Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we’re bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here’s today’s offering…
Newark by-election: Tories win well, Ukip falls short, Labour dips, Lib Dems collapse – Stephen Tall | Fri 6th June 2014
And then there’s the Lib Dems… It was another dire night, to cap a dire fortnight. We didn’t just lose our deposit, we came sixth. Our vote collapsed. Four years ago, 10,246 Newark voters marked a ‘X’ beside the Lib Dem box. Yesterday, just 1,004 did so. In contrast to the Tories, not a single Lib Dem MP turned up to campaign. To be fair, they’re doubtless all knackered after a gruelling election period: but if our MPs couldn’t be persuaded to show up for our candidate why should we be surprised if the voters didn’t? … it would be unwise to read over-much into a by-election like Newark. The Lib Dems will do much better in those seats where we have an MP and/or an active campaign. But, as I said at the start, politics is about momentum. Our Coalition partners have it. We don’t. Time’s running out to re-gain it.
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2 Comments
Friday 6th June 2014, Stephen Tall wrote —
“. …. politics is about momentum. Our Coalition partners have it. We don’t. Time’s running out to re-gain it.”
So what happened?
Those at the top of the party conspired to keep Clegg as leader, and we know what that did for re-gaining momentum.
Another six months has now passed.
Things have got worse.
Time has now run out.
Clinging to the wreckage, those about to be drowned desperately repeat the mantra “in seats where we have MPs …”
The state of denial will last a little longer.
And then there will be the excuses, if there is alone left to listen to the excuses.
John Tilley,
You refer to denial, but according to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, this was but the first of five stages of grief. Her full list consisted of Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.
For many Lib Dems, stages 2 and 3 will be compressed into the pre-May 7th period, but some will persist at stage 1 until the morning after the polls close.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model