Cleggless

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CHRISTMAS POST CHAOS HITS ELECTION


The Liberal Democrats Leadership Election has been delayed due to the chaos of the christmas post season. Party president Simon Hughes has announced that the deadline for the returning of ballot papers, orginally the 15th of December, has been pushed back to the 5th of January to ease the pressure on party members worried about their postal ballots arriving on time. The victor will now be revealed on the 8th of January.

The campaign between Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne, who ran and lost in the last leadership election 18 months ago, is thought to be neck and neck, with the younger Clegg thought to be perhaps edging out his opponent. The two have clashed over the missile system Trident, and the spat between the two nearly boiled over when Huhne's campaign team sent documents to the BBC titled "Calamity Clegg". The results of the elections are being widely touted as something that could shape the future of the political landscape. With Prime Minister Gordon Brown deciding not to hold a snap election this year, whoever wins will have a substantial amount of time to cement their stamp on the Liberal Democrats as they look to improve on the 62 seats they earned at the 2005 General Election.
 
This looks interesting :D A more sucessful Lib Dems would be nice to say the least.

Under Chris 'Interesting' Huhne? I imagine 57 seats would be a godsend ITTL.

The impact on any potential Coalition negotiations, however, should not be understated. Nor should the likelihood that the Orange Bookers don't hold the ascendency.
 
Under Chris 'Interesting' Huhne? I imagine 57 seats would be a godsend ITTL.

Personally I am so disgusted with the Lib Dem leadership I wonder if having nearly anyone else at the top would be better :(

Would prefer somebody like Vince Cable or Tim Farron at the top but one cannot be picky.
 
The POD for this was just staring me in the face. These missing ballot papers would have been enough to tip Huhne over the edge irl. This should be fun. It's my first go at one of these so feedback/suggestions are much appreciated. :)
 
ITTL the story of his affair will come out pre-election I bet... Might see him lose Eastleigh, the election was close here IOTL and, though he's leader, a story of an affair may come out sooner. Heck the driving fine accusation may come out too.
 
For Want of A Blizzard..

Ok, it's an interesting idea. I remember going to the Hustings in London and hearing both Clegg and Huhne speak and thinking that I just thought at the time that Clegg was better but it could have gone the other way.

The first thought is whether, as leader, Huhne would have started or continued the affair with Carina Trimingham. I butterflied it away in my TL "For Want of a Vote" simply because, as leader, he would have been a more public figure and it would have been far more difficult for him to have conducted an affair.

The obvious thought from an LD perspective is that Huhne is not a full Orange Booker though he did contribute to the original. The party would likely have been more strongly anti-nuclear, pro-European and more strongly committed to electoral reform than even it was under Clegg in Opposition.

Would he have had the same impact in the first tv debate as Nick Clegg? It's hard to think he would but he might have done better in the third debate.

I need to think more about the impact of a Huhne leadership on the GE.
 
I would say that a Huhne leadership would gain more votes from Labour but some Orange Bookers going over to the Tories which could give the latter two or three more seats at the least.
 
I would say that a Huhne leadership would gain more votes from Labour but some Orange Bookers going over to the Tories which could give the latter two or three more seats at the least.

If Labour voters are more likely to tactically vote Lib Dem, and Tory voters less, surely that loses the Tories seats if anything?
 
If Labour voters are more likely to tactically vote Lib Dem, and Tory voters less, surely that loses the Tories seats if anything?

I meant that LibDems gain some Labour seats from Labour but that is balanced by Tories gaining seats where Orange Bookers defect and that potential voters from Labour could be overshadowed by ones going over to the Tories or some more Middle England voters get scared off into the Tories again.
 
I meant that LibDems gain some Labour seats from Labour but that is balanced by Tories gaining seats where Orange Bookers defect and that potential voters from Labour could be overshadowed by ones going over to the Tories or some more Middle England voters get scared off into the Tories again.

There are quite a few Labour seats the Lib Dems could take with a slightly better performance than OTL, but also several Tory ones. I'm not sure how many Orange Bookers would go to the Conservatives just because of Huhne being somewhat more left wing, he contributed to the Orange Book after all.
 
There are quite a few Labour seats the Lib Dems could take with a slightly better performance than OTL, but also several Tory ones. I'm not sure how many Orange Bookers would go to the Conservatives just because of Huhne being somewhat more left wing, he contributed to the Orange Book after all.

I mean that Huhne may not gain the votes that Clegg got and that some of the LibDem voters from OTL may go to the Tories while some of the student vote or 'LibDems are left of Labour' voters from OTL may be closer to the LibDems.
 
Politicians and Me, Nick Robinson

Liberal Democrat Leadership Election 2008

Nick Clegg: 21,308 (49.8%)
Chris Huhne: 21,452 (50.2%)


extract from 'Chris Huhne' from Politicians and Me, Nick Robinson


The reign of Chris Huhne as leader of the Liberal Democrats would prove to be one of the most influential on the shaping of 21st century British politics. The direction in which Huhne would decide to take the party, after scraping through the leadership election against Nick Clegg by 144 votes, was a decision that would prove impossible to please all quarters. It is perhaps surprising to look back and reflect on the early days of Chris Huhne's leadership and discover that he was frequently accused by certain quarters of being indecisive.

One would argue that only in the strange world of the Liberal Democrats could a single 302 page book prove so influential on the inner workings of a party. "The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism", released in 2004, would prove to do just that. The book included contributions from a wide array of Lib Dem politicians; David Laws, Vince Cable, Nick Clegg and the man himself - Chris Huhne. The book proved to be controversial to those advocating a more left wing agenda, when it demanded a return to "basic liberal values" of free trade, and the effectiveness of the private sector.

Some of Huhne's naysayers in the early days of his leadership would accuse him of failing to settle the argument either way. In despite of this though, in his acceptance speech to the leadership the former journalist made it clear that the party did need to set out a clearer path towards liberal economics. However the likes of the defeated Clegg and the editor of the Orange Book of David Laws would be heard grumbling in the deepest holes of Liberal HQ that it was simply not enough. Huhne however made it abundantly clear that his priorities were electoral reform, the cutting of Trident and the need for a greener country. The left of the party would say his economic plans were not reaching the disillusioned Labour voters they needed to win, and the right would argue that his plans were not radical enough. Time could only tell.

Huhne's first frontbench reshuffle provided minimal changes, Vince Cable remaining economic spokepmen, Michael Moore remaining in his role at shadow Foreign Affairs and the man he defeated to become leader Nick Clegg kept his role as Home Affairs spokesmen. Huhne's first real significant moment came with backing the Conservative proposal to hold a referendum on the controversial EU Lisbon Treaty. Rumours were swirling that the party would abstain in favour of a wider vote on EU membership, but Huhne ended these rumours with the declaration that the British people "had to have their say". Gordon Brown's government managed to fend off the opposition; the call for a referendum being defeated by 331 votes to 294.

The matter of the European Union would be one that would frequently dominate much of political discussion in the early days of 2008. Huhne was said to be furious when the Speaker of the Commons Michael Martin blocked calls for an In/Out EU Referendum. Many members of the party promptly walked out of the commons in disgust. As the political world geared up for the 2008 London Mayoral Elections and Local Elections, Labour began to plummet in the polls. Depending on what company you chose to follow, the gap between governing Labour and the Liberal Democrats was as close as one or two points. The Conservatives were building a solid lead of over 10%...
 
I mean that Huhne may not gain the votes that Clegg got and that some of the LibDem voters from OTL may go to the Tories while some of the student vote or 'LibDems are left of Labour' voters from OTL may be closer to the LibDems.

If you compare the 2005 and 2010 results, Clegg didn't actually gain that many more Tory voters than Kennedy, where the Liberals really picked up votes was from protest voters and those who voted for minor parties. He did lose quite a lot of Labour supporters though, which is probably why they did rather badly in Lib-Lab marginals and suffered from a loss in tactical voters against the Tories.

However, less Tories switching to the Liberals in exchange for more Labour voters supporting them works in favour of the Liberals as they have more marginals with the Tories, and hurts the Conservatives more for the same reason.
 
One of the biggest problems I've had planning this timeline is in what format to write the updates. What do you think would be best guys, newspaper stories, more narrative decriptions ala Robinson, personal accounts etc?
 
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