For Jeremy Browne it’s black and white: the Lib Dems are here to stay
Two years ago this month the Liberal Democrats entered into a historic coalition with the Conservatives. Despite a torrid time at the polls, Lib Dem Taunton MP Jeremy Browne tells Graeme Demianyk that it has never been better to be yellow...
There are few more unfashionable phrases than the one falling from the lips of Jeremy Browne. “The case for voting Lib Dem has never been stronger,” the Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton Deane says, paying little heed to the party’s miserable poll rating, and woeful recent council election results.
The photo that broadcast Jeremy Browne’s face around the world. The Taunton MP and Foreign Office Minister was in China promoting British businesses and visited the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda, which has since loaned two giant pandas – Yangguang and Tiantian – to Edinburgh Zoo for ten years
But perhaps Mr Browne has a point.
The Lib Dem decision to join the Conservatives in a coalition Government – two years ago this month – presaged a remorseless series of negative headlines. They were criticised for hiking university tuition fees, endorsing unpopular spending cuts and propping up a Conservative agenda, earning the party the soubriquet as a “human shield”.
Yet Mr Browne, a Foreign Office minister, suggests Lib Dem supporters have never had it so good. At least, not in his lifetime.
“Independent analysis shows we have implemented three-quarters of our manifesto in government,” he says defiantly, leaning back into a green leather armchair in his vast, oval office in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office building, once the domain of the Secretary of State for India.
“I was born in May 1970. At every single election since then we implemented zero per cent of our manifesto.”
The policy Lib Dems have been most anxious to shout about, and has been lost amid the post-Budget “pasty tax” din, is reform of the tax system. The Government is moving towards raising the income tax threshold to £10,000 by 2015, and quicker than was expected. It will mean a tax break for millions and, by the time the new threshold is in place, more than 100,000 low-paid West Country workers will pay no tax at all.
Lib Dems, not taken overly-seriously in Opposition, have also shown “hard-headed resolve” over the conflict in Libya and tackling the deficit left by Labour. They also trumpet the handbrake placed on Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s controversial NHS reforms.
Mr Browne, who is seen as on the right of his party and has been among the most comfortable with the alliance, explains perceptions of the party are changing. “There are two things people used to say about the Lib Dems. It was a wasted vote: that the party was never going to be in Government. So even if you quite liked some of the Lib Dem policies, or the Lib Dem leader, you weren’t sure whether it was worth your while to vote Lib Dem.
“The other thing people used say was ‘I quite like them at a local level. The councillors do some good things, but I’m not sure they’re cut out of the major league, national level politics.’ Those were both real weaknesses for us. I think the Lib Dems have clearly demonstrated it is not a wasted vote. Not just at this election but future elections.”
And yet. The party’s poll rating has slumped, bumping along at the 11 per cent mark, neck-and-neck at times with Nigel Farage’s eurosceptic UK Independence Party. This week’s local elections represented another kick in the teeth.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has urged supporters to “hold their nerve”. The West Country is a case in point. The region has become a Lib Dem powerbase in the last 20 years, activists convincing natural Labour supporters to vote Lib Dem in an entente against the Tories. That is now at risk of crumbling, and the question remains whether voters liking the new “grown-up” Lib Dems can fill the void.
Mr Browne, 41, says: “We have to make a transition from a party that people thought of as a permanent opposition party – as a result, quite often a protest party – to being a party people can feel comfortable with in government. That’s a transition that will take time to effect.”
Some in his party’s ranks might beg to differ, but he has no regrets over forging ahead with David Cameron’s party against a bleak economic backdrop.
“I don’t think you can be in politics and say what we want to do is have as many MPs as possible so that they can sit on the sidelines moaning about everybody else, and trying to play to the gallery of public opinion and seeing if they can be as popular as possible because they are not willing to confront any difficult decisions.”
There is a danger of slipping into an “oppositionist mindset” as the country’s third party. “You can end up thinking your role is to oppose whatever the people do who are making the decisions, rather than making the decisions yourself. Quite a lot of people voted for us as a protest against establishment politics.”
He defends the three-fold increase in tuition fees, which saw the Lib Dems come under fire for the first time for breaking an election promise to scrap the charge. But not because it was the right thing to do. “We don’t have the mandate, we don’t have a strong enough hand to get our own way in Parliament the whole time. Ninety-two per cent of MPs are not Lib Dems.”
Yet the party is getting its way, at least some of the time. Tory backbenchers even bemoan the disproportionate influence the junior coalition partner is having on the Government’s agenda. Mr Browne points out the big Tory tax promise at the election – raising the inheritance tax threshold – has bitten the dust. Meanwhile, the Lib Dem equivalent on income tax is being implemented.
“It’s the highest profile tax policy of the Government as a whole. It’s in the Lib Dem manifesto. Word-for-word it’s being put into effect. Nearly everybody in work who is reading this interview has had a tax cut and will have a tax cut as a result of the Lib Dem tax proposals. It seems to me the reason to vote Lib Dem has never been stronger.”
And this is his key point: “The Lib Dem manifesto for every other election I can remember was like a theoretical document. Nobody expected it to ever to happen.
“Instead of the Lib Dems being at the margins, with their nose pressed up against the window looking in on political debate, we are in the room participating in that political debate.”
One policy area it made a point of participating in was reform of the NHS. Plans to hand greater control of health budgets to GPs and open up supply of care to charities, social enterprises and business were halted following Lib Dem disquiet.
But not everyone is happy now, even after a “pause” in the Health and Social Care Bill’s protracted passage through Parliament amid claims of “privatisation through the back door”.
Mr Browne insists two key tenets – healthcare is free at the point of access and based on need – remain. But change was needed, costs associated with an ageing population make this unavoidable, he suggests.
“We are increasing health spending. But it’s not just about spending more money. It is about having the right services. And I can’t tell you how many times people used to say to me, in the last Parliament, that we’ve got too much inefficiency in the NHS. We’ve got too many managers, money’s not being spent on the right things. People do see that, and they do realise reforms need to be made and we need to make the system more efficient.”
He goes on: “Sometimes you need to change in order to continue to provide the service that people like.”
Between domestic disputes, Mr Browne is charged with upholding good international relations across a large, and increasingly important, swathe of the planet. His ministerial remit includes the Asia Pacific and Latin America, which means fast-growing China, Japan and Brazil are on his watch.
The Falkland Islands, too. Indeed, Mr Browne is to be Britain’s representative at ceremonies in the South Atlantic to mark the 30th anniversary of its liberation from the Argentine junta on June 14, 1982. Sovereignty of the disputed territory, located about 300 miles off the southern tip of Argentina, has been British since the 1830s.
In the face of renewed sabre-rattling from Buenos Aires, Mr Browne has made it clear support for the 3,000 inhabitants of the islands to determine their own future – namely British sovereignty – remains “completely solid”. It isn’t a decision for Argentina to make on their behalf. And it isn’t actually a decision for the UK to make on their behalf. They can decide their future, their destiny, how they live.”
The war, involving West Country-based 3 Commando Brigade and Plymouth-based warships, saw 255 British soldiers and three islanders die. Mr Browne paid tribute to those who lost their lives.
He said: “We should continue to remember them and be grateful for what they did. And the West Country made a huge contribution – Royal Marines from what is now my constituency and the naval base in Plymouth.”
His Foreign Office responsibilities are as much about banging the drum for British business as keeping the peace, particularly given the relentless rise of China.
And it was while in the Sichuan province last year that he came before a carrot-chomping panda, about whom the minister speaks with genuine affection, before two pandas were transferred temporarily to Britain. The picture was used by publications internationally.
Back to business, he says: “The opportunities further afield are just going to grow and grow and grow.
“Demand for what Britain has to offer – businesses that are making products and produce that people want to buy, or overseas students who want to study at Exeter University or Plymouth University.”
Whether the Lib Dems will be such a compelling proposition at the next election remains to be seen, but it is too early to be writing any political obituaries just yet.
The recent arrival of the two giant pandas Tian Tian and Mei Xiang at the Smithsonian's National Zoo has created an enormous outpouring of public support for the conservation of this endangered species. The first step in attempting to ensure a future for giant pandas is understanding both their history and their current relationship with people. Susan Lumpkin and John Seidensticker present a beautifully photographed, resonant natural history, sharing their personal experiences of working with giant pandas in the United States and China. 
List Price: $ 39.95 Price: $ 47.21
There are few more unfashionable phrases than the one falling from the lips of Jeremy Browne. “The case for voting Lib Dem has never been stronger,” the Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton Deane says, paying little heed to the party’s miserable poll rating, and woeful recent council election results.
The photo that broadcast Jeremy Browne’s face around the world. The Taunton MP and Foreign Office Minister was in China promoting British businesses and visited the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda, which has since loaned two giant pandas – Yangguang and Tiantian – to Edinburgh Zoo for ten years
But perhaps Mr Browne has a point.
The Lib Dem decision to join the Conservatives in a coalition Government – two years ago this month – presaged a remorseless series of negative headlines. They were criticised for hiking university tuition fees, endorsing unpopular spending cuts and propping up a Conservative agenda, earning the party the soubriquet as a “human shield”.
Yet Mr Browne, a Foreign Office minister, suggests Lib Dem supporters have never had it so good. At least, not in his lifetime.
“Independent analysis shows we have implemented three-quarters of our manifesto in government,” he says defiantly, leaning back into a green leather armchair in his vast, oval office in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office building, once the domain of the Secretary of State for India.
“I was born in May 1970. At every single election since then we implemented zero per cent of our manifesto.”
The policy Lib Dems have been most anxious to shout about, and has been lost amid the post-Budget “pasty tax” din, is reform of the tax system. The Government is moving towards raising the income tax threshold to £10,000 by 2015, and quicker than was expected. It will mean a tax break for millions and, by the time the new threshold is in place, more than 100,000 low-paid West Country workers will pay no tax at all.
Lib Dems, not taken overly-seriously in Opposition, have also shown “hard-headed resolve” over the conflict in Libya and tackling the deficit left by Labour. They also trumpet the handbrake placed on Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s controversial NHS reforms.
Mr Browne, who is seen as on the right of his party and has been among the most comfortable with the alliance, explains perceptions of the party are changing. “There are two things people used to say about the Lib Dems. It was a wasted vote: that the party was never going to be in Government. So even if you quite liked some of the Lib Dem policies, or the Lib Dem leader, you weren’t sure whether it was worth your while to vote Lib Dem.
“The other thing people used say was ‘I quite like them at a local level. The councillors do some good things, but I’m not sure they’re cut out of the major league, national level politics.’ Those were both real weaknesses for us. I think the Lib Dems have clearly demonstrated it is not a wasted vote. Not just at this election but future elections.”
And yet. The party’s poll rating has slumped, bumping along at the 11 per cent mark, neck-and-neck at times with Nigel Farage’s eurosceptic UK Independence Party. This week’s local elections represented another kick in the teeth.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has urged supporters to “hold their nerve”. The West Country is a case in point. The region has become a Lib Dem powerbase in the last 20 years, activists convincing natural Labour supporters to vote Lib Dem in an entente against the Tories. That is now at risk of crumbling, and the question remains whether voters liking the new “grown-up” Lib Dems can fill the void.
Mr Browne, 41, says: “We have to make a transition from a party that people thought of as a permanent opposition party – as a result, quite often a protest party – to being a party people can feel comfortable with in government. That’s a transition that will take time to effect.”
Some in his party’s ranks might beg to differ, but he has no regrets over forging ahead with David Cameron’s party against a bleak economic backdrop.
“I don’t think you can be in politics and say what we want to do is have as many MPs as possible so that they can sit on the sidelines moaning about everybody else, and trying to play to the gallery of public opinion and seeing if they can be as popular as possible because they are not willing to confront any difficult decisions.”
There is a danger of slipping into an “oppositionist mindset” as the country’s third party. “You can end up thinking your role is to oppose whatever the people do who are making the decisions, rather than making the decisions yourself. Quite a lot of people voted for us as a protest against establishment politics.”
He defends the three-fold increase in tuition fees, which saw the Lib Dems come under fire for the first time for breaking an election promise to scrap the charge. But not because it was the right thing to do. “We don’t have the mandate, we don’t have a strong enough hand to get our own way in Parliament the whole time. Ninety-two per cent of MPs are not Lib Dems.”
Yet the party is getting its way, at least some of the time. Tory backbenchers even bemoan the disproportionate influence the junior coalition partner is having on the Government’s agenda. Mr Browne points out the big Tory tax promise at the election – raising the inheritance tax threshold – has bitten the dust. Meanwhile, the Lib Dem equivalent on income tax is being implemented.
“It’s the highest profile tax policy of the Government as a whole. It’s in the Lib Dem manifesto. Word-for-word it’s being put into effect. Nearly everybody in work who is reading this interview has had a tax cut and will have a tax cut as a result of the Lib Dem tax proposals. It seems to me the reason to vote Lib Dem has never been stronger.”
And this is his key point: “The Lib Dem manifesto for every other election I can remember was like a theoretical document. Nobody expected it to ever to happen.
“Instead of the Lib Dems being at the margins, with their nose pressed up against the window looking in on political debate, we are in the room participating in that political debate.”
One policy area it made a point of participating in was reform of the NHS. Plans to hand greater control of health budgets to GPs and open up supply of care to charities, social enterprises and business were halted following Lib Dem disquiet.
But not everyone is happy now, even after a “pause” in the Health and Social Care Bill’s protracted passage through Parliament amid claims of “privatisation through the back door”.
Mr Browne insists two key tenets – healthcare is free at the point of access and based on need – remain. But change was needed, costs associated with an ageing population make this unavoidable, he suggests.
“We are increasing health spending. But it’s not just about spending more money. It is about having the right services. And I can’t tell you how many times people used to say to me, in the last Parliament, that we’ve got too much inefficiency in the NHS. We’ve got too many managers, money’s not being spent on the right things. People do see that, and they do realise reforms need to be made and we need to make the system more efficient.”
He goes on: “Sometimes you need to change in order to continue to provide the service that people like.”
Between domestic disputes, Mr Browne is charged with upholding good international relations across a large, and increasingly important, swathe of the planet. His ministerial remit includes the Asia Pacific and Latin America, which means fast-growing China, Japan and Brazil are on his watch.
The Falkland Islands, too. Indeed, Mr Browne is to be Britain’s representative at ceremonies in the South Atlantic to mark the 30th anniversary of its liberation from the Argentine junta on June 14, 1982. Sovereignty of the disputed territory, located about 300 miles off the southern tip of Argentina, has been British since the 1830s.
In the face of renewed sabre-rattling from Buenos Aires, Mr Browne has made it clear support for the 3,000 inhabitants of the islands to determine their own future – namely British sovereignty – remains “completely solid”. It isn’t a decision for Argentina to make on their behalf. And it isn’t actually a decision for the UK to make on their behalf. They can decide their future, their destiny, how they live.”
The war, involving West Country-based 3 Commando Brigade and Plymouth-based warships, saw 255 British soldiers and three islanders die. Mr Browne paid tribute to those who lost their lives.
He said: “We should continue to remember them and be grateful for what they did. And the West Country made a huge contribution – Royal Marines from what is now my constituency and the naval base in Plymouth.”
His Foreign Office responsibilities are as much about banging the drum for British business as keeping the peace, particularly given the relentless rise of China.
And it was while in the Sichuan province last year that he came before a carrot-chomping panda, about whom the minister speaks with genuine affection, before two pandas were transferred temporarily to Britain. The picture was used by publications internationally.
Back to business, he says: “The opportunities further afield are just going to grow and grow and grow.
“Demand for what Britain has to offer – businesses that are making products and produce that people want to buy, or overseas students who want to study at Exeter University or Plymouth University.”
Whether the Lib Dems will be such a compelling proposition at the next election remains to be seen, but it is too early to be writing any political obituaries just yet.
Smithsonian Book of Giant Pandas
The recent arrival of the two giant pandas Tian Tian and Mei Xiang at the Smithsonian's National Zoo has created an enormous outpouring of public support for the conservation of this endangered species. The first step in attempting to ensure a future for giant pandas is understanding both their history and their current relationship with people. Susan Lumpkin and John Seidensticker present a beautifully photographed, resonant natural history, sharing their personal experiences of working with giant pandas in the United States and China.
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