The challenges confronting
the new leader of the Liberal Democrats will be the greatest facing any leader
of what used to be the third force in British politics since 1970. Then the Liberals
won six seats, had 7.5% share of the vote with 2.1 million people voting for
the party.
When David Steel took over
the leadership in 1976 there had already been some recovery. The Liberals had
11 MPs after the October 1974 election, taking a 13.8% share of the vote with
4.3 million voting for the party. Our new leader this week will be presented with
a monumental task, requiring a massive effort from all concerned to ensure the party’s
renewal. Today we only have 8 MPs, having received 7% of the vote in May’s general
election, with just 2.1 million voting Liberal Democrat. Somewhat ironically for
a democratic movement, the party has over 100 peers and they will now need to
play a major role at Westminster.
Revisiting my speech of that
time I find it, on the one hand, intriguing but, on the other hand,
disappointing that the issues I identified just over 25 years ago are still very
much with us today. Among the great concerns of 2015 are included the prospects
for our young people, the level of welfare and care support for the poorest and
weakest, the future of a free National Health Service and issues around
fairness, equality, freedom and human rights.
In the 1980s, Maggie
Thatcher seemed to question what on
earth society stood for and was once quoted as saying—although it was later denied—that
‘there is no such thing as society’. Her vision for progress was one of
individual freedom, responsibility and advancement—placing oneself first, looking
after ‘number one’. During the same period, Norman Tebbit suggested to the
unemployed that they should ‘get on your bike’ and look for work. Now whether
it is palatable or not to many in our country, Mrs T laid the foundation for a
society not based on community spirit, but one of individual self-interest and greed—the ‘I’m
alright Jack’ view of life. Such an attitude still prevails today...
Our politics is dominated and
played out in an environment of individual self-interest—what is in it for me
or what will it mean to me? The last budget was immediately analysed in such
terms where it was quickly found not to be as fair as initially propounded—yes,
it talked about a ‘living wage’ but in fact it was a highly regressive budget developed
along the lines of ‘to those that have shall be given’ and ‘to those that have
not’ it shall be taken.
What is becoming sadder by
the year is how the Labour Party is increasingly fearful of being seen on the
side of the poor, less well-off and the underprivileged. Although he and I
never saw eye to eye on many things at
all, I still remember Neil Kinnock’s eve of the poll speech in 1987 (I believe)—warning
people not to be old, not to be ill and so on. Not much of that is heard from
Labour anymore.
This ‘politics of fear’ demeans
the body politic. It is an issue that the new leader of the Liberal Democrats
must address head on. Yes, the party will stand up for the less well off in
society as well as those who cannot help or care for themselves. And on the
side of those desperately trying to get onto the ladder of success and gain a
modicum of prosperity whether unemployed through no fault of their own, a
student, low wage earner or a public service worker who is being asked to
accept a 1% annual pay rise for another four years...
Then, of course, there are
the big issues over Britain’s future in Europe, our role in the world, a range
of environmental and humanitarian matters and the ever widening spectre of
international conflicts. In all these, the new leader will need to be radical
and not afraid to tell people that Britain is nowhere near being a world power
any longer and that we should stop pretending. This world is dominated by the
USA, China and, to some extent, Russia, with Brazil, India and others quickly
following behind. Of course, Germany is hugely influential in the European
context. At best we are a middle ranking world power—lacking real military
might and international influence. In short, we are a European power and that
is where our destiny lies—unless of course you fancy just being an isolated island
in the Atlantic, as UKIP and the right wing of the Tories dream.
One of the reasons I suppose
I never quite ‘got on’ in politics was that I was considered ‘too radical’ at
times and often thought of as ‘a maverick’ as one newspaper called me when
contesting Hereford in 1992. But the views I held and the speeches I made during
the 1970s are still valid today on matters such as democracy, fairness,
freedom, equality, community, environment, internationalism, Europe as well as constitutional
and electoral reform. They could probably be repeated word for word—even the
one I made in 1974 calling for a ‘social democratic’ Labour Party!
For the Liberal Democrats to
recover they have to be that radical force just described. To quote from the
1988 speech linked as a video below ‘it is not the name that matters, my
friends, but who we are and what we stand for’. It is all to do with the road that
our new leader chooses to travel and, more importantly, the set destination. For me, the aim remains as in 1981 ‘To replace
Labour, defeat the Tories and be in Government—no deals, no pacts’.
That is why the last five
years saw the Liberal Democrats falter and fail miserably—the vision, goal and
destination got blurred and the voters neither understood nor
subsequently forgave the party.