So far today, the election themed correspondence and social media from the Liberal Democrats has involved 3 separate emails, a poster on social media, a silly but scarily compelling and satisfying game and a fabulous video.
One thing in all of that that the party has missed is that this whole 100 days to go thing is a bit novel. We’ve known the date of this election since late 2010 when fixed term parliaments were introduced. Before then it was up to the Prime Minister to pick the date, usually at the time of maximum political benefit to their party unless, like Gordon Brown, they simply ran out of time – although, to be fair, he could have nabbed another month or so in No 10. It was the one piece of useful political reform that we managed to get through.
We’ve already brought you the lovely poster that was released this morning. I’ve had emails from the Scottish Party, Malcolm Bruce on behalf of Christine Jardine and LDHQ. My favourite was the last simply because of the fantastic video tour of our Party’s Central London HQ, chatting away to the staff. They seriously only filmed it yesterday. It was great seeing people like the excellent Wassim from Member and Supporter Development, Robert the fantastic guy on reception who never fails to make me smile (ask him about the litter of puppies on Eastleigh polling day) and digital whizz Bess Mayhew. If you haven’t watched it, do so now.
My absolute favourite bit is the banter between Paddy and his deputy Olly Grender. Olly talks about giving him some seen advice. If we don’t get the sequel where she is doing just that, then I will throw my toys out of the pram. Hell, I’d even pay to see it. It would be hilarious.
David Cameron’s continued moving of the goalposts on the Leaders’ Debates inspired those clever people in the Campaigns Department to put together a silly game, a Cameron Excuse generator. You put in your town, it generated a political party from that town and encouraged you to tweet David Cameron asking him to let that party into the debates. Of course, it didn’t take some of us long to work out that you didn’t have to put real places in: Mordor, Gallifrey, the Hundred Acre Wood, Pemberley, Narnia were all options. I was just annoyed that I didn’t get a Wine Drinkers’ party for any place I tried. Childish? Absolutely, but it kept me out of mischief for a wee while and made me smile too. One of mine even made it into this Buzzfeed summary.
Oh, and finally, I’ve had a sneak preview of the Party Political Broadcast going out on 99 days before the election, the Scottish version, anyway. It’s lovely and sunny and, well, nice.
So, 100 hard days to go. The Party’s focus has been on team spirit and fun today. We will need plenty of that in the challenging months to come.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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9 Comments
I’ve had a gutful already and I can’t wait for it to be over.
Have not had the email. I don’t seem to get party emails. They have my email address. Worrying how many less committed members and supporters are also being missed.
An impending election has not escaped my notice, but I am nervous about the contents of the manifesto. I have heard too little about electoral reform for example. The loss of the Lords bill should have been an opportunity to present a radical and democratic alternative: I hope the Party has moved on from the tepid ultra conservative coalition proposal.
In education, what are the plans to respond to Gove’s overtly centralising agenda? On energy provision and security, how are we proposing to reduce CO2 emissions whilst maintaining future security of provision?
There are many other questions, but overall my fear is that the manifesto will not be distinctively Liberal, but will be indefinably somewhere in the middle of this and that.
…and the wicked witch died, and everyone was happy and good, and there were no more poor people.
Being under the impression that,legally,we are stuck with this government for a full five years, surely this self same administration should stick to admin. As with local elections, the campaigning element when funding can be legally accounted for, all the parties should stay schtum until that date – a month or so before the election, particularly as all that they seem capable of saying is claptrap anyway.
@Andrew Purches I hate to break it to you but we are in a regulated spending period for the Genereral Election campaign. The ‘Long Campaign’ started on 19th December and runs until 30th March.
Interesting by-product of the law on fixed terms. It gets rid of the constant uncertainty of “will the PM call an early election?” and its effect on long-term planning. legislation and markets, but in return we get a campaign of three or four weeks turned into one of three or four months. Will it turn people off, enable issues to be discussed in more depth or both?
I don’t think Paddy meant the video to be Orwellian, but that’s how it struck me. Here was a chance to see how the Inner Party live in their air-conditioned, frosted glass-clad, light and airy office space with state-of-the-art IT gear and huge tellyscreens on the walls while the volunteers in the Outer Party wage a grim struggle for hearts and minds in near-slum conditions with outdated IT and OA hardware. So, shoot me for thoughtcrime.
I’ve had some reflection about my thought processes and worked out why I am voting LibDem in this election. It comes down to ‘somebody has to’.