THE GUARDIAN: Ferocious attack on Lib Dems by former prime minister / Tony Blair accepts poll is also referendum on his own record
Tony Blair has flatly rejected calls for Labour supporters to vote tactically to prevent the Tories getting into power, insisting that people should make up their own minds and back the party they believe in.
Speaking on a day when several cabinet ministers suggested that Labour voters should cast their ballot for the Liberal Democrats in some seats, the former prime minister set himself against the tactic, and was contemptuous of Nick Clegg's party and its claim to represent real change. He described the Lib Dems as "the old politics masquerading as the new", and said their entire history as a party showed them incapable of facing up to hard choices.
Voters, he said, should follow their instincts. "It is simple," he told the Guardian. "Vote for what you believe in. If you think their polices are good, vote for them, but if you don't, don't. The Lib Dems are not going out to people and saying 'vote Labour' – they are trying to take seats off us." >>> Patrick Wintour, political editor | Tuesday, May 04, 2010
