Author Archives: Prue Bray

Editor’s Note: In November party members will be voting to elect our next Party President. At Lib Dem Voice we welcome posts from each of the candidates – one to launch their candidature plus a maximum of one per week during the actual campaign. The online ballot closes TOMORROW, 11 NOVEMBER AT 14:00.

When I decided to stand for President of the Liberal Democrats, it was because I had something to say about where I thought the party needed to change to be more effective but also to become a better and happier place for members.

My campaign messages have been about working together instead of in silos, about involving people more in the decisions that are made, about strategy planning, and about spreading knowledge and information in better ways. In other words, about cultural change, and how I would bring it about.

There have been some striking examples in the last few weeks of why these changes are necessary, starting with one very obvious one: the limited number of members who are even aware that the federal elections are taking place. The Presidential candidates and our teams have attended over a dozen hustings, have written articles for Lib Dem Voice, posted in various party Facebook forums, produced manifestos and websites, and videos, distributed literature, phoned members, answered emails and attended conferences. And yet we have reached only a fraction of the membership. Contacting members in local parties up and down Great Britain has revealed that many of them, perhaps the majority, did not see – or remember – any emails about the elections, and were completely oblivious to the fact they were taking place.

Of course, not everyone wants to participate, but we need to do better in making sure people know what is going on. We pride ourselves on our internal democracy, but how representative is it if only a minority engage with it? It’s not just the federal elections that show email and the website by themselves are not enough. I have lost count of the number of people who have given me other examples. How do we do better? More information for local social media pages and groups to spread, more phone calls, more pieces of paper through doors, more knocking on doors, and – where we can afford it – more direct mail. In other words, treat contact with our members like contact with our voters. It’s not rocket science. But it does involve hard work, at least to start off with.

A second example of why these changes are necessary is what has happened over the diversity quotas in the elections. Trans and non-binary members and especially trans and non-binary candidates have been let down. There has been poor communication of what was going on. Reactive, not proactive action. Lack of strategic planning. A big blow to our values. A big blow to the sovereignty of conference. Such a lot of negativity – but there is hope too.

Editor’s Note: In November party members will be voting to elect our next Party President. At Lib Dem Voice we welcome posts from each of the candidates – one to launch their candidature plus a maximum of one per week during the actual campaign.

Anyone who has attended a hustings, read our manifestos, looked at our websites (mine is https://prue4president.co.uk/ ) or has otherwise been following the internal federal Presidential election, will know by now that my vision for the role includes a significant focus on promoting more collaborative working more consultation, more co-operation, and more constructive engagement across the party.   

To some people those might seem soft and woolly and “nice to have”.   They are in fact crucially important for the future success of the party.   We are good at campaigning and in recent years, we have been good at winning elections.  But we could do so much better if we were all collectively pulling together in the same direction.   And that is not always the case.

In my view that is what the job of the President is about: getting the party into the best shape it can be to support campaigning.  In our enthusiasm for the politics and the campaigning, we sometimes forget that we are a multi-million pound organisation that has to be run properly and effectively so that the politics and the campaigning can also be effective.

The reason I am standing for President is that on too many occasions I have seen the negative impacts of failing to collaborate, failing to consult, failing to co-operate and failing to engage.  It holds us back, it makes us less effective, and it sometimes causes massive upsets. And one of those has happened this week.

In November party members will be voting to elect our next Party President. At Lib Dem Voice we welcome posts from each of the candidates – one to launch their candidature plus a maximum of one per week during the actual campaign.

In all the 30 years I have been a member of the Liberal Democrats, there has not been a time like this.  The rise of Reform, the resurgence of racism and hate, populism, nationalism and refusal to acknowledge facts are taking our country to a very dangerous place.  Never has it been more important for us to be a strong liberal voice, fighting for our values.   I am standing for President because I believe I have the skills and the experience to ensure we are and continue to be that strong liberal voice.

This is not just a fight for seats at Westminster, important though it is that we build on our amazing 2024 election result.  The rise of Reform goes beyond Westminster and we are already seeing their impact on people’s lives in the areas of the councils they control.  We must ensure we maximise a liberal presence in the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd next year.  In England, the Labour government is reshaping local government to concentrate power in the hands of strategic mayors, and we need to campaign effectively in those contests, as well as in local elections generally.  We saw earlier this year at the local elections that the collapse of the traditional Labour and Tory vote has led to Reform taking control of councils.  But we also saw that where the Lib Dems are active and campaigning we can beat Reform.   

The job of the President is to make sure the party is in the very best shape it can be to fight that fight, and that all members of the party are able to contribute to it.  Our party’s strength lies in its members, your skills, your enthusiasm, and your dedication.  It is not always straightforward to navigate the party’s systems and processes, to find out what’s going on or how you can help.  Some improvements have been made in recent years but we need to make it much easier for people to engage.  That would be one of my priorities.

I believe that we stand the best chance of success if we are true to our liberal values, not just in our policies and campaigns but also in the way we run the party.  As long ago as the party’s 1997 manifesto, our aim was to build a nation of self-reliant individuals, living in strong communities, backed by an enabling government.  That is also the vision I have for our party internally.