Here’s the full list of selection contests in the coming month available for Lib Dems on the approved parliamentary candidates’ list, together with the closing date for applications.
The following seats have selections in progress and are currently advertising for candidates:
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Reading East, 14th June
Reading West, 14th June
North East Cambridgeshire, 20th June
South Dorset, 20th June
North Somerset, 27th June
Nottingham East, 27th June
Nottingham North, 27th June
Nottingham South, 27th June
Further information, including Returning Officer contact details, can be found on the Lib Dem members’ website: http://www.libdems.org.uk/forms/user_sessions/new and then once you have logged in by following the links: Our Party > Selection Adverts – Latest News. Note you will need to register online and login in order to access the advert webpage.
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10 Comments
Yes, I guess it’s a time for disrespecting prospective LibDem candidates, but anyway, who’d wannabe a wannabe now?
My experience is of a seat where we came 2nd in 2010, with a strong Councillor base – just one applicant for PPC
despite readvertsing. At the current rate I hope someone at HQ has given thought to the cost of lost deposits. In 1951 didn’t the liberals have insurance with Lloyds.
Opinuim has the party on 6%. I think the phrase ‘wannabe MP’ is somewhat optimistic. Perhaps the party should go back to Victorian times and make paying the deposit a prerequsite of selection.
More and more lambs to the slaughter, surely the party establshment knows the game is up.
I suspect, Caracatus, that even those seats who have been lucky enough that anyone has come forward to be a PPC may well see a steady stream of people finding other things to do with their time. We have seen many fewer Council candidates coming forward in the last 3 years. Until there is a radical motivating factor and message, we will find less people there to do every role, from candidate, through agent, to on-the-ground activist. HQ has centralised yet again, partly through lack of money, first from loss of Short (opposition money) then through lost subs, now, no doubt through lost deposits, less fundraising etc etc. Regions are weakened and cannot support local parties and groups as they once did. Death by a thousand cuts.
Three seats in Nottingham. I cannot remember the last time Nottingham elected a Liberal MP .
I am guessing that no Nottingham seat is one of the chosen 37.
So they will be ignored like 600 or so other seats.
As far as Clegg HQ is concerned in the 2015 general election they will be treated in exactly the same way as Newark was treated this week.
As far as Clegg will be concerned they might as well be the constituency of Sarawak West.
Instead of “Wannabe” candidates — we should opt for “Wahhabi” candidates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabi_movement
If nothing else this would help paying off the lost deposits afterwards.
In most of these seats we’ll do well to get one leaflet per household delivered.
Why are we so late in selecting candidates? Its a fixed term Parliament yet we seem to leaving it closer to Polling Day than in any election I can remember in the last 40 years.
Steve Comer I suspect your question is rhetorical, but overall, the answer to your question is that activity levels at local level are low, enthusiasm among approved candidates to come forward is very low, and I suspect that rates for new potential candidates for approval and training is also low. I don’t think you have to look too far for underlying reasons.
One thing that really worries me about the 6% in the polls is that we still seem to be around 15%+ in Mole Valley not including personal votes for sitting councillors (13% in Euros). So given this and other areas of relative strength, there must be a lot of other places where we are very close to zero for the national poll rating of 6% to be possible!
On a selfish note, we are about to select for a PPC in Mole Valley. Given that there are no more than a few non-held parliamentary seats we have the remotist chance of winning next year, I think prospective MPs should seriously consider instead a stint in our constituency where we still have a strong local council base, a lot of members and supporters and a reasonable poll rating and goodwill with most of the electorate!