Thursday 6 August 2009

You make no mistakes if you do nothing

Today I thought I would use a comment that I placed on the Liberal Democrat Voice at http://www.libdemvoice.org/jo-swinson-ban-airbrushing-in-childrens-adverts-15807.html#comment-95655

Take a look to follow the whole line of comments and why not add your own?

"Andy H is right. It is daft and illiberal (the proposal to ban airbrushing of adverts aimed at children). I don’t think it is dangerous because I think it is easy to see how daft it is, and (I meant to say but) it has inspired debate. I like Duncan’s wider point about what Liberal Democrats may and may not say. In our local party we have the very liberal policy of anyone saying what they want as individuals. If they mention a party title in a letter to the press then it goes through a committee. We don’t want to stifle debate. We don’t want to stifle speech or using the media. We want people to have opportunities to give their opinion and I believe in the inalienable right of every Liberal Democrat to make an arse of themselves (as Duncan puts it). We have to allow our MPs to make mistakes. If they don’t make mistakes then either they are doing nothing or they are told to do everything. My bigger concern is that all serious politicians wear smart clothes and are the sort of people who don’t need photo manipulations. Spin and image dominate politics. We need to emphasise substance over superficiality. Give me an ugly politician who says the right thing any day. I know that we don’t want Liberal Democrats to make fools of themselves but I would much rather be in a liberal party that allows for freedom of speech than in another party that dictates what can and can’t be said".


Change the world

No comments:

Post a Comment