I published the complete and utter list of Lib Dem MPs’ first tweets last week, so it seems only fitting to include the latest first tweet – from Taunton MP Jeremy Browne (updating David Penhaligon‘s famous injunction):
If you've got something to say, stick it in a tweet and post it on the twittosphere.
— Jeremy Browne (@JeremyBrowneMP) March 24, 2014
We can expect to hear a lot more from Jeremy in the coming weeks. He’ll shortly be publishing a book, Race Plan An authentic liberal plan to get Britain fit for ‘The Global Race’:
The world order is changing, incrementally but remorselessly, as wealth and power move beyond the industrialised West to the emerging economies in Asia and Latin America. As a Foreign Office Minister, Jeremy Browne witnessed this global revolution at first hand.
Having seen for himself the extraordinary scale and pace of economic development in China, India and elsewhere, Browne’s message is stark: the race to secure a favourable position in the new world order would be hard enough in the best of times. Yet Britain must now begin that race in the worst of times, after the deepest recession in living memory, still weighed down by high levels of borrowing and debt.
Despite this, Browne remains an optimist. Britain can succeed in the global race, he argues, but we need a race plan. This is it.
One question remains, though – why does his Twitter profile not show Jeremy resplendent in full beard?
* Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.
2 Comments
A note to Jeremy Browne in the words of an American politician (more or less) —
I knew David Penhaligon, and you are no David Penhaligon!
This Global Race stuff is Tory nonsense. If the Chinese get richer, we will also get richer as we can trade with them more. And there’s also evidence that as some of the emerging economies get wealthier their populations start to want to spend less time at work and more time enjoying the fruits of their labour. There was an interesting piece about South Korea on this subject a week or two back.
Obviously we need to ensure our health, education, welfare systems etc are in good shape so we are competitive internationally but the “global race” argument is tosh.