Issue 373 of Liberator is on its way to subscribers and this one’s free sample online content is the Commentary on Tim Farron’s election as Lib Dem leader, and Tony Greaves’ article in which he argues that the party has forgotten how to campaign and must avoiding wasting the potential of its thousand of new members. The full version of Liberator 372 is now also online. See: www.liberatormagazine.org.uk
The new issue also includes:
THE PATH TO PADDY’S HAT – the general election exit poll should not have surprised those who had followed what the market research industry was doing, says Alex Dee
WELLBEING WORKS – Looking at wellbeing provides liberals with route to express their commitment to redistribution, and they should accept the need for state involvement, says Claire Tyler
PLACES THAT DON’T MATTER – The wave of migrants trying to reach Europe is driven by corruption and poverty in misgoverned African states, says Rebecca Tinsley
POWER CHANGES IN NIGERIA – A first peaceful change of power between civilian parties shows Nigeria’s democracy has finally established itself, says Donald Inwalomhe
A LIGHT IN THE MURK – Electoral corruption has been endemic in Tower Hamlets for decades. Now a judge has said the perpetrators cannot hide behind claims of racial prejudice, says Gwyneth Deakins
IGNORING THE EVIDENCE – Why is cannabis for medical use still criminalised leaving sick people in pain, asks Kelly-Marie Blundell
BANNED FOR TOO LONG – Lester Holloway calls on free speech grounds for an end to the ban on Louis Farrakhan visiting the UK
TIME TO TALK – Fran Oborski argued in Liberator 372 that the Liberal Party’s continued existence was pointless. Roger Jenking says it fills a worthwhile role and has an overlap with the Liberal Democrats
LORDS AND LUCRE – Liberal Democrat Federal Finance and Administration Committee chair Peter Dunphy answers his critics over donations policy
Plus reviews, Radical Bulletin and Lord Bonkers’ Diary.
Subscriptions to Liberator cost £25 a year. Details can be seen here.
11 Comments
I was surprised to read in Tony Greaves’ article that he has been banned from this site. As someone who doesn’t either read the articles or post here every day I wonder if those running this site have informed the readers why they have banned one of our members who is held in high esteem?
I also wonder if a ban is a life-time ban or if it can be removed?
Personally I have always liked it that Tony Greaves, a member of the House of Lords, posts here from to time. I am going to miss his contributions even when I disagree with him. (There are so few Parliamentarians who do post here it seems wrong to ban those that do post here.)
I agree with Michael BG.
My guess is that some people reading LDV might be shocked / intrigued / surprised if they were to learn how often and how many comments from party members never reach the screen because they have been “banned”.
Perhaps in the interests of open government, freedom of speech and all those other quaint Liberal Democrat ideas, thebmoderators at LDV might for just one week publish the numbers of comments and or individuals “banned” ?
I should add that I am not an objective observer of this as my comments have on occasion disappeared. 🙂
John Tilley 9th Aug ’15 – 4:54pm
John – I am a bit lost – do you know who the final arbiter is on LDV – since Stephen Tall gave up the editorship?
Please see here.
Unfortunately LDV does not permit even minor and polite challenges to its editorial policy.
Liberator would be better if there was less sneering. Just checked out Liberator 372 and basically the same arguments can be made without talking down at anyone who doubts the great electoral prospects of social liberalism.
This doesn’t apply to all the articles, but it applies to the Commentary section at least, which I think is basically the editorial.
Just read the Commentary for 373 and it is even worse. Sneering at people who think centrism is a good strategy is one way to alienate a lot of people. Even people who aren’t centrists, such as Poll Toynbee, recognise its strategic merits.
I’ve said since before the election that the party needs to change radically, so I don’t just believe in continuity from the Coalition era either.
Someone who is published in Liberator has clearly not lost their right of free speech, even if they are banned from this particular website. If I had been running Lib Dem Voice I would have had a proper banhammer on the comments system years ago, and some of my best friends would probably have been banned. But it would mean that many many other people who do not feel comfortable even looking below the line here might actually contribute ideas, rather than just ad hominem nastiness, which is most of what I saw coming from the direction of one Lord Greaves.
@John Tilley
You can get WordPress plugins that show real-time statistics on posts, bans, etc. I think if the editors had wanted such facilities public they would of installed something like that by now. 🙂
I think LDV is being unreasonable. Is it even abiding by its own editorial rules? I agree with Tony Greaves’s article in Liberator and can’t see any personal abuse in (what I judge to be) the offending paragraph, which reads: “But the main Liberal Democrat discussion site (Liberal Democrat Voice) is little better than the party stuff: tightly controlled by a small group of people who use it to promote their own (often fairly right wing) views, and apart from regurgitating stuff from the national press and some obvious stuff like the leadership election, it’s full of obscure and obsessive policy articles from people whose activism does not seem to go much beyond their keyboard. Certainly it’s far from being a campaigning site. If you persist with views the controllers don’t like you get censored, and if you then privately tell them what you think about them you get banned. (I declare an interest – I’ve been banned!)”. I suppose I could complain about that description of contributors, albeit as an occasional contributor, but I’ll take it as fair comment. I am obscure and probably obsessive about the things I write about, but I think my activism goes beyond my keyboard, though perhaps others would disagree.
If it is another article that has caused Lord Greaves to be banned, perhaps LDV would publish it, so that we can all see what the fuss is about.
Ironic given the controversy over Lord Greaves’ comments, and Tony can definitely be as rude and injudicious in talking to colleagues as any grumpy old man and a couple of my younger friends here. The tone of the debate above seems reasonable. My favourite quote so far from Liberator 373 is from Tony Greaves’ article
“Already a government .. unleashing all the right-wing stuff we stopped them doing and worse but also behaving, in a reckless flush of post-electoral euphoria, as if they have a majority of 92 not 12”. p. 6.