Tag Archives: grassroots activism

Party membership – let’s get real

All the political parties seem to be having trouble with membership issues at present for different reasons.

Both the Labour and Conservative Parties have problems with factionalism and racism which Liberal Democrats do not. We have little factionalism and are happily united behind Vince, but membership is not big enough and not active enough. However, membership nationally is way over twice what is what in 2012 and in Liverpool is at its highest since the Party was formed more than twenty-five years ago.

Our problem is that not enough of the members are really active. In Liverpool, we have made massive progress …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 33 Comments

Opinion: We need to grab our current luck and champion the Lib Dems

Far too often, information about the work our ministers are doing reaches us, and the general public, through a cloud of white noise created by the media. The information that we local activists get from Lib Dem HQ can be drowned out by what we read and hear elsewhere. It’s often difficult to tease out our ministers’ achievements in government from the work of the government as a whole. But in the past few weeks we seem to have found a way of dispersing our uncertainty and showing the public that we stand for something tangibly different from our coalition partners.

The discussion about energy policy offers a way of unlocking the conundrum we have faced for the past two and a half years. How do we remain constructive partners in coalition, while reassuring voters that we are different from the Tories?

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 8 Comments

Opinion: People power – a different kind of coalition

In the face of rapidly declining membership of political parties we – along with the other parties – face a challenge to survive.

In the past we have prospered as a membership led organisation, supported by a national network of volunteers and activists. Our revenue is derived from a combination of membership fees, donations and small scale fundraising.

Above all else we are members of a party that exists to promote and further our values by electing Liberal Democrats to all tiers of government – local and national. We are not a pressure group or a single issue party.

In light of drastically …

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 38 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Nigel Jones
    @Vince, your nuanced approach makes some sense and as you say it is a complicated situation. If we get gas from the Jackdaw field and not importing it, does tha...
  • Nigel Jones
    I agee with your main argument. We do not need to support many pensioners with the triple lock and those who are poor should be provided for in another way. I ...
  • Jana
    Two seats where Restore standing has probably cost Reform gains. If this becomes an ongoing pattern, Farage may have to swallow his pride and do a deal with Res...
  • Chris Bowers
    Thank you to everyone who commented on my post, even if, by the end, the responses had drifted into the realm of comments-about-comments-about-comments. I think...
  • Chris Perry
    What the Prime Minister actually said was that if a prices link or 2.5% did not keep up with earnings over time the government would correct it. But that would ...