Our Party is all about campaigning. It is what saved the old Liberal Party from extinction and what sustains us in difficult times. I know local parties up and down the country are running campaigns on many different issues, but we lack some important national ones.
What about Europe I hear you say, or the Human Rights Act?
Well, yes, the EU and human rights are important issues and we do have to campaign for them, but they are not high on people’s list of concerns.
Apart from Europe, we have individual initiatives launched by the leader or an MP, which is great. I am thinking in particular of Tim Farron’s prioritising of housing, and Norman Lamb on social care. However we need that little bit extra, something that really captures attention. What I am thinking of are issues where we can get out amongst the voters with a petition and potentially get lots of signature on equally important areas of policy that emphasise our social liberalism.
How about the Tories’ decisions to postpone the introduction of the care cap, the cancellation of free school meals and the planned cuts to tax credits for working families
In my area, like most of the country, there are large numbers likely to be adversely affected by these changes. Our party quite rightly got plenty of coverage in the media when our peers opposed the Tory proposals to cut tax credits. I would have like to have seen us go out on the back of this and launch a national petition. That would have kept the issue in the minds of voters and demonstrated that it was us not Labour who are standing up for the people who need our support the most.
The free school meals issue presents us with another excellent opportunity. A visible coordinated public campaign on that could get nationwide coverage and helps us connect with the families affected by this cruel cut. How about it?
* David Warren is a Lib Dem campaigner and a very small stakes gambler!