Lib Dem Fightback is for everyone

It is great news that there are over 8,000 (and rising) new members of the Liberal Democrats since election night they are just a part of the fightback. I hope that all local parties will get in touch with these new people as soon as possible to welcome them to the party. Then hold a social gathering so that they can meet the existing members and then find out what they feel they can do to help the party fightback, then enable and encourage them to do just that.

But it isn't just the new members that are invigorated.

Many of us who were candidates instead of being morose are upbeat. Already looking forward to 2020 and making plans to stand again. I wrote a blog post about moving forward to 2020 on Friday after 40 hours with no sleep. But it was optimistic and as a result got picked up by Radio Tees as someone they wanted to talk about the leadership contest but also the path ahead.

Our fight back is important because our core values are important to the general public. I believe they will soon realise this as the Tories start to dismantle freedoms, undo fairness and take people for granted. The very people that Liberal Democrats feel should not be enslaved by ignorance, poverty or conformity.

I've also seen activists being upbeat. A meeting of Scottish Liberal Democrats at the weekend was positive not judgemental for example and with about three times the number that were expected turning up.

We now have a timetable to elect a new leader, and know that all those eager new members will also be able to get a vote in who leads us forward. But we are all going forward, we are all part of the fightback and our liberal values will be declared in the doorsteps, indeed many of us already want to get back to doing that very soon.

2015 General Election round up and the way ahead #GE2015 #LibDems #GE2020

The last 40 hours have been tough and indeed I have yet to sleep (note to self never travel all day following a General Election ever again).

Firstly I'd like to thank the 1370 people in the Sedgefield constituency who put their trust in me yesterday to vote for me to serve as their MP, sadly we needed many more to think the same way. Especially the one individual who said that me responding to a tweet from them on eve of poll was enough to secure their vote.

I'd like to also thank my agent Ian Barnes for all the work he has done in sorting out the paperwork, nominations and deposit and the members of the Sedgefield and Darlington Liberal Democrats for the opportunity to stand as their candidate. I'd also like to thank Ian Jones the North East England regional chair for all his support as well as my fellow candidates and those providing candidate support in party HQ. This has certainly be a fun, interactive and supportive election for all the Liberal Democrat candidates who put themselves forward this time. Many new friendships have been formed between those of us who stood there last night as the tsunami of rejection poured over us as MPs lost seats, candidates lost hard fought fights and many, many of us lost the deposit.

One thing none of us as candidates lost as a result of last night is our core beliefs and values is a liberal vision of the world, where we seek to give everyone an opportunity to get on in life. Although the electorate didn't see the value that Liberal Democrats have provided in the past and could have provided in this next parliament to ensure those values are maintained it is something that is still worth fighting for.

Therefore I am determined that within the next few months I will secure a full time job in either England, Scotland or Wales. Once this has been done I will be seeking selection for a seat somewhere in that area early on in this General Election cycle. I hope that both the job and selection will have been sorted within the year. Then I will be knocking on doors, putting good things that we do on pieces of paper and through letter boxes and telling the locals about those values and what spurs me on to continue to be a Liberal Democrat. I can envision that many of my fellow candidates are feeling dejected this morning, I can also envision that many of them like me are more determined than even to carry out the fight.

I believe last night we faced the sound of gunfire and many of us fell on the battlefield. But now is the time to entrench, bring in the reinforcements to fill the ranks and prepare for the next offensive in 2020. We have a fight on our hands to get back to the strong voice we have gained in recent years, but it is a fight back that I sure is worth the effort.

This is me stating that I am ready to return to the fray (after a little sleep that is), stand up for liberal values, get back unto the doorsteps facing the people who think erroneously that we have lost our values to show that far from it we know that those core values are what ground us. From which we base our priorities of fairness and freedom. We, as a party, must return to those values and proclaim them on the doorsteps, write about them on bits of paper and regroup around them and put them front and centre once more.

I remain Lib Dem to the core

You follow a political party because you agree with its policies. You become an activist for that party because you share in its vision. You put yourself on the line standing to represent that party because you want to enthuse the core values of that party into the lives of everyone.

Thus is was that 630 fellow Liberal Democrats and I lay it all on the line yesterday in the 2015 General Election. Some like Simon Hughes and Charles Kennedy had given years of service to get those values into their constituencies, improving their constituents lives and when they could into legislation. But yesterday they like many of the rest of us were judged not so much on our values but on one decision we made collectively about five years ago.

Our manifesto this time as in 2005 and 2010 was full of wonderful stuff about how to bring about fairness to society. It also laid out how we could strengthen the economy, fund additional NHS investment etc. But that one decision and not our core values were what the people judged us on.

We are a party that believes in proportional representation. Therefore we are a party that expects that we might be called upon to form coalitions to work with others under a fair voting system. Here's the thing with 5% less of the national vote than UKIP our party shouldn't deserve to have (at time of writing) eight times as many MPs. The only reason we do is that my party was Fire Fighting putting up fire breaks around places we occupied, while UKIP were riding a wave and thought they could do everything.

Maybe we should have said more about what our values were that made us want to do things rather than saying that we weren't like one lot in one way and another lot over something different. I believe in those values and I feel that others appreciate them to.

And, here is the thing. Despite all the pain, all the heartache and all the suffering that last night caused standing at my own count, getting feedback form elsewhere and then watching it all come crashing down, I'm still a Liberal Democrat to the core.

I still see no other party that believes that no other party exists to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society in which they seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, in which nobody shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.

If there were I would stand for them, work for them and vote for them. But none of the other parties fulfil even this small extract from the constitution of the Liberal Democrats.

That is why today, as much as ever, and indeed more so that 26 years ago I know that I am the very model of modern Liberal Democrat. I know our party will come back strong again because the essence of what we believe in does bring about fairness and opportunity for everyone. It may be a few election cycles, a few years or even a few months before voters realise this. David Cameron and his unfettered Conservatives could well be the ideal recruiter of people to the Liberal Democrat's way of thinking.

We Will Remember Them: Thomas Alexander Mills d. 3 May 1915

The first person that this series will be remembering is the second cousin of my step-great grandmother, the attached chart shows how we are related. Although at the time of Private T.A. Mills death she was a widow who was yet to marry my recently widowed great grandfather.

Thomas Mills was the son of a military man, his father Alexander had fought during the Boer War with the 1st Inniskillings being awarded the King's Medal with two clasp, Queen's Medal with five clasps and Distinguished Service Medal. Unlike many of the young men who will be featured in this series he was a member of His Majesty's Forces before the declaration of war having signed up two weeks earlier.

The Helles Memorial, Turkey where he is remembered

He joined the Royal Marine Light Infantry (Plymouth Division) and it was with them that he formed part of the 29th Division that engaged in the initial landings in the Dardanelles on 25th April 1915. The campaign is better known today by the name of the peninsula where the Allied Forces got pinned down for months without advancing; Gallipoli.

Just over a week after the initial landings he was declared missing, his father sought further information, but as too many soldiers from the naval division of the army were listed as missing at the time there was a just a standard response.

On Friday 4th August 1916 in First Derry Presbyterian Church his name was among those read out in an act of remembrance for the young men of the City who had already given their lives during the first 2 years of this War. The location of this service means that it was very possible that many of my family on both my father's and mother's sides could have been present as both their father's families worshiped in that church around this time.

The tragedy for the family didn't end with the end of the war abroad. On 23 June 1920 while walking through the streets on the city side of Londonderry his mother Margaret Mills (née Mowbray) was shot in the chest and died as a result of the wounds there had been gunfire in the area around Bishop Street all day and the inquest had asked if the bullet could have come from the predominantly unionist Waterside area across the River Foyle, but found that it probably had come from the republicans on the Cityside. She was an unfortunate victim of the civil war that still saw many members of my family living surrounded by the republicans on the west bank around the Fountain and Abercorn Road. The Mills at this time were living on Orchard Row just off Foyle Road.

Pvt. Thomas Alexander Mills, Royal Marine Light Infantry, Plymouth Bttn. Royal Naval Division
Born Londonderry City, Ireland 1 Mar 1897
Died Gallipoli, Ottoman Empire (Turkey) 3 May 1915

We will remember him


The Royal Marine Light Infantry during the War

The Royal Marines had been founded in 1664 and men had been billeted in Plymouth, the Division in which Thomas was attached, since the formation. In 1855 the marine infantry forces had been renamed the Royal Marine Light Infantry (RMLI) and from that time they were set up to lead on landings on foreign and hostile shores to act as the initial wave as skirmishers.

Blogging light and hustings event

Sorry that blogging has been light. It is because the level of emails is up quite considerably on even five years ago. May well be normal service after Thursday.

In the meantime that has been a hastily arranged soap box style hustings in the town centre of Newton Aycliffe in the morning at 11:30.

We Will Remember Them: Dr John Joseph Esmonde 17 Apr 1915

Continuing to look at the lives of the MPs who died during the First World War

 

Dr John Joseph Esmonde was born into the Irish gentry. His father's elder brother also John was the 10th Baronet, who had initially been elected to Westminster for the Irish Liberal Party who later transferred his allegiance to the Independent Irish Party.

John was a Doctor by profession but followed the course of his uncle when he was elected as the Nationalist MP for North Tipperary in 1910. He was married firstly to Rose Magennis and they live in Pontesbury, England until her death in 1901. They had three sons John, Geoffrey and Anthony.

In 1904 he married again to Eily O'Sullivan they would have seven further children.

He was serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Captain when he died of pneumonia and heart failure consequent on the strain of overwork.

He was succeeded in his seat by his 21-year-old son John Lymbrick Esmonde, who at the time of his election was serving as a Second Lieutenant with the Leinster Regiment. A younger son Geoffrey who was a Second Lieutenant in the Tyneside Irish died in Oct 1916 while serving with the Northumberland Fusiliers. A second son Eugene from his second marriage was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross in 1942 as a pilot in the Royal Navy as part of a torbedo bomber squadron. His youngest son Paddy was another decorated soldier receiving a Miltary Cross for his actions on the Rhine in 1944 like his father in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Dr John Joseph Esmonde 27 Jan 1862 - 17 Apr 1915 MP for North Tipperary 1910 -15

We Will Remember them: William Glynne Charles Gladstone d. 13 April 1915

Lieutenant W.G.C. Gladstone MP, of the Welsh Fusiliers

Continuing the occasional series looking at the MPs who were killed fighting in World War I we come across one of the most famous surnames in British politics. The last of four generations of Gladstone's to serve in the Houses of Commons the most famous of which being his Grandfather the four time Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.

William Glynne Charles Gladstone was the fourth and last generation of the Gladstones to sit in the House of Commons. He was born in  July 1885 into a political dynasty at the time his Grandfather had just been succeeded at the end of his second administration as Prime Minister by the Marquess of Salisbury and his father was still an MP.

His Great Grandfather John was MP for Lancaster (1818-20), Woodstock (1820-26) and  Berwick-Upon-Tweed (1826-27).

William Glynne Gladstone next to his Grandfather

 His Grandfather of course was the four time Prime Minister and Grand Old Man himself William Ewart Gladstone. Who in turn was MP for Newark (1832-45), Oxford University (1845-65), South Lancashire (1865-67), Greenwich (1867-1880) and Midlothian (1880-95). Whose brother Thomas was also an MP.

His father was William Henry Gladstone who had been MP for Chester (1865-68), Whitby (1868-80) and East Worcestershire (1880-85), who was also a member of the England squad in the first unofficial Rugby Union International against Scotland. His youngest brother Herbert John was another of the MPs in the family rising to the office of Home Secretary from 1905-10.

William himself inherited his father's estate, the long time Gladstone family home, Hawarden before his sixth birthday, though his grandfather was still alive for a further seven years. In 1911 he was elected to Parliament following a by-election for Kilmarnock district. It was the first time that Labour had stood in the constituency but it was his Conservative opponent John David Rees who had been the MP for Montgomery until the previous year's general election who had been seeking a return to Westminster who came in second. Rees was subsequently to sit across the chamber from Gladstone when he won a by election for Nottingham East, which he would hold until his death in 1922.

His first mention in Hansard actually occurs a few months before his election in Kilmarnock, upon his appointment as His Majesty's Lieutenant for Cheshire:

Mr Rupert Gwynne (Con - Eastborne) : asked the Prime Minister whether Mr. W. G. C. Gladstone, of Hawarden Castle, who has lately been appointed His Majesty's lieutenant for the county of Flintshire, is serving, or has served, in the Territorial Forces?

The Prime Minister (Mr Herbert Asquith) : I believe that Mr. Gladstone has done no military service. I may say that my Noble Friend the Secretary of State for War, whom I consulted, came to the conclusion that as military experience was very fully represented on the Flint Territorial Force Association, Mr. Gladstone, with his considerable territorial connection and influence, would be acceptable as president of the association.

Mr. R. Gwynne: Are we to assume, then, that he has been appointed on any other qualification than the hereditary one?

The Prime Minister: The hon. Member must assume nothing of the kind. Mr. Gladstone has been selected as the fittest person for the appointment.

It is therefore sad that less than 4 years later The Times carried the death notice (pictured right) of Lieutenant W.G.C. Gladstone M.P. the second Member of Parliament to die in this war. It reads:

"As announced in The Times on March 19, he left Wrexham on March 15 for the front, and so has been killed within a month of his going abroad."

It make mention of the exchange in the Commons mentioned above going on to say:

"He discharged the duties of the post [as H.M. Lieutenant of Cheshire], however, with zeal and earnestness, and when war broke out was active in promoting recruiting. Later he decided that it was his duty to offer himself for service and applied for and received a commission as second Lieutenant in the Welsh Fusiliers"

The article  goes on to mention Arthur O'Neill who fell in the service of his country the previous November plus lists the lengthening Commons Roll of Honour at the time, mention Aubrey Herbert (Con - South Somerset), Edward Fitzroy (Con - Northamptonshire South), George Sandys (Con - Wells) , Captain Duncan Campbell (Unionist - North Ayrshire), as among the wounded. Major Clive Morrison-Bell (Con - Honiton) and the 12th Earl of Stair (before 2 Dec 1914 John Dalrymple, Viscount Dalrymple Conservative MP for Wigtonshire) as mentioned as prisoners of war.

Gladstone had been President of the Oxford Union in 1907 a notice in The Times on 18th May 1915 mentions that a portrait of the past President (see top), a gift from his mother, was to he hung without any ceremony close to the bust of his grandfather in the Oxford Union Society's Debating Hall. His sister writing on behalf of their mother said:

Would you kindly convey to the Union Society her most sincere thanks for their sympathy for her. We are sending you one of his latest photographs taken shortly before he left for the front. His loss is to us an overwhelming one, but there is a real consolation for so great and righteous a cause. As you say, one can only feel proud of him.

The portrait bore the line published in The Times:

Consillo ille senex, stetit hic juvenlibus armis.
Pro patria; palmas dividat ipse Deus.  

At the suggestion of the old man, he was early to arms
For the country; He divides the palms of God.

There is a memorial stone in Hawarden churchyard which includes a quotation from his last letter to his mother.

It is not the length of existence that counts, but what is achieved during that existence, however short.

We will remember him


Lt. William Glynne Charles Gladstone MP for Kilmarnock 14 July 1885 - 13 April 1915