Statement from Vince Cable who’s away in China on Government business:
These were exceptionally disappointing results for the party. Many hard working Liberal Democrats, who gave this fight everything they had and then lost their seats, are feeling frustrated and disheartened and we all understand that.
Nick did a bold thing in standing up to the eurosceptic wave which has engulfed much of continental Europe. We are the only party to have taken that on and he personally deserves tremendous credit for that. There is no leadership issue. We have also undoubtedly taken a kicking for being in government with the Conservatives and having to take some extremely tough decisions in the national interest.
But now is not the time for infighting and introspection. The party must hold its nerve. We must focus on delivering our policies in government and that’s exactly what I’m doing in China, helping British businesses secure contracts with the world’s fastest growing economy.
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Indecision costing the taxpayers millions
Back on the campaign trail
1963: London's summer of the Hoverbus
Tom Reeve
Matt Wardman
Andrew Tampion
Anne Williams
Steve J Smith
36 Comments
Most welcome news from Vince. If he and Clegg can start doing an election double act to match Milliband & Balls and Cameron & Osborne then I have no doubt as to which team will win over the next year.
Have just seen Farage on the TV telling us how we need to get rid of Nick/how the latter’s position is “untenable” after the elections. Definitely a reason for Nick to STAY in my view! To see Cheeky Chappie Nige grinning even more widely from ear to ear from now until May 2015 after claiming his first scalp in another party (his own ramshackle rabble pack is littered with his victims/ex-members, of course, such as Marta Andreasen) would be more than I for one could stomach, thank you!
“There is no leadership issue.”
Clearly there is. It’s all over the media. And it’s all over LDV.
Righto. So the loss was all due to the ordinary foot soldiers who walked the pavements having “lost their nerve.” The heroic generals at the rear did nothing but what was right and proper, kept a stiff upper lip and what not, but the enemy cheated and our chaps wouldn’t hold up their end as they were told. Funny old world, what?
David-1
“Righto. So the loss was all due to the ordinary foot soldiers who walked the pavements having “lost their nerve.” “
Er, no! Where did anybody say it was?
UKIP won’t be so smug this time next year – expectations of them will be higher and scrutiny much more robust.
We do need to look at the disproportionate media attention they enjoyed, esp from the public funded BBC.
The idea that ukip is a ‘people’s army’ must be disabused very quickly – they really are the heirs to Thatcher, not the champions of ordinary folk. I remain amazed that we and Labour let them away with this!
For there to be a leadership issue, there would have to be a party left to lead… the party’s structure across the UK is broken
As I have said on a previous page, ultimately this is a decision for Nick and he should be allowed time for reflection and we should all be graceful enough to allow him that space. I am sure he is as gutted as everyone else and the last thing he needs or the party needs is a bit of knife wielding. I am glad to see Vince, Tim and Paddy given Nick public support.
Nick was playing the same song on Sky News this afternoon as Farron was playing yesterday at the count in Manchester Town Hall; “we were the only party to directly stand up to UKIP and openly argue with them in favour of an open, pluralist, multi-cultural Britain”. Very true, Nick, and, indeed, the reason why I rejoined the Party. Still does not, however, detract from the fact that the strategy was a more or less total failure. If you are going to pick a fight with a wily character like Farage, you had better be better sure in advance that you are up to beating him. Farage himself said in his talk telling us to get rid of Nick (see above) that he was also “immensely grateful” to Nick for giving him more broad exposure to the UK population than he had ever had! With this lot behind him, it is no wonder at all that many people want Nick to go. I think it would be a very bad mistake, though, and it would rip the party totally apart and return us to the totally ineffectual rump of the 1930s and 1950s. Nick needs to announce he will ‘take it’ and stay in post until the GE but then immediately resign and call for a leadership contest to be initiated. (Apart from anything else, it will only be possible then to see who could actually succeed him!) A complete review of policy will also, of course, be necessary (e.g. the emphasis needs to be MUCH on REFORMING the EU not the (abysmal) slip he made in the second debate about the EU ‘being much the same in 10 years time’ – a view which virtually no-one could possibly want apart from those on the (vastly inflated and irresponsible) EU payroll!)
“There is no leadership issue.”
Our 2010 General Election strategy failed, we went backwards.
The AV referendum Vote was lost.
Tactics not good for the Euro Election on Thursday.
Lost Cllrs every year.
Something is wrong and it is up to the whole leadership of our party to identify the problem. Maybe I am the one out of step but I do not come across many people (members or voters) who say that more of the same is the solution.
“There is no leadership issue”. Of course there is, that is why he said it. Time to stop hiding and get on with what has to be done NOW, Newark next week , will be get 3%? It will only open up again. Do it now.
theakes
If I remember right the LibDems had around 20 % of the vote at Newark in 2010 – the way things are going that could well drop to the low single figures. Perhaps Clegg will stay on so he can take the blame and then resign – we can but hope.
There’s the very worst kind of leadership issue – a bitterly disaffected section of the membership who feel strongly enough to speak out against Clegg in public and who are obviously not going to be reconciled to his continuing leadership, but who apparently lack the power to get rid of him.
Obviously that can only do even more damage, and there can be no panacea this side of the general election. But I’d suggest that ridiculing the rebels – a la Ashdown – or launching counter-attacks based on accusations that data have been misused – a la Caron Lindsay – is only going to make things worse.
“There is no leadership issue”.
Clearly Cable will have been asked to say something to attempt to quell the speculation. So he has done so. Anything less than these remarks would have had an opposite effect, would have been labelled “hat in the ring”, and would have made headline news.
A voluntary resignation or a semi-voluntary resignation by Clegg would, of course, be by far the best way for him to go. Cable has left room for that to happen if Clegg so chooses.
@Simon: When Mr Cable says that “now is not the time for infighting and introspection. The party must hold its nerve” it seems clear that he is blaming someone in the party for “lack of nerve,” but, obviously, not himself or anyone else in the leadership.
The most troublesome thing about this (after the loss of so many good councillors and MEPs) is the inability of the Lib Dem leadership to take personal responsibility for the Party’s political crisis. This goes beyond a merely political failing, which is excusable, in the sense that some people are naturally good at politics and others are not, to no fault of their own; it becomes a moral question. People at the top are there to take responsibility, not to shirk it and to blame others for failure of nerve.
Michael Crick’s twitter response:
So, Dr Cable, can you please tell us when would be a good time for “infighting and introspection”?
@Mike Biden. Excellent idea.
Mike Biden, are you suggesting that in this election double act Vince Cable is the one who goes out and appears on the TV etc and Nick Clegg is the one that sits at home on a computer hidden away from public sight?
I can see that would be an improvement on letting Clegg anywhere near the voters, who loathe him.
Well said Vince. Now Cable and Farron have asked for loyalty people should listen or get kicked out. We should learn from Blair here.
Better we learn from Brown than Blair… and what happens to a party that sticks with a Leader the public don’t like.
I have to say how much, in this rather dark and depressing period, I have enjoyed the comic relief provided by that anonymous satirist calling himself “Eddie Sammon.” His spot-on impression of a dour commissar demanding fealty to the Leader or 30 years in the Gulag is the one bright spot in this horrendous mess. I can always count on him for a smile. Thanks, “Eddie”!
@Eddie Sammon 26th May ’14 – 9:23pm
“Well said Vince. Now Cable and Farron have asked for loyalty people should listen or get kicked out. We should learn from Blair here.”
I am really quite appalled by that comment Eddie. That’s a very illiberal attitude to have.
Your way or the highway?
Attitudes like that are sure way to lose even more left leaning members and voters and I hardly think the party can afford to lose anymore
Eddie Sammon: ” Now Cable and Farron have asked for loyalty people should listen or get kicked out. We should learn from Blair here.”
Now now, that’s a bit Stalinist. The Labour Party are not great at democracy or free speech so following the example of Blair is the last thing to do.
David Laws and Alistair Carmichael both very quiet……
Eddie S “We should learn from Blair here”
Gosh! What next? Identity cards? Invading other countries? Cosying up to Rupert Murdoch? Just how far are you prepared to go with this ?
It’s actually quite hilarious but then I am reminded of how ‘on message’ Paddy, Davey, Danny et al have been recently and I wonder….it’s not that different from the days of Blair, Campbell, Mandelson etc.
Plus ça change….
David-1. Your comment made me laugh out loud for real! But I shall refrain from saying ‘LOL’ 😀
David-1’s comment also made me chuckle. In the pandemonium of a rebellion it is good to break out a laugh.
Mike Biden “If he and Clegg can start doing an election double act to match Milliband & Balls and Cameron & Osborne then I have no doubt as to which team will win over the next year.”
None of the other ‘double acts’ you mention have a huge ‘trust deficit’ with the voters. Honestly have you been reading any of the posts on here and elsewhere and the interviews with Councillors on TV ? – so many of them are saying that on the doorstep the voters are saying they do not trust Clegg and won’t vote LD because of him. That is a big part of the reason the Party was all but annihilated in the EP Vote. There are too many of them to dismiss. In any case why would they say that if it wasn’t true?
Can someone explain the LibDem constitution as it applies to Clegg? I see that Farage has called on Clegg to go. Is that sufficient to cause a leadership election or do Cameron and Miliband also have to speak out?
Voter , it has nothing to do with anyone outside the Party. The Lib Dems are the only ones who can tell Clegg to go. In practice if enough MPs or grandees say he has lost their confidence or by 75 % of the local parties passing a quorate vote.
In fact Nigel Farage is a sly old fox. He knows that the best chance of Clegg staying in his post is if his opponents call for him to go. He doesn’t really want Clegg to go – after all, the drop in Lib Dem vote share means that there are more votes for him to mop up. His strategy is to be the Kingmaker in 2015, thus usurping Nick’s role. No Farage wants the Lib Dem to keep Clegg because the majority of the country will not vote Lib Dem while he is their public face.
Phyllis, spot on. Farage would love to hold the balance in the next Parliament. To do that he needs more MPs than the Lib Dems. If Clegg stays in place, he has a much better chance of achieving that aim.
Voter – lol
Did Nigel Farage say that Nick Clegg should go whilst simultaneously balancing a beer glass on his head?
Voter,
Good point well made
no Phyllis, you have it the wrong way around, if we spend the summer in-fighting over our leadership then we lose all the ground we could be making up.. that plays into NF’s hands. Better that we tell the world we are confident in our leader and stand behind him, we will look weak if we bow to media-led pressure. He isn’t hated in the way it’s claimed above (except by those above).. and anyway, if those above were that confident of their opinions then why don’t they show their faces and use their real names.. or are they just bent on doing even more damage to our Party?
My Lib Dem vote was lost due to the total lack of support to small business – I run a small training company working with disengaged and under achieving 16+ year olds – As a small training provider with good Ofsted results over many years our contract was withdrawn purely because of our size and we were forced to sub contract our provision through a large lead provider who had many million pound contract even though they did not actually do any training themselves – they were allowed to take up to 50% of the contract value for themselves – Last year Mr Cable decided that the MCV enforcement was not a good idea after all and started giving back contract to small companies – My company however is still fighting our local council to regain ours and in the mean time our lead provider increases it’s fees every year