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Lib Dem Runners-Up: Just How Bad Things Are
May 28, 2015 12:00 PM
Since the general election, I’ve been awaiting the inevitable analysis of Lib Dem second and third places. But as I haven’t seen one forthcoming, I thought I would compile my own. Liberal Democrats stood in 631 constituencies – every one of the UK’s 650 constituencies, except the 18 Northern Ireland...
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We must never spend another election campaign not talking about ourselves
May 25, 2015 9:30 AM
In his latest article, Ryan Coetzee has said that, despite our humiliating losses, we made a coherent liberal case to voters - offering them a stronger economy and a fairer society. Did we? I missed it. What we did talk about, however, was the records and offers of the...
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Thoughts about liberalism and elections
May 22, 2015 1:00 PM
I have been trying to make my thoughts coherent, and they refuse to budge beyond a certain stage, so perhaps my readers can help me out.
For a long time I have been uncomfortable about the divide, constructed by people on both sides, between social and economic liberals. Two camps...
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A view from the ground – the yellow brick road
May 15, 2015 11:27 AM
At many a hustings meeting it was my Tory opponent – a Government Whip - who was ‘generously’ trying to ‘big up’ the ‘wonderful contribution’ of the Lib Dems to the Tory led Government, whilst I was fast peddling in a different direction trying to differentiate and distance myself...
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Reaching beyond the rhetoric of austerity
May 14, 2015 2:57 PM
Unless progressives stop ceding the ground on austerity, the Tories will always capitalise on economic fear
Elections do not happen in a vacuum. Political pundits and seasoned campaigners can sit around regretting the use of a particular slogan or the flop of a particular photo opportunity, but the...
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How the Liberal Democrats can recover
May 13, 2015 4:02 PM
The general election was truly horrific for the Liberal Democrats. Despite our huge losses, our party can recover if it follows these five steps.
1. Become a Movement with a Parliamentary Face
It is vital that we become a radical campaigning party again. Whether it’s concerning political...
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The Lib Dems aren’t connecting with BAME voters
May 12, 2015 12:05 PM
As if the scale of the Lib Dem defeat wasn’t bad enough closer analysis shows that the party did even worse, if that is possible, in seats with higher black, Asian and minority ethnic populations.
As a general rule, the bigger the BAME population the worse the Lib...
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Let’s Never Ignore Evidence Again
May 10, 2015 1:55 PM
The Liberal Democrats repeatedly ignored the warning signs that their strategy was not working.
- We have lost 45% of our councillor base since 2010 (we now have 2,257 compared with 4,088 in May 2010).
- We lost 71% of our MSPs in 2011.
- We lost 91% of our MEPs...
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david howarth: thoughts on the way forward
May 09, 2015 7:10 PM
Five things we must never do again
We must never again accept coalition with the Tories - Every time the party has entered into a coalition with the Tories it has come out seriously damaged. The one in the 1930s ended in a three way split and national...
