This article was written by Katharine Pindar, a member of the 2024 - 2026 Social Liberal Forum Council and long-standing member of the Cumberland Lib Dems.

The views laid out in this article are the views of the author and may not reflect the position of the Social Liberal Forum

Are we Left-wing enough to see off the Greens?

There was a time when our party knew that the Greens were an environment-focused worthy little party, setting standards for everyone with their climate-change awareness and insistence on care for the countryside and the landscape. Brighton seemed a natural setting for the first Green MP, Caroline Lucas, and the Greens’ later expansion into the fine city of Bristol.

They weren’t as a party seeming any threat to the Liberal Democrats. But in the last few months their poll-rating in England has become comparable with ours – which means we have stayed stuck at from 12 to 15 per cent, while they have sometimes reached 17 per cent. And under their charismatic new leader Zack Polanski they have tapped into the national mood of desire for change and disgust with the Tories to begin with and now the Labour government too. Idealistic young people in particular, recoiling from Reform, are helping them win council seats and compete with us. In the recent local elections, while we won 155 more council seats, Greens managed 441. True, we hold 15 councils now and they none, but our progress seems more steady-as-she-goes than moving forward nationally.

National Image

When it comes to national images, it seems that the Greens now appear progressive while Liberal Democrats stand for stability and modest incremental change. Yet here in Social Liberal Forum we believe in a much more Left-of-Centre orientation, wanting to empower individuals within society and their communities, determined to fight inequality and poverty, believing in a state-supported liberalism, and retaining more sympathy for Jeremy Corbyn’s ideals than those apparent in Keir Starmer.

And here is the crunch. There seems much in what SLF members aspire to which is also sought for by the new generation of Greens. And are we able to tell them that our party actually accepts our SLF orientation, as we hope, even though nationally we show a more cautious and timid approach?

The Future for the left-of-centre

It’s not only a question for our leaders; it’s for our broad party membership. How many of us, despite our genuine internationalism, actually have supported pro-Palestine marchers? How many of us are ready to condemn the present Israeli government openly for its apparent war crimes in Gaza, while also strongly condemning anti-Semitism? What do we wait for?

The new Greens are in fact natural allies for our party in fighting populism and the rise of Right-wing nationalism. But we, from our 100-year traditions and established beliefs and practices, have the right to lead. We in SLF need to encourage our party to show that Liberal Democrats are indeed Left-of-Centre believers and diligent workers for a Liberal Britain.