Winner Sir Ed Davey tells LibDems to wake up and smell the coffee.

BBC News - Sir Ed Davey wins Liberal Democrat leadership race https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53933470

What is it about the left in England generally not trusting women for leadership roles.
Or could it be he won because unlike Moran, he has no history of domestic violence?

Either way they have a mountain to climb to become relevant again.

Reply 1

username612415

Original post by Just my opinion

I think it's difficult to peg Moran's loss on a reluctance to trust female leaders, at least in this instance, given how Swinson crushed Davey in the previous leadership contest.

Reply 2

username4986690

Original post by Just my opinion

What is it about the left in England generally not trusting women for leadership roles.

Why are you trying to make this about gender when it is completely irrelevant?

Reply 3

username4969948

The Lib Dems still exist?

Reply 4

Napp

Original post by Just my opinion

Well the lady candidate was simply not as qualified, i'm not sure her genitals factor in do they? Especially as their last leader was a woman.
Whats this domestic she had though??

I miss the days of the drunk and bible basher (to be slightly mean) they were good leaders and actually personable with their wee foibles.

Reply 5

username402722

He is always going to be targeted as being part of the Coalition government, where the Lib Dems main achievements were in what the Tories did not do that would have been harmful.

Reply 6

Just my opinion

Original post by Napp

Whats this domestic she had though??

I miss the days of the drunk and bible basher

At least he only bashed the Bible (baddum tish)
She has a history of domestic violence.

There a joke there somewhere about not beating Davey,
I'll give it a miss as I don't want the post removing 😊

Reply 7

JOSH4598

Original post by Just my opinion

I recall Moran being quizzed about the incident(s) during an LBC debate with Davey. Radio presenter Iain Dale went quite hard on her; he gave her every opportunity to explain it. Yet Moran tried her best to play it down and seemed embarrassed to even discuss it. Davey sat back quietly smug and I don't think people would have trusted either of them. Not sure it mattered who won though - the Lib Dems will always be irrelevant.

Reply 8

NJA

A reporter was showing his picture to people this morning, asking who is this this?

"Wayne Rooney?" was a popular answer

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 9

Just my opinion

Original post by JOSH4598

Davey is the epitome of a smug t#at, but I'm not surprised she played it down or was embarrassed to discuss it.
Imagine a male MP having police called after assaulting his partner and using the excuse, that in a row over a mobile phone cable he thought she might hit him, so he hit her first.
Afterwards Moran did a nifty piece of victim blaming saying it wasn't our finest hour and we have put it behind us. Owtte.
An interesting assesment of what happened considering he did nothing, that is apart from taking a crack from her.

In all fairness it will the most interesting thing about the LibDems in the next few years.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 10

NJA

Waitrose are having a sale of their coffee bags (£1.46 for 10), they also have a new strong version you might need after reading this thread

Reply 11

Just my opinion

Original post by NJA

Waitrose are having a sale of their coffee bags (£1.46 for 10), they also have a new strong version you might need after reading this thread

Thank you kind sir. 😁👌

Reply 12

Rakas21

Given their limited pool there were very few options beyond the deeply uncharismatic Davey and the angry woman. They might add a percent or two to the vote but I doubt they’ll do much in 2024 unless the government really does go into free fall.

Reply 13

AW_1983

Original post by Just my opinion

I think the lack of female leaders on the left in British politics is less of a consistent trend than those on the right who are unable to understand nuances or consider the bigger picture.

First of all, on a global scale, there is no real consistency in the assertion that the left don't choose women to lead them (e.g. Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination in 2016, Jacinda Ardern is leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, Indira Ghandi was the third Prime Minister of India and led the Indian National Congress party etc) so the scope of the question is limited to Britain. Then we have to consider the 2015 election when the SNP were led by Sturgeon, the Greens by Natalie Bennett and Plaid Cymru by Leanne Wood, all of whom were to the left of Miliband. Salma Yaqoob was the leader of Respect for several years too of course. Sturgeon is still the leader of the SNP now and Sian Berry is currently co-leader of the Green Party. If you insist on the Lib Dems being classed as "left wing" which is a dubious claim in itself, then of course there is also Jo Swinson to consider. So this isn't really a question about the left in Britain more generally either, is it?

I guess what you really want to ask is why the Labour Party has never had a female leader? Honestly, if Barbara Castle had not stood down from her Blackburn seat in 1979 to become an MEP and stood in the 1980 leadership contest, maybe we wouldn't even be having this conversation now. Who knows. Instead, we have to look at the leadership contests in the Labour Party in which a woman has actually stood and then we can draw conclusions.

If this is TLDR, the short answer is very few women have stood in Labour leadership contests and they've almost always represented losing factions. Plenty of women who could have been good leaders (e.g. Barbara Castle, Mo Mowlam, Angela Raynor) never stood when they had the chance. Other potentially good leaders (e.g. Yvette Cooper, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy) got their timing wrong.

The first Labour leadership contest in which a woman put herself forward was 1994 when Margaret Beckett stood. Honestly, she didn't stand a chance, not because of her gender but because she wasn't trusted by the modernisers because of her Bennite past. There was growing unease at the "one last heave" approach to winning a general election and the party were restless for someone more determined to move the party to the centre.

The next contest in which a woman stood was not until 2010 and that was Diane Abbott. Again, she had no real chance as she represented the Socialist Campaign Group of about 28 MPs and at the time the rules didn't let any Tom, **** or Harry become a supporter of the party in order to vote. There had also been no experience of austerity or crystallisation of the lost faith in the Lib Dems by this point which pushed so many of the voting public further to the left by 2015 (in 2010 young people were more likely to be disengaged with politics and unlikely to vote at all. Those of us who did vote often supported the Lib Dems rather than Labour until the tuition fee debacle).

After that, the 2015 contest and this was a really odd one. After five years of austerity and Miliband's defeat, the appetite for moderation fell off a cliff. I remember thinking if the party gets Corbyn on the ballot, I think he will win. The rules had changed to allow people to register as supporters for only £1. Consequently huge numbers of people signed up to vote and they largely represented a growing movement of people deeply dissatisfied with the post financial crisis world being created. Corbyn's coalition was made up of students who had abandoned the Lib Dems, former Greens, members of the SWP, left wing Labour supporters who had grumbled through the Blair years etc etc. The remaining candidates came across as "austerity lite," devoid of ideas and inauthentic and did not stand a chance. Cooper in more normal times would have been the best choice; Liz "I love landlords" Kendall never really stood a chance.

So then finally on to 2020 because Eagle stood down from the contest in 2016. Nandy had no chance in a party where 75% of its voters backed Remain. Although she was a Remainer, there was not (and still is not) any appetite for her "let's make Brexit work" position. At any other time she'd be an excellent candidate but that will hold her back. Although Starmer currently espouses the same opinion, this was unexpected and also unlikely to last; the general view of the membership is he only does it to let Boris Johnson hang himself. Long-Bailey, Starmer's main challenger, represented a faction that had been given an absolute drubbing in the last election, so again, she didn't stand a chance.

Reply 14

Napp

Original post by Rakas21

To be honest im relatively optimistic for them. One of the key reasons i think they got hammered in the last GE was their decidedly unlikable woke leader and her promise to ignore the referendum vote completely which whilst one personally didnt care soo much about :colone:

, undoubtedly irked others who saw that as a step too far.
Then again, their member in my home constituency did bump his vote impressively at the tories expense.