On Thursday we reported on Ed Davey’s call for the Conservatives to cancel their Conference and get on with sorting out the mess they have created in the economy. We will all feel the effects of their recklessness in the months and years to come.
The party’s comms teams have backed this up with this social media ad. If you haven’t seen it in your feeds, that’s probably a good thing as party members and supporters aren’t usually the target audience of our campaigns.
New Lib Dem ad just droppped on social media ahead of Conservative Party conference. pic.twitter.com/W8gfZ2cQpE
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 30, 2022
Conferences are supposed to be a moment to showcase the best your party has to offer, to make the most of that spot in the media. The sight of Conservatives drinking champagne while people face soaring bills and find it increasingly difficult to get a mortgage will not, we suspect, go down particularly well with voters.
And when people are seeing their hard earned cash or chance of ever owning a house evaporate before their eyes, how will they respond to the PM and Chancellor not just doubling down on their plan to cut taxes for the wealthiest but actually bragging about it?
Ed Davey is absolutely right that they shouldn’t be living it up in Birmingham. They should be recalling Parliament. There are already reports that Conservative MPs are talking to Labour about voting down the worst elements of the budget.
NEW: I understand “multiple” Conservative MPs are in talks with Labour in Parliament to defeat elements of the “mini-budget. Particular focus on 45p rate. Focus is on sending a signal to markets.
Only takes around 35 Tories to rebel for defeat.
More on my @lbc show shortly
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 30, 2022
Reports suggest that Liz Truss intends to pay in part for her boost to the rich by slashing benefits. From the Metro:.
Asked if benefits would be uprated in line with inflation, Mr Kwarteng said: ‘It’s premature for me to come to a decision on that, but we are absolutely focused on making sure that the most vulnerable in our society are protected through what could be a challenge.’
Chris Philp, the chancellor’s deputy in the Treasury, also refused to commit to the government’s previous pledge during an appearance on ITV.
Tory MPs:may be less motivated to block such a disastrous and disgusting measure, unfortunately. When even people on healthy incomes feel their budgets being stretched, there may be more public sympathy for those trying to survive on the pittance that the benefits system gives the most vulnerable.
Liz Truss has said today that she expects “disruption” from her plans. In fact for many people they will be catastrophic. The initial opinion polls suggest that voters are not willing to put up for chaos that they did not vote for.
Our new Prime Minister is even worse at communicating than she is at economic policy so it is hard to see how this coming week will be a good one for the Conservatives.
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10 Comments
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Political parties shouldn’t let members choose their leader. It was a disaster for Labour and now a disaster for the conservatives ( and the country). Libdems should take the lead and switch to MPs
Russell: on the other hand, the Conservatives appointed Theresa May without a membership election, and Labour appointed Gordon Brown similarly. Boris Johnson was elected by the Conservative membership but *also* led the MP round so it wouldn’t have changed things there. Michael Howard was another recent Conservative leader appointed by MPs without membership vote.
On the Lib Dem side: I can’t find a single case where the membership has elected the person who didn’t also have the greatest number of MP endorsements. Has this following of MP recommendations led to grand electoral success for the party, would you say?
I find this article alarming. As a democrat I believe that a conference is a means of the members of a party having a say in the running of the party. I note also that members are not usually the target of “our” campaigns . I do not know who the “our” refers to. My opinion is that the most important group to discuss the situation with are our members.
The present political situation was largely created by Johnson. We need to focus on reality. But we need to present policies based on Democratic involvement,
Cancel Tory conference: what a ridiculous piece of rhetoric!
On the reasoning here, you’d cancel nearly all conferences of the governing party.
“There are some bad problems, therefore cancel your conference.”
Instead of this nonsense, let’s actually have a LD conference.
“Instead of this nonsense, let’s actually have a LD conference” – Yes, yes, yes!
In the midst of a self-induced economic crisis, there is every reason to call an emergency conference. It need not be a grand event. It cannot be so hard to find some kind of venue in which Ed Davey, Sarah Olney etc. get to make set piece critiques of this government’s appallingly ideological vandalism. All it needs is a decent backdrop and a full (modestly sized) hall together with a large number of members online. The focus should be entirely on the economy and protecting people from spiralling costs.
An event is needed within days in order to respond to events at the Tory (and Labour) conferences as well as to achieve decent media attention.
David Evans has written on Jonathan Calder’s blog: Do read it. http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2022/09/why-we-need-emergency-lib-dem-special.html
But to whom do we address this plea? David Evans suggests writing to Nick da Costa (Chair of FCC) and Sian Waddington (Director of Operations). On Mark Pack’s website I have asked him this question directly (still waiting for my comment to appear).
This is excellent, funny & on the ball.
Could we also promote the new Petition calling for an immediate Election ? Its up to nearly 400,000 already, pretty much by word-of-mouth so far. After all, Democrat is in our name.
Martin 2nd Oct ’22 – 10:31am: Just to say, I agree with your post.
Could we also promote the new Petition calling for an immediate Election ?
link please
no worries, here it is
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/619781
@Cim
Your points on May/Brown are irrelevant. May became PM because Leadsom withdrew. I think it’s a more obvious point for the 2 big parties (see Matthew Syed piece in yesterday’s ST eg) but it it still works with a dozen MPs and it shows up the stupidity of Labour/Tory member votes