Liberal Democrat Voice Stars of 2015 Part 7

We wanted to honour those Liberal Democrats that our readers felt were true stars of 2015, which has been one of the toughest years in our party’s history. Over the past few days, we have sought out nominations and now have a rather impressive list that we’ll be publishing in instalments during this week. Here is the seventh part. Their names come with the comments made about the contribution they have made. Some are parliamentarians, some are councillors, most are grassroots activists. Let’s celebrate them and the many others who are fighting fto keep that Liberal Democrat flame alive. These are our Liberal Democrat stars of 2015.

Nicholas Pentney

Nicholas worked tirelessly above and beyond as our Organiser in North Cornwall for the General Election in 2015, always with a positive and friendly attitude, encouraging a can do attitude.

Nicholas sadly lost his mum just before the Bournemouth conference yet he still attended conference attending training workshops from first thing in the morning to last in the evening. Nicholas then returned and worked tirelessly on Adrian Sanders’ campaign during the by-election needed by the sad passing of Nicholas’s mum Ruth. Everything Nicholas does he does with a smile and a calm cheerful manner.

I can not praise Nicholas enough and I consider it an honour to work with Nicholas as a part of our team in North Cornwall.

Kris Brown

Kris Brown took over as Chair of Liverpool Lib Dems and ran a fantastic campaign, revitalising the local party and steering us to our first win in Liverpool since 2012, with an increased majority over Labour! Whilst working full time on this campaign, he was also acting as election agent for four PPCs in Liverpool, whilst being the PPC for Wallasey himself. Kris has since turned his attentions to what will hopefully be a successful set of council and mayoral elections this coming May!

Julia Goldsworthy and Jeff Muir

Julia gave up her job working for Danny Alexander at the Treasury to fight what was (on paper at least) our number 1 target seat in the whole of the UK at the general election. With the media attention around this fight, we needed to show the Lib Dems were taking this seat seriously. Thanks to Julia and Jeff we ran a serious campaign, despite the very limited resources we had to cope with.

Labour threw the kitchen sink at us, and at Julia personally, but Julia never once acted with anything but the utmost dignity, courage and commitment to her community and party. Julia inspired a lot of young supporters to get out and campaign for the first time, and encouragingly these younger members have remained very active post GE.

Jeff is quite simply the best election agent any Lib Dem could hope to have. Not only did he organise the best possible GE campaign we were able to fight in the circumstances, but just 6 weeks afterwards he masterminded a fantastic win (0 to 46%) for us in the Falmouth Penwerris by election, followed by a skilfully created campaign in Camborne Pendarves that took us to just 14 votes short of winning after not having contested the seat in recent memory.

It would have been all too easy for both Jeff and Julia to sit out what was always going to be a very difficult 2015 for Liberal Democrats everywhere. They put the party before themselves and ensured we have a solid baseline to build on for the future, the fruits of which we are already beginning to see.

Kat Bavage

For her tireless support for women’s equality both within and without the Lib Dems. Kat has been a tireless champion of a more equal and welcoming party as well as a tireless advocate for those who have suffered from gender discrimination. She is a powerful reminder that liberals believe that bottom-up change is both possible and necessary and liberals should never be content to leave solutions up to those in entrenched power.

Seth Thevoz

Electoral revivals tend to be predicated on intellectual revivals. None has done more to that end then Seth Alexander Thevoz. Whether it is his work on donations and the Lords, the workings (or lack thereof) of The Lib Dem Peers Panel, or his work on the huge hole that the Lib Dems find themselves electorally after the last election (with Lewis Baston), Seth’s work has done a large amount to show how tireless research, a fidelity to figures and facts over blind faith, and holding liberal practice up to its own ideals, can chart an intellectual course to be better than we are now.

Nigel Smith

The single best intellectual output of the last year was surely Nigel Smith’s essay for Social Liberal Forum on the Lib Dems, austerity, and economics. In a world where most people decide their votes based on economic concerns, Nigel makes both a compelling case that the Lib Dems can’t muddle through any longer without a clear economic identity, and also gives us considerable insight into how the party might find that identity. Lots of party members come into the party due to a myriad of different causes, but for those unsure of some of the finer points of what forces are buffeting the global and UK economy, Smith lays out the role of government spending alongside the role of private debt, the single biggest cause of the Great Recession which the political class are only now beginning to understand. Nigel writes clearly, passionately, and knowledgeably in an area which can be dusty and boring. If only we had a 1000 Nigel Smiths!

Grace Goodlad

Grace has had major surgery and illness to contend with this year, yet she was a brilliant motivator and worker for Tim Farron’s leadership campaign and a key advocate for feminism and gender equality.

Hannah Thompson

Hannah worked tirelessly as the organiser for Guildford this year and ran for council at the same time.

If you have anyone else you think deserves to be on the Roll of Honour, it’s not too late to tell us.

You can make your suggestions in several ways:

in the comments to this and other posts in the next few days
by emailing [email protected]
by tweeting @libdemvoice

Just tell us who you are nominating and why.

Alison Suttie writes: Thank you to our volunteers

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