The Huffington Post reported Norman Lamb’s remarks at a new members’ event in London this week.
Lamb told the activists: “There are remarkable things happening these days, just look at the rise and fall of corporations. The big companies that are household names one day and disappear the next. The startups that suddenly catch fire and become enormous new organisations.
“The same is happening in politics. Look at what happened with the SNP, look at what happened indeed with a different force, one we reject entirely. Nigel Farage communicated a view to people in a way that got people listening,” Lamb said.
He adding: “Now, his message is one of division, ours is one of uniting people.
“There are so many people out there ready to hear from us. And actually wanting to hear a progressive liberal voice in opposition to a right-wing Conservative government. With the the Labour Party in a state of internal turmoil themselves and likely to face many years, I suspect, of infighting, the responsibility of us to step up to the plate and make the case for progressive liberal politics, the politics of hope not the politics of fear, is overwhelming.”
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18 Comments
A headline that bears absolutely no relation to the story beneath. You can do better than that, LDV.
Yeah, this seems very tabloid-esque, guys. Also short changes Norman at a time when I would have hoped you, as a publication, would remain unbiased in the leadership campaign.
The link is to the Huffington Post.
Hang on a minute – the site is absolutely neutral in the leadership contest. We reported the story and Norman’s words as they were quoted. It’s quite clear what he was saying. He never said Farage was right, but that he had got people listening and I guess that’s our challenge because nobody’s really listening to us at the moment.
There’s nothing remotely negative towards Norman in this.
One of the few things I liked about the Coalition was the free school meals.
But if I see or hear the phrase “step up to the plate” again in the next ten years — it will be too soon.
Just a comment on the substance of what Norfolk Lamb is reported to have said.
He really should differentiate between the SNP and the UKIP.
The SNP was fantastically successful, achieving 50% of the vote in much higher turnouts of voters than we have come to expect in the last 30 years. In at least one seat the turnout was 81%.
UKIP was NOT fantastically successful. In fact it was such a bad a result for UKIP that they did much worse than the Liberal Democrats.
UKIP also have to get to grips with the reality that the higher their profile has got over the last two years, the higher public support for remaining in the EU.
Polls indicate that since the so-called “rise of UKIP” support for remaining in the EU has climbed to the highest level for decades.
It is not clear from the report just how much Norman Lamb is aware of these straigtforward facts.
I have a wider question concerning why the author of the piece is unable to use his or her real name for such an article.
The Voice, Newshound, Newspuppy, Newsmoggy etc. “Be who you say you are” ? Am I missing something?
Clearly there are times when anonymity may be valid but this hardly seems like one of them.
The best sales person in town at the moment seems to be Nicolas Sarkozy. I don’t agree with what looks like Islamophobia dressed up as secularism, but his new call for “republicans of France to unite!” seems to even have the French left impressed with the audacity of it. The republican ideal reaches into people’s gut in France because of the revolution and their history. I think it is the sort of branding exercise Farron would give credit to. :p
Sarkozy seemed to have offended a lot of people by trying to “privatise the concept of republicanism”, but the call to unite against French decline and extremism will appeal to many. They also seem to be interested in trying to do to the Front National what Cameron did to UKIP – basically appease them.
Not Who I say I am: Don’t you think that ‘Newshound’ is who they say they are? – Anyone from the LDV team who hounds for news and brings it to attention on these pages.
In fact it is over 95% Norman Lamb’s words . What is your point, other than to draw attention to your moniker?
“Now, his message is one of division, ours is one of uniting people.”
Don’t think the public would have a clue what that means – what does it mean?
@ david
“Now, his message is one of division, ours is one of uniting people.”
” Don’t think the public would have a clue what that means – what does it mean?”
I think it is code for Nigel Farrage vocalises the concerns of the British public , therefore the British public are divisive in not thinking pure progressive thoughts.
The LibDems as part of the progressive concensus, do not consider they have to listen to the British public, who they think should be seen and not heard, and “ours is one of uniting people”, is code for forcing changes on the British people without their permission, and whether they agree or not.
Thanks, Raddiy, That’s cleared it up for me.
Martin 30th May ’15 – 6:54pm
Martin, one of the rules of the LDV site is for contributors to be who they say they are. My point is that on non-controversial issues the LDV team should adhere to the rules.
Not Who I Say I am: you obviously have some issue that is particular to you. We know who Norman Lamb is (the bulk of the quotation) and we know what the Huffington Post and LDV are.
@Martin ironically we know who Not Who I Say I am is.
@John Tilley I’m not sure that getting twice as many votes as the lib dems means they did much worse than us. They got fewer seats but thats FPTP for you and we’re against that in any case.
Martin 30th May ’15 – 11:59pm
“Not Who I Say I am: you obviously have some issue that is particular to you. We know who Norman Lamb is (the bulk of the quotation) and we know what the Huffington Post and LDV are.”
OK, let’s try you with something more simple.
1) Do you know who any of The Voice, Newshound, Newspuppy, Newsmoggy are?
2) Do you think, on a non-controversial topic such as this, there is any need for editorial anonymity?
And by the way, I do normally post under my true identity. I am making a simple point about openness and strongly support the LDV policy of contributors being who we say we are. I do rather believe though in one rule for … erm … everyone!
TCO
You may not be sure — but most objective observers look at the following facts and they are quite sure that UKIP had a disastrous general election —
UKIP failed to take a single seat from the Labour Party or any other party “in the North” as they had confidently predicted they would.
UKIP failed to take a single seat off the Liberal Demorats even though we were losing seats to Conservatives, Labour and SNP.
UKIP lost all but one of its MPs.
UKIP failed to elect its leader who said he would resign if he did not get elected at his 7th attempt to become an MP.
UKIP has seen popular support for remaining in the EU rise to its highest level for decades.
UKIP almost went into complete meltdown when their leader did resign and summarily pit a woman in his place, only to unresign half a day later, only to take a long holiday having been described by one of UKIP’s top people as “snarling and thin skinned” etc etc.
UKIP now has a second temporary leader — a Mr Nuttall
(an appropriate name for the temporary leader of a party who seem to have soaked all the BNP and EDL voters).
@John Tilley. Your last 4 points are irrelevant to UKIP’s performance in the election, coming as they did after polls closed. This makes them irrelevant to your argument.
You state that they list all but one of their MPs whilst neglecting to state that they only started with two.
You state that they failed to take seats from Labour and the Lib Dems. That is factually correct but irrelevant to your assertion.
You assert that they did much worse than the Lib Dems. Given the Lib Dems lost 2/3 of their vote from 2010 and 7/8 of their seats, whilst UKIP quadrupled their vote whilst winning a seat in a General Election for the first time, and got more than twice the votes the Lib Dems did, there are no objective criteria under which your assertion can be deemed to be supported by evidence.