In this month's local elections the Liberal Democrats made a net gain of 175 seats where they hold the parliamentary constituency and a net loss of 20 where they don't.
That stat comes from Nick Barlow on Bluesky. He doesn't give a source, but as he's a former Lib Dem blogger I trust him implicitly.
It strengthens my impression that, however highly you rate Ed Davey's leadership, the party's current strategy has reached the end of its useful life. We never talk about it, but I can't be the only one to have noticed how low the Lib Dem vote now is in local by-elections where we have done no campaigning. And I worry that by concentrating all our efforts on Conservative seats, we are putting all our eggs in demographic basket.
There seems a consensus among journalists that we could be making more of a splash at Westminster, and that some of the exciting, fresh faces elected to the Commons two years ago should be seen more. The media rarely does us any favours, but perhaps it's too easy to blame it for all our failings. There are whispers that some of those MPs don't appreciate the very top-down way the parliamentary party is run.
So what do we do now? I've no easy answers, but there is a need to let people know how a Liberal Democrat government would be different and the main policies we will press for if we are party of a governing coalition after the next election. I'm not sure I know that at the moment and I'm sure the public doesn't.
We have plenty of policies, but there rarely seems to be a wider theme that makes them hang together as a programme for government.
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