What’s your New Year’s Resolution @LibDems? 👇 HNY! https://t.co/9oJFJZxTPA
— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) December 31, 2019
I’ve made a New Year’s Resolution.
I want to show my community better than ever what liberalism means in action.
So I’ll be working harder than ever in my constituency advice surgeries, helping local people with their financial problems, with their housing issues and working with local people to strengthen our communities, that we’re privileged to serve.
If that sounds like old-fashioned, grassroots, community politics, you’re hearing me.
Last December’s election was, on several levels, deeply depressing.
But flip it over. There’s actually a huge opportunity here for us, the Liberal Democrats.
Of course, we’ve a job to do, continuing to oppose Brexit. To remain Britain’s leading pro-European, internationalist party.
Yet that’s never been our sole purpose, has it? Liberalism is so much more.
We’ve always been a party determined to shake up the system.
Socially. Economically. Politically. Environmentally.
We know Liberal Democrats care passionately about tackling social injustice, creating opportunity, beating climate change.
The question for 2020 is can we show all that to the rest of the UK – our full Liberal purpose?
And that’s where you come in. With your New Year’s Resolution.
Will you join me, in showing your community what liberalism means, in action?
If we’ve got a deal on that, there’s at least one Deal in 2020 I’ll be able to back.
In Kingston and Surbiton, I’ll be running campaigns for better council homes – and more council housing, supporting my wife Emily, who’s leading the charge.
What are your campaigns going to be?
And we’ll run national campaigns too.
I want 2020 to be the year when Liberal Democrats champion climate action campaigns and show to people that tackling the climate emergency means better paid jobs, world class public transport and lower heating bills.
In 2020 the Liberal Democrats will take every opportunity to hold this appalling, right wing, nationalistic Johnson government to account.
The poorest need us. The climate needs us. The union of the United Kingdom needs us.
So my Liberal Democrat friends – have you made that New Year’s Resolution?
Happy New Year.
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7 Comments
“So I’ll be working harder than ever in my constituency advice surgeries, helping local people with their financial problems, with their housing issues and working with local people to strengthen our communities, that we’re privileged to serve.
If that sounds like old-fashioned, grassroots, community politics, you’re hearing me.”
Actually it doesn’t sound very much like community politics at all. Community politics is not about who can be ‘the hardest worker’ – that is essentially client politics not matter how effective an electoral technique it may be. There isn’t anything essentially Liberal about being a hard-working MP or Councillor. I can think of plenty of examples of Labour and Conservative politicians to whom that applies and plenty of Lib Dems to whom it doesn’t.
Community politics is about people taking power and using it in their communities.
Future Campaigning.
I have been campaigning for 50 years and learned.
1. We need as much favourable image and coverage as possible in the Media as Leader Charlie Kennedy got.
2. For years I have constantly asked voters if they know what Liberal or Liberalism means. They always answer, I do not know or wrongly [a protestor]. The Party needs a name or a message that ordinary voters understand, After 200 years of history most know the Tory Message [for the upper class] or the self explanatory Labour name, we have nothing.
I have never met Ed Davey but I am sure he is a decent human being. However I think this message rather misses the point. You don’t show people what liberalism is by “working harder than ever before”. The DUP, Sinn Fein and BNP could all work hard but that would not make them Liberal. At least one aspect of a liberal campaign should be genuinely involving the local community [I don’t mean by giving them the opportunity to sign a petition] not just showing them. As Hywel says it is important to give people the tools to run their own campaigns too … and coming back to “working harder than ever before” – no disrespect to our hard working councillors and campaigners but “working harder than ever before” is not a sustainable strategy – people taking up the challenge of representing their local communities as councillors need to know that it need not take over their lives [how else do we get a better cross-section of the community on local councils?]. What about building fun into campaigning? So well done to Ed for saying what he intends to do but I suggest a family day out to Pendle to include a chat with Lord Greaves over tea and cake about what community politics is really be all about.
I have been campaigning for our Party for fifty years. I have fought five General Elections in that time as the Parliamentary Candidate. I cant remember in that long period feeling quite as depressed as I have been these past few days since the December election. Perhaps it was the sense of expectation this time that made the result so demoralising.
But I have found a solution to my gloom over the holiday season. I went on to You Tube on the TV and found the full BBC coverage of the 2005 General Election results. How wonderful it has been to sit and watch all those Lib Dem gains; what a contrast to this time. Its easy to forget that less than 14 years ago we were celebrating the return of 62 Lib Dem MP’s. Oh happy days. So any colleagues who are suffering post election blues now have a remedy to cheer them up.
True Ed but much of what we believe and campaign on is based on the better together slogan. We might have the opportunity to show our values if there are moves towards separating the parts of the uk. Whether it is climate change, poverty, biodiversity, trafficking, human rights or shouts for autonomy, we will do better by building strong alliances across the continent and world, fighting for common causes.
There’s a lot of good sense in this article.
But, at a time when so many people are crying out for change, how – with the Tories offering the disruptive change of Brexit and Labour proposing to implement socialism in one country – did we ever think we would achieve anything by presenting as the party defending the status quo?
”we’ve always been a party determined to shake up the system.”
Except, though, where the EU is concerned! That’s just fine as it is!