New Statesman: Lib Dems cheered and baffled by Kemi Badenoch

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The Liberal Democrats have two strategic objectives in this parliament. 

One is to be a better opposition than the Conservatives by focusing on issues of substance, like social care reform, rather than ones of style or personality.

The second is to embed our new MPs as local champions, so that even voters profoundly disillusioned with Westminster will welcome their achievements in their communities.

That's according to George Eaton writing on the New Statesman website.

He goes on to say:

From an electoral perspective, the Lib Dems’ aim is to "finish the job” in the Blue Wall. Of their 30 notional target seats, all but four are held by the Tories. That Kemi Badenoch has displayed little interest in defending – or reclaiming – such territory has cheered (and baffled) the Lib Dems.

But Davey’s team also believe they have opportunities against Labour. “We want a Liberal voice back in the cities,” an aide told me. Early targets include Nick Clegg’s former seat of Sheffield Hallam (Labour majority: 8,189) and Simon Hughes’s former seat of Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Labour majority: 7,787).

Elsewhere in the article, I was surprised to read that it was Paddy Ashdown who pioneered "pavement politics".

This approach, under the grander name "community politics" was developed in the previous decade by the Association of Liberal Councillors and graduates of the Young Liberals' radical era.

At that time Paddy was still... Well, if I told you what he was doing in those days, I'd have to shoot you.

The Joy of Six 1169

Matthew Pennell explains where HS2 went wrong: "his is the hallmark of populism - a complete failure to deliver, a lot of posturing and constant drama about things under your nose, with no capability to do anything strategic."

Nick Winch pays tribute to his mother Phoebe Winch, who died last week at the age of 92: "She was a member of the Standing committee of ALC then ALDC – and was the organisation’s first President. She would travel around the country with the likes of Roger Hayes and Andrew Stunell running training days for councillors and campaigners, wrote ALC booklets including an informal - and funny - history of the first ten years at the Birchcliffe Centre."

"Northern England has contributed so much to modern Britain and the world. Its economy, though diminished in relative terms from its industrial peak, remains bigger than that of countries such as Argentina, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. Northerners have a fascinating story that deserves to be heard." Brian Groom explains why the North matters.

Jonny Thomson examines Dietrich Bonhoeffer's argument that stupidity is more of a threat than evil: "Evil is a puppet master, and it loves nothing so much as the mindless puppets who enable it - be they in the general public or inside the corridors of power."

Simon Perks on work and life and balance.

I miss the days when there was a rich ecology of blogs. Matthew Cooper had one devoted to critique of the works of the historian Dominic Sandbrook that flourished for five years from 2012.

The Tories took back control of a blue wall council on Thursday and no one will admit it

On Thursday we failed to hold a Liberal Democrat seat in Surrey Heath with the result that the Conservatives won overall control of the council.

But you wouldn't know it from the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors' report on Lib Dem Voice:

On Surrey Heath Borough Council, Lib Dem candidate Jacques Olmo came agonisingly close to beating the Conservatives in Frimley Green ward. Well done to Jacques and the team for winning 47% of the vote. But sadly, they were just 19 votes shy of the Conservatives.

You would be somewhat better informed by the post on the blog written by Mark Pack, the president of our party. (May he live for ever.)

Under the headline:

Conservatives gain seat from Lib Dems after Ukip no-show

Mark writes of

a rare Liberal Democrat loss to the Conservatives after a recount and helped by the absence of Ukip this time:

Commiserations to Jacques Olmo and the team for getting so close but not quite making it in this contest in Michael Gove’s constituency.

But if you go to the indispensable by-election preview written by Andrew Teale, you will find that Ukip didn't have that much to do with it.

The result last time this three-member ward was fought (May 2019) was:

Lib Dems 1019/1012/889
Cons 601/568/519
Ukip 269
Pirate Party 190

Given that demolishing the Tories' blue wall is our only apparent strategy, this is a deeply disappointing result.

My worry is that if we are not honest about how badly we are doing then the party will continue to dwindle.

It reminds me of the way we reacted to the collapse of 2015 by tweeting incessantly about the #LibDemFightback. 

Having convinced ourselves it was a real phenomenon, we were shocked when our vote went down at the 2017 election.

Farewell to Tony Greaves

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There was sad news yesterday. We learnt that Tony Greaves - Baron Greaves of Pendle - had died suddenly at his home in Trawden.

Besides his service as a councillor and peer, Tony played two important roles in the development of the Liberal politics of his era.

As a Young Liberal he helped develop the ideas behind community politics - it was he who moved the motion at the 1970 Liberal Assembly that saw the party vote to adopt the approach. Our huge advances in local government over the next 40 years owed much to this approach.

Then Tony became the first staff member of the Association of Liberal Councillors. This was the group you joined if you were serious about getting elected in the late Seventies and early Eighties.

Like Tony, the ALC was deeply independent and relations between it and the Liberal Party leadership were often less than collegiate.

As I recall it, my first Liberal Assembly (Bournemouth in 1984) saw a rapprochement between the two organisations. The ALC (which became the ALDC after merger with the SDP) was to lose its whiff of brimstone while remaining indispensable to ambitious Liberal Democrat campaigners.

Tony himself was the original curmudgeon with a heart of gold and I have happy memories of him coming to my house in Market Harborough. He was also a dealer in political books and had come to buy some from me.

Six of the Best 873

"Somewhat to my surprise, I’ve voted for Ed Davey to be the next leader of the Liberal Democrats." Tim Holyoake explains why.

Ruby Chow attended the ALDC's three-day Kickstart event in Staffordshire.

Jennifer Williams is a superb writer: "It is a place where a strong identity fights to flourish under layer upon layer of economic bad fortune. Consequently, Oldham’s experience can tell us an awful lot about the ferocious currents swirling through our national politics."

"Massive reforestation isn’t a pipe dream and it can have real benefits for people," say Mark Maslin and Simon Lewis.

"The value of play is not in the added value it brings though, it’s in the sense of freedom and fun that it has itself. In a time when young people (and their teachers) are being measured more and more both students and school staff really need some kind of counterbalance." Lucy Maddox makes the case for playtime at school and beyond.

Sarah Larson makes filming with Jim Jarmusch sound a lot of fun.