2009 no.2 £3.00 (free to members)

Journal of the British Group

Ashdown, Ignatieff, Dahrendorf 6th September 2010 - Executive 7.00pm NLC EVENTS 18th–22nd September Lib Dem Autumn Conference, Liverpool. 7th September - Executive 7.00pm NLC 19th–23rd September Lib Dem Autumn All events other than the Diplomatic Reception, Conference, Bournemouth. the Garden Party & post-AGM Dinner are free Monday 21 September President Obama’s for members. There will be a cash bar at the Quest for Middle East Peace - LD Friends of Russell Johnson Party. Israel - Highcliff Marriott Hotel, Dorchester Suite 2 - 20.00-21.15 For bookings & other information please contact Tuesday 22nd September LD Friends of the Organising Secretary below. Palestine - & AGM - Connaught Hotel, Priory 1 -20.00-21.15 Wednesday 23rd September Presentation of LI Prize for Freedom to Eric Avebury by John Alderdice, President of LI - 14.30 26th September - Liberal Party Assembly, Friends' Meeting House, Summerfield Road, Wolverhampton 29th October–1st November 56th LI Congress ------Cairo NLC= , 2nd November - Executive Place, SW1A 2HE 7.00pm NLC Underground: Embankment 9th November - Forum on China 7.00pm NLC 7th December - Party in memory of Russell Johnstone - cash bar- 7.00pm NLC 11th January - Executive 7.00pm NLC 1st February - Forum on India 7.00pm NLC 1st March - Executive Liberal International (British Group) 7.00pm NLC Organising Secretary: Wendy Kyrle-Pope, 1 12-14th March Lib Dem Spring Conference, Brook Gardens, Barnes, London SW13 OLY Birmingham 15th March - Diplomatic Reception email [email protected] 7.00pm NLC 24th May - Forum on Brasil InterLiB is published by the Liberal 7.00pm NLC International (British Group). Views expressed 7th June - Executive therein are those of the authors and are not 7.00pm NLC necessarily the views of LI(BG), LI or any of its June tbc - Lord Garden Memorial Lecture, constituent parties. 26th June - Garden Party, Kensington Comments and articles can be sent to 19th July - AGM, followed by short Executive 1 Lockhart Street, London WC1H 9PZ & optional dinner - NLC email [email protected]

2 "What will the world look like in the Obama era?"

The Tim Garden Memorial Lecture

Paddy Ashdown

In this speech, there will be history and feel the tide. Economic power is running poetry. And, on a slightly more prosaic level, away from the nations gathered on the shores I will also unveil for you, tongue in cheek of of the Atlantic and towards those gathered course, Ashdown’s Third law of international around the rim of the Pacific. relations in the post Obama world. This economic recession is not like any other Let us start with the poetry. we have recently experienced. We will not, this time plummet down and then bounce It comes from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem back comfortably to where we were, before “Unity in Diversity” it all started. This is about something much deeper. Underneath the tectonic plates of “We are all the more one, because we are global power are shifting. And when it is many over we in the Western nations will, For we have made an ample space for love relatively speaking, be weaker and those in in the gap where we were sundered, the Eastern nations will be stronger. Our unlikeness reveals its breadth of beauty, with one common life, The last time we saw a shift of power on this Like mountain peaks in the morning sun” scale was when the leadership of the world passed across the Atlantic from the old We are about to enter an age in which powers of Europe to the emerging power of Tagore’s great statement will be one of the the United States in the last decades of the few signposts we have for a safe passage nineteenth century. And we all remember through dangerous times. the convulsions which followed that collapse of empires and the emergence of a new Three factors make the years ahead order. Only then power shifted, but the completely different from those of the last values, mostly, didn’t. This time, we are century – and some are of a nature which experiencing not just a change of order, but a we have never before encountered. change of values too. Now it is important to be clear exactly what The first of these factors is not unique. But it is happening here and what is not. is not going to be any more comfortable for that. I am not saying that the rise of nations like We are on the edge of one of those periods China and other far Eastern powers will be of history when the pattern of world power smooth or comfortable for them either. There changes; when the gimbals on which the are some propose that Chinas ascent will established order is mounted, shift and a new follow the line of the straight line graph. order begins to emerge. And these are, Yesterday China was here. Today they are almost always difficult times for the weak, here. Draw a line between the two and tough for those whose power is waning and extend it and that is where China will be at a usually bloody for almost everyone. given time in the future. I do not believe that. China’s ascent to great power status will Trail you hand over the side of the boat and not be smooth. Beijing is trying to do

3 something very difficult and, in a Chinese looks likely to be the world’s most powerful context, very dangerous, too. Their economy nation for one or two decades to come, may be largely liberalised. But, unlike India, which is as far ahead as it is wise to make their society is not. And my guess is as they predictions. But, though the United State’s begin to loose the bonds of their old position as the world’s pre-eminent power, is communist structures in favour of a freer not likely to change, the CONTEXT in which society, as they must, there will be she holds that position is now certain to. considerable turbulence in China too – look at the increase of protest and disturbance We are no longer looking, as we have for already occurring in China and you might more than the last half century, at a world well conclude that this has already started. dominated by single super power. The globe Beijing is certainly frightened by it – and is no longer going to be mono-polar in the they have every reason to be. Chinese way it has been for the life times, of most in history is littered with instances when this this room. The growth of new power centres great nation, as disparate and ethnically means the emergence of a much more multi diverse as Europe, stands at the edge of polar world – one which will look much greatness and then descends into dissolution more like Europe in the nineteenth century. and chaos. The great British Foreign Secretary, George Canning, used to refer to the five sided But – and here is the point – though this may balance of power in nineteenth century alter the time scale and manner of China’s Europe as “The European Areopagiticus” or rise, it will not, I think, change the basic fact “The Concert of Europe”, in which he saw that great power status is her most likely Britain’s role as always playing to the balance ultimate destination. in order to prevent any single power dominating and thus keep Britain out of Nor do I agree with some of my more left continental entanglements. I think the world wing friends who tell me, often with ill of the next few decades will look much disguised glee, that we are seeing the end of more like that. American power in the world; that the United Sates has passed the zenith of its And this will have a number of rather glory. important consequences.

I do not believe that this either. You know a One will be a rise in regional groupings – of power which still has a claim to greatness, by which history may say the EU was the first its ability to change. The symptoms of decline albeit highly imperfect, example. in nations, as in humans are scleroticism, institutional arthritis and resistance to change. Second and linked will be an increase in And the United States shows none of these - protectionism and probably a reversal of the as the still remarkable election of Barrack movement towards free trade of the last half Obama very clearly shows. And for those century – with all implications that carries for who wish, then note another example; look a destructive period, of beggar my neighbour at the lightening fast changes brought by economic policies. General Petraeus which, in a matter of only a couple of years has changed the US Army The third implication of this new pattern of from a great lumbering dinosaur incapable of world power is for us in Europe. In such a effective action against insurgents in Iraq, into multi sided world the eyes of the US are the world’s most effective counter insurgency likely to be just as much, west across the army; leaving, I regret to say, the British Pacific as east across the Atlantic. The Atlantic Army now trailing some way behind. No relationship will remain be a key relationship European Army – indeed none in the world, on the European side and on the American I think – could have made such a change one too. But it will not have anything like with such speed. the unique importance as a lynch pin for all other policies, as it has had over the last half No - I do not think that we have seen the century. I am not sure that Europe has fully end of the American century yet. The US realised it yet, but the US security guarantee, 4 under which we have all sheltered since better to the extent that it fulfils the dream of World War Two and which has given many Kissinger and Kennedy of a twin pillar of our European neighbours the opportunity NATO, where the European defence to take a free ride on Uncle Sam for their structures are co-ordinated enough to offer national security, no longer exists. There are something closer to a partnership of equals, still United States soldiers left in Europe, to than our present an unequal dialogue be sure. But very few of them. And almost between a giant and a parliament of pigmies. all are here, not for our security, but to support their operations in Iraq and And there is a final consequence, from this Afghanistan. new situation in which we Europeans find ourselves. If we cannot in future count on My guess is that Europe will be less the US as our protector of last resort and important to every future US president, friend for all circumstances, then it is also including Barrack Hussein Obama, than we true that things are more threatening for us have been to every past one, including elsewhere, too. We now have an George W Bush. Indeed, having loved to increasingly assertive Russia, prepared to use hate him, we Europeans may well find the lever of energy, skilful at dividing and ourselves rather missing George Bush before ruling, asserting the old Brezhnev doctrine of too long. Firstly because we were able to spheres of interest and backing it with shelter behind complaints about his military force when the opportunity arises. unilateralism, as an excuse for not getting our And beyond that we have a rising China and own European act together. It may not be increasing economic power in the East. long before America’s new President calls our If we do not realise that the right reaction of bluff by posing us a challenge for concerted Europe to these new and much more difficult European action with the US, which we have circumstances, is to deepen the integration of neither the institutions nor the will for our institutions, especially when it comes to effective co-ordination, to respond to. defence, foreign affairs and economic policy, then we are fools and the next few decades Secondly because George Bush may well are going to be much more painful than they turn out to be the last US President to have need to be for us. As rightly says, had an emotional tie to Europe. In future we the choice for us in Europe is to be stronger are likely to be judged by Washington, not and safer together. Or weaker and poorer on the basis of history, but on a rather cooler, apart. even brutal appraisal, of what we can deliver when it comes to pursuing our joint interests The last and arguably most important – and here the answer is not much, if consequence of this new shape to world Afghanistan is anything to go by. power is this; we are reaching the beginning of the end of perhaps six centuries of the The United States is increasingly going to domination of Western power, Western have interests in the world which do not institutions and Western values, over world always coincide with those of Europe. And affairs. We are soon going to discover – no, Europe is going to have interests in the we are already discovering - that, if we want world which do not always coincide with to get things done, such as redesigning the Washington’s. For Europeans this will mean world economic order, or intervening for having a rather more subtle and sophisticated peace, we cannot any longer just do them foreign policy in the future, than simply within the cosy Atlantic club; we are going to hanging onto the apron strings of our friendly have to find new allies in places we would neighbourhood super power, as we have in never previously have thought of. And they the past. And for both of us – that is the US will probably prove less congenial and more and Europe – it means developing a much demanding than we find it comfortable to more mature relationship, in which we can cope with. sometimes disagree without shouting betrayal every time. I suspect that Iraq and Afghanistan will be the It also means that if NATO is to prosper – last interventions we attempt, depending on perhaps even survive, then it will do so Western power alone. In future, if we cannot 5 find wider partners for these affairs we will Now, for a time, being unregulated and free probably not be able to do them. of the constraints of law, suits the powerful. But sooner or later, lawless spaces also The global financial crisis has made it very become attractive, not just to the builders, but plain. If we want a more ordered world at a to the destroyers too. That’s why Al Qaeda is time of great instability, we are going to there, using the internet, satellite have to provide a space at the top tables for broadcasting, our systems of global mass nations that do not share our culture, our travel and even the very systems of global history, our world view or even, in many finance that they are dedicated to destroying, cases, our values. This is going to be in order the better to destroy us. It is uncomfortable, even painful. calculated that some 60% of the 4 million dollars taken to fund 9/11 actually passed And it is going to need a new way of through the financial networks housed in the thinking. And we are going to have to accept Twin Towers. deals we would have hitherto have found completely unpalatable. International terrorism loves the the global space precisely because it is a lawless space - I suspect it will not be long before we look as lawless as were the deserts of Iraq and the back at the deal we spurned when the Dohar mountains of Afghanistan. trade talks failed, with the nostalgia that comes with the realisation that this was an Now there is a rule of history. Where power opportunity lost and the chagrin that goes, governance must follow. And if it accompanies an understanding, that we are doesn’t chaos, conflict and turbulence are the not going to get anything as good again. consequences.

The second factor which is likely to make What makes this even more urgent – even these to try men’s souls, is that, we more dangerous – is that it is not just power are seeing a double shift of power. that has been globalised; problems have too. The uncomfortable truth which our politicians Power is now not just shifting laterally from in Westminster refuse to acknowledge and West to East; it is shifting vertically, too. It is our old institutions can find no way to cope migrating out of the structures of the nation with, is that there is now almost no problem state, which we created to hold it to which affects our citizens well being or our accountability and make it subject to nation’s future, which can be solved within regulation and the rule of law, and into the the nation state or by its institutions alone; global space, where the instruments of not our ability to protect ourselves; not our regulation are few and the framework of law the cleanliness of our environment; not our is weak. capacity to tackle global warming; not our health; not our jobs; not our mortgages. All of Look at the institutions which are having these and more now depend, not on the difficulties at the moment – national actions of our governments, but on their governments, political structures, the old ability to work with others within a set of establishments. And note that nearly all institutions which are global in scope and depend on the nation state and find their international in character. range of action confined within borders of The problem is, as the global financial crisis the sates to which they belong. Now look at has showed and the issue of global warming those institutions which are growing in showed before it, we have neither the power and reach. The internet; the satellite institutions nor the political leadership to do broadcasters; the trans-national corporations; this. the international money changers and speculators; international crime; international If one of the key phenomena of our time is terrorism. And note that all operate oblivious the globalisation of power, then one of the of national borders and largely beyond the key challenges of our time is to bring reach of national regulation and the law. governance to the global space. And the extent to which we are able to do this 6 successfully – while ensuring democratic only one since Alexandra the Great to make accountability -- will, in large measure a success of it -- not least because, like determine the extent to which we will be Alexandra he didn’t try to stay. He went in able to manage the period of turbulence and and out, in very quick and rather bloody change ahead. order.

By the way, I suspect that this task of His, too was a war of vengeance – it was a bringing governance to the global space will punitive expedition to avenge the terrible be achieved more through treaty based defeat of the at the “massacre in institutions, such as Kyoto, the G20 and the the snows“ of 1842. WTO, than through a further spawning of UN based institutions – but that is a subject for a The year now is 1879, the war is the Second different time. We, meanwhile, have a third Afghan War. And here he is, “Bobs” Roberts, factor to cope with which is now shaping this telling us how he did it. age in a way which is different in scale from anything we have ever seen before. Our What is he saying? He is telling us about the increasing global interdependence. number of troops he had. About the performance of his Indian soldiers, the Well, of course nations have always been Sepoys. About the importance of his “screw connected. What happens in one nation has guns”, the mountain guns which were the always been of interest and importance to its British equivalent for knocking down Afghan neighbours and allies. That’s why one of the villages, of the US B52s today. oldest functions of government is diplomacy. But today’s interdependence is of a Please note what he is NOT talking about; he completely different order. Nations today are is NOT talking about poppy fields. Not not just linked by trade, commerce and because they were not there. The poppy has diplomacy, they are intimately interlocked in been grown in Afghanistan for centuries. But almost every aspect of our daily lives. What in his day, the poppy simply didn’t matter. happens in one can have a profound, direct Today Afghanistan’s poppy fields are directly and immediate consequence for what connected to crime in our inner cities. happens in another. An outbreak of swine flu Everything is connected to everything. in Mexico affects becomes relevant to our He would not have talked about a mad health in Britain, mere hours later. mullah in cave preaching a doctrine of jihad. There were plenty of those too. But in 1879, The collapse of Lehman brothers in the US they didn’t matter either. Today, what Osama sets in train a domino effect across the entire bin Laden says, is directly connected to what global economy in days. happens in that terraced house in Bolton. Everything is connected to everything. The revelation of 9/11, is the revelation of He wouldn’t have worried about what we our time. now call collateral damage or dead civilians. They didn’t matter, for the world didn’t know That, even if you are the most powerful about them until weeks or even months later. nation on earth, the consequence of ignoring Now the picture of that wedding party what is happening in a far away country of inadvertently blown apart by US high which you know little and care less, can be explosive is on television and computer death and horror one bright September day screens around the world, a matter of in one of your most iconic of cities. minutes later. And those images really matter in the battle for public opinion which is now You see, today everything is connected to the critical battle which has to be won in everything. operations such as these. Everything is connected to everything. Imagine for a moment, that I am not Lord And this interconnectedness applies not just to Ashdown of Norton sub Hamdon, but Lord the external relations between nations. It Roberts of Kandahar. He was, of course the applies to the internal organisation of nations, last General to invade Afghanistan and the too. 7 Imagine now that we are talking about the which were in fashion at the time – the defence of Britain, forty years ago, when I structures of the Industrial Revolution and the was a British soldier. What would we have era of mass production. Strong command talked about? chains; vertical hierarchies; specialisation of tasks – you can see it all in Charlie Chaplin’s We would have talked about the size of our film “Modern Times”. And this was right; it army, our navy and our air force. We might was appropriate for the times. It suited the also have talked about the strength of our age. allies. And that would have been it. But it does not suit our age. For this is the The enemy was outside the walls and the job age of post industrial structures. Of flat of keeping them there fell exclusively to the hierarchies; of networks and networking, Minister of Defence. dedicated to bringing disparate inputs together at a single focal point, which, in the Now, because everything is connected to market place at least, is the satisfaction of the everything, the enemy is not outside; it is customer. The armed forces have understood inside. this. Led by the US they have now restructured themselves to fight the Now we have to talk about everything. networked battle using all arms to achieve Defending the country is not just the job of what they call an Effects Based Strategy. the Ministry of Defence. It is also the job of the Ministry of Health, because, as we have Some Governments too are beginning dimly seen recently, part of defending ourselves, is to realise this and have invented new defending ourselves against pandemic language, like “the comprehensive approach” disease. The Ministry of Agriculture is also in the hope that this will solve the problem. involved, because food security is part of our But mostly, in so far as the “comprehensive security, too. approach” exists at all, it does so in theory in Whitehall, but is pretty well absent in practise As is the Ministry for Industry, because the on the ground where it matters. lack of resilience of our internal systems is a key point of vulnerability to our enemies. Meanwhile government structures and As we know, the Home Office is involved cultures remain resolutely stuck in the past. too, because the enemy are not just Ministers are judged on how well they foreigners from another country, they can defend the territorial integrity of their also be our own citizens whose loyalties lie Department, preserve its budget and defend with those whose beliefs are inimical to its pay roll. Senior Civil Servants ditto. everything we stand for. Defending Britain is Networking with other Departments is no longer a job just for the Ministry of regarded as a threat, not an opportunity. And Defence. It is now a job for every I doubt if anyone in government, outside the Department of Government. And our ability Ministry of Defence, has ever heard of an to defend ourselves effectively depends on Effects Based strategy. The screaming of gears our ability to bring all their activities together we hear in Whitehall is the sound of vertical in a networked and interlocking way. hierarchies and stove piped minds knowing But the problem is that our Governments are that they ought to be networking, but finding just not structured to do things in a it impossible to do so. We probably need a networked and interlocking way. They are wholesale restructuring of Government along made up of vertical stove pipes, steeped in a more modern lines – but I somehow doubt stove piped culture and are run, in the main, this is going to happen. So we may have to by people with stove piped minds. be satisfied with at least changing cultures.

And there is a reason for that. Our current Time now to unveil Ashdown’s third law for Government structures took on their present the modern age. And here it is. form – as they did in every advanced Western democracy - in the nineteenth In the modern age, the most important part century. And they followed the structures of what you can do, is what you can do with 8 others. And as it is within governments, so it is between them. The age when even the most It is institutions ability, not to do, but to powerful can expect success if they choose to network, which matters most. The key part of at act unilaterally, is over. The last great modern structures is not their internal order, experiment in unilateralism was George W but their external docking points. Bush’s determination to abandon the multilateralism of his father and insist on the It is not the effectiveness of the hierarchies invasion of Iraq, even though America was – which matters most, but the efficiency of the beyond the largely cosmetic support of a few interconnectors. – alone in the enterprise.

And if you want to see the price of failing to In the new multipolar world which we understand that, you need look no further entering, nations will raise the chances of than Afghanistan. Here the chief reason for success in their enterprises to the extent that the fact that we are losing, lies, not in the they can make them multilateral and raise ineffectiveness of the Afghan Government their chances of failure, if they are unable to who we love to blame, but in our own do this. There is one other completely new complete failure to have any co-ordinated aspect of our new interconnected world international plan; in our inability to work which s worth mentioning. together between the nations of the coalition; in our determination to see Afghanistan solely From time immemorial, the means by which through the prism of the place in which we men (and they usually were men) organised each happen to be fighting - the British in their defence against their enemies was Helmand, the Canadians in Kandahar, the through collective defence – through banding Dutch in Uruzgan, the Germans in the together with others, in tribes, in nation states Panjshir valley, the US in their B52s; and in and, when these proved insufficient, in our refusal to co-ordinate ourselves in order Alliances like NATO, in order to create more to produce a single countrywide strategy powerful collective defence structures than which enables us to speak with a single their enemies. And the more powerful these voice and act with a single purpose. The real were, the more secure we were. scandal is Afghanistan, is not that our soldiers But one of the revelations of our time is that don’t have the right boots, or enough now, with the advent of weapons of mass helicopters. It is that they are paying with destruction and because everything is their lives because our politicians cannot or connected to everything, we increasingly will not get their act together. And what share a destiny with our enemy. The notion applies between nations in Afghanistan, of collective security is, in many cases having applies within them, too. Though there have to give way to an understanding of the at last been late but welcome improvements importance of common security, too. in the ability of the civilian peace makers and reconstructors from DfID to interlock with the It was this revelation of a shared destiny and military on the ground, we are still not able an understanding of the importance of to do what needs to be done -- bring the common, rather than collective security, rebuilders in straight after the solders have which underpinned the nuclear arms finished fighting. When Afghan and British reduction talks which took place in forces retook Musa Qallah, it took several in the 1970s when I was a diplomat there. It weeks for DfID to arrive and start the is this notion that Barack Obama is seeking to reconstruction which should have begun the reach out to, in his accurate understanding moment the fighting stopped. that the greatest threat to us all today, comes not from other nuclear powers, but from the It does not matter if you are an army unit, or threat of nuclear proliferation. It was the an NGO, or an aid deliverer like DfID, or a understanding, at last, that the Protestant and Ministry like the Foreign Office the most Catholic communities in Northern Ireland important part of what you can do, is not were partners in a shared a destiny, rather what you can do alone, but what you can do than enemies in a zero sum conflict, that laid with others. the foundations for the Northern Irish peace 9 process. And it is Israel and some of its Arab Tiananmen Square Massacre neighbour’s failure to understand that they share a destiny with each other which is, On the 20th anniversary of the massacre of arguably the greatest single barrier to a thousands of unarmed students in Tiananmen secure Israel, within a peaceful in the Middle Square, the Liberal International salutes their East. memory and the courage of the persecuted dissidents who continue to demand a system I am NOT saying here that we will not need of government worthy of the greatness of collective defence. Our capacity to defend Chinese civilisation. The Liberal International ourselves in concert with our allies will recalls that the Communist Party has been in always be important. sole power in China since 1949 and still fails to respect fundamental human rights and so But increasingly in the future, when we think rules China as a despotism and not, as it about how to secure ourselves, we will have claims, as a Peoples Democracy. to think also about, not just how we destroy Richard Moore our enemies, but how we may be able to live with them too. Dalai Lama Visits This concept is not new of course. Typhoon-hit Taiwan For it has always been the proposition of Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama has poets and saints and visionaries, that we visited Taiwan aimingtoconsole victims of should learn to live together. typhoon Morakot, the worst typhoon to hit Taiwan in 50 years. The Dalai Lama was The great poem of John Donne’s “No man is invited by heads of southern Taiwan cities an island” says it all “every man’s death and counties to visit the disaster-stricken area affecteth me, for I am involved in mankind. and comfort the survivors. Send not to ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee”. Bi-khim Hsiao, International Director of the Gladstone said it too, in 1879, when Lord Democratic Progressive Party(DPP)and LI Roberts was invading Afghanistan, in his great Vice President commented: “The Dalai Lama second Midlothian campaign. He said: is very popular and well respected in “Do not forget that the sanctity of life in the Taiwan, and as in his two previous visits to hill villages of Afghanistan amongst the Taiwan, he has embodied messages of winter snows, is no less inviolate in the eye compassion, peace, and hope. We believe of Almighty God as can be your own. Do not the messages he represents are particularly forget that he who made you brothers in the relevant to Taiwan at this moment when we same flesh and blood, bound you by the laws are recovering from the tragic losses suffered of mutual love. And that love is not limited to during typhoon Morakot… In regards to the the shores of this island, but it crosses the criticisms of China and the provocative whole surface of the earth, encompassing the statements made by China's official greatest along with the meanest in its responsible for religious affairs, we believe unmeasured scope” they are not helpful for enhancing mutual But here is the difference between their age understanding and sympathy across the and ours. Taiwan Strait. Such behaviour of Chinese officials runs contrary to the expectations of For Donne and for Gladstone, these were the Taiwanese people who anticipate the recommendations of morality. For us they are spiritual compassion and peace that the Dalai part of the equation for our survival. Lama represents.”

Paddy Ashdown The DPP has mobilised volunteers to help in the recovering process and distributing food Tim Garden Memorial Lecture and water to the flood victims in remote Chatham House, 30th June 2009 villages and has set up a relief fund www.helptaiwan.blogspot.com to help the disaster victims. 10 LIBERAL VALUES IN TOUGH TIMES The Isaiah Berlin Lecture Michael Ignatieff

Liberalism is a family of common allegiance. are not limited to, public education for all, We believe in limited government in the free access to medical care, retirement service of individual liberty and fiscal pensions in old age, assistance for the responsibility in the service of social disabled, public security in our streets and compassion. the protections afforded by a sovereign nation state. Our creed is a pragmatic vision of good government that adapts to context. The The liberals who fought to create these context that matters to me is Canada. So institutions were inspired by the belief—best tonight I will focus on what liberalism looks expressed by Franklin Roosevelt — that men like when viewed through a Canadian lens. and women who live in fear are not free. Liberal government exists to lift fear from the Let me begin with the commitments that all souls of free men and women. liberals share. A society without fear is unthinkable without Being a liberal is a habit of the heart. Before equality before the law. A person it became a political label, ‘liberal’ was a discriminated against because of their gender, synonym for ‘generous’. A liberal helping on race, creed, sexual orientation or economic a plate was a generous helping. A liberal circumstance is not free. person was both a generous host and an open-minded thinker. Liberals believe that freedom is indivisible, and that to defend our own, we ought to Liberalism should never lose its founding defend those of our fellow citizens, and those association with generosity of heart and fellow human beings outside our borders openness of mind. These are the habits of who call for our help. heart that we need to keep to save our beliefs from curdling into political correctness Liberals are optimistic about human nature or ideological dogmatism. but sceptics about power. To control power, liberals believe that majority rule needs the A liberal politics puts freedom first. checks and balances of an independent judiciary, a bicameral legislature, a free press, A liberal’s disagreement with a socialist or and charters of rights that protect individuals social democrat comes down to this: we both and groups from the tyranny of the majority. seek equality, but the only equality a liberal thinks is worth striving for is an equality of We regard government neither as an freedom. unlimited good nor as a necessary evil, but rather as the framework of opportunity that A liberal’s disagreement with conservatives makes liberty possible. comes down to this: we both seek freedom, but a liberal believes no one can achieve it Our view of economic power is as sceptical alone. There issuch a thing as society, and as our view of political power. We believe in government’s purpose is to shape a society in free markets and free competition because which individual freedom can flourish. we want to protect individuals from economic tyranny. But we know that markets We put freedom first but we are not do not naturally serve the public interest. Left libertarians. We think that individuals cannot to themselves, they generate unwelcome be free without a free society. The externalities, like extreme income inequality institutions that create freedom include, but and pollution of the environment. Protection 11 of the public interest requires regulation. The economy to the edge of disaster, but heavy- challenge is to achieve the proper balance: handed government intervention may only allowing markets to allocate risk, reward and slow economic recovery. Further resources, while safeguarding the public government bailouts may push the deficit up interest with skilful, precise and light to unsustainable levels. Further government regulation. borrowing may push up the cost of credit and reignite inflation. Today there is a new challenge to the liberal idea of limited government. In order to avert Liberals accept the necessity of deficit systemic economic collapse, governments spending to get the economy going again. everywhere have intervened in markets, But we want the scarce resources of taking over banks, car manufacturers and government to be invested strategically on insurance companies. public education, science and technology and the infrastructure, especially green energy, All governments are now recognising the that creates long term growth. potential moral hazard of these interventions. Bailouts create the expectation among risk In the short-term, governments may have to takers that they can return to risk-taking with own banks, insurance companies and car impunity, because they will be rescued once manufacturers, but in the medium term, they again. When governments step in, ordinary should return these businesses to the private citizens wonder why their taxes are being sector as soon as they have recouped the spent to rescue a foolish few from their public investments necessary to keep them mistakes. from going under.

The fact is that the mistakes of a few were Governments will need to regulate markets threatening the livelihoods of the many. but will have to find a way to do so without Governments stepped in to save the jobs of stifling market innovation. Governments can auto workers, to keep credit flowing for require markets to be transparent to both small businesses, and to preserve the buyers and sellers and they should set capital pensions and investments of small investors. and collateral requirements for lending, backed by tough sanctions. Protecting the public interest in this way is what government is for. But these new If the global economic crisis presents demands for intervention leave the role of challenges for every liberal government, not government in a free society anything but every government handles them the same clear. way.

Socialists decry bank rescues as state bailouts Liberalism, Berlin taught us, is not a bloodless of failed capitalist elites while conservatives breviary for rootless cosmopolitans. It is a decry intervention as creeping state socialism. fighting creed for men and women devoted Other conservatives, like the ones in power to the fate of their particular national in Canada, have been forced to carry out communities. So it is with me. liberal stimulus programs their own ideology previously rejected, only proving that it is The Canada I grew up in, the Canada that tough to do something well when you don’t shaped me is a liberal Canada. My party believe in doing it at all. fought for publicly funded healthcare for all. We campaigned to guarantee charter rights of Liberals might be expected to welcome the equality for all Canadians. We have stood for interventionist turn. The problem is that we recognition of the national identities of our don’t actually believe in big but in good constituent peoples. We believe that government. It is not obvious that we get government has a standing responsibility to good government when government is asked overcome inequalities of life between rural to do everything. and urban, northern and southern, eastern and western regions. Finally, we believe that Market deregulation may have led the global our example of a bilingual, multinational, 12 multicultural nation state has a lot to offer to a independent British colonies agreed to form a wider world of nations ravaged by linguistic, federation. Three were majority English cultural and national conflict. speaking, Protestant and ordered by English common law. One of them was Catholic, We are a cold northern nation of 33 million French and ordered by the French civil code. people spread out across the second largest And then there were the aboriginals, expanse of territory of any nation state. recognised by treaty, as constituent peoples. Canadians understand that individuals can From the beginning, we had to make a survive and prosper only by banding complex unity out of these differences. We together incommunity. had to anchor collective rights to language and education in our constitution. We had to Canadian rights culture strikes a distinctive respect claims to land and territory that pre- balance between the individual and the existed our political foundation. We had to collective. Individual freedoms are not learn to compromise, to reach out across unlimited or unconditional, as they are in the divides that have broken other countries American constitution. In Canada they are apart. As we have expanded to ten provinces “subject only to such reasonable limits and three territories, encompassing five prescribed by law as can be demonstrably distinct economic regions, and providing a justified in a free and democratic society.” welcome to immigrants from every land, we These words appeal to a tacit understanding have sustained the whole edifice of our of a distinctively Canadian balance between federation on the constant practice of liberty and community. conciliating difference across languages, identities and cultures. A liberal Canada is very different from a liberal America, even under a Democratic Government is central to Canadian survival, administration. Next door, American liberals but at the same time, our federation are still fighting for rights — public health distributes its powers so that no single order care, a woman’s right to choose and a of government can dominate. The person’s right to marry the person of their decentralisation of our federation allows choice —that are settled questions for most government to be close to the people and Canadians. Affirmative action programs keeps its powers in check, while created in the 1960’s by American liberal safeguarding the necessary rights of self- administrations are now under court government of our regions and founding challenge. In Canada, affirmative action is peoples. explicitly mandated in our charter of rights and freedoms. The sheer difficulty of keeping this complex unity together has bred compromise and The Canadian idea of limited government is conciliation into the Canadian soul. Because also different from the American. Our our unity cannot be taken for granted, we domestic market — a weakly populated band understand that pragmatic political leadership of settlement a hundred kilometres deep and and moderate government are conditions of five thousand kilometres long--was too small our survival. and diffuse to mature without the fostering hand of government. With the most powerful This is the deeper reason why conservative nation on earth on our doorstep, Canadian ideologies run into difficulty with us. Getting governments had to master the complex government off the back of the people is not balancing act of protecting a domestic market, a persuasive slogan for a country like ours. maintaining our sovereignty and keeping our Canadians know that wise government is American border open to trade, ideas and essential to keep regions from falling behind, peoples. to keep Canadians equal and to keep us together. They also know that liberal habits The enduring character of our linguistic, of mind — compromise, generosity and cultural and national differences has also pragmatism—are as important as government shaped our philosophy of government. One itself. hundred and forty two years ago, four 13 The now officially disbanded Progressive to invest continuously in scientific and Conservative Party of Canada basically technological training for the next generation. accepted liberal Canada and its vision of That new economy will have to support ever enabling government. The Conservative Party larger numbers of older people on a currently in power is a different animal shrinking base of the working employed. So entirely. Its leadership harbours an incurable a government with foresight will have to distrust of liberal Canada. It cannot conceal its encourage immigration, raise productivity instinct that less government is invariably support retirement pensions and provide better government. For liberals, limited health care for those who have left the government is the condition of Canadian workforce. It will have to do all this while existence. stabilising climate change and pollution. Markets cannot do this alone. Without action The battle between liberal and conservatives by government, the future will not be in our country is therefore a battle over the prepared for our children. role of government in maintaining the unity of the country. Liberalism is well-suited to these tasks because liberals believe in government and In other countries, the unity of the state is a understand that pragmatic adaptation is a settled question, and so a politics of division better guide for leadership than ideology and can have no fatal consequences. In the dogmatism. United States, intense partisanship, attack ads and ideological vituperation do not endanger Isaiah Berlin always believed this about the a country that settled the question of its unity liberal creed. He remains an inspiration in the American Civil War. In our country, a because he was so lacking in doctrinaire politics that arouses ethnic and regional rigidity, so sensitive to context and national resentment, creating wedges in order to character, so realistic about the limits of the mobilise a conservative base vote, is playing possible and so committed to the possibilities with fire. Last December, the current Prime of a compassionate politics. Minister sought to survive a constitutional crisis of his own making by playing region For a liberal, governing is always about against region and language group against choosing. Choices between good and evil are language group. In our country, this is a obvious enough, though hard; the choices dangerous game. that bedevil democracies are choices between competing goods. Berlin was often Canada is sturdy and enduring, but it is also asked how a liberal should make such fragile. All politics, in our country, is the choices. One of his replies is worth quoting politics of national unity. Leadership that fails at length: to understand that is bound to fail. You weigh up the factors as best you can, Furthermore, in a time of crisis, leadership is you rely upon all the knowledge at your about preparing a country for the future. disposal, scientific, your own experience, Crisis foreshortens time horizons. All we can your general sense of what is likely to occur, think about is getting through the crisis. what human beings are like, what the world Leadership is about pushing these time is like. You discount your capacity for error, horizons back and preparing for the future. you listen to persons you think wise, in the end you decide as you decide, and you are Conservatives tend to believe that when responsible for what you have done, and if markets correct and growth returns societies what you have done is foolish, then no simply adapt to new economic conditions. In matter how pure your motives, you have reality, without foresight and planning by committed a crime. All you can say— all you government, people can be left unprepared can ever say — is that you have done your for new opportunities. The new economy best to behave well in accordance with such that will emerge from the creative moral values and such facts as you possess.” destruction of the last eighteen months will need new skills, and government will need The humility of this is as becoming as the 14 stoic willingness to take responsibility for GAZA failure. This may make a liberal politics sound like a lonely road indeed. But Berlin did not The Lib Dem Friends of Palestine were in close believe liberals faced the hard choices of contact with senior members of the Lib Dem team politics alone and without guides or in the weeks leading up to Conference, culminating inspirations. Always and everywhere, liberals in the Conference Motion which was passed. It was could turn for help, first to the enduring moved by Edward Davey MP, Liberal Democrat principles of the liberal creed, and then to Shadow Foreign Secretary and Lord Wallace of their country, to its institutions, its memory Saltaire (Lords Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs) and its traditions. His motto might be said to did the summation. The full text of the motion have been: in all matters of principle, stand said: fast for freedom and in all particulars, let your nation be your guide. Mine is Canada. Thank Emergency motion: Gaza you for listening. Conference notes: Michael Ignatieff MP, i) The terrible loss of life and destruction of property and infrastructure that took place during Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada Israel's attack on Gaza between December 2008 and February 2009, with hundreds of civilians and Isaiah Berlin Lecture, National Liberal Club, 8th children killed. July 2009 hosted by LI and the Canada Club. ii) The indiscriminate firing of rockets by militants from Gaza at Israeli civilians that has terrorised the population in southern Israel and also killed civilians and destroyed property, which Israel claims justified their military attack. iii) That both the European Union and the British Government declared that Israel's military action was disproportionate. ANNUAL GARDEN PARTY iv) Recent Amnesty International reports that have highlighted breaches of international law by both the Israeli Defence Force and HAMAS. v) The appalling state of the public infrastructure in Gaza following the long blockade, especially the sewage and water works, with the resulting threat of a major health epidemic such as a cholera outbreak. vi) Existing party policy setting out comprehensive proposals for an alternative path to peace, as well as calling on the European Union to review whether Israel is in enduring breach of Article 2 (on human rights) of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. After 20 years of Garden Parties in Moor Park we had a delightful change this year. Our Conference believes that: chairman, Dr. Julie Smith, invited us to a) The root cause for the continuation of this cycle Cambridge. We had the pleasure of enjoying of violence is the failure to reach a comprehensive the beautiful gardens of Clare College, by the and final peace settlement based on the recognition River Cam. A typical English Tea was served of the legitimate rights of both Israelis and in lovely surroundings and brilliant sunshine. Palestinians, as well as the legitimate rights of It was a splendid occasion; all who came had Syria (part of whose sovereign territory is under a most wonderful time. Thank you Julie. Israeli occupation) and the recognition of the State of Israel by the member states of the Arab League; Anneliese Waugh b) A sustainable solution will only be reached in the context of two separate states, mutually

15 recognised and internationally accepted, which are Gaza. viable, peaceful, democratic and exist within borders which are secure and based on the situation The Liberal Democrats now have a morally and before the 1967 conflict. intellectually coherent position which both Labour and the Conservatives lack and I would like to Conference approves the party leadership's call thank you all for your continued support. during the crisis for both sides to cease fire and for a suspension of British and EU arms sales to Israel John McHugo as well as the suspension of the update to Israel's Chairman, Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine Association Agreement with the EU. The British Group submitted their own Emergency Conference therefore calls: Resolution on Gaza to the LI Executive, eloquently 1. On the UK Government to propose to the moved by our chair, Jonathan Fryer, but it was United Nations Security Council an international deemed to be 'too detailed' to constitute an tribunal with powers to prosecute and compel the 'emergency resolution'. appearance of suspects and witnesses to investigate whether war crimes have been committed by PRIZE FOR FREEDOM Israel, HAMAS and any other parties during Israel's attack on Gaza, with the intention that there Liberal International has presented an annual should be full accountability for any or all persons Prize for Freedom since 1985. The Prize is who ordered or executed such war crimes, presented to an individual that made an including criminal penalties and the payment of outstanding contribution to human rights and reparations. political freedoms. This year it has been 2. On all parties to agree a permanent ceasefire awarded to Eric Avebury and an opening of the border crossings into Gaza, as the first step to negotiating a comprehensive and Lord Avebury has been a member of the final peace settlement, with negotiations to take Liberal Party since 1960 and as Eric Lubbock place on the basis of good faith, the principles of was MP for Orpington from 1962—70, during international law, all relevant UN Security which time he was Chair of the Parliamentary Council Resolutions and reference to the 2002 Civil Liberties Group. He entered the House Arab Peace Initiative. of Lords in 1971. 3. For a new initiative by the British Government to work with the European Union and the United Throughout his time in politics, he has been States to provide assistance to all parties to at the forefront of human rights activism both prevent arms smuggling into Gaza. within and beyond Parliament. He founded 4. For Britain and the European Union to make it the Parliamentary Human Rights Group in clear to Israel that the existing EU-Israel 1976 and having chaired it for 21 years now Association Agreement will now be suspended if acts as Vice-chair. He was the Liberal Israel does not urgently lift the blockade of Gaza, Spokesman on Immigration and Race including of construction materials essential for Relations until 1983 and went on to found rebuilding Gaza's basic public infrastructure such as the Parliamentarians for East Timor in 1988. sewage and water works, schools and hospitals. He acts as Vice-chair on the Parliamentary Motion Ends Group for Tibet and as a member of the In other words, it is now official party policy that Liberal Democrats Foreign Affairs Team. Lord there should be an international tribunal to look Avebury speaks frequently on conflict into war crimes committed by Israel, HAMAS resolution and human rights issues in and anyone else, an arms embargo on Israel, and a Parliament. suspension of the update to the EU Israel Association Agreement. As you will remember, it Beyond Parliament, Eric Avebury has was already party policy that Israel's trade campaigned on a wide range of global issues. privileges granted by the EU should be reviewed Of particular note is his advocacy for the and suspended if Israel was in breach of its human rights of people in Peru, Cameroon and Iran rights obligations under that Agreement. The where he regularly speaks for the victims of party now also calls for the suspension of those poverty and discrimination. Lord Avebury has privileges if Israel does not lift its blockade of been co-chair of the Chittagong Hill Tracts 16 Commission (promoting implementation of From the Chair the Peace Accords of 1997 with the Bangladesh Government) since April 2008. In his capacity of co-chair he has travelled several times to Bangladesh.

Lord Avebury is also the President of the Kurdish Human Rights Project and has visited the Kurdish region of Turkey four times. He I write as the incoming was in Ankara earlier this year (2009) Chairman of LIBG, having launching the Turkish translation of The recently had the honour to Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman succeed Jonathan Fryer. Empire, to which he contributed the foreword. In 2009 he was awarded the For those of you who don’t Liberal International Prize for Freedom for his know me, I’m a Cambridge contribution in campaigning for the protection lecturer in European politics of human rights in many countries across the and fellow of Robinson globe. College and a long-standing Liberal Democrat. My first encounter with John Alderdice, President of LI will represent Liberal International was being asked to write the Prize to Eric at 2.30pm on Wednesday the official history for the 50th anniversary in 23rd September at the Liberal Democrats' 1997. So my connection goes back some way Autumn Conference. but not nearly as far as many! I look forward to working with you and our liberal and Previous winners of the Prize include Raul democratic colleagues around the world. In Alfonsin (1985), Benazir Bhutto (1989), particular I am very keen that we expand Vaclav Havel (1990), Aung San Suu Kyi our membership and raise the profile of LIBG (1995), Martin Lee (1996), Helen Suzman through meetings, the website and, of course, (2002) and Sam Rainsy (2006), so Eric's in InterLib. good company. There have been several other changes on the Executive over the summer. Graham Watson MEP, Andy Watkins and Olly Wells have all stepped down and we extend our thanks to them as well as to Jonathan for their service. Baroness Scott, Baroness Garden and Gordon Lishman have all agreed to become Vice-Presidents and Richard Moore becomes a Patron. Stewart Rayment LI BUREAU has re-joined the Executive and Dirk Hazell and Claire Yorke have joined for the first MP was nominated by Ming time, in Claire’s case to help foster links with Campbell to be a Vice President of LI and the new Liberal International Parliamentary British member of the LI Bureau at the Forum, details of which are outlined Marrakech Congress three years ago. After elsewhere in this edition of InterLib. two terms of office, Charles has informed Nick Clegg that his constituency and other The incoming Executive is committed to commitments make it necessary for him to improving communications, starting with a stand down. Nick has nominated Robert complete overhaul of the website, which I Woodthorpe Browne, Vice Chair of LIBG and hope will be in place by October. We also Chair of the International Relations hope to strengthen links with other groups in Committee of the LibDems to replace the Lib Dems with an interest in international Charles. Robert will take over at the end of affairs. If you have any ideas about this, do the Cairo Congress in October. let me know.

17 In the next few months we will continue the CAIRO 2009 series of Forums on the ‘BRICs’, which started in April with a fascinating talk at Pushkin The 56th Congress of the Liberal International House. I’m delighted to say that we have will be held in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt finally been able to reschedule the event to from ThursdayOctober29th until Sunday commemorate Russell Johnstone; it will form November 1st 2009. Hosted by LI member a slightly delayed St. Andrew’s Day party – party the Democratic Front Party (DFP), the on 7th December. central theme of this pre-eminent liberal event for 2009 will be 'Education for the 21st I hope to see many of you over the coming Century', and will gather hundreds of liberal year. leaders and thinkers from around the world.

With best wishes, Hotel accommodation

Liberal International has arranged for a special accommodation deal with the Semiramis International Hotel for the duration of the Cairo Congress. These are the rates thatwillapply for bookings received before the 1st August: Single standard room(cityview) US$ 160.00 DA prevents ANC dominance Double standard room(city view) US$ 175.00 Single club room(cityview)US$ 210.00 The Democratic Alliance (DA), a LI Full Double club room(city view)US$225.00 Member party, became the largest opposition Nile View supplementUS$20.00 party of South Africa during the recent parliamentary elections, attaining 67 out of Close to the hotel is the Egyptian museum, a 400 parliamentary seats, an increase of 20 5-minute walk.Thedowntown and garden since the previous elections. The city area are around the hotel and offer a unprecedented gain meant that the ruling fascinating insight to art deco architecture African National Congress (ANC) led by Jacob constructed during the occupation by the Zuma fell short of achieving an absolute French and the British at the turn of the majority, which will require it to make more century.5minutes by taxi is the old palace political compromises. of the last King of Egypt, a fascinating step back in time. In the country's Western Cape Province, the DA achieved an absolute majority, prompting A special LI booking code to get a discount its leader Helen Zille to step down as the when booking this hotel will be made Mayor of the city of Cape Town to take up available shortly. In the meanwhile, to make her post as premier in this region. a booking, please contact LI events organiser Antonella Fabiani at antonella@liberal- With its outright majority in the Western international.org, or via telephone at +44 (0) Cape, the DA do not need a coalition partner, 207.839.5905. but Mrs. Zille did not exclude talking about the possibilities of a coalition: 'You only go into coalition if you do not have enough seats to govern on your own. But I will consider inviting competent people from smaller parties to join us in government, because they add value,' she said.

18 Liberal International Parliamentary disarmament, international terrorism and Forum Europe, the Liberal International Parliamentary Forum invites fellow liberal, Margaret Thatcher seems an unlikely host for social democrats and even Thatcherite a group of debating to join the debate. international affairs. Yet, under the watchful gaze of the portrait in the parliamentary Chris Phillips meeting room that bears her name, rather than the Iron Lady herself, the Liberal International Parliamentary Forum (LIPF) meet once a month over a glass of wine to Reviews debate and discuss the topical issues of the day. Under the patronage of Liberal A Fortunate Life, the autobiography of Paddy International British Group, the LIPF aims to Ashdown. give young, like-minded liberal professionals, Aurum Press, 2009 £20.00 parliamentary researchers, academics and specialists the opportunity to assert their The Liberal party and the Liberal Democrats views amongst their contemporaries as well have been blessed by the internationalism of as guest speakers drawn from MPs, Peers and their leaders. The book fell open with the regional experts. statement ‘it was a clear and distinguishing radical position that was consistent with our The group launched in Autumn 2008 with a Liberal Democrat internationalist traditions, debate led by MP on the gave us a raison d’être for our existence and impending US elections and the impact of a some much needed pride in ourselves’ new administration on international relations. concerning the issuing of UK passports to all Since then they have tackled democracy in the 3.5 million ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong Latin America, the Middle East Peace Process, who were British subjects. energy and conflict in the Caucasus, and Climate Change. Debates are lively and Having read that, whatever criticisms I might entertaining, offering insightful perspectives have of Ashdown’s leadership ceased to be from the cosmopolitan mix of members. relevant in the context of interLib. To some extent Paddy’s sojourn in Hong Kong may Designed to give young professionals access have aided his taking that position, but it to those in the field and the opportunity for came naturally to the party. What a lost them to air their views and share opinions, as opportunity for Britain – our Canadian cousins well as present their own work, meetings are laughing all the way to the bank. deliberately informal. Debates are free flowing with questions directed at participants There are four other distinct international rather than the Chair and members are moments in Ashdown’s leadership; Bosnia, actively involved in the group: invited to the Maastricht Treaty and Kosovo. There is no recommend further topics for discussion, to need to recite these; all of them correct present themselves or suggest people they positions to take. As we know Paddy went would like to hear speak. on to be the Rt. Hon Member for Sarajevo – Fitzroy Maclean might even concede that Since its inception, the group has attracted Ashdown knew something of what he was such impressive speakers as frontbench MPs talking about on Bosnia. Norman Baker and , Chatham House Associate Fellow, John Mitchell, and Stewart Rayment Head of Latin America at Business Monitor International, Rahul Ghosh.

The group is constantly expanding its base and hopes to reach out to all those liberals interested in international affairs. With future debates planned on Iran, nuclear 19 demonstrations at the university, he proposed Obituaries a debate with their leaders. His dialogue with Rudi Dutschke, sitting on an open trailer in the packed main square, captured national RALF DAHRENDORF attention – demonstrating Dahrendorf’s commitment to managed conflict as the basis Ralf Dahrendorf was a European Liberal for democratic society. In 1969 he became a intellectual who also pursued political careers foreign office minister in the German federal first in Germany and then in Britain. Over a government, in the SPD-FDP coalition led by long academic career his writings influenced Willi Brandt and Walter Scheel; and then in political and social thinking on both sides of 1970 was nominated one of the two German the Atlantic; after 1989 he was supported members of the European Commission. democratic transition in the former socialist states of central and eastern Europe, not only Four years in the Commission showed that he through his writings but also through was impatient with the constraints of engagement with new political elites. bureaucratic politics. Finding the atmosphere ‘like a church’ in which European integration Dahrendorf stood out both from his personal was the orthodox religion, he aroused a history and his intellectual stature. Born in storm of controversy with a critical article in Berlin, he was imprisoned in early 1945 for Die Zeit (thinly disguised as by ‘Wieland involvement in a schoolboy anti-Nazi group. Europa’). He afterwards accepted that he had His father, a Hamburg Social Democrat who misjudged his audience and the style of his had been arrested in 1933, had already been argument, though his criticisms were well- rearrested, having been involved in the July founded. In 1973-74 he moved portfolios, 1944 plot. Dahrendorf and a friend were developing European programmes in released by their SS guards as the Red Army education and science which extended EEC advanced, with papers forbidding access to policies into new fields. any further education. Two years later the family had to be rescued by the British from In 1974 he returned with his family to occupied Berlin after his father was one of London to become director of the LSE, also the tiny minority of Social Democrats who giving the 1974 BBC Reith lectures on the opposed the forced merger of the SPD with theme ‘The New Liberty’. He had a deep the Communist Party. When Dahrendorf affection for the LSE, set out in his History of entered the Lords 35 years later, he invited the London School of Economics (1995). He the British major who had organised their saw the School as an intellectual resource for escape – by then Lord Annan – to escort him informing public policy, attempting for his introduction. unsuccessfully to promote the LSE as the base for a ‘British Brookings’. He also himself After studying classics and philosophy in served on several government enquiries. At Hamburg the British government offered him the end of his term Huw Wheldon, then a scholarship to study for a second doctorate chairman of LSE Governors, described him as at the London School of Economics. At the ‘the most popular German in Britain since LSE he revelled in the conflicting academic Prince Albert’. approaches of Popper, Miliband, Titmuss and others, and drafted what became Class and He had remained formally on leave from the Class Conflict, a major influence on the rising University of Konstanz, to which he returned generation of sociologists in Europe and in 1984. He had become chairman of the North America. By 29 he was a full professor FDP party foundation in 1982, but the party in Hamburg, moving on to Tübingen and had moved to the right, uncomfortable with then in 1966 to the new university of his commitment to social inclusion and a Konstanz. By 1968 he was also a rising star wider definition of citizenship. His thoughts, within the FDP and a member of the Baden- therefore, of reviving his political career in Würtemberg Landtag. When an FDP Germany came to nothing; he was happier in conference in Freiburg ran into student his frequent visits to American universities, and in his role as a trustee of the Ford 20 Foundation. Three years later he returned to returned to Germany, and to German Britain as warden of St. Antony’s College, academic research. Oxford – a graduate college specialising in international studies – and the following year He was never entirely comfortable in any of he became a British citizen. He immersed the posts he held, except at the LSE; he was himself in the complex academic politics of instinctively a liberal dissenter, who enjoyed Oxford, raising money to develop its questioning the ruling consensus whatever it European Studies programme, and began to might be. He excelled in the world of ideas, act as an informal adviser to Paddy Ashdown, but rebelled at the necessary compromises then struggling to revive the fortunes of the and half-truths of party politics. He derived infant Liberal Democrat Party. great pleasure from the occasion when he was taken ill in Florence, and the paramedic At a time when opinion polls were in the ambulance recognised his name as a discouraging and the direction of the party leading sociological writer: a reputation that contested, he threw his intellectual weight stretched across the continent. Many of those behind the Liberal Democrats, in private and who knew him well found themselves in print. He was invaluable to Paddy disagreeing with him on practical political Ashdown on policy and principles, insisting issues (and on personal issues, as he moved that the Liberal commitment to both an open in his seventies from his second wife to a economy and social justice was a viable younger third wife in Germany) but retained alternative to Thatcherite conservatism and to immense affection for his company and for Labour commitment to centralised state the quality of his arguments. He believed in direction. In the early 1990s the Dahrendorf the power of reasoned argument, and in the Commission, with an impressive membership, ability of reasonable people across national argued the case for a ‘citizens’ Britain’, borders to find common ground in shared combining social cohesion, political values. engagement and a competitive market economy. In 1993 Ashdown nominated him William Wallace for the Lords. But he was too uncompromising, and too committed to his individual liberty of opinion, to be comfortable even on the Liberal Democratic Cyril Rose benches, and after several years moved to the Lords cross-benches, distinguishing With the passing of Cyril Rose on 11th himself by chairing the Select Committee on November last at the age of 86 years, and Delegated Powers for several years. after a long illness, the British Group lost one In the 1980s he was one of the early of its most dedicated servants. Not only was Western intellectuals to develop contacts with he the Group’s Secretary for 37 years, also dissidents in eastern Europe, working with editing it’s newsletter for much of this time, George Soros (an LSE graduate) and others. but he carried out this role with a genuine Once the Berlin wall came down he passion for Liberal principles and their travelled extensively across the region, application in the international arena. taking part in conferences and political dialogues, working with Soros’s Open Society I first met Cyril in 1952 when, at the age of Foundation, helping the region’s universities just sixteen, when on arriving at Pinner Hill to regain their independence and their Golf Club on one Saturday morning, I was reputation. His own experience of growing invited to make up a fourball with two of our up within a dictatorial state gave him a most distinguished members, both of whom natural sympathy with the problems of had a reputation for playing for large side transition. He was now a European public stakes. They told me that my partner would intellectual: contributing articles in be this accomplished young fellow from newspapers and journals in a wide range of Bedfordshire, and he turned out to be Cyril. countries – a long-standing columnist in Die Not only did we proceed to win the match Zeit and La Repubblica, as well as the author comfortably and then pick up three byes. The of over 30 books. In his last years he lesson that I learned at that early stage was 21 that Cyril was intensely competitive, and my Dr. Nat Micklem was our President and the subsequent knowledge of him, both on and distinguished Professor Hugh Tinker was our off the golf course never changed my mind. Chairman, and my fellow Treasurer was Herbie Aarons, a South African liberal exile In earlier times, Cyril had been educated at and another of Cyril’s golfing chums. I University College School and then spent six mention this particularly, because it illustrates years with the RAF during the Second World the crucial role played by Cyril in putting War. After completing his flying training in together the essential components of the Canada, he flew Bristol Beaufighters with British Group in those early days. Coastal Command. These aircraft carried torpedoes and were renowned for making My initial overseas visit on Liberal business precision attacks on enemy shipping at wave- was in 1964, when Cyril and I travelled top height over the North Sea. Cyril also together to Paris as members of a fraternal served in the Middle East, Italy, Greece and delegation of the Liberal Party to the Parti Cyprus. Soon after our first meeting, he Radical. That trip is worthy of mention for married Joyce Woolf and they began to raise several historic reasons. The delegation was their fine and highly accomplished family – led by and included other Gillian, Steve and Andy – in Moor Park, distinguished Liberals of that time such as Northwood, very close to where I have lived Heather Harvey, Nancy Seear, Richard Lamb for all of my life. and Len Skevington, all of whom were also very active members of the British Group. About seven years had passed before I was This was also my initial meeting with Russell to meet Cyril again, during which time I had Johnston, who had first been elected for the completed my national service in the RAF Inverness constituency only weeks earlier. and then joined the Liberal Party. We were He wore his kilt throughout, stimulating great to meet by chance when both campaigning fascination among the French. Two events during the Harrow West by-election in are worthy of mention. The first, which took 1959/60. I had read about his activities in place in a suite of offices on the Boulevard St the meantime, however. As a regular reader Germain des Prés, had been advertised as a of that great Liberal newspaper the News round table. I recall that when we arrived, Chronicle, I could hardly not have been we were confronted with no less than seven aware of his successful campaign to gain notables of the French Fourth Republic, admission for Jewish members into golf clubs. including several former prime ministers, of It has to be remembered that there was a far which there had been many among French greater degree of cliquishness in clubs of all radicals and their associates. We were also types in those days. Sadly, this stretched to a received at the Palais du Luxembourg by wholly detestable degree of anti-semitism. By another great French Radical, the President of this time, Cyril had become the chairman of the Senate Gaston Monnerville. He served as South West Herts Liberal Association and I President of the French second chamber for became aware of another of his qualities, twenty one years from 1947 to 1968. It is namely his compassion. interesting to reflect, in this year of Barack Obama’s ascent to the White House, that he I was to meet Cyril for a third time later in was a mulatto from French Guiana. And 1960 when I joined the British Group of when we observe conditions in the present Liberal International. He was already the day in les banlieus of Paris, there seems to Secretary, and it was not long before he was be something of a paradox. Gaston instrumental in me becoming the Treasurer, Monnerville derived great amusement from an office that I was to hold alongside him for reminding us that the grand office that he the next twenty seven years. I recall that, in occupied and the fine ornate chair in which those early days, Cyril was also the moving he sat had once been occupied by no less force behind the LibIntern Discussion Group, than Napoleon Bonaparte. Sadly, within years which regularly held stimulating meetings in of that visit, the Parti Radical was irrevocably an upstairs room over a pub just off fractured, and ever since we have had great Piccadilly, directly opposite the Ritz. In these difficulty in finding French counterparts with days, the prominent nonconformist theologian whom we can work within the Liberal 22 International. Magistrates’ Association and in her various other public offices. In 1967, when the LI Congress was held at St Catherine’s College Oxford to celebrate the To the last, we will remember Cyril for his twentieth anniversary of Liberal very sharp brain. Mercifully, this talent did International’s foundation, Cyril caused a not desert him when his physical health considerable stir among the delegates deteriorated in later life. As his life ebbed present. This was because he took the away in the nursing home in those final initiative of tabling a motion to the effect that months, Joyce would visit Cyril each the Peoples Republic of China should take up afternoon and they would do The Times the permanent seat on the United Nations crossword together. It has been a great Security Council, which at that time was still privilege to have shared so many interests occupied by Chinese Nationalists from over so many years with a friend such as Taiwan. (This change was actually to take Cyril. We will miss him greatly, for his place five years later). Cyril always enjoyed wisdom, his courage, his humour and his recalling this event, which was a compassion. We can rejoice that, apart from manifestation of another of his characteristics, those last few agonising years, he lived a namely his devilment. I also think that we long, enjoyable and rewarding life, and my should see this as just one more confirmation thoughts are often with Joyce, their three that Cyril was never a man of the children and their eight grandchildren. establishment. Derek Honeygold I suppose that I must have travelled abroad on almost fifty occasions on British Group business in the ensuing years, and Cyril was Britton Goudie present on many of them. There was, for example, the first ever LI Congress outside of A large congregation in Perth Methodist Europe, which was in Ottawa, Canada in Church was fitting tribute to Britton Goudie 1979, when the great Pierre Trudeau was at whose belief in and support of the Liberal the peak of his power, although paradoxically cause never wavered. then out of office for a short period of about six months. Another was the Congress in Tel Although his family roots were in Shetland, Aviv in 1984, just after the first intifada, when he was born in Birmingham in 1914 and a small group of us, including Cyril and spent must of his professional life as a lawyer Joyce, took advantage of the occasion to take in London. Having moved to Scotland in a ten-day bus trip throughout Israel and the 1978 he was candidate for Perth & East West Bank, from Massada in the south to Perthshire in the 1979 General Election and Kiryat Shamona, Banias and the Golan settled in Scone where he remained, with his Heights in the north. wife Joan, as an active member and office Despite all these distractions, I feel sure that bearer and became a diligent councillor on it was his family that gave Cyril the greatest Perth & Kinross District Council. His role as a pleasure and satisfaction in life. Although she long standing committee member of the insists that she is first and foremost a mother, Scottish Section of Liberal International and Gillian is now a Consultant Gynaecologist at constant urging that activity must triumph Queen Charlottes, now part of the renowned over lethargy were valued greatly. Hammersmith Hospital; like his father, Steve pursued a career in retailing before moving His faith, formed in boyhood days, in into charity work; and, after spending some Liberalism and Methodism derived from the years in banking, Andy moved into the same source. He was a local preacher for 60 crucial area of financing public/private sector years. To all who know him he has left an infrastructure projects. And Cyril always gave enduring example and memory of a great great support to Joyce: when she served in Liberal. the roles of President and Chairman of the Executive of the Liberal Party, over the three R Ian Elder years when she was National Chair of the 23 Member of the post war Anglo-German Friendship Association led to meeting Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Anthony Eden at social evenings, although in terms of German politics she always preferred the SPD and FDP coalition that followed under Willie Brandt.

Patsy married Murray Ramsay on 23rd May 1953. They had two children, Anthony & Clare, and brought their family up in Cuffley, Broxbourne and finally Harlow (1972-1984).

Patsy had a long Liberal heritage, which she felt stemmed in part from her Steiner education - one of the other causes for which she had great energy and affection. She was a Liberal councillor for the Old Harlow Ward of Harlow, taking the seat from the Conservatives in a bye-election in 1981. Her husband Murray served as a JP in Harlow.

On retirement in 1984 they moved to the Isle of Dogs where their work for the cause was unstinting to the end. Just before her death Patsy was researching the activities of Patsy Ramsay the BNP in east London with the possibility of court action against them. When ever there was a lack-lustre bye- election somewhere in the East End that few Patsy was also a Freeman of the City of could be bothered with, chances were that London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Patsy would be one of those you'd bump Company of Gardeners. into. She served on the LI(BG) executive for many years - a committed Internationalist and Patsy died on the 2nd August 2008 after a one of its more useful members, since she first fatal stroke, no warning, she just passed actually did things rather than just talked. away, leaving family and friends shocked, but glad there had been so little fear of death or Patricia Ann Donohue was born on the 16th suffering. Murray had died earlier in February 1932 in Kew, . Together November 2004 after a 2 – year battle with with the rest of her family she survived one cancer, perhaps the aftermath of a of the first V2 rocket attacks on London that courageous, if reckless rescue of a colleague damaged her home in September 1944 and when working in the nuclear industry. killed some of those in her neighbourhood. Covered in shattered glass it enforced her life A great sense of humour and lover of life, long hated for war and its consequences. she leaves children and grandchildren whom she adored. She attended Michael Hall School, in Minehead (during the evacuation), Forest Stewart Rayment Row & the Rudolph Steiner school in Hannover as 1st unaccompanied minor allowed to visit post war Germany in 1949- 1950, this took a year of badgering the Ministry.

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