Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Avoiding a festival of constipation and cold clotted porridge
Just imagine this election campaign with only Brown and Cameron in the spotlight.
No life, no hope, no vision. The national mood would now be sour, depressed and despairing, with press excitement concentrated on whether various extreme factions would cause upsets.
Imagine the Parliament we are about to elect so constructed that Cameron and Brown manage to re-impose the pretence that they (or their successors) are the only legitimate political forces.
After the life of the campaign, once more political constipation.
After the real fresh foods of real and relevant issues breaking onto the menu, once more the cold porridge of the exhausted establishment.
The national mood will swiftly become sour and despairing.
As Prime Minister? Cameron? Well, on the surface he can seem very very deep, but deep deep down he is shallow.
Or Brown? (or more likely a emergency successor though). In alleged command of a zombie party of frustrated and frightened bullies.
Another thing. If we largely hold our seats and make the gains possible we may well be the only truly ‘National Party’ in the UK context. So the future of the United Kingdom as such may depend on our nerve and example.
To combat this we need as many LibDem MPs as possible from all parts of the country, backed by as big a LibDem vote as possible again from all parts of the country.
Damn tactical voting. Keep our politics alive and vote for Freedom with the Liberal Democrats. Everywhere.
No life, no hope, no vision. The national mood would now be sour, depressed and despairing, with press excitement concentrated on whether various extreme factions would cause upsets.
Imagine the Parliament we are about to elect so constructed that Cameron and Brown manage to re-impose the pretence that they (or their successors) are the only legitimate political forces.
After the life of the campaign, once more political constipation.
After the real fresh foods of real and relevant issues breaking onto the menu, once more the cold porridge of the exhausted establishment.
The national mood will swiftly become sour and despairing.
As Prime Minister? Cameron? Well, on the surface he can seem very very deep, but deep deep down he is shallow.
Or Brown? (or more likely a emergency successor though). In alleged command of a zombie party of frustrated and frightened bullies.
Another thing. If we largely hold our seats and make the gains possible we may well be the only truly ‘National Party’ in the UK context. So the future of the United Kingdom as such may depend on our nerve and example.
To combat this we need as many LibDem MPs as possible from all parts of the country, backed by as big a LibDem vote as possible again from all parts of the country.
Damn tactical voting. Keep our politics alive and vote for Freedom with the Liberal Democrats. Everywhere.
Labels: general election, LibDems
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Friday, April 16, 2010
At last the 1983 show?
Maybe we will see at last what might have happened in 1983.
In that general Election campaign the ‘Liberal-SDP Alliance’ was running close to Labour in the opinion polls, the Tories of course heavily leading. Then a couple of Alliance campaign miss-steps led to Labour being seen as still the main challenger to the Tories and the fight was over. Despite the widespread dislike of Mrs Thatcher, the majority had as top priority keeping Labour out of office.
The smell in the air was that if the Alliance could have pushed Labour into third with two weeks to go the Tory position would have been a lot weaker. Then anti-Thatcher voters would have found somewhere congenial to escape to, and the Alliance would have been in the zone to come second in seats and become the official opposition. I recall being briefed at the time that the Tories had a well-oiled Plan B all ready to go to spend a ton of money attacking the Alliance with pretty grimy tactics expected. In the event we never had to face that bombardment. The alliance leadership was pretty nervous about this prospect, apparently.
Expect a bombardment on the LibDems this time though, from both Tory and Labour. Neither can afford to let us fill the Official Opposition psychological slot. We need to draw on all our reserves of calm…
One question in 2010 is however this: Have the Labservatories actually done the necessary preparation for such a plan B (as the Tories did well before the campaign in 1983) or will they have to do things on the hoof?
Incidentally, one of the 1983 mis-steps sadly was a messed up interview by Roy Jenkins. The Alliance ran him as ‘Prime-Minister Designate’ and he went into an hour long grilling by Robin Day (The Paxman of those times) with all sorts of solid and lofty themes to discuss, only to be ambushed by half an hour of nagging on the Wasted Vote theme that he didn’t have the long Liberal training to handle. Clegg has leaped over the equivalent hurdle with ease this time…
In that general Election campaign the ‘Liberal-SDP Alliance’ was running close to Labour in the opinion polls, the Tories of course heavily leading. Then a couple of Alliance campaign miss-steps led to Labour being seen as still the main challenger to the Tories and the fight was over. Despite the widespread dislike of Mrs Thatcher, the majority had as top priority keeping Labour out of office.
The smell in the air was that if the Alliance could have pushed Labour into third with two weeks to go the Tory position would have been a lot weaker. Then anti-Thatcher voters would have found somewhere congenial to escape to, and the Alliance would have been in the zone to come second in seats and become the official opposition. I recall being briefed at the time that the Tories had a well-oiled Plan B all ready to go to spend a ton of money attacking the Alliance with pretty grimy tactics expected. In the event we never had to face that bombardment. The alliance leadership was pretty nervous about this prospect, apparently.
Expect a bombardment on the LibDems this time though, from both Tory and Labour. Neither can afford to let us fill the Official Opposition psychological slot. We need to draw on all our reserves of calm…
One question in 2010 is however this: Have the Labservatories actually done the necessary preparation for such a plan B (as the Tories did well before the campaign in 1983) or will they have to do things on the hoof?
Incidentally, one of the 1983 mis-steps sadly was a messed up interview by Roy Jenkins. The Alliance ran him as ‘Prime-Minister Designate’ and he went into an hour long grilling by Robin Day (The Paxman of those times) with all sorts of solid and lofty themes to discuss, only to be ambushed by half an hour of nagging on the Wasted Vote theme that he didn’t have the long Liberal training to handle. Clegg has leaped over the equivalent hurdle with ease this time…
Labels: general election
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thanks for the post,and be keeping eyes on it.
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Air Max Chaussures
Air Max Chaussures
Air Max 1 Chaussures
Air Max light chaussures
Air Max 90 chaussures
Air 180 chaussures
Air classic BW chaussures
Air max 93 chaussures
Air max 95 chaussures
Air max 97 chaussures
Air max 360 chaussures
Air Max Schuhe
Air Max 2009 Schuhe
Air max ltd chaussures
Air max tn chaussures
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Thatcher right and Savage Cuts are clearly the Labour attack mantras to come...
Well I was wondering what Labour was up to on my patch, this being a constituency with a sitting Labour MP and after boundary revision nominally a dead heat with the Tories. To hold on they need to squeeze every vote possible. And this morning a glossy gold card through the door with headline ‘LibDem Leader: Thatcher was right’ and parading a certain remark about ‘savage cuts’. On reverse a bar chart of NATIONAL vote figures and the mantra ‘Only Labour can beat the Tories’.
I suspect ‘Thatcher’ and ‘savage cuts’ will be a drumbeat mantra from the Brown Trousered troops from now until polling day.
A bit late for first Labour activity you might think in this LibDem/Con battleground ward moved from Milton Keynes North-East to Milton Keynes South in the last review, where nobody knows who Enid Starkey MP is at all… But we think Labour spent so much money in wasted preparations for the Election That Never Was that they were too broke up to now to do anything like paying for a household delivery in a key LibDem area.
As I said obviously a nationally produced publication so others will be seeing it on doorstep soon.
Milton Keynes is a strange beast this time round. The Tories won MK Northeast (a gain) and Labour held MK SW in 2005. The boundary revisions mean that just about all pundits thing the new MK North seat is on 2005 figures a nominal Labour one with a sitting Tory MP and the new MK South seat is so close that some rank it as a nominally Conservative seat with a sitting Labour member. The scope for creative bar charts on all sides may just be too tempting!
Any other sightings of this Labour fart?
I suspect ‘Thatcher’ and ‘savage cuts’ will be a drumbeat mantra from the Brown Trousered troops from now until polling day.
A bit late for first Labour activity you might think in this LibDem/Con battleground ward moved from Milton Keynes North-East to Milton Keynes South in the last review, where nobody knows who Enid Starkey MP is at all… But we think Labour spent so much money in wasted preparations for the Election That Never Was that they were too broke up to now to do anything like paying for a household delivery in a key LibDem area.
As I said obviously a nationally produced publication so others will be seeing it on doorstep soon.
Milton Keynes is a strange beast this time round. The Tories won MK Northeast (a gain) and Labour held MK SW in 2005. The boundary revisions mean that just about all pundits thing the new MK North seat is on 2005 figures a nominal Labour one with a sitting Tory MP and the new MK South seat is so close that some rank it as a nominally Conservative seat with a sitting Labour member. The scope for creative bar charts on all sides may just be too tempting!
Any other sightings of this Labour fart?
Labels: general election, Labour, Milton Keynes, squeeze leaflet
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