Party Time

Winning a Parliamentary seat is something I've not been part of since joining the Young Liberals many years ago! I didn't play a very big part in Redcar's achievement but did what I could when I could and last night celebrated with many others. O'Grady's was packed, the music was loud, the cheers for Ian when he arrived must have inflicted damage on the rafters! There'll be some headaches today, but for Ian the work starts afresh. As he says, from delivering leaflets in Grangetown on Wednesday to helping decide the future government of the country on Saturday - what a change. So this morning he's on the train to London to take part in those debates.

The candles on the cake didn't represent Ian's age! They show the number of voters who put their trust in Ian Swales to do his best for Redcar and the country. Quite an increase on 5 years ago! That's a tribute to the hard work put in by Ian and local Lib Dems in that time.
The party's democratic structures mean that we all have a say before decisions are taken. Throughout yesterday and today members, Federal Executive and MPs are debating by phone, email, text and in person. Whether we agree with the final outcome or not, we know that we've had more say than the average member of either the Labour or Tory parties, or even than some of their MPs probably!
Voting reform and a studied, caring approach to cutting the national debt before the international money giants leap in and destroy our chances of deciding for ourselves - can enough politicians of different parties agree on a way to achieve this? Only time will tell.