155 net gains in terms of seats, 3 net gains in terms of councils, more MSPs in Scotland were the headlines after the elections eleven days ago. On the face of it, it looked reasonably good. Not great, but another advance nonetheless.
But, behind the headlines, it has become increasingly apparent that all is not well in terms of the Party’s progress. So many contributions reached us from across the nations, highlighting tales of good campaigns and hard work overtaken by Greens or Reform candidates whose clear messages and perceived alternative to a failed status quo appealed to voters in a way that we didn’t or, perhaps more worryingly, couldn’t.
As an editorial team, even as a medium independent of the Party, we retain a broad loyalty. We don’t want to rock the boat just because we can. But we do believe that we have an obligation to offer a space for members and supporters to debate the issues of the day and it is clear that there is significant dissatisfaction with the strategy of the Party at the centre.
Many potential solutions have been offered over the past week, much of which has come down to expressing more clearly what we, as liberals, believe in. And whilst I would never suggest that I am any sort of political strategist, I have always believed that the policies of a political party should be able to be easily surmised from the basic ideology it expresses. That becomes rather harder if you don’t really expound a political philosophy.
I’m not a radical for the sake of radicalism but it seems to me at least that we have to be clearer about the sort of world we want to create – the “vision thing”, if you like. The Greens and Reform currently have that clear vibe where, even if you have no real idea of what they would do in power, you can superimpose your dreams onto them. They have an identity that we currently don’t.
To make matters worse, the complications of five or six party politics don’t appear to have been entirely factored in. We’re still locked into a strategy of “only we can beat X here” and, whilst that’s effective against deeply unpopular Labour and the Conservatives, and has value against Reform if we have demonstrated that we’re the obvious choice to keep them out, we don’t seem to be able to deal with opposition from both political flanks at the same time in places where we haven’t got a firm presence. And there are too many of those.
There is a certain irony to the fact that, where there are four, five or even six credible choices for voters, you might benefit from being more explicit in your stance rather than “big tent” if you are likely to be able to win with a 30% (or less) share of the vote.
So, there is much to think about over the next few months, ahead of September’s Federal Conference, both for the leadership, the Campaigns team and for activists across the country.
A message from your Day Editor
Many thanks to all of you who offered us your opinions and comments over the past week. There will have been points where our response time was perhaps not as good as it might be, for which I apologise. However, as I do feel obliged to do from time to time, I ask you to remember that, unlike our opposite numbers at Conservative Home and LabourList, we’re volunteers, doing this because we think that it matters, operating the site in the time we can find between jobs, families, party roles and, in some cases, holding political office.
Liberal Democrat Voice will continue to be a place where people can come to debate ideas, offer opinions and, hopefully, find out what is going on across the wider Party and beyond. But it is you, our readers and contributors, who make it a worthwhile exercise, and we thank you for that.
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6 Comments
Thank You Day Editors for being here. I want you to know that I appreciate the effort; the time, the energy and sacrifice you take in maintaining this site for us. Especially dealing with the ever more complex and difficult issues we face, which is no easy task!! Thank You again and again.
The space in British politics right now is at the centre. To be the same as Labour is to offer known failure; to compete with the Greens for the “eco-socialist” vote is lunacy.
If Reform is to be stopped we have to take seats from the Tory party who look as if they would prop up a minority Reform government.
I fully agree with Tristrams comments above. There are still two or three Conservative seats down here in the West Country where we came first in last year’s elections. Labour voters will in most cases vote tactically for us. But there are many moderate Conservatives who are looking for a new home.
Hmmm, I think Mark was hoping to flush out some thoughts on new leadership for our party and I for one would welcome that.
We are looking tired, old and dare I say it? -a bit boring. We are getting much less than our fair share of media coverage because of it. I think it was Ed himself who said not so long ago that he wanted to be the most boring leader, that’s OK as a defence strategy in bad times, but we aren’t there any more.
Leaving Reform to one side, (if only we could) all the other parties have or will have new leaders of a younger and more vibrant hue and we need that too. For my money its Daisy Cooper with her luminous suits and startlingly white trainers, she literally energises a room when she walks in, and interviews superbly.
Ed has served us well through a bad patch and out into the sunlight of 72 MPs in 2024 and modest but consistent gains in local government over 8 years but we need to be going much further and faster, to coin a phrase. Otherwise yet again, come Conference season we will be at the back of the queue for media coverage and interviews, there is a massive empty space in the middle of politics and we need to be there and fill it, more loudly and less boringly!
A few new campaign sound bites would help hugely in leaflets and on the doorstep too.
How is it that a party committed to proportional representation are such staunch defenders of First Past the Post? The problem is not having 72 MPs, the problem is they are either dully engaged at Westminster or dutifully nursing their constituency. It is the same disastrous tactics that led to a rout in 2015. Who can doubt that Reform have more impact with fewer MPs or that the Green Leader without even being an MP reaches more people. Trying to market a party like soap powder, with a unique selling point which doesn’t apply to other parties (only Kemi has a plan, has that won you over yet?) when most people vote tactically or against a party they don’t like, emphasising what you have in common with the beliefs and values of other parties win votes.
Calling the Greens loonies doesn’t persuade anyone. Picking on a green policy like decriminalising drugs when people can look it up for themselves, or when a majority think cannabis should be decriminalised or when the current war on drugs policy is an utter failure doesn’t win you support. Whats the bigger concern a green party policy to leave Nato they won’t be in a position to implement or Trump threating to leave Nato, threatening Nato allies and imposing more sanctions, sorry tariffs on the UK than on Putin?
I fear the 72 MPs could disappear like the Liberals of 1923 unless they start to set out how they will change the country and how they will work with others to achieve that.
@Caracatus: No-one in the Lib Dems is defending FPTP, but the reality is that it is the system and while it remains the system we have to fight elections on its terms.
You are right, though, in saying that our present Parliamentary representation is built on a house of cards. It has collapsed once before in recent times (in 2015), and it could easily collapse again if we don’t build new bases of support.