Our new Lib Dem Leader is a thoroughly decent person

Ed Davey is a carer and a caring person. I am proud to have counted him as a friend for 30 years and I’m delighted that he is now the Leader of my Party. Well done too to Layla Moran who gave us some excellent ideas on which to campaign

I voted for Ed Davey so you would expect me to be pleased with his election earlier today but in many ways I am not just celebrating a new Leader but the fact that in the twisted political era that we are in the Lib Dems have elected someone whose life has been one of caring and decency.

If you want to know why Ed is so grounded and so unlike many Westminster politicians you need to look at his life both now and in the past.

Every morning Ed starts his day by changing the nappy of his 12-year-old severely disabled son John. John is clearly the apple of his father’s eye and the whole family clearly revolves around John and his needs. This is not begrudged but shared willingly with his Daughter and wife who is herself a councillor and Cabinet Member in their home territory.

This life of service is nothing new to him. His father died when Ed was very young and he became the principle carer for his Mum in his teens. When she died, he became the carer for his Grandma until she too passed away. No-one with a background like this could be committed to anything other than creating a caring and sharing society. The centrepiece of his campaign and will I hope be the centrepiece of his Leadership will be this concept of caring and sharing; of creating a society where wellbeing of individuals and communities is at the heart of our policies and ultimately, hopefully, at the heart of the way our nation runs itself.

Of course, there will be those who point out that he was a Minister in a coalition with the Tories. Let’s meet that head on. No person in any Party has done more to further the environmental agenda when he was Cabinet member at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. This year we went for 3 months without burning any coal thanks to initiatives that Ed took in that position. Grants were given in the early days of domestic solar energy so that a critical mass of production was built up so that prices dropped and grants were no longer necessary. Onshore and offshore wind platforms were built, tides were harnessed as were rivers.

He achieved all this in a coalition where the biggest Party didn’t really believe any of this stuff. We can see that by the way they have tried to dismantle so much of his legacy.

I hope that Ed as Leader will really embark on his listening exercise because that is what Lib Dems are good at. When I speak in the Town Hall or in a Council Committee or as our national spokesperson on Health & Social Care I can do so because every week I talk to hundreds of people outside the political bubble. The principles that I espouse are informed by the conversations that I have so that our principles are turned into policy by informed discussion not by people who always agree with us but just as often by people who do not. I am by no means unique to this. Almost everyone who reads this who has a Lib Dem Councillor will recognise that this is their behaviour as well.

I hope that Ed will lead our Party into principled, evidenced and well-rehearsed policies on:

Caring and Sharing. Many of these things I have discussed above but we need to be looking at how we share out the riches of our Country more fairly through progressive tax policies and benefit policies such as Universal Incomes. An early win would be creating polices to crack down on the legal tax evasions of big Companies and wealthy tax dodgers.

The environment. Not only energy polices but strengthening our planning system; strengthening our green belts; safeguarding our Parks and building up recycling and reducing waste.

Internationalism. Which moves away from the current debate on Brexit (although there are many fights to be had on this front) and into a wider understanding of the UK’s place in the modern world, how we create global partnerships and we trade and aid in a fair and equitable manner.

Education. We must change our jaded and faded education system at all levels into one which prepares people for life with appropriate skills some of which may be academic but many of which are not.

Economic policy. One which will lead us into more caring and sharing policies led by bottom up businesses such as cooperatives and none-profits where possible and not the heart and soul capitalism of Johnson, Rees-Mogg and the supreme Satan, Donald Trump.

Many will say that I have missed this policy or that policy. Many of the specific policies that they want to see can be contained in the 5 themes given above. They would certainly be contained in an overall policy that I hope the Party will adopt. I want the success or otherwise of our Country not to judged just on GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as we do now but a new concept popular in Scandinavian Countries based on national wellbeing.

If we have large numbers of people who are content with their life and have a good sense of wellbeing they will live in a nice home, in a nice community, with a decent job and with an education that continues and takes them through life. If as a Country we can do that all the other policies will have fitted into place. If as a Party we can be the people who fight for such a concept it is one of which I will be truly proud and will continue to fight as I have for so many years.

Good Luck Ed. Your new journey is just beginning but unlike both the other main UK wide Parties you have no splits only a quiet determination from all of us to help you succeed.