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Ed Davey

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2023-09-03
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2023-09-03
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  1. “It would be, I mean, you need the faith. I mean, it's true that I guess if you were a priest, you're not embarrassed reciting your creed. That's the deal. That's what your job is.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “You've got to embrace it and believe it with conviction because you've got to be proud of it because your job is to communicate and translate.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “My care policy is going to be based on this income, this expenditure, this change. I mean, because you're supposed to have practiced it again and again. So you can do your one sentence and one paragraph answer anything. And it's odd that he's not quite there yet.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “It does feel as though the election, I mean, without being unfair to them, but in a sense Rishisunak, Ed Davy, Kir Starmer, all are sort of, you know, feel as though they're slightly tonally similar. They're quite sort of, they come across as quite kind of earnest. They're obviously projecting themselves as kind of diligent. So there's nobody going to that next election who's really, I think, ticks the old-fashioned charisma thing. But I also thought as a ex-politician that if somebody asked me, go and give us a minute on your policies, that should be totally fluent. That should be just ready to go. You should have three sentences bang off the top. Our economic policy is based on this on trade, this on industrial strategy, this on regulation.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Goodbye. Thanks a lot. Well, I thought, I mean, firstly, I think very, very moving and extraordinary his experiences and the echoes between caring for his mother and caring for his son. And I think almost that's where he becomes most alive, where he's most fluent, where he's most emotional. I do still remain not completely sold. And I'd be interested in you as a communications expert if you can reflect on why someone like me who should be the perfect kind of libdem voter in the next election. What do you think he could have done more to really win over a swing voter like me? Because I liked him, but I didn't feel completely energized to rush out and put my tick in the box.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Projections and aging population, and so on, and the number of long-term illnesses that predict and so on. If we don't get this right, the NHS will be in a problem. So I'm going to be campaign come back to my policies and execution, Rory. I'm going to be campaigning for carers. That's what I'm going to be doing. Very good. Well, thank you. I mean, I really, really appreciate it. It's been wonderful to have you be so wide-ranging, so honest, so personal. And I'll hand back to Alistair for the final words and thoughts. Thanks, Rory. Thank you.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “So, you know, that's how you get through. Good, strong families. And the thing about, she speaks with my mother, with my grandmother, my son, is we were lucky in that we had strong, loving family. And I worry about, and I think we should all worry about, those people who've got these demanding caring roles where they don't have that support. And, you know, I was talking about the difference between Liberal Democrats and Labour people earlier. You know, sometimes the state can help. And the state does need to support carers, family carers and care professionals far more. And, you know, it's one of the things I, as you can see, felt fairly passionate about. We're really fortunate. We're not badly off. We have these support networks, family support and elsewhere. But what about those carers who don't? And it's a serious issue because if we don't get this right, if you look at all the projections that demographics...”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Listen, there was a Sue Doughty was a liberal democrat MP, so don't get too parties on me, Alistair. Once a spin doctor always a spin doctor, just to get you guys closer together just in case the numbers fall.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Not as much as I like. But we have carers who help us, and that's challenging because finding carers is not always easy. You find people who are just amazingly wonderful and supportive. I mean, when my mum was ill, it was the Molhotra family across the road and the douties who were a few streets away, whoever was friends of the family, who'd come with either curries or with lasagna or whatever.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “He's speaking. We originally thought he'd be nonverbal. He says a few words now. He's under some amazing speech and language therapists. He's beginning to put sentences together so he can express what he wants. So I want to make him as independent with all these amazing people so that when I'm not here, he can be as independent as possible and express his concern and tell people who love him and care for him what's happening. So, you know, I think when you are a carer for your child, I guess it could be for any person you love, you do worry about what happens when you're not there and you try to do as much as you possibly can without live in the moment as well and enjoy that. But you have to think and you have to plan.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Naughty parrot. He is obsessed by it, and at the moment, his latest obsession is Henry the Hoover. He likes hoovering his room and wants to do it the whole time. And so we have our little jokes. I think most parents do with the kids. My biggest thing for him, and I'm sure this is for parents of all kids, but I think it's particularly for disabled kids, is my biggest worry in life is what happens when I'm not there. Because I'm a relatively old dad, we work hard to improve his independence. I call it, first of all, toilet independence. I had a red letter day a few years ago, a few weeks ago. You went to the toilet by himself.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Well, I mean, caring for my mother was mostly fairly tragic. I mean, I got to know her really, really well. And so I became very, very close to her because I'd sit on the bed and talked to her for hours. But she was dying. There's not a happy ending, really. Whereas my son, you know, I wish he could walk and wish he could talk and I wish he didn't have his learning disabilities and so on. But I have a great relationship with him. And yes, like all parents caring for disabled children, it's time consuming, it's challenging, and it has its downsides as well. And it's pretty full-on personal care. And it would be difficult if I wasn't a London MP, I tell you, because I need to be there. But I have a great relationship with him. And it might odd to you, but we joke about his naughty parrot. I bought in this parrot that talks back to him and it's a big thing.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Well, there were lots of debates there, and part of the debate was, is the election going to be now in three weeks time, in three months time? There was a real sense that election was going to happen. It was a question of when. Some of us wanted to stick out for a little bit more of a chance to get a vote on the second referendum. It would have been another vote. We'd had previous ones. But, you know, I think Liberal Democrats would champion the case for a second referendum. you know, needed to push that as far as we possibly could. But these adjustments are always difficult, but I think to blame Joe Soley for that is unfair.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “First of all, people forget that the conservatives were quite capable of getting election themselves, and there was a lot of nonsense spoken about. They could have got the election that time. When I reflect on being leader now for a few years, I also, in fact, that Jay was leader for a very short period. She took over from Vince and had, what, four, five months before she faced electorate. That was challenging for anybody.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Are supported in the care they give to loved ones given they deliver most of the care in our country. And if you don't sort out that, you'll never sort out the NHS. So my sound bite is if you care about the NHS, you've got to care about care. And that's the sort of professional social care that everyone talks about from care homes, domicillary care, and so on. deal with that aspect of it but I think the family carers is the bit that's not talked about enough the carers allowance is a scandal it's so low the level of support the respite care is is dreadful and if you look at mental health among family carers you look at poverty if you look at the way women have to do so much of the caring you know you can deal with so much in our society if you get a policy right for family carers”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “We will focus on the economy, we will focus on the NHS and care, and we will focus on things like the environment. There will be our issues, and within those, on the economy, we're going to have a very ambitious green strategy, an environmental policies linked to the future economy. We're going to have a very, very ambitious position on trade because we absolutely, our trade position is in a dire strait. So we're going to do a lot on small businesses who feel pretty neglect of the self-employed in particular feel incredibly neglected by this government. So those are the sorts of things on the economy. There's plenty of others, but they are some of our key areas. And then I'd say on NHS and care, one of the things that I've said when I first became leader, partly because of my personal experience, but also because of my own analysis, I think you've got to sort out social care and how families are”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “I want to do is to make sure we're connecting that to people to rebuild trust in politics in the Liberal Democrats. And that's why we are, a lot of our campaigns are reflecting the concerns of people.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Course they are, but not exclusively, and suggest that they are frankly, and therefore, because voters don't know that it's not just the European thing that's affected the health service, the conservatives have made a complete hash of it. Cost of living, it's not just what's happened in Ukraine and so on. It's a lot of very poor economic policies. They want to know what you're going to do about that. They want to know how can help pay for their food bills, their mortgages, their rent, their energy bills. They want to know when they're going to get a GP appointment, can they get an NHS dentist? It seems to me reasonable for a political party who wants to beat lots of conservatives to point out where they're failing people on the issues that matter most to people. Now, in our proposition next election, yes, of course, we will also set out our European agenda. We're not hiding, come on, the Liberal Democrats. The only thing we like to do is pass policy. We have got lots of policy.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “No, because I tell you, you know this. You've been a campaigner all your life, Alistair. When you talk to people on the doorstep, what are the issues that come up that we have to address? And cost a living. A health service”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “No, I think we're really credible on how you face up to this issue. Taking the UK with us, because I don't think anyone wants to go back to those divisions and facing up to the reality of where European politics is at. But that comes from a very pro-European business. We haven't given up on the idea that cooperation with our neighbors is our interest. We were an internationalist partner. No, I get that.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “And they're going to take more than just a change of government to simply go, oh, right, that the British nation wants to be part of Europe again. And we've got to find a way to reach out to our European colleagues. And so when I talk about this as a passionate pro-European, I talk about rebuilding that trust, rebuilding those relationships so we can cooperate more on trade and security and climate and all the many things that are absolutely in our national interest.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “The reason why I do that is he's going to be a journey because I mentioned the language that we talk about this to rebuild the pro-European case in Britain and I take that very seriously and we massively contribute to it I think but there's also the other side of the coin which never gets thought about which is how European countries and politicians think about us. You know thanks to Messrs Johnson Truss and SUNAC and the whole most of the concerted party with a few notable exceptions like Rory, they've just lost trust in us.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “It is a disaster. I mean, listen, we campaigned against it. I think it's a disaster. We voted against the deal. We actually have well thought through policy about how we would rebuild our relationship with Europe. The challenge that we've all got to recognize, I think, is first of all we've got to work out the language that we take people with us in this country. You know, we're talking about emotional language and dealing with an authoritarian debate before. We've got to find a language who is not divisive. We do not want to go back to the divider nation that we suffer. And we need to take people with us. And I don't think we're quite there yet in that sort of language. We're working hard at that.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Well, if you really want to vote for the most pro-European party in British politics who can exercise real influence in Westminster, you vote Liberal Democrat. That may not be exactly what Fiona wants, but we remain in terms of a UK-wide policy. You've got”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Well, I was saying a number of things, but I think, I mean, from my own experience, if I take what I think is going to have to be massive over the next decade or two, it's how we think about a changing economy to deal with net zero. And there's huge opportunities here. We could lead the world like we were leading the world in offshore wind. And the great thing I saw with renewables investment is that investment isn't all in London and the southeast. It's around the whole of the country. And we often talked about the renewables jobs we were getting in the Northwest, the Northeast, in Yorkshire, in East Anglia, in Scotland, and so on. And I genuinely think that if we did the right policies for net zero, whether it's in transport, electricity, heating, buildings, aviation, you could not only make us a world leader in many of these areas, and we could really be innovative and ahead in the technology.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “But to respond to Rory, I mean, it's absolutely true. Some of the poorest regions in the whole of Europe are in our country.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “Okay, I think I see you driving up, but I wouldn't blame the financial crash of 2007-2008 for this bit. I think it was much longer running. And it was how globalization more broadly played out. And that goes way beyond. Because I think globalization, people forgot, you mentioned the Northeast, I think we forgot regions of the UK, nations and regions of the UK all the time. I think it was really poorly managed and thought through. And if there's one area, I don't think they've done very much about it, but an area that debated now under this concerted government and leveling up, I think we all agree that we need to level up in our country, don't we?”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “Well, because I had a few clashes with him. And on this one, he said to me at one stage, Edmuld Chump. Regulations are communist. Regulations are communist. And I said to him, Eric, thou shalt not kill is a regulation. And it came in before Karl Marx. So I think the case for regulations in some areas, be it the financial sector, be it on climate, energy efficiency, the case of regulations is really strong.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Well, I actually think you may have got me wrong a bit there. Good regulation can have a massive impact. Let me tell you a story from the coalition again about regulation. I was trying to regulate the private rented sector to require landlords to bring up their properties to a higher standard of energy efficiency. And the regulation that I wanted to get through would say that you wouldn't be allowed to rent your house out unless you met these minimum efficiency standards. My biggest OPO in the Tories was Eric Pickles.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Think the 2007-2008 financial crash was largely a financial sector crash. And I think the deregulation that occurred went way too far. And I think banks and a lot of the various financial institutions that have grown up in London, New York and elsewhere were able to get away with blue murder and were not held to account. This comes back to my liberalism. Hold the powerful to account.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “And what liberal Democrats and liberals and progressive social democrats do a bit too often is they talk about the evidence and the reason, the rational argument vital, but they never get to the emotion. And if you want to win in this global battle between liberalism and authoritarianism, you've got to take people with you. They've got to believe that there's hope and there's optimism and that you care about them. And you're not some sort of liberal elite. And I think I'm sure all of us do, to be honest. I mean, that's what motivates us, isn't it? We want to make life better for everybody in the world. And therefore, we've got to be smarter in how we make our arguments.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “Optimist, and I think we can, but we've got to be much smarter than we've been. So here's one example that I've internalized, and I think interesting your views on this, to be honest, what the authoritarians do in the populists do is they speak to people's hearts, but obviously in a way which appeals to people's, no, I would argue their worst prejudices. But they use emotion.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Well, I think that is an incredibly significant question. It's the thing I think about a lot, actually, because you've got this demise of what I thought was a trend of improvement in everyone's life around the world and that the world was beginning to work together. I remember the London Olympics. I remember the Paris Treaty on Climate Change. There was a sense, you know, just a few years ago that things were moving in the right direction, even after the financial crisis. And then we got Brexit, we got Trump, we got Bolsonaro, all the rest of the horrible stuff. And it's a wake-up call, I think, to progress this and to liberals and those of us who, I think from all political parties who believed in what you described as that global liberal order. And the question is, how do we fight back? Can we fight back? I believe we can. I'm a real optimist. I have to be as a little bit Democrat, perhaps, but I am as liberal.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “That's what I've been driving at. I mean, I don't think we know absolutely for sure, but he looks a bit more in the camp of more electable labour leaders. That's what the polls suggest. And he's clear, very different from Jeremy Corbyn.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “Yeah, well, I think Michael Foote was a huge intellect, right? But I don't know who said it was the 83 manifesto was the largest. Gerald Corford knows.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “And I think he deserves some credit for that. I still don't quite know what he stands for. I don't know what a Labour government would do under Kirst Dana. And, you know, my job isn't really to worry about him. My job is to make sure that the Liberal Democrats perform as well as possible. So I spend my time thinking about our target seats.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “Well, I think Rishi Sunak is completely out of touch. He's a clear bright guy. He's got more integrity than Boris Johnson, though that's quite a low bar. But I think he's prisoner of the conservatives. He looks really weak to me. And as I've made clearer on countless occasions, I want the conservatives out of government. And my job is to beat as many of them as possible the next election. You know, Kia, I don't know very well. I observe him like you do. You probably don't way better than I do. He seems to have done a job with the Labour Party to move them away from the Corbynista fringe of British politics.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “And they switched back to the Tories, and that's been a real problem for us. We tended to do better when the labour leadership and the Labour Party is more electable. Why did we do better in the years of Tony Blair, in the years of Gordon Brown? Well, because Labour was more credible then. When do we do badly when you have someone like Michael Foote and Jeremy Corbyn? And arguably, though, I think they're very different from Michael Foote and Jeremy Corbyn, Neil Kinder and Ed Miliband.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “Of Jeremy Corbyn. And I think that's just the reality. And in the first past the post, you know, people have to decide who's going to be the winner. And, you know, you didn't need many people to decide originally they were going to vote Lib Demon can't afford it because of Jeremy Corbyn, the danger of him becoming Prime Minister, even though a Labour MP couldn't get elected in that constituency.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “Is a huge groundswell of support for a moderate liberal centre ground in British politics to take on these two populist extremes. Why is that not your moment, 2019? Why is that not the moment where the Lib Dems come romping through to victory? I mainly blame first past post system because, and let me take you through the thinking, because it's the thing that we grapple with in the Liberal Democrats, and it's slightly different from you guys from bigger parties, right? But from our perspective, it really hurts us. And in the 2019 election, we found a lot of people who wanted to vote for us, particularly a lot of former conservatives who hated Boris Johnson, hated Brexit, and really, really wanted to vote anything other than the Conservatives. But they were scared rigid about Jeremy Corbyn. And I think there were an awful lot of seats that we might have won in 2019, but for people's fear.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “Well, I was trying to play the Toures. As I say, I fought them every day of the week of doing my jobs. And I tried to outmaneuver them. And many times I did. And many other colleagues did. I think the biggest problem, the criticism I've just made of ourselves was we didn't show and tell people about those battles. And I think that if you are an independent different party, which we very much are, you need to make sure that people understand that. So can I fast forward to 2019? So we've got Boris Johnson, populist. He's come in. He's prorogued parliament. He's lied to the queen. All this, he's challenging the Supreme Court. You've got Jeremy Corbyn doing whatever bizarre stuff Jeremy Corbyn's doing. Brexit is in full meltdown.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “I said, look, if you're in the middle, you've got to be highly visible. If you're in the middle of the road, you better put on a fluorescent yellow jacket. And we didn't. And I think we reduced to minimize the differences we had with the conservatives. And that meant people didn't see us as a distinctive independent party. And that was a huge mistake in 2015. Mistakes in 2019 were different.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “We talk to our sister parties in Europe, our liberal parties, about their experience of coalition because many have been in government either as senior party or junior party. And they said, look, if you're the junior party in coalition, you get the blame for everything that goes wrong and never get the credit. That's traditionally what happens in coalition. So we knew we were going to get a hit. But I think the biggest mistake we made was not to make it clear that we were pretty uncomfortable with aspects of the coalition, that we disagreed with the conservatives. To do that, though, when you're part of a team. It is, because we were trying to make the coalition work. So you could cooperate. But the lesson that when you talk to some of our sister parties across Europe is that they said, you know, you needed to make it clear that you were having disagreements. I mean, I tried to get the wind industry to take Eric Pickles to court, you know, fella cabinet member. So I was in a total agreement. And I said after the 2015 election, because I was very loyal to Nick, because I think, you know.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “In British politics, I was a fan of Nick Clegg. I thought you did a good job in the coalition. You went into the 2015 election and you were completely destroyed as a party. Then 2019 comes along. You're handed this fantastic opportunity of running against two complete lunatics, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn. It should be the ideal moment to make the case for the moderate liberal center because these populist extremists are running the two main parties. And again, you fail to pull it off. What's going wrong? Well, I think Every election is different. And so if I may, I think 15 was different reasons for 1915. We knew when we went to coalition was going to harm us politically.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “The most successful ones focus on their job in hand. In my case, being as many concert MPs as possible and talking to the voters, rebuilding that trust, setting out our store on the cost of living on the NHS, on sewage or whatever it may be. And I think political reform as well, electoral reform, therefore making sure that however the cookie crumbles after the next election, we have many more Liberal Democrat MPs to champion their community and to champion Liberal Democrat values. And that is what I'm going to be laser-beamed focused on. Wrong in 2015 and 2019 because it seems to me that Politics is that it's in the center. The votes are heat in the center. Many of the people who listen to our show are in the center. So you would have thought you occupy the kind of natural”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “Indeed, and that's quite a lot, actually. And the thing that I've noticed, the most successful ones don't spend all their time worrying about what happens after the election.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “I think several things had said about that. First of all, from the opposition benches, you can make change and influence people. I've heard you in a number of areas talk about campaigning MPs, Damis Steele, the Abortion Act, most recently Vera Hobhouse. Liberal Democrat MPs making difference and making change, right? So let's be clear, it's not all about getting to government. But the other thing I'd say about this whole future debate. Is having been around a long time, as you kindly remind me, I've seen a lot of liberal Democrat leaders approach elections.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “First of all, I think you are running ahead of yourself. Sure, way ahead, if you don't mind me saying so. We've got to campaign for that election and make our case as an independent, proud party with our Liberal Democrat values. You will focus particularly on those seats where you have to win. Of course, that's rational. What we all do, isn't it? But going back to the Conservative Coalition, let's remember, and I'm glad I'm able to put this on the record yet again, I fought the conservatives all my life. Being in coalition government for me at least and for a number of my colleagues was extremely difficult. It was one of the most difficult things that I've done in my political career because I disagreed with them with some of them a lot, not with people like Rory, actually.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “Be honest when I knock on doors around the country when we campaign in by elections and local elections, we prepare for general election, people are not talking about what happened 10 years ago. I know this program you, of course, we all think about it, but the electorate, they've moved on. They've had to suffer Brexit, they've had to suffer, you know, the pandemic, they've had to suffer all these conservative prime ministers who are all complete and utterly hopeless. And they want to know what you're going to do for the issues that matter to them today and tomorrow. And that's the cost of living is number one, how they're going to pay for their bills. It's things like the NHS and care. And so as leader of a political party, I think understandably focusing on what the concerns of the electorate are and almost no one says, you know, what happened in 2020.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “Happen. And I know this for a fact, Rory, because after the election, when Tories got a majority, George Osborne took advices according to some officials who I won't name, but they worked for me and then they had to face a Tory only government. George Osborne tried to cancel the contracts I'd sign for lots of offshore wind. He took advice on could he cancel them. Now, we had made them what are called private law contracts. It's a bit geeky, but it meant that if they had cancelled them, they would have had to pay to the developer the whole value of the contract. So we stopped George Osborne by the way we designed the policy, stopped here stopping the offshore wind revolution. So I can prove that Tories tried to get in the way.”

    2023-09-03 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 34. Ed Davey: Leading the Lib Dems, fighting the Tories, and a coalition with Starmer’s Labour? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source