The question the Lib Dems need to answer before the polls will rise

Many people now say they don’t know what the Lib Dems stand for (again) (see comments in this post). So it is our job to let people know. So how would you describe it today on the doorstep? What would you describe was the purpose of the Coalition? of Nick Clegg or of David Cameron? What can you say which will influence the polls? There is a technique to help with this which poses a question, which once answers will make this a lot easier.

Great leaders and governments’ achievements are often described in one sentence and they often had a clear focus at the start to achieve this. This one sentence is vital. It not only gives a clear focus and an easy way of communicating the party’s purpose but can also distinguish between the purposes of the leaders and the two parties in Coalition. This video shows how this technique is used to motivate people and this is a good technique for the Lib Dems to use:

So what would you say was David Cameron’s purpose? He says it is to create the Big Society (taking community action from the Lib Dems). The Coalition’s purpose? They say it is to get the economy on track (taking away the economic judgement the Lib Dems had built up). Nick Clegg’s purpose? To give electoral reform to a system he doesn’t want? The Lib Dems’ purpose? to get some of our manifesto enacted? Neither very convincing.

Once we can answer this question better, and with one voice, the polls will rise.

The parties purpose could be ‘to stop the Tories from wrecking the country with policies which haven’t been properly thought through’ but then the party would need to stop some of the more reckless policies e.g. NHS reform. So it could be ‘to make this country more liberal’ but then people don’t really get liberalism yet (not as a vote winner). Or ‘to change the voting system’, which is not popular enough so the fact that it is difficult to get, is the reason the polls are low.

The Lib Dems need to be clearer on our purpose in government.