Author Archives: Adam Bennett

Adam Bennett

We should be proud to be the party of business

By Adam Bennett | Tue 20th May 2025 - 9:00 am

After a moment of epiphany, everything changes. Our brains get re-wired, and the world looks like a different place. Some people travel the world in search of these epiphanies, seeking spiritual guidance in some far-flung, lush, or exotic corner of the planet

Me? My defining moment of epiphany struck in the West Midlands Town of Dudley, in an office block besides a roundabout off the A4123. I guess that’s the thing about epiphanies: they tend to surprise you.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Adam Bennett

Last year I left the Liberal Democrats. Here’s how a new leader could win me back

By Adam Bennett | Tue 23rd June 2020 - 2:30 pm

It’s never easy leaving home. Prior to last year I had been a Lib Dem my entire adult life, but I made the decision to leave the party following changes I had seen build up over a long time. We used to advocate radical ideas, but we had become too comfortable with campaigning to uphold the status quo.

However, my vote is still winnable for the Lib Dems. And frankly, left-leaning young people like myself are going to need to vote for the party again if it is ever going to build an electorally viable voting base. The experiment over the past decade of trying to attract liberal, ‘small c’ Conservatives has proven to be an unmitigated disaster, as well as having blunted the party’s radical edge.

So, what kind of policies and ideas could a new leader bring in to broaden the party’s appeal? For my money, there are three key targets which need to be hit in order to make the party an electorally desirable entity across the centre-left. I know these may make for uncomfortable reading for some in the party – but when your comfort zone is three disastrous elections back-to-back, a little discomfort can go a long way.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 25 Comments
Adam Bennett

First Scotland, now the EU: how did young English progressives end up fighting to save the status quo?

By Adam Bennett | Thu 7th April 2016 - 9:24 am

“I believe that the way things are is not the way things have to be”. The first line of Nick Clegg’s opening statement in ITV’s ‘First Ever TV Election Debate’ was my political awakening. It unlocked my passion for politics and it made me not only want to change the world, but it made me believe the world could be changed. I followed that passion pretty religiously- I signed up to the Liberal Democrats, volunteered everywhere from my local party in Hertfordshire to Edinburgh for the Scottish Referendum. I even ended up working for Nick in Westminster, first as an intern and then as a Communications Assistant between 2014 and the crushing blow that was Election Day 2015.

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Posted in Op-eds | 13 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Mick Taylor
    Thank you all for your comments. My aim was to encourage a debate and to suggest LibDems might want a policy on future public sector procurement. Simon McGrath...
  • Simon McGrath
    I am afraid this article is an example of someone applying simplistic solutions in an area of which they are wholly ignorant. Even a cursory study of the vario...
  • Lin Macmillan
    I am very supportive of Christine and her decision. I am very unhappy that our MPs were not whipped to vote against the dreadful Tory amendment. I am also ver...
  • Richard Dickson
    Thank you Christine for all you've done, and doubtless will continue to do with great style, with and for people in our communities whose voice is often not lis...
  • Nigel Quinton
    “Whipped to abstain” - isn’t that the very definition of virtue signalling irrelevance? What an utter Westminster bubble farce....