Let me put this bluntly. If we as a party don’t get our backsides into gear and fight the campaign of our lives over the next few months, the horror story that’s been unfolding in front of our eyes at the Tory Conference could be a reality. That could be our government. I don’t think any of us actually want that to happen, however annoyed we may be with various decisions taken by the Coalition Government. I certainly don’t want it to take a period of majority Tory Government for folk to realise that the Liberal Democrats actually did some good.
The party knows that it needs all its members engaged, inspired and committed and ready to ask unreasonable things of themselves in terms of commitment of both time and money in the months ahead. To that end, they have sent every member a 16 page Election Strategy Briefing in very official looking brown envelopes. The document explains the Dragon’s Den process which has been taking place with our strategic seats. I’ve been involved in that these past two years as a Scottish party state representative. It’s given me a good overview as to what has been going on in these important places. I have to say I was hugely impressed in the difference between this year and last year. There has been a huge rise in activity on the ground. Don’t get me wrong, there needed to be, but it’s very heartening to see it. All those campaign teams that I and others put through their paces deserve huge amounts of applause, snuggles with labradors, chocolate, beer and appreciation. The briefing goes on to explain what we are looking to achieve in the campaign and what we need to get our seats won. It looks at policy, the technology and how that all fits together with what we do on the ground. It’s a good read.
At the same time, the party has sent an email survey to members asking them to let them know what skills they have in other parts of their lives that they could use in the party. This is exactly the sort of thing that’s been talked about for years and has now been delivered. It’s also in a form where the data isn’t going to get lost.
We know that we need every single person to do as much as they can. So many seats were won and lost on 3 figure majorities last time. That’s tiny out of 50,000 voters. It shows that with effort cleverly targeted, we can make the difference between winning and losing.
The one thing I will say is that I think the briefing should have come with a pledge that people could sign up to.. I hope that they will do something big at 200 days to go which is in a couple of weeks’ time. If they’ve just read abut what jobs are required, what better moment to get them to commit to do them. However, I do know that there will be that sort of follow up in the near future. There is an argument that this should have been done a while ago, but that’s no reason not to welcome it now.
But if the briefing is going to inspire and build confidence, it needs to be matched by a view of a vibrant, confident party saying clear, bright gut-grabbingly liberal things next week at our Conference.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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50 Comments
The one thing *I* would say is that although the survey asked me lots about my skills it didn’t once ask me how much I was ALREADY doing for the party, just if I could do more. This sort of unreasonable expectation that no matter how much you are already doing you can always do more is what leads to burnout. I’m hoping I don’t hit burnout before GE2015 but if the past few days are anything to go by I’ll certainly hit it after.
(For those who are inevitably going to ask: I generally do a roughly 60 hour week for the party, split between one paid and several voluntary roles)
I have read the briefing, Caron. I welcome the idea of such a Briefing. However, there is still an assumption, both by the writers of the Briefing, and by you, that there should be lots of boasting (I have described it as overclaiming) about things which the Parliamentary Party say they have achieved. It would be much better if we simply eschewed the overclaiming. I am sure many who have left the party, and no longer actively support it, whose support we need to regain, will find this sort of stuff very offputting. I was, however, intrigued to see no reference to NC, and only a just recognisable side face shot of him, taken from behind.
It is disappointing that the Party, faced with YouGov polls, especially, of 6 – 7%, and with the Greens now showing distinct signs of drawing ahead leaving us in 5th position, is not prepared to go for radical change in leadership and political positioning. Centre right doesn’t suit us, and just because we have seen a Tory Conference in full right wing flow, doesn’t mean we should boast that we have restricted their right wingery (a teensy weensy bit!)
You’d have done far more good if you had simply agreed not to vote no confidence in the government in exchange for certain things and then teamed up with labour on an issue by issue basis to veto every nasty thing the Tories wanted to do.
Sadly, for the long-term sake of democracy the lib dems have
to suffer in the next election. It would be a terrible day for democracy if a party could break a pledge to their core voters and then return all of their MPs.
Mr Wallace
Quite
It will indeed be a terrible thing for democracy and everyone else if the Tories get back with an overall majority.
But I think the “briefing” is both patronising and revealing. Patronising because it tells me that we need to “talk to people”. Revealing because the assumption must be that much of the party has not been doing that in the recent past (or longer?) If so, no wonder we are in trouble.
Tony Greaves
I no longer get emails from the party having unsubscribed after receiving an umpteenth patronising missive from Tim Farron to donate to the generously Tory funded NO campaign in Scotland. Until there is a change of leadership and strategy I don;t think I’ll bother to resubscribe.
The Conservatives are going to be easy to beat, the problem is a new centrist cabal is dragging Labour towards the electorate. They still have lots of weaknesses, but for a third-party to break through we cannot have lots of weaknesses of our own.
I think that all of the party conferences so far have set out clearly the choice for the voters, a cynical coasting labour party with incompetent leadership still in denial about the mess they made (from PLAN B to TEAM B) and playing politics with the hard choices they ducked, a Conservative Party now aiming to deliver UKIP lite policies without Farage, and UKIP itself in triumphalistic mood counting it’s chickens. Lib Dems have much to be proud of, without our joining the government – the country would have been bankrupted by debt financing, sky-high mortgage rates forcing reposession on millions, a return to mass unemployment and an endless recession with strikes and civil disturbance. Whatever our gripes about Clegg and Orange Book politics we can thank our party for preventing that and just perhaps if we work harder to nail UKIP and Labour lies . The biggest problem is for Orange Bookers to work with Social Liberals and dissenters to bring back the 2010 left of centre Lib Dem Vote stolen by Labour. We need to nail Labour’s cynical agenda that is seeking to run the country on 35% of the vote, with the worst offering in policy and leadership since 1983.
I have to say that the mailing reminded me overwhelmingly of Homer Simpson as horse-whisperer, telling the horse “run really fast”. So far as I can see, our election-winning strategy (not to be shared with non-members) is “work really hard”.
The question is why do the Tories, having little chance of getting a majority, have the confidence to veer so far off the beaten path? I mean surely they’ll have to cut a deal after the election with any remaining Lib Dem MPs in order to stay in government. So why aren’t they doing what they did in 2010 and lovebombing the Lib Dems? Why aren’t they afraid of alienating those Lib Dems who they will need by their side? Because ultimately they know that so long as they throw Clegg and co. the odd bone, ministerial appointment and of course car, they’ll put up with almost anything.
There is only one sure way to prevent the Tories getting back with an overall majority: Vote Labour.
There is only one way the LibDem party can survive, but it’s far from sure. Pull out of the coalition now. Cite the recent Tory policy announcements as the reason – that they break the coalition agreement and are wholly intolerable.
It’s too late Richard. The supine behaviour of the Lib Dems has helped the Tories rediscover their mojo. They’ve now realised that actually you don’t even need a majority to implement a radical right wing agenda, just form a coalition with a party leader desperate to look statesmanlike.
The Lib Dems might as well forget fighting Labour at the general election. It’s all about the fight with the Tories and that means the gloves have to come off. No more pussy footing around. Start telling the truth about Cameron and his chumocracy.
My copy of the briefing came with a covering letter which said —
“……only being sent to party members, so please don’t pass it on to anyone else.”
Knowing Paddy’s background , I assumed we were supposed to read it, memorise it and then eat it.
Standard procedure to prevent the enemy from knowing the contents.
If I had known it was going to be splashed all over LDV, I could have had a cheese sandwich instead.
Page 9 of this Election Strategy Briefing has a photo at the bottom of the page with some people in hard hast and a man in a suit, who might be Nick Clegg.
If it is indeed Clegg (the picture is not that clear) can anyone confirm that this is THE ONLY REFERENCE TO THEPARTY LEADER in the entire document and covering letter!
If so I must say I am encouraged. Somebody has obviously learned something from the disaster in May.
The message to local parties and members is clear — if you want to have even the remotest chance of winning in May for goodness sake don’t mention that loser.
Two more strategic points:
1. Don’t try to create artificial distance between your rivals.
2. If differences are small then a pact should be considered. Possibly with Labour.
Note, there is no future being a left wing alternative to Labour, but if the Tories are going to flirt with the far right then a pact is justified.
I think I lost the plot when reading about how candidates will get a campaign guide in October – that would be the 400 or so candidates yet to be selected. Then I read how the Council Election candidates will fight an integrated campaign – not in my local area they won’t. Of course it is too little, too late – nothing about why we should be campaigning for the Lib Dems. I have no faith in the Manifesto process or the leadership to deliver it. The delusional nature of it all is best summed up by the £700 tax cut. Taking into account inflation and spreading it over 5 years and adding in wages freezes/cuts/1% increases, people don’t feel £700 better off. Neither is £700 ‘transformational’ as one Lib Dem MP put it – and it would be a trifling sum to most MPs.
“That could be our government.”
I doubt it. There’s really nothing there to attract the kind of voters he needs to convince. The people whooping at tax cuts for high earners already vote Tory. He needs a strategy for the ‘left behind’ UKIPers who despise Dave and have a bleak view of their economic future and think the recovery will pass them by. He offered nothing new or interesting. How many people earn 50k in Clacton?
Honestly, the Liberals already played their part in a Tory defeat when they scrapped the boundary changes. It’s an uphill climb before a vote is cast, they need a 7 or 8% national lead over Labour just for a 1 seat majority.
Besides, even if Dave does somehow manage to convince the UKIPers and the hundreds of thousands of low-middle income swing voters in the North and the Midlands that an increase in the 40p threshold is in their best interest then hats off to him. I’ll never understand why anybody earning less than 6 figures votes Conservative and I’ve stopped trying, but it would be one of the greatest sales pitches of all time if they can pull this off, How can he convince those voters that a freeze in their child benefit or tax credits is fair while increasing the tax threshold for the top 10% of earners in the country? He’ll fully deserve his majority because he’s an electoral genius if he can sell that to the masses.
The briefing confirmed that we are fighting a ‘message based’ campaign. Well using the word campaign here might be going a bit too far. Please note that a message based campaign is not an action based campaign.
The idea is that we have polled (record amlounts of polling) and identified, first, lots of people who we think have shown a tendency to think about or have told us they have actually voted for us in the past (including those Reeves and Clegg told to go and join the Labour Party a few years back), and second, worked out what ‘messages’ would encourage these people to vote for us.
Whether those message distinguish us from other Parties is not clear until we start seeing the messages, but one can assume they will be along the lines of ‘Stonger economy, fairer society’.
And whether this type of campaigning will actually inspire activists is another thing. Message based campaigning is more appropriate for the so-called airwar than for a ground war. So this briefing was more a exercise in raising cash and reassuring members that something was being done when there has been such silence. For instance, what happened to the summer camapaign?
Meanwhile the Tories have launched a campaign based on tax cuts. That’s action, even if it’s action in 5 years time.
These include tax cuts to the value of £7 billion that will require an additional £7 billion of service cuts to the £35 billion already required in the remaining year of this Parliament and the five of the next Parliament.
On Twitter Faisal Islam @faisalislam wrote last night, “But basically fiscal credibility is earned in order, from time to time that it be spent. not a fixed stock. That’s whats happened here.”
So, what about enthusing activists and giving them some actual campaigns to fight on the ground (as well as across the airways) with a similar qty of the ‘stock’ WE have piled up?
If we can borrow at 2.5% as a Government and we decide to use the £7 billion as repayments on loans, then, I reckon this could finance a £100 billion infrastructure programme in the life of the next Parliament: homes, transport, environmental issues, fast fast fast interconnectivity, training as well as health. We could then aim to get unemployment down to levels that existed in the 1950s and 60s when we last had similar public investment programmes. It would also create a lot of safe assets which the private sector needs as well as £100 billion of increased demand for their services and the product of their staff.
When Fisal said that the Tories had stocked up of fiscal credibility in this Parliament so it could ‘spend’ that in the next, we should remmeber that the Tories didn’t do it alone. We were there step for step. Let’s use some of that ‘stock’ to actually do things.
This is how Llloyd George (and Keynes and Beveridge) introduced the 1929 Manifesto, ‘We Can Conquer Unemployment’:
““If the nation entrusts the Liberal Party at the next General Election with the responsibilities of Government, we are ready with schemes of work which we can put immediately into operation, work of a kind which is not merely useful in itself but essential to the well-being of the nation.”
@ Frank Booth
“They’ve now realised that actually you don’t even need a majority to implement a radical right wing agenda, just form a coalition with a party leader desperate to look statesmanlike.”
Although the majority of Party members may prefer to have, at least, the chance of a leadership contest and some say in the policies pursued – it must be acknowledged that Ryan Coetzee has excelled with the dark arts of his profession in creating a party where the leader can totally ignore the wishes of its members.
I got home last night and waiting for me was what seemed to be an official letter, from HMRC were my initial thoughts. However, when i opened it, the first think i saw was the donation papers. Then after taking time to read the covering letter and the snazzy document i had mixed feelings. It was useful, as someone new to organised party politics, to have an understanding of the processes in the run up to the election. Then on the other hand, it seemed a little obvious. I think anyone would be able to say that a priority for us would be to get out and canvas and deliver leaflets. There was little else which the document offered.
I also had the email link about what skills I had, however, as a run of the mill sort of person who doesn’t work in finance or I.T. I have to say my skills were pretty limited. Yes I want to help and I will knock on door and listen to what people tell me but I can’t help feel that I am “not target audience” for the party. This I think is a main problem for us. Both Labour and the Conservatives have appeal to different parts of society. I am afraid to say that the LibDems are not very good at getting our core values across. If we do get them across we struggle to identify how the values are implemented into policy and actions in Westminster.
I was also disappointed to hear that the campaign will be a joint campaign between Westminster and local elections. Surely this is not a wise idea. We have a very successful local level track record, which is because the issues that grass root supporters care about are the same as others in their communities. We need to find a way of translating that into national politics. I know that my local councillor lives round the corner from me so will understand when they hear complaints about the number 47 bus service being cut. They will make sure that issue is addressed with the full council. There is even a track record of plans being dropped because of interventions from LibDem councillors. This just doesn’t get transported onto the bigger stage of Westminster. We need to encourage local people to stand in national elections but use the campaign to enforce the desire to put local issues on the national agenda. By doing this, people all over the country will feel that their LibDem MP is someone who stands up for them against the other parties.
I was also disappointed that there was no reference to the Green Party as our closest rivals. In the Euro elections they were the closest to us and I can see that with their growing presence with young voters, they are likely to be our main rivals in the general election and local elections also. We are not going to get dragged into a Euro debate with UKIP that is for the Tories to do. But if we are not careful we are going to sleepwalk into a disaster and our loss will be the Green Party gain.
I’ve received many requests for donations but continue to await the Election Strategy Briefing with interest. I have remarked on these pages before that the left and right “hands” [nationally] do not know much about individual members, especially when many have left since 2010 – then a few returned to a party which doesn’t recognise them [nationally anyway]. Following the reading of the Briefing and listening to Party Conference I will answer the email questionnaire – which currently seems more like signing up to policies in the dark. I hope [this time] there are no pledges which cannot be delivered.
John Tilley Yes, I am pretty sure that is the only reference to Cleggy in the entire document (as I mentioned in my early comment upthread). Previous “campaign” documents have almost always had a preface signed by the party leader, along with at least a couple of pictures showing the leader “campaigning”. What can have gone wrong?
The biggest problem we have to face next year is a specific lack of trust by many people in OUR politicians. The issues we all know about which have overshadowed our position throughout our period “in Government” have also fed into and intensified the very common distaste and distrust of politicians. If Hilary Stephenson, Ryan Coetzee and Tim Pickstone have anything of value to say in regard to briefing us, they should be addressing this question, and how we as ground level campaigners should be tackling it with voters. Unless we can overcome that issue with concrete action, we will not score well next year.
In answer to Anthony Vaughan’s point about integration, I am afraid the media and the timing will link the campaign in people’s minds. I have come across various people who have always opposed integrated campaigns, but you really have no alternative when fighting polls on the same day or time period. Like the trust issue, unless we have answers, we will not win.
Tim13
Sorry, I missed your earlier comment about the fact that Clegg is not mentioned anywhere in this General Election Strategy.
Bill le Breton makes the point — “….So this briefing was more an exercise in raising cash and reassuring members …”
As a member I am greatly reassured by the decision to make no mention of Clegg.
This could be the start of something.
Perhaps for the Conference someone could sneak him in and out of Glasgow with a blanket over his head like the police used to do when taking the accused into court.
Or maybe he could be persuaded to go and stay with family in Spain for the next 230 days?
Just keep him away from the voters, especially those millions of voters who were with us in 2005 but have gone elsewhere since. We need those voters back and hiding Clegg is a good first step.
@ John Tilley
Presumably NC has to make a leader’s speech – are those who attend Conference selected – or is there the possibility of loud boos before during and after his appearance?
John, we do not need to hide him, just sack him.
theakes 2nd Oct ’14 – 10:08am
John, we do not need to hide him, just sack him.
I agree with you theakes.
BTW — There are reports in the media today that the BNP sacked their leader because their party was wiped out in the Euro elections in May. They have now expelled him altogether from their party.
Odd world we live in when the leader of the BNP is more accountable to his party than the leader of the Liberal Democrats.
The problem with the idea of booing the leader’s speech is that one has to be in the hall for it. I have got so USED to going to the pub with other members of the Awkward Squad and casually flicking over the text of the speech over a nice pub lunch while we all identify the point we would have walked out anyway…
It is to late to sack Nick now that will just be seen as pure desperation in the electorates eyes.
You can’t hide Nick away from the election campaign either, the media will pick up on that so will the political opponents. It would destroy the parties dwindling credibility further.
What I do think would genuinely restore some credibility would be if Nick Clegg used his conference speech to announce that.
Due to the outrageous accusations made by Theresa May against Liberal Democrats in her speech
And due to the Tories announcement that they will reduce the deficit by implementing savings using 100% cuts and no rises to taxes.
That the Liberal Democrats refuse to sign up to £25 Billion pounds worth of cuts in 2015/16 which disproportionately fall on the poorest people in society.
That the relationship between Liberal Democrats and their Tory Counterparts have now irretrievably broken down and it is not in the countries interest for the Liberal Democrats to remain in coalition for the duration of this parliament.
That will get the headlines that the Liberal Democrats desperately needs and it will be a huge blow to Cameron as he becomes Impotent and not able to pass any major policies for the duration on this parliament.
The Tories are not your friends, many of us have been saying this for the last four years that when the time comes the Tories will take a dump on you from a great height. They need Liberal Democrat seats at the 2015 election to win their majority.
Well the Tories have well and truly started to squat and release on the Liberal Democrats.
Time to fight back, time to get back some credibility
I disagree, it is not to late to sack him. We will have the winter and spring to regroup. A week is a long time in politics, 6 -7 months is a lifetime. The problem is the complacency in the parliamentary party, both Commons and Lords, not least Ashdown. My guess is that so many are retiring or standing down they do not have to bother, once you are leaving a ship whether it is afloat or sunk you move on mentally as well as physically. Self preservation is a wonderful instinct, without that interest goes elsewhere.
Todays summary polling and comment:
“Lab 34.9 (-0.6), Con 31.7 (n/c), UKIP 15.0 (+1.1), LD 7.6 (-1.0), Others 10.7 (+0.5)
Perhaps unsurprisingly after their two defections, UKIP are the month’s biggest winners and have largely recovered the ground lost in the last two months. Interestingly, that gain hasn’t come directly from the Conservatives, who once again poll in a very narrow range centred on 31.5%, despite the defections of Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless. Instead it’s Labour and the Lib Dems who drop support.
The Labour figure may simply be down to normal fluctuation: the August ICM poll now looks to have been a bit generous going by others in that series and Labour’s monthly average with Populus has barely shifted since June, though their share with YouGov did register a bit of a dip last month.
By contrast, the situation for the Lib Dems looks like a genuine loss of support. September not only saw the first month where LD support in the PB average was less than one-third that which they received in 2010 but was the fourth in a row to have been sub-nine percent – and those are the only four months since the start of the series. YouGov, Mori, Opinium and ICM all recorded their joint-lowest Yellow scores of the parliament; Populus scored an outright low.
What’s perhaps remarkable is the apparently complete lack of panic within Lib Dem ranks at what are, on the face of it, disastrous figures. Had Labour lost two-thirds of their voters since the previous general election, the talk of replacing the leader would be deafening. Had the Tories lost that sort of share, the coup would have happened years ago”.
Yes – Matt, that would be the ideal – however the temptation to make more bizarre suggestions springs from the fact that there seems little or no chance of that being the case.
Theakes I don’t think it is complacency on Paddy Ashdown’s part, I think for some reason – evidenced by his comments over the years since Clegg was first regarded as a leadership possible – he has always been obsessed by the positive nature of Clegg’s proposed or actual leadership qualities! Another example of what many in the party used to refer to as his “Tigger-ish” tendency!! In the case of many others, I think it is pure fear of what they do if Clegg is dumped, the feeling that their self-interest would be more harmed than by leaving him in post. I find it difficult to believe that complacency is a major factor. People try to put a brave face on for public consumption, but underneath, I think most are terrified of what will happen in May next year. If Paddy were to change sides on this, I think the deed would be done straight away.
Tim 13: “I think the deed would be done at once” I agree wholeheartedly with that thought. Perhaps Lord Ashdown might be changing his mind having seen the latest constituency polls from Somerset!
As a leader Mr Clegg is of little or no no use to the party in the country, he is dragging it down and own, simply by his presence, We have to face it, the Tuition Fee debacle will not be forgotten, it was not the fact of the Fees themselves but that in the space of a few weeks the leadership went from one extreme position to another. The only way to get any degree of trust back, however small is to sack him and do it now. Then we can all get on with the job of saving the party next May.
One way for the party to grab the headlines and seize some sort of initiative would be for the leader not to make a conference speech but simply to go to the rostrum and announce his resignation. A bolt from the blue, it would be a golden moment, the headlines, the publicity, we would probably get a 4 -5% boost in the polls over the first month alone, then we could get on with an election.
@ Jonathan Pile:
“The biggest problem is for Orange Bookers to work with Social Liberals and dissenters to bring back the 2010 left of centre Lib Dem Vote stolen by Labour. ”
Labour, (nor,indeed, The Greens) have not “stolen” anything from you. You have lost a large slice of your support since 2010 for one reason and one reason only: you contemptuously threw it away. That contempt is now reciprocated; and it’s your loss
It is too late for you, now , to discover that the Tories who have been your bed-fellows (sorry, partners in coalition) for the past four years are actually rather right-wing and pretty nasty with it:.
The latest poll in the telegraph has the Lib Dems on 6% – could be conference bounce for the other parties, could be that the Lib Dems are seen as irrelevant. It can’t be stressed too often that when the Liberal Party polled just 2.6% of the total vote in 1951 it had only 109 candidates – out of 625 seats. Which is worse ?
It is statistically so implausible we will win more than a handful of seats while polling 6% of the vote across the country that 64 years of progress has been destroyed.
I have just read Mark Pack’s excellent Newswire No52. There’s lot to think about. He draws atteention to the changes in ‘tactics’ over the summer and their failure to gain any traction.
It made me think more about the Party’s campaign tactics of using a message based campaign – described in the Election Briefing (and to which I refered above) and how inapproriate this is for a Party in the situation we are in – rather than an action based campaign.
An organisation that finds itself in a similar position to us is the Co-Op Bank. With its new Tattoo campaign it is making exactly the same mistake as we are.
Mark does not mention the Summer Campaign that was launched in June to much internal fanfare. Does anyone know what happened to that? Why did it flunk?
And once more, the Ashcroft poll Question 6 on local party activity reveals some woeful lack of summer campaigning in even what must be highly marginal seats.
Paddy is clearly finding the job of making the Party a campaigning Party once again extremely frustrating. I wish I knew what or who is blocking him.
Finally, does Ryan Cortzee actually exist? What is he doing? One imagines a man alone in a room with assistants bringing him vast quantities of data and producing emaculate powerpoints that no one bothers to look at. Is he really just Clegg’s highly paid comfort blanket?
36 hours and 38 Comments from the opening of this thread, and paul barker still hasn’t turned up to tell us that the polls are nonsense, Labour and the Tories are both about to implode and if only we don’t give in to defeatism a famous victory for Lib Dems in May is on the cards!
If even paul has given up the faith, I think it’s pretty clear: The Party’s Over.
Malcolm Todd wrote:
“36 hours and 38 Comments from the opening of this thread, and paul barker still hasn’t turned up to tell us that the polls are nonsense, Labour and the Tories are both about to implode and if only we don’t give in to defeatism a famous victory for Lib Dems in May is on the cards!”
Maybe that’s because Paul is busy knocking on doors in Somerton & Frome.
“One way for the party to grab the headlines and seize some sort of initiative would be for the leader not to make a conference speech but simply to go to the rostrum and announce his resignation.”
That would be a start, but even better would be for him to announces he is defection to UKIP. Two birds with one stone, the start of your resurrection, and the death of the upstart rival.
Only one problem, we wouldn’t take him! He would toxify the brand. We do have some standards you know. 🙂
Caron as you start your article “Let me put this bluntly”, perhaps I can respond in a likewise manner. You want members to “ask unreasonable things of themselves in terms of commitment of both time and money in the months ahead”
Can I suggest that this is also undertaken at HQ when making use of party funds !
Let me explain, I have been a Liberal all my life, my parents were life long party activists and as a result I’ve been involved in many fund raising activities throughout my 51 years . My job is as a Cost Management Consultant working for a company dealing with hundreds of millions pounds worth of spend and with 1500 plus clients in the UK.
I have spent the last 3 years trying to get involved in helping the Liberals save money and to be honest the apathy I’ve come across is shameful.
I’ll be honest my intentions are not totally altruistic, my company would earn fees from this, but only and I stress only based on what we would actually save the party.
The simplist thing would be for me to just walk away and concentrate my efforts elsewhere on other not for profit organisations that do want to work efficiently and make the best use of funds but I see the effort that party members put in and it infuriates me.
Matt, There is nothing Nick can do to restore credibility for himself. Equally as leader in the leaders’ debates he will just remind everyone of how good he made them feel in May 2010, and how he had let them down by November. Things will only get worse. All this stiff Upper Lip “What we need Nick to do is …” is simply being in denial, and sadly being too scared to do anything. Either we get rid now, or we are toast for at least two generations.
We are toast. We need to start adapting to that and accepting it.
The part of the Party that is not toast is that part which has consistently opposed what the Coalition has done. That part of the Party can either keep quiet and go down with the ship, or speak out, bail out, and survive.
@ Davids Evans & Allen
“We are toast”
Given that Steven Tall’s survey of members shows that those who did reply believe the Party to be in good shape and the Leader to be favoured by the majority – if only by a small margin – no resignation can be anticipated.
If ‘acceptance’ of the situation is to be the watchword, how do, probably, the majority of sitting MPs [those who will not receive favoured attention by the Party’s management] and PPCs, who have to live in the real world, respond to the very difficult circumstance they find themselves in?
It has been suggested, elsewhere, that those sitting MPs who have built a good relationship with their constituents would be better to stand as independents rather than acknowledge that the are Liberal Democrats and more particularly that NC is the leader of their party.
Rather than going that far, would it be better that the ‘unfavoured’ MPs and PPCs distinguish themselves from the main party by presenting themselves as, say, ‘Democrats’ and making it clear in their election material that they do not agree with some of the Party’s policies or its coalition ambitions. This could be coupled to a clear statement that, if elected, they would not necessarily obey the Party’s whips – but would vote in accordance with the best interests of their constituents.
This would give these candidates some hope of election [or at least not losing their deposit] – in what are essentially impossible circumstances.
I have a few questions:
(1) How many constituency action days have there been this summer past?
(2) How many constituency action days are planned for the run-up to Christmas?
(3) How much literature has been put out in Somerton & Frome since 2010?
(4) Does the party actually have a strategy for the general election?
(5) If “yes” to (6), what part will the Leader play in it?
(6) If the current Leader has the best interests of the party at heart, why doesn’t he step aside and hand over to Vince Cable?
Those are a few to be getting on with.
John Roffey – Yes, some good suggestions here. An MP who wants to survive in this way – or just preserve their prionciples and their self-respect – will unfortunately need to keep his or her powder dry until the last moment. It might be safest to wait until nominations close and there is no other Lib Dem nominated! Not an ideal way to campaign, but needs must.
“Traditional Liberal Democrat” or “Real Liberal Democrat” would be my recommended labels.
Why did the party spend loads of money on printing and postage costs sending me this booklet when the same information could have been emailed to me, saving money and paper recycling costs. My first thought is we must have loads of cash sloshing around that no-one knows what to do with. Just because someone is given a budget doesn’t mean they have to spend it all.
On the leader, I would prefer Dr Cable at the helm but Nick Clegg is capable of making powerful arguments as demonstrated in 2010. Let’s not panic and write off half the seats just yet. The Tories are showing their nasty side, the vast majority of the electorate despise UKIP and Farage is an easily demolished privately educated former City wide boy, and Labour have a less charismatic leader than at the last election in Ed Costalivincrisis. Nick ain’t actually that bad when you compare him to the other leaders.
” Farage is an easily demolished privately educated former City wide boy…Nick ain’t actually that bad ”
Where did YOUR Dear Leader go to school, old chap?
Listen I went to a Comp myself, and am no friend of private schooling, but don’t you think it is time the responsible political parties (one of which I assume you think you are) stopped all this sad inverted snobbery?
It isn’t where you went to school which determines what you are like as a person, but your character. Clement Atlee, the greatest socialist leader in British history, (most would feel) . went to Haileybury. (The alma mater of the East India Company, I believe).
As for Nige. his party seems to be doing pretty well in Heywood and Middleton. So perhaps your view that his public school background will be a handicap in working class Northern England ain’t quite on the money?
The idea of the party finding out what expertise, experience and odd bits of knowledge members have is a very good one if it’s employed. But I’m pretty sure I left a lot of potentially useful info out because I didn’t think of it or didn’t want to take ages on the task (we do have two by-elections going on in NE Essex). So it’d be a good idea for people’s replies to be sent back to them annually (or more frequently if they chose) to amend.
The replies should also be shared with local parties. On the whole, we’re likely to know that someone in our midst is a keen canvasser or a good writer of leaflet text,, but not necessarily that a new member is an expert on planning law or a youth worker.
I sympathise with Jennie’s comment. As a local party chair and a likely local election candidate next year, I’m not necessarily available to go wherever Party HQ thinks I’d be most use and some of my skills and knowledge are already employed. I did write that in. But my assumption was that the survey wasn’t mainly aimed at the Jennies or Simons but at people who were currently less involved.