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Sun 6 Nov 2016, 14:14

They came for the judges yesterday. This morning they came for the bishops. On my radio I heard a bishop being told it was unacceptable for an unelected member of the House of Lords expressing an opinion contrary to the will of some part of 'the people'. Phew, this is dangerous stuff.

I certainly know regular Conservative voters who voted for Liz because they felt she would better represent their interests in Europe. We also got a flood of leaflets. For each one from the Lib Dems I got a bigger, more expensive and passionately held one from the Conservatives. I'm afraid they all went in the recycling bin but that didn't stop me from voting.

Fri 4 Nov 2016, 14:29

After yesterday's court ruling, perhaps there is a role for a "moreunited" strategy in Parliament to promote a soft rather hard Brexit. However, don't hold your breath as I'd bet on a reversal of the High Court decision by the Supreme Court.

Thu 3 Nov 2016, 19:17 (last edited on Fri 4 Nov 2016, 09:01)

And yet we got the biggest swing since the by-election in Winchester in 1997....and the best result ever in this constituency. I know that there are some people who felt that they had too much contact from us, but a lot of people have also told me that they were very impressed with our campaign, and by the fact that we showed that we meant business. Perhaps the fact that people did not come out to vote in the numbers that you would normally expect was not so much that people were put off by the hyper-activity of the Lib Dems, but because they believed that it would be won by the conservatives whatever anyone else did, or because you can't change the government in a by-election so it doesn't matter so much, or perhaps because this was the third election in six months? And, Harriet, nice of you to try and excuse me as a dumb pawn in somebody else's game - I was right at the heart of it, and proud to be.

Thu 3 Nov 2016, 18:41

Alice, I'm not sure you are entirely correct about conservative voters not voting for their candidate and so giving a low turnout. At least part of the low turnout was apathy - too much canvassing by the lib dems. I said before the election it would be interesting to know how many didn't vote because of the excess flyers. So I asked a semi random sample of people from across the whole area what did they think of the flyers, did it affect they way they voted?

I have 100 people who didn't vote because there were too many flyers, unsolicited phone calls (one person had them every hour for 12 hours), the attitude of the door step canvassers on the day was described as bullying by several people. I don't think this is Liz's fault, it seems to be party policy as they're going to replicate it at the upcoming byelection. Sadly it seems that some of these people will never vote lib dem again. I know there wee people who voted lib dem for the first time, but even those people said that if they had the phone calls, emails and door step callers they wouldn't have voted. And they were intending to keep their contact details to themselves in future so it couldn't happen with any party.

Thu 3 Nov 2016, 18:39

There will be no successful campaign for proportional representation under the first past the post system. We need something radically different. If we were to hold primaries in this constituency to choose one candidate to stand against the sitting MP, we would radically alter the odds. I would vote for the most impressive candidate from whatever party if they represented what is important to me - and PR is high on my list.

Thu 3 Nov 2016, 17:20

I fear my 92 year old mother has been campaigning for proportional representation all my life. That is not the way forward. I think we need to be realistic - Liz you may certainly have been the chosen candidate and I am quite sure you would have won. This was possibly a very rare opportunity - an occasion when the Conservative candidate didn't represent the Conservative electorate. Hence I would guess the low turn out reflects their disappointment. As for thinking you wouldn't come second because of the result in 2015 - a big mistake - the natural opposition party of West Oxfordshire feels Lib Dem. It was 2015 that was the blip and that was only because of the coalition and Mr. Cameron's extensive support. It wouldn't result in binary elections because each area has different circumstances and alliances would need to reflect those circumstances.
There are two discussions going on here - crowd-funding for campaigns for candidates with whom we agree and a progressive alliance to achieve a consensus politics so badly needed in our divided country.

Wed 2 Nov 2016, 14:33 (last edited on Wed 2 Nov 2016, 17:32)

The numbers show that a single opposition candidate in the by-election could have won. But would I have been the candidate? Probably not, because the Lib Dems came fourth in 2015, thanks to the coalition, and no-one would have believed that what we achieved last month would have been possible. In my opinion the debate was significantly enhanced by having a number of candidates engaged in the election. I enjoyed the contributions of most of the independent candidates and I take my hat off to them for being willing to stand up and be counted, and risk their deposit, which all of them lost. I think that shows real dedication to democracy. Plus, forcing everyone to vote in a binary election is horribly like what we already have in parliament - and we have recently seen what happens when people are given a binary choice. Candidates need to campaign so that people who would normally support another party are inspired to change the way that they habitually vote, which is what happened to a large extent this time. The answer is not for the opposition parties to gang up against the Tories and field one candidate (would the same thing be expected to apply if Labour had a stonking majority, would we then have to have the same arrangement with the Tories?), it is a change to the electoral system, from first past the post to proportional representation. I suggest we spend our energy campaigning for that! .

PS: I have joined More United, which is not a movement to have one candidate stand against the dominant political party, but a way of crowd-funding campaigns for candidates who support More United's principles and policies, with which I generally agree.

Wed 2 Nov 2016, 11:20

What needs defending are our interests in the UK parliament and an MP who has 22% of the vote in no way reflects our views. If the parties (Lib Dems, Labour & Greens) could field one really good candidate who reflects a consensus view then I would happily vote for her/him.

Fri 28 Oct 2016, 22:43 (last edited on Sat 29 Oct 2016, 09:37)

I voted to stay But the reality is that the majority voted to leave and the hectoring by Juncker and Hollande does not help in defending the EU

Fri 28 Oct 2016, 17:14

Nick it's much the same here in Croatia
A meeting at Zagreb Univrsity today and everyone says they cannot believe it and can I explain what happened
The best was 'whoops what a mistake !'
I think Eastern Europe wants us back

Wed 26 Oct 2016, 13:49

Not entirely convinced by moreunited but wearing my EU badge at a conference in Romania today has got me lots of handshakes ( and three kisses).

Tue 25 Oct 2016, 14:26 (last edited on Tue 25 Oct 2016, 14:27)

I've joined!

Sat 22 Oct 2016, 12:31

Standing on a station platform somewhere up north wearing my EU badge I was receiving hate and anger looks from total strangers that made me step well away from the platform edge as the train was approaching. If I can accept the result - why do the minority (of the adult voting population) who are imposing their will on me disregard any of my concerns and refuse to listen to the needs of our economy and well being. Isn't that intolerance of the highest order?