A few Lib Dem bloggers have worked out the the “cost effectiveness” of the three main parties 2005 general election campaigns, by dividing the money spent by the votes gained. The results being:

And so Lib Dems are claiming this to be some sort of moral and financial victory. But it really ignores the reason people vote for a particular party. However much the Lib Dems many choose to deny it, much of their support is simply because they are the third party, because of what they are not – as in Labour or the Conservatives – rather than who they are and what they say.

The Lib Dems achieve this kind of “cost effectiveness” precisely because they are first and foremost a prostest vote. They stand in all the elections and are often the only option for a “none of the above” vote. As such, they don’t need to spend much to achieve.

And relating this to effective spending of taxes is just absurd.

Should the Lib Dems ever become the second largest party by some fluke, I think they’d have a bit of a rude awakening – and start having to really spending money to get votes.