Carers
Ed's story
Caring isn't just Ed's story, it's the story of millions, caring for each other, dealing with tough times, and keeping going with love.
LD
5 Jun 2024
The Ed I know
JO
by Jonny Oates
6 Jun 2024
The Liberal Democrats are self-aware enough to understand where we sit in the political pecking order. As a smaller party, we know we cannot command the airtime or the column inches of the Conservatives or Labour but a general election provides us with the opportunity to let voters know a little bit more about us.
That can be done in one of two ways. You can, as Reform are demonstrating, engage in increasingly inflammatory language to make people angry and seek to exploit the divisions in our country. Or, you can seek to cut through by having a bit of fun. Unsurprisingly, the Liberal Democrats have opted for the latter.
If you had never heard of our party leader, Ed Davey, before this campaign, you could be forgiven for seeing him fall off a paddleboard or career down a water slide and think this is a man without a care in the world living his best half-term life. A quick raise of the most expressive eyebrows in British politics is enough to tell you that this is not a politician who takes himself too seriously. What he does treat with the utmost gravity, however, is the concerns of those without the platform to voice them. He is in public life for one reason – to try and improve other people’s lives, rather than his own.
A quick glance at Ed’s CV – good school; PPE at Oxford; a career in business and politics – suggests the gilded life of a born politician. But scratch below the surface slightly and Ed’s life has been anything but conventional. He has few memories of his father, who passed away when he was four. He and his brothers were raised by their mother, who was then diagnosed with cancer when Ed was nine. When things got worse, it was Ed and his brothers who cared for her until she too passed away when he was just 15. He always remained close to his maternal grandmother, especially after his grandfather died when he was 18, and when she became frail, Ed and his brother Henry looked after her affairs, moving her to a care home close to Ed.
These experiences have undoubtedly shaped Ed’s outlook on life but perhaps not as much as becoming a father himself. His son, John, was born in 2007 with an undiagnosed neurological condition which leaves him requiring round-the-clock care, which Ed and Emily, Ed’s wife, provide – with the help of some amazing professionals. Just as when juggling his schoolwork with caring for his mother, John’s needs require Ed to balance his carer responsibilities with those of his political career. He will cheerfully tell you which is both harder work and more important to him.
Ed has spent more than half his life as a carer but the thing about Ed’s ‘extraordinary’ story is that it’s actually not that out of the ordinary. There are between six and eleven million family carers in this country – many in much more challenging circumstances than Ed’s – looking after loved ones, often unseen and unaided.
That is why Ed has put care at the heart of his leadership and why policies to help carers will be the cornerstone of the Liberal Democrat manifesto. Firstly, stopping persecution of carers for legacy payments of their Carer’s Allowance. Ed’s passionate advocacy of increased support for carers and for free personal care, another manifesto commitment, does not just stem from his personal experience but from hundreds of conversations with other carers about what would make a difference to them and their families.
The Liberal Democrats are also making the case that investing in care and in the carers who provide it would significantly ease the burden on our NHS - as well as improving gender inequality (more women are carers than men) and increasing social justice (family carers tend to have less money as they are restricted in their employment options.)
Cards on the table. I am not an unbiased witness. I’ve known Ed for over thirty years. I was his agent when he first got elected as an MP in Kingston in 1997. I was best man at his wedding and I am a proud Godfather to John. While this makes me a poor critic, I hope it leaves me well placed to speak to Ed’s experiences and motivation. He is a carer. In both the literal and metaphorical senses of the word. He cares. About helping people and about fixing the country’s problems. There’s much more to Ed Davey the political leader than the ability to laugh at himself in a wetsuit.
I realise that a politician encouraging you to watch a party political broadcast can leave people immediately reaching for the off button on the remote but if you get the chance to catch the Liberal Democrat one this week, I gently suggest it’s worth three minutes of your time.
It’s about Ed and John. But it’s also about the unsung army of carers up and down the land. Like the rest of our campaign, it’s a bit of fun to watch the loving bond between a father and son but behind it is a very serious message. For carers and communities across the country, it’s time for change.
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