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Tag Archives: gener

Why I’m wary of an early contest

By Ioan Phillips | Mon 1st August 2016 - 8:58 am

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“A week is a long time in politics”, so quipped Harold Wilson – although in the aftermath of Brexit, perhaps ‘week’ should be replaced by ‘hour’. The glut of political developments since June 23rd have evidently led Tim to forget the nadir of 2015. “There must be an election”, he demanded upon the accession of Theresa May to the premiership. Right now, we will gain little if Britain were to go to the polls early. We need more time to rebuild our grassroots organisations and to formulate a liberalism that acknowledges the circumstantial changes catalysed by Brexit.

We should take our press office’s releases lauding the surge in membership that has taken place following the referendum with a pinch of salt. The 15,000+ increase in members is impressive, but we need to find ways to secure our new members within a grassroots framework which contracted massively during our time in coalition. Maybe the way forward is to follow the example of left-wing parties in continental Europe, and start community organising.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged brexit and tim farron | 16 Comments

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Recent Comments

Simon Robinson
@Chloe. I think you're right to say that the state doesn't owe anyone a living. However, if society is to function effectively, then we do need to make sure tha...
Simon Robinson
Excellent article. Totally captures how Reform have been winning because progressives haven't been listening to ordinary people. One point; @Michal you say,...
Michal Simon
@Chloe I absolutely love agreeing with you on this. And this is explicitly part of the argument in my first article. The education system has failed a huge...
Peter Davies
Re the IPPR report, that proposal would only affect earned income over £50,270. To pay an extra £1000 pounds tax, they would need to earn over £100K. If they...
Chloe
What you have mastered is some pseudo 60s sociology BS. We've had far too many schools, colleges, universities, churning out youngsters totally unfit for the wo...