We all know that human activities are releasing dangerous quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and that the only way to avoid catastrophic climate change is for every single one of us to change the way we heat and power our homes and vehicles, and to transform the way we produce our food, goods and services. But these individual changes are only possible with the intervention of Governments: For example, rural bus services require public subsidy. Most people won’t swap their petrol and diesel cars for electric vehicles without better public charging infrastructure, especially if they have no driveway at home. Most people won’t swap their gas boilers for electric heat pumps while the Government charges more tax on electricity than gas. Most people want to make their homes more energy efficient, but can’t do so without financial assistance. And to top it all, the Government continues to issue licences for new coal mines, oil wells and gas wells, even though we are already on track to miss our “legally binding” target to cut the UK’s emissions by 68% by 2030.

Last week Cornwall Councilors debated a Liberal Democrat motion calling on the Government to take bolder actions in order to meet the 2030 and 2050 emissions targets. Opposition parties all voted to support the motion, but most Conservatives (including the Cabinet Member for Climate Change) abstained. What message does this send to the public and the Government?

This Saturday was “Earth Day”, not that you’d know it from the coverage in the national media. Tens of thousands of people from across the country gathered in Westminster for the UK’s largest ever climate protest, but it wasn’t mentioned in national news bulletins, and it wasn’t on the front cover of any Sunday papers. Yet a few days earlier, two Climate protesters in Sheffield did manage to make national news by jumping onto the tables at the World Snooker Championship.

What lesson should we draw from the way these two protests were reported? Both groups are asking for the same action from Government, but the two people causing disruption and inconvenience got more media coverage than fifty thousand people protesting peacefully.

If you follow politics, you have probably seen the controversial Labour campaign adverts which personally attack Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Of course, it’s right to point out that the number of Police Community Support Officers has fallen by 50%. It’s right to point out that many serious offences don’t go to trial for up to three years and that 99% of reported rapes don’t end up in court at all. It’s right to point out that offenders are more likely to be addicted to drugs when they leave prison than they were when they went in. All of these are verifiable facts, and they all paint a damning picture of a Conservative Government which has talked tough on crime whilst underfunding the criminal justice system from top to bottom. But the Labour party chose not to focus on these statistics, instead claiming that the Prime Minister doesn’t think child abusers should go to prison.

Even former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett could see that this was wrong, saying: “When I heard about a tweet from the Labour Party’s official account suggesting that Rishi Sunak was somehow responsible for failing to ‘lock up’ criminals who had abused children, I immediately thought: My party is better than this.”

Keir Starmer should have apologised for crossing the line between robust debate and dirty tricks. But instead, he has ‘doubled down’, saying that he “stands by every word” of these attack ads.

This is a dangerous moment for our society. In 2016, the Brexit campaign revealed that many voters pay more attention to shocking statements than to true statements. Brexit campaigners like Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak knew it was a lie to say that the UK sends £350 million per week to the EU, yet they wrote it on the side of a bus and repeated it endlessly because they knew that the lie would generate publicity for their campaign. Since then, we have seen Conservative MPs, Ministers and Prime Ministers become ever-more eager to bend the truth. This brings us to a cross-roads as a society: Do opposition parties fight lies with the truth, or do they fight lies with more lies? 

As a Liberal Democrat, I believe that democracy is meant to be a battle of ideas, not a battle over alternative realities! We have successfully campaigned to protect Cornwall's Fire Control Room and won the argument for restrictions on holiday homes by relentlessly focusing on the facts. But if the Labour party doesn’t share this commitment to the truth, then a Labour Government will follow in the footsteps of the Conservatives, telling us that everything is fine whilst the country continues to fall to pieces around us. 

With blossom on the trees and newborn lambs in the fields, April is a time for new beginnings. For Christians, Easter has a double-meaning, first acknowledging the pain caused by our past mistakes, and then celebrating the opportunity for a fresh start. Last week, Cornwall Council’s Cabinet voted unanimously to scrap their plans for a Mayor for Cornwall, and Councillors will now be keen to move on and change the subject.

But for a genuine fresh start to be possible, it is important to recognise where mistakes have been made, and it seems that the Council’s Conservative Cabinet members don’t actually think they did anything wrong. Minutes before voting to reject the Mayor, they each made speeches expressing support for the proposals, calling opponents “a noisy minority” with “closed minds”. If they really believed this was the case, they should have put the proposals to a public referendum so that every Cornish voter could have had their say. 

The housing and cost-of-living crisis, the climate emergency and the near-collapse of the health and social care system all require new funding and powers from central Government (far beyond what was offered in the so-called “Devolution Deal”). Cornwall needs leaders who will fight for what we need, but in their speeches last week, our Conservative Cabinet members gave up this fight, accepting that the Conservative Government will punish Cornwall for rejecting a Mayor.

Another mistake with very real and painful consequences is the NHS dental contract, first introduced by Labour in 2006. From the outset, dentists warned that this would penalise those who gave thorough check-ups and good preventative advice, whilst rewarding those who delivered treatment which could have been avoided. Conservative MP Andrew Lansley criticised it in opposition, but when he became Health Secretary in 2010, he kept the flawed contract in place, as have all of his Conservative successors. The Liberal Democrats have repeatedly called for radical change, but when a “new” contract was announced last year, it turned out to be almost identical to the old contract, with a few minor tweaks. Since this announcement, hundreds more NHS dentists have walked away from their contracts, and last week 2,200 patients at Lostwithiel Dental Practice received the bad news that their NHS dentist was leaving too.

Finally, if the Government could admit that Brexit is the reason for delays at the Port of Dover, it could fix the problem by building more kiosks so that more customs officers could date-stamp everyone’s passports. But as long as they insist that the delays are not Brexit-related, the problem cannot be fixed (and will probably get worse when fingerprint scanning is introduced in November!)

Without repentance, there can be no new beginning! 

Last week, I predicted that the leadership of Cornwall Council would publish a report which tried to discredit the results of the public consultation about the proposed Mayor for Cornwall. Sure enough, when the report was published (with 69% of respondents saying they oppose a Mayor), it claimed that these 6,105 responses “cannot be seen as representative of the views of the whole population of Cornwall”

On the other hand, the report claimed a face-to-face and telephone survey of 1,100 people “can provide a reliable picture of public opinion” and “the views on the entire population can be inferred from the views of those sampled with considerable confidence.” The survey appears to show that 65% of Cornish residents support the proposed Mayor; exactly the opposite of the feedback from the public consultation! But I know enough about statistics to understand that the answer you get depends on the way you ask the question: Participants were not asked if they knew anything about the Deal or the proposed Mayor before they began the survey; they were not required to read any background information; and the questions put by the interviewers were extremely leading.

The truth is that after spending £60,000 on a public consultation, the Council still has no idea whether or not Cornwall wants a directly elected Mayor. The Liberal Democrats believe that the only viable options now are to put a clear and unbiased question to a full public referendum, or to abandon the project altogether.

Another prediction I can make with absolute certainty is that Cornwall is going to miss its target to be carbon-neutral by 2030. Councillors voted unanimously to adopt this target in 2019, but since then, the Conservative Council has failed to spell out what would be needed to deliver this transition, and the Conservative Government has failed to provide the funding for any such plan to be put into action. This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been watching the Government’s performance at a national level. A succession of Conservative Prime Ministers have repeated the (true) statement that the UK was one of the first countries in the world to set a legally binding target to reach net zero by 2050. They have been less vocal about the fact that the High Court ruled that their policies and funding did not match up to this promise. Last week, the Government published 44 new energy and climate policies to try and get back on track for 2050, but they all fall short of the Liberal Democrat plans to invest £40 billion in clean transport over the next three years and insulate every home by 2030.

Truth matters in all walks of life, but it matters most in leadership. 

In 2006, a film called “An Inconvenient Truth” led to a breakthrough in awareness about Climate Change, by revealing the environmental harm being caused by fossil fuels. In 2018, Extinction Rebellion called for Government to “Tell the Truth” about the latest climate science. These campaigns led to carbon-reduction targets being set by Councils and Governments all around the world, proving that the truth really can change opinions.

However, the next “inconvenient truth” is that targets alone are useless if they are not backed up by sufficient action. For example, just last week, a Cornwall Council press release trumpeted the news that funding had been secured to insulate 1,200 homes, but failed to mention that this represents less than 0.5% of the uninsulated homes in Cornwall!

In 2016, the Brexit referendum was won by politicians claiming that leaving the EU would boost the economy, solve the housing crisis, help Cornish fishermen, strengthen the NHS and reduce food and energy prices. Boris Johnson told voters in Cornwall that we would not lose a single penny of funding. None of this turned out to be true, but Conservative MPs made him Prime Minister anyway.

Last week, a Parliamentary Committee asked ex-PM Johnson why he had told MPs that “all the COVID guidelines were followed at all times in Number 10”, when in fact there had been dozens of parties during lockdown. Rather than admitting that he had lied, he tried to claim that these parties were within the guidelines because they were "essential work events"!

These lies damage our society. The lies told by the Labour Government in 2003 led to war in Iraq. Lies told by Putin led to war in Ukraine. Lies told last week about the identity of an alleged rapist in Newquay were used as an excuse for a violent protest outside a refugee hotel.

The only way to tackle misogyny, racism, homophobia and transphobia is to begin by accepting the inconvenient truth that they are commonplace in all corners of our society, even in Cornwall Council. Yet time and again, leaders respond to revelations by throwing out “a few bad apples” rather than accepting their own failure to lead their entire workforce on a journey of cultural change.

For weeks, the Liberal Democrats have been calling for Cornwall Council to tell the truth about the consultation on the proposed Mayor. The administration has kept the results secret since February, and we fear that they will try to publish a partial report in the hope of persuading Councillors to support an unpopular plan. They should take a lesson from history: Plans which start by twisting the truth rarely have happy endings.

Wise leaders are able to foresee the long-term consequences of their actions and don't let wishful thinking cloud their judgement.

This week marks 20 years since the invasion of Iraq: Back then, both the Labour Government and Conservative MPs told us that our soldiers would be welcomed with open arms by Iraqis; that human rights would be improved; that the whole world would be made safer by the removal of weapons of mass destruction; and that democracy would flourish across the Middle-East. 

If they had followed the example of Cornwall’s Liberal Democrat MPs and examined the evidence calmly and rationally, they would have known that a bad outcome was far more likely.

Likewise many politicians (including all of Cornwall’s Conservative MPs) promised that after Brexit, we would have cheaper food, lower energy bills, well-funded public services and a thriving economy. Clearly that’s not what we’ve got. Of course, those politicians will blame all of our problems on COVID and the war in Ukraine, but the uncomfortable truth is that the UK has fared worse over this period than other comparable economies. So, if Brexit isn’t to blame, then either our Government’s response to these global issues was worse than others, or Britain was more exposed to them in the first place. Remember, Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, and experts told the Government in 2016 that the country was not adequately prepared for a pandemic. Have our political representatives been distracted by something else since 2016?! The idea that Putin wouldn’t expand his invasion of Ukraine; that a pandemic would never happen; and that Brexit would boost our economy, are all examples of Government by wishful thinking!
Sadly too many MPs and Councillors think they’re elected to be cheerleaders for the team captain. As a Liberal Democrat, I believe the job of an elected representative is to burst the bubble of this wishful thinking by asking difficult questions, regardless of which party is in power.

Weak Councillors and MPs invite bad behaviour from Government ministers. The Home Secretary expects Conservative MPs to support her Illegal Immigration Bill, even though she has admitted that the law itself will be illegal!

The proposal to change Cornwall Council’s Governance takes this abuse of power a step further by making it harder for Councillors to block decisions made by the Mayor, and making it impossible for Councillors to vote a poorly-performing Mayor out of office. 

The Liberal Democrats are calling for the Government to give Cornwall the powers and funds offered in the devolution deal, without the requirement to have a Mayor running the Council.

Constructive criticism leads to better decisions so, whilst others sit quietly on the sidelines, I will never stop asking difficult questions.

In the 1930s, politicians in Germany used six lies to take power, suppress free speech, ban public protest and blame minorities for economic problems. 

Lie #1: Society is divided into two groups, "The People" and "The Elite". 

Lie #2: All good comes from The People and all problems come from The Elite (which includes immigrants).

Lie #3: You must not question: If you speak out, you are an “enemy of The People”.

Lie #4: Institutions are part of a conspiracy against The People; so journalists, lawyers and judges can all become “enemies of The People” too.

Lie #5: Difference is bad: Those of a different race, religion or sexual orientation are a threat to the purity of The People.

Lie #6: There is no such thing as truth. 

An ideology built on lies falls apart when the truth is heard, so Nationalist regimes collaborate with sympathetic media outlets to broadcast their lies and cast doubt on facts.

Ultimately these lies led to the holocaust and the Second World War. In the wake of that war, Britain played a leading role in creating international laws to prevent history from being repeated. These laws specifically gave refugees the right to claim asylum in any country, even if they reached that country via other safe countries and crossed borders without permission.

Today, millions of British families are struggling to find an affordable home, pay their energy bills and put food on the table. Voters are looking for someone to blame, so we see the Conservative Government using the same six lies to distract attention from their own failures.

Last week, Home Secretary Suella Braverman told Parliament that "the British People" are “sick of being taken for a ride”. She claimed that our public services are being “overwhelmed” by an “unsustainable” number of asylum seekers. She said those who challenged her were against “the will of the British people” and that “lefty lawyers” and “the Strasbourg court” were against “basic natural justice”. She has described refugees as “an invasion” and claimed that “There are 100 million people who qualify for protection under our current laws. Let’s be clear: They are coming here.” 

Of course it's concerning to see tens of thousands of people crossing the Channel in small boats, but it's absurd to blame them for the nation’s problems and it’s simply a lie to say that 100 million of them are coming here. The UK is one of the richest countries on the planet, and we take in less than 1% of the world's refugees. 

The antidote to these Nationalist lies is for individuals to speak the truth and defend Britain’s Liberal Democratic values; and the solution to our wider economic problems is to replace the morally bankrupt Conservative Government.

When Cornwall Councillors voted to double the Council Tax on second homes from April 2024, raising an estimated £25 million per year, Olly Monk (the Cabinet Member for Housing) said he didn’t want to ring-fence this cash for affordable housing, claiming there was already plenty of money in the system to build on all the available land. Andy Virr (the Cabinet member for Adult Social Care) also opposed ring-fencing this money for housing, saying that it was needed for Adult Social Care.

A few weeks later, Cllr Virr rejected my calls for care workers to be paid £13 per hour, saying that such a wage was unaffordable. So I was shocked to hear him say last week that the Health and Care System in Cornwall already has "plenty of money”! 

Last Tuesday, I attended a Scrutiny Committee meeting to hear a report on the state of Cornwall’s 10,500 Council Houses. The Committee was told that virtually all of these properties need major works to enable them to be heated in an affordable and sustainable way, and many really need to be demolished and rebuilt. But when I asked whether the £25 million annual revenue from the double council tax on second homes could be used for this purpose (which would not require any new land), Cllr Monk once again said that he didn’t want the money, as he didn’t think he’d be able to find enough people to do the work.

This failure of Leadership from our Conservative Cabinet is totally unacceptable:

A lack of available workers today should not be used as an excuse to turn down money when it becomes available, or to fail to fight for the extra funding Cornwall deserves. Of course it’s true that money is no use if there aren’t enough workers, but it should be perfectly obvious that the reason for the lack of workers is the chronic lack of funding! At the last elections, Conservative Councillors and MPs promised to secure better funding from our Conservative Government, but all we ever get is short-term “initiatives” and emergency “sticking plasters”. This is an incredibly wasteful way to spend taxpayers’ money and it does nothing to increase the size of the workforce.

Cornwall needs strong leaders in Parliament and on the Council who will develop long-term plans in areas such as social care, affordable housing, insulation, renewable energy and transport, and then fight for the sustained long-term funding needed to turn these plans into reality, including recruiting and training the thousands of people needed to carry out the work. If our current Conservative representatives are unable (or unwilling) to do this, they should step aside or call elections so that we can replace them with Liberal Democrats who will.

The spreading of malicious rumours is a tactic which has been used by fascist and nationalist groups for centuries to justify the intimidation and persecution of minorities. Those who have heard stories about women being harassed by asylum seekers in Newquay may be genuinely concerned for their safety, but it has now emerged that the organiser of the protest is a convicted woman-beater. So perhaps public safety wasn’t really the genuine motivation for the event.

Over ninety million people around the world have been made homeless by war or persecution. Sixty million have found shelter within their home country. Over twenty-one million have become refugees in their neighbouring country. Millions more have ended up in European countries, and fewer than a quarter of a million are in the UK. 

Yet despite taking in less than 1% of the world’s refugees, the UK Government seems utterly incapable of processing them efficiently. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work until they have been granted refugee status, but 96% of those who arrived in the past year still have not had their claims decided, so they cannot start their new lives and contribute to the local economy. Housing refugees in hotels is a sign of failure, and it is costing the taxpayer £7 million per day.

The very same politicians who complain about the number of people coming to the UK to start a new life are those who voted to cut the Government’s spending on international aid in 2021, including all six of Cornwall’s Conservative MPs.

They asked Afghans and Iraqis to risk their lives working for our troops, but then left thousands of them behind to face reprisals from extremists. They criticise the human rights abuses of Governments in Iran, Afghanistan and Eritrea, but then treat the people trying to escape these brutal regimes as criminals!

They make a song and dance about people crossing the channel in small boats, but haven’t provided safe and legal routes for genuine refugees to claim asylum.

Of course it’s perfectly understandable that residents in Cornwall are concerned about the impact of extra people on our overstretched housing and public services. But to blame this situation on a few dozen refugees would be to completely lose sight of the bigger picture. 

Nationalists, populists and fascists have always sought to divide the country between “the people” and “the elite”. Rather than fixing the broken asylum system, the Government has allowed it to spiral out of control because this gives them the chance to blame “lefty liberal lawyers” and Human Rights legislation for the chaos. 

Refugees clearly are not part of the so-called “ruling elite”. They are the most vulnerable people in the world and we must not allow them to be used as pawns by politicians seeking to increase their power and undermine our freedom.

In 2016, the Conservatives signalled their priorities by abolishing the Department for Energy and Climate Change and creating the Department for International Trade. Last week, with just two new trade deals signed and as people choose between freezing and starving, the Prime Minister finally reversed course, abolishing the Department for International Trade and creating “Department for Energy Security and Net Zero”.

It takes months for new departments to organise themselves, so with a General Election due next year, these ministers only have time to dream up promises for the future which they hope will distract voters from their record of failure.

Another electoral tactic is the appointment of MP Lee Anderson as Vice Chair of the Conservative Party. Anderson is a former Labour Councillor who found fame by saying that people only use food banks because they don’t know how to cook. Such statements are a classic populist trick to distract attention from the fact that the UK is the only major country whose economy is still smaller than it was before COVID. There are differing views as to whether the root cause was a slower response to COVID; our excessive reliance on cheap fossil fuels; or the harm caused by Brexit, but all three of these are the responsibility of the Conservative Government.

We can’t do much about who the Prime Minister puts into positions of power, but we can hold our local representatives to account. Last week, when Cornwall Council’s Cabinet discussed plans for more Tamar toll increases, I pointed out that if Cornwall got a 1% share of the national budget for Strategic Highways, we could abolish the tolls altogether and still have £35 million per year left over to spend on upgrades to the A30 and A38. But the Leader of the Council admitted that she hadn’t even asked for this money to be included in the proposed “Devolution Deal” for Cornwall. South East Cornwall would have benefited more from this than any other part of the Duchy but, as far as I can tell, our local MP didn’t ask for it either.

Next week, Cornwall Council will vote on its annual budget. The Conservative group has proposed increasing Council Tax by a whopping 5% despite another year of cuts to essential services and redundancies for essential workers. All of these plans are supported by Conservative Councillors who obediently raise their hands to agree with whatever is proposed. That’s why I’ve been down to Marazion to campaign for the excellent John Martin to be elected on Thursday to replace the Conservative Councillor who recently resigned in disgrace. Another strong Lib Dem voice on Cornwall Council is exactly what we need to hold our failing leaders to account.

Last year, the Police and Crime Act introduced some of the most draconian anti-protest laws in the world. Police and civil rights groups alike have complained that the crime of “causing serious disruption” is too vague and puts too much responsibility on the individual Police officer to make a subjective judgement call in the middle of a potentially difficult situation.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said “We have not sought any new powers to curtail or constrain protest, but have asked for legal clarity about where the balance of rights should be struck.”

Instead of tightening up the definition of "serious disruption", the new Public Order Bill actually broadens it. This means you or I could be stopped and searched by the Police simply for walking along the same street as someone who is on their way to a protest! If we are carrying anything which could conceivably be used or modified to cause disruption, we are guilty of a crime. So you or I could end up with a criminal record simply for carrying a new bike lock home from Halfords!

The Government claims that no Police officer would ever misuse their powers like this, but such a statement is at best naïve and at worst downright cynical. If protesters don’t know exactly where the line is, the only way to avoid crossing it is to just stay at home and not protest at all.

And of course this is the true purpose of the legislation. Rather than listening to the valid concerns raised by protesters, the Government seeks to frighten people into silence. This is exactly the same attitude which led to me being brought up in front of Cornwall Council’s Standards Committee last week. I said on Facebook that the Councillor responsible for Adult Social Care was not doing a good enough job of running his department, because he was spending too much time doing his second job as a hospital consultant. But rather than acknowledging the problem, the Conservative Group responded by attacking me! The Group’s Chief Whip filed a Code of Conduct Complaint, accusing me of bullying the Cabinet Member and bringing the Council into disrepute.

The Conservative Government and Conservative Council seem to want to shut us up and even lock us up just for pointing out the problems which now exist after thirteen years of misrule.

Backbench councillors and Members of Parliament have a solemn responsibility to stand up for their residents and challenge those in power. We are now witnessing Conservative Councillors and MPs doing precisely the opposite, seeking to silence those who raise legitimate concerns. This is a dereliction of duty and we must speak out against it… before it's too late.

Full Council met on Wednesday and unanimously voted to increase council tax for second homes by 100%.

But every silver lining has a cloud…

First of all, the law which makes this change possible hasn’t made it through Parliament yet. And even if it doesn’t get derailed (like so many other plans), it won’t actually take effect until 2024. So for at least another fourteen months there will be no incentive for second-home owners to sell-up, and no extra income generated to fund local services or provide new affordable homes.

If and when it takes effect, the change is expected to generate around £27 million per year for Cornwall Council. But we have no idea how the Government will view this extra income. It is perfectly possible that they will simply deduct £27 million from our core Government funding, leaving us with no extra cash.

My view is that the revenue generated from second homes should be used to solve the problems they cause. Twelve thousand properties used as holiday accommodation means twelve thousand local families have to find somewhere else to live, driving up prices for both buyers and renters. The Liberal Democrats, Labour, Mebyon Kernow and most Independent councillors voted for the extra council tax revenue to be ring-fenced for providing more affordable housing for local people. However, the Conservatives voted down this proposal, claiming that there is no shortage of cash for building affordable housing in Cornwall! I suspect the 21,000 families on the affordable housing waiting list would have a different opinion!

Around 3,000 new homes are built in Cornwall each year, and only a third of them are reserved for local people at affordable prices. This extra Council Tax revenue would allow the Council to increase the number of affordable homes from 1,000 to 1,500 at no extra cost to developers and without the need to find any extra land.

Many people are aware of the scandalous situation whereby Housing Associations are forced to sell their properties on the open market because they cannot afford to bring them up to current standards. £27 million could provide a whole lot of new kitchens, bathrooms, heating systems and insulation. It could even pay to simply demolish some of the poorest quality housing and replace it with new, sustainable homes.

And if there’s any money left after all the above, it could be used to provide grants or low-interest loans to enable private-sector landlords and owner-occupiers to insulate and retrofit their homes.

This is a unique opportunity to turn the tide on affordable housing and sustainable heating in Cornwall. We cannot allow this funding to disappear into the black hole of general Council spending.

Governments are meant to serve the whole community, but they are only elected by a fraction of the population. The winners have a right to rule, but they must consider the wishes of those who voted against them, those who were unable to vote, and even those who chose not to vote at all. Additionally, some of those who voted for the Government may also disagree with particular actions, and again, they have the right to be heard.

We are experiencing an age of Tribalism, where winning 52% in a referendum, or 44% in a General Election are seen as total victories and green lights to ignore all opposition.

Strikes and protests are safety valves of democracy. When the anger of the opposition reaches boiling point, they sound a shrill whistle which should make rulers stop what they’re doing and pay attention: They are clarion calls to take action now before the whole situation explodes!

Our Conservative Government has failed to listen to the opposition, failed to listen to those who are striking to protect our public services, and failed to understand those who are protesting to protect the environment.

When climate protesters blocked roads to raise awareness of the number of uninsulated homes in the country, the Government should have responded by announcing a massive campaign to insulate Britain. Instead they passed laws restricting the right to peaceful protest.

When nurses are on strike for the first time ever, the Government should see this as a sign that they need to take urgent action to support the Health and Care System. Instead they are introducing laws to restrict the right of workers to go on strike!

This week I attended a “Consultation” on the “Devolution Deal” which could bring new money and power to Cornwall, but which would require a change to the way we choose the Leader of the Council. But instead of organising a panel of Councillors from all parties, only Conservatives who support the deal were included. This attempt to exclude opposition was clearly counterproductive, as the majority of attendees left with the feeling that they were being given the hard-sell, rather than being genuinely asked for their honest, informed opinions.

Wise rulers listen to all voices of opposition. This doesn’t mean agreeing about everything or abandoning core values, but it does mean looking for the best points of your opponents’ ideas as well as trying to find the weaknesses in your own. This is a core feature of Liberalism, which leads to better decisions and more successful outcomes, and has the added benefit of creating a more peaceful and harmonious society. As we start a new year in a state of anger, division and economic collapse, we need Liberalism more than ever before…