The Lib Dem Extra
Until we moved to the fine town of Cheltenham I’d not got very involved in political activity. I’ve always been politically aware, consuming far too many news bulletins, current affairs shows, newspapers, blogs and podcasts. As the election of 2017 loomed up, I realised we were living in a marginal seat taken from the Lib Dems in 2015 after 23 years as an LD stronghold and I wondered if I might enjoy helping to win it back. The candidate was Martin Horwood to whom I introduced myself and then joined the party. Within hours I was at the campaign office stuffing envelopes, then delivering them and by the second week I’d taken a deep breath and begun canvassing. This is politics on the front line. Hand to hand conflict with apathy, ignorance and occasionally real antagonism. My first encounter came with a gentleman who upon seeing my yellow rosette announced: “Oh no, we don’t do politics in this house, we vote Conservative”. I suppose it meant something to him, but to this day I remain unclear as to exactly what.
Most doorstep conversations were really educational. I genuinely had not understood just how far most folk are almost totally disconnected from how the country works, how democracy functions or how they can play a part. Just keeping a head above water, just matching income to family needs or just trying to stay sane in a world going mad, consumes most folks’ energies completely. Time and again I explained when the election was, how they could use their vote and why it mattered. Every now and then someone might want to discuss issues but they were very much the exception. I learnt quickly when time might be usefully invested, as well as when to move on quickly to the next door challenge. I met the then leader Tim Farron whose ability to put out a clear message was hampered by his addiction to a religion in conflict with fair dealing and who resigned after the vote to be replaced by Vince Cable who I met and liked.
We’d started the campaign with a fairly smug sitting Tory MP on majority of 6,516 but by the count, that had been reduced to just 2,569. I was starting to get the hang of local political operations. I was encouraged to stand for the Borough Council but having served as Chairman of the Parish Council for our previous location I declined the opportunity to be rung at any time of the day and be harangued about the numerous often petty failures of administration that so annoy people. The local party is an active team and campaigning continues between general elections because the local government is Lib Dem run and local elections are far too frequent.
So the envelopes are regularly stuffed, their contents are regularly delivered and especially in LD wards, doors are regularly knocked. We do do politics and we definitely don’t vote Conservative. The essence of Liberal politics is building up from the local community, being open minded, welcoming of others, working with others and supporting the individual to resolve their own issues. It works for me and for the several hundred more of my fellow Cheltonian LDs. I should add that I’m not as convinced of the power of leafleting as the local officials. I see far too many porches in which election leaflets pile up unloved and unread.
I never met Jo Swinson, she seemed to have missed out on any leaderly charisma and somehow became surrounded by folks who gave her pretty bad presentational advice. When Johnson called the 2019 election for December 12th, my heart shuddered at the thought of soggy leaflets being shoved through draught proof letter boxes and clip board notes being wiped clean in persistent downpours. It wasn’t an attractive prospect but it would have to be faced. I’d already come to terms with those regular hazards of electioneering: wild dogs, and letter boxes at the bottom of a door. By the end of the 2017 campaign I’d been bitten three times, had a tetanus injection and lost three ‘“paddles”. I was introduced to paddles as the means by which a leaflet can be pushed into a letterbox without risk of a dog removing your fingers. I cut up strips of plywood to make mine and by December 2019 I’d also learnt to hold on to them whenever a dog grabbed one - plywood’s not cheap these days. I went canvassing with Lady Lynne Featherstone who revealed that she simply used a wooden spoon.
Our new candidate for 2019 was a local journalist called Max Wilkinson. A passionate local Councillor determined to move into national politics and I wanted to be on his team. Max decided I should be “the candidate’s friend” - and so for the whole of the campaign I was his driver, his co canvasser and companion for speeches, broadcasts and interviews. Often starting at 0800, sometimes not finishing until 10pm but always with a car full of bottles of water, hundreds of leaflets and posters, and for some reason extra strong mints.
The Tory campaign was dirty. The Conservatives spread the lie that a vote for anyone other than them meant Jeremy Corbyn would become Prime Minister. It was a ludicrous call without a shred of logical foundation but in my view it was effective. More than once I was told “I usually vote Lib Dem, but I can’t risk Corbyn being in power”. By the final days of the campaign the town was peppered with posters reinforcing that message and paid for by a campaign called ‘Working4UK’ and apparently run by the right wing campaigner Suraj Sharma.
We worked our socks off day and night right up until and including polling day - we were a happy band of believers and it was a belief that not only sustained us, but which at the count and in spite of the Tory lies, further reduced their majority down to just 981.
After the disappointment of the result, the party regrouped its senior team and elected former Energy and Climate Change Minister Ed Daley as its leader. I met him over dinner and was inspired by his vision for a more just and inclusive society. Whenever he’s come to Cheltenham I’ve been volunteered to drive him around town and it’s felt good still being on the team. It’s also been fun working with Max on his talking points and presentation style - my old radio skills have still got their uses.
Sadly I’ll not be around to help carry Max over the finishing line when the next election comes but it feels so good to have helped prepare the way.
