What do the Liberal Democrats stand for?
What are the Liberal Democrats really for?? With our fantastic local election wins of 407 council seats across the country, meaning that for every 8 Labour or 7 Conservatives there are 5 Lib Dem Councillors, Peterborough Liberal Democrats paused to remind ourselves.
People often think they know what the others stand for – or at least what they used to.
Conservatives were for sound economics (but that was before the Boris’ broken Brexit promises started impacting businesses, plus Rishi is still trying to tax the rich less).
Labour was for the Trades Unions (but now the Corbynites are fighting the soft Tories, and they aren’t brave enough to make real changes).
So what are the Lib Dems for?
- Freedom – our symbol is the Bird of Liberty. We want everyone to be able to be themselves, their best selves. No one should be trapped by poverty or lack of education or not having a chance. No one should feel under pressure to follow the crowd.
- Equality - We balance individual freedom with our passion for fairness - so *everyone* really can be free. Fairness can mean cutting taxes for people who are paid least, it means enabling people to get what they need, it means making it easy for people to vote (starting from 16 year olds).
- Community - We want power to be as local as possible; we famously work all year round supporting individuals and groups with local issues – and we celebrate different cultures.
You may have heard of EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) – Lib Dems add an extra E for Equity – making a difference to enable real fairness. As Peterborough Liberal Democrats, we’ve just refreshed our local action plan – what we’re doing to work towards more EEDI. Lib Dems believe politics should be about the real stuff that affects our lives. You can see what this means locally elsewhere on our website - in our online manifesto for Peterborough. Tell me beki.sellick.libdem@gmail.com what else you think we should be doing in your community. Lib Dems are different – we ask you to vote for us and for our values. We stick to what we believe in, and we’re always open to new evidence about what works – from experts and from everyone, including other politicians.
We may not be good at marketing and sound bites but we work hard all year – and for years on end!
On 22 May, the Liberal Democrats longest serving Peterborough City Councillor Nick Sandford was elected as Peterborough’s Mayor. As Nick-the-Mayor says: “When I was first elected as a councillor, just over 27 years ago, I never thought I would end up achieving the position of Mayor of Peterborough…. I will aim to champion the city of Peterborough and reach out and engage with all of our diverse communities.”
We celebrate Nick Sandford becoming Peterborough’s First Citizen, and Bella Saltmarsh becoming Lady Mayoress. Alderman Bella also brings her record of service is as City Councillor to the role. Nick and Bella enjoyed meeting many different groups last year when they were Deputies and they’re looking forward to doing this even more as Mayor and Mayoress.
Meanwhile, Peterborough Liberal Democrats welcome new people to join us. There’s always room for more!