I’m interviewing @timfarronfor @adlibmag abt LibDem election prospects on Wed – what questions should I ask?
— Stephen Tall (@stephentall) January 8, 2013
What questions do you have for the party president on the party’s campaigning in the lead-up to 2015? Let me know, either below or via Twitter and I’ll try and make sure we cover it…
* Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.
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9 Comments
“When will a group of politicians in the party, local and national (ie NOT employees), get together to work out how we can develop a campaigning national party we can be proud of?”
In light of today’s votes in the House of Commons, can you define what you mean by “a party of competence and compassion”, and can you describe what such a party might look like?
Your predecessor as President said, “In terms of a moral imperative to tithe, my personal view that any one receiving a salary by virtue of holding office in the Party should make a contribution, subject to agreed exceptions for hardship etc.”. Would our election prospects be enhanced if Paul Burstow and other MPs would follow the recommendation of the report Paul co-authored for the party saying that all elected representatives should tithe from their allowances?
Will we be seeing campaigning begin to realise that times have changed for us the old ways are ok but not enough anymore? Are we going to see new techniques, more sophisticated campaigning being taught at conferences. Members, councillors and activists know we need to change, what are going to do to actually win again? We don’t win like we used to, we must not fall into the comfortable trap of blaming the coalition, that trend started long before 2010. When will the party acknowledge that the tried and trusted ways do not serve us as they used to and that we must learn to campaign differently?
How does one persuade activists to go out and campaign for MPs who have gone native to the Westminster bubble and voted for fundamentally illiberal Tory measures like secret courts?
Development on Connect seems to have stalled and many key bits of functionality are not available. Whilst some parts of the system (eg the phone bank side of things) are a major step forward from EARS, other aspects (such as handling of walks) are a retrograde step and require considerable additional work to produce appropriate mailings. Is Connect development being adequately resourced by the party?
What would he do to start communicating on national issues at a local level? Focus leaflets are all very well and play a key role in our popularity at local level, but in terms of putting information across about national matters, don’t we need a parallel leaflet “sub-brand” to work alongside Focus?
RC, have you never heard of the Dual Approach? I hope to G*d the President has!
Many thanks for your comments, folk – on here, Twitter and Facebook. I have my list of questions for Tim… plus some of my own 🙂