They Do Things Differently in Hampstead

The Heath Library, a remarkable community institution next door to Keats’ House in Hampstead, was the location for Hampstead and Frognal LibDems’s annual New Year Party tonight, offering a haven from the blustry weather outside. Phil Willis, the retiring MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, was the guest speaker, though ‘retiring’ is the last adjective one would normally apply to this bluff Northerner, who delighted many people across the country by seizing the seat from Norman Lamont in 1997. As usual, Phil had a good array of jokes, but his core message was serious. First, that he feels that the party really failed at the last election, despite adding a few more MPs to its total, because it did not capitalise on Labour’s unpopularity, concentrating too much on wooing soft Tories. And second, that Nick Clegg has in front of him the biggest challenge that any party leader has had since Paddy Ashdown. Success at the next general election — including in Hampstead and Kilburn, a new key target seat, will only come about if the LibDems persuade disillusioned Labour voters to come to us, rather than jumping right over us to the Tories. Of course, in local government, in cities up and down the country, this has happened, including in the London borough of Camden. But as Phil intimated, it’s the parliamentary elections that really matter. And for too long, in too many places, LibDems have been content with coming a respectable second.