"Positive Action" is deeply illiberal discrimination, pure and simple.

[miss_s_b]

I have always thought the concept of "positive" discrimination offensive, patronising, counterproductive and illiberal. I have also said that should my party adopt such processes, they could expect my membership card by return of post. It has always been a red line for me, and my feelings on that haven't changed. And now, according to Lib Dem Voice, the london area party has done so for assembly elections.

But that was before I became so deeply embedded in this family. I am vacillating over this matter of principle because of that. To NOT resign my membership over this would be rank hypocrisy, and yet... It's not my local party, or the federal party. Am I better to stay in and fight this from the inside?

The deadline for motions to conference passed two hours ago. I could try to get an emergency motion in, I guess. But it would need careful wording, and people might not vote for it to even be considered...

I genuinely don't know what to do.

Comments

[tajasel]

You'll kick yourself if you sit back and do nothing. Better to try and do something and have people refuse to listen to you than not do anything at all and then hear people saying "I wish someone had done something about that" later.

I don't know if I'm going to the next Conference yet, but I'll help you write an emergency motion anyway, if you choose to.

[innerbrat]

Mind changing happens sometimes. While I can't really discuss the issue at hand because we disagree on the starting point, I will say this - holding yourself to something you've said before a situation change that left you 'deeply embedded in this family' seems like stubbornly cutting off your nose.

[softfruit]

Erm... if this is the 1-in-4 thing: what about the 1-in-2 and 1-in-3 zipping for Europe previously?

[mooism.livejournal.com]

This.

And also: there is a difference between ensuring an ethnic (or gender) balance on a list, -v- insisting on a none-white (or all women) shortlist for a single position. I'm in favour of the former, and oppose the latter (it's not something I'd consider leaving the party over though).

[andrewhickey.info]

I'd stay in and fight, though this is nowhere near as big an issue for me as it is for you. Given the weird situation with the coalition - where we're simultaneously in power and at risk of both losing our identity and losing a great number of seats at the next election - it's more important than ever that the Lib Dems exist and that they have truly liberal members such as yourself being vocal and active.
*I* said that I'd quit if we ever went into coalition with the Tories, but I didn't because the situation was such that it was the best decision to stay in. I think the same applies here.

But whether you quit or not, don't worry about the 'family' aspect. The people who like/love you do so not because of your affiliation to a particular organisation, but because of who you are. To the extent that that includes your political views, that's because we agree with those views, not because of your party membership, and if you leave because you start to feel like the party doesn't represent those views - rather than because you've changed them - I can't imagine that will change anyone's views of you.

But please do stay. The party is in very great danger of becoming an irrelevancy or an appendage of the Conservative party, and if that happens there will be no checks at all left on the right-authoritarian drift of both major parties. I think that is more important than the short-term pain a move like this could cause, especially since it's *not* any body that you're a member of.

[pmoodie]

And this is one of the reasons I'll never join a political party.

[telegramsam]

I'm assuming "positive action" is what is called "affirmative action" here in the USA?

I don't care much for it myself, either, frankly. Mostly because I think it encourages employers to higher "the token *insert minority here*" just for appearance's sake rather than actually hiring people based on genuine qualifications for a job. But I don't know how it works in the UK so it may be different.

As for stay-or-go, I don't know. Is this one issue a deal-breaker for you that trumps all other issues, or are you worried about throwing out the baby with the bathwater? If enough people stand up and say they disagree with the party's stance on this issue, is it possible it may change?

Well good luck anyway.

[ponygirl72]

I think trying to do something from the inside is fine, as long as you DO SOMETHING. Draft that emergency motion, and if it becomes obvious that those who steer the party won't listen or engage in debate, then make your resignation very, very public.

As long as you don't sit quietly in the corner (and I know you won't), then there's nothing hypocritical about it.

[von_geisterhand]

This!

[sassy_scot]

Well, whatever you do, your Lib Dem family will still be your friends, that's the most important thing to say. You could choose as an alternative to resignation to join the Scottish Party which refuses to take any such measures and didn't participate in the zipping for Europe in 99.

I take a slightly different view to you on this but now is not the time and place to debate the ins and outs of it in too much detail. The party survived zipping - I know cos I was in the E Mids then and lived through it. Nobody would suggest that the female MEPs who were elected under that system are any less competent than anyone else. It's not been repeated but it's meant that at least in one Parliament we don't look like a white middle aged boys' club.

The thing about having a federal party and devolving candidate selection is that we just have to accept that different parts of it will do different things. I'd rather have that flexibility than have the whole thing centralised.

I appreciate that this is a major principle but it's a London issue in the end of the day and would you want to take away the rights of regional parties to decide these things?

[joeotten.blogspot.com]

If it helps, you already aren't a member of the London area party.

Some sort of civilly disobedient non-recognition of London might be quite fun.