I want to lead this party because I believe that it has never been a more important time to be a Liberal Democrat. The other parties are obsessed with eroding individual civil liberties:
* the Labour Party is hell-bent on forcing people to carry ID cards and increasing the length of detention without trial to 42 days;
* the Conservatives want to introduce random drug tests in schools; and
* the SNP continue to bring forward a whole raft of measures which will take away individuals’ rights, such as its proposals to ban all our young adults aged 18 to 21 from purchasing alcohol in off-licenses.
I believe that in pursuing these agendas, the other parties are at odds with the vast majority of people in Scotland who value their freedoms.
As leader, I will take the Scottish Liberal Democrats forward as a party which stands for a Scotland which safeguards the freedoms of people to go about their daily lives with the minimum of interference from government, while at the same time providing a ‘safety net’ for those people who for one reason or another need assistance. As far as I am concerned ‘government’ should be an enabler for our citizens, and their servant rather than their master.
I feel that this message will resonate with Liberal Democrat members across the country and I look forward to getting this across as I meet as many people as possible over the coming weeks.
* Mike Rumbles is Liberal Democrat MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, and Shadow Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment. You can join Mike’s Facebook group here.
Editor’s note: Liberal Democrat Voice will, as with all internal party elections, remain neutral in its editorial line, and seek to ensure balanced coverage. All candidates will be offered a slot to write about why they wish to lead the Scottish Lib Dems. Supporters of the candidates are encouraged to submit their views to Lib Dem Voice either as an article – find out how here – or comments; but the editor will seek to ensure fair representation for all candidates.
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20 Comments
Decent principles, good points about the other parties. But you’ll need more than ‘not the other ones’ if we’re to succeed.
And I think people have come to expect a lot more from public services than a “safety net”.
But still …
On the subject of the Tories being just as authoritarian as Labour, we should be denouncing their plans to criminalise khat. We all know that drug prohibition fails, & Camoron has only embraced it to please the Daily Hell. The issue has been taken up by the New Statesman, but bloggers seem not to be talking about it.
I was going to buy some khat & chew it to show Camoron what I think of him, but I couldn’t find any in any of the shops I went to, & couldn’t be bothered to look any harder.
People are no longer as punitive on drugs as the right assumes they are, & those who tell you they are form prohibition are quite often soft supporters who can be won over, as with 42 days.
Civil liberties and freedom from big government – nice and concise, top stuff, best of luck with it.
What are Mike Rumble’s views on rail transport? It’s one area where the SNP have seriously dropped the ball. The Borders rail link has been pushed back and the Glasgow Crossrail has been thrown away altogether. At a time when almost every other developed state is increasing their rail capacity, Scotland is in the doldrums.
1) If the freedom agenda is genuine what is your position on the smoking ban, first introduced in Scotland? Do you believe passive smoking is a significant killer?
2) Half of Scotland’s power (& 40% of Britain’s) is to be closed in the near future. Will you continue with the LD’s programme of relying on windmills till the lights go out?
3) The Scottish economy continues to underperform the UK average. Is this a good or bad thing? If bad what would your position on the SNP’s policy of trying to match the Irish “economic miracle” by cutting busines rates & corporation tax? Bear in mind that while this is the classic liberal position on which the party was founded it is now officially “inconsistent with party membership” & “too right wing to be discussed”.
Neil Craig, ever thought about meeting up & getting yourself a civil partnership with Dane Clouston? All the anonymong trolls that comment here could be at the ceremony
TROLL (wikipedia definition):
An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users
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Perhaps Horatio you might care to explain how your post was releveant, on topic & not designed to bait – unlike mine though I suppose I should admit mine was somewhat controversial to the extent it that, while not actually disagreeing with what Mike had said was not wholly in agreement either. Pethaps politics would be improved if all controversy were prevented but history suggest otherwise.
As you will see Mr Havercamp (would that be one of the Dorset Havercamps) I stand by what I write without anonymous or false names.
For information:
Neil Craig is the only person who has been expelled from the Scottish Liberal Democrats for a number of years. Perhaps he has an axe or two to grind?
Perhaps I do.
Iain was one of the party Executive members who voted for my expulsion specificly because I believed a successful economy can be achieved by traditional Liberal policies and that windmills will not be sufficient to keep the lights on (described bu them in a tribute to Orwell as “illiberal”).
Clearly he also has his own ax – & not one the founders of liberalism would have any sympathy with whatsoever.
The more and more I hear about Mike Rumbles MSP the more and more I like him.
By raising the legal drinking age to 25 (oops, 21), Salmond is taking a giant tumble down the proverbial slippery slope to the Orwellian dispensation; at the behest of his reactionary millionaire string-pullers, Messrs Souter and Trump. And Labour, terrified of offending youth-hating bigots, isn’t going to oppose them.
Scotland is in desperate need of the Liberal Democrats, and Mr Rumbles might just be the man to take things forward.
Historically Scotland was the power base of the Gladstonian Liberals. But Gladstone & the party were then liberals.
Scotland is in need of a liberal party & the SNP is the closest, though not very close. Anyone reading Iain Dale’s blog (no not that one) will see that having made being a liberal an expulsion offence it is now entirely run by people whose instincts are for ever larger government existing to dispose largess on the special interest groups running the party, rather than one having any liberal principles.
Neil Craig:
How is building nuclear power stations (which I assume you support) compatible with classical liberalism, given that the private sector won’t touch them with a barge pole? Wind farms + baseload are cheaper, less risky and more likely to attract private investment.
There are many privately owned nuclear power stations around the world. Private investment in Britain is only deterred by needing credible assurances that the government will provide a level regulatory field & not use regulators to take over the industry once they built it (as Labour did a few years ago), which the nuclear industry is particularly vulnerable since almost all the investment is up-front. This is not a liberal free market problem this is a problem of illiberal big government dictat.
The liberal position on buying & selling almost anything is that the free market can best decide not idealogical dictats by government in the face of economic reality.
The claim that windmills are cheaper is the precise diametric opposite of truthful. Nuclear is half the cost of conventional power whcih in turn is half the cost of baseload. A respect for the facts, helpful, or otherwise, is a liberal position. Nobody who could ever honestly call themselves liberal minded could have told that lie Anax & no such person ever has.
Good Luck. I found the previous incumbent a little marginalised by events in Scotland.
I also find it impossible to believe a chap was turfed out of the party for his view on windmills and economics.
As I said Iain Dale above was part of the committee that did it & can confirm (or fail to deny) that “having had letters published in newspapers & on my blog” in my own not name was precisely the reason they gave for voting me out.
You may see the letter letting me know of this – the level of detail in the charges is Kafkaesque
http://a-place-to-stand.blogspot.com/2005/12/i-was-purged-by-liberal-democrats.html
Neil, are you including only production costs or also waste disposal when comparing wind power and nuclear?
The figures of the Royal Academy of engineering take in everything
https://www.libdemvoice.org/mike-rumbles-why-i-want-to-lead-the-scottish-lib-dems-2969.html#comments
but the more modern Frech systems (anything we now build will obviously be even more modern) come out at 2.54C (1.3p) a unit.
http://world-nuclear.org/info/inf02.html
I think disposal cost is, even in France, overstated. Reactor waste has a very short half life (it is inherent in things that are highly radioactive that they must have a short half life) & could be stored for 50 years, at which point they would be safe. Some low level waste is less radioactive than Cornwall & calling it dangerous radioactive waste is pure scaremongering.
As a party member in Scotland, I think all 3 candidates are very good, but I will be backing Mike. We need a new direction, and a radical, fighting edge. Mike will provide that. I hope all members will back him with at least a 1st preference vote.