LPUK and Norwich North

The votes are in and counted. And, let's be honest, Norwich North was not a good result for LPUK. To come 11th out of 12 with just 36 votes makes me wince slightly. Actually, it makes me wince a lot. 

Yet, realistically, this sort of result was inevitable. It wasn't down to the candidate - who proved to be an eloquent spokesperson for the party. It wasn't down to a lack of funding, or poor organisation. Sure, there will be things that the party can learn from this defeat, but in retrospect the result does have the air of inevitability to it. Basically because an untested and - outside of introverted and introspective world of blogging - largely unknown party was contesting an election with an absolute plethora of candidates. As brutal as this sounds, I reckon the results show that few people in Norwich North knew who we are. And of those that did know us, even fewer cared. 

So LPUK looks at a steep, uphill battle to not just win Parliamentary elections, but to actually overcome the first hurdle of becoming credible candidates in those elections. Norwich North suggests that the party isn't going to be allowed any shortcuts, and it will be the long haul if it wants to become a player on the national stage. Which kind of makes sense as well. After all, it took the Tory party - the dominant force in UK politics throughout the 1980's - nearly a decade to become a credible alternative to Labour after the Tory defeat in 1997. And how long did it take for Labour to go from fledgling socialist party in the valleys of Wales to the landslide winning behemoth of 1945? Yeah, Norwich North and the lessons of history show that it is going to take some time before the UK's Libertarian Party becomes a credible political force in this country. 

But you know what? It isn't just bad news for the party. Because whilst bugger all people in Norwich North put their "x" in the right box for LPUK, it is still a massive step forward for the party. Before now, we were a party that hadn't fought a Parliamentary election. Which is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard. Now, we are a party that has done very badly in a Parliamentary election. Soon enough we'll be doing ok at a Parliamentary election. And so on. Until we are actually in a position to win one of those fucking things. 

Baby steps in the long road to power, to be sure. But fuck it. As small as those steps are, at least the party has started to move in the right direction.