News story

14th September 2003

Lib Dems Welcome Call for "A New Style of Politics"

Steve Webb with 22 year-old Genevieve Whittle from Yate, constituency chair Cllr Sue Hope, and visiting speaker Lembit Opik MP

A large gathering of Liberal Democrat members in Chipping Sodbury on Friday 12th September backed a call by visiting speaker Lembit Opik MP to unite around a new and positive way of conducting political debate. Lembit Opik, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, was giving the fourth annual lecture in memory of Heather Larkins, a former Avon County Councillor and parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats in Northavon. Proceeds from the event help to pay for local young people to attend the Lib Dems’ annual conference and learn more about the political process. Amongst the audience was 22 year-old Genevieve Whittle, a student from Yate, who will shortly be travelling to Brighton for the Lib Dem conference on a bursary provided by the Heather Larkins Fund.

The key theme of Lembit Opik’s message was that politics should be seen as a “competition, not a war”. He said that politicians needed to show that they could respect people in other parties even if they did not agree with them. The MP drew on his experiences as a young child in his native Estonia before the fall of Communism and later growing up in Belfast to show how the wrong sort of politics could create divisions in society. In a lively discussion that followed the address, the packed meeting agreed that the “ya-boo” style of politics was a real turn-off for the public and that people would respond positively to a more mature and constructive approach.

Speaking after the event, local MP Steve Webb, who chaired the meeting, said:

“Young people in particular are turned off by politics when it seems to be about people talking a language that they don’t understand and bickering amongst themselves. Our vision of politics is about treating others with respect and working together for the common good. My own experience is that people of all ages respond very positively to that approach and it is one that we will certainly continue to pursue”.