Edward Davey and Jo Swinson pick their favourite historical figures
The admirable Liberal Democrat History Group has once again asked the contenders in a party leadership contest to name their favourite historical figure.
I’ve commented before how Ed Davey and Jo Swinson have a different take towards working with those outside the party, with Davey emphasising more, ‘if you agree with us, come and join us’ while Swinson emphasises more, ‘if you agree with us, let’s find ways of working together’. Continuing that theme, Davey picked a Liberal Democrat member as his hero, and Swinson picked someone from outside the party:
Ed Davey – Paddy Ashdown
Liberals are not meant to have heroes, but I can’t help it. I don’t genuflect before grand or celebrity figures, but re-reading speeches or learning of the noble deeds of Liberals can move me the way opera or acts of military valour can have others dabbing a misty eye.
I love Gladstone for his insistence that: ’the sanctity of life in the hill villages of Afghanistan among the winter snows is as inviolable in the eye of Almighty God as can be your own’. Or Asquith for, in the midst of unimaginable wartime stress, ignoring press opprobrium to visit German prisoners of war to demand their good treatment. That instinctive determination to defend the vulnerable is what, I believe, makes us Liberals.
Hard choice though this is, my Liberal hero is more recent: Paddy Ashdown, for whom I still grieve.
and
Jo Swinson – Anita Roddick
It was through Anita Roddick that I first discovered what it was to be a campaigner.
The Body Shop in the 1980s was ahead of its time: sourcing their ingredients ethically; promoting recycling; taking on its own industry on issues like body image in advertising. As a girl, I would go to the Body Shop to buy my strawberry or banana-shaped soap and sign the petitions at the till. That was how I discovered a whole range of causes: fair trade, cosmetic testing on animals, or another worthy cause.
It fuelled my early environmentalism – something that has stayed with me ever since. I even tried to persuade my Dad – a Focus-delivering Lib Dem – to vote Green at the European elections in 1989. He didn’t, as he rightly argued that the Lib Dems were better placed to deliver green policies. One of the best gifts he ever gave me was a signed copy of Anita Roddick’s book, Business as Unusual, which I keep in my parliamentary office to this day. By that time I was 16 or 17, and the book reinforced in me a passion for how business can be a force for good.
You can read both their pieces in full here.
The 2019 Lib Dem leadership election is being covered by me both in podcast form with Stephen Tall in Never Mind The Bar Charts (subscribe here) and in email newsletter form with Liberal Democrat Newswire (sign up here).
Very admirable heroes, by able contenders. Mine, Sir Peter Ustinov, who I met, Lord Richard Attenborough, who I worked with.
In history, Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Anne Frank.
Amongst politicians, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, I was born on the same date, but many years later!!!!!!
Politically the nearest to heroes, in policy and personality at the needed moment, without them , my list is pointless, FDR JFK MLK!
I can agree with them both, but for me it has to be my parents. Albeit both old style Christian Conservatives, they introduced me to serving my community, speaking up where something is wrong and making a personal effort for charity by more than a few coins in a collecting box.