Author Archives: Ross Fifield

We need to work more on engaging party members

By Ross Fifield | Fri 14th August 2015 - 2:10 pm

Any passing observer will note the state of national politics with little more than vague disinterest and apathy. A Centre-Left Labour Party lurching between a nationalisation candidate and three also-rans. A Tory Party sharpening the knives ready for the evisceration of most public services, chasing the ghost of UKIP and Scottish Nationalists pressing a separatist agenda regardless of the recent referendum. There’s a malaise in public life of seeming inevitability to politics, that what is done is done and there’s no opportunity for change.

Most people have only a cursory appreciation of political rhetoric – Conservatives being for free markets and self-interest, Labour being for working people. But we’ve yet to establish the Liberal identity in common consciousness. Saying “We’re about freedom” doesn’t quite cut it. I’ve seen much discussion, on social media, and on blogs such as Lib Dem Voice, offering varying analyses of how we might have a deficient policy platform, or how a strategic mis-step might have cost us so dearly at the last election. This isn’t addressing the elephant in the room – perhaps we need to reform how we operate and engage with our internal supporters as a Party.