It is great news that there are over 8,000 (and rising) new members of the Liberal Democrats since election night they are just a part of the fightback. I hope that all local parties will get in touch with these new people as soon as possible to welcome them to the party. Then hold a social gathering so that they can meet the existing members and then find out what they feel they can do to help the party fightback, then enable and encourage them to do just that.
But it isn't just the new members that are invigorated.
Many of us who were candidates instead of being morose are upbeat. Already looking forward to 2020 and making plans to stand again. I wrote a blog post about moving forward to 2020 on Friday after 40 hours with no sleep. But it was optimistic and as a result got picked up by Radio Tees as someone they wanted to talk about the leadership contest but also the path ahead.
Our fight back is important because our core values are important to the general public. I believe they will soon realise this as the Tories start to dismantle freedoms, undo fairness and take people for granted. The very people that Liberal Democrats feel should not be enslaved by ignorance, poverty or conformity.
I've also seen activists being upbeat. A meeting of Scottish Liberal Democrats at the weekend was positive not judgemental for example and with about three times the number that were expected turning up.
We now have a timetable to elect a new leader, and know that all those eager new members will also be able to get a vote in who leads us forward. But we are all going forward, we are all part of the fightback and our liberal values will be declared in the doorsteps, indeed many of us already want to get back to doing that very soon.
One suggestion. Produce a welcome leaflet on the theme of 'why I am a Liberal Democrat' and include some personal stories of local activists.
ReplyDeleteIn my local party we have a former army colonel who amongst other things runs the annual Christmas Shelter for homeless people; a Quaker with roots in east Europe active in developing an ultra-low energy consuming housing project; a film-maker supporting projects where young people explore new media to show what they think about whats what; and I suspect there will be surprises when I ask others about their wider lives.
Thinking of doing a leaflet saying this is the richness and diversity in the party. Lets get together and work to uphold our vales (version of party constitution preamble here).
What do you think of that as an idea?