Blue Collar Liberals update
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...
View ArticleTo leave or not to leave – that is the question
Embed from Getty Images The EU is in the news and is likely to stay there for many months to come. My relationship with Europe as a political issue started way back when I was 11 years old. It was...
View ArticleA personal reflection on the General Election, its aftermath and liberalism
I allowed my membership of the Liberal Democrats to lapse a while back but I took that decision without rancour. My involvement had not been passive I stood for local council and campaigned vigorously...
View ArticleNo country for old men?
It doesn’t seem that long ago that the trend was for younger political leaders. We had Blair, then Cameron, Clegg and Miliband. Our American cousins elected the youthful Barack Obama as their...
View ArticleIs It Time For Some Free Market Reforms In The Postal Sector
The Royal Mail was privatised back in 2013, in common with previous privatisations the model used was to move a monopoly type industry into the private sector at the same time leaving elements of that...
View ArticleCOMPETITION: WHY BE A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT
As a party with a long history we embrace the principles of Liberalism and since the merger with the SDP those of social democrats as well. Outsiders often lazily describe the party as having liberal...
View ArticleTaking a gamble
There has been a long running and heated debate over the controversial Fixed Odd Betting Terminals that are sited in virtually every betting shop across the country. The debate centres arround a...
View ArticleCHRISTMAS COMPETITION: LOCAL ELECTION MESSAGES FOR 2019
I for one am hopeful that we can make gains not least because the last cycle of these particular elections coincided with the last General Election and we all know how that turned out. So what are the...
View ArticleChristmas competition How can we reduce inequality
Reducing inequality is something that all politicians even Conservatives say they are in favour of. They even produce figures to try and demonstrate that government measures are having a positive...
View ArticlePaddy Ashdown and the bobble hat
I joined the Liberal Democrats not long after the national coalition with the Conservatives was formed. In 2011 my local party asked me to stand as the candidate in the ward where I lived and I...
View ArticlePost-war Liberal leaders in perspective
There have been ten leaders of the Liberal Party and its successor the Liberal Democrats since 1945 as follows. I have resisted the temptation to rank them 1 – 10, but my top three are revealed later....
View ArticleCoalition blues
Back in 2010 after a General Election that left our party with the balance of power in a hung parliament the Liberal Democrats went into coalition with the Conservatives. Every section of the party...
View ArticlePaddy And Tony A Cautionary Tale
Paddy Ashdown became the leader of the Liberal Democrats in 1988. He inherited a party which was not in a particularly good place. The merger of the Liberal Party and the SDP had been difficult, to say...
View ArticleParking the bus or total football?
For those football fanatics among us tactics are something we study closely in our desire to enhance our enjoyment of the beautiful game. Some of us marvel at a defensive approach where a team plays an...
View ArticleAn Open Letter to Luciana Berger
Dear Luciana, As someone who spent many years as an activist in the Labour and trade union movement I follow developments in your current party closely. From what I can see you are being constantly...
View ArticleSome thoughts on education
I left school nearly forty years ago in 1980 aged 16 since then I have come across countless numbers of people who express surprise that I didn’t go into further education and obtain a degree. My...
View Article1951 – the nadir of Liberalism
The General Election of 1951 occurred only eighteen months into a parliament. It was called by a Labour government with a small parliamentary majority led by Clement Attle then at the head of what was...
View ArticleA fair deal for our care workers
The nation’s care workers are getting a raw deal and have been for some years now. This has been highlighted by many including our own party’s Health and Social Care Working Group. In ten years...
View ArticleLiberalism in the deep south
If Berkshire where I spent most of my life is in the South then West Sussex where I now find myself could reasonably be called the Deep South. Here on the Downs we are only ten miles from the coast the...
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In the court of the Brexit king….
The nationwide rallies of Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party are well underway. In forming the party as a top down organisation Farage has succeeded in his long quoted desire to lead a party free from the...
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