I’ve been a member of the Liberal Democrats for two years now. When I saw the leaflets Phil Woolas produced to win Oldham East and Saddleworth in May, it made me angry. When he was expelled from Parliament, I decided to make the trip to help out.
It’s not the quickest journey for me by public transport from Bakewell, Derbyshire (2 trains, 1 tram and 4 hours to be precise!) but I’ve already met people who have travelled just as far and some from even further afield.
I’ve met so many new people here. It’s been a great chance to make new friends in the party. Everyone here is volunteering over weekends and late into the evening.
On the doorstep you can see the difference that help early on is making. Our chances of winning go up with each hour of help.
Everyone I have met is saying that Polling Day could be just 7 or 8 working days after the New Year break. That means we have to win before Christmas, or we risk running out of time afterwards.
You can find out details of how to get to the HQ here.
I’ll be back before Christmas, and again in the New Year, to help teach Labour that stirring up divisions in communities is unacceptable, and to put another Liberal Democrat voice in Parliament.
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20 Comments
I too was in Oldham East and Saddleworth this weekend, after the 6/7 hour journey from Edinburgh!
The campaign team is working incredibly hard, and there is a real buzz about the place – but not enough volunteers! Get yourself down there.
Well done Ruth, and thank you!
I am doing some telephone canvassing from home. I would urge other party members several hours away from Oldham to do the same, if they don;t feel able to make the journey.
This election will be won or lost on the telephone and doorstep. Yes – we need to get the literature out but the most important thing is convincing the Tories to vote for us. If you know people who are good canvassers – ie in getting Tories to switch – please implore them to get to Oldham – or get some canvassing packs. I think we will win – and just think what such a victory will do for everybody across the country.
After tomorrow what will be the difference between a Lib-Dem and a Tory? I heard Paddy Ashdown today on the BBC iplayer answering a students legitimate concerns in such a patronising and dishonest way that I lost a considerable amount of respect for him. This was a man who used to garner respect and to see him now shilling for the Tories slash and burn policies seems to me the ultimate political debasement and for me a sure sign that political principle means very little these days.
Ruth-
I am sorry to be the one to tell you: but the Lib Dems will be a poor third, perhaps even fourth in this election.
This one is between red and blue and I suspect it will be a win for red. The country is back to two party politics basically.
It is a real shame your coalition agreement negotiators (sic) did not get an STV option on the ER referendum ballot paper- amongst other things….
So you’re party has moved on from ‘vote lib dem to keep the tories out ‘ to ‘vote lib dem to keep labour out’ , how very sad.
More a case of ‘Vote Lib Dem to keep the Tories in’.
Sorry can’t do that and will never do so. The specific circumstances of this seat may help you do better than predicted but if you do badly here then god help you elsewhere, especially the North
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Oldham East & Saddleworth is yet another reason why Liberal Democrat MPs must vote against the Browne Report tonight.
I helped in the Littleborough & Saddleworth byelection in 1995 (under a blazing sun), and I would love the Liberal Democrats to win Oldham East & Saddleworth next January. But I would love it even more if we were not propping up Cameron’s right-wing Tory government and Clegg was not our leader.
“I’ll be back before Christmas, and again in the New Year, to help teach Labour that stirring up divisions in communities is unacceptable, and to put another Liberal Democrat voice in Parliament”.
HA HA HA HA HA HA
The Lib Dems are going to be slaughtered in this by election and Mr Watkins will wish he’d never brought the case in the first place. It’s Labour’s replacement for Phil Woolas who’ll be celebrating, mark my words….
Realist, more like naive. Do you really think the Tories are goign to campaign here ?
I don’t give a hang where our votes come from, as long as we get them! It seems logical that in present circumstances we should be aiming to win over former Conservative voters, especially in a seat such as this where we were such a close second to Labour. There must be many ‘soft’ Conservatives who may be prepared to vote for us now that we are proving ourselves in government.
peter Laubach, why are you looking for the soft Tory vote ?. After today theres more chance you’ll get thr right wingers of Tory voters vote for you. But its good to see you don’t care where your votes come from as long as you get them. Why not try enticing some BNP voters as well whilst your at it, i daresay they way you change your policies you could accommodate them in some way.
Vince, why is it not acceptable to obtain the votes of former Conservative voters but ok (I assume you infer) to obtain those of former Labour voters? We well know that our ‘core vote’ is only probably in the region of say 14%.
Peter Laubach, where did i say it was not acceptable to gain votes from anywhere ?. All i was highlighting that your party has so lurched far to the right you have more chance of getting right wing voters than you do soft tories.
@Peter Laubach ”
I don’t give a hang where our votes come from, as long as we get them!”
Hmmmm, Clegg had this tactic with the student vote and now look at the streets of London! You are going to be up against an anti Lib Dem campaign in this bi-election after today and none of that will be lies.
I think there is an excellent chance of the Lib Dems winning-over a lot of Conservative voters in Oldham East and Saddleworth. But not, I think, enough to make up for the Lib Dem voters you’ll be losing (either to Labour or to staying at home).
Thankfully I feel it is a foregone conclusion that Labour will be victorious in Oldham East. Do you really think any working class or lower middle class people, the two groups who make up the substantial population of the constituency, are ever going to trust Liberal Democrats again after the treachery shown yesterday?
Sheffield Rob – I’d be phenomenally surprised if we came third in OE&S.
Perhaps we can reconvene here in January after the result? I’ll admit it if you are right – will you have the courage to admit you were wrong when the Lib Dems come first or a close second?
Annie, I certainly didn’t mean that we should induce people to vote for us by telling them things we know we are not in fact going to do. However, I don’t think that’s what actually happened during the GE, even when it came to signing those Pledges.
I believe that those back-benchers who had signed the Pledge and voted No last night did the ‘right’ thing, but that members of the Government who had signed should have abstained, as was provided for in the Coalition Agreement.
As for OE&S, I have expectations ranging from coming third (or worse) to actually winning, but I remain of the view that we will only win by getting the votes of significant numbers of ‘soft’ Conservatives and I fail to see what is wrong with that when, apart from Orkney & Shetland, there isn’t a single constituency where we can really say we have a natural overall majority of electoral support.