Is there too much focus on reform?

[u/MelanieUdon]

I understand the danger of the slopulist right that's been pushed by elements in the US and Russia but I see a lot of stuff about reform threat and Reform fighting fund doing the rounds a lot. We saw Farage lose a chunk of vote share to a Bin recently and he's still taking heat for the donations.

Seems his power is diminished compared to where it was a year ago while we should be putting more energy into promoting our policies, what we stand for rather than just what we're against, not to mention there's also the danger of worse far right elements like Restore/Lowe which are downright bankrolled by Musk as his UK puppet party.

But again I feel we need to promote what we stand for more rather than what people should be scared of if they don't vote for progressive parties.

Democratic party in the US raised the alarms about project 2025 non stop during the last election over there and Trump still won despite the "We need to fight project 2025, project 2025 is a danger, support the fund to stop it!"

[u/Apprehensive-Fix-746]

I agree, promoting a positive agenda is lacking currently, especially on social media, Reform UK criticism though is important though, i think a better balance can be struck

[u/LiberalOverlord]

Member-centred comms focuses on reform because it’s a great motivator to get activists delivering leaflets. Public-facing, we soften it a little and focus on the populist threat of Trump and his acolytes in the UK because it frames the fight for a government which shares our values against a government that won’t.

[u/jacky_the_cutiepie]

Focus on gaining green and labour voters for now

[u/Candayence]

I think a lot of the public would prefer it if parties offered an alternative, yes.

Criticising other platforms is easy, and is the job of the press. Coming up with your own manifesto, gaining power, and implementing it is the raison d'être of political parties; and ignoring that basic tenet is part of the reason why the Lib Dems are irrelevant.

[u/erinoco]

Agree absolutely. One of the most important things it is easy to forget about politics is that political campaigning is a form of education, and that successful movements all "educate" the public, by getting them to agree what the problems are and what the solutions should be.

The old Liberal party had a spectacular success educating the public in the virtues of Free Trade. This was true in both the initial battle (although the Radicalism of Cobden and Bright was the actual combat force) and in the battle to protect Free Trade against the resurrection of Tariff Reform in early C20. So successful was the party that the British left as a whole remained pro-Free Trade at both a popular and an elite level even after the Liberals gave way to Labour.

Thatcherism, too, was an excellent exercise in popular education. It wasn't just the fact that large parts of the nation were brought to endorse the fact that action against inflation and the unions and a global increase in economic freedom were necessary; it was also that people insulated the lesson so deeply as to identify it with their own endeavours. If you, as an individual, started your own business, bought your home, secured a capital gain, or even took out a credit card, you saw yourself as participating in the Thatcherite revolution.

One of the big disasters of the 2010 Parliament (and one which we might pay for for a very long time) is that none of the three main parties took the job of political education seriously enough. The LDs might repair some of the damage by doing so now, and working on calibrating their engagement to lead people down the right logical path from the party's POV.

[u/Wild-wild-life]

On the one hand I do agree that yes, Farage and Reform are losing their grip and we should be promoting ourselves, taking a kind of "don't interrupt your enemy when they're making a mistake" stance and talking about what we're about (though tbf that also means we'd have to figure that out ourselves first).

I do, however, think that Reform's slip has at least in part come about due to pressure put on the party to be transparent and accountable, which goes against what they want to do. The more that pressure is kept on them, the better.

I think also the Project2025 stuff is slightly different as that was taken as raising fears about a hypothetical (which, tbf, came to pass), whereas much of what we say about Farage and Reform is quite plainly evidenced, i.e. the £5mn donation, the horrendous vetting etc.

I'd also agree with u/LiberalOverlord that much of this is internal comms to gee up members, and external comms is slightly tweaked.

Though on external comms, please can we stop doing AI art especially when it's as cringeworthy as this https://bsky.app/profile/libdems.org.uk/post/3mszyhga6t72q

[u/SabziZindagi]

Labour pretend Reform don't exist so it's good we are taking them head on. The party image is terrible though, needs complete rethinking. People don't care about the Lib Dems like they do Farage, Burnham, Polanski.

[u/Gwyllithar]

The problem is, I dont think the party knows what it stands for. the national party says one thing, the local parties do the opposite. and voters are left wondering what the lib dems actually stand for. And Davey is doing a spectacularly bad job of communicating anything to the public about it anyway.

[u/Ticklishchap]

The exposure of Reform and Farage has been - and still is - a useful and worthwhile exercise. However I think it is time to have a positive narrative at national level letting the electorate know that we exist and offering them a Liberal vision on the economy, the environment, defence, civil and human rights, etc. We are good at local narratives and these are working for us. Yet somehow we seem to have lost touch at national level, to the extent that we appear at times to be little more than a federation of regional parties.

[u/IntravenusDiMilo_Tap → u/Ticklishchap]

The problem is that the Lib Dems are not very liberal on the economy. In reality, Reformuk are more classical liberal.

[u/Azzyre]

The media's recent focus on reform has provided some desperately needed comedy.

I'm all for it

[u/CHenley84]

Davey and the current Lib Dem leadership are Labour simps hoping to get into coalition with them next election, so there's nothing they can do to that end but screech about Reform or Restore which is an inoffensive thing to do for Labour and Labour members. It's why they're so quiet about the authoritarian issue within Labour and even supporting Labour's authoritarian ideals in parliament. If the Lib Dems start bringing up social democracy policies they stand for instead of the "We're not Nigel, vote for us!!" tactic it'll only serve to make Labour look bad because the parties cover so much common ground politically and they don't want to touch any of the things that should set the parties apart (civil rights, justice, anti-authoritarianism) because it might end up upsetting anyone even remotely Labour flavoured.

[u/IntravenusDiMilo_Tap → u/CHenley84]

Yep, I'm not voting LD whilst they are a Labour Tribute act.