#jo grimond

[tedheath]

Jeremy Thorpe: (walking off being flashy and showy) Jo Grimond: (facepalms)

[theorkneyvole]

Sunday Breakfast with the Voles, Svein asks, ‘Why do people hate the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Daddy?

Since Svein upset Mr. Carmichael by asking questions he has become very interested in politics. This morning, it being Sunday, we had a conversation on about the News. Mrs. Vole joined in. She thinks children should know about these things. 

He asked us “why do Scottish people hate the Liberal Democrats now?’

Mrs Vole started off, “We don’t hate individual Liberal Democrats, not even Mr.…

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[libdemsbelieve]

Liberal Democrats Believe… 19 – Jo Grimond

We Liberals have said again that people count. We believe in change. We cannot say it too often and we reiterate it at this Assembly. It follows that these changes must be brought about by the common will of the nation. But we shall only generate that common will if we can generate some passion behind the projects of our policy.

 Mr Gladstone said that little is accomplished in politics without passion and it is true. The reforms we propose are not very complicated. They are widely agreed to be necessary, but this country is inert and will only be shaken by passion.

 It is typical that reforms that everyone knows to be necessary, and which many other countries have carried out, should in Britain be considered to be absolutely visionary. How dare people think that when science is undergoing revolution after revolution, when the whole structure and obligations of government have changed, that it is impossible to change the political institutions by which we run our country? How can you suggest, when in the arts and sciences there is this enormous ferment, that politics alone must go on being wrapped up in a polythene bag, being more remote from the ordinary people?

 We are on the approaches to the general election. What is going to count for this party in the coming year is not only the clarity and cohesion of its policies. We have got to make those policies live for ordinary people so that they mean something to them. That is the prime task of this party next year.

 Can we imbue partnership with life and give it magnetism? Can we make structural reforms inspiring? Can we kindle again in this country the flame of political interest and catch the divine spark which has been so sadly lacking in our public life?

 Now partnership is a magnificent ideal, but do not let us delude ourselves. We shall never get everybody to take an active part in political partnership. What we have got to do is to give everyone the opportunity and the chance to take part. We have to create a free society in which even those people who do not feel that they have a place can take part and can at least give their assent, feeling that they believe in it.

 Above all in human affairs there is a natural friction between the governors and the governed. This friction is very often essential to freedom and, in their justifiable emphasis on participation, Liberals must not forget that freedom lies at the root of Liberalism and freedom often entails dissent and opposition. You must not be afraid to dissent from what is evil, and it often entails opposition as well.

 The Conservatives will not set about the reforms necessary to give us a Britain of which we can be proud. This is abundantly clear from their record. They have had their chance. They have failed to take it.

 But what of Labour as the alternative? It is true that Labour are still primarily representative of one section of the people only. But what to my mind is more damaging to the credibility of the Labour Party as a progressive alternative in this country is another criticism.

 Their failure to grasp the importance of just this structural reform which Liberals have stressed, and without which we shall never get the right decisions carried into effect. You have only to read the recent debate on the reform of Parliament to see that those most complacent about our Parliamentary system are to be found in the Labour Party. How are you to get the reform of industry from a party so intimately concerned with industrial vested interests? We know, from the experience of those who have lived for long under Labour local authorities, that progress in the Liberal sense is not by any means always to be found under Labour local government.

 As I regard this Conference as focused on the future, I will finish by giving you your marching orders for the campaign which will not open when Parliament is dissolved, but which is opening now, this autumn, and will not end until polling day at the General Election.

 Our hat is in the ring, but there are many people who are genuinely puzzled by the effect of the Liberal campaign. Some of them may still be tempted to vote Tory or even to join the Tory Party for the sake of keeping Labour out. I ask them to reflect on the fate of those who have done this over the last 40 years. There have been plenty of rats to leave the sinking ship, but the ship has gone on and the rats have sunk.

 If we return after the election with a solid block of Liberals in the House of Commons, even if we do not hold a majority, we shall be able to influence the whole thinking of the country and attitude of whatever party may be in power. We have made it clear that we intend to use that influence. As the election approaches we shall not shirk the battle, nor shall we be diverted by the great volume of criticism which we hope will pour down upon us.

 War, delegates, war has always been a confused affair. In bygone days the commanders were taught that when in doubt – when in doubt – they should march their troops towards the sound of gunfire. I intend to march my troops towards the sound of gunfire. Politics are a confused affair and the fog of political controversy can obscure many issues. But we will march towards the sound of the guns.

 The Conservative Party, for too long, has pretended not to see what it does not like. It has put the telescope to its blind eye in a very un-Nelsonian mood, so it can say that there is no enemy in sight. But, delegates, there are enemies, there are difficulties to be faced. There are decisions to be made. There is passion to be generated. The enemy is complacency and wrong values and inertia in the face of incompetence and injustice. It is against this enemy that we march. We are not alone. The reforms which we advocate are inexorably written into the future. We move with the great trends of this century. Other nations have rebuilt their institutions under the hard discipline of war. It is for Liberals to show that Britain, proud Britain, can do this as a free people without passing through the furnace of defeat.

  Jo Grimond, Leader of the Liberal Party from 1956 to 1967, under whom the ‘Liberal Revival’ of both ideas and votes began. His best-known speech was to the 1963 Liberal Assembly, known as the “sound of gunfire” speech, influenced by the experience of the Second World War but looking forward strongly to the Liberal Future (if I can find my copy of his book The Liberal Future, I may quote from that on another day). I’ve edited it down to highlight the strangely familiar rallying cries that are most pertinent to today’s heavy bombardment!