I've been a strong social liberal voice on the FE in the last 2 years and I'd like to continue that work.
As it says in my manifesto, I'm:
- An experienced campaigner
- Against complacency (and there's a surprising amount of it!)
- And I want to rebuild an inclusive, open and effective party that can carry the liberal banner forward in the coming century
Currently it feels like we’re stuck with a 1980s party in a 21st century world.
There’s a lot that’s good: the way we involve our members when others don’t being the most obvious one. But there’s a lot that needs fixing.
In the short term, our priority needs to be winning as many seats as possible in 2015 – and I set out what I think can be done on FE to support that in the manifesto below.
But longer term, we need a real drains up on the party (and the party constitution) to see how we can
- reinvent involvement and democracy
- open up more to the people who share our goals
- support and enable people who want to change things whether as elected representatives or as campaigners
- start learning again – we used to be brilliant at learning and creating new approaches from the bottom-up – now we’re too often imposing things from the top down
- simplify how we operate – especially in England
- become exemplary employers and provide a totally safe environment for people to get involved
- all the while making sure we have the effective central and local operations we need to win the changes we want to see.
The Federal Executive needs to lead that.
If you'd like to read more, I've put some extra information at http://www.martintod.org.uk/fe
Martin