15 Comments

• alex 6th Apr '08 - 9:37pm

  I don’t think that the Party could have done much more to remind people about the need to get ballot papers back by the deadline. I got at least three reminders and saw lots more on LDV, the Party site etc etc.

  There has to be a deadline to any postal ballot. As the late papers were never counted – either officially or unofficially – then this story is bollocks and anyone pushing it further (hello Mr Dale) is simply muckraking.

• Rob F 6th Apr '08 - 9:42pm

  20 minutes after the declaration someone put this same theory to me on the basis of no evidence at all. Sounds like they haven’t let go.

• Mark Wright 7th Apr '08 - 12:11am

  I voted for Huhne, but the die is already cast. Noone in Huhne’s camp would seriously be suggesting there should be a re-run, it would be insane to do so.

  There always has to be a deadline. Those after the deadline miss out. There are always some. There is no way of knowing beforehand who would get the advantage from lost votes, so it is pointless to get upset about it.

• Bob Shaw 7th Apr '08 - 7:09am

  Only 11 hours late with this story Alex.

• Oranjepan 7th Apr '08 - 7:44am

  Here we go again – corporate media interest behaves provocatively out of commercial interest.

  I don’t think we LibDems should pay much attention to this kind of drivel because the personality of our figurehead is less important to us than the issues at stake.

  It is forever being confirmed to me how united we are as a party, because we understand the benefits of working as a team, each with our respecive roles to play.

  Ego might be a factor at an individual level, but our shared goals are far more important – would a committee man like Ming Campbell have put himself forward to be a leader previously unless there was an interim need?

  There is a moral in the course of the election campaign (part-debacle and part-triumph) that lead to Ming’s victory and there was a real undercurrent of debate about how the method of politics determines the result.

  We can look at Labour and see how they were successful under Blair while they were more than a one-man-band. Similarly, now that the real power behind Blair’s throne has assumed the premiership himself the regime is beginning to unravel as the constraints of any individual ability become apparent.

• asquith 7th Apr '08 - 9:23am

  Pathetic.

• Jennie 7th Apr '08 - 10:59am

  Why is the Indy, of all papers, trying to make us splodey? Are they trying to save on sponsor money for Conference or something?

• Roberts 7th Apr '08 - 12:29pm

  Someone – hopefully not inside the Lib Dems isintent on causing trouble. Shame on them. Some votes – in every poll- arrive too late to be counted – must accept that – only Mugabe would dispute it !! Late votes are not counted – there is no way of saying more would go to one candidate than the other – ERS is a professional, hugely respected organisation. By the way the Indy’s got it wrong when they quote the “Electoral Commission” – no involvement whatsoever. Nick Clegg is our elected leader and must be given the opportunity to lead without these daft allegations.

• Sesenco 7th Apr '08 - 1:03pm

  It is difficult to see how a 500 vote defecit could be turned around by 1,300 uncounted ballot-papers.

• Mike Smithson 7th Apr '08 - 2:36pm

  What was dumb was to time the ending of a postal ballot bang in the middle of the week before Christmas when the whole postal system goes haywire.

  My guess is that many of the 1300 votes could have been posted a fortnight beforehand or even longer. What happens is that they get help up all along the line but mostly at the end main sorting office. Here they are processed by the batch so that the Freepost costs can be worked out.

  I raised this point last November.

  The problem now is that Clegg’s victory is not seen to be legitimate and it could all have been avoided if someone in Cowley Street had looked at the calendar and concluded that December 18th was a stupid day to close a postal ballot.

• cgp 7th Apr '08 - 3:06pm

  It’s a bit pointless blaming the newspaper for printing the story, if it’s been given to them by two party “insiders” – to say nothing of an MP obliging with “Oh God” and comments about Bush and Gore.

  Chris Phillips

• wit and wisdom 7th Apr '08 - 3:06pm

  Clegg won fair and square under the rules accepted by both sides. There is no question over his leadership at all.

• David Morton 7th Apr '08 - 5:06pm

  But its a not a coincidence that this has surfaced now is it ? And the Lib Dem MP knew exactly what he/she was doing with the Bush/Gore/Florida analogy didn’t they?

  I leave any further comment to the private forum.

• Paul L 7th Apr '08 - 7:55pm

  I don’t think this will fly as Chris Huhne is certainly not going to push it and Nick Clegg is not a disaster.

  We just have to knuckle down and get on with building the party.

  We can’t have the media telling us to change leaders again… that really would be the death knell.

• AmusedTory 14th Apr '08 - 11:17pm

  Clegg is a complete disaster surely?! Certainly the other major parties view him as a gift…