This is the post I wrote 365 days ago that went live as 2015 dawned.
Despite all our efforts, it ended up being one of the worst years ever to be a Liberal Democrat. The devastation of election night, followed less than a month later by the death of Charles Kennedy could have knocked the stuffing out of us. In many ways, we are still grieving and adjusting to our new circumstances, while simultaneously engaged in that #libdemfightback.
There are huge challenges ahead of us in this coming year – the Welsh and Scottish elections, the London Mayoral election and local elections, as well as the EU Referendum and making sure that all these new members stick with us. Where the referendum is concerned, it will be up to us to make the case to remain a positive one and not a choice that people are scared into making.
Thankfully, we have a leader who is very good at articulating what liberalism is all about and who is good at getting himself and the party noticed. We have many committed long standing activists and new campaigners all over the country. If we can harness that energy and articulate a bold, radical message, we may even take some steps forward, but we shouldn’t kid ourselves that we’ll make any more than that. The giant leap will take more time but there is a determination to claw our way back.
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