Author Archives: Alan Grant

Alan Grant

We must keep up the fight against digital ID

By Alan Grant | Wed 1st October 2025 - 10:57 am

I left our recent federal conference in Bournemouth, the first I’ve attended, with my head abuzz. Only a small part of this was due to the cumulative hangover that happens when a man in his late thirties boozes as he did in his late twenties. The overwhelming majority of the remaining buzz is a result of the optimism, confidence, and positivity of everyone I met and the warm welcome that was shown to us repentant sinners, formerly of other political parishes. 

Key points like Tim Farron’s barnstorming speech, making the defiant and full-throated case for patriotism and liberalism, and Jamie Greene’s warm, clever, and energising remarks about how Liberal Democrats have welcomed him into the party as our newest MSP were highlights for me. As were the other fringes, receptions, and engaging conversations I had over the weekend. Thank you all.

Our conference was buzzing, and a good thing too – other parties will envy us our good mood, and they are right to. 

However, with so many important causes and issues jostling in the scrum for attention, it’s important that crucial ones do not slip through the cracks. 

And what could be more important than the UK Labour Government planning to force British people to carry mandatory digital ID to access work and services?

One of the fringe events I attended at conference was held by privacy and civil liberties campaigners, Big Brother Watch in the Bournemouth Library (next year, we must get them back in the main venue). Joining their staff on the panel was our brilliant MP for Orkney and Shetland, Alistair Carmichael. It was excellent discussion and the report that Big Brother Watch have published on the topic, Checkpoint Britain, is well worth your time. 

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Alan Grant

Trump in the UK: On the importance of respecting the office, if not the man

By Alan Grant | Thu 18th September 2025 - 8:03 am

I don’t expect to find many fans of Donald J. Trump on Lib Dem Voice. Maybe from the old days when he was the gold-lined host of the US version of The Apprentice who delivered every iconic catchphrase with the un-self-conscious bravado and camp cattiness of a drag queen, but certainly not now. 

He is not our kind of chap. 

The Donald offends mainstream British liberalism. He is brash, it is considered. He is ostentatious, it is reserved. He talks about how great he is and the amazing things he has done. British liberalism would rather die. 

His affront to the quiet civility of our brand of liberalism is so potent that it has altered perspectives in Britain of what America is. Trump is such an all-encompassing, room-dominating character that is difficult to separate him from anything around him. This power has led to London Mayor Sadiq Khan criticising Trump as he touched down for his second state visit to the UK, it also led to Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey declining an invite to a state banquet. 

The pre-emptive hangover from Brand Trump is so strong that it has led many of us down a dangerous path. His once-in-a-generation ability to generate headlines has meant that many have forgotten that there is a difference between the Presidency and the President. 

Donald John Trump is the President of the United States of America; he is not the Presidency.

He occupies the Oval Office now, not for all time. 

In just a few years, the people of America will pick another person for the job and Trump will be barred from holding it again. Such is the nature of their Constitution. Trump is temporary, the Presidency, and what it represents to the American people, is forever. 

Perhaps British people, including liberals, struggle with this because we have a permanent, non-political institution, embodied in one person, who fulfils our head of state requirements. 

For us, the duties of representing the country, its people, and its way of doing things are forever barred from the political arena so it’s hard for us to imagine its politicisation. God Save The King indeed!

But, thanks to a little family squabble beginning in the mid-1770s, our American cousins do have a political appointee as their head of state and he is, at time of writing in our country. We should, as much as many of us find the man himself lacking in decorum, afford the customary and due respect and welcome to the office. Keep calm and, with gritted teeth, if necessary, carry on!

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Alan Grant

Why Liberals should keep one eye on Corbyn’s new wheeze

By Alan Grant | Thu 17th July 2025 - 11:55 am

Budge up! We need to make room at the British political table for a new guest. Or, an old guest wearing a different hat which, in these days of UKIPs, Brexit parties, and Reform Uks (Reforms UK?), happens a lot.

It seems that former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will return to leading a political party. We didn’t hear it directly from him of course, but from fellow left-wing MP Zarah Sultana who will be joining him in this new, yet unnamed, venture.

At the time, it seemed Sultana had jumped the gun and announced the move without Corbyn’s approval – perhaps he was present, whether he was involved remains unclear.

But why should liberals, capital letter or lower case, care about what’s going on behind the newest set of curtains in the dysfunctional cul-de-sac of UK politics?

Well, because we like balance and particularly balancing opportunities with obligations; and the new party of the hard-left, which some are already calling “Jezbollah”, presents us with both.

First, the opportunity.

Labour has had a rough year or so in government. The smooth, slick, optimistic Keir Starmer that won the General Election is no more. Even though the Tories were about as popular as the Ebola virus at the time, Labour’s victory was impressive and showed that a sensibly led Labour party can win.

But since then, it’s all gone a bit wrong.

There are some Labour folks who still cling to the idea that it is some grand plan by the leadership to dispose of the difficult stuff (cuts, winter fuel, immigration etc) in the beginning so that when the next election arrives, it’ll be all free puppies and rising GDP.

What they’ve got is plummeting popularity and inflation at 3.6 percent.

Labour is one major scandal away from asking the Ebola virus to share who does its PR and now the ghost of May Day past is haunting their feast. One set of polls even has Starmer’s Labour neck and brass neck with the People’s Front of Kneecap and Bob Vylan.

For Liberals, a chance presents. We can rally behind our shared values of individualism, freedom, and community to show disenfranchised soft-right Labour voters that there is a home for them with us. They do not have to choose between Sir Keir’s downbeat, depressing round table and Jeremy Corbyn’s wonky picnic table where you may well end up sat next to someone from Hamas.

There is an alternative with Liberal Democrats.

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Alan Grant

Yes, Liberals can and should be proud to be British

By Alan Grant | Thu 17th April 2025 - 10:03 am

I feel compelled to begin this article with a confession of jealousy. Since joining the Scottish Liberal Democrats, I’ve met many wonderful people who can say that they are lifelong liberals. I always wince with envy when I hear it.

As I’ve told those who have asked, I was a member of the Scottish Conservatives for some years, including a brief stint working in their press office in Holyrood. I’m not ashamed of that per se, and nobody in the party has even hinted that I should be, but facts are facts.

Especially given the right-ward march of the Scottish Tories in recent years, I remain one of our most repentant sinners, comforted by the fact that the Tories left me every bit as much as I left them.

If I cannot carry the card of the from the cradle liberal, I can at least offer to be of use. With the foothills of the 2026 Holyrood elections in view, many liberal-adjacent Tories will be looking for a new home, one that combines fiscal responsibility with their open, tolerant, pre-Boris social views.

For an excellent rendition of this point, I highly recommend watching the speech our new MSP, Jamie Greene, gave at our conference in Inverness. Jamie spoke with candour, grace, humour, and clarity on this subject. He has walked the walk and very much has the talk to go with it.

Those expecting this article to be a shopping list of things that Liberal Democrats should abandon will be disappointed. Instead, I mean to encourage something that is going very well, especially with disillusioned Tory voters in mind. Our appeal to patriotism.

There is much to like so far. Ed Davey has been leading the effort, encouraging us to buy British goods where possible and taking a strong line on Russian aggression and the destructive nature of the Trump administration’s disastrous, miserly, and self-defeating tariffs.

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Alan Grant

Why liberals should back CANZUK

By Alan Grant | Thu 27th March 2025 - 10:24 am

Reading the Financial Times is not for the easily troubled. At once the news it is mission-bound to report is confusing, intimidating, and depressing when the reader becomes aware of just how much money we don’t have and trivialities on which the rest of it is being spent. 

However, amidst the gloom of flicking through the pink ‘un these days, there is the occasional flicker of light, such as the recent article featuring Sir Ed Davey in which the Lib Dem leader endorsed a great idea – a closer working relationship between Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and our own United Kingdom. 

The notion has a snappy name, it’s called CANZUK, and liberals should support it.

But, CANZUK has an image problem in liberal minds. The idea has previously been misrepresented as a colonialist retread and championed by those who suggested it’s a better alternative to the European Union. The reality is far from that. 

In fact, it is a drawing together of the nations of the world who have gained the most from the fine tradition of British liberty found in the pages of Mill, Hume, Smith, and Locke and whose lineage disappears into the fog of time on these islands. As for being an alternative to the EU, why think so small? 

A throat-clearing is required here. I believe that Brexit was a huge mistake and has left us poorer, more isolated, less confident, and more exposed to global shocks. I am no Brexiteer and would prefer it had never happened. 

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