A non-wonk’s guide to liberalism

 First published in LibDemVoice 6th March 2025.

A while ago someone was looking for what they called a brief non-wonk’s guide to liberalism. In a fit of activism I wrote one. Once I had fleshed it out, I was surprised by the centrality the idea of debate had to my entire presentation.

The logic is quite simple. Liberalism has at its centre a broad brush of principle – that each should be free to do whatever they want provided they do not harm others in exercising that freedom. There is relatively little else that is central to the principles. That means that every strategy, position, rule or practice has to be worked out in the light of current circumstances to align as closely as possible to that principle – which means that all those practices, strategies, etc, have to be worked out anew again and again. (“When the circumstances change, I change my mind.”) That means we need to be able to talk to each other continuously and honestly, and yet sensitively and with respect.

It takes quite a lot of self discipline to do that. No doubt many would argue that we have lost that ability – social media, echo chambers, the weaponisation of lies, the practice of bullshit. I do not believe that; the ability to listen and speak respectfully has to be learned anew by each generation. And that is perhaps more important for us than for other political parties because it is so central to the practice of liberalism.

Arguably, we in the Liberal Democrats are not very good at it (though we’re certainly no worse than other parties). Debate descends into argument too quickly and too often. Perhaps we need to revive the practice of teaching the skills of debate as a central part of being a Liberal Democrat, so that we can converse most productively both among ourselves and in other fora. Perhaps there could be a new section on the Campaign Hub. (Yes, I’m being a bit mischievous, but only a bit.)

I planned the non-wonk’s guide to be an evolving document, a kind of permanent work in progress, but it took me a long while to get back to it and make the improvements suggested by some of its first readers. It can be found in this folder:

https://app.box.com/s/cz7o5qx5j5k3kbpb0qkkilcw4rzblg0y

I will welcome comments and suggestions on both the thoughts above and the guide itself.

Scam calls

We hardly ever use our landline. We’ve actually turned the ringer off, because so many of the calls we get on it are scams and it became a real annoyance even just to go to the phone check the number of caller ID, say, I don’t recognise that number, and leave it.

To test whether this was just a perception, or based in reality, I took the numbers off our call list which has a maximum of 80. The calls were in the period February to March this year.  61 of the 80 calls logged were from numbers I didn’t know. I checked each of these number on https://who-calls.me.uk .

Most of them are clearly scams, judging by the number of queries that have been made about them, and the comments left by unfortunate recipients. I wasn’t inclined to do anything more at the time, but I took the numbers as proof that, however well the Information Commissioners Office thinks it’s doing its job, it really is failing rather badly at preventing scammers from going about their business.

I used to report scam calls to the ICO. I don’t bother any more. It’s quite an effort to do, given the number of questions you have to answer just to register a complaint, and nothing ever seems to happen. Occasionally, in the past, I have quizzed the ICO – and OFCOM who share responsibility with them - about this, and their response is always – we’re doing a great job. In the last x months we’ve done this, we’ve done that, we have investigated y complaints and closed down z lines. I’m sure they’re telling the truth, but they don’t seem to be aware of how little effect they’re having.

I re-examined my list in September, six months after the first run through. The results are at the end of the blog. I found them really dispiriting. Nearly all the numbers I’d logged six months previously were clearly still in business and still making themselves a nuisance in people’s lives six months later. And the ICO and Ofcom are clearly as much use as a chocolate teapot. (A Which investigation, with numbers in the millions, makes this even more clear. Top 10 scam calls plaguing the UK.)

As I said, I’m sure their numbers about their own activities are accurate. But they demonstrate nothing more than impotence. Whatever action Ofcom prides itself on having taken, however many cases the ICO prides itself on having dealt with, the scammers have built the occasional manoeuvres, fines and closures into their business model. They are nothing more than a minor nuisance, an insignificant cost compared to the profits that roll in daily.

Scam call prevention in this country is a complete failure. 

Date	Number	Searches April	Searches Sept
28/03/24	02032 82	80357	84779
30/03/24	01332 79	17798	18611
11/04/24	01733 80	4319	4609
19/02/24	02031 29	3339	25584
06/02/24	02080 50	2343	34703
06/02/24	02039 36	1828	502
14/03/24	01225 53	1631	2037
20/03/24	02045 29	1272	1520
18/01/24	02039 36	1191	1254
01/03/24	02045 71	984	1104
12/02/24	02039 36	939	1034
27/01/24	02039 36	801	842
26/02/24	07956 53	723	909
24/04/24	01217 90	675	895
03/02/24	02039 36	674	832
26/01/24	02039 36	664	706
27/01/24	02039 36	661	720
06/03/24	02045 71	651	700
27/01/24	02039 36	606	672
07/03/24	01227 91	595	676
10/04/24	01615 24	586	744
19/01/24	02039 36	539	572
19/01/24	02039 36	532	554
19/02/24	01438 90	449	798
31/01/24	02039 36	429	521
03/02/24	02039 36	398	418
14/02/24	01205 63	355	406
26/03/24	01752 54	265	356
23/02/24	01182 18	221	277
20/02/24	01969 62	161	332
19/02/24	01702 41	142	180
08/04/24	01638 60	53	104
20/04/24	01789 20	44	76
11/04/24	01488 71	25	31
20/02/24	02031 29	20	28
04/03/24	01803 87	15	16
13/01/24	02039 36	7	8
06/03/24	07769 36	5	6
10/01/24	02034 88	0	1
11/01/24	07889 36	0	1
18/01/24	07876 59	0	1
22/01/24	02039 36	0	19
23/01/24	07746 67	0	1
23/01/24	02035 14	0	3
25/01/24	01216 36	0	1
01/02/24	07748 50	0	1
03/02/24	02045 87	0	1
09/02/24	07525 35	0	1
16/02/24	01389 38	0	3
19/02/24	07986 48	0	1
22/02/24	02392 46	0	1
24/02/24	07303 82	0	1
29/02/24	01341 36	0	1
11/03/24	07472 62	0	1
26/03/24	07801 69	0	4
03/04/24	07789 33	0	2
04/04/24	07900 95	0	1
20/04/24	07943 89	0	1
23/04/24	07740 78	0	1
25/04/24	07850 98	0	1