In an interview with Businesss Insider, Jo says that she can reach out to new voters:
She said that one of her key qualities was that she’s “not a tribal politician” and had an advantage over Davey in being in a stronger position to win voters from the Conservatives, Labour and elsewhere.
I was down at the Donald Trump protest last week and several people came up to me and said they had joined the Lib Dems as a result of seeing me on Question Time,” she told Business Insider. “It is working.”
She added: “In this election, it is about who can break through and take the Lib Dems above 20%. It’s a big ask and a big challenge but I believe the opportunity is for us to do that.”
She ruled out making a coalition deal with either the incoming leader of the Conservatives or Jeremy Corbyn:
I have ruled out Coalitions with Brexiteers because it’s so fundamentally opposed to our values. Corbyn is a Brexiteer and the leader of the Conservative party is going to be a Brexiteer, and a hard one at that.
And she gave her pitch on the party website:
The Liberal Democrats are at the very heart of this liberal movement. To take on Farage and Johnson we also need to reach out beyond our traditional base and capture the hearts of the millions of people in the country who are liberal-minded, but not yet Liberal Democrats.
And I know I’m the person to lead that movement because as the Lib Dem face of the People’s Vote I’ve spent the last several years working to bring together like-minded MPs so that our shared goal of stopping Brexit is a reality, not just a pipe dream.
Jo’s website is here and you can follow her on Twitter here.
Jo’s Day will be back on Thursday and will cover the next two days.
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“She ruled out making a coalition deal with either the incoming leader of the Conservatives or Jeremy Corbyn”
This goes further than just Boris Johnson.
Tory candidate Rory Stewart said “Do you want this man giving instructions to your nuclear submarines?”
He distinguished himself from Liberal Democrats because he is not in favour of another referendum.
If the Tories form a circular firing squad, again there could be advantages for other parties, but we must not allow them to dominate the news agenda, lest mere exposure gives them a rise in the polls. John Major was not Margaret Thatcher.
It happened to us when he-man Paddy Ashdown confessed about his secretary. Risky.
“Tory candidate Rory Stewart said “Do you want this man giving instructions to your nuclear submarines?” No.
More to the point…………., do I want nuclear submarines any more than Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy. Austria, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand does ? No, I most certainly don’t.
The UK Government expects future operating costs to remain at 5-6 percent of the defence budget through to 2021.
Over the 30-year lifetime of a new system that enters into service in 2031, total In-service costs could range between £71.4 billion and £140.5 billion.
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority has rated the Dreadnought programme Amber/Red, meaning that: “Successful delivery of the project is in doubt, with major risks or issues apparent in a number of key areas.”
Acquisition costs of Britain’s Trident nuclear weapon system amounted to £18.35 billion (in 2015-16 prices) incurred between 1980 and 1998.
There are better ways of spending money …… as all the countries listed above and more have decided.
I’ve not followed the Lib Dem leadership campaigns closely so might have missed something, but what are the fundamental differences between Jo Swinson and Ed Davey as potential leaders?
Are they offering competing directions and priorities for the party or any notable change from the status quo, or are they in violent agreement with each other and Vince Cable and simply offering a choice based upon personalities?
Peter Watson:
A fair question. My impression is mostly a difference in personalities or more pointedly differences in ability to present Liberal Democrat points of view. Ed Davey is particularly well informed on green issues, but Jo has other advantages; I think it would be hard to identify significant policy differences,
The Party has had a hard time trying to be noticed, so the presentational abilities are important. Age and ability to contrast with other party leaders might be a factor. Another issue could be the security of their respective seats – I do not know who is more vulnerable.
I would like to hear more form both about the basis for their Liberalism, this would help build up a picture of how each might respond to future events.
A note to LDV: Please provide a sub title to ‘Jo’s/Ed’s Day’ to give a pointer to the content. If you did that I think the articles would be read more.
Jo Swinson was on Politics Live on 12/6/19, at the start, chaired by Jo Coburn.
A farrago of Faragists were elected to the European Parliament, which they intend to dirupt. If Claire Fox does not now want to be an MEP she can stand down and be replaced by another member of the same list. There are two others in the North-West of England. As a former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party she Is a good example of why voters should be allowed to move a candidate up or down the list, as happens elsewhere, as Alan Beith MP suggested to Home Secretary Jack Straw in the Commons when the legislation was being introduced.