Politics

Labour acted responsibly in the national interest

From Greg Williams on behalf of the Labour Party, Dorset

Covid ‘passports’ are the latest issue to divide British politics – and divide some parties. Some of our MPs oppose the measure for being reminiscent of 1930s Germany. They tell us it heralds a slide towards an authoritarian, big government state. Firstly, enough with these comparisons to Nazi Germany. For a generation who never witnessed let alone endured that regime to misappropriate it is utterly disrespectful to the memory of those who did. Everyone in politics should cut back on the histrionics. Let’s be clear. We’re talking about an app on your phone that shows you have participated in a crucial public health initiative before joining an optional, mass social activity. And you have the choice whether to get vaccinated or get tested. Opposing these measures because someone showed you twitter photos of Italian police in a restaurant is ridiculous. If only the bobby on the door of Number 10 was so officious in enforcing Covid restrictions last Christmas. I’m proud that Keir Starmer and his MPs voted for these measures. He put party politics aside, and did what was required in the national interest. This is what responsible, credible leadership looks like. What of the Conservatives, as they lurch to another by-election defeat to the liberals? Where is their anxiety over a slide towards illiberal authoritarianism in respect to legislation requiring voters to present ID before voting? Or their plans to give the ministers control over the Electoral Commission, and prevent it from investigating the Prime Minister and others for violations of electoral law? Where are the wails of discontent over limits to judicial review of the executive? If our MPs were truly concerned about protecting liberties and the integrity of the British political system, they will use their newfound independence from their whips to reject these measures. We must hope British conservatism doesn’t morph into the extreme libertarian politics of the US, where reverence for ‘tradition’ and ‘constitution’ is selective. It is applied to protect politicians from scrutiny, and to disenfranchise select groups of voters. What we really need to be wary of is not an app on our phone, but those who believe they have a right to put their own ‘liberty’ above the health of others, and use the power of the state to silence those who oppose them.

Why Global Britain should find its humanity

From Mike Chapman on behalf of Liberal Democrats across The Blackmore Vale

In the autumn of 1972, I stood with my mother behind a trestle table in an open hangar at West Malling airfield in Kent. She was transformed by her WRVS uniform. We distributed shoes, raincoats, scarves and even umbrellas as cold weather necessities to the long line of Ugandan Asian refugees, just disembarked. The Government had first tried to resettle them in the UK’s overseas territories but met resistance from all but the Falklands. How graceless was Government then and how generous and organised the voluntary sector. Things do not seem to have changed much. The numbers are the same; there is the same “no way back” issue facing the migrants; there is the same bewildered but determined look on their faces. The supposedly toxic politics of all this is nothing like as toxic as the situations facing so many of them in Afghanistan, Syria, across Kurdistan and in the Horn of Africa. The core of policy towards refugees seems to be to treat them with minimal generosity, even hostility, “pour encourager les autres”. As we approach Christmas, perhaps it is time for this Global Britain to stop feeling quite so entitled, find its humanity and act with more confidence and compassion, embracing its historic responsibilities as it does so. Dorset has welcomed less than100 recent migrants. On a per capita basis the number should be nearer 600. Together with many others, I went up to North Shropshire to help canvass. I saw familiar things: a hinterland of great beauty and heritage disguising rural isolation and farmers uncertain of the future. I saw towns standing still, gaps in services, a powerlessness everywhere and the same gulf between prices and wages that we see across the Vale. I saw, too, a hard-working team fuelled by a belief that anything was possible. The rewards are there for all to see. The federal structure of our party lends itself to such teamwork, working together toward a common goal rather than being told what to do by a remote hierarchy. We also try to take the long view through early selection of candidates for both local and parliamentary elections, a process we are starting now. As we reach the winter solstice, the year’s deep midnight, we are all concerned about the march of omicron. There is a simple truth that it will be more readily managed if we all do the right things: get vaccinated/boosted, mask up, get tested before events, closely socialise less. It will take good leadership, leadership by example not least, building on good science to overcome the anxiety, weariness and impatience so evident across our communities. What will not succeed is command, control and coercion. So, to Christmas and the New Year. The days are getting longer and the first bulbs are starting to show, adding to the other signs of change. Reasons to be cheerful.