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17 Jul, 2024
Stephen 0 Comment
What was and wasn’t in the King’s Speech today

What wasn’t in the King’s Speech today? Not Colin Firth anyway. The real King’s Speech!

1. Social Care. No mention of helping carers. A cross-party review on reform options is taking place though seemingly, so that will involve us Liberal Democrats.

2. Cleaning up our water. OK, banning bonuses and and making bosses liable, but what has really changed to stop sewage?

3. The two child benefit cap that’s been there 8 years. This is really a big one. Not scrapped. That’s the number one thing that could have stopped poverty in families. Reform of universal credit generally would have been good to see.

4. More on NHS reform and reducing queues.

5. Nothing on compensation for the Postal Workers or WASPI women.

What was good to see?

1. Banning conversion therapy. The state should not tell people who they can or cannot be.

2. Employment rights. End to zero hour contracts.

3. Investing in renewable energy. The power of countries like Russia comes from their oil, we have to break that.

4. Halving violence against women and girls.

5. Mental Health Act reforms.

6. Devolution. More power to local government means more democracy.

7. The football regulator is good news for Southend United.

I think people are hungry for change: if they don’t see the cost of living improving and availability of doctors and dentists getting better, all these other good things will not convince them they’re much better off.

11 Jul, 2024
Stephen Cummins 0 Comment
Pride in the name of love

Couldn’t resist a U2 reference.

Liberalism is the opposite of Facism or Communism. It emphasises the freedom of the individual over the collective. That is not to say it is purely self-interested. Democracy means all people are equal and deserve to be treated as such. That’s why we are Liberal Democrats.

That’s the law in the UK too. I get to say who or what I am and so does everyone else and no-one gets to tell anyone else who can can or can’t be. It is all laid out in The Equality Act 2010.

My freedom can’t impinge on your freedom, but also vice versa. The key word is equality. It doesn’t matter how a person identifies themselves. That is their business and their right.

You have a right to say what you believe so long as it doesn’t take away someone else’s right to be who they are. Freedom of speech is not absolute.

That is the foundation of a liberal democracy. Be proud of who you are, don’t be ashamed or make anyone else feel ashamed. We all have the same rights to be ourselves but we’re not free to oppress anyone else.

You can’t make one group of people more safe by making another group less safe. That’s not freedom or equality.

I will fight to defend anyone’s rights but not at someone elses expense. Simple as that. As George Orwell pointed out in Animal Farm in 1945, if one group wins their freedom but begins to oppress another group, they become as bad as the original oppressors. Let’s not do that.

Lu Williams
12 May, 2024
Stephen 0 Comment
Grrrl Power

Grrrl Zine Fair started in 2015 as a way to bring together feminist self-publishing through an event. They create events, workshops, and zines and manage a queer and feminist zine library based in Southend at the Old Waterworks. Organiser is Lu Williams, the artist who makes zines and curates the library. Ably assisted by her dog, Poly.

They bring girls, women, transgender, non-binary, and gender-fluid people to the forefront, prioritizing their voices through events, commissioning new artworks, hosting zine and skill-sharing workshops, talks, and occasionally curating exhibitions.

Hand-making a paper magazine to share with like-minded creatives is more like something I did in the 1980’s so it’s good to see this grass-roots cool stuff is still happening.

Many being students I asked them would they vote Liberal Democrat? They said no, they’d rather vote for the Green Party. There’s a lesson there: the young remember and once trust is gone, it is gone forever. Maybe if we can come up with some way to undo our mistake, like debt forgiveness, increasing the threshold when it kicks in or simply paying it instead of the student is the solution.

Education is a right not a product to be sold. Parents like my wife and I have already paid for my daughter’s university education through my taxes. Not to mention other sons and daughters’ educations. That’s how it should be in a liberal democracy.

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