We will be asking our writers to pen pieces over the coming weeks on why they are, and you should, vote for various parties. We kick off this series with my friend Jonathan Price, a fellow West Ham supporter so a man used to backing lost causes, explaining why you should join him in voting Lib Dem. He writes:
The main theme of the LibDem Election Manifesto is Fairness, and it’s about time we had more of that true British value in our political life and government. Since 2015, when we left government and our restraining hand was removed from the necks of the Tory extremists, inequality and unfairness have been the watchwords of government policy.
The wealthy have prospered, sheltering themselves with excellent private services, taking high energy prices in their stride and not affected by high rents or long waits for NHS treatment. Their only concession to the cost of living crisis has been buying their champagne from Aldi.
The LibDem focus will therefore be on making the lives of ordinary people better, particularly those on low incomes, with a focus on health and social services and dentistry in particular. There will be a big programme of house building, including 150,000 social housing units and no fault evictions will be banned. Rough sleeping will be addressed as a serious issue and benefit rules will be made fairer. Public transport costs, which are by far the highest in Europe, will be frozen and electricity for cars will be made cheaper.
International relations will be restored to what they were before the Johnson government started trashing the UK’s reputation abroad and Liz Truss finished the job in her Charge of the Light Brigade style 49 days of horror. There is no promise to rejoin the EU, but LibDems will improve relations with our biggest trading partner and the party remains as internationalist as it has always been. The stupidest policy ever invented by any government in the history of the UK will be abolished and we will ask the government of Rwanda for our money back (OK I made that last bit up). All plans to abolish human rights in the UK will cease.
Domestically we will introduce a fairer voting system with the number of elected representatives matching votes more closely and will remove the completely unnecessary voter ID rules. More power will be devolved to local authorities to take decisions locally. There will be a programme of investment in repairing schools and colleges and a new voucher system for adult education to help bridge the skills gap. Decisions on asylum seekers will be made more quickly.
The decision to leave the EU with a hard Brexit has been disastrous and cost the country 5% of GDP. As predicted this has hit the poorest the hardest and they are paying the high cost of the ‘sovereignty’ that has no practical benefit to modern Britain.
It is hardly possible that a Labour government could be worse that the present Tories, but the danger with Labour is always the underlying belief that the State is best placed to solve problems. Sometimes it is, but often it isn’t. The LibDem core belief is in personal freedom and respect for all. You don’t get that with either Labour or Tories.
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