Sandra Gidley is the Lib Dem MP for Romsey and has a majority of a mere 125 votes. At the general election she will be challenged for the second election in a row by Caroline Nokes for the Conservatives, who is now extremely well placed to gain the seat. And the incumbent MP certainly has […]
The Camden New Journal today reports a particularly unsavoury incident at last night's full council meeting in Camden. Chris Philp, a Conservative councillor who will be contesting the Hampstead and Kilburn seat at the general election, had given a speech defending his decision to campaign on health issues. It was then that a Liberal Democrat […]
Last week we highlighted the activities of Greg Stone, the Lib Dem candidate for Newcastle-upon-Tyne East. He had been using a pseudonym to post extremely personal attacks on Conservative and Labour MPs on the Guido Fawkes blog and his suitability to remain as a parliamentary candidate was raised by his Conservative opponent, Dominic Llewellyn. Yesterday, […]
One of the biggest themes of the new year has been Labour overtures to the Liberal Democrats. While the Tories hope to govern on their own the only realistic hope of Labour staying in power is a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. As Paul Goodman has already written, every wavering Tory voter needs to know […]
The Lib Dems' claim to be all sweetness and light when it comes to electioneering have long been in doubt. The party's own campaign manual states that positive campaigning is not enough to win elections and that candidates should "be wicked, act shamelessly, stir endlessly." And over the Christmas period, the antics of Greg Stone, […]
In terms of defeating the UKIP threat in June's European Elections a leaflet from Tory MEPs chooses to emphasise their MEPs' record of failure rather than addressing the independence argument head on. Point 1 of a leaflet charges: "UKIP let down their supporters. They returned 12 MEPs in 2004, but completely wasted their big opportunity. […]
Leader writers at The Independent got very excited this morning at the town hall-style meetings being held by Nick Clegg: "When national politicians do not perpetually put themselves about in the modern way – announcing daily initiatives against telegenic backdrops; volunteering to debate on the BBC’s Today programme; offering up some segment of their domestic […]
The latest ConHome poll of polls is still pointing to a hung parliament (I can’t believe that will last as the economic news gets grimmer and grimmer) and Peter Oborne believes that Labour and certain Liberal Democrats are now positioning for a coalition. Here are three quotes from his piece in the Daily Mail: "[Brown] […]
At last week’s two hour special meeting of the shadow cabinet Michael Ashcroft’s polling team gave a presentation on the state of public opinion. One of the conclusions was that the last two years had seen many Tory-inclined LibDem voters migrate to the blue corner. They had left behind a smaller party that was much […]
What do you think of Nick Clegg’s new Shadow Cabinet team? Do any of them have an interesting background in their new briefs? Leader: Nick CleggDeputy Leader: Vincent CableLeader’s chief of staff: Danny AlexanderLeader’s PPS: Mark Hunter Chief Whip: Paul BurstowChair of Campaigns and Communications: Ed DaveyParliamentary campaigns chairman: Willie Rennie Treasury: Vincent Cable Treasury: […]
9.20pm: Nick Clegg records a victory message for YouTube 6.15pm: Deborah Thomas, our candidate up against Vince Cable, has blogged her own reaction to Clegg’s win. 5.45pm: Clegg’s Sat-Nav concept. 4.25pm: James Forsyth suggests that Huhne could become the champion of LibDem grassroots sentiments on issues like PR… Read him here. 3.40pm: ToryRadio has an […]
Yesterday ConservativeHome argued that the Liberal Democrats are David Cameron’s biggest headache. Tomorrow Britain’s third party announces that Nick Clegg will be their next leader. Surely it will be him? On today’s Platform Iain Duncan Smith argues that we are most likely to beat the LibDems by being a decent party ourselves. In the most […]
This was the message that Timothy Kirkhope, Leader of our MEPs, emailed to all of his colleagues earlier today concerning the defection of Sajjad Karim: "I am delighted to inform you all that SAJJAD KARIM, until now one of the Lib/Dem MEPs for the North West of England, has decided to join the Conservative Party […]
Although I noted that Campbell’s resignation meant not many lobby journalists trekked up to Finsbury to hear Cameron speak about poverty this morning, the general level of interest in his surprise decision has been pitifully low. It’s often not been the main story on the news bulletins and this morning’s papers weren’t exactly packed full […]
This was pretty much inevitable. The combination of terrible opinion poll ratings and Brown’s decision to delay an election until at least 2009 gave the LibDems the opportunity to oust a leader who had failed to connect with the public. It’s odd that Ming hasn’t appeared in public. Perhaps he hasn’t resigned but the men […]