Author Archives: Mathew Hulbert

Mathew meets: Carl Cashman Part 3 – A Lib Dem vision for Liverpool

By Mathew Hulbert | Wed 15th October 2025 - 10:25 am

This is the final part of my interview with Liverpool Lib Dem Council group leader Carl Cashman. In this instalment, we talk about the sort of city he wants to see.

So what is the Carl Cashman vision for Liverpool?

One of the first things I want to do is get the Council in the service of people and when you’ve got Labour Councillors saying ‘shouldn’t we move to four weekly bin collections’ that’s a Council that’s out of touch with people and for me if you go round Liverpool, it’s the most beautiful city in the world, but it’s a very dirty city at the moment, it’s very litter ridden city, because the Council aren’t getting the basics right and for me it’s about giving people a real voice over their community, making sure that we tidy up the city and make it a city to be proud of.

He wants to build Council houses:

I want to give people that security in their tenancy again. I want people to have a house for life. I want people to not have to worry about if they’re going to get evicted from one week to the next and I actually want to create communities in Liverpool again.

At the moment we’ve got really big issues with companies like Serco that we’ve got to deal with and we’re not dealing with and I think that’s because Labour haven’t got the guts to do it. I think it takes someone to come in and say one how do we solve the homelessness problem because it is a bad one and two how do we get the temporary accommodation list down and three how do we build Council houses.

The perception people like Boris Johnson and others have tried to create about Liverpool is as one with a sense of victimhood, but Carl rejects that.

I think it’s a city that has got an inherent sense of social justice, more than any other place that I know and it’s an understanding that if the little person’s being picked on we don’t like that. So maybe we call that out a little bit more than other people do. (The city’s been through a lot) we’ve had Hillsborough and several other things where the city’s had to come together and one thing about Liverpool is we always do come together in those situations.

Tragically Reform are on the rise seemingly everywhere, could that possibly include Liverpool?

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged carl cashman, mathew hulbert and mathew meets | Leave a comment

Mathew on Monday: How do we respond to the Polanski Green surge?

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 13th October 2025 - 4:54 pm

Folks, before I get into the thrust of my main item this week, a few readers got very hot under the collar in the comments section beneath last week’s column. So, if you’ll allow me, a few points.

Firstly, I now gather that the Lib Dem reshuffle was not triggered by Josh Babarinde stepping back from the front bench and had, in fact, been planned for a while. Happy to correct that.

Secondly, when I said I’d prefer just thirty Lib Dem MPs who were unashamedly liberal than scores more who sometimes appear very tentative, I was making a rhetorical point, of …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged donald trump, green party, israel hamas war and podcasts | 38 Comments

Mathew meets…Carl Cashman Part 2: My Lib Dem life

By Mathew Hulbert | Sun 12th October 2025 - 10:30 am

In this second part of my interview with Liverpool’s Lib Dem Council Group leader Cllr Carl Cashman, we look at how he got interested in the party and his political philosophy.

I asked him why the Lib Dems?

Fundamentally I’m a Liberal and quite a lot of people forget that in this day and age and they align themselves with a party because of the colour tie they get to where or it’s going to do well or because they think that’s the party for the working class or that’s the party for business and ultimately I think Liberalism is about giving people the tools to make their life the best life that it can possibly be.

So I believe strongly that if you allow people to flourish, give them the conditions to do so that they will flourish and the difference for me between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives and Labour Party is there’s that horseshoe of control isn’t there? Where the Labour Party wants to control the use of public assets, the Conservative Party wants all control to go to private companies and there’s a middle space of Liberalism where actually people should control the assets that are in society which is why I’m a huge proponent of mutual and cooperatives.

But Carl doesn’t identify as a Social Liberal or an Orange Booker.

When people talk about Left and Right I say Liberalism is its own distinct ideology and I reject those ideas of Left and Right. I call myself a Liberal and I call myself a progressive because I think society gets better when you make progress and I think you can make progress by being socially liberal and also being economically liberal so in the sense of setting businesses free, so ensuring businesses aren’t paying ridiculously high taxes like they are now but also setting people free. So giving people the education that they need to flourish. Giving people the housing they need to flourish. I think those two things are compatible and are compatible with Liberalism.

Carl has no truck with the Labour Party, his main opponents in the city.

My job is to fight the Conservatives (as a progressive) but also to replace the Labour Party because they aren’t a progressive party.

For me it’s about establishing an identity and I think the Lib Dems struggle with that sometimes. One because were too fair minded in many ways because were Liberals and two because were not wanting to upset people who might have lent us their votes and on many occasions we build that track record around the person and that’s vital but we’ve also got to please some very tender coalitions at times of people who’ve voted for us.

So that perhaps explains why our leadership seem to be running scared of Tory voters and afraid of upsetting the horses, now I understand. I disagree with it, but I understand it.

I’ve been the first person to raise concerns when I’ve seen some of our people talking about certain policies because they’re from a certain area and I say well this certainly isn’t going to go down well in Liverpool.

First and foremost, and this is a question Mathew that I think everyone needs to ask themselves when they’re going in to politics, who do you serve? For me there’s three different things; your party, your place, and the organisation so the Council etc. For me it’s quite clear that it’s first the place where I live that’s Liverpool, then it’s the party, then it’s the institution and I think we’ve got to be really careful to remember that.

So what qualities does Carl think he brings as a leader?

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged carl cashman, mathew hulbert and mathew meets | 2 Comments

Mathew meets…..Carl Cashman Part 1: the early years

By Mathew Hulbert | Sat 11th October 2025 - 10:30 am

A working class, northern, Council group leader, with a Liverpudlian accent is not exactly a description of your average Liberal Democrat.

Which is exactly why I wanted to conduct the first long form interview with our party’s leader in Liverpool, the man dubbed by the national press as ‘the sexiest politician in Britain,’ Councillor Carl Cashman.

So recently I caught the train up to the great city of Liverpool and spent a few hours with Carl.

I ask him about his vision for the city should he become City Council leader in 2027, his thoughts on the Coalition Government, where he stands ideologically in the Lib Dems, if he’ll run for Parliament, what the party must do better; the attention he gets for his looks, and more.

I hope you enjoy this insight to the man who, for my money, is just about the most interesting personality in the Lib Dems at present.

I began by asking about his background.

When I was younger I grew up in a council house, which is an upbringing that I was really fortunate (to have). I know some people might look down on that kind of upbringing but I absolutely cherished being in a council house and being brought up by my gran and granddad who gave me the morals I’ve got today.

So I’m really appreciative of that upbringing. Even though it wasn’t that we had a lot of money. Quite often gran and granddad would have a bag of chips and that would be tea. I don’t look back at that and think there was anything wrong with that. I look back on that quite fondly. That shaped me as a person.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged carl cashman, mathew hulbert and mathew meets | Leave a comment

Mathew on Monday: is Ed putting some of his MPs ‘in the freezer’?

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 6th October 2025 - 5:45 pm

So you might not have noticed, because to say it was beneath the radar is very much an understatement, but our leader reshuffled his top team last week. I only saw one news outlet cover it, Sky News Online. Of course, it happened during Labour Conference so, as ever, the lobby journalists attention was very much elsewhere. But is it just me or does it appear that our whole strategy as a party can be summed up with the phrase ‘under the radar’?

It was suggested to me by someone senior at Conference that it’s the ‘don’t frighten the horses’ strategy, in other words that if we remain beige and inoffensive and don’t really say anything about, well, anything and the Tories continue to implode we’re bound to take scores more Tory seats… right? I don’t know where to start with how complacent, muddled, and wrong-headed such an alleged strategy is. Even assuming it works, if we get scores of MPs elected on the basis that they don’t really believe in anything, how do they then stick up for liberal principles, like being pro immigration and LGBT+ equality, in Parliament and so on? Am I the only person who would rather we elected say 30 MPs who are clear on their liberal principles and policy positions and then can be full-throated in defending liberal values and minority rights in the chamber and on the media? Is just getting more people elected really what we’re here for…or does it actually matter what they stand for/believe in?

Anyway, back to the reshuffle.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged conservative party, max wilkinson and parliamentary party | 10 Comments

Mathew on Monday – nasty party, progressive alliances and a new book

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 29th September 2025 - 7:21 pm

Labour…the real nasty party!

Famously, at the 2002 Conservative Party Conference, the then Tory Chairman and future Prime Minister Theresa May called her own party ‘the nasty party.’

Or, to be fair, it’s what she said many people called the Tories.

And she was right, we did and we do.

I should point out, this isn’t about individual Conservatives a number of whom I count as friends (indeed, I co-host a podcast with one) but rather about their policies-in government and opposition-over many decades.

Kicking the poor whilst they’re down, being less than friendly (to say the least) in regards to LGBT+ communities, leaving whole …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged compass, iain dale british by-elections, labour, mathew on monday, neal lawson and torsten bell | Leave a comment

Mathew on Monday: to flag or not to flag… that is the question

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 22nd September 2025 - 7:00 pm

I write these words on Monday afternoon, back in Hinckley and Bosworth after a whirlwind (not even) 48 hours in Bournemouth for days one and two of Autumn Conference, reflecting on how different the feeling is being outside the conference bubble – dare I say it – back in the real world, compared with being inside of it when it can feel like the most important thing in the world and something which, surely, must see the media and the wider public glued to our every utterance from the platform in the main auditorium.

Well… not exactly.

To say we’ve not exactly reached maximum cut through is very polite way of putting it.
What was on all the news channels as I flicked through this morning? Yup, you guessed it, a certain Mr Nigel Farage droning on about, yup you guessed it, immigration. Another Monday Reform UK press conference live, taking over the airwaves.

Is it fair? No. Should we strongly protest the unequal coverage? Yes. But is it also our present reality? Yes. So I totally get that, in that context, we’re reduced to doing things like Ed walking into conference with a marching band (don’t get me started!).

And then we get to the flags.

Oh deary me, the flags.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged assisted dying bill, mental health, patriotism and youth work | 16 Comments

Mathew on Monday: Free speech… and its limits!

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 15th September 2025 - 4:30 pm

On Saturday I was live on the ‘Debate Desk’ segment on Peter Cardwell’s programme on Talk. One of the issues we discussed was free speech and what its limits should be, indeed if it should have limits.

I’m not a free speech absolutist. Whilst being able to express ourselves freely and enjoy robust debate (as I do on the national broadcast airwaves most weeks) we all, and quite rightly, have limits on our speech. There are laws, for one thing, and beyond that there are cultural norms which, you hope, most people abide by not because they have to but because they want to. Because they respect minority groups, for example, and would never want to do anything to cause offence.

Sadly, however, it would seem that a sizeable minority are happy to not only cause offence but say things quite openly which are likely actionable by law. For example I saw a video on social media from the truly dreadful ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally in London at the weekend in which one ‘protester’ said, quite freely, openly, and apparently proudly, that Prime Minister Keir Starmer should be ‘assassinated.’

Words cannot express how truly vile that is, especially coming at the end of a week in which we saw a political assassination in the brutal killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk when he was debating students on a university campus in America. A wife denied her husband, two young children denied their father.

However much you may disagree with someone (and some of what Kirk advocated was beyond awful) the answer is to take him on in debate not to engage in political violence which is always, always, unacceptable. We, as Liberals, must guard the ability to express yourself robustly but also defend the all important guardrails of speech and cultural niceties.

I despair the views of an increasingly sizeable fringe but I cling on to the hope (perhaps naively) that most people are good, decent, and liberal.

Are Reform UK just New Tories?

As I write these words on Monday lunchtime leading the radio news headlines is the defection to Reform UK of Tory Shadow Minister Danny Kruger. In his speech, sat alongside Nigel Farage grinning like a Cheshire Cat, Kruger says the Conservative Party ‘is over.’

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged assisted dying, constitutional reform, freedom of expression and reform uk | 13 Comments

Mathew on Monday: How do we up our media coverage?

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 8th September 2025 - 5:46 pm

Switch on the news and you’d think British politics is a two or three party show… and we’re not one of those. But beyond the red and blue and now turquoise noise, we Liberal Democrats are out there shaping debates, winning councils, and fighting for fairness.

The only problem? You’d hardly know it from the coverage.

So whose fault is that?

Well, I gently suggest, it is both the media’s partly but, yes, also at least in part, our party’s. There’s no doubt that we’re not getting the coverage that the largest third force in the House of Commons deserves and I strongly suggest that editors, producers, reporters, guest bookers etc should have a default position of seeking to book Lib Dems for all political panels, debates, and so so on.

I say ‘seeking’ because, and here’s the rub, I know at least from two national broadcast outlets, that they’ve sought to book a Lib Dem MP for a segment and been told that none is available. That might just about have been believable when we had just 8 MPs but we now have 72 and, as I said at the Social Liberal Forum Conference this Summer and to President (now also Lord) Mark Pack’s face and I think annoyance, we now have 72 MPs so there really can be no reasonable excuse for not putting someone up for interview.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged cabinet reshuffle, labour party conference, liberal democrats and press coverage | 26 Comments

Mathew on Monday: Patriotism, flags, and motive

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 1st September 2025 - 4:30 pm

Happy September 1st, folks.

And if it’s the first Monday in September, the return of Parliament, and the start of the new political season, it must mean the return of your favourite column by a Lib Dem, gay, Christian, (anti monarchist) Republican, Woke, progressive former Councillor… er, that’d be me then.

But seriously I’m delighted to be back in this space after a month off; rejuvenated, revitalised, and ready to give my forthright but hopefully also well informed and nuanced views about the Lib Dems and politics more widely as head towards Conference season, a possible Government reshuffle, the Budget, internal party elections, and lots more.

So, where to start?

Well, as we all know, the summer has been dominated by the issue of migration, small boat crossings, flags, patriotism, hotels, and protests. And what a deeply unedifying spectacle it had been.

Some in our country, in our media (both old and new) appear to have lost the ability to talk about potentially contentious issues in a way which deals with facts and from a place of care, rather than with falsehoods and from a place of hate.

On Saturday evening I made my debut on GB News. Now I appreciate that is very unlikely to be the channel of choice for most readers of this column, but we have to face the reality that lots of people do watch/listen to it and we as a party need to be trying to communicate with them as much as any body else; we shouldn’t just write them off as ‘not our people’ or ‘beyond the pale.’

I was chuffed to be invited on the debut edition of ‘Alex Armstrong Tonight,’ to talk about the flags issue. Or, more specifically, the alleged ‘hypocrisy’ of Lib Dem run Portsmouth City Council having apparently said that it’ll clean away the St George’s crosses painted on roundabouts in its locality whilst at the same time having previously agreed a rainbow pedestrian crossing.

On the programme I said, “In terms of the rainbow pedestrian crossing, that will have had to go through safety checks, and been agreed by the Council, and be voted on. That’s a bit different, isn’t it, to people taking it upon themselves to paint stuff on a roundabout.”

Later in the segment I said, “The rainbow flag represents diversity, it celebrates modernity, it celebrates the right to be different, and I just worry that there’s something much darker going on in terms of some of these people that are painting the St George’s Cross. I’m really concerned about it. I think it’s supposed to stoke fear, it’s supposed to stoke resentment, and I believe it’s starting to do that.”

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged carl cashman, immigration policy and pride | 4 Comments

Mathew on Monday: Head in my hands time!

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 28th July 2025 - 5:13 pm

So, God love our party but aaarrrggghhh sometimes it drives me crazy.

So, before I rant (I know…not like me at all, right?; LDV Editor: “Er, if you say so Mathew”), let me say that I do indeed love our party. I’ve been a member for fifteen years, I’ve been a Borough and Parish Councillor, am now a regular ‘Lib Dem commentator’ on various national broadcasters; the family that is our party has helped see me through the death of both of my parents and indeed my own near death illness earlier this year (special thanks to my friends and local Lib Dem Councillors in my patch Stuart Bray and Michael Mullaney for all of their support), and so when I’m sometimes critical-even very critical-of the party, it’s precisely because I love it that I want to see it at its best, defending the least, the last, and the lost, standing up against vested interests, overturning the tables of the establishment, defending LGBT+ equality and our hard earned civil liberties.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged nhs funding and resident doctors strike | 2 Comments

Mathew on Monday: That’s more like it, Ed!

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 21st July 2025 - 5:05 pm

I think our leader must be a regular reader of this column, or listener to my Political Frenemies podcast, or purveyor of my Twitter feed.

Because, for months now, in those outlets and more I’ve been calling for Ed to be making more of this unique political moment which gives our party the best opportunity for exponential growth since the modern founding of our party.

It had been the case, until last week, that apart from his appearance at PMQs Ed appeared to be doing comparatively little (in a public-facing sense at least); no platform speeches, not very many major media appearances, and so on.

And though, of course, I know he and our 71 other MPs are doing really important work on a host of issues; from holding this Labour government to account, to constituency work and delivering for their residents, the really harsh truth is that very little of that breaks through to the public, at least on a national level.

So it was with undiluted joy that, last week, not only did Ed do a full morning media round but then later gave a speech on a liberal approach to the economy to an audience at an Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) event in a speech entitled ‘A thriving economy in a turbulent world’, which I’m listening to whilst typing these words on this very wet Monday afternoon (certainly here in Leicestershire).

The main news story that emanated from Ed’s speech was the Lib Dem plan to halve energy bills by ‘breaking the link between gas prices and energy costs, so people can enjoy the benefits of cheap, clean power. This would halve bills and save families £870 a year on average.’

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged challenges for liberalism and immigration | 19 Comments

Mathew on Monday: Restore Christine Jardine to the front bench!

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 14th July 2025 - 5:28 pm

Well, that was all quite a shambles wasn’t it?

A political own goal if ever I’ve seen one. No, on this occasion I’m not speaking of Labour on welfare, the Tories on, well, pretty much everything, or Reform UK on its failing candidate vetting. I’m speaking of our leader Ed Davey’s sacking of Christine Jardine after she voted in line with our party’s values on a welfare amendment last week and, in doing so, nominally broke the party Whip which was (inexplicably) to abstain.

As a Lib Dem MP source said to me (in news I broke on my Substack the morning after) “this has been handled dreadfully.” The same MP answered in the affirmative when I asked them if there was significant disquiet about the issue in the Lib Dem Commons caucus. That matches cool anger among the party base; with Lib Dem Women writing to the Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain with their concerns and more than one hundred party members signing an open letter in less than twenty-four hours calling not only for Christine Jardine to be re-appointed as our Scotland and Women and Equalities Spokesperson but also for her to be given a formal apology over the handling of the matter. I’m proud to be one of the signatories of that letter.

Christine Jardine says she only learnt of her demotion from the media, that is surely disgraceful. The fact she’d been warned this might happen is not the same as being informed that it had. Our Whips/leadership need to do better.

And, on a further point, how can Ed Davey go from saying at a recent conference that Christine was “the best equalities spokesperson the party’s ever had” to sacking her from the role for voting in line with our party’s values?! It makes no sense whatsoever.

I don’t mean this negatively in regards to her replacements (which by the way were not given a formal announcement but just had their positions changed on the party website), that being Susan Murray as the new Scotland Spokesperson and Lisa Smart on Women and Equalities, but Christine Jardine should be restored to her prior roles without delay. And the leadership should ask themselves some very serious questions about how this whole matter has been handled and ensure nothing like it happens again!

We need to be loud in speaking up for civil liberties!

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged christine jardine, civil liberties and donald trump state visit | 17 Comments

Mathew on Monday – Social Insecurity: A right, not a handout!

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 7th July 2025 - 7:45 pm

On Saturday I spent the day just outside of Coventry, at the beautiful University of Warwick, at the Amnesty International UK Amplify Summit (incorporating its AGM and national conference). It was a fantastic day, full of fantastic speeches, workshops, and networking opportunities with hundreds of people who care passionately about the dignity and the human rights of all.

By far the most impactful session that I attended was called ‘Social Insecurity: Everyday Rights in 2025.’ This wasn’t about a situation in some far off place, which you may care a great deal about but doesn’t necessarily affect your own community. This was a session about the impact of government policies on some of the poorest and most vulnerable people right here at home.

Amnesty International UK have produced a truly damning report, entitled ‘Social Insecurity: The devastating human rights impact of social security system failures in the UK.’ It reminds us something which we often forget and that government ministers certainly don’t want people being reminded of: that social security is not a benefit, it is a right.

The report states:

The right to social security is outlined in Article 9 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), ratified by the UK in 1976 (by the then Labour government, it’s worth remembering).

It is also recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and other treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 102 (1952).

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged action on poverty, josh babarinde and NHS | 13 Comments

Mathew on Monday: Glastonbury, the Catholic Church, free speech and the boundaries of Liberalism

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 30th June 2025 - 4:50 pm

Well, that was quite a weekend wasn’t it?

Firstly let me say that I’m no fan of Glastonbury. I don’t own a pair of wellies, and the idea of spending hours in a muddy, potentially damp field fills me with dread.

When I saw Elton John at Grace Road in Leicester almost a decade ago, I did so from the comfort of a VIP box and I watched Sting live at the very posh Atlantis Palm in Dubai. I’m far from posh (I’m a proud Working Class lad… honest) but I’ll admit to preferring comfort over muddy fields and camping.

But I know lots of people enjoy Glastonbury, whether in person or via TV and Radio. And I know that it’s always had a bit of an edge. It attempts to do mainstream (Dame Shirley Bassey, Rod Stewart etc) alongside the very alternative (this year including the controversial Kneecap and Bob Vylan) and that’s a potentially very tricky tightrope to walk… especially when you throw in that it’s being covered live (or, at least, as live) by good old Auntie, on BBC TV and BBC Radio Two (and you don’t get much more middle England than that).

BBC management tied itself up in knots about what to broadcast and what not to. It decided not to stream Kneecap live, for fear of in-PC outburst but did carry Vylan live which proved to be, well, depending on your point of view I suppose, not exactly the best decision ever made by the Beeb.

A number of very controversial things were said, including the apparent incitement of death against the Israeli Defence Force.

Posted in Op-eds | 10 Comments

Mathew on Monday: Why are we sitting on the fence on America’s strikes on Iran?

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 23rd June 2025 - 4:37 pm

Sometimes our party or, at least, its leadership, leaves me with my head in my hands. This past weekend and, indeed, today is one such occasion.

On Wednesday at Prime Minister’s Questions, or deputy PMQs as it was as Starmer was at the G7 in Canada, our own deputy leader Daisy Cooper reminded the House of Commons of the Lib Dems brave and right leadership of the opposition to the Iraq War back in 2003 and warned against the UK once again backing another United States misadventure in the Middle East.

Well all I can ask is: what happened between Wednesday and Sunday? Did we think the UK should oppose action against Iran when it was only a theoretical idea? Has Ed overruled Daisy? Or have our leadership as a collective had a case of the jitters and (as always, some might argue) are they running scared of Tory voters in the shires?

The statement our leader put out yesterday managed to basically use up quite a number of words to absolutely nothing at all.

Do we support the action? No answer.

Do we oppose it? No answer.

We are sitting on the fence, yet again, when we could be, in the spirit of Charles Kennedy, leading the opposition to a President of the United States who is chaotic, unhinged, and who is riding roughshod over Congress and the usual way things are conducted.

A convicted felon who cares not one jot about checks, balances, and due process, who cares only about himself and his agenda. He apparently doesn’t even care about his own MAGA base to whom, pre election, he made very clear his opposition to American military participation in other people’s wars and who stridently made clear that, in his view, America should not act as the world’s policeman.

Then again, Trump is using the American military against U.S. citizens using their first amendment right to protest his disgraceful stances on immigration including ‘deporting’ U.S. citizens (which is rightly being challenged in the courts).

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged defections, iran and larry the cat | 11 Comments

Mathew on Monday: We must never deny the importance of soft power

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 16th June 2025 - 4:35 pm

No one can deny the reality that we live in an increasingly dangerous world.

Russia’s attempted invasion of Ukraine. Israel’s war with Hamas. The dangerous stand off between Iran and Israel. Ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. The Democratic Republic of Congo. And on and on.

With the benefit of hindsight how foolish it now seems for the political scientist Francis Fukuyama to have declared, in an at the time much lauded book in 1992, the ‘end of history.’ The argument that, with the conclusion of the Cold War, Western liberal democracy had won the battle of ideas and beaten autocracy; as he wrote, ‘not just… the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: That is, the end-point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalisation of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.’

If only, eh?

Less than a decade later such a theory began to be tested to distruction with the 9/11 attacks on American power by Islamist terrorists and the subsequent ‘war on terror.’. Two decades on from that, the world, as noted above, whilst not quite in flames is certainly more dangerous and uncertain than since the end of the Cold War if not longer.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged geopolitics, honours system and wealth taxes | 4 Comments

Mathew on Monday – When is a campaign win not actually a win?

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 9th June 2025 - 4:30 pm

As I type these words early afternoon on this fine June Monday, the big political story dominating the headlines and the airwaves is more details on the government’s at least partial u-turn on winter fuel payments for pensioners.

The top story on the BBC website as I write this is ‘More than 75% of pensioners to get winter fuel payments as Reeves confirms major u-turn.’ The sub-head reads, ‘Pensioners in England and Wales with an annual income below £35,000 will now be eligible, reversing one of the government’s first major policies.’

Liberal Democrats are claiming this as a campaign win, understandably given how often Ed Davey has spoken about the issue at PMQs, not to mention campaigners across the country raising this matter locally and having it raised with them on the doorstep. I myself have dutifully repeated the party line on this when doing political punditry on TV.

But here’s the thing: are we right on this or are we actually mistaken?

Consider this for a moment. The changes announced by the Chancellor today means that a pensioner couple on a combined £70,000 a year will now get the winter fuel payment. As the i paper’s housing correspondent Vicky Spratt has said on social media today,

This is going to become increasingly harder to justify when young adults in work who earn less receive no support at all despite having higher housing costs.

before going on to say,

Winter fuel changes (those originally announced last year) may be an example of a good policy that was communicated very badly by Labour. Why didn’t they consult properly and discuss thresholds before dropping the announcement? The whole thing is such an obvious own goal.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged ambulances, intergenerational inequality, podcasts and winter fuel payment | 14 Comments

Mathew on Monday – When will the Lib Dem leadership defend immigration?

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 2nd June 2025 - 4:30 pm

A quote from a speech given this past week:

But let us say this clearly.
This country could not survive without immigrants. It requires immigration. This continent requires immigration if we are to prosper. I ask you. In the 1960s who drove the buses that kept this city moving.

Immigrants.

Who kept the factories running when there was labour shortages like my grandfather who worked in the Singer sowing machine factory in Clydebank?

It was immigrants.

Today when our loved ones need care be that in the NHS or our social care system who is there propping up our vital public services?

Immigrants.

When the crops need picking, the parcels need delivering, and the children need teaching who’s ready and willing to put in the hard graft?

Immigrants.

The truth is this country doesn’t just benefit from immigration, though it does.
It needs immigrants.

I’d love to be able to say that this powerful, full-throated defence of immigration and immigrants was made by a Lib Dem leader/MP/MSP etc. But it wasn’t. It was made by SNP MSP and former First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf.

And three cheers for him for what was an important, timely, and, in the current political climate, really rather brave contribution to a national conversation which often sees political leaders (current or former) on a race to the bottom of the barrel and grasping for increasingly insulting and dehumanising rhetoric which shames our nation.

When I saw the clip of Yousaf’s speech it got me thinking. When was the last time any prominent Liberal Democrat made a similarly clear, strong willed, and heartfelt defence of immigration? Anyone remember?

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged human rights, immigration and LGBT rights | 15 Comments

Mathew on Monday – Will we nail the final nail into the Tory coffin?

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 26th May 2025 - 4:32 pm

Here lies the deceased. The Conservative Party, 1834-2025.

Or, to borrow from a certain former Prime Minister who encouraged the use of a handbag in less than diplomatic negotiations,

This is an ex-parrot. It is not merely stunned. It has ceased to be, expired, and gone to meet its maker. It is a parrot no more. It has run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is a late parrot.

That of course was Margaret Thatcher speaking to the Tory Party conference, about the Lib Dems and our then new party symbol, “a bird of some kind” as she described it, in 1990.

Of course ironically it would in fact be herself who was (politically) defenestrated just a few weeks later when her own Cabinet turned on her and she stood down as Conservative leader and Prime Minister. Be careful what you wish for, some might say.

If any party knows about coming very close to its own political death it is the Lib Dems and our predecessor parties, sometimes reduced to just a handful of MPs. But, as our former leader Tim Farron likes to say, we Lib Dems are like cockroaches… almost impossible to kill us off.

It’s taken a decade since we were given a right royal kick in 2015 after our first time in UK-wide government since Liberal leader Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair served as the Secretary of State for Air in Churchill’s war time national Cabinet, but under Ed Davey’s steady leadership, punctuated by the occasional cringeworthy stunt to garner attention from a Westminster press pack who seem to have permanently forgotten that we even exist, we are back in a strong position on which we can and must build.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged bank holidays, conservative party and nick clegg | 21 Comments

Mathew on Monday – An opportunity is opening up for Lib Dems…will we take it?

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 19th May 2025 - 5:00 pm

We live in strange political times. Polarised politics, suffocating social media, a faltering economy. People want certainty in an age of ever swifter geopolitical change.

Some fall for the easy answers of the hard Right and the uncompromising Left. Where does that leave the moderate Centre? Sat on the fence? Stuck in the middle of the road, primed to become roadkill? Never prepared to give an opinion or pick a side? Always waiting to see which way the wind blows before choosing a direction of travel?

That is certainly how some see us. Are they wrong? Are we just the least worst option? A protest vote? Can a party which once saw in its ranks (even if not at the same time) both Darren Grimes (right-wing media regular and now a Reform deputy County Council leader) and Zack Polanski (now deputy leader of the Greens and running to lead that party on an unapologetically eco-Left agenda) really believe in anything? Are we just a blank canvas on which anyone can paint their particular brand of politics and sell it as Liberalism?

Posted in Op-eds | 35 Comments

How should Ed handle PMQs?

By Mathew Hulbert | Sun 28th July 2024 - 8:30 am

Fantastic, wasn’t it?

Seeing Ed Davey rise on Wednesday lunchtime to ask the first of two questions to the Prime Minister, as the leader not only of the third largest Commons caucus but of the biggest third party presence in our Parliament’s elected chamber for a century.

The first time a Liberal leader has been able to do so since pre-Coalition Nick Clegg in the early months of 2010.

Ed, rightly, went on carers and social care; an issue personal to him and to countless families across the country.

A serious leader asking about a serious issue.

But the question which appeared to get the most media attention after the session was actually asked by the SNP leader in Westminster, Stephen Flynn.

Now reduced, as the leader of the fourth biggest group, with just nine MPs, to an occasional question (where we were just a few short weeks ago), Flynn-an accomplished media performer, whatever we may think of his politics-asked about the big domestic political issue of the week; the very controversial two child benefit cap.

It got me thinking.

What should be the Lib Dems PMQs strategy?

What should our leader’s advisers be advising?

To stick to our own agenda each week, regardless of whatever is the political headlines/controversies of the day?

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged ed davey and PMQs | 7 Comments

Why the Centre must hold

By Mathew Hulbert | Sun 22nd December 2019 - 2:20 pm

It’s easy, after an electoral setback such as that we suffered last week, to look for easy answers and quick solutions.

The truth is, there are none.

We need a proper analysis of what the raw data tells us and, yes, we need some soul searching about the prospectus we put to the people and the personnel (behind the scenes and in front of the cameras) that came up with and sold-or failed to sell-the message.

But on one thing, I argue, we can be clear. The Centre must hold firm.

As I prepare to enter my fourth decade (I turn forty on Leap Year Day 2020…or just ten in actual birthdays celebrated!), I’ve shifted my political thinking from when I first joined this party almost a decade ago.

Though my values and principles absolutely remain broadly Centre-Left, I no longer believe that ‘the Centre’ is-at best-some meaningless phrase or-at worst-a mushy middle which appeals to only a few. I now understand that the broad Centre (Centre-Right, Centre, and Centre-Left) is still where most voters are.

Of course, in elections, especially this one, given who the leaders of the two main parties were, it can feel as if the extremes are the new status quo. But most voters still want a government that’ll run a sound economy, deliver investment into public services, be a responsible player on the world stage, and do what’s right by the Climate.

Posted in Op-eds | 39 Comments

Being “tolerated’ is not enough

By Mathew Hulbert | Tue 9th July 2019 - 8:55 am

So, this past weekend I was reminded that there are still spaces where you’re vulnerable as an LGBT+ person and there are still people who believe that to be a gay man as I am, indeed to be any member of the Queer community, makes you somehow ‘wrong,’ somehow ‘broken,’ somehow not ‘normal.’This past weekend I was on a panel debating people who, because of their interpretation of their religion’s code, cannot ever accept, affirm and celebrate me for who I am and who I love.

I got told that I was to be ‘tolerated.’

I don’t wish to be ‘tolerated.’

‘Tolerated’ means that you’re not accepted or wanted, but people will put up with you if they have to.

I challenged these views robustly. ..and other tropes which I won’t repeat here, because of how offensive they are…but it reminded me that being publicly LGBT+, especially as an activist, can leave you in a very vulnerable position.

Now, other people at the event couldn’t have been more supportive, more gracious, more accepting.

I’m not sorry I took part.

Because if there’s no one there to challenge prejudiced views, how are they ever overcome?

But, I did come home and have a bit of a weep.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged LGBT | 11 Comments

We’ve come so far, but the fight for full equality for LGBT+ communities is far from being over

By Mathew Hulbert | Fri 2nd February 2018 - 11:55 am

We’re now on the second day of LGBT History Month 2018.

One of the things that makes me most proud to be a Liberal Democrat is our record on LGBT+ rights and equality.

We have, indeed, always been there on these issues…leading the way, with pioneering policies and brave advocates.

From campaigning for an end to discriminatory legislation such as Section 28, which barred the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools, to enacting Same Sex Marriage legislation during the 2010-15 Coalition Government (by far, in my humble opinion, the best thing we did in office)…thank you, Lynne Featherstone!

From LGBT+ Lib Dems, to activists, Councillors, Parliamentarians and Ministers, Lib Dems have, overwhelmingly, been on the right side of history when it comes to the need for full equality for all of our communities.

As a gay man, I’ll always be so, so proud that it was Lib Dems in government who helped to ensure I and millions like me became as near to fully equal under the law as we’ve ever been.

The Labour government which proceeded the Coalition also deserves a good deal of credit on this agenda, to be fair.

But until everyone is equal, none are equal.

We must remember that in one part of these islands, Northern Ireland, Same Sex Marriage is still illegal…as the DUP, which props up the UK Tory government, continues to block progressive change in the province.

And until trans and non-binary folks are respected and made equal under the law, then we Lib Dems still have much work to do.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged lgbt history month | 1 Comment

My speech to the Nottingham Rally for Europe

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 16th October 2017 - 3:30 pm

This is the speech I gave on Saturday to the Nottingham Rally for Europe.

I’m Mathew Hulbert.

Proud Leicestershire lad.

Proud East Midlander.

Proud Brit.

Proud European.

Proud internationalist.

And, yes, Mrs May, a proud citizen of nowhere.

Also, a proud Liberal Democrat.

Proud that my party-alone of the major parties-has remained resolutely Remain; before, during and after last year’s Referendum.

A Referendum, let’s not forget, that was called by David Cameron not to determine a soaring point of principle, but to get him out of a political tight corner; to appease the europhobic Right-flank of his party and counter the then popularity of UKIP.

So, let’s just consider that for a moment.

People’s lives, their jobs, their homes, our whole economy, were put at risk because of the internal machinations of the Tory party.

Never have so many been likely to lose out because of the actions taken by such a cowardly few.

And now Mrs May, who was supposedly Remain but her rhetoric of late favours a Hard Brexit, wasn’t able to tell a radio interviewer this week how she’d vote if the Referendum was held again today.

Well, she may not have the courage of what remains of her convictions, but I do.

I was Remain on June 23rd last year and I’m still Remain today.

I’m Remain not because the European Union is perfect-no human institution ever is-but because the EU has been the greatest man-made force for peace and for progress in human history.

Posted in News | Tagged brexit and mathew hulbert | 30 Comments

Mathew’s Musings 22 September 2017

By Mathew Hulbert | Fri 22nd September 2017 - 4:55 pm

I’ve been to the vast majority of both spring and autumn party conferences since I joined the Lib Dems back in March 2010 and I can honestly say I enjoyed the one that ended in Bournemouth, on Tuesday, the best.

I think I’m finally starting to work out the ebbs and flows of conference; when best to put in a speaker’s card with a chance of actually being called; when to take time out with friends and not fill your whole rota with yet another fringe meeting (as good as they almost always are); how to network with like-minded fellow travellers to push a cause/campaign, and so on.

Like many of us, when I first went to Conference (Birmingham, Autumn 2011) I was overawed by seeing MPs (we had more of them then) and Ministers (yes, we had them too) I’d only previously seen on TV…and you could actually go up and talk to them (and the nicer ones would even reply.)

I was pleased, in Bournemouth, to grab a few words with Tim Farron in the Conference bar on one of the evenings.

I told him how sorry I was that he’s no longer our leader and that he’s a good man with much more to contribute to our cause.

His ex-leader’s platform speech reminded me (though I didn’t need to be) just what a talented orator he is

And, yes, as ever with a Tim Farron speech, I shed some tears whilst in the hall listening to it.

Tim has the ability, when speaking, to touch people’s hearts…that talent must continue to be put to the good of the party.

Vince Cable’s speech didn’t make me cry, but it was statesmanlike, full of vision and direction, but also with a clear economic message which-unique among our current Commons team-Vince is perfectly placed to provide.

There is always a danger, especially for us, that our Conference sees us talking to ourselves but getting little to no coverage beyond the Conference walls.

I hope Vince’s speech, at least, got and gets a wide airing.

It is a message that will inspire liberals and social democrats across party lines and those with, currently, no party affiliation.

The road back, for us, is a long one…but, with Vince at the wheel, we have steady hands and a sensible head to take us along the next part of the journey.

And, the bad news…<

After such a great party conference, it was disappointing to see our latest Party Political Broadcast.

I know some members like it…and it may play well in hipster London, but in vast swathes of the country, I venture, people will be left untouched

The whole appeal of Vince Cable is that he’s a serious man for serious times.

We should be redoubling on that message at every opportunity, not seeking ways to ‘promote’ what he’s not.

He’s not (particularly) hip or ‘down with the kids.’

He’s serious, he’s statesmanlike, he’s an ideas man.

I’m all for ensuring voters know about the rounded personality of leaders…such as Vince enjoying dancing and skiing, but basing a whole PPB around the hat that Vince wears, I personally think is just a bit naff.

That we (I assume) spend not inconsiderable amounts of money for ‘professionals’ to come up with such guff, really does make you wonder.

The new PPB is like a clique which most people don’t belong to and end up just feeling alienated against.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged mathews musings | 8 Comments

Mathew’s Musings: Commentary on this week’s news

By Mathew Hulbert | Sat 26th August 2017 - 9:27 am

Who speaks for the poor?

Of all of the words spoken, written and broadcast in our public discourse this week, a fifty minute oration stands head and shoulders above the rest.

It was a speech made by the anchor of ITN’s Channel 4 News, Jon Snow; who I certainly believe is probably the best journalist active in the UK media today.

He was in Edinburgh to give the 2017 MacTaggart Lecture at the city’s annual Television Festival.

Mr Snow’s theme was that a media elite…just like elites in politics, the law and so on, but arguably more important due to just how influential the media is today…is disconnected from large swathes of those it broadcasts and publishes to, especially the poorest and most vulnerable people in our society.

His address, to a hall of media professionals, is the most powerful I’ve heard in years.

Time and again he spoke truth to power…even when that truth asked serious questions of him and his profession.

Clips from it, rightly, did the rounds on social media but the speech in its entirety deserves a wide viewing/reading.

It really is worth 50 minutes of your time:

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged mathews musings | 7 Comments

Mathew’s musings…Commentary on this week’s news

By Mathew Hulbert | Fri 11th August 2017 - 5:00 pm

A climate of denial

It was good to see former U.S. Vice President Al Gore in the UK yesterday, for the British debut of his new film ‘An Inconvenient Sequel’ and he was touring the broadcast media studios to promote it.

Mr Gore is one of the most knowledgeable and trustworthy non-scientist voices on the impending doom that is man-made climate change and the urgent changes we need to make to stop it.

He’s dedicated his post-political life to raising this worldwide issue and using his significant platform and very high profile to encourage today’s political leaders to ensure it remains at the top-or very near it-of the agenda.

Sadly, due to Brexit and the ‘election’ of Donald Trump, this most important issue we all face-impending and potentially life-threatening catastrophic global warming-has increasingly been an also-ran in our political debate and news agenda.

That’s why this latest film from Gore and his team-a follow-up to his 2006 documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’-couldn’t be timelier or more needed.

In an interview with the excellent LBC mid-morning presenter James O’Brien yesterday Gore alleged that the BBC are ‘Climate Change deniers’ due to them embracing a ‘false equivalency’ between experienced and knowledgeable experts on the subject-such as himself-and those he alleges (and it’s hard to disagree with him) of being deniers…such as former Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Nigel Lawson.

The ‘Today’ programme team, on BBC Radio 4, put Lawson up against Gore yesterday morning…as if they are both of equal standing on the issue when they quite clearly are not.

As I pointed out in a recent piece in The New European newspaper, by seeking ‘balance’ BBC News (and, to be fair, other broadcasters) often actually give greater weight to one side/point of view than its merits deserves.

They skew true debate.

This is one such case.

95-plus per cent of climate scientists agree that the global warming we’re experiencing is down to the actions and gross irresponsibility of human beings.

How dare the BBC give equal weight, respectability and air-time to echo-chambers of the tiny minority who try and argue that climate change isn’t man-made?

I’m all for the representations of minorities, usually, but, in this case, the BBC is deeply irresponsible for creating an equivalency which demonstrably doesn’t exist.

Do I think the BBC is institutionally climate change denying? No, I don’t.

But do I think they need to look seriously and urgently at their version of ‘balance’? Yes, I very much do.

Climate change is real. It is, overwhelmingly, caused by the actions of human beings. We, all of us and especially political leaders and governments, must do all in our power to stop it.

Before it’s too late.

Doing sweet FA

Last weekend I watched an excellent-but soul-destroying documentary on BBC Two (I love the BBC, by the way, I just get annoyed when it lets itself down…re my commentary above.)

It saw the former Welsh rugby captain Gareth Thomas, a hero of mine who I was fortunate to meet a number of years ago, one of the first UK professional sportsmen to come out as gay, exploring homophobia in football and what, if anything is being done to stop it.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged mathews musings | 13 Comments

Mathew’s Musings – commentary on this week’s news

By Mathew Hulbert | Fri 4th August 2017 - 9:23 pm

No s***, Brexit

This week, two significant individuals have told various truths about the impending catastrophe that is Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union and have both faced ridicule and scorn for daring to do so.
Firstly Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, expressed the statement of the obvious that uncertainty due to Brexit is already having a negative effect on the UK’s economy.

Well, no s*** Sherlock.

The growth forecast has been revised down and the pound has fallen.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged mathew hulbert | 13 Comments

Op-eds

Mathew on Monday: Starmer’s resignation and an increasingly ungovernable country (Mathew Hulbert)
Fairness First: Why Wealth Taxes Are a Natural Fit for the Liberal Democrats (Tom Walker)
Starmer goes, and the uncertainty returns… (Mark Valladares)
Why did the Welsh Liberal Democrats underperform? (Elsie Jones)
The next General Election Manifesto should commit to joining the EU (Nick Hopkinson)

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Author Archives: Mathew Hulbert

Labour…the real nasty party!

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