My initial experience with politics was the first time I was able to vote, back in the 2015 General Election. I had just turned 18 and had grown up in a Labour-supporting household. So, instinctively, I voted for Ed Miliband.
I hadn’t understood what politics was all about, but I’ve a distinct memory of watching Gordon Brown on TV and thinking “he seems a nice man”. Looking back, my mum played a large part in my fondness. She was panicking, following the 2008 financial crash, over whether we could continue mortgage payments (she had recently become redundant, leaving my dad as the sole wage earner). The payment freeze Brown implemented prevented us from losing our home. I recall the Tory attacks, introducing the idea of austerity, and my mum describing them as “completely heartless”. She would be right.
Fast forward to 2015, and that wave of admiration I had for Brown carried over to Miliband. I had no idea what he stood for, but I knew he was Labour, like Brown, and that made him right in my eyes. The rest of the country didn’t feel the same, as Cameron’s Conservatives decisively defeated him.
Then came Corbyn, a man I knew nothing about before his leadership. I remembered watching his victory on TV, asking my mum, “Who’s that old man?” She didn’t know either, saying, “he must be some fringe backbencher.” Again, I voted for Labour, but this time from a “well, they’re not the Tories” sentiment. Still left-wing, I never quite felt at home under Corbyn, as I found him to be further left than I was comfortable with. Nonetheless, I gave him a chance.
His performance in the 2017 General Election filled me with hope that we might see a left-wing government after years of Tory misrule. By the end of 2019, however, any hope that Labour or the left at large would return to government had ended.
A few months later, COVID hit. With all the free time I now had, I decided to explore political theory beyond the Labour-Tory binary. I began with autobiographies; my first, and to this day, my favourite, was Denis Healey’s “Time Of My Life”.
It was around this time that I also discovered TikTok and, more importantly, the far-left political community on the platform. I had heard of communism before, but had never really paid much attention to it. Yet here I was, watching video after video of engaging creators breaking down political theory into digestible thirty-second snippets.
I agreed with it all, equality and economic freedom for everyone; it sounded fantastic. Before long, I was holding book club meetings to understand “Das Kapital” and “Socialism: Scientific and Utopian”.
But then I saw its darker side. The bullying, the ostracising of those who deviated even slightly from Marxism and its branches. Genocide denial was rampant. Any mention of events like the mistreatment of Uyghurs in China or the totalitarian crackdowns in North Korea was deemed unacceptable.
Then, the real shocker: ‘positive genocide’. Up until then, most of us kept quiet about uncomfortable topics. But I remember discussions about ‘eliminating those against our goals,’ and justifying authoritarianism. I wanted nothing more to do with this.
Call me naive, but I had never known this was what left-wing politics was capable of. I had learnt of the Nazis and the Holocaust in school, always put down to “evil people on the far right.” Never did I think people on the left could be capable of such evil.
I stopped caring about politics, I stopped caring in general. The Tories were still in power, Labour was useless, I was told constantly that there was ‘no point voting for anyone else’, and I had been suckered into supporting red shade of fascism.
I had caught clips of PMQs, but I found them to be mostly bluster until I heard one section speak. One section that kept talking about kindness, compassion, support for trans rights, and, most importantly for me, the rights of carers. Following the Coalition, I had never considered the Lib Dems a party I could trust. But here I was, listening to them, speaking my language and holding the Tories accountable. I gave it some time to think, waited until the 2024 General Election had passed, and then joined.
So, where am I now personally?
I still hold left-wing views, like my support for nationalisation, economic democracy, a substantial welfare state, and trade union rights. But I also support a strong military, regulated free markets, as well as individual rights and freedoms. I support NATO wholeheartedly, as well as Ukraine’s fight against Russian imperialism, while also believing that we should push for peaceful resolutions in conflicts that have yet to escalate.
Am I a melting pot of views? Definitely, but that is what the Liberal Democrats are all about. We are a party born from finding common ground. We should celebrate this, utilise our ability to compromise and grow together, as that is what Britain desperately needs, now more than ever.
* Jack Meredith is a member of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and an active campaigner and canvasser with Swansea and Gower Liberal Democrats. His writing focuses on democratic reform, social justice, trade unionism, economic democracy, and the institutional foundations of effective government. He has written for the Fabians, Lib Dem Voice, Liberator, Nation Cymru, Bylines Cymru, and Centre Think Tank.
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13 Comments
I love posts like this. Its fascinating hearing about people’s journeys through political thought. Ronald Reagan said there were at least 20 doors to his gotm of conservatism. I think there are as many doors to liberalism as there are people who come to it. The labour party needs its progressives (especially now) but I’m glad your progressivism lives here 😊
Form, not gotm 🤦♂️
I can relate to this article as I also spent time researching left-wing parties and ideas at one point. I discovered that the real far-left came in different varieties that hated each other more than anything else. Jeremy Corbyn is nothing like these groups – he is left-wing but not far-left as described by the gutter-press. Labour today is not even left-of-centre any more, which explains why it is deliberately driving out people like Corbyn. This, in my view, provides an opportunity for the Liberal Democrats – being to the left of the current Labour Party is no bad thing and allows us to attract genuine left-of-centre and left wing thinkers who reject the far left but also want an alternative to the right-wing nightmare we are living through. Welcome aboard, Jack.
My grandfather was a lifelong communist with his views formed in the 1930s depression.
He was a “friend of the Soviet Union” and he supported whoever was the general secretary of the communist party, from Joseph Stalin to Mikhael Gorbochev.
My conservative parents told me not to talk to him about politics, so naturally I did.
He persuaded me to read the “Ragged Trousered Philanthropist”. I could see why I was a great book, but all it really told me was how awful capitalism is, and I already knew that. It couldn’t tell me why communism worked, and my impression was that it didn’t.
The evidence that it was flawed came from the culture of the hard left. You have to believe in the orthodoxy and you had to believe in the hatred, you are not allowed to think for yourself. And why do they think that? It is because for many communists their vision is Utopian, and if you do not believe in my Utopia you are guilty of a heiness thought crime.
So for me the Liberal Democrat party is amongst other things a party that supports capitalism for those who do not like capitalism. Thankfully there are many varieties of capitalism and we should take the best that is out there and try and make it better in the UK.
“Labour today is not even left-of-centre any more”
I think this is wrong. I think Labour desperately WANTS to be a social democrat/democratic socialist party. Look at the rebellion on winter fuel and disability benefits. BUT the world has moved on and does not want social democrat/democratic socialist solutions because it has discovered over the 20th century these do not work very well – as Jack says they tend to restrict liberty on the one hand and are not so good at improving people’s lives in the other.
I agree this SHOULD provide an opportunity for the Liberal Democrats – but offering failed social democrat/democrat socialist solutions is not the answer. We are not a home for socialists who think the Labour party is not socialist anymore.
@Tristan Ward
“We are not a home for socialists who think the Labour party is not socialist anymore.”
We have a whole lot more in common with municipal socialists than with the Tories, yet we seem happy to welcome Tories into the party who have not changed their political outlook in the slightest but just object to the Tory party becoming even more extreme. So why are Tories welcome but socialists aren’t? Seems to me that we should welcome anyone who accepts our central beliefs whether or not they also believe that society should have more nationalised industries than at present.
Bit odd to stop being a communist just because you’ve discovered that tankies and Marxist Leninists exist. Suggests you’d have never joined us if you’d only managed to find a bunch of Anarcho-NATOists to hang out with.
My parents, long passed away, were Labour supporters when I was a child, but turned away from them due to local nepotism and the way they seemed to put dogma before practical help for individuals. They also felt people who genuinely and for good reasons refused to conform to the majority should be treated equally to others, so they first voted Plaid Cymru out of protest and then changed to support the Liberals. I tended to support Labour for a while, believing inequality was the key issue. However, my view started to change when my parents spoke against the blanket decision making of Labour as well as its conformism; this would now be confirmed by Labour’s decisions over inheritance tax, winter fuel allowance and welfare that cannot see individual needs clearly enough in its policy making. As a family we could never consider Conservatives due to their support for the wealthy and unwillingness to radically change inequalities of all sorts, but this now seems to be the case against Labour leadership also.
“We have a whole lot more in common with municipal socialists than with the Tories,
Policywise (if that’s a word), possibly; philosophically I disagree.
“Seems to me that we should welcome anyone who accepts our central beliefs”
I totally agree. However, I suspect it is much easier for a liberal conservative/conservative liberal to be a member of the Lib Dems than it is for a socialist.
“whether or not they also believe that society should have more nationalised industries than at present.”
If you are a strict socialist you believe in the social ownership of the means of production. it’s pretty hard to do that AND be someone who believes – as liberals do – that private property rights are fundamental to a liberal society.
In response to Tristan Ward:
“If you are a strict socialist, you believe in the social ownership of the means of production. It’s pretty hard to do that AND be someone who believes – as liberals do – that private property rights are fundamental to a liberal society.”
I would agree, except in the case of liberal socialists, who often support mixed economies. You could argue this is just a social democrat, but that’s a matter of semantics.
@ Jack,
“Genocide denial was rampant. Any mention of events like the mistreatment of Uyghurs in China or the totalitarian crackdowns in North Korea was deemed unacceptable……”
You could have switched to the SWP or any one of the various openly Trotskyite groups. They don’t have much truck with Stalinism. You might even have bumped into Keir Starmer at one time! 🙂
“I would agree, except in the case of liberal socialists, who often support mixed economies. ”
I’m sorry – I don’ t think the term “liberal socialist” is meaningful. The political philosophies of liberalism and socialism are simply incompatible.
Tristant Ward:
It was John Stuart Mill who first entertained the idea of “liberal socialism”, so if you’ve anyone to take it up with, it would be him!