Tag Archives: campaigns

Today is Thank your Campaign Organiser Day

Lib Dem campaign organisers are amazing.

They work incredibly hard. Those who do get paid for it don’t get paid nearly enough  for what is effectively a project management job. They have to herd the Lib Dem cats to deliver objectives on the way to electoral success.

They are so dedicated to their jobs, too. I will never forget the day one young organiser, who had been led astray by older and less wise party activists (for once, not me), turning up at the office about 3 hours after they went to bed a little green around the gills to spend the day in a room with a thumping risograph churning out thousands of leaflets.

If you are moaning about tiredness and sore feet as most of us are at this stage of an election, your organiser will have been up before you to make sure you have what you need to do your bit of the job and will be going to bed after you because they need to clear up and prepare for the next day.  And, often, because the organiser is the one pulling everything together, they get caught in the crossfire of competing ideas and ambitions, so they require diplomatic skills of UN standard.

I am sure that many of you will have stories of appreciation to share about your organisers in the comments. Ours in Edinburgh West, Ed, is a total diamond who makes you want to get out there and knock on doors. He is efficient and calm and you just don’t want to let him down. At Conference, I found out from his university colleagues that he would have them out there canvassing no matter how hungover they were.

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Director of Elections Hilary Stephenson to leave after Spring Conference

Director of Elections Hilary Stephenson is to leave the Liberal Democrats soon after Spring Conference.

This news comes a few months after a staff reorganisation which saw many key campaigners, including Austin Rathe, Victoria Marsom and Steve Jolly leave LDHQ.

Hilary is a long-time friend and colleague of leader Tim Farron. He is known to credit her for his victory in Westmorland and Lonsdale and with supporting the local team to the point where they run the council by a significant margin.

Chief Executive Tim Gordon praised Hilary:

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Opinion: Regaining lost trust – the five-year campaign trail ahead

 

We all know the gloomy picture: I don’t need to re-hash the scale of our losses, or present you with the same statistics you know so well. Let’s leave it like this: we don’t just have to win back seats and votes.

We have to find a way to win back lost trust, in the face of anger, disappointment and – perhaps worst of all – plain disinterest.

That means finding a way to signal a clear break with the past, but without disowning the party’s achievements in government. It means offering a distinctive alternative to the Tories and Labour, but without chasing after protest votes. And above all, it means working out what we can say to make people listen, when many don’t even want to give us the time of day.

So – how should we go about it?

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 35 Comments

Eight ways to help Team LD win gold in 2015

The Olympics can be like politics.  The public remember a single moment of triumph or disaster.  But much of the fight to reach the winner’s podium is the years of relentless training.

Parliamentary elections are similar.  Any Liberal Democrat who hopes to become an MP with a half-hearted six month campaign is living in denial.  It takes years, working to build up the local organisation, meeting the electorate, month in, month out.

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