Debate

I must start with a confession: I am one of those people who voted for Brexit. However, I am not racist, nor am I uninformed. My reasons for voting to leave is that I have come to view the EU as an anti-democratic force imposing a neoliberal agenda that causes economic injustice and inequality for working people in member states. 

I am not anti-European, in fact, I am a Europhile. However, I will refrain from using the age-old argument that 'many of my best friends are Europeans' and instead note that I speak passable Spanish, Italian and French. Indeed, being from County Kerry in Ireland, and having a Glaswegian father, some would argue that it's my English that needs improving.

Green Party activist, Clifford Fleming, writes a guest post for the Social Liberal Forum

Almost exactly one week ago today Sarah Olney became the MP for Richmond Park, ousting the Brexit-backing Tory (turned Independent) Zac Goldsmith. The story that dominated the headlines: ‘voters had rejected a hard Brexit; Liberal Democrats were back in business’. But what really happened in this by-election and why did Olney win?

On Friday 4^th November the Green Party made a decision not to stand against Olney. Following decisions from UKIP and the Conservatives to back Goldsmith, the ‘regressive alliance’, the local Green Parties (Richmond and Kingston) chose not to stand a candidate. Caroline Lucas even came to visit and support Olney, causing division amongst Greens. In the 2015 General Election the Green Party candidate Andrée Frieze came in 4^th place, polling 6% with 3,548 votes. Sarah Olney won Richmond Park with 1,872 votes.

Saying that 2016 has been a bad year for liberalism is a huge understatement. From Britain voting to leave the European Union to the election of Donald Trump; illiberal forces are rising around the world. Across continental Europe the populist right continues to gain support from France to Austria, from the Netherlands to Hungary. All of these examples have at their heart a wish to undermine liberal freedoms and equal rights, as well as a determination to oppose internationalism and immigration.

In Britain, Brexit triumphed on the back of dog whistle politics, fear, mistrust of political elites and communities who felt left behind. Theresa May appears to be sliding towards a hard Brexit, while at the same time indulging in a touch of populism that is only surpassed by the incoming President of the United States. Trump’s campaign was blatantly misogynistic, xenophobic and even disablist. Despite this, he still triumphed, primarily due to the quirks of the Electoral College system. The result was met with members of the so-called ‘alt-right’ hailing Trump’s victory with Nazi salutes. But the worst may not yet be over, as the French Front National seems likely to make it to the second round of next year’s Presidential Election.

Richmond Park was the Progressive Alliance's first real test – and it passed with flying colours. 

Lester Holloway submitted the following article and SLF Vice-Chair, Gordon Lishman, responds

The latest Social Liberal Forum newsletter encouraged members to vote for SLF candidates who are standing for federal party committees. Nothing wrong with that. Apart from the fact that all eleven candidates are white.

I raised concerns only to be informed that the previous SLF newsletter had included a call out for any SLF members who were standing to respond, and the promoted candidates list had not excluded any responder. That missed the point entirely.

Promoting an all-white slate for internal elections is a problem. Not noticing it is a bigger problem. Having the problem pointed out and still not seeing the problem… an even bigger problem still.

Which begs the question: on the issue of lack of racial diversity in the party, is the Social Liberal Forum part of the problem?

While some of the announcements in yesterday’s Autumn Statement were welcome, it also included much to be concerned about.

Extra money to encourage private house-building and the abolition of letting agent fees are welcome, but expecting the private sector alone to make up the shortfall in housing is completely unrealistic. With interest rates and gilt yields at historically low levels, the Government could, and should, borrow significantly more to invest in the social homes our country desperately needs. 

The few days since the election of Trump to the US Presidency have already produced a deluge of comment. In truth we are no nearer to understanding whether Trump is a cynical populist who will try to distance himself in office from the commitments he made to get there or someone who wants to use the Presidency to pursue the ugly prejudices which he articulated; whether he will listen to necessary but unwelcome advice or simply indulge his massive ego; whether he is primarily interested in making deals with potential adversaries or picking fights with overseas governments which cross him.

Gary Lineker has been coming out with some pithy, relevant comments recently on Twitter, and much like an essential feature of the game he professionally played, the result of the US election reveals a country of two halves.

Much like Brexit, this result and the corresponding lurch to the right, stem from inequality.  Unfortunately, and quite to the contrary of what these dispossessed people have voted for, the resulting administration now has the propensity to make their situation far worse.

Sussex Liberal Democrat Chris Bowers teamed up with Caroline Lucas of the Greens and Labour’s Lisa Nandy to write 'The Alternative', a book exploring cooperation among progressive parties. They then took it ‘on tour’ to fringe meetings at the Green, Lib Dem and Labour party conferences. Here Chris assesses what the meetings say about the appetite for a progressive alliance.

So what is the appetite for a Progressive Alliance?

It’s not nice when 50-70 people who want to attend your meeting have to be turned away, but hey what a compliment! The SLF had given over one of its three meetings at our Brighton conference to progressive cooperation, under the clever banner ‘Hanging together or hanging separately’, and the place was packed. The room held 200 people (officially), and the reason the 50-70 were turned away is that they quite simply couldn’t get through the door, such was the demand for the standing area.

So, a massive appetite for a progressive alliance, yes? There’s certainly a massive appetite for exploring it. Our equivalent meeting at the Green Party conference packed out the 400-seat Great Hall at the University of Birmingham, and other meetings have also been attended to capacity. Caroline and Lisa appeared with Vince Cable at a Guardian Live event in Islington the week before our conference and sold it out. Caroline and I spoke at a meeting in Crowborough, a sleepy East Sussex town, where there’s a burgeoning Wealden Progressives movement, and somehow 250 squeezed into a 170-seat hall. And other meetings on the subject have been full. That may speak for Caroline’s impressive pulling power, but it also speaks for a subject people want to explore.

The one exception was the meeting at the Labour conference. This wasn’t badly attended, but only 100 chairs were put out and they were only just filled. There were mitigating circumstances – there were about six fringe meetings on at the same time, many of them featuring some big names of the Labour movement, and the fringe venue was quite a way from the main conference. But it begs the question about whether the appetite is very much from the smaller progressive parties, with Labour still to be convinced that its days of winning an overall majority really are gone.