The first people Tim Farron called on becoming Liberal Democrat leader were his local paper, the Westmorland Gazette. Here are some highlights of his first in-depth interview as leader:
Turning his local success into a national phenomenon
This is a big deal. It will be a great responsibility and I will work tirelessly to fight for Liberal values.
There are real challenges ahead but we have shown in Westmorland how we can succeed and we want to make a difference all over the country.
“A fairer, greener, freer Britain”
I will make the case for a fairer, greener, freer Britain,” he said. “A liberal society is one in which diversity and individuality are not just tolerated but actively supported. This has always been the great cause of Liberalism.
We must stand up for freedom – the right of people to live their lives free to say what they think and to protest against what they dislike, free to live their lives according to their values, free of a controlling, intrusive state and of a stifling conformity.
Equality is important because poverty and ill-health, poor housing and a lack of education are all the enemies of freedom. An unequal society is weaker not just for those at the bottom of the pile but for everyone.
Out-of-control inequality is a threat to democracy and everyone is entitled to equal respect, whatever their characteristics or way of life.
Freeing our democracy from vested interests and money
Democracy is not just a dry mechanism for counting heads but much more than that: a spirit of equality, openness and debate, a coming together to decide our future together fairly and freely, without being dominated by entrenched interests or the power of money,” he said.
“A state that supports freedom has to be a democratic state, with power dispersed as widely as possible and built up from below.”
He went on to announce that he would ‘deliver a new federalism’ and hailed it as being ‘the only way to preserve the United Kingdom’.
A supporter of the Proportional Representation election process, Mr Farron stated that he wanted ‘a new voting system where parties can’t win power on just 37 per cent of the vote’.
On human rights and the quality of life
The Act lies at the heart of Britain’s commitment to human rights and must be defended because there are some things no government should ever be allowed to do to anyone, because the rule of law is the bedrock of freedom and prosperity and because people are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect.”
In addition, the father-of-four vowed to prioritise fairness and quality of life ‘because some things – the beauty of the natural world, music, poetry, art and popular culture – matter more than profit or growth’.
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30 Comments
“A liberal society is one in which diversity and individuality are not just tolerated but actively supported.”
Yet Tim abstained on same sex marriage?
“Out-of-control inequality is a threat to democracy and everyone is entitled to equal respect, whatever their characteristics or way of life.”
Yet Tim was happy to be part of a government which many argue encouraged and facilitated this “out of control inequality”? Where was Tim’s objection to things like the “bedroom tax”, which many voters on the left typically see as indicative of a lack of respect for the poor/needy?
“In addition, the father-of-four vowed to prioritise fairness and quality of life ‘because some things – the beauty of the natural world, music, poetry, art and popular culture – matter more than profit or growth’”
Maybe in a middle class world it’s reasonable to prioritise such pressing concerns such as poetry, art and “the natural world”, but if you say that to your average UK worker on sub £26,000 who struggles to survive until their next pay cheque/welfare payment then they may laugh at you. Shockingly out of touch.
It is depressingly easy to pick holes in much of Tim’s media rhetoric. He won’t stand much public scrutiny in things like leadership debates (if the lib dems are invited anymore….) or Question Time.
He voted in favour of same sex marriage substantially according to the Public Whip website etc.
He was not part of the government!
He voted against the bedroom tax – 13thNov 2013.
“Out of touch”? – Someone who was brought up by a single mother in a council flat and is renowned for being in touch with his less advantaged constituents, especially the young…
Contrary to your last point he has, and continues to, perform spectacularly well on the media – for example on “Any Questions” a few weeks ago.
I suppose there will be a great many decisions that Tim Farron will make as Party Leader that will give rise to controversy and criticism; and it is just that he should face such criticism as it arises.
However, we could at least do him the courtesy of letting him first make those decisions rather than making prior assumptions about what they will be.
@Paul
As mentioned now several times, Farron abstained on the key vote. Nobody else on Lib Dem Voice seems to find my saying this contentious. Farron himself does not deny doing it. We can cling to public whip all we like, but it does not reflect the reality.
Regarding the Bedroom tax, I recall no campaign against it by Farron or real public efforts to ensure its removal. If he and enough like minded fellow MP’s had wished, they could have caused the government to lose its majority. Substantial power, opted not to use it. I personally think that was right (for other reasons), but I can see many many people feeling otherwise. Farron has a lot to answer for to those people.
Regarding out of touch- people can forget their roots. Playing football with people at surgeries doesn’t make you in touch. Otherwise you wouldn’t mention poetry and art amongst key aspects of “quality of life”. Genuinely, go and say that to anyone living on a modest income or struggling financially. They’ll think you live in a different world. I think Tim most certainly lives in a different world now regardless of his childhood.
Re: media- Yup, Farron is a star performer. He gave a disastrous interview on national tv where he wouldn’t deny thinking homosexuality is a sin, instead rambling about religion for a while. That video will haunt him and the party for years to come.
(Further to the above: to me Farron and every other lib dem were part of the last government. They may not have held office, but they formed the government’s majority that enabled them to pass legislation. They bare huge culpability for what was done, both good and bad. The public will not forget that when looking at Farron and his rhetoric, as much as Lib Dem members may wish it.
I really hope we don’t go back to the party of “fairness” again. The public rightly concluded that this wasn’t a differentiating factor last time, and in the absence of any kind of consensus view in our party of what fairness means it’s the ultimate lost opportunity.
I must say – reading this weekend’s entries on LDV and the responses to this thread – it is difficult to believe that the singularly most important matter for the Party since the GE – the election of a new leader – took place.
TF won the leadership contest, fairly and squarely, and by a healthy majority. Is it the editorship of LDV or its contributors that are so out of kilter with the membership?
I am sure all Party members know that if TF isn’t a success at a national level – the Party’s popularity will sink even further by the time of the next GE and it would then be lucky to survive as a force in UK politics – given the fierce competition for the floating vote – with the rise of UKIP, the Greens and the national parties.
I doubt if any member, whatever issue is of greatest importance to them, would like to see the Party lose all relevance.
Sammy
You are inventing stuff now:
“Tim was happy to be part of a government” is factually incorrect however much you try to wriggle out of it. And Tim voted against the Bedroom Tax and the Tuition fees increase.
Why don’t you try googling “Farron Bedroom Tax”? – and the first thing that comes up is this:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/02/lib-dem-president-withdraw-party-support-bedroom-tax
Followed by this:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/12/labour-bid-to-abolish-bedroom-tax-defeated
@ Sammy O Neill,
There seems to be a strong whiff of the halo and horns phenomenon about you posts on Tim Farron. I knew little of him before reading articles on this website and I don’t understand how you reach some of your judgements. I can only find them explicable if you ave develeped a cognitive bias and you seek out confirmational bias in what he says and does.
As Paul Walter says, if anyone knows what it is like to struggle, it is Tim Farron, his empathy will be borne of personal experience. My judgements on him are being formed all the time by what I read. I readwhat I think was his first speech as leader ( on here), in which he referred to hard working families or some such phrase that is commonly bandied about to describe the ‘ deserving poor’, but, AND those who were desperate to become one. This for me suggested that he had the understanding and the sensitivity to know what life at the bottom is really like, and the knife in the heart that such people who are experiencing hard times feel,when politicians by their words suggest that they are scroungers or whatever rather than people trying their best to get out from their own misfortune.
I also liked his ‘Love is Love’ slogan. I don’t know whether it addressed same sex marriage, but that is what it communicated to me. Love as a reason to marry is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of the institution, and as an agnostic who was brought up in a faith, I was and still am told, that the central message of Christianity is ‘ Love’. To prevent people who love each other from marrying therefore seems to be to be to be outdated given the changing form of marriage that has taken place, and the central message that we are told defines Christianity. What else could have been encoded in Tim Farron’s ‘Love is Love’?
Maybe we all need to become more conscious of our own biases when we judge someone.
The Irish Tourist Board placed advertisements which said
“Ireland is green because it rains every quarter of an hour for 15 minutes”
with several other cliches, and
“It’s all lies, and that’s the truth!”
The picture of Cumbria above is very green.
Well said Jayne
@Paul
Given most of my comment was deleted (not sure why, it wasn’t offensive), I presume by you, there’s no point me posting any further as you clearly just edit things to try and prevent your own arguments being criticised. The LDV censorship is appalling, the Farron-propoganda rampant and I will have no more part in it.
Some LibDems need to consider how to balance consideration and an open mind on the one hand with positive thoughts to improve the LibDem situation on the other. Be open-minded by every means but we are facing the fight of our political lives to win again. Constant negatives help no-one. Every effort is needed to focus on going forward and winning. Of course we should foster good debate but it should always focus on the solidarity of purposeful fight-back.
Why? Because we are already seeing the effects of a 37% [not particularly popular?] vote for the ‘money party’ delivering the potentially worst government in modern history. After WW11 there was positivity all around us – to rebuild a nation – and flip flop wins of two large parties delivered the advancing society we appreciated until the crash and the 2010 GE.
Nearly every commentator now says that coalition was a good thing from 2010 – to bring some balanced government to the nasty ‘money party’ – who, without LibDems, would never have won their thin majority in 2015. We brought the good news they are saying was theirs all-along. But now we await the stripping down of democracy by the party who only want to win for themselves.
We must get behind the fight back. Article after article is inviting us to fight. Can we please stop small-mindedness wasting our time on negatives. Our mission is greater – bring back LibDems everywhere.
Sammy, I have now reinstated your earlier comment above and below. I think Jayne has stated the situation very well above.
Sammy O’Neill 27th Jul ’15 – 3:19am:
Tony,
Sammy has already said several times that her membership will lapse as a result of Tim winning the leadership contest, so I am not sure appealing for solidarity will cut much ice…
Sammy I appreciate your vendetta against Tim needs feeding with new issues now and again but criticising him for saying that the natural world (and music, poetry and art) should be appreciated is pretty daft…
If working people do not appreciate the natural world, that is sad, but it was not the case in much harder times than today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_trespass_of_Kinder_Scout
Of course public transport was much better and cheaper then, which was a very good thing
@Sammy
“As mentioned now several times, Farron abstained on the key vote. Nobody else on Lib Dem Voice seems to find my saying this contentious. Farron himself does not deny doing it. We can cling to public whip all we like, but it does not reflect the reality.”
You have repeated what I regard as a completely unfair distortion several times. That does not make it necessarily a fair and comprehensively true statement. I and others have corrected it several times. You are entitled to your view. We’ll just have to agree to disagree.
You are at liberty to express your views anywhere on the internet. (For example, you could start a blog and have it listed on LibDemBlogs.co.uk while you are still a member). We have a comments policy here and we operate editorial control as any newspaper, book or website publisher does in a liberal democracy. That is not censorship. We have also contacted you via email several times in an attempt to conciliate with you.
You have made many points about Tim Farron on LDV comments, several of them being repeated several times across different threads. I don’t think LDV readers are in any doubt how you feel about Tim Farron! If we were trying to censor you then we are terrible at it!
@ Sammy O’Neill,
I think you are seriously wrong when you dismiss the importance of music, poetry and art to a sense of well being. I grew up in a South Yorkshire mining area punctuated by slag heaps, reading DH Lawrence fired my imagination and enriched my life. ( It is the reason that I am passionate about libraries remaining open and available to people).
Speak to people who are struggling financially about the world that is opened up when they attend WEA courses, still mercifully funded for people who cannot afford to pay the fees. People who suddenly look at the world differently or discover they have talents that no one has fostered.
I remember an incident where I was watching my children swinging from a rope attached to the branch of a tree in our local wood and jumping into what was known as the mud pool. A passing woman struck up a conversation and told me that she taught in London. I explained how lucky I felt my children were to have access to nature, and she told me, that some of her pupils had not even seen a cow other than in a book.
Of course adults and children need to have adequate money so that they have have the basics of living, but the human spirit needs more if it is to be fed and nurtured. What Tim Farron is saying really isn’t that ludicrous, and as far as I am concerned shows that he hasn’t forgotten his roots. Quite the reverse. It certainly strikes a cord with me.
Sammy O’Neill 27th Jul ’15 – 3:19am
“….. Otherwise you wouldn’t mention poetry and art amongst key aspects of “quality of life”. Genuinely, go and say that to anyone living on a modest income or struggling financially. They’ll think you live in a different world. ”
Sammy O’Neill
Others have already responded to you on this point so I will not repeat what they have said.
I just wondered if you have reconsidered what you wrote in the light of how people have responded to you?
I should add that during the last 60 years I have often spoken to people “on a modest income and struggling financially”. Nothing clever about that because that is my own background. Your theory that such people have no interest in poetry and art is so far wide of the mark that Inwonder who you actually speak to in the real world.
Your statement possibly reveals more about you than you might care to admit. Your view of art and poetry might not actually be shared by the very people you are making such wild assumptions about.
Just because I was born in my grandmother’s council house does not mean I cannot enjoy a world of paintings, photographs, sculpture, dance, song, film and TV. I have even been known to bring books home from the library and read them
How many people marry because they love each other ? Not many people marry at all these days. Getting worked up about gay marriage is like someone buying a horse drawn cab when it was obvious that motor cars were taking over. I just do not understand all these obsessions and I doubt if many of the voters do either.
Jayne
Well said!
Tim was not a member of the government, Sammy.
To say that people on low incomes are not interested in the natural world or art is patronising and by no means always correct. Yes, other concerns come first for them and that’s why Tim opposed the government’s benefits cuts.
Simon Banks I’m sorry but surely every LD MP was a member of the government? We kept being told ” we are a Party of Government now” . Of course not every MP agrees with everything decided by the leadership but surely it’s simply factually incorrect to say that “Tim was not a member of the government”.
Phyllis
No, TF was not a member of the last government. If you doubt that, consider that several people, both Tory and Lib Dem, resigned or were dismissed from the government during the last parliament (e.g. David Laws, Michael Moore, Norman Baker, to consider only Lib Dems). They did not cease to be MPs or even supporters of the government. (TF does not deny being a supporter of the government. That really isn’t the same as being a member of it.) Consider also what either man would think of the suggestion that Jeremy Corbyn was a member of Tony Blair’s government…
Indeed, Macolm. To help, here is the official list of the current paid members of the government:
https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers
In addition, there are the unpaid parliamentary private secretaries, which is the lowliest rung of the government ladder.
Malcolm Todd, you may be right but I don’t think it’s a distinction most ordinary people would make though. Yes I know it’s about whether someone is ‘on the payroll’. But we are told over and over again that the Lib Dems were “in Government” – it makes no sense to then say ” but MP X, Yand Z were not” . I don’t think you can really draw a parallel between Jeremy Corbin and The Lib Dem Party President.
I’m not agreeing with Sammy’s point btw. I just don’t think this is a distinction that will sound convincing to many people.
I grew up on a council estate with very little money for books or any types of ‘culture’. I still remember being given a book about stories from the great operas and reading it avidly, and then when I could afford it, listening to the music, I agree completely with Jayne Mansfield.
Paul Walter
Your list is of ministers on the payroll.
In addition to ministers there are also the Special Advisors, some of whom have a salary higher than some ministers.
Special Advisors grew in number significantly under the Coalition with the number in Downing St more than doubled between 2010 and 2014.
See May 2015 report by the HofC Library –
http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN03813#fullreport
Special Advisors operate in the shadows and most members of the public are unaware of their existence. They are not subjected to much scrutiny yet wield enormous influence.
Many people view them as part of the problem of a small Westminster elite remote from and unaccountable to the voters. They can often merely reinforce the group-think of the establishment and the media.
The power and influence of some Liberal Democrat Special Advisors during the Coalition years was probably much greater than that of Tim Farron, any ordinary Liberal Democrat MP or Lord, or anyone in the party outside the Cabinet and The Quad.
@Phyllis 28th Jul ’15 – 8:26am :
“Malcolm Todd, you may be right but I don’t think it’s a distinction most ordinary people would make though. Yes I know it’s about whether someone is ‘on the payroll’. But we are told over and over again that the Lib Dems were “in Government” – it makes no sense to then say ” but MP X, Yand Z were not” . I don’t think you can really draw a parallel between Jeremy Corbin and The Lib Dem Party President.
I’m not agreeing with Sammy’s point btw. I just don’t think this is a distinction that will sound convincing to many people.”
We ought to bear in mind that Tim Farron voted against the tuition fee rises and against the bedroom tax without being sacked specifically because he was not a member of the government and couldn’t be sacked. If he had been a member of the government he would have had to resign in both cases.
@ Phyllis,
I was entranced by a performance of The Magic Flute by the Insango Ensemble whose members are drawn from South African townships. They do perform in the UK ( far too infrequently and too briefly ). You can see a small taster on Youtube.
It’s the first time that I wished that that I had been more driven by money accumulation, because I wanted to pay for every child, especially every black child from an impoverished home, to have the opportunity to experience the performance.
There is a lot of waffle but you all seem to have missed the point. Hey Ho!