Josh Matthews

The Lib Dems must challenge the economic system – but with the plans to matc

By Josh Matthews | Wed 11th March 2026 - 4:55 pm

The Lib Dems recently announced plans for a Department for Growth. I can agree with splitting the Treasury into finance and “strategic economy” departments. But the messaging doesn’t suggest that our party is that keen on challenging (or being seen to challenge) the economic status quo: an economic system which is not working for too many people nor the environment. 

Challenging the economic system does NOT mean de-growth. It does mean challenging and moving away from GDP and growth – regardless of what, where, and for who – being the ultimate aims. “Growth agnostic” is the technical term. But more clearly, it means that it shouldn’t matter if we grow GDP or not, because we measure our success based on what genuinely matters for people and nature. GDP becomes one of many metrics and levers, but not the overarching objective.

What separates us from the Greens in the minds of the many sustainability professionals I meet is that we have vision AND the plans to match. We’re at risk, not least because we have so many current MPs facing the conservative party, of limiting those visions and plans for what society could be. 

There is a (personally conflicting and valid) conversation to be had as to whether stopping Reform, the Conservatives, and their hate-filled divisive politics is so important that we ensure we win, where we currently get our best results, with more cautious politics – enough to make sure there’re enough Lib Dem MPs to group with Labour and the Greens after the next election. 

But for the sake of this article, and in hope that we can do better than cautious, let’s be ambitious enough to manage these conflicts and nail the best of all worlds. Especially as our “Thriving Economy” working group comes up with our new economic policies that will take us into the next general election and might very well make it into some form of government.

I’ve written recently that two things must happen in 2026 to accelerate the move away from GDP and growth-at-all-costs toward judging society based on what matters for people and the environment.

  1. Clarity on the end point and principles of a new economic vision: which we have, in so many different forms that I discuss in the articles linked throughout this piece, like Natural Capital (alongside Human and Produced Capital), Doughnut Economics, Missions (I know…), SDGs, GEP, and countless other frameworks, metrics, and philosophies. We need to align. The promising UN High Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP is working on this right now. 
  2. A transition plan for that new economic vision: How do we unpick the current economic system from inside itself? And build a step-by-step path from now to that end point. With core principles that allow continuous improvement even after the economy is measured differently. Principles that allow flexibility far beyond a rigid plan. An approach that also wins the political conversation, as well as proving that a new economic approach can work for people and the environment, as well as working within the current system. We have gotten this roadmapping approach right before, for example in our 2024 EU policy and 2019 decarbonization plan. (The latter, alongside the people, was a big reassurance that I’d joined the right party in 2019!)

For a longer read on the indicators, frameworks, philosophy, liberalism, tipping points ahead, communication challenge, see again this Critical Mass for Sustainability piece and broader article library.

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Caroline Pidgeon

Caroline Pidgeon Tackling road safety by helping vulnerable road users

By Caroline Pidgeon | Wed 11th March 2026 - 2:55 pm

Just one per cent of traffic, but twenty-one per cent of fatalities. A shocking statement. This is the reality of motorcycling on our roads. This underpins the danger of being a motorcyclist on Britain’s roads. It is a disparity that shows no sign of diminishing nor, unfortunately, being addressed by government.

The Government’s recent Road Safety Strategy is broadly welcome. While one of the measures in the Road Safety Strategy will help motorcyclist safety, namely increased funding for combatting the scourge of potholes on Britain’s roads, there is little else that is new or transformative for motorcyclists, one of the most vulnerable groups of road users.

The Strategy discusses how “Legislative changes introduced to improve safety for motorcyclists have resulted in a complex motorcycle training, testing and licensing regime, with motorcyclists remaining at greater risk of KSIs than many other road users.” But the actions to make things safer are limited.

The main thrust of the government’s plans is that it will be consulting on changes to the training, testing and licensing regime for motorcyclists. Whilst this is very welcome, and something I have had concerns about for some time, especially with the increase in delivery drivers, more is needed.

In some ways, the government acknowledges the dire statistics on road safety for motorcyclists. Then they explain how, thus far, the main safety changes that successive governments have introduced have done very little to affect motorcyclist safety. The follow up is to then announce that they will do more of the same tinkering around the rules.

Meanwhile, the same Road Safety Strategy introduced plans for 18 new mandatory technologies for cars and other powered four-wheel vehicles. This is a clear example of how, for most motorists, the new Road Safety Strategy is very good. There is plenty to celebrate. But this only makes the difference in treatment that much harder to accept.

It is a glaring hole in the strategy. Motorcyclists, by the nature of a motorbike, are more vulnerable and yet the government appears to not want to embrace any potential safety advancements.

Since 2018, all new cars have been hooked up the eCall programme, a national programme for crash detection. However, despite motorcyclists being far more vulnerable in crashes there is no equivalent system even being considered by the government. This is a missed opportunity in the strategy.

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Hina Bokhari

Hina Bokhari writes… After years of delay, the Government’s Islamophobia definition still misses the mark

By Hina Bokhari | Wed 11th March 2026 - 12:55 pm

It’s finally here.

After years of campaigning by Muslim organisations and communities, against the backdrop of record levels of hate crime, the government has finally chosen the holiest time of Ramadan to publish its definition of what it calls “anti-Muslim hostility”.

And what do we have to show for all that waiting?

A watered-down version of a definition we already had.

The 2018 All-Party Parliamentary Group definition of Islamophobia was endorsed by more than 800 community organisations, over 100 academics, and every major political party except the then-governing Conservatives. It was the result of genuine consultation and rooted in the lived experience of Muslim communities.

So why has it taken this government years to deliver something that appears deliberately diluted? Why was the recommendation of its own independent working group seemingly not good enough? And why, throughout this entire process, were grassroots Muslim organisations largely excluded from meaningful engagement?

This isn’t just about the wording of the definition – though many have already raised serious concerns about what was diluted and why. This is about the process that produced it.

The Macpherson Inquiry established a clear principle: communities must play a central role in defining the racism they experience. Yet that lesson appears to have been ignored.

The process has been marked by exclusion, by hand-picked representatives replacing genuine grassroots engagement, and by a government seemingly more concerned with managing political optics than listening to the communities it claims to protect.
And perhaps the most telling failure of yesterday’s announcement was what the government chose not to say.

In 2016, the UK government adopted the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. That decision was taken quickly and with broad political consensus. Yesterday’s announcement could have been an opportunity to say clearly: we are doing for Muslim communities what we already did for Jewish communities nearly a decade ago.
Instead, that comparison went unspoken.

That matters because bad-faith actors, including much of the British media, have spent years spreading the lie that recognising Islamophobia somehow gives Muslims “special treatment”. The truth is the opposite. British Muslims are not asking for something extraordinary. We are asking for the same recognition and seriousness that other forms of racism rightly receive.

Fairness, not favours.

The key question is where we go from here. Organisations like the Muslim Council of Britain and the Islamophobia Response Unit are not endorsing this definition at the present time. They are reserving judgement, recognising that a definition is merely a starting point.

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Caron Lindsay

New team at the Campaign for Gender Balance

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 11th March 2026 - 11:47 am

The Campaign for Gender Balance is there to help women develop and stand for public office. They support women through selection processes, provide mentoring, run brilliant training like the Future Women MPs weekends. I have been on the receiving end of their support and they are brilliant.

Their chair and vice chairs are appointed by the Federal Board at the beginning of each three year cycle. Yesterday, they announced that Cllr Julia Cambridge would continue as Chair, joined by Cllr Donna Harris and Cllr Alice Bridges-Westcott as the two Vice Chairs.

Here’s the  Instagram announcement from Lib Dem Women, the official organisation representing women:

 

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Donna Harris, who is also Lib Dem Women’s chair, said:

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The Cry of a British-Iranian Lib Dem Woman

By Sahar Irani | Tue 10th March 2026 - 8:37 am

“I’ll call you once I get changed,” I told my sister. “Got absolutely soaked.” She said she was sorry I’d got cold and wet. “It was water, not bullets,” I replied. She cried.

That afternoon in Munich, I had joined over one million Iranians and their supporters worldwide to remember the tens of thousands massacred by the Islamic Republic on 8 and 9 January this year. Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi had called on all who stand with Iranians to come together on a Global Action Day for Iran on Valentine’s Day, which also fell on the 40th day after the massacre. In Iranian culture, the 40th day after a death is a solemn threshold, when family and friends gather to mourn. This time, Iranians danced in defiance, sang instead of weeping, and told each other that freedom is closer than it has ever been.

In Munich alone, police estimated that 250,000 people had gathered to demand the fall of the regime. The following Monday, Iranian lawmaker Javad Hosseinikia called on the Foreign Ministry to expel Germany’s ambassador in Tehran in retaliation. The regime’s fury only confirmed that these demonstrations are working.

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Mathew Hulbert

Mathew on Monday – ‘Patriotism’ should build communities- not police them

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 9th March 2026 - 5:20 pm

The government has today announced plans for a “patriotic renewal” of Britain’s communities. Ministers say the policy is about strengthening social cohesion and promoting the “shared values” that unite us as a nation.

Fine words, for sure. But what exactly does it mean in practice? Because when politicians start talking about patriotism in this context, it can sometimes feel worryingly close to the language of the populist Right. Too often “patriotic renewal” becomes shorthand for cultural suspicion – a politics that encourages people to look sideways at their neighbours and ask whether they quite belong.

That isn’t renewal. It’s division.

If the government truly wants to renew our communities, the starting point should be far more practical-and far less rhetorical. For over a decade before the last election, Britain experienced the hollowing-out of local life. Libraries closed. Youth clubs disappeared (something I have consistently rallied against, in speeches at Lib Dem Conferences, meetings at Parliament, and so on). SureStart centres were stripped away. Community centres were sold off. High streets declined. The public spaces where people naturally come together were slowly dismantled.

That is where the real damage to community happened. Because communities are not built by speeches about national identity. They are built in the everyday spaces where people meet one another as neighbours and citizens. The library where children discover books and older residents escape loneliness. The youth club where teenagers find friendship, guidance, and opportunity. The SureStart centre where struggling parents receive the support that helps families to thrive.

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Mills Dyer

Green Party members be warned, after the party comes the hangover

By Mills Dyer | Mon 9th March 2026 - 1:12 pm

One by-election win does not a government make.

As a queer millennial living in East London, I am surrounded by Green Party Members. To paraphrase Derry Girls, ‘It’s wall to wall Green Party Members, sure you cannot move for Green Party Members round here’. Never has this been more obvious than in the last few days; conversations with friends and my social media have been filled with, quite frankly, sickenly gleeful Green Party activists & supporters, saying things like, ‘a left wing government is just around the corner!’ and ‘this is the chance we have to change our country!

Now don’t get me wrong. The day after we won the 2016 Richmond Park by-election, I walked into work with a smile that only really comes with a very pleasurable night. For the first couple of parliamentary by-elections that I fought and won, I too was an insufferable git that bored everyone with tales of the campaign trail. This was before I realised a devastating fact:

Winning parliamentary by-elections does not matter at all.

Word count forbids me from turning this argument into a 3,000 word essay; however, here are three reasons why the Green Party’s win in Gorton & Denton means absolutely nothing:

1. You won’t hold onto the seat.

Between 2001-2019, 13 seats moved from one political party to another, 6 of those MPs held onto those seats at the next general election. In each of those 6 cases, the party that held the set was either a good 2nd place before the by-election occurred, or had a reasonable local government base (and thus a track record of winning in the consistency). Neither of those are true in this case. The Green Party currently has no councillors that represent any of the wards in the constituency.

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Tony Vickers

Pensioners are a Deadweight Loss

By Tony Vickers | Mon 9th March 2026 - 11:35 am

And I’m one of them: sitting in a Band E 4-bed house worth £600k.

Yet all we get at York this week is another “hand wringing” motion on local government finance (F19), same as we got two years ago. It’s pathetic. It’s not “making policy”, which is what I always thought Conference was for. Sure enough what was then called a crisis in local government funding is now an emergency. We seem no closer to publicly declaring we have a solution.

Yet the Party has a solution waiting in the wings. In 2013, our policy paper “Fairer Taxes” included a promise to “Launch a consultation to determine how to implement Land Value Taxation”(LVT), which would be completed in the next Parliament. Not “whether” but “how”.

Subsequently, Andrew Dixon, ALTER member and founder of the Party’s Business Forum, steered our policy to reform Business Rates onto a land value base through conference in 2018. The next year, his similar proposal to replace council tax failed to pass FPC/FCC scrutiny. Businesses don’t vote. Home-owners do.

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Mo Waqas

Rebuilding Britain’s defences

By Mo Waqas | Mon 9th March 2026 - 9:25 am

Britain cannot rely solely on others for its defence. Recent events in the Middle East have shown how quickly the world can spiral into conflict. When powers such as the United States, Israel and Iran exchange military strikes and deploy significant force, it reminds us that global stability can never be taken for granted. If Britain wants security, resilience and prosperity, we must rebuild our industrial strength particularly in the North of England and Scotland while maintaining close cooperation with our European partners.

Watching the escalation in the Middle East has been deeply unsettling. The region has seen missile strikes, drone warfare and major military mobilisation. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, global military spending reached $2.4 trillion in 2023, the highest level ever recorded. In an increasingly volatile world, it is worth asking a difficult question: if a major global conflict were to erupt, how prepared would Britain actually be?

The answer is uncomfortable.

For decades Britain has allowed its industrial base to decline. In the 1970s, manufacturing accounted for around a quarter of the UK economy. Today it represents roughly 9–10% of GDP. Entire regions that once powered the British economy have been hollowed out. Towns such as Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Bolton, Burnley and Huddersfield were once major centres of British industry from steel and shipbuilding to textiles and heavy engineering.

Today many of these communities face fewer industrial jobs and slower economic growth than the national average.

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Caron Lindsay

It’s International Women’s Day!

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 8th March 2026 - 7:48 pm

It’s International Women’s Day today and this year’s theme is Give to Gain. From the IWD website:

Give To Gain emphasizes the power of reciprocity and support. When people, organizations, and communities give generously, opportunities and support for women increase. Giving is not a subtraction, it’s intentional multiplication. When women thrive, we all rise.

Whether through donations, knowledge, resources, infrastructure, visibility, advocacy, education, training, mentoring, or time, contributing to women’s advancement helps create a more supportive and interconnected world.

What will you Give to Gain gender equality?

What does Give to Gain mean to you?

Lib Dem Women, the official organisation representing women in the Liberal Democrats, held an International Women’s Day event at the National Liberal Club in London last week:

 

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Ed Davey has put out a statement supporting IWD:

International Women’s Day is a chance to recognise the extraordinary contribution women make every day. While there has been progress towards equality, there is still a long way to go, and the Liberal Democrats will keep pushing for a fairer future.

Liz Jarvis paid tribute to women in our armed services:

Women make a significant contribution to our Armed Forces, protecting our way of life. The 2021 Census told us that 452 women living in Eastleigh were veterans.   For International Women’s Day, I join the

@PoppyLegion

in paying tribute to their service. #IWD2026

The party itself said:

Today is International Women’s Day, a time to celebrate women’s stories and achievements.

We honour their impact and recognise the work still needed to achieve equality.

Together, may we uplift, empower, and create a world where every woman thrives.

This party is made up of brilliant women who run campaigns, who stand for Council or Parlimaent, who hold elected office and make a real difference to the lives of other women in this country.  Many of the men in this party who hold elected office are supported by women as they do so.  There is a lot of work done by women that we don’t often recognise or value.

The House of Commons is debating International Women’s Day this coming Thursday and we’ll bring you the Lib Dem contributions.

The Lords’ debate happened on Friday and our Lorely Burt took part, saying that it was her last IWD speech before her retirement. We will miss her. She said:

I was just having a little nap there—as if I could be, after all the absolutely brilliant speeches we have had today; they have been quite remarkable. I start by welcoming the newcomers to this House; it was absolutely fascinating learning about the diversity of their experience, and I am so looking forward to hearing from them when they get going. I am absolutely delighted that we have so many very clever women on the Benches now—not that there were none before, but you know what I mean.

It is just impossible to cover all the issues that we have talked about today. I am not going to have to do this again, which I am thoroughly thankful for, because this is my 11th and last speech that I shall be making in this House to celebrate International Women’s Day. I shall be retiring very soon.

I use the word “celebrate” advisedly, because over the years some issues change, but the basic premise that most women are more vulnerable and have fewer opportunities than men persists—and I am talking only about this country, where we, in the main, have far better treatment and more equal rights compared to men than in many others. We have been listening to harrowing descriptions of some actions by men in power. We do not need to look very far to see the names of those men who are making the lives of women, and men as well, all over the world, just that little bit impoverished. The sooner they go, the better, as far as I am concerned—but I should not really be saying things that are disrespectful to people with whom we are supposedly working for a better world. I look forward to the “better world” bit.

I was just thinking about the world itself and where you would go, if you were looking for explanations or ideas as to how we improve things for women. You probably have to go to the Scandinavian countries to see examples of true equality. I heard a lovely story of a young boy who was talking to his mum, and he was incredulous to discover that his country, Iceland, could have a male Prime Minister. So that is very sweet—but it illustrates the fact that we have a long, long way to go.

I do not want to patronise the House by going into the difference between what is a man and what is a woman. The noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, was talking about the pornification of society and how it puts girls off growing up to be women. On reflection, I do not think I would want to adopt male attributes; I just want more equal rights. This is not so much the case today, but when I was little, I would have loved to have been a boy, but I have discovered that there are advantages to being a woman and being in that particular club. I kind of get why women would want to change to men, but why, oh why, would a male want to become female and accept fewer rights, unless of course they felt genuinely disembodied—that is, in the wrong body? My attitude to people who want to change sex has always been: “Come on in. Be what you want to be. We’ve got one life, so why live it in the wrong body?”

Ever since I took on this equalities role, I have been trying to figure out why some women do not want people of other sexes to join their club, as it were, but want the exclusiveness of the sex that they were born into. In my personal view, it would be better to welcome them to the ongoing fight because, as we have learned today, there is so much more that we need to fight for—there certainly is plenty. I have never understood why, and I probably never will. As a woman, I have grown to love the sisterhood that we all share. Isn’t it lovely that we can have a day when we celebrate our individuality as the sex that we are?

Anyway, let us leave aside what is happening to women who want to change. I also do not want to dwell on what is happening to women in other countries that repress women. International politics and treatment is too much to cover, and I want my outgoing speech as equalities spokesperson to be positive, just for once. I would love to take a moment to look at the other end of the telescope, as it were, and count a few of the blessings that we enjoy as women. In the UK, men and women fight together to improve the lot of women. We get a lot of support from men, and I am delighted to see the number of men who not only have attended but have taken part today. Of course there is misogyny, harassment and so on, but many improvements are in the process of being made.

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Tanya Park

Labour’s youth guarantee won’t fix a broken system

By Tanya Park | Sun 8th March 2026 - 2:30 pm

Imagine you’re 20 years old. You left school at 16 with a handful of GCSEs, a mother with a disability, and no money for college. You’ve worked a few zero-hours shifts at a warehouse, but the anxiety that’s been sitting on your chest since you were 14 has made regular employment feel like an impossible ask on most days. You want to do something. You’ve looked at courses. But Universal Credit requires 35 hours a week of job searching, and if you stop, the money stops. So the course stays a thought, and the job search goes nowhere, because there aren’t many jobs and the ones that exist aren’t looking for someone whose CV has a lot of gaps.

You are, in government statistics, “NEET.” Not in employment, education, or training. A data point in a rising trend.

The NEET rate is now 12.7%, up 1.2 percentage points since 2019. Youth unemployment for 16-to-24 year olds sits at 15.3%. These aren’t abstract numbers. They represent a significant share of a generation that the economy has not found a place for, and which the welfare system is actively making it harder to help itself.

Labour’s answer is the Youth Guarantee: £820 million, and a six-month paid work placement for every eligible 18-to-21 year old who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for 18 months. It’s not nothing. But it rests on a diagnosis that doesn’t survive much scrutiny.

The government’s theory of the problem is wrong

The Youth Guarantee is an activation policy. Its underlying assumption is that NEET young people need a push: a foot in the door, a bit of experience, a coach. Get them job-ready, get them placed, job done.

This is a supply-side answer to what is partly a demand-side problem. There are currently 2.3 unemployed people for every vacancy in the UK. Vacancies have been falling for over three years, down more than half a million from their 2022 peak, and the decline began before recent rises in employer National Insurance contributions, which means it isn’t primarily a story about the cost of hiring. Something structural is happening.

You cannot activate people into jobs that don’t exist. And for young people who are NEET because of mental health difficulties, housing instability, caring responsibilities, or poverty, what they need is not a placement in month 18. It’s support in month one. The 18-month wait is the guarantee’s most revealing design flaw. By the time a young person qualifies, many have already hardened into disengagement.

What could actually change now

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Anne-Marie Simpson

The UK must not become complicit in another illegal war — Nor distracted from Israel’s continued crimes in Gaza and the West Bank

By Anne-Marie Simpson | Sun 8th March 2026 - 12:30 pm

As Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine, we unequivocally condemn the latest unilateral and unlawful US-Israeli military action in Iran and urges the UK Government not to be complicit by allowing the US to use British military bases to attack Iran. 

The Iranian people have a right to live free from a brutal regime; however, regime change from the skies can only unleash more bloodshed and regional mayhem – particularly when one of the instigators is an indicted war criminal like Benjamin Netanyahu. The devastating human cost is already evident, including in the killing of 165 Iranian schoolgirls and staff in a strike on a girls’ primary school in Minab.

Marco Rubio has suggested that the US was forced into attacking Iran after being informed that Israel planned to launch strikes first. Under the shadow of these attacks, Israel has stepped up its illegal activities in the State of Palestine, including by closing aid crossings into Gaza and sealing off checkpoints in the unlawfully occupied West Bank. This has been accompanied by a spike in settler violence.

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Eleanor Kelly

Parent? Guardian? Expecting? Tell us your thoughts on childcare at Conference

By Eleanor Kelly | Sun 8th March 2026 - 10:30 am

Parents holding baby with words Tell us your views on childcare at ConferenceI was listening to Marie Agnes Strack-Zimmerman, a German MEP answer a question on the delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine at a forum in Copenhagen. She was momentarily interrupted by the gurgles of a 4 month old sat on the knee of a friend from the Danish Radikale party. As Zimmerman remarked that it was good to get her interested in defence policy so young, it struck me that I had rarely, if ever, seen children so comfortably integrated into British political spaces.

We have some mums brave Lib Dem Conference with a papoose, but having spoken to even some of the most determined parents, it’s clearly harder to coordinate family life around the party than it should be. Some question whether their families are welcome at all.

I for one want to make it overwhelmingly clear that the Liberal Democrats welcomes members as they navigate family life and that we should be striving to be the best party to be a parent or carer. I want to hear from you about making conference, the nerve centre of our party, work for families.

The Federal Conference Committee’s survey for parents, guardians and anyone expecting is open for your input. If your children are grown up or you’re a professional childcare provider, please answer no to the first question and use the free-form text box to share your views.

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 8th March 2026 - 8:28 am

Texas is a bright red, far-right Republican, conservative state. It has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate for 37 years. That may be about to change. And if it does the repercussions will rock the White House.

Primary elections for one of the Lone Star state’s two Senate seats were held by both the Democrat and Republican parties this week. One of the recognised barometers of political success is the size of the voter turnout. The turnout for the Democrat primary was highest in the state’s history.

The winner was Texas State Representative James Talerico. A middle-of-the-road Democrat with a strong Christian background. The latter is important in bible belt Texas. Talerico won with 52.8 percent. Runner-up Jasmine Crockett (46.9 percent of the vote) conceded gracefully and immediately called on voters to support Talerico.

The Republican primary, in contrast, was a bitter contest, had a low turnout and none of the candidates won the overall majority required to win their party’s nomination. Incumbent Senator John Cornyn won 41.9 percent of the vote and state Attorney General Ken Paxton secured 40.7 percent.

There will be a run-off between the top two candidates on 26 May. Democrats hope that Paxton wins. He is an ultra-conservative MAGA man. He was a key figure in Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 election. He is being divorced by his wife on the grounds of desertion and has been accused of corruption, bribery, fraud, abuse of office, obstruction of justice and perjury. The Texas lower house voted to impeach Paxton, but the Senate narrowly voted to acquit, 14 to 16.

Elsewhere in America, the Democrats have flipped nine seats in state special elections (by-elections) since Trump took office. The Republicans have flipped none. The latest Democrat win was in Arkansas. Other wins have been in Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has become synonymous with repression. Now the cabinet minister responsible for the department is no more. Kristi Noem has been sacked.

Ms Noem is the first senior figure to be sacked by President Trump in his second term. At this stage in Trump’s first term, 37 people had either been fired or had resigned.

In many ways Ms Noem was perfect for the job at Homeland Security. The former Governor of South Dakota is MAGA to her fingertips and her job involved enforcing the signature policy of the Trump Administration—deportations. Noem grasped the nettle with relish. In less than a year she has overseen a record 675,000 deportations.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an ex pat: Iran

By Tom Arms | Sat 7th March 2026 - 7:20 pm

Iran and the US have been on a collision course since 1979 when the radical Islamic state was founded and 44 US diplomats were taken hostage.

But why now? But also, what are the who’s, what’s, how’s, when’s and where’s of the current car crash and its regional, national and global repercussions.

Who first—the US and Israel. America did not call on its traditional NATO allies. It did not go to the United Nations to seek legal sanctions. The United States did not even bother to inform the G7 countries. The United States acted unilaterally. In fact, Donald Trump acted unilaterally within the US government machine because he did not bother to consult members of Congress let alone seek congressional approval.

The only country that America allied itself with was Israel. It should be noted that this was the first time (other than the air attack in June) that US and Israeli troops have fought together. In the first and second Gulf Wars the US refused Israeli help and there was no Israeli participation in Afghanistan.

There was a very good reason for this. Arab governments may be prepared to accept Israel, but most of their populations remain implacably opposed to the existence of the state of the Jewish state. When Israeli and US forces fight side by side it alienates America from Arab public opinion and shakes the thrones of the Arab monarchies. Iran is unpopular with Arabs, but Israel is reprehensible.

The why and when are linked. Iran is the weakest it has been since the Islamic revolutionary government came to power 47 years ago. Years of sanctions have significantly weakened the economy. Economic hardship coupled with political repression has created waves of riots. Only weeks ago Iranian government shot tens of thousands of protesters demanding an end to the theocratic regime. And finally, the Iranian military has been weakened by the Gaza War and Operation Midnight Hammer which damaged—but clearly did not “obliterate” – Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities.

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Lisa Smart

The Elections Bill isn’t good enough for a democracy under threat

By Lisa Smart | Fri 6th March 2026 - 7:17 pm

Our democracy is under sustained attack. Repeated scandals and corruption have hollowed out trust, while powerful men who hate our democracy – from Silicon Valley to the Kremlin – undermine our social fabric and institutions. It is nothing short of a national crisis.

It has therefore been deeply frustrating to see the litany of lost opportunities in the government’s “Representation of the People Bill”. What is called for is transformation – to restore trust and make our brittle, fragile democracy more resilient.  This bill does not meet that moment.

In all its 186 pages, it manages to avoid measures that would meaningfully improve accountability of politicians, to stamp out corruption, or to address the unfairness of our backwards, outdated voting system. The elephant in the room – of record levels of public distrust and anger with our political system –  remains, it seems, totally ignored.

There are, of course, some worthwhile measures like automatic voter registration and more support for candidates. Most significantly, the Liberal Democrats have been campaigning for votes at sixteen for decades, and we are proud to have helped secure a provision that delivers this. But as I said in my speech “As young people approach the ballot box for the first time in the next election, we must ensure that they – and everyone in our country, feel confident…. Confident that they won’t be bombarded by disinformation. Confident that their vote will count. Confident that the system they are being asked to be a part of is fit for purpose.” I can’t honestly say this bill delivers on those things.

So where does that leave our party?

Ed and I are determined that Liberal Democrats use this bill to champion the changes our democracy really needs – on which we Liberals have a unique and proud track record. Fundamental to so many problems we face as a country is that we have a system which few trust, which rewards cronyism and which is vulnerable to the whims of foreign regimes and elites.

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Chris Ward

ALDC by-election report, 5th March

By Chris Ward | Fri 6th March 2026 - 6:11 pm

There were five principal council by-elections this week, four of which had a Liberal Democrat on the ballot, up from just one last time these wards were contested.

In Kent, Ashley Wassall and the Sevenoaks team earned a quarter of the vote from a standing start, as the Conservatives picked up the seat from Independent. This is a good base to start from in the next campaign here. Good effort!

Sevenoaks District Council, Hextable
Conservative: 600 (38.9%, +19.3)
Reform UK: 406 (26.3%, new)
Liberal Democrats (Ashley Wassall): 367 (23.8%, new)
Independent: 108 (7.0%, new)
Green Party: 62 (4.0%, new)

Conservative GAIN from Independent

Turnout: 47.15%

In County Durham, there was a rare gain for Labour, who beat Reform UK. Thank you to Neil Thompson for standing here.

Durham Council, Murton
Labour: 1,004 (50.6%, +17.6)
Reform UK: 786 (39.6%, –4.5)
Green Party: 95 (4.8%, new)
Conservative: 61 (3.1%, –2.0)
Liberal Democrats (Neil Thompson): 38 (1.9%, –2.3)

Labour GAIN from Reform UK

Turnout: 24.9%

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Nathan Hunt

Why is anti-youth abuse in politics getting worse?

By Nathan Hunt | Fri 6th March 2026 - 4:09 pm

I’m lucky to represent an amazing area as a district and town councillor. Since I was elected at the age of 19, becoming Huntingdonshire’s youngest ever councillor, I’ve had a huge amount of support from the community, friends, family, officers, and councillors of all parties.

At the same time, I’ve also heard every “are you old enough for big trousers?” and “did you finish college last week?” jibe you can imagine.

Let’s be honest – most of the time that’s good humour. Young people in politics are rare, people find it unusual, and people are excited to see a young person engaging with council democracy.

But at times, there is genuine abuse thrown in young people’s direction – for being young. Certain incidents over the past few weeks come to mind for me.

This isn’t anything new, nor is personal abuse in politics generally. But it is getting worse. When I think back to early 2022 when I was trying to convince people to vote for me as a fresh face, they were incredibly welcoming to me (including those who weren’t going to vote for me). Even when people were sick of politics because of the Partygate revelations, I can only remember one or two doorsteps that gave me genuine grief for being young.

Unfortunately, like a lot of stuff in Britain right now – things have gotten worse since then. I’ve faced some pretty vindictive stuff based on my age recently. Nor am I alone in this – this isn’t a localised trend.

And anti-youth abuse is just one part of the massive challenges we’re facing.

Anyone in public office or politics expects to be held to account for our decisions, positions, and actions. That’s the sign of a healthy democracy. But personal abuse, including for being young, goes past this.

I’m incredibly lucky to have a great support network around me – a great council group and local party, friends and family, and the Young Liberals. But this trend just creates an environment where good people are put off from public service because of the toll it takes on them.

So why is this the case? I don’t think we can pin it on something specific. But the political temperature being as high as it is isn’t good for anyone.

And the longer it stays high, kept there by divisive populists, more good people will be driven out of roles of public service due to the abuse they face.

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Victor Chamberlain

Southwark shows how the Liberal Democrats win cities again

By Victor Chamberlain | Fri 6th March 2026 - 1:01 pm

This week Southwark Liberal Democrats launched our manifesto for what will be our largest local election campaign in decades. After 16 years of Labour control, many residents feel the borough has been taken for granted.

Southwark also illustrates a wider challenge facing the Liberal Democrats: how we rebuild our presence in major cities. Much of the party’s recent growth has come in Tory-facing suburban and rural areas, but cities like London remain politically competitive and full of liberal minded voters looking for an alternative to Labour. If the Liberal Democrats are serious about becoming a national force again, we must prove we can win in places like Southwark.

We now have Labour in power at the town hall, City Hall and Whitehall. With power at every level, they can no longer blame anyone else when things go wrong.

Crime is rising, council tax continues to increase, services feel harder to access and the housing crisis is deepening.

Southwark now has the highest crime rate in South East London, yet police front counters have been closed by Labour and the number of community safety officers has been reduced. Complaints about council services are at record levels, and both the Housing Ombudsman and the national regulator have repeatedly found maladministration in Southwark’s housing service.

The housing picture is equally troubling. More than 22,000 households are on the social housing waiting list and we have 4,200 families in temporary accommodation,  yet fewer than 70 new council homes were started last year. Youth services have been cut back and seven schools have closed, leaving fewer opportunities and less support for young people and families.

After 16 years in charge, Labour have run out of excuses.

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Jack Meredith

Liberal populism could be our missing political language

By Jack Meredith | Fri 6th March 2026 - 9:54 am

Among liberals, “populism” is a warning sign. It brings to mind angry speeches, conspiracy theories, and politicians who promise easy answers while blaming outsiders. Many of us instinctively reject it.

That instinct is understandable. Yet it may also be a mistake.

Populism, at its core, is a simple claim. It says that power has become too concentrated in the hands of a few people, and that ordinary citizens deserve more control over the decisions that affect their lives. That idea is not automatically extreme or dangerous. In fact, it fits comfortably within the liberal tradition.

Liberals have always believed that power should be questioned. Governments should be accountable. Monopolies should not dominate markets. We believe communities should have a real voice in decisions that shape their future.

In other words, challenging concentrated power is not alien to liberalism. It is part of its foundation.

The problem is that the political right has largely captured the language of populism. Politicians such as Nigel Farage claim to speak for “ordinary people” against elites. The message is clear and emotionally powerful. They say the system is broken and someone is to blame.

Too often, liberals respond by rejecting the idea of populism outright. Politics should be calm, rational, and evidence-based. Those things matter. But when we refuse to speak about power, fairness, and frustration, we leave a vacuum. And someone else will fill it.

Many people across Britain feel that the system does not work for them. They see energy bills rising while large companies make huge profits. They see housing becoming harder to afford. They see decisions about their communities made far away in Westminster. Whether every complaint is justified or not, the feeling that the system is unfair is widespread.

If liberals cannot acknowledge that feeling, we risk sounding distant from everyday concerns.

The answer is not to copy the angry populism we see elsewhere. It is to build a different kind of populism. One that is socially liberal, democratic, and rooted in fairness.

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Nicholas Chan

New Chinese spy case and our Defending Democracy policy draft

By Nicholas Chan | Thu 5th March 2026 - 1:38 pm

Wednesday’s disturbing news on UK democracy interference is the Met’s arrest and a new Chinese espionage case. Among the suspects is the spouse of an MP.

Nigel Farage — the leader of a party with a senior member convicted for aiding Russia — has rushed to attack Labour and Keir Starmer. To rebut this hypocrisy, we must press ahead with our efforts to get the Government to place China in the Enhanced Tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (‘FIRS’) in the planned Democracy Bill.

We must not only defend our democracy from foreign interference; we must also keep our community informed about the scale of Chinese interference activities in the UK. Reform seeks to undermine trust in our institutions through mocking statements. By contrast, our push for China’s placement on the Enhanced Tier under FIRS will strengthen democratic participation by improving safeguards and raising public awareness.

It should also require Ministers and relevant officials to brief elected representatives on the extent of China’s foreign interference in the UK. That could mean stronger scrutiny of the China Audit (see my previous article), or transparency about which overseas Chinese “community aid” groups are facilitated by the United Front Work Department.

Placing China in the Enhanced Tier of FIRS does not intrude on individual liberties. On the contrary, it protects civil liberties by increasing transparency around institutions, software, and social media platforms that serve the Chinese party-state. With an Enhanced Tier mechanism, we can better understand the breadth and depth of the Russia–China—and, to an extent, Iran—bloc that spreads disinformation, fuels populist far-right sentiment, and channels political donations.

We must also show that the Liberal Democrats are the true safeguard of Britain’s resilience—by building a stronger Europe—rather than Reform’s pandering to a unilateral Trump-style America.

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Miranda Pinch

“My life’s defeat would be emigration”: Encounters in Palestine during my recent visit in January 2026

By Miranda Pinch | Thu 5th March 2026 - 10:24 am

Last month, I visited the occupied West Bank – against Foreign Office travel advise – to meet with Palestinian communities, hear their stories, and bear witness to the daily realities of life under Israel’s illegal occupation. As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and a long-standing campaigner for Palestinian rights, I did not arrive uninformed. I have travelled regularly to the West Bank over many years and am well acquainted with the apartheid regime that Israel has established there. Yet the horrors I encountered still shocked me – not because they were new, but because of their scale, pace, and the growing sense of impunity surrounding them.

During our stay there were raids in towns including Jenin, Hebron and even Bethlehem. Each day, more raids, more arrests, and more land grabs. Palestinians spoke of living in a state of constant anxiety – of sleepless nights, stress-related illnesses, and a growing lack of faith in the ability of the legal system to protect them. Settlers can come, dispossess, and destroy, and the courts are often powerless to prevent this while the IDF largely supports and protects them.

In the village of Umm al-Khair in the South Hebron Hills, we saw a once-thriving community hemmed in by settlers on either side. The settlers have divided the village in two, building a road, planting Israeli flags, and stopping the villagers from reaching their grazing grounds. The villagers face constant harassment and countless demolition orders – even a patch of astroturf laid for children to play football has been slated for removal.

At the Tent of Nations, a Palestinian Christian family farm outside Bethlehem, nearby settlement infrastructure continues to expand, including a new road that cuts across the family’s land, preventing them from cultivating the other side. Daud, the Tent’s owner, uses legal means to protect his land but the Israeli courts keep delaying judgements and in the meantime the settlers encroach more and more.

In Bethlehem, we heard from those affected by Israel’s plans to clear Palestinians from the vicinity of the religious site Rachel’s Tomb. Representatives from Wi’am, a grassroots civil society organisation, told us how the IDF has been measuring and photographing their land and buildings situated right against the ‘security’ wall and adjacent to Rachel’s Tomb. Meanwhile, Clair Anastas, a Palestinian businesswoman, has only a few weeks to appeal the loss of her home, shop, and guesthouse as settlers nearby push to expand their illegal settlement.

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Why Ed Davey was wrong on ex pat rescue

By Ex-pat Scott | Wed 4th March 2026 - 6:16 pm

I was pleased to hear most of Sir Ed Davey’s question following the PM’s statement on Monday.

I say most, because I thought he was doing well and saying the right things – until the unfair and unwarranted comments in his final sentences.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not about to say that Isabel Oakeshott doesn’t deserve criticism, or indeed being brought down a peg or two; I’m absolutely all for that. However, given the seriousness of the events in the Gulf and of the consequences, it doesn’t seem to me to have been right or appropriate to make what came across as a pretty flippant comment, particularly after the sensible words he spoke before it. There’s a time and place for attacking people like her – this wasn’t it.

It’s also incorrect, though. Most people who have moved from the UK to Dubai aren’t doing it primarily to avoid paying tax. They’re not all bankers, or ‘influencers’, or ex-footballers. They’re teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers – people who have moved because they either can’t get a job in the UK or want to just enhance their own careers. After all, it was only a few weeks ago that Willie Rennie was pointing out the number of teachers who have left Scotland to go to places like Dubai because there’s no jobs at home.

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Tanya Park

Power shared, not hoarded: finishing the argument

By Tanya Park | Wed 4th March 2026 - 9:50 am

Roz Savage’s piece earlier this week, and Jack Meredith’s response to it, have done something worth building on. This is an attempt to follow the logic a few steps further, because I think it leads somewhere important.

The strongest thing in Savage’s piece is the power axis. “Power hoarded versus power shared” is not just better messaging than left versus right. It’s a more honest description of what’s actually happening in Britain. Decisions that shape people’s lives are made in places they can’t reach, by institutions they didn’t choose, in processes they can’t scrutinise. That’s a liberal problem, not just a left-wing one.

Meredith picks this up thoughtfully. He’s right that different liberal traditions notice different concentrations of power. Social liberals see material inequality. Market liberals see monopoly and cartel behaviour. Civil libertarians see the state. Bring them into the same room, and they converge, even if they arrive from different directions.

But there’s a step still to take.

If dispersing power is the organising principle, it can’t stop at constitutional reform. Democratic reform is necessary, but formal political power gets hollowed out when economic power remains sufficiently concentrated. In theory, everyone gets one vote. In practice, sufficient accumulation of wealth means your money votes for you in ways the ballot box never could: through political donations, through media ownership, through the ability to fund strategic litigation, through the simple fact that governments worry about the confidence of capital in ways they never worry about the confidence of people on a zero-hours contract. The dispersal of political power and the dispersal of economic power are the same argument. You can’t complete one without the other.

Concentrated wealth isn’t simply an inequality problem, though it is that too. It’s a power problem. When wealth compounds across generations, when returns to capital consistently outpace returns to labour, when a small number of individuals accumulate resources sufficient to shape political culture and purchase influence over public debate, that is a liberal emergency. Not a socialist one. A liberal one.

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Oscar Renton

A democratic case for public ownership of utilities

By Oscar Renton | Tue 3rd March 2026 - 5:50 pm

Britain has spent the last few decades running a national experiment. We have taken essential infrastructure that behaves like a monopoly, we put it in private hands, and we hope competition somehow emerges. I can’t blame the utilities executives. They got lucky and landed the utilities in the 80s, like some awful game of Monopoly we still pay for. No risk and all reward, what a deal!

The results are familiar to anyone who has navigated unreliable rail services or warned their children of the dangers of swimming in the sea that was safe in their childhood. When a market is a natural monopoly, public ownership is not a nostalgic slogan, it is the prudent way to align economic incentives with the public interest.

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Samer Sinijlawi

Towards a third way – a reformed, liberal Palestinian party

By Samer Sinijlawi | Tue 3rd March 2026 - 4:16 pm

When I welcomed a delegation of British Liberal Democrats to Jerusalem and Ramallah last week, led by Gavin Stollar OBE and the Party’s Foreign Affairs lead, Calum Miller MP, I was reminded that politics, at its best, is not a transaction but a relationship. It is built on trust, curiosity and, above all, friendship.

In a region where suspicion is often the default setting, the simple act of sitting together – listening, disagreeing respectfully, and breaking bread – can itself feel radical. Our conversations were frank. They were searching. They were, at moments, uncomfortable. And they were deeply encouraging.

I write this for Lib Dem Voice because what I encountered was not a party looking for slogans, but a movement seeking understanding. The delegation came not to lecture, nor to posture for headlines, but to ask difficult questions: What do Palestinians owe to peace? What political renewal is possible? Where does responsibility truly lie? And who, among Palestinian actors, is capable of delivering a future compatible with liberal democratic values?

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Jack Meredith

Not left, not right; pluralist: a response to Roz Savage MP

By Jack Meredith | Tue 3rd March 2026 - 11:27 am

Roz Savage is right that “left” and “right” are poor maps for modern politics. Her alternative axes, especially “power hoarded vs power shared”, are a better guide to what voters feel in daily life. But there is a risk in the slogan “Not left. Not right. Liberal.” It is excellent as outward-facing messaging; it is incomplete as a description of our party.

The Liberal Democrats are not a single ideological bloc. We are a coalition, intentionally, and that breadth is a feature, not a bug. We were formed through a fusion of liberal and social democratic traditions, and our constitution frames our purpose as building a fair, free and open society by balancing liberty, equality and community. That triangle matters because it stops “liberal” from collapsing into a vague brand label.

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Mathew Hulbert

Mathew on Monday: What a Liberal Response to the Middle East crisis actually looks like

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 2nd March 2026 - 6:00 pm

This morning I appeared on BBC Radio Leicester about the escalating situation in the Middle East. As ever with the region the headlines move fast, the rhetoric moves faster, and the human cost is felt fastest of all.

For me, this is not abstract. I have family members who live in Dubai. When tensions rise across the region, when missiles are launched, when airspace closes, and you read of security warnings flashing up on phones, it stops being a matter of general interest and becomes something deeply personal. You find yourself not as a commentator, but as a relative. You look at maps differently. You listen for tone as much as the facts. You check in with family to find out the latest and to ensure they’re safe and well.

That personal dimension only reinforces what I believe politically. A liberal response to crises like this begins with one simple principle: every human life has equal worth.
It sounds obvious, yet it is remarkable how quickly that principle is abandoned. People are reduced to labels, civilian casualties become statistics. Entire populations are spoken about as though they are monolithic, interchangeable, or even expendable. That is not liberalism. It is dehumanisation.
A liberal response rejects that instinct outright.

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Lord William Wallace

Can we prevent Middle Eastern conflict dividing British politics and society?

By Lord William Wallace | Mon 2nd March 2026 - 3:14 pm

Immediate domestic reactions to American bombing of Iran have displayed how divided British political parties are on Israel, Iran and US approaches to Middle Eastern politics. Priti Patel as Conservative shadow foreign secretary was firm in her support. Nigel Farage was even more enthusiastic and uncritical. Liberal Democrat MPs have been critical, and insistent that the UK should not become directly involved. Labour has been cautious, contributing only to ‘defensive’ operations against Iranian responses. The Greens have condemned the American attack. The old idea that politicians of all parties should stand shoulder to shoulder when international crisis threatens has long gone.

Attitudes to the USA partly shape this. But we have to be aware, in our ethnically and religiously diverse country, of the domestic dimension, and do whatever we can to limit bitter divisions abroad from becoming rooted within Britain. We have a valued and long-established Jewish community, many of whom are deeply unhappy about Bibi Netanyahu’s hardline policies but who nevertheless take their turn in guarding their synagogue and defending their community. We have also a growing Muslim community, from South Asia, Yemen, the Gulf states, Malaysia and East and West Africa – many first-generation immigrants, but most now their children, grandchildren or even great-grandchildren. Younger British Muslims naturally feel solidarity with their Palestinian and Iranian counterparts. Relations between British Hindus and Muslims of South Asian origin have in some places been adversely affected by Prime Minister Modi’s Hindu nationalism, feeding into a narrative of Islam under attack.

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Barry Smith

Lessons from Sparta

By Barry Smith | Mon 2nd March 2026 - 1:26 pm

Back in the Brexit years, the European Research Group of hard-line Conservative MPs christened themselves the “Spartans”. Perhaps they were drawn to the image of an elite warrior brotherhood, standing firm against overwhelming odds. Or perhaps they admired Sparta’s reputation as one of the most austere and uncompromising societies of the ancient world. Either way, they might have profited from a closer look at how Sparta’s story actually ended — and why.

Sparta guarded its citizenship with exceptional rigidity. Full political membership was reserved for those born to two Spartan parents, and even then only after passing through an unforgiving system of military training and communal discipline. Foreigners were periodically expelled under a policy known as xenelasia.

Over time, this inflexibility proved fatal. The number of full Spartan citizens declined dramatically, from roughly 8,000 around 480 BCE to perhaps little more than 1,000 a century later. Military losses played a part, as did growing inequality in land ownership, but the core problem was structural: citizenship was so restricted that the ruling class steadily withered. A society that defined itself by exclusion gradually deprived itself of resilience.

There is an uncomfortable parallel here for modern nations confronting demographic decline. Across much of Europe and East Asia, birth rates have fallen well below replacement level while populations age rapidly. Nationalists insist the answer lies in boosting native fertility. Yet the evidence suggests this is far easier said than done. Hungary, under Viktor Orbán, has devoted vast public resources to pro-natalist policies. While these measures may have shifted the timing of births, the overall fertility rate remains well below replacement. Even generous subsidies cannot easily reverse deep social and economic trends.

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