This is the 9th General Election in which I’ve been politically active. Let’s not think about how old that makes me! You can also add 4 Holyrood elections to that. I missed out on the first one because I was living in England and just about to give birth. That didn’t stop me running a committee room in Chesterfield on polling day, though. Nor did it stop me doing stuff for the Newark by-election that never was.
I’ve just been reflecting on all these campaigns and maybe I should write about each one individually at some point.
In each election, I have made sure that my effort is concentrated on target seats, even if that has meant travelling on a daily basis. The reason for that is that I’ve always been very aware that I know that what matters the day after polling day is the number of bums we have on seats in whatever legislature we’re in. I could not have it on my conscience to lose a key target by a few hundred votes while I’d concentrated on getting single figures in percentage terms in my home seat. Believe me I have seen that happen several times.
Building that momentum throughout the campaign needs extra help. I will be forever grateful to the wonderful people from across the East Midlands region who travelled several times a week to Chesterfield in 1997, or the Lothian people who travelled to help us in Edinburgh South in 2001 and 2005. Martin Garnett, who’s our candidate in Erewash again today, was part of that Chesterfield support team in 1997.
That help from outside ensures that can establish ourselves as the challenger, that we can out-campaign the opposition and put ourselves in a winning position. It means that we can talk to more voters and build that all-important impression of a growing campaign. Every single day of the campaign, extra people are needed to boost local capacity and sow the seeds of victory.
I would go as far as to say that if you are spending the majority of your campaigning time in a seat that is not a target, you are actually doing the party more harm than good.
That may seem harsh, but it is true.
Your presence in a target seat can make a difference. So can your absence.
There are other great reasons to devote your time to targets. The first is the obvious pound of flesh you can extract in peace time. Chesterfield in the 90s was brilliant at paying back the help that had been given to it. They helped at council by-elections all across the region. There was one particularly glorious moment when we beat Labour to win a county council by-election in that Labour heartland of Bolsover in 1994, a campaign masterminded and run by the Chesterfield team. Another campaign I was involved in was the first time I ever used blue letters – in Erewash in 1998. That was in part payback for the fact that Ted Gay, the above-mentioned Martin Garnett and the Erewash team coming up once a week to deliver an entire polling district by themselves.
In recent years we may not have been as good as we could have been in doing this, so we need to make sure it’s a key part of the strategy the party will be developing after the election.
There needs to be a very clear understanding that when people travel to help and contribute to our party’s success, that they get support in return.
Had we had 3 years to build up to an election in 2020, I’d have been looking to set up these kinds of arrangements. But we didn’t. We had 7 weeks. In that time, with our bonkers electoral system, we will only be able to win where we are already strong. And that is where you are needed to help.
A target seat campaign at full pelt has to be seen to be believed. It’s great fun and you see things that you might not have seen before that you can adapt for your own area. It’s an excellent training ground for you and your local party.
The final reason is that when the result comes through in your target seat, you know that you have had a stake in that advance. It could not have happened without you. Being part of a winning campaign is one of the best feelings. And if your victory is repeated across the country in other key seats, think how good you will feel.
You don’t physically have to travel to be part of a winning campaign. You can set up a phone bank in someone’s lounge, with a whole load of you phoning for the seat. You can import a whole load of clerical work. I know I go on about this, but I haven’t quite forgiven Paul Holmes for making us stuff envelopes for a Bradford by-election while we were trying to get 1.5 million Euro election addresses sorted in 1994. We survived, though and what doesn’t kill you etc…
I do think that candidates in non-target seats are coming under a huge amount of pressure at the moment. They are having pressure from the central organisation to get people to travel, and their local members are saying “hang on, don’t you care about here?” It’s maybe a bit unfair to say that to people who clearly are committed to their own area but who understand the wider picture. Let’s all come together to find a way through that works.
I’m off now into Edinburgh West to deliver more leaflets. I’m feeling that this campaign is the most important one I’ve ever fought and I’m determined to put everything into making sure we send Christine Jardine to Westminster on June 8th.
If you are one of the many Lib Dems who is travelling regularly to help in a target seat, thank you so much. It does take extra time and effort. You are giving us a chance of some really good news stories on June 9th.
With over 100,000 of us ready to take to the streets, think of the difference we could make in the next two weeks. If you want to know how to find your nearest one, visit here.
* 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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21 Comments
Absolutely right Caron. I was going to write about the specific instances where I have been involved in campaigns that fell just short, but there’s no need – most people here understand!
The point is that on June 9th there will be a seat somewhere – I don’t know which one it will be but there will be a seat somewhere – where we either lose an MP or fail to gain one, by just a small number or even a handful of votes. It happens every election. OK so sometimes we manage to fall over the other side of the line and win tight ones – but even in those cases your point stands. Every bit of work makes a difference. So if you can do just one delivery round in this election, do it in a target seat. If you can send just one donation, likewise. If you’re reading this and haven’t done anything yet, your nearest target seat really needs you. If it’s a distance away, the chances are that someone will be going from your area and will give you a lift. Anyway you get the gist. If you care about this party, don’t leave it to others to determine how many seats we win.
I have been active at every GE from Feb ’74 until 2010 when I left the party, but have been persuaded to return. But which is the target seat I should go to? I live in the Witney constituency, a former fiefdom of Cameron and Douglas Hurd, (not normally one which we would target) until the by-election this year when the Tories were ran very close, or OXWAB which is less than 5 miles away?
Caron, If we all campaigned only in seats that are “target seats”, then how would we ever add to the number of our target seats?
To be fair, I think some long standing members forget what it’s like to be new (Caron!). If someone with absolutely no campaigning experience and only joined the party 2 weeks ago contacts their local office to offer to help and gets told to drive for an hour to a different town they don’t know, then they might feel too nervous and just stay at home.
I’m all for exporting the most experienced and enthusiastic members to target seats, but we also need to remember to break nervous newbies in gently. Telling them they are actually causing harm by just wanting to campaign locally really isn’t helpful.
Train them up locally and maybe they will feel comfortable travelling elsewhere next time.
A very very important message. We face a very tough fight in Leeds NW and need every activist we can get our hand on to leaflet, knock on doors, stuff envelopes and phone canvass and I am sure the same is true of all our other target seats, so please go to http://www.libdems.org.uk/win and get out there and go help in your nearest target seat
(Caron please can you add that link into your article)
Catherine Jane Crosland – We get more target seats by working in areas at local elections, in general target seats all have a strong base of Lib Dem councillors. In local elections, we also win more Councillors by targeting wards and working them hard. Its basically a progressive thing achieved over a number of years but it has been proven to work and mean we have a good base to win and keep the seat from.
This General Election is fairly unique in recent times of being at a different time to local elections which should mean more people are able to travel without damaging local election results.
@Peter: Done. Good luck.
While I want to see as many votes as possible for all our candidates it is vital to target this year more than ever. I’m in Meon Valley and will support Martin Tod but all our local effort is going into getting Gerald Vernon-Jackson back in Portsmoith South. Caron – I can just top your tally: 14 General Elections so far – first was Edinburgh South in 1964…! Also enjoyed the late 60’s by-elections as Chair of Western Counties YLs – Gordon Lishman still owes me for a favour in the Manchester Gorton one when we ran a YL campaign…
“I would go as far as to say that if you are spending the majority of your campaigning time in a seat that is not a target, you are actually doing the party more harm than good”. So the majority of Liberal Democrat party members are doing the party more harm than good? Will there be a purge after the election?
Interesting, Caron. So, following the success of 2015…..
Catherine – you can’t build any seat up to target level during a general election campaign. We need to build up many more areas outside election time, but during an election we have to target our effort.
Nick – joining a carload to go and help in a target seat is a great introduction to campaigning, not least because you will see a fully fledged Lib Dem campaign. If distance is the issue then set up a phonebanking evening. This is good training for your local members as well as helping a target seat.
Half way through, middle of York campaign leaflets received to date-:
Labour – 3
Conservatives -1
LibDems – 0
Tynan here in a village in Milton Keynes North the tally is:
Lab: 0
Con: 0
LibDem: 0
It is really capturing the imagination…
The principle is fine. Our seat Richmond is one of the safest Tory seats in the country but we’ve had good representation on the District Council. That got wiped out in 2015. We got 18% in the County Council elections up from virtually nothing in 2013. We have District Council elections in 2019 and we need to build our support for that.
The only way we will ever win this seat is to win on the District and County and to do that we need to campaign here.
We have a target of 10,000 votes and 100 new members. We are running a very different campaign. We have had emails from our Unaddressed offering to put up posters and expressing support which is unheard of for us. We are running Facebook and Twitter campaigns. We have people who are enthused and buzzing – not just members. We’ve made a big thing of our MP’s voting record which is gaining traction. If we decamp somewhere else the momentum will be lost – and remember national share of vote is an important measure too, particularly as we still have a PR manifesto pledge.
Out MP is so confident we think that he’s in Darlington or York and we’re getting comments about his lack of visibility. If we fight hard here he might not be so confident to go somewhere else.
I agree wholeheartedly with Philip. When Caron says “I would go as far as to say that if you are spending the majority of your campaigning time in a seat that is not a target, you are actually doing the party more harm than good.” I think she shows how little she understands about the mentality of many Liberal Democrats, where standing up for local people is a vital element of our philosophy.
Sure we need to get more MPs. Sure that means we have to target. And in seats where there is little chance we should be encouraging them to organise a car to go and help in their nearest target seat, when they get a chance. It would be a great fillip to the seat they help in, you will make new friends and having a fairly local Lib Dem MP who owes you one is great when it comes to a constituency dinner or a council by-election.
But to say you are actually doing the party more harm than good is a damning indictment and is neither appropriate nor correct.
As much as I agree that targeting is essential, and that there will be much to learn from local groups taking a trip to participate in the nearest target seat’s campaign, but the reality is that many people will only fancy a couple of hours of leafletting and would prefer to do this in the area they are familiar with for a candidate they personally know.
I suspect Caron means that if you are the local campaign organiser, then it might be better to encourage local volunteers to travel, rather than only deploying them in their own constituency, as surely any leafleting is better than none? The media and commentators and the public will be looking at our national share of the vote as well as the number of seats when deciding how often we are invited onto Question Time and so on.
If we are going to bother to stand a candidate, then we should provide at least basic support for that candidate, because it will be incredibly demoralising for all involved if they get a very low vote share. The challenge is to provide enough support without being wasteful, which will very much depend on who is involved and how far it is to a target seat.
I’d also add that normal people don’t operate at constituency level. We interact with people beyond those boundaries, and are influenced by the things they talk about, especially in these days of social media.
So yes, targeting is essential, and people need to resist the temptation to be only loyal to local candidates, but equally, it’s dangerous to give the impression that all work outwith a target seat is wasteful.
Canvassing with Nick Harvey in North Devon and Andrew George in St Ives, both of them fine Lib Dem MPs for many years until May 2015 and hopefully soon again, felt very worthwhile, as did stuffing letters and leaflets with their enthusiastic local teams. No time for cream teas, Caron! But good crack over the office work and the strawberries and cakes that kept arriving. Now I’m back in Cumbria, and the remaining week is Tim’s, in Westmorland and Lonsdale. Enjoyable and inspiring to take part in everywhere!
@Katharine Pindar “No time for cream teas”
Shame. I’d like to know the Lib Dem position on how the scone should be eaten 🙂
Leaflet delivery here to date: Cons 0, Labour 0, Lib Dem 0, Green 0, and a busy time was had by all. Why is this election taking place at all? The P M blames the Lib Dems errrr, will she take no responsibility for anything. In the meantime the Lib Dim national high pwerered campaign with maximum media coverage continues errrrr……
Hi, Peter, I have now learnt the respective positions of Devon and Cornwall as to cream teas – one putting the jam on before the cream, and vice versa for the other. But as I didn’t actually sample either this time, and would have to sample both to judge, I guess this is not a question (thank the lord!) on which I feel moved to pontificate! (Might as well mention here that the best tea I have ever had in my life was served up here in Cumbria at Easter for my friend Joan’s 90th birthday, to a large and grateful hall full of her friends and family. The Cumbrians – the Cumbrians – the Cumbrians are best! )
Delighted though that Huddersfield Town has made it to the Premier League!
While harsh in tone, Caron is basically right. Yes, we must build capacity and support over time in non-target seats. But when it comes to a snap general election, everyone needs to get to a target seat. Failing that, remote campaign in one – there is always phone banking, clerical work and digital campaigning. Anything else you are doing actively hurts the party’s chances.