At the next General Election we have a once in a generation opportunity. The Labour vote is in freefall and in so many of their traditional heartlands, in places like Newcastle, Liverpool, Hull, Burnley and Sheffield, it is our party that is poised to take electoral advantage. There is now no such thing as a safe Labour seat.
We undoubtedly face a tougher fight against the Tories, however it is clear that the public are far from convinced about Cameron and Osborne. Many voters are being turned off by their assumption that they will breeze into Downing Street after the next General Election. Our hard working MPs, candidates and their teams in our key marginals, particularly in the South and South West, are more than capable of pricking their arrogant bubble on the ground through their hard work and vigorous campaigning. And we have a team nationally which is determined to take the fight to the Tories and expose the hollowness of their agenda.
That is why I was thrilled to accepted Nick’s offer to Chair our General Election Campaign. I have had professional experience of General Election campaigns before, mostly recently running the advertising campaign for for the Liberal Democrats in 1997. And everything I do and the team does is driven by the simple conviction that Nick Clegg is the best person to be Prime Minister and a conviction that the Liberal Democrats in government would make our country freer, fairer and would build a more sustainable future.
I first started working with Nick when he was our Shadow Home Secretary and he was running his ‘We Can Cut Crime Campaign.’ It was clear to me then, as it is now, that he has an exceptional ability to communicate liberal values to the wider electorate. During the General Election campaign, as the media coverage we receive increases, I am confident that it is that skill which, combined with our impressive campaigning on the ground and our strong message of real change, will deliver the best ever General Election result for our party.
I’m delighted that I will be working in partnership with Andrew Stunell – as campaigner his track record in the party is second to none. You only need ask the Tories in Stockport! And we will be working with a fantastic staff team, led by Chris Fox, of Hilary Stephenson, Ben Stoneham, Alison Suttie, Jonny Oates and Lena Pietsch – all whom bring formidable professional skills to our campaign.
I am also conscious that there is a strong chance that the General Election will fall on the same day as a crucial set of local elections, particularly in London. Andrew and I will be working hard with ALDC and the campaigns department to ensure that the local and General Election campaigns work closely together to deliver as many MPs and councillors as possible. Local government is the bedrock of our party and I will ensure that is not forgotten in the maelstrom of the campaign.
As Nick has made clear we have an historic opportunity to for us to bring about real change in British politics. The coming General Election is our moment. I’m excited and honoured to have the opportunity to play a part in helping make this happen and I look forward to working with candidates and campaigners across the country over the coming months to ensure that it does.
John Sharkey is the new Chair of the General Election Campaign and has been Nick Clegg’s Strategic Communication’s Advisor since Nick became leader. He was a former Managing Director at Saatchi & Saatchi and is currently Honorary Treasurer of the Hansard Society and Chairman of Sharkey Associates.
30 Comments
I think you will be fooled if you think your going to get a majority of the seats, like it or not free fall labour might be in second place you will not get.
The Tories will win the next election the fight between your self and Labour for second place is a no contest sadly, because I’ve no idea where the hell the Lib Dem’s stand on lets say Welfare reforms
I’ve no idea where the Tories stand on welfare reform.
I’ve no idea where Labour stand on welfare reform.
“I think you will be fooled if you think your going to get a majority of the seats, like it or not free fall labour might be in second place you will not get.”
Can someone explain what that sentence means.
I do they stand right behind labour, the Tories wish to take it one step further by time limiting the payment of benefits for two years. I was at work in 1990 when I stepped back and fell 96ft breaking nearly every bone in my body including my spine and severely damaging my spinal cord, I spent two years in one room in my local hospital before being transfered to the spinal injuries unit in London Stoke Madeville.
So disability is a priority to me, it looks to me and others as if labour and the Tories have made an agreement on welfare reforms. I wrote to the leader of the Lib Dem’s Mr Clegg to ask what be thinks about welfare I never did get an answer, I did get an answer from my local lib Dem which was , it’s time to modernize benefits with the ethos of work being at the heart of benefits and welfare. This month after ten years of fighting and twice trying to take my life doctors have said my legs must be removed. So I’d like to know in all honesty what is the Lib Dem’s idea on welfare reforms.
Not forgetting to day the Labour party is to bring out a green paper on stopping Disability Living allowance or DLA, which will mean I will live on £86 a week, would have to return my car which has hand controls.
so to me it’s important for me to know where i stand and whom I vote for.
I was in labour for 40 odd years but left two years ago
Your not going to win any seats that are in labour heart lands the Tories will. My area has been labour since 1902 it is now going to fall to either the Tories or an independent, it will not fall to the lib Dem’s it might be sad , but that is the way it goes.
My interpretation as follows is:
“I think you will be fooled if you think your going to get a majority of the seats, like it or not. Free fall labour might be in. Second place you will not get.”
For some reason the verbs at the end always seem to come and no punctuation there is
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions nothing like knowing the people within the lib Dem’s, because I’m severely disabled with a massive spinal injury I use a voice activated speech writer, sadly sometimes the dam thing will not write the words I speak, I suspect it’s due to being so cheap.
But anyway I’ve already learned a great deal about the people within the Lib dem’s, sorry to have bothered you. not happen again.
Robert
I’m afraid that if you post things that don’t make sense – particularly on political forums – you’re going to be criticised. And believe me, you’ll be on the receiving end of far worse than the light-hearted comment I posted above. If you’re using voice recognition software that doesn’t work properly, you’ll probably be well-advised to explain that at the outset.
And just for the record, it would be unfair to judge the Lib Dems by what I wrote in any case, as I am no longer a member of the party …
Herbert Brown, after reading your incredibly insensitive comments about I have to say “thank God you’re no longer a member of our Party.” We’re Liberal Democrats, and that means we care about people. I don’t think we should have any time at all for tired old windbags like you, mocking someone who has taken the time to point out issues and problems within our Party.
You, sir, are the symptom of everything that is wrong in Britain today. “If you post things that don’t make sense – particularly on political forums – you’re going to be criticised”, you wrote. Erm… no, no, no. Since when is politics and discussion of it limited to those you judge to be worthy?
And are you really saying that someone with a serious problem HAS to declare their condition in advance, so they don’t get shouted at and mocked? So yes, thank God you’re no longer in the party, with your petty, uncaring attitudes. There wasn’t even a hint of apology or remorse to your voice. You should set up an “Elitist Scumbag Party”, of your own. I’ll even volunteer to send you the first piece of policy criticism.
Robert, please don’t judge any Lib Dem by the comments of the repulsive creature known as Herbert Brown. I’ve struggled with a disability all my life, though not to the same extreme as yours. My heart goes out to you and I hope you find the strength to continue holding a mirror to those of us who surf these forums growing more and more cynical and bitter every day. Quite frankly, sir, you should be in Parliament, speaking with real experience and passion, rather than polished media soundbites.
As to our policies on welfare reform, I am afraid I have to say I don’t know. If you can trust what I say after the despicable words of Herbert Brown, I can assure you that almost every Lib Dem I have ever met and spoken with has the utmost regard for welfare, and incapacity benefit. There are, of course, issues with it where it might be seen as better to get certain claimants into work. But I do not think the Lib Dems would ever pass a policy in which those claiming incapacity benefit are penalised at all. I know, that’s more an emotional response than a policy-focused one. But what can I say? I get emotional when I see people smug and secure lauding their superiority over others (yes, that was to you again, Herbert Brown – you’ve really made my blood boil today).
Thank you for your posts, Robert. It is enlightening to talk to those who don’t automatically know everything about our Party. You’re the sort of voter we need to win and convince that we offer a real and credible alternative to the controlling dogma of Labour, and the uncaring “hands-off” approach of the Tories, its just a shame nobody has tried to address this directly and with respect.
Oliver
“I get emotional when I see people smug and secure lauding their superiority over others …”
For heaven’s sake, get over yourself. If you get any more self-righteous you’ll disappear in a puff of smoke!
I made a light-hearted comment about some gibberish that had been posted here. If the bloke who posted it has a severe disability I sympathise with him. But I’m damned if I’m going to apologise for not being able to sense telepathically the reason that he was posting gibberish, if he couldn’t be bothered to explain it himself.
Going back to the original topic, Nick Clegg may be a very good politician, but , with politics being a popularity contest at the moment the Lib Dems would do very well to put Vince Cable up for as many interviews as possible, and use him as a ‘poster boy’ if you like.
In times of economic hardship, like now, the public need a trusted figure to take control. Vince Cable is recognised as a very competent economist, and as such is recognised by the public. However, do the public associate him with the Liberal Democrat party? As deputy leader of the party perhaps he and Nick Clegg should be portrayed more than as partners than as a leader and his deputy.
The general election is likely to be held just as the country is coming out of the recession, and as such may be reluctant to go for a politician who appears to be just charisma and smiles, like David Cameron. Cue Vince Cable.
Another idea; to focusenergy and media attension perhaps the party should choose five key policies that are likely to appeal to the electorate and make them their own; promote these policies to the highest degree possible, and win votes.
Now is a huge opportunity, if the Lib Dems do become Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition then there is a immense platform to expand from.
Robert
To answer your question you might find this policy paper interesting. It is called Freedom from Poverty, Opportunity for All and deals in part with welfare reform.
http://www.libdems.org.uk/policy_papers_detail.aspx?title=Freedom_from_Poverty%2c_Opportunity_for_All&pPK=8d191538-e138-4395-a88e-042dcb81b10f
Why not post what you think of this. It was passed by our conference in 2007 and as such is different from Labour and Tory policy in that it is decided by our members not staff in London.
it’s not simply just a case of why the public should not vote labour or tory…but more to do with why people should vote libdem, and why a lot of people at this time do not. why do enough people NOT vote for libdems?
where is the focus group evidence?
are our policies too vague? too weak? too inconsistent?
we have a fairly good front bench but do they use their teeth enough?
it is clear that the public are far from convinced about Cameron and Osborne
Yes, and they are even less convinced by Clegg, whom they regard as much the same, only less worth voting for because they’ll revert to seeing politics as Labour v. Conservative unless we can project a strikingly different image.
The Labour vote is in freefall and in so many of their traditional heartlands, in places like Newcastle, Liverpool, Hull, Burnley and Sheffield, it is our party that is poised to take electoral advantage.
Yes. so what are we doing to win over those ex-Labour votes? People who feel society is run by smart gits in suits who know and care nothing for the likes of them and who organise it so they experience a very nice lifestyle and ordinary people don’t? Our society has got hugely less equal in both wealth and opportunities in the past three decades, so where are we shouting out about this? Where are we harnessing the anger at the fat cats living lives of luxury while ordinary people struggle, lose their jobs and homes, or fear doing so? Why, when saying “Getting ready for the next election?” are you not shouting out how we can build on that an give a message of hope to those people?
mostly recently running the advertising campaign for for the Liberal Democrats in 1997
Where we made very little impact, and I remember the ward where I was councillor elected with a big majority being festooned with Labour posters and we couldn’t get anything up – the national campaign clearly did not have what it takes to win Labour-type people who had keenly voted for us locally into voting for us nationally.
And everything I do and the team does is driven by the simple conviction that Nick Clegg is the best person to be Prime Minister and a conviction that the Liberal Democrats in government would make our country freer, fairer and would build a more sustainable future. … It was clear to me then, as it is now, that he has an exceptional ability to communicate liberal values to the wider electorate.
The Cleggies and their friends in the media promised us a big impact as soon as we elected Clegg. We would see our opinion poll figures booming because of his wonderful attributes. It hasn’t happened, has it? I’m afraid it looks to me like a very pedestrian public school type was put forward as “obviously the next best leader” by the public school type people in the smart set who just look out for one of their own and cannot see beyond their assumptions that “people like us” should be running everything. We desperately needed someone more gritty and more obviously “one of us” for the vast majority of people who didn’t go to posh public schools. I’m sorry – but that is what I get from people I talk to even before I’ve prompted them – Clegg just doesn’t have any appeal to them, if they liked that sort they’d go to Cameron.
In any case, our party has tended to suffer from being seen too much as a one-man band. I don’t think Clegg is much of an asset to us. We’d do better in our campaign to play him down and concentrate on what the party actually stands for, and project the whole team of LibDem MPs as what we’re about. Look – even that would be a change in the political norm where politics is too much about leaders.
Why am I always spending my time telling this party why it is going wrong and what it needs to do to get it right, and then sitting back and seeing it go wrong? Well, it’s the reason I was willing to push in Downham, ward, because if it was not us then who? The growing anger amongst the people and their feeling that politics is all about out-of-touch smart set people, Labour’s loss of any appeal to ordinary people, and the uselessness of any of the alternative left is leading the field wide open to the nasty right. In Downham if it was not us it may well have been the BNP. Look at how UKIP with very little effort is managing to do so well. A more carefully crafted UKIP/BNP party could sweep the country. We are failing to make an impact because we have too many smart set people at the top whose life experiences are remote from those of the vast bulk of people in this country, who have moved effortlessly from university to PR jobs and the like, and who just don’t know what would really work to get people voting for us with true enthusiasm.
I am sorry John Sharkey. I see nothing in what you have written here which inspires me or leads me to believe you have what it takes truly to project our party and win it the votes it needs. I see nothing here which I think would truly get the ordinary people I know and meet in my ordinary life to say “YES – the Liberal Democrats are the ones for us”. There is no power or passion in what you say. It looks to me like you are treating this as an ad-man’s brief, just a job to be done. I may be wrong, but let us see. I have had plenty of opportunitiesd to say “I told you so” in recent months, so here we are again. From the team put foward for us, I predict we will have a fairly dismal general election result, saved only by local hard work from people who realise that they’re going to have to put it in to save or win their seats because they sure aren’t going to get much from the national campaign
Oliver
“I get emotional when I see people smug and secure lauding their superiority over others …”
No Oliver, you see a joke that turns out to have been misdirected, and so you get crafty and seize your chance to hit back at someone who has been telling you too many uncomfortable truths for too long. Don’t you?
David
“No, Oliver, you see a joke that turns out to have been misdirected, and so you get crafty and seize your chance to hit back at someone who has been telling you too many uncomfortable truths for too long. Don’t you?”
Basically, no. If I should know either you or Herbert from any time in my fairly young life, please remind me! If you’ve been commentors to the blog me and my fellow Cardiff students run, and either of you have disagreed with something I’ve written, I don’t take offence with disagreement.
Other than that, sir, I’m not sure what else you can imagine I am reacting too! Unless you think I’m a different Oliver?
Anyway, this whole argument is pointless now. If Robert replies and says he had no problem with what was said then I shouldn’t either. I still accept that the way things were said, were not pleasant. But I suppose getting used to unpleasant “jokes” (reading back, I can’t really call them jokes, David, because not a single one even made me smile) is a pre-requisite for reading a Liberal… Democrat… blog.
Wow. But no, David, no snide back-door way of stabbing a long-term enemy (I have none, yet!). Just a bit of clear honesty about what I felt about someone comments. I’m sorry if that’s unusual.
The comments of Matthew Huntbach are scarily close to the truth.
A comment from Cowley Street is needed here.
I am afraid it is policies which win votes and seats. Lib/Dems have a good team with no adverse past record, but the policies are generally too soft to win many converts. We are living in tough times and things are going to get worse – tough measures are necessary. Some referendum on our membership of the EU is called for, if the Lisbon Treaty is not in force by the time the next General Election arrives, then one on that – if it is – then one one on our membership. Also some tough measures on immigration. UKIP & the BNP don’t get their support for the talent of their representatives, but their support is growing.
If the Liberal Democrats don’t win at least 1 seat in Liverpool, I am going to give up all hope in politics.
Also I don’t want to sound insensitive but munchausen by internet maybe?
I reckon the archives should be cracked open and the John Cleese election broadcast should be shown again. That video was the first place where I learnt about the Lib Dems rather than just dismissing them as “that other” party
When our best MP’s (ones with largest majorities) are resigning should we start worrying?
John Barrett (Edinburgh West)
I largely agree with Matthew Huntbach. There is nothing in this article to inspire. Nothing to indicate any strategy.
An extra seat in each of the Cities mentioned would be a major achievment – it would also be just five seats.
I quick look at the poor results in the County elections in Devon, Somerset and Cornwall suggets that serious losses to the Conservatives are very likely on current trends.
The we can cut crime campaign was great except, it never amounted to a ongoing campaign and there has bene nothing similar since.
Any election campaign fought on the basis of Nick as PM is doomed to failure. A bit of honesty about the Lib Dems hoping for a hung parliament and being a force to keep Cameon in check and ensures he delivers would be far more credible.
I think Nick Clegg is a lot like William Hague – good in person, not so good on the telly and made leader to early.
“A bit of honesty about the Lib Dems hoping for a hung parliament and being a force to keep Cameon in check and ensures he delivers would be far more credible.”
The trouble with that is that while it might be a reasonable strategy in Tory/Lib Dem marginals, signalling that the party will support Cameron in a hung parliament is really not going to appeal to traditional Labour voters. I can’t imagine it would appeal to the membership much, either.
The bookies are not predicting any great break through.
http://www.ladbrokes.com/lbr_sports?action=go_type&category=SPECIALS&class_id=110000062
Until we resolve the inherent and unspoken conflict between a small central clique trying to run a sort of ‘Tory Lite’ campaign strategy and the increasingly disillusioned grassroots, this is all much ado about nothing.
The inclusion of Andrew Stunell as the ‘token’ community campaigner only makes the lack of strategic insight even more obvious.
But at the end of the day, I shall do exactly what I did at the last General Election. Completely ignore Cowley Street and their follies, increase our share of the vote and increase the number of our councillors at the Tories expense.
And of course I’ll be wrong. As usual.
I have returned to the Party after a number of years, which was before the rapid advance in internet facilities. Have these been used to collect the opinion of Members generally – or is this site the first attempt?
How sad
Am on holiday and have time to catch up on politics. Wanted to be inspired by Lib Dem politics.
We absolutely need BOLD policies to attract attention – and they can be common sense, and need to involved cutting expenditure:
– cut prison population back to 1997 levels – and invest in some great commnity schemes to reduce reoffending
– reduce unemployment at all costs – it is the greatest blight any family can face – shift investment from health and university education
– transform 14-18 education, make it more democratic – young peiple choose to attend if they wish, both vocational and accademic learning are valued
Come on lets get radical and realistic.
richard
It’s just so funny that anyone can think that today’s Lib Dems would consider any of those policies for a microsecond …
If a bold idea was wanted, it might be an idea to recognise that we must start moving away from consumerism and the global capitalism which exhorts us to buy things we don’t need and to replace things before it is necessary.
Climate change is not the result of individuals leaving their televisions on ‘stand by’, but the manufacture of masses of commodities, using huge amounts of energy, to replace things that don’t need replacing or buying things that we don’t need. We know that resources, particularly energy sources, are becoming difficult to locate – what we have should be conserved for essentials like heating freezing homes, not transporting goods we don’t need from throughout the world or could be made here.
The global corporations have honed their techniques to create the illusion that to be happy we must ‘get and spend’ when we should be reducing getting and spending. To provide what we need the average working week might be just 25 hours. However, this requires the people to realise the expensive pleasures in which they have been tricked into craving are transitory in nature and that there are many other activities, costing little or nothing, which are far more satisfying.
If we are to perish as a result of climate change – it will be consumerism and the global corporations, with their fantasy inducing skills, which will be our downfall. A change in our value system is desperately needed and is bound to come in the not too distant future – why should this not be started by the Liberal Democrats?
The only way we are going to win the next election is to make Charles Kennedy leader and sack idiots such as Lembit Opik.
Can we have a vote LDV on how many of the Party want Charlie Kennedy back?
He is the only leader of the last fifty years that can lead the Party to victory and keep them there.