Political

What the Liberal Democrats have done: new party booklet

This is a rather nifty new publication from the Liberal Democrats, with some great content and presentation that is well ahead of the traditional party fare for these sorts of documents.It’s been produced in time for conference, which is very good news as that makes it a huge step forward on the messaging inconsistency that was last autumn.

If you’re looking for more material in a similar vein, remember there’s my own Liberal Democrat achievements in government infographic too (which the party’s policy experts kindly helped provide data for), not to mention What The Hell Have The Lib Dems Done?

Mind you, if things continue with documents like the above, I’ll soon be able to pension it off to the home for retired infographics.

 

 

2 responses to “What the Liberal Democrats have done: new party booklet”

  1. This document makes me uncomfortable. In almost every case the claim is that the Lib Dems or "we" have done these things – almost never "the government of which the Lib Dems are a part".

    On the page I happen to be looking at, the top two items (ID cards, DNA database) were also in the Conservative manifesto – word for word – and many of the other claims could equally well be made by the Tories.

    Then there are the disingenuous claims. Yes, we've cut income tax for the majority – a significant long-term gain. This was definitely a Lib Dem policy (though many Tories have found it a congenial idea). What we don't say is that tax credit changes have cut the income of large sections of that group. And yes, we've introduced the triple lock on pensions, but we also allowed the freezing/withdrawal of pension tax allowances at least a year before the general tax allowance caught up and made it a sensible change. People are not stupid – they count losses as well as gains, and probably double if we neglect to mention them.

    I don't think the document contains any untruths, and it will be a useful resource, but the partial way in which it is presented means that I won't be waving the thing itself in arguments.

    Finally, there is hardly any mention of the things we've prevented the Tories from doing. Such a list might be politically incorrect but would be very valuable in trying to regain lapsed support.

  2. So what if this doesn't tell what the Libdems had no choice on during the Coalition agreement, you'd expect Labour to do better than this?

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