Peter Black, Welsh AMI do not think that the Liberal Democrats did all that badly last night despite the gloom and doom merchants in the media and elsewhere spinning it badly for us. It is true that we may not have met expectations but then really even the Tories did not do enough to convince anybody that they can win the next General Election.
Simon Wright, Norman Lamb's Agent
The local election results in Norwich yesterday were, frankly, disappointing... If yesterday's poll was a general election, Norwich South would today have a Liberal Democrat MP.
Alex Cole Hamilton, Fantasist
Solid result for the Lib Dems, 2nd in National share of the vote and net gains in seats and councils controlled – not a result anyone would have predicted just 3 short months ago.
Stephen Tall, Councillor
There will be many lessons we can learn from all this, but I suspect it’s better done after a good night’s sleep.
And that's it. I can find no other comment on any of the thirty or so LibDem Blogs that I sometimes have a look at. And that, dear reader, should tell you all you need to know.
11 comments:
How did the Tories get on in Newcastle, Iain?
Peter Black really is a nasty piece of work isn't he.
It might have helped if we had managed to fill in the nomination forms and stand in every seat...
I think it's a shame that they cannot see what was wrong with their campaign. For all its fatuousness, at least Dave the Chameleon got people talking. The Tory PEB was memorable for having Vote Blue, Go Green as its flash logo/message... I honestly could not tell you what the LibDems were standing for on a national message.
The LibDems are a party of high principle and are a broad house... Perhaps too broad. A sensible liberal policy can be either right or left wing on the economic front, but their blindness is to try to be both depending where they're standing -- how can they fight a coherent right-of-centre liberal Conservative Party with that hole?
Thanks for the plug, Iain - but I think you might have missed the 30+ posts about the local elections over at www.libdemblogs.co.uk
As for the Lib Dems' performance, I think your fellow Conservative, Sean Fear, got it about right:
"For the Liberal Democrats, it’s a case of one step forward, one step back. Gains in Richmond were offset by losses in Sutton and Kingston. Strong performances in Brent, Camden, Haringey and Oldham, were matched by weak performances in Harrow, Tower Hamlets, Solihull and Bolton. They will be disappointed not to have done better, but compared to their position in January, they have done very well indeed."
(Btw, in my home seat, Oxford East - once held by Steve Norris - the Tories slumped to <10% of the vote, trailing in 4th place behind the Greens - and still with no councillors in the city.)
I assumed that Lib Dem natural modesty was asserting itself.
Lambeth is good example Lib dems ran council in coalition with Tories Tory councillor lost his seat and Lib Dums went from 27 to 17 Labour up to 39 one Green.In Lambeth Greens could be recipient of protest vote.Coalitions not good for rising party like Tories
If the Tories had made just two net gains, what would the Lib Dems thought of that? And what about those "independent" pundits (on Newsnight) predicting 190 net gains for the Lib Dems...
As a neutral-ish observer ("anyone but the current Government") the Lib Dem response, on the TV, to the results looked notably pathetic - particularly the laying into the Tories for their "bad" results in ward XYZ of Council XYZ.
"It might have helped if we had managed to fill in the nomination forms and stand in every seat..." Iain Dale.
The natural Party of Government, eh?
Here's another one from one of the newest Lib Dem blogs:
Daniel Snowdon, Lib Dem member
Consolidation is better than losing like Labour.
Has anyone noticed how much the LimpDem logo looks like the hazardous chemical signs you get on the back of tanker trucks?
That can't be a good image, especially for a party that prides itself on its green credentials.
RM
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