Somewhere in the long night on Sunday, when she was dotting about between various media outlets, Jo Swinson found the time to write an article for the Times Red Box looking at the reasons for the spectacular Lib Dem success. Being clear about what we were about paid dividends.
Our message at the elections was crystal clear and it worked. Voters recognised the Liberal Democrats are the largest and strongest Remain party. For the past two and a half years we have been unapologetically making the case for a People’s Vote and we have successfully built a cross-party, cross-country movement in support of it.
But while Labour and the Tories lead the country to a disastrous Brexit, we have more to do:
Even as we celebrate these excellent results, we can’t ignore that the Brexit Party made significant gains, that the favourite in the Conservative leadership contest panders to the far right to advance his career (and is certainly not fit for public office), and that the leader of the opposition is yet to take a stance on the biggest issue of the day.
Brexit has turned us into a laughing stock internationally. It’s detracted attention for the real challenges we face, such as the climate emergency, widening inequality and struggling public services. And it’s preventing us from making the most of the technological revolution right ahead of us.
This Conservative government and Labour opposition are putting our country’s future in jeopardy for the pursuit of a reckless ideology and party unity. We must demand better for our young people because they deserve the same opportunities that we’ve had, including the chance to study, work and fall in love right across the 28 countries of the European Union.
The task ahead is huge. We need to continue building on our successes this month and set out an alternative vision for our country, one where there is opportunity for everyone, where there is a renewed sense of community spirit and where we work with our closest allies to rise to the big challenges we face. That’s the only way we can counter the divisive and hateful vision on offer by Nigel Farage and the Conservative leadership hopefuls.
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21 Comments
Will you be telling voters exactly why People’s Vote was set up and backed by £17.89M
from a pharmaceutical Sweden/Swiss registered company Pharma which is owned by the Princess of Denmark and family ???? No probably not.
Jason: got any sources for that claim? I just did a quick Google and couldn’t find anything.
I disagree with Jo. We got attention and votes precisely because we stopped talking about a Peoples’ Vote, and started talking about what we wanted, which is to Stop Brexit. A Peoples’ Vote is one way to stop Brexit. It is not the only way. Withdrawing notification of Article 50, as allowed by Lib Dem party policy agreed at our last two conferences, is another.
If there’s one thing we should have learned from these elections it’s that taking a clear stand gets you support, and dithering does not. With the Tories likely to pick a hardline Brexiteer as their new leader (and hence PM), the Lib Dems should be looking to pick a leader who is prepared to make the case for what we want – to Stop Brexit – rather than promote a half-hearted way of potentially achieving that. I had hoped that Jo might be that leader; after reading this I am not so sure.
Hmm. The party campaign seems to have flourished (to some degree, on a low turnout in elections held in strange circumstances) by promising a vote for us was a vote to stop Brexit.
Yet the party’s second referendum policy doesn’t do that. It turns the decision back to the public. It’s entirely possible that No Deal will be on the ballot. If that wins then Lib Dems MPs will presumably vote for it in Parliament.
That’s if the EU allows us another extension to hold a referendum which is far from certain
Whatever way we can stop a disastrous Brexit is ok with me and Jo,s last paragraph rings the right bells for me, the sooner these people are exposed for what they really stand for the better.
@ Jason: Which Princess? The Crown Princess, Princess Marie, Princess Isabella, Princess Josephine, Princess Athena, Dowager Princess of Sayn-Wittenstein-Berleburg? You really need to be more specific when casting aspersions.
“the leader of the opposition is yet to take a stance on the biggest issue of the day.”
He has today. Despite the public pressure from prominent Labour MPs he finished by saying that the issue needs to go back to the Labour conference WHICH IS IN OCTOBER!
There is a risk of crashing out with no deal at or before that time. He needs to understand that sitting on the fence has failed. The Labour Party is split and is daily and weakly arguing that they need to unify the country first.
The BBC should repeat his interview on tv, so that they notice what he said.
They are obsessed with the Tory leadership race.
Is Theresa May attending the Heads of Government meeting?
I have Yahood for a company called PHARMA .It comes up with Big Pharma owned by the Sackler family in the US. Their are lots of PHARMAceutical companies which are you referring to Jason?
Who is so foolhardy as to suggest that Corbyn will ever fullheartedly come out for the people’s vote?
He rather would keep rereading his “London Labour Briefing” articles (defending Militant Tendency in his Labour Party), admiring, no: swooning about how just and right every LLB standpoint was…
George Osborne suggests – in today’s London Evening Standard – that a future Tory Prime Minister might make a People’s Vote conditional on Lib Dem support for a Tory government.
I’d be interested to hear how the contenders for the party leadership deal with that one. And our party had better be ready with an answer as well.
The title to the article can be read in more than one way, Can I ask for LDV not to big up either likely leadership contender. The long suffering membership do not need to belaboured with pointed items in either of Jo or Ed’s favour.
I am fairly confident that the patty would not wear general support for a Tory Government. In fact it would be political idiocy of the highest order to consider it. Agreeing to support a bill which offered voters a referendum choice between some government option and remain – provided the referendum had far better safeguards than last time – I could live with.
@ Mick Taylor
This is exactly Osbourne’s trap. What would the party do if the price of a People’s Vote and possibly preventing Brexit is proping up the Tories?
Bless Jason step away from Fakebook it isn’t good for your sanity, you’ll be telling us Green Lizards are running the world next.
Oops too late at least one prominent Brexiteer does
Lizard people are cold-blooded humanoid reptilians who have the power to shape-shift into human form. According to David Icke, a new-age philosopher and one of the most prominent theorists in the lizard people game, these creatures have had their claws in humankind since ancient time, and world leaders like Queen Elizabeth, George W. Bush, the Clintons, and Bob Hope are all lizard people
https://www.vox.com/2014/11/5/7158371/lizard-people-conspiracy-theory-explainer
BREXIT is a mess because the world elite is deliberately sabotaging its process so the UK will never leave, according to shocking revelations by David Icke.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/politics/748300/brexit-news-david-icke-brexit-betrayal-tommy-robinson-theresa-may
I must admit Jason it came as a shock to find Bob Hope was a lizard, I thought he was a comedian.
The problem with Gidieon Osborne is he can’t accept his new place in poltics, which is pretty powerless, the Tories don’t want him and apart from using the Standard as a mouthpiece no one else cares. He is yesterdays man and has been replaced by others. Like Cameron he can’t accept this and dreams of becoming relevant again. Give up George the day of you, “call me Dave”, Clegg and Co have gone, too much bagage, too many mistakes and too few friends.
Could someone tell me what Corbyn’s stance is, I really don’t know and no I’m not being sarcastic, it truly is that opaque.
Following on from Ian Patterson’s comment, above, it is important that LDV are not seen to big up either of the leadership contenders. In the interests of fairness, Newshound should also report on Ed’s recent newspaper contributions.
@ frankie
So – leaving aside Osborne’s relevance or otherwise – what should the next leader of our party do when s/he gets a call from the next Tory Prime Minister that says:
Your choice: prop us up, get creamed at the next general election (we Tories get smashed too) but have a Referendum on Brexit with remain on the ballot; or
2 immediate general election where Farage’s mob end up largest party in Parliament that probably leads to no deal Brexit. (Probably the most illiberal parliament since 1906).
They had better be war gaming this one and variants.
There has been discussion in the media and on these pages about who “won” the Euro Election – Remain or Leave parties. It seems to me that the group who “won” were those members of the electorate – some 60% – who didn’t vote. It seems important that the new leader of the Lib Dems should have something to say to them, no one else seems to be. Furthermore, please can it be something positive about the benefits of being part of a big group, rather than just predicting doom and disaster if we leave. That was where George Osborne and others lost the argument in 2016, in my view.
Tristan,
We don’t exist to prop up the Tories. They may squeal support us or get something worse, but by supportting them you are guaranteed to get somthing worse. We will effectively kill the party, the Tories may limp by for awhile but they will become the Brexit Party Mark II in a desperate attempt to out Farage, Farage and the country will be faced with them or Corbyn as nothing else exists. So no go no where near the Tories their desperately drowning party will drag anyone down who is stupid enough to try to help them.
I’m afraid we will never see Jason again, he is a seagull Brexiteer, they fly in dump a load of excrement and fly off when faced with facts. He is however useful, he illustrates the raw anger and emotion of a large number of Brexiteers. They don’t do facts, they are powered by anger and emotion. For decades they have been fed the illusion they are exceptional and special, but the reality is they are not. As the country struggles and their lives get worse and more precarious, they have reacted with a fury that Farage and his ilk have harrnessed. They are voting for a return to certainty and a time when they felt special, the problem is they are voting for more uncertainty and poverty. How do you tackle this, well show you care and stop bowing and scraping go the bubble elite. It matters not if you claim a major victory in equal marriage, if the average person of any sexuality can’t afford to commit to marriage due to poverty and the chronic uncertainty of their daily life. If you can’t bring stability and hope other achievements are worth nort and in fact are seen as at best an irrelevance at worst an insult. If you don’t build the foundations of a stable society anything else you build will be built on sand and will soon be washed away.