Over the last few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of participating in some conversations, on a dark corner of the internet, about values-based campaigning. Over the last few days I’ve had the delight of seeing this break out of the dark corner, when Henry Wright (candidate for Cherry Hinton, Cambridge) shared what he’d been creating and why he joined the Lib Dems in the first place:
I joined @LibDems because I saw a party where what mattered wasn't where you were from, what your background was or who you were but what you could achieve. Because in our Britain, who you are should *never* be a barrier to achieving your dreams. #DemandBetter pic.twitter.com/qHjHbtfQes
— Henry Wright (@henrydwright) 21 April 2019
It’s since turned up in a few places, so it’s obviously resonated with some people. But really, this has been part of a wider conversation about converting Mark Pack’s argument that we should talk about our values into practice - and what really excites me is that, at least amongst newer members, this is really empowering.
Another (new) member has started an Instagram to share that they, too, have values - and they want to talk about them (follow them, if you have Instagram, to put a smile on their face). Absent the fear of the more experienced campaigner, they don’t want to talk about just local issues but also how this ties into their personal beliefs - and why you, too, should be a Lib Dem. And honestly? Good on them.
I truly believe that if we are to rebuild then it needs to be on solid, Liberal foundations and with voters that share our values as well as liking our policies. Lots of members are trying this, but what I liked about this approach is the brazen, proud, Liberal standard-bearing. Consider this poster, which explores how Liberal values enrich and empower our identities instead of coming into conflict with them:
Thanks for all the love for this! I never expected something I made to get so far… If you want more where this came from, another one is here showing how @LibDems have strong values we should be more proud of in our campaigns. pic.twitter.com/338iruK4DR
— Henry Wright (@henrydwright) 21 April 2019
I hope this finds a kind, encouraging and welcoming audience amongst their peers – and I believe that, when we speak up, we can find a lot more peers.
* James Belchamber is Chair of South West Birmingham Liberal Democrats and runs the Lib Dem Digital forum.
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3 Comments
These are fantastic. I just followed and shared!
Love it. I think values-based campaigning is a great antidote to rising distrust in politics. Much more useful to properly understand a party (or individual)’s core motives than it is to hear hundreds of tedious headline-grabbing policy snippets that will often be subverted, downgraded, or deemed out-of-date because of values long before implementation anyway. A crucial perspective when different parties put out similar looking policies for different reasons, which seems quite common these days.
Another angle on this is that, according to linguistics, people have 2 main views of the family, either authoritarian or nurturing. Farage, the EEG and others put forward an authoritarian view of the EU – controlling bureaucrats enforcing silly rules on us. We need to convince people that the EU is a nurturing family taking care of workers rights, the environment and our prosperity.
Lack of housing, schools being forced to test young children and having no money for books and other essentials, hospitals running out of staff and money, zero hour contracts and more people needing foodbanks and the sad state of the environment is because our own government doesn’t care about these things.