The eurosceptical Liberal Party has just had a stroke of luck in its best constituency, Liverpool West Derby.

Amazingly for a party only about a tenth of the size of UKIP, the Liberals managed to come second in that seat in the general elections of 1997 and 2001, and third in 2005. The Liberals' strength there is based on the Tuebrook ward: they hold all three of the ward's seats on Liverpool City Council.

In each of those three general elections, the seat was won by old Labour's Robert "Bob" Wareing, with a majority so vast that it seemed certain that however impressive their efforts, the Liberals could never hope to take the seat.

However, on 16th Sept, Wareing was defeated in a reselection poll by a Nu-Labour contender. Wareing has promptly left the Labour Party, with maximum rancour, and as of the last two weeks now sits as an Independent Labour MP. Better still, he has vowed to fight the next election as an Independent candidate. As the sitting MP, with some local following, he might do rather well:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...de/6999733.stm

By splitting the massive Labour vote in Liverpool West Derby, Wareing may do the unthinkable - turn it from a rock-solid Labour stronghold into a genuine four-way marginal (Labour/Ind Labour/LibDem/Liberal).

It is still a very long shot, but I think this is possibly the best chance that any eurosceptical party has of actually entering parliament at the next election. I hope that UKIP Liverpool might consider standing down their candidate in Liverpool West Derby and throwing their campaigning might behind the Liberals' candidate, Steve Radford. It could make all the difference!

Past general election results: Liverpool West Derby
(courtesy of Wikipedia)

General Election 2005: Liverpool West Derby

Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Robert Wareing 19,140 62.83 -3.4
Liberal Democrat Patrick Moloney 3,915 12.85 +2.0
Liberal Steve Radford 3,606 11.84 -3.1
Conservative Peter Garrett 2,567 8.43 +0.4
Socialist Labour Kai Anderson 698 2.3 +2.3
UK Independence Peter Baden 538 1.8 +1.8
Majority 15225 50.0 -1.3
Turnout 30464 47.16 +1.7
Labour hold Swing -2.7

General Election 2001: Liverpool West Derby
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Robert Wareing 20,454 66.2
Liberal Steve Radford 4,601 14.9
Liberal Democrat Patrick Moloney 3,366 10.9
Conservative William Clare 2,486 8.0
Majority 15,853 51.3
Turnout 30,907

General Election 1997: Liverpool West Derby
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Robert Wareing 30,002 71.2
Liberal Steve Radford 4,037 9.6
Liberal Democrat A Hines 3,805 9.0
Conservative N Morgan 3,656 8.7
Referendum Party P Forest 657 1.6
Majority 25,965 61.6
Turnout 61.3
Labour hold Swing
[Rep]

Hasn't Meadowcroft just left the Liberals and joined the LDs?
What is the story behind that?
[Rep]

Originally Posted by Raymond Finch:
Hasn't Meadowcroft just left the Liberals and joined the LDs?
What is the story behind that?

Yep, I read this on an unofficial LibDem forum yesterday, and it also appears on his Wikipedia entry. So therefore it must be true, ho.ho. The claim on the LibDem board was that Meadowcroft joined the LDs a few days ago. I don't know the story behind it.

For those who don't know, Michael Meadowcroft is the former Liberal MP who helped relaunch the Liberal Party in 1988/9 after the rest of the party had merged with the Social Democrats. He was Liberal Party president until 2005, although latterly he was largely a figurehead, having retired from active involvement some years ago. In 2005 he stepped down and was replaced by Steve Radford.

I note that his joining the LibDems happened just before the annual Liberal Party Assembly on Saturday - so maybe there was some motion there he didn't like. I also note that his joining the LibDems was almost simultaneous with me switching allegiance from UKIP to the Liberal Party, so maybe I just have the poitical equivalent of BO. :-)
[Rep]

Some info on the switch.

Michael Meadowcroft joins Lib Dems | Liberal Democrat Voice
Michael Meadowcroft joins Lib Dems (Nigel Ashton)
Michael Meadowcroft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[Rep]

Originally Posted by Tom Wilde:
Yep, I read this on an unofficial LibDem forum yesterday, and it also appears on his Wikipedia entry. So therefore it must be true, ho.ho. The claim on the LibDem board was that Meadowcroft joined the LDs a few days ago. I don't know the story behind it.

For those who don't know, Michael Meadowcroft is the former Liberal MP who helped relaunch the Liberal Party in 1988/9 after the rest of the party had merged with the Social Democrats. He was Liberal Party president until 2005, although latterly he was largely a figurehead, having retired from active involvement some years ago. In 2005 he stepped down and was replaced by Steve Radford.

I note that his joining the LibDems happened just before the annual Liberal Party Assembly on Saturday - so maybe there was some motion there he didn't like. I also note that his joining the LibDems was almost simultaneous with me switching allegiance from UKIP to the Liberal Party, so maybe I just have the poitical equivalent of BO. :-)

Tom

What made you switch over?
[Rep]

Originally Posted by Englander 1:
Tom

What made you switch over?

I switched because I strongly disagree with the new UKIP policies on immigration and on asylum, to the extent that I don't want to associate myself with those policies in any way.

This isn't to say that I agree with every Liberal Party policy. I don't. But at least I can put up with the ones I don't agree with.
[Rep]

Fair play Tom, but I have to say, the UKIP position on immigration is quite logical when you look at its policies over the years. It would look stupid suggesting mass immigration was bad, but then just accepting everything should be the same after years of it.

That's your call and good luck to you though, at least you sticuk to your principles.

On that note :

1) Why is the English Democrats in this area? They should be in the other parties section.

2) Why aren't parties like the Liberals given their own sections? They have much more support that the EDP. I would even say give the BNP brutes their own space. Let people judge them on their own unmoderated words. I think this forum is big enough to accomodate now.
[Rep]

Wareing has been removed so they can put in that ghastly prig Stephen Twigg. I thought we'd seen the last of him. Maybe we have!
[Rep]

Originally Posted by arden forester:
Some info on the switch.

Michael Meadowcroft joins Lib Dems | Liberal Democrat Voice
Michael Meadowcroft joins Lib Dems (Nigel Ashton)
Michael Meadowcroft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arden forester, belated thanks for the very useful second link above For those who haven't followed your link, here is an excerpt:

Originally Posted by :
Michael Meadowcroft joins Lib Dems

12.01.03pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 5th Oct 2007

Michael Meadowcroft has joined the Liberal Democrats. Michael is the former Liberal MP for Leeds West and has over forty-five years experience of Liberal politics at all levels. He is a former Chair of the Electoral Reform Society and has led, or been a member of, missions to thirty-five different countries, assisting in the transition to multi-party democracy.

Describing the current situation as 'critical', Michael said "The political situation now is very different to what it was twenty years ago. Today three issues amongst many seem particularly to demand attention and involvement."

"The consequences of the US and UK invasion and occupation of Iraq continue to make life horrendous for the Iraqi people."

"The Government's determination to use identity cards as the main means to create a massive database on every citizen is a huge threat to our privacy and to our essential civil liberties."

"The bright vision of a united Europe is under serious threat from xenophobes and conservatives of Right and Left who believe that somehow the British Isles can be floated off into the Atlantic in contradiction and defiance of its geographic location and its European heritage."

"Realistically, to play any role in influencing these issues one has now to be in the mainstream of politics."

I had no idea until I read that how deeply pro-EU Meadowcroft was.

I've been having an interesting conversation with a prominent Liberal in recent days. He thinks that with Meadowcroft gone, it will now be much easier for the Liberal Party to adopt a consistently eurosceptical policy.

I think this may partly answer the questions recently raised by Britannist on another thread about the Liberal Party's stance on the EU. Still, time will tell!
[Rep]

Tom, can you confirm whether the Liberal party's stance now is:-

1. To campaign for withdrawal from the EU and to support this policy in any referendum
or
2. To campaign for a referendum and leave the choice up to the electorate, with a view to supporting the result, albeit having posed a eurosceptical opinion in the campaign.

It seems the second leaves open the possibility of promoting a Commonwealth of Europe (along EFTA lines) in multiple choice questioning.

The LibDems are now angling for a referendum, a "quality" debate, and to push the policy of remaining in the EU.

New Labour and the Tories are studying Lewis Carroll instead of providing authoritative answers!
[Rep]