Tim Farron, on: "What does being a Liberal mean to you, socially and economically?"

Interviewed by Carl Sacklen for Disclaimer magazine, party leader Tim Farron was asked: "What does being a Liberal mean to you, socially and economically?" Tim's reply included the following:

"Liberals of every shade should support the free market - but the Thatcherite consensus that has had its hold to an extent on all of Britain's parties, is fundamentally anti free market. Laissez faire and the absence of regulation, the privatisation culture in the broadest sense, is a betrayal of the free market. It is the triumph of the oligarch and the monopoly, it is the defeat of the little guy, it is the roadblock to innovation, it has led to the economic disaster that in government we are trying to fix.

"So a new consensus will rest in large part on this party being the party of freedom in every sense, including freedom in the market place.

"A new consensus must adopt the spirit of Beveridge and Keynes, and to my mind that spirit is one of ambition, an inspired and inspiring confidence that government can make a difference; that in the face of huge challenges, politics and economics can provide positive solutions to make things better, that government should roll up its sleeves, not wring its hands."

Source:

http://www.disclaimermag.com/politics/interview-tim-farron-on-youth-politics-corbyn-s-labour-party-and-being-a-beveridge-liberal-3388 [accessed 21 February 2016]