I’m Still Proud To Wear My Yellow Rosette

It is hardly an understatement to say that the last few days have been very hard for any supporter of the Liberal Democrats, due to the very bad election results we received on Thursday. Some political commentators were even commenting that it was the worst election result since the merger of the Liberal Party and the SDP in 1988. Indeed, with the defeat of over 700 councillors in England and obliteration across the map of Scotland, it was hardly a great night in the annals of Lib Dem history. However the Welsh party was able to buck the trend finishing the last session of the Welsh assembly with five seats and maintaining five seats by the end of the Welsh election.

Considering the bad results on Thursday, some may be wondering whether or it is time to hang up our yellow rosettes (a fact further hammered home by the incredible no vote in the Alternative Vote Referendum). In Lancaster, where I was running as a Liberal Democrat candidate for the Ellel Ward, the results for our party mirrored the national picture. Of the five seats we held prior to the city council election we lost all of them on results day.  That even included the Liberal Democrat council leader Stuart Langhorn, who narrowly lost his Lower Lune Valley seat to the Conservatives by just over 100 votes. Earlier in the day when I had done some tallying it looked possible that we may retain Lower Lune Valley. However the final result was not as close as I had hoped. In the council Ward where I was standing, Ellel, I never had any illusion about what the result would be considering that this particular council seat had a relatively strong Conservative presence. In the end I received 174 votes narrowly surpassing my Liberal Democrat running mate by 10 votes.

However after us Lib Dems received a mauling locally, I am still quite proud to wear my yellow rosette and certainly have no intention to change the colour of it this side of infinity. Oddly in the wake of my Party’s disastrous results, I am relatively confident that we can regain much lost ground in four years time. This is due to one reason in particular; for decades Liberal Democrats have seen local community politics as a speciality of ours. The next four years will give us an opportunity to excel locally and build strong local liberal foundations. It is time to prove over the next four years that indeed we are the masters of local politics and that we can recoup many of the losses dealt in the local elections this year. I personally would love to run as a candidate again in 2015 (with hopefully a much better result than I received this year). The whole experience of campaigning and going to the count was quite exciting and exhilarating if only our efforts as local Lib Dems had borne fruit. Hopefully there shall be much fruit to harvest in 2015. Perhaps I should leave the last word of local Liberal Democrat optimism to the now former leader of Lancaster council, Stuart Langhorn who was reported in the Lancaster Guardian as saying, "we have to listen to people, we have a great country with a strong liberal tradition and a great party." (http://www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/lancaster-and-district-news/lib_dems_wiped_out_in_poll_1_3358632).