The Newbury Weekly News very kindly published the following letter from me in a recent edition. I reproduce it here in case it is of interest to a wider readership:
Through your columns, I’d like to pay warm tribute to the extraordinary contribution to the Liberal Democrats and West Berkshire which David Rendel has made over an unprecedented 28 years as our local parliamentary candidate or MP (that, of course, includes time during the existence of our predecessor party).
It’s difficult to know where to begin. On a personal level, towards thousands of local people, David has shown consistent kindness, generosity and, yes, downright niceness. Many have shared remarkable acts of unsolicited kindness which David and his family have shown towards those who are sick, grieving or in need. David has often gone out of his way to take home an aged supporter, to console someone who has lost a loved one, to help with the washing up at gatherings, or to provide practical help to someone who was homeless.
What is absolutely breathtaking about David is the long hours he has spent pounding the pavements in West Berkshire in all weathers, calling on local people; as well as hours spent on letters, casework etc. He has never stinted in his super-human efforts over three decades.
I have often asked myself “Why does he do it?” – why does he relentlessly spend innumerable hours working on local and political matters? I am sure he has, and has had, alternative “cushy numbers” open to him. But he has not taken those opportunities because he has been devoted to the simple hard work of a local candidate. That, in itself, is testament to his unimpeachable credentials as a real, true “Liberal” and “liberal”.
The answer to the question “why does he do it?” is, I believe, two-fold. Firstly, David genuinely enjoys the contact with local people and issues. Secondly, it is clear that David and his family have, exceptionally, geared their entire lives towards helping others. That sounds like a cliché, but all the mind-boggling, staggeringly vast amounts of hard work that David has put in for West Berkshire and the Liberal Democrats is testament to its simple truth.
* Paul Walter is a LibDem activist in Newbury, Berkshire and blogs at Liberal Burblings
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Vince Cable: we will force a referendum vote in Parliament
Clegg leadership plot: Gove's 'crazy grenade' detonates, briefly, before Tories revert to arguing about Europe
Ukip surge to 18% in latest ICM poll: Lib Dems at 11%
Liberal Democrat MPs to be given free vote on all aspects of Same Sex Marriage Bill
Where Ukip won (or almost won) on 2nd May 2013
Lord Roger Roberts writes: Don’t try to win votes by coming down hard on migrants
Edward Davey writes… Helping consumers to get cheaper energy bills
Duncan Hames MP writes… Must we continue to use food for fuel?
Opinion: The green centre ground
Saturday Six 34 - Poverty, Equal Marriage, Texas and Pulled Pork
The new Reading station
Quote of the day. - Liberator blog on disagreeing with Tories on the EU & equal marriage
I'm not against caucuses. I'm against Liberal Youth caucuses.
Mad swivel-eyed loons? Think before you laugh
50 years a Southport Councillor Ronnie Fearn's presentation photos
The 'loons' have it
My Free Televised Sport For All Bill
Today's Link-Love: May 18, 2013
Nonconformistradical
Simon Banks
David
Moggy
paul barker
7 Comments
If only he were still in the Parliamentary Party, and I don’t mean just because that would mean one less Tory, although that of course would be a bonus. A true servant of the cause whom the Party has overlooked when deciding whom to reward.
Adrian is right. When you look at some of the people awarded honours you do indeed wonder why David Rendel has been overlooked. If he was in the House of Lords I’m sure he would be an active and effective campaigner for the Liberal cause.
That is true Peter – though I don’t think as a matter of principle people who were defeated at an election should be put back into Parliament through the back door.
Maybe he doesn’t want to be in the Lords out of principle?
Paul that was a nice tribute. David is one of the hardest working people I know having seen him at close quarters over the last twenty years. I concur that he would have a lot to offer in the House of Lords but as Paul says maybe he does not want to follow that path. Of course up until now there has been the very pertinent point that membership of the House of Lords would be incompatible with his desire to become Newbury’s MP once again
David is a man of the highest integrity and has in the past made his views very clear about the inappropriateness of the current structure of the House of Lords, and it for this reasons that I would suggest, that he should be there, for reform of the upper house will be hastened if the Lords themselves actually supported the idea.
Out of interest, I do wonder just how many of our own members who are in the Lords, really wish it to change, and become more representative of society?
Yup, I’d agree with all that. An excellent campaigner and constituency MP and a real gentleman. And a great shame we won’t see him back in the Commons (though delighted to see Judith Bunting selected in his place). I very much enjoyed sharing an office with David in Norman Shaw North for three years in the mid 90s. Those were the days pre-Portcullis House when it was two MPs and as many staff as you could fit per office – and queueing to use the Rendel/Maddock fax machine in the pre-internet days!
I note that David is intending to stay on West Berks Council. Wish you all best of luck retaking it in 2015.