Having had something of a break over the General Election period, the SLF is back with its nose to the grindstone, publishing new content to stir the interests of liberals – in particular social liberals – everywhere.
We are very grateful to Michael Mullaney for writing his excellent analysis of the General Election results, especially as it focuses on the fate of the party in significant regions of England. We now hold only one seat in the north of England (Westmorland and Lonsdale) and looking at the north, the Midlands, Wales and East Anglia combined, we defended only seven of the 16 second places we were defending, and lost our seats in Leeds Northwest, Sheffield Hallam and Ceredigion.
The story of this General Election is undoubtedly the fall in vote share to 7.4% – wonderful as it may be to have increased our tally of MPs by four – and the party facing irrelevance in large parts of the north, and other parts of the country. This is particularly distressing, as our policies would make such a difference to people living in these regions of England.
At the end of his piece, Michael says:
“….there is a large potential market place [in British politics] for centre-left progressive politics. This gives us the opportunity at the next election to present the public with a progressive, social liberal agenda.”
Amen to that sentiment, and the SLF will be working hard to ensure that social liberal policies remain front and centre of the Liberal Democrat agenda.
You can find this new publication on the SLF website at: http://www.socialliberal.net/northern_discomfort_an_analysis_of_the_liberal_democrat_performance_in_the_2017_general_election
Also, the SLF Conference on 15 July in London, whose theme is “The Retreat from Globalisation”, will present the first opportunity for liberals everywhere to come together and discuss their own experiences of GE 2017. You can find out more about the conference and how to book tickets here: http://www.socialliberal.net/slfconf2017
This article was first published on Lib Dem Voice on Friday 23 June: http://www.libdemvoice.org/latest-social-liberal-forum-publication-now-available-northern-discomfort-an-analysis-of-the-lib-dem-performance-in-the-2017-general-election-54690.html