Cardigan speaks to ALDC: "More than Moving Bus Stops"

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Alex Cardigan
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Cardigan speaks to ALDC: "More than Moving Bus Stops"

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The Hon. Alexander Simon Cardigan, MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, today took up a speaking invite from ALDC. The topic of the speech was Community Politics, with a briefing on the application of liberal principles to local government.

“Community Politics is something of a religion for the Liberal Democrats. I really do believe that. Whether you are seeking to represent the most remote plunges of Shetland, a council estate in Liverpool, or London commuterland, standing up for our communities and working hard for them - true public service - is ingrained in our party ethos. Well, I may be showing my age here, but I remember a time before we understood that.

“My first foray into Liberal Party politics as a candidate came in the mid 60s. I was 27, and a member in Knightsbridge, of vague interest back in the days when if you were the son of a peer and in a different party, people found it interesting. I was keenly approached by national Liberal Party agent, one night drinking at the National Liberal Club, and informed that the Speaker of the Commons, Harry Hylton-Foster, had died. After expressing my condolences, I realised that I had misunderstood his tone. He was not a bereaved relative or friend, but rather asking me if I fancied standing in the resultant Cities of London and Westminster by-election!

“That by-election was a disaster. There was a feeling back then, in 1965, that simply by being on a ballot paper, a good chunk of voters would graciously offer their support to the liberal cause. There was no understanding of the campaigning we all know and love today. No community-first, localist, human, decent, pavement-pounding campaigning. No FOCUS deliveries, no local headquarters, no effort to make sure every single person in that community knew who we were. We had not learned from the successes of Orpington, just three years prior. It was no wonder we lost our deposit.

“The importance of community politics is for me borne of two things. Pragmatism and ideology. The pragmatic side of community politics to be is best understood by looking back to those seats where, in the 70s, 80s, and then on that fantastic night in 1997, we have broken through, and won MPs. For liberals to show that liberalism is relevant to day-to-day life, for liberals to show that we can win, and for liberals to show that our politics can make a difference, we need that local base. We need that local credibility. And we need to prove to people that our work ethic is second to none, despite lacking the big business funding of the Tories and union backing of Labour.

“On ideology, though, I think it is important for us to acknowledge that though winning is essential - without it, we cannot implement the changes we must - it is not all community politics is. It is not an electioneering strategy as New Labour is. It is a far deeper and more ideological way of thinking. As liberals, we are concerned not just with policies, but with the way we do our politics. Community politics, though it may be borne of pragmatic electoral thinking, is a fundamentally different way of acting to the other parties.

“It is a strain of thought that suggests we must be individualists. We must have conversations with individual people, individual communities, and understand that we, nor nobody else, are not entitled to anyone’s vote. It is a strain of thought which suggests that working hard is a virtue, and a form of public service. It is a strain of thought, which, ironically for us, takes First-Past-The-Post and the local responsibilities with it seriously!

“Lastly, it is a strain of thought which puts changing things at the centre of politics - liberalism is useless if it cannot be practised and so we have a moral imperative to win.

“When we win, and when that heady mix of pragmatism and ideology mix, we get results. Running a local authority is not all bins and bus stops. The average person interacts far more with local government than central government in their day-to-day life. Improving our public transport, schools, and having a transparent and accessible model for government at a local level can be done even with the most hostile incarnation of Whitehall.

“In Oldham, after years, we have finally taken charge. We’re cutting Council Tax for our poorest, we’re expanding our social housing schemes, we’re investing in public transport, and we’re doing it whilst laying the bedrocks for sound finances. But more than that, we are doing some truly liberal things, that our prior Labour administration would never have considered.

“Just last week, actually, I had some good news. One of our local Councillors, in a part of my constituency, near the centre of Oldham, where people really struggle, had been out on the doorstep. He knocked on a door, as usual, but found a different reaction to usual. It was a Bangladeshi family, of which there are many in the area. To them, the idea of a Councillor calling round, a Government representative, is a petrifying concept. They knew Governments to only mean one thing - threat. A danger. Telling them they had done something wrong, and that they needed to be punished. These are good people, who work hard, who contribute to our country, and who have no trust in our institutions with good reason. And who, in this case, it turns out had been plunged into uncertainty by the Home Office, as the father and breadwinner of the house had been informed he was at risk of deportation.

“Our local Councillor there, with a direct link to town hall, and to my office, and then to Parliament, were able to link up and fight that inequity. And battle that illiberal authoritarianism, of a totally wrongful effort to deprive a family of their chance to live in this country and contribute, and work, and live life to the fullest, and set down roots. Our effort there at every level was not small - it took a proactive local Councillor who knocked every door, a team at town hall who knew what they were doing, staff in my office who work monumentally long hours, and every single person who has helped me become an MP. It was hard work. But God, I am so happy to tell you all that the good news I received is that someone who does have the right to be here, and should have the right to be here and raise a family here, can stay here, and make a life for themselves. It would not have happened without every link in that chain being part of an open, tolerant, and hard-working local liberal team.

“When I look at local authorities we run, I look at a happier Britain. People there have the strongest local representatives at a district level, county level, and Parliamentary level of anywhere in the county. If you live in Saddleworth, or Somerset, or Southport, or wherever else we run and win in nowadays, you are likely to have a Lib Dem Parish, Town, County, and Constituency. That means that you will have the most responsive, accessible form of government you could wish for. That fundamentally changes how our party and our institutions can be perceived, and trusted. That means people’s lives are better, that we can make a difference, and make it happen through sheer individualistic bloody-minded hard work. Now that is why I believe in this party. It is also why I want to set us, here at ALDC, and across Britain, a target.

We have just had our best ever General Election result. Next year, let’s get our best ever local election result - and let’s not settle for third, not even aim for second, let’s aim to be the biggest party in May.

“Our local campaigning techniques are second to none. Our party is at an all-time high. Our country is crying out for change, with an uninspiring Labour Government and a disunified Conservative Opposition. We just need to be less bloody reasonable. We need to ask ourselves to go the extra mile, to fight every ward, to stand in every local election, to deliver twice as many FOCUS, and to redouble our ambitions, knock thousands more doors. We need to ask our Councillors, candidates, MPs, stalwarts to do the unreasonable, and take part in the over-the-top, massive efforts that we need if we want to change this country.

“We are defending well over one-thousand Council seats in May. We understand scale, and can win on it. We understand why we campaign like this, why it matters, and why we must win. So let’s put it into practise and show people that the Liberal Democrats can win, and can change this country for the better. ALDC - you are my heroes. Let’s get out there and win.”
The Rt Hon. Alexander Simon "Alex" Cardigan MP
Deputy Leader of the Opposition (2015 to present)
MP for Kensington (1974 to present)
Secretary of State for International Development (2010 to 2015) | Shadow Secretary of State for International Development (2005 to 2010) | Shadow Secretary of State for Trade (1997 to 1999) | Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1995 to 1997) | Secretary of State for National Heritage (1992 to 1995) | Minister for Schools (1990 to 1992) | Minister for Foreign Affairs (1979 to 1981)
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Marty
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Re: Cardigan speaks to ALDC: "More than Moving Bus Stops"

Post by Marty »

You had me at "Community Politics is something of a religion for the Liberal Democrats." Really, it's such a joy to have someone show an accurate understanding of one of the more obscure but important aspects of the Liberal Party's past strategy, but also of their tendency to naively believe in its power. Believe me - I've read extensively about the Liberals of the 60s and 70s for my dissertation, I've seen the minutes and materials.

The trouble is you do fall into the same trap as they did. It's all nice and well to laud the personal efforts and successes of hard-working local councillors and MPs, but what I was looking for when I set the invite was policy that makes community politics "more than just moving bus stops". It was an opportunity to let the LibDems' localist agenda shine, to outline some local government reforms to a sympathetic audience and link it to a core Liberal concept, making that concept meaningful to people across the country in the process. Unfortunately, you weren't quite able to make that connection, which is a shame.

By the way, unless you've got a source for that Bangladeshi story, please obtain admin approval for that sort of thing in the future. Otherwise it'll become too easy to claim amazing constituency successes.

Even though we ended up with a more conventional community politics speech than I'd hoped and you could've gone more out of the audience's comfort zone, it's still pretty good. +5 Liberal Democrats momentum, and 1 XP to Cardigan for grasping a concept I feel not many would grasp.
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