Why I'm Voting for the Lib Dems
As he hurtled towards the ground while attached to a bungee cord, Sir Ed Davey shouted that you should do something different for the first time: vote for the Liberal Democrats. While I’ve not fallen for his peculiar mix of stunts and slogans, I intend to vote for the Liberal Democrats in the General Election on Thursday for the first time. I don’t do this with a great deal of enthusiasm – I’ve never voted for any party with enthusiasm – and I don’t expect to persuade anyone to join me, but thought I’d write down some of my thoughts as to why. It’s all a bit self-indulgent but that’s partially what this blog is for!
The first General Election I ever voted in was in 2010. Back then I would have described myself as a ‘Libertarian Socialist’ in the sense that I cared about individual liberty while also helping the poor. As such, I found myself voting for Labour. After the General Election I joined the Labour Club at university and was convinced that the reason Labour lost in 2010 was because it was not left wing enough. I voted for Ed Milliband to be leader of Labour because I felt that he was both left wing and credible.
Fast forward to 2015 and I had started paying tax and learned a lot about economics. I don’t mean that in a patronising way but I had become convinced that the best way to raise living standards and economic growth was through free markets. I was also deeply disillusioned with the Left after its apologism for the rioters in 2011. Even though I was never completely on board with Austerity, I felt the Tories were the safer bet and so I voted for them. I also briefly joined them as I had a misguided desire to become an MP (a job I feel that would not be a good fit for me). I quit in 2017 after Theresa May stated there was no place for libertarians. I found the Lib Dems and their obsession with a second referendum deeply off putting and, while I certainly didn’t want to see Jeremy Corbyn in Number 10, I didn’t think he was a threat as the Tories would get a massive majority and so I didn’t bother voting.
In 2019 I was very tempted to vote for the Lib Dems. My local candidate was Sam Gyimah whose policies were great but it was a marginal seat and I felt there was a very chance of another hung Parliament or a Corbyn government. I also had a job offer to work as an adviser to Liz Truss. So again, despite not being a fan of Boris Johnson I held my nose and voted Tory.
Despite being gifted a massive majority, the Tories massively squandered it. While obviously Covid made things difficult, a mixture of corruption and incompetence meant that they achieved very little of note. Notable exceptions to this are Michael Gove’s education reforms which did raise standards and furlough which probably could have been designed more effectively (something which protected incomes as opposed to jobs). Also, while the government’s trade policy hasn’t been perfect, the fact that a new department was set up and dozens of trade deals were renegotiated and enhanced and new deals negotiated – all while Brexit was looming in the background was a huge achievement.
Unfortunately, living standards and economic growth have stagnated since the Great Recession and the government has done practically nothing to stop the rot. While the employment rate is high and the country somehow managed to avoid mass unemployment, many of these jobs are low paid and are essentially subsidised by taxpayers via Universal Credit. The entire welfare system is inefficient and cruel, and has contributed to far too many people – including children – being stuck in poverty.
The Tories deserve to be kicked out of poverty and receive a beating from the electorate. I might write something on what the future of the Tories could and should look like – although I might just leave that to my friend John Oxley who would probably do a better job!
That’s the case for not voting for the Tories, but why not Labour? I wrote an article for Labour List last week setting out why I am relatively relaxed about a big Labour majority. You can read it here, but it boils down to Starmer not being Corbyn so he won’t do anything mad or side with our nation’s enemies and he has pledged to get Britain building and I think that a large majority would help drive this through.
However, I still have some big concerns over Labour. I wrote an article for City Journal on Monday where I set out my concerns over Labour’s fiscal policy which you can read here.
Therefore, I’m not that keen on granting Labour too large of a majority. This is where the Lib Dems come in. I would hope that by getting more Lib Dems elected to Parliament that they could temper some of Labour’s more eccentric and damaging policies.
I think there is also a positive case to be made for voting for the Lib Dems rather than just as a buffer against Labour or to punish the Tories. While I have been disappointed by some of their announcements such as the silly call to scrap VAT on toothpaste for children (regular readers will remember that we need to levy the same rate of VAT on everything), the Lib Dems are not going to be in government and so in many ways individual policies don’t matter. What does matter are guiding principles. While they’re not quite the Orange Bookers that I would like, they are a party which believes in liberalism and pushes for policies to promote this. They are the only major party calling for the legalisation of cannabis and ending the deeply cruel two-child benefit limit. Also, while I don’t agree with their stance on the FTAs the UK has signed and they have been pretty shameless in their opportunism when it comes to opposing new developments during by-elections, they do believe in free trade and there is a very vocal and effective YIMBY contingent in the Party.
So, there we have it. I would really like to see the Liberal Democrats truly live up to their name and effectively make the case for free markets, free trade, and free people. However, they probably are the best of a bad bunch – especially in terms of preventing Labour from getting a massive majority. As for the smaller parties, I’m not a fan of Reform and, while I do have friends who are actual Green Party councillors who I like and respect, I disagree with the vast majority of their policies.
That’s why I’m voting for the Liberal Democrats on Thursday.