Paul Hindley and Stephen Richmond on Brexit, Populism, and the Prospects for Liberalism in the UK

The Periphery from the Pulaski Institution

One of the topics that’s gotten more than a little traction in the last half decade is liberalism and, more specifically, whether or not liberalism and its ideas, its values, are in retreat. And that’s pretty important to us at Pulaski because really at the end of the day Liberalism, taken as its broad commitments to openness, pluralism, democratic accountability, and the movement of people and ideas and goods around the world and the idea that that’s good for us and our future really is at the heart of what we’re doing.
On one hand these concerns about whether liberalism is failing have been a question of leaders and institutions in terms of the commitments of our elected officials to open, accountable government and fair and equal justice, but it’s also, more broadly, been put as a question about democratic publics across the world—whether everyday people are really as invested as they used to be in the pluralism and democracy the way they once were. And a lot of these accounts can be quite grim in their predictions for our future. So I really wanted to take a kind of pragmatic approach and invite on two people who have been actively involved in the promoting liberal ideas in the public square. A brief disclosure here, both of our guests have had or maintain formal connections to the Liberal Democrat party in the United Kingdom. Pulaski is strictly non-partisan, and so their appearance here should not be taken as an organizational endorsement of the Liberal Democrats or their candidates. That said, I’m really excited to talk with them about the state of things in the United Kingdom, both in terms of Brexit and in the context of the wider political situation there and also to discuss the prospect for liberal ideas there and elsewhere.

Our guests today are Paul Hindley and Stephen Richmond.
Paul is a PhD student at Lancaster University in the UK. He researches the political economy of neoliberalism. He is a member of the Social Liberal Forum and has previously been a member of the Liberal Democrats. And he was the election agent for the Liberal Democrats in Blackpool South before leaving the party.

Stephen is a council member of the Social Liberal forum and Vice-Chair of Coventry Liberal Democrats. He was also previously the Liberal Democrat candidate for Parliament for Coventry South.