In What next for the Liberal Democrats?, Mark Pack and I set out a challenge for the party. We said it needed to build on the foundation of a set of brilliant election results to now set out its stall for the nation more broadly - but in such a way that we don’t alienate the people who’ve trusted us with representing them in Parliament. We said:
We must ensure that this national push for a stronger party vote doesn’t detract from our local campaigns in our held and target seats, however. To that end, we need to make a national name for ourselves as the party who care about making Britain work locally: the party that wants to build a country of lively and liveable communities, where people can love where they live, sleep easy, and dream big.
In a previous post, I had a first stab at putting my money where my mouth is and trying to meet this challenge myself. Now it’s time for a second try, after time to let it marinate, and lots of useful feedback in the comments! (Thanks everyone! Keep it coming.)
This time round I’m presenting it in bullet points rather than as a notional speech, because it’s a prototype after all, and prototypes need to be quick and easy to take apart and put back together again. So here’s a stripped back version, with less of the rhetoric, and new content about who the bad guys are, what we’re going to do to improve things, and why anyone should believe us. Plus lots more sewage.
(And as a reminder, in the spirit of this blog, I’m thinking out loud in public because I think that all good ideas start life as bad ones. They get good by being knocked around a bit. So - fists at the ready please!)
Clean Up The Crap
1. Britain Today
Summary: we’re proud of who we are and where we’re from, but it’s getting harder to feel that pride as things get grubbier and life gets harder. But we get on with it - we don’t complain. Because that’s who we are. But does it have to be this hard?
We Brits are proud of what we’ve built here. Proud of who we are.
And there’s lots to be proud of. Our towns and our cities. Our clubs and our curries. Our bands and our brands. Our creeds and our communities. Our teams and our telly.
It’s getting harder to feel proud - but we get on with it, because that’s who we are.
when a few more shops get boarded up, when the litter takes longer to get cleaned away, when more and more people seem not to have a place to sleep.
And it's getting harder to fall asleep at night too - but we push on through.
It’s hard to afford a home these days, to trust your landlord won’t throw you out, to get on the waiting list. It’s hard to get an appointment, to find a dentist, to know that your kid is getting the right education for them.
It’s getting harder to feel hope for the future. But we don’t let it get us down.
Maybe you want to start a family, or a new job, or a new life. Maybe you just want to find a good job where you live - not having to commute, or leave home. Maybe you want more time with the family. Maybe you want to move out soon - or, no matter how much you love them, maybe you wish the kids could afford to?
We don’t complain - we just get on with it. Because that’s who we are.
But we’re not asking for much. We just want to love where we live, sleep easy, and dream big. So why does it have to be this damn hard?
2. The Bad Guys
Summary: it’s got this way because we keep being taken for granted. Whether through incompetence, greed or sheer cowardice, the people in power keep putting their interests - and their pockets - first.
Why is it like this? We all know why. It’s because we keep being taken for granted.
The councils that are too starved of cash to do a good job.
The crooks and the con artists - the charlatans and the shysters - who rip us off, strip the cupboards bare, and leave us to pick up the pieces.
Crooks: Thames Water, corrupt councillors, rogue landlords, people traffickers, scammers preying on the old, Trump, Putin.
Con Artists: Nigel Farage, Brexiteers, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Elon Musk, the Big Tech bros, the multinationals who pay no tax, fossil fuel companies, Russian bots, Chinese spies.
The cowards, the careerists and the cronies who let them all get away with it.
Regulators asleep at the wheel, spineless Tory backbenchers, news barons peddling petty hate.
And it’s not just our beaches and our rivers that they’ve filled with their crap.
They’ve flooded our politics with dirty money. They’ve sloshed billions down the drain on contracts handed out to their mates. They dumped lies about Brexit on billboards and buses all over the country, promising sunlit uplands and delivering only one great big fatberg of waste and red tape that still blocks the economy today, and isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
Even our better governments have chosen a quick buck and an easy win over the hard work that’s needed to make real change happen.
For decades our economy has been run to look good on paper - when really it's just been papering over the cracks. For most of us, the reality has never lived up to the hype. Growth has been lumpy, thin, and poorly spread. What difference has it made for people like us? It’s time to fix how government works so real change shows up not just in the spreadsheet and metrics beloved by the bureaucrats, but in real life for real people.
3. How We’re Going to Change Things
Summary: crack down on the crooks and the con artists; clean up the crap they’ve left us with; go big on the basics, so you can get on with life; and do what it takes to kickstart the damn economy in every corner of this country, so you can lead the life you want to live.
We’re sick of just having to hold our nose and get on with it, and we think you might be too. So here’s what we’re going to do:
Crack down on the crooks and the con artists.
Fines for pollution.
Criminalise lies and deceit in election campaigns.
Close tax loopholes for multinationals.
Clean up the crap they’ve left us with.
Clean up the sewage in our rivers and on our beaches, so you can keep your family safe.
Clean up our politics - no more dirty money, no more rotten First Past the Post, so you get an equal say.
Clean up our high streets and our estates, our roads and our rivers, so you can love where you live once more.
Clean up the tangled red tape that hobbles us - in health, in housing, in business, in life, so you can get what you need when you need it.
Go big on the basics
Big on housing, so you can get the home you deserve.
Big on healthcare, so you can get an appointment when you need one.
Big on energy and infrastructure, so you don’t need to worry about whether you can afford that next gas bill (and so your kids won’t have to deal with the consequences of climate change).
Big on defence and policing, so you can sleep easy at night knowing you’re safe where you live.
Kickstart the economy in every corner of this country
Closer EU ties, and rejoin when the time’s right.
Create community capital funds you so you can build what’s best for where you live.
Invest in green, in new tech, in entrepreneurs.
Build big - infrastructure & housing.
Lighten the load for those working hardest.
Let carers care, free from fear of unfair fines.
Free teachers and nurses up to focus on teaching and nursing.
Give parents free childcare, so they don’t have to struggle to balance work and family
End zero hours contracts, and commit to fair pay rises for public sector workers
So you can love where you live, sleep easy at night, and dare to dream big again
4. Why You Should Believe Us
Summary: because we’re already doing it, and we’re helping you do it too.
We’re holding the water companies to account. We’re cracking down on dirty money, we’re campaigning for fair votes, we’re calling out corrupt councils.
We’ve cleaned up the councils we control, and worked with communities to kickstart local economies.
In councils like South Cambridgeshire and York, we’ve built genuinely affordable homes.
In Richmond and Kingston we’vee transformed public spaces, hand in hand with communities.
In Sutton and in Devon, we’ve helped communities take control of their pubs, parks, libraries and more.
And we’re holding Labour to account to deliver on their promises. Their heart’s in the right place, but they keep ducking the hard choices. We’re keeping their feet to the fire to make sure they do the right thing for the people of this country.
So What Now?
Summary: put it on our plate, and kick us out if we don’t fix it.
We’re not asking you to trust us, because too many people have broken your trust. We’re asking you to try us out, and let us show you that we mean what we say.
Because we know that if we don’t deliver, you’ll chuck us straight out - and quite right too.
So put us on your councils, put us in Parliament, and let us show you what it’s like when you’re represented by people who know your name, care about the community as much as you do, and aren’t afraid to bash heads together and get things done.
Because we don’t whinge, complain or look for an easy way out: we get on with it - and we’ll show you the difference we make.
Ok, there you have it! Please let rip with your feedback. Let me know what’s rubbish about this, what should be ditched, what should be dialled up, and why. Positive feedback is lovely, but give me the juicy negative stuff. (And it might help to read over the brief I’ve set myself, to keep me honest.)
Big fan of the overall piece! Insofar as areas where I would personally look to develop this (excuse the Star Wars analogies in advance):
1. The bad guys:
1a. I feel like some of the points in section 2 are a bit 'ethereal'. You have mentioned many of the villains, but, at least in the current form (which I appreciate is likely due to the bullet point vs notional speech format, which you have already recognised), it feels like you are describing many smaller villains which might not properly attract people's attention (eg someone who isn't too interested in the peculiarities of pension fund Liability Driven Investments into the Gilt markets might not understand why Liz Truss is a villain). You have given 10 (accurately villainous) stormtroopers, whilst what we need is the Darth Vader.
1b. I also think the framing of some of the villains in this piece sounds like The Empire (the big bad liberals aiming to keep things the way they are) annoyed by The Rebels (the cool, Han Solo-esque heroes fighting for freedom and liberty)'. There may be some mileage in really highlighting how Farage, Johnson et al. are the real bad guys (the Senator Palpatine who everyone thinks is fighting for justice-turned-Darth Sidious character). How can we properly highlight that Liberal Democrats are the ones who want meaningful change to a system that often doesn't work for people (not the Jedi who end up being swallowed by the Sith (Labour Party?) but the Leias of the world, leading the rebels against the Empire).
2. Stress points:
This is a good positive narrative for Liberalism (as you've said is the point of this post!). However, how does it stand up to stress points? Jedis are not permitted possessive love, but when Anakin ends up losing his mother and wife, he ends up as a conquerer of the solar system... Agreed, that was a terrible analogy, but hopefully points out that an idea, good as it may sound, is not worth much if it falls at the first hurdle.
What does this vision tell the average Joe who is worried about immigration? Or the average Jane who is afraid of the impact of taxes on their wealth? Would our response lead to trade-offs and are we prepared for those? (Perhaps a question for another paper, and not the aim of this narrative, but in an ideal scenario, our narrative would need to offer some perspective on these increasingly important issues, that are increasingly coming up on the doorstep)
3. Realism:
The 2024 General Election had little realism in it. Conservatives continued defending policies that quite literally had been failing for the past 5 years. Labour refused to acknowledge the reality of the monumental task they faced to clean up the conservatives' mess. Reform UK and the Green Party both had policies that were estimated to require £80bn+ in borrowing (Liz Truss 'only' borrowed £30bn in her economy-crashing budget).
Whilst Liberal Democrats understand the need for realism, especially considering our potential role in politics following the next GE, are voters actually motivated by/interested in realism? and if they are not, is it therefore more of a grey area (ie can political parties dream a little?). Of course, this is not suggesting mistruth or misleading, but an ambitious statement like 'Liberal Democrats will bring net zero to 2040' or 'Liberal Democrats will lead a generation of the most educated children in the world' might be exactly what the country is looking for, difficult as it may be (I'm not sufficiently expert in climate or education policy to know whether that is, at all, a realistic/unrealistic ambition).
All that to say, might it be worth revisiting your 5th 'success criteria' (from your brief), and seeing how that affects the rest of this article?
Otherwise, great post! Without doubt, I will return to these three points soon and realise that I was, myself, speaking nonsense, so please feel free to push back on anything ahead of me!
That's a great idea, but how would it be different from Compass, for example? They strategise how progressive parties can win elections. I guess they're not too focused on measuring public opinion or creating a platform for deliberative democracy and evidence-based discussions. The reality is that politics will always have subjective elements which isn't a bad thing by any means but I think we'd all benefit more if we looked at statistics to make sense of the world - whether that's house building or drug use. Thanks for sharing! :)