The Government has just announced that local and mayoral elections will be postponed from this May until the following year. See the BBC report here.
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
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3 Comments
I know that this will be a blow to the many candidates standing to be Councillors and for our Mayoral candidates too, BUT, I really think it gives us a great opportunity. Council candidates can be trained in casework by working with existing Councillors and this will also give them the opportunity to make a name for themselves before their election campaign.
We will also have a new leader, but one who has had a year to establish themselves before election fever replaces the Corona version. (I’m hoping it won’t last that long).
In addition we need to look at our party structure and ways to improve our policy making as well as our election strategy. It gives us the opportunity to do this. We could also have major discussions involving all levels of our democratic representatives into how we can get alongside the most vulnerable in our society and persuade them to trust us.
At the moment we are in danger of becoming a bit of a “nasty party” as we opposed the “democratic decision” of “the people”. I can still remember when we were the “nice” party. We can now put the effort into analysing this danger and taking steps to agree our aims and how we describe them to the electorate.
If we put our energies into this rather than elections, we could find ourselves renewed and refreshed for the fight in 2021.
Presumably there will be attempts to get all-party consensus on some of the knotty problems arising out of the one year postponement. Some of the councillors from different parties who were expecting to step down in May (some not in a good state of health before the virus appeared) may be tempted to trigger a number of by-elections at the end of the summer. Will there be pressure not to have too many?
Meanwhile Sue is right to see an opportunity in the extension. Whatever else we do or don’t do in April or May, sorting a campaign plan for thirteen months does not require huge gatherings!
Just a thought but could some of the resource/time allocated to telecanvassing be used for checking people/members are ok?
Going to be lots if vulnerable people self-isolating/distancing for whom a friendly voice and a few minutes of chat might be very welcome.