We’re entering nosebleed heights. Here’s what Austin Rathe, from party HQ, just told members:
This is absolutely incredible: since last Thursday, 10,000 people have joined the Liberal Democrats to begin the fight back.
Here’s some of the reasons they gave for joining:
Charity from Edinburgh said, “I joined the Lib Dems because Nick Clegg was right in his speech – we need liberal values now more than ever.”
Emily from London, “Just joined the @LibDems – because I think we’re going to need them a lot over the next few years.”
Adam from Hastings, “What I feel the country needs is movement towards co-operative, evidence based politics. That’s why I joined the @LibDems.”
You, or your friends or family, can join here. And you can pick from a choice of a dozen photo membership cards – including all sorts of leading figures from our party – past and present. My daughter recently rejoined and chose the membership card with the photo of Lloyd George and Churchill, because it was “cool”.
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Al Carns portrays Labour politics as a form of ancestor worship
Could Hitler have won?
Say hello to the Act that successfully set rules 1,050 years into the future - Calendar (New Style) Act 1750
Indecision costing the taxpayers millions
Nonconformistradical
Chloe
David Allen
Jana
theakes
52 Comments
It seems we lost to the Tories during the coalition but we’re certainly winning members now because of them and their proposed policies.
I’ve got the Churchill one too 🙂
10045 now.
Has someone got a link to pictures of these membership cards? They sound great.
People could conclude that there is really a problem with the voting system in the UK from this, maybe?
Hi Joseph.. I can’t find such an image without pretending to joun the party, so I have asked someone in the know for such an image and if and when I get it I will post it on LDV.
A photograph of Churchill?
Would that not be almost 100 years too late?
I cannot remember the exact date but I think he joined the Conservatives in the 1920s and fought every election from that time onwards as a Conservative.
Can anyone confirm the last time he stood as a Liberal ?
May I suggest that those of us who were members before last Thursday increase our subscriptions if we are in a position to do so? We need to keep as many HQ staff as possible.
Rather than ‘THE FIGHTBACK’ why don’t we have LIB DEM Bounce Back?
John dear
It’s a photo of Churchill and Lloyd George together when they were Liberals dear in 1910 when Churchill was Liberal Home Secretary.
It’s this photo here:
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/lloyd-george-with-churchill-london-news-photo/90008502
It was taken in April 1910.
Here’s the Getty Images caption for a larger version of the same photo:
“Budget Day, 1910
April 1910: Winston Churchill listens attentively to David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, while walking in Central London with him, his wife and his parliamentary aide on Budget Day. Left to right: Margaret Lloyd George, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill and Mr Clarke (Private Secretary to Mr Lloyd George). (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)”
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/winston-churchill-listens-attentively-to-david-lloyd-george-news-photo/2644070
Why is there no coverage at all of this in the national media? When the Green Party were having their membership “surge” we had daily stories about how amazing it was. And we get nothing.
I was thinking the same thing, MBoy. It was the same when the SNP membership took off post-referendum; it was in all the papers. I wonder how many of our new members are north of the Border?
@MBoy – it’s made the Torygraph online!
Are these numbers from the Lib Dem party machine like the comfort polling numbers they also produced?
All
There’ll be a post tomorrow morning showing that photo of Churchill and Lloyd George.
I have heard it mentioned on TV.
I lost my membership card. I want one of these snazzy ones. 🙁
This is great, but the new members will expect the party to respond too, by embracing positive change.
Churchill lost his seat as a Liberal in 1922, stood unsuccessfully twice in 1923 as an Independent, then won in 1924 as a Conservative in Epping.
In 1924 it was actually as a Constitutionalist, but he had backing from the local Conservative Party.
There doesn’t appear be a slowdown of the flow of new members yet.Labour has claimed 20,000 new members since the election, and I think the Greens have claimed 1300 on polling day itself. On an even spread our 10,000 is about 15 per constituency, but I’m sure it won’t be even.
In my area (Bedford) we’re having a get-together on Saturday so I’ll ask how many new recruits we’ve gained.
Winston Churchill stood as a Liberal for the seat of Leicester West in the 1923 general election (6 December), and lost. It was the last time he campaigned as a Liberal; his entire Liberal career lasted just nineteen years (1904-1923). By the end of 1924 he was effectively a Conservative.
Paul Walter
The implications so far on LDV is that the new members – since the GE are truly new – rather than returning.
Are none of these returning members – perhaps in the hope or expectation that the Party will now return to its former left of centre roots?
Paul
Thanks. I was actually familiar with that picture, which in its cropped form cuts out Margaret Lloyd George.
Of course the picture could have been cropped to show Mr and Mrs Lloyd George and removing Churchill. Margaret was after all a loyal Liberal activists who did much in the constituency to firm up support for the party as well as being married to LG.
I think if we are to rebuild the party the he best way to do it is not by celebrating a famous (perhaps the most famous) Conservative in a photo on our membership cards.
BTW — my membership card does not have a photo on it. It has these words —
“The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society,
in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community
and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity”
Preamble to the Constitution.
It could of course have been worse. The picture could have been of the police sent by Chruchill to South Wales in 1910 to sort out the miners. A precedent for Thatcher’s use of the police in mining communities the 1980s.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonypandy_Riots
I just checked back on this and have read a fascinating contemporary piece in The Guardian of 1910 praising Churchill because at least he did not send in the troops with bayonets. So only a few dozen miners ended up in hospital having been beaten with truncheons.
So Churchill was not as bad as that other Tory the Duke of Wellington who sent in the troops to massacre people at Peterloo. I assume we are not going to have the Duke of Wellington on membership cards in the future?
John Roffey 13th May ’15 – 6:46am
John, the narrative appears to be that Nick Clegg and those who were staunchly loyal to him were right all along … the new members are the Clegg cavalry … We appear to be still in denial.
Given that they are Liberals, I’m sure there’s as many reasons for them joining up as there are new members (if not more), including both those who wouldn’t join while Clegg was leader & those who are devastated that he has gone.
Let’s not assume anything other than that they want the Liberal Democrats to succeed – an attitude we should all be cultivating as far as we possibly can!
Alisdair Calder McGregor 13th May ’15 – 7:38am
“….Given that they are Liberals, I’m sure there’s as many reasons for them joining up as there are new members (if not more), including both those who wouldn’t join while Clegg was leader & those who are devastated that he has gone.”
Well said Alisdair. You are absolutely right. We need them all, old and young, brand new and those who now feel able to return from exile because they recognise that the party needs them.
Our party president has something of a platform in the media now that we have a leadership election.
If she could be saying the same sort of thing as you it would help to rebuild the party.
@Roffey and @Hesketh the obvious thing to do is survey them to find out. Plus I’m sure HQ has stats on who’s new vs who’s rejoined
@David-1 but he effected much greater peace time change in those 19 years than he did as a Conservative. He left the Liberals when they imploded through factional infighting; the Lloyd George faction sought to expel the Asquith faction if I recall correctly.
I have heard little but praise about Nick Clegg from people around me who are not necessarily Lib Dem supporters. He’s a sad loss to the wider political stage but hopefully only temporarily. Our rise in membership has been mentioned numerous times in the media as had that of the Labour party with claims of 40,000+ new members.
I agree that one of the first things we need to do is protect the party admin structure from collapse. If that means increasing my sub or chipping in a donation I am happy to do that.
As a member for several years, can I have a membership card? Or are they only for newbies?
Alisdair Calder McGregor13th May ’15 – 7:38am
JohnTilley13th May ’15 – 8:06am
“….Given that they are Liberals, I’m sure there’s as many reasons for them joining up as there are new members (if not more), including both those who wouldn’t join while Clegg was leader & those who are devastated that he has gone.”
Well said Alisdair. You are absolutely right. We need them all, old and young, brand new and those who now feel able to return from exile because they recognise that the party needs them.
Our party president has something of a platform in the media now that we have a leadership election.
If she could be saying the same sort of thing as you it would help to rebuild the party.
100% agreement with you both.
@Robert I think many people are with Joni Mitchell on this.
Regarding membership cards, I would like to suggest that we actually issue new cards carrying the phoenix symbol and the words from the preamble cited by John Tilley
“The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity”
The preamble and the phoenix should serve as a point of common cause to us all.
John
There a dozen photos for people to choose from. You’re not going to stop free choice are you? Churchill was actually in Liberal governments for more years than he was in Conservative governments: 11 years Liberal, 9 years Tory and 5 years National govt.
Paul
Put up the picture of ‘Churchill the dog’ from the TV insurance advertisements.
You know you want to. 🙂
I think you’ll find that the rush of new membership has a very simple explanation. Members who apply before June 3rd, (close of nominations), get to vote on the leadership. Curiously, do you have the facility to check (between now and 3rd June), that the new 10,000 are actually liberals, and are not members of another party?
It’s great to see the 10,000 new members – the Phoenix has risen and the great liberal movement is on the march again. But let us remember the 4,420,360 voters we lost from 2010. The simple reason for that loss was the party’s shift to the Right under Clegg and it’s unbalancing and loss of trust . Any future leader like Tim Farron must ensure a balanced broad party of the SLF, Orange Bookers and the welcome new 10,000 Libdemfightbackers. @libdemfightbac
TCO 13th May ’15 – 8:13am
“@Roffey and @Hesketh the obvious thing to do is survey them to find out.”
Office – just trying to ensure objectivity and balance – so important at the start of any new endeavour.
John Dunn 13th May ’15 – 9:25am
“I think you’ll find that the rush of new membership has a very simple explanation. Members who apply before June 3rd, (close of nominations), get to vote on the leadership. ..”
Which is not a privilege open to UKiP voters or members like you John Dunn. Unless of course Mr Farago has resigned again today?
I know he resigns on Fridays and Sundays and then returns on Mondays but what about Wednesdays.?
Or are you all too excited about Mr Carswell turning down £600,000 of public money? It is fascinating to watch a party with only one MP suffering division in the ranks.
I guess Mr Carswell chairs the UKIP parliamentary party and the UKIP back-bench committee so once he has had a meeting with himself this split will be glossed over.
Or he could refer it to the leader of his party who said he would resign if he did not become an MP, all, depending on which day of the week it is.
@John Dunn ‘I think you’ll find that the rush of new membership has a very simple explanation. Members who apply before June 3rd, (close of nominations), get to vote on the leadership.’
Except, Mr Dunn, that the rush started right after close of poll, well before the leadership timetable, or eligibility to vote, was announced.
John Tilley: The membership card still has the all-important bits of the preamble on it, it just has the picture of Churchill & Lloyd George as well. While I take the point that Mrs LG was a better Liberal, I have found the major advantage of having Winnie on there is that it REALLY annoys tories.
Alisdair: spot on, as usual.
@John Roffey I see we have some stats now and over 4/5 are new, leaving less than 1/5 being the returning disgruntled, welcome though they are.
I hope we welcome them and embrace their ideas and views and don’t indulge in “death by Focus”.
@Jennie there is a story of Churchill meeting a new Labour MP in the fifties. The MP introduced himself and explained that he wasn’t a conservative. Churchill replied “I’m a Liberal. Always have been; always will be.”
Spot on comments above – I am finding that I agree with Jennie Rigg a lot … I have no idea whether she approves of me, but I approve of her.
@John Tilley
Violet Bonham Carter, who was friends with Churchill to the end of his life, believed that he was never really a Tory. And if you doubt that, see what he said (I think Richard Hoggart quotes it in his autobiography) when his education minister, Florence Horsbrugh, tried to strangle adult education classes in the 1950s and he personally stopped her.
Tom Barney 13th May ’15 – 11:41am
“…Violet Bonham Carter, who was friends with Churchill to the end of his life, believed that he was never really a Tory. ”
Tom,
I think Violet Bonham Carter believed more things before breakfast than I could manage in a decade. 🙂
BTW – I agree with your line of thought in your recent blog where you mention GK Chesterton. He had interesting views on Churchill, didn’t he?
John Tilley writes :
“Which is not a privilege open to UKiP voters or members like you John Dunn.”
As long as the name on the cheque, matches the name on the membership card,.. I guess it doesn’t matter who votes? I just want my vote to count, and I can’t decide yet whether to vote positively or tactically.
Jennie:
“I have found the major advantage of having Winnie on there is that it REALLY annoys tories.”
Lol
Yeah! People are making jokes again, making me laugh. That’s a true characteristici of the Lib Dems, laughing in the face of adversity. No other party does this. Also having many different strands of belief. Much better than quarrelling and disappearing into the vortex of factionalism. I really love the Phoenix logo and hope we can adopt it very soon.
John: Wellington wasn’t personally responsible for Peterloo. Asquith had Tonypandy.
The surge in members is genuine. I really hope, though, a good proportion become activists. We need to connect the volunteers of 2015 with local parties and ongoing campaigns. We were gaining members steadily during the later years of the coalition and we often heard during the OMOV debate and elsewhere that most of them were nationally recruited, but none of my constituency’s new members of that period would even reply to a welcoming e-mail asking them what they were interested in. None turned up to select a candidate, even for a parliamentary by-election. None responded to action day mailings. There was one guy who did get stuck in, but he was locally recruited. Clearly, though, the party nationally did attract some keen, inexperienced volunteers for the general election campaign and welcoming them to local campaigns is vital.
Simon
Wellington was a reactionary of the worst sort.
Perhaps you and I could agree that Churchill was personally responsible for Gallipoli?
@ John Tilley
“Duke of Wellington who sent in the troops to massacre people at Peterloo.”
“Wellington was a reactionary of the worst sort”
Wellington was back in Britain by 1819, but it was the magistrates who called in the regular army and the local Yeomanry. I am not aware of his involvement in Peterloo, I think he was only Master-General of the Ordnance at the time.
This is of course is the same Wellington who as Prime Minister brought in Catholic Emancipation in 1829.