Triumphant Liberal Democrats order push into Blair's heartlands

[T_i_B]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=445761

Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, is to order his MPs to launch a push into Labour's electoral heartlands in London, the North of England and Wales after his party's victory in the Brent East by-election last week.

Mr Kennedy will tell his MPs not to restrict their ambitions to seizing Tory seats but to move into Labour territory. He has set his sights at the next general election on seats in London, Liverpool and Cardiff.

Arriving at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton yesterday, Mr Kennedy prepared to tell activists that the party can on Labour and Tory territories. He said the victory in Brent East had "emboldened" the party and the collapse of Tory support in town halls put Lib Dems in poll position to challenge Labour.

His confident words came as David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, issued a stark warning to the Prime Minister yesterday that the Government must "change or die".

[ixion]

1. wow... I wish we had more of that here.

a vast sea of complacency and apathy and ignorance over here, for the most part. We're certainly not seeing the same fervor from the populace (that doesn't include us here at DU, though ;-))

[Monte Carlo]

2. I saw Mr. Kennedy on C-Span recently...

...in the British House of Commons, during Tony Blair's grilling session on Wednesday. He gave made a specific, direct question to Blair about the Iraq war, why sentences describing the inability of Saddam to hit Britian with a nuclear strike was conveniently left out of the intelligence reports (I forget which one). Mr. Blair responded by making a broad statement about the Liberal Democrats ability to run the country. A weak, fallback response.

I have heard Mr. Kennedy before, and he seems to be rather no-nonsense when it comes to the Iraqi war. Lord bless him.

[KoKo]

3. Good for Charles Kennedy!...if you remember I was asking about him on a

post back during the Parliament hearings on Iraq Invasion.

Seems that Liberal Dems against the war are getting a "foot in" and giving Blair some trouble, while we American Liberal Democrats are being told to tow the Middle Line and follow the DLC.

Interesting......

Glad you posted this......saw it in Editorials here when it happened and was hoping someone would post about how this might support some us who want to bring our party left...in the coming election.

Although, I know in GB Liberal Dem would be different from Liberal Dem here......nuances...but still it's important.

[T_i_B]

5. "new" labour vs grassroots Democrats

In the US you have the opportunity to change your party during the primary season. This is a wonderful thing and true to form there are plenty of good Democrat candidates who can advance the views of the liberal wing of the party. I know my title mentions Dean but there is more than just him who can be lumped into this catagory. Dean just happens to be the one who has made the greatest headway by listening to the grassroots. Either way, we in Britain would very much benefit from such a system IMHO.

However here in the UK the main left wing (well allegedly left wing) party has managed to turn itself into little more than a Tony Blair fan club with little or no ability to reform itself from its current hard right ways. As such many people have found themselves with little or no choice but to turn their back on the party that has abandoned them as there is no hope of change from within. This is where the Liberal Democrats come in as they are seen by many as the most plausable alternative for progressives. Of course there are the Greens and the Socialist Alliance as well but these are very much fringe parties.

[David__77]

4. Were I British, I would vote LibDem

before I would vote for a Blair-flunkey. "New" Labor is accomplishing things Thatcher could not do.