Welcome to the 68th edition of Liberal Democrat Newswire, a special edition with a new pamphlet from former Cambridge MP David Howarth and myself on how the Liberal Democrats should go about rebuilding the party by creating a new, larger core vote.

Thanks to everyone who has already taken part in my survey of party members about the leadership race which was included in the last edition. The results will be out in a few days time.

Best wishes,

Mark

P.S. In case you’ve missed them, here are a couple of recent highlights from my blog: A spy in the sky that tracks what you do – and goes back in time to see what you did and 8 reasons why the 2014 coup against Nick Clegg failed.

The current Liberal Democrat core vote is tiny. At around just 5% it is so small it is barely enough to ensure the party’s survival – and nowhere near large enough to properly help the party through tough times.

Whilst other political parties face the challenge of how to reach out beyond their core vote, the Liberal Democrat core vote starts so small that our challenge is how to increase the core vote.

However, there is a sizeable share of the electorate – around 1 in 5 voters – who share the same attitudes as our current core vote.

That makes a 20% core vote strategy desirable and plausible. It would be a Liberal Democrat core vote as it would be made up of people who think the same way as our current voters do and have the same outlook on the world.

It would also be a core vote large enough to make a real difference. We would still need to reach out beyond our core vote to win many elections. But a 20% core would provide the party with a solid basis for such successes, with the solid loyalty to see it through tough times and a clear sense of purpose and strategy to avoid being buffeted every which way by events – and to avoid deferring overly to the establishment experts who so often advise our elected office holders to be wise, responsible… and not shake up existing power structures.

That’s why David Howarth and I have written a pamphlet going into more detail about why the party needs a larger core vote, who it would be made up of and how to go about getting it.

You can read the pamphlet in full here – and of course feel free to share it with others.

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Thanks for reading

I hope you’re found this edition of Liberal Democrat Newswire interesting, informative, useful – or all three! Remember you can also follow the Lib Dem leadership race via this Facebook event, where both Farron and Lamb are regularly answering questions from members.

Best wishes and thank you for reading,

Mark

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