Every week LDV invites the leadership candidates to submit an article. This is Layla Moran’s for this week.
It’s looking very close. Votes cast today could determine the future direction of our party. If you haven’t voted yet, please give me your support to move our party and our country forward, together.
I am standing because in my heart I am convinced our Party can do better than 6% in the polls.
And we need to do better than 6%. Because let’s be clear, Boris Johnson’s right-wing Conservative government will not deliver meaningful change.
They have failed to protect our brave frontline workers. They have failed to prevent hundreds of thousands of vulnerable families from falling through the cracks.
They are putting ideology before people, hurtling our country towards a dangerous no deal Brexit at the end of the year. They will fail to make this country fairer because they do not understand unfairness or disadvantage.
If not us, then who will shout about these burning injustices from the roof tops. Who will expose and challenge populism, self-interest and cronyism wherever it arises – and force U-Turns to protect people from bad Government decisions?
We must do whatever it takes to remove Boris Johnson and the Conservatives at every level of government.
I have a plan to help us win again. It starts with better living our values, listening to voters, and showing that we’re on their side, through a core message, a strong media presence and an empowered activist base.
It’s how I overturned a 10,000 Conservative majority in my constituency, winning over thousands of moderate Conservative voters while consolidating the progressive vote.
Vote for me as leader, and we can do this nationally. Together, we can listen to voters across the country, show them that we share their values and win again, so that we can change the way things are.
I’m urging you to seize this moment, to vote for me to rescue and revive our Party. Together with the thousands already backing me, please have the courage to change the things that are holding us back.
A vote for me is a vote to move on from the coalition – to do more campaigning, and less explaining. To stand on a platform informed by voters, which delivers for communities across our country.
Ballots close at 1pm tomorrow – Wednesday 26th August. Search your inbox for the voting email from the returning officer, Alan Masters. If you haven’t received a ballot, email [email protected]
* Layla Moran is the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Back to Butterley Tunnel on the Cromford Canal
Are we programmed to die?
Fraser's weekly ward surgeries tonight! #dundeewestend
An online conspiracy?
Alex Hosking
graham
Daniel Stylianou
Craig Levene
Paul Barker
17 Comments
I voted for Layla but I strongly object to all this 6% nonsense.
We are currently Polling in the range of 5%-9%, averaging around 7%.
We were averaging around 10% in the Spring, the difference is down to one thing : Covid.
Normal Politics has been suspended (like so much else) during the Virus with a big chunk of Voters choosing to exercise a degree of Loyalty or at least Tolerance to their Governments. That Benefits The Tories in England & The SNP in Scotland but it wont last forever.
Whoever wins, lets not get overexcited about any changes that happen or dont happen to our Polling figures. We are in this for a long haul.
Just to give an alternative viewpoint. I am one of the people who work in a frontline health service for people with drug and or alcohol dependency. Not that everything was perfect but from the start we had all the PPE we needed, daily briefs from government bodies and commissioners, access to a hot line for support. At no point were we confused as to what the expectations were or what actions needed to be taken. What was a problem was all the obfuscation from opposition and some media who had to turn every decision inside out, rent a gob to find someone to put the opposing views and scare people that the government was failing, wrong, and negligent. For the most part they have done ok in a very difficult situation, the situation with our service and organisation is far from uncommon, but that doesn’t make entertaining news. There will be a full inquiry in due course which obviously and rightly will focus on the government, in my opinion it also needs to cover the role of all the opposition, none of whom come out of this with any great credit and some of the media, likewise.
By the way, hero, and brave have been used so much during this process that the words have almost lost all value,I find Laura’s constant use of hero / s and brave to be demeaning and so without exception do those of my colleagues who have expressed any opinion on the matter.
‘I am standing because in my heart I am convinced our Party can do better than 6% in the polls.’ – Such a non-sequitur looks like a hostage to fortune. Is Layla taking ownership of opinion poll ratings?
Let’s hope that in a year’s time the Party is at higher than 6%, however if Layla is leader and polls give 6% how should she respond? – I do not think yet another leadership election is a good idea..
I agree CoVid has affected our standings. It seems to me that the drop in the polls is a measure of the importance of campaigning at a local level.
I mean Layla, obviously, I do apologise for that.
Whatever the percentage actually is I would have thought that we can agree the our party is in a bad position at the moment. So should we carry on as we are doing at the moment or should we be trying to change?
Change and reform is the only way to get out of this situation IMHO so please vote for Layla.
This “6% in the polls” mantra has become very tiresome. It would be opportunistic at the best of times let alone in this very unusual situation.
In Paddy Ashdown’s first election (1989 European elections) the Liberal Democrat’s received 5.9% of the vote. The rest is history.
So people can vote however they like but surely not on the basis of current opinion polls. The only result that matters is the number of MP’s won in 2024. That will depend on how well the party appeals to voters in the (largely commuter belt) target seats.
“to do more campaigning, and less explaining.”
I’m not a veteran campaigner, but I spent most of 2017 explaining how Tim Farron wasn’t a homophobe, and most of 2019 explaining how Jo Swinson is sorry for the Bedroom tax.
I joined to build a brighter future, not explain a murky past – with Ed, I expect i’ll be explaining again come GE24. With Layla I feel optimistic for the first time in my four years of membership.
Evidently many people resent being reminded that the Liberal Democrats are not polling well at the moment. That is understandable. However, what matters is how we respond to the bad news. One option is as recommended by the HitchHiker’s Guide, to cover our faces with towels so that we can’t see the danger any more, so we can happily relax. The alternative option is to stare the danger in the face, stop complaining about the people who dare to talk about it, and start planning how to do better.
Hopeless appeal that it may be, and I think both candidates have their qualities, I really wish whoever becomes leader does drop the punch and Judy act and promotes a more considered approach.
David Allen: We tried “star[ing] the danger in the face” in all the last 3 elections, it didn’t work. You seem to be suggesting we should select a former Coalition minister as leader just to have one final showdown with our Coalition critics. It didn’t work before, so why would it work now? Better to take the advice that the Wargame computer finally learned, that “The only winning move is not to play,” i.e. refuse to give the Coalition critics any ammunition by electing a leader with no voting record for them to use against us.
David Allen :
What those like me do not like is the non sequitur link between 6% and Layla. Perhaps it is last minute desperation, but it looks like an invitation for egg on the face if she wins and for a counter factual narrative if she loses. – Not really an admirable tactic.
In the nicest possible way Layla’s probably the riskier candidate but she’s got a great back-story and will certainly get us noticed.
Alex, wrong guess. No I didn’t vote for Ed Davey.
Martin, you call the link between 6% and Layla a “non sequitur”. I think you’ll find that Layla has chosen to emphasise the need to do better than 6%, Ed has chosen not to emphasise that point. Perhaps you think Ed has made a campaigning error?
We elected an up and coming star last time and I hope that we go for Ed this time. The triumph of hope over experience does not often happen.
David Allen: I voted for Layla. But I shall stand behind whichever candidate won. Sorry I misread your comment.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157054871310683&id=728925682
Best wishes to both of you and thank you for standing as a contestant.