Why can't the Liberal Dems pick up any seats?

Keep in mind this is coming from someone who knows little about British politics. They were opposed to the Iraq war right? Which would make them the only party opposed to a ridiculously unpopular war, so what else is it about them that makes them unpalatable to most of the voters?

and they aren't particularly unified. Kennedy doesn't come accross as wanting to be PM, and they aren't particularly aggressive in wanting to lead. It appears they want to influence more than lead.

Its sort of like going to anti-war rally here. Besides being anti-war, most participants don't have a lot in common. Same with the lib dems.

At the start of the campaign, they tried to launch their major policy of reforming local tax. But the guy launching it had recently become a father, and the baby's crying had kept him awake the night before. So he was very sleepy, and couldn't remember any figures!

If you make dumb mistakes when you're campaigning, people begin to wonder whether you'd make dumb mistakes if you ran the country.

Voters prefer a nasty, but competent government to a nice but incompetent one. That's only natural.

The British economy has done OK under Labour, so people keep voting for them. Labour got in after the Tories caused a massive devaluation of the pound, after a recession. Before that, the Tories got in after a period of huge inflation and government-imposed limits on wage rises, which meant people earned less in real terms. Before that, Labour got in after a series of crippling strikes which meant power cuts, 3 day working weeks (with 3 days of wages) etc.

Almost always, Britain votes for who they think will run the economy the best - which is the incumbent unless they've screwed things up. Unfortunately, we don't take morals or international law into account much.

...the electoral system is unhelpful to third parties.

They're also seen as 'untried' and are seen as a unknown.

There is also an internal struggle within the Liberal Democratic Party between the social democrats and the neo-liberals. Whoever wins is dependent on which of the main 2 parties declines first.

If Labour declines then the social democratic wing will gain control and the Lib Dems will become the main party of the centre-left. If the Conservatives decline first, the neo-liberals will gain control of the Lib Dems and they'll try to become the main party of the centre-to-centre right.

They've also been open to criticism about being "opportunistic" and "trying to be everything to everyone", although LibDems themselves dispute this.

The Tories ditched Disraeli's One Nation conservatism in the 1970's to adopt the Thatcherite neo-liberal economic philosophy. Labour did the same to socialism when Blair was elected leader in the 1990's. It is a thread of Liberal Democrat thinking that can be traced back to their Whig predecessors in the 18th century. In many ways the election on Thursday is an 'Albanian ballot' in which only one view of the world is represented. The way the meal is flavoured may be slightly different but the core ingredients are the same.

They do not have near the poll standing to actually win power, so the
sorts of politicians who are in the party, are those who like to be
moral, but not actually be in charge of anything.

They're a nice bunch of chaps, and surely libdem pub crawls are a riot,
but the fact is, that anyone with the gravitas and desire to win an
election, who is prepared to run a country including tories and labouriites...
is not going to be a libdem just about now.

In effect, they are a protest party in permanent opposition protest,
always standing up for what is wrong with the policy but never making it
themselves... sort of back seat drivers if you will.

I love them, but they can be a bit silly.

... when you're peed off with one of the bigger parties.

Here in Wansbeck, where Labour had been in power since pussy was a kitten, and held all 46 seats on the Council, the LibberDemmers fought on a "We're not Labour So We Must Be Good" ticket and almost took control. Next election, after four years of LibDem Principled Opposition (one of their bright particular stars was fond of telling people that "Thick Ex-Miners" were our biggest problem and the Leader was fond of proposing "Thatcherite Good Sense" for the local economy) they were virtually wiped out.

In the case of the election, having switched to Pro-War when popular opinion seemed to swing that way, they were lucky that the swung back just in time to use their Anti-War stance in the Election.

I don't trust Blair. But I've never trusted the LibDems. And probably never will.

The Skin

and they may well do so.

What they can't do is pick up enough seats to be the official opposition party. But if New Labour lose enough seats, the Lib Dems can ally with Old Labour rebels and give Bliar a run for his money in the new parliament when he attempts to continue with his "modernisation" plans.

Because commentators in the UK continuously say that they aren't in a position to form the next Government. Consequently, people don't vote for them because it's "a wasted vote". A self fulfilling prophecy in other words.

on edit: they will pick up seats tomorrow, just not enough to make a real difference to their influence in Parliament. I'm prepared to be wrong of course.

and a "first past the post" system making it inordinately difficult for third parties. In Australia I can vote Green knowing that they wont win but that my vote wont be useless and doesn't have to help the conservatives (although I could vote for the CEC - crazy right wing loons - and it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference my local ALP member has the safest seat in the country and lucky for us is a right tosspot!)

Also the Lib Dem's from what I've gathered didn't exactly oppose the war but had problems with the way it came about, and belong in the "now we're there we have to stay" kind of camp.

Personally if I'd have voted (which I could) I would have voted SNP, despite not agreeing with them on everything and even though the local Labour member Mark Lazarowicz voted against Iraq, I just wouldn't be able to bring myself to vote Labour.