Tuesday 10 April 2007

Why the Lib-Dems?

Why did I join the Lib-Dems?

It wasn't an automatic choice for me. Before I moved to Lewes, I thought about joining the Co-operative Party, because I'd been involved in housing co-ops for a long time. The Co-op party is a party within the Labour party, and one of the Brighton Labour MPs is a member. The other option for me was the Lib-Dems, basically on the basis that I think their policies are generally well thought out, and not a result of either populism or dogma.

However, when it became clear that Tony Blair was going to invade Iraq, I swore I'd never vote Labour again. Once I was in Lewes, the Lib-Dems were the obvious party to choose. When I took a look at the national policies, I was pleased to discover that the Lib-Dems also support co-operatives.

I also liked the look of the environmental policies, and policies on crime and civil liberties.

I joined the Liberal Democrat party shortly before the 2005 elections.

Shortly after the election, I started going to Lewes Town Branch meetings, and quickly got involved with several things. I was elected branch secretary, and representative to the Constituency Party from the start of 2006. I also started to help Norman Baker with his monthly Lewes surgeries (he has weekly surgeries, but the others are in other parts of the consituency), which was a good way to start to find out about local concerns.

Many people think that the three main parties are all the same. But, we're different from Labour because we believe in civil liberties. We're different from the Tories, because we believe in economic fairness.

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