Author Archives: Theo Rodwell

Theo Rodwell

We are being held hostage by the Tory voters who have lent us their vote

By Theo Rodwell | Wed 17th June 2026 - 12:32 pm

How many people reading this article have been sat at a house party in the north – and when the conversation gets onto politics (which it usually does), no other attendees know a single thing about the Liberal Democrats. Attendees aged eighteen, nineteen, twenty who have not got a clue about what we stand for, a single policy, except, maybe Davey’s stunts.

I tell them I support the Liberal Democrats, and a true response I once got was, “is that the orange one?”.

This is where we are standing with the youth, and hey, a lot of the older generations too.
I asked myself, ‘why is this?’ Why are we not cutting across while the Greens came from absolutely nowhere and are dominating the conversation? Sure, you may say the charisma of Zack Polanski, but to me, he is just a raving populist – unachievable goals matched with undeliverable promises. Love him or loathe him, it’s as Polanski stands for something distinct, that has led the Greens to craft an identity that has got them into the national conversation.

From this I then came to the conclusion – we have no identity. There is no attempt to create an identity. This is as we are being held hostage by the Tory voters who have lent us their vote – the leadership is too scared to announce a truly bold, a truly liberal policy, in fear of disappointing the southern Tory voters who have voted for us in the last big sets of elections. I may not have the same life experience you have, but I do know not to trust someone to stay with me who went against me for most of their lives.

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