Well we know they are in favour of the NHS, but does enough of the public know our views? With a poll showing that we have lost 4 points, at the expense of the Tories and Labour, and showing the Tories are trusted the most with the NHS, it is interesting to consider the media reporting of the NHS on the public.
What this shows is one of two things. Either, the Liberal Democrats have been trying to get their view across to the media regarding the NHS, and due to the adversarial political system, we have failed to get it across enough. Alternatively, it may actually show that we have been too lax in getting our opinion across, and so have missed our chance to be the best option for the NHS out of three main parties. Or maybe it is a mix of the two. But whatever the reason is, there is something wrong for the Tories to gain from their true position on the NHS being revealed, and the Liberal Democrats to lose.
It is slightly worrying that the public have failed to see through the Tories facade regarding NHS support. They clearly want to turn as much as it into being privately run, as shown in a ComRes poll of Tory MPs. How the public believe the Tories therefore will be the best in safeguarding a national treasure, is beyond me.
What the Liberal Democrats need to concentrate on is providing their position on trending topics such as the NHS to the electorate in a clearer way. However, obviously, the role of the bias media must be considered. But it is bizarre for us to have lost points at the expense of the Tories, following the constant humiliation for the Tories, this month.
August 23, 2009 at 1:19 pm
John Sharkey, Chris Fox and Jonny Oates must be on holiday lol.
Although you make a good point, I don't think its the result of the biased media or the adversarial political system that we have had trouble getting our message across.
As the whole NHS coverage started to develop a couple of weeks ago, I was expecting to see some kind of reaction from the party, somebody coming out to show leadership on the issue in an attempt not to lose points to the Tories, but instead it was total silence. Day after day, no reaction from the leadership, not in the news, papers, party websites. As a result, we've left ourselves open to the attack in the election, that when the time came to defend the NHS, we weren't even in the room.
Maybe its cos the orange book lot are nervous of what reaction could be to their views.. maybe they are all on holiday! Who knows lol.
August 23, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Lol, yeah. Well i did say that it was either the media bias or our party not saying anything, or a mixture of both. But yes, i agree with you. The most credible reason for us falling behind in the polls is the silence of our party. It is damaging. Today i read an article by Vince Cable about obesity levels and dancing. All very good, but failing to connect with popular concerns of this minute. If we fail to address the popular trends, then we will fail to convert people to vote for us.
September 18, 2009 at 12:09 pm
[...] as we can be trusted not to hack away at it, whilst also being prudent with what needs to change – as I stated when the Dan Hannon row was going on, we were nowhere in the NHS debate. That will have obviously lead people to question what our view of the NHS really [...]