Et tu Oakshott

Okay I thought that my latest blog would be called "How not to carry out a coup" but instead went for something a bit more pithy. Although to be fair Oakshott didn't stab Clegg in the back, more likely he tried to stabbed him in the front and missed.

The LibDems4change/Oakshott group made several mistakes.

MISTAKE 1 - CAME OUT AFTER WRONG ELECTION

Firstly it started after the wrong set of election results. For London it must have been a terrible shock to lose all your Councillors, but for most of us we expected the defeats (actually there was a warm glow of success for some of us). It was nothing new and for lots of us we were actually quite chuffed with the results. The despair hadn't set in.

In addition it was obvious that a lot of the plotting happened on polling day. When these people should have been trying to elect Lib Dems.

The European Elections were the right moment to do it. Many of us were shattered and terrified after these set of results. We'd never experienced only having 1 MEP under the D'hondt system. This was the time to go.

MISTAKE 2 TECHNICAL ISSUES

Caron Lindsey pointed out about legalistic things like where did they get emails from, where was the address was registered. I happened to think these things are unimportant but others do not. It made it look a bit amateurish.


MISTAKE 3 WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

The failure to get any substantial figures to back the coup was a real problem - I didn't see a single MP (not even Sarah Teather) stand up and say Nick out. Surely if you are plotting to replace our leader you need to get some important people on board first.

MISTAKE 4 THE POLLS

I suspect Lord Oakshott thought he could remain anonymous and leak his polls. But the British Polling Institute rules meant ICM  had to release who commissioned these polls. The problem with the polls is that they seemed sneaky, underhand and damaged the prospects of the MPs in the specific seats. It's not going to be easy for Ian Swales to squeeze UKIP after the results of his seat poll.

Anybody who looks at the way the polls are done can see that it is a hatchet job. They were unweighted and furthermore ICM didn't prompt for candidates which basically makes the point of a constituency polls irrelevant.

MISTAKE 5 NO NEW STRATEGY

It was never properly outlined what the proposal post Nick would be. Would we stay in the coalition?Would Nick still be deputy MP? Who would be new leader? How would our policy/direction differ?

Libdems4change never outlined their preference. Which meant those of us on the fence like myself never had the chance to weigh one option (keep Clegg) against a post Clegg world.

I'm not going to sign the Libdems4change letters - they've cocked it up but what I now want is the Lib Dem leadership to come out say they are listening and what we are going to do about it.