20 years after attending my first political conference, I find myself sitting in the audience for the launch rally at the Lib Dems spring conference. After being welcomed by a plethora of prospective parliamentary candidates, a quarter of whom I gladly noted were women, the big guns of party come out to inspire us, to rouse us for the remaining short time before the election.
Paddy Ashdown came on first and appealed directly to our heads. The country faces four great threats, he says and goes on to tell us why the Lib Dems are the party to address them. The first one, the economic crisis, basically needs to be handled by Vince Cable. Given the fact that Dr Cable predicted the collapse, we trust him to come up with some sort of way through the mess. Yes, I can buy that and as he pointed out, you need to vote Lib Dem to get Vince Cable as Chancellor.
Paddy Ashdowns style, tone and rhetoric are all convincing and moved me to follow his logic calmly and sanely, to understand deeply that the Lib Dems are an option this election. Perhaps the only real option. But for all his logic, and he was inspirational, it was Shirley Williams that captured my heart and made me want to act.
Dame Williams reminded the audience that we get involved in politics because we have a passion for a just society. However we start, we share a desire to live in a country that is just and fair. Right now, it is clear that we do not. Though I can intellectually grasp this, Shirley’s words reached through to my heart when she asked ‘Why are we not furious?’ about the state of housing, our classroom sizes, the bankers bonuses. Good question, why are we not furious? Because, she says, we have lost the capacity for indignation. We allow so much to slide by us, to go un-noticed, unchallenged. She reminded us that we are called upon now to step up and make a difference. As I listened to her I felt she was awakening our morality.
Both speakers had good points to make, though through appealing to different parts of me. Great orators know this, that to fully engage with an audience takes more than a rational argument, it takes something that appeals to the heart, that stirs the spirit. I think politics needs more of what Shirley Williams was offering, more of an appeal to that part of us that is more that just logic. Just logic is what created the financial crisis. Just logic is what produces poverty. Its humanity that will be required to solve these problems. Humanity includes logic but logic is not sufficient. More is required. An ability to feel, to connect with another human being, to be moved to action by an individuals predicament, by the state of the world, that is what is required of us now. This is what will engage people back in politics, the sense of making a difference. We need to be more like Shirley Williams, ready to accept that we need to stand up and be counted, or there will be no-one left to do the counting.
Lee I think your reading of Dame Williams speech says a lot. For me, the two main things I will take from this are: firstly that to be indignant and even angry, ‘furious’ even,are positive emotions. I think we’ve had a tendancy somewhere along the line to become so touchy-feelie that we forget that emotions such as these are propelling emotions, they move us into action, they’re not just the property of Daily Mail readers … knowing you have a right to something better is a great place to start. Secondly, that politics needs to engage us at the level of our humanity so that as humanity we can begin to recognise ourselves as a collective and evolve our thinking beyond the borders of our own planet (I like to think big!). If we bring it down to our most common denominator, that we are all human, then logic can become a tool we use to make steps towards that better way and nuture our progression as a race. Probably a good dose of feminine energy to balance things out is the next logical step… Thank you, I actually feel more inspired to take a greater interest in my political environment now you’ve identified a place for me to enter in.
Baroness (by the way, not the lower ranked Dame;)) Shirley Williams is truly inspirational. More Shirley, I say! Smartest politician from any party today. I’ve seen her in debates — she’s very quick.