WHOEVER predicted the future would be orange obviously forgot to tell the Colne Valley Lib Dems.
As Slawit’s only hoarder of political literature I can tell you that the Lib Dems delivered a copy of Colne Valley Ward Focus to us earlier this year which burned brightly in orange.
So I was surprised when I received their latest literature a few days ago to see their trademark colour had been banished.
But that wasn’t the only thing which was a little bit odd about their latest newsletter, the grandly titled Colne Valley Leader.
Their pre-election newsletter had used the words “Lib Dem” 12 times on its front page. The Colne Valley Leader dropped the LD-bomb just once.
The Lib Dem bird logo sat proudly in the top corner of the first piece of propaganda. In the Colne Valley Leader it had flown off.
But it was good to see that some things remained the same. The Colne Valley Leader still had room for the Graph, showing a long yellow line, a shorter blue line and a red line which is shorter still.
This represents the result of the last council election in the area – or at least the last one which is convenient to mention.
The graph is there to remind the area’s socialists that “Labour can’t win here” so they are to vote Lib Dem to avoid the catastrophe of Conservative victory.
“It’s Lib Dems or Cons” declares the Colne Valley Leader, before noting that the Lib Dems won the seat this year with 1,644 votes while the Tories came second on 980.
Labour was back in third and its total of 944 votes is accompanied by the graph’s traditional warning “can’t win here”.
But surely, if the Tories managed only 36 more votes than Labour at the last election then they “can’t win here” either.
And if the Conservatives “can’t win here” then Labour voters can carry on voting Labour, knowing they won’t end up with a Tory councillor.
Or am I trying too hard to ascribe logic to a party which proclaims itself the strongest in the valley, but which barely dares speak its own name?
