Tag Archives: full employment

Michael Berwick-Gooding

Can the Liberal Democrats provide a vision for Britain that the disaffected can support?

By Michael Berwick-Gooding | Fri 20th May 2016 - 8:55 am

A few weeks ago Liberal Democrat Voice published an article by Lord William Wallace entitled Could Trumpland reach Britain in which William Wallace argued that we need to firstly “pay more attention to ‘the bottom third’ of society.” He identified that “what used to be called ‘the white working-class’ has deserted the Democrats in the USA” and spoke of the rise of Marine le Pen in France and UKIP in Britain.

Lots of liberals talk of the rise of inequality over the last 30 or so years. However few if any talk of the major causes of this – firstly the rejection of managing the economy to provide full employment where everyone will have a job. Some people talk of their experience in the 1960’s and 70’s by saying you could hand in your notice on a Friday and within a week you would have a new job and some would say by Monday or Tuesday they would have started their new job.

Secondly the increase in the mobility of labour. In Britain we have seen this most clearly from the 2004 EU enlargement, but in worked in favour of British building workers in the 1980’s who went to West Germany as in “Auf Wiedersehen, Pet”

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Recent Comments

  • Richard Cripps
    Thank you, Rose. Very helpful link...
  • Sarah
    We’ll see if there’s a challenge but it’s clear MPs and members are frustrated with the lack of vision and failure to grow as a party under Ed and Mike Di...
  • Sarah
    This article says exactly what many of us think. I like Ed, I’d like to see him go with dignity(maybe to Lords as an elder statesman for the party and country...
  • Neil Sandison
    Nick Baird article and the subsequent comments on this piece and Caron Lindsey follow up article shows their is a ground swell for radical liberal leadership . ...
  • Robert Hale
    Me too, Layla Moran!...