dead brains don't dance

…nostalgia_lj has written TARDIS/GCU instafic.

It's quite sweet, really.

ION, ramtops and I ran the bar at the annual N Somerset LibDem 'ossidge'n'mash dinner'n'quiz last night, as we have for the last few years. A good time was, I think, had by all but we both woke up with mouths that felt like Lilith had left some of her discarded Bits inside, which was deeply unfair as I drank precisely one bottle of Butcombe Gold, and Mac even less. I blame the ersatz ice cream Cornettos we were given near the end of proceedings. Chock full of Ingredients, I'm sure; toxic waste, I suspect.

There 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.