Whether we like it or not, the European Referendum campaign is already under way, threading in and out of the May elections. UKIP is hoping to make gains in the Welsh Assembly, and will be standing candidates in many local elections across England. Competing Leave campaigns fill the pages of the Mail and the Telegraph every day; leaflets are beginning to drop through letter boxes. LibDem activists who protest at the ‘distraction’ that the referendum campaign presents to local campaigning between now and May forget that voters don’t think about local and national politics in sharply-differentiated compartments. They also ignore the extent to which Conservative and UKIP candidates will be using nationalist and anti-EU themes in their pre-May campaigning.
Immigration is an issue that affects voters’ choices in local as well as national elections. Attitudes to asylum-seekers, and how far they should be welcomed into local communities, shape voting intentions. Internationally-minded people, generously-inclined towards outsiders and non-citizens, are likely to be natural Liberals – and potential members and activists. I recall canvassing on a former Council estate in Hull in 2004, with a Washington journalist who had asked to come with me to pick up attitudes towards the US after the Iraq invasion. The first person who opened his door to us started with complaining about cars parked on the grass verges; but 2 minutes later he had reached Iraq and how strongly opposed he was to British intervention alongside the Americans – without any prompting to move away from local issues.
Caroline Pidgeon has included some positive European themes in her London mayoral leaflets, alongside transport, housing and other London-centric issues: quite correctly, in an election in which London’s many EU citizens can vote, and may well be attracted to voting for us as the most internationalist and European party. Pitching for European citizens to give us their votes is important in some other areas as well. But countering the UKIP/Daily Mail rising tide of xenophobia matters throughout all our campaigning, local and national – that’s an intrinsic part of what makes us Liberals, after all. Polling has shown that between 20% and 30% of the electorate hold positive views about international cooperation, generosity to others, individual privacy and liberty – sharing our core values. All of our campaigning should aim at identifying such people, and persuading them to give us their support.
Both in the London campaign and elsewhere, anti-Europeans and Conservatives are also playing a subtle race-card, appealing to Hindus and Sikhs. In the London campaign it’s through underlining that Sadiq Khan is a Muslim, with hints that Muslims (and Labour) will want to tax Asian jewellery (or, it is implied, steal it). The Leave campaign is suggesting that leaving the EU would block further European immigration, thus allowing for looser restrictions on immigration from South Asia – a pledge wrapped up in references to ‘Commonwealth’ immigration, with a deliberate ambiguity about whether this means Canada and Australia or will extend also across Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangla Desh. We need to find ways to counter this subtle appeal.
Most of all, we need to be engaged in the European debate as it gets under way. This is not just about ‘facts’, as the opening ‘Remain’ leaflets say: it’s about what sort of country we want Britain to be, who we think we are. Do you want to live in a country that hates foreigners – most of all our neighbours – that believes that ‘independence’ is still possible in an overcrowded world facing threats of climate change and global pandemics? Do wavering voters think they will still be able to travel wherever they want for their holidays without greater obstacles, while foreigners (and suspicious non-whites) will be subject to hostile inquisition every time they cross British borders? Have they fallen for Michael Gove’s (or Dominic Raab’s) romantic English nationalism, in which we are naturally free and continental countries naturally authoritarian? Do they want to live in Boris Johnson’s version of Trumpland, in which politicians propound populist myths without caring for consistency or honesty? There are some existential questions at stake in this referendum, which could take Britain towards a deeply illiberal country.
* William Wallace is LibDem peer, a former vice-chair of the Federal Policy Committee and convenor of the party's 1997 manifesto team.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Violent Bonham Carter features on Fake or Fortune?
Have resignations led to a rethink?
High Fell leaflet watch (2)
Two new Makerfield by-election polls gives Burnham 5 and 12 point leads
Chloe
GWYN WILLIAMS
Alex Macfie
Peter Martin
John Smith
11 Comments
We should be honest that The Referendum matters vastly more than ant “normal” General Election, let alone Locals. Referendum campaigning should be given priority & The Locals should be seen as the add-on.
@Paul Barker
But we should also be honest that our influence on the referendum will be negligible, at best. I for one, won’t think about campaigning for a Remain vote until after the Scottish Parliament election in May.
As someone who is ‘protesting’ that the party’s focus on the referendum at the end of June is ‘distracting’ from the elections in early May I won’t take the criticism from an unelected peer too seriously.
The point is that the elections and the referendum involve different voters, messages and organisations. In addition a significant minority of Lib Dem voters – 21% according to the latest YouGov – are likely to vote to leave the EU. Lord Wallace and the other Euro cheerleaders have nothing to say to them and simply assume that all Lib Dems homogenously support the remain cause.
The best way for the Lib Dems to contribute to a successful remain campaign in June is to have a large cadre of elected Lib Dems at every level in May – ensuring the liberal case for continued membership of a reformed EU is made. Banging on about the scary prospect of leaving between now and May simply undermines the chances of every Lib Dem candidate because it drags out more and more people to vote who are motivated by EU issues – most of whom are not Lib Dems.
Given the party’s current standing, the only effective thing it could do to make a ‘stay’ vote more likely is for Nick Clegg to join the ‘Brexit’ campaign.
If we want the party to still be around in ten years time making the case for a liberal vision of Europe ( in fact for liberalism in general) then it needs to secure its base and that means continuing to have local government representation in as many areas as possible.
The party should put its heart and soul into the Euro Campaign..large urban areas in the North and Midlands are no go zones..forget Scotland and don’t spend another penny on the London Mayoral election..these places offer no warmth for the party getting a STAY vote is so important so throw everything at that.
Dan Falchilkov should appreciate that ‘this unelected peer’, like most of his colleagues in the Lords, has fought several parliamentary elections as a candidate, and worked in local and parliamentary campaigns since I was a student. I sit alongside former Council leaders from Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle, as well as some peers who are still sitting council lords. And I still go out canvassing and speaking, and delivering leaflets, 55 years after I started doing so. LibDem peers do our best to serve as a bridge between the national party and local activists. Between us we have spoken to several hundred local parties since the election. I’m sorry Dan F hasn’t noticed.
I respect the outstanding service William has given our party at both national and local levels. I agree with him that voters often do not distinguish between national and local issues. When I joined the party after almost 25 years in the civil service and ran in the 2011 District Council elections, several voters were highly critical about our participation in the national coalition and volte face on tuition fees. In my view we have to campaign on both local and national issues, in particular advocating remaining in the EU.
William Wallace 27th Mar ’16 – 5:37pm
William Wallace is a Liberal’s Liberal who campaigned for Liberalism in more difficult times and places (as is our other Lord Wallace, a former MP, who is also a Liberal’s Liberal).
The BBC reports that
“Ex-UKIP deputy chairwoman Suzanne Evans has said that she has felt “bullied” by some in the party, but not by Nigel Farage.
Ms Evans failed in a High Court bid on Tuesday to overturn a six-month suspension from UKIP for bringing her party into disrepute.
Ms Evans dismissed the claims against her and told LBC radio she felt she was being sidelined because Nigel Farage saw her as a threat.
Mr Farage has denied the suspension is due to any previous criticism of him.”
The world from the House of Lords (virtually the only part of Britain outside of South Lakeland and Three Rivers where we are a significant player) looks very different to the world on the pavements of Manchester. To get people to listen to you over Europe, it helps significantly to first gain some status in the eyes/ears of the recipient (see arnieg above). So, get elected!
I really like William Wallace and admire his insight into international matters in particular. I would counsel, however against taking his advice in matters of local election strategy.
“Polling has shown that between 20% and 30% of the electorate hold positive views about international cooperation, generosity to others, individual privacy and liberty – sharing our core values. All of our campaigning should aim at identifying such people, and persuading them to give us their support.”
The first statement is totally true. The second is completely unrelated and I believe it to be totally incorrect. It would only be true in a proportional representation system of voting where such a position would gain you significant representation. In an FPTP system it will gain you 150 per cent of nothing at all. Which, sadly, is nothing at all.
” LibDem activists who protest at the ‘distraction’ that the referendum campaign presents to local campaigning between now and May forget that voters don’t think about local and national politics in sharply-differentiated compartments.”
No successful Lib Dem activist takes such a ‘position’. Voters’ thoughts dip in and out of different agendas several times a day/week/month/year. But even when there are two elections in the same place on the same day, thousands of those same individuals can be persuaded to vote in a significantly different manner in those different elections. Without that ‘variance’, there would have been virtually no Lib Dem victories in any elections at all in this country.
Liberal Democrats will only win in the local elections on May 5th 2016 if they can persuade a sufficient number of electors to recognise that for that particular election only the best person to represent them on that particular council is their local Liberal Democrat candidate – and to sublimate any other agenda(s) which they may have at least until they leave the voting station. This is what works.
There is much to admire about Lord William Wallace, perhaps the Party’s foremost Liberal thinker and philosopher. And one not shy in campaigning activity.
But I think he would admit that he would not necessarily put himself forward as a pre-eminent campaign strategists. He mentions being party of a group in the Lords that contains many with experience of fighting local campaigns. I think they would all share the concerns that a few of us – actually quite a few – have been voicing on this site in recent days.
William contributes regularly here, but I have not seen him contribute on this subject before. I wonder he ever realised that this matter was an issue. Clearly certain people in the Westminster bubble are rattled, perhaps stung by our criticism. Perhaps there is debate in the tea room.
Yet still we have no official statement about how the Party is using its assets – how it is dividing resources between the June Ref campaign and the elections in May.
What is ALDC’s policy? Why won’t its Chair write to tell us?
What is the policy of the Party’s Campaigns and Communications Committee?
The campaigners I admire most in this Party have contributed above and elsewhere on this issue. Someone should take them seriously. They say, throw the kitchen sink at the locals, then focus attention on the Euro campaign.
As most of us have noticed since our disappearance last May it is bums on seats that give us credibilty and a voice in the media. The result of the referendum will make no difference to that, but success in the locals could make a difference to the referendum result.