There was a moment that I feared that we would end up gaining 666 councillors.
It happened.
Briefly.
But it quickly passed.
And the final total topped 700.
The Tories briefed the papers last weekend that they could lose 1000 seats. This, we all thought, was expectation management. We thought that our own 500 gains briefing to the press was about as good as it could get. And we were wildly pessimistic in the end.
I was thrilled to see my old mate and former Chesterfield Lib Dem MP Paul Holmes re-elected to the Council. And regular Lib Dem Voice contributor Ed Fordham elected as Councillor for Brockwell along with two ward colleagues.
Moor ward in that town has a history of close elections. I remember missing out on winning a seat from Labour in a by-election there in about 1994 by 17ish votes.
Look at how close we were to 9 gains there:
It’s a long time since we had a night like this.
But let’s just enjoy it as a stage on the journey. It’s not the end in itself. We need all Remainers to swing behind us on May 23rd to send a very clear message that Brexit can and must be stopped.
It’s very odd that Theresa May is saying that the message from voters is that the Tories and Labour need to deliver Brexit. Of course that is why so many people chose to vote for the strongest Remain party. The will of the people needs to be re-evaluated tonight.
But of course not every Liberal Democrat won. Manchester Lib Dems fought an amazing campaign and came so painfully close to a big breakthrough. My heart absolutely breaks for them.
https://twitter.com/AprilPreston_/status/1124377684765806593
It is so good to see that they are still determined to go on.
Huge amounts of love and sympathy to everyone who didn’t make it this time.
Typically, though, when we win an election by a million miles, gaining hundreds of seats while Labour and Tories lose out, we don’t get interviewed on the BBC’s flagship political programme:
#marr is back at 10am this Sunday on @BBCOne
Shadow Chancellor @johnmcdonnellMP
@RuthDavidsonMSP, Leader @ScotTories
Green Party Co-Leader @sianberry@Plaid_Cymru Leader @AdampricePlus #LineOfDuty star Adrian Dunbar
And all the Sunday news w/ @steverichards14 & Amanda Platell pic.twitter.com/1NqHHUgCWd
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May 3, 2019
They get away with this because we let them.
Complain. A lot. Here’s how.
Allow yourself to bask in the joy of winning. And then get back out there. We have a job to do on 23 May.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
13 Comments
We will now come second in the European Elections.
There is an opportunity for us to now increase our opinion poll for the Euros rating by 25%. I am not saying that will happen but that is the size of the opportunity.
If we get to 13%+ in the polls for the Euros taken after the local elections, we can then begin to scoop up the 15%+ combined that are supporting CHUK and the Greens plus a combined 10% from Labour and Tory remainers.
Interestingly, a former advisor to David Cameron said on Newsnight she thought it will now be a proxy referendum battle between the Lib Dems and the Brexit party.
But, hey folks, it’s up to us. Jo Swinson was right when she said on TV yesterday to Lib Dem campaigners – have a cup of tea and get back on the doorstep. Deliver that thank you Focus asap, telling Remainers “Lib Dems win. Lib Dems – to Stop Brexit. Labour – to Continue Brexit. Conservatives to mess things up! Change UK and Greens – can’t win it” – including to areas that didn’t have an election yesterday.
And we should introduce a membership rule change – banning our MPs and peers from being in Parliament for the next three weeks and out encouraging all local parties.
I was pleased to see Ed Davey by a big banner with a big Lib Dem Stop Brexit banner on BBC South.
And while we’re about it we should ban Lib Dem councillors from the council offices for the next three weeks and preferably the next four years. While officers may tell you “Councillor, Key Indicator 3.2 is important”. It’s not and not your job. Increasing Lib Dem infrastructure, getting the poholes filled and practising community politics – may be using the council as a tool – is.
And that also applies to all those not elected – you are now the councillor for your ward – well maybe technically not but in practice. An election is a start not an end.
We can now get another referendum! Stop Brexit! Ensure the prosperity of Britain as a result. Elect a Lib Dem government.
The good news is we are ahead of schedule. But, hey folks, it is now over to you to grasp the opportunity. Today!
BTW for clarity that is at least second!
Complaint dispatched ! Shocking. Actually it is state propaganda. Yesterday morning they lead with a piece from Colchester – which I think had just the one gain/loss across the council and it was a Green gain so the only interview conducted was with a Green.
A friend joked that perhaps a rookie report had been sent to Chelmsford but had got his Essex towns beginning with C mixed up !!!
Message is simple. If you believe in Remain then don’t split the vote, vote Lib Dem
Congratulations to everyone on all of their hard work, and you can tell it’s not just hard work from the last few weeks, but over the last few years too. It’s a well earned cup of tea all around, but an unsurprising shame that we have to shout about how the result wasn’t telling the Tories/Labour to quickly cook up a deal.
As for Marr, I presume the main guests were selected before the results, and Jo was on last week, doing brilliant work, but it really wouldn’t have been difficult to add a person with LibDem sympathies to the news review team.
This lack of reporting of the LD’s huge success in the local elections is extraordinary, almost suspicious. From looking at the BBC News website this morning, including its coverage of the newspaper front pages, I conclude that the BBC and most of the press have become ‘institutionally Lib Dem-ist’.
Another thing to watch out for, I see the ChangeUK group have been using data and clips from the local elections to ‘prove’ everyone is fed-up with the old parties, and pretending we don’t exist. They literally edited the clip of Barry Gardiner saying they were bailing the Tories with a great big black square to cover Jo Swinson and pretend she wasn’t present. They stick a bit of writing on the black square it to make it look less obviously like they’ve edited out a whole person, and the one person on the panel who shares their views. Because they selected candidates who all have large media followings not specific to any party, their version of that clip has been viewed well over 100,000 times, so for them it’s a success, but we do need to call them out on this kind of thing because it’s clearly a high level tactic for them to convince voters we don’t even exist.
My complaint also submitted
All that was missing to clarify the BBC reporting of the local election results was the playing of solemn music.
The immediate threat is that Labour & Tories will try to stitch up a Brexit deal next week & then cancel The European Elections. The scale of the Tory losses may be enough to whip the ERG into line so a lot depends on any Labour revolt against Corbyn.
It is naive to think that ChangeUK is not a threat – actually it is them or us over the next few years leading up to the next General Election.
However, it requires careful handling to ensure that people know their true colours.
Hurt and upset at their behaviour is the emotion to communicate.
And everyone campaigning needs to get that message in early and before they recover any ground from missing out in these elections.
If you have any doubt remember the symbolic ‘black square’ Stalinist removal of Jo Swinson from their coverage of the interview with Jo and Barry Gardiner
The Liberal Democrat “STOP BREXIT” message does not appear on the postal ballot paper I have received for the European Parliament elections.
The BBC Radio 4 news today did not try to conceal the Liberal Democrat triumph in the local elections, though I guess most people only watch TV.
Looking at some of the detailed ward by ward results we could probably have done even better if we had had more candidates. Quite a lot of Greens and “Independents” won seats where there were no Liberal Democrat candidates. I wonder how many voters knew who or what they were voting for when they voted for Independents. If you add the gains made by them and the Greens to our magnificent result the figure matches the losses made by our party in the 2007,2011 and 2015 local elections.
Did anyone predict we would make 703 gains and hardly any losses ?
Two weeks ago I complained to the BBC when the Lib Dems were not mentioned in a major report on the local elections. I referred to anecdotes coming from the ground particuarly one from the ex Labour Mp for Broxtowe who had been canvassing and reporting on the Lib Dems doing well in Surrey. I commented that the Lib Dems may well be the main story on Friday 3rd, cortrect as it urned out.
I was quite strong in my comment. They noted that and said the complaint had been referred up thew line to senior management. Does not look as if anything has changed. Have the Liberal Democrats upset the BBC somewhere along the line or are they so afraid of losing their licence fee that they go out of their way not to upset number 10
It was noticeable yesterday how much clearer Sky News was about the situation and gave us, what I considered to be , handsome coverage. I am afraid, and have felt this for some time, that the BBC is no longer objective.
The national party should seek a meeting with the Director General to sort this out.