Despite my best attempts to stay awake, I confess I dropped off about 3am so all my plans to continue blogging failed miserably. So, what about last night? Should we be dancing in the streets or crawling under the covers?
Well, it was clearly going to be a Lib Dem squeeze night. People are fed up with Labour and given our unfair voting system, the clearest way to send a message was voting Tory. I for one was surprised at the number of soft Tories I encountered this time, many who had always voted Tory but now weren't so sure. So it isn't all sweetness and light and I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere along the Tory road of the next couple of years the bubble begins to burst. As I have already pointed out, look on the Tory website, if you find a policy cunningly hidden in some dark corner, please let me know!
But, as ever, what this highlighted for me was our need as a party to be more disciplined, more organised and more evangelistic. Now being as discipline and organisation could not be seen to be my strong points.......I am one of those who needs help in this department!
Where we have lost ground it has often been as a result of internal squabbles, poor candidates who sometimes also get elected (!) very local issues and poor organisation at a local level. Complacency (often a complaint levelled at the Labour Party in their heartlands) can sometimes be a problem for us too. Councillors who are trying to get their long service award, "60 years if it kills me!" unable and unwilling to encourage and nurture new talent. Any organisation that doesn't develop will die, as the saying goes, change is the only sign of life.
So, my verdict? It was OK. Even if we had lost a few more seats it would still have been OK. To use my done to death Risk metaphor. It's no good trying to take over the world all in one go, especially with a miniscule army! We need to consolidate. Nick Clegg needs more time to find his feet. We need to do what he urged at hustings across the land last year, namely become a truly radical anti-establishment party and that means taking risks and in some cases losing ground to gain in the long run. After all, we are all in it to win it aren't we?
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