Ten years ago a small editorial team assembled a group of 27 leading Liberal Democrats and sympathetic experts to propose radical and innovative new directions for the Liberal Democrats. At the time, the party was in a national coalition with the Conservatives which was providing some opportunities to advance that agenda, along with many frustrations.
A grant to cover publication costs was secured from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd – which funds political campaigns in the UK to promote democratic reform, civil liberties and social justice – and Biteback Publishing agreed to publish the resulting compendium of essays as The Green Book – New Directions for Liberals in Government. Nick Clegg provided a foreword.
We followed up publication with a series of events and a year later, in the run up to the 2015 general election, produced The Green Manifesto in association with the Liberal Sustainability Network and the Sustainability Hub. See here to download a copy: The Green Manifesto (pdf)
A decade on, the political context has changed radically … with Britain’s exit from the European Union, the rise of populist and polarising forces here and elsewhere, the accelerating climate crisis, growing inequality, and much else.