Where the Lib Dems Went Wrong

For the Liberal Democrats the general election was the worst in terms of seats won since 1970. No one expected the Lib Dems to be reduced to just eight seats. This article will examine where the Lib Dems went wrong and what could account for such a dreadful result.

Losing Trust

The Liberal Democrats were right to go into Coalition, but we made a few massive mistakes none bigger than the decision over tuition fees. For much of the last few decades the Lib Dems prided themselves on trust. In the 2010 general election hundreds of thousands of young voters voted for the party over its policy to abolish tuition fees. Famously, Nick Clegg and a few other Lib Dem MPs broke their pledges not to increase tuition fees (although 21 Lib Dem MPs kept their pledges). This action to increase tuition fees was seen in the eyes of many young voters as a betrayal. Despite the repeated attempts by Nick Clegg and other Lib Dem ministers to explain the new tuition fees policy, their message was simply ineffective given the loss of trust. More than any other issue tuition fees destroyed the Lib Dem reputation for trust from which the party never recovered during its time in Coalition.

Coalition Conformity and the loss of Identity

The Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition was the first coalition since 1945. Therefore the leadership of the Lib Dems felt an added burden on proving that coalitions could result in stable governments. While no one would doubt that the Coalition was stable, the sense of Coalition conformity that resulted from the commitment to the Coalition ended up in a loss of identity for the party. The Lib Dem identity became almost unrecognisable with both Tory and Lib Dem ministers in every major department. The party also completely failed to successfully differentiate itself from its coalition partners. Although we undoubtedly made the Coalition fairer than it otherwise would have been; ultimately the net result of our efforts was to detoxify the Tory party and toxify our own party.

Demolition of the Local Government base

In electoral terms there was clear evidence that the party strategy was not yielding any reward. From 2011 until 2015 the party lost thousands of councillors. For a party that depends on having a strong local government base in order to win at a parliamentary level, this was a major blow to our ambitions at the general election. Added to this the party suffered massive setbacks in Scotland, Wales, London and in the European Elections. Although our local government base held up relatively well in some part of southern England, in northern England and Scotland it was annihilated. We should have realised much earlier on in 2011 or 2012 that the loss of our local government base was a harbinger of disaster in the general election.

Valueless Centrism

The leadership ditched the party's historic centre-left stance in favour of a committed centrism. Their aim was to try and revive the mythical equidistance of the past. At a time when the party leadership needed to renew its distinctive centre-left values it abandoned them. The strategy of equidistance and centrism was always doomed to fail. How can you be truly equidistance when you're in coalition with a centre-right party and refuse to defend your historic centre-left values? The party has never been truly equidistant, even in the Ashdown years the party was closer to the Labour, shown through the speculation of a Labour-Lib Dem coalition in 1992 and the Blair-Ashdown talks of the mid-1990s. Centrist equidistance was a failed strategy instead we should have outlined a much more distinctive left of centre liberal platform to engage our lost voters and to enable us to much more effectively differentiate us from the Tories.

Defending the Status Quo

People don’t vote for coalitions. I hate to say it but it's true. People vote for political parties. To frame an entire election campaign around forming a future coalition alienated voters from the radicalism of the Lib Dems. The party became the only true defender of the Coalition status quo. Instead of giving people reasons to vote for a future Lib Dem government we were giving voters early compromises on a potential future coalition. No party can both claim to be radical and defend the status quo. This was at a time when other parties were challenging the status quo; the Lib Dems became in the eyes of the public the most uninteresting of the parties. The party's leadership lost touch with its core radicalism and instead became the party of "stability, unity and decency.” The Lib Dems should know more than any other party that there are few votes in defending the status quo especially when you are a third or fourth party.

Learning the Lessons

The party has an uphill battle to regain the trust of the public, especially amongst young people. We should ensure that any future signed party pledges are amongst our election priorities. We failed to do this with tuition fees in 2010 and we paid the price.

In any future coalitions instead of trying to cover all departments we should have ministers in the leading departments and have a department entirely for our ministers to demonstrate Lib Dem policies in action. A good example of such a department would be the Department for Education.

The future leadership of the party should realise that if the current strategy is resulting in massive electoral losses that the party should change it promptly. Equidistant centrism has been a disaster for our party; the party will have to return to its centre-left roots if it is to recover its lost support.

Liberals should never defend the status quo, they should always seek to change it. Losing touch with our core radicalism was the final nail in the coffin of the party's electoral ambitions. The party must learn from its lessons so that in the future the great cause of liberalism can rise again.

Why I want to stand for the Social Liberal Forum Council

           There are many challenges that face Britain today. Social and economic inequalities are still rife in society from people having to use food banks, to the issue of low wages and the problems caused by welfare reforms. Britain needs to rediscover its spirit of social justice, and its concern for the most disadvantaged members of society. When I first got interested in politics it was over the issues of civil liberties and my opposition to the War in Iraq. There was only ever one party that spoke to me on these issues and that truly inspired me, the Liberal Democrats. But that's not all, in the mid-2000s, the Lib Dems were the only main party willing to stand up for social justice in the face of the social hardships ignored by New Labour and caused by the Conservatives that came before them.

            Today, four years into the Coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, that spirit of social justice may seem like a world away. The Coalition has adopted some progressive policies such as raising the income tax threshold, the pupil premium and most recently free school dinners for the most disadvantaged pupils. Although there have also been some regressive policies such as the NHS reforms, welfare reforms such as the “bedroom tax” and an economic strategy that has placed too much of the burden of austerity on the poorest.

 

            What is often missed by media commentators is the excellent work done by members of the Social Liberal Forum in standing up for the traditional social liberal values that the Lib Dems have had for over a century. The SLF has been vital in calling for reforms to the government's economic policy to ensure that it focuses more on a house building stimulus and taxing the wealthy and less on slash and burn cuts to public services. Furthermore, they have consistently backed Lib Dem motions opposing the NHS reforms, opposing food poverty, backing a living wage, opposing the bedroom tax and being critical of the approach to free schools. If the spirit of social justice is to be found anywhere within the Liberal Democrats; it is to be found within the Social Liberal Forum.

            The Social Liberal Forum is on the verge of having elections to its ruling council and I am very eager to run for a position on that council. I have always been somebody who has proudly stood on the left of politics and I firmly believe that the Liberal Democrats are at heart a centre-left party. The SLF represent the historic centre-left traditions of the Lib Dems. As someone who has always been committed to social justice; I am very proud to be a member of the SLF. It is vital that we stand up for the poorest and most disadvantaged people in our country, many of whom lack a voice and are alienated by political parties who turn a blind eye to poverty and inequality.

Some might say that there's no place for an advocate of social justice in the Liberal Democrats today. However, I understand my Liberal history; the Liberal history of social liberalism that goes back to 1906. In 1942, the social security report by the Liberal Party social reformer, William Beveridge ensured that there was a national minimum, beneath which no one would be allowed to fall. The defining feature of social liberalism is the belief that social justice can enable the individual to reach their full potential. In this regard, Beveridge’s welfare state has done more to free people than any other institution since the establishment of democratic governments. The Beveridge report has been fundamental in freeing people from poverty, unemployment, ill-health and a lack of education. I am very proud of the history of great social liberals such as William Beveridge, John Maynard Keynes and David Lloyd George as well as the great Lib Dem titans of British politics such as Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Charles Kennedy. This history proves that the Liberal Democrats are a centre-left party of social justice and social liberalism. And if I get elected I would hope to continue that tradition.

There are many problems facing Britain today and social liberalism has many of the answers to them. Social liberalism rejects the false choice of choosing between promoting liberty or tackling inequality; simply put you cannot achieve one without the other. A more just society is a more free society. To be free from poverty is just as important as being free from the authoritarianism of the state. You cannot truly enjoy freedom if your capacity to achieve and develop is held back by poverty and inequality.

Hence, the powers of the state must be kept in check; but also there must be a progressive alternative to the free market consensus of the last thirty-five years. Social liberals must promote a living wage, land taxation, British federalism, community politics and workplace democracy especially through cooperatives. Above all, social liberals must aim to give a voice to the poor and the disadvantage and ensure that they have a stake in British society again. A stake that free market economics has denied them.

If I get elected to the Social Liberal Forum Council, I will stand up for social freedoms, social justice, the rights of the poor and the rights of people with disabilities (of which I am one). I aim to represent the Liberal Democrats’ historic centre-left principles of social liberalism. Overall, I hope that the Liberal Democrats can be a party that can once again stand up to injustice. This can only be done through the great work of the Social Liberal Forum; great work to which I hope to contribute. I hope that

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.   

I stand with the 99% and so should the Lib Dems

A couple of weeks ago I went to visit the Occupy London camp outside St Pauls Cathedral. As a student studying politics at University as well as someone who was slightly sympathetic to the Occupy movement; I felt that it was a part of British political history that I just had to witness. Occupy London was the British arm of a movement that in the last few weeks has spread from Wall Street to Central Europe and from Oakland to London. The camp seemed to consist of two main groups your usual SWP Trotskyite socialist types and your typical anarchist types. The camp was a very far left institution complete with anti-capitalist banter and far left posters that reminded me somewhat of Soviet-era propaganda. This camp had been established for little more than a week when I visited it on Sunday, October 23, 2011. While I was visiting the camp they held a "general assembly." This acted as a forum for discussion and to report the progress the movement was having. While I was in attendance it had been decided that a midnight curfew should come into effect. At the time I did think it was not very anarchist for the Occupy LSX campaigners to be imposing a curfew on themselves; but I suppose they would argue it was the fact that they were choosing to impose it on themselves not an external force doing it for them. Overall the Occupy movement aims seem to be to represent the poorest 99% against the greed and recklessness of the top 1%. They are campaigning against corporate greed, gross inequality and corporate capital dominating our democracies. I for one felt it was refreshing to see that for once someone was standing up to the vested financial elites in the City of London whom got our economy into such a dire mess only a few years ago. It was about time that people stood up against this clear injustice. Despite some media coverage, not all the people in the Occupy London camp were anti-capitalist there were even some posters stating that the protest should not be viewed as one that was anti-capitalist. It is clear that they were campaigning against the unfairness of the present neoliberal economic order. Now although I do not sympathise with the ends that the extreme socialists and anarchists wish to achieve, I do sympathise with the fact that these people were making a stand against injustice and doing it so peacefully and carefully. Contrary to some reports it didn't seem to me like the protesters were seriously preventing the Cathedral from being used. They even seem to have taken great care to ensure that they received a good public hearing in the press.

On Saturday, November 5, the Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas addressed the Occupy London rally at St Pauls. Thus it is clear that the Green Party has given its support to the aims of a fairer country that Occupy London seem to promote. This was followed on the Sunday, by relative endorsement by the Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband who declared himself to be a supporter of the 99% against the 1%. One has to wonder whether his record in government truly makes him out to be a worthy patron of the 99%. Especially when you consider the fact that both Ed Miliband and Ed balls were working in Gordon Brown's Treasury when bankers were earning obscene bonuses, company directors were earning extreme salaries and when the economic system was becoming increasingly more unstable due to a lack of financial regulation. Furthermore this is not to mention Labour's 13 year love affair with Rupert Murdoch something that even continued when Miliband himself became leader of the Labour Party. It is clear that during Miliband's time in the Treasury as well as during his time as a government minister the top 1% got wealthier and almost brought the global economy to the brink of destruction. I for one hope that Ed Miliband is not using the slogans of the 99% and the 1% to further his and his party's objectives through cynical opportunism and self publication; Miliband should not try to dominate concepts that go far beyond that of the Labour Party.

It is now time I believe for the Liberal Democrats to endorse the notion of being on the side of the 99%. Do not forget that the term 99% will encompass the poor, the working class and the overwhelming majority of middle-class people. It is hardly your usual class warring far left factions. I would seriously hope that Nick Clegg as well as other senior Liberal Democrats like Simon Hughes and Tim Farron can speak confidently about standing up for the 99%. It is the duty of a radical progressive party like the Liberal Democrats to do exactly this. I may not endorse socialism or anarchism but I do think we need a fairer society, economy and politics that moves beyond the current domination of neoliberalism. I would prefer (like some at the Occupy London camp) to have a fairer more progressive capitalism that works for everyone rather than no capitalism at all. It is this notion of a fairer more progressive capitalism, politics and society that Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats should be promoting. Although this is nothing new to the Lib Dems it must be placed in the context that the top 1% need to pay their fair share and that the lower 99% need to be protected and supported from the excess and instability of neoliberal capitalism. Finally I hope that the Occupy London movement moves to encompass many progressive and left-leaning groups beyond the far left; especially political parties like the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Greens.

We are a Centre-Left Party, now let’s get out there and prove it!

I for one am very proud to consider myself on the centre-left of British politics. I believe that three years ago I joined the party of the centre-left. And I also believe that as a party of government, this party promotes a centre-left agenda and enacts many of its centre-left policies. Surely, goes the conventional wisdom this party must be the Labour Party. However it is not the Labour Party; I became interested in politics due to my opposition to what was then an authoritarian Labour government. No this governing party of the centre-left is the Liberal Democrats.

How can you say that? Many people will ask. Surely the Liberal Democrats are a Tory leaning party of the centre at best. Surely they can't be described as centre-left; after all they are in coalition with a centre-right Conservative party. They will say. No I'm adamant that many of the policies and principles of the Liberal Democrat supporters, members, MPs and government ministers are those of a genuine party of the centre-left.

I would argue that examples of such centre-left policies promoted by the Liberal Democrats include the following. Restoring the civil liberties lost under the last government. Helping the poorest pupils through the pupil premium and restoring the pensions link to earnings. Being the first party of government to genuinely focus on tackling climate change. Limiting the role of private companies in the controversial NHS reforms and ruling out the profit motive in our schools. Presenting a measured reasonable response after the summer riots. Ending up front fees for part-time students. Having a referendum on changing the voting system, pledging to democratise the House of Lords and planning to clean up party funding. Finally, we have maintained the top 50% rate of income tax, while ensuring that the poorest 880,000 people have been taken out of paying any income tax altogether. These are all policies that anyone with a slight centre-left sympathy would agree with. Now of course these outlooks will be counted by accusations of enacting harsh spending cuts. And indeed it cannot be ignored that the Coalition is implementing a harsh deficit reduction strategy; however Labour are hardly an anti-cuts party, since seven out of every eight pounds cut last year were agreed to by Alistair Darling in his last Labour Party budget. If Labour had won the election they would be cutting much of the same things as the Coalition is. For evidence of this just look at local Labour councils, many of whom shut sure start centres prior to the last local elections; whereas every council run by a Liberal Democrat kept the sure start centres open. If you like we are in the honest, responsible centre-left party outlining our programme of austerity simply because we have to do because we are now a party of coalition government. The same would be true if Labour was still in power and not behind the comfort blanket of opposition.

The truth is that the Liberal Democrats are the most left-leaning party of government since James Callaghan's Labour party in the 1970s. We as a party have a great centre-left message to promote. Centre-left voters in Britain should not be turning away from us and voting for an irresponsible centre-left party like Labour or for a divisive separatist party like the SNP; they should be voting Liberal Democrat. Ed Miliband’s Labour Party continues to be committed to erosions of this our civil liberties like a CCTV surveillance society and the DNA database. They are certainly taking an increasingly illiberal stance towards immigration. They remain unwilling to introduce a proportional voting system or elect the House of Lords. They remain unwilling to scrap Trident. And this is before we mention some harsh things Labour did in government like eroding civil liberties, illegally invading Iraq, privatising parts of our NHS and abolishing the 10% rate of income tax. None of these things would be supported by anybody of the centre-left.

We as Liberal Democrats shouldn't be complacent with our centre-left voters running off to other parties. We shall be doing our utmost to sell our centre-left message and get them back to voting for us. Poll ratings between 8% and 12% are utterly dismal. We should not have UKIP nipping at our heels. We should not let Labour claim the centre-left with anti-progressive policies or with collective amnesia of their 13 years in government. This centre-left message needs to resonate from the leadership of the Liberal Democrats right down to the grassroots. It needs to go from Great George Street to your street. And this message is simple; "we are a centre-left party, we are enacting centre-left policies, we are restraining the right-wing elements within the Tories and we are not going anywhere until the lack of freedom, fairness and justice in our society is tackled." Now let's get out there and reclaim the centre-left ground where we so rightly belong.

Great Simon Hughes Comment Piece

There’s a great comment piece by the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Simon Hughes for today’s Observer. The comment piece comes as a response to the recent English riots. Read the comment piece here:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/14/profits-top-simon-hughes?intcmp=239.

Please Vote Lefty Liberal Paul

A few months ago I started this blog to advance ‘Lefty Liberal’ and Social Liberal viewpoints within the Liberal Democrats and beyond. Also I thought it was important to advance centre-left politics more generally. Now it’s that time of the year again when Total Politics wants people to vote for their favourite blogs. Can I ask everyone who supports centre-left Social Liberalism or who just likes this blog to vote for Lefty Liberal Paul in the Total Politics poll. Here is the link to the poll:

http://www.totalpolitics.com/surveys/total-politics-blog-awards/

Please show your support for centre-left Social Liberalism!

I agree with Tim!

There’s a very interesting piece on the Independent website, with calls by the Liberal Democrat Party President, Tim Farron to distance the party from the Conservatives in the Coalition. So that party members can ‘hold their heads up high.’ Give the article a read it is very agreeable from a centre-left prospective.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nick-clegg-faces-calls-to-distance-his-party-from-the-conservatives-2334134.html

We Should Protest In Defence Of Lib Dem Values

Today Britain has seen the latest in a long line of protests along with strikes from several major national trade unions. These protests and strikes have been in response to pension reform plans put forward by the government as well as on the issues of cuts, tuition fees and the NHS reforms. Estimates regarding those who have gone on strike range from 50% to 85% and potentially three quarters of a million workers had the option to go on strike today. Now we can discuss whether or not the strikes and protests were legitimate today, but as Liberal Democrats the question remains whether or not we should be protesting against proposals put forward by the Coalition government of which we are apart.

Surely if we were not a part of the Coalition government and the Conservatives or Labour were running the country by themselves we would find it a lot easier to determine whether or not to protest, however actually being in government leads us naturally to think twice before deciding whether we should take any action. Just to clarify by action I mean democratic protests and peaceful protests not in undertaking any violence, vandalism or occupation. Surely we should be willing when necessary to stand up for the values that we have always held as a party. Although we are in Coalition and that naturally means making compromises, surely we should still hold the values for which we have cherished for many decades. Many Liberal Democrats have deep concerns about some of the cuts and reforms that the Coalition is enacting. Whether this is the speed and pace of the cuts in general, the fear of enhanced private-sector influence in the National Health Service, the tripling of tuition fees and yes even concerns over how public sector workers are being treated. It was over mainly the latter over which the protests and strikes were happening today. I for one believe it is a worker’s democratic right to withdraw their labour and go on strike democratically and responsibly. I'm from a working-class background myself and would never scoff at those who choose to protest and strike like some in the right-wing media would because contrary to right-wing belief it is not a decision that is easily taken by many working people; to go on strike and lose a day's pay as a result.

Today, in Lancaster I attended a rally in the centre of the city hosted by trade unionists and workers. I wasn't the only Liberal Democrat member in the audience either. There were also many members of the Labour Party and the Green party attending the rally. Personally, my main reasons for going to the rally was over concerns regarding the NHS reforms and the raising of tuition fees however I also harboured some genuine sympathy for the public sector workers who were demonstrating. There were many moderates like myself in the audience; however there were also many representatives of the far left there as well. The far left speakers ranged from anarchists, moderate socialists and fully signed up Marxists with their usual rhetoric of class struggle, class war, solidarity and revolution. I strongly disagreed with the extreme rhetoric used by the far left considering that I am a supporter of capitalism and consider the us and them approach that they used to be dangerous and divisive. As a Liberal Democrat, I believe that we should be actively disagreeing with policies that are against our social liberal values while offering a moderate buffer to the extremist veil of the far left. In addition, we must be willing to stand up for the poor and working people that we have supported for decades while ensuring that they aren't swept up by the stance of either Labour or the Greens.

We must not be afraid to peacefully and democratically protest against any policies that go against our values. Didn't many Labour supporters go on protest against the war in Iraq? And of course there is more than just one way to protest. Yes there are marches and rallies but there are also letters, petitions and discussions. In the heat of strikes we must never forget the latter forms of protest. An excellent example of which was the Social Liberal Forum petition calling for modifications to the NHS reforms. I hope this blog entry hasn't been too controversial but I feel that as Liberal Democrats we have spent a lifetime protesting against the policies of different governments, we should occasionally think about moderate protest again. After all 80% of the government is of the Conservative Party.

The Forgotten Deficit of Social Justice

Every evening on the news, we are reminded of the fact that Britain has a massive economic deficit. This is reinforced by the notion of hard times and austerity that the country is currently going through, along with further threats of future cuts and public service strikes. Although it is widely accepted that this deficit is in need of being tackled (all three main parties were committed to the tackling deficit in their 2010 manifestos) we mustn't lose sight of another deficit that has been looming over the United Kingdom for more than the past 30 years. This is a deficit of social justice. We in the current climate of austerity may find it easy to believe that now is not the best time to be promoting social justice or seeking to combat the economic inequalities between the poorest and the richest. In many respects given our current economic climate, it may be believed that social justice has become the forgotten deficit.

Between 1979 and 2009 the gap between the richest and poorest grew. (graph six, http://www.poverty.org.uk/09/index.shtml?2). In 2009, the income inequality gap was higher than at any time in the previous 30 years. Also in a decade from 1999 to 2009 the average income for the poorest 10% of the population decreased by 12% whereas the average income for the richest 10% increased by 37% (graph one, http://www.poverty.org.uk/09/index.shtml?2). These statistics show quite clearly that in previous years the gap between the richest and poorest has continued to grow. Since 2009, Britain has embarked upon a period of austerity designed to tackle the deficit in Britain’s economics. Although it is necessary to ‘balance the books’; they should not be balanced on the poorest people in our society.

It is evident that one factor in the current economic hardship was the excesses and risk-taking practised by many banks and bankers, which almost led to the collapse of the financial industry and which led to costly bailouts and fiscal stimulus. Given that the overwhelming majority of the economic crisis was not caused by the poor why should they have to pick up the pieces? It is vital in tackling the current economic circumstances that we don't further impoverished those who have been neglected from government to government over many decades. The poor may not have the loudest voice and they are often vilified in the right-wing press as being feckless, dole spongers or chavs but we mustn't forget our social obligations to them. No one in a rich western country like Britain should have to choose between feeding themselves and their families or choosing to put the heating on.

But what can be done to tackle inequalities in wealth given the current economic circumstances? The Coalition Government has shown flashes of social justice in their key policies such as to take almost 1,000,000 of the poorest people out of income tax and to attribute a pupil premium to the poorest children to ensure that they get the best start to their education. But this does not go far enough to tackle the long-term deficit of social justice. Any revenue reaped from taxing the bonuses of the bankers should be redistributed to the poorest who have suffered due to the bankers’ malpractice. The government should also regulate energy companies who try to hike their prices up unnecessarily, which can impact hard on poor families. Land value taxation may also be introduced to tax those wealthy individuals who own land and shift the burden of taxation of the poorest, as well as giving the government more resources to tackle the social and economic injustices faced by the poor. If progressive taxation and regulation was used in such a way to protect the poor and to redistribute the wealth from the richest it may go some way to help tackle the vast gulf in economic inequalities. Of course taxation and regulation are only parts of a potential solution; other things for consideration would be the socio-economic conditions that keep a poor person within the poverty trap. However, first we need to acknowledge at the highest level that tackling the gap between the rich and the poor is a major priority. The poorest should not have their opportunities curved by a lack of economic resources, and no rational government should bring about circumstances that would make the plight of the poor worse. In a time of austerity cuts we should not hurt the poorest more than the richest. While tackling the deficit in our economy we must not yet again forget about the deficit of social justice in our society. Social justice is an issue that needs confronting and we cannot allow it to be neglected any longer; the opportunities of future generations should not be determined by the circumstances of their birth and their lack of resources but by the range and scope of their talents.

Painting The Red Rose County Yellow

This is my first ever blog, so I assume it would only be polite to apologise in advance for any spelling mistakes or inaccuracies in grammar. I hope that you enjoy reading my blog and that you take many insightful things from it. I suppose I should start by introducing myself. My name is Paul Hindley, I’m 20 years old and I’m a student at Lancaster University who is studying politics. In my blog I intend to express my opinions and comments on contemporary current affairs issues locally, nationally and globally.

As no doubt you will have realised by now I intend to blog about social liberalism especially from the perspective of the British Liberal Democrats. I suppose my liberal use of the colour yellow (forgive the pun) in the title header and the words centre-left Liberalism would have been quite a giveaway. I first became interested in politics at the age of 12 in 2003, this was during the most controversial period of Tony Blair's New Labour government, when this country was taken to war illegally against Iraq in a neoconservative mission topple Saddam Hussein by means that were unlawful according to the international community. My outrage at the war in Iraq was swiftly followed by my outrage towards the Labour Party's authoritarian stance toward civil liberties embodied by nothing more symbolic than the identity card. I subsequently gained a deep scepticism for the authoritarianism embodied by New Labour and the Thatcherite economics espoused by the Conservatives.

 All things considered, it is little wonder that ended up supporting the party that I did and in 2008 merely one month after my 18th birthday and in the middle of an A-level politics course I finally joined that party. Much has happened since I joined the party, I have been to 2 party conferences, I have become the Treasurer in my University’s Liberal Democrat society, I have stood for a council seat for Lancaster City Council and most of all I have watched my party transcend from opposition to Coalition government. Even after everything that has happened to the Liberal Democrats over the past years some good, some bad I am still a very proud supporter of my party and its centre-left roofs. It is essential, especially in these times of coalition that centre-left social liberals such as myself can convey thoughts and opinions about politics in general from a liberal left perspective. This is my main reason for wanting to start this blog.

I am Lancashire born and bred, I have lived here all my life from my hometown of Blackpool to my current studying in Lancaster at Lancaster University. Hopefully you'll enjoy reading the thoughts and opinions of at least this centre-left Liberal Democrat over the blog entries to come and together perhaps we can do our bit to paint the ‘red rose county’ yellow.