Roz Savage's Blog, page 4

Restoring faith in politics and politicians

I’ve been knocking on a lot of doors recently, and it’s clear there’s a lot of work to be done to restore faith in politics and politicians.

I’m not pointing fingers at any particular political party here. It’s the system that’s broken.

And if people don’t trust the system, democracy fails. People stop voting. So the election result no longer represents what people want.

Assuming that we have a change of government this year, it will be interesting to see if we have a change of culture. I’m concerned that Labour have already ruled out capping bankers’ bonuses. Do they still believe in trickle-down economics? I think we all know that what trickles down isn’t money. It’s something much smellier. Are Labour already in the pockets of rich donors?

But again, I’m not pointing fingers at any particular party.

What I’m hearing on doorsteps is that many people are fed up with the whole damn thing. As far as they’re concerned, the wheel turns, this party then that party comes to power, their lives don’t get any better.

Yes, they might mention cronyism (Michelle Mone and other Covid profiteers), hypocrisy (Partygate), chumocracy (dishonourable honours lists), or autocracy (“did anybody ask us what we wanted?”).

But the overall feeling is that the implied contract between government and the people has been broken.

We vote them in. Their job is to govern. And governing means looking to the long-term wellbeing of the country – not just the latest opinion poll. To give us the circumstances and the freedom so we build good lives. To represent us in the way we want to be represented. Heck, they might even listen to us once in a while. We might just have some good ideas.

So there are three things I believe we need.

We need proportional representation so our representatives actually represent the full spectrum of our views. So the proportions in government reflect the proportions in the country.

Yes, that might mean that people end up in Westminster that I profoundly disagree with, that I even find morally reprehensible. But that’s democracy.

Proportional representation would be a game changer. It would be harder for one party to bulldoze its agenda through. Alliances would be necessary. We wouldn’t waste so much time, energy and money as the pendulum swings from one side of the political spectrum to the other.

We would stay closer to the common sense centre, which is what most people identify with.

We need decentralisation. Communities know what their community needs. Every community is unique.

Yet we have one of the most centralised governments in Europe. Regions are starved of resources, with a 40% reduction in council funding in the last 10 years – which is why so many councils, of all political hues, are going bankrupt.

And we need collaboration. Within communities, different people have different needs. And no matter how public-spirited we are, we all have blind spots. And by definition, we’re blind to our blind spots. Proportional representation has to apply not just to central government, but at every level down to the local.

The raging fury that so many people feel about the state of our country at the moment is largely due to frustration at not being heard.

We all deserve a voice. We all deserve a say.

So here’s what I will do. I will listen. Not every view can prevail – compromise is always necessary where different people have different views. But I will listen respectfully, bring people together, and try to find a way forward that delivers the greatest good to the greatest number.

That is democracy.

P.S. If this is something you care about, you can sign our petition, called Fair Votes Now.

Other Stuff:

On a lighter note (literally!), I enjoyed recording this Desert Island Discs style blend of music and conversation (non political) with John Fairhurst on Malmesbury Community Radio. In my biased opinion, it features some of the best music ever! 

Hold the Date: evening of 7th March – We’re planning an event at the Royal Agricultural University about food and farming, with a panel discussion followed by breakout groups to talk about food security, regenerative agriculture, community gardens, and other aspects of food production and distribution. More details coming soon. Mark your diaries!

To keep up to date with me and my campaign, please follow me on Facebook! Or on LinkedIn, if that’s more your style.

We’re 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 especially looking for help with media liaison and social media. 
Ideally 4-8 hours per week. Details available on request. No obligation – please get in touch!

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(s) of the Week

“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…”
— Winston Churchill

“Democracy is a slow process of stumbling to the right decision instead of going straight forward to the wrong one.”
—Anonymous
Have a great week!

I just want broken Britain to work again

If the people of South Cotswolds do me the honour of electing me, I hope I can help make politics more boring. Yes, more boring. Tediously, yawningly boring. I just. Want. Things. To. Work.

I want government to move past the ongoing psychodramas and get on with doing its job, quietly and in the background, providing efficient public services, ensuring that people can afford the basic necessities of life, making sure we have clean rivers and clean air and decent food.

Some may say this is naïve. If life was simple, we’d have no need for politics or politicians. Politics exists because things get complicated, and people have important but incompatible priorities that we need to try and reconcile.

But I believe in fairness. If there are conflicting interests, let’s sit down like adults and have a conversation. Let’s talk, but more importantly, let’s listen. Let’s work together to find a solution that delivers the greatest good to the greatest number over the longest period of time, balancing competing needs and wants, benefiting the many and not just the few. 

Big change is coming. We are entering the uncharted and potentially choppy waters of AI, biotech, self-driving cars and gene editing. Like it or not, we’re all going to play a part – not just 650 folks of varying degrees of intelligence, integrity and competence sitting on green leather benches in Westminster.

This is what democracy means to me – devolving power out of Westminster and empowering people to create the future they want. For me, it’s all people working alongside their neighbours to create vibrant, thriving communities where we respect each other despite our differences, and where things work the way we want them to.

I haven’t always rowed solo. My first love was rowing in eights – I just couldn’t find anyone daft enough to want to row across oceans with me. The ultimate goal of a rowing crew is to get a group of people moving in harmony, working together towards a shared goal. It’s a good metaphor.

Ultimately, we’re all in the same boat, the Great British Boat, and at the moment it’s got a few rotten planks and raggedy sails. If I am fortunate enough to be elected this year, it’s my job to help get us shipshape again. 

Other Stuff:

Hold the Date: evening of 7th March – We’re planning an event at the Royal Agricultural University about food and farming, with a panel discussion followed by breakout groups to talk about food security, regenerative agriculture, community gardens, and other aspects of food production and distribution. More details coming soon. Mark your diaries!

To keep up to date with me and my campaign, please follow me on Facebook! Or on LinkedIn, if that’s more your style.

We’re 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

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
– Helen Keller 
Have a great week!

Photo: Me sitting in the stroke seat of the Oxford Lightweights, 1989

“Why would you want to do that?”

When I was rowing solo across the Pacific Ocean, many times I saw sharks attacking a school of fish in a feeding frenzy. My attention would first be caught by seabirds circling overhead, anticipating tasty scraps. Then I would see the roiling, seething surface of the ocean, criss-crossed by shark fins as predators devoured their prey. After ten or fifteen minutes the attack would subside, and the waters would become calm again.

The sight didn’t scare me. I was a safe distance away, and I reckoned as long as I stayed in the boat, and the sharks stayed in the water, everybody’s happy.

But now I’m entering a different kind of shark-infested water, with no rowboat for protection. I’m standing for Parliament.

This is certainly not my lifelong ambition. Around twelve years ago, a few friends said I would make a good MP and urged me to stand. I spoke to a few MPs and concluded there was absolutely nothing about the life of an MP that I would enjoy.

But the country has changed, our politics have changed, and I guess I’ve changed too.

Weirdly, it was during the brief and tumultuous Liz Truss era that the notion to be an MP came back to me, and this time it wouldn’t let me go. For several months, since I’d finished writing a book about the positive change we need in the world, I’d been trying to figure out how I could take what I’d learned in twenty years as an environmental campaigner and put it to good use. It was the day of the Queen’s funeral, and I was reflecting on her life of devoted public service, when it became clear to me what I needed to do.

For all the many flaws of our antiquated, unfair, chaotic and often sleazy politics, for now at least it is still the best way to make change happen. Entering the political fray is about as appealing to me as jumping into the middle of the sharks’ dinnertime, and I fully expect to have a few chunks taken out of me along the way, yet I know it’s exactly what I’m meant to be doing. Within 11 months, I had passed a rigorous evaluation to become an approved candidate, and local Lib Dem party members had selected me to fight the new – and very winnable – seat of the South Cotswolds.

So when people on doorsteps ask me – as they often do – “why would you want to go into politics – and now?”, I know exactly why. I don’t do things because they’re easy or enjoyable. I do things because they matter, and nothing matters more to me than doing whatever I can to fix this broken Britain.

Other News:

A great evening at Sustainable Sherston last Friday. Thanks to all the environmentally concerned folks who came along and asked such great questions. We could have talked all night!

As I mentioned last week, I went to see The Boys in the Boat, much of which was filmed in the Cotswolds Water Park. It’s a film based on the true story of the Washington rowing crew that beat the posh Ivy League boys from the East Coast to represent the USA in the Berlin Olympics of 1936. It was a little schmaltzy, the music a little overblown, but you can’t beat a good story of the underdogs triumphing over the odds to win. (This may explain why I’m a Lib Dem. )

To keep up to date with me and my campaign, please follow me on Facebook! Or on LinkedIn, if that’s more your style.

We’re 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

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Have a great week!

Photo of Roz by Hunter Downs, Republic of Kiribati

What the new constituency boundaries mean for you

Something slightly mysterious happened at midnight on 31st December, 2023, that you may not know about, but could have a significant impact on your life. 90% percent of UK constituencies have been redrawn to some extent, but few as dramatically as the Cotswolds.

Constituency boundaries may sound rather dull and geeky (and probably of limited interest to my readers from overseas – apologies! I’ll be back to my broader philosophical musings next week), but if you’re concerned about our future as a country, it does actually matter – a lot.

For all the many (MANY!) flaws of our political system, writing to your MP is still one of the best ways to get action on local and national issues that concern you – depending, of course, on the willingness of your MP to listen and to act. So the boundaries affect which candidate is most likely to become your MP, and hence your chances of getting satisfaction.

The old Cotswolds constituency is being split into the North Cotswolds and South Cotswolds. The South Cotswolds is going to encompass Cirencester and Tetbury on the Gloucestershire side, and is also going to include a sizeable chunk of Wiltshire, including Malmesbury, Cricklade, Purton and Sherston. North Wiltshire itself is being abolished as a constituency. A small part of Stroud constituency will also come under the umbrella of the new South Cotswolds seat.*

The changes haven’t been well publicised, and as I’ve been talking on doorsteps, some people are rather disgruntled to find themselves politically transplanted into a new constituency without so much as a by-your-leave.

But I think, once the dust settles, the South Cotswolds will start to form a coherent new identity. Its disparate parts have much in common, despite straddling two counties and three local councils.

The new constituency is more rural than urban, more Remain than Leave, a little bit older, richer, more educated, more employed and more married than the national average. But there are still unacceptably high rates of deprivation. The Cotswolds isn’t all chocolate-box villages and climbing roses over the front door. There is much work to be done here to give people access to the resources and the opportunities they need to live a good life.

Why are the boundaries changing? Every so often, the Boundaries Commission reviews constituencies to try and level out the number of voters in each seat to around 73,000, give or take. The Commission is supposedly politically neutral, but it’s estimated that the current round of changes will give the Conservatives an additional 5 to 10 seats, other things being equal (which of course, in politics, they never are).**

However, for me as the Liberal Democrat candidate in the South Cotswolds, the news is actually rather good. We have a strong base of local Lib Dem councillors – 20 in all, compared with just 6 Conservatives (plus two Independents, but no Labour councillors, nor Green Party).

Under the UK’s outdated, first-past-the-post voting system, where winner takes all in each seat, regardless of whether they win by 1 vote or 30,000, many people in the Cotswolds have felt that their vote was wasted, that it didn’t matter how they voted – the Tories always won.

Not any more. Lifelong Tories are turning their backs on a party they feel no longer represents their values. They know it’s time for change, and they’re willing to use their vote to get it.

A new year, a new constituency… a new MP? You choose.

* To check which constituency you live in, go to the Electoral Calculus website and enter your postcode.

** Laws are being changed to favour the party with the most money, namely, the Conservatives. A new statutory instrument has raised the spending cap for a political party by 80%, from £19.5m to £35m. Interesting to note that a statutory instrument is a legislative tool that the government can implement unilaterally, without debate or vote in the House of Commons. There are also moves afoot to relax data protection so political parties can send emails and texts to you without your specific consent. Again, this will favour the party who can afford to buy the most contact data. Guess who?

Justice for Sub-Postmasters

The Post Office scandal continues to dominate headlines. Sir Ed Davey is facing criticism for not having done more, sooner, for the sub-postmasters wrongly accused of theft due to bugs in the Horizon computer system. I could defend Ed, but you could rightly suspect me of bias, so instead I’ll quote people who were more closely involved with the story.

Lord Arbuthnot, who as an MP was the first to champion the postmasters’ cause, has said that “no party” and “none of us politicians” come out well from the scandal, and that calls on former postal minister Sir Ed Davey to answer questions are a “red herring”.

Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye, which published a lengthy and definitive article on the scandal, suspects that the scapegoating of Ed is politically motivated by Conservatives fearful of losing their seats.

Alan Bates himself, founder of the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance, does not hold Ed responsible, saying the Post Office gave him “a real bum steer” by wilfully concealing the problems with the Horizon system.

There is also a factual and well-referenced account of Ed’s role on the Lib Dem website.

It’s time to shift the focus away from the politically-motivated scapegoating of Ed, and onto getting long-overdue justice for the sub-postmasters. They have suffered too long and too much. It’s time to right this egregious wrong.

(Breaking news: “The Post Office’s internal investigators were offered cash bonuses for successfully prosecuting the sub-postmasters affected by the faulty Horizon IT software, the inquiry into the scandal has revealed.” As Charlie Munger said, “Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.”)

Other News:

On Friday 12th January I shall be speaking at Sustainable Sherston. Please contact me for further details by hitting Reply to this email.

Combining 3 things I’m passionate about – rowing, Cotswold Water Park, and, errr, George Clooney – The Boys in the Boat is out this week. Based on a dramatic true story, I loved the book, can’t wait to see the movie!

To keep up to date with me and my campaign, please follow me on Facebook! Or on LinkedIn, if that’s more your style.

We’re 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

“Borders – I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.”
— Thor Heyerdahl
Have a great week!

Photo of Roz by Nick Pentney on the Chipping Steps, Tetbury

The tragedy of the Horizon Scandal

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and a good start to 2024 – a year that will for sure bring much-needed change.

Like many people across the UK this week, I’ve been watching Mr Bates vs the Post Office and feeling the shock, outrage and indignation at one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history. (See Wikipedia for a summary, or Private Eye for an excellent and detailed report, Justice Lost in the Post. Computer Weekly has also published hundreds of articles on the scandal.)

In short, in around 2000 the Post Office implemented a new IT system called Horizon, built by Japanese tech giant Fujitsu in what was at the time the largest non-military IT contract in Europe. Almost immediately, sub-postmasters started noticing discrepancies in their books. Under the terms of their contracts, they were personally liable for any shortfalls. These hardworking people, pillars of their small communities, often living over the shop, lost their savings, homes, livelihoods and reputations. Several took their own lives.

This tragic story brings together several toxic strategies from the capitalism playbook:

The big guys win, the little guys lose: The chief exec of the Post Office at the time took home a salary of over £700,000, while sub-postmasters were losing everything they had. She has still not been held accountable.Isolate and gaslight: The sub-postmasters were each told they were the only one who had the problem, so it must be their fault, not the computer system’s.Reward incompetence: The government continues to throw money at Fujitsu, which is being awarded hundreds of millions of pounds in new contracts, even at the same time as the government is paying out over £1bn of taxpayers’ money in compensation and in funding the ongoing public inquiry.

Having worked for a company that implements big IT systems, I understand that bugs creep in. Until humans are perfect, IT systems created by humans won’t be perfect. Bugs are almost unavoidable, and hence forgivable.

What is not forgivable is the conspiracy and cover-up that took place, even when it must have been obvious to the tech helpline – and subsequently to Post Office management – that a pattern was emerging, a pattern that pointed the finger of blame squarely at the IT system.

This is a politically difficult story for a Lib Dem to write about – our current and last leaders are both implicated in its history, while a Conservative MP, James Arbuthnot, was the first to champion the cause of the postmasters. But some stories transcend political allegiances, and lessons need to be learned, such as:

Redesign incentives for CEOs: While CEOs are rewarded purely on profit, their incentive is to prioritise profit to the exclusion of the wellbeing of their staff, and sometimes even the ability of the company to perform its primary purpose (e.g. Royal Mail, privatised water companies, buses and trains). CEO compensation needs to span a broader spectrum of success metrics (and I personally would like to see a limit on executive compensation as a multiple of average worker pay, to start to reduce inequality).Include stakeholders in design and implementation: I am glad to see that sub-postmasters are being included in testing the new system. Just a shame that people had to actually die for this lesson to be learned.Admit mistakes: The tech helpline told sub-postmasters that their problem was an isolated incident, when it clearly wasn’t, apparently in a deliberate policy to deflect responsibility. Ultimately, the response of the Post Office was aggressive, when it could have been supportive. The goal should be to fix a problem rather than find someone else to blame for it.

The story makes for painful viewing, but it’s vital that we take a long, unflinching look at how the tragedy unfolded. We can’t bring back the sub-postmasters who were driven to take their own lives, or who died before receiving exoneration and justice, but we can at least ensure that their suffering was not in vain.

Other News:

I’ve just returned from a 5-day festival of ideas, Renaissance Weekend in Charleston, South Carolina. I gave a total of 5 presentations on a range of themes, and enjoyed eye-opening, occasionally jaw-dropping, talks by other participants. I’ve returned full of energy and ideas for the year ahead.

I have updated my website with further information on my values and principles, and priorities. Enjoy!

We’re back out canvassing this week, mostly in the Kington area of Wiltshire, and Grumbolds Ash with Avening in Gloucestershire. Please drop me an email if you’d like to join me.

Quote of the Week:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
– Martin Luther King

Have a great week!

Featured image by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

 

Reflections on 2023, Predictions for 2024

This newsletter is going out on the winter solstice, the shortest day, the turning of the year. 2024 looms on the horizon. Who knows what will have happened by the time we reach the summer solstice? We may already have had a General Election. To which I say – bring it on!

Those of you who have been following my newsletter for many years will know that around now I like to take some time out to reflect on the year just gone, and to imagine what the year ahead may hold.

There is more than usual to reflect on this year. In March, my dear mother’s death, two weeks after suffering a stroke on her way home from exercise class. In April, passing the assessment to become an approved candidate for the Lib Dems. In May, standing for public office for the first time in a district council by-election. From June to July, going through the first round selection, under the old boundaries. Then in July to August, the second round selection, under the new boundaries.

In an extraordinarily short time, I have accumulated a wealth of campaigning experience, and through a combination of hard work, a fantastic team, and a fair dollop of good timing and good fortune, I have become the candidate for the new constituency of the South Cotswolds, a winnable seat in 2024.

This may look like an overnight success story. But it feels like the last 20 years have been carrying me with a sense of inevitability towards this point. My fourth book, The Ocean in a Drop, which came out a year ago, in retrospect looks like a manifesto. It summarises what I’ve learned over the last two decades about the positive change that is needed, and how we can achieve it.

Standing for Parliament is the obvious next step on this journey. I believe we can embrace the challenges that lie ahead as opportunities to shape a better future. We can build bridges that connect communities, foster wellbeing, and provide opportunities for every citizen to thrive.

Let’s leave behind the divisions of the past and embrace the New Year with a shared commitment to progress and unity. Working hand in hand, we can turn our shared values and dreams into reality.

None of us knows what 2024 may bring. Reading back through my journals for 2023, I sometimes laugh at my own inability to predict the future.

But sometimes I surprise myself with my own insights. The direction of travel is clear. It’s time for change. The old systems and paradigms are crumbling, pushed beyond their limits by greed, dishonesty and entitlement. We need new systems, new ideas – and new people to put them into practice. People who are willing to listen, collaborate, and convene diverse voices to arrive at better solutions that actually work.

It is rash to make predictions in public. But I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb when I say that change is coming, ready or not. 2024 is going to be a turning point – and we can resist the change, or we can be a part of it. I know which I intend to be.

Other News

Congratulations to Lib Dem colleague Tristan Wilkinson (in the middle) for his victory in the district council by-election in Lechlade, Kempsford, and Fairford South. Well deserved! Tristan is going to be a fabulous and trustworthy voice for his community. Thanks also to all the intrepid campaigners who turned out to support him.

Thanks to Nigel Freeth and Andrew Hibberd for letting me “help” them with the brussel sprouts harvest on their farm on Monday. I learned a lot about the challenges currently facing our farmers. Much more effective to learn in the middle of a muddy field than sitting across a meeting room table. And yes, I did get to take some of the harvest home.

To keep up to date with me and my campaign, please follow me on Facebook! Or on LinkedIn, if that’s more your style.

We’re recruiting additional volunteers to my campaign team. If you live in the South Cotswolds, or you know people who do, 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 caffe 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

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.”
– Margaret J. Wheatley

Reflections on Ego vs Outcome

Picture this: you’ve spent money on a ticket for a movie, only to realize it’s a cinematic disaster. You’re hating every moment.

The sunk cost fallacy tempts you to endure the entire painful experience, whispering, “You paid for it; you can’t leave now!” However, being smart means recognising when to cut your losses. Staying just because you’ve invested doesn’t improve the movie. You’re free to choose – “Okay, I made a choice, but I’m not bound to suffer through a bad script. Let’s find something enjoyable instead!”

So now imagine you’ve made a really bad and ludicrously expensive policy pledge – like, say, deporting foreign asylum seekers to Rwanda. As time goes on, costs rise, feasibility drops, legal challenges mount, and many doubt that the Rwanda policy will make any difference to the desperate refugees risking the Channel.

But you’ve declared it to the nation. You know that if you backtrack on what is turning out to be a terrible idea, the British media are going to screech about your U-turn.

And so, nevertheless, Rishi persisted.

Through £400 million of taxpayers’ money.

Through the British Supreme Court’s decision that the scheme is unlawful.

Through the European Court of Human Rights granting an urgent interim measure to a potential deportee.

Through threatening to withdraw from the Human Rights Act, without which the Good Friday agreement collapses.

Now, I’m all in favour of venturing intrepidly into uncharted waters. When I set out to row across three oceans, I didn’t know if it would be possible – for me, or indeed at all. One of my mantras when wondering whether a big challenge is achievable is: “only one way to find out!”

However, when data starts to accumulate to show that an enterprise is doomed to failure, I believe it is wise (as on my first attempt at the Pacific) to abort, cut my losses, take the blow to my ego and return to shore to regroup and set out again with a better boat/plan.

To do otherwise would not be courageous and persevering. It would be pig-headed and foolhardy.

If ego becomes more important than an achievable outcome (for example, when it becomes your obsession to see a plane taking off, carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda), that makes for bad policy.

When the focus is on the outcome (finding the best way to balance international human rights with the needs of our UK citizens) rather than ego, that leads to better policy.

It’s high time the government extricated itself from this sunk cost fallacy.

When you find yourself on collision course with reality, you can try to move reality, but ultimately you will have to change course instead.

Other News

At the end of each year I enjoy taking time out to review the year just gone, and set intentions for the year ahead. I use Year Compass (with a couple of friends) to structure part of this process. It’s free, and I have no vested interest – just wanted to pass along a useful recommendation!

To keep up to date with me and my campaign, please follow me on Facebook! Or on LinkedIn, if that’s more your style.

We’re recruiting additional volunteers to my campaign team. If you live in the South Cotswolds, or you know people who do, 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 caffe 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!

I’m writing this newsletter on Wednesday, as I’ll be out all day Thursday, supporting our fantastic candidate, Tristan Wilkinson (pictured right), in the district council by-election in Lechlade, Kempsford, and Fairford South. So if anything truly dramatic happens in the next 24 hours, that’s why I haven’t mentioned it!

Quote of the Week

“It may not be prudent to seek new things, but it is wise to see things in a new way.”
― Debasish Mridha

Reflections on COP28

This week’s COP28 takes me back to COP15 in 2009 in what was dubbed “Hopenhagen”.

That summer I had completed the second leg of my Pacific voyage, from Hawaii to the Republic of Kiribati, a nation of small islands straddling both the Equator and the International Date Line. I had met the president of Kiribati, President Anote Tong (pictured below), who had told of me of his fears for the future of his country. With only one single point more than 6 feet above sea level, he and his people expected to lose their land to the rising oceans as the ice caps melt.

I saw him again that December in Copenhagen, on the last night of COP15. We’d had such hopes for that conference. Activism was at an all-time high, and with Obama recently elected, we’d felt that anything was possible… yet it had ended in failure.

President Tong and his delegation were trying to put a brave face on it, but their grief was palpable.

(My original COP15 blog posts are on my website.)

Since then we’ve had the breakthrough moment of COP21 in Paris (led by one of my heroes, Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica), but global carbon emissions are still rising. And as usual, the people who will suffer the worst consequences are the ones who did least to cause the problem.

We need to do better. Much better.

Yesterday I was at a “Meet the Candidate” event in the South Cotswolds. Somebody asked me if it isn’t already too late to limit climate change to less-than-disastrous levels.

It may be. But our actions now still make a difference. There is a world of difference between 1.5 degrees of warming, and 2 or 4 or 6 degrees.

One lasting legacy I took away from Copenhagen was the importance of hope. Without hope there is no action. Without action there is no change. And without change there is no future.

The governments of the world – especially in the Global North – need to decide what kind of world they want to leave for future generations. And chart their course accordingly – starting now. We can’t afford to kick the climate can down the road for a moment longer.

Quote of the Week

“The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth.”
— King Charles at COP28

Why I’m a reluctant Royalist

Yesterday someone asked me for my view of the Royal Family. Given that I care passionately about equality of opportunity, it surprises even me that I am an ardent royalist.

I am, at heart, a progressive traditionalist. I need a sense of continuity and history, while also recognising that humanity can and should be doing better – and for the last 20 years I’ve been working hard to make it so.

I’ve had many encounters with the Royal Family, largely through my work with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, which helps young people build self-belief and self-confidence while taking on challenges and following their passions. I’ve found the Royals – particularly Prince Edward, who has largely taken on his late father’s mantle – to be hardworking and cheerful.

And when I received my MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, which sounds rather Bill and Ted, but whatever) from Prince William, he made me feel relaxed and at ease – so much so that I nearly forgot to curtsey.

They have a hard job. You couldn’t pay me enough to trade my privacy and freedom for all their wealth and privilege.

More pragmatically, they’re a massive tourism magnet. People from all over the world flock to the UK to catch a glimpse of palaces, attend events, and soak up the royal vibe. All those visitors mean big bucks for hotels, restaurants, and local businesses. They’re estimated to boost the British economy by up to £2 billion annually, while costing the taxpayer roughly 1p per day.

However, some aspects make me a little squeamish. On Remembrance Day, singing God Save the King, I was fine with “happy and glorious”, but not so fine with “victorious”, which smacks of war and conquest.  Historically, monarchy has been associated with colonialism and British exceptionalism, although it was arguably more the fault of early entrepreneurs and corporations like Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain James Cook, and the East India Company. Whether money or monarchy was to blame, it’s a chapter of our history that we need to acknowledge, and where possible, make amends.

The King’s country residence, Highgrove, is in my constituency of the South Cotswolds, and it was his mother, the late Queen, who was largely responsible for inspiring me to enter politics. It was the day of her funeral, as I reflected on her life of tireless devotion to public duty, that I decided to stand for Parliament.

I can understand why large Commonwealth countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada may no longer want a distant monarch as their head of state, but for us in Britain, I hope the Royal Family is with us to stay.

Our international reputation is battered and bruised after the embarrassing behaviour of our current government – and okay, some Royals can also be embarrassing, or worse – but on balance, they are a cultural treasure, economic superheroes who also happen to wear crowns.

Quote of the Week

“Power without a nation’s confidence is nothing.”
— Catherine the Great 

Women deserve freedom from the shackles of violence

In a world where progress is the heartbeat of change, it is imperative that we stand united in the pursuit of justice and equality. This week, I shine a spotlight on a crucial issue that affects women globally – their right to be free from violence. On Friday I shall be speaking at the Reclaim the Night walk in Cirencester, to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which kicks off 16 days of international activism leading up to Human Rights Day on 10th December.

Violence against women is an egregious violation of human rights, an issue that transcends borders and cultures. It is an affliction that knows no socio-economic status, education level, or age. However, our collective strength lies in acknowledging the problem, raising our voices, and fostering change.

At the heart of this matter is the fundamental right of every woman to live free from fear, intimidation, and harm. The statistics are sobering, but they underscore the urgency of our mission. According to the UN, more than 1 in 3 women experience gender-based violence during their lifetime, and worldwide more than 5 women or girls are killed every hour by someone in their own family. For reasons of shame or fear, this violence is often hidden behind closed doors.

We might even normalise it. I was disturbed to notice that when I was first asked to speak at the event, I said I had never experienced gender-based abuse… until I remembered an incident at university when a big rugger-bugger of a student found decorator’s tools that had been left on the staircase and used them to break into my room. He got into my bed and refused to leave. I had nowhere else to go so I spent the night shivering on the tiny sofa.

Now, is a non-incident compared with what many women face – years of emotional, physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse, or short, sharp, violent attacks. But the disturbing thing about it was that I’d just about forgotten about it, writing it off as a youthful indiscretion that didn’t really do any harm.

But it’s the attitude that is harmful – the attitude of entitlement, the attitude of domination, the attitude that my right to sleep safely in my own locked room was less important than his desires. I was lucky that he was too drunk or too tired to do anything worse.

It’s that fundamental attitude that needs to change, and it starts with education. Both girls and boys need to learn the value of respect, kindness and equal partnership. Violence by males towards females is in many ways just one aspect of a wider pattern of domination – rich over poor, Global North over Global South, white skin over dark skin, my country over your country, my political party over your political party, humans over nature. It’s time for that attitude to end, and for us to recognise that ALL lives matter.

This newsletter is a call to action – to break the silence and challenge the norms that perpetuate violence against women. We encourage open conversations within our community, workplaces, and homes to dismantle the barriers that hinder progress.

Let’s recommit ourselves to the cause of women’s rights. By standing together, we send a resounding message that violence against women will not be tolerated. Through education, advocacy, and unwavering solidarity, we can build a world where every woman can live without fear and embrace her right to live free from violence.

If you are suffering from domestic abuse and live in Gloucestershire, contact GDASS. In Wiltshire, contact FearFree.

Other News

A hectic weekend for Christmas markets coming up, and I do love a good Christmas market! Given the limitations of time and space, and with the Inaugural General Meeting of the new South Cotswolds Lib Dem party also in the mix, I won’t make it to all the ones I know of: Cirencester, Malmesbury and Purton (and please let me know if I’ve missed yours). But I did make it to Kemble last weekend, which was fantastic!

I was back on Politics West last week, talking about the reshuffle, autumn statement, and…. rats. Available on iPlayer.

We’ve been busy knocking on doors in the by-election ward of Lechlade, Kempsford, and Fairford South, on behalf of our candidate, Tristan Wilkinson, who is a top bloke and will make an excellent councillor. Much disgruntlement with the current government – and, unfortunately, with politics more generally. We have a lot of work to do to restore people’s faith after the damage done over the last few tumultuous years. We need steady, competent politicians committed to serving their communities and their country – like Tristan.

I’m on a brief trip to Italy to speak at an event on women’s empowerment tonight in Florence. Yesterday I visited the magnificent cathedral in Siena with a friend. She commented that these enormous religious buildings seem designed to make a person feel insignificant. I believe we need the opposite – to be saying to people: your voice matters, YOU matter – and to rethink our systems so that everybody has more say in the decisions that affect their lives.

(Photo: my new yellow hat, handmade by Giovanni in Siena)

Quote of the Week

“Respect a woman not because they demand it, but because they deserve it.”
— Saraswati Awasthi