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What will the YES campaign inquiry deliver? Furore, fizzle or farce?

By Angela Harbutt
June 28th, 2011 at 1:56 pm | 3 Comments | Posted in AV referendum, Liberal Democrats

Yesterday’s Guardian reported that “Liberal Democrats start investigation into AV referendum defeat” . Either the Guardian is well behind the times (we reported this fact  a month ago ),  or Tim Farron has taken a very long time to get round to doing anything. Considered he maybe – dithering he ain’t. And if Tim really has only just got round to ordering an inquiry then it will be a very shallow one indeed, given that the inquiry is apparently due to provide an interim report (to the executive) next week. No. Tim is infinitely more competent than this …

I am betting that the truth of the matter is that the Guardian is just a tad behind the curve on this one. A slow news day and old news re-hashed. To highlight just how late the story actually is… The Guardian reports that Tim Farron has called the inquiry ..

“ as angry accounts of the mistakes by the Yes campaign have begun to appear on the internet from campaign staff and those involved in efforts at the grassroots” .

Reports have not “BEGUN TO APPEAR” .. they appeared within days, hours even, of the election result.We ourselves wrote a post on the humiliation of the Yes campaign on May 8th and were inundated with comments – many from outraged Lib Dems who worked on the campaign. Around the 12th May (or thereabouts) Simon McGrath created the brilliant “why we lost av” website ..and about that time, Andy May posted the jaw-dropping “The Yes Campaign – What lessons need to be learned”  (from which – as far as I can tell – most of the Guardian piece was culled).

The Guardian does appear to have one bit of “news” at least” … Tim Farron is quoted as saying

“A report will be published. Clearly we were not in total control of the Yes campaign, but it is clear lessons have to be learnt. A large amount of money looks like it was wasted and the whole thing has set back the cause of constitutional reform a long way. It would be very odd if we did not review what went wrong and what went right.”

“published” implies that it will go public. If true, this is excellent news. Hats off to the likes of James Graham, Andy May – and all the other “insiders” who raised their heads above the parapet and came out bravely and boldly to tell of the “living nightmare” that was the campaign.

Hats off too, to Simon McGrath – who led the call for an inquiry (and set up the previously mentioned “whywelostav” website). He urged myself and others to write to Tim Farron to call for one. I understand that quite a lot of us did just that.

So here we are waiting on one James Gurling (chair of campaigns and communications committee and member of the Federal Executive) to pronounce. James is a big fish in the Lib Dems and goes back a long way. There is some concern that James is too much of a Lib Dem insider and too close to Nick Clegg to do a proper job. Is he there to get to the truth?.. or to do a decent cover up job to shield Nick from any embarrassment over his  choice of director of the Yes campaign?

Cries of “whitewash” may be premature – after all, James is a serious man with his own reputation to uphold. And if it is true that Tim Farron has gone on record saying

“A large amount of money looks like it was wasted and the whole thing has set back the cause of constitutional reform a long way.”

– well that sounds like a man intent on getting to the truth.

But Simon Mcgrath over on lib dem voice  raises a good point. Who IS being interviewed as part of this inquiry? Are the likes of James Graham and Andy May going to be questioned? IF the inquiry is to make an interim report NEXT WEEK as reported in the Guardian, and IF the likes of May and Graham have NOT been interviewed, then all sorts of questions must be asked.

So what will it be Furore, fizzle or Farce. Will this incisively identify the errors made and name and shame those responsible? Will it fizzle out with a bland report stating that a few minor errors were made, but it was largely the fault of others (the nasty no campaigners, the right wing press etc). Or will it be a total farce – no mistakes, no errors, all the money spent immaculately and John Sharkey IS a campaigning guru.

This now rests in the hands of James Gurling. But not entirely. I had thought that we could reach James through his councillor email – but sadly he is no longer a Southwark councillor. So I suggest that we contact Tim Farron with any suggestions for people that should be interviewed. I am sure he will pass on recommendations to James.

This is not over. Not by a long way.

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The YES campaign: there is a Lib Dem inquiry

By Angela Harbutt
May 26th, 2011 at 12:29 am | 5 Comments | Posted in AV referendum, Liberal Democrats

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago (May 8th) we posted an article examining the disastrous YES campaign. We were inundated with readers, and even we grizzly old souls at LV were quite taken aback by the level of support we received from all quarters of the party (and the wider YES campaign) both publicly and privately. We had certainly hit a nerve and there was (and still is) a lot of anger out there about the whole sorry venture.

So when Simon Mcgrath called for an independent inquiry into the whole debacle, I silenced the cynic in me that said any investigation, if it did happen, would be done by “the usual suspects” who are themselves mates of those responsible for the campaign and would be conducted behind closed doors ……….and allowed the optimistic (some might say naive) Angela to believe that Tim Farron was a different kind of President and that under his leadership we would see some real action. 

I duly sent an email to Party President Tim Farron stating the reasons why I believed a public, independent inquiry into the YES to AV campaign was necessary.

Imagine my dismay to receive this reply from Tim:

 Dear Angela,

Thank you very much for emailing me.

I can confirm that there is currently an internal investigation going on – but as I’m sure you’ll understand, I can’t give out any more details than that.

Funnily enough, I don’t understand why no details can be given out.

At the very least, right now, some basic information regarding the inquiry should be in the public domain :  WHO is conducting the investigation?  WHAT is their remit? and WHEN are they due to report? Why this information cannot be given out is totally beyond me.

It is conceivable that the eventual findings are so embarrassing, the levels of incompetence so appalling, the errors made so huge, that Tim may decide that he can’t possibly put the full unexpurgated review into the public domain. But to be very clear  – the very least we expect is to be told what ACTION the review has recommended (and presumably will be taken by the party).

If the entire inquiry is to be shrouded  in secrecy as currently seems to be the case, I am afraid we can probably expect little more than a very long silence, followed, if pushed, by a short note stating that it wasn’t really any one’s fault and a promise to try better next time. That is simply not good enough.

I have today written to Tim ( tim.farron@libdems.org.uk ) asking him to reconsider his position on this matter.

Hat tip: Check out Simon McGraths brillliant “WHY WE LOST AV” website here.

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