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I& #39;ve been thinking about Daisy Cooper& #39;s summing-up speech in the #ldconf Europe debate earlier, and if the party leadership do believe in one part of what she said, then they& #39;ve given up on the party& #39;s usual method of campaigning. (1/11)
I don& #39;t have her speech to hand and I& #39;m paraphrasing, so please correct me if I& #39;m wrong, but her argument was that we don& #39;t need to campaign on the EU now but at the point in the future when we do, those people who are currently pro-EU will be waiting to "rise like lions". (2/11)
Anyone who& #39;s ever been to Lib Dem (or any party, I expect) campaign training knows that it& #39;s hammered home that you have to keep your voters motivated between elections, and you have to keep reminding them who you are. (3/11)
If they& #39;re not constantly getting new Focus leaflets from you, or seeing you frenetically post about your activity on social media, then they forget about you and their vote& #39;s up for grabs. "We don& #39;t just turn up at election time", remember? (4/11)
Apparently though, none of these rules apply to pro-EU campaigning. Everyone will remember their position for an indefinite period into the future, hold it just as strongly, and not change it all. (5/11)
They& #39;ll not see anything to reinforce that position, but when the Lib Dems unlock the stasis chamber of tonight& #39;s "make me a rejoiner, but not yet" vote, they won& #39;t have changed their minds, and others will have magically joined them (6/11)
For an interesting response, go suggest a similar strategy for your next election to a member of the party leadership or campaigns team: "We got a lot of voters a few years ago, we just need to remind them when the election comes around." (7/11)
And how was the Brexit referendum won and lost? By Johnson et al only campaigning for a couple of weeks before the vote? Or by a long-running campaign, begun in the wake of the 75 referendum, to keep the issue alive and grow support? (8/11)
Meanwhile, the Remain side spent years thinking they had widespread support and did nothing to motivate people to support EU membership until the referendum was upon them. Except now we& #39;re not even starting with an assumption of widespread support. (9/11)
The question on the EU, and a whole lot of other issues close to Lib Dem hearts, is a simple one: if we& #39;re not going to go out to argue and campaign for this cause, who will? Because if no one& #39;s arguing for it, support isn& #39;t going to magically appear. (10/11)
And I know it& #39;s not fun arguing for causes that currently have limited support, but if you wanted an easy political life, why did you join the Liberal Democrats? (11/11)
