In the run-up to the elections to the European Parliament on 10 June, the Liberal Democrat European Group with the support of ALDC, has published a guide to campaigning on Europe, written by Jeremy. Copies of Campaigning on Europe can be ordered from ALDC.
Traditionally, campaigning wisdom has said that you can’t campaign on the issue of Europe. It is too complicated, too abstract, too much removed from the day-to-day local issues which make up the staple of Lib Dem literature. The issue of Europe is, bluntly, a vote-loser for us.
Fortunately as a party we are now becoming increasingly good at turning this around – and using the work of our MEPs and our views on Europe actually to win votes for us.
We have increasingly been able to show how action by Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament has directly benefitted British people in their everyday lives. Traditional Lib Dem campaigning has been based around showing what the Lib Dems are doing to make a difference to local people, and campaigning on Europe can now follow the same principle.
Because successful campaigning on European issues, should not just be about “Europe”: whether we should be in or out, or whether this obscure voting system is better than that one. It is about actual decisions which affect people’s lives which are made at the European level.
And on issues from the safety of the food on our breakfast table, to the origins of clothes that we buy, to the protection of our jobs that we enjoy, the EU, and our MEPs, now have a direct impact on people’s lives. Unnoticed, they have much more direct power over people’s daily lives than our MPs. Theirs is a strong record of action by Lib Dems that we should go out and campaign on.
The European Parliament does a lot of work on consumer protection types of issues, and these are particularly good to make clear the benefits of the EU, and the work that Lib Dem MEPs have done. For example, if the European Parliament votes to introduce certain safety standards, that is a clear benefit to every British citizen – “Lib Dems in Europe make sure your food is safe”, for example. If one of our MEPs writes an official report on international trade, that might end up in a leaflet as “Europe makes tomatoes cheaper in Bath”, say.
To help us communicate this, the Lib Dem European Group produces regular items like this which can be lifted and put straight into FOCUS leaflets. If you would like to sign up to receive these by email every few weeks, please contact Margaret Leach on pyrabelisk@btinternet.com
The booklet Campaigning on Europe contains information and advice on how to use this and other techniques for campaigning on European issues to win us votes on June 10th. The work of Lib Dems in Europe can win us votes – so in this year of the European elections, let’s make the most of that!
Copies of Campaigning on Europe, written by Jeremy Hargreaves and published by the Lib Dem European Group with the support of ALDC, can be ordered from ALDC.
