Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

As some of you will know I am standing in Mid-Derbyshire for the Liberal Democrats. I have a story I want to share with you. In 2010 I sat in the rooms at the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit while heads of state attempted unsuccessfully to secure a climate agreement. It was a very depressing flight back from Copenhagen after two years of careful work ending with no deal. Addressing climate change is a very difficult issue to address. We have become addicted to fossil fuels whether in their use for heating our houses, producing electricity for powering our economy or transporting us to work or on holiday or for that matter in wrapping our food and goods in one of their use’s plastics. The scientists are nearly unanimous that we are contribution through the use of fossil fuels to the heating of the planet. It is true to say that consecutive governments have wasted over twenty years when we could have made real progress. Governments like the UK and USA have been relucta...

In another indication that Liberal Democrats are succeeding at recruiting accomplished candidates and expanding the party beyond the established roster of traditional political affiliations, East Midlands Liberal Democrats have announced that international policy expert and environmental advocate Felix Dodds is returning to Derbyshire to stand for the Mid-Derbyshire constituency Member of Parliament in the next general election. A prolific author and editor, Dodds’ ability to communicate complex issues plainly and powerfully would make him a valuable asset to Lib Dems’ delegation in Parliament. Dodds, who was born in the Derby suburb of Allestree, has spent much of the past three decades negotiating policy in the corridors of the United Nations, helping coordinate sustainable policy initiatives, and working closely with governments, businesses and activists. He has worked on negotiations on issues ranging from plastics pollution to tourism, and from green financing to...

As those of you who read my blog may have worked out I have a history with the UK Liberal Democrats. I am, although living in the US, President of a wonderful Liberal Democratic Association - Amber Valley - in Derbyshire. My association with the place is it is where my parents used to live, though I am a Derby boy born a few miles away in Allestree. Derbyshire is one of the most beautiful places in the UK to visit. I should also mention i chaired the Liberal Parties youth wing for two years and served on its Party Council and its Defence Panel. So having explained my link to the party I wanted to make additional comments on the state of the party and why it needs new leadership. The party in opposition over the previous 30 years had established itself as a party of principle on the left in British politics this was highlighted by a number of policy positions such as: The additional of 1p on income tax to pay for improving education The opposition to the war in Iraqi witho...

Dear David, As always your blog is an interesting read. This time from a cafe in Apex North Carolina. As someone who also blogs I recognize that not everything can be put in to it that would create the fuller picture. I do enjoy the historical references and you are absolutely right about the lost ten years where economic policy has been like a vacant lot in the street of policies :-) Saying that its not as if there  hasn't  been someone in the party who could and at times has been able to profoundly comment on the financial problems and that has been Vince.  On the leadership the problem with Liberals is at times we are just too nice. But leadership in the party is also about recognizing when the present leader has to go. We hasn't lead us well on economics (a disaster by Liberal terms), on education we broke a promise he made to everyone on tuition fees which the party has never recovered from, he has taken the party to the right on green issue...

How to be a Liberal Minister  Liberal Democrat ministers must now consider life after 2015 and cannot be hidebound by conventional thinking, say Felix Dodds and Simon Titley Labour MP Gerald Kaufman wrote a book based on his experiences in government, called  How to be a Minister . It is a book that all potential ministers should read. Lately it seems that some of our Liberal Democrat ministers might benefit from reading it. With the next general election only eighteen months away – and ‘business as usual’ with the Tories an unlikely outcome – these ministers also need a crib sheet on a set of policy areas that define who we are as Liberals. Coalition partners  – In 2010, the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition not with the party of choice but with the only one that could create a stable government. The political space we as Liberals have sought is not as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg defined our position in his recent conference speech, when he said: “Now...

This year was the twentieth anniversary of Mike Harskin's death. Mike had been a friend and a political activist of enormous talent.Th ere was a celebration of his life in the House of Lords on the 25th of October which I was very sorry not to be able to attend.   Mike died at the age of 29 and was at the time one of the group of Young Liberal (UK) who had in the 1980s been known as the ' Green Guard' . He had gone on to edit the  Liberal Parties   weekly newspaper  Liberal News   and to be a very successful councillor in Brent as well as the parliamentary candidate for Brent East - a seat the Liberal Democrats (UK) now hold. He played a critical role in gaining press for the Young Liberals throughout the 1980s - often in unusual circumstances. In 1979, the Liberal Party adopted had adopted a "no growth" economic policy and became a magnet for young people interested in  green politics . On for...