The Lib Dem PPC for Canterbury, Tim Walker, stepped down as the candidate last night. Many Remainers were overjoyed that Walker had decided to stand aside to help Rosie Duffield, a Labour Remainer, keep the seat. Then, LD HQ announced it was putting in a new candidate. Cue outrage from Remainers across social media. This […]
The Brexit party has stood down in Tory seats – is this a good or bad thing for the Conservatives? Here’s the calculation that will determine that
The big news from yesterday is that Nigel Farage will be standing down Brexit party candidates in all 317 seats the Conservatives won in the 2017 general election. Put aside the oddness of this criteria – the Brexit party won’t be standing in Anna Soubry’s seat, who is no longer a Tory MP and a […]
Why the Tories are still so far ahead in the polls
Despite the Conservative party getting their election campaign off to what has by consensus been a rocky start, they are still around 10-12 points ahead of their nearest competitor, the Labour Party, in the polls. Some people are confused as to how this can be – and what can be done by opposition parties to […]
Why you should vote Lib Dem this election, reason #132
The news this morning is that a Labour PPC has stood down from running after being accused of calling a fellow Labour councillor in the same area “Shylock”, his excuse being that he apparently had no idea that Shylock was Jewish. It’s not just the Tory campaign that is in meltdown then. Also nice to […]
The Day the Clown Cried: why Boris Johnson’s campaign is falling apart around his ears
In the spring of 1972, comedian Jerry Lewis went into production on a film he directed and starred in entitled “The Day the Clown Cried”. It was about a circus clown who is imprisoned in a Nazi war camp and finds his act appealing to the children there. It ends with Lewis’ character leading some […]
Could the Tories be about to repeat 2017 – only possibly worse this time round?
Yesterday was a bad day for the Conservative’s nascent election campaign. Jacob Rees-Mogg’s comments about Grenfell victims supposedly lacking commons sense were both offensive and amateurish. The damage wrought by the JRM episode was doubled down upon by Andrew Bridgen, who in trying to defend Rees-Mogg only made things much worse. Spending part of a […]
Why the Lib Dems need to attract former Tory voters and how they can do so without alienating Labour voters
As one could have predicted, the squeeze is on. The Brexit party is seeing their poll numbers decrease, with a corresponding increase in the Tory polling numbers, while a lot of people saying they would vote Lib Dem are thinking they are going to vote Labour again because that’s how these things work. The Lib […]
Why people should vote Lib Dem for reasons beyond Brexit
On Saturday, I went to a football match with my daughter. It was at Craven Cottage, a ground I have always wanted to visit. For reference, I haven’t been to a football game in a long time; to give you a time scale here, at the last match I attended, David Beckham was playing. We […]
Cost, complexity, fear: why it’s up to the Lib Dems to deconstruct the Tory election platform and why that is crucial
By common bubble consent, Labour have had the best start to the election campaign. The Tories seem to have not got started yet, either tactically or accidentally; the Lib Dems have been a little wobbly out of the gate, but nothing even close to the magnitude of “homosexuality is a sin”, so plenty of time […]
A note on tactical voting and the fallacies associated with it
Since the December 12th general election became assured, Remain Twitter has gone crazy. We wanted a People’s Vote! Now that we don’t have it, people have to vote tactically! Tactically, do you understand? Here are some quick thoughts on the subject of tactical voting and in particular, how it relates to the 2019 general election […]