New edition of Liberator

If you were in Bournemouth, you may have already picked up a copy of the latest edition of Liberator magazine (issue no.335 – September 2009). It’s a bumper 40-page conference edition, packed with comment from many leading Liberal Democrats.

Here’s a summary of the contents:

• The editorial column Commentary identifies the four key elements of ‘Cleggism’.
• The insider gossip column Radical Bulletin analyses the dispute in the Federal Policy Committee over ‘commitments’ and ‘aspirations’.
• Our lead article ‘Stop, search, listen’ is written by Duwayne Brooks (a Liberal Democrat councillor in Lewisham and author of Steve and Me: My Friendship with Stephen Lawrence and the Search for Justice). He favours stop and search powers, but asks why policing still targets black people.
• ‘Village idiots’ – The Liberal Democrats’ new pre-manifesto, A Fresh Start for Britain, reveals a gulf between the Westminster Village elite and the Rest of the Country, argues Bill le Breton (former chair and president of the ALDC).
• ‘Keep the aspiration flying’ – Nick Clegg’s decision to downgrade policies such as tuition fees to ‘aspirations’ will damage him and his party, says Linda Jack (a member of the Federal Policy Committee).
• ‘Back to the pavements’ – No amount of clever national marketing will win elections if the party neglects the proper practice of community politics, says Adrian Sanders (Deputy Chief Whip and MP for Torbay).
• ‘We’re only human’ – There is rising concern in the Liberal Democrats about resignations by prospective parliamentary candidates. Sally Morgan (former PPC for Central Devon) says after her experience that it is no wonder.
• ‘All over the place’ – Analysis of the 4 June elections shows the two-party mould breaking – but with results that should worry Liberal Democrats, says Michael Steed (leading psephologist and a Liberal Democrat councillor in Canterbury).
• ‘Would you trust them with your children?’ – As army recruitment soars because of the recession, Simon Molloy (secretary of Hackney Liberal Democrats and an actor in the play Deep Cut) asks whether the Deepcut scandal makes the Ministry of Defence fit to employ young people.
• ‘An ugly shade of blue’ – They are the Ca-morons – the bizarre collection of racists, sexists, homophobes, climate change deniers and anti-Semites with whom the Conservatives have joined in the European Parliament, says Dirk Hazell (who joined the Liberal Democrats last year, having previously chaired the Conservative Party’s London Region and Foreign Affairs Forum).
• ‘Closing time’ – Community pubs are under threat as the ‘pubcos’ exploit their property portfolios. It’s time to act before communities lose their focal point, says Gareth Epps (a Liberal Democrat councillor in Reading and a member of the Liberator Collective).
• ‘Failing society’ – The Liberal Democrats had better define their idea of community before someone else does it for them, warns Simon Titley (a member of the Liberator Collective) in a review of the new Joseph Rowntree Foundation study Contemporary Social Evils.
• ‘Public space or private control?’ – Public spaces in our cities are being lost to corporate control in the name of ‘regeneration’. David Boyle (a fellow of the New Economics Foundation and a member of the Federal Policy Committee) reviews a new book analysing this disturbing trend (Ground Control by Anna Minton).
• ‘City libbing’ – The Liberal Democrats now control most of England’s major cities. John Shipley (Liberal Democrat leader of Newcastle City Council) argues that the party has a distinctive urban approach and its success is not just down to good management.
• ‘A moral tale from Thatcher’ – The Thatcher government used the Winter of Discontent as a ‘moral tale’ to advocate change. The Liberal Democrats should do the same with the City of London’s bonus culture to show how it has damaged the whole community, says Matthew Sowemimo (director of the Social Liberal Forum).
• ‘The fine mind the party ignored’ – Ralf Dahrendorf pointed out paths that could have saved British Liberals from blind alleys if only they had listened, says Michael Meadowcroft (former Liberal MP for Leeds West) in an appreciation of the late political thinker.
• ‘Opportunity knocks’ – But are the Liberal Democrats listening? Reform of parliament, a simple EU constitution and a ring-fenced unemployment fund would all be imaginative ways to respond to public concerns, says Tim Pascall (a Liberal Democrat member, who wrote this article shortly before his sad death in a road accident in August).
• ‘Beyond borders’ – Julie Smith (chair of Liberal International British Group) describes the work of Liberal International as Lord Avebury receives its annual prize for freedom.
• ‘No to surveillance’ – Islington Liberal Democrats have created a model of how to reject the surveillance state, says Terry Stacy (Liberal Democrat leader of Islington Borough Council).
• Book reviews.
Lord Bonkers’ Diary.
You can subscribe to Liberator online here.
Liberator welcomes your articles, letters and book reviews. Please read our style guide before submitting any copy.

The Liberator Collective may be e-mailed at: [email protected].

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9 Comments

  • Simon Titley 4th Oct '09 - 7:37pm

    Apologies to LDV readers for the faulty links in the above piece. The Liberator website was hacked on Saturday and restored today (Sunday) but, as a consequence, the urls of the relevant pages got swapped round.

    Until this is fixed, just go to our home page at http://www.liberator.org.uk/ and use the links in the menu on the left-hand side of the page.

  • Simon Titley 5th Oct '09 - 1:01pm

    All the links in the above piece are now fixed – thanks to Stephen Tall!

  • Oh, FFS … who writes this guff???

  • Liberator’s tone has always been ‘holier than thou’, with lots of criticism but without a lot in the way of suggesting better policy or ways of doing things.

  • Simon Titley 8th Oct '09 - 11:44am

    Tabman – Is that the best you can do?

    Steve (Steve who?) – Your post is a bald assertion, which you are unable to support with any facts or arguments.

  • Simon Titley 9th Oct '09 - 9:47am

    Steve (Steve who?) – Your comment is a bald assertion, for which you have produced no evidence or argument.

    Editors – So why did you censor Tabman’s posting and my reply?

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