Over the last two years I have worked as a campaign organiser with Lib Dem MPs in the Highlands and Islands. However, after last night’s terrible results that is now over for me. I can’t pretend that I am not bitterly disappointed, not merely for myself but because we have lost some of the finest politicians of this generation from the Commons, at a time when experienced level headed liberals are needed most. Many excellent Constituency Organisers, who I have worked with, have now lost their jobs and many wonderful volunteers have given up their time and effort and feel like it has come to nothing in so many places. All of this is through no fault of their own and in spite of running brilliant ground campaigns as Lib Dems so often do. But, hey, that’s democracy.
As Lib Dems we are hurting; every member, activist and supporter should feel hard done by because we went into coalition because it was in the national interest and we’re being punished for it. Our opponents and the media have now written us off as a sideshow or an irrelevance, but I truly believe that we can come back, that we can once again act as a constructive alternative to the “red to blue to red to blue” politics that we’ve all campaigned against for so long.
To come back bigger and stronger we are going to have to do two things; firstly we have to go back to our campaigning roots, we need to campaign and petition on every local issue and every pothole, to rebuild our activist base street by street and ward by ward. Secondly we have to use our time in “the wilderness” to rediscover that radical streak of non-conformity and passion for social justice that has always marked out Liberals from Charles James Fox onwards and that we perhaps diluted for the sake of the coalition.
Now there is more need for Liberalism than ever, in England the Tories hold the whip hand, they are free to implement every policy we have taken pride in stopping during the coalition. Furthermore they will continue to pander to the right, trying to build up imaginary barriers between people by taking us out of Europe. Who will stand up to them? A directionless Labour Party, shorn of their natural leaders and busy making mugs boasting about their close minded attitude towards immigration?
If anything the situation in Scotland is now worse, we are fast resembling a one party state where parliamentarians aren’t allowed to question their party or criticise its leaders, where children are to have state appointed guardians and private medical files can be passed to any and all government agencies. To contrast with this we need to show people that the Lib Dems are the party of ideas, the party willing to embrace debate rather than just shut it down like the SNP. Rather then the politics of scapegoating and grievance like UKIP or the SNP we have to provide a real, sensible alternatives to provide genuine equality of opportunity and increase living standards.
This is the last thing most of us want to hear, but the only way we ca hope to take on any of these parties and give our communities the hard working Lib Dem representatives they need is to get straight back out there and talk to people. Not just over a canvass sheet but also by building genuine relationships with people who have left us so we can restore their trust in us and by campaigning alongside local organisations. It’ll be slow and it’ll be tough but I truly believe that we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and make sure that our values continue to be represented in British politics, because if we don’t do it no one else is going to do it for us.
* Hamish Mackenzie is a Liberal Democrat member who works for a Liberal Democrat MP