Greg Simpson, the Liberal Democrats' head of policy and research, says the party must become more "spikey". He told Sir Menzies: "We will need to leave our comfort zone to achieve this and in this there are risks, but I am convinced there is no success in politics without taking those risks.
"We need to promote that side of you that is rarely seen in the media, but is prevalent in private, in small meetings, when you are on the stump, and particularly what we have seen you achieve in your visits during the local elections ... 'the pinstripe radical'. "
It is fascinating to note that the Independent prints as fact - note: no inverted commas:There is no appetite in the party for any move to oust Sir Menzies.
Although the 65-year-old QC might seem an unlikely anti-establishment figure, close allies want him to show more of his "hidden passion" as he speaks up for Britain's "forgotten people" on issues such as poverty.
Mr Simpson's report advises his leader not to underestimate Gordon Brown and not to overestimate Mr Cameron.
That's interesting - don't "overestimate Mr Cameron". Sounds about right.
It is worth reading the chunks of the Simpson article quoted in the Independent report . The paper says the report was "leaked" to them. But it seems like a friendly leak to me. Everything in this article seems very sound and positive to me.
Fairly postive stuff. The problem the Lib Dems suffer from I beliveve is not saying what they really believe & then ending up with bland policy. We need a vision of what a Liberal society & World would look like. A good start would be to ditch Nuclear Weapons now - lead by example - not a fudge!Lets say what we believe or I'm I in the wrong Party or wrong?
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly agree that we can only benefit from sharply putting forward our radical policies. I'd love to ditch nuclear weapons now. I think the party had an exemplary open debate on that whole topic (including an open internet forum which Nick Harvey participated in) in the run up to the last conference.
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