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Special Historic Section 0 What the General Election Numbers Mean - Michael Steed 0 Runners and Riders for Next Leader 0 Liberator at 50 - special historic section 0 What the general election numbers mean - Michael Steed 0 Runners and Riders for next leader Issue 400 - April 2020 £ 4 Issue 400 April 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..5 You can subscribe or renew online using PayPal at ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END ............................................5 You’ll soon by seeing Liberator only as a free PDF, not in print. Here, the Liberator our website: www.liberator.org.uk Collective explains why, and how this will work Or send a cheque (UK banks only), payable to RUNNERS AND RIDERS .........................................................................6..7 “Liberator Publications”, together with your name Liberator offers a look at Lib Dem leadership contenders and full postal address, to: NEVER WASTE A CRISIS .......................................................................8..9 Be very afraid, even when coronavirus is over, about what the government will seize Liberator Publications the opportunity to do, says Tony Greaves Flat 1, 24 Alexandra Grove GET LIBERALISM DONE .....................................................................10..11 London N4 2LF The answers to the Liberal Democrats’ plight can all be found in the party’s England constitutional preamble, if only it would act on them, says Adrian Sanders BACK TO THE FUTURE ........................................................................12..13 THE LIBERATOR Leave voters were seduced by an imagined past, but that was no reason to ignore COLLECTIVE them, says Matthew Huntbach Jonathan Calder, Richard Clein, Howard Cohen, Gareth Epps, Catherine Furlong, David Grace, AN EXERCISE IN INSANITY ...............................................................14..15 The targeting strategy has delivered three poor general election results in a row. Time Sarah Green, Peter Johnson, Wendy Kyrle-Pope, to ditch it, says Mick Taylor Tim McNally, George Potter, Stewart Rayment, Kiron Reid, Harriet Sherlock, Mark Smulian, RESPECT FOR CULTURE, OR RESPECT FOR WOMEN? ................16..17 William Tranby, Claire Wiggins, Nick Winch The UN shouldn’t congratulate itself on women’s rights until male leaders become role models, says Rebecca Tinsley Liberator (ISSN 0307-4315) is printed by ANYONE BUT TRUMP .........................................................................18..19 Lithosphere, 110 Mount View Road, London N4 4JX Joe Biden could beat the worst president in American history and it’s time for Sanders supporters to unite behind him, says Martha Elliott LIBERATOR WHEN THE COUNTRY BURNS AWAY .............................................20..21 Steve Yolland reports on the impact of Australia’s devastating fires on homes, farms and people and wonders if there is more to come 0 was founded in 1970 and is produced by a voluntary editorial collective. BRING DEMOCRACY TO EVERYDAY LIFE .......................................22..23 The UK needs a democratic revolution, drawing in decades of liberal thought, says 0 acts as a forum for debate among radical liberals in Bernard Greaves all parties and none OUT WITH THE OLD ...........................................................................24..26 The general election was bad for the Liberal Democrats but left them with a new 0 welcomes written contributions on relevant topics, up source of winnable seats. Michael Steed crunches the numbers to 1800 words LIBERATOR 400 A LOOK BACK .......................................................................................27 We reserve the right to shorten, alter or omit any To mark the milestones of Liberator being both 400 issues and 50 years old, material. there’s been a raid on the archives Liberator People .....................................................................................27 DATA PROTECTION WHAT A LONG STRANGE TRIP IT’S BEEN .....................................28..30 We hold subscribers’ names and Mark Smulian looks at 400 issues and 50 years of Liberator addresses to fulfil our contract to provide Historic Covers .......................................................................................30..31 copies of Liberator, and to contact Historic Tovey - April 1972 .....................................................................32..33 them about their subscription. We do not pass details to third parties - unless Historic Cowe - Issue 101 ......................................................................34..35 required by law - with the exception Historic Russell - Issue 253 ....................................................................36..37 of our distributor, who deletes the files used for address labels after use. To alter Historic Tinsley - Issue 318 ....................................................................38..39 or remove your details or discuss any Historic Titley - Issue 351 .......................................................................40..41 enquiry please contact: [email protected] ADMINISTERING THE BEST MEDICINE ..........................................42 Roger Hayes recalls the heyday of the Liberal Revue and wonders whether anything like it could happen now INTERNET Email: [email protected] MUSIC LOVERS BEWARE ....................................................................43 Website: http://www.liberatormagazine.org.uk Gareth Epps looks at the history of the Glee Club and Liberator Songbook LETTERS .................................................................................................44..45 Blog: http://liberator-magazine.blogspot.co.uk REVIEWS ................................................................................................47..47 Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/ groups/6806343091 Lord Bonkers’ Diary ...............................................................................40 Picture Credits: Cover picture - Christy Lawrance/ JIHopgood/Flickr Pages 6-7, 45 - Liberal Democrats. Pages 16-17 Rebecca Tinsley BIRTHDAY WISHES This has provoked a flurry of postings on Liberal Liberator is 50 years and 400 issues old and we’ve Democrat Voice and elsewhere to the effect that an anniversary surprise that marks a radical the party cannot possibly hold position X in case it departure from the past for us (see page five). only appeals to voter group Y and so alienates Z, This issue deals with current topics but also includes and therefore it must try never to offend anyone but a look back at how Liberator has been produced over somehow magically take positions that appeal to those decades and some of what it has published. voters with fundamentally different opinions in their Going through back issues can induce an unwelcome ‘drawbridge down versus drawbridge up’ view of the sense of deja vu - in particular as writers struggled world. with the unresolved problem of how and why the party It’s one thing being a broad church, but quite another should stress liberalism rather than seek transient being an open-air one. There have to be some ‘walls’ - wheezes to win. For those interested the more recent limits on who the party appeals to - or it will appeal to Liberators from 2001 onwards are available on our no-one. website. One thing the party should have learnt by now is that Current events though crowd in with the coronavirus going back to the ‘we can win everywhere’ approach is outbreak causing havoc with - most importantly - a recipe for relying on transient support that has to be death and illness, but also with the political timetable won afresh at each election because it does not involve and activity. political commitment to the party in the way that the At the time of writing the May local elections have Conservatives and Labour still enjoy the automatic been postponed, the Lib Dem conference in York had loyalty of those who see them as defenders of their been cancelled and it was unclear what would happen interests. with the party leadership election, which although Another factor for voters in the Lib Dem leadership conducted online and by post normally involves contest to bear in mind is how the public are likely to hustings meetings to question candidates. see the eventual winner. Given this will eventually go ahead, one question Probably not even her most dedicated internal that readers might wish to put to whoever stands detractors expected Jo Swinson to perform as poorly as is whether they think the geographical areas and she did in the general election campaign - compounded demographics the party has lost can be recovered or by losing her own seat - let alone that she would prove whether those it has newly won compensate enough. unpopular with voters. Having a female leader is As Michael Steed’s detailed analysis of the results laudable, but it’s now clear that it matters a lot who in this issue suggests, the west country is now a Lib that female is. Dem-free zone apart from Bath at parliamentary level, Failure to engage the public is not though a and the liberal tradition in the Pennines looks in poor matter of gender. Apart from the brief flaring of shape. By contrast the position in and around London Cleggmania, Nick Clegg was neither very popular or and university towns looks somewhat encouraging. much respected either before or
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