Now I like Iain’s site, he’s a good blogger with a sense of fun and he understands there’s a place for a bit of clowning and exchanging insults. Which is unlike the braying Hooray Henries who used to fawn around The Gorgon Of Grantham and who earned the Conservative Party such a bad name.

So when you, presumably a Conservative, mention Lib Dem pejoratives it is, is it not, a case of the pot calling the kettle black?

‘Lower taxes by leaving the EU’ might do the trick.

Along with ‘reduce the inequality of wealth between them and us’.

Gross inequality of inheritance is a disgrace to equality of opportunity – and of results – in a liberal capitalist democracy.

I recall campaigning “on the knocker” for a Liberal in Accrington in 1979. One lifelong Labour voter told me he would be “voting for Maggie because she’ll give us a bit off the income tax, a bit off the beer and a bit off the ciggies.”

How to argue against that level of political thinking? I’m glad it’s not my problem.

To those that have argued for a ‘holding operation’ – I don’t think you can in a by-election. You either fight hard or get squashed.

The big difference between henley and bromley was that in Bromley the Tories were complacent and that allowed the lib dems to build momentum. in henley they worked hard in the last week than the Lib Dems did.

I think one of the reasons the Tories have won these last 2 By-Elections is because of the power of blogs!

I was a local Tory worker in the 1987 Greenwich by-election and the 2006 Bromley By-Election. What horrified me in Bromley was the that we (the Tories) were making exactly the same tactical & strategic mistakes that we had made 20 years earlier.

However, unlike in 1987, party workers like myself could communicate directly with the top. ConservativeHome ran a very public postmortem in which party workers on the ground could vent their rage, and also give positive suggestions for improving our future campaigning.

Francis Maude, the then Party Chairman received from me in my capacity as a Bromley Ward Chairman two long e-mails. I was just one of many local activists and “mutual aiders” who contributed to a very painful, but useful debate.

It seems to me that the party hierarchy, now knowing what really happened on the ground in previous By-Elections has finally got it’s act together.

As a general point, blogging will change the nature of all political parties as it enables the party grass roots to communicate directly with the top. Derek Conway MP was toast, as soon as the 90% plus disapproval rating on ConservativeHome was publised. And of course the Obama success shows how politicians can by-pass the party machine altogether and reach out directly to the public.

I have said it a few times there but I really so think that we are on the cusp of something big. My feeling is that the Lib Dems could take the old Whig position with teh Tories in England at the next election with the Nationalist parties running Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland and running Labour into second ro third palce in all cases.

The big result for Henley is that Labour did dos badly and were out polled by even minority parties.

Come on Lib Dems (even though I vote Tory) I want to see you give Labour a beating in those Northern cities and work with the Tories where you feel able.

(I think she needs to check her list of Lib Dem by election gains, though.)

The Liberals are just a middleclass toy for bored teachers in the holidays and this lack of any real constituency has lead to an obsession with tuning policies without any real definition over time.
As the error of big government high tax polices becomes increasingly clear no-one will forget that the Liberal were certainly Labour lite for the 90s and most of the noughties . They criticised New Labour from the left if at all and are therefore equally culpable in the prevailing bias of the age during which time we Conservatives held out alone embattled bloody and unbowed.
You think what you say now will make a difference ? It will not and until you learn to think for yourselves and not cling to whatever orthodoxy holds sway you will always be the Party no-one takes seriously

They went nowhere. They stayed at home. They vote only in general elections. We have such voters in every constituency in the land. But in Henley? 85% of Labour voters appear to be like that.

What will Kearney do now? Relocate again? Stand somewhere else with a somethingly raised profile? be on stand by with his parachute for the next by-election, well apart from the stunt at HandH.

*chuckles*

(thinks will still be chuckling by the time gets to pub)

John Howell is not my county councillor, so why would I be concerned at your claimed conflicts of interest and duty?

If these are legal conflicts – talk to the relevant authorities. If these are political conflicts – campaign against him in 2009. But don’t waste my time.

Dane Clouston:

Never fear, some of us are EU-sceptic Lib Dems!

Martin:

What on earth is a “mini disaster” ? Is it like a “major slight inconvenience” ?

0.8% swing against us. Disappointing but hardly wrist-slitting time in the current context.

yesteday’s result was quite clearly a mini-disaster. for us to lose ground on the tories in a by-election, failing to squeeze any of the labour vote at the expense of the tories, has probably never happened before – at least not for a long time. they are the incumbents, i didn’t think it was possible for us not to gain on them in these cricumstances.

rennard needs to take responsibility for the campaign and learn from his mistakes

I seem to remember a similar result led to David Owen’s breakaway SDP winding itself up.

Because that wouldn’t fit the narrative. Unfortunately, I think the Liberal Democrats will eventually go the way of the Aussie Democrats, eaten alive by the Australian Greens. Here in Scotland the utter hypocrisy of Lib Dem Ministers hurt the party badly, and they’ve played an utterly unconstructive role in Parliament ever since.