Tag: Tim Farron

Let’s Win This Battle Together

Owen Jones’ closing words at the anti-austerity march on Saturday resonate with me. It is vital that all those represented there, and other progressive forces, work together to win. As Tim Farron says winning is the priority, for without it there can be no change. But as Tim recognises, and as Jeremy Corbyn epitomises, ditching one’s principles for a short-term victory is not winning, it is surrendering. Winning is to be part of the long-term narrative.

What therefore does winning together entail?

 

  1. It requires that the joint opposition epitomised by the march stays together, stays focused, stays in touch, reaches out further and grows, hopefully as the mainstream progressive parties elect leaders who will choose to stand united with the people on the front line.

 

  1. It requires that grassroots organisations, campaigns and battles are co-ordinated, that nobody is left to fight their own battle, or that conversely nobody abandons the overall war to focus on their own problems, dividing the united front and doing the Tories’ job for them.

 

  1. It requires the progressive political parties to work together at a national level, to put aside their own pride, their own interests and work for the common good. We saw arguably the inverse of this in Northern Ireland where the Ulster Unionists and DUP agreed electoral pacts to see off progressive MPs from the Alliance Party and Sinn Fein. But this shows that it can work, and does work.

 

  1. All progressive parties must commit to a pledge to introduce Proportional Representation as soon as they are in a position to do so. Tim Farron has said that if he is elected leader of the Liberal Democrats, then PR as a law will be an essential prequisite to entering any future coalition – not a referendum, not a commitment to look into it, but a pledge to table it as one of the first major pieces of legislation. All parties need to agree this.

Point 3. in my opinion is a vital component of 4. and after stating them above, they need to be expanded upon as a unity. Labour has been the largest progressive party in the United Kingdom since the 1920s and it still holds that position, and some within the party will argue that electoral pacts and proportional representation are unnecessary encumberances, and that Labour will always poll well enough to be a major force.

But 2015’s General Election shows that a political party with one quarter of the total electorate’s support, at something like 36% of the votes cast, can win an absolute majority and whilst Labour is the second party in parliament, it is part of a fractured opposition that is watching the Tories destroy the welfare state.

Maybe Labour can win again sometime under FPTP like how in 1997 they came back from 3 defeats, but the country does not have another ten years to wait for them to get their act together. Labour does not represent its MPs, nor does it even represent its members – what Labour has always respresented is the working man, though you would not this if you listened to the leadership campaigns of some of its contenders.

Electoral pacts are the only solution to ensure that the progressive forces win at the next election, whenever that may be. Winning THAT election has never been more vital for the country. Labour must swallow its pride and stand some PPCs down against Liberal Democrats, Greens, Plaid and even the SNP, if they will live up to their belief in PR and reciprocate.

In turn, the Lib Dems must stand down candidates against Labour, against the Greens and against Plaid where that is needed. The Greens must stand down candidates against Labour, the Lib Dems and Plaid, and Plaid must stand down candidates against Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens where that is a necessary option.

One is not looking to change the face of the system, but to swing key marginals in a progressive direction. Where the Liberal Democrats pose the strongest challenge to a Tory incumbent then the other progressive parties must stand their candidates down. This is going to be a challenge, not least because in the wake of #GE2015 the parties are going to need to look at recent polling data, not exclusively the vote in May 2015 where the Lib Dems, in coalition, saw their vote collapse.

There are easily enough seats available for Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens, Plaid and the Alliance Party to pick up enough to overturn a Tory majority in Westminster. What they must do is dare, and having dared what they must then do is stick to their promises. Labour especially needs a leader who puts decency at the heart of what he does, and that man is Jeremy Corbyn.

 

Winds of Change

Tim 2 Lead

I’d never joined a political party before, I’d never seen the point, in fact I’d seen it as a straightjacket imposing a restriction on my ability to vote for the candidate I wanted to.

At the same time, from 1983 to 2013 I had always supported the Liberal Democrats, first in the guise as the SDP, then the Alliance, then the Liberal Democrats. That is true as a timespan, but is not true as a fact. After the formation of the SLD I remained supporting the old SDP, and became increasingly disillusioned with politics, but speeches by ex-SDP members of the Lib Dems at the party conference, broadcast on the BBC, in either 1992 or 1993 (its too long ago to remember) reinvigorated me, and got me behind the united party.

But I never joined it. I always voted for it, but I never saw the point in joining. I don’t join anything, so it wasn’t unique that I didn’t join. But it was how politics was. You supported someone, but you reserved the right to withdraw that support.

I did. In 2014 and in the General Election of 2015 I voted for Plaid Cymru. I am proud of that vote, I like Plaid, respect Leanne Wood, and if I went back in time I would vote for them again.

But in May this year, after the General Election, I became one of over 16000 people to join the Liberal Democrats. Why?

There is only one answer, but it has many facets, and that answer is Tim Farron.

The many facets of that answer include those who welcomed me on Twitter, talked to me about the idea of the #LibDemFightback and who all spoke highly of Tim. I was directed to watch a video from the Liberal Democrat conference in Autumn of last year, and saw what they were saying to me – that Tim Farron was a brave and dedicated liberal, that he understood the issues, that he was not afraid to take them on, and most of all that he was a powerful and impressive speaker.

I was then led to watch Tim’s speech to the Beveridge society, a few months prior in early Summer 2014, and here he expounded on similar themes, showing his range of talents. Once again I was very impressed.

So I joined, but joining is just one action. I am a keen observer, and I watch and see what people say about the issues. I have seen Tim Farron speak on housing, and on diversity, read his views on LGBT issues, on the legalisation of soft drugs, on refugee issues, and on electoral reform. In everything, I have seen a dynamic and intelligent politician, using that word in its factual sense as a person in politics, rather than its derogatory one, as in a liar and a cheat. These are things that Tim is not.

Even more I have been massively impressed by Tim Farron’s willingness to work alongside other progressive groups, whether to fight to preserve the Human Rights Act, to fight for electoral reform, or – and this is important to me – as a general principle.

I have said in a previous blog post that I believe it is imperative that an alliance of progressive parties come into being to block extreme right-wing legislation, to protect the Welfare State, to stand up for the poor, the victimised, the disabled and everyone who does not have a say in their own fate. And I have said that I believe it is vital that this progressive alliance actively work to collapse this Tory government well before they have the chance to impose 5 years of Hell on the country.

It can be easy for an MP, with their generous salary and their expenses, with the knowledge that they have years ahead of them before they need to be challenged in that luxury, to simply speak the words, to make a show of opposition, to forget the real people and fight for ideas and abstracts whilst the everyday man, woman and child suffer increasing hardship.

But I believe that there is a majority of opposition MPs who do not want to do this, who want instead to unite across party lines and defend the vulnerable, and who will be willing to cut short the security of their priveleged existence if by doing so they can bring about an election to rid this country of the Tory scurge.

And I believe that Tim Farron is the man willing to undertake such a powerful and positive leadership for the Liberal Democrats, to work alongside those in other parties who would equally sacrifice a security of tenure built on the suffering of millions, to achieve a No Confidence vote against this Tory government and bring about an election well in advance of 2020.

I have said before that the Fixed Term Parliament Act is a scam, a confidence trick (or a No Confidence trick if you like). No government losing the vote could continue to govern, regardless of whether they lose the vote “enough”. The FTPA is designed to prevent people trying, not to prevent them succeeding.

By joining the Liberal Democrats I am doing a bit more than lending them my vote at an election, I am putting my faith and trust in something, and in someone. That something is both liberalism and social democracy, and someone is Tim Farron.

 

Winds of Change
9th June 2015