What I Heard on the Ground in Eastleigh

On a cold winter's evening last week I knocked on doors in Eastleigh and got a sense of the faith that people still have in the party. People told me their concerns about both national and local issues and felt that the Lib Dems had something to say to them. It is wrong to write the Lib Dems out of either level of politics.Those who were going to vote UKIP can never be swayed by Liberalism because they fear anyone who is not White and British born. That is not the Liberal way.

In today's Times Daniel Finkelstein says that the Lib Dems "are not a serious National Party,"  because "Nick Clegg has failed to lead his MPs away from interest-group politics." Ironically, if this were true we wouldn't have a large number of disabled people being angry with the Lib Dems over welfare reform. I may have used a negative point to demonstrate that the Lib Dems have become a serious national party but you get my point. Let us not forget the good work that Chris Huhne did in Eastleigh which brought into people's conciousness the fact that the Lib Dems did make the transition from local level to Government.