We’ll continue to promote liberal values
Many people refer to Britain as being a liberal country. By this, I think that they mean that we uphold principles of freedom and fairness.
That Britain is a country where, unless it’s clearly harmful to others, people have rights to talk about whatever they want to and to make their views known. I hope that we value people for who they are and give people opportunities to get on in life.
During my lifetime, the Equal Pay Act makes sure that women are paid the same as men for the same or similar jobs.
We’ve recognised that people may have different sexuality and the same rights to a legal partnership.
We try to live harmoniously within our different communities, and have absorbed different cultures to enrich our communities.
Our “liberal” democracy means that we have a system of government, nationally and locally, that encourages debate and examination of issues to arrive at solutions and developments by consent, if possible, or majority voting if not.
And yet, recent elections with the rise of UKIP and a majority Conservative gov- ernment, make it look as though our freedoms and liberal approach to life may be more under threat than ever.
Already, within weeks of the Liberal Democrats suffering major election defeat, local people are starting to say to me “I can see how the LIb Dems held the Conservatives back in the coalition government” with the particular examples being early predictions (with some good evidence) of serious cuts to public health funding (even when prevention of ill-health has to be a high priority to reduce demand on the NHS) and welfare benefits (for people with disabilities), let alone fears of extended intrusion into snooping on the internet etc.
And I’m heartened that we’ve seen a significant number of people of all ages joining the party with a real enthusiasm to get involved in helping to achieve a fairer, more liberal society.
We went into coalition government with the Conservatives (not the preferred choice of many of us) because we believed that it was the right thing to do to sort the economy.
We’re proud of what we achieved of our priorities (eg. raising the income tax threshold, raising the importance of the environment, renewable energy etc)
On local councils in Calderdale, we have similarly been trying to do the right thing for local people by trying to ensure that the council understands the needs of local people and listens to their views about the services needed to help and support them.
At the moment, we may be small in number but we’ll make sure that we continue to promote liberal values.