I know that I’m not alone in contemplating what our next steps as a party are. We see the Greens and Reforms cut through on the media circuit and their memberships have seen stark rises as a result. Whilst each of these parties have almost diametrically opposed platforms, they do have one thing in common: having a vision for the country they want to see.
Reform is selling a “return” to a rose-tinted view of the past, where Britain stood alone and strong and where their interpretation of traditional values made the world less confusing. As Liberals, we understand that what makes Britain great is its strong internationalism and global relationships that build wealth for everyone, rather than squabbling over ever-decreasing portions of the pie as others seek to build walls and sow division. We know that for many of those leading Reform, traditional values mean a return to deference, letting the rich take advantage while everyone else is left to fight over the little that remains.
The Greens meanwhile are selling a future where everyone is free to succeed and live free of poverty and conformity, as well as creating a carbon-free society. Unsurprisingly, that is an aspiration we share! However, the Greens fall down in having no idea how to get there, with their leader offering whatever he thinks will gain them votes, even if that ultimately moves them further away from their goal. They also misunderstand that aspiration is not a negative but a fundamental aspect of society that pushes us to innovate and achieve more as individuals and as a collective society.
Each of these views is enticing to some aspect of a society that seems fundamentally broken. Quality of life is something that seems like a distant memory, rather than something achievable. Young people are feeling left behind as it become ever more difficult to reach the life that was sold to them as the reward for all of their hard work. No wonder why so many feel disenfranchised and left behind by the system.
The good news is that we have already have a plan for a Liberal Britain, one where these aspirations are achievable, rather than a pipe dream – it is laid out in page after page of party policy! We have a plan that can create a world where everyone has a home and small businesses can thrive as part of a culture that celebrates a diverse economy and society. Indeed, in many parts of the country, Lib Dem-led councils are doing their bit to make this vision a reality, building affordable homes and providing services that make their corner of Britain a better place to live. But they can’t do this by themselves.
We need to do more to sell our vision for a better society. We can often get tied up in the weeds of our policies, rather than telling the story of how it will help make the world we are seeking to create. Our successes so far have largely been built on the sheer hard work and determination of our activists who already know what our vision is and put their heart and soul into achieving it. But there are limits to how much our current activist base can do: we need to bring the public along with us.
Firefighting the problems the current system creates is not enough: we need to tell the public what a Liberal Britain would look like and more importantly, how this would make their lives better. The historic successes of Labour and the Conservatives have at least party laid with the story they have created about how Britain looks with them in charge and their current predicament can be summed up in 8 words: a lack of a vision for the future.
This is both a cautionary tale and a path to greater things: we can either tell the story of a Liberal Britain or we might just join the traditional parties in irrelevance.
* Kieron Franks is currently serving as the youngest person to ever be elected to Chelmsford City Council. He was also a PPC in the 2024 General Election and the Lib Dem candidate for the Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.
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18 Comments
Might a prospectus for a liberal Britain look like this?
A country where success is celebrated and help is there for those who really need it
A country where people are judged on the contribution they make, not the colour of their skin, their class or their faith
Strong defence in an increasingly dangerous world, law and order, and secure borders
Individual freedom tempered by social responsibility
Respect for our institutions
Protecting the environment for future generations
The Union of the four nations
Working with other countries to solve problems we cannot fix alone
Businesses create growth, not government
Prioritising what’s right for the long term over short term political popularity
Free markets to give consumers choice and foster innovation, but recalling that too much regulation stifles growth
The tax system should reward hard work, and incentivise investment and innovation
Outside of a crisis, government should borrow only for investment – and then only what we can afford
Sound money
Clean and affordable energy
Reduction in barriers to trade, especially with our closest neighbours and the world’s fastest growing economies
One of the reasons Labour campaigning failed so badly in Gorton & Denton is that they lied about Green policies. Voters could read the real Green policies.
If we want to compete with The Greens we need to know what their policies are & what they say, not the distorted nonsense we get from our own Leader & often, on LDV.
In fact about 80% of Green policies (in England ) are the same as ours. The typical Green leaflet looks just like one of ours, complete with Bar Charts & references to “Our hard working team”.
The Green Leader doesn’t make Green policy anymore than Ed makes ours.
The big difference is that they seem more willing to defend their Values, most of which are our Values too.
Why is it The Green Leader calling for The UK to Rejoin The EU ? That should be Us.
Gosh, the Greens are nothing like us, very, very left wing. They will destroy us unless we wake up and smell the coffee.
“…limits to our current activist base: we need to bring the public along with us.”
Absoliutely. So the answer is clear. We need to expand our activist base, which is largely a job for local parties. We need to focus on public engagement, creating the forums where local people can voice their concerns and start to take action on local matters. This can start tomorrow in councils we control or have a significant representation.
“The Greens meanwhile are selling a future where everyone is free to succeed and live free of poverty and conformity, as well as creating a carbon-free society”……A warm milk and cookies statement. Carbon free society 😂..
I’m almost breaking out into a New Seekers song. Globalization has laid waste to much of post industrial Europe backed, by centrists and their slavish devotion to neoliberalism.
Call me ignorant, but even as a paid-up member I do not know where to find the “… page after page of party policy…”. Pointers gratefully received.
@Stephen Nash
You can find much of our party policy at https://www.libdems.org.uk/conference/motions and https://www.libdems.org.uk/sandbox/policy-index
@Craig Levene Globalisation has had both positive and negative impacts. Done well, it increases productivity and brings down prices, allowing for everyone to be better off. However, it can also be twisted by people in power looking to take advantage and can make people worse off as the limited few reap the rewards. The fostering of positive international trade is a pretty central tenet of Lib Dem philosophy, as shown by our pro-EU outlook so our goals as a party should be to show the public what this looks like
@theakes We share a fair amount in common with the Greens – if we didn’t, I doubt Polanski would have had quite the same reception as a former LD member! That’s not to say there aren’t fundamental differences and our views on the free market are quite clearly one of the biggest. None of what I say above should be read as aligning us with the Greens – the Greens are not our best pals. Parts of their party share some of the vitriolic tendencies of the leftwing of the Labour party. Their eagerness to engage in populism is something that should scare all of us and as is the point of the article, we need our own clear vision for a Liberal Britain if we are to combat their shallow political outlook.
@Tristan Ward
I’m afraid that much of this falls into the trap of getting into the weeds of policy. Our problem is not policy – we have heaps of it and we have tried every shape of just telling the public what our positions on topics are. If winning minds was enough, we would have done it long ago. We need a story of our vision for the country to win hearts and our policy can then back that up when the public are receptive to it. Our current messaging doesn’t cut through because it doesn’t evoke the feeling of hope for a better Britain. Arguing our policies with those with those who aren’t receptive, more often turns them away rather than bringing them on board.
@Chris Cory
Listening is something we are pretty good at already – working hard all year round has been effective exactly because we listen when others don’t. That’s not to say we can’t always do better but it isn’t the missing piece of the puzzle. As I’ve said to Tristan above, we need to sell a story of a future that is possible with us that makes the public want to engage with us. I’ve seen similar listening exercises tried and they always fall down exactly because the public don’t see why they should talk to us. Also, we clearly have a strong set of values as aparty and if the public sees they have talked to us and we haven’t done exactly as they wanted (because it’s not always that simple and improving things will always disappoint someone), we become the establishment that isn’t listening to them. We need to sell the vision that we seek to create so the public can see their part in this. To give an example, building new homes is always controversial but is necessary to fix our broken housing system – just capitulating to the protesters misses the point. We need to show how building new houses will build a society where adequate housing is not something that has to break the bank and can make us healthier and happier, reducing burdens on all sorts of government funding pressures, from the NHS to welfare.
Kieron is right that we need a story, not just a policy index, and this thread is a good example of why. Tristan’s list is well-intentioned but illustrates the problem rather than solving it.
“Businesses create growth, not government” isn’t supported by the evidence. Public investment creates the conditions markets need: infrastructure, educated workers, redistribution that puts money in the hands of people who spend it locally. Growth is a collective achievement. The honest version is partnership.
“The tax system should reward hard work” does a lot of ideological lifting. What about the grandmother providing childcare so a parent can work, or the family member caring for a sick relative? What the system actually rewards is wealth accumulation, including inherited wealth requiring no effort whatsoever. If we believe in meritocracy, that’s the inversion we need to correct.
And a striking omission: human rights. A Liberal Democrat vision that says nothing about protecting individuals from state power, or the rights of minorities, has missed something close to the heart of what liberalism is for.
The tradition we’re drawing on understood that freedom requires material security to be real. That’s a bolder story than this list tells, and it’s one worth developing. A Just Society is trying to do exactly that at ajustsociety.uk
Kieron – I totally agree.
In my experience public knowledge of LibDem policies is close to zero. We may be the leaflet champions, but such information as there is concentrates on local issues. Before a general election we flag up one or two party policies and knock the opposition. None of it is remotely inspiring stuff. At the very least the party should have a up to date summary of ten or so policies sent out regularly to members and readily accessible to the public. For the minority who might follow that up it would be good to have an easily searchable online database of all extant policies.
Thank you for this post Kieron, it’s so good to have this debate about what we stand for and why we’re not cutting through. How we’ve done things in the past has brought us to 72 MP’s but our messaging strategy is placing limits on us now and we need a radical rethink.
Greens and reform are yet to be fully understood. Ie found out.
“freedom requires material security to be real.”
i agree. And material security comes from capital – not just financial capital, but social, natural and intellectual capital as well. We need an economics that incentivises the creation/maintenance of all of these.
“And a striking omission: human rights”.
Promotion of liberty, equality and community while ensuring no one is enslaved by poverty, conformity or ignorance” should cover human rights.
I think this debate will gain traction after the May elections .there is a demand i think unstoppable for a refreshed Liberal Democrats and we still have 72 MPs to pick from , those with leadership qualities can explain their refreshed vision for the party going forward to the next general election. lets hope they do not drag their collective feet in delivering that outcome .
Our story is one of hope where each person has the will and the means to improve themselves and their communities. Goverment’s role is to provide a sound education, skills training and a reliable and top class safety net for when things go wrong.