Video: Chris on tuition fees December 7, 2007

Chris backs party policy on scrapping tuition fees. This video forms part of the party’s YouTube hustings.

Video: Chris on the need for Freedom Bill to “roll back the government’s incursions in to personal liberties” December 6, 2007

Chris on civil liberties, detention without trial, and more. This video forms part of the party’s YouTube hustings.

Sal Brinton: Why I’m backing Chris October 29, 2007

Sal Brinton (PPC for Watford, Vice-Chair of the Federal Policy Committee and member of the Federal Conference Committee) has written to us to say why she’s backing Chris for leader:

I’m backing Chris Huhne for Leader for three reasons.

His liberal instincts, matched with his formidable intellect, mean he is one of the best people I’ve heard articulating Liberal Democrat distinctive philosophy and policies. We need this clarity in a political world where Labour and the Tories are trying to steal each other’s territory. He’s a
really good listener – seeing him talking to members of the public, you realise how good he is at drawing their views and confidence. This is a man who believes in empowering people, and they know it and rise to the challenge.

We all know he’s passionate about the environment, and the threat of global warming. In less than two years in Westminster, he led the party through a clear economic and environmental policy which green groups everywhere say is the best of the main parties. And each time the other parties come in for criticism for having superficial policies on the environment, we know that Chris’s Green Tax Switch will stand up, and get that change of behaviour that our planet needs so urgently.

Chris is a man of principle, who has never been afraid to speak his mind. He’s got a strength of character too that any Leader of a political party needs, and this gives him a presence and gravitas which makes people take him seriously.  But he also has a great sense of humour, which means that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. His grit and determination will also see him in good stead in the hurly burly of the Westminster bubble.

I suspect that both Brown and Cameron fear Chris Huhne most as our next leader. Chris is a real force to be reckoned with, and the man who will take us on to challenge and change the two-party tired old politics of the last sixty years.

Why I’m backing Chris October 19, 2007

Hi, I’m miriam, and I’m one of the other bloggers on this site. I backed Chris last time round, when he came second and shook up a lot of people. Then, my Tory boyfriend (sorry) said “Chris who” right up until I said “Fitch Ratings” at which point he did a double take, and suddenly took Chris’s campaign seriously, along with my other Tory friends. Chris was the person that they didn’t want to win. He was the one they were most bothered about at a grassroots level, as someone who could challenge the Tories on fiscal matters, and the Labour party on social conscience and the environment.

Fast forward to the present day, and Chris is still the guy that the Tories don’t want to win, at a local level. Those City boys take Fitch seriously, and his work as a journalist, economist and MEP is outstanding.

We have a good candidate. Lets back him.

Why Chris? October 17, 2007

So, why am I backing Chris Huhne for leader of the Liberal Democrats?

We’re at a crucial point in our party’s history. Just over two years ago, almost 1 in 4 of Britain’s voters backed us at the General Election. Now, opinion polls tell us that we might be backed by as few as 1 in 10 of the voters. It’s my belief that in 2005 we succeeded so well because we were different from the two main parties and our party connected with a populace who were tired of the same old lies and broken promises from the two other parties, exemplified by the cosy consensus between them that took us into the war in Iraq.

I don’t think there’s been a fundamental change in the British people in the last two years and I think we still have the potential as a party to get back to 23% and go well beyond that, but if we are going to achieve that, we have to maintain our identity as a distinctive and different party that offers a clear and real alternative to Labour and the Tories. If we are to succeed, we have to remain true to ourselves and our heritage – attempting to grab the tiny patch of ground between the two other parties will doom us to irrelevance and obscurity.

I’m supporting Chris because I believe he has a distinctive vision for our party. He understands that Liberal Democracy is about freedom, fairness and trust – letting people live their own lives, giving them the power to achieve what they want and trusting them to live their lives free of an overbearing nanny who wants to tell them how to live their lives, whether it’s what they eat or who they should marry.

It’s also because has advocated a Liberal approach to environmentalism. Not only were the policies he advocated in the last leadership elected soon adopted by the rest of the party, his proposals for shifting air taxes from passengers to planes have been adopted by both the Tories and Labour!

The environment and climate change are becoming the most important issues in modern politics, and they provide an opportunity for us to show that we have the policies that resonate with the people. Chris has consistently advocated a liberal approach to the environment, trusting people to make the best decisions to protect our planet and rejecting the statism and authoritarianism of the other parties. They see environmental policy as a way to grab more power over people and as Liberals we should reject that. With Chris as our leader we’ll be able to show the people of Britain that there’s a better way, a fairer way, a Liberal way to run our society, and that is just one of the reasons I want him to be our next leader.