Perhaps not surprisingly (if you live in the locale) the Scottish Liberal Democrats ousted Labour in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election. The amount of by-election paraphernalia that came through my letter-box was astounding. Some nights we even got two deliveries from the same party. The paper-recyclers will do well this month.
How did the Lib Dem candidate Willie Rennie overturn a huge Labour majority in what had been a safe Labour seat?
Leaflet drops, and plenty of them. Make sure people don’t and can’t forget your name, that’s the message that came across. And because the general voting public like cartoons, Willie associated himself with Oor Wullie – sometimes 2-box sketches, other times 3-box. Dubious copyright issues appeared to be noted and brushed aside. The quality of the leaflets left a lot to be desired, some even looked as if they were the infamous “copy of a copy of a copy, etc.”…despite this, folks remembered his name and voted for him. I’m glad, because my mind often goes blank when presented with a list of names on a ballot paper…
It’s a sceptical thought, however it’s a tactic that was deployed and worked…it got him 12,391 votes.
Ah Craig! Far too simplistic but alas I’d expect that from a Scottish Conservative supporter – where did they come again!?!?
I’ll have to take your word on the effectiveness of marketing. But one question…. did his message get your vote or did you waste it on some fringe party like the Conservatives? 🙂
As well as the Lib Dems winning the election, Labour lost it and in many ways they were sabotaged at multiple levels and from within! Let’s look at some of the issues:
Mid campaign, Lexmark announce 700 job losses.
The Scottish Labour (& Lib Dem) government can’t seem to defuse the proposal being put forward for the £4 road toll. Ironic that the minister in charge of transport is actually a Lib Dem, but the general public still think upon the government as Labour.
Tony has become a liability and his glamour period with the public is well and truly over. He is now viewed by many as having questionable motives and as someone who should considered stepping aside.
Labour managed to lose a key vote in the Commons due to their being 25 MPs up here playing at marketing the Labour message. Worse still, the vote was lost because the PM went home for dinner instead of voting.
I’m luck enough to be living in the area served by Menzies Campbell and my own local counsellor, Ewan Jardine, is a Lib Dem who has done massive amounts for the local community. Where Lib Dems are being elected they are delivering for and engaging with their community.
The public is starting to look more seriously at the values of the different parties and favouring the Lib Dem beliefs and principles. For example, it would seem that the Lib Dems always had it right on Iraq! The public are now starting to think what else may they have it right on.
For once, the Lib Dems actually got some decent media converage during the campaign – the cameras where out in their droves to see Charlie when he visited.
We also shouldn’t lose sight that this is a bye-election and it will only be after the general election that we can really understand if the people have really become sick of Labour! Perhaps the voters were simply punishing Labour.
….. I’m also sure there will be many more complex local and national issues that will have impacted the result but the cartoons must have helped ;-).
On the subject of the cartoons, the first time I saw it I thought it was supposed to be a characature of George W. Bush. It wasn’t until I noticed the bucket and the slogan about “Oor Wullie” that I realised what it was supposed to be.