The 2019 Liberal Democrat Manifesto: climate change, inequality and the importance of multilateralism

 

If you read my 2017 summary of manifestos, you will remember I was impressed with theLib Dems, a party that has traditionally exhibited some quite interesting thinking about development. So how does it stack up this time around?

The first thing to note is that the Brexit question looms large and central through it all, and the Lib Dem vision is for a UK undertaking its role, its influence and its impact through a multilateralism that puts continued membership of the EU front and foremost. This makes it in some ways both the most compelling of manifestos (because, like many, I think Brexit can only be negative in respect to UK engagement in international development), and at the same time potentially irrelevant if the UK’s momentum towards Brexit cannot be stopped. But the manifesto also notes the other institutions through which the UK must work more closely, and makes the case for continued close working with the EU whether as a member or not.

The international development section for the Lib Dems comes under the heading ‘Our Plan for a Better World’, so as with Labour a much more outward focused perspective, not defining everything through the benefit to the UK.

The first thing to note is that Britain is not presented as a leading global power, capable of righting all wrongs through its influence and prestige. The aspiration here is for the UK to play an active role, and that means working through multilateral organisations: “By clearly committing to these multilateral organisations [EU, UN, NATO & WTO] we can tackle our shared challenges, live up to our values internationally and shape international events”. This is a language in the same space as the Labour Party’s commitments, but without the bluster about the UK’s individual power in these settings.

The actual policy commitments look pretty similar to those of the Labour Party in several areas, and with some different emphases:

• A commitment to 0.7% spending on aid, natch, which will be prioritised on pro-poor development, and (of more interest than this obvious commitment to which all presumably agree) ensuring aid spending links in with objectives on “gender equality, climate change and the environment, human rights, conflict prevention and tackling inequality”.
• An increased proportion of the aid budget will be spent on climate change activities and (demonstrating a bravery lacking in the other main parties in bringing in the issue of people movements), “support [for] climate refugees”. Mobility is clearly going to become a much bigger issue over the medium term, and good to see it highlighted here (although worth pointing out the interesting paper in Nature Climate Change that questions the concept of ‘climate refugees’ and criticises its use).
• Gender equality and provision for youth (especially in education) will also be priorities, as will efforts to promote, defend and protect LGBT+ rights.
• The UK will work through international organisation to push for improved regulation and scrutiny of trade and investment treaties to ensure they do not worsen inequality (the Lib Dems, along with Labour, having fully embraced inequality and economic transformation, rather than just economic growth, as part of their vision for international development).

Human rights and climate action related policies are given further detail in following pages, and as with Labour, post-Oxfam scandal efforts to limit potential for abuse by NGOs and other UK agencies working with vulnerable groups. Climate-emergency related policies probably have more grounding than those of other parties, partly because unlike the Conservatives, it is clear the Lib Dems have taken on board the realities of the emergency, and unlike Labour have not had a public battle with a section of their institutional supporters to try to tone down ambitious targets. But mostly because, by rooting the things the UK can do, and the influence it can have, through continued membership of the EU, it seems far more likely to be successful.

The problem is that despite the misjudgement of the early part of the campaign, there is no chance of the Lib Dems forming the next government. This doesn’t make their manifesto commitments worthless, but it raises the questions of which elements they could bring to any alliance (formal or otherwise) with other parties, and which may need to be negotiated out.