Activities
The New Liberal Manifesto website is happy to offer publicity for events and publications of potential interest to the community of people keen to promote British Liberalism. Listing here denotes no approval or endorsement from the five members of the NLM reference group – it is provided for information only.
How should the Liberal Democrats go into the 2029 general election?
The Yorkist group of Liberal Democrat activists, set up in 2023 to fight for the party to be better defined in the minds of voters and members, has published a bold paper setting out how it feels the Lib Dems should go into the next general election, expected in 2029.
Under the title ‘The New Deal‘, the paper is based on the idea that the best way of getting people to support the Lib Dems – especially in areas where the party has a realistic chance of winning more MPs – is to offer a deal. This could be sold on the basis that people cannot enjoy affluence if society is breaking down, or that too great a gap between the richest and poorest damages everyone in society, not just the better-off.
The paper looks at two concurrent realignments in British politics. The vertical realignment requires the Lib Dems to be seen to be part of the progressive centre-left (which is where most of the votes came from that saw the Lib Dems rise from 15 MP before the 2024 election to 72 after it), but in the horizontal realignment between the traditional ‘system’
and insurgent ‘anti-system’ parties, the Lib Dems must be seen to be an insurgent party as there is a strong voter reaction against ‘more of the same’ parties. This will allow the party to rediscover its radical Liberal roots.
The paper is available here, and the Yorkists hope to stage a fringe meeting at September’s federal conference in Brighton.
What would Paddy Ashdown be saying to today’s Liberals?
The Yorkist group of Liberal Democrat activists has published a paper, What would Paddy do?, aimed at encouraging the working group shepherding the party’s current policy review to revitalise the tenets of Liberalism and put them front-and-centre of the party’s platform in the run-up to the 2029 general election.
The paper is not an attempt to second-guess what Paddy Ashdown would have done were he around today, but to invoke the boldness he showed in giving the Lib Dems an identity, often with counterintuitive stances that challenged the prevailing Zeitgeist.
The paper suggests six core policy areas, and floats three creative and imaginative stances that could help re-establish an eye-catching 2020s version of Liberalism.
There’s a place for hope and optimism in Liberal politics
Anyone despairing about the absence of hope and optimism in British politics should listen in to the latest Green Book podcast on the hope and optimism inherent in Liberalism. Chaired by New Liberal Manifesto lead author Chris Bowers, it features the high-profile Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, the former government minister Lynne Featherstone, and the highly respected professor of European history and liberalism, Timothy Garton Ash.
Here’s the YouTube link to the podcast but it’s available at all podcast platforms.
Stunning turnout at Bournemouth fringe meeting
The fringe meeting ‘Shouldn’t we be doing better? – the need for bolder messaging’, hosted by the New Liberal Manifesto at the Liberal Democrats’ 2023 autumn conference in Bournemouth, attracted a stunning turnout. Even several minutes before the meeting was due to start, the room was filled to twice its recommended capacity, with the queue stretching well down the corridor. Numerous people were turned away.
To see Professor John Curtice’s presentation to the meeting, click here.
To see the BBC website’s report on the meeting, click https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66902610
To watch a recording of the meeting, click
(part 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9XA9F05Qe8
(part 2) https://youtu.be/ZT1t-AoKRIQ?si=cwNGS5BuV3Bpwv5Q
(part 3) https://youtu.be/PhS2GVwpQvQ?si+cjzm-z-a2dEas8hw
Fringe meeting at Bournemouth conference
The New Liberal Manifesto is hosting a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrats’ federal conference in Bournemouth over the third weekend of September.
The meeting is the result of the concerns of a number of Lib Dem activists who met informally at the party’s spring federal conference in York. Their primary concern is that, while the party has many good policies, the leadership is not promoting them, and thus the public finds it difficult to know what the Liberal Democrats stand for.
The main speaker will be John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, whose polling suggests the Lib Dems would do a lot better with clearer messaging. But in order not to make the meeting an echo chamber, and to keep the discussion within the practical bounds of the leadership’s requirements for the next general election, the second speaker will be Dick Newby, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, who is chair of the group preparing the Lib Dem manifesto; he is sympathetic to the need to communicate what the party stands for but also understands the reality the leadership is working to. The event will be chaired by Layla Moran, the MP for Oxford West and Abingdon and Lib Dem spokesperson for foreign affairs.
Anyone wishing to attend must be registered for the Lib Dem conference. It is hoped to film the meeting and make the recording available online after the event.
