Author Archives: Anonymous Liberal

Opinion: Step forward true liberals

By Anonymous Liberal | Tue 21st January 2014 - 12:10 pm

Males

True liberalism is hard. Sometimes we don’t understand this. Lacking an urgent, reformist edge, we let others define us. Our milder critics used to style us sandal-wearing fruitarians who knitted their own CND badges. Hostile tabloids called us dangerous deviants.

Oddly, we were comforted by these perceptions. Underlying them was a sense that Liberals are relaxed and open to all-comers. But this vision of our tolerant Party has two problems.  Tolerance can degenerate into shoulder-shrugging passivity and turning a blind eye. And we’re not that open anyway.

We’re a Party of ageing, white males. Just like we used to be.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 49 Comments

Opinion: A letter to Michael Gove

By Anonymous Liberal | Fri 17th January 2014 - 11:30 am

Dear Michael,

I hope this finds you well.

A confession.

Unlike Paxman, I’m a fan.

You’re an unusual Tory with unusual origins. And your passion to change education is laudable.

The 1960s Crosland reforms, implemented by your mentor Mrs Thatcher, were supposed to promote social mobility. The reality is mixed. Overall literacy and numeracy have improved. Higher education has become more accessible across class, gender and race.

But this has come at a cost. Some think general mediocrity is better than a few attaining excellence while the majority attain little. I think it’s still mediocrity. Employers lament school-leavers’ inadequate skills. Our performance in the Pisa education …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 23 Comments

Opinion: Mandela’s moral greatness

By Anonymous Liberal | Sat 7th December 2013 - 12:30 pm

Nelson Mandela’s political legacy is too great, too various, to summarise in a single post. But for me he represents a core insight.

For a revolutionary political idea to thrive, it must not be consumed by the very zeal it ignites.

This is not to underestimate the importance of Mandela’s cause. And it is sobering to think that, two hundred years after the Enlightenment’s high watermark, the rightness of that cause was not at all self-evident to the greater part of white South African opinion, any more than Rosa Parks’s validity as a person with rights was self-evident to George Wallace.

Rather, it …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged | 3 Comments

Opinion: Liberalism is radicalism

By Anonymous Liberal | Mon 2nd December 2013 - 5:42 pm

Though cheered by Nick Clegg’s letter on Liberal principles, I balked at being “slap, bang in the liberal centre”.

Though not his intention, “centre” always suggests equidistance between left and right. It implies reasonableness. And everyone knows politics is a contest for the centre ground. We live there. We win.
Except this conflates two unhelpful metaphors.

When Labour and Conservatives contest the centre ground it doesn’t make them Liberals. Rather they’re engaging with popular (often illiberal) sentiment, metaphorically located somewhere between them, in order to succeed electorally. If strong, they cajole that sentiment towards a programme. If weak, they appease it.

Our supposed …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 30 Comments

Opinion: Let many flowers bloom (though not too many Flowers)

By Anonymous Liberal | Mon 25th November 2013 - 9:51 am

The Cooperative scandal, it’s got the lot.

Sex + drugs + religion + money = media feeding frenzy.

Liberals mustn’t join in too much. Especially where mutual ownership and public services are concerned.

Like the Cooperative Bank, most mutuals and co-ops operate in market conditions. Unlike it, most are small. In public service, as free collaborations, mutuals provide an alternative to collective state monoliths. In commerce, properly run, they avoid public companies’ shareholder short-termism. Indeed, in some ownership models, they confer real power on consumers. The Cooperative Party gives Labour significant reach across mutual enterprises. But it doesn’t control all …

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

Recent Comments

  • David S
    Re: "We shouldn’t tell murderers how to live their lives?"–The very first paragraph of Kobe's message said "As long as they don't hurt anybody else." I feel...
  • expats
    By Kobe Bibbon | Thu 8th October 2026 - 3:03 pm..............We are all sickened to see what is happening in Gaza- there is no doubt about that. These horrendou...
  • David Allen
    I don't think the tech bros will want to - or have any viable way to - separate "useful" applications, like medicine or data storage, from "problem" application...
  • David S
    Miranda: The right of nations to exist is the fundamental bedrock of international law. If nations do *not* have the right to exist, what that means is that any...
  • paul barker
    I have seen figures suggesting that Data Centres currently planned would triple UK Electricity consumption, that is not remotely comparable with slowing our con...