I’ve always been a massive fan of Tim Farron. Like many, it started off watching his 2014 Conference Speech as Lib Dem President and only grew as I saw him being awarded Lib Dem MP of the year by the PatchWork foundationand fighting along side Caroline Lucas to improve mandatory PSHE in Schools over that year. It’s for that reason that, when I saw all these articles titling Tim as the ‘Bookies Favourite of next LD Leader’, I knew I would support his leadership campaign, whenever it may be, wholeheartedly. It was a small glimmer of hope on May 8th, now knowing that I could campaign for a politician I truly believed in to lead the party I had just stood for and lead us back to double figures of MPs and beyond. Last Thursday night that campaign came to a close.
It was an electrifying speech he gave at the rally, on a par with 2014’s at Conference. Checking twitter afterwards to see people literally leaving their parties to join the Lib Dems as a result of watching just confirmed to me how gregarious Tim can be, and how astoundingly he can get the Lib Dem message across. If we can have even 1/2 of that enthusiasm conveyed in every by-election that we stand in over the next few years, I’m confident we’ll see us winning those councillors, MPs & MEP’s that Tim alluded to us gaining.
However, I am happy it wasn’t a coronation as some commentators suggested it would be. The leadership election truly showed both candidates at their best and, although it didn’t stop me supporting Tim, I discovered there’s no-one I’d rather come second to him than Norman Lamb. Norman was able to capitalise on the amazing work he’d done in government on ensuring the Ministry of Heath takes Mental Health seriously, and rightly so – it’s an incredible achievement. He most certainly still has a huge role to play in the party, his ‘power to the people’ pamphlet released during the campaign shows he is certainly not short on ideas for the party and I hope Tim looks to incorporate some of these into the party himself.
Tim Farron is definitely the best person to rebuild the Liberal Democrats, however he obviously can’t do it alone. Looking inward during the Leadership election did at some points make me forget how desolate the outside world is to us at the moment. Despite making gains at almost every by-election we campaigned in since the election, we’re still fighting to be heard in the press in the way we used to. We all need to make sure that our campaigns for Human Rights, the EU and for affordable housing get heard across the country. If you’re ever short on enthusiasm while campaigning I’d recommend you pull up one of Tim’s speeches on YouTube to remind yourself why you’re doing it.
* Callum Delhoy was the Liberal Democrat candidate for Daventry in the 2015 General Election and is active in Liberal Youth
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5 Comments
Very positive, inspiring and loyal Callum
Just what we need at this time I’d say!
Thank you for sharing your views and (in my opinion) wise words with us
I Tim’s potential many years ago, and wrote to him to says so, hence I am really pleased that he has made it to the Leadership. He has a brilliant act to follow, though with his own unique flavour, and I just hope that. like Nick he has the strength to withstand all that will be thrown at him, and the energy to withstand the negativism that he will meet. I just hope that the few on our own side who will now snipe at him, as they did at Nick, will learn that constructive criticism should be a private matter. When conducted publicly is divisive and destructive, and so dispiriting for all of us..
I saw….
Good article Callum. I too have the result I wanted but really want Norman to have a strong role in redeveloping the party. As well as in campaigning I believe we need Tim’s fire when we develop policies to give people hope. I wouldn’t worry about the lack of media attention, that can be helpful while we reform ourselves internally and the media haven’t exactly ignored our leadership election. I think it was the lovely David Penhaligon who told us not to rely on the media but to write down what we were doing on a piece of paper and stick it through people’s doors. Technology has moved on since then but the principle’s the same.
Great article Callum. I confess I was watching the event on TV and thinking, ‘that guy is smiling so much his jaws are going to ache’! But isn’t it great when someone like Tim can have such a positive impact on people. I wish I could have been there because I imagine it really did feel ‘electrifying’. I think we have exciting times ahead!