees but were planning to settle on £6,000 (double)) but without plans to make the system fairer.
We had an opportunity to make the system fairer so we decided to use our leverage to effectively replace student debt with a time-limited graduate contribution based on the graduate's (not their parents) ability to pay. The monthly payments are actually less than under Labour as we raised the threshold where you started paying but kept the percentage of income the same.
In return we agreed to the increase in fees to £6,000 (although ironically in this new system, any increase in fees only makes it fairer!). We were naive to accept this £9,000 for elite universities that could prove they were using some of it to widen access as history shows all universities then did this but at least we got the widened access!
Anyway you said you wouldn't raise VAT and then you did!
No he didn't, we ran an attack ad on the Tory plans saying there was a black hole that would need to filled with a VAT rise but we also explicitly didn't rule out raising VAT ourselves and said we might have to depending on the financial situation we find.
But this is the kicker, you can't get out of this! Clegg advisor Polly Mackenzie said you agreed on the plastic bags tax in exchange for cutting benefits. Well no:
Well well you enablers, you enabled the brexit referendum kin the first place!!!
Er..OK
