Author Archives: Tom Sutton

Tom Sutton

It’s not about moving left or right; it’s about sticking to our Liberal values: A reply to Buddy Anderson

By Tom Sutton | Mon 28th October 2024 - 12:48 pm

As much as I disagreed with it, I actually read Buddy Anderson’s recent article with significant intrigue. I am glad that the conversation of “Where do we go now?” has appeared so suddenly after the election, cementing our position now rather than to fight the next election and all preceding contests in local government on the proverbial hop. I am also glad that we can do this with respect and candour, as it shows our better nature as a party. So, now I have had time to think about it, I wanted to respond with my opinion that a tacit suggestion of moving the fiscal dial one or two notches to the right would be a misstep, both nationally and locally for our party. It’s not what the electorate wants of us, and it would not do us much good, and I shall seek to explain why.

What led to the reward of 72 seats, mostly at Conservative expense, and most crucially how do we continue that into the future? That is the main question of this debate. Ultimately the 2024 manifesto was quite “economics-lite” to criticism from some quarters, but what was there was unquestionably progressive: shifting the tax burden from workers onto wealth and big business, meaningful action on the cost of living and the same on green investment. We are a party of market economics, yes. But I am reminded of something Tim Farron told John Harris from The Guardian in 2010: “No market is genuinely free unless it’s fair”. I don’t really see that as a centre-right statement, but it sums up the essence of our philosophy.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 13 Comments
Tom Sutton

We do know the answers: How we find our feet for 2024

By Tom Sutton | Wed 13th May 2020 - 3:00 pm

It can almost be universally agreed that 2019 (until the end) was ‘the year’ to be a Liberal Democrat. We saw a Local Election renaissance and won seats hand over fist (sadly not mine in Lancaster), we walked the Euro Elections with a 1500% increase in seats and won over defectors galore. But by December, we lost our leader, many of our MPs and missed most of our target seats. I think we have to be frank about the state of British Liberalism; however, I believe solace can be found in our prior success and our ability as a Party to reflect on failure and adapt.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 12 Comments
Tom Sutton

Why I’ve just joined the Liberal Democrats

By Tom Sutton | Fri 27th May 2016 - 10:25 am

Hello! My name is Tom Sutton and I am a 16-year-old student from the Wirral Peninsula near Liverpool currently sitting my GCSEs and I want to just explain what brought me to the party.

I have been interested in politics since I was about 8 or 9. I was a Labour supporter who liked Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. This was probably due to the fact that my parents owned a rather successful business during that period so I personally saw prosperity under their rule. I always said my favourite PM was Brown because in my mind, he managed to prevent national bankruptcy during the dark days of recession.

When the 2010 Election came along, I was hoping for another majority or a Lab-Lib Coalition as the Lib Dems were my second favourites. This to me seemed feasible after the result but it went differently. So I spent the last 5 years of my life calling the Tories fit to burn. However, I was indifferent to the Lib Dems. That indifferent, I would often forget they were there as you could’ve easily thought there was a Tory majority!

The same thing occurred at the 2015 Election and I hoped that the electorate would “see sense” as I was livid with Tory policies such as the Bedroom Tax and the GCSE reforms and thought we needed real change. Then the result came and it was a shock. What the biggest shocks for me were the colossal drop in Lib Dem seats and the massive rise in SNP seats. I felt the Lib Dems’ pain, but I still supported Labour.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 19 Comments
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