Is it insanity, stupidity or senility that has led me to volunteer to deliver so many pigging Good Mornings tomorrow? Eight bundles!
Tim Farron says he’ll be up at 5am, so I will be up at 5am. I am not going to be outdone by Tim Farron. But I have had to carefully choose the sequence of the roads I will do. One has to carefully judge the extent to which residents in certain roads will tolerate some numpty stumbling around at 5am delivering “Good Morning” leaflets. (By the way, if you knock over some milk bottles, take a tip from an old colleague of mine and shout: “Sorry – Labour Party delivering leaflets!”. (That’s a joke by the way)).
Several decades ago, I began delivering leaflets for a council by-election in a rural road at 5am. After a while, a police car drew up (the constabulary had been, no doubt, alerted by the local Neighbourhood Watch). “Can I ask what you are doing, sir?”, asked the PC in the passenger seat. I showed him one of my leaflets which had a picture of an elephant with its trunk tied in a knot and the text: “Have you forgotten something?”. I think the PC instantly realised that a burglar wouldn’t go equipped with such paperwork.
Good luck to all tomorrow!
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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12 Comments
Good luck all the Lib Dem candidates from me also.
I live in a constituency with 3% of the vote last time round, but have decided to vote with my principals regardless – at least I’ll be adding to the Lib Dem vote share!
If you live somewhere where you can make a difference by tactical voting then good luck to you – mine is a relatively safe tory seat unfortunately.
Had considered voting labour this time – but just can’t bring myself too for a variety of reasons. So a wasted vote it may seem, but my conscience is clear. If I lived in another constituency then maybe…………..
No vote is wasted. It is an expression of democracy, whatever the motivation.
Try not to wake the dog
“Insanity, stupidity or senility?”
This could be the description of recent Lib Dem attempts to get the election back on to Mrs May’s chosen subject of Brexit. When Brexit has been the main topic she’s done well. When the discussion moves on education, the NHS, social care etc she’s on much weaker ground and her lead has slipped.
Look, we’ve had the EU referendum. Lib Dems voted to have the referendum. Nick Clegg was on a leaflet not too long ago saying:
” ….Lib Dems want a real referendum on Europe. {as opposed to a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty -PM} Only a real Referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU will let the people decide our countries future”
Anyone calling for a referendum knows the result could go either way. There’s a risk of losing. So for goodness sake let it go!
If you wanted the best possible Brexit and wanted someone other than Mrs May to negotiate the terms, you’ve gone about it in entirely the wrong way.
One of those odd situations where I find myself in agreement with Tony Greave…
The other point to make about those who are voting LibDem where there is little chance of a win is there are other benefits. When media use vote share to help inform the coverage a party receives the extra LibDem votes help the message get more coverage. The UKIP voters who kept on putting a cross in their box for years despite no joy kept them getting their issue in discussion to the point that they won, but millions had to keep voting in a way they were told was “wasting” their vote.
As an opposition party it is only possible to influence by coming up with good ideas/criticisms, having the best people to resent them and getting the coverage. Winning a few more seats would help in terms of getting more good spokespeople out there but is it the “wasted votes” in safe seats that help propel those people to where they can be heard. It can be disheartening to know your vote won’t directly put a LibDem in parliament but it can help get the LibDem arguments heard more often.
On that basis I would rather vote LibDem in a (Lab/Con) swing seat rather than pick sides in the tastiest turd contest.
Psi 8th Jun ’17 – 1:52pm….On that basis I would rather vote LibDem in a (Lab/Con) swing seat rather than pick sides in the tastiest turd contest….
Really? Strange then that Tim was asking Labour voters to help oust Tories, in seats where WE are the main challenger, by voting LibDem…
expats
Not sure that is strange. It would be if I was Tim Farron, but as some may have already guessed, I’m not.
Does any of this effort make one iota of difference? I know that I personally react negatively to politicos coming around to my place!
On that basis I would rather vote LibDem in a (Lab/Con) swing seat rather than pick sides in the tastiest turd contest.
Comments like this do undermine the hope for a Progressive Alliance. Just reverse LibDem with Lab in the above sentence if you don’t see what I mean.
Tim Farron has called for Labour voters to “lend” their votes to Lib Dem candidates in Con/Lib Dem marginals. Would Lib Dems win anywhere if Labour supporters weren’t prepared to do this? How many constituencies are there where the contest is between Labour and the Lib Dems?
Are those Labour voters who are lending their votes to the Lib Dems ever going to see them repaid?
John, when we don’t bother with literature we rarely win. When we bother with lots of good quality literature and lots of contact on the doorstep then we either win or lose. But we very rarely win when we don’t bother to go on the doorstep or put out literature.
Peter Martin
“Comments like this do undermine the hope for a Progressive Alliance. Just reverse LibDem with Lab in the above sentence if you don’t see what I mean.”
I don’t think it is comments that undermine your “progressive alliance” but actual behaviours. If you reverse the parties you will see a reflection of reality, LibDem inclined voters (and party members) are often willing to switch to remove the more disliked opponent (Tories or SNP in some cases) so in your analogy they have been “pre-paid” but there is often a significant block of Labour voters who refuse to vote tactically you can see it in the result all across the country. They are entirely free to do so for any reason not just due to the reason I don’t vote tactically.
If Labour were to offer me a candidate I rated while at the same time as I I didn’t find their national leadership too stomach turning then perhaps that may entice me. But a blanket call for a “progressive alliance” is not, in any way, persuasive.
Reminds me of the time I backed my car out of my drive-in to deliver a Good Morning leaflet and nearly ran over Old Fred, a well-known figure from the sheltered housing at the end of the road. I knew that he walked around local roads a lot, wearing his trademark baseball cap. I just didn’t expect him to be there at 6 am.