TIME is already running out for the Liberal Democrats to make a breakthrough at the next general election, North West Euro-MP Chris Davies warned last night. In one of the most critical attacks ever on the party, the former chairman of Liverpool Housing Committee said in this year's May election, the Liberal Democrats mounted winnable campaigns in just 12 of the 67 North West constituencies, winning six seats. He called for people to follow the example of David Alton, who stormed into the Commons in Edge Hill in the 1970s driven by passion and determination. His criticism comes as party officials and members prepare to head to Blackpool this weekend for the first of the big party annual conferences. Writing in the conference edition of the social and liberal thought journal Liberator, Mr Davies, who is leader of the British Liberal Democrat group in Brussels, says blaming party policies in the June campaign misses the point. The party's failure to make major inroads had little to do with policies, but the fact there were too few party workers on the ground to sell the policies. Mr Davies writes: "Thirty years since the 'Liberal revival' of the early 1970s we have still not overcome the damage inflicted by party division during the First World War. "The consequence of that was the virtual disappearance of Liberals as a political force. In more than half the country we still have yet to recover. The party simply does not exist in a credible election-winning form across vast swathes of the country. "It is not all gloom, of course. Our parliamentary representation is now the greatest it has been since that time of internal conflict. "Our local government representation is significant, and impressive advances have made in the great cities. "While we have made inroads into fresh territory the Tory presence has been completely removed from many metropolitan areas and there is no sign of that trend being reversed. "Even so, we have a very, very long way to go. "The North West, with a population of nearly seven million, is bigger than 10 EU member states. It includes 76 Westminster parliamentary constituencies. I reckon that Liberal Democrats mounted winnable campaigns last May in just a dozen of them. In those places enough work was done on the ground to convince local people that we were credible challengers. "With a better wind behind us, and a bigger slice of luck, all those seats might have been won." Mr Davies said his own inspiration came from David Alton (now Lord Alton), who in fighting to win Liverpool Edge Hill during the 1970s, combined drive, determination and ambition with passion, inspiration and vision, mixing these assets with touches of ruthlessness and recklessness, all the characteristics needed by a candidate to turn a hopeless cause into a winnable seat. "The question is how do we find more such individuals? In the past we have relied upon them finding us, but they are few in number and the burn-out rate is high. Surely we should be trying to develop strategies to find and nurture them?" larryneild@dailypost.co.uk | 
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