Author Archives: Luke Jeffery

Luke Jeffery

Winning back former south-western strongholds: looking beyond Brexit

By Luke Jeffery | Thu 21st June 2018 - 9:37 am

As a member in the south-west of England I am acutely aware of how we have fallen behind in the rural areas of England where we used to be able to garner a large amount of support. The south-west has a quite rare mixture of very rural communities and a long liberal tradition. In fact, my own constituency of Tiverton and Honiton (now a deep blue Tory area) was once partly represented by Lord Palmerston who was the MP for Tiverton while Prime Minister. Given the past support in the south-west …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 28 Comments
Luke Jeffery

Radical Centrism: Why it’s time for the Lib Dems to be bolder

By Luke Jeffery | Thu 15th June 2017 - 2:57 pm

 

Radical centrism is often thought to be an oxymoron since Centrists rarely appear to want to tear up the current order and replace it with something new. However, given the significant challenges facing UK (and other countries throughout the world) is it not time to be bold in what we propose? For what has been shown across the world in the past year, most notably in France and the US and recently in the UK elections, is that a policy of more of the same will not win you an election.

Theresa May, while deviating from traditional Conservative policy, represented the supposedly “strong and stable” status quo and Corbyn represented something newer and bolder, while the Lib Dems were certainly separate from these two they did not offer anything ground-breaking. The result of the election was a reward for Labour for daring to dream of something new and different, despite the fact that many of their policies only existed in an economic dreamland.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 16 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Anthony Acton
    In 2024 when most voters would rather have voted for anyone but the disgraced and discredited Tories, Ed went down well. Two years on, a lot more is needed than...
  • Neil Sandison
    Stephen Yolland and Carl Pierce are right if our largest numbers of MPs and Councillors are not getting our message across then is is about leadership and if t...
  • Carl Pierce
    Sadly the party is terrified of the zionist lobby yet another issue where we hesitate to do the right thing. A wonderful councillor (who writes here regularly) ...
  • Carl Pierce
    ED is a good speaker but not powerful enough to speak with the clarity we need or frame the stories in a way that cuts through. There are open goals right now o...
  • Christopher Burden
    The campaign group We Own It has long campaigned for the water companies in England to be nationalised. This is because the Thatcher-era profit maximisation mod...