I’m at Cowley Street, at the election count for the next President of the Liberal Democrats.

The count has just been completed and the result is as follows:

Tim Farron: 14,593 votes
Susan Kramer: 12,950 votes

Tim Farron will take up office on 1st January 2011, succeeding Ros Scott.

A total of 65,861 ballot papers were issued and the turnout was 41.9%. 64 ballots were spoiled.

Total ballots returned 27,607.

The outgoing President, Ros Scott, has just emailed party members with this message:

I’m writing to let you know the exciting news that Tim Farron has been elected as the next President of our party. You can find the full result here.

We were incredibly fortunate in this election to have two outstanding candidates for President either of whom would have done a great job. And I’m sure I speak for the whole party when I say that I know Susan will continue to play a huge role in the future of our party.

Tim’s record of campaigning in the party is second to none. The enthusiasm, commitment and dynamism that he will bring to the job will be a huge asset to our party over the coming years. Being in coalition government has brought us huge challenges that we as a party are having to face for the first time in 65 years. And I am certain that Tim – working with Nick Clegg and his Ministerial team – will grab these challenges with both hands.

Being Party President has been both a huge amount of work and an enormous privilege over the last two years and I will certainly never forget the thrilling moments of the closing weeks of the General Election campaign and the days and nights that followed the result. So I’d like to thank everybody who has supported and worked with me over the last two years, especially my family. I could not have done what I have done without them.

I wish Tim all the very best of luck, I know the party will be safe in his hands.

Best wishes,

Ros Scott
Liberal Democrat Party President

As today is the day the result of the contest to become party president is declared, here’s a Wordle illustrating what party members feel are the most important qualities whoever is successful should bring to the role (click on the image to enlarge)…

‘Party members’ are the two biggest words, but after that comes ‘ability’ (both lower- and upper-case), with many variations on ‘communication’ (media, voice, communicator, represent etc). Will Ros Scott’s successor live up to these qualities? Time will tell…

And as an extra bonus here’s our survey result showing how successful the respective presidential teams were in reaching out to the party membership at large…

How have you been contacted by the two candidates or their campaign teams? (Please tick all that apply.)

Team Farron:
Tim Farron’s campaign – by email 79%
Tim Farron’s campaign – by post 43%
Tim Farron’s campaign – by social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc) 36%
Tim Farron’s campaign – personal contact (with Tim himself, or in conversation with a supporter) 22%
Tim Farron’s campaign – by phone 3%
I have heard nothing from Tim Farron or his campaign team 8%

Team Kramer:
Susan Kramer’s campaign – by email 79%
Susan Kramer’s campaign – by post 44%
Susan Kramer’s campaign – by social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc) 21%
Susan Kramer’s campaign – personal contact (with Susan herself, or in conversation with a supporter) 12%
Susan Kramer’s campaign – by phone 2%
I have heard nothing from Susan Kramer or her campaign team 8%

An intriguing set of results… they appear to show that on email, postal and phone contact there was no real difference between the success of the campaigns of either Team Farron or Team Kramer. However, on both social media (36% to 21%) and personal contact (22% to 12%), Tim Farron scores notably better than Susan Kramer.

If our survey results are at all accurate, and Tim is destined to win the contest by a 2:1 margin, it will be at least in part down to his campaign’s ability to motivate supporters both through the internet, and also through personal conversations. Tim has successfully created a ‘buzz’ of momentum around his campaign, and that — in conjunction with his message that he will be the loud, authentic voice of the party at large — looks set to deliver him victory.

# Over 1,200 Lib Dem paid-up party members are registered with LibDemVoice.org. 580 responded to the latest survey, which was conducted between 3rd and 10th November.
# Please note: we make no claims that the survey is fully representative of the Lib Dem membership as a whole. However, LibDemVoice.org’s surveys are the largest independent samples of the views of Lib Dem members across the country, and have in the past accurately predicted the results of the contest for Party President, and the conference decision to approve the Coalition agreement.
# The full archive of our members’ surveys can be viewed at www.libdemvoice.org/category/ldv-members-poll

If you’re interested in looking back at the coverage of the race that’s appeared here on LDV, then click here.

The results for the party committee elections and Peers panel are also expected early this afternoon, so watch this space.

First, we asked what party members thought of the campaigns of the two presidential candidates, Tim Farron and Susan Kramer:

Regardless of how you intend to vote, which of the two candidates do you think has run the best campaign to become party president?

50% – Tim Farron
8% – Susan Kramer
21% – Both have been equally good
10% – Neither has impressed me much
10% – Don’t know / No opinion

It’s a striking result, with half of all party members viewing Tim Farron’s campaign as the most effective. By contrast, just 8% — fewer than one in eight — think Susan Kramer’s campaign worked best. A pretty high proportion, just over one-fifth, reckon both campaigns worked equally well. One in 10 felt neither campaign reached out to them.

Then on to the big question:

Who have you voted for, or do you intend to vote for?

56% – Tim Farron
29% – Susan Kramer
10% – I have not yet decided but will definitely vote
5% – I do not think I will use my vote

If our survey results are accurate, therefore, Tim Farron is set to win the battle for the party presidency by a convincing 2:1 margin, even allowing for the small number of members who had yet to make up their minds when we polled them.

A word on our methodology: for the first time we’ve tried to weight our results both by region and by sex to try and ensure the greatest possible accuracy. The ‘raw’ results for the presidential contest were as follows:

55% – Tim Farron
28% – Susan Kramer
11% – I have not yet decided but will definitely vote
6% – I do not think I will use my vote

As you can see, hardly any difference in the overall results — although there were some regional differences as might be expected in a contest pitching a high-profile London ex-MP against a high-profile Cumbrian MP.

To vote by internet, go to:

www.votebyinternet.com/partycommittee2010 and follow the online instructions.

You’ll need to enter your security code, which is printed on your ballot paper.

The counts for the Party Committee and Presidential elections will take place this Saturday, 13th November.

To get the results keep an eye on this site – I’ll be at Cowley Street, to bring you the results as soon as they are announced.

To help those party members, who (like me) are finding it very hard to decide, here are links to all the posts published on Lib Dem Voice (starting with the most recent) in which the stalls of the two candidates, Tim Farron and Susan Kramer, are explored…

Hope that’s helped. Now, if you haven’t already, go and vote…

Some differences between Susan Kramer and Tim Farron were obvious from the start of the campaign and are swaying some voters, depending on their views on matters such as how important (or not) it is for one of the party’s most prominent posts to be held by a woman, whether an MP has enough time to do the job, whether a current MP from outside London or an ex-MP from London is more outside the Westminster bubble and so on.

However, two further differences between the candidates have come out clearly during the campaign. First, there has been a touch of political difference between the two. Contrast Tim Farron’s oft-repeated joke about how two women made him a Liberal – his mother and Margaret Thatcher – with Susan Kramer’s answer when quizzed about her political by Liberal Vision: “I’m quite comfortable being seen as an Orange Book liberal”. It would be wrong to exaggerate the difference here for, as Susan herself said earlier in the interview, “The notion of splits is quite exaggerated. What the media describe as orange-bookers and the left, in practice have a thin piece of paper between them on a range of policies. Part of the reason for that is the strength of the social justice strand in our thinking, alongside our traditional liberal strand. Most people who join the party try to find some balance or common ground between the two.”

The big difference that has emerged is in Tim Farron and Susan Kramer’s view of the job of Party President (a question on which we surveyed party members in September). Susan’s campaign has placed a heavy emphasis on listening – using both her allocated all-member emails to promote a survey asking members for their views and deploying phrases such as “holding the ring” to describe how she sees the role fitting with the different parts of the party. For Tim listening to members has got a mention too, but his emphasis has been on presenting the party’s case. In a recent interview in Liberal Democrat News, Susan started her answer on how she saw the role as “Very much being a voice for the grass roots of the party” while Tim talked first about “presenting a distinctively Liberal Democrat case”.

A Kramer Presidency would be primarily about getting the views of Liberal Democrat members heard within the party; a Farron Presidency would be primarily about getting the views of Liberal Democrats heard by the outside world. Both are admirable aims and either would, I am sure, do some of the other. But there is a genuine difference of focus here.

Both Susan Kramer and Tim Farron have answered in detail ten questions I posted to them, and their answers have been published in full today on Lib Dem Voice (see Susan Kramer’s answers and Tim Farron’s answers). Their answers reinforce the point that the two would go about the job in different ways.

They share much common ground, for example both supporting the party having a long-term commitment to the abolition of tuition fees, neither showing much enthusiasm for full blooded implementation of the rest of the Bones Commission’s recommendations and both wanting to take a key leadership role on addressing the low proportion of Liberal Democrat councillors who are female.

However through the answers Tim consistently more forcefully presents his own view whilst Susan stresses the importance of listening to others. So on the example of whether the rules for party internal elections should be relaxed to allow more campaigning both respond warmly, but it is Tim who strongly agrees while Susan emphasises she wants to talk to candidates and voters (party members) first before deciding.

Whatever view you take on the role of the Presidency, the fact that Tim and Susan are laying out such different approaches is very welcome – it means the choice we have in the election is a meaningful choice between two people, both of whom would do an excellent job but each of whom would do a different job from the other.

Note: this is the full set of answers provided by Susan. The eagle-eyed will notice that one answer is missing. I’ve let her campaign know and will add the missing answer if it is subsequently supplied.

(Also on YouTube here.)

1. Many parts of the Bones Commission were deferred until after the 2010 general election. Now that it has happened, what would your plans be for implementing, modifying or mothballing those outstanding parts?

The Bones report was insightful and a lot of thought and hard work went into it. However I’m afraid that it seems to have generated more heat than light and rather passed over the heads of the people who really matter – our members. Clearly the Party needs to make sure that it is properly co-ordinated at national level and the Chief Officers’ Group suggested by Bones can perform that role. In practice, though, it’s not about meetings and bodies but about making sure that key people communicate with each other – especially the Leader, the President and the Chief Executive. We also need to pick up on the Bones thinking about regions and council groups: there is a wealth of potential there, but so often the Federal and Parliamentary parties ignore them. This means that the Party underperforms. Lastly we do need to think again about how we manage our targeting and campaigning: if we are going to grow beyond our current number of MPs we will need to look at how and when we select candidates and how we decide which seats are going to be winnable.

2. Your manifesto in the ballot mailing places a great emphasis on going round visiting local parties. Why do you believe this is such an important part of the role of the President as to deserve such a focus in your literature?

The party can become very remote from members – but they are our key resource. Before the Coalition was formed the Leader was able to do a lot of this. Inevitably that is now more difficult – and it’s more difficult for other members of the government too just because of time. So we need to show members that we care about them and we need to inspire them. This means going round the country

3. Do you believe the party should have a long-term commitment to the abolition of tuition fees?

I do. It was an important manifesto commitment and we must stick with it as a party. We must also try and influence Coalition policy to make the package on Higher Education more progressive.

4. The proportion of our local council candidates who are female has been static at around a third for 20 years. Do you believe this matters, and if so what role would you take in addressing it?

It does matter – a lot of it is down to who asks who, people choose others in their own image. There is already some important work starting on equalities and we need to carry that through. The President must be at the heart of leading a culture change – to ensure that all local parties and council groups think about diversity in everything they do – when they have meetings, what roles are allocated, how groups are run. There is still too much of the culture where for instance it’s always a female councillor who gets asked to be group secretary or speak on social care.

5. Do you believe the party’s rules for elections for federal committees and the Interim Peers have the right level of restrictions on what campaigning can be done by or on behalf of candidates, and if not what would you alter?

Far too restrictive – there should be very tight expenditure limits to make sure that the well off don’t have any kind of advantage but apart from that it seems odd that a party that is so committed to campaigning makes it so hard for its own internal candidates to do any!

6. What role do you think the Party President should play in the party’s handling of the next Parliamentary constituencies boundary review?

To ensure that resources are directed towards it – its crucial that we take this immensely seriously given the dramatic consequences it could have. We must not leave local parties struggling on their own. The President needs to be checking that the key battle grounds have appropriate backing.

7. What would you seek to prioritise in the federal party budget when it comes to matters of IT?

Integration of new/social media with traditional campaigning.

8. What was your biggest political mistake?

I have no doubt yet to make it!

So far… as a new MP in 2006, signing the round Robin letter generated by senior MPs to Charles Kennedy advising him to stand down in January 2006. I deeply regret doing that. The letter predictably became a matter of public record. I should have had the backbone to go to Charles and see him face to face to explain why I had come to that view. It was discourteous and counterproductive to have done what I did in a public way.

9. Do you read the Daily Mail?

I do. I don’t agree with much of what I read, but we should remember that there are more Liberal Democrat supporters who read the Daily Mail than any other news paper. This is a terrifying fact!

10. What’s the most important thing you have learnt from the other candidate during this contest so far?

That there is lots of life after being an MP.

Tomorrow Liberal Democrat Voice will publish in full the answers from Susan Kramer and Tim Farron to a set of questions Lib Dem Voice has posed them. Their answers paint two different views on what the role should be of the Party President and how they would approach it. But on several issues they both agree, including on tuition fees:

Do you believe the party should have a long-term commitment to the abolition of tuition fees?

Kramer: I’m entirely comfortable with that. I think that should remain one of our goals. But more importantly it is for the party to decide if it remains one of our goals.

Farron: I do. It was an important manifesto commitment and we must stick with it as a party. We must also try and influence Coalition policy to make the package on Higher Education more progressive.

Read the Farron interview here and the Kramer interview here.

As a taster:

Liberal Vision: In one sentence why should people who read our blog back your campaign?

Susan Kramer: Overwhelmingly it’s to be the voice for the grass roots of the party, creating that two-way connection between the grass roots and the leadership, and keeping us unified. We shouldn’t let other pull us apart

Tim Farron: Because they want the Liberal Democrats to win, and because the party’s separate identity is absolutely critical. If we’re not protected by a proportional system, if we’re seen as an appendage, we will not convince people there is a reason to vote for us. The President needs to articulate what the Liberal Democrats are for, not what Tim Farron is for, but what the Liberal Democrats are for.

(Whether either candidate’s inability to follow the instruction in one sentence should be considered relevant is up to individual members – as the Chair at the North West hustings, I was totally unable to persuade either candidate to give concise answers to anything at all – though both were lovely in every other respect).

A taster to whet your appetite:

Q5: How will you ensure that you gain regular and meaningful access to the party leader?

Farron: He won’t be able to get rid of me. Being an MP gives me direct access to the media to get our message across and it also gives me close access to Nick. I’ll be a critical friend to the coalition and a candid friend to Nick. As President, I would carry a mandate from the members to ensure that the leadership keeps closely to our core principles and our manifesto promises – I would do everything in my power to head off situations such as the current tuition fees issue, so that our members feel that their party is standing by those positions that matter to them the most.

Kramer: Ministers and their special advisors are beginning to understand the need for communication. I want to make this easy for them by setting up regular but well run meetings in which we exchange information and make sure it gets back to the membership. I believe that the trust and reputation for judgement that I have earned will make this process easier. I have no personal axe to grind. If there is resistance, I am well known for not taking “no” for an answer and being quite prepared to doorstep.

Video also available on YouTube here.

Susan and Tim also answered questions on retaining a distinct Liberal Democrat indentity, on youth and diversity matters, as well as current issues facing the party.

You can watch the rest of the clips on YouTube here.

Ballot papers were despatched by second class post on Monday 18th October. Don’t panic if yours hasn’t arrived yet, it should be with you shortly. If your ballot mailing hasn’t arrived by next Monday (25th October) and you are sure that you were a paid-up member on 28th September, please email . Remember to include your name, postcode and membership number (if you have it) in the message.

Make sure you return your completed ballot by Wednesday 10th November.

If reading these messages moves you to want to ask the candidates a question, don’t forget the online hustings coming up.

Susan Kramer

Dear Mark,

We in the Liberal Democrats are facing a time of great opportunity but also great challenge.

The Coalition in Westminster is giving us scope to implement policies we believe in from civil liberties to the pupil premium and taking low income workers out of income tax.

But the Coalition is also, by definition, implementing policies which are not those of our party and in which our role has been to make such decisions fairer than they would have been without us.

It is with this background that I ask you to elect me as President of our Party.  In the past so many of you have come to help me with my in my various campaigns.  As President, an unpaid but pretty much full-time role, I would have the opportunity to give back to you.

My pledge to you is to make the members and grassroots of the party my priority:

• I intend to criss-cross the country to listen to you and make sure that you are heard by the leadership with whom I intend to meet regularly on your behalf
• I will rebuild our internal communication system so that you know what the party is achieving in Parliament from the horse’s mouth rather than through a biased media
• I will use my profile to keep the party strong and unified despite the efforts of other parties and the press to divide us
• I will strengthen our federal organisation’s ability to support you in recruiting new members, fundraising and developing modern campaigning techniques to match our rivals

Although the General Election is 5 years away, Scotland, Wales and many local councils have elections in 7 months and we will have a critical referendum on Fair Votes next year.

I have met with many of you over the last few weeks and if elected I will continue to travel to meet you.  But the listening process is so important that I ask for your participation now.

That’s why I’m inviting you to fill in this short online survey about the Coalition Government, party communication, campaigning and about the future of the party – it will only take a few minutes.

I ask for your vote in the election for President so that I can serve you.  We Liberal Democrats can seize the future.

Yours sincerely,

Susan Kramer
Candidate for Liberal Democrat party President
www.SusanKramer.org.uk

PS. Grassroots activists and members like you are the heart of our party. If elected you will be my priority.

Tim Farron

Our Party now faces its greatest opportunity, and its greatest threat.

We have the opportunity to put our liberal values into practice in government, but we risk losing our distinctive voice. Our next party president must help seize this opportunity and defeat the threat by making sure that our voice is heard.

That is why I am standing in this election.

When I joined the Liberal Party at 16, the thought that we would be in government seemed a fantasy.  Now it’s a reality and we are making a real difference.

We are right to be in the coalition. Britain’s economy is in a real mess and we’re ensuring it’s sorted fairly. But our separate identity is being blurred, our message blunted and too many of our supporters feel confused and nervous.

I’m not having that!

If you choose me to be your president, I will be a strong, persuasive and distinctive voice.  Ministers can present the coalition’s arguments. I will present a Liberal Democrat view. I’ll explain what we stand for and what we are achieving in power.  I’ll spell out what is wrong with Tory policies.

As your president, I will actively listen to your views and put them to Nick and our other ministers.

They need to know what you think about tuition fees, the spending review, Trident and other key issues.

I’ll publicly promote, with passion, our Liberal Democrat principles, inspire our supporters and reassure our voters that they were right to vote Liberal Democrat. I’ll use my campaigning experience to help Liberal Democrats win across the UK, especially as we face next year’s Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and local government elections – and the crucial fairer votes referendum.

With our leader in government, the role of the president has to be more media focused. I believe I have the energy and ability to use the media to spell out our distinctive identity.

We also need distinctive messages and policies. During the Iraq war, remember how Ming Campbell made us all proud to be Lib Dems.  During the banking crisis, Vince Cable spoke for Britain and made us all feel proud too.  Think of how you felt as a Lib Dem when Nick won the leaders TV debates – I was so proud I almost burst!

I want that pride back.

I want more people to join us, especially young people. We’ll do it by spelling out clearly and consistently what the Liberal Democrats are doing to bring greater fairness and freedom, and to make Britain greener.

This is a crucial time, and it calls for a strong and bold voice that will lift our party’s spirits, our morale and our electoral chances.

If that’s the kind of President you want, then I’m all yours.

Thank you for your support,

TIM FARRON MP

PS.  For more information about my vision, about me and who is supporting me go to http://www.timfarronforpresident.org.uk/ – or you can email questions to me at 

Susan Kramer and Tim Farron will answer questions which have been submitted online, and a video of the event will be posted afterwards on YouTube for all party members to refer to.

I’ll be chairing the hustings, so please submit your questions via email to or in the comments thread below by 5pm Wednesday.

If you’d like to attend in person, a limited number of places are available. It’s on Wednesday 20 October at 7pm. Please contact Johnny LeVan-Gilroy at to register.

Otherwise keep an eye on Lib Dem Voice for a link to the video afterwards.

Much has changed in politics in the last few months, but the political process didn’t stop with the formation of the Westminster Government.  In Scotland, it’s time to get those shoes re-soled and dig out that delivery bag and those clip boards – we’ve just a few months until elections to Holyrood and the fairer votes referendum, and then just one year until Scotland-wide council elections.

It will be my job, if elected your party president, to inspire members and activists to go out and fight the coming elections hard.  It will also be my job to energise a new generation of activists to believe that they can make a difference.  In Scotland you’ve already made some huge steps in this regard – membership is up, and I saw for myself the hunger to win exhibited at conference in Dunfermline.

In Westminster we’re getting a huge amount out of being in government: protection for the lowest paid, the most ambitious political reforms since universal suffrage and restoration of civil liberties – but let’s not kid ourselves: being in a coalition, as you know in Scotland, means our identity risks being diluted and our message blurred.

When I read Labour telling us that we’re “turning the clock back to the 1980s” because of the cuts, I know that this is witless rubbish – but I’ll be honest, those barbs really hurt me.  I was brought up by a single mum, in significant poverty in Thatcher’s Britain.  I went to a comprehensive in Lancashire, where half of my mates’ parents were out of work.  The accusation of being a ‘Tory lackey’ makes my blood boil.  If I’m your president, one of my jobs is to ensure that we disrupt and counter the Labour attacks.

Whilst Labour – the party of child detention, ID cards and illegal wars – bad mouth our party as we try to find solutions to the mess they’ve left the country in, in Scotland the SNP Government has also failed us.  They’ve broken and dumped so many promises and now have made an independence referendum their top priority for the 2011 election – not the economy, education, rural services or jobs.  They continue to put their own nationalist agenda ahead of the national interest.

It’s clear that with the Tories largely irrelevant in Scotland, it is only the Liberal Democrats that offer an alternative to Labour and the SNP.  We have outstanding candidates for the Holyrood election next year – they deserve to have the best campaign possible.  One of my first acts as president, should you elect me, will be to sit down with the campaigns department and work out how I, and the rest of the UK team can support you here in Scotland.  My job will be to bring UK MPs and resources to Scotland to help with the campaign and to provide you with a strong, passionate and articulate voice to inspire voters to back us.

If that’s the kind of President you want, then I’m all yours.

Nick Clegg and others have argued effectively that the benefits of coalition will be evident in time for the General Election in 2015.  But Scotland has elections in seven months. We have to move rapidly to the front foot to argue that the coalition is putting key Liberal Democrat policies in place and to do that we need the ammunition.

Communication is absolutely key.  This is why I will criss-cross the country not just to join local campaigns but to listen and make sure that grassroots voices are heard by the leadership and get a response.  I would expect to meet regularly with ministers/special advisors to make sure that the information you need is passed on in a timely way.  We need the kind of electronic network that we have had in general elections but with much more 2-way capacity.

In England the coalition has broad acceptance because the Tories won the largest share of the popular vote.  But in Scotland they came fourth.  The challenge to make the case for coalition but to protect our Liberal Democrat identity is therefore far more challenging in Scotland.  The Scottish Liberal Democrats must be free to develop the Lib Dem response to Scotland’s problems.  We must get across the idea that there is no conflict between promoting our distinct ideas, values and solutions and yet be a coalition partner.  The Scottish Party has handled this with great skill.

Of course I hope that the Scottish elections will lead to a Liberal Democrat government in Scotland.  But realistically all kinds of permutations are possible depending on what the voters choose.  The President may be needed to “hold the ring” if the different nations chose different solutions.  A President is there to put the party first and that will be critical.

The chances of a repeat of this year’s bitter election battle between Zac Goldsmith and Susan Kramer receded this week as the former MP indicated she was unlikely to contest the seat at the next election.

Mrs Kramer officially remains Liberal Democrat candidate for Richmond Park until six months after the election, but when asked whether she would seek the nomination again she said it was not on her agenda.

She said: “I think you move on and you don’t constantly try to replay the past. I would have liked the chance to do another term but the voters decided otherwise.”

Susan, one of the candidates for the Liberal Democrat presidency, says she would like to concentrate on party members for the time being:

I have time I had never had before and this would be a way to give back to all the people who helped me over the years.

As Ros Scott rightly said we need our President to fulfill a different role to the normal one. We must focus on communicating our distinctive, radical message to our members, supporters and the wider community.
Commitment 1: You’ll see me on your telly, hear me on your radio and read me in the blogosphere, online and in your newspaper. My goal is to inspire, motivate and reassure. To get across what we stand for as a radical and independent Party, distinct from the coalition.

The President has a major role in the Party’s campaigns, especially over the next few, vital months in Scottish and Welsh General Elections, the local government elections and the key Fairer Votes referendum. These are historic votes. We have to work our socks off as never before.
Commitment 2: I’ll be committed totally to our success and I’ll ask the same of you. I’ll use my experience as a proven campaigner to infect everyone with my enthusiasm and sheer determination to win. I will communicate with clarity and passion to keep ‘our eyes on the prize’. We’re not just delivering leaflets and banging on doors for the sake of it, but because we are out to change the world for good. So expect to say ‘hello’ to me at your annual dinner, your regional conferences and your local council by-elections because you’ll see me there.

Ros Scott worked hard with Chris Fox to make vital, overdue and valuable changes to Cowley Street – I support what was done and where we are going. So there’ll be no pointless overhaul of Cowley Street on my watch.
Commitment 3: I’ll work hard alongside Chris Fox and our Campaigns and Communications teams to win next year’s votes. I’ll use my experience of creating the highest Lib Dem vote share in mainland Britain to ensure we are the cutting edge of British politics in political campaign techniques and communications. I’ll also be our media ‘attack dog’. We’re doing great things to create fairness, opportunity and a new environment for our country and in our communities. Let’s get on the front foot, get out there to ‘sell’ the Liberal Democrats. Let’s also engage our members and supporters in making the policies that will impact positively on this Government and keep us distinctive as a Party.

Our councilors and Parliamentary candidates are hugely important. They have invaluable advice, experience and insight. But are we making the most of them since we entered the coalition? I’m not so sure. I’m not pointing any fingers, but I think we can do better.
Commitment 4: I will call all our 2010 Parliamentary candidates together to get their feed back, draw from their experiences and give them the inside track on our achievements in government.

Commitment 5: I will work with Lib Dem Ministers and our Campaigns Department to ensure that our councillors and candidates in 2011 and beyond get regular updates on our positions – especially attack and rebuttal lines. Our front line campaigners must know what we are achieving in government – and why it’s right!

Our lack of women MPs and MPs from black and minority ethnic backgrounds is completely unacceptable. We should be honest with ourselves. Our work in achieving diversity and gender balance has been ineffective and that needs to change:
Commitment 6: I pledge to make diversity my priority – despite being a white male, I can use my campaigning and fundraising experience to target support to candidates from under-represented communities, specially women and BME candidates.

Normally, our Liberal Democrat Leader does this communications work. Normally Nick would devote 100% of his time energizing our party and selling our message, while the Party President gets on with the internal stuff. But these are not normal times. Nick is busy running the country and that’s great! So our President needs to get out there and deliver a distinctive Liberal Democrat voice, making it clear what we stand for that’s distinct from the coalition, why people should vote for and join us, and why the Liberal Democrats can aspire to power in our own right. I hope I’ll have your support and help to do just that.

Commenting, National Chair Martin Shapland said: ”On behalf of the Liberal Youth Executive I am delighted to declare our support for Tim Farron. He is a first class campaigner, a fantastic public speaker, and is an entirely approachable character. He understands the fundamental importance of youth participation in politics, and has a strong desire to work with us to promote youth causes at the highest levels of the party.”

Responding, Tim Farron said “I just want to say thanks to Martin and the Liberal Youth Executive for their support. They understand this election s different, because we are in government for the first time we need a strong performer in the media, and a good campaigner. I am standing shoulder to shoulder with them on the gay blood ban campaign, their continuing fight on fees, and our desire for a greener Britain.”