I think I’m a bad LibDem
I have a confession. I don’t find bye elections that interesting.
I will admit to enjoying the suspense of election night and the more substantial arguments during major campaigns can be interesting but bye elections leave me cold.
I just cannot get excited about impending bye elections. They’re not about policy, they’re not about trying to promote and debate ideas. They’re so short term.
I think I must be failing as a Liberal Democrat…
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Not really bothered if you’re excited by them or not, but you are taking an extraordinarily narrow view if you think they have nothing to do with policy or promoting ideas. Winning elections buys us a seat at the table.
I have to confess, wild hyperbole on my own blog aside, I’m not as excited by them as I used to be. But that doesn’t stop me from going out and campaigning.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
By-elections could at least in theory be fought on policies, but as they are geographically limited, naturally the focus in more on local policies than in the big lines.
July 13th, 2007 at 12:32 am
No, you’re missing my point. By-elections rarely have anything to do with policy. But winning them buys us airtime and exposure which is an opportunity to highlight our ideas.
Having a bad result at a by-election loses us credibility and makes it harder for us to be heard.
If you want to talk policy, you have to gain electoral credibility first. Otherwise you are called the “Green Party”.
July 13th, 2007 at 2:32 am
James, you are probably confusing me with Tristan. I wasn’t commenting your comment at all, but answering to him.