Dear Nick,
Well, not bad. The polls look better and on the doorstep I’ve not had a single person ask me why we got rid of Charles Kennedy.
The Bones Commission was a good idea. It was a less of a good idea to allow those who could be part of the problem (I only say could) set its remit. Equally, I’m not sure that the deadline for submissions was very generous and I don’t think the message got down to the grassroots. But let’s see what comes out of it. But it must be an interim step – to coin a Cableism our organisation must owe more to Trotsky (continuous revolution) than Stalin (continuous bureaucracy).
Meantime, when you want to monitor the state of opinion in the party, I would humbly suggest that Lib Dem Voice (especially the members’ forum) and the range of Lib Dem blogs available to read are probably a better indicator than Lib Dem News. I hasten to add I enjoy LD News immensely – it’s the Tardis of Liberalism.
100 days ago I raised the prospect of what you would say to David Cameron when the inevitable discussion took place about a future coalition. Of course, I don’t know if such a meeting took place, but you have made your position very public and for the time being the issue has been laid to rest. But make no mistake. As we get closer to the General Election and the polls get less volatile and much tighter, the issue will come up again and again.
You’ve made it through the first 100 days; 8 out of 10 so far. You have generated the right mood; you are seen as caring and authoritative without being strident or aggressive. It takes time to build the right public image, but as you have just decided to project your own persona you will do very well.
Turning to the future, you really must make sure your colleagues get out more. We need them on the streets helping us to build local strengths. If you want to win 150 seats over the next 10 years, a lot more work has to go into building up local parties. And next time there is a key vote in the House, just suggest they form a Conga behind you.
Finally, we should do well enough in the local elections in May and this will give you a springboard for what must be a campaigning summer. But the Tories will do well too, so we will have to continue to work our hardest. As for Labour, my suspicion is that they will wish they had banned local elections as a Blood Sport along with Fox Hunting…
Yours sincerely,
Martin Land
* Martin Land is a Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrat activist.
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5 Comments
Does Lib Dem News still exist? Great as it is, that thing needs a revamp.
Yes, and I enjoy it; something ‘gung-ho’ before the weekend!
“The polls look better”
Yes, so far this year the Lib Dems have scored between 16 and 21 per cent in the public opinion polls, compared to between 12 and 17 per cent in the last three months of 2007 and a 16 per cent average for the whole of last year.
It’s still very early days, but Nick’s own ratings still have some way to go. Populus on 7 – 9 March gave him a score of 4.16 on the “how good a leader scale”. This is the lowest rating ever for a Lib Dem leader. The following week, YouGov found that he had a satisfaction rating of minus 8 per cent. It must be said that the fieldwork for both polls was done in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty vote.
What’s more interesting is how many people still have no view about Nick Clegg – 28 per cent in the March Populus poll. This compares to 21 per cent for Ming Campbell at a similar point in his time as leader. YouGov in March found that 38 per cent had no opinion about Nick Clegg.
The priority is clear: to get Nick better known.
Neil, I would agree that Nick has not, as yet, made the progress in projecting his persona to the public that he will need to. However, I see that positively. Mainly because he is not trying to project a media image, but himself, it will take time, but it will pay dividends in the end. Think Paddy, rather than anyone else in this context. Like Cameron and unlike Kennedy or Campbell he has the advantage of coming to the leadership without an existing public perception, meaning that he has no baggage (chat-show charlie, elderly…)and that will also help him in the long term. He will become better known and I think, largely appreciated. The Tories dread him and for a reason. He is everything Cameron is, with one small additional element. Honesty. The Tories dread that.
Martin
Nick needs to project a genuine media image AND himself. I am confident he will do both.
The experience of Paddy and Charles is that the leader should and can pull our poll ratings up. To do that, he needs to be well known.
If his “don’t know” rating stays up around 30% for too long, the media will comment and that will become the story.