The Liberal Democrats have always boasted that Fairness and Equality is in the Party’s DNA
In fact this commitment is enshrined in the pre-amble to the Party Constitution -
The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.
But it is people not words that make political weather And as a long serving member of the Party it hurts me to admit that in one key area, - diversity - successive leaders have failed to fully live up to the spirit, let alone the letter of that very laudable and worthy statement of intent
Little wonder then that the Party consistently struggles to any significant level of electoral support from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority Communities The only exception being when Charles Kennedy led the protest against the Iraq war But that does not really count because it happened more by an accident of faith than design
I have every expectation that things will be very different in this regards under Vince Cable partly because he has a varied and diverse background
In the 1970s, he was special advisor to John Smith when the latter was Trade Secretary. He was an advisor to the British government and then to the Commonwealth Secretary-General Shridath "Sonny" Ramphal in the 1970s and 1980s.[14]
He even served in an official capacity at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting of 1983 in Delhi, witnessing "private sessions at first hand" involving Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Lee Kaun Yew, and Bob Hawke among others.
And to top it all Vince has a special affinity with India because his first wife, who sadly died 2001, hailed from India
Vince recognises that Britain today is a more tolerant and inclusive place than when he and his late wife started an inter-racial family in the UK a generation ago.
He is acutely conscious that there is a huge wealth of creativity and business talent amongst the immigrant communities of the land
And he acknowledges that there is an unhealthy level of inequality of wealth and barriers of access to opportunity that none of the Political Parties have done enough to address
It is this attitude that leads me to think that Vince will be serious about ensuring that the Liberal Democrats do indeed make Fairness and Equality become key drivers of his leadership
Vince is also taking on the leadership of a major British Political Party at a time when many political commentators say that representative politics in Britain is broken
The House of Commons is unrepresentative and tribal.
The Lords are chosen by patronage, not the people.
