Author Archives: Ben Nicholls

Opinion: A change of leader will make no difference. A change of heart and pride just might.

By Ben Nicholls | Tue 27th May 2014 - 5:33 pm

As a young, recently-selected Lib Dem candidate for next year’s general election and in a winnable marginal seat, I’m rather more interested in what my fellow voters think – over 70,000 of them in my area – than a small number of disaffected Party members looking for a scapegoat after recent election results.

Standing in an area which includes smart middle-class patches as well as tougher urban ones, I’ve spent the past few weeks meeting hundreds of constituents. The words ‘Nick Clegg’ have been mentioned about three times. Nobody I’ve met really seems to mind who the leader is. They DO mind that the Lib Dems are no longer clear enough about what we stand for and that we once appeared human but increasingly sound like political robots.

Opinion: Get your hands off my pint, Nigel

By Ben Nicholls | Fri 2nd May 2014 - 4:53 pm

Despite some of the quite appalling statements they’ve provided us with in recent weeks, I’m getting fed up of hearing UKIP supporters described as nutters. I’m no psychiatrist: it’s hardly my place, or that of anybody else, to decry someone as a nutter. But more importantly than that, I’m fed up of it because it’s insulting to everyone who supports UKIP, and it gives them a cast-iron reason not to place their cross elsewhere.