Pushkin Choudhury asks whether it is the ‘Churchillian moment’ for the Green Liberal Democrats?

(From our GLD October 2018 newsletter)

Sir Winston Churchill is probably Britain's most well-known Prime minister across the globe. Many thousands of tourists come to visit the various historical museums and landmarks in the UK which inform them about the days of Churchill and his political career. One of these is the 'Churchill War Rooms' which I visited recently. The War Rooms not only give detailed analysis of Churchill's time in the bunker during WW2 but also about his entire political career.

What particularly caught my attention was what Churchill referred to as his 'wilderness years'. We as Liberal Democrats can relate to this having spent the past few years in a similar position in British politics. Churchill fell out of favour with the public as he argued illiberal and unpopular opinions (including not giving independence to India and supporting Edward VIII's right to stay on the throne). Churchill had been a successful politician until then (up to the early 1930s) as we the Liberal Democrats were with the British electorate until 2015 (due to the disastrous coalition years). As was Churchill's opposition to Indian Independence, as is our opposition to Brexit-both issues deeply divisive and unpopular with the general population.
However, there were 2 historical events which reinstated Churchill's popularity; the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and the Munich crisis. Churchill gave constant early warnings about Nazi Germany which went unheeded. This is where the Green Liberal Democrats become an important component in the Liberal Democrat's revival. We must step up discussions on global warming and the dire consequences we face, and which have, indeed, already begun with temperatures soaring & plummeting and breaking all-time records in many parts of the world with attendant high casualty numbers as a result. Both the Labour and the Conservative Parties have not embraced environmental concerns as a serious issue for selfish reasons. In the latest YouGov poll (one of the only pollsters to come close to predicting the GE results), environmental concerns come 9th on a list of 14 issues, just ahead of Welfare benefits on 12%. So, this is a pivotal moment for the Liberal Democrats and highlights the importance of the role the Green Liberal Democrats (GLD) must play. As Churchill exposed the true intentions of Nazi Germany, the GLD must help expose an even more lethal enemy-that of Global warming.

Pushkin Choudhury, 15 yrs. old, GLD, YLD.

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