Rolling the boulder back up the hill again…
In ancient mythology Sisyphus is condemned to spend eternity in Hades rolling a huge stone up a hill only to see it roll down again and have to repeat the process. Judging by the reaction of many Lib Dems to the 2019 General Election, that seems a good metaphor for the predicament party members and activists feel themselves to be in.
The most common injunction is currently is to go back to basics, build up the local base, immerse ourselves in community politics,set out on the long march again.
Like Sisyphus we may find this necessary even obligatory- even if tinged with reluctance and a sense of sad futility. We can see it as a consequence of living in this vale of tears where FPTP rules and political power inevitably goes to those with most economic clout. Breaking the mould can seem impossible if you don't control those forces that set the mould in the first place.
And yet there is the nagging doubt that our plight was not and is not inevitable.In the last decade, it can be argued the party has made several, unnecessary critical errors which have turned golden opportunities into dismal defeat.More specifically the leadership of our party has.
The troops ever ready to "march towards the sound of gunfire " have arguably been poorly led by those whose grasp of strategy was sub-optimal.
The early stages of coalition (tuition fees reversal,NHS re-organisation) is one example, the pledge to revoke is another. Neither of these moves was a necessary corollary of Liberal values which ,popular or not, we just had to take. Both stemmed from a misguided and slightly cynical misunderstanding of where our political advantage lay and both were received by the "troops" with misgiving- largely ignored in favour of "comfort polling".
There are go course other examples- the handling of the EU Referendum and PR Referendum could equally well be cited.
It is not surprising ,therefore, if many of our troops before resuming the Sisyphean task that confronts us, wonder what future protection exists against the folly of commanders - especially as it is the rank and file activist who creates much of the enduring political capital the party still possesses.
A sobering insight into how bad things can be was provided by the relaxed response from the then party leadership that accompanied the destruction of our urban council base in 2011- a base that in the case of places like Liverpool had taken decades to build.
We cannot be the force for social change and reform we want to be and we ought to be unless we take a hard and critical look at ourselves,how we are run, how the public sees us - rather than blaming circumstance and opposition chicanery.
There is no longer a 'business as usual' option for the party - unless one sees one's business as akin to that of poor old Sisyphus.
* John Pugh was Liberal Democrat MP for Southport until 2017 and was elected as a Councillor for the Dukes ward of Sefton Borough Council on 2 November 2017.