Liberal Burblings

Archive for the ‘Henley’ Category

There have been some interesting blog posts and LDV comments about Henley. Darrell on the LDV thread mentioned doing away with “Winning here”. Agreed. It is nauseating.

Tabman asked: “How much time and activists is “enough”? ”

Well, there were 400 activists at the last weekend. I seem to remember nearly 1,000 at the last weekend of the Newbury by-election. I apologise if my memory is playing tricks on me. If it is true that activist turnout was down – why was this?

I am not sure how “hands on” Chris Rennard’s role was at Henley. But any Chief Executive should take a fairly back seat role in such a situation.

We need to consider that Chris Rennard’s old 15 seconds “doormat to dustbin” no longer applies, perhaps. It’s more like 0.5 seconds from doormat pile to recycling bin in some cases. I saw a bloke in Henley-on-Thames come home from work, stand at his door and literally throw thirty pieces of paper straight from picking them up on his doormat into the recycling bin. Not much chance of getting the message through there! People often have their recycling bin on their doorstep now – so there is no time for them to glance at the leaflet while they walk through to the kitchen to put it into the bin. So does one of the fundamental building-blocks of “Rennardism” now no longer apply? As Liberty Alone says, around the year a Focus is likely to be read. But in the heat of a campaign, maybe we need to have less quantity? (Gosh – did I say that? Crikey – I never thought I would).

It is worth considering the comparative turn outs for us in the various areas in Henley constituency. I hear Thame was not good, and we were relying on it. Henley-on-Thames – itself – we were not expecting much of but in the event our turnout was good there. Why was that? Could it be – perish the thought – that our message about Townlands hospital in Henley-on-Thames got through locally there, whereas there was no equivalent “ginger message” in Thame to send people beetling off to the polling booths?

And are we putting enough focus and resource into getting our postal vote proportions up? The Tories consistently beat us here. Why is that – and what can we do to correct it?

I agree with Andy M on the LDV comments thread that we need to place less reliance on by-elections and concentrate on success elsewhere.

We first started inventing ourselves as the little tiddler fish of the parties which won by-elections in the sixties. For a while that’s all we did in the public eye – win by-elections. We’re bigger now. It’s time to change our attitude to by-elections so that they are not such an important part of our game plan and such a huge chunk of our self-perception of our party’s strength.

There have been some interesting blog posts and LDV comments about Henley. Darrell on the LDV thread mentioned doing away with “Winning here”. Agreed. It is nauseating.

Tabman asked: “How much time and activists is “enough”? ”

Well, there were 400 activists at the last weekend. I seem to remember nearly 1,000 at the last weekend of the Newbury by-election. I apologise if my memory is playing tricks on me. If it is true that activist turnout was down – why was this?

I am not sure how “hands on” Chris Rennard’s role was at Henley. But any Chief Executive should take a fairly back seat role in such a situation.

We need to consider that Chris Rennard’s old 15 seconds “doormat to dustbin” no longer applies, perhaps. It’s more like 0.5 seconds from doormat pile to recycling bin in some cases. I saw a bloke in Henley-on-Thames come home from work, stand at his door and literally throw thirty pieces of paper straight from picking them up on his doormat into the recycling bin. Not much chance of getting the message through there! People often have their recycling bin on their doorstep now – so there is no time for them to glance at the leaflet while they walk through to the kitchen to put it into the bin. So does one of the fundamental building-blocks of “Rennardism” now no longer apply? As Liberty Alone says, around the year a Focus is likely to be read. But in the heat of a campaign, maybe we need to have less quantity? (Gosh – did I say that? Crikey – I never thought I would).

It is worth considering the comparative turn outs for us in the various areas in Henley constituency. I hear Thame was not good, and we were relying on it. Henley-on-Thames – itself – we were not expecting much of but in the event our turnout was good there. Why was that? Could it be – perish the thought – that our message about Townlands hospital in Henley-on-Thames got through locally there, whereas there was no equivalent “ginger message” in Thame to send people beetling off to the polling booths?

And are we putting enough focus and resource into getting our postal vote proportions up? The Tories consistently beat us here. Why is that – and what can we do to correct it?

I agree with Andy M on the LDV comments thread that we need to place less reliance on by-elections and concentrate on success elsewhere.

We first started inventing ourselves as the little tiddler fish of the parties which won by-elections in the sixties. For a while that’s all we did in the public eye – win by-elections. We’re bigger now. It’s time to change our attitude to by-elections so that they are not such an important part of our game plan and such a huge chunk of our self-perception of our party’s strength.

I only ask because, while there was a robust response from LibDem bloggers decrying the stupidity of Camerons legal shenanigans last Friday, the Tory blogosphere has been remarkably silent. I can only find two right-wing blogs making any comment about it on blogsearch.google.com:

1. A view from Middle England by Arden Forester says that it was an “own goal with golden boots on”.

2. While there was the usual blue-rinsed shrieking on Conservative Home, The Spectator’s Coffee House blog was the only blog voice with any sympathy for Cameron’s tactics. They seemed to swallow the whole thing hook, line and sinker. They made this interesting observation:

One thing to look out for is whether this damages Tory-Lib Dem relations in the House. That largely depends on whether Nick Clegg distances himself from the Henley campaign. If he does – and I suspect he will – then don’t expect too much fall-out.

Ah yes, Nick Clegg is really distancing himself from the campaign isn’t he? The BBC reports today that “Mr Clegg…is on his seventh visit to the constituency”. Some distance.

I only ask because, while there was a robust response from LibDem bloggers decrying the stupidity of Camerons legal shenanigans last Friday, the Tory blogosphere has been remarkably silent. I can only find two right-wing blogs making any comment about it on blogsearch.google.com:

1. A view from Middle England by Arden Forester says that it was an “own goal with golden boots on”.

2. While there was the usual blue-rinsed shrieking on Conservative Home, The Spectator’s Coffee House blog was the only blog voice with any sympathy for Cameron’s tactics. They seemed to swallow the whole thing hook, line and sinker. They made this interesting observation:

One thing to look out for is whether this damages Tory-Lib Dem relations in the House. That largely depends on whether Nick Clegg distances himself from the Henley campaign. If he does – and I suspect he will – then don’t expect too much fall-out.

Ah yes, Nick Clegg is really distancing himself from the campaign isn’t he? The BBC reports today that “Mr Clegg…is on his seventh visit to the constituency”. Some distance.

…Just back from my tenth visit to the campaign in Henley constituency. I am pleased to say that I received a very warm reception from residents as I went round. We are now going full steam ahead with a new tabloid.

Thanks to everyone who has helped. Please help between now and polling day. Details are here.

I notice that there have been some fascinating updates on the BBC story about the Tory panicky “legal action” threats in Henley.

Basically, they have dropped the one about Boris’ photo in the magazine. Thames News.net confirms this. Perhaps someone in the Tory party retinue actually looked at the magazine in question!

And they have chickened out of issuing a writ, which they said they would issue at noon yesterday, if we didn’t withdraw the Townlands Hospital leaflet, which we said we wouldn’t. But they still seem to be thinking about that one. The BBC says: “The party has instructed its solicitors to “pursue the matter legally” but a writ has yet to be issued.” (“Pursue the matter legally” could mean looking it up on the internet…or having a little lawyerly huddle over some cups of tea and mentioning it (and then having a good laugh about it in this case)…anything).

They can think on. I don’t think I have seen such a textbook example of a “bomb proof” leaflet as the Townlands hospital one. The quotes from the former and current chair of the hospital campaign were obtained in writing with documented permission to use. And the whole thing was meticulously backed up with direct and exact quotes from Tory leaflets.

The Tories really are barking up the most ridiculous tree.