Abolition of the unelected House of Lords?
No more has-been Ministers and Bishops in Parliament without YOUR say so?
A truly fair voting system, where you get to choose between several candidates from each party?
Where you can put them in order (with the BNP last!).
A Government which takes the environmental crisis far more seriously than we have seen so far?
A Government which will get rid of Trident?
A Government whose respect for education is ‘bred in the bone’?
All this is possible NEXT WEEK!
If … just one in three current Labour supporters switch to the Liberal Democrats.
Now 1 in 3 is a lot. Maybe 30 million people will vote. Some already have. Labour, on current opinion polls will get around a quarter of those.
That’s 7.5 million. So we need 2.5million people to change their minds between now and polling day.
That’s a lot.
But is it too many, in the internet age?
The Labour vote is now softer than it has been for a century.
Many people think Brown is toast , including die-hard Labour voters. Some were devastated when The Guardian came out for us on Friday evening. It’s painful to read their comments, full of hurt and betrayal.
But our message – no Lords, no Trident, fair votes, green action, education – appeals to many of them.
What especially appeals is the prospect of keeping the Tories out!
A Liberal Democrat majority is a terrifying prospect for Rupert Murdoch and David Cameron.
Imagine the scenes at Labour and The Sun on Friday morning if there it happens!
The worst outcome possible for the Right!
This makes Labour people smile.
So pass this message on.
Facebook, Email, Bebo, Bing, Google, Twitter? For the first time in history, we have enthusiastic supporters connected to an easy-to-use communication system World Wide Web.
Almost 50,000 people – mostly young and en – are ‘fans of Nick Clegg’ on Facebook – and that’s just one Group!
Flame these sites, encouraging our supporters to pass this message on. Link to this page if you wish.
Tell them to contact their Labour-voting friends and relatives, with this message.
Ask them to flame Labour and left wing sites with this message.
Tell them where these sites are.
Rewrite my prose if you think it’s not up to the job. Or print it out for the unconnected.
But DO pass the message on.
A 2.5 million voter swing in the last week is a very tall order, but in the internet age it is Possible!
Believe it is Possible! And if it is Possible we owe it to ourselves to Try.
Another Liberal Democrat surge in the final week?
Yes we CAN!
* Terry Gilbert is a former Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate, and has been a Lib Dem member since 1983.
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14 Comments
Great article, Terry, although perhaps the meaning of the word “flame” is not quite what you meant?
You may be interested to know that in Shrewsbury, 33% of previous Labour voters we’ve spoken to have switched to us, according to our canvass data. That might be optimistic, but even so, you’re absolutely right to say that this kind of swing is possible. Labour’s vote is plunging.
“Yes we can!” referred to the election of a Black to leadership of a country riven by historical White-on-Black racism. Not the election of another Eton and/or Oxbridge kid (which, regardless of what one thinks of Gordon Brown, he is not).
Don’t have a problem with that. If anything, it’ll do away with Jenny Tonge.
There is a need for electoral reform. I’d be interested to examine it.
That sounds lovely.
This really should come with a caveat that the LibDems intend to retain a nuclear deterrent. The CND-type vote this claim is obviously designed to appeal to might have something to say about that. As would sticklers for the Non-Proliferation Treaty is, after finishing with nuclear plants, Clegg thinks we could purchase material from the USA.
I have no idea what that means.
Now, about stuff like New Deal and Sure Start and minimum wage (which, regardless of what one thinks of Labour, have been quite good)?
“Not the election of another Eton and/or Oxbridge kid …”
Nick Clegg was educated at Westminster, not Eton.
Hence the and/or bit.
@Andy – lol – clearly I’m too long in the tooth for this interweb thingy!
@Alec – ‘Bred in the bone’ is the Guardian’s phrase, not mine, though I presume they meant that L/liberals have traditionally valued intellectual achievement. Even reducing nuclear capability is surely a step in the right direction. We will set the minimum wage at the same level for all workers over 16 (except for those on apprenticeships). I can find no specific mention of either the New Deal or Sure Start in our manifesto (perhaps because these are flagship Labour policy labels) but there is considerable emphasis on employment creation (pp20-30) and youth employment creation in particular (p24), and also on pre-school children (pp 48-50) including a commitment to ‘protect existing childcare support arrangements until the nation’s finances can support a longer term solution [with] a move to 20 hours free childcare for every child, from the age of 18 months.’ And we’ve a commitment to spend £2.5bn on the Pupil Premium to increase funding for schools which take the most disadvantaged children(p34). While I myself have expressed reservations about Clegg’s public school background and direct understanding of poverty issues, I believe he clearly wins over Cameron in his willingness to do something about the latter. And as I went to Cambridge myself (albeit from a state school), I could hardly complain about him going to the best Uni in the world, now, could I? At least we won the Boat Race this year.
There is a link to the manifesto in various forms on the party’s main home page http://www.libdems.org.uk (once you get past the splash request for donations!), and the full version has a decent index and some costings at the end.
Hi,
Obviously we need VOTES:- Push the following:-
Mr. Clegg has experience in Europe so he could negotiate better than the others. Note it was the Tories who gave away our fisheries in order to get into the EU. Knock the Conservative VOTE.
The Euro;- Mr. Clegg could point out that had we joined at the beginning, our currency standing against the USD would be better than it is now. We may have been able to limit the “Fudging” of the rules that has caused the problems that Greece and others have. Win over the anti Europe VOTE.
MPs expense’s have been a gift to the Bankers in taking the spotlight from them. Company Law should be adequate to get some of those responsible for “Robbing” us, if not, change it. Everyone’s VOTE.
For personal investments; cut commissions and “Bonuses”. Fund Managers have not shown much in the way of special skills. Find ways to get big money back. Pensioner VOTE.
We are being robbed of interest on our savings! Savers VOTE.
Family breakdown is responsible for much of the “Antisocial” behaviour responsible for much of our loss of “Quality Of life”. Marriage is a “Contract” and also an unwritten contract with Society. Those who keep that contract should be rewarded. The married VOTE..
Point out the the Palestinians have been refugees in their OWN Country for 50 or more years. Muslim VOTE.
Regards,
Victor Whitworth
isn’t it time to have discussions with all the smaller party’s to vote for the liberal democrats , a small price to pay to have long term: fair voting system, fair banking system, fair taxation, fair distribution and balance of power ? For once humanity could have the party of their choice running the country with all the smaller party’s able to HAVE THEIR SAY ? and making a real difference in the running of this country.. For heaven’s sake why not make the moves that make a difference ?
happily we havent said we will get rid of Trident, we have said we won’t replace it. very different
Yes, Simon, that’s another ‘nuance’ I hadn’t specified. The CND-line is clearly the one which has been associated with the Party, and Clegg’s whopper about purchasing material from the US suggests it’s trying to run with both the fox and the hounds (and hasn’t really thought it through).
Also:
I still don’t know what it means. That it’s not in Labour’s bone? The Party which brought the increase in university education? And I would dispute that it’s in the bone of whatever lower-case liberalism is – it’s a position afforded by comfort. In fact the tendency to lionize thugs like Che Guevara or Mao, or mitigate/disregard the in-built catastrophic flaws in the ideologies they forced on entire populations points to an anti-intellectual bent.
Yet, either you think these policies/schemes were ill-founded (I don’t) or you think New Labour *has* had it’s high points. No other Party can take the credit for these any more than Labour can take the credit for Vince Cable.
It’s not Oxbridge itself, but the social background in general. Remember a similarly charming fellow being elected on a wave of optimism… when was it? Nineteen ninety-seven?
Jordan?
“Yes We Can!” Look, I know that Obama’s campaign was astounding but please lets invent some of our own slogans and stop borrowing from Obama!
Gina, I agree. But it’s really not that surprising that Clegg has been compared to Obama. Both have been immensely successful in a short space of time and both come from the same generation. I think there’s been a feeling across much of the Western World, for a few years now that we need a new politics and a new generation of politicians are gardually taking over.
I read this article in the Independent today, which pointed out that 2/3rds of Nato and EU leaders are from “Generation Jones”, the same generation as Clegg and Obama http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/jonathan-pontell-cleggs-rise-is-the-sound-of-generation-jones-clearing-its-throat-1961191.html
We live in interesting times
@Harry
That’s interesting. I’ve never really thought about the influence that the time you grow up has on your leadership style. Still, there’s no excuse for importing Obama’s slogans – even if they he and Clegg were “jonsin” as teens in the same era.
I think this Generation Jones aspect is quite interesting, although I agree that the less borrowed from Obama and the Yanks, the better in terms of sloganeering. I read that Independent opinion piece about Gen Jones, was quite good. I just did a bit of googling, found a lot of fascinating stuff. Best starting point I thought was: http://www.generationjones.org.uk/, although http://www.generationjones.co.uk/ is pretty good, too.