Tuesday 22 March 2011

Contesting Elections: Lessons from the Past

My involvement in politics began in 1962.  In those far-off days the Tories where led by Harold Macmillan, Hugh Gaitskell was Labour's leader and the Liberal Party had Jo Grimond at the helm.

In the summer of 1962 I set out to form a branch of the Liberal Party in Dronfield,  North-East Derbyshire. I delivered thousands of what were called 'contact cards' which invited the recipient to sent freepost to the Liberal Party.  From these cards a membership of around thirty people was established and the following year three seats were fought by the Liberal Party at the Dronfield Urban District Council elections.

I spent part of my time in the adjoining Chesterfield constituency and acted as agent at a number of elections.  Perhaps I should point out that at that time the age of majority was 21 but I could still act as an agent as I derived my authority from the candidate, whom of course had to be 21 or over. In those days to even think the Liberals would form the majority on Chesterfield Borough Council and that there would be a Liberal MP would have been regarded as a sign of madness.  But in the guise of the Liberal Democrats it happened.

In those days the Liberal Party had very few councillors.  The parliamentary party would fit into a taxi and all came from Wales and Scotland apart from Eric Lubbock who had a famous by-election victory in Orpington in March 1962.

Over the years the success of the Liberal Party and later the Liberal Democrats, was built on campaigning on local issues: being a thorn in the side of local establishments.

There are important issues here for small parties - UKIP, Green Party, English Democrats and the like.  Gaining a reputation locally for 'getting things done', been seen to be around the community all the time and not just at elections, being regarded as having the interest of the community at heart, all these help build an electoral base.  The current vogue for Big Society and Localism provides an opportunity for small political parties to make an impact.

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