Author Archives: Danny Loveridge

On the morning of Friday 5th July 2024 the HMS Lib Dem had never been so full, or so well built. It was in a near perfect position to head out of the harbour; well stocked with policy and a new crew capable of navigating new waters and new challenge.

Its main rival reduced to nothing more than a wreck after nine long years of mutiny after mutiny, and crashing into every obvious rock and hidden iceberg it possibly could. HMS Tory was all but sunk. Sure, HMS Labour eclipsed both in terms of size and grandeur but it hadn’t yet realised that her foundations were rotten. The hull already letting in water.

HMS Reform was still being hastily built out of every reactionary plank of wood it could find. But with a formidable Captain, it wouldn’t be long before it could raise the skull and crossbones and begin pillaging, dividing the populist spoils.

But after a year choppy waters and after over a year at sea the HMS Lib Dem finds itself stuck at sea. Not heading in the right or wrong direction but stuck. The rest of the fleet might be moving in the right or wrong direction, but at least they’re moving.

If the Liberal Democrats are to get moving it needs to find its wind again and the easiest to find is Liberalism. Liberalism has never thrived when it sees the State as the solution to societal and economic problems.

The new aged based social media policy is a prime example of this, it adds layers of bureaucracy and Government intervention that will never be able to keep up with technology. It assumes government is the solution rather than education. Rather than educating children about the risks of social media it encourages young people to educate themselves about VPN’s, loopholes and the Dark Web. It assumes that our educators are ill equipped to tackle these issues. That may well be the case currently, but the solution isn’t more red tape, but more funding for education.