Clegg and Cameron standing next to each other in the Downing Street Rose Garden felt like a new era in British politics. I joined soon afterwards, excited at the prospect of an economic and socially liberal government for the first time in decades. Despite the abuse it got me, I was happy to constantly defend the government, fully believing (which I still do) that the Lib Dems were reining in the worst of the Tories.
Around mid-2014, my own views started to shift from classical liberal to, as Clegg has called it, the “radical centre”, as well as a move towards intersectional feminism. While the Lib Dems still matched me ideologically, I was becoming increasingly disillusioned with politics altogether as I underwent an ideological identity crisis. I thus left the party by not renewing my membership later that year.
Fast forward to May 2015, and the polls are predicting the Lib Dems will receive around 25 seats, and potentially more due to the famed incumbency factor the Lib Dems rightfully enjoy access to. Then the exit poll came. At 4am I was beginning to run out of gin to drown my sorrows in and to make matters worse, Lynne Featherstone lost her seat. I do not live in her constituency, but the work she has done for LGBT+ rights and campaigning against FGM was being systematically erased as the electorate voted her out. I found myself on the verge of tears that such a terrific woman had been rejected, and with this, I emotionally re-joined the party I’d recently left.
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