Liberal Democrats Consultation Party Strategy and Priorities.
Party Strategy and Priorities Consultation Paper August 2010 Published by the Policy Unit, Liberal Democrats, 4 Cowley Street, London SW1P 3NB. Layout and Design by Debbie Enever ISBN: 978 1 907046 26 1 Printed by Contract Printing, Rear of CMS Building, Unit 11, Whittle Road, Corby, NN17 5DX. Printed on 100% Recycled Paper 2 FE Consultation Paper
Contents The Purpose of this Consultative session... 4 The Challenge... 5 The Way Forward... 6 Autumn Conference September 2010 3
The Purpose of this Consultative Session The decision on Liberal Democrat participation in the coalition government of the UK was taken and approved through a process agreed by the Party and it was approved by a Special Conference. It brings us into new territory with new opportunities, challenges and threats. The Federal Executive believes that this new situation will require firm and clear leadership from the top of the Party, inside and outside the UK Government. We also know that our Party has been most successful in the past and is likely to be in future when the mass of the Party shares responsibility for our direction and approach and is committed to it. That is because we need all our members, activists and supporters to understand and to promote our strategy, our record in government and our plans for the future. The outcomes of the Consultative Session should be: To create the basis for a new strategy, which involves all members in owning and taking forward the Party s direction and priorities. To re assert strongly our independence as a Party, responsible for our own distinctive identity and brand; our positioning in politics (that is, where we fit and are seen to fit in the contemporary political landscape); and to understand the practical implications, both inside and outside the Coalition. To help to answer the key question from activists at all levels, both inside government and outside: What do I do next? To be clear about the Party s expectations of leaders at every level: at the UK level; in Scotland and Wales; regionally, and locally and how they will be supported and informed in doing their jobs. The Consultative Session will be the outcome of one process and the start of another. The first will take stock of where we are now; engage the whole Party in a shared understanding of our new position and role. The broad leadership of the Party will listen, hear what is said and then work to draw together a shared vision and direction. The second process is to agree the first steps in a new strategy and to begin to implement it. The overwhelming majority of members of the Party support the Coalition Agreement, although we also share some natural trepidation. Most of the small number of dissenters understand and accept the validity of the arguments for coalition even if they have come for the time being to a different conclusion. We want to maintain that mood of serious engagement. Members of the all end in tears brigade and the even smaller group of simplistic gung ho supporters of Lib/Con coalition need to respect that wide feeling and to put their perspectives and alternatives into the debate. Everyone should have the opportunity to put their ideas into the debate and then to share the responsibility for the broad consensus which we expect to emerge. Gordon Lishman August 2010 4 FE Consultation Paper
The Challenge The Liberal Democrats find ourselves in new territory. As in 1970, 1981/3, 1988 and in the few years before the 1997 General Election, the UK Party needs to re think our distinctive identity, our political positioning and our broad strategy for success at every level: locally, in the nations and regions of the UK, at UK level, and in the EU. The need is urgent; the first year of coalition government will set much of the agenda and public perception for the whole Parliament through to the next General Election and beyond. In recent years, the core strategy of the Party at UK level has been simple in purpose, if demanding in execution: to maximise the number of Parliamentary seats with a view to breaking through into government. We always recognised that this was likely to involve arrangements with other parties at some stage. We knew that continuing success in local government was a key element in the strategy as well as a worthwhile end in its own right. We welcomed success in sharing in government in Scotland and Wales. The national context has now changed utterly. Our performance in Scottish, Welsh and local elections will now be affected much more by the perceived performance of the national Coalition and Liberal Democrats role within it. For instance, our successful approach to local and cluster targeting may well be less effective when we are judged on national performance how in future do we combine intelligent targeting with a broader national strategy? We have also based our strategy on the implied assumption of opposition at Westminster. That assumption has enabled us to build achievement on anti government feeling and a positive record in Scotland, Wales and local government. Participation in the UK Coalition Government means that some, but not all, of those options will be denied in future. Autumn Conference September 2010 5
The Way Forward 1. Identity, positioning and context a) How do we take full advantage of our role in government to establish a new Party identity? The televised Leaders Debates brought the Liberal Democrats to a much wider audience than had looked seriously looked at the Party and considered voting for us before then. We shall continue to have a much higher profile as Ministers fulfil their daily duties at the forefront of UK Government. This is our opportunity to establish a much stronger, distinctive brand in the eyes of people who have never before found it necessary to think about or engage with the Party as a serious part of UK politics. What are the flagship policies, the key symbols of our identity which will enable those people to understand and support Liberal Democrats as a current and future party of government? b) How do we help people in England to understand the nature of coalition politics? Labour and Conservative parties will present themselves at the next Election in the old, adversarial two party style, seeking to squeeze smaller parties in general and the Liberal Democrats in particular. We need to establish a broader understanding, already shared by the overwhelming majority of the democratic world outside England, that different coalitions can be a useful and effective form of politics. How can we present coalition and our potential role in different coalitions at all levels as a positive option? c) How do we deal with increased scrutiny and aggression? It is likely that the new Labour Leader will continue for some time in the aggressive attempt to portray the Coalition Government as a single entity in terms of ideas, politics and direction, rather than as an agreement between two distinctive parties with contributions from both, so creating the first government in many years to be composed of representatives of a majority of voters. It may well be that, nearer the next Election, the Labour leadership will start thinking about how to promote and achieve the idea of working co operatively with the Liberal Democrats. Our leaders will need to manage that journey and our relationship to it in a careful and balanced way which commands the continued support and understanding of the mass Party. As we have already seen, the press will be scrutinising the Party, its personalities and policies, with renewed vigour. Much of the press will bring to that process the degree of fairness, balance and informed debate which characterises their general approach to politics. How does the Party help its members to withstand and counter the effects of that scrutiny? How do we maintain confidence and self discipline in a party of strong minded, passionate individualists? d) How do we give new force to the imperative need for an old idea: Integrated Campaigning? Integrated campaigning brings together all of our policies and politics national, local and international into the simple clear messages we promote through all the ways in which we communicate with people. It is a necessity when our success at every level depends on our performance as part of government as well as on our effort locally and in the Nations and Regions. There will be no hiding places if we are not strong, distinctive and effective in UK Government. This is not just about occasional Focus drop ins about national politics our elected 6 FE Consultation Paper
representatives and ordinary members will need to understand and robustly defend our record and our plans. e) How do we begin to change public discourse about politics from distrust and rejection? We have lost many of the places where civilised discussion of politics took place with people exchanging ideas, challenging, developing and learning. Can we start by going back to one of the principles of community politics: helping people in communities to take and use power? This is about big ideas like citizen engagement, but it is likely to start locally with residents and interest group meetings which talk about political choices and priorities and not just about a simple idea of what we are all against. It is also about national spokespeople continuing to promote intelligent debate in place of simplistic partisanship. 2. Elections and Referenda a) How do we organise to win the Fair Votes Referendum and how do we ensure that we win in both chambers of the new Parliament? How do we ensure that the referendum is won? In particular, how do we enable the Yes to Fair Votes campaign to achieve the broadest possible support, reaching out to and mobilising supporters of AV who are not Liberal Democrats? How do we organise to win the maximum number of votes and seats under an AV system? If the referendum and the following Parliamentary process fail to win Fair Votes, what is our strategy for maximising seats in the new reality of participation in coalition government? Reform of the House of Lords to an elected system has been firmly agreed as part of the Coalition Agreement. Assuming a PR system of some sort, probably based on the nations and regions of the UK, how do we maximise our number of seats in that Chamber? 3. Leadership One unintended consequence of local government success has been to concentrate leadership at levels below the UK and the devolved nations into the role of Council Group Leaders a group of women and men who already have demanding roles and a distinctive perspective. The Party needs to define, recognise, support and invest in a much wider range of leaders: parliamentary candidates, Regional Party Officers and others. The Party s professional staff at Westminster has been cut back because of the loss of the financial support that went to opposition parties. How can the wider Party fill the gap in supporting Parliamentarians and the policy process? We also need to recognise that leadership is a distinct skill, exercised in different ways by different people, but crucial to our success. How do we help people in leadership positions to be effective leaders? How do we support them so that they are up to date and provided with ideas and arguments as well as basic information? How do we support colleagues in Scotland and Wales in maximising their impact in the new context? How do we encourage them to play a full role in the UK Party rather than concentrated on the limited world of devolved government? The English Regional Parties should have a key leadership role in supporting and motivating activists, representing the Party publicly, influencing the UK Party and ensuring that we have the Autumn Conference September 2010 7
right candidates in place at the right time. What structures, investment and communications do we need to achieve this? Parliamentary candidates are a crucial element in communicating, defending, explaining and selling the Party; their role will be even more important when the progress of the Coalition Government is often the most important factor in gaining and retaining votes. How do we use Liberal Democrat Ministers and back bench MPs and peers as a key part of our strategy to build and promote identity, position and policy? In a Party with very limited resources, how do these leading activists play a role as organisers and as contributors to the central strategy rather than as leaders who are used randomly to support Party and wider campaigns and who contribute formally and occasionally to Committees and events? Do we under use our MPs and peers as a resource to the Party s core strategy? 4. Membership and the liberal Movement The Federal Executive has addressed the urgent need to recruit more members and to identify and support a new generation of activists. The membership surge following the coalition agreement is an opportunity to identify new activists in areas with weaker local parties and to build further where we are already strong. The FE has also been discussing how to create a liberal movement which is committed to working throughout the Party and more widely towards a liberal society. Putting liberalism into practice is not just a matter of top down legislation. How do we mobilise people to work for change at every level? a) How do we recruit, support and inform members and, crucially, activists? We need substantially to increase the number and proportion of our activists and ordinary members who see it as part of their role to explain, defend and represent the Party. We should be using our national leadership and our wider movement to recruit and engage. Our members need to be able to argue our case in a whole host of everyday settings. We should support them in doing so. That means giving them arguments and facts to support the Liberal Democrat case, which goes a long way beyond simply stating policy and intentions. What are the means through which we shall communicate with them and how will we develop the content of our communications? b) How can we create a liberal movement? The liberal movement goes beyond party, asserting our leadership on a wide range of issues and themes, including climate change; civil liberty, equality and human rights; political reform; rural affairs; and many more. This is partly a matter of working with other campaigning organisations, think tanks and popular movements where our goals coincide; it should also involve Liberal Democrats in leadership of such organisations: what better role for Parliamentarians outside government and other competent members of the Party? For instance, how do we build on Liberal Democrat overall responsibility for human rights: in the Foreign Office, Home Office and Ministry of Justice? c) Community Politics Community politics was never simply a set of techniques for winning local elections. The core ideas about engagement with people in their communities are still valid, but we need to challenge and re invent the ways in which we work. What are the ideas and approaches which work best in the 21 st century? 8 FE Consultation Paper
Localism and much of the big society agenda appears to be about devolving limited and specific decisions to local groups and making more demands on interest groups and voluntary organisations to manage services. It is better than centralised control, but it is still a controlled, managed, limited form of engagement with people. There is no sense of a more radical agenda about involving people in taking and using power. The core of the Liberal Democrat message is that people accept responsibility and behave responsibly when they have the techniques, the will and the means to change their own lives and communities for the better. How do we create a vibrant, bottom up politics as part of our movement and keep central government in its proper place? 5. Policy and Ideas These are areas where both the Federal Policy Committee (FPC) and the Federal Conference Committee are developing ideas and the FPC will be sharing its thoughts for consultation at this Conference. Their contributions will form an important part of the wider strategy and our decisions on priorities. a) How do we develop policy which is about both big new ideas for the next Election and our priorities for Coalition action? The Federal Policy Committee is already thinking through its ideas. In future, we shall not be making policy just for ourselves and a future Manifesto it will be scrutinised as never before in the light of possible short term government action as well as a future election offering. That will mean new thinking about the role of Conference and the FPC. How do we work with the range of think tanks, campaigners and academics who now have an increased interest in working with and influencing us? How do we keep Ministers and Parliamentarians thoroughly involved in the Party rather than being victims of the bureaucratic capture which is their normal fate in a party in government? How do we move on from sterile positioning on the lines of the old politics, for instance, economic or social liberalism to create a new synthesis which is our shared definition of modern liberalism in our country at this time? There are some areas of government where better policy would be achieved if it could be settled for the longer term rather than risking a major shift with each change of parties in government. Examples include pensions policy and long term care financing where people need confidence to save with long term security; broad approaches to defence (and the forthcoming Strategic Defence Review) where there needs to be broad, cross party agreement on the circumstances in which service people will be put in harm s way; climate change; and others. That is why I have promoted the concept of cross party settlements, building on the idea of constitutional settlement, where major changes need to be agreed beyond a single party. We could promote the areas where such agreement is needed as an important part of the new politics leaving Labour to choose between, on the one hand, involvement and responsibility; or, on the other, gloomy, self imposed isolationism. b) How do we react when Coalition policies need to change or don t work? Opposition parties are allowed the luxury of assuming that all their policies, crafted by experts and developed in debate, will work exactly as intended with no hidden costs, unintended consequences or new perspectives. Unfortunately, experience of the real world does not always Autumn Conference September 2010 9
bear out these hopes. How should a mature party, confident in its principles, respond when policies and practice have to change? 10 FE Consultation Paper