“Relentless intensive activism”: the Lib Dems in North Shropshire

Academics Andrew Russell and David Cutts have been taking a look at Helen Morgan’s victory in North Shropshire. This is part of what they have to say:

The full force of the Liberal Democrat campaign machine was unleashed. The much vaunted ‘ground campaign’, combined with a formidable online presence, operated with ruthless effect. As ever with the Liberal Democrats, when voters deem the party as the credible challenger and firmly on the front foot, there are few party campaign machines across the world that can match the conversion and mobilisation competence, cold-bloodedness, and mercilessness of the Liberal Democrats. Their readiness to start campaigning as soon as Paterson stood down allowed them to immediately establish a constituency presence. Relentless intensive activism then helped the Liberal Democrats sell the story that they were the credible anti-Conservative voice despite polling third behind the Conservatives and Labour in the last two contests. It is a familiar story that has happened so many times before. And often, as the North Shropshire Conservatives have now experienced, it results in the same ending: the Liberal Democrats are near enough unstoppable in a by-election ‘shoot out’.

You can read their piece in full here (though if you do, note that they don’t get our Europe policy quite right).

PS A big part of that campaign quality was down to the leadership of Dave McCobb.

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