Over on the Guardian website, there’s an interview with Ed Davey in a buoyant mood:
Confirming that he intends to lead the party into the next election, Davey said the party would again ruthlessly target so-called blue wall seats, traditionally Conservative areas where the Lib Dems have taken advantage of perceived Tory complacency and disaffection with the party’s ideological direction.
“We need to finish the job at the next election,” he said. “We took down a lot of the blue wall, more than I expected. But there is still some left to take down. We have a real opportunity. I don’t think there has been anybody in this party for over 100 years who could credibly say that.”
You can read the full article here.
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8 Comments
Hope Ed does not forget we need to go after Labour as well. Ending Winter Fuel Allowance for most pensioners, maintaining the 2 child cap, building on the Green Belt, stopping legislation on free speech and all that after a few days of Labour.
Next budget the target of the Labour Party’s inverted snobbery will be the middle classes. Our success in the Blue Wall will be how well we defend their rights and finances.
We cannot rely on just winning Tory seats, important though that is. Starting to made headway against Labour is very important too. The EU is a crucial element here. Many pro EU voters still believe that Labour will take us back into the EU despite all the evidence to the contrary. If we can convince them that our approach is far better than Labour’s then there are many seats we could start to win. Given that EU membership cannot be secured with FPTP then combining PR(STV) with our plan to rejoin the EU will be a winner
It will be four years before we have to decide which seats get the full-on short campaign. until then, we need to be maximising our options. Our first task is to ensure our new MPs are attached to their seats like limpets. After that we need to put ourselves in a position to take advantage of any party that is vulnerable. Building our local government base across the country is crucial. You can get credibility in a ward when you have none in the constituency and enough councillors give you credibility in the constituency.
Before the next General Election we have national elections in Scotland and Wales.
We must fight these in the same targeted fashion as we applied to the General Election, that means we have to fight Labour. Although we are all pleased to get the Tories out of government the Labour Party is not our friend..
Many Labour local councils need our opposition as they are not as focused on resident satisfaction and communication as we are, nor do they always have a high standard of councillors. We need to tackle these areas and build on that to fight them in national elections as well.
A lot can change before 2029. If Ed gets his way and we surpass the Conservatives then, we need to decide what sort of country we want to help achieve. While more purchasing power is essential it must be accompanied by changes to our culture. Improving our democracy is fundamental. So is more respect for others’ views, the rule of law and a more homogenous society. A happier society will make it much easier to solve the many challenges that we will face.
The direction of travel for us in the next five years and beyond needs continuous debate. You could say that, as a Centre-Left party, we should aim in the long run to take over from the Labour Party, not be dragged further into the centre by ex-Conservatives. In the short run, let’s remember that it is Conference that decides policy, not the Leader, and I hope the new MPs not yet much known to us and who can’t all have shadow jobs will assert themselves at Conference and push for policy promotion as well as development. It was good last spring at York for example to see some of our MPs coming out strongly for the radical anti-poverty motion, F12 For a Fairer Society, which was passed and surely now should be promoted.