May saw the start of a campaign that was to eventually change the law on what has become known as Revenge Porn. The friend I quoted in the article wasn’t going public at that time, but it was Hannah Thompson who so eloquently and with real grace and dignity told her story and persuaded the likes of Maria Miller, Julian Huppert and Sal Brinton to fight for change.
Remember that interview where LBC’s James O’Brien took apart Nigel Farage on such issues as UKIP’s dodgy immigration claims and its MEPs’ expenses? We shouldn’t forget that infamous moment when he said that he thought people would be concerned if Romanians moved next door. It’s one of the most depressing things about politics at the moment that he said all that and got away with it.
If this were the Bake Off or some other reality show, the music would change now from jaunty, dramatic “will they get it all done in time?’ music to the slower, doom-laden, sombre tones that means someone’s for the chop.
Someone in this instance meant all but one of our MEPs. Even the most pessimistic of us, and I counted myself in that, thought we would keep at least 3 MEPs. It turns out we were wildly optimistic and it was a truly heartbreaking night. If you really want to relive it, and I don’t for a moment recommend that you do, you can look at that 4000 word, 290 comment open thread that we ran on here. It was truly grim. Of course, it was all perfectly predictable. The lowest point of the electoral cycle for us is always the Euros and the local elections we faced was always a very difficult set. The last time we fought it we suffered heavy losses.
The party got fearful and fretful. Nick’s leadership was never in serious danger, but some wanted him to go. Matthew Oakeshott had attempted the most cack-handed coup in history and left the party. There was a lot of anger on here. Bizarrely, I was called an Orange Booker and accused of all sorts of conspiracies. Economic liberals everywhere wept into their beer at the thought of being associated with me. After a series of angry threads, I decided we needed a bit of peace and light.
When we are at a low ebb, we need campaigning wisdom and there are few better places to find it than in ALDC. Its Chief Executive Tim Pickstone told us to get out there and talk to people.
I know just how hard so many people worked and still didn’t win. I know many people will be feeling rough and we need to support each other.
We should, of course, congratulate the 407 Liberal Democrat Councillors (plus one Mayor and one MEP) who have won seats on Thursday. The vast majority of you are ALDC members. Winning anywhere is an achievement in current circumstances. so very well done.
So what now? We are a democratic Party and will obviously want to talk about what we did right, what we did wrong and what we do next. We should be under no illusion that our enemies will take every opportunity to kick us while we are down.
But, in 11 months time not just 55 MPs but 1078 Liberal Democrat councillors (that’s most of us) face election. What I have just told the ALDC staff team, is that our only priority over the next 11 months is to win as many of those elections as possible.
Being a Liberal Democrat email, it had to have 3 things to focus on for the future: let ALDC know what worked and what didn’t in your area; get together at the Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference on 28 June and get back out on those doorsteps.
Later in the week we will be sending you details of our summer door knocking campaign with artwork options suitable for local parties big or small.
Increasingly local elections seem to be won on work done the summer before – and we only have one summer before 2015 – that starts in a few days!
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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8 Comments
I am enjoying these most-read posts (some of which I didn’t read) – can we have a unifying post putting them all in one place when they’re all done? Ta.
What a pity no one listened to Mathew Oakeshott.
Of course Clegg should have gone.
Any politician who does not understand the importance of honouring key commitments made to their own electorate cannot be considered as competent to lead their party. The student funding issues were of minor financial importance, but major political importance. Of course the coalition requires a degree of compromise, but not at the expense of abandoning what the electorate plainly regarded as the ‘crown jewels’.
The parties presentation as the new honest clean face of British politics was destroyed overnight by Clegg’s change in direction. The effect of this tragic mistake is now plain for all to see.
The LibDems had successfully seduced a large number of younger voters, and only had to stay true to them to secure an enduring foundation of electoral support for the party. Instead this achievement has been thrown away. Both Clegg and the party are now damaged goods, and the only hope for the party is to present a new face to the Public and to distance themselves from the Clegg disaster.
Far from being damaging a new leadership election and the attendant discussion would generate extensive media coverage, and would help make the public more aware of the Party. As is said sometimes, the only really bad publicity is no publicity! If a new leader does not come forward quickly to take the political presentation of the party into more effective control the Party will fail not only itself but the electorate as well.
No Political party can succeed if it forgets that the only means it has of bringing its key ideas into government is to obtain and then retain electoral support. It doesn’t matter what Clegg or any other LibDem thinks if the electorate neither trusts them nor hears them.
Will James O’Brien be giving David Blunkett the same treatment?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2889177/David-Blunkett-admits-challenge-Roma-gipsies-moved-street.html
” Even the most pessimistic of us, and I counted myself in that, thought we would keep at least 3 MEPs. ”
I am sorry, Caron, but this is simply not correct. While it would have been virtually impossible for us to lose that final seat, it was pretty clear in April what was going to happen. Here in the North West, we had undoubtedly the best MEP in the country from a Lib Dem point of view, who must have been one of your three, and it was clear throughout April that our campaign here was going nowhere. Not something we shouted from the treetops at the time, of course.
“Nick’s leadership was never in serious danger”
How could something which has never existed be in danger? Nich Clegg has many laudable characteristics and he busies himself away in the Cabinet Office. But when has he ever done anything at all which has shown leadership of the Liberal Democrats?
Adrian Howard-Jones 30th Dec ’14 – 8:43pm
“What a pity no one listened to Mathew Oakeshott.”
Whose poll findings are largely being reflected by those of Lord Ashcroft.
I certainly anticipated three MEPs would be returned (I had been anticipating that since 2011) but was wrong-footed by the negative effect of the Clegg/Farage debates. It’s worth remembering that Graham Watson was beaten by the elected Green in SW region by only 0.4% and Sarah Ludford by the elected Green in London by 2.2%.
The important message here is that the GE could well result in a number of seats that are won or lost on the basis of a tiny margin. I recall during the locals in Leicester in the mid-90’s we won a seat by 6 votes. I had almost nothing to do with the election since I wasn’t living in Leicester at that time and just came up to help knocking up in that ward on polling day, but I have always claimed that we won that seat because of my “work”, and I do not believe that this can be disproven 🙂
As was mentioned on another thread, it would have been better if MEP’s had fronted the EU campaign for the Lib Dems.
Most people myself included have little understanding of what they do or the amount of effort they have put into the job. If the campaign had been personalised so that they could have explained why they should be re-elected, that the election was about who would best represent the interests of their constituency in Europe, might this not have made a difference? Instead the elections were allowed to be defined as an unimportant election where the electors could give the main parties a ‘good kicking’ with very little consequence, unlike in a GE.
Perhaps it is a lesson for the future. If you have hard working people working for the public good, give them a bigger national platform.
@Adrian Howard-Jones
“The LibDems had successfully seduced a large number of younger voters, and only had to stay true to them to secure an enduring foundation of electoral support for the party. Instead this achievement has been thrown away. Both Clegg and the party are now damaged goods, and the only hope for the party is to present a new face to the Public and to distance themselves from the Clegg disaster.”
To be honest, most of my friends spit at the mention of Liberal Democrats.
I’m sure you all know this. Your party’s best course of action is probably to reverse the Liberal and SDP merger, and allow for the resurrection of the SDP. Maybe then you could, after some years and after some new faces, remerge as a force in British politics.
As it is now, you’re pretty much spent, and any argument about the contrary is most likely from people who receive a salary as a councillor , functionary, aide or MP, as well as their dependent families. You are heading for a role as the British version of the German FDP.