Sam Gyimah is the third recent defecting MP to get up on stage this evening at the Glee Club. He said that his wife had told him that under no circumstances should he try to sing. But, bless him, he joined in singing “The Land” as our video below shows. So he is now the third defecting MP to do his initiation and become a proper Liberal.
Congratulations to Sam!
And another one. @SamGyimah sings “The Land” at Glee Club #ldconf @caronmlindsay pic.twitter.com/FjgIPqZ37z
— paulwalteruk (@paulwalteruk) September 16, 2019
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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22 Comments
So Sam is a “proper Liberal” for singing a song about a policy the party formally abandoned in the 1920’s ? Is it a case of Luke 15:7 ???? “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance” or is it a case of a bit of over excited purple hyperbole ? Time will tell, on Sam and what the Liberal Democrats will become.
Interesting to look at the record on ‘They work for you “. How Sam Gyimah voted on Welfare and Benefits :
Generally voted for reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the “bedroom tax”)
12 votes for, 0 votes against, 6 absences, between 2011–2018
Consistently voted against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices
0 votes for, 5 votes against, in 2013
Almost always voted against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability 0 votes for, 11 votes against, 4 absences, between 2011–2016
Consistently voted for making local councils responsible for helping those in financial need afford their council tax and reducing the amount spent on such support 4 votes for, 0 votes against, in 2012
Almost always voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits
47 votes for, 0 votes against, 7 absences, between 2012–2016
Almost always voted against spending public money to create guaranteed jobs for young people who have spent a long time unemployed 0 votes for, 8 votes against, 1 absence, between 2011–2014.
Oh David. Live in the real world. No defector is going to have a perfect liberal record, especially a Minister. What matters is where they are now.
@ Tim Hill I’m afraid I do live in the real world, Tim, as do all the people affected by those votes for whom it is a very cruel world with not much to sing about.
Thank you, David Raw – if ever I was tempted to support the LibDems, it would be people like you who would win me over.
The Liberal Democrats – inverted commas now – are heading in a very bad direction at present.
What the hell happened to having a set of principles, and sticking by them?
The usual suspects, if we as a party begin to bring in people who had previously been opponents, the same old tripe is mashed up. A sinner repenteth seems to be a good place to start
bob sayer 17th Sep ’19 – 9:08am…….The usual suspects……
That appears to be the crux of your argument. I remember heaing that comment when Nick Clegg was destroying this party’s credibility. We were disloyal, lacking faith and we watched as the prevailing mood went from “too early” to change to “too late” without passing through the “right time”. Under Jo Swinson this party seems intent on making the same mistakes in who/what it embraces.
You quote “A sinner repenteth seems to be a good place to start” ;may I respectfully point out that the old adage about ‘Leopards and Spots’might be more appropriate
@expats: FFS Just move on from Clegg. Our approach now under Jo is actually the exact opposite of the Clegg approach.
Whatever the merits or otherwise of our new recruits and I for one welcome them the original post from Paul was meant to be light-hearted and was just showing someone enjoying themselves at conference.
Can we just lighten up a bit for goodness sake and save the more intense posts for other news items.
expats: I think you miss the point about the biblical quote concerning leopards and their spots; that being that humans can think and change their minds and behaviour whereas animals can’t. (May not be true but the bible was written a long time ago)
Many thanks David (Raw).
I have filed this post under “humour”.
My use of the phrase “proper Liberal” was intended to convey someone who has read and embraced our Preamble, been grilled with a light bulb by the Chief Whip, handed over their cash and then finally shown their commitment to the party by getting on stage in front of a thousand drunk and shouty Liberals to sing our anthem. “Commitment” is the key word there. I welcome Sam like anyone else who goes through the process of joining us, and keep an open mind, bearing in mind that our party is underpinned by constant self-challenge.
Best wishes
Paul
I think the Glee Club is the beating heart of Liberalism and, thus, Lib Demery because it expresses creativity, satire and the fun of laughing at ourselves. If we lose that we will have lost our political soul and all hope of speaking truth to power, especially when we wield it ourselves. A lot of people left the party in the Clegg years but we hear little about that from David Raw and Jayne Mansfield who comments on the previous post. I agree with them both that we let people down when we were in Coalition but we were dealing with the worst financial crisis since the 1930s and had no hope of persuading the Tories to adopt a different set of policies to deal with it. Indeed, there was little in the way of alternatives in economic practice to use to combat a crisis because Keynesian theory was discredited back in the 70s.
I want to persuade our party that poverty represents the greatest threat to Liberalism at the moment and the party has made a start by passing the policy paper A Fairer Share for All. Perhaps David and Jayne would like to join or rejoin and get involved in furthering policies which will help people living on benefits. Our 2017 manifesto was better for the poor than Labour’s. I think we are building on that.
Well said Sue.
I was a “rejoiner” in 2015. There is always plenty to criticise about our Party, but it is still my home..
Excellent speech by Jo. I like the idea of the wellbeing budget. We need to get away from the measures of economic growth that put things that are bad for people on the plus side of the scales.
Takes me back to reading EF Schumacher as a student
” Austerity is the belief that the global financial crash of 2008 was caused by there being too many libraries in Wolverhampton ” – Alexei Sayle.
I would welcome any relook about how our economy should work.
@ Paul Walter Thanks for the reassurance Paul. I hope it’s a long life bulb.
@Sue Sutherland Can I suggest that you put yourself forward in the forthcoming election for Party President.
Sue,
Keynesian theories fell into disrepute because they made little sense when the factories were in Birmingham and the customers in China. Now it’s the other way round it’s economic suicide.
But it’s all right because the world is going to be astonished by Britain’s economic miracle thanks to
1. invest in skills and infrastructure
2. support the latest techno doo-hickey, whatever it is.
3. the National St Jude Investment Bank
David Raw presents a consistently dyspectic and curmudgeonly message on this site. He must be doing wonders for recruitment.
Alas, seeing some Glee Club videos now being shared on Twitter and the replies beneath, I fear it may be time for this tradition to be put to rest. Autre temps, autre moeurs.
I was Sam’s headmaster at his comprehensive school in Hertfordshire. Sam is a fine and principled man whom I met again recently at the House of Commons.
I think we should all understand the constraints of party membership, and how occasionally we might need to vote against our better nature for the sake of party discipline.
Sam is a brilliant addition to our party.
“The Land” reminds us of our Liberal history and traditions.
There may well be people who voted loyally with their parties in ways we oppose, who can learn and become more Liberal. Accepting them in makes that likely. Rejecting them would make it very unlikely. In general I’m in favour of having a close look at the principles and values of elected representatives wanting to defect to us (and at policy positions only insofar as they reveal values), but right now, with EU membership and very likely the future of UK democracy teetering in the balance, I’d accept a lot of people.
There is a wider issue. If we want to become a big party again, vying to lead governments, we’ll have to be a broad church containing anyone closer to us than to Labour or Conservatives. We’ll even need to welcome centrists. The Liberal Party around 1910 was not, and our Canadian cousins now are not, ideologically pure or more than roughly consistent. But that should mean a key role for those of us driven by a Liberal philosophy and values and given to analysing such things, for us to lead and preach and debate to make sure the core thought of such a broad party is still Liberal.
A broad-based Liberal party, with all its respectful debate, and ebb & flow of liberal perspectives and traditions can achieve so much more than a minor coalition partner or 3rd, 4th largest opposition party! If it’s worth fighting for, it’s worth uniting for!