How will you vote in the forthcoming Lib Dem leadership election? What qualities are you looking for in a leader?
Will it be the candidate with the best policies? Maybe you’ll plump for the individual with the most charisma? Or perhaps you’ll play smart and choose the person who’s tallest?
It might be helpful to consider the qualities you consider most important in a Leader. Given the party’s election process, here are some things you might well consider:
- You like them as a person
- You know them as a friend
- You think they have good policies
- You trust their judgement
- You find them charismatic
- You enjoyed their hustings speech
- You think they would do a good job as PM
The trouble is, pretty much none of the above are useful when considering the most important voter of them all…people who aren’t you.
Wait, let me try to explain. Who votes for our next Leader?
If you answered ‘Lib Dem members’, then you’d be right. They vote for them firstly in the Leadership election contest and then, secondly (and by extension) in public votes like the European and General Elections.
But Lib Dem members aren’t the only people who vote for the Lib Dems and the person leading them. In fact, given there’s around 120,000 of us, the numbers clearly show we’re clearly in the minority when it comes to General or European elections.
So who are all these other people? In simple terms they’re either Lib Dem supporters…or floating voters. And given that Lib Dem supporters could reasonably be expected to vote Lib Dem, the most important group of voters are thus logically those who can change their minds.
Now, many factors affect how people vote, in particular geography, class, age, ethnicity, key issues and the perception and behaviour of leaders. But we can only really influence one of these.
And with floating voters (like all people) being busy creatures, faced by a barrage of advertising and making choices based on instinct rather than rational analysis, whomever this leader is will have to work hard to stand out and connect with them.
So let’s consider my opening question again – what qualities are you looking for in a leader?
Here’s what I’d choose:
- They appeal to floating voters
- They look and act differently to other Leaders
Hopefully I’ve already convinced you of (1), but why is (2) important?
Again the logic is simple. If you have multiple parties that, broadly speaking, all wear similar clothes (businesswear), speak in similar ways (speeches, rhetoric), in similar places (House of Commons, TV panels, radio interviews), saying similar things (the other party is wrong!) then the parties that have the best resources to do this (money, members, resources, infrastructure, current MPs etc.) will tend to do best.
Our put it another way, the Lib Dems can never win a straight fight between us, Labour and the Tories.
So why fight on the same terms?
If our goal is to get into power (and if not this, why are we here?) then we need to be brave enough to create our own space. To look and act differently. To stand out.
Every brand, influencer, politician and pizza delivery chain in the country is vying for our attention. Let’s cut through the noise by being different.
Remember those crazy students who always went to nightclubs in fancy dress? Exactly – you remember them. How quickly did 5 Star in Italy and the Brexit Party in the UK grow to prominence? Why was Nigel Farage so often on Question Time? Why did the Tories vote Boris as their leader despite his obvious shortcomings?
Being different works. Standing out works.
So when you consider who to support in the upcoming leadership questions, ask yourself these two simple questions:
- Will they appeal to floating voters?
- Will they stand, do things differently and take risks?
If anyone gets a ‘yes’ in answer to both, then I heartily recommend you vote for them.
You may not agree with my list (good!), you may have spotted a much better list (great!) – but whatever you do, make sure your list considers the most important part of the equation – people who aren’t Lib Dems…but could be persuaded to vote for us.
* Dan Page is an Analyst, Chief Egg @scriptchicken and a comedy writer with credits on shows including Newsjack and The News Quiz.
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11 Comments
Spot on Dan. We need to elect a Leader who can connect with non-Lib Dems, who can get Lib Dems talked about, who can make ordinary people sit up and notice us.
This, at least in my mind, is more important than where any candidate stands on any particular issue.
So… which one is the tallest?
Being ‘different’ (it sounds so much like a euphemism) did not go down so well amongst the general public for Corbyn and in any case none of our candidates remotely resemble Bozo Johnson. If we had really wanted a ‘different’ character for leader we would have Limbit Öpik, and there have been other ‘different’ MPs, such as Cyril Smith, who were an embarrassment then and even more of an embarrassment now.
Important for all parties and especially for a smaller party is to have someone who exudes credibility. Farage may have successfully ditched the UK in the breakers yard, but he was not successful in Westminster elections; moreover that style of hit and run politics would be useless for Liberal Democrats
A problem with your advice is that it involves so much second guessing and crystal ball gazing. People often read into the public mood what they want to see, so judging by suppositions of that nature are likely to be self-validating.
There is another criterion to consider which is ‘who is least likely to be severely shredded by a predacious media?’ – I doubt this will be tested in the campaign, but is is an important factor.
Martin: “There is another criterion to consider which is ‘who is least likely to be severely shredded by a predacious media?’ – I doubt this will be tested in the campaign, but is is an important factor.” This is key. It was clear during the campaign that not all the likely lines of attack from outside had been war-gamed, and at times Jo floundered and was less than convincing in her replies. Of course you can’t anticipate *all* angles, but some of the questions were eminently predictable – a team of people should have been working on answers long before the election starting gun was fired. This is basic stuff, and I hope that lessons have been learned from December, but as HQ staff seems to turn over rather rapidly I’m not sure that that will happen.
Good article. I will also add radical, pushy, controversial ( Farage comes to mind?) they are ones that seem to get coverage. You learn from your enemies. Stand out. Be seen to be a hard worker.AND come across as a decent person. Charles Kennedy was an example of this. Human (alcohol problems) NOT like Johnson ,liar,cheat ,add your own comments! I can also add Vince Cable (Mr Bean comments) who can show humour in situations appropriate.
An online interview for members with Andrew Neil would soon sort out the wheat from the chaff (assuming there is any wheat amongst the runners).
No football manager worth their salt would sign a player without seeing them in serious action. I’m sure Mr Brillo Pad would do it for a suitable fee and it would be worth every penny.
Anyway, that’s all a bit negative. We struggle to get attention in the media, due to few MPs and the SNP having the “third party” status in the Commons despite many fewer votes in the country. So, my question is, “Will they get the press and broadcast media coming to them for comment on current issues, and will we get headlines as a result?” Paddy managed to get that ball rolling when we were still pretty small. Who can do it again?
Everyone remembers the crazy students in fancy dress. But did anyone actually like them or want to trust them with serious matters?
If people really wanted different and memorable then every election would be won by the novelty candidates. They don’t and they’re not.
Johnson and Farage might achieve some success by being noticeable, but they also do it by lying and promising simple solutions to complex problems. Furthermore, Johnson only succeeded because the alternatives were so utterly terrible. Do you think he’d have beaten “boring” Keir Starmer so easily?
Assuming that lying and promising quick fixes aren’t something to aspire to then the options are pretty thin on the ground. Workable, pragmatic solutions to problems are boring, and radical ones are usually unappealing to large sections of the population.
What’s needed now (and always) isn’t jumping up and down screaming for attention, it’s boring competence.
I agree with David Raw. Although other tough interviewers are available, Jeremy Paxman or John Humphries come to mind. But if a suitable professional interviewers aren’t available then tough questions from members in opening hustings are a requirement.
On the 2nd point of picking someone who looks & sounds different to Johnson & Starmer, we could choose a Woman.
The Idea of hiring/persuading a Professional to “Grill” the Candidates is excellent.
@ Chris Bertram “the SNP having the “third party” status in the Commons despite many fewer votes in the country”. Given there are only 59 Westminster seats in Scotland, Chris, and the SNP only stand in Scotland, that’s no great surprise.
In Scotland last December, on the antiquated Westminster voting system, the SNP got 48 seats with 45%, the Tories 6 seats 25% (down 4%) with 25%, Labour 1 seat with 18.6%, and the Lib Dems last on 9.5% but with 4 seats.
It could be argued the Lib Dems did disproportionately well and Labour is grossly under represented.
Good article lets hope liberal democrat voice will give all the candidates equal and objective coverage so that those who may not get to a hustings can make an informed decision when casting their vote.