Jo Swinson has been talking to the local East Dunbartonshire paper the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald about why she is standing for Parliament, hoping to regain the seat she held for 10 years until 2015:
She said: “It was a really close result last time and I loved working as a local MP for my home area, a community that I love and where I’d grown up. I would love to do that again. “That is coupled with a deep concern about the direction of the country. “There are real challenges ahead such as the Brexit negotiations and the uncertainty of another independence referendum. “I’m determined to do what I can to fight against another independence referendum and get the country back on the right track.”
She also talked about the issue of tuition fees, saying that she has learned from that experience:
Ms Swinson says that she realises that people are still angry with the Liberal Democrats for going into a coalition with the Conservatives and for breaking some manifesto commitments, such as on student tuition fees. And she admits that voting to raise tuition fees was a mistake. She said: “Everyone makes mistakes. We were trying to create a policy within a set of restrictions when we should have challenged the constraints and gone to the treasury to find the money. “I take responsibility for that mistake and it has taught me to trust my instincts more in the future.”
You can read the whole interview here.
If you can help Jo regain her seat, volunteer here or donate here.
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19 Comments
How refreshing to read an article from a conviction politician instead of the rubbish of predicting the polls (the latest from the New European is the worse of the lot) and a preoccupation with things Scottish.
This campaign is so far a damp squib, and LDV has made a major contribution to that, maybe it is past its sell by. We need debates on matters of national interest, and the Lib Dem approach to those, with the occasional article from a conviction politician, not the nonsense we are being served up with
@David Becket I’m sure Caron and the team would welcome your constructive imput David. Maybe you could guest edit for the day….
I trust the Lib Dem HQ is taking on board what is being said. They cannot be in denial again.
They need a full blooded review of strategy tomorrow and then to go on the full blooded attack from Monday.
Everything so far has been okay, but with no bite, especially the party politicals, thank goodness most people switch over when they come on. It is no good blaming others, that is a sure sign of weakness, it is down to us.
Can we have a policy on tuition fees please? I getting tired of saying “I don’t know”….
Voters in East Dunbartonshire will be absolutely crazy if they contrive to end up with their current awful MP again, instead of Jo.
@David Becket: Perhaps you would like to write the sort of article you would like to see – a much more constructive approach.
And Scotland is a key battleground in the election where we hope to increase our share of seats sixfold, so no apologies for writing about it.
I have a very balanced view of all things, including criticism of the editorship of this site if and when it might be justified.
The response from Caron shows why we must have confidence in it.
The reporting is what people are saying , often about what people are saying.
Tell head office and the leadership you do not like what they are saying .Or , not in fact saying !
Good comments. We need good policies that hang together across all sectors. We need to present a vision that is not about silos, but joined-up thinking. I was quite impressed by the Labour Manifesto to be honest, if we are talking purely in terms of making things better for most people. Here are just some policy ideas that I hope feature in the Manifesto somewhere:
Health and public health:
NHS: 1p extra on income tax is a great idea so we need to keep pushing it!
Taxation: additional taxation on unhealthy foods to reduce childhood and adult obeisty – the sugar tax was a great idea; we need to go further in that direction to save the NHS money. 40% of all illness is thought to be avoidable
We need minimum unit pricing on alcohol as in Scotland – it’s been a success there in terms of changing behaviour
More stringent air pollution standards: pollution now being linked to cardiovascular disease and even dementia
Our drugs policy is a shambles – with cannabis linked to psychosis and being addictive the finer points of our arguments on this will lose most people. Legalising cannabis is not a vote winner apart from for medicinal use.
We need specifics ‘asks’ for the Brexit arrangements:
We need to remain part of the single regulatory arrangement for medicines, medical equipment and consumer safety; otherwise UK patients could be at risk of worse treatments
We need specific examples of how couples and families are being split by the potential loss of free movement and residency
Our NHS will be seriously affected if we lose EU staff
I could go on but don’t want to bore people rigid – but good policies win elections – and capturing the public mood. Maybe we need to bring on the psychologists at this point!
@ Judy Abel
“but good policies win elections”
I wish this was true, but I do not think it is. I didn’t think Thatcher had the best policies in 1979 but she had a clear message; I was not convinced that Blair had the right policies in 1997 but some I liked; I am sure that the Cameron didn’t have the right policies in 2015 but he got his message across. This election is likely to be the same, it has been widely reported that most of Labour’s policies are popular; May is trying to keep her policies secret, but has a good slogan and is likely to win. (Obama had a good slogan in 2008 and Trump had a good one in 2016.)
Fear can win elections. So too hope.
This election sees a cocktail of the two: “hope we have nothing to fear.”
A smart Lib Dem campaign would have known this and would be slowly pressing on the fear side of the optic.
There’s a lot of nurse about May, but she’s no Mary Poppins and your confidence in her medicine is not as strong (or stable) as might at first appear.
“Are you sure?”
That’s my three word campaign. “Are you sure?” spoken softly in the solitude of the night.
@Michael. I fear you are partially right although not fully. After all many young people voted Lib Dem in 2010 because of our position on tuition fees. What a tragedy that was.
I do think people used to vote based more on what they thought would benefit themselves or for ideological reasons. Now it’s all about meaningless slogans and soundbites. It’s as if people don’t really believe life can be better or fairer – or as if that’ aspiration isn’t even particularly relevant any more. Maybe we’ve been lied to too often? If we’ve lost our idealism and just prefer to buy into cultish leadership, we’ll get the political system we deserve. Of course, the media love this as it reinforces their own influence. Welcome to Animal Farm.
@ Judy Abel Very much agree with all your priorities and comments, Judy.
Sadly, we still don’t have minimum pricing of alcohol in Scotland though I wish we had. I had a transplant six years ago and saw the agonising end of a number of fellow patients who were alcoholics. Minimum pricing was blocked legally by the drink industry and is still not resolved. I’m afraid the Scotch Whiskey industry has far too close a relationship with the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
Hello @David Raw. Thank you very much for your supportive comments and for sharing your experiences.
@Bill le Breton – SO agree. I was trying to think what strong and stable spelt backwards! We need to get better an undermining this nonsense. Putin is strong and stable!! Being strong and stable is a disaster if you’re getting things wrong. Strong and stable health services – cyber attacks on our hospitals! Strong and stable police services – knife crime skyrocketing fast in London. And strong and stable is a cover for “We’ve no idea what we’re doing” when it comes to Brexit. It’s more like wrong and incapable!
Strong and Stable? Pull the other one!
Incompetent as Home secretary:
“go-home vans” pulled after a week
deports 50,000 foreign students then told that was illegal by (British) courts
Completely failed to meet her own target on net migration (non-EU net migration was higher in 2015 than in 2009 and far above from the “tens of thousands” target)
Failed to defend police numbers in negotiations with Treasury
Truthfulness and reliability: Flip-Flop May
U-turn over support for EU
U-turn over Heathrow expansion
U-turn over NI contributions
U-turn over the election date
Known as “the submarine” in Tory Party circles
Whatever she says now she will do something different – that is the lesson. We need to be shouting and tweeting these facts everywhere that soft Tories lurk
Now you’re talking! @Andrew McCaig
@ Judy Abel
We didn’t win the 2010 election, we lost MPs. If anyone won it, it was Cameron. You did write, “but good policies win elections”.
Lots of people still vote for “ideological reasons” or because they or they think their family always voted for that party. Swing voters are what matter and they don’t vote for these reasons. Perhaps they vote on emotions and that is why slogans are so important.
“but good policies win elections”
No they don’t. See this http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/9877 – and recent polling on Labour’s leaked manifesto showing that whilst people supported Labour’s proposals they were actually less likely to vote Labour and through the Tories had better worked out policies!
“– and capturing the public mood. Maybe we need to bring on the psychologists at this point!”
Absolutely. Your second point (public mood) runs totally counter to the first (policy)
@Hywel – I think you probably need both, like Blair landslide in 1997 – caught the mood and was offering coherent policy vision – and was optimistic about the future. The current May campaign is only playing to the mood which is : We’re fed up with Brexit – just get on with it!
@ Judy Abel
What I remember most about the 1997 election was that Labour was promising change, and no change. A change of government, but keeping to the Conservative spending levels for two years, so nothing would change for the first two years. Slogan over policies.