Liberal Left and What It Means

A few days ago it was announced that a new centre-left pressure group would be launched within the Liberal Democrats called ‘Liberal Left.’ Liberal Left seeks to promote Liberalism as an outlook of the centre-left. The group is opposed to the current Coalition Government between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, which it sees as being “Eurosceptic, neo-liberal, and socially conservative.” The group aims to oppose the Coalition on economic and fiscal policy and to provide a “positive alternative”. Furthermore Liberal Left aims to create a broad alliance on the left between the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Greens. Ultimately Liberal Left would like to replace the current centre-right Coalition Government with a new centre-left Coalition Government (after the next General Election) between the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.

As someone who openly describes himself as a ‘Lefty Liberal’ I warmly welcome the launch of Liberal Left. Anyone who opposes Euroscepticism, Neo-Liberalism and Social Conservatism can’t be all that bad. It is clear that the current neo-liberal austerity plan of the current government is failing to tackle the deficit or achieve social justice and a fairer Keynesian alternative is much needed. Hopefully Liberal Left can embody such an alternative. The Liberal Democrats are after all quite literally the party of John Maynard Keynes.

What could Liberal Left mean for the Lib Dems as a political party? There are four points to mention.

Firstly, the group has been depicted as the anti-Clegg Lib Dems. This would be a great shame if it was the case, since Nick Clegg is most definitely the best person to be leading the Liberal Democrats. Like it or not he is the first Liberal leader since Archie Sinclair in 1945 to have achieved a role for his party in government. Furthermore in the party leaders’ polls Nick Clegg is often seen as a better leader by the public than the Labour leader, Ed Miliband.

Secondly, Liberal Left will likely be drawn into competition with the other centre-left pressure group in the party, the Social Liberal Forum (SLF). Liberal Left is avowedly anti-Coalition whereas the SLF while frequently criticising the Coalition remains cautiously pro-Coalition. Hence a clear division between the anti-Coalition centre-left and the pro-Coalition centre-left in the party. It is unclear which group will become the dominant voice of the Lib Dem centre-left. I hope that the two groups can cooperate together to advance the cause of centre-left Liberalism.

Thirdly, let’s hope that Liberal Left maintains to pursue its objectives within the Liberal Democrats and that it seeks to keep the party united. The last thing we want to see is the creation of a Liberal Left Party in a kind of SDP-style split from the Lib Dems.

Finally and most importantly, Liberal Left will hopefully become a venue for radical centre-left liberal politics that seeks to challenge the current authoritarian neo-liberal consensus that has dominated British Politics for over 30 years. Thus providing a centre-left liberal alternative based on the ideas of Keynes, Beveridge and Grimond.

Let it never be said that Liberal Politics is boring. Liberal Left displays a new radical venture within the Liberal Democrats. As to whether it is a short-lived phase or a long-term political movement, we’ll have to wait until the pressure group is officially launched in Gateshead on March 10^th at the Lib Dem Spring Conference.   

One Year of Liberal Democrat Governance

Yes it has been one year since that beautiful scene in the Downing Street rose garden between Nick and Dave. Its one year since the political civil partnership of the Coalition Government. Its one year since Nick Clegg pretended to walk away from David Cameron (a few regretted that he turned back, not including myself). Its one year since Britain was painted in yellowish blue. And yet although we could not see what the future had in store for us; know one can say that the last 12 months of British politics from the perspective of any party especially the Liberal Democrats has been particularly boring. Speaking as a centre-left Liberal Democrat to see the object of Cleggmania stood next to the heir to all things Thatcherite did make me feel unsure whether a coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats was a good thing. However as time has worn on, I have begun to warm to the Coalition Government. If not in an entirely fanatical way.

The previous 12 months has been a rollercoaster ride for us Lib Dems. And yes there have been some negative things some of which I have disagreed with like the rise in tuition fees or some of the budget cuts which are less than progressive to say the least or the completely right wing marketisation proposed in the government's NHS reforms, however there are many things as a Liberal Democrat that I can only applaud. The reason I began to support the Lib Dems was because of their stance on defending civil liberties. It is fantastic that over the last 12 months the Coalition Government has been able to undo many of the authoritarian injustices inaugurated in the previous Labour Government. ID cards have been scrapped, detention without charge has been reduced from 28 days to 14 days, child detention has been ended and control orders have been watered down. Just on the basis of this defence of civil liberties, the Liberal Democrats have not been afraid to put our liberal agenda into action. We are delivering on our four main manifesto commitments. Already over 800,000 of the poorest people in our country have been taken out of paying any income tax. The pupil premium is well within the pipeline of the coalition agenda. Chris Huhne over at the Department of Energy and Climate Change is driving forward our green new deal to create a more sustainable green economy. We have even made great progress in terms of political reform despite the loss of the AV referendum, don't forget Labour promised to have a referendum on electoral reform in 1997 and after 13 years they failed to deliver even that basic progress, however we wasted no time in putting the Alternative Vote to the people.

Another factor which has strengthened my support for the coalition government is the rank opportunism of Ed Miliband’s Labour Party. The claims that Ed Miliband would make Labour more progressive, seem to me to have been too little effect. Firstly, although I disagree with some (but certainly not all) of the government’s spending cuts, I do believe that we need to reduce the deficit. Ed Miliband promised a Labour deficit reduction plan by the time the Coalition published there’s however over six months into Ed Miliband's leadership Labour has yet to produce such a program. Former Labour ministers from across the party still defend Labour's record on civil liberties. As regards to political reform Labour as a party seems completely unwilling to enact change. This was hammered home by the streams of former Labour ministers lining up to speak on behalf of the No to AV campaign.

The last year has been very interesting for Liberal Democrats. It has been the ultimate political rollercoaster from Cleggmania to tuition fees riots and deficit reductions. With serious progress potentially being made in the near future on issues like progressive taxation, the pupil premium, Lords reform, carbon emissions reduction and protecting our NHS from privatised cherry picking; the words from the Lib Dem grassroots can only be a cautiously nervous, ‘four more years.’