Here it is in full, courtesy of Sky News – Tim’s first speech, delivered to a packed Islington Assembly Hall. I followed it on Twitter while I was on a train and it was giving me goosebumps so you might need to sit down with a cup of tea to watch the whole thing. Full of passion and energy and purpose and articulating an practical, relevant, optimistic, joyful liberalism.
A member of the audience fainted at one point and was incredibly apologetic but Tim was quick to reassure him and make sure he was ok.
There is a transcript on the party website, reproduced below for ease.
For years, I sat where you are now.
I joined this party when I wFor years, I sat where you are now.
I joined this party when I was 16 years old. I’ve watched some great liberal leaders give some incredible speeches.
Steel. Ashdown. Kennedy. Campbell. Clegg. Imagine following in their footsteps? To say it is an honour is an understatement of epic proportions.
I remember sitting in the winter gardens at Blackpool watching paddy give his first speech as leader in 1988. And I remember feeling guilty because I’d left home in Preston that morning and there on the kitchen table was my round of focus leaflets I’d not yet delivered. I returned home to find that my Mum had done them for me.
So, I get to lead the party I joined as a kid.
Thank you. I will work every day to repay the trust you have put in me.
And there is someone else I want to say thank you to as well – Norman Lamb.
Norman is an outstanding liberal, who’s been a mentor to me since I became an MP. I got bored of hearing my own voice during the leadership campaign, but not bored with Norman. As I consider Norman’s achievements on improving mental health I am reminded how vital it is to win elections, so that we can make that kind of a difference again.
If there were more Norman Lambs in politics, people’s opinion of politicians would be so much better.
They said of Jo Grimond that he gave politics a good name – I don’t go around comparing people to Jo Grimond lightly, but Norman is exactly in that mould.
I am proud of his achievements in government and I will be incredibly proud to work alongside Norman as we rebuild our party. To Norman and to all of his team who’ve fought a great campaign, we owe you a huge debt of thanks.
Do you remember where you were on the morning of the 8th May?
I don’t ever want to feel the way that I felt on that morning again. I was completely gutted.
I watched people I’d worked alongside for years lose their seats when I knew that every single one of them has given blood, sweat and tears for their constituents and for their country.
It felt overwhelming, desperate, heartbreaking.
But that morning something happened that snapped me out of it.
I saw a great leader give an incredible speech.
Nick Clegg stood up, after what must have been one of the very worst nights of his life, and with dignity and humility and great, great clarity, he said:
On the morning of the most crushing blow to the Liberal Democrats since our party was founded it is easy to imagine that there is no road back, but there is – because there is no path to a fairer, greener, freer Britain without British Liberalism showing the way. This is a very dark hour for our party but we cannot and will not allow decent liberal values to be extinguished over night. Fear and grievance have won, liberalism has lost. But it is more precious than ever and we must keep fighting for it.
There was not a dry eye in the house, mine included.
To go through what Nick had been through that night and come out with words of such passion and gravitas and sanity – well that’s the mark of a truly remarkable man.
And all of a sudden, instead of feeling desperate , I felt proud.
proud of every single one of my colleagues in parliament.
proud of Nick and all of our ministers who served in the coalition government – Vince and Ed, Jo and Danny, Lynne and Norman, Simon and Susan and everyone else. You get involved in politics to get stuff done, well we got stuff done. And we owe it to Nick.
Thank you.
So Nick’s speech made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
I felt proud to be a Liberal Democrat.
And you know what, I clearly wasn’t the only one.
Because what happened next constitutes a phenomenon. Almost 20,000 people have joined our party since that morning. And that is a phenomenon: 20,000 people chose to do the same thing, at the same time, for the same reasons without anybody asking them.
At hustings up and down the country, I have asked new members to raise their hands so let’s do it one more time: raise your hand if you’ve joined the party since the election….
…A new army of Lib Dem members, – approaching 20,000 now – who are not prepared to see liberalism disappear in our country.
People question how we can come back from such a devastating defeat? Well, I can introduce you to 20,000 answers.
You know, it’s almost like you can see this great big penny dropping for the British public, first with the Queen’s speech and then the budget.
What’s this, the Tories want to scrap the Human Rights Act?
They want to snoop on our emails?
They want to flog off housing association homes?
They want to cut billions of pounds from some of the poorest families in our country?
If only there was some way to stop them.
Oh…right…that’s what the Lib Dems were doing.
Now day after day we get reminders: Tuesday Today Programme listeners being told that promoting equal pay was a Lib Dem policy not a Tory one; yesterday the Guardian writing how Nick Clegg had fought so hard to get big money out of politics.
I found myself thinking “why couldn’t you have mentioned that before the election!”
They say you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.
Well, you know what? We’re not gone.
And no matter how tough the fight, there is nowhere else for us to go, no other movement that is home.
You know, growing up where I grew up, in the circumstances I grew up in, you might have thought that the Labour Party should have been the party for me.
I grew up in a terrace on a main road in Preston. I was brought up by my mum, often struggling to put food on the table. I was politicized by watching Cathy Come Home. I should have been a natural Labour man.
But I wasn’t.
And why not? Because I saw that Labour were just part of the system, small c conservatives. 2 parties happy to collude and protect the establishment, locking out people like us.
I was an outsider, I wanted a party that spoke for me, that let you think for yourself, that wanted to win elections so that they could change lives not just so that they could feel self important.
And lives needed changing, a difference needed to be made.
I learned at first hand that nothing robs you of your freedom more than poverty and poor housing. I also learned that dependency can stifle freedom just as much. I saw the potential of people to change their own lives, if only we gave them the freedom to learn, freedom to earn the freedom to be the best that they can be.
In the election campaign which has just gone, we weren’t bad at telling people what we were against. But we were pretty terrible at telling people what we were for.
So let me be crystal clear what the Liberal Democrats are for:
We are the party that sees the best in people not the worst.
We are the party that believes that the role of Government is to help us to be the best that we can be, no matter who we are or what our background…..
That’s it. That’s our mission.
We see people as individuals not as opposing tribes, lined up against each other across borders.
We favour co-operation over isolation – your failure is not my success.
We stand up against the abuse of power, for entrepreneurship and individual endeavour.
We see immigration as a blessing not a curse and value the contribution every single individual has to make to this beautiful country of ours.
As the world changes around us, we see the opportunities and not just the dangers.
Because we see the best in people.
We trust people.
That’s why we stand up for the individual against the state.
Why we stand up for the minority against the majority.
Why we stand up for the outsider against the establishment.
Because that is not just what we do, it is who we are!
Because despite what happened on May 7th, this is still an open, generous and tolerant country, a liberal country.
And the pathway to our revival is visible even in that terrible result.
Because what we saw was that people are still looking for answers.
They are less tied to the old tribes of self-interest than was ever the case in the past.
Even with the collapse in our own support, over one in three of us could not bring ourselves to vote for Labour or the Tories.
So if we work hard and we strive to understand each other – not just people’s concerns but their values – we can win again.
You know, the Dutch. They are so liberal, they’ve got two liberal parties. The one that’s most like us, D66, were the smaller party in a coalition and then in 2006 got stuffed – 2% and 3 MPs, they came 9th! But last year, they topped the polls in the European elections.
So revival is in our grasp. Have hope. Have courage. Have belief.
We start our plan for the 2020 election right now. And the fightback will begin well beyond Westminster.
Westminster is only one brick in the governance of this country. It is a place I come to do a job for the people who elected me,
But it is utterly divorced from the reality of people’s lives. Home for me is Westmorland, surrounded by lakes, mountains and vibrant, self-reliant communities who share my disdain for the Westminster bubble.
And the challenges we face in the Lakes or anywhere else amongst the cities, towns and villages of these islands, are ones which we can help to address wherever there are Liberal Democrats – in Parliament okay, but also in the town halls and the city halls, the National Assembly in Wales and Holyrood, even Brussels.
Next year in Scotland, Wales and London we will see elections with the potential to change the lives of millions of people.
Those elections are utterly critical. They matter to me just as much as 2020. And they are the first staging posts of the comeback.
Ward by ward.
Council by council.
Seat by seat we will fight and we will win.
And if the Tories are really determined to make everyone have a metro mayor, we’ll just have to win those elections too.
It will take hard work, guts and bloody-mindedness. There will be defeats and injustices. Winning has never been easy.
We have no automatic right to bounce back. We have to do it ourselves. But we will. I’m going to make sure of it.
You see, losing robs you of the ability to make a difference. You know, as a party we have been proven right so many times: On Kosovo, on Iraq, on climate change, on the financial crisis. Do you know what? I’m fed to the back teeth of being right and losing elections!
As David Steel once said: “I am not interested in power without principles, but I am only faintly attracted by principles without power”. There is nothing grubby about wanting to win. You can’t change people’s lives from second place.
So here’s my challenge to you: pick a ward, any ward, and win it. Next May. I don’t care how you did on May 7th.
Winning elections isn’t rocket science, but it is a science. Do it. Enjoy the fight, enjoy stunning the opposition as the comeback kids prove them wrong. And be uplifted by the difference you can make when you win.
We may not be able to change Britain from the top down – not just for the moment – but we can change lives from the bottom up.
That’s community politics. We can mobilise our community to build the homes that we need, to win a local battle in the war against climate change, to get the resources to strengthen our schools.
I want more MPs, and before that I want hundreds and hundreds of new Lib Dem councillors, immersed in their communities, living their values by getting things done. Step by step, we will change people lives for the better and as we do that we will regain their trust.
You see our survival, revival, our rebirth our rebuild will happen in communities in councils in common rooms, away from the stuffy corridors of Westminster and Whitehall.
Many watched the horror of election night unfurl, standing as spectators all across the country, devastated by what they saw, powerless to affect what was happening.
Well, I’m telling you now – here in this hall and around the country, you are not spectators, you are players. You don’t like the way Britain is now governed? That makes two of us!
Lets stop complaining about it, lets do something about it. We will make our own luck, and we will do it together. It is time for Liberal Democrats to win again.
So, none of us joined the Liberal Democrats as a smart career move. That’s because we’ve never seen this as a career – that’s for the others.
This is a vocation, a mission.
So the Tories and Labour have their vested interests, and we say that we have no vested interests. But actually we do.
Our vested interests are the people in our street, our town, our village. Our vested interest is your vested interest. Our liberal voice is your liberal voice.
So lets together make our liberal voice stronger.
If you care about human rights join us.
if you think you shouldn’t have your emails snooped on join us.
if you think everyone deserves a decent home join us.
if you think its wrong to demonise immigrants, the young, the poor, foreigners, Brussels, the English, the Scots…join us.
If you are fed up of self-satisfied politicians ambitious for themselves and unambitious for their country… then guess what? You are a liberal. Embrace that diagnosis. It is an utterly decent and British condition. So join us, join us today.
Liberals of Britain, if you want a better Britain then you need to do something about it.
Come and be part of the most joyful, inspiring and worthwhile come back in political history.
Because that comeback starts right now, right here, it starts with us.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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26 Comments
Getting frustrated. No subtitles on the videos (though that’s a Sky News Normal Fail) and not seen a transcript. So I and other deaf LibDems still don’t know what he said, really…. But he did look passionate…
In Islington for the rally, looked in an estate agent’s window, nice looking house, but hugely expensive, actually a one-bedroom flat.
The Tories are continuing to loosen planning rules, to the advantages of developers, but they should actuallly do the development on a “use it or lose it” basis.
There is an exhibition in Picadilly, at the Royal Academy of Arts, some of which has been televised. One painting is about London’s housing, after Breugel, number 968, by Emily Allchurch, edition of 20.
A5 sized colour postcards are available for some items, but the tapestry by Grayson Perry RA of “Julie and Bob” needs to seen in the original to see the fabric. Edition of 6.
There is a shop opposite with the most beautiful window displays which can be seen from the street for free.
Think of Breakfast at Tiffany’s for foodies. Some of the items inside can be bought at lower prices from your local Sainsburys or Waitrose. One small purchase and they offer you a carrier bag which Tesco would charge for.
One job for Tim to look at right away is to look at why so few members participated in the vote for our leadership.
Unless we can understand why paid up members of the party do not vote, we will have a tough job convincing the general public, who often have little or no interest in party politics, to vote.
If the leadership candidates cannot connect with paid up party members to the extent that they will take a a minute or two to vote in the most important internal election since many of them joined the party, there is a real issue that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
Maybe Lib-Dem Voice should start a discussion to allow those members who did not vote an opportunity to say why they did not support either Tim or Norman. If not, local parties should do some work in the very near future to connect with their members, especially new ones, in a way that the leadership contest did not manage to do.
My congratulations go to Tim and my commiserations go to Norman, but they and all who want to see this as the start of a new era in the Lib-Dems will now know that more party members than voted for either candidate did not actually vote at all.
Something must be done to understand why.
Edis Bevan – “Getting frustrated. No subtitles … and not seen a transcript. So I and other deaf LibDems still don’t know what he said, really”
This is a really important point which should not be lost. Do we know if anyone is working on a transcript?
John, a party member I spoke to this week told me she hadn’t voted because, while she liked what she had seen of/heard about both candidates she had found it hard to choose between them. She was happy to leave the choice to other members.
Anecdotal perhaps but I suspect a fair number of no voting members fitted into this category – ie they liked the look of both candidates and were struggling to choose a favourite.
This speech is unbeleivably brilliant. It’s all there. The last two minutes are absolutely stonking. Well done, Tim. You’ve given us hope and purpose.
Many thanks for this, Caron. I followed the link on the Party website provided by Sal Brinton at 7.00 pm yesterday and the result was a total disaster; rigid camera at the BACK of the hall (so all I saw was rows of bobbing heads/impossible to see the speaker at the front!), poor visual quality (images jarring) and poor sound as well! I gave up after five minutes (and am also feeling embarrassed for having encouraged others to watch as well!) Let’s hope things really pick up from here!
Blimey Tim’s speech making people swoon?? It’s like the Beatles all over again!! Looking forward too watching this!
Edis Bevan, whilst i haven’t the time to transcript the whole thing i can give you this bit from towards the end – which is most definitely the best bit:
“If you care about human rights, join us! If you think you shouldn’t have your emails snooped on, join us!If you think everyone deserves a decent home, join us! If you think it is wrong to demonise immigrants, the young, the poor, foreigners, Brussels, the English, the Scots….join us! If you are fed up of self satisfied politicians, ambitious for themselves and unambitious for their country – then guess what? You are a Liberal. Embrace that diagnosis. It is an utterly decent and British condition. So join us. Join today!”
Yes, I agree with George Crozier here. 56% isn’t marvellous but neither is it disastrous. While activists who are totally obsessed with politics and follow it minutely and are interested and engaged, particularly if they have a firm view one way or the other, it is not uncommon for people who consider themselves liberal-minded to be happy to support with a sub each year, but some of them don’t have the time or inclination to be so engaged, especially to the extent of finding out a lot about two candidates who were until recently, relatively unknown to the wider public, compared to say Clegg or Cable. (Indeed, that is why the choice of leader is so important: to the millions who never switch from BBC R2 to BBC R4 , Tim will BE more or less the only national face (voice?) of Liberal Democrats for the foreseeable future.)
Is there a transcript anywhere yet?
56% of what? the eligible voting membership or the total ballot papers issued? If the latter then this would explain the low percentage. I was sent ballot papers with the suggestion I rejoin and vote. I did not accept the offer. I trust that under Tim the party will return to it’s original principles and I can rejoin sooner rather than later.
In his speech Tim said that the Dutch party we are most like is D66. That will be news to Clegg and the Orange bookers. The party is turning.
What a great speech. News today of 3 council by-election wins with remarkable swings to Lib Dem emphasises part of Tim’s inspiring message – we’ve got to do it again, from the bottom up!
My Party has come home again ! Well done, Tim.
There is a transcript here.
http://www.libdems.org.uk/rally
Liberal Democrat Voice was very good in giving us lots of information from the hustings, thereby saving time and money on travel.
There are gaps in the policies which will need to be filled when the new leader appoints spokesmen in the Commons.
Yes, this was a stirring and passionate speech. Precisely what we needed to hear. The only disappointment was that all the people standing behind Tim appeared to be male. Were any women in the audience? If so, why didn’t someone think to get some of them on camera?
Very inspiring and rousing stuff!
As one of the ‘May 8th thousands’ I can see why so many of the party faithful feel Tim is the right person to lead the party now and if I’d joined in time I would have voted for him. too!
However, I wonder if I may make a comment – not to spoil the party – but to raise a point those of you used to seeing Tim’s speeches may have become immune to, but which is very odd and I suspect may be seen as plain weird by many of the electorate he is trying to attract:
his constant looking up to the heavens and rolling his eyes could distract from his message.
I am concerned that already the Mr Bean jokes and the Ed Miliband weird parallels are been drawn by many especially over at the Daily Mail article (to be expected maybe), but before you all dismiss it out of hand, it made me cringe a bit too, and i’m very much on his side!
Just wonder if it may be wise for someone reading this with influence to point him to a bit of media training?
His speeches are so good, we don’t want the media (on and offline) portraying him as some kind of spitting image Mr Bean?
Sorry, only highlighting it as I really want him to succeed 🙂
Mike S:
There really is no time at all to be wasted over what the “Daily Mail” has to say about the LDs in any regard in my view! As regards Tim’s speech delivery, I was very impressed at how he is able to view the camera absolutely square on and therewith “look the viewer in the eye”. In terms of “style”, he also scored a triumph as my politically cynical wife thought he came across as “genuine” and totally convincing. WHAT a marvellous asset to have a tremendous communicator as Leader NOT from a comfy, Oxbridge background and who has not been launched via postgrad study at Harvard etc . and SPAD duties before ending up in a safe seat somewhere (but has actually built his “safe” seat by his own commitment and endeavours and through listening to his constituents!) Please let Labour go for the “safe” (and 100% anaemic) Yvette Cooper and we will be well on the way!
Charles Rothwell:
I’m afraid I wasn’t so impressed: Tim Farron was actually reading his speech off three huge Autocue screens at the back of the Hall. The central Autocue was positioned directly above the broadcast camera position, producing the illusion that he was looking the TV viewer “in the eye” (directly at the camera). In any case, the stage lights in the Hall were far too bright for anyone on stage to see the audience, let alone the camera! The six people visible behind Farron throughout the speech (and many others, out of shot), were looking intently at the Autocue and reading along, too – as you may now notice in the video…
Jonathan, all that is standard practice for any major politician making a speech these days, the world over.
Paul,
Thanks very much for your reply. Do you mean it’s standard practice to use three large Autocue screens placed behind/beside the audience? I think the usual technique across the world is to use a pair of angled glass screens, with one on each side of the speaker, such as those used by President Obama, Tony Blair and others, isn’t it?
The angled glass screens are also autocue screens. They just more expensive. If you want to donate £50,000 to the party, I’m sure they be delighted to buy us those more sophisticated versions! 😉 By the way, if you stand in the audicence in front of those angled glass screens you can also read the words along with the speaker.
Whenever I have been in the hall for Clegg, Ashdown, Campbell leader speeches, they have always had three screens of some sort to read the words from. That way it can make it seem more natural for those at home.
But you make a good point, Jonathan. The people behind Tim, or in the “doughnut” as it’s called, should be reminded not to look at the words and almost move their lips with them. Another glaring doughnut management issue with this speech was that the faces behind Tim on the Sky news feed were all male, albeit young. I saw three female arms half in shot.
Paul,
Thanks again for your reply. Sorry, I’d phrased it poorly: I realised the glass ‘screens’, as I’d called them, are actually Autocues, and should have described them as angled glass *Autocue mirrors*! They really cost far less than £50,000 – and are usually a fraction of the price of those huge back-of-the-audience Autocues! By the way, a friend of mine was in the audience at the 2004 Lib Dem Conference, and says that the Autocue used by speakers on that occasion (incl. by Charles Kennedy, R.I.P.), was an electronic ticker-tape display attached to the CEILING!
Thanks for your words about the people behind Tim Farron, and I agree: it does look strange for all six in the “doughnut” to be looking at the Autocue for almost the entirety of the speech (one smiles as he reads a humorous remark before Farron utters it!), and for all in the doughnut to be young men!
After Ed Miliband’s failed attempt to remember key parts of his 2014 speech, do you think it’s now a forlorn hope that Opposition leaders like Tim Farron could attempt a fully-memorised speech in future, as David Cameron managed to do, several times, before 2010? It seems to come over as a lot more authentic to TV viewers for Opposition leaders to do that, rather than reading from Autocues that may be fully visible for the audience in the Hall, but hidden from view for those watching on television. I remember many viewers claiming to feel “cheated” when the broadcasters (such as the BBC’s Nick Robinson and Channel 4 News’ Michael Crick), revealed that seemingly spontaneous speeches were anything but, showing the “hidden [to TV viewers] Autocue screens” placed among and beside the audience at party conferences. The advantage of the glass Autocue mirrors is that TV viewers don’t feel they’re being tricked, as they’re visible on stage next to the speakers (of the sort used by Ed Miliband during the recent election campaign). Do you think either memorisation or visible on-stage Autocues are feasible for Farron in the future?
Paul,
I think I should perhaps clarify that viewers said they felt “cheated” by the presence of those huge Autocue screens placed off-stage – not, of course, the on-stage angled Autocue mirrors which are clearly visible next to the speakers, so that viewers don’t feel that the speaker is attempting to pass off his/her speech as spontaneous. David Steel, Harold Wilson, Quintin Hogg, Neil Kinnock and many others managed to make barnstorming speeches in an era long before they existed, while William Hague, another effective speaker, apparently banished them in all their forms when he was party leader. These off-stage “hidden” (for TV viewers) giant Autocue screens really seem to be the Achilles Heel of otherwise authentic-seeming and inspirational leaders, and are criticised as part of the “disconnect” of modern politics.