We’re entering nosebleed heights. Here’s what Austin Rathe, from party HQ, just told members:
This is absolutely incredible: since last Thursday, 10,000 people have joined the Liberal Democrats to begin the fight back.
Here’s some of the reasons they gave for joining:
Charity from Edinburgh said, “I joined the Lib Dems because Nick Clegg was right in his speech – we need liberal values now more than ever.”
Like many Lib Dem voters, supporters and sympathisers, I spent much of the weekend lurching between disbelief and despondency, and genuinely worried whether the party could or would ever recover. In an effort to cheer myself up I went for a walk in the countryside only to encounter an ironic sea of yellow dandelions. Initially, it felt as if nature itself was mocking me, but in retrospect the vivid spring flowers seem provide a wonderful analogy of what the party needs to achieve if it is going to pick itself up and thrive again.
Traditionally, the Liberal Democrats have punched …
These are devastating results for the Liberal Democrats. All of us are completely shell shocked.
All party members must have a say in our future strategy and new leader. I have clear views on what we need to do and am intending to stand for leader.
As a long-time supporter of the Liberal Democrats I decided to join the party about two weeks before polling day. I was a member of the BBC project “Generation 2015” which was giving young people aged 18 – 24 the chance to get their voices heard and put across what matters to them when it comes time to cast their – or should I say our – votes and I came across so many passionate people my age and some a lot younger than me who were members of the parties they supported. Even though those who had the most influence on me were members of the Conservatives and the Labour party their support was one of the main reasons I wanted to join my party and make a difference.
Looking at the wreckage of our electoral hopes, the defeat of MPs of massive talent and commitment who have served their constituencies well, it is hard for all of us not to feel angry. A lot of that anger spills through in the post hoc analysis as we seek to distribute blame and identify the critical errors made.
I suspect that in years to come people will still argue about what went wrong and when, but certainly at the moment its all too raw to arrive at objective,dispassionate conclusions that all will accept.
From the crossroads of shock and grief lead two paths: on one lies anger and resentment, on the other, resolute determination to progress.
It is that latter path that liberal-minded people, and the Liberal Democrat party that provides their best home, must now take.
On the Guardian Comment is Free, David Steel has a must-read article with remarkably perspicacious observations:
Norman Lamb has this evening confirmed that he will be a candidate in the leadership election.
It is widely expected that Tim Farron will also put his name forward, but he has not confirmed that yet. Nominations will not formally open until this Wednesday and will close on 3rd June.
The full timetable for the leadership election is here. Anyone who has joined the party by 3rd June may vote.
An amazing 8000 people have already joined, or rejoined, since polling day. You can join here.
I joined the Liberal Democrats as a Scottish Liberal Party member on merger and have held a membership ever since. Like many, I am keen to turn my grief at last Thursday’s results (and, being honest, the results of the last Scottish Parliament elections too) into determination that liberalism is too important to be allowed to die. But, unlike the much appreciated surge of new members, I can’t join a party I am already a member of.
“David Cameron will launch a 100-day policy offensive…” states the Sunday Times, reporting on the Conservatives’ predicted assault on Europe and Human Rights just days after they secured the most surprising election victory in living memory.
While Liberal Democrat and Labour Party opinion-formers are calling for internal debates on the future of their respective parties, the Conservatives are moving in and preparing to push through legislation that is dangerous, destructive and most of all, frightening.
The Human Rights Act (HRA) should be esteemed as highly as the NHS. Receiving Royal Assent in 1998, the HRA is, in my view, the cornerstone of …
I know all the attention is on the Leadership at the moment, but I think it’s worth considering the Deputy Leadership, particularly as our 8 MPs will be discussing this tomorrow night. My guess is that they just won’t bother electing a deputy at this point before we have a leader. That would certainly be the sensible thing to do. However, I think that we should do something different.
The Deputy Leader is, in fact, “The Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons.” This post is only referred to in passing in Article 9 of the Federal Constitution:
I think we should open up the post of Deputy Leader to a much wider pool. Peers, MSPs, AMs, London Assembly Members, MEPs, Mayors and Councillors should be able to stand with the electorate being that whole group of people. There are two reasons for that.
First of all, it makes us less Westminster-centric and shows that we value all the levels of government equally, as ends in themselves.
Secondly, it might well give us a more diverse leadership team. Our Commons party is all-male, all-white and are pretty much all around the same age.
A view from the Dutch Social Liberals (D66)
Before I dive into my analysis of the present British political instability, my commiserations with all the LibDem activists (& dogs), cadres, councillors and parliamentary candidates who got caught in the pincer of
We in D66 got clobbered in the same way when we participated in our first government coalition (1973-’77; D66 was founded in 1966), but that was because we simultaneously attempted a realignment of Dutch progressive politics via a merger …
Only four days after the cataclysm, already there’s a rosy (garden?) hue about our ignominious performance – martyrs to the cause of the Coalition, country before self-interest, fallen heroes. History will be kinder to us than the electorate. If we are ever going to recover from our nemesis, this is a very dangerous mindset.
Of course it was always going to be tough being in Coalition with the Conservatives, and a price was always going to be paid. But as Lord Steel said right after Nick Clegg’s moving farewell speech, it wasn’t the Coalition itself that destroyed trust in us and …
Where can the Liberal Democrats start to rebuild? How can they reassert their identity as a party with a distinctive philosophy? How do they remind voters that they can make a real difference? The answers can in part be found in an unexpected place.
It’s worth remembering that there are two Houses in Parliament. And, treating cross-benchers as neutral, the House of Lords now has an opposition majority of something like 90-100. Every single piece of legislation that Mr Cameron wants to introduce will not only have to negotiate his own wafer-thin majority in the Commons, but this hurdle in what MPs call “the other place” too.
Here’s where the 101 Liberal Democrat peers can make a difference. Now they are no longer shackled to the compromises of coalition, they can act entirely on the basis of liberal and social democratic principles. They can also be watchdogs for the “one nation” principle that Mr Cameron says he wants to honour.
It’s been a few days now and hopefully most of the hurt is over, though for some it’ll take a long time. Jobs have been lost and decades of work finished overnight. The country lost some of its best MP’s, and we lost some of the best of our own.
I’ve heard a lot of people saying that we’re dead. We’re wiped out in politics. Insignificant. Clearly the 6000 people who have joined us didn’t get that particular memo. And it’s lit a fire in me personally and I’m sure many more people feel similarly invigorated.
Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Willie Rennie, and Welsh Liberal Democrats leader Kirsty Williams, have today endorsed Tim Farron to be the next leader of the federal Liberal Democrats.
In a joint statement, they said:
Thursday’s results were devastating for the Liberal Democrats.
Our pain is eased by the knowledge that our liberal gains in government will endure.
Despite our loss our party remains optimistic, hopeful and confident about what we can achieve on behalf of Britain.
However, we now have to earn the right to be listened to again.
To move forward we need a fresh start. With that in mind we call on Tim Farron
…
I am one of the many who quit the party in 2010, and for what I felt were good reasons. I could not conceive that my party – who stood for true liberalism, who I believed fought for the downtrodden and the exploited – would go into a coalition with a partner who was so against my core beliefs.
I regret that now. I regret not staying and fighting what I saw as the inevitable descent. I regret not becoming one of the few party members speaking out against a coalition deal. I regret not attempting to convince our party against …
This is by way of a pre-rebuttal …
Here at LDV we have been overwhelmed by wonderful contributions from readers, and it is taking time for us to go through them all, so please bear with us. As the Monday editor I have been sifting through about thirty posts just today. Not surprisingly, many of them make very similar points, so I am trying to select ones that add something new to the debate.
So please understand if we don’t respond immediately to you, or are unable to post your contribution.
We have a similar issue with comments. Every time I check the comments …
Since 10pm on election night I have been in utter despair. I joined the party five years ago at the age of 10 and I was told that the Lib Dems would never be in Government. I was overjoyed when Nick Clegg walked into Downing Street in 2010. By contrast, I was in tears when Nick resigned. Since then I have been thinking about how the party can learn from mistakes and move on.
My starting point is what Nick said in his resignation speech, ‘Fear and grievance have won, and liberalism has lost.’ The first thing the party has to do is to rehabilitate the concept of liberalism because it has been stolen by parties of other persuasions. This can only be done by defining our core voter base. Our liberalism was not differentiated from the politics of austerity and the scare tactics of the Tories. The Tories evoked a Hobbesian scenario which seems to have worked. Nick is absolutely right in saying that liberalism is not faring well against the politics of fear.
As the dust settles from Thursday, one key question is what will David Cameron do with his unexpected Conservative majority? Here are a couple of predictions for the upcoming Parliament.
Where the £30bn of proposed cuts will fall is largely unknown until the autumn. Health spending is protected though – which means bigger cuts elsewhere, such as £12bn to welfare. The only bright spot could be the linking of the personal allowance to the national minimum wage – raising it to around £13,000 pa.
On the Social Liberal Forum website, David Howarth (who was MP in Cambridge before Julian Huppert) has been telling us five things that we should never do again:
and three things we should do now:
As I said tonight, our plan is working – and securing a better future for families across Britain. Let’s keep going. #BattleForNumber10
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) March 26, 2015
Throughout his campaign, David Cameron argued that the success of his government was evidence that voters should continue to support the Conservatives.
Want more of the same, to continue on this path? Vote Conservatives, he said.
And voting Conservative was exactly what English voters did, giving Cameron’s party a completely unexpected majority. With fear of what Labour had done to the economy in the past, and the threat of the SNP and the Greens at the extreme Left, this promise rang as hope, security and comfort in the ears of moderate-thinking voters.
I’ve already had journalists ring me up to ask when was the last time Liberals did so badly. The answer is 1970, when the Liberal Party won six seats on the back of 2.1 million votes, 7.5 per cent of those who voted. Last week’s result was similar: eight seats from 2.4 million votes, 7.9 per cent of those who voted.
There are other parallels. The opinion polls in 1970 had pointed consistently to a victory for Harold Wilson’s outgoing Labour government; Ted Heath’s win for the Conservatives came as a considerable surprise. On the other hand, then the polls underestimated …
An email came out from Chief Executive Tim Gordon today outlining the timetable for the election of the new leader.
I am in awe of these members of staff who have been working like mad for months on end and are still keeping going through this weekend. They are brilliant. I know this is utterly churlish on my part but I feel I must, though, point out that dates with “of” in them make me feel a tiny bit queasy.
Here it is in full:
Dear Caron,
Following the agreement of the Federal Executive and the party’s returning officer I am pleased to be able to confirm to you the timetable for the election of a new party leader.
Opening of nominations 13th of May 2015 Close of nominations 3rd of June 2015 Dispatch of ballot papers 24th of June 2015 Deadline for ballot papers to be returned 15th of July 2015 Count and declaration of the winner 16th of July 2015 Any member who joins the party before the close of nominations is able to vote in the election, so this is a fantastic time to ask local supporters and former members to join the party. The easiest way for them to join is online at www.libdems.org.uk/join.If you have any questions regarding this process, please get in touch via www.libdems.org.uk/contact.Best wishes,Tim Gordon
Chief ExecutivePS. You’ll have heard from Austin earlier that this morning our membership passed 50,000. People are joining us today who have never been involved before, and everyone who joins now is going to get a vote in the leadership election. So why not forward this email to a few friends now and ask them to join? All they need to do is go to www.libdems.org.uk/join.
Dear Nick
Can I start by saying that possibly unlike the rest of the party right now, I actually feel a surge of optimism.
I have been a LibDem voter since the last election and an active supporter for all of 18 months.
I started off sceptically. My husband had found a party that mirrored his values and so had divorced Labour and set his sights on the LibDems.
I was a little overwhelmed. I hadn’t been indoctrinated at my mother’s knee so felt something of an outsider who didn’t know the history, in jokes, culture, or people.
However when I attended conference and actually experienced policy making first hand things started to change. Here was genuine debate, all angles considered and joy of joys voted on by party members! I had a voice!
So I supported my husband when he took the decision to stand against George Osborne, despite him already having a demanding full time job, 3 hour commute and not a hope in hell of winning!
I was the first of our delegation to reach Oslo, having concluded that there was little I could practically do to help at home by then and, arriving at the venue for the Friday evening fringe meeting, I was braced for the questions. “What went wrong? What will happen now? Who will be the new leader?”. And yes, I expected some sympathy, although the offer of political asylum in Norway was unexpectedly kind.
Perhaps, just perhaps, opening the event with a debate on the future of Liberal Europe was just a little too raw given events at home, but I did take the opportunity to ask the panel the question, “My political party has just suffered a near-death experience. What single piece of advice would you give me?”. The answer, rebuild from the floor. Rebuild your branch structure, develop some clear, liberal messages, give your members and activists something to believe in and campaign for.
We’re really struggling right now, and I know that. Even the sorry few who managed to keep their seats are looking at a pretty rough time over the next 5 years. 2015 has been a bad year for us, as liberals, so what can we do to fix that?
One of the best things about the Lib Dems is that we know we can bounce back in the face of adversity. Yes, it’s not been as tough as this in a long time, but we’re made of sterner stuff. We’re not going to roll over and let this be it.
I spent far too many hours out on doorsteps recently, in the gorgeous sunshine and the pouring rain, chapping on doors and persuading lovely people to vote for us. And I learned a lot. I learned that there are some die-hard supporters out there – some who will not change their vote, the vote that their fathers and even grandfathers made all their lives. And sometimes that works in our favour (yay – a life-long Lib Dem) and sometimes it doesn’t (“I’ll vote Labour like my father before me”, a favourite line from my grandmother of all people). These people are never going to change, although my gran has reliably informed me that she would vote for me if I ever stood as a candidate, even as a liberal!
About an hour after Nick Clegg resigned I received a long letter by email on behalf of SLF essentially blaming the ‘Orangebookers’ for the poor Lib Dem results.
I would like to suggest that all sections of the party consider the possibility that it was not an issue of left or right. Maybe neither the left or right of the party were to blame, but that, with benefit of hindsight, there were other factors. My top 5. Other views ?
1. Obviously being in Coalition was difficult especially with our more anti-Tory supporters and Labour-facing seats…Tory ‘bedroom tax’ and ‘work-ready’ interviews for the disabled are among the most tricky on the doorstep. LD left & right had failed to counter the obvious opprobrium arising from these & other Tory policies – both in policy adjustment/veto AND in campaigning.
2. The ‘in between the two’ strategy was too negative …”vote for us because we will stop others doing stuff”, rather than what WE wanted to do post-May 2015. This was a hard sell to make pithy. ‘Stopping extremes’ was weak, since most did not see Tory or Labour as extreme.
3. We countered ‘stop Labour/SNP’ with ‘stop Tory/UKIP’ in Tory-facing seats. No-one believed however that UKIP could be coalition partners with one or two seats, on the doorstep. This strategy was a dud and left us vulnerable, and without a more credible response.
The 2015 election is certainly not one to remember for the Liberal Democrats. Losing many great MP’s like David Laws and Vince Cable will certainly take a long time to recover from, but what exactly went wrong and why did we do much worse than forecast.
There is no doubt that the Conservative tactics of pitting England against Scotland worked for them. The idea of a Labour-SNP coalition was too much for many centre ground floating voters who voted tactically for them. Instead of defending their record and talking about the real issues the Conservatives instead spent the campaign promoting English nationalism and spreading fear. This tactic did for many of our MPs in Tory-LD marginal in the southern regions of England. Whilst it has worked in the short term it will cause problems for David Cameron over the course of the next parliament as he governs a hugely divided country with little support north of the border.
About 80 people an hour have been joining the party since the polls closed on Thursday, taking membership levels back up to those last seen in about 2011. Even the 2010 surge following the leaders debate only took membership up to just over 60,000, so if these extraordinary increases continue we may find ourselves completely reversing all the decline that occurred in the first couple of years of the coalition.
Party chief executive Tim Gordon has just emailed members with the timetable for the leadership election that will now take place (see below) and all those who join the party before 3 June will be able to vote.
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