I have just joined the Liberal Democrats. It has been a long time coming, but I finally did it. The final straw was the brilliant Nick Cohen’s piece in The Spectator titled “Why I’ve finally given up on the left”. I agree with Nick, I too have left; I have found my proper political home.
I used to vote Labour and I voted “Yes” in the AV Referendum in May 2011, I am a pro-European and I always identified as slightly centre-left. Then came 2015: the Conservative majority, the SNP landslide in my native Scotland, and the election of the hard left within the Labour Party.
I have always been a liberal, I realised recently. I have always been willing to listen to the most beyond-the-pale viewpoint out of a sense of tolerance. Freedom of speech is something fundamental and core to liberalism, something with which I have a strong affinity.
However, it was a culmination of factors that drove me to your Liberal Democrat door: the Scottish Referendum; the arrogant SNP; the hard left Labour Party; and a respect for the dignified statesman Nick Clegg, whose resignation speech in May started a process of unravelling my previous views – a process that has ended in membership of this party. I agreed with Nick then.
Both Cohen and Clegg have warned of liberalism under threat as the beguiling influence of nationalism and extremism, of all stripes, sweeps across Europe. The Labour Party has no answer, and the Conservative Party will not stand up for Scotland in the Union, Britain in the EU, the poor and vulnerable and the helpless refugees crying out for humanity.
I apologise if stage fright over my first-ever post on LDV has dimmed expectations of my future contributions, but I give you my word that I will write at greater length in further entries.
I hope that I fit in here and I can contribute to keeping Scotland as part of Britain, keeping Britain in the EU and ensuring that liberal values of decency, tolerance and humanity are not destroyed. I now agree with both Nicks. I was once lost, but now I can truly feel at home as a Liberal Democrat.
Thank you for having me.
You can read Nick Cohen’s piece here.
* Michael Cooke is the writer's pen name. He is an economic and EU policy analyst within local government with a Master's degree in EU Governance. The identity of the author is known to the LDV team.
