Next week, the new Liberal Democrat Federal Executive is being whisked to a secret and highly unglamorous location for a special meeting. It's a sensible step to take some time out at the start of our term to set our goals for the next two years. You don't have the space to do that in a normal agenda, so I'm looking forward to a more focussed discussion about our priorities.
The decisions the party makes over the next two years and four months will affect our fortunes for a long time to come. To me it's clear that we need to make sure that there are lots of lovely Liberal Democrats on the green benches come 7 May 2015. To do that, we need to run a fantastic County campaign this Summer, hold on to our MEPs and have our messaging sorted out. There also needs to be recognition on the part of those in the Westminster Bubble that they need to work with the Party not treat it with contempt - and a real willingness on behalf of the party to understand the pressures of government. We're a team and all parts of the party need to work much more effectively together. There needs to be better and much more positive communication on both sides and between the party and its members. Note I say between - which implies that both sides take part in it, not one lot being told something and it being expected that they will get on with it without further discussion.
But this isn't all about me. Party members and activists, should have a voice in this, too. You may well have ideas on this and I'd like to invite you to tell me what they are so I can feed in key themes to this process. What do you want from us as FE members?
Now, I'm perfectly sure that some of the stuff you may want to talk about should not be done so on a public blog in full view of our opponents, so if you could send me your brief thoughts by email at caronsmusingsATgooglemailDOTcom, I'd really appreciate it. Tell me what's working on your patch and what's not. Tell me what you need from the party and what ideas you have.
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