Tim Farron has been out and about doing what he loves best around the country – campaigning with big groups of Liberal Democrats, knocking on people’s doors and spreading the Lib Dem word.
In a hectic 36 hours, he fitted in stops in Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff. He’s actually going to Cardiff again on Saturday to speak at Welsh Conference, too.
He recorded this video from the campaign office of Alex Cole-Hamilton, candidate for Edinburgh Western and one of the few human beings who could challenge Tim for sheer campaigning energy:
My latest TimTalks, straight from Alex Cole-Hamilton’s campaign office in Edinburgh Western!
Posted by Tim Farron on Wednesday, 3 February 2016
His theme was partly about motivation and encouraging people to get out on the doorsteps and partly one-party states – highlighting the situation in Manchester where Labour hold virtually every Council seat and the SNP’s stranglehold on power in Scotland.
Here are some other photos courtesy of Martin Veart and Hannah Bettsworth, who let slip that the poor leader almost didn’t get any food after the LY Edinburgh branch had finished with the pizzas. “More pizzas had to be brought in” reminded me of that old anecdote where “more chairs had to be brought in” to a Liberal meeting way back in the day.
Anyway, without Tim to bring luck tonight, I have to tell you that Alex has been bitten by a Schnauzer while out canvassing and is sporting a massive bandage on his hand.
Tim’s day had started much earlier in Manchester where he did a Question and Answer session:
And he was in Cardiff bright and early today, canvassing in Adamstown with a massive crowd of people, including AM Eluned Parrott:
Great to have @timfarron and @ElunedParrottAM canvassing in #Adamsdown today. pic.twitter.com/yCrw3VUyR6
— Nigel Howells (@NigelHowellsCdf) February 4, 2016
Tim understands the importance of getting out there and mucking in on the campaign trail with everyone and I expect he’ll be doing a lot more of it as we approach the May elections.
* 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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2 Comments
The reason Labour has almost 100% councillors in Manchester is because of the coalition. If I recall we steadily reached 36 councillors and then were destroyed after 2010. Perhaps the reason was our own folly, we only have ourselves to blame.
theakes, the Lib Dems in Manchester were losing councillors before the coalition – our peak was in 2008 if I remember rightly. It’s certainly true that the Coalition didn’t help – mostly because Manchester City Council decided to keep funding bonanzas while cutting core services and blaming Westminster while still increasing reserves – but frankly we were on a downhill slope already. Fortunately we’re starting to pick ourselves up from it.