We Must Fight Labour From The Left
Many Liberal Democrats were hoping for a breakthrough in last years election. I was personally expecting 100 + seats. Unfortuanatly this did not happen. The ‘decapitation strategy’ failed miserably and we wasted far too much time and resources chasing the Tories in their heartlands. The message we must learn is that it’s impossible to push the Tories below the 30% mark. So where do we go from here?
The previous strategy was to try and replace the Tories as the second political force in the country, an option that many in our party would like to continue with. So, we could go down the route of promoting smaller government and offer a more ‘economic liberal’ set of policies. But, this option is not one I feel very comfortable with and I do not believe this will result in significant gains from the Tories. Michael Howard fought the election largely on the issue of immigration. This played very well in the Tory heartlands of the south. So in order to beat the Tories in places such as Surrey and Kent we would likely have to provide a set of anti-immigration, low tax, anti-Europe and public service cutting policies. This is not why I and many others joined this party.
What we did seein the election was massive swings to us from Labour. Labour voters have become very disillusioned with Blair swinging the party to the right. So harsh has Blairs repositioning been, that many now see us as to the left of Labour. This should not scare us, if we are to the left of Labour it does not stop our policies from being more in touch with the people.
Labour have a dismal record on public services, fairer taxation and civil liberties and we must hold them to account. Labour have left us no choice but to attack them from left. We need a coherent set of policies that address these issues and then take them to Labours heartlands. People vote for Blair because they feel there is no alternative, we need to show them that we are the alternative Labour and It is our parties policies and traditions that will best inable the free and fair society that they were hoping Blair will deliver.
I feel you largely miss the point. I’m not sure how you define the left, bue we shouldn’t be fighting from the left or right.
What we should do is fight from our own ground. Make a strong statement. This includes fair taxation, effective provision of public services and civil liberties as well as smaller state more localism, greater accountability in government at all levels.
Even people viewed as being on the right often have these views, what we need to do is show how we are different and how we have our own solutions to the problems. These should not be looked at as left or right but simply Liberal.
Comment by Tristan Mills — January 17, 2006 @ 10:30 am