LETTER: Rollercoaster ride for the Lib-Dems in 2010

I would like to share some of the experience with you.

There can only be one candidate for the highlight of the year. It happened in the early hours of Friday, May 7th.

I have always taken the view that the relief and elimination of suffering and the creation of opportunities for a happy life are sometimes best served by all the people working together. Whether that means creating the NHS, boosting the economy or helping low-earners into university, that is the purpose of a national government. The rest of the time, we can get on perfectly well without needing a government.

Because of my feeling that a government needs to care about the people it works for, for a time in my youth I was interested in joining the Labour Party.

When I began working for a living, and paying taxes, I became concerned that a lot seemed to be taken from me to fund things I didn’t always agree with. This continued into the Labour years until recently, and was amplified by the war in Iraq. Eventually I learned that whenever a Labour government comes to power, financial catastrophe for the nation is always around the corner.

I wanted a government that cared, but I realised that Labour could not deliver.

I have also long known that the traditional response – a Conservative government – is inadequate for a whole host of other reasons. Burnley knows this already. The tendency to promote private profit as the greatest good is painful to see for anyone in the caring professions, particularly those whose jobs are under threat today. Not everyone does their job in the hope of becoming rich, and the appalling salary gap between bosses and workers is bigger than ever. Add to that the over-reliance on the finance industry, under-regulation of the banks that started with the Conservatives and the selfishness that lingers from the Thatcher era.

In the early hours of Friday, May 7th, the world saw that Burnley, like me, had discovered the alternative. 75 years of Labour was ended with the election of Gordon Birtwistle MP.

It will be a learning curve for Gordon as he finds his feet. In the rest of the country, more people voted Conservative than for any other party. I know Gordon sometimes finds that difficult to stomach, as do I, but there is no choice, and he has to work with them. Many Liberal Democrat policies have been implemented: an end to the wasteful and pointless ID cards programme, a guaranteed rise in the basic state pension every year, more money for schools with disadvantaged pupils, less tax on the lowest earners and no immediate replacement for the Trident nuclear missile system are just a few.

But the country voted the Conservatives into power, and that is how things will have to be, for now.

The lowest point of the year has come in the last few weeks.

The first priority of government is to protect the lives of its citizens. Often people do not realise that most people suffer and die from disease, not war. Thus the first priorities of government are the health and social services. In turn, these rely on education, science and a sound economy. Other services might be important but they are secondary.

After repeatedly trying to persuade Lancashire County councillors to intervene over the situation with our hospital, we finally won some traction over the closure of the Deerplay children’s ward. County councillors did not agree with the closure, and asked the Government to step in. The hospital is closing the ward anyway while the Government undertakes a review. It could take three months. The ward might re-open but I am not hopeful.

Now, as well as chairing the local party, I’m also a councillor. Research has shown that the happiest people are those with the most friends, so I want to tell everyone in Burnley about what being a councillor is like. When I walk along Barden Lane, Colne Road or Brennand Street, I often bump into people that I have met during my entry into local politics. There is often a friendly wave, a chat over a garden wall and sometimes a cup of tea and a biscuit. It is like having hundreds of friends. To anyone who thinks they can do a better job than the current lot, or who just wants to help, I can recommend it.

Which brings me neatly to the chap who is going to do a better job than me of running Burnley Liberal Democrats: Gordon Lishman CBE.

As much as anyone, Gordon Lishman is the philosophical founder of the modern Liberal Democrat party. Because of him, the Liberal Democrats are the party of local government. Because of him, we understand that all politics is local: the doorstep is what matters.

Gordon is also responsible for the fact that the Liberal Democrat leadership nationally is not able to form coalitions with other parties without first seeking approval from the rest of the party. There is a strong tradition in the party that the ordinary members are the people in charge. That’s what liberal democracy is about: letting people be in charge of their own destiny.

Gordon also has a distinguished career running the national charity formerly known as Age Concern (now Age UK). Under his leadership the charity went from strength to strength. Gordon ensured that all the local organisations could operate independently yet still get strong support from the centre.

I welcome Gordon to the chairmanship of Burnley’s Liberal Democrats and wish him all the best.

DARREN REYNOLDS