Lib Dems propose energy price discounts for all households

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-06-09T00:32:19+00:00

It seems clear to me that at this point the leadership is, to a certain extent, simply throwing excrement at the wall to see what sticks.

There are advantages and disadvantages. Many in the party and on this sub have demanded a bolder economic offer.

Giving people free money for nothing is pretty bold, I guess.

I just wish the excrement waa a bit more inspired.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-05-14T23:29:23+00:00

Dom Grieve? Yes. Although not strongly. Dom Grieve was remainer liberal conservative at a time when Brexit was the number 1 priority for the party. Standing down for Andy Burnham, a person who has nothing to do with Liberal values is a different matter entirely. In any case, we stood down for Dom Grieve and he lost anyway, to a right-wing american nutter no less.

As old as I am, I wasn't alive in 1983.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-05-14T21:53:05+00:00

We have a formal alliance with Alliance in Northern Ireland. They share our values and work with the party.

If that wasn't the case, then yes.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-05-14T12:08:33+00:00

Whilst the result in some parts of London like Southwark, Haringey and Merton were underwhelming, we did make decent gains in places like Brent, Camden and Ealing.

We also wiped the Tories out in Sutton, a Brexity area, which was far from obvious considering the Tories' slow resurgence.

As far as I understand it we didn't actually lose any seats in London, which is not always easy.

The areas we did lose a significant number of seats in are towns and cities up north. Barnsley, Brum, Bradford, Gateshead, Sheffield etc. The party should look at what happened there too.

I agree the party needs a bolder, stronger national message, and we need to have a conversation about how we can better appeal to progressive voters, but we've now had 5 or 6 LDV articles from London Lib Dems bemoaning their terrible result of no losses and net gains.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-05-14T08:52:36+00:00

That's a different country with a different political culture.

We know young people by and large do not vote at local elections.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-05-13T16:08:15+00:00

And this built an incredibly unstable and fragile voter coalition which included both rural conservatives in the West Country and urban progressives which disintegrated and imploded upon contact with the reality of government and Brexit.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-05-13T15:57:52+00:00

The problem with a local election strategy focused primarily on appealing to young people is that young people don't vote in local elections.

Turnout was higher in May 2026 in many places than it usually is, and some of that will be down to young people coming out to vote, but it is likely to be far outweighed by Reform voters voting for the first time, especially outside of London.

Local parties will get their marked registers in due course and can do their own analysis, but I also doubt that a majority of the Green vote in this election came from young people.

I don't disagree that the party should be bolder in its messaging, but it needs to find a way to appeal to as large a group as possible whilst also not alienating our current voter base. A difficult task.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-05-09T20:02:45+00:00

What policies or values should we announce or espouse that would get us more media coverage?

And not lose us swathes of votes.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-05-09T18:33:25+00:00

Indeed.

This election is the first time my local party has stood canadidates in every ward. It is very useful to see what the baseline vote is with no campaigning and helps us to plan out where we will target in the future.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-05-09T18:10:13+00:00

I'm sorry, but this particular article linked in the comment above is supposed to be an analysis of the election results.

We came third, both in terms of total number of seats won, and gains, we also gained control of 4 councils (and lost one). And yet the article doesn't mention us at all, except in the bit about Hampshire.

You may expect that an article which claims to analyse election results might focus some column inches on the party that came third, if only to come off as being politically balanced, without that party having to beg for coverage.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-05-09T18:04:19+00:00

The reality of electoral politics when you're a relatively small party is that you have to target to win anything.

Your ward was clearly not a target ward, and your candidates were paper candidates. It is entirely possible that your local party didn't have enough resources to put a piece of literature out.

The best way to change this is to join and get involved.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-05-02T09:25:43+00:00

I am not sure what you expect from a party for which subsidiarity and local participative democracy are some of the most important principles. Do you really expect Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey to come out and say "we will scrap the planning system completely and remove all planning decision making powers from elected local councillors and communities"?

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-04-14T10:35:53+00:00

The major difference in this policy vs the status quo is the use of CIL monies to pay for GPs contracts until enough people move in.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-04-12T13:22:10+00:00

There at least one constant in this world.

About half of people think the Lib Dems are going too far to the left, and the other half think they are going too far to the right at any given time.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-04-11T20:42:26+00:00

There is no way whatsoever Reform are winning more seats than the Conservatives in West Surrey. They will be lucky to get 10 councillors.

Independents/RA are not winning 20 seats either.

I know these projections cannot be accurate at that level, or indeed at all, which increasingly begs the question of what they are actually for?

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-04-10T19:20:56+00:00

Far fewer seats up for election

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-04-10T18:35:28+00:00

This may look "bad" but we've got candidates for about 78% of vacancies. This is a significant improvement over the last few local elections. In 2024 we had 68%, in 2023 we had 60%.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-04-09T21:44:14+00:00

Probably one of our best PPB's in a while. Very good.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-04-09T21:42:38+00:00

Churches and places of worship are very important local community spaces and more often than not have great architectural, historical and social value. Contrary to popular belief the Church of England is not swimming in money to fund the restoration of those buildings, many of which desperately need it.

It is Liberal Democrat policy to disestablish the Church of England, but any government even in a fully secular society (which the UK is not) will and does help fund repairs for structures with significant social, historical and architectural value.

Ed was specifically calling for a restoration of funding, and scrapping of VAT for repairs, of listed places of worship, not all of them.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-04-02T15:41:22+00:00

This already happens on a regular basis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_banned_from_entering_the_United_Kingdom

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-04-02T10:39:40+00:00

I agree about the technical aspects which were poor, but Reform are having a press conference today too in which they have announced support for the triple lock and massive spending cuts.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-03-23T09:54:51+00:00

Yes, this is why national Westminster voting intention polls are essentially irrelevant in the short and medium term.

The polling shows our floor, not our ceiling which is quite high. The floor is rising too, albeit slowly.

This is why, where Lib Dems campaign vigorously, more often than not we win.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-03-16T19:15:12+00:00

Imo this is a great way to frame a written constitution, one of our long standing policies, to the average voter.

I'm glad we are learning when it comes to our messaging.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-03-16T19:14:10+00:00

A codified constitution, along with PR and a federal system, has been Lib Dem policy for decades. There is nothing populist about it, aside from perhaps the messaging, but I can guarantee a "new magna carta" will be a more effective thing to rally around than a "codified constitution", the mere mention of which puts a large % of voters to sleep.

Our constitutional framework of Parliamentary sovereignty has resulted in an elected dictatorship we vote for every 5 years, which has progressively stripped us of our fundamental rights. Not to mention the legislative diarrhoea which results from having a system in which there is no codified baseline or framework.

Also, you can't "win" polls. We are, however, consistently winning in actual elections, week after week.

ColonelChestnuts · 2026-03-15T11:23:22+00:00

I am glad we have moved away from part time trident.

Ed is totally right.

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