I’m going to get told off for that headline, I’m sure, because I expect most Liberal Democrat campaign teams were out campaigning last Saturday too. Anyway, I thought I’d share a few tweets to give a wee flavour of what our candidates have been up to today.
We have to start with Tom Brake. Can you believe he’s been running street stalls in Wallington since 1990? That’s 300 separate occasions.
Come wind or rain we’ve held a stall in #Wallington once a month for the last 25 years. pic.twitter.com/AsKvwrzWKs
— Tom Brake MP (@thomasbrake) January 10, 2015
Lynne Featherstone shows that Lib Dem MPs get results:
We’ve spent years campaigning for this! So glad we can now get 144 bus at the new, accessible stop in Muswell Hill pic.twitter.com/pTrsJGdSLE
— Lynne Featherstone (@lfeatherstone) January 10, 2015
The Cleggster was out and about in Sheffield.
Quick stop to refuel, then back out for more with @nick_clegg #LibDem pic.twitter.com/9bF6hsAsMS
— Sheffield Lib Dems (@SheffLibDems) January 10, 2015
And Christine Jardine wasn’t letting the snow stop her from socking it to Salmond in Gordon:
It was cold out canvassing today in #gordon but worth it #christine4Gordon
— christine jardine (@Cajardine) January 10, 2015
A warm reception on the doors, then.
Nobody was letting the seasonal weather put them off, especially not Tim Farron. It was quite appropriate that I’d been writing this morning’s article about him last night (I know how to live) while watching a programme about the excellent film Frozen.
@caronmlindsay sounds adapt to me as @timfarron & @rachworld and I were out in the freezing wind and hail this morning. Tim continued to pm.
— Chris Hogg (@CllrCJHogg) January 10, 2015
And Tower Hamlets Liberal Democrats were out campaigning for Simon Hughes.
Wind didn’t stop us supporting Simon Hughes’ in Southwark this afternoon! pic.twitter.com/bxpdY3UEhd
— TowerHamlets LibDems (@THLDs) January 10, 2015
Isn’t it a bit early for rain at Wimbledon? Didn’t put Shas Sheehan off though.
A wet stall in Motspur Park this morning. Brrrr pic.twitter.com/8p0v4Og3oF
— Shas Sheehan (@sheehanshas) January 10, 2015
It was sunny in Winchester, though.
Happy team in Shaftesbury avenue! A sunny morning and sunny politics! #libdems pic.twitter.com/sx4OJ1vUq4
— Jackie Porter (@jackielibdem) January 10, 2015
Layla Moran and Alex Meredith visited a beauty spot threatened with development for holiday homes:
Visited @SaveCothillPitt this pm with @laylamoran – gorgeous spot threatened with holiday homes! Keen 2 help save! pic.twitter.com/OgH350GR78
— Alex Meredith (@FaringdonLibDem) January 10, 2015
They got the disapproving stare right – but there was no traditional Lib Dem pointing. I guess that was so 2012. Steve Gilbert was out and about in Cornwall:
great morning out speaking to people – new supporters, new helpers and real momentum to upset the bookies and stop the Tories in St Austell.
— Stephen Gilbert MP (@stephen_gilbert) January 10, 2015
Stephen Williams was admiring the view in his Bristol West constituency.
Great view from Redcliffe Flats this morning. Warm reception from residents but freezing cold wind! pic.twitter.com/pbNKKOOBfm
— Stephen Williams MP (@swilliamsmp) January 10, 2015
Finally. there’s always that reward for all the effort.
Post-canvassing lunch. (@ The Rocket in Acton, Greater London) https://t.co/DugbfAVBBG pic.twitter.com/3nktpKGlLq
— JonBall (@JonBall) January 10, 2015
I know that nobody ever says “We went out campaigning this morning and everyone shouted at us and told us to bog off,” but I think that most people are finding that when they knock on doors people are friendly and willing to talk, particularly in areas where they are used to seeing Lib Dems out and about. If you listen to Twitter or even some of the commenters on here, you’d think that people would be throwing buckets of water on us on the doorsteps, but it’s actually ok. Even if they are not yet ready to pledge us their vote, they are willing to put us back in play. These conversations are so valuable and we need to have lots of them.
One thing that’s missing from this post – the Welsh. I refuse to believe they have all been in their beds, especially not the Ceredigion crowd. So, tweets and photos, please, for next Saturday.
UPDATE: Actually, there is evidence of Welsh campaigning. Here’s Peter Black out and about in Swansea.
Excellent response canvassing in Killay this morning pic.twitter.com/mkUpwtZj7w
— Peter Black (@peterblackwales) January 10, 2015
* 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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22 Comments
There were plenty of people volunteering today to put up posters or deliver leaflets for Martin Horwood. That’s the value of having a popular and hardworking MP. I’m sure Lib Dem MPs across the country are benefiting from this.
That’s good to hear, Max. And I think you are right. And the more positive days like this, the more people will be motivated to do.
The hail was very brief in Sheffield
These seem remarkably small groups of campaigners.
Is this meant to be a game of ‘Where’s the Voter’
This collection of rather sad and depressing images, and I say that without any intent to offend, has the look of a bunch of contestants in a 1980’s style works treasure hunt looking for the next clue to take them ever onwards towards their final destination. The destination would seem to be a pie and pea supper with Nick Clegg, and the main prize seems to be an opportunity to actually engage with the voter Nick Clegg seems to have found, unless he is a plant.
Caron it is a good job you were not engaged as the motivational expert to rally the troops at Waterloo, 🙂
Raddiy
I think that comment is more a reflection on you than the Liberal Democrats.
Good to see you leading that list with Tom Brake, one of half a dozen Lib Dem MPs who are predicted to hold or improve their majorities. The clue to why he is in this situation is in the caption.
@ Paul Walter
Really !!
I don’t know if you took part on the ground at the last four parliamentary by-elections, but if you did you could not fail to notice that my light hearted description above fits in with the invisible LibDem campaigns in all four, where the candidates, good or bad seemed to spend most of their time wandering around aimlessly looking for a voter, and the reward for those lacklustre efforts was reflected in the respective ballot boxes.
If this piece from Caron is meant to motivate the troops then God help your party, it is dreary, oozes defeatism and resignation.
That is your view Raddiy. I don’t agree. I’m in very good heart about the party and it is great to see these people around the country busily campaigning. It is so much more positive and uplifting than all the negative navel-gazing in many of the repetitive comments from armchair commentators here.
Tony Dawson 11th Jan ’15 – 9:24am
“. Good to see you leading that list with Tom Brake, one of half a dozen Lib Dem MPs who are predicted to hold or improve their majorities. The clue to why he is in this situation is in the caption. ”
Just in case people did not get this. Tony Dawson points out why some candidates (MPs) get elected.
Notice that it has nothing to do with fancy PR ideas in the Westminster Bubble or about chasing non-existent “soft Tories”..
It has something to do with hard work, 25 years of hard work, working with people to take and use power.
Paul Walter 11th Jan ’15 – 9:37am
“I’m in very good heart about the party and it is great to see these people around the country busily campaigning. It is so much more positive and uplifting than all the negative navel-gazing in many of the repetitive comments from armchair commentators here.”
Paul, I couldn’t agree more. We have far to many posts on LDV repetitively promoting the empty ‘Stronger economy, Fairer society/Enabling everyone to get on in life’ slogans. And Yes, we were out canvassing for John Pugh in Southport yesterday.
A specific comment on MP Stephen William’s interesting view of his constituency.
Whoever was responsible for Town Planning in Bristol over the last 50 years should be serving a long prison sentence for crimes against sensible urban development.
North East Fife was out too, with Willie Rennie and Tim Brett. One voter, admittedly a strong supporter of another party, admitted that we were the first party to knock on his door ever. That’s a comment Tim’s team has heard over and over again in NE Fife, and I’m sure other LibDems elsewhere will report the same.
For the absence of doubt – Julia Huppert and team were out yesterday in Cambridge. The heavy rain in the morning was a bit off-putting but it meant more people were in – and the weather cleared up in the afternoon so a good Saturday’s door-knocking was done.
@ Jane Ann Liston – Good to hear that Willie Rennie & Tim Brett are out on the doorsteps in NE Fife but if Tim’s team found a voter who: ‘admitted that we were the first party to knock on his door ever. That’s a comment Tim’s team has heard over and over again in NE Fife’, does that mean the current MP hasn’t been seen knocking on doors over the past 30 years?
Peter Chegwyn – no it does not!
What it does emphasise is that we are the only party that does any door-knocking, or at least in any significant amount. And despite the cynical messages from the media, claiming that voters are fed-up with politicians on the doorstep – you’ll have seen the cartoons of people frantically hammering planks over their letterboxes and fastening the window-shutters – voters actually appreciate candidates and their supporters taking the trouble to call and to listen to their concerns.
Indeed they do Jane so long as we do it all-year, every year, not just at election-time. As John Tilley rightly pointed-out earlier, ‘winning ‘has nothing to do with fancy PR ideas in the Westminster Bubble or about chasing non-existent “soft Tories”. It has something to do with hard work… working with people to take and use power.’
It’s called ‘community politics’. Words that The Dear Leader sadly never mentions but I suspect it’s the MPs with a strong local government and ‘community politics’ base who will be most likely to hold on in May – Bob Russell, Tom Brake, Mike Thornton, Adrian Sanders, Martin Horwood, Tim Farron etc.
Thanks for these. Really great to see what our campaigners around the country are up to – I hope this becomes a regular feature!
“They got the disapproving stare right – but there was no traditional Lib Dem pointing. I guess that was so 2012. Steve Gilbert was out and about in Cornwall:”
The reason UKIP are doing so well is immigration has pushed the population up and infrastructure, especially school places and new homes have not kept up with the number of incomers.
The last thing we need is NIMBY Lib Dems trying to prevent people building homes on a field, denying others what they have.
Is their any proof that all these will be holiday homes?
Did Tom Brake ever succeed in getting his local headshop closed down, I remember he did a campaign to have them outlawed and introduced a private members bill aiming to do just that
@ Raddiy,
I don’t see any sad and depressing images. Are you projecting again?
I see groups people who look rather nice, the sort of people that one could safely invite in for a cup of tea,
Raddiy, unless the Tories have already restricted the franchise, every person pictured in those photographs is a voter.
I was out canvassing in Sutton- strong support for us there.