Graeme Smith a Lib Dem since he was 14 and a candidate for the Lib Dems in Loughborough at the last election has joined Labour because;
"I find myself...thinking actually things are pretty good...and we should support the Government".
Says it all really!
*Update* Kerron Cross has a more detailed account on this.
Congratulations, thats one to Labour and one to the Tories from a party of 73,000. hardly the collapse of a political party that you and Cameron incorrrectly predicted. You look very stupid indeed making such calls and then only one actually goes.
ReplyDeleteGood news indeed.
ReplyDeletehttp://kerroncross.blogspot.com/2006/02/lib-dem-parliamentary-spokesman.html
Anon: He was a parliamentary candidate at the last election, so quite a significant scalp I would say. You only had 600 parliamentary candidates, so if this is followed amongst the members, then we could see several hundred defections.
ReplyDeleteA Parliamentary candidate at the last two General Elections actually.
ReplyDeletehttp://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-6617,00.html
If we are being pernickety. ;-)
Cheers. Have added a link to your site, you have a more details on this guy.
ReplyDeleteIs that really the best you can do!!!
ReplyDeleteAnon: You and me should be good friends when it comes to politics because essentially we want the same policies (when you are not being duplicitous, franchise etc.) and both want to stop the Tories.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately splitting the progressive vote means giving the Tories a chance under this electoral system, and both of us want to keep the Tories out.
I think you will see more Lib Dems join Labour as this realisation sinks in.
But how do you know whether the first Anon is the same person as the second Anon.... or previous Anons?
ReplyDeleteYou cannot imagine how tempting it was to post this anonymously!
Well I am assuming it is the same Lib Dem who only posts when I mention their party.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I have a suspicion who the anon is. He is a local Lib Dem campaigner round here.
By the way, skuds, I hear there is a bloggers4labour meeting in London this friday. Are you going?
ReplyDeleteNeil - The reason why we are not good friends is the language you use about us. If you grew up, put forward reasoned debate instead of offensive abuse, then we could fight the common enemy. Thats is what the vast majority of your local Labour colleagues do infact do, and you don't seme to get that. For some reason you seem totally unconnected to them. Remember, we don't use that kind of language about your party - well until now thanks to you. You've motivated us to defeat as many sitting labour councillors as we can next year, whereas we really should have been trying to defeat the nasty Tories. With the greatest respect, your language here has been a big mistake.
ReplyDeleteAnon: You are taking this far too much to heart.
ReplyDeleteI made (maybe on reflection in poor taste) joke about the Lib Dems being against extended drinking hours because of Charles Kennedy's alcoholism.
I also quite legitimately asked why Lib Dem councillor Dawn Davidson is never seen around the ward and suggested it's because she is going to stand down.
If you are honest, you will admit that the Lib Dems are duplicitous, with differing policies depending on local opportunism (Falmer Stadium is the best example of this). The Lib Dems also have a history of raising the stakes in nasty personal campaigning, (look at Simon Highes' hypocritical outrageous attacks on Peter Tatchell in the Bermondsey election).
I admit I write with frankness and frankness sometimes offends. The alternative to this, is to be vague. I prefer to be frank. It is your decision to be offended by what I write.
I look forward to the campaign in Regency. It is not my intention to say anything personal or negative in that campaign. I'm more interested in promoting Labour policies. I think you should look back at your (and recently the Greens) own campaigning, if you want to see gross examples of a negative campaign. Labour campaigning is almost entirely positive.
I find it bemusing considering the similarities in our policies, that you spend most of your energy attacking us, when it is the Tories who are the real enemy. I suppose that is the nature of the electoral system that encourages adversarial politics.
If you were clever dear boy, you would see that there should be a progressive consensus in this city against the Tories. What you have done is get the other progressive parties angry at your childish comments, and angry at labour locally. That means wards such as Queens Park, East Brighton, Portslade South and Hangleton, which these parties could have left alone, are now in their sights. There is a price to pay now. You see politics is all about motivation and you've done a very good job of motivating the progressive parties against Labour in this City, and indeed in other areas such as Blackheath. It would have been far better to have let sleeping dogs lie, but instead your lies will cost you dear.
ReplyDeleteAnon: ooh I'm really scared!! You like making threats don't you? I think you have acted like some childish mafiosi over a few harmless comments some Labour supporter has made on a blog. I think you have some sort of problem. What lies?
ReplyDeleteAnyway!!! How are you voting on the leadership?
Personally I want to see a strong Lib Dem party pushing radical issues and keeping the Tories in check in the posh areas. The problem with this electoral system is you split the progressive vote and gave the Tories 30 odd extra seats at the last election without the Tory vote going up at all.
I would like to see Chris Huhne win, because;
He is a good speaker.
He has a good media image to challenge Cameron.
He has a great experience behind him with his career.
He actually talks about the issues I support, green taxes etc.
I want to see proportional representation back on the agenda and also redistribution of wealth.
Vote for the man with the best policies, thats my advice.
If you just want your party to tread water and go nowhere till after the next election vote Campbell.
If you want to get decimated vote Hughes.
I have no faith in Lib Dems making the right decision on this, but one can hope. I'm not surprised the vote is evenly split between the candidates. The Lib Dems have never been known for their decisiveness.
I really fail to see what business the Lib Dem leadership is of yours? Your opinions are simply as a voter, a New Labour voter. The Lib Dems are not going to pick the leader you or your New Labour mates want us to.
ReplyDeleteWhat you need to understand Neil is that this blog is the public face of New Labour in Brighton and Hove, as your council colleageus don't bother to have a proper website. What we see here is you slagging the LibDems off. Do you reflect the views of the rest of your party, do these views reflect your council leadership's views? We have no other way of judging those people other than this blog and your offensive comments. Your behaviour here is different to what our councillors say about your councillors. Who are we to believe? It makes us grassroots members question why on earth our councillors are working with such a nasty bunch of tossers.
ReplyDeleteAnon: I am just a labour voter who is also a member. I have nothing to do with any councillors.
ReplyDeleteI have written nearly a third of a million words on this blog, and you have taken offence to two comments (fairly harmless coments in my opinion).
This hardly constitutes a blog that campaigns against the Lib Dems, is it?
I also campaign for proportional representation, a citizen's income and a free press, amongst many other things.
I hardly need to point out that some of these issues are Lib Dem and Green polcies and are not official labour policy. I think that is clear to anyone who reads this blog.
I am not sure that people understand that you are not that active in the Labour Party and you don't speak for it. It is the way you write. What they see is that this is the only updated local website for Labour slagging off the Lib Dems, and pushing what they see as untruths. They therefore question why the Lib Dems support Labour at the City Council if this is the abuse they get for it. Count the number of negative comments about the Lib Dems you've made and compare that to the number you've made about the Greens. The last thing we want is all out war with the Lib Dems, and you have said yourself that we cross over on many issues.
ReplyDeleteI don't want war with the Lib Dems. I made a couple of comments in isolation that you didn't like. I apologise if you were offended.
ReplyDeleteI really don't think I slag the Lib Dems off as much as you think. I slag all parties at times including some Labour policies. Honestly, take a look at the archives.
I hate tribal party slagging matches as much as anyone. All I want to see is good policies, whoever implements them.
As it happens, not surprisingly I think Labour are generally doing a good job and are the best party, so obviously I agree with Labour policies more than other parties, which is why I am in the Labour party.
I will do a post on this soon.