I have always had a keen interest in politics and am one of those people who sit up until the birds are stirring on Election Nights to get the results and find myself watching BBC Parliament and the late night political chat programme on BBC1, This Week.
My interest dates back years but probably inspired by the way the Labour Government of 1974-79 changed the financial fortunes of my parents thanks to high inflation which whittled away the value of the money gained from the sale of the family farm. My father should have got £160,000 but actually got far less thanks to some quirk in the planning rules. The Peterborough Development Corporation were allowed to buy the land at agricultural values as opposed to building land values provided they undertook not to build on it for 10 years. Imagine agricultural land being allowed to go to waste for ten years abandoned to nothing but grazing for the horses of the local Gypsies. The land is now the site of Peterborough Power Station. For me it has always been fundamentally wrong that the land was purchased and just held as part of the land bank until the Development Corporation got around to developing it.
Other things that happened were that the houses that my Great Grandfather and Grandfather had purchased were compulsory purchased at a knock down price the the Development Corporation and of course my father had to pay Capital Gains Tax on the lot!
No wander the election of Margaret Thatcher was seen as a relief. Out went the high taxation and investment income surcharge of Labour and in came a new era of enterprise and a plan to combat the scourge of inflation that whittled away the value of savings It was too late for my parents. The remnants of high inflation meant that the money had gone, but at least other families would be spared the same plight. As time went by, I found my way in the World of work, I was lucky enough to have John Major as my MP for a while and having met him in the 1983 election campaign and predicted that he would be the next Prime Minister the day Nigel Lawson resigned as Chancellor.
However the Major years saw a new view from within the Conservative Party - espoused by only a few but enough to make a difference - Euro Scepticism. It was not something that I could reconcile with a party that believed in Free Trade. It seemed obvious to me that if you were going to embrace Free Trade you needed a common set of rules within the participating countries of what was still referred to as the Common Market. Yes there were some crazy things coming out of Brussels, but surely a democratically elected European Parliament would address this? I felt that Europe needed to be more democratic and accountable and this was a start.
In 1997 the Conservatives were swept from power and the party that I supported, became dominated by Euro Sceptics. My vote was somewhat given grudgingly whilst having some relief that New Labour was not espousing the high taxation policies of old Labour.
However during the 1980's and 1990's something happened in British Politics. The old Liberal party that had made a terrible decision to support the Labour Government of 1974-1979 had changed. It was winning seats at council elections and the Bermondsey by election victory by Simon Hughes in 1983 at the subsequent General Election was proved not to be a fluke, unlike the 1962 Orpington by election that was still being talked about in election night coverage at that time. These Liberals & Social Democrats that appeared on TV media from Paddy Ashdown to Charles Kennedy and Menzies Cambell were making sense even if they would never be able to form a Government, they were a voice of reason, flagging up some of the things that the Thatcher Government was doing. They became a party that I admired and I found myself agreeing with them, most of the time. A few things I didn't like but generally I felt they offered an alternative.
I was not looking at manifestos closely, but I hoped that the rise of the newly formed Liberal Democrat party would be fuel for those within the Conservative Party to stop the right wing and anti Europe rhetoric that was being espoused. It never really happened though did it? David Cameron did modernise the Party, but he is not in the same tradition as Margaret Thatcher or John Major - he was a career Politician, he had never worked in the real World unlike past leaders. Indeed this lack of real World life was something that has been an issue with leaders from the majority of parties and is I believe a key factor in the disillusionment with all political parties.
It was during the first decade of this century that really made me think that the Liberal Democrats had something to say. Vince Cable warned Gordon Brown what was happening to the economy before the credit crunch, and the Liberal Democrats were putting the affects of climate change at the heart of the political debate and were talking about fairness. Even I accept that owing to the credit crunch the Government had to raise more money in taxation and I agreed it had to be done fairly. Not by the methods used during the 1970's that decimated the savings and assets that families had built up through hard work.
In 2010 the Liberal Democrats came up with the policy to increase the Personal Tax Allowance to £10,000. David Cameron said the country could not afford it. That is not something that I expected to hear from a leader of a party with a tradition of taking people out of taxation. This policy combined with the clear difference on Europe led me to vote for the Liberal Democrats for the first time. In a safe Conservative seat such as South Holland & the Deepings, my vote would not affect the result, but at least my vote was a positive one.
In 2010, the Liberal Democrats did the right thing for the country. We needed a strong and stable Government as we were in a financial situation not too dissimilar from Greece. To be fair the Conservatives offered a genuine coalition and for the first time in nearly 90 years or political tradition the Liberal Democrats entered into Government. During that time they saw through the policy to increase the Personal Tax allowance, they introduced the Green Deal, they introduced the Pupil Premium amongst many contributions to the coalition agreement and they brought about a fair reform to Student Fees. The latter showed a willingness to be responsible and compromise. In my view the party has been unfairly tainted over Student Fees. It is just ONE policy where there had to be compromise. It is what Coalition politics are about. The Conservatives also had to compromise. The Liberal Democrats stopped the Snoopers charter, and they stopped any talk of a Euro Referendum for as long as there was a coalition.
On 7th May 2015, I did not expect to wake up the next day to see a party that I had admired, found myself in increasing agreement with and that had done a pretty good job as a minor voice in coalition
Government nearly wiped of the political map of the United Kingdom on the 8th May!
We are now faced with a majority Conservative Government that:-
- Wants to take this country out of the European Convention on Human Rights something that a past Conservative Government helped create in 1950,
- Wants to introduce a law that will allow the monitoring of Emails as routine. This is no different to the routine phone tapping undertaken in the old eastern block communist counties.
- Is promoting English Nationalism in reaction to Scottish Nationalism and risking the breakup of the United Kingdom as a result.
- Is holding a European Referendum that could lead this country sleepwalking of the European stage.
- Does not seem to want to accept Syrian War refugees and seemingly letting Southern Europeans countries such as Greece & Italy that can ill afford to deal with them.
- Has to continue to reduce that National Debt, but is unwilling to share the burden with the very richest in our Society in a fair way.
- Could put our economy at risk as result of the potential exit from the European Union and potential break up of the United Kingdom.
- Wants to force Housing Associations into selling houses at a discount, with no clear plan on how those houses will be replaced.
- Has been elected by a minority of the electorate and will almost certainly not consider introducing electoral reform that this country so desperately needs in light of the 2015 General Election result, meaning there will be even more dissatisfaction and disengagement with UK politics.
Having considered all of the above, I have arrived at an unavoidable conclusion.
I agree with Nick.
This country needs Liberalism more than ever which is why I have joined the Liberal Democrats.
