Dear Fellow Liberal Democrats...

Dear fellow Liberal Democrats,

If you are interested in politics you join a political party. If you want a career in politics it is usual to enter a party humbly and try to make friends with all the big-wigs in order to secure that you get the support from the party to be elected as a PPC. It is normal to not rock the boat or to challenge the leadership or the norms of the party. However, there are times in politics when you have to challenge the direction of party leaders. Those times can be when a party has just lost an election, when a party is scoring very low in the polls or when the leadership of a party decides to take the party in a direction that is perilous to the party and its ideology. Now is one of those moments when the voice of reason must be heard and one must put aside personal career ambitions to speak the truth.

Today, I believe that it is time to bring an end to the "fightback" against Brexit and for the Liberal Democrat party to devise a compelling vision for Britain post-Brexit. If the Liberal Democrat party does not move away from the message of a "fightback" against half the country then it will never win a general election and end up a fringe party something like the Socialist Workers Party. No political party that uses the rhetoric of a "fightback" against the powers that be is ever successful, why? Because the "fightback" is the language of the protest group and not a potentially ruling political party. It is imperative we scrap the language of the "fightback" and take up the language of the future.

It is now time to challenge Nick Clegg's public campaign against Brexit; to challenge the potency of the message of the "fightback" and begin to think about how we can become the party that offers the most compelling post-Brexit vision for Britain. By doing that we become the party that has the answers for Britain's economic future outside of the EU and not the party stuck in the past. Although riding the wave of anger that exists amongst remain voters is appealing in the short term, it is a more long term vision of the future that we must look too, a future that is almost certainly going to be outside of the EU.

There are a number of issues with the current political strategy that we have; firstly, we are the party that champions democracy and it is explicit in our name. We are the party that desires rule by the people for the people, therefore it is imperative that we stand by our democratic principles and accept the Brexit vote. That remain voters both in and out of the party are angered that the vote did not go their way does not take away from the fact that we as Liberal Democrats are ideologically beholden to democracy and thus must accept it when the vote is for or against our beliefs as the will of the people. Whilst there are no issues with expressing personal anger that the vote did not go your way and there can also be merit in discussing EU membership simply as a hypothetical, academic exercise, politics is not the arena of academic pontificating over spilt milk and there is nothing worse than a sore loser trying to convince people why they should have been victorious long after the match is over. This behaviour is ignoble to say the least. The Liberal Democrat party is the party of local democracy so should concede at some level to the arguments that were put forth by Brexiter' in regard to what they considered to be a transferring of national democracy to a European Parliament and their desire to keep democracy local. The party line that does not even consider reasonable arguments about democracy made by Brexiter' and that appears to go against our deep-rooted ideological principles. If you joined the party because you believed in what it says on the tin then now is the time to exercise your true democratic instincts and principles and not to tow the party line to seek favour in your political career.

Secondly, Liberal Democrat ideology does not depend on EU membership. There was nothing written in the work of J S Mill or John Maynard Keynes that argued that being part of a supra-national organisation of European nations was at the heart of Liberal Democratic thought. There is not a shadow of a doubt that Liberal Democrat ideology has a deep instinct for internationalism but this internationalism by no means specifies being part of an organisation such as the EU. In many ways leaving Brexit leaves Britain free to develop a deeper internationalism with other non-EU nations across the world in some of the fastest growing economies in the world today. Leaving the EU offers opportunities to build new trading relationships for the future with nations of the Commonwealth such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Caribbean, South Africa and Nigeria amongst others. The Liberal Democrat party can still be an internationalist party and Britain can still be an outward looking nation outside of the EU. The scaremongering message that Britain will collapse outside of the EU is frankly UNINSPIRING...

Thirdly, there is a strong economic argument for developing new trading relationships with Commonwealth nations and exploiting the opportunities for trade with Commonwealth nations, some of whom are amongst the fastest growing economies in the world, such as Kenya, or the biggest economies in political regions like Nigeria in Africa. There is also a deep cultural understanding between many nations in the Commonwealth, a commonality may be shared with Britain and the Commonwealth nations more than Britain and the EU nations. The national language of Nigeria is English, India has the biggest English speaking population in the world. British-Caribbean nations like Jamaica and Barbados share our Head of State as is the same with Australia and Canada. The Commonwealth is made of of 2.2 billion people, a population much larger than the EU. It has been written by economists that in the next decade the Commonwealth nations will collectively trade more than the EU.

Developing and less advanced economies offer more opportunities for growth and accumulation of wealth; advanced capitalist nations tend to halt and flatline whilst developing economies grow until they reach a stage of advanced capitalism during which time great wealth is amassed and nations transformed. Many Brexiter' are aware of the economic opportunities; it was been mentioned on Question Time by a Brexiter in the audience who categorically stated that he did not vote for Brexit because of immigration but because he believed that Britain would be better placed to grasp economic opportunities in newer markets if they were outside of the EU. Many business people who understand macro economic trends desired to leave the EU for solely long-term economic interests over short-term gain. Free from the tariffs that EU nations place on goods coming from developing nations and free from propping up EU farmers contrary to Clegg's campaign we would be able to get cheaper goods from developing nations. This does not mean that we are no longer friends with European nations or that we refuse diplomatic relationships or cannot work with the EU on big human issues such as climate change that impact us all but simply that Britain is free to pursue independent relationships and friendships on its own accord and in its own self-interest.

As a Liberal Democrat ideologue, a Liberal Democrat militant, I believe that the future of Britain outside of the EU is better for Britain and humanity. I also understand that there is no money in a "fightback" against the Brexit vote; whatever donations that we have gained from championing the "fightback" are insubstantial; the money is backing the future, if the Liberal Democrat party does not wake up and smell the coffee, we may find ourselves paying dearly for not anticipating the future and perhaps changing the guard.

Now is a time for a shake up in the party, we have lost some of our great political figures; Charles Kennedy RIP is no longer with us; the Rt Honourable Simon Hughes was deposed from his seat after 30 years; Paddy Ashdown is particularly aged; there are 8 Lib Dem MP's and one AM. The party leadership is struggling to cut through the media and the only political big-hitter is Nick Clegg but he is a face of the past with a tarnished public image and what appears to be an EU obsession.

I joined the Party in 2008 when Nick Clegg was the leader of the party. I joined because I thought that he was the best possible leader of the party and the country; he was the only politician in Britain that ever inspired me to join a political party but today I think Nick Clegg should let the party look to the future with or without him. If the party want to see a future we have to back change, the Elders of the party have to accept and back change; they have to create the conditions for a renewal or be left with the legacy of destroying the Liberal Democrat party.

Kind regards


Tony Thomas
Liberal Democrat