Why I'm no longer a Liberal Democrat

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 06 September 2008 10:09:55

Well, it's been a long time coming but today I finally sent off my resignation from the Liberal Democrats. To be honest part of it has to do with saving money now I'm a poor student, I've had to look at all the direct debits going out and decide which are essential, (this includes one which is my chance to give something back). Also when you'd be giving them a change oif address it's just as easy to give them a resignation.

However, it's has far more to do with my disillusionment with the party and their shift to the right over the last couple of years. I know that the Lib Dems have always been a broad church of enviro friendly Tories and enviro friendly socialists with some "v. nice" people inbetween. Yet, for much of the last decade their policies on a national level were amongst the most left wing of any of the parties. So for people such as myself they were the mainstream socialist alternative, having an agenda of fair taxation for the provision of fair public services. They were also the mainstream political opposition to the war, and the only mainstream party opposing student fees. They were the party that had policies that I believed in.

That was then and this is now though. These days they are proposing tax cuts and fluffy policies which make them largely indistinguishable from the other two main parties following the neo-conservative consensus. There is no longer I feel, a party representing what would previously have been Old Labour voters.

Now don't get me wrong I'm not taking the view that high taxation and nationalisation is the answer to everything. However, there are certain public services which need to be nationalised and whose privatisation, (sometimes by the back door), is causing hardship to individuals, communities and the environment. I am specifically thinking of the post office network which has been desimated and is continuing to be destroyed under New Labour and what used to be British Rail. Oh and part of the current housing problem could be addressed if there was investment in old fashioned council houses.

In terms of the tax thing I think that what we need are fairer upfront income taxes which would then reduce the amount of revenue collected by the back door, via VAT and so forth. Did you know that VAT is now payable on funerals aswell as tampons. These are not optional products, but neccessities.

I know it's not an easy subject to address and the way I have presented it is over simplistic. There is as Blair once said only a certain sized cake and it has to be split up fairly. Yet, when I see much of that cake going on illegal wars, the spreading of fear and trying to address social problems through slick advertisments rather than addressing the root causes I want to be able to vote for alternative answers. Mandela said we have the best democracy in the world, I want that democracy in Westminster to work and not be somewhere that has no power because we swing from one landslide government to another because the majority are cynical.

I want to be able to vote for a government, which in a modern age, will be able to deliver what people like Benn, Castle and Dunwoody have stood for. I believe we have the right to a fair and just society where everybody has equality of opportunity and I believe we have the responsibility to contribute towards that society through hard work and financial contribution, as each is able.