Category Archives: Op-eds

Caron Lindsay

Some thoughts on the art of the apology

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 21st May 2015 - 2:10 pm

It is undoubtedly a good thing that Richard Brett, the Chair of the English Candidates Committee has sent out an apology to candidates for the very poor tone of the email they received on Monday. But did it pass muster?

Initial reports suggest that it is not being particularly well-received by candidates. You know how in an email you have to hook people in that first sentence? I’m not sure that this quite cuts it:

I am aware that the e-mail sent out on Monday upset some of you with its tone and I am very sorry if this was the case for you.

It doesn’t exactly say “I’m sorry you were upset”, but it’s a bit stilted. Sometimes it’s best to just say something like: “We got this wrong, and we are very sorry. We will learn for the future.”

Commendably, though, it explicitly stated what we knew already that the wording had absolutely nothing to do with the member of staff who sent it out, but had been agreed between Richard and his vice-chair Margaret Joachim. It’s good to see that personal acceptance of responsibility.

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13 Comments

Opinion: #libdempint shows new members are proud of our record in coalition

By Stuart Lambert | Thu 21st May 2015 - 1:10 pm

On Monday night, four friends and I (all new members) hosted #libdempint, an informal event for fellow newbies in London. The original plan was to meet up together and share a drink or two. We thought we might get a couple of random strangers come along and make pleasant but slightly awkward political conversation with us. Instead, we had 100 fellow newcomers attend, three official speakers (Rob Blackie, Elaine Bagshaw and Tom Brake MP), and a couple of pretty interesting gatecrashers – a couple of lovely fellows called Tim Farron and Nick Clegg.

Needless to say, we hadn’t really expected any of this. Interest in what we’d set up has been phenomenal – national media have been interested but more importantly our follow up event next week is already fully booked, and so we’re putting on a third in the coming weeks.

All of this speaks to the very real sense of (perhaps renewed) energy that abounds in the party at the moment, as thousands of new members continue to sign up.

But among the hundreds of email conversations the five of us have had with some of these newbies over the last 10 days, as well as the face-to-face discussions we all had on Monday night, something else has become clear to us: a common thread woven through the motives of many of these people signing up to support the Liberal Democrat party.

That thread is a palpable determination to not let the last five years be brushed under the carpet.  Many of the people I spoke to on Monday night expressed this with no little passion. There seems to be both a fear that the party may react by recoiling from its time in government, and a consensus that to do so would not only be a waste, it would send a signal that the party believes it made a mistake going into coalition. We didn’t. We made a difference. We must always – always – be proud of that.

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36 Comments
Craig Ling

Opinion: Fighting to win you back

By Craig Ling | Thu 21st May 2015 - 11:54 am

The Liberal Democrats and the public have been going through a messy divorce. Things haven’t been right for some time and there is no shying away from it.

Perhaps the problems started when we were unfaithful and began a fleeting affair with the Tories? And when the lies began, including over how to fund the children’s university education, it was clear that there had been a breakdown in trust which we were always going to struggle to repair (things are always more complex when kids are involved).

I know we didn’t pay you enough attention, preferring to spend time on the things that mattered to us likes Lords Reform and the AV referendum. Instead we should have tried to love the things that you were passionate about like making sure there were jobs for everyone, lowering the cost of living, putting food on the table and improving healthcare and schooling. They should have mattered to us, because they mattered to you. We should have taken you to the ballet, even though we loath it!

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Mathew Hulbert

LoveProudly: An interview with Stephen Donnan about the fight for Marriage Equality in Ireland (North and South)

By Mathew Hulbert | Thu 21st May 2015 - 10:54 am

Tomorrow Ireland votes on whether to allow equal marriage. I recently interviewed Stephen Donnan who is one of the founders of LoveProudly , a grassroots group dedicated to marriage equality across all of Ireland. He is also a former Chair of the LGBT group in the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.

Mathew: Stephen, tell us a bit about this new initiative.

Stephen: Well, basically, Mathew loveproudly was set up by myself and a number of other activists from Belfast, Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland to facilitate and support the calls for Equal Marriage in both Northern Ireland and in the Republic.

We want to promote and campaign for Marriage Equality and highlight the existing inequalities in the law in both jurisdictions, but in a positive and constructive way.

We don’t want to indulge in the campaign of fear and division; that isn’t what loveproudly is about and we want to follow in the example set by MarriageEquality and Equal Marriage NI.

MH: It sounds great, Stephen, so is this a cross-party campaign?

SD: It’s strictly independent of endorsing or being endorsed by any one political party.

I am not doing this within the confines of a political party, however we have had input and support from various political representatives across the spectrum and across the border.

MH: So what campaigning have you done and will you be doing?

SD: Our first aim was to get the message out about who we are and what we are aiming to achieve and I think we did that successfully when we launched on Valentine’s Day.

Our next step is formulating a plan with the two campaigns.

There is a Marriage Equality referendum in the Republic of Ireland on May 22nd and while we are optimistic we are still very far from an assured Yes vote.

We will be canvassing with the YesEquality campaign in the south and getting the word out on why a Yes vote is so crucial.

MH: How’s it looking in the Republic…and what influence has Equal Marriage having become law in England, Scotland and Wales had on people there?

SD: It is clear that we are living in changed times.

The recognition of same sex marriage in the rest of the UK, and in places as unimaginable as Slovenia and North Carolina, has had a massive impact on the debate here.

If Ireland and NI want to be seen as part of Europe, part of a diverse future where same-sex couples can celebrate their relationships freely and safely, then there’s nothing to lose from a Yes vote in the referendum.

Polls are showing that it will pass but that could lead to complacency and that would be fatal for us.

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Mohsin Khan

Opinion: Conservative health policies are short on detail

By Mohsin Khan | Thu 21st May 2015 - 9:13 am

What have the Conservatives said on health so far? Their manifesto makes big promises – but is vague on detail.

NHS England’s Five Year Forward View called for £8 billion more annually by 2020 (alongside £22 billion efficiency savings) to maintain NHS standards.

Liberal Democrats were the first to sign up to this – and we set out clearly how to fund it. The Conservatives matched this – but give no details on funding this other than the ‘recovering economy’.

Lamb also called for a (much-needed!) cross-party Review of NHS & Social Care funding.

David Cameron yesterday proposed 7-day hospital services and 7-day extended hours GP access, offering 5,000 extra GP’s.

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Nick Perry

Opinion: Now is the time for social liberals to organise, and quickly

By Nick Perry | Wed 20th May 2015 - 4:55 pm

A member for 13 years, this is only the fifth time (out of five) that I have been a candidate and lost; it’s only the ninth set of elections that I have been involved with, all of which have been characterised by losses.  I realise that I am only a beginner compared to many folk in this wonderful political family of ours.

In our part of the world, there are elections (of some form or other) almost every year.  And I admit, particularly after the results became clear last Thursday, to have started to flag a bit.

But as the days have gone by since polling day, I have gradually begun to take heart.

Much has been made of the encouraging numbers of people that are joining the party.  The era of everything being the Lib Dems’ fault is now well and truly over.  As a result of Nick’s gracious resignation, we have the opportunity of a leadership election in which we can, as a party, make an important decision about the future.

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Also posted in Leadership Election | Tagged and | 46 Comments
David Cooper

Opinion: The Human Rights Act – undemocratic and illiberal

By David Cooper | Wed 20th May 2015 - 3:50 pm

COE-Logo-Quadri

Liberals (with a small “L”) believe that society should not be governed by immutable dogma. New laws can be created when required and old laws changed or removed. Immutable revelation only applies to religion.

Not everyone believes that laws should be subject to the uncertainty of the democratic process. For decades the Soviet Union relied on the absolute principles of Marx and Lenin. Some religions provide God-given legal codes. But for liberals, laws are the work of humans and must be subject to democratic change.

It is therefore strange that the Liberal Democratics support the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which cannot be amended or corrected by our democratic process, or indeed any democratic process. Changes to its existing provisions must be unanimously agreed by members of the Council of Europe (which despite its name is completely independent of the EU): its 47 member states include countries as diverse as Russia, Turkey and Monaco.

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Jonathan Waddell

Opinion: What does Nick do next?

By Jonathan Waddell | Wed 20th May 2015 - 2:35 pm

Given our new position in parliament with eight MPs, we’ll be handing out multiple portfolios to whoever can possibly take them – and I suspect, Lords, AMs and MSPs as well, where necessary. This is by no means a bad thing. We have fantastic members in all parliamentary institutions, and the devolved ones in particular could do with being taken more seriously. The only issue being they cannot then hold their respective ministers to account. The main question that strikes me now though is with a more or less inevitable EU referendum and being the most unapologetically pro-EU party – who takes the EU portfolio?

It has been suggested that Nick could lead the ‘In’ campaign in such a referendum, I assume doing a similar job as Alistair Darling did for Better Together. On paper, I can’t imagine anyone more qualified despite the fact I don’t think any such unified campaign being a good idea. For the purposes of this article however, I’ll work with the idea. For the merits that are pointed out in the above article;

Throughout his time in government he was an enormous asset to Cameron in international diplomacy, especially – but not exclusively – with Europe. Foreign policy was never Cameron’s forte, either as leader of the Opposition or during his first term as PM. “Abroad” was where Cameron made most of his misjudgements – all by himself.

There are few people better qualified on foreign policy and in particular Europe than Clegg. I’m hesitant to mention Tony Blair, setting aside one major caveat, perhaps a close rivalry. For obvious reasons, Blair doesn’t even make the short list for such a hypothetical position.

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Eddie Sammon

Opinion: The right is winning on Facebook and votes, but the left on Twitter

By Eddie Sammon | Wed 20th May 2015 - 1:18 pm

facebook and twitterI have been thinking why it seems that right wing parties are more toxic than left wing parties. Is this true? Or is it simply my prejudices? Is there anything in the “shy Tory” phenomenon?

It does seem that popular culture is more left leaning, but I thought some numbers would help us understand society better and also help Liberal Democrats decide who to vote for in the upcoming leadership election.

For this analysis I have used the Facebook likes, Twitter followers and 2015 General Election votes for the following parties: Conservatives, UKIP, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Liberal Democrats, Labour, the SNP, The Green Party of England and Wales, the Scottish Green Party and Plaid Cymru. I didn’t use Sinn Fein because they campaign throughout the whole of Ireland and I didn’t use any other parties that I deemed to be “minor”.

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Mark Argent

Opinion: Thinking on a delusion

By Mark Argent | Wed 20th May 2015 - 10:34 am

On the morning after the General Election, feeling rather shell-shocked by the results, I turned on the radio and caught John Dowland’s lute song In darkness let me dwell. The music captured the feeling of the moment, but context was more thought-provoking: a Radio 4 programme The glass delusion, exploring a seventeenth-century phenomenon of people thinking they were turning into glass.

The link to Dowland was because melancholia was seen as a disease of the imagination. That flowering of melancholic music and the glass delusion were reflections of what was going on in society at the time.

Delusions are manufactured symptoms which make life bearable: they beg the question of what someone with a delusion is escaping from. Freud’s influential essay Mourning and Melancholia suggests that the two look very similar, but in mourning there is a clear sense of what has been lost, but in melancholia it is something unknown, or unacknowledged, so melancholia is more generalised.

This leaves me thinking about the election. We face some big issues: globalisation, climate change, the European Union, and the potential breakup of the UK. These were barely mentioned. Even talk of the NHS focused on money and fantasies of threats, ducking the real issues of increased life expectancy and fear of death.

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22 Comments
Dave Page

Introducing LGBT+ Liberal Democrats

By Dave Page | Wed 20th May 2015 - 8:55 am

lGBT+ lib dems logoNew members have been asking about Lib Dem organisations that they can join.  You are welcome to submit similar items on behalf of other organisations.

The Liberals were the first party to support gay rights in a general election manifesto. The Lib Dems opposed Section 28 from the start, were the first to call for legal gender recognition for trans people, literally wrote the law on civil partnerships and were the first major party to support same-sex marriage, which was pushed through in Government by Lynne Featherstone as Equalities minister.

It’s clear that as a party we’ve always been there for LGBT+ people, and we always will. Liberalism is inherently opposed to conformity, and our party is constitutionally supportive of people regardless of gender orsexuality. However, there is room for an organisation which proactively advances the cause of equality and liberation.

LGBT+ Lib Dems, like its predecessor organisations, exists to promote the needs of LGBT+ people. We have ensured that the Lib Dems have been ahead of professional organisations such as Stonewall. As a recognised party body we submit policy straight to the Conference floor. We help the Lib Dems get the details right to make the best difference to LGBT+ peoples’ lives.

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Also posted in Lib Dem organisations | Tagged | 5 Comments
Simon Horner

Opinion: “Britain isn’t a democracy – we can’t possibly say that!” Yes we can!

By Simon Horner | Tue 19th May 2015 - 3:33 pm

When I was at secondary school in the early 1970s, my history teacher was a man with a passion for his subject who always encouraged critical discussion. So while he taught us enthusiastically about British “democracy”, he was indulgent towards me when I challenged his assertion following the February 1974 election: the one where the Tories came top with 11.9 million votes (297 seats), Labour “won” with 11.6 million votes (301 seats) and the Liberals’ six million votes delivered 14 members of the House of Commons.

The reality is that the outcome of every election before and since 1974 has been unfair to a greater or lesser extent. Labour got more than nine times as many seats as the Liberal-SDP Alliance in 1983 with just 2% more of the vote. Tony Blair had a comfortable overall majority with 35.2% in 2005 while David Cameron fell well short five years later with 36.1%.

The 2015 election is more striking than most. The SNP got 95% of Scotland’s seats on just under half the vote. Each SNP MP represents roughly 25,000 voters while almost 3.9 million ballots were cast to get Douglas Carswell into Parliament. 51 of the 55 seats in South-West England are Conservative and Labour is the only other party with representation in that region.

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Paul Scriven

Paul Scriven writes… Be very clear about who we are

By Paul Scriven | Tue 19th May 2015 - 12:02 pm

From the off let’s be clear, the UK has a centre left party called the Labour Party and a centre right party too; the Conservative Party.

If this is the case then why are some in the Liberal Democrats talking about a move to the left and some a move to the right? I personally don’t get that debate.

Recent history shows that moving left is to build our party on the fickle quick sand of shifting political fashion. We tried to be a “left wing party” when Labour wasn’t popular and looked what happened. People didn’t come to us because we …

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Wayne Simmons

Opinion: Human rights? Don’t forget animal rights…

By Wayne Simmons | Tue 19th May 2015 - 11:23 am

 

It wasn’t a passion for human rights that attracted me to the Liberal Democrats, but animal rights.

Five weeks ago, I hadn’t even registered to vote. I’d given up on politics, but something about this election spoke to me and I suddenly wanted a say, rushing to get my name down just before the deadline.

But who to vote for?

I thought about what mattered to me. Animals mattered to me. We share the earth with them, yet often they come off worse in that deal. Their freedom’s been compromised. They need protection – more than often from us.

So, I got on the case. I e-mailed all the main parties, asking what they were doing to protect and promote the welfare of animals. The Lib Dems were the first to get back, highlighting the progress they’d made while in government. Working with farmers, retailers and consumers to ensure full compliance of the EU’s ban on battery cages; pressing the European Commission to properly enforce a ban on sow stalls and promoting EU rules to support a humane and sustainable farming system for animals across the board.

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David Green

Opinion: The passing of the torch

By David Green | Tue 19th May 2015 - 8:48 am

When I joined the Liberal Democrats, I told my family that I didn’t join for a job or for a career; sadly for too many that was the reality on 8th May.

We should thank, above all else, colleagues in HQ and around the country who campaigned tirelessly and with such dedication. They deserved much better and we owe them so much.

Charles Kennedy was straight off the mark with his thanks and in return I would like to thank him. Thank him for his service, for inspiring a generation of activists including myself, and for giving me the opportunity to work …

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Laura Willoughby

Opinion: Three opportunities for us to do better as a political party

By Laura Willoughby | Mon 18th May 2015 - 4:40 pm

Understanding what party membership and political volunteering really means to people in 2015

I have always felt that we have missed on all the learning from the voluntary sector about how to motivate and engage volunteers, but in 2015 we need to go even further than that. Just like the electorate we need to know a lot more about our members, their motivations, their skills and the ways they want to be useful.

Technology allows to engage all our members in different ways that are not bound by geography (which bearing in mind our lack of organisation in many local parties this …

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Jakub Kaliszewski

Opinion: The anti-Tory electoral alliance – a statistician’s look

By Jakub Kaliszewski | Mon 18th May 2015 - 3:14 pm

I’m a data analyst by trade – I’m no activist or political strategist, so I have little else to offer to the party other than analysis of the election results. And I have been playing with the data since the election, trying to figure out the most optimal way to stop the Tory juggernaut from taking over Britain.

I found there was one way to win these elections (or the next, if nothing changes) away from Tories. Not for the Lib Dems – it was far too late for that – but for the nation as a whole. A way practised in this country only in times of great national danger, but nothing out of ordinary on the continent, in countries like Germany, France or Netherlands: an electoral alliance.

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Dave Raval

Opinion: Politics as if we were in the 21st century

By Dave Raval | Mon 18th May 2015 - 2:12 pm

 

So, we’ve had a bounce of new members. The fight back begins and we’re planning how to make the Lib Dems strong again. All great stuff.

But hold on a minute. This is the biggest opportunity in my lifetime to change progressive politics for the better, and drag parties that were born in the 19th and 20th centuries into the 21st. But if we’re to grasp that opportunity, surely we need to think beyond just our own party?

I’ve written elsewhere about how the Liberal brand is weak – see: The Lib Dems need to appeal to people’s hearts, not their heads  – but more fundamentally, politics is weak. About a third of people don’t vote at all whilst many (a majority?) view politicians as self-serving, elitist or irrelevant to their lives. Even those who vote often do so without enthusiasm. Will all this be changed by a resurgence of the Lib Dem party alone? I doubt it will be sufficient.

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Kirsten Johnson

Opinion: My vision

By Kirsten Johnson | Mon 18th May 2015 - 1:10 pm

As a Parliamentary Candidate I received innumerable emails on a range of issues. One said:

Right, Kirsten. You’ve come into my house via your election pamphlet so here’s me coming into yours via an e-mail. I have a very simple request and that is for you to describe your personal vision (not a formulaic party response) for our country in 10 to 15 years’ time and your strategy for attaining that vision.

Many of us are tired of the same old party political machinations which focus solely on ‘buying’ votes via unachievable promises. I want to be inspired by someone who is able to rise above the unedifying scramble and who can paint a picture of a UK that will become admired.

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John Grout

Opinion: The Flame

By John Grout | Mon 18th May 2015 - 11:43 am

phoenixWe are rebuilding.  Nick Clegg said in his resignation speech that we face the task of nurturing the flame of British Liberalism.  But as we rebuild, what does – what should – British Liberalism mean?

This seems like something worth discussing.  We are a broad church with many roots: our forebears were Liberals and Social Democrats, but we incorporated the Pro-Euro Conservatives too, and many more of no former alignment.  So, we’ve got this flame of British Liberalism, and if the attitude of the party members and our spectacular membership surge are anything to go by, it shouldn’t be going out any time soon.

Right.  What does British Liberalism mean to me?  For me at least, two things spring immediately to mind before all else.

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Kirsty Burton

Opinion: Do voters really know what Liberalism is?

By Kirsty Burton | Mon 18th May 2015 - 10:37 am

 

Nick Clegg’s resignation speech made me cry. It really hurt. As a result, I became part of the post-election #goldsurge. The speech made me realise that I needed to do more than just vote and join the party, in order to support the cause for liberalism.

But wait… support “liberalism”?! I’ve never uttered that word before.

Before that speech, I didn’t identify with the word “liberalism”. From a marketing perspective (my professional experience is in social media marketing and content branding), the key “Unique Serving Point” of the liberal democrats is our fight for liberalism. That’s our contribution to the issues our country and the world face. Yet, I never once heard the word “liberalism” used throughout the whole 2015 campaign.

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Michael Wilson

Opinion: Though not a big presence in Parliament, our collective voice should be louder than ever

By Michael Wilson | Mon 18th May 2015 - 9:06 am

membership

 

It is eleven days after the election, and the wounds are still very much present. We have lost great fighters in our parliamentary party: visionaries, firebrands, wholehearted devotees to the Liberal vision for our country.

Though this loss has been devastating for our party and our morale internally, it has been even more debilitating for the country as a whole. Now, for the first time in 23 years, there is a Conservative majority government at our nation’s helm, and we are already seeing their vision for our country: snooping on our own citizens, denying us our human rights, and using the veil of extremism to obliterate free speech and crush religious groups who don’t agree with them.

This election has been the biggest disaster for Liberalism in the history of our country, and it is for that reason that this is not the time to sit back and lick our wounds – this is the time to stand up, brush ourselves off, and fightback.

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Caron Lindsay

What I did for IDAHOBiT

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th May 2015 - 8:54 pm

I know that some of you will know exactly what I’m talking about and others will be scratching their heads wondering. Today, 17th May, is what used to be called IDAHO Day, the International Day against homophobia. It’s now known in various ways, IDAHOT or the one I prefer IDAHOBiT, which explicitly mentions biphobia and transphobia, too.

This is the day when we celebrate those across the world who are doing their bit in their communities to make life better for lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex and transgender people. In the UK that is relatively easy. In many countries, though, you take your life in your hands. In much of the world, homosexuality remains illegal and is punishable by long-term imprisonment or even death. Being transgender puts you at much greater risk of violence or sexual abuse or murder.

We went into Edinburgh today to see an exhibition by South African social justice activist and artist Gabrielle Le Roux, Proudly African and Transgender, which was hosted in the city’s Arts Centre by the Equality Network and the Scottish Transgender Alliance. Gabrielle was there to take us through her work and tell us how it came into being. In 2008, there was a ground-breaking gathering of transgender activists from across Africa. She painted portraits of ten of the attendees. They also wrote messages on the portraits. Julius from Uganda said:

It’s been a difficult journey but one I don’t regret taking because I can only be who I am – a unique creation

Quite a few of the participants were not able to continue living in their home countries. It wasn’t safe for Flavia to return to Burundi and she has had to seek refuge in South Africa.

Accompanying each picture is a typed A4 sheet where the activists tell their stories – and those stories are updated, making, as Le Roux said, the exhibition dynamic. It was really fantastic to have the artist there, though, telling us little anecdotes about each person.

You can look at all the pictures online here. 

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Craig Dearden-Phillips

Opinion: This will be closer than we all think!

By Craig Dearden-Phillips | Sun 17th May 2015 - 5:22 pm

NormanLambTim Farron MPMost of the pundits, and the party, appear to think this leadership election is over already.  Paddy Power has Tim Farron at 1/5 odd-on next to poor Norman’s 3/1.   My view is that it’s going to be a lot closer than everyone is thinking – and that there may, just possibly, be a surprise in store.

Why so?   I would point to three main reasons.   The first is that the contest will soon refocus from  one between ‘Coalition Man’ and ‘Dissenting Man’ to one between two MPs who have to convince the public that we are worth voting for again.    Both men come over quite differently.  Norman is pragmatic, non-tribal and empathic which plays well with swing voters but, arguably, he has not yet found a way to portray his charisma on television.   Tim attracts attention, can capture the mood but can, at times, lack authority and gravitas.    Tim will certainly be a populist which, as a small party, we will need.  But many party members will worry about whether a Lib Dem party under Tim will ever add up to more than a string of likeable but slightly idealistic positions.

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Guy Burton

Opinion: The role of the Lib Dems as a party of protest

By Guy Burton | Sun 17th May 2015 - 10:25 am

Where do we go from here?  Beyond the talk of electoral strategy and tactics, methods of campaigning and targeting, we need to look at what the purpose of the party.

Several people on these pages have reported that the party was clobbered by Tory scare tactics directed at a Labour-SNP coalition.  If so, there’s only so much we can do about that, the actions of others.  But we can have control over what the party is, what it stands for and what it should do in the future.

One is that image counts.  Despite the electoral maths and rhetoric about the economic crisis in 2010, the party wasn’t a natural partner for the Tories.  This caused us real problems when the party broke its pledge not to raise tuition fees.  No amount of spin could overcome that.  In future we need to honour our promises, however costly they are.

Another is the character of the party.  Its rising vote share since 1988 has been based less on a core vote and more on being a party of protest.  Even as the party abandoned equidistance after 1992 it attracted votes from those suspicious of New Labour and the Tories and wary of extremism of all kinds.

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Daisy Cooper MP

Daisy Cooper writes… Building a diverse party: my challenge to leadership candidates

By Daisy Cooper MP | Sun 17th May 2015 - 8:54 am

Last year, I ran for Party President on a platform of party reform, with a focus on diversity. Now that all eight of our remaining MPs are white, middle-aged, middle class men, that reform agenda is even more important than before.

I’m asking both declared leadership candidates – Tim Farron and Norman Lamb – whether and to what extent they will commit to these achievable measures.

1. Will you promise to take a zero tolerance approach to inappropriate behaviour, insisting that all elected representatives and everyone in your team has a “responsibility to act” on any and all anecdotal and substantive evidence that reaches them?

2. Will you promise to appoint at least one recognised senior Disability Activist, as a spokesperson for the party (possibly as a Peer)? This person may well be required to speak out against Tory cuts that could impact disproportionately on disabled people.

3. Will you promise to support a motion to Conference to ring-fence money to support the election of at least one BAME candidate to Parliament in 2020, or similar ideas towards the same goal?

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Leanne Jones

Opinion: The Liberal Democrats, liberalism and me

By Leanne Jones | Sat 16th May 2015 - 4:28 pm

Ok, So I have heard many people asking what do the liberal democrats believe? What is Liberalism? and where do I fit into this? Well, I am going to attempt to answer these questions the best I can without boring you all to sleep. From the Preamble to the Constitution:

The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We champion the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals, we acknowledge and respect their right to freedom of conscience and their right to develop their talents to the full. We are committed to fight poverty, oppression, hunger, ignorance, disease and aggression wherever they occur and to promote the free movement of ideas, people, goods and services.

So that’s the basic stance on the party’s views and where the Liberal Democrats are different to other parties. They believe that everyone has the right to live a good life, and where everyone has the opportunities to be the best they can be, regardless of age, colour, gender, religion, location or how wealthy you are, and we all know that currently and previously, these things do alter our paths and rights to achieve in life. I personally know how this feels as i’m sure many of you do too. If you are not lucky enough to be able to afford to go to a good school your opportunities are lowered, or if you are from say rural areas then your opportunities are greatly different compared to those living in city centres. I believe the same opportunities should be available to all people in all areas of the country (even the world). But, we can not achieve this level of equality if those in charge are not in favour of equality.

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Caron Lindsay

So, the Guardian finally recognises the usefulness of the Liberal Democrats, years too late

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 16th May 2015 - 10:25 am

The Guardian Building Window in London

The Guardian has spent the last five years spewing poison in the direction of the Liberal Democrats. Now, a week into a majority Tory government, they finally realise what good we did. I suggest that this is not entirely a surprise. A cursory glance at the Conservative manifesto gave an indication of what would happen. David Cameron’s pronouncement, back in 2012, that he’d govern like a true Tory if it wasn’t for the Liberal Democrats, went unignored.

Here’s what they had to say in an editorial posted last night:

…yet it is true too that the Lib Dems were frequently a moderating, and on occasion a truly positive, force within the coalition. Even in social security, a field in which they ultimately proved disappointingly willing to fold, they postponed the serious Conservative assault for a couple of years. On the core liberal territory they proved more determined – defending human rights, seeing off the snooper’s charter and rallying to defend equality laws. It has taken precisely one week of majority Conservative government to remind Britain why, in the absence of a liberal party, one would have to be invented – and indeed, why one will now have to be reinvented and rebuilt.

They then acknowledge that Liberal Democrats are needed because their precious Labour party can’t be relied upon to stand up for civil liberties.

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Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron MP writes…It’s time to make a fresh start

By Tim Farron MP | Sat 16th May 2015 - 9:00 am

This is a critical moment for our party and for our country. The general election was won through the politics of fear. But we need to be honest: we failed to make a strong enough case for liberal values. Now we face a new and greater challenge: to show that we are still relevant, to speak what we believe, and to prove that we matter. In a crowded political market dominated by negativity, we have to be clear about the beliefs and philosophy that set us apart.

This is a process which needs to involve the whole party, not just its leader. But this is what I believe.

As my hero William Beveridge once wrote, ‘Liberalism is a faith, not a formula’. The core of my liberalism is a belief in the essential goodness of men and women, an optimistic confidence in the capacity of ordinary people to make the most of their lives, fulfil their talents and realise their dreams. I believe it is the duty of government to make this possible – to create the conditions in which individuals and their communities can flourish.

Individuals can best pursue their dreams when they can control their own destinies. That means being free to act on their own values and commitments. A state that constantly interferes with personal life stifles individuality and demotivates people. But most people also need the support and respect of the communities they live in to be able to form and act on their own plans of life. Only a more equal society can provide the stable base most people need to succeed.

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Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb MP writes…We can’t wait another 5 years to have a woman in the party leadership

By Norman Lamb MP | Fri 15th May 2015 - 7:15 pm

The campaign for the leadership of our party is now underway and I am excited by the prospect and humbled by the many messages of support and encouragement I have received.

However as a party we need to look at how we operate and what we look like to the outside world. One issue, in particular, now has an urgency to it which we can’t ignore. We have danced around gender imbalance at the highest levels for too long ….. and I am not prepared to wait a further five years before women are able to feature at the leadership level. Given that there were no women elected to the House of Commons and so no woman can stand for the leadership, I believe it is essential that the deputy leader is a woman.

Consequently, as leader I will immediately propose to the federal executive that we should move to elect a Deputy Leader who is not required to be a member of the House of Commons, but who will play a major role as one of the party’s leading voices and campaigners. She could be one of the former or future colleagues mentioned below; a peer, a member of a devolved chamber or the European Parliament; a leading councillor or seasoned campaigner.

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