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Ryan Coetzee: Also Deluded…

May 23rd, 2015 Posted in Liberal Democrats by

Just when I thought Vince Cable’s post mortem of the 2015 Election was the worst thing I could possibly read, enter Ryan Coetzee stage left. In a self-pitying article, seemingly designed solely to absolve himself from any responsibility, he says that it was all the big, bad Tory’s fault:

In Tory-facing seats we got routed by what I call the Fear. We presumed from the beginning that the Conservatives would try to scare voters with the prospect of a Miliband government that would risk the economy. But in the event the polls and the SNP conspired to ratchet up the Fear to Terror levels, because they showed Labour’s only path to power would be via the SNP.

About four weeks from election day it became clear that The Fear was hurting us. We tried everything we could to counter it: fear of a Tory minority government in hock to its own right wing, Ukip and the DUP; fear of Tory cuts to welfare, schools and other unprotected departments; ruling out participation in any government that relied on SNP support; offering ourselves as the only guarantors of a stable coalition. All of it was trumped by The Fear, and on a scale we didn’t see coming.

Am I alone in having missed the mass hysteria of the Middle Classes? David Cameron is a moderately appealing character to Middle England with a track record of modest success. Ed Miliband is an unappealing individual with a track record of gimmicks and Shadow Ministers who insult people who drive white vans. Nick Clegg’s that other guy who goes back and forth on tuition fees and something. Did voters pick up their pens  in the voting booths shaking in fear? I really don’t think so.

Should we have run the campaign differently, given what we knew? I don’t think so. We correctly identified the threats facing us on each front, and did our best to counter them. We made a coherent, liberal case to the voters, offering both a strong economy and a fair society.

Unsuprising that he thinks this but the opposite is true. The Liberal Democrat GE2015 Campaign was easily the worst I’ve ever seen. It effectively convinced voters that there were no positive reasons for the LibDems to exist. We’re the political equivalent of the colour beige – we go with everything. In who’s mind is that a great campaign?

The rest of the article can be summed up as this: everything bad that happened to the LibDems was the fault of someone else or forces beyond our control. This is not even taking responsibility for a badly run campaign. This man was paid six figures and this is the quality of his analysis. If the LibDems have any sense (humour me) they’ll hand him his P45.

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