Comment With: Liberal Democrats

Exeposé Comment caught up with Alex Whattam, President of Exeter University Liberal Democrats to discuss tuition fees, UKIP and how to get young people engaged in politics.

Exeposé Comment: What will be a good result for the Liberal Democrats at the 2015 General Election?

Alex Whattam: Retaining our number of seats. It was clear that the vote share of a minor party in a coalition would take a hit given how long it has been since Westminster has had a coalition. Our MPs on average have a net positive approval rating from their own constituents, unlike the other main parties, which will be a big factor in helping us retain these seats. Hopefully this will also include a situation where we can make a difference in government and enact our policies.

Photo Credits: Liberal Democrat Society

EC: Why should a student vote for the Liberal Democrats?

AW: Our achievements in government. Without trying to sound like a Python-esque “What have the Lib Dems ever done for us?” skit: £700 tax cut that helps graduates in work, more jobs, economic growth, the green investment bank, ID cards scrapped, libel law reformed, ended DNA storage of innocent people, ended child detention in immigration cases, cutting the period of detention without trial and equal marriage. Something else I’m personally very proud of is the work done by Nick Clegg and “Internet Hero of the Year” Julian Huppert MP against Theresa May’s snoopers charter which would have allowed UK governments to monitor our internet browsing. I don’t agree with everything the Liberal Democrats have voted for but I believe they are best for Britain. Stronger economy, fairer society.

EC: Are you happy with tuition fees being £9000 per year?

AW: No. I would much prefer a system where University education was free. However I’m not in favour of gimmick policies to reduce fees which would only benefit those already earning a pretty decent salary. Application rates from disadvantaged groups has reached record levels so those who were saying that Liberal Democrats in government have hurt the prospects of the poorest students were wrong.

EC: Is Nick Clegg leading the Liberal Democrats well?

AW: Yes, we’ve enacted most of our policies in a government where we have about a sixth of the MPs in the coalition. No matter who was our leader in 2010, they would have had to make the same difficult decisions. I’m thankful that Nick Clegg had the guts to go into a coalition with the only party available to do so, instead of being spineless and hoping a minority government was unpopular so we could increase our vote share at an early election.

EC: What do you think can be done to get more young people engaged in politics?

AW: I can understand why a lot of young people are disenfranchised with our current political system. However it is worrying when a lot of under-represented groups seem to believe that by refusing to vote politicians still have an incentive to enact legislation that benefits them. I have not encountered a situation where there were zero candidates in a constituency worth somebodies vote. We can’t get young people to vote if we don’t get more young people involved in political parties. It will be difficult to convince politicians to enact legislation that favours a new generation of voters if those politicians don’t hear us on a daily basis.

EC: Do you have any plans of a career in politics after you’ve completed your degree?

AW: Not in the slightest. I have a lot of respect for those who get into politics because it is a really tough game however it’s not for me.

EC: Are UKIP replacing the Liberal Democrats as the alternative vote from the main two parties?

AW: There was always an element of the Liberal Democrats being a party of protest and now that we are a party of government it seems that UKIP has become the go-to protest party. While UKIP are ahead of us in some polls I don’t think that will translate to the number of votes in the 2015 elections. It will be very interesting to see how UKIP fares once their policies are given scrutiny, although I’m sure it will be branded by their party as a smear campaign. I’m personally very against UKIP because of what they say about climate change, specifically in their energy manifesto. They show a huge lack of basic scientific understanding and research, clearly copying the same rubbish that has been debunked by scientists time and time again.

EC: We had another lecture strike on Tuesday. What are your thoughts on the issue?

AW: Striking is an important part of a modern democracy, when it is necessary. I hope the University and the lecturers are able to sort out their differences with minimal obstruction to learning.

James Bennett and Dave Reynolds

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Do Conservatives ever change their spots?

Image credits: Financial Times photos

You thought politicians would learn what to say and what not to say, what to do and what not to do, or at least pay someone reliable to consider these things for them. In the wake of recent Tory slip-ups, Online Features Editor Imogen Watson examines the latest round of their problems.

With Boris Johnson speaking out of turn and Exeter alumnus and government minister Andrew Lansley MP being called out for poor expenses claims on dozens of seemingly unnecessary hotel stays, it has arguably been a bad couple of days for the Conservative Party.

To begin, everybody’s favourite London Mayor, Boris Johnson, has been at it again, suggesting last week that we ought not to spend too much time or too many resources on promoting equality within our society. Whilst apparently 16 per cent of “our species” have an IQ of less than 85, approximately two per cent has one over 130, and, during a speech about the benefits of inequality (which fosters “the spirit of envy”), it was the implied message of the Mayor of the Big Smoke that the state ought to use more of our resources for this latter group. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, whilst praising Johnson for being “a funny guy”, Chancellor George Osborne and the Prime Minister alike have distanced themselves from the Conservative Mayor, who is considered to be very high-ranking and a well-known member of their own party.  Experts have expressed that correlations between high IQs and educational attainment are existent but slight and probabilistic.

In the meantime, Exeter University’s own Andrew Lansley MP (who recently visited the Streatham Campus and an interview with whom you can read here) has been found to be using the taxpayer’s money to pay for stays in London hotels, despite owning properties both in London itself – a mile from Parliament – and near the village of Royston in his not-too-distant constituency of South Cambridgeshire. MPs are able to claim for a second home where appropriate for working either in London or in their constituency; yet Lansley has racked up a bill of £5950 since April 2012, although his million-pound flat is just in Pimlico. Although a family member is apparently living there (so Lansley can’t).

Granted, one must remember not to act in the moral high ground too much, as the number of employees stealing from their place of work is also on the increase, and at least this time we are not witnessing receipts for duck houses and the cleaning of moats. With Parliament having brought in the apparently Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority in the wake of the previous expenses scandal, it is questionable how such claims made it through the scrutiny, but it also does rather beg the question – do politicians ever change?

Politicians’ PR managers must have constant nightmares and demand constant pay rises, but there is a bigger debate at the heart of such comments and such actions. The political world is already a game for the elite, but politicians seem to be going out of their way to make it worse by annoying the public just a little bit more every time they open their mouths.

Image credits: NHS Confederation

After the last expenses scandal, trust in politicians as a whole dipped to an all-time low of 2.3 from its high of 3.5… out of a possible ten. If politicians are so aware of how much the public does not approve of their job performance, their natural reaction ought to be to be on high alert, ready to publicise something positive that they do, ready to avoid such gaffes. Clearly, however, they are not. For the Leader of the House of Commons to set such a poor example, we really should be shocked but instead I found myself sighing disapprovingly and rolling my eyes. What a great state of affairs. Not all politicians are awful, but the ones that are mar the others.

As for the Conservative Party more specifically, its reputation as “the Nasty Party”, rife with scandal and sleaze, is what made it lose the election of 1997 so badly. Boris Johnson may be in contention for the leader of the Party when David Cameron should choose to step down, but his humorous ways and amusing bumbling persona on the international Olympic stage will do him no good if he does not refrain from poor errors of judgement in public affairs that are inherently personal and offensive to large swathes of the population. It is this kind of error that sidelined the Tories for thirteen years, and it will do so again if left unchecked.

Imogen Watson, Online Features Editor

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Where next for British politics?

Image credits: tolomea

Head, as ever, up in the political clouds, Online Features Editor Imogen Watson anticipates the General Election 2015.

It has been a funny old these last three-and-a-bit years since the current coalition government was elected to power back in May 2010.

We have seen the rapid decrease in the Liberal Democrats already-muted popularity, a sad surge in support for the United Kingdom Independence Party, ministers hurried in to and shepherded out from the Cabinet and more politicians making stupid comments, and some of them intentionally. Sadly the latter is not something that can only be attributed to Britain, but neither are our elected representatives succeeding in blazoning a path towards common sense.

The Conservative-led government has become quite the talented driver, performing incredible numbers of U-turns at rapid speeds. It has become quite the disappointment, too, that is if anyone was expecting anything impressive from them by now.

Granted, regardless of political affiliation, the situation
the government inherited was not far short of terrible; economies beginning to collapse worldwide and ordinary people worrying about what future was to come, at a loss to explain quite how this had happened. Since hitting recession under the last Labour government in 2008, only a few will have been lucky to have avoided the effects. I, for one, have only really had any money of my own since the recession began, and so having got used to the current situation hope that there will be a day in the future where my money stretches a lot further than it does now. One can dream.

 

Image credits: The Prime Minister’s Office

But there is a window for improvement, and the government has missed it. The UK, not having been as badly affected as certain other European economies, is one of the last to pull itself towards the vague light of recovery, after more than three years of a new government. “Pull” is, perhaps, the wrong verb here. Let us go instead for “drag”. The latest news of hope that the economy is heading in the right direction is pretty pathetic. We ought to have been receiving this news along with the United States, instead of watching our credit rating being downgraded and hearing warnings of a triple-dip recession. How embarrassing, somebody get a grip.

As I pointed out, however, life should be looking up, after all four thousand fewer people were unemployed last month than in June, and David Cameron says that this is “encouraging”.

What he neglected to comment on is that actually youth unemployment is up, again, and the number of people undergoing long-term unemployment is up too – again. Unemployment in the West Midlands? That’s up too, to just a smidgen under one in ten people, a region which once employed so many in manufacturing and industry and is now in danger of serious neglect. I wish one could even say this particular region’s figures were the worst of the bunch, but one cannot. Encouraging? David Cameron, I am afraid, is simply out of touch.

The Coalition has been prone, as most governments are, to hurl the blame backwards in time to the Labour Party – in politics, where the diciest of relationships occur, it most certainly is always a case of “it’s not me, it’s you”. This attitude sticks for a while, but nearly three and a half years down the line, is it not time a government started taking responsibility for its actions, when numerous experts have openly criticised spending plans because they do not look to have the right, or indeed any, effect?

The problems are not only economic. Recently certain boroughs of London were treated to the sight of vans scaremongering both legal British citizens and illegal immigrants alike: go home or face arrest. It was Vince Cable – a Liberal Democrat partner in the Coalition – to stand out from the government and point out that actually, “We have a problem but it’s not a vast one. It’s got to be dealt with in a measured way dealing with the underlying causes.” According to the New Statesman, David Cameron may not have even been aware of the campaign before it happened.

Numerous issues are damaging this government – I could continue for hours. Not through misfortune, but through poor decisions, and a great (meaning large, not fantastic) game of blame and pass-the-buck. The problem is that viable alternatives are not currently waiting in the wings.

We need a good, honest (I cannot stress that enough), thorough debate on the issues. We do not need more coalitions, failed promises and people wondering what they are paying politicians for. It is fair to say that the Liberal Democrats, like beforehand, are in no likely position to be forming a stable government any time soon, nor even the largest party. The UKIP fun and laughter is dying down or at least beginning to flatline, and heaven forbid it should increase again as more and more of their candidates out themselves as bigoted and xenophobic ignoramuses. Even if they were to surprise me in 2015, their support will be the Lib Dems’ old problem – spread too thinly across the nation to gain any great number of seats.

Labour really needs to pull its act together. Although lots of people continue to struggle through benefit changes,

“Fresh ideas”? Where are they?
Image credits: EdMiliband

lack of jobs to go around, increased student fees, rising debt, payday loans and more, there is an indication that life is looking up and it is an indication to which public feeling has latched on at least a little. Labour policies are lacking in response, and even my mother is considering not voting in 2015 (trust me, that means something). The Party shed its bigwigs and party elders – perhaps they should bring them back again. There is a mini squabble going on at the top of the Labour Party which is helping nobody’s public image, and instead of coming out fighting, united, there is a whole lot of nothing coupled with one or two mishaps to fill the gap and get everybody talking – about the wrong thing.

Something tells me that since Andy Burnham (Shadow Secretary of State for Health) piped up in the not too distant past, Labour policy may be just around the corner. I hope so, and I hope the wait has made it good, or it might be too little, too late.

Imogen Watson, Online Features Editor