A recent comment on the last blog has led me to post this rather interesting article by Ed Vaizey MP in the Guardian yesterday.
"These were almost the best local election results the Conservatives could have hoped for. In London, there were some really stunning turnarounds, and we can say that the Tories are once again a real force in the capital. Similarly, we made gains in the south-east and the midlands. Above all, we achieved the crucial 40% mark, which will give us an enormous boost in confidence.
But there is absolutely no complacency in the Tory camp. We know that gains can be reversed, especially when it comes to a general election. We know that we did not achieve the breakthroughs we needed in the north. We know we will face a different prime minister. This is at best the end of the beginning, and it helps David Cameron in two crucial ways. First, huskies and all, no one can accuse him of having pursued the wrong strategy or leading the party down the wrong path. With our best election result for a generation, it is clear that Cameron has renewed the Conservatives. The question is no longer what he can do for the party, but what the party must now do for him.
Secondly, and far more important, the elections show that the Liberal Democrats made a huge error in choosing Menzies Campbell as their leader. He will not take them through the glass ceiling. They have stalled. Their most talented MPs - David Laws, Nick Clegg, Vincent Cable, Jeremy Browne, and others - must now think seriously about which direction the party should go in. It is time they sat down and looked at the refreshed Conservatives, and decided whether, in the run up to the next election, they position themselves as the guarantors of a discredited Labour government, or part of a coalition to renew British politics."
17 comments:
Hey Kevin, what happened about your whining about making personal comments or attacks? Isn't that exactly what you continue to do about everyone else?
You clearly haven't learnt a thing after so recently being humiliated by the electorate in Berrylands for your hypocrisy. Shame on you.
I don't understand your question. I did not write this article in the Guardian. This is my blog and blogs are supposed to be a collection of pointers to articles I think are interesting or worth commenting on.
Are you suggesting the Guardian should not have published this?
Of course a General Election campaign would involve a far greater scrutiny of national policy and we are still waiting for a policy programme. For example the Conservatives can never win by proposing school vouchers or subsidising people into private healthcare. I assume these policies will be scrapped so we await the replacements with interest.
As far as the Lib Dems (who i voted for with reservations in the locals) are concerned they elected a stand-still leader and the result was they stood still overall. Not good enough and it is simply not sustainable to stand still until after the next election and then choose a new leader.There is no room for 3 parties on the centre ground. Those of us on the left of centre are rather short of options.
Really Derrick, you cannot appoint yourself spokesperson of the left while backing Kingston Lib Dems. What do they offer the left? A manifesto that fails to even mention poverty or inequality? Voting with the Tories to endorse poverty pay? While proposing an 18% pay rise for the Directors? One of Britain's only declining recycling rates? Demanding that Kingston's council tax be kept down by nicking money from poorer boroughs? Coalition with the Tories on the London Assembly to oppose everything Ken does? Continuing to back the 11 plus?
Perhaps you should have more carefully read the post to which you replied. Your favoured Lib Dems are up for coalition with the Tories as soon as they get the chance.
They are the true centrist party - one whose defining purpose is power, not principle.
They may tack left locally, but in Kingston they haven't even done that. Far from it, they have routinely adopted policy positions to the right even of Kingston Tories.
You may be short of options. But if you were genuinely of the centre left, Kingston Lib Dems would not even be an option.
Kevin, you have made several remarks criticisng others for resorting to personal attacks against you - but clearly you believe it is alright for you to make personal attacks against others as it's your blog.
Isn't that a bit hypocritical?
I have not attacked any individual. I have blogged on issues that appear in the press for which one presumes they have checked out their story.
I attack the local Lib Dems for the disgraceful way they avoid discussing policy and resort to personalised smears and lies. Up and down the country I think you will get nothing but agreement on this issue.
I have been approached by a number of Kingston Lib Dems activists who were disgusted by their campaign and who refused to set foot in Berrylands to deliver the rubbish they were printing.
There are some good people in Kingston Lib Dems and I hope they look to their conscience over the coming months and see what their local leadership is doing in their name. I also hope that Ed Davey's look at their national campaigning techniques comes to the sensible conclusion that if they really want to be seen as a third party force in politics then they will need to change the way they behave.
"half truths and lies"
Hi Kevin, I live in Wimbledon and was wondering what your position was on the local Conservatives putting out leaflets trumpeting that one of their candidates (in a ward over the other side of the borough) had quit the Lib Dems when he "realised the unsuitability of Lib Dem policies for the people of Merton". Now, the individual in question apparently remained a committed Lib Dem until Feb 2005 when he failed to be selected to fight a seat for them. He then quit and joined the Conservatives.
Bit tough to comment on when I do not know all the facts; I say this because all the facts are frequently unknown. I will try and look at this.
To be honest though if an individual decides to leave one party and join another I would be very wary of them. If he professes that "Lib Dem policies are unsuitable for the people of Merton" then that is his view and who am I to disagree with him.
Still at least this chap is current. Compare this to a leaflet put out in our Old Malden ward which had two former Tory Councillors that they pretended were from Kingston - In fact they were not and they defected years ago.
All the parties seem to do this kind of thing, and it annoys me intensely. I was glad to see that the guy in question was not elected, as his view on LibDem policies co-incided with his failure to be selected by them as a candidate. One wonders if he'd have thought the policies were bad if he'd been allowed to run for them.
"two former Tory Councillors..who defected years ago."?
Kevin, isn't it the truth that the Tory Councillors you refer to did not actually defect to any other party but resigned from your group in 2001 on principle? I believe they continued as Independent Councillors in order to serve their residents first as they were elected to do.
Would you have ever had the courage to do have done that for the residents you once were elected to serve or did you always put party first?
In reply to voice of treason - how can posting a comment to a comment on a blog be 'appointing myself to a spokesperson of the left'. You are rather elevating the status of Kevins blog I think. By the way who did you vote for in the local elections? I did not have the choice of a green or respect candidate! Why Lib Dem in my ward - because it was the only way of trying to stop the Tories get in and cut shed loads of staff at RBK!
The Independent Councillors you refer to did not resign on principle from the group. One was thrown out because he was thrown out of the party and the other resigned before he was thrown out by the group for breaking group rules.
In any case they are not the Councillors in the Old Malden Focus. They were two Councillors I had never heard of; probably from some remote Borough!
And what about the 3rd Indepenedent Councillor in Kingston? Didn't they also resign from the Tory Group on principle or do you have an explanation for that too?
In any case, at least there are some honourable councillors out there who would never sell their soul and betray their residents.
Let me see:
Jeff Hanna - Defected from Lib Dems to Labour
Who was the Lib Dem Mayor who was thrown out by their party because she would not toe the line.
Who was the Lib Dem Leader who lost his seat because of the disastrous way they had run the Council?
People leave parties all the time and change to other parties. I have yet to meet a Councillor who has "betrayed their residents" and if you believe that is the case then instead of blackening people why not get yourself elected and try it?
What about the former Labour agent in Kingston who defected to the Lib Dems, then wrote using Labour artwork to all known Labour supporters telling them to vote Lib Dem and signing it as Labour agent, for example?
I don't think that the Lib Dems are in much of a position to give any lectures on the dubious use of defectors...
Gentleman, I think you have missed the point. Kevin was making merry on the fact that various Councillors had defected to other parties whereas the previous writer recalled that some Councillors had not defected but stayed true to themselves and the residents that voted for them by continuing as Independents. Subtle difference but a much more honourable stance.
Who was the Lib Dem Leader who lost his seat because of the disastrous way they had run the Council?
I can think of one Conservative that applies too!
Hint - its you!
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