The Lib Dems failed to hold their seat in Woking in the most emphatic way - coming fourth behind UKIP.
Vote UK reports the result as follows:
Con = 1,057
Lab = 833
UKIP = 255
Lib Dem = 252
Vote UK reports the result as follows:
Con = 1,057
Lab = 833
UKIP = 255
Lib Dem = 252
No wonder we got trounced in light of what the previous candidate did:
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So I would not call this indicative..
One by-election result does not make a trend of course. But in similar difficult circumstances we have had better results.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at both the number of candidates the party is standing and its share of the vote when it does stand it is clear it is being hollowed out as an electoral force in very many parts of the country.
When you think it cannot get any worse, it does. There will be worse to come unless we at last get a grip, face reality, change strategy approach and importantly the personnel in charge
ReplyDeleteThe people around the Parliamentary leadership seem to have no understanding, experience or even sympathy with what the majority of Liberal Democrats think and feel. The appointment of David Laws to chair the Manifesto Working Party is a case in point. Policy Committee produced a magnificent working paper on policy for the Manifesto with a whole range of liberal, radical and green inspired policies which would moticate and excite Party volunteers and potential voters. When the Cleggites got hold of it, the motion F40 was but a pale yellow shadow with blue streaks. In particular, the green references in the working paper had been wholly redacted, as though the Party's sole USP was no longer appropriate. A superficial reading of focus group data by the spotty adolescents that surround the leadership may rank green issues lower than immigration or jobs, butr recent polling shows that over half of those who left us since 2010 would come back if convinced of our Green credentials. If you want to see what the prospects are for a pale yellow neoliberal Party are, then we are heading for extinction, like the German FDP. The sad thing is that we are set to lose nearly all of our Euro MPs before Clegg and the Cleggites realise like Dan Falchikov we have hollowed out our Party and bowdlerised its beliefs.
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