Webchat with Ed Davey, Lib Dem leadership candidate, on Tuesday 18 June at 1.30pm

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to announce a webchat with Ed Davey MP - one of the Lib Dem leadership candidates, along with Jo Swinson MP. Ed will be joining us on Tuesday 18 June at 1.30pm.

Ed worked as an economics adviser to Paddy Ashdown, before winning his seat of Kingston and Surbiton in 1997.

In the Coalition Government, Ed began as a Business Minister, laying the groundwork for Shared Parental Leave under Vince Cable. Ed then became the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in 2012 under the Coalition Government, where he says he quadrupled renewable power and made the UK the world leader in offshore wind. After losing his seat in 2015, Ed campaigned for Remain in the EU referendum, and re-gained his seat in 2017.

Since then, Ed says he “has been fighting for us to keep our place in Europe, pushing for a proper response to the Climate Emergency, and helping Liberal Democrats get elected across the country”. For more information about his leadership, please take a look at his campaign website.

Please do join us on Tuesday at 1.30pm, but if you can’t make it on the day, leave your question for Ed on this thread in advance.

As always, please remember our webchat guidelines - one question per user, follow-ups only if there’s time and most questions have been answered and please keep it civil. Also if one topic is overwhelmingly dominating a discussion with a guest, mods might request that people don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point. Rest assured we will ALWAYS let the guest know that it's an area of concern to multiple users and will encourage them to engage with those questions.

And finally, we’re hoping to confirm a date with Jo Swinson for a webchat too - we’ll let you know when we do.

Many thanks
MNHQ

Good morning and thanks for taking part!
What's your plan A to stop a no deal brexit and do you have a plan B (or even a plan C)?

Hi Ed,
Thanks for being here.
Are you aware of the massive disappointment in the performance of the Lib Dems 'Pastoral Care Officer'? Despite the implementation of the Helena Morrissey Report recommendations, complaints are still being batted back to the complainants uninvestigated and unresolved, frequently by the 'Pastoral Care Officer' herself. This is not what the role was for.
Will you investigate this, please? (You can message me for further details, although the LGBT Twitter feed threats detailed on here are a good first example tbh. Obviously I have others.)
Thank you.

Hi Ed,

Which of the Tory leadership candidates would you prefer to work with if you become leader?

Will any politician ever have the balls to state that the public are wrong, brexit is a terrible idea and it should be cancelled?

Will it be you or any other libdem?

Hi Ed

I would like to know how you as leader of the Lib Dems, would go about attracting more people to vote for you.

My backstory is that I was a Labour Member for many years and I voted for Corbyn twice in the leadership vote. However, I resigned my membership in May 2018 along with 300 other women on the same day because of Labour's stance on transwomen being allowed on to All Women Shortlists.

I might have then switched my vote to Lib Dem if it wasn't for the comment by Lynne Featherstone that people like me (who don't believe that transwomen are actual women) are not welcome in your party.

So what will you do to attract more people to vote or join the Lib Dems when some of your colleagues seem to be actively undermining that aim?

Hi Ed
I’d like to know what you are doing to protect the green belt and metropolitan open land? As you know in your constituency both are threatened with development. How will development affect the environment and air quality? Thanks Helen

I am a former Lib Dem member but now find myself politically homeless as none of the main political parties are listening to women's concerns about the risks to women and girls that allowing self ID would cause.

How, as leader of the Lib Dems, would you ensure that women's sex based protections remain in place and are not compromised by any changes to the law?
What will you do to ensure that the debate on this issue is not suppressed and that a full and proper impact assessment is carried out regarding the potential increased risks to women that sex-self ID will bring, and if you are not prepared to stand for this, will you bear responsibility for any harm that comes to women?

Do you think more MPs will follow Chuka in joining the Lib Dems?

Hello Ed,

Good law requires clear definitions of words. Define woman.

Echoing Doobigeta and others - I resigned my Lib Dem membership and ended my direct debit over comments by Lynn Featherstone, Layla Moran and others about feminists not being welcome in the party and recognising people's souls. The letter I received back from the party basically said "don't let the door hit you on the way out".

Are gender critical feminists still persona non grata in the Lib Dems?

What is your opinion of the cover up of Layla Moran committing domestic violence while at a Lib Dem conference in 2013? So many of your colleagues have praised her for being "brave" after the papers broke the story (this year!), but why haven't any come out and said that violence is never acceptable?

Her statement about that night is classic DARVO, pretty much "he made me do it".

Do the Lib Dems think that there are times when domestic violence is acceptable?

Just because apparently it's mandatory to ask this now.... have you ever taken illegal drugs? (Guess I should ask about your favourite biscuit while I'm at it)

Thanks for doing this webchat, I'm looking forward to reading your answers later. Jo Swinson has this morning talked about doing electoral pacts with other parties to maximise the anti-Brexit vote. You seem to have been more hostile to the idea of working with other parties. Is this a big difference between you and Jo?

Hi Ed,

What do you think about Stella Creasy's call for women MPs to have official maternity leave?

Hey Ed,

What's the one thing (other than voting for you ) you think people should do to effectively address climate change?

I know many families who wish to stay at home, mostly full-time, in order to spend lots of time with their young children. It tends to be women who mainly want to take on this role, but it is becoming increasingly difficult.

Spending the majority of time with a close, full time carer who loves a child and is bonded to them is a vital part of normal child development. It is also required in order to help facilitate breast feeding, which WHO recommends that ideally should take place for a child's first 2 years.

Whilst women's rights in the work place have been improved over the years, their rights when it comes to parenting have been severely diminished. There is now so much financial and social pressure for women with young children to work outside the home and put their children into institutionalised day care, often against the family's philosophical wishes. I feel that society has been conditioned to accept this as the new normal and that mums (especially) that stay at home are cast as being 'lazy'. when this is far from the truth.
The status of those who undertake unpaid care work in our society has been erroded to almost nothing.

I am not saying in any way that we should go back to the time when the woman's place was in the home. What I am saying is that if women don't have equality of choice between being a full time mum, a full time worker, or anything in between, then we haven't really got equality at all.

What are your views on this and what would you do to restore the balance?

It should have said that there are currently 65000 homes in Kingston

I think I'm right in saying the Lib Dems have never had a leader who isn't a white man and that the party struggles overall to be truly representative of the UK. Isn't it time you had a woman leader?

I have very real concerns about how liberalism is being misunderstood in the Liberal Democrats and the lack of understanding of the difference between what liberalism is and a 'liberal identity'?

Liberalism is about encouraging an ongoing and ever changing debate of issues which includes difficult and controversial subjects.

The rise of a 'liberal identity' in which you hold certain values which are percieved as morally superior and the correct ones to hold, is leading to a hierachy of power within the party which is shutting down this type of liberal debate in a rather authoritarian and anti-democratic manner.

We solve problems and conflicts in interest by tackling and encouraging the most difficult areas of debate, rather than framing them as the 'right' or 'wrong' views to have. This allows weaknesses in policy to be picked up earlier and for unintended potential issues to be identified.

I am personally aware that a number of men / women who feel they have been bullied out of / intimidated out of the Liberal Democrats or an elected role in the Liberal Democrats for raising concerns which are not in line with the 'approved' line. I have also been in contact with senior figures in the party who have privately said to me they feel there is bullying in the party. I find it appalling from a party which is called the Liberal Democrats that anyone feels like this. There have also been concerns raised about the complaints process being not fit for purpose and far from transparent because it has structural flaws and potential conflicts of interest built into it.

My question is therefore:
How do you intend to resolve this and encourage free, transparent debate which is respectful of all opinions and encourages a culture where everyone feels able to contribute without being attacked or victimised?

I'm unwelcome in the party as I do not believe humans can change sex.

However, I would still like you to address the Aimee Challenor issue. I suspect you won't.

My questions have already been asked but just to register that I am another left wing woman Lib Dem member (joined after the Brexit vote) who has been bullied out of the party by the levels of misogyny and disrespect for women seeking to protect women's right and the safeguarding of children.
I cancelled my subscription some months ago after Lynne Featherstone's awful letter - the moral cowardice of a leadership refusing to enable democratic discussion in an allegedly democratic party is reprehensible.

And a question from Gransnet user Luckygirl:
What plans might you have to negotiate with the EU over those issues which precipitated the "leave" vote? These are concerns that need addressing (e.g. fishing industry).

Hello - as per the OP we're going to ask you to hold off now on the questions around self-ID and the LibDems' approach to related issues. Rest assured we will put those questions to Ed and do our best to get a response for you.

Thanks

Test