In October 2015 I wrote an article for Lib Dem Voice entitled ‘We Need More Blue Collar Liberals’. Since then I have been attempting to keep the issues raised by the article ‘live’, turning statements by leading figures in our party regarding encouraging people from lower socio economic groups to become more involved in the Liberal Democrats into concrete actions.
These efforts haven’t met with any success so far.
With the notable exception of EMLD, the dialogue has not resulted in anything concrete and a cynic might say that the party hierachy appears more than happy with the comfort zone of the status quo.
This has led me to consider launching a group probably called ‘Blue Collar Liberals’, (although I am open to alternative suggestions), with the following founding statement:
Blue Collar Liberals Founding Principles and Objectives
Blue Collar Liberals has been founded with the long term aim of reaching out to sections of the population who have not supported a liberal party in Britain for over 100 years. We want to help the Liberal Democrats build their voting base to the point where once again liberalism is the main opposition to the Conservative party in our country.To support this we want to see the following;
# The adoption of policies aimed at eliminating poverty, low pay, employment insecurity and tackling the chronic shortage of affordable housing.
# Major campaigning initiatives to gain popular support for the above, including national petitions, public events etc.
# The removal of the financial barriers that currently prevent some Lib Dem members attending party training sessions, conferences and becoming candidates.
# Positive action to build a more diverse party, enabling people from a much wider range of backgrounds to be selected as candidates for Parliament, Europe and the devolved assemblies.
We will work with all fellow Liberal Democrats who share all or some of the above objectives, particularly other under-represented groups in our Party including women, ethnic minority, LGBT and the disabled.
Before proceeding any further I wanted to get feedback from fellow Liberals.
* David Warren is a lifetime political activist for progressive causes and a liberal.