This morning I got chatting with a friendly young barista. The subject of his travel plans came up. He had been reading that Brexit would make them more complex and was unimpressed. 'I wanted to remain in the EU ' he said, 'but I didn't vote'. In his next breath he told me that several of his mates voted to leave as a joke. They didn't think it would happen. Well, it has and it is not a laughing matter. Welcome to the dysfunctional world that is Brexit Britain.
Fortunately, the LibDem Fightback is well under way. And I am proud to be part of it. I write this fresh from the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference and with renewed enthusiasm for the EU cause.
If you want to hear about the Liberal Democrat Plan carry on reading. It's great news. Since the referendum we've seen some incredible momentum. We've gained almost 20,000 members, and since the election of Theresa May as PM we have won eighteen by-elections with huge swings.
If you also want to fight for an open, tolerant and united Britain, who want to be the real opposition to this Conservative Brexit Government, then join the Liberal Democrats today. Go to our website now: www.libdems.org.uk/join
Here are some of our Newbury Liberal Democrat team with the Leader, Tim Farron, second left.
At conference, Tim Farron explained our plan for where we, as a country go from here, in terms of Brexit and the politics of fear, division and hate.
He began with a story from just after the referendum. At the start of his speech, he spoke about a meeting held in Preston, the town where he grew up and learnt his values, to talk about the referendum and the realisation he'd had there. He said 'The people in that church hall in Preston, they'd voted differently to me (ie to leave) but I thought, you know what, we're on the same side here.
We see a London-centric no, Westminster-centric approach from politicians and the media. Treating the provinces as alien curiosities.
Those people in Preston and Sunderland and Newport see a divide between those who win and those who lose. When the country is booming, they don't see the benefit. And when the country is in decline they are the first to be hit. Those people ... wanted, quite understandably, to give the powerful a kicking. So they did.'
At that meeting they talked about low wages. About poor housing. About strains on hospitals and schools. Their problems weren't caused by the European Union, they were caused by powerful people who took them for granted.
By politicians who have spent decades chasing cheap headlines and short-term success for their political careers, and never acting in the long-term interests of the whole country.
Tim then set out how he wants to reach out to Leave voters... ' I wanted Britain to remain in the European Union and I still do. But we have got to listen, to learn and to understand why millions of people voted to leave. We can't just tell them they're wrong and stick our fingers in our ears.
So I want to do two things.
I want to persuade those who voted leave that we understand and respect their reasons, that we are determined to take head on the things about today’s Britain that have left so many people feeling ignored and I want to give them their say over what comes next.
The Liberal Democrats have a plan. We know what we want and we know where we want to take our country. When Theresa May does agree a deal with the EU, we want the people to decide.
Not a re-run of the referendum, not a second referendum, but a referendum on the terms of the as-yet-unknown Brexit deal.'
So, that's the first part of the plan, here is the second. It concerns NHS and social care in England.
About this Tim said 'For years, politicians have chosen to paper over the cracks rather than come clean about what it will really take – what it will really cost – not just to keep the NHS afloat but to give people the care and the treatment that they deserve. And that means, finally, bringing the NHS and the social care system together. We need to face the hard truth that the NHS needs more money – a lot more money – not just to stop it lurching from crisis to crisis but so that it can meet the needs and the challenges it will face in the years ahead. So that it can be the service we all need it to be for the long-term. That means having the most frank and honest conversation about the NHS that the country has ever had. What Beveridge did for the 20th century, we need for the 21st century. We need to face the hard truth that the NHS needs more money – a lot more money. We will go to the British people with the results of our Beveridge Commission and we will offer a new deal for health and social care, honest about the cost, bold about the solution. If the only way to fund a health service that meets the needs of everyone, is to raise taxes, Liberal Democrats will raise taxes.'
The third part of the plan is simply this; we have a message for everyone who wants a real opposition to the Tories. Whichever party you supported at the last election, we all know that Britain needs a decent, united opposition. So if Corbyn’s Labour has left the stage, then we will take the stage. Britain needs a strong opposition. The Liberal Democrats will be that strong opposition.
This is LibDem plan to build a Britain that's open, tolerant and united....
I had some concerns about the democratic validity of another referendum. I submitted a question to Tim Farron and to my amazement I was chosen to ask it.
I asked Tim 'is a second referendum democratic?' Tim replied that it was a great democratic oppurtunity, for people to have their say when the facts about the exit deal where known. I then asked the supplementary question 'How would a person who voted to leave first time round and then also voted leave second time round would feel if the results of the referendum of the terms of the deal was such that the deal was rejected and we remained in the EU?'
Tim Farron is convinced that this would still be a healthy situation democratically and had me convinced when he said that we would never forgive ourselves if our kids said to us in twenty years time 'Why didn't you do something? You didn't fight brexit hard enough'.
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