"You should have stood down in more seats"
At the count I also met my old friends Freddie and Fiona, those ultimate Liberal Democrat insiders. They were full of their plans for a 'Progressive Alliance'.
"All we need do," said the latter, "is change the Labour Party constitution, have all the parties agree a common manifesto and then get them to stand down wherever we think they should."
I reminisced that the Liberal Party had stood down in half the seats in the country in 1983 and a fat lot of good came from it. "The trouble with you old-fashioned Liberals," replied Freddie, "is that you lack ambition. You should have stood down in more seats."
Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West. 1906-10.
Previously in Lord Bonkers' Diary
1 comment:
The Liberal/SDP seat negotiations are quite frankly a painful memory. David Owen wanted to use a BBC B computer to do electoral modelling, Shirley Williams wanted to use the welsh Dragon 32 computer out of respect to Lloyd-George, and David Steel wanted Libs and Soc Dem's local parties to fight each other in pub car parks to settle the argument.
My uncle Jerry still has a cauliflower ear from when things boiled over choosing a candidate for Erith & Crayford.
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