Today’s the day we launch our search for the Liberal Voice of 2011 to find the individual or group which has had the biggest impact on liberalism in the past 12 months. This is the fifth annual award, and as is our tradition, we’re looking beyond the ranks of the Lib Dems to find the greatest liberal who’s not a member of our party.
The list of nine nominees appears below. These were sought from Lib Dem members via our most recent survey; 233 nominations were submitted, and each of those short-listed needed to clear a threshold of five.
To vote, please use the poll on the right-hand side of the page.
This year’s shortlist for Liberal Voice of the Year is as follows
(in alphabetical order):
Mohamed Bouazizi
Mohamed Bouazizi was a 26 year-old Tunisian who set himself on fire in protest at police and government abuse, and died in January 2011. His act of suicide led to protests that triggered the overthrow of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, and to the Arab Spring.
Kenneth Clarke
Ken Clarke, Justice Minister in the Coalition Government, is a Tory MP frequently referred to as the sixth Lib Dem cabinet minister for his committed belief to prison rehabilitation and due legal process.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Secretary of State, has helped lead the US response to the Arab uprising, and been a consistent and vocal advocate for the empowerment and welfare of women and girls worldwide.
Nick Davies and The Guardian
Nick Davies is an investigative journalist for The Guardian whose dogged pursuit of the British press’s illegal activities, including phone-hacking, sparked the closure of the News of the World and the Leveson Inquiry into media standards.
Hugh Grant and the Hacked Off campaign
The combination of Hugh Grant and the Hacked Off group are vigorously campaigning for a cleaned-up British press and improved media standards.
Mark Littlewood
Mark Littlewood, a former head of media for the Lib Dems, campaigns for market reforms in his non-partisan role as Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs.
Barack Obama
Barack Obama, US President, brought home all troops from Iraq in October, took a leading role in the overthrow of Gaddafi’s Libyan government, and ordered the successful assassination of Osama bin Laden.
The Occupy Movement
The Occupy Movement, an international protest group primarily directed against economic and social inequality, currently lists 2,562 Occupy communities worldwide.
Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese political activist who has openly challenged the Chinese Government’s stance on democracy and human rights.
To vote, please use the poll on the right-hand side of the page. And please feel free to use the comments thread to debate the relative merits of the short-listed Liberal Voice of the Year candidates …
NB: we have looked at options for running the poll using preferential voting rather than first-past-the-post. However, those which we have looked at have significant issues (eg, limited number of voters, no blocking to prevent repeat voting). We’ll continue to look for ways to enable a fairer voting system for Voice polls.
Previous winners of the LDV Liberal Voice of the Year award:
2010: Aung San Suu Kyi, campaigner against political abuse in Burma.
2009: Peter Tatchell, international human rights campaigner.
2008: Campaigners on behalf of Jean Charles de Menezes (Justice4Jean.org) and Stockwell Shooting Inquest Jury.
2007: Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty.
* Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.
25 Comments
I can’t see the poll!
Interesting to see both Mark Littlewood and the Occupy Movement on the list…really showing the wide church the party is on economic affairs!
Also; Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama? Very sceptical they count as either liberal or particularly effective this year.
It also speaks to our obsession with American politics over European…no mention of any of the various liberal leaders that are in power now in the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany etc.
I found the list fairly uninspiring and voted for Ken Clarke mostly because I like him and he didn’t assassinate anybody.
Not sure the Occupy movement are in any way liberal, economically or otherwise – last I heard they were calling for private property to be outlawed!
From that list, It doesn’t seem that a strong commitment to liberalism or an espousal of liberal values is necessary to be included on the list of potential best liberal voices. Disappointing.
Mohamed Bouazizi – A very brave man although I do not know what his politics are. Obviously not a supporter of Gadaffi so in one sense he is a Liberal. If we were voting by ATV he would be high up.
Kenneth Clarke – A liberal in some respects, bravely standing up to his party’s right wing, but sometimes placating it as well in a way that is not liberal. Lets not overlook his business interests in tobacco, spreading this aweful addiction to countries that previously did not have one.
Hillary Rodham Clinton – not sure what she has done to be here. Conspicuously failed to put pressure on Israel to reach a settlement with the Palestinians.
Nick Davies and The Guardian – A good choice
Hugh Grant and the Hacked Off campaign – Not impressed with a celebrity being on this list even though I sympathise with him.
Mark Littlewood – His tiny faction will probably gang up and give him victory but he doesn’t get my vote. He is a climate change denier which disqualifies him to begin with in my book.
Barack Obama – Very disappointing on climate change and civil liberties but Liberals have no choice but to support him in 2012 because the alternatives are off the scale.
The Occupy Movement – On the whole I think this is a Liberal movement. Some of them are clearly not liberals, notably those who are Trots, but their demands that the relevant bankers rather than benefit claimants should pay for the damage they caused is just and liberal.
Ai Weiwei – A good choice for a very difficult campaign
I would like to have seen Pauline Pearce, nicknamed ‘the Hackney Heroine’ after speaking out against rioters in east London on the list, and Tariq Jahan who spoke out against revenge when his son died in the riots.
I think the campaign against privatising the forests should get recognition as well.
I am tempted to nominate Ed Miliband. Most of what he says sounds good. He is attacking the Tory government for pursuing an economic policy which this party opposed 2 years ago and Nick Clegg called “irrational”. That must be a good thing. Trouble is, though, I don’t trust him. In government, he might just do what the bankers and the Americans tell him, rather than what is right for the country, much as Blair and Brown did. And while he talks the language of pluralism, he leads a party that is still more tribal than inclusive.
A more obvious and deserving candidate is Mike Hancock. Mike is an indefatigable constituency MP not afraid to speak up for the people the Tory government is intent on bashing, and who refuses to be bullied by tabloid smears about his private life. Mike has that basic hallmark of a Liberal – he doesn’t allow others to tell him what to do.
Uninspiring choice this time round and a big shame about it being FPTP again. If there’s no decent IRV system available then surely you should have gone for approval voting? I think politicalbetting did an poll by IRV a while back, so maybe get in touch with Mike Smithson?
To be honest, I’m a bit concerned by having Hacked Off and Nick Davies split between two options – surely that will split the vote for people who are voting for essentially the same thing. And very curious about Littlewood being on the poll at all – does anyone actually like him?
PS Why are we voting by FPTP?
Tony Greaves
Nothing in the platform (such as it is) of the Occupy movement is liberal. They are only really active in the sphere of economic policy and in that they are avowedly Socialist from what I can tell.
Although, as Geoff says, we don’t know a lot about Bouazizi’s personal politics and even the motivation for his protest has got a bit muddled, he symbolises the spark that started the Arab Spring which, from where we stand today, looks like being the biggest and most fundamental shift from authoritarianism to liberalism anywhere since 1989.
Of course, the last time we said that it was the Orange Revolution.
Commenting reminder: Please remember to respect our moderation policy which basically asks people to be polite, be on topic and be honest (ie don’t pretend to be more than one person or to be someone you are not). Please remmeber also the point about not making repetitive commments, such as raising the same topic again and again in different threads, unless it is directly relevant to the posts you are making it on.
As you can see from other comments published on the site, wide-ranging and robust debate is fine (including comments critical of the party or the site). However, we do ask for little bit of civility – and the chances are you’ll find that makes your points a little more effective at persuading others anyway!
Thanks.
“Obama will go down in history as the President who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in U.S. law,’ a Human Rights Watch spokesman said” – Yet people here have nominated him for Liberal voice of the year. Honestly people!
The Occupy movement as well?! Just bizzare…
Where’s the ‘none of the above’ option?
Mark Littlewood stands out on the list as the only one not to have furthered liberalism in one way or another. My further comments about him would I am sure breach the moderation policy!
No STV for the vote? Shame! Disgrace!
Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells Focus Team
As always with this list the problem is that the majority of them are either definitely not a Liberal of we have no idea. Mr Bouazizi was a market trader with no political affiliations (although this is not to diminish the importance of his actions). Ken Clarke talks liberal while cutting back on poor peoples access to justice by withdrawing all legal aid for social welfare cases. The Occupy movement is in no way Liberal – they would spit in our faces as almost all of them are opposed to capitalism, which we all subscribe to in some form as Liberals. Is increasing the right to privacy a great Liberal cause and I haven’t noticed the Guardian displaying many Liberal instincts over the past year as it sinks back into smug champagne socialism. Do we really know what Ai Weiweis liberal instincts are? Being in favour of human rights and democracy does not automatically make you a Liberal with or without a capital L.
Hilary Clinton, is arguably a liberal – although a pretty weak one (never heard any objections to the death penalty, including when her husband sent a person with reduced mental capacity to the chair), ditto Obama.But neither have impressed much over the year. Mr Littlewood is a liberal, in the classical sense at least, but again what amazing things has he done this year? There hasn’t been a truly liberal winner of this since Shami.
So a majority of non liberals on the list and 3 weak liberals who have under achieved in the year. AND we have to vote by FPTP! I think I won’t bother. I think we need to face up to the fact that 2011 was not a very liberal year! Good riddance to it.
@ Tony Greaves & Simon Banks
Why isn’t the poll using preferential voting? As I stated in the original article:
Here’s a nice blogpost from a friend of mine on two of the candidates!
Sorry Stephen – repeat voting is the least of your worries. I agree with Neil Bradbury: http://livingonwords.blogspot.com/2012/01/backing-none-of-above-in-liberal-voice.html
Ken Clarke definitely NOT a liberal (previous tory justice spokesman Dominic Grieve was actually far more liberal than Clarke on most matters) – why on earth is KK branded as such – he’s an old fashioned fairly authoritarian rightish tory, but with just enough common sense to tackle the dilemas of sentencing policy and not to see all human rights legislation and European institutions in general as some big socialist threat – but KK has never been a liberal – his record includes
– introducing the internal market reforms in the NHS which commodotised health care have paved the way for Lansley’s external market
– introducing the centralised national curriculum in schools
– introducing a new offence of squatting
– abolishing civil legal aid especially for social welfare law (as well as costs protection in no win no fee litigation)
– negotiating opt outs from the European Court’s jurisdiction (thus getting round EHRC without having to repeal HRA)
– a lot of tobacco flogging – allegations have included involvement in smuggling, lobbying developing countries not to introduce tabacco health safety warnings, targeting children with adverstising etc..
I voted for the occupy movement, just for their (albeit small) potential to change American politics. But Jens Stoltenberg should have walked it for his response to the shootings in Norway. Perhaps even the Norwegian people should have been nominated for their heroic response to the most heinous provocation.
I vote … Richard Grayson for Social Democrat of the year!
To ‘anon’: On a point of fact, Kenneth Baker (not Kenn Clarke) introduced the centralised national curriculum in the 1988 Education Act.
The internal market in the NHS was indeed taken up by the pragmatic but reform-minded Clarke in the late 1980s, although ironically the Thatcher government was initially sceptical of the idea when it was floated by the SDP…
That should read Ken Clarke, obviously (not Kenn)…