Stephen Tall

Is it all down to the leader?

By | Mon 15th October 2007 - 6:04 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog, Lib Dem blogger of the year, James Graham, analyses the problems facing the party in The fight for survival. It’s well worth reading in full, but here’s an extract:

… the fact [is] that Ming is not the problem. Rather, what we’re seeing is the consequence of a campaign strategy (or lack thereof) that has been focused on winning round swing voters in target seats at the expense of all else. The party’s fundamental problems are the fundamental problems we had under Kennedy – poor communications and a lack of coherence.

Back when all we had to contend with was a divided and directionless Conservative party and a prime minister who dragged the country forcibly into a disastrous war fought on a false prospectus, we were able to ignore those fundamental problems because voters had nowhere else to go. That’s all changed. Ming has struggled to improve the party’s performance in both areas. In a party that is constitutionally democratic, the failure to make as much progress as we need cannot be blamed on the party leader alone.

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6 Comments

  • nigelashton 15th Oct '07 - 6:20pm

    The BBC News is reporting that Ming is going to resign as leader – with a statement at 6:30pm

  • Ross 15th Oct '07 - 6:30pm

    He is doing the right thing as we all knew he would in the end. Good man.

  • Liberal Neil 15th Oct '07 - 6:47pm

    We would be very naive to believe that it is ALL down to the leader.

    However the leader is a major element in our success (or lack of).

  • Alun 15th Oct '07 - 8:00pm

    I think this bit says it all really,. We really start being coherent now. Although it would slighty un-democratic but I would advocate a strong central leadership with a close team of young turks.

  • Geoffrey Payne 15th Oct '07 - 9:39pm

    I think the party has a very positive message and a clear constituency of support. Not a majority – although I wish it was – but large enough for us to make a real impact at the next general election.
    I personally really enjoyed the conference we had recently in Brighton and I look forward to the new leader putting our message across.

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