0 The Tories’ social care scandal - Claire Tyler & Margaret Lally 0 Government ‘worse than incompetence’ - Paul Clein 0 Time for universal basic income - Paul Hindley Issue 401 - June 2020 £ 4 Issue 401 June 2020 SUBSCRIBE! CONTENTS Liberator magazine is published six/seven times per year. Commentary .......................................................................3 Subscribe for only £25 (£30 overseas) per year. Radical Bulletin ...................................................................4..7 You can subscribe or renew online using PayPal at THE PEOPLE THEY FORGOT .........................................8..9 our website: www.liberator.org.uk It was too little, too late when the Government tried to protect care homes from Covid-19, leading to a scandal of needless deaths, Or send a cheque (UK banks only), payable to say Claire Tyler and Margaret Lally “Liberator Publications”, together with your name and full postal address, to: BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS ...........................................10..11 The Tory Government’s response to the pandemic has been marked by Liberator Publications something even worse than incompetence, says Paul Clein Flat 1, 24 Alexandra Grove London N4 2LF OWNERSHIP FOR ALL ...................................................12..13 England An old Liberal idea of universal ownership can be matched with a newer one of universal basic income for a post-pandemic world, THE LIBERATOR says Paul Hindley COLLECTIVE THERE GOES THE HIGH STREET ................................14..15 Jonathan Calder, Richard Clein, Howard Cohen, Online shopping and home working will reshape town centres and Gareth Epps, Catherine Furlong, David Grace, Sarah Green, Peter Johnson, Wendy Kyrle-Pope, commuting, but don’t think it’s all good news, says Mark Smulian Tim McNally, George Potter, Stewart Rayment, BLOWING A HOLE IN COUNCILS’ BUDGETS .........16..17 Kiron Reid, Harriet Sherlock, Mark Smulian, Richard Kemp looks for opportunities despite the plight of local William Tranby, Claire Wiggins, Nick Winch authority finance in the pandemic Liberator (ISSN 0307-4315) is printed by CHINA SEIZES ITS CHANCE AS Lithosphere, 110 Mount View Road, London N4 4JX COVID-19 HITS AFRICA .................................................18..19 The coronavirus recession is plunging Africa further into debt as LIBERATOR demand for commodities falls along with oil prices, says Rebecca Tinsley 0 was founded in 1970 and is produced by a BEVERIDGE RIDES AGAIN ............................................20 voluntary editorial collective. A response to the pandemic demands full throated and unequivocal social liberalism, says Liz Makinson 0 acts as a forum for debate among radical liberals in all parties and none WONDERING WHY ........................................................21 The election review skewered Liberal Democrat processes but also 0 welcomes written contributions on relevant topics, up found the party lacked a compelling vision of what it is for, to 1800 words says David Grace THE MISSING BIT IN THE MIDDLE .............................22..23 We reserve the right to shorten, alter or omit any material. Neglected by both south and north the Midlands needs Liberal Democrat activity back, says Michael Mullaney DATA PROTECTION WHERE DID THE SEATS GO? .......................................24..25 Northern England has gone from a region in which Liberal Democrats We hold subscribers’ names and prospered to a near desert. Can this be turned around, asks Laura addresses to fulfil our contract to provide Gordon copies of Liberator, and to contact them about their subscription. We do 50 YEARS ACROSS A TRIBAL DIVIDE ..........................26..27 not pass details to third parties - unless Stephen Farry and Denis Loretto mark the Alliance Party’s half century required by law - with the exception and wonder whether Brexit will undo Northern Ireland’s political of our distributor, who deletes the files stability used for address labels after use. To alter or remove your details or discuss any LETTERS ...........................................................................28 enquiry please contact: REVIEWS ..........................................................................29..31 [email protected] Lord Bonkers’ Diary .........................................................32 INTERNET Picture Credits: Email: [email protected] Cover picture, Page 15 - Christy Lawrance Website: http://www.liberatormagazine.org.uk Page 17 - Joan Sanders/Wikimedia Commons Blog: http://liberator-magazine.blogspot.co.uk Page 19 - Mark Smulian Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/ groups/6806343091 SOUNDS OF SILENCE Lockdown measures saw vastly increased and Boris Johnson affected Churchillian rhetoric in intrusive powers for both government and the police dealing with the pandemic but doesn’t his conduct and history suggests that neither will give these up and that of his ministers remind one of a quite without a struggle even when the pandemic passes. different wartime character - Private Walker of GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME Dad’s Army? Baroness Thornhill’s review of the 2019 general “Get you some PPE, guv, Turkish it is, best quality, election fiasco (see age 4) puts into stark terms I know someone who can get you a load of testing kits what its under-resourced predecessor of 2017 was and apps too, this bloke down the bookies swears they only able to allude to - that Lib Dem headquarters work fine.” Maybe it’s no surprise that a government of spivs was a shambles and that both campaigns were, should so utterly fail to provide PPE to health workers, unlike most earlier ones, damaged rather than neglect care homes and casually disregard of the early enhanced by the party leader. stages of Covid-19. The report makes clear there were gross errors - The failings of John Major on Black Wednesday pale most of which boil down to only believing good news, beside those of the present government, but Major’s refusing to listen to criticism and holding the party’s reputation for competence never returned and the local activists in contempt. Tories were slaughtered at the next general election. All this reached its nadir in 2019 but the report Johnson never had much of a reputation beyond a demonstrates that the roots of disaster lay far back. jovial persona and opportunist support for Brexit. As Thornhill says; “Many of the challenges faced were Meanwhile Labour has ditched the terminally useless well documented in the reviews of 2017 and 2015, and Corbyn and got itself a leader who might regain were still to be implemented.” credibility. Even where changes were implemented there were This may remind anyone around in the 1990s of the problems. It is alarming that not four years after last time a government crumbled into public contempt former party president Baroness Brinton’s governance in the face of a re-energised opposition such that even review, Thornhill can find: “Our governance structures its natural supporters lost faith. are a mess and don’t do what they are supposed to.” Which makes the reticence of the Liberal Democrats It’s also alarming that nothing was done to learn unfortunate. While it’s true that the party struggles lessons: “It was not clear who was in charge [of the to get into the media, a look at its website in mid-May campaign]. This was said across the country, within had little to say about the pandemic and far from HQ and from activists and candidates in many attacking the government’s competence was largely places. The range of people that were named as anodyne. being in charge included the chair of the campaign The government’s performance puts it there for the committee, the chief executive of the party, the party taking and if the party does not do that, Labour will president, the director of communications, the director with its new burst of energy. of campaigns and elections and the leader’s head of Having had a general election review that criticised office.” the 2019 campaign for - among much else - being That preceding paragraph in fact comes from the concerned with niche subjects, the position of the Lib 2017 review, but the concerns expressed can be found Dems should be about defending jobs and liberty. in almost identical terms in Thornhill’s report. Among the many irritations of the lockdown has Most Liberator readers will have studied the report been people who ought to know better wittering about and drawn their own conclusions. hearing birdsong due to the unaccustomed silence. But as the party gears up for a leadership election That’s the silence of 40,000-odd graves, and not an this summer, the report raises some warning signs to occasion for rejoicing. look for, though of course does not express any view on It’s also the silence of an imminent serious recession who should win. with lost jobs, lost incomes, lost spending and the Jo Swinson comes out of it as having spent years familiar consequences of unemployment and poverty - plotting and positioning to be leader without having poorer health, crumbling infrastructure, rising crime, much idea why she wanted the job or of how to do it. xenophobia, even a danger of violence. Will the next leader be more open, less prone to That is what will concern people above all, not unwise interference and initiatives and willing to fanciful so-called ‘positives of the lockdown’.Indeed, accept the curbs on their powers Thornhill suggests? Brexit still lurks round the corner ready to destroy There are some questions for the virtual hustings. what remains