Roz Savage's Blog, page 2

Pushing for the finish

Two weeks today, the UK heads to the polls. With especial apologies to those who have signed up to my newsletter in the last few days, I’m hitting the pause button on these updates until after the General Election.

Instead, you can keep up to date with me on Facebook. I’m also now regularly posting videos and photos on Instagram.

And you can catch up with my full newsletter archive on my website.

It’s the final push for the line so I’m going to be out knocking on doors and meeting residents every moment of the day (or at least, the moments when the football isn’t on – interrupting a match would NOT be the way to win friends, influence people, and win votes!).

Will normal service be resumed after the General Election? Who knows? I hope to be settling into an exciting new normal – as the first MP for the new South Cotswolds constituency!

Lib Dem Manifesto

I’m very proud of our manifesto, with its cornerstone pledges on the NHS, cost of living, the environment, food and farming. Check it out online here.

Quote of the Week

“They should rule who are able to rule best.”
— Aristotle

Wishing you all best – and I’ll see you on the other side!

Time to put Britain and its people first

The Guardian reports that national pride is divided along party lines. “Labour and the Green party are much more popular among people who say they have little or no pride in their country. Meanwhile, the Tories are popular among people who describe themselves as patriotic.” The article does not specify the position of Lib Dems, so I will fill that void with my own view.

National pride seems to have fallen out of fashion, possibly tainted by association with far right groups. This is not what pride should mean.

Pride can be an ambiguous word. I’m not talking about arrogance, nationalism, racism, xenophobia, isolationism or over-pumped up patriotism.

What I mean by pride is a sense of loyalty and affection for our own country and our compatriots, a desire to see us do well but not at the expense of other countries, and the ability to hold our heads up high in the knowledge that we are responsible international citizens.

Without pride, in fact, why care about our country at all?

If we’re not proud of our country, then why would we endeavour to make it a more prosperous country for future generations (prosperity in the broadest, most inclusive sense of the word – not just economic prosperity)?

If we’re not proud of our country, why would we work to protect our countryside, our historic buildings, and our town centres?

If we’re not proud of our country, why would we bother to preserve our culture, arts, public services and institutions?

Britain is far from perfect. Right now, many of us feel Britain is broken, lost, and has lost its sense of direction. But this is no reason to give up on Britain.

We can and must get ourselves out of this trough of despondency and back to a place where British institutions function as they should, where everybody has a sense of belonging and self-worth, and we have a long-term vision of where we are heading as a country – together.

And this vision needs to transcend party politics. It needs to survive transitions of government. Winston Churchill apparently listed his priorities as: First – country, second – constituency, third – party. 

He was also one of the first to espouse a “United States of Europe.” Pride in your own country doesn’t have to be a barrier to international cooperation.

Right now, in the thick of a General Election campaign, it often seems like many politicians are more interested in scoring points off each other than in serving the needs of the people and country, and those needs are many. Sir Ed Davey shows notable political restraint and empathy with people, while emphasising the Lib Dem concern for our health and care services.

It’s high time for a new, kinder, more collaborative politics, that moves beyond party political prejudice, and puts Britain and our people first.

Lib Dem Manifesto

Our manifesto was launched on Monday, and I couldn’t be more proud. Our flagship NHS policy is front and centre. Check it out online here.

Campaign Notes

To keep up to date with me and my campaign, please follow me on Facebook. I’m also now regularly posting videos on Instagram, with information on the logistics of voting (especially helpful for first-time voters), Lib Dem pledges, and my own personal views on current affairs.

We’re always keen to welcome more campaigners to our team to help with deliveries and/or doorknocking. Please consider lending us an hour or two a month. Email my wonderful Campaign Organiser, Poppy Fair, for more details.

We are also looking for financial support. Every pound matters – even the price of a weekly latte would help. If you’re ready for positive change in the South Cotswolds, please put your money where your mouth is by hitting Reply to this email, and I’ll let you know how. Thank you!

Quote of the Week

“Your pride for your country should not come after your country becomes great; your country becomes great because of your pride in it.”
― Idowu Koyenikan
Have a great week!

Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash

Which would YOU prefer?

Today, I will be heading to Cirencester for the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, which marked the beginning of the end of World War II. This solemn occasion reminds us of the immense sacrifices made by countless individuals to secure peace and freedom.

A Veteran’s Vivid Memories

Last week in Kemble I met a Normandy veteran as he was walking (albeit with a walking frame) to the village hall. He is celebrating his 101st birthday this week. He told me he could remember Normandy like it was yesterday, a testament to the indelible impact of such experiences.

Personal Connection to War

My own family has been touched by the tragedies of war. My grandfather, a stretcher-bearer in the trenches during World War I, died in 1942 at the age of 49 due to the lasting effects of being gassed. His wheezing and damaged lungs were a constant reminder of the horrors he had endured. I don’t think my father, who was 13 at the time, ever quite recovered from the loss.

The Futility of War

As we witness ongoing conflicts in places like Gaza, Ukraine, and elsewhere, with countless lives lost and limbs shattered, I can’t help but question the efficacy of violence in resolving disputes.

How can the killing or maiming of human beings ever truly solve anything?

We like to think of modern humanity as sophisticated, yet we continue to resort to barbaric means to settle our differences, perpetuating a cycle of trauma that will inevitably resurface in the future.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Peace and Prevention

I am proud of the Liberal Democrat stance on the Gaza conflict. From the outset, we have called for an immediate bilateral ceasefire, a lasting peace, and a two-state solution, led by our half-Palestinian MP, Layla Moran. We support the UK’s participation in organisations like NATO to increase international cooperation and avoid conflict.

Moreover, we wish to reach a defence and security agreement with the EU, a framework created with the explicit intention of ending the “frequent and bloody conflicts that culminated in the Second World War“. This agreement would serve as another bridge back to the EU, fostering greater cooperation and understanding among nations.

A Hope for the Future

As we commemorate the sacrifices of those who fought for our freedom, I dare to hope that in the 21st century, we will find better ways to settle our differences than by inflicting deep wounds on young bodies and minds. The path to peace lies in the avoidance of war, and through dialogue, diplomacy, and mutual understanding, we can create a world where conflicts are resolved without resorting to violence.

Other News

Sadly Rishi’s surprise announcement scuppered our plans for the summer garden party/fundraiser at the home of Jackie Llewelyn Bowen this Friday. Under the strict laws on campaign finance, we would have had to declare the value of all donated services, auction prizes, etc. against our tightly-capped budget. I’ve now sent out two emails about it – one via Eventbrite, and one via normal email. If you are a ticketholder, please let me know if you want a refund, or if you would like to donate the price of your ticket.

Campaign Notes

To keep up to date with me and my campaign, please follow me on Facebook. Or on LinkedIn, if that’s more your style. I’m also now regularly posting videos on Instagram, with information on the logistics of voting (especially helpful for first-time voters), Lib Dem pledges, and my own personal views on current affairs.

We’re always keen to welcome more campaigners to our team to help with deliveries and/or doorknocking. Please consider lending us an hour or two a month. Email my wonderful Campaign Organiser, Poppy Fair, for more details.

We are also looking for financial support. Every pound matters – even the price of a weekly latte would help. If you’re ready for positive change in the South Cotswolds, please put your money where your mouth is by hitting Reply to this email, and I’ll let you know how. Thank you!

Quote of the Week

“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
— Dwight D Eisenhower
Have a great week!

Photo by Duncan Kidd on Unsplash

Positive policies rather than politicking and potshots

I expect that everybody who is going out doorknocking on behalf of a political party during this UK General Election campaign occasionally finds themselves on the receiving end of comments like:

You’re all in it for yourselvesYou’re all cheats and liarsI wouldn’t vote for any of you(and my particular favourite) You’re all morons

Look through any book of amusing quotes, and you’ll probably find a section on political insults dating back centuries (e.g. Benjamin Disraeli: “The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity.”) So the phenomenon is nothing new.

But does it have to be this way?

Do the pantomime performances at Prime Minister’s Questions enhance accountability, or are they just plain embarrassing? Is this childish tribal rivalry really the best way to serve the people of our country?

I don’t think so.

The public want to see more dignity, integrity and seriousness restored to political debate – not politicians tearing lumps out of each other (and the media have a role to play here too, editing more for substance and less for sensationalism). These are challenging times, and proper debate is essential for proper leadership.

Parliament in many ways sets the tone for our entire society. If we see our political leaders fanning the flames of tribal hatred, as some of them do, it gives others permission to do the same. Labelling and dehumanising people whose views differ from your own encourages the abuse and threats hurled at politicians, leading to personal danger and even murder – Jo Cox MP (at the height of Brexit fever in 2016) and Sir David Amess MP (in 2021).

The nastiness keeps many good people out of politics. Ultimately it isn’t for the greatest good of the country if the only people willing to stand for Parliament are those with the hide of a rhinoceros (or those who can afford to – but that’s a topic for another day). We need to draw on the widest and most diverse pool of talent.

I’d like to see the Nolan Principles of Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty and Leadership lived out every day, and enshrined in our country’s governance at every level.

This may be my idealism showing, but I’m more interested in positive policies than in politicking and potshots. Our dysfunctional democracy needs a reset, a clear signal to the great many disillusioned voters that we’re making a fresh start.

Proportional representation would, I believe, send that clear signal – a voting system that is fair and inclusive, combined with decentralisation of power, allowing communities to have much more say in the decisions that affect their lives.

I believe that change is coming, and I trust I will be in a position to help bring it into reality.

Other News

Sadly Rishi’s surprise announcement scuppered our plans for the summer garden party/fundraiser at the home of Jackie Llewelyn Bowen. Under the strict laws on campaign finance, we would have had to declare the value of all donated services, auction prizes, etc. against our tightly-capped budget. If you’d bought tickets, you should have had an email from us about refunds – if not, please check your spam folder.

Campaign Notes

To keep up to date with me and my campaign, please follow me on Facebook. Or on LinkedIn, if that’s more your style. I’m also now regularly posting videos on Instagram, with information on the logistics of voting (especially helpful for first-time voters), Lib Dem pledges, and my own personal views on current affairs.

We’re always keen to welcome more campaigners to our team to help with deliveries and/or doorknocking. Please consider lending us an hour or two a month. Email my wonderful Campaign Organiser, Poppy Fair, for more details.

We are also looking for financial support. Every pound matters – even the price of a weekly latte would help. If you’re ready for positive change in the South Cotswolds, please put your money where your mouth is by hitting Reply to this email, and I’ll let you know how. Thank you!

Quote of the Week

“Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.”
— Laurence Sterne
 

The Great British Sewage Scandal

Note: I’d already drafted this email before Rishi Sunak hit the panic button yesterday and called the General Election for 4th July. I will be posting regularly on Facebook and Instagram over the coming weeks, as well as here on the usual Thursday schedule. Stay tuned for updates from the campaign trail as we count down the days to polling day. Exciting times – bring it on! 

I have spent thousands of hours on the River Thames. I learned to row in Oxford, where the Thames is known as the Isis. I rowed at Thames Rowing Club on the Thames Tideway. I have lived in various places along the Thames, gradually heading west – Fulham, Putney, Kew, Richmond, Windsor, and now close to its source in Gloucestershire.

From 2005 to 2011 I rowed solo across oceans to raise awareness of environmental issues, including the issue of plastic pollution – most of which comes from inland streams and rivers that carry pollution into the sea. In 2012 I campaigned for the new “super sewer” that has now been built in London to reduce sewage overflows (photo below).

So when I hear that the Thames is so polluted that rowing crews have had to abandon the time-honoured tradition of throwing the coxswain in the river (no doubt to the relief of many coxswains), I get furious.

For me, this is personal.

The River Thames, from source to the sea, is plagued by sewage, chemical, and microplastic pollution on an alarming scale. Over 72 billion litres of untreated sewage was discharged into the river and its tributaries between 2020 and 2023. Mogden sewage works near Twickenham was the worst offender, dumping 17.1 billion litres, including 1 billion litres in a single day. The River Coln in Fairford has experienced continuous sewage discharge for over 1,070 hours.

Nationally, in 2023 a total of 464,056 discharges were counted. Untreated sewage was discharged for a total of 3,606,170 hours through storm overflows – more than double what it was in 2022. With the extremely wet spring we’ve had this year, 2024 is on track to be even worse.

Raw or untreated sewage is only supposed to be discharged by water companies into our rivers and seas during heavy rains to prevent the sewerage system from becoming overwhelmed. But discharges are now happening in dry weather too.

Pouring poo into our rivers is starting to look like business as usual for the water companies.

Meanwhile, the water industry is reportedly pushing to be allowed to increase water bills in England by up to 40% by 2030 to pay for the sewage crisis. This is utterly offensive to customers, when £85.2billion has been paid out to investors since the privatisation of the water companies 30 years ago.

That was our money, that was meant to be spent on providing the infrastructure necessary to supply water safely and reliably to our houses, but instead it has gone to large corporate shareholders, many of them overseas.

They don’t care about our rivers. They don’t care about our countryside. They don’t care about our health. It’s infuriating.

Water companies have exploited regulatory loopholes, loading themselves with debt while continuing to pay out dividends to shareholders. The regulatory framework itself is flawed, based on an outdated capitalist model that assumed publicly traded companies and competition. However, most water suppliers are now owned by opaque investment funds not subject to the same disclosure requirements, shielding their finances from scrutiny. Regulators like Ofwat have been outmaneuvred, lacking the tools to effectively monitor and enforce compliance.

Meanwhile, the creation of regional monopolies has stifled competition and reduced incentives for water companies to invest and innovate. Householders can’t switch providers, and new entrants face significant barriers to entry. This lack of market forces has contributed to the industry’s complacency and prioritization of short-term profits over long-term sustainability.

Did we vote for the environmental destruction of our ecosystems? Did we ask to have rivers so polluted that open water swimmers can’t swim safely any more? Did we choose to enrich big institutional investors with our money at the expense of our health and our countryside?

I know I didn’t. And I don’t believe this is what you would have chosen either.

The Lib Dems are taking a strong stand on this issue. The full list of our water policies is here: Are You Drinking What We’re Drinking?  Our bill would relaunch water companies as Public Benefit Companies, with a new water regulator forcing them to be run for the good of the environment, not just profit.

Privatisation of the water companies has failed. When public utilities and services are run for profit, it’s you and me that lose out. We pay more, and get less. Free markets have their place, but to a Conservative government with only a free market hammer, every industry looks like a nail.

Can we please have a government with the intelligence, discernment and common sense to know what kind of solution to apply to which problem? And can we have it now?

Rethinking work

Before I get to this week’s thoughts on work, a quick update on….

Lime Down Solar Park

The proposed Lime Down Solar Park continues to dominate many conversations in Wiltshire. Claire Coutinho, the Energy Security Secretary, has gone a tiny bit of the way towards what’s needed, by saying that solar panels must not be put on high quality farmland (which was actually already the case) and by saying that councils should take into account how much solar provision already exists in the area (but the mega-farms being proposed don’t fall under the remit of local councils – anything over 50MW goes to the Secretary of State, the aforementioned Claire Coutinho).

So we still don’t have a coherent national strategy for solar farms, which would need to cover size, location, and ownership, with support for community-led and community-owned installation of renewables in ways that are sympathetic to the unique circumstances of each area. We need this with the greatest possible urgency so we as a country can move rapidly towards meeting our climate targets while not allowing foreign-owned companies to destroy our countryside while reaping massive profits at our expense. 

Right, now onto the world of work.

More than a fifth of working age adults are not looking for work, and the government is determined to get them back into jobs. Citing “sick note culture”, they are actively considering changing disability benefits to force people back into employment.

The underlying reasons for not working are many and complex, but the one thing that we can say for sure is that there is no single reason, so there is unlikely to be one single solution.

The blunt instrument of impoverishing people back into work will cause at least as many problems as it solves.

The right-wing press would have us believe that these people are shirkers, spongers, grifters, and malingerers. No doubt a few of them are, but I’m curious to know more about the actual causes. If somebody has seen the detailed analysis conducted by the government into these underlying reasons, please let me know. Because I can’t find it.

Some questions I would like answered:

How many people are genuinely ill, waiting inordinate amounts of time on NHS waiting lists to get a diagnosis, treatment, or operation?

How many people can’t get access to the childcare they would need in order to return to work?

Especially in rural areas, how many people don’t have access to adequate, affordable public transport in order to travel to work?

How many people are genuinely suffering from mental health issues, exacerbated by loneliness during lockdowns?

How many people have lost their confidence, and would respond well to gentle coaching to build their confidence back up again if only they had access to the right kind of professionals?

And how many people simply look at the jobs available to them, and make a fair assessment that they would prefer to stay home? If your options were to work in a call centre being harangued by frustrated customers, or driving a delivery van on an impossible bladder-busting schedule, or even being a tiny and largely irrelevant cog in a big corporate machine…. or stay on benefits, what would you choose?

If you have no direct relationship with your customers, no sense of loyalty to your employer or colleagues, no sense of purpose or connection or joy in your work…. wouldn’t you just take a handout if you could?

Gallup polls of employee engagement in the UK from 2020 to 2022 show 10% were engaged, 76% were not engaged, and 14% were actively disengaged (meaning they were proactively undermining morale in their workplace).

In other words, 90% of people believe their jobs suck. And if you believe your job sucks, you’re not going to try, you’re not going to take the initiative, you’re not going to thrive.

Too many jobs are what the American anthropologist David Graeber called “bullshit jobs”. Maybe more and more people are simply calling time on BS.

Whether you are on benefits, or in work that breaks your back and sucks your soul, that is a heartbreaking waste of human potential.

There is much that can be done about this. Within companies, managers can keep in mind the 5 Cs: Care, Connect, Coach, Contribute, and Congratulate. (This might go a long way in Job Centres too.)

And we also know that people who start their own companies have massively higher levels of job satisfaction, but rates of business failure are high. More could be done to support budding entrepreneurs to succeed.

UBI (which I wrote about last week) would give more people the safety net they need to risk going it alone.

UBI, business coaches, startup grants and mental health professionals all cost money, sure.

But investing in people and developing their potential actually makes economic sense. Surely politicians all across the political spectrum would agree on this. Happy, highly motivated people work harder, are more successful, and pay more taxes.

It’s a corporate cliché to say that our people are our greatest asset. But it’s true. When people succeed, when businesses succeed, the country succeeds.

Addressing the cost of living “crisis”

If you’re feeling broke, you need to know that you’re not alone, and it’s very possibly not your fault.

(Note: the economy is obviously a massively complex beast, with countless interrelating variables, so this short post is necessarily simplistic, and does not pretend otherwise.)

The charity Debt Justice reported in March this year that a record 6.7m people in Britain are in financial difficulty. Nearly 30% of 18- to 24-year-olds have missed three or more credit or bill payments.

The Insolvency Service’s figures showed 10,136 British people entered insolvency in February 2024, a rise of 23% on the same month last year.

Behind these statistics lie real people suffering the stress and sleepless nights of financial anxiety.

If you haven’t been there, I can tell you – having no money and no financial safety net undermines confidence, comfort, and peace of mind. It’s hard to be happy when you’re broke. (And see my previous post on the explosion in the need for food banks.)

The Resolution Foundation reports that real wages grew by an average of 33% per decade from 1970 to 2007, but growth fell to below zero after the Conservatives came into power in 2010. It took until 2023 for wages to get back to where they were in 2008.15 years of lost wage growth has cost the average worker £10,700 a year.

Combine this with the inflation that is only just now coming down, and no wonder your pay packet doesn’t seem to go as far as it used to. 

Meanwhile, those at the top are doing very nicely, thank you. The pay of low-paid UK workers is one third of 1% of the pay of their CEOs.

Put another way, looking at FTSE 200 companies, by 1pm on 4th January 2024, the typical CEO had already earned what one of his/her workers would earn in the entire year. (source)

So yes, the cost of living crisis may have been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and the pandemic, but the causes are deeper-rooted, have been around for longer, and are more systemic than that. It’s not so much a crisis as an inevitable result of austerity that has been many years in the making.

So what to do about it? The Lib Dem pre-manifesto states:

“Liberal Democrats believe that no one should fear for their future, struggle to put food on the table, or heat their home. Our aim is to make the UK the best place in the world to work, raise children and enjoy retirement by ensuring that proper support is in place for those that need it.”

How?

By reversing the Conservatives’ cut to Universal Credit, using carrots rather than sticks to get people back into work, and setting a target to end deep poverty within a decade.

By providing incentives for businesses to invest in training, take up digital technologies, and become more energy efficient.

By fixing the skills and recruitment crisis by investing in people’s skills and increasing the availability of apprenticeships and career advice for young people.

And possibly by introducing a Universal Basic Income, which may sound radical, but pilot schemes have shown to make economic as well as societal sense, with half the cost being recouped in ease of administration. It has been discussed and passed at Lib Dem conference, and I trust it will be in our manifesto.

Plus, when people have the means necessary to live a decent if basic life, you save money on policing, justice, social services and healthcare, while also allowing people to reclaim their most precious commodity – time.

Time to do work they enjoy, time to spend with family, time to take exercise, cook proper food, and stay healthy.

Time, in short, to live the life that Conservative-style capitalism has been promising us for so long, but has failed to deliver. It’s time to try something different. It’s time for a fresh start.

Our government’s disrespect for human rights – and that includes yours

(Scroll down for a couple of new videos, and news about our summer party at the home of Jackie Llewelyn Bowen – tickets selling fast!)

A couple of days ago I met Kochar (not his real name) from Kurdistan. He is one of “those people” who arrive in small boats as illegal immigrants. He is 32 years old, the son of a high-up public official who annoyed the local mafia to the extent that they said they would kill one of his sons.

The rest of Kochar’s family has been given police protection, but Kochar was abandoned by his father due to his disabilities, and left without protection. And the Kurdish mafia mean business.

So he left behind his wife and 8-year-old daughter, and fled.

For the last 18 months he has been housed in a run-down hotel near Malmesbury, waiting to have his application for asylum processed.

Now, he is terrified he’s going to be deported to Rwanda, or even worse, sent from Rwanda back to Kurdistan.

It’s too easy to forget that most of the people risking their lives in small boats represent a tragic story, a desperate situation, a willingness to grasp at the slenderest of lifelines to escape death, torture, or unlawful detention.

Here in the UK, for all the faults of our so-called justice system, we still enjoy the privilege of living in a country with a strong rule of law. Not everybody is so lucky.

But for how much longer will we enjoy this privilege?

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is not a “foreign court”, as Rishi Sunak would have us believe. It was set up in 1959 to interpret the European Convention on Human Rights, which in turn was created by the Council of Europe – a council that was Winston Churchill’s idea.

He first mooted it in 1943, during World War II, with the intention of preventing future wars in Europe. It is “foreign” only in that it had to be physically located somewhere, and the Council of Europe decided on Strasbourg.

Also, remember that not only the European Court has said that the Rwanda plan is unlawful, but also the UK’s own Supreme Court.

So why does the Conservative government persist with this immensely costly (more than half a billion £, according to the National Audit Office), immensely ineffective (small boats crossings are up 25% on last year, according to the Home Office), immensely inhumane scheme?

To distract from their own failings.

The reason you can’t get a house isn’t due to immigrants. The reason you can’t get a GP appointment isn’t due to immigrants. The reason you can’t find an NHS dentist isn’t due to immigrants.

It’s so much easier for the Conservatives to blame it on “those people” like Kochar than to take a long, hard look at themselves and take responsibility for the present state of our country.

If Cameron and Johnson hadn’t jointly created the disaster that is Brexit, we could have had better arrangements with Europe for dealing with asylum seekers like Kochar before they got into boats.

If we had a Home Office that could process asylum applications efficiently and effectively, we could get asylum seekers like Kochar into jobs (over 100,000 vacancies in the care sector, close to a million construction workers needed over the next decade), so they can become productive, independent, tax-paying members of society.

If we hadn’t had 14 years of austerity, with chronic underfunding of public services, we might have enough social housing, GPs, and NHS dentists to go round.

I’m fed up with the government blaming everybody else for its own egregious shortcomings.

Ultimately, we’re all human, and we all deserve human rights.

Today is polling day in local elections across the country. Please vote. It’s time for a change, and the change starts here.

Video: Roz on Rwanda

Roz on Why Voting Matters

Ken Loach’s gritty trilogy

I don’t get much time to watch TV – I tend to watch things in 20 minute segments while I eat my supper on the increasingly rare evenings I’m at home. But I’ve made it a priority to watch Ken Loach’s trilogy of films about life at the pointy end of English society. The films explore the struggles of ordinary people against bureaucratic systems and economic injustice.

[Warning: don’t watch them if you’re feeling at all fragile. They won’t cheer you up.]

I, Daniel Blake (2016) serves as a searing indictment of the UK’s welfare system, following the titular character, a skilled carpenter recovering from a heart attack, as he navigates the Kafkaesque maze of government bureaucracy. Dave Johns delivers a standout performance as Daniel, capturing the frustration and dignity of a man caught in a system that dehumanizes those it’s meant to help.

Rishi Sunak is pledging to curb “sick note culture” – I would implore him to remember that on the other side of that debate are real people like Daniel, not just “claimants”, and to use an individualised, supportive approach, not the blunt sledgehammer of punitive measures that will only add to the 14 million people already living in poverty in this country.

Sorry We Missed You (2019) continues Loach’s exploration of working-class struggles, this time focusing on the gig economy. The film follows Ricky, a delivery driver, and his family as they grapple with the precariousness of modern-day employment. Loach exposes the toll of exploitative labour practices on individuals and families, painting a devastating portrait of the human cost of corporate greed.

The film was made before the pandemic, when it became even more obvious just how the people in such jobs are essential to keeping the country running, yet they have no job security, immense work pressure, and poor pay. Lib Dems are calling for a 20% higher wage for people on zero hours contracts, and the establishment of basic protections so that the so-called precariat don’t become even more precarious.

The Old Oak (2023) tells the story of a former pit village in County Durham (where I spent part of my childhood) after Syrian refugees arrive, facing considerable hostility from some of the locals. The friendship between a young Syrian woman and the landlord of the Old Oak gradually starts to thaw relations, as he opens up the disused back room of the pub to host community meals for locals and refugees to eat together.

Even as the right wing press stokes resentment against immigrants and refugees, we have to remember that newcomers are people who have felt compelled to flee their home countries, and that is not an easy decision. It’s important to treat each case individually, and to remember that there is a real human being under the hijab, behind the burka, inside the melanin-rich skin.

Ken Loach has an extraordinary ability to portray the struggles of the marginalized with empathy and authenticity. The trilogy offers a sobering reflection on the human cost of economic inequality and the urgent need for systemic change.

What does that change look like? We need to put people back at the heart of systems, treating them as the unique, special, sometimes vulnerable human beings that they are. We need to recognise their humanity, and remember our own.

There are some cracking lines in all three of the films, but the one I found most moving is at the end of I, Daniel Blake:

“I am not a client, a customer, nor a service user. I am not a shirker, a scrounger, a beggar, nor a thief. I’m not a National Insurance Number or blip on a screen. I paid my dues, never a penny short, and proud to do so. I don’t tug the forelock, but look my neighbour in the eye and help him if I can. I don’t accept or seek charity. My name is Daniel Blake. I am a man, not a dog. As such, I demand my rights. I demand you treat me with respect. I, Daniel Blake, am a citizen, nothing more and nothing less.”

This brings to mind the LibDem vision, embodied in the preamble to our constitution, that we aspire to a society in which nobody is enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. It was that vision that brought me into the Liberal Democrats, and is the North Star that draws me forward.

But we have a National Hope Deficit

A short note today, as it’s a busy week with speaking engagements –  professional, personal, and political.

Today, I’m going to wax philosophical.

A lot of people I am meeting on the doorstep reflect the national mood. They genuinely don’t know who they’re going to vote for.

They don’t see their values reflected in either of the main parties. They don’t see either leader offering a vision of what a thriving Britain would or could look like. There is an awful lot of hopelessness.

And I can’t imagine a society that can function without hope.

A businessperson has to have hope that their business will succeed.

A student has to have hope that their studies will prove worth the cost in time and money.

A charity worker has to have hope that they can improve the situation of those they care about.

An aspiring MP has to have hope that their efforts will make lives better for their constituency and their country.

And a voter has to have hope that their vote will count, that it will have some influence, however small, on who gets to run their country (which under “first past the post” voting systems it too often doesn’t), and that the people who have that power use it wisely.

My sense of the mood of the country right now is that we have a National Hope Deficit.

It is up to our leaders to engender a sense of hope – the hope that we can persevere through our current challenges, the hope that we can have a fairer, more caring, more compassionate society, the hope that everybody can meet their basic needs for shelter, food, relationship and community, so that we can aspire to something beyond survival, so that we can raise our sights towards a sense of purpose, fulfilment, happiness. 

The future CAN be better than the present. Together we CAN do this.

We just need to dare to hope.