Nasty Nick?

We are very familiar with Lib Dem smear leaflets here in Liverpool, so much so that we keep a tally chart on our own newsletter to keep count. Unfortunately the smear tactic is part of the Lib Dem tactical hierarchy in dealing with a Green electoral challenge.

In St Michaels that has taken the following pattern:

2007 - Green Cllr John Coyne stands for re-election. The Lib Dems try to completely ignore us and pretend we don't exist, to the extent that they reproduce the 2006 result with the Lib Dem and Labour totals, but omitting the Greens who actually finished 2nd. Greens win.

2008 - Largely, the Lib Dems again ignored us, but acknowledged this was between the Greens and the Lib Dems for the seat. They instead emphasised that voting was about who ran the council after 2008. Greens win with an increased share of the vote.

2009 - In the Euro Elections, smear leaflets were delivered in St Michaels, which were rapidly rebutted by us. We keep a record online.

2010? - I think it is fair to say that we are expecting the smearing to continue right up to polling day. We won't get sucked into tit for tat, but every time the Lib Dems go negative, we'll work out a response to be delivered in Wavertree, where a great deal more is at stake for the Lib Dems than just a council seat.

One could be forgiven for thinking this is just the Liverpool Lib Dems, who don't exactly have a glowing reputation even with their colleagues elsewhere. But now we have the Lib Dems opening up a smear campaign against the Greens in Norwich, although clearly they haven't really thought this through.

Lib Dem candidate April Pond sends a letter to the Tory candidate promising to "run a positive campaign", which is subsequently published by the Lib Dem campaign team. Just hours later, the Lib Dems smear the Green candidate - they simply just can't help themselves.

These unfortunate actions coincide with another Nick Clegg visit to Norwich, with Nick (who usually wants to present the Lib Dems in a positive way) forced to say:

"We should and we will run this as a positive campaign, but we also need to be plain and straightforward in explaining the differences between the Liberal Democrats and the other parties."

I think Clegg is embarrassed by the reality of his party's campaign tactics, but he sets the tone. If you tolerate this kind of stuff around the country as acceptable, then you can't be "Nice Nick Clegg".

And why are the Lib Dems so worried? This really isn't about Norwich North, but it is about Norwich South and Brighton Pavilion. Just look at this poll for the byelection:

Tories 34%
Labour 30%
Lib Dems 15%
Greens 14%

This is now about whether the Lib Dems can hold onto third place. If the Greens beat the Lib Dems in a much weaker constituency for us, probably only spending 1/10th of the money, then come the General Election in Norwich South the Lib Dems are out of the running, increasing the prospects of a win for our Deputy Leader Adrian Ramsay.

Norwich South and Brighton Pavilion are both winnable seats for the Greens, and if we were to elect two MPs to Westminster, we would qualify for a fraction of public funding currently shared out between Westminster parties with more than two MPs. A Green group at Westminster is a long term strategic threat to the Lib Dems. Hence their willingness to plumb new political depths in the Norwich North byelection.