https://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Valley-of-Hope-by-AJC1-Flickr-CCL.jpg
New year is a time for new projects. And with a parliament likely to last four years, we have time to devote to thinking about where we want the party to be by 2024 - and how we get there. So before Christmas, Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) and I met up for a pub lunch in the Peak District. We picked Hope, partly because it's halfway between our homes, and partly because… well… we could use some hope.
While this election was disappointing across the board, the result masks significant regional variation. We did relatively well in London and the south east, despite heartbreaking near-misses in Wimbledon and Carshalton and Wallington. But elsewhere in the country our performance was weaker - even in areas, like Sheffield Hallam, that voted remain.
I believe that one of the factors driving this was a failure to set out a clear 'offer' to the North - although the policies were all there. A £50 billion capital investment fund, extra money for buses, skills wallets as an attempt to support those hurt by deindustrialisation - all underpinned by real devolution of money and power. Together, these would have made a real impact on communities across the north - whether cities like Sheffield, towns like Harrogate, or villages like those in Westmorland and Lonsdale. But somehow, the message didn't get through.
This election offers a real opportunity - with dozens of strong second places and four years to prepare, we are well placed to move forward next time. But it also presents a risk. With these second places, along with most of our held seats, concentrated in London and the South East, we may be tempted to speak only to those places, at the expense of Northern England and our former heartlands in South West England.
I believe that would be a mistake. Our country - all of it - deserves better than Conservative division and Labour arrogance. And our party has a huge amount to offer cities like Sheffield - where residents have been let down over and over again by an over-centralised economy and a complacent and out-of-touch council. Our core values, centred around empowering people and communities and devolving real power and money to cities and regions, represent the best answer to rebalancing our economy and addressing the real frustrations that drove Brexit. And our commitment to education is a vital part of giving people - all over the country - the opportunity to realise their potential and drive growth for their communities.
A lot of these issues are common across the north. But our party's regional structures have made it harder to develop pan-Northern policy, and without a strong parliamentary party across the regions to drive collaboration, I believe we need another approach.
That's why we're proposing to launch a Northern Liberal Network at Spring Conference - which appropriately is being held in York. This isn't intended to be a policy talking shop - at least not at first. It is instead modelled on the work done by the Social Liberal Forum in coalition - providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and to advocate for a strategic direction. We can also use it to engage with business across the north, and to run our own regional campaigns - or anything else people suggest. The key is that we want to start talking to each other, about the big challenges that our region faces, and what our vision is to address them.
If that sounds like something you'd like to be part of, please keep an eye out for our event in the Conference Fringe - or if you can't make it to conference, email me at lauragordonLD[at]gmail[dot]com and I'll keep you informed.
Photo above of the Valley of Hope by AJC1 on Flickr CCL Some rights reserved
* For many years, Laura Gordon did humanitarian work in Africa helping the victims of war, disease and famine. She is now a local campaigner in Sheffield, and was the Liberal Democrat Candidate at the 2019 General Election in Sheffield Hallam.