Last night, David Laws spent an hour answering members’ questions on the development of the Liberal Democrat manifesto. He took questions on a huge range of issues ranging from the economy to civil liberties to justice, fracking and schools. It’s quite remarkable that this is being done so openly and publicly.
Some of us had trouble accessing the event. If it hadn’t been for Stace Williams, I wouldn’t have managed it at all. As it as, I have half an hour to catch up on. And I can, too. Because it’s up on You Tube.
It’s 53 minutes long, so best to be enjoyed over a cup of tea.
I make no apology, by the way, for the gratuitous use of the photograph of David and Pingu. I don’t think Paddy Ashdown has yet forgiven you readers for not voting it the best photo in the Liberal Democrat Voice awards. I see no reason why we shouldn’t use it as much as we possibly can.
Anyway, enjoy the Q & A. You will note that the Divine Ms Duffett looks as if she has been at that Fountain of Eternal Youth again. She is very good at chairing these webinars, making them informal and informative.
I should also emphasise that David said that he ideally needs ideas for the manifesto within the next six months s0 get them to him. Go and Join the Debate.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Risotto rice under threat from flamingoes in north-eastern Italy
Taxation truths
Latest PollBase is out, with all the British voting intention polls since the 1930s
Weekly Road Report - West End Ward #dundeewestend
A remarkable politician
Well done Planting Up Sunniside
Peter Martin
Peter Hirst
David Evans
12 Comments
That is the best photo ever, never mind of the year. I have no idea how anyone could think otherwise.
It’s certainly up there. I think the first photograph of my newborn daughter probably beats it. Maybe my wedding photo. But then it has to be this.
@ Caron
If the Party’s manifest does not include confronting Corporate Power – which rules us now and provides only short-termism [and consequentially an unknown destination] – aren’t you terrified of the world that your new born will have to confront?
This was bravely described by George Monbiot [for a MSM journalist] in this article in the Guardian:
It’s business that really rules us now
Lobbying is the least of it: corporate interests have captured the entire democratic process. No wonder so many have given up on politics.
It’s the reason for the collapse of democratic choice. It’s the source of our growing disillusionment with politics. It’s the great unmentionable. Corporate power. The media will scarcely whisper its name. It is howlingly absent from parliamentary debates. Until we name it and confront it, politics is a waste of time.
The political role of business corporations is generally interpreted as that of lobbyists, seeking to influence government policy. In reality they belong on the inside. They are part of the nexus of power that creates policy. They face no significant resistance, from either government or opposition, as their interests have now been woven into the fabric of all three main political parties in Britain. Continued at:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/11/business-rules-lobbying-corporate-interests
Something of the thousand yard stare for Pingu. Understandable, really.
What John Roffey said.
The over-mighty State was a reality in Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, and it continues as a reality in China. But in the UK, the spectre of an over-mighty State is an evil myth. It is corporate power that is over-mighty. In many respects, the State should have greater power to act as an effective counterweight.
Cutting back the state, scrapping the “green crap”, getting rid of planning restrictions, enforcing competitive tendering, putting private contractors in control of public services, are all measures designed to help over-mighty corporate power cement its stranglehold on national life.
The Orange Bookers think it is liberalism. Real Liberal Democrats know that it is quite the opposite.
@ David Evans:
What I don’t understand, as a recently returning member, is why there is not more protest within the Party against the shift from left of centre to right of centre.
It is clear from the various polls that the Party is going to struggle to obtain 10% of the vote – which is going to seriously reduce the number of seats in the HofC. This coupled to the fact that UKIP are presently holding fire on any serious campaigning until closer to the EU elections and which is bound to increase their popularity significantly from the existing 10 – 12%, much at the Party’s expense, because much of this improvement is bound to come from the, overcrowded, right – who are generally more in favour of leaving the EU.
As a Party that had not been part of government in recent years – it is bound to lose the majority of the protest vote it once enjoyed as there is clearly not much appreciation of the Party’s contribution to the Coalition – the majority of this vote will go to UKIP, at the GE, as an unknown quantity and Farage’s popularity.
There is a presently major disenchantment with politics in general with 40% already saying they will not vote – this clearly is primarily amongst the worst off and the young. I would have though it, without doubt, that the Party is bound to pick up a far larger share of the vote than from the left than from the right particularly as Miliband is showing to be a not seen as a credible PM and that the desire to remain in the EU is more prevalent on the left than the right.
However, what is most worrying for the Party is that after the GE there will little or nothing that will cause support to return because there is very little admired by voters about the Party’s contribution to the Coalition – there is a very real possibility that it will become a very minor party from thereon taking many years to re-establish itself.
In my view, however, what is most damaging to the Party is that its manifest looks as if it is developing into an opportunistic shopping list of policies designing purely to attract votes – with no long-term strategy or principled motive.
Is the lack of protest from Party members at the looming crisis because it is, in the main, the left of centre members that have left the Party in droves – and the majority who remain favour the right – or is there a substantial body of opposition to the right of centre placement that I have not yet encountered?
Apologies David Allen – quite why I decided to re-christen you David Evans is a complete loss to me.
John Roffey,
Well, as a longstanding member who has clung on to membership with the aim of making protest effective – I wish I had a better answer to your question.
At parliamentary level, I fear there has been an unholy alliance between the true believers in the Orange Book (aka the Blue Book) and those who see the career advantages of collaboration to gain Ministerial appointments. I used to think Lib Dem MPs were the people who took the hard road because of their principles, unlike Labour or Tory MPs who took safe seats as the easy road to fame and fortune. With certain exceptions, I fear I was wrong. Absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely, to coin a phrase. Far too many Lib Dem MPs have clutched at the unexpected chance of Ministerial status, irrespective of the compromises on principle that it has involved. It has been a failure of character.
At local level, I know many good, decent local councillors whose aim in life is to do good things in their local communities. The Lib Dems have been the vehicle which has got them there. The Lib Dems continue to be the only vehicle around which could keep them there. Consequently, many of these people have swallowed their doubts, more or less reluctantly, because the alternative would be to give up their perfectly good “second careers” as local councillors or activists. Of course, the fact is that the harm done nationally by the Coalition hugely outweighs anything that can nowadays be achieved in local politics – which, with councils increasingly powerless, is not a lot. But that is an inconvenient truth which many local activists would like to ignore. Again, I think it is a failure of character, if a little less reprehensible than the behaviour of the MPs.
Then thirdly, of course, one of your suppositions is indeed a great deal of the explanation – that centre-left members have simply left in droves. I completely understand why they have done so. I’ll just say a little about why I personally haven’t joined them.
Well, of course Labour have faults, some of them serious. Labour are nothing like as dire as Coalition propaganda paints them, but one could easily take Miliband’s ineffectuality, Balls’s bull-headed selfishness, and the history of Iraq and bankers’ bonuses as good reasons not to support Labour. I see these serious faults, but they are not what put me off joining Labour. I quite accept that Labour are a lesser evil than the Tories.
What makes me stay with the Lib Dems is, quite simply, that they are the swing party. Like the FDP in Germany, they can’t govern, but more often than not they can choose who does govern, and to some extent influence how they do it. That is a very powerful position. That is why the Clegg Coup happened. It was very important to the hedge funders and the Orange Book clique that they should capture our centre-left party and turn it into a quisling party. That they have done.
It will not last. One way or another, we will win it back. We threw Owen out of the Alliance, in the end, and although it took years of wasted time,it was necessary. We will throw the Cleggies out too.
John Roffey,
Well, as a longstanding member who has clung on to membership with the aim of making protest effective – I wish I had a better answer to your question.
At parliamentary level, I fear there has been an unholy alliance between the true believers in the Orange Book (aka the Blue Book) and those who see the career advantages of collaboration to gain Ministerial appointments. I used to think Lib Dem MPs were the people who took the hard road because of their principles, unlike Labour or Tory MPs who took safe seats as the easy road to fame and fortune. With certain exceptions, I fear I was wrong. Absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely, to coin a phrase. Far too many Lib Dem MPs have clutched at the unexpected chance of Ministerial status, irrespective of the compromises on principle that it has involved. It has been a failure of character.
At local level, I know many good, decent local councillors whose aim in life is to do good things in their local communities. The Lib Dems have been the vehicle which has got them there. The Lib Dems continue to be the only vehicle around which could keep them there. Consequently, many of these people have swallowed their doubts, more or less reluctantly, because the alternative would be to give up their perfectly good “second careers” as local councillors or activists. Of course, the fact is that the harm done nationally by the Coalition hugely outweighs anything that can nowadays be achieved in local politics – which, with councils increasingly powerless, is not a lot. But that is an inconvenient truth which many local activists would like to ignore. Again, I think it is a failure of character, if a little less reprehensible than the behaviour of the MPs.
Then thirdly, of course, one of your suppositions is indeed a great deal of the explanation – that centre-left members have simply left in droves. I completely understand why they have done so. I’ll just say a little about why I personally haven’t joined them.
Well, of course Labour have faults, some of them serious. Labour are nothing like as dire as Coalition propaganda paints them, but one could easily take Miliband’s ineffectuality, Balls’s bull-headed selfishness, and the history of Iraq and bankers’ bonuses as good reasons not to support Labour. I see these serious faults, but they are not what put me off joining Labour. I quite accept that Labour are a lesser evil than the Tories.
What makes me stay with the Lib Dems is, quite simply, that they are the swing party. Like the FDP in Germany, they can’t govern, but more often than not they can choose who does govern, and to some extent influence how they do it. That is a very powerful position. That is why the Clegg Coup happened. It was very important to the hedge funders and the Orange Book clique that they should capture our centre-left party and turn it into a centre-right party. That they have done.
It will not last. One way or another, we will win it back. We threw Owen out of the Alliance, in the end, and although it took years of wasted time,it was necessary. We will throw the Cleggies out too.
David Allen 23rd Nov ’13 – 12:49am
“It was very important to the hedge funders and the Orange Book clique that they should capture our centre-left party and turn it into a centre-right party. That they have done.
It will not last. One way or another, we will win it back. ”
I think David Allen is right in this optimistic thought. The rightwing elements that captured the leadership of the party are all but a spent force. It has to be remembered that Clegg’s victory in the leadership election was paper thin. They never captured the hearts and minds of the members, activists and supporters. More especially they have failed to convince the voters. Bumping along below UKIP on less than 10% support in all opinion polls is clear evidence of the failure of Clegg and his coterie.
In the last general election Clegg squandered the huge opportunity of equal status in the TV leadership debates. The initial advantages of so-called Cleggmania were thrown away in two short weeks by a leadership that could not cope with the idea of being anything other than junior collaborators in the Cameron project. Clegg lost seats for the party, we had fewer MPs than the previous general election.
The Coalition Agreement has turned out to be useful only as a historic guide to the failures of Clegg on electoral reform, House of Lords reform, student fees, the wilful decimation of social security, the top down reorganisation of the NHS and a new generation of state-subsidised nuclear power plants.
In time, those thousands of party members who have spent the last three years doing something else will return to take back their party . Once Clegg and his rightwing chums have been shown the door the fortunes of the party will start to improve.
You can lead a horse to water ….!
@John Tilley
I recall Clegg being a runaway success in the TV debates, far from squandering them. The boost faded a little towards polling day as the right wing press got personal (obviously oblivious to the project).