Tuesday 17 April 2012

The end of the road

My Liberal Democrat membership expired on 31st March. I have no intention of renewing it.

This is the second time I’ve made such a promise to myself in as many years. After the first, in a moment of weakness, I was persuaded by friends to give it another year ‘to see how things went’.


Well I’ve done just that; I’ve given it another year and things have gone from bad to worse. This time, I mean it.

The Lib Dems have very little to show for their involvement in the Coalition Government. I haven’t seen a government as illiberal as this one since the days of Thatcher, and Clegg is guilty by association. On every substantive measure like welfare reform, university tuition fees, NHS reform, public services, social justice and electoral reform Clegg and his MPs have short-changed both the electorate and the social liberals who have campaigned hard for liberal principles and values, only to see those principles and values undermined and betrayed by Clegg’s actions in government.

It is with regret and sadness that I am calling time on 17 years of Liberal Democrat activism, but I feel that I have little choice if I’m to remain true to the liberal beliefs that I hold dear. How can I espouse the cause of liberalism when the party to which I belong undermines those core beliefs through its actions?

For the sake of my conscience, walking away is the right thing to do.

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