Tag Archives: lib dem messaging

The 2026 Locals were a bad result for the party, let’s not pretend otherwise

By Rebecca Jones | Wed 13th May 2026 - 2:12 pm

Like many Lib Dems who stood in the 2026 locals, I’ve spent most of the last year walking around my ward knocking on doors, delivering leaflets and following the strategy that we were told gave us a really good shot. Our data looked great, we were making lots of contacts and many voters told us they were voting for us tactically against Labour. The race seemed like a clear two horse race, the Greens previously had less than half our vote and didn’t campaign in the ward. It sounded like we had the perfect chance, right?

Well, I thought so too and felt optimistic on polling day and on my way to the count the day after. Then, we came third. Against an insurgent Green party that didn’t even campaign in many wards. Looking back, I don’t believe there is anything different we could have done locally. We ran a great campaign.

It’s the same story in many wards across London, and in other areas where we do not hold the parliamentary seat, where good hardworking teams lost out in wards to parties who did little to no campaigning.

I am genuinely exhausted with seeing people claim this election was a great result for the party. Entrenching ourselves so hard into the blue wall that we can never expand as a party is not a success, and it tells activists like me who live in Labour/Green facing areas that we don’t matter and aren’t cared about by the party.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged greens | 33 Comments

How should Lib Dems deal with the Conservative fear-mongering?

By Mark Argent | Wed 15th November 2023 - 7:36 am

Chris Skidmore (a Vice-Chair of the Conservatives 2018-2019) has called out his own party for heading in a “very dark” direction in demonising those who call for a rapid reduction in CO2 emission as a way of justifying the watering-down of net zero targets.

Softening net zero targets might well encourage people to think they need not worry about climate change and can ignore the extremes of “Just stop Oil”. It’s a million miles from the responsible course of addressing climate change — and implicitly saying “we have a problem, and a plan to address it.

There are echoes of the same mentality in some of Suella Braverman’s comments before the reshuffle. Talking of refugees arriving by boat in exaggerated language can make them sound like an “invasion” force, stoking people’s anxiety so that they are “grateful” when the government “protects” us. Talking of homelessness as a “lifestyle choice” gives a way to say we can ignore it — when we should be embarrassed at what it implies for failed housing and mental health policy.

The snag is that stirring up anxiety and then presenting oneself as the solution speaks to some very raw emotions and makes it hard to think. In 2019 it seemed inconceivable that a government that had just been found to have illegally prorogued parliament could win a General Election, but the slogan of “Get Brexit Done” spoke to who wanted Brexit and who were fed up with it and in a way that closed down debate. It was very hard to create any discussion of what the promised Brexit would look like, or how it sat with public opinion.