Battles were lost and Battles were won, but the war is by no means over

[miss_s_b]

First, a salute to fallen soldiers: Susan Kramer, Julia Goldsworthy, Bridget Fox, Martin Tod, and the amazing, wonderful, Stephen-Fry-endorsed Evan Harris. Our parliament will be poorer without you, and the crowing of the Tory press over Evan in particular makes me want to vomit.

Second, a salute to the heroes of the hour: Sarah Teather, Tessa Munt, Naomi Long, Julian Huppert and Tim Farron: well fought, and well held, guys.

Third, a promise to the millions of people who voted for us and were disenfranchised (especially to the 13,037 who voted for the supremely talented Hilary Myers in my own constituency, but most heartfeltly to those in Sheffield Central, where we lost by a mere 65 votes): don't despair. We have been set back, that's for sure. But we've been doing this for a while, and a few setbacks will not keep us down. It is not right, it CANNOT be right that the Tories got 1.5 times as many votes as us, but 6 times the seats. That is not democracy, whichever way you slice it. There are protests tomorrow all over the country in favour of electoral reform - don't forget to wear purple! - and if you're a member of the Lib Dems you can tell our federal executive exactly what we want from any possible coalition agreement (details here).

Many of us joined the Lib Dems for the primary reason of pushing for electoral reform. We don't want STV because it would be better for the party; we joined the party because we recognised it as the best way to push for STV because it is the best system for EVERYONE. And we're not going to stop just because the system is rigged; the system being rigged only makes us more determined to unrig it.

Keep the faith, people.

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For those of you who don't follow me on twitter, I lost my council election, but I got nearly a thousand votes, and the winner just over two thousand, so I don't think I did badly for a first timer with only one leaflet. Mat also lost, but he did beat the BNP and an independent. And Hilary, who has worked so hard and inspired so many in Calder Valley... well, she lost too. It was a difficult night, leavened slightly by Kate Sweeny's level-headedness, Graham Hall's sweeties, and Greg Burrows' hipflask of single malt whisky. The count was a surreal experience, where party affiliation didn't seem to matter so much as the feeling that we were all in it together, sitting under the sword of Damocles wondering where it would fall. I rather liked it, even if I didn't like the result.

Now comes the aftermath, and the thanking of everyone who helped us. I'd like to start with you guys. Yes, you, sat behind the monitor reading this. You're my bedrock, you help to keep me (relatively) sane, and you'll be hearing more from me soon.

Comments

[lizw]

Commiserations, but well done on getting so many votes. We lost 16 council seats in Waltham Forest, which left us with five and took us from NOC to Labour control - not entirely unexpected after a split of sorts in the Walthamstow local party, but frustrating to those of us in Leyton & Wanstead who had nothing to do with it. The five who remain are absolute stars, though. Both parliamentary candidates increased their share of the vote, which was also pleasing, though I'm sorry we didn't manage to give the party the Asian MP it so badly needs - we thought we were in with a chance of that for a while.

Has anyone checked yet what our gender balance looks like now in the Parliamentary Party, and if so, could you point me at it? I won't have time to do it myself until at least 5 pm, and I'm kind of hoping someone else will have done it by then.

[matgb]

There's a list on LDV. It's essentially worse; we gained Tessa and, effectively, Naomi, but lost Julia, Sandra and Susan. Depending on whether we cound Naomi, the proportion stays roughly the same, but it's an awful proportion.

Then, we lost seats and barely held some more, so an improvement was unlikely :-(

Full list of Lib Dem MPs

[lizw]

Thanks.