Liberal Democrats Believe

Rekindling belief for Liberal Democrats through the 2015 election and beyond. Feel free to use any and all in promoting Lib Dems for yourself.

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Lib Dems Believe Wordle 49  

Freedom from Poverty, Ignorance and Conformity – Liberalism

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Liberal Democrats Believe… 50 – Alex Wilcock   

Liberal Democrats believe in freedom and opportunity for every individual. Freedom from poverty, ignorance and conformity.

To make that freedom real for everyone needs both fairness and economic responsibility: an economy that works, that encourages enterprise, and where everyone pays their fair share.

So freedom from poverty requires responsible spending, not endless debt, built on fairer taxes where lower earners pay less tax and the wealthiest pay more; working with others to boost jobs and tackle climate change; and building green jobs for the future – increasing opportunities for the next generation instead of making them pay for today’s mistakes.

Freedom from ignorance needs us to champion education, training and apprenticeships, so everyone has the opportunity to realise their potential, whatever their background, whatever their choices.

And freedom from conformity means everyone should have the liberty to live their lives as they choose – without harming others; with equality before the law; with more power to decide, because no government always knows best, because all power must be accountable, because monolithic central control must always be broken up, because whether the best place to use power is locally, nationally or internationally, the most important place to take decisions is you taking power over your own life.  

That belief in individual freedom and opportunity is the foundation of the Liberal Democrat vision of a fair, free and open society. A society of diversity, built on how all of us choose to identify with each other – our families, our mutual interests, our neighbourhoods and nations. An outward-looking, optimistic society that’s open-minded, open-hearted and open to co-operating with other countries for our whole planet’s future.

Never dividing people into vested interests, to discriminate against everyone else. Never telling you who you should be – never saying your birth or your cash or your class or your country are the only thing that matters about you, shutting you in one box, shutting you up. Liberal Democrats are about breaking down barriers – not putting up new ones. And poverty, ignorance and conformity are the biggest barriers to individual freedom and opportunity. That’s why Liberal Democrats believe in freedom from poverty, ignorance and conformity, so society can be for everyone, so every individual can be free.

These values are why Liberal Democrats are working for a greener, stronger economy in a fairer society, enabling every person to get on in life. Opportunity for everyone.

Alex Wilcock (Twitter @alexwilcock) is a Liberal Democrat blogger on Love and Liberty. He is a former Chair of the Liberal Democrat Youth and Students of England and Wales, twice Parliamentary candidate, and was an elected member of the Liberal Democrats’ Federal Policy Committee for over ten years (including contributing to three General Election Manifestos). Thanks to the Liberal Democrats, he married Richard Flowers last year on their twentieth anniversary. He recorded this video, an expanded version of his often-repeated message on what Liberal Democrats believe, for the 2015 General Election today.

…And I also edit this Tumblr.

If you would like to recommend any inspiring Liberal quotes or longer passages for Liberal Democrats Believe, please contact me at [email protected] (removing the appropriate six letters). It’s been a bit knackering coming up with one every day through this election, but I aim to continue at a slower pace from now on, so I could do with other voices.

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LIBERAL DEMOCRATS We are proud of what we have achieved & ambitious for our future. Together we will win #until10pm #GE2015 x

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Why vote Liberal Democrat?

 My answer to that and three questions behind it – what have we done so far? What do we want to do next? And, most importantly for me, what values inspire us to do it?  

 Freedom and Opportunity for Everyone.

 This is the sort of thing I do if it’s the day before an election, I’m on my way home, my head is buzzing with politics and I come upon an unsuspecting park.

 I may be making it up on the spot this time, but you know it’s in my heart too.

 Vote Liberal Democrat!

 Alex Wilcock

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Lib Dems Believe Wordle 48  

Freedom – Liberty

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Liberal Democrats Believe… 49 – Conrad Russell

Utopianism is at all times a threat to freedom, and a party concerned with liberty must be concerned not to impose a single ideal but to hold the ring between different ideals.

 The only thing which checks a power is another power. We have no problem with the idea that some powers may be in one place and some in the other. Socialists want to change the holders of power – we want to change the character and relations of power itself. They want to ‘put the boot on the other foot’. For someone with a hatred of jackboots, this is no improvement.

 Libertarians believe that ‘anything goes’; Liberals believe that we should enjoy liberty while doing no harm to others. This is a bigger limitation than is often realised… Libertarians are for minimum government; Liberals are for minimum oppression. We want to see all power subject to control; not just the power of the state but also that of Monsanto, a bent copper, or a violent husband.

 Attempts to defend the editorial independence of the BBC, or to secure equal rights for gay people, come out of the same wellspring which led my great-grandfather in twelve consecutive sessions to introduce a bill to allow Jews by religion to sit in Parliament. He got it through, even though he had to become Prime Minister to do so.

  Conrad Russell was the nearest thing to an intellectual guru the Liberal Democrats had in the 1990s. He was a huge influence on me, and on the party’s policymaking, and if I could wish for one Liberal book to suddenly be published, it would be a collection of Conrad’s many speeches, letters and articles for newspapers, magazines and policy debates. His era was just before the ubiquity of the Internet, and far too much of his wisdom is far too difficult to track down. His celebrated turn of phrase about jackboots, for example, is one I conscientiously copied down a couple of decades ago, but didn’t as conscientiously note its source. Conrad was also an eminent Professor of History and an outrageous name-dropping gossip, so he’d probably have chided me for inadequate bibliography and told me which famous Liberals were worse. At the very least, Liberals could do with a new edition of his inspiring 1999 work An Intelligent Person’s Guide To Liberalism. There’s not time on the eve of the election to cover it in depth; you can read here what I’ve written about his booklet The Liberal Cause.

Conrad was, by a quirk of the lengthy stages involved in becoming a peer and by a quirk of history around the merger of two parties in 1988, both the last Liberal Peer created and the first Liberal Democrat Peer, as the Earl Russell. From his historian’s perspective, he often observed that Liberals’ democracy is based on what he called “the ascending theory of power,” based not on absolute sovereignty but on consent – from 1679, our party has been about checking arbitrary power and the centralised state, with the Liberals a British pluralist party to the Tories’ English unitary party. You must bind power by rules, by law, and most importantly by not letting it be the only source of power.

 Perhaps Conrad’s most simple and memorable way to describe what Liberalism is for is to stand up to bullies. It doesn’t matter who you are or who the bully is, we won’t stand by and see you pushed about.

 He was my friend, and I miss him.

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Lib Dems Believe Wordle 47  

Freedom – Opportunity for Everyone

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Liberal Democrats Believe… 48 – Nick Clegg  

  We’ve talked a lot about building a stronger economy. We’ve talked a lot about creating a fairer society. But maybe we haven’t talked enough about why – why those things matter. They matter because they are the only way we can enable everyone to get on in life – or as I’m calling it today, quite simply, Opportunity for Everyone.  

 And that comes from something which is unique to us Liberal Democrats: it’s an innate optimism about people. Ultimately we believe that the job of government, above all else, is to enable people to realise their own potential. Because we believe there are talents and aspirations to be nurtured and cherished in every single person. No matter what your background, your race, your colour, your gender, no matter where you came from or who you are: we believe in you. We don’t write off anyone and we don’t think that politicians and governments know best. It’s in the DNA of all Liberals.

 Because the Liberal Democrats believe that every boy and girl has something to offer, someone just needs to give them a chance to shine. Because we never fail to be amazed by the things that people are capable of when they’re given half a chance.

 And I can tell you today that the manifesto we present to the British people – a manifesto which will set out our own distinct ambitions for Britain – will have education right at its heart. We are and always will be the party of education.

 I want people to know that we have our own distinct vision, based on our own distinct values – a Liberal belief in opportunities; a Liberal faith in people’s talents and ambitions.

 We might be the smaller party, but we have all the biggest ideas.

 Ground-breaking pensions reform – Steve Webb.

Putting infrastructure front and centre of the Coalition’s economic strategy – Danny Alexander.

Dragging maternity and paternity leave into the 21st Century – Jo Swinson and Jenny Willott.

Getting our schools motivated to stop the poorest children from falling behind – David Laws.

Equal Marriage – Lynne Featherstone.

The world’s first ever bank devoted to green investment – Vince Cable.

The biggest ever investment in renewable energy – Ed Davey.

An £800 tax cut for millions of ordinary people – every Liberal Democrat who ever campaigned for it.

So yes, we do have a record of delivery to be proud of, but now’s the time for people to know about our promises for the future too. Say what you like about the Liberal Democrats, and a fair number of people do, but we are proud of the things we’ve achieved and we cannot wait for all the things we are yet to do.  Say what you like about the Liberal Democrats, but we played our part in rescuing our economy and we are up to the task of economic renewal that comes next. Say what you like about the Liberal Democrats, but we are proud to be a party of optimism while parties of pessimism are all around. Say what you like about the Liberal Democrats, but we hold our heads high as a party of hope at a time when the politics of fear is on the rise.

 So, whoever you are, whatever you do – this party believes in you, and we will fight every day, with every breath we have to give every single person their chance to shine.

  Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister.

 This is taken from Nick’s Opportunity for Everyone speech in June 2014, which outlined how Liberal Democrats see the world differently from other political parties. You can read the whole speech here.

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Lib Dems Believe Wordle 46  

 Freedom – Education

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Liberal Democrats Believe… 47 – Julian Huppert

I’m voting Liberal Democrat because we’re the only party that really cares about people.

 Whether we’re talking about mental health, whether we’re talking about the environment and our future, whether we’re talking about civil liberties, we are the people who will care about enabling you to be the person you can be.  

 That’s why I’m voting Liberal Democrat. Why are you?

  Julian Huppert (Twitter @julianhuppert) has been a brilliant MP for Cambridge so far – Parliament’s leading voice on science and civil liberties, amongst many other things – and is seeking re-election to do the job again!

 This was his answer to a Facebook challenge by Mark Pack and Lib Dem Newswire. I recommend reading the comments, too, as other people also have cracking reasons to vote Lib Dem.

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Lib Dems Believe Wordle 45  

Freedom – Opportunity

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Liberal Democrats Believe… 46 – Elliott Dodds

The Liberal purpose – let it be said again – is the creation of opportunity for men and women to become self-directing, responsible persons.

 The Liberal aim is the widespread diffusion of personal ownership so that all citizens have complete control over something they can truly call their own.

  George Elliott Dodds was a leading Liberal Party thinker in the mid-Twentieth Century, particularly known for promoting co-ownership in industry, as Liberal Party President, and for the Unservile State Group, from whose work Liberty and Welfare the first quote is taken.

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Lib Dems Believe Wordle 44  

Freedom – Stronger Economy

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Liberal Democrats Believe… 45 – Prateek Buch

We believe the political economy should empower all citizens with the capability to secure for themselves the freedom and means to live fulfilling lives free from poverty, ignorance and conformity – and that where it falls short, we should promote social justice and tackle barriers of inequality in wealth, voice and power.

  Prateek Buch (Twitter @prateekbuch) is Director of Evidence Matters and wrote this in response to one of my challenges to fellow Lib Dems, as part of a Social Liberal Forum article on Putting Social Liberal Values Into Action.

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Lib Dems Believe Wordle 43  

Freedom – Fairer Society

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Lib Dems Believe Wordle 42   

 Freedom – Opportunity for Everyone

 A special one that’s almost as animated as Nick was tonight!

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Liberal Democrats Believe… 44 – The Preamble to the Liberal Democrat Constitution

The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We champion the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals, we acknowledge and respect their right to freedom of conscience and their right to develop their talents to the full. We aim to disperse power, to foster diversity and to nurture creativity. We believe that the role of the state is to enable all citizens to attain these ideals, to contribute fully to their communities and to take part in the decisions which affect their lives.

 We look forward to a world in which all people share the same basic rights, in which they live together in peace and in which their different cultures will be able to develop freely. We believe that each generation is responsible for the fate of our planet and, by safeguarding the balance of nature and the environment, for the long term continuity of life in all its forms. Upholding these values of individual and social justice, we reject all prejudice and discrimination based upon race, colour, religion, age, disability, sex or sexual orientation and oppose all forms of entrenched privilege and inequality. Recognising that the quest for freedom and justice can never end, we promote human rights and open government, a sustainable economy which serves genuine need, public services of the highest quality, international action based on a recognition of the interdependence of all the world’s peoples and responsible stewardship of the earth and its resources. We believe that people should be involved in running their communities. We are determined to strengthen the democratic process and ensure that there is a just and representative system of government with effective Parliamentary institutions, freedom of information, decisions taken at the lowest practicable level and a fair voting system for all elections. We will at all times defend the right to speak, write, worship, associate and vote freely, and we will protect the right of citizens to enjoy privacy in their own lives and homes. We believe that sovereignty rests with the people and that authority in a democracy derives from the people. We therefore acknowledge their right to determine the form of government best suited to their needs and commit ourselves to the promotion of a democratic federal framework within which as much power as feasible is exercised by the nations and regions of the United Kingdom. We similarly commit ourselves to the promotion of a flourishing system of democratic local government in which decisions are taken and services delivered at the most local level which is viable.

 We will foster a strong and sustainable economy which encourages the necessary wealth creating processes, develops and uses the skills of the people and works to the benefit of all, with a just distribution of the rewards of success. We want to see democracy, participation and the co-operative principle in industry and commerce within a competitive environment in which the state allows the market to operate freely where possible but intervenes where necessary. We will promote scientific research and innovation and will harness technological change to human advantage.

 We will work for a sense of partnership and community in all areas of life. We recognise that the independence of individuals is safeguarded by their personal ownership of property, but that the market alone does not distribute wealth or income fairly. We support the widest possible distribution of wealth and promote the rights of all citizens to social provision and cultural activity. We seek to make public services responsive to the people they serve, to encourage variety and innovation within them and to make them available on equal terms to all.

 Our responsibility for justice and liberty cannot be confined by national boundaries; we are committed to fight poverty, oppression, hunger, ignorance, disease and aggression wherever they occur and to promote the free movement of ideas, people, goods and services. Setting aside national sovereignty when necessary, we will work with other countries towards an equitable and peaceful international order and a durable system of common security. Within the European Community we affirm the values of federalism and integration and work for unity based on these principles. We will contribute to the process of peace and disarmament, the elimination of world poverty and the collective safeguarding of democracy by playing a full and constructive role in international organisations which share similar aims and objectives. These are the conditions of liberty and social justice which it is the responsibility of each citizen and the duty of the state to protect and enlarge. The Liberal Democrats consist of women and men working together for the achievement of these aims.

  This is the Preamble to the Constitution of the Liberal Democrats – as far as a Liberal can be said to have an official statement of belief, this is it.

I’m not had many suggestions for inspiring Liberal quotes, soundbites, articles or speeches for Liberal Democrats Believe (if you have one, or several, contact me at [email protected], removing the appropriate six letters). But after publishing the much-quoted opening of the Preamble right at the start, I’ve had several requests for the whole thing. One week to go until the General Election seemed an appropriate time to go for the biggie in what we stand for, so here it is.