The recent rioting in England and Belfast, has seen Nigel Farage and Reform trying to use the riots for political purposes to fuel people’s prejudices regarding immigration and racial tension within local communities where tensions are already high. Farage is not responsible for the primary causes of the riot as has been suggested, but he should be condemned for using the riots for political purposes and trying to polarize and stigmatize different parts of our community. It could be that Nigel Farage, is trying to emulate Enoch Powell, as has been suggested in Jason Cowley’s Reaching for Utopia. I will leave that for others to judge whether that this is the case or not.

How should Ed Davey respond to Nigel Farage trying to use the riots for political purposes? Firstly, I want to commend Layla Moran’s performance on various media outlets, by being constructive and offering support to the Government and the Police through the difficult days of the riots, which we hope to have now passed us. Sadly, it will not bring the three young girls killed in Southport back, or the untold damage done to communities throughout England and Belfast.

However, Ed Davey should lead calls for a ‘cordon sanitaire’ around Nigel Farage and Reform. A ‘cordon sanitaire’ is the refusal of one or more political parties to cooperate with other political parties considered radical or extreme. It can be argued that Reform falls into the ‘radical right’ and other parties should not join in a Coalition with them or have an electoral pact with Reform. With our politics becoming more European, despite Labour winning a landslide, these things must be thought through.

Therefore, Ed should call on other parties to join the Liberal Democrats in a ‘cordon sanitaire’ against working with Nigel Farage and Reform. I can see Labour and the Green Party willingly prepared to join a ‘cordon sanitaire’ against Reform. The Conservatives will have a dilemma on whether to be part of a ‘cordon sanitaire’ against Reform, which I will touch on at the end, although all six leadership candidates have refused to allow Nigel Farage into the Conservative Party. I think also morally it will be correct for Ed to lead calls for a ‘cordon sanitaire’ because as Liberals, we believe in an open,  cosmopolitan society.

Furthermore, our main valence voter is an Identity Liberal, who seesReform’s ethnocentric view to be outdated and stigmatizing communities. Identity Liberals see migration as a positive force for good and enriches our communities. Indeed I think this following sentence in Brexitland, not just sums up Identity Liberals but us as a political party, ‘Identity Liberals seek to protect vulnerable minorities from the ethnocentric hostility and discrimination they deplore, embracing both equal opportunities policies which aim to protect minorities from discrimination and improve their representation in powerful institutions’

Throughout our history, we have stood up as a political party for persecuted groups, whether it was supporting the campaign for women to have the franchise to vote, or whether it was the Young Liberals and their campaign against apartheid and finally, Lynne Featherstone bringing in Equal Marriage in 2013. We should be prepared once again to stand up for those who are unfairly being persecuted by Nigel Farage and Reform.

Whereas, Nigel Farage and Reform’s main valence voter is an Identity Conservative, who believe in a sense of Constructivism of ‘us’ and ‘them’. They believe that the nation-state is at risk from supranational organizations such as the European Union (EU) or World Trade Organization (WTO), they have negative emotions towards issues on diversity and immigration, and they think British Culture is under threat. These concerns have been exploited by people such as Matthew Goodwin, to say the ‘elites’ have not listened.

As Liberal Democrats, we should of course listen to their concerns and assuage them that Britain is not going to lose its identity, but will be better for being an open, compassionate country. We should be taking Nigel Farage and Reform head on, as Chris Huhne did in 2009 regarding Nick Griffin and the BNP. Chris Huhne’s argument from Question Time, is still as relevant today, as Nigel Farage and Reform look for the ‘other’ to blame for our problems in Britain.

Penultimately, I turn to the Conservative Party and how they will react to a ‘cordon sanitaire’ around Reform. We have had all six leadership candidates refusing to allow Nigel Farage into the Conservative Party, but that is different from ruling out an electoral pact with Nigel Farage and Reform or entering a coalition with Reform, in any elected council or Parliament. On the Other Hand, we have Conservatives wanting Nigel Farage in the Conservative Party. As I state in an earlier article, the Conservatives and Nigel Farage are fighting over the soul of Conservatism – making the Conservatives paralyzed on the issue of a ‘cordon sanitaire’ around Nigel Farage and Reform.

Finally, I believe a ‘cordon sanitaire’ is the moral course of action for Ed Davey to take. The majority of Liberal Democrats will defend Farage’s right to speak as liberals but complete disagree with the content and substance of what he is speaking. We should be clear that Nigel Farage and Reform is a political party, who we share no values with. As Liberal Democrats we are not prepared to work with Reform under any circumstances and call on other political parties in the mainstream to do the same.

• Adam Robertson is a member of East Suffolk Local Party, and a member of Liberal Reform. Adam currently works for a Local Principal Authority. Former Parliamentary Candidate for Lowestoft.

source:
LibDemVoice