on observing the swinging stable door
May. 5th, 2007 04:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perlmongerThere are, I think, some specific reasons we did so badly in North Somerset on Thursday that we probably won’t discuss amongst ourselves, but our generally dismal showing UK-wide is another matter (the places where we did succeed will, again, likely be for local reasons - as is right and proper for local elections).
What concerns me here is why we failed (and matching votes with the Labour Party is failure), when the Tories in England, the SNP and (to a slightly lesser extent) PC did not. My suspicion, my fear, is that we lost because we lacked and lack the courage of our convictions. We elected a “safe pair of hands” as leader when that was the last thing we needed and our campaigning was driven by fear of losing and by other peoples’ agendas (lawnorder FFS!), not by principle and what we know is right and important even when that cuts right across the Establishment consensus.
Craig Murray mentions Iraq and Trident replacement and I would agree that they’re the current issues most likely to resonate with your voter-on-the-street, but I would like to see more on countering the culture of fear that the Home Office is using to push through its encroachments on liberty and the rule of law, and less mealy mouthed compromise from careerist politicians eager to be the next step in the Blair-Cameron axis of empty rhetoric.
Publicising and arguing against what’s being done to agriculture might win more votes from the Tories in rural constituencies than it loses from North London second home owners who don’t like the smell of manure, and where’s the national campaign on PFI and its legacy? As it stands, it’s easier to find reports on LibDems supporting PFI deals than mentioning the country being in hock for decades on the never-never for no better reason than creative accounting by the Treasury to pretend they’re not borrowing.
We shouldn’t be on the defensive, is all. Maybe if we weren’t, we might persuade a few more people we’re worth voting for.
What concerns me here is why we failed (and matching votes with the Labour Party is failure), when the Tories in England, the SNP and (to a slightly lesser extent) PC did not. My suspicion, my fear, is that we lost because we lacked and lack the courage of our convictions. We elected a “safe pair of hands” as leader when that was the last thing we needed and our campaigning was driven by fear of losing and by other peoples’ agendas (lawnorder FFS!), not by principle and what we know is right and important even when that cuts right across the Establishment consensus.
Craig Murray mentions Iraq and Trident replacement and I would agree that they’re the current issues most likely to resonate with your voter-on-the-street, but I would like to see more on countering the culture of fear that the Home Office is using to push through its encroachments on liberty and the rule of law, and less mealy mouthed compromise from careerist politicians eager to be the next step in the Blair-Cameron axis of empty rhetoric.
Publicising and arguing against what’s being done to agriculture might win more votes from the Tories in rural constituencies than it loses from North London second home owners who don’t like the smell of manure, and where’s the national campaign on PFI and its legacy? As it stands, it’s easier to find reports on LibDems supporting PFI deals than mentioning the country being in hock for decades on the never-never for no better reason than creative accounting by the Treasury to pretend they’re not borrowing.
We shouldn’t be on the defensive, is all. Maybe if we weren’t, we might persuade a few more people we’re worth voting for.
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Disaffected of hertfordshire
Date: 2007-05-05 04:38 pm (UTC)I don't have a tv, I don't read a daily newspaper, I definitely don't read any of the local papers so devoid of content, they move straight to the recycle bin.
So, the labour lot, didn't communicate with me.
The tory lot left a sheet of a4 with a lot of random petty bitching on it about the local politic scene (hello, I'm not actually interested, my interaction with the council is roadworks on roads that aren't broken and having my bin emptied weekly for which I seem to pay 1000 pounds a year poll tax). The leaftlet was at the bottom of the stairs, I live in a flat on the 2nd floor.
The liberal lot put a leaflet through my door which featured a tabloid format and a lot of hot air about crime (it's not an issue for me) and a minor mention of no2id of which I approve, well the lack of id, not so much the organisation, but that is a national issue, the whim of a home secretary prepared to burn good money and shoot themselves SO badly in the foot. It isn't going to help in my case.
There were no independents so I voted yellow seeing as someone had gone to the trouble of climbing my stairs. But this being that sort of place, it was I suppose inevitable that the blues remained in control, but it doesn't matter, the local council really makes themselves quite irrelevant to me.
Maybe my reasons for voting are facile and I accept that in this case, but I'd bet I'm not alone. Appeal to the intelligent, the deviant, the disaffected, the subversive and the unmotivated and you'll get some votes. Think about it from our point of view. The local issue is not trident, it's not foreign military expeditions, it's not. It's not "a safe pair of hands" (I have no knowledge of the people I voted for save their political flag colour, I didn't even bother noticing their gender) although if I was persuaded to be more interested in local politics I'd vote for people with a near violent dislike of bureaucracy, of pettiness or interminable meetings. Maybe I identify with captain sensible and the punks that grew up.
But, forgive me for ranting, I just thought you might be interested.
Re: Disaffected of hertfordshire
Date: 2007-05-08 08:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-05 04:41 pm (UTC)Develop a grassroots. You don't have one. Labour has a grassroots following all the way back over a century. The Tories have a grassroot amongst the conservative set especially in East Anglia which they can now claim is their 'heartland' as much as Labour claimed Scotland and the north are theirs. The Lib Dems could have claimed that the south west was their heartland but not after Thursday.
The Lib Dems could have been the party of responsible local government but they threw that away on Thursday.
At the end of the day it looked like the only justification for the existence of the Lib Dems was to be an alternative when both Labour and the Tories were equally bad. They need to stand for something. When folks don't know what they stand for and there are equally good alternatives then the Lib Dems lose out.
Anyway, get rid of Ming and that's a good start. He's got no good ideas.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-07 04:49 pm (UTC)To dominate, the LibDems will have to get nasty. They'll have to become slick, punchy and articulate. Theoretical orange-bookery and polytechnic lecturers won't cut it with a soundbite public.
I speak as an ex-member of the party, one who left in disgust at the way it conducted itself in '05-'06. If there was a general election tomorrow, and I felt that voting LibDem could unseat the unpleasant Blairite incumbent in my constituency, I'd probably do so. But again, that's negative.
The LibDems need one message, one leader, one idea. That's all the public can cope with.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-08 08:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-08 08:59 am (UTC)But left-wing doesn't sell to a nation that increasingly thinks of itself as middle class.
Welcome to America.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-08 10:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-09 04:34 pm (UTC)