I came into politics thirty years ago believing that the abolition of nuclear weapons, private education, health care and a massive expansion of the public sector represented a socialist programme that if implemented would make Britain a fairer country.
All these were Labour party policy and as a socialist I was an active member of the party that was happy to use the ‘s’ word. In fact it looked for a while as though the socialist left were going to take total control of the party driving out the remaining social democrats.
What actually happened was the party moved in the other direction at an increasing pace so by the time the dreaded Blair assumed the leadership it was barely recognisable and New Labour had been born.
Over a ten year period I fought every policy change and as the like minded people around me dwindled to a handful, I eventually gave up attending meetings in the early 1990s.
I became active in my trade union instead holding a number of different posts including an eight year spell on the National Executive. All my energy went into representing my fellow workers with some success despite difficult circumstances.
My disillusionment with Labour continued but I still supported the party at elections believing it was the best that was available, that it still believed in the defence of public services and probably more importantly in a naive belief that the pendulum would swing away from New Labour to a more traditional stance some time soon.
The events of the past year combined to change those views.
A dramatic change in personal circumstances meant I had to access social and welfare services for the first time. I found that far from defending public services Labour had allowed ‘marketisation’ to continue in many areas and had actually continued with privatisation.
Worse still, Labour politicians seemed indifferent to the failings in the system when they were pointed out to them and just to lazy to even respond to the concerns i raised.
I also discovered that where the state still ran things directly an inefficient, bureaucratic monster existed which treated people with nothing less than contempt.
My experiences led me to finally break with Labour earlier this year and I have not regretted it. I supported the Liberal Democrats in the General Election and my journey into a new type of politics began.
I now realise that all forms of ‘socialism’ or ‘labourism’ lead to authoritarianism. We need a state sector but it has to be democratic, localised where possible and it must exist as a helping hand not the bureaucratic monster that we currently have.
I want to see a redistribution of wealth through progressive taxation, I want to see better housing, I want us to rid ourselves of Trident and i want to see civil liberties strengthened.
Does this mean I am now a social liberal? Well I will leave others to judge that, but what I do know is that the Liberal Democrats are a dynamic force that has a future.
The formation of the current coalition was a shock to me and I do believe that it will serve to halt the steady electoral progress that the Lib Dems have been making but it hasn’t shaken my belief that the party will continue to flourish in the long term.
So I will continue to support the party and do what i can to secure the election of Lib Dem councillors in next May’s local elections.
David Warren was a Labour Party member for 25 years, most of them an activist, and has been a trade unionist holding local, regional and national office. He left Labour in March and voted Liberal Democrat for the first time in the general election.