Some success, but we need to work on the long trek now. A frequent complaint of the average voter is that they do not know what the Liberal Democrats stand for. This feeling may have prevented the party doing even better at these elections.
The party campaign team has done well in issues of the moment, especially the pain of rising costs felt by people whose income has not risen to match. But we now need to fill in the background against which the foreground issues can be highlighted.
If you really press the average voter as to what distinguishes the Liberal Democrats they will probably recall that we are the party of Europe. This is part of what we stand for but only part. There is no need to bang on about what a failure Brexit has been; even former fervent Brexiteers realise that the British people are paying a heavy price for the country's isolation. Labour pretends that it can make Brexit work. We must point out that this is a fallacy and that restoring at least cooperation with continental Europe is essential if we are not to lose more national wealth.
The bigger picture is that we believe in freedom (though not anarchy). This is an important distinction between ourselves and Starmer's Labour Sir Keir's public image as a bumbling moderate, burnished by his spoof column in Private Eye. However, within the party he has operated ruthlessly to suppress radical thought, disciplining MPs and constituency parties alike. This is not a man who should be given absolute power nationally. Labour stands for central control while we stand for community.
A third distinction between us and the other parties is our care about the environment which goes sway back to the days of the Liberal party. It is a commitment which we do not stress enough, especially as this government's warm words about following a green agenda are increasingly shown to be hollow.
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