Tag Archives: eu referendum

Richard Robinson

What does the referendum result mean?

By Richard Robinson | Thu 30th June 2016 - 8:55 am

Almost every MP and politician from Tim Farron to Nigel Farrage has been saying that we must respect the result of the EU referendum last Thursday but there is no agreement on what the result means.

The act setting up the referendum deliberately made the result advisory, leaving parliament and the government to take the final decision (unlike the AV referendum, which was binding). But what is the final decision? To articulate a vision of the UK outside the EU, something not articulated by the leave campaign during the referendum? To prepare an initial negotiating position? To allow Scotland a second independence referendum? To notify the European Council under article 50 of the EU treaties?

We should respect the result of the referendum. But I believe this only means that the new prime minister, whoever they may be, has the obligation to clarify what our new relationship with the EU should look like (recognising our weak negotiating position). No more, no less! They should then go back to the electorate, through either a general election or second referendum, to gain a mandate for their proposed approach. This second plebiscite would then give a clear choice to the electorate and happen under very different conditions. 

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Scott Partridge

How the Lib Dems can lead after the Referendum Result

By Scott Partridge | Wed 29th June 2016 - 4:25 pm

The three days following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union saw Britain’s political landscape descend into chaos. Whilst both the Conservatives and Labour have been damaged both by intra-party division, the Liberal Democrats have remained unscathed, benefitting considerably from the turmoil the vote to leave has incited.

Division is rife within the Conservatives, with the likelihood of a leader attractive to both pro-and anti-Brexiteers in serious doubt. The 16 million that voted to Remain are unlikely to heed Boris Johnson’s call to “build bridges” with a man many perceive has just chosen isolationism over unity and progress. Likewise, 17 million Leavers are unlikely to vote for Theresa May, who’s second favourite to command the leadership, as David Cameron’s resignation is symbolic of the incompatibility of a Remain captain commanding a Leave ship. Whilst it is arguable that many Leavers have switched allegiances due to the perception that they voted on the basis of intangible promises (emphasised by Nigel Farage and Iain Duncan Smith’s abandoning of the Leave campaign’s promise that £350m would be injected into the NHS), it is likely that many are disillusioned with the Conservative Party as it has become synonymous with fear mongering, fragmentation and mistrust.

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Posted in Op-eds | 20 Comments

Fighting for votes at 16

By Mark Henderson | Wed 29th June 2016 - 2:26 pm

In light of the recent referendum result, as a Young Liberal, I have found this result  disheartening and frustrating. Joining the party at 16 and now being 17, I have not yet been able to exercise my voice and vote in any democratic election aside from the Liberal Democrat leadership election. This matter disappoints me and,  I’m sure,  many other politically passionate 16 and 17 year olds massively.

From a personal perspective I cannot help but feel that there is an enormous need for change to cater for this currently unheard voice in politics. I and many other young people have been active  in the political landscape since the day I joined the party yet feel angry that I am not allowed to exercise my passionate views through a vote.

Young people have shouted louder than ever on the issue of the European Union and I feel unsatisfied and discouraged that David Cameron declined me and other 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote on an issue that has shifted the tectonic plates of British politics more than any other issue in recent times.

It is clear that young people favoured Remain by a landslide yet they did not get the decision they wanted. It could be argued that this is down to a lack of a voice amongst young people, but also the lack of action to energise the base of young people in the United Kingdom and galvanise their opinion on the issues that will affect their everyday lives and also their future.

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Tim Miller

It’s time for a Constitutional Convention

By Tim Miller | Wed 29th June 2016 - 1:15 pm

We are now facing the reality of life outside the EU and with it the prospect of a new United Kingdom. With the result of the referendum so close it is essential that the path we move forward on as a country is determined by a wide range of views: those who voted in and those who voted out; the young and the old; people from the left, the right and centre; voices from all parts of the United Kingdom.

We have a chance to take this huge, albeit unwanted, change in our relationship with the world and turn it into …

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Daniel Russell

Winning people around and winning here

By Daniel Russell | Wed 29th June 2016 - 12:10 pm

Amongst the post-apocalyptic Brexit debris, I have somehow managed to steel myself and pore over the depressing map of blue England in an attempt to seek out some positive signs of life and hope. The immediate signals are clear and well-documented, pretty much yellow ‘Remain’ for the large metropolitan areas and swathes of blue for the rural ‘Leave’ (although the blue is practically purple on the East Anglian fringes!).

Amongst all this there are some exceptions, some yellow remain anomalies that stand out amongst the sea of blue. On closer inspection, these areas are identified as Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire, South Hams in Devon, and South Lakeland in Cumbria. By anyone’s standards that’s a pretty eclectic mix, so I sought to understand what might be the reason these particular areas bucked their regional trends. When I examined who was the MP for these areas, a possible explanation emerged.

The main town in South Hams is Totnes. The MP for Totnes is the independently-minded Tory GP Dr Sarah Wollaston. She was famous during the campaign for switching from ‘Leave’ to ‘Remain’ and helping to bust the £350m a week NHS myth that the Vote Leave side were peddling. The MP for Rushcliffe is Tory grandee and respected pro-European Ken Clarke. South Lakeland, of course, is the stamping ground of our leader, Tim Farron. 

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Chris Bowers

We cannot turn a blind eye to the Brexit anger

By Chris Bowers | Wed 29th June 2016 - 9:55 am

The unravelling of the Brexit vote – and parallel calls for a second referendum – is gathering pace. There may be hope for us in this, but there is also a massive warning which is crucial to the viability of liberalism in our country.

The referendum result was a triumph for illogicality. Many of those who voted Leave stand to lose most, through everything from endangered employment rights gained through the EU to the security of jobs reliant on trade with Europe. So we need to look deeper behind the reasons for the Leave vote, and when we do, we see a pattern that was evident at the 2015 general election.

The old certainties of politics no longer fit those who voted Leave. Many people support the NHS but harbour deep hostility towards immigrants, especially migrant workers. People who have seen their safety nets taken away through cuts to public services – all originating from the credit crunch of 2007-07 which was caused mainly by reckless financial instutions overreaching themselves – are understandably angry with those who appear to have kept their affluence while they themselves are fearful for their livelihood and can’t make sense of changes to their high street wrought by globalisation.

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Spencer Hagard

Our values and the Brexit crisis

By Spencer Hagard | Mon 27th June 2016 - 7:33 pm

We must quickly learn to cope with the new reality, and respond imaginatively, rationally and practically.  I applaud Tim Farron for doing so, and doing it well.

With a trickle of enquiries about whether Tim is acting ultra vires, party members will need reassurance that approved constitutional arrangements for policy making in emergency situations are being scrupulously observed. Federal Policy Committee should quickly provide reassurance, and should also circulate its plans to organise and channel the party membership’s central role in policy making during the crisis.

Meanwhile, back at the inferno, many established aspects of UK governance are under challenge, with new challenges arising constantly. Liberal Democrats need to seize the hour, to strongly re-emphasise the party’s radical political and constitutional reform agenda, developed over many decades, but corroded by the 2010 coalition agreement, and then undermined by the frustrating processes and unsatisfactory outcomes of the 2012-13 policy working group (of which I was a member).

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Jayne McCoy

How do we make liberalism relevant to the disenfranchised leave voters?

By Jayne McCoy | Mon 27th June 2016 - 6:28 pm

I think we are agreed now that the EU referendum result was not a vote to leave the EU at all, but a howl of protest from the people of Britain that feel left out of the prosperity that predominately benefits the south east, and fearful of the changes affecting their communities.

It feels that we are not a liberal country after all. It makes me extremely sad to realise this, and will lead others to question the relevance of our Party.

But if we dig deep into the basic principles and aims of our Party we will see that we are more relevant than we have ever been. It is poverty and lack of opportunity that harnesses swathes of our society to a yoke of resentment and fear ploughing a furrow for lies and misinformation that grow into a forest cutting them off from truth and the liberal world. It is this very poverty and ignorance that our Party seeks to address: no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We are a divided, unequal Britain and the Party aims to deliver equality for all. It is therefore incumbent upon us not just to represent the liberal-thinking 48%, but to take up the fight on behalf of the disenfranchised before UKIP step in to represent them.

The difficult question is how do we do that?  I do not claim to have the answers, but some thoughts based on local experience (in a strong liberal borough that voted to leave!?) have started to form as I work through the shock of the referendum result.

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Laurence Mann

We need to seize this moment

By Laurence Mann | Mon 27th June 2016 - 5:20 pm

It’s been a bruising and disappointing few days for all of us, but two nights’ sleep, a lot of conversations and some thought have left me impelled to express an opinion in the Voice. I am setting out my contentions, for which I am grateful to the many people I have discussed them with, below.

The first point is that the proposal to leave the EU is a major constitutional change and that it is just not apposite to make such changes on the basis of a simple majority in a referendum.

That point is reinforced by the fact that this referendum was agreed on the basis that it was an advisory referendum, not a mandatory one. I suspect that had anyone asked the question. “Why was there no threshold for the decision to be acted upon?”, the answer would have been to reiterate that the referendum was advisory and it was for Parliament to consider it.

The second point follows from that. Parliament should consider it. As such the fatalistic acceptance of the result as if it were a final judgement from an all-powerful deity is not an appropriate course of action for our legislative representatives. So this means that people should insist that such consideration takes place. There is a case for the proposition that the invocation of Article 50 without such consideration is illegal.

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Mark Argent

When people realise they have been lied to…

By Mark Argent | Mon 27th June 2016 - 3:53 pm

Vote Leave seem to have ridden a tide of resentment to a narrow referendum majority, and immediately had to start admitting to lying in their campaign. The lies were impressive and, combined with the idea that experts are not to be trusted, were irrefutable. They played on the fears and anxieties of people who already felt left behind. They spoke to people struggling from years of austerity and feeling ignored by “elites”.

What happens to these people as they realise they were taken for a ride by a faction of that “elite” that played on their vulnerability? What is happening to people who voted Leave because they wanted change, and are increasingly horrified to find out what that change looks like, or voted out of protest and discover that their vote has consequences?

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Katharine Pindar

Not waving, nearly drowned dead

By Katharine Pindar | Mon 27th June 2016 - 2:37 pm

So there we are. The deep splits in the Conservative Party and the Labour Party have foreshadowed the division of the British voting public now into two nearly equal halves. There will be plenty of analysis of who the Brexiters are and why they won, but one thing seems clear. The Leave voters rejected the supposed authority figures, the elites of politics and business and finance, all the leaders to whom our forebears looked up. It seemed to be in that respect a genuine revolt of the masses.

An almighty wave, worthy of a Japanese painter, has crashed our own tiny ship on a stony shore, called Britain outside the EU. But mighty galleons have crashed with us, some never to float again. We should have more buoyancy than them, and Tim has certainly showed it since the result.

Still, as we painfully pick our way over the pebbles, we need to think about why there is this apparent rebellion of the masses against the elites. It seems that people felt powerless and wanted a sense of control. One way we could respond to that is by fighting again for proportional representation, which will make all elections in England and Wales meaningful, restoring democracy without having referendums.

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Catherine Crosland

We must not prove the conspiracy theorists right

By Catherine Crosland | Mon 27th June 2016 - 12:30 pm

While campaigning for Remain outside a local train station, I spoke to a woman who seemed to be a conspiracy theorist. She told me that she expected that the majority of people would vote Leave, but that she was nevertheless convinced that Britain would remain in the EU anyway.

“They’ll fix it somehow.” She said.

I tried to assure her that it was more or less impossible for the count to be rigged (which I assumed to be the sort of scenario she was envisaging).

She was clearly unconvinced, and walked away, with a smile which seemed to say “You’ll see…”

After the result, I thought of this woman, and reflected that at least now she would realise that she had unfairly maligned our democratic processes.

But now, I’m beginning to wonder if she is thinking “I told you so…”

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Dean Crofts

Support the 100%

By Dean Crofts | Mon 27th June 2016 - 11:22 am

Do not support the 48%  who voted remain; support the 100% who have the same values as we do.

Liberal – Willing to respect, accept behaviour or opinions different from your own; open to new ideas

Democrat – The belief in freedom and equality between people

Not my words but dictionary definitions of what Liberal Democrats should stand for.

So what does this mean post-Brexit? Let us get rid of the rhetoric and angst among individuals that voted remain or leave. Let us find the good in all individuals whichever way they voted. Those who already agree with our ideals and those who did …

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Clare Kane

I am English. I am British. I am European.

By Clare Kane | Mon 27th June 2016 - 9:55 am

I am English. I am British. I am European.

When I woke up at 6am on Friday 24th June, I wept. I wept for the country I have called home for my entire life no longer feels my own. I wept because my voice had not been heard, had been drowned out. I tried to make the arguments for unity, and against intolerance, but they simply were not strong enough.

I am part of the 48%.

I am a Yorkshire lass. I am a Northerner. I am Human.

I am deeply concerned about the future of England, of the United Kingdom, and of the European Union. I also worry about our transatlantic friends, but I can’t do anything about that right now.

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Graham Watson

Only time will tell …

By Graham Watson | Mon 27th June 2016 - 8:48 am

The UK has followed Ireland, France and the Netherlands in rejecting the EU in a referendum. As in those countries, the result was unexpected, the government unprepared and the situation unresolved by the outcome.

Overall, 51.9% voted to leave the EU and 48.1% voted to remain. But in hardly a single community was that the actual result. In most communities two thirds voted one way and one third the other in a ballot which ripped Britain limb from limb. As was said with grim humour when Wales defeated Northern Ireland 1-0 in the European football championship on Saturday, ‘this is the second time in three days that Wales has knocked Northern Ireland out of Europe’.

The reasons for the vote were many and varied and the result cannot be said to represent the settled will of the UK’s citizens. The vote was highest in the areas where income is lowest, and lowest among people whose educational achievement is high. The old and tired sought to restore a more glorious past, the young and energetic to help build a European future. Gibraltar voted by over 95% to stay; Scotland, Northern Ireland and London also declared decisively their desire to remain. Rather than a reasoned rejection of EU membership it was a cry of anguish against inequality, against the ravages of the globalisation of markets, against the all-too-apparently uncaring nature of the governing elite. The people were asked ‘Ça va?’. A majority replied – à la révolution française – ‘Ça ira!’

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Lee Dargue

If you thought we were having a #libdemfightback – you’ve seen nothing yet!

By Lee Dargue | Sun 26th June 2016 - 6:34 pm

Like many people, both in our party and out of it, I felt a sense of numb devastation following the result on June 23, a date etched into our country’s storied history.

The resulting euphoria of the Leave campaign, pouring salt into the wound, has little consolation in that the Remain euphoria would have been as high. It doesn’t surprise many of us, however, that a Conservative election for a new leader has started (don’t be so sure that Boris is loved by everyone in that party).

What did come as a surprise to me, is how quickly the Leave team have started rowing back.

Controlled immigration at a lower level? No, they say no.

£350million a week to the EU? Oh, I never believed that, some say.

You’re now giving all that to the NHS? We aren’t the government; we can’t make spending commitments they now admit.

I’ve been keen to say the Leave team – implying the leaders of the Leave campaign. Please remember, there are liberals who did want to leave in our party. The ones I know personally, are not anti-LGBT, anti-NHS or any other badges we could give to the likes of Boris or Farage so please, be careful when directing your anger to the right places.

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Kev Walsh

We are the 48 … but also the 52

By Kev Walsh | Sun 26th June 2016 - 5:16 pm

I don’t believe in a second referendum, but do believe we need to listen to the dissenting voices. What happened on Thursday was not a ‘landslide victory’ or even a mandate by any stretch of the imagination. But it WAS a big two fingers up at the established political system that we have here in the UK.

Many Leave people voted to get rid of David Cameron. Many voted to Leave because they were always going to vote against the government. Many people voted Leave because they were lied to about things like the NHS or that we would somehow stop immigration overnight. Some people voted because they really felt their lives would be better outside of the EU.

But people voted against the current form the EU has taken.

I do sincerely believe in Britain’s place in Europe – but a reformed Europe that allows more control for sovereign states on issues, less bureaucracy and more transparency.

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Posted in Op-eds | 19 Comments
Geoff Crocker

Congratulations Brexit, but Scotland holds the key

By Geoff Crocker | Sun 26th June 2016 - 4:20 pm

It would be churlish not to congratulate the Brexit campaign, especially its leaders Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, and Nigel Farage on their stunning success, which amongst other things has led to

  • The ousting of Boris and Michael’s friend Dave from the office of Prime Minister. Chimes of Perfidious Albion. ‘Et tu, Brute?’ With friend like this Cameron needs no enemies. The rest of us should watch Johnson and Gove, and beware.
  • The wiping of many £billions value from UK shares
  • The wiping of $trillions value from global shares
  • The fall of about 10% in the value of the £
  • The lowering of the UK’s credit rating to negative
  • The very possible introduction of tariffs against UK imports into the EU, specifically on cars made at UK Japanese implants, leading to loss of jobs and future investment – ouch!
  • The very likely secession of Scotland from the UK
  • The less likely but possible secession of Northern Ireland if Sinn Fein saw its chance and managed to call a referendum for re-unification of Ireland which were then to succeed based on the Catholic majority in the population and the general desire to stay in the EU
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Jim Williams

Seeking an antidote to poisonous politics

By Jim Williams | Sun 26th June 2016 - 8:40 am

Why does poisonous politics keep winning in Britain? A glance down your newsfeed will tell you that, for many, it’s because people are stupid. Let me put this plainly: it’s not.

We all vote with our hearts, however much we may protest otherwise. Brains too rarely come into it, clever or otherwise.

The voters who take solace in the myth of us vs them are just people who feel afraid. People who feel disenfranchised, powerless, ignored. And until we can offer them anything that speaks to their concerns, nothing is going to change.

I believe liberalism is the answer. But saying liberal things in our little liberal bubble will only serve to unite us against them in disbelief. Instead we have to engage: we have to try to understand.

Liberalism is about trusting people. So if you trust people, what are you forced to conclude? That politics has failed us. That society has failed us.

Don’t hate the people that Vote Leave manipulated: find a way of bringing them back into the fold.

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The Voice

A message from Tim Farron

By The Voice | Sat 25th June 2016 - 10:29 pm

Tim Farron has sent this message to members this evening:

Liberal Democrats have always believed that Britain should be outward facing, collaborating with other countries to tackle global challenges. Our membership of the European Union allows us to do that.

Britain has now voted to leave. The margin of victory was small and risks dividing our country. We must respect the outcome of the referendum in how we talk about moving forward.

We also have to understand that for many people this was not just a vote about Europe. It was also a howl of anger at politicians and institutions who they feel are out of

…

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Mark Goodrich

EU Referendum: What do we do now?

By Mark Goodrich | Sat 25th June 2016 - 4:45 pm

I can’t be the only person who is asking that question and I see that Alisdair Calder McGregor was posing it yesterday.

However, a lot of the responses seem to miss the point. We have not left the EU.  What a small majority of the country has voted for is for us to withdraw. That can only be done by triggering Article 50 and beginning discussions on the terms of exit (as even Leave recognises).

Only one country has ever left the EU – Greenland. Their Article 50 negotiations took 3 years and they only really had to discuss fish. Nobody seriously expects we can do it in less time than them and most experts think it could take 4 or 5 years. Even if Gove et al continue to ignore experts, they will need to come back to the Houses of Parliament with their deal and get it passed.

And what will that deal look like? It is hard to see how they could ever come back with a deal which allows EU citizens free movement. It is equally hard to see that the EU would ever allow access to the single market without such free movement. So, the deal presented would likely be a full exit which they would have to get through a parliament where the overwhelming majority of parliamentarians voted for Remain. 

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Nigel Jones

What the EU Referendum has taught me

By Nigel Jones | Sat 25th June 2016 - 3:11 pm

The referendum campaign has reminded or taught us many things about the relationship between us and the public. I am deliberately writing this before the result. There are matters that need a good hard examination. Among them are these:

1.Since tuition fees, we have been all too aware of people’s lack of trust in us; this is now the view held by even more people about all politicians. So when Sadiq Khan rightly points out the untruths in a leaflet, someone who was chosen as an undecided simply said on camera that he is trained to lie.

2.Large numbers of people no longer want to listen not only to us and other politicians, but even to experts; this should worry us greatly.

3. Views are affected by educational experience and level, not just age. I have met less-well-off young people who blame the EU and immigrants for their troubles. (Recent reports about the relative lack of achievement of white boys in our schools from lower backgrounds is worrying for the future.)

4. Education is supposed to broaden people’s outlook, but it needs to do more of this, since good democracy depends on that; narrowly-focussed academic or technical knowledge and skills is not enough.

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Joe Zammit-Lucia

What does the EU Referendum mean for Liberal Democrats

By Joe Zammit-Lucia | Sat 25th June 2016 - 1:49 pm

This vote has been a collective howl of frustration – at the political class, at big business, at a global elite.

These were Tim Farron’s words in his outstanding speech following the results of the EU referendum. It raises a question this party must answer – is this party simply part of that political class and global elite that the voters continue so clearly to reject? Are we, like other mainstream political parties, set in our ways, disconnected from the public whose trust the mainstream has lost, stuck in a mindset and language that is hopelessly outdated, and with no idea as to how to understand and empathise with the concerns of today’s voter, let alone find ways to address them? We like to think of ourselves as the outsiders, the challengers, those who question the status quo. But is this reality or simply self-delusion? Does anyone out there see us like that?

Liberalism is a child of the Enlightenment. It is founded on the principles of reason, openness and tolerance – all principles that have been soundly rejected in this referendum. What does this mean for our party? My own view is that we should not abandon these principles but we need to re-define them for a twenty-first century world. We glibly bandy about terms like “open” and “internationalist”, but what should these terms mean in today’s world? What should they be taken to mean by those at the lower end of the skills and income scale? Those who see such words as threats to their livelihoods rather than the aspirational connotations these words have for the cosmopolitan elite whose vision of the future has now been roundly rejected by the British public.

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Connair Russell

We need to look forward. Let’s start with electoral reform

By Connair Russell | Sat 25th June 2016 - 1:30 pm

This is not a great day, the referendum is over. Remain lost. We can put away our posters, our hyperbole and our support for George, Dave and Jeremy. There is work to be done.

Perhaps more clear than a desire to leave the European Union. The result and accompanying commentary illuminates the stark divisions in our society. This was not just a no to the EU, its rules, and its immigration policy, it was a slap in the face of the political establishment. Yet the decision will not be an easy one to reverse, if possible at all. The recurring position of the EU was that out is out, to conspire through political back channels to return us to the union would be undemocratic and illiberal. Perhaps the only situation where this is possible would be if an election was called by the new Conservative leader before the activation of article 50, and the winning party stood on a manifesto on returning. Even still it is unlikely and our efforts would be better spent on working for a liberal, outward looking Britain moving forward than undermining the British public. 52% of such a large turnout is a mandate greater than that of most sitting governments.

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Graham Watson

Sir Graham Watson writes…Is there a way back from the Brexit decision?

By Graham Watson | Sat 25th June 2016 - 12:02 pm

What happens now?

Initial reactions in London and Brussels have been stark, along the lines of ‘Out means Out’. Will they change with more considered reflection? As the foreign ministers gather in Berlin today and the leaders of Germany, France and Italy meet on Monday to prepare Tuesday’s European Council (‘summit’) meeting, economic interests may have started to impinge on political considerations. It seems most likely, however, that when David Cameron arrives in Brussels on Tuesday he will find his 27 counterparts almost all singing from the same (German-language) hymn sheet.

In a statement Friday by the Presidents of the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission it is made clear that there can be no further renegotiation and that the concessions made to Cameron in February are now null and void. The summit can be expected to rubber-stamp this.

The most Cameron can hope for is a period of 12 weeks for the UK to sort out the shitstorm which will now be unleashed by the most calamitous case of self harm in Britain’s democratic history. The EU Treaties leave it up to the country which seeks to leave to decide when and if to invoke Article 50, to start the formal process of withdrawal. But the continental clamour for it will be deafening. Britain’s footdragging, wheel-spoking and taking home of wicket in recent years has drained any patience or sympathy our partners might once have felt.

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Matthew Campbell

A new Union of Democratic Control?

By Matthew Campbell | Sat 25th June 2016 - 10:45 am

It may be a mistake, but in my idiosyncratic way, I tend to approach the present – and the future – through the past.

So I feel the need to point out at this time, that in 1914 during the earliest days of the First World War, there arose within the British Left a movement called the ‘Union of Democratic Control’, one of whose prime movers was a Liberal Radical journalist called ED Morel. (He had already led a very interesting life, and went to have a short but even more interesting life subsequently, including both imprisonment and beating Winston Churchill as a candidate in a General Election).

The UDC initially had three aims: to subject to scrutiny in the House of Commons the secret pacts and war aims agreed between the UK and its allies as pan-European war broke out; to push for a negotiated settlement to prevent conflict escalating into mass loss of life, and to investigate the influence of the arms trade upon UK politicians.

Needless to say, in the short term, their campaign was not successful and was regarded with suspicion and official opposition.
But their guiding principle – that the nation had a right to have its foreign policy and strategy debated by its democratic parliament for its moral and ethical worth – was fundamentally right.

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Paul Walter

The people have spoken – trust the people

By Paul Walter | Sat 25th June 2016 - 7:45 am

Yesterday afternoon, I was somewhat nervous to receive notification that Tim Farron was going to make a “major speech”. Straight after an election, when you are still suffering from advanced post-election bone tiredness, is no time to be suddenly deciding to make a “major speech”.

But it was a good speech and I applaud Tim’s display of righteous anger on behalf of the young and those who are boiling with rage – those who are now shouting: “we are better than this”.

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Posted in Europe Referendum and Op-eds | 50 Comments
Paul Walter

There is scope for soft-peddling on the all-consuming anger

By Paul Walter | Fri 24th June 2016 - 5:13 pm

There is much anger – dejection even around today. I found myself in the unusual position of putting a consoling arm round a hard-bitten colleague’s shoulders – he was really quite upset by the referendum result.

I am angry for the young people who voted in droves for remain.

That said, we can’t change this result. It’s a democratic outcome. I respect it and move on. I pledge to roll up my sleeves to work as part of the nation to make us as successful as possible in the new situation.

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Posted in Europe Referendum | 29 Comments
Geoff Crocker

The mess we are in

By Geoff Crocker | Fri 24th June 2016 - 3:15 pm

The EU referendum delivers an unmanageable mess. The UK will lose its membership of the EU, and more immediately has lost its elected Prime Minister. Like many Lib Dems, I have never voted Conservative, but I do recognise the dignity and decency of David Cameron. The referendum outcome creates space instead for Michael Gove, Boris Johnson, and the reactionary Nigel Farage.

Democracy itself is in an impossible contradiction. The UK norm is representative democracy expressed in Parliamentary sovereignty. The policy of the majority of Members of Parliament is to remain in the EU. But the referendum decides to leave. Paradoxically, those wanting to leave the EU favour Parliamentary sovereignty, but reject this principle on the question of EU membership. This is an irresoluble conflict.

There is therefore a greater decision UK society has to make – whether government is to be by representative democracy or by popular referenda. We cannot have both. This is the first question of principle. The second is the criteria which should apply to either representative democracy or referenda. The last general election showed how unrepresentative first-past-the-post constituency voting is. The referendum highlights the huge problem of maintaining social cohesion when half the population wants exactly the opposite of what the other half wants. Reconciling this is nigh impossible.

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Tony Lloyd

What next for the Liberal Democrats post-referendum?

By Tony Lloyd | Fri 24th June 2016 - 1:45 pm

Harriet Harman, as acting leader of the Labour Party, explained her lack of opposition to the government’s Welfare Bill with the words:

We can’t simply say to the public “you were wrong”

Well I can.

Public, you got it wrong.

You got it disastrously wrong. You’ve endangered the future of our entire continent for the sake of a handful of Brexiteers’ Magic Beans. You’ve swallowed the distortions and lies of the Brexit brigade. You’ve gleefully thrown reason, evidence and reflection out of the window. You’ve allowed that Brexit brigade to press your basest, most pre-civilised, gut-reaction buttons. You’ve allowed yourselves to be fooled. The consequences for you and your fellow Britons will be dire.

But it’s no use getting angry at the electorate. We need to act. The action I propose is that we give the electorate an opportunity to correct its error. We should put at the forefront of our campaigning:

Get Back In.

Let us have Get Back In as the first item in our manifesto. Let us have Get Back In on every piece of election literature, on our membership cards, as the strap line under our logo. Let us replace the, frankly vapid, “working for you” and “winning here” with Get Back In. We need to make it clear that a vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for re-joining Europe. Re-joining Europe fully: no opt-outs, no special conditions, in the Euro on day one. Let us Get Back In, fully.

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