Is local election failure similar to a small business spinning a yarn to the bank manger?

Is local election failure similar to a small business spinning a yarn to the bank manger?

The day after the voting had closed, local election results started to trickle through, everyone’s was asking and wondering....! “Did the local candidates connect to the people within their area”?

It would seem clear from early indications that the Liberal Democrats faired pretty badly – with Nick Clegg being on the radio early the morning after saying “it would seem that we are being held totally accountable for what’s happening at the moment – what we need is to pick ourselves up and move forward because we have a lot of important work still to do”.

Well doesn’t everyone......!

Those of you with no political affiliation just ask yourself “why didn’t you believe what the Liberal Democrats were saying” and when you’re done wandering and coming up with the reasons – whether any blame should be laid at their feet.

Or was it just a matter of thinking that “you couldn’t care”, or perhaps the view was “what’s the point” or it may have even been “it’s all just a total waste of time”.

Whatever your thought just hold that for a minute and then just ask yourself, thinking back to when you as a small local business were trying to convince the bank manager of what you’d do to change your business and move it forward for the better, ask “why didn’t the bank manager believe me? – why didn’t we CONNECT”?

How scary would it be for you, if indeed he thought the same as you, ‘waste of time’ what’s the point’, couldn’t care.

The fact of the matter is there are no limits to people’s enthusiasm, to how they’ll change things for the better.

Often when talking to a bank manager or even a business advisor – if as a small business you advise that it is to be multi-faceted, their advice would be more often than not – would be to do and stick with one thing first and see how it goes – which indeed may or may not be the correct advice, the voice of reason.

So with the results of the local elections in, especially the resounding NO on the AV (Alternative Vote) Referendum results – did the Liberal Democrats get it wrong and were they guilty of being too multi-faceted on voting day.

The consensus by the news pundits is “yes they were”, but as we all know it is really easy having the right answer after the event.

Apart from thinking the time was right, Nick Clegg may have used the local Election Day as a cost-saving exercise, taking advantage of and saving voter’s time as they were already in the voting booth, saving venues in particular schools the need to close for yet another day for a specific AV voting day.

Whatever the reasons of Nick Clegg, no doubt they may have been the very same as many small businesses, thinking they’re right, the time is right; the need is there and so on.

The purpose of what is being said here is to highlight how things are so similar, how even the leaders of the country seem to get things wrong – however, the unfortunate thing is when the leaders get it wrong they’re able to for some unknown reason be able to draw monetary resources for other areas, and we’re not just talking ‘pounds’.

A majority of small businesses aren’t allowed to get it wrong and if they do they do not have the backup and resources to be even able to pass the same comments which Nick Clegg did on the radio “what we need is to pick ourselves up and move forward because we have a lot of important work still to do”.

To reiterate this is an unbiased view and carries no political affiliation, the same view could be said for how the conservatives seem to say what people want to hear - just the same as a small business telling the bank – saying what’s needed to be said, in order to get a result and what they want.

As for Labour regardless of their policies – the feeling is that the leader is not charismatic enough, nor provides confidence – the same again said by bank managers and business advisors of many small business owners.

The failure to connect is what caused issues in particular for the Liberal Democrats, and the failure for Labour was although they were able to connect for the Scottish vote in the past, their failure on this occasion was their failure in their ability to stay connected.