"It’s time for constitutional reform – of the Liberal Democrats. We need to redesign our party structures to make them fit for the challenges we face." George Potter suggests six ways of doing it.
Phil Rodgers explains why he is rejoining the Liberal Democrats.
"Farage’s claim to authenticity was always a curious one. How could this former commodity trader portray himself as the ‘man in the street’? Surely he was closer to the ‘Establishment’ than many ... of the main party leaders." David Bates on the ABC of Nigel Farage.
Following the election result, Eddie Procter calls on the English to throw off the Norman yoke.
Dezeen mourns the loss of the brutalist Pimlico School.
7 comments:
The only plus side to the defeat is that the LD parliamentary party may now exercise less influence, hopefully allowing for community-politics and grassroots activists to rebuild the party in the radical tradition.
Perhaps its is time for a rebranding too - 'Lib Dem' is tainted. 'Liberal Party' would emphasise the party's links to its radical past and consolidate support of the Celtic fringe.
I don't think those Lib Dem ex-MPs had much influence or knowledge about how the election campaign was conducted. If you're supposed to be a junior minister or spokesperson AND look after your constituents AND campaign for your seat AND campaign for local councillors, there aren't many hours left in the day.
Some of those community-politics and grassroots activists led us down a blind alley at the General Election too. Just as SPADs straight from university did. I'm not accusing them of guilt because many feel as bad as we do.
No, we can't rebrand by changing party name. It would be politically crass. Conduct some web searches for "New Coke" and about how one of the world's biggest brands made huge mistakes.
It may seem hard to believe, but Clegg's folly might easily have cost the party even more dearly than it did. Anthony Wells reckons that if the election had been fought on the revised boundaries that were proposed, the Lib Dems would have won only four seats:
http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/9413
The Lib Dems withdrew support for boundary changes when it was clear that Conservatives would be playing games in the AV referendum and Lords changes.
That was when the Lib Dems should have said "stuff it". Sadly, they didn't.
It was in retaliation for the loss of the Lords reform. The AV referendum had long gone.
Brand? The brand was damaged when it became the Alliance, SLD, Democrats, and eventually the Liberal Democrats.
If you want to reclaim radical Liberalism then start by reclaiming the name at least.
Anon 4: "If you want to reclaim radical Liberalism then start by reclaiming the name at least."
We've done it. We are liberals. The residue of the SDP long ago acknowledged that they had to be liberal.
It didn't work out well.
Post a Comment