Fraser Coppin

The biggest risk for the Liberal Democrats is playing it safe. We've had a poor set of elections, given the unpopularity of both Labour and the Conservatives. libdemvoice.org/the-biggest-ri… In inner London we have had our worst vote share since 1978...

Andy Burnham arriving at Euston station, 2026:

Redbridge Council Election Result #LE2026: LAB: 43 (-15) LOC: 9 (+9) CON: 5 (=) GRN: 5 (+5) RFM: 1 (+1) Labour HOLD. Changes w/ 2022.

Sir Ed is a good man and what we achieved in 2024 was great, we got that strategy right. But 2 years on, I've been worried for a while that the same strategy may have reached it's ceiling? And at least going by social media today, I'm not alone in the party with this concern..

I get the need for targeting our limited resources into certain favourable areas, that's fine. But we can and should be appealing to voters in cities In these elections we gained in Stockport, Brent, Lambeth + many more, the idea that we can't win in these areas is just not true

Really disappointed in this from Ed So many good people I know worked so hard for us in East London, Merseyside and other urban areas during these elections, this feels like a slap in the face

This is disgusting. Does anyone have a full and extensive list of those places - including weekend opening hours - so that I can avoid them?

@LibDems Houses don't need GPs; people do. The general taxes that are paid by the new residents should be funding for the NHS services they use. This is just another NIMBY excuse for blocking the homes we need.

I can’t wait to claim I never saw this in 40 years time then demand thousands of pounds in compensation

New blog: results from a deep research project on swing voter attitudes to KS, Kemi, Farage, immigration, NHS, net zero, benefits etc… Want to know what swing voters think? * They hate Westminster and both parties more than ever. 'It's like they hate us' is a common view. *The cost of living and immigration dominate discussion much more than SW1 realises. * Voters greatly UNDER-estimate the scale of immigration by ~5-30X, contrary to the conventional wisdom. They are already angry about the immigration farce of Tories and Labour before they are given the real numbers. So there is huge scope for *much greater hatred for the old parties* and much more support for *much tougher action*. Millions of LAB voters want much tougher action on immigration than Tories like Gawke and Barwell. *The fact that the millions are mainly legal not illegal is further terrible news for both old parties and makes voters hate them more. Voters want MUCH tougher rules on 'can they support themselves financially', use of NHS, and blocking/deporting of violent criminals. Dinghy farce stopped. * Voters are much more sceptical of Net Zero than 5 years ago. Showing them PRC emissions helps win the argument for a shift of policy they support. *Voters are much more sceptical that more money will help the NHS than in decades - maybe since the start of the NHS. They want to hear new ideas but hear nothing from the old system. *They HATE HATE HATE the utility companies - the hate is the same across CON/LAB/REF etc. This is an open goal for all political entrepreneurs. *Voters are much more angry about benefit scams than MPs of any party. This issue seems less polarised than immigration. *Voters were deeply hostile to Starmer BEFORE the Epstein debacle. There is zero prospect of this turning around given KS's skills and temperament. (The conventional wisdom from the likes of the Institute for Govt and FT was KS is ‘a serious person’ who will ‘bring stability’. The system is now disowning KS but he was their boy.) *Voters have few views on Kemi because they ignore the Tories because ‘they’re just not relevant any more’. They know nothing she's said or done. 'Useless but irrelevant'. * Voters want ‘a team and a plan’ from Farage but fear he won’t give them it and fear another bout of chaos making the cost of living nightmare even worse. *The aesthetics of right wing videos tend to be bad for persuasion. Aesthetics polarise emotionally even when people agree on facts/arguments re immigration etc. *A big chunk of the SW1 NPC class has radicalised so much on immigration they can’t see sense and will keep sabotaging themselves. E.g Sam Freedman says that it’s HARDER for Britain to stop the dinghies crossing the Channel than for America to control the 2,000 mile southern land border! 🤣🤡 The NPCs will generate any degree of nonsense necessary to avoid confronting reality on immigration. They have radicalised even more since 2016 when their delusions sank them in the referendum. *This should not surprise you — this network decided they understand managing tech companies better than the guy who built SpaceX and spent 3 years saying X was about to collapse before self-cancelling to Bluesky where they've driven themselves mental. *This is not a network that will update accurately in response to voters. Much of SW1 will continue radicalising Left and supporting the continuation of how SW1 works as the voters hate it, and them, more and more and more. *Like the Democrats doing things which gave Trump the White House, this NPC network is making it much easier for Farage to become PM, even though that is the thing they want to avoid most. *The left who think they should copy Mamdani will also self-sabotage. *The elite fragmentation, radicalisation, OODA-loop-as-denial-of-service attack, and pathological politics will continue. *Chances of financial crisis and blood on the streets go up every month. *What LAB MPs should do is pick the person with sensible priorities who is the best suited to controlling a pathological Whitehall and getting things done. They shd optimise for good government, a No10 which is NOT Media Entertainment Service. They shd not think first of polls and 'communication' (which the old parties can't do). The only path to partly averting the debacle of Starmer is to orient towards the voters and *change Whitehall to deliver those priorities*. But this won't happen! Labour like Tories *prefer to lose* than to have rows at dinner parties about firing officials and improving the management. More likely is the Trolley>Truss show -- meltdown then double meltdown with Miliband/Rayner. *Voters want 'a new team and a detailed plan' and a leader who can stick to core priorities particularly cost of living, immigration, and NHS. Neither LAB nor CON can do this. Farage says he will but will he? If Reform is essentially just NF + Tory dregs, then we're heading for either a Reform clownshow or a red-green-yellow-troon-loon-ScotNat-Hamas coalition clownshow... Or entrepreneurs create the thing voters want and take votes from everybody! *Everybody Reform is asking for money from shd ask: 'what's your recruitment plan for actual serious people who represent the best of the country and have a record of building things?' *If you want to get a sense of voters, rather than what the usually wrong ‘experts’ tell you about voters, check out the link in next tweet…

Brilliant

British decline in one story. Any state which finds itself incapable of managing a project as basic as rolling out a 20th century tech between its biggest cities needs to ask itself some profound questions about what hope it has of managing the technologies of the 21st.

Blockers not builders. Hundreds of creative economy jobs will never exist. What happened to the 'growth mission'?

I'm 31 soon, in a well-paid profession, and still in a flatshare because a nice (not luxury) one bed rental in my area (35 min commute) is >2200pcm. That 2200 buys what 1200 should do - people on normal incomes are simply shut out by the shortage in housing.

Yes, yes it does.

I was very pleased with the general election results, but if I'm honest since then many of our positions have felt like oppostion for oppositions sake? We don't like what Labour are doing and we don't like Reform. Ok fine, but what would we do??

There is a fine line between listening to (some valid) concerns that the British public have about this deal, and us just accepting our opponents arguments wholesale without any answers of our own I'm not sure we're getting that balance right atm? (This tweet certainly isn't)

Gladstone would be turning in his grave if he could see the attitude his liberal party now in 2025 has towards free trade Really disappointing

it's what they fought for

Tariffs are simply taxes. Conservatives once united against new taxes. Taxing trade will mean less trade and higher prices.