Boris, Davis, Kearney, Scott, Harris, Brown, Cameron, Clegg
Real life has been catching up with me recently and haven’t really been keeping up with the developments in political life so this is a quick run-down of my opinions on various matters:
Boris/Local Elections/Crewe
I know it was all a long time ago now and I hate to remind you all but I wasn’t overly optimistic after the results. I thought the local election results were okay but for both Crewe and London the squeeze took hold and we seemed almost resigned to the fact afterwards.
As for Boris, well, he has nicely shown his true colours in the first couple of months in power. More rules and policies to hit the poor. He shows as stupidity the idea that conservatism and liberalism go together. He has also shown that the modern Tory is just as authoritarian as anyone in the Labour party. I hope this will all come back to bite the Tories in the arse come 2010 but I won’t hold my breath.
Double-D and Double-H
First off, Nick made the right decision. I can’t quite fathom why people think he didn’t. The only way for him to have possibly done better was to be psychic and get someone to resign first. By staying out of the fight we got to have our say against 42 days and without looking like the crank that Davis did. Fine, we don’t command the pulpit on civil liberties but this little debacle has thrown into light DD’s other less liberal positions with which we can go after him when he returns to the backbenches. Plus it adds a little to the inner turmoil of the Tory party that is just aching to boil over as the scent of victory draws ever nearer. The worst thing we could have done was stand, it would have leant weight to one of our opponents most promising attacks against us - that we are simply opportunistic, political scavengers waiting for some bloated carcass of politician to hove into view.
Ros4Prez
I have nothing against Lembit and am happy to have a Hello! celebrity in our midst but think the position would be better taken by someone with perhaps a smaller profile who can get on with the hard slog associated with being president and doing all the general party things, allowing the MPs to get on with furthering our cause in the wider sphere. Plus she and Mark now live in the splendid surroundings of Suffolk, where all the best people come from.
Henley
Certainly not great, but not absolutely awful either. Time to look at our overall campaigning technique though. We have made a lot of our invincible by-election team but in these days of a Tory resurgence we will have to look for other avenues in to voters minds.
One thing though, I have to disagree with John at Liberal Revolution. I thought that the website wasn’t good, neither modern nor stylish, and although a lot of information was contained, it was simply too busy, best exemplified by the fact they couldn’t find anywhere to put the youtube video, so made it tiny and put it over a banner. John Howell’s website wasn’t great but the main page was a lot simpler allowing the information on it to be taken in quickly (although at 1400 the day after they haven’t updated their website with the fact that they, er, won).
Brown’s woes
Wow, where to start. The big man has taken a battering in the last couple of months, but he soldiers on as only a dour Scot can. But I don’t understand why he continues to come out with more and more moronic ideas? Surely it’s obvious that you shouldn’t lock people up for 42 days? If your administration keeps losing people’s data, why do you think they would then trust you with being the sole repository for their identities? If your party is the supposed champion of the people, why try to take more and more money from the poorest?
Even though Labour has dived in the polls I don’t think its beyond saving. Less than a year ago Brown was riding high. Who’s to say what will happen in the next two years to change to political scene before the next general election? What it would take though I do not know, and I don’t think GB does either.
Cameron’s woes
Samantha may already be wondering what colour carpets to have in the No. 10 flat but I bet while she sits there looking at swatches, Dave is beside her wondering how long he can keep his group of parliamentary odd-bods all pointing in the same direction, or if he does make it into the black door, how long he will stay there before the knife comes down swiftly between his shoulderblades. The loons on the back benches and in the constituency parties are staying with him for now as he is a winner, but with no real substance behind his not very good style, he will trip up.
The cliche is that oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them and I don’t think that will be any truer than in the general election of 2010.
Nick’s woes
The polls ain’t good, but have they ever been? Caught in the middle between the increasingly crazed Labour party and the resurgent Cons we really have to begin fighting our way out of the sandwich. Importantly, we have to regain our own story. At the moment we are taken over by the ‘protest vote’ story and the ‘opportunistic’ story, the latter not helped by Nick’s decision on the Lisbon referendum.
I think the direction of the party is good, more in keeping with the original liberalism of the party. This emphasis on putting individuals back in charge of their own lives is good, as it is the way the general consensus is going, with people more and more despondent with the burgeoning state. I think we have to be willing to make tough decisions, such as proposing tough taxes, and also make radical decisions, such as proposing LVT or drug legalisation.
Most importantly though, we have to push away from the mainstream politics of the big two. Currently we are seen as the poor man’s version of both, whereas moving away from them to a more radical standpoint would get us noticed above normal politics. We need to admit that we don’t have the answer to all life’s ills, that the answers lie with individuals and small communities rather than anyone 50,100, 200 miles away in London. This was nicely illustrated by Nick in a recent speech on education.
So, the country is moving away from Labour, as their ideas of social democracy move ever closer to pure socialism. However, the country shows no real passion for the compassionate conservatism of the current right. As with all good Englishmen, they really just want to be left alone. Appealing to this nature of the country is the key to winning, IMHO.
