Susan Leslie’s spirited campaign to be the next Liberal Democrat MSP for Dunfermline continues to gather pace. So far, almost all of the party’s Scottish MPs and MSPs have been to visit. Charles Kennedy did a walkabout on Dunfermline High Street and Danny Alexander is expected in the constituency this evening. Leaflets have been flying out of the office.
Liberal Youth Scotland held an action day last weekend and Liberal Youth across the country have been making phone calls.
Campaigning was led by Jo Swinson last Saturday and new Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael will be there this coming Saturday.
Susan performed well in both Brian Taylor’s Big Debate last Friday and STV’s Scotland Tonight on Monday night. She did really well, explaining how the SNP had let Dunfermline down by slashing 1200 local college places and enabling the closure of a Fife control room and a local police station.
You can find out more about Susan’s campaign here. If you can help in any way, there is plenty delivery and phone banking to be done both at our impressive HQ at 29 Canmore Street or our at Scottish HQ in Edinburgh. You can also make a donation here.
* 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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3 Comments
I wouldn’t put too much faith in VIP visits. Despite having Federal Conference and all the activists and celebrities that go with it, just a short walk over the squinty bridge away, the party still finished an abjectly embarrassing 8th in the Govan by-election with only 73 first preferences.
Al – that was a local government election carried out in a different part of Scotland under a different voting system. Apples and pears….
Al – It doesn’t matter how many activists were at Federal Conference. They spent their time at Federal Conference, not campaigning in Govan, as did everyone else at Conference. Your premise that Conference should have altered the result in Govan in any way is fundamentally flawed. I wouldn’t expect anyone’s voting intention to change just because a political party is holding a conference nearby.
In 2007 in Govan ward the LIberal Democrat candidate came 7th with only 4.1% of first preferences. The Labour candidates combined achieved 48.3% of first preferences. Govan is so solidly Labour that even the SNP put up only one candidate in 2007 for fear of splitting first preferences (though they did put up three in 2012, probably emboldened by the Glasgow First split from Labour). But please, continue to cherrypick results from areas that have were not remotely Lib Dem pre-Coalition and never had a strong campaigning presence from the party.
VIP visits don’t really change the way that many people vote. That’s just how the media like to imagine politics might work. But they do indicate the level of resources a political party is committing to a campaign.