Hundreds of supporters have been flocking to the Witney Lib Dem HQ this weekend. I was there earlier today and delivered a whole village. It was fantastic to see our hub throbbing with activity. One of the main things hapening this weekend is the delivery of a constituency-wide newspaper, the West Oxfordshire Chronicle.
Liz Leffman has been thanking supporters for the fantastic work done so far and asks for an extra push in the final days before polling on Thursday this week.
You can help Liz in a variety of ways, both at home and in Witney. Visit the Witney Lib Dems website to volunteer please.
London LibDems have organised a coach trip for eager volunteers tomorrow. Details are here.
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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23 Comments
I was in Carterton today. It was a poor area two weeks ago but very different today. There was a real and very noticeable shift of voters to Liz from al Parties and even among those who have never voted before in Carterton this afternoon. The registered postal vote (PV) is low in the Whitney Constituency at around 12-13% Rumour has it that the PV turnout so far is lower than expected. That suggests many PVs have held off from voting. As the PV favours the Tories overwhelmingly both bits of Intel are good news for us!
Thanks for doing that Gavin
Tories do look to be running scared!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3839806/David-Cameron-joins-Theresa-election-campaign-trail-prepares-Oxfordshire-seat.html
They have commissioned an article in the official voice-piece which boosts Labour and does not mention the real challenger at all!
As Elizabeth (my wife) and I were delivering in Kingham yesterday, we bumped into the Tory MP for Newark wandering around on his own trying to find addresses.
It didn’t suggest the Tories are overflowing with volunteers
Congratulations to everyone getting stuck in here. The Tories are definitely feeling the pressure, and hopefully that will translate to a win for Liz.
It’s 9:07 on Sunday morning and I’m about to drive to Witney in the pouring (in Windsor, at least) rain! Weather forecast much better for Witney late morning and early afternoon in Witney. I hope to see you there!
Allam Brame,
We delivered there on Wednesday, one of our group ticking off the houses as we did them from the delivery list to ensure we didn’t miss any, it wasn’t easy with three of us.
It was useful that we are from a rural area and know the vagaries of village delivering.
No wonder the Newark Tory MP was struggling – he probably didn’t find half of them – also lots of holiday homes there just to confuse the poor man!
I have been and will go again next week. I am trying to encourage friends who can’t go to use the phonebank. But I can’t find a link to it and it is not showing on the Witney website at present. Nor is there a telephone number or email address to contact! Hope somebody from Witney picks this up.
Let hope we win.
@John Kelly If they have a Connect account, the Witney Virtual Phone Bank does come up as an option ( I’ve just done some calls )
The link is here: https://www.libdemvoice.org/making-a-few-calls-could-make-all-the-difference-in-witney-52142.html
Although I think Claire might be away.
Calling All Lib Dems !! IF every Lib Dem member across the country racks their brain to think of those who they know who live in the Witney constituency and FB, Text, LinkedIn ? ! a nice message for LIZ – She will WIN !!!
Just had a very nice personal letter from Liz,Have spotted at least two spelling mistakes.
Not very good for someone who wants to be our next member of parliament.
I am 83 years old and have voted conservative all my life,
But it is time we had a change from Cameron and Osborne,and after watching the politics show on Sunday the conservative candidate seemed useless.So that leaves me in a quandary who to vote for?As Liz voted to remain i voted to leave. I would vote Ukip but they have gone as far as they can go.Give me a good reason to vote Lib Dem,
David and I tramped round Carterton today – fortunately in good weather. We dont know the area at all (home is Market Harborough, Leicestershire where I am a District Councillor) but we really wanted to help out in Witney. Managed to convince 3 people to vote Lib Dem and delivered our blue envelopes. Unfortunately our Sat Nav conked out and transported us to a German city early on so it took us longer than we thought to get round. Back home in Leicestershire now and pleased to have done our bit for Liz’s campaign.
@Jim Wallington Well, aside from our policy on the EU, which you disagree with, we are very keen on electoral reform (we favour proportional representation) , and civil liberties (e.g. we oppose the current Snooper’s Charter). We want to make the social security system fairer and to allow councils to borrow at the present low rates to build much-needed housing, and invest in the NHS to ensure it is able to meet the needs of the population.
The other reason, more cynically, is that I think there’s probably only the Conservatives or us with any chance of winning in Witney.
Jim Wallington – You ask for good reasons to vote Lib Dem even though you are a life-long Tory, are fed up with Cameron and Osbourne, and voted leave. You are unimpressed with the Conservative candidate. I share your frustration with spelling mistakes, and please allow me to apologise on behalf of the Lib Dems (but I would add that in my time I’ve also found egregious spelling and punctuation mistakes in Tory literature).
Here are two points for you:
1. You could vote for the local candidate with the best track record on local issues and who also has a chance of being elected. That is indisputably Liz Leffman. She is also a business woman (I’m not sure that any of the other candidates have a background in business).
2. Although we are heading out of the EU (something both Liz and the Lib Dems acknowledge, albeit reluctantly) Theresa May has no mandate for any particular type of Brexit. I would think of using your vote tactically to influence her on this. If you a hard Brexiter, vote tactically for UKIP to influence her in that direction. If you are a soft Brexiter, vote for Liz.
Speaking personally, as someone who sees few or zero potential benefits flowing to us from Brexit, I want Brexit to be as soft as possible. That will be best for the currency, best for the economy, best for our pensions (I am sixty-five and therefore very aware of this), and best for Britain having a strong role in the world going forward. These are all rational arguments for supporting Liz and the Lib Dems this time. Personally, I think Brexit will diminish (or even break up) Britain in the long run, which is why I voted remain on patriotic grounds, but I respect your decision to vote leave.
Good luck with your decision making.
Having campaigned at many by-elections this one in Witney (I nearly ended up at Whitby !) has all the potential to be a major turning point in Lib Dem support. A strong result, and especially a win, will get those Opinion Polls moving. An outstanding candidate and an experienced team deserve our very best wishes this Thursday,
From what I hear you guys are putting absolutely everything you have into this campaign, but you are really up against it. From the outside it looks as if Nick Clegg is running the campaign and hardly anyone – who’s not already a Lib Dem – trusts the man. Why you guys think so highly of him I don’t know, any other party would have kept him well in the background. It’s a shame because you really had a chance of pushing the Tories close.
@malc
“From the outside it looks as if Nick Clegg is running the campaign …”
Why does it matter what it looks like “from the outside”? The only thing that matters is what the voters of Witney think.
… and hardly anyone – who’s not already a Lib Dem – trusts the man.
Is what you are saying that you don’t trust him? If so, would you describe yourself as a Soft Conservative? Because when you have a constituency like Witney containing lots of Soft Conservatives it’s their views that are really the ones that matter.
Why you guys think so highly of him I don’t know, any other party would have kept him well in the background.”
You mean like the Labour Party would keep Corbyn in the background if they had any sense?
Simon Shaw
I guess we have all had this argument many times before. Do the people trust Nick Clegg? To me the guy is absolutely toxic with the voters, worse than Corbyn in some respects not as bad in others. However, if Corbyn leads the Labour party at the next GE and they lose 80% of their MP’s, I can’t believe they would then use him as one of the main figures in an important by-election. As much as I dislike Clegg – and he’s the main reason I no longer vote Lib Dem – I genuinely hope you do well on Thursday. The country needs some sort of opposition to the Tories, but I just don’t think the people will give you support while Clegg is still in the picture.
Malc. It is the national media. They wanted to avoid discussing the Lib Dems at Witney but now are. I am no lover of Clegg and all the harm he has brought us BUT he appears, talks about Europe and does present the current Lib Dem case. Because of history he is a higher profile figure with them, whether it be negative or positive than Tim Farron but the latter has been to Witney four times, received a lot of publicity in the local Oxford press and locally is seen as the leader of the overall campaign not Clegg. In the end does it matter? If the Lib Dems get a very good result the publicity will be on Farron. In my view this by election will not decided by who wants to remain or leave Europe, it will be on purely local issues.
theakes
I would love it if the election was all about local issues, but I feel Clegg and Ashdown have tried to make it about Brexit. It would be great if just for once the Lib Dems could fight an election without those two getting involved.
People in the constituency are not bothered by Ashdown or Clegg and probably see them as yesterdays men. This election is about themselves, their local issues and what is anyone going to do about it.
Ipsos Mori today have the Conservatives at 47% but I suspect that will not matter a jot in the by election.
Re Daniel Walker, your policy of supporting proportional representation is a good one. We do need to get rid of the archaic and clearly not fit for purpose FPTP system which doesn’t work for this era of multi-party politics. However, I believe the Lib Dem’s actual policy line of supporting the STV form of PR is a mistake. I think you would have gained more votes over the years if your manifesto commitment was to support a national referendum on the various methods of PR (I personally favour AMS/MMP with ‘open’ lists).