There was no Liberal Democrat candidate in this week’s principal authority council by-election, the last of the year. That continued a run of no-shows for the party in the ward that now stretches over 10 years and four contests.

There is a whole bundle of reasons why a particular contest may pass without a Liberal Democrat candidate, including at times a hard-working volunteer team being hit by a last minute crisis. So the absence of a candidate from any one contest should never be a reason for automatic condemnation. However, it’s also fair to say that the overall pattern is that we don’t stand in nearly enough contests.

That damages our electoral prospects in the long run as it sends a message to the public about us not being a relevant party on the main political stage, and it hinders us building up a larger base of voters who regularly vote for us. (More on both those points and the other costs of not standing here.)

There’s a shared responsibility for that – both from local parties whose reasons for existing include standing in elections and from the other parts of the party whose reasons for existing include supporting local parties.

We don’t want to be one of the smaller parties. We want to be contesting politics with the biggest parties on equal terms. Standing candidates more frequently, rather than lagging behind other parties, is a part of that.

So here’s a suggestion for a new year’s resolution: we’ve made good progress in standing more candidates in the last few years. Let’s redouble that progress next year.

And to end on some good news, there was another by-election, town council rather than principal authority. And look what can happen when Lib Dems stand:

Congratulations Jemma!

For what this means for the running total of council by-election results since the last May elections, see my council by-elections scorecard here.

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