Chris Black writes:
The national headlines tonight are about Mr Cameron’s offer of a deal with the Lib Dems – which gives the Liberal Democrat Party a lot of thinking to do.
I thought onlinefocus readers might be interested in how party activists are being given a chance to express a view on what to do.
As the website Lib Dem Voice explains this evening :
What should the party do next? Have your say by 2pm on Saturday
By Mark Pack | Published 7th May 2010 – 4:25 pm
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On Saturday afternoon the party?s Federal Executive is meeting to discuss how the party should handle the Parliamentary situation. There?s no pre-set, universally supported answer to this so the FE?s discussion is going to be meaningful and important. It?s only one part of the party?s consultative process, which also includes ? for example ? a meeting of the Parliamentary Party. But it does mean that now is an excellent time to let the FE know your views.
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Because many members of the Federal Executive are scattered around the country ? sleeping, travelling back from election counts, making their way to London and so on ? the FE members may be hard to get hold of and many will not necessarily be checking their emails frequently.
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Therefore, in order to ensure that people have a chance to send in a view that will be read before the meeting, we?ve agreed with the Party President Ros Scott a special email address ? balancedparliament@libdemvoice.org ? which can be used to email in your views. A member of staff will collate all the messages and make sure that they are drawn to the attention of Ros and also reported to the members of the FE in time for their discussion.
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A few tips when emailing this address:
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* Don?t use it for an email to which you need a personal, direct reply as, given the short timescales, that isn?t going to be possible for every message sent to the address
* Given the pressures of time, short and concise messages are likely to be more effective than 12 pages essays
* As with letter writing or lobbying more generally, saying in full who you are and where you?re from is likely to add to the impact of the message
* Please send your message as soon as possible
I’m going to get a good night’s sleep and then send an email tomorrow morning!
It’s a tough one Chris because it’s a great chance for Lib Dems to have their say yet people who voted Lib Dem might not like to see them tied too tightly to another party with whom they have many areas of disagreement. I wish the Lib Dems luck in getting this balance right.
Nick et al, PLEASE please do NOT under any circumstances trust the Conservatives and agree to a coalition or other informal agreement, to do this will only serve to undermine your integrity and you will lose the confidence of your supporters. Do not trust Cameron and Co, even IF he offers you a referendum he will campaign against PR and make you look foolish…
You are principled people and that is why you are in the Lib Dem Party and haven’t taken the easy route to power by choosing to be in the Labour or Tory party. That is why I voted for you despite knowing Susan Gaszczak, the candidate in this constituency would never win. (Tory Mark Francois has a 22,000 majority!).
Arrogant and completely out of touch, Liam Fox infuriated me this morning when he said on the BBC that the nation expects you to do the right thing (and agree to a deal with the Tory’s) because it was a “voters” election. CORRECT Mr Fox and for that very reason the voters, the nation, demands electoral reform as an absolute non-negotiable condition of any coalition or deal… If this does not happen the impetus gained during this election will be lost and I can guarantee that people will be turned off by politics again and will not bother to vote in safe seats.
IF a deal with the Labour party becomes a realistic option for a stable government then an immediate referendum on PR must be a condition, preferably with the resignation of Brown as PM and the appointments of Vince as Chancellor and Nick in another key cabinet role such as Home Secretary?? Otherwise let Cameron attempt to govern with his minority…
I have to add at this stage how utterly disappointed I was with you that your candidate Susan Gaszczak was NOT local to Rayleigh and was not even from Essex for that reason alone she will have lost crucial floating voter support. Local-ism is a very big deal so please don’t make that mistake next time… On October 14th???
Nick, For the sake of the economy please make a timely decision… continuing uncertainty will badly affect the markets on Monday morning and that is also to the detriment of the nation and ultimately to you so please don’t waste time talking to Cameron and Co you shouldn’t be even pretending to entertain the idea of an agreement with the Conservatives
Surely the LibDems best chance of getting PR isn’t by siding with the Conservatives? If they want to make real change PR has to be a done deal with whoever they side with and Camerons offer sounds like you’ll ultimately be regretting the real opportunity for change that the Liberals (as they were then I believe) let slip in the 70’s. Labour (without Brown) is the best route in my view.