A personal letter from Stephen Dorrell

Dear Buckingham party members and supporters

Last year I was delighted to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for Buckingham in the General Election. After 36 years as a Conservative MP, including serving in John Major's Cabinet, it represented a major change in my party allegiance - but not in my political views.

I did not leave the Conservative Party; I joined the Liberal Democrats because the Conservatives left me.

I joined the Conservatives when Ted Heath was leading Britain into the European mainstream.

I worked with John Major to keep it there. I remain, as I always have been, a strong supporter of active engagement with the continent of Europe. I believe that to do otherwise at any time is bad economics and bad politics; to do it in the era of Trump, Putin and Xi is breathtakingly recklessness.

But Europe is not everything. The Covid pandemic has exposed the extent to which the machinery of government has been hollowed out by a narrow coterie of ideologues and timeservers for whom loyalty to Boris Johnson is more important than political or governmental experience - or political principle.

The result has been a government characterized by chaotic incompetence, which is comprehensively failing to deal with the combined challenges of Covid and Brexit and is now undermining support for the United Kingdom itself in both Northern Ireland and Scotland.

And that is not to mention the Government's plans to further reduce the powers of local people to shape their communities through the local planning system.

As someone who once described myself (as I believe millions of others would) as a liberal Conservative I am therefore now writing to ask you to join me and Sir Ed Davey, the new Liberal Democrat Leader, in building the Liberal Democrats as the voice of moderate patriotism in Buckinghamshire.

The Liberal Democrats are the effective opposition to the Conservatives in Buckingham - we secured more than twice as many votes as Labour in the General Election and we are well placed to win seats on the new Buckinghamshire Council in the election which was delayed earlier this year and will now take place next May.

But we need your help. And we are asking you to support our campaign.

We understand of course that we need to build alliances if we are to defeat the Conservatives. Our electoral system means that we need to work with Labour and other parties to achieve majorities at both local and national level.

And we think that successful politics requires us to find areas of agreement, rather than celebrating differences.

But it is the Liberal Democrats who have argued most consistently against both the narrow nationalism of the Conservative Right and the class-based politics of the Labour Left.

If you share our values, we need your support to strengthen the Liberal Democrat voice - the voice of a country which contributes to the community of nations abroad and supports the development of active communities at home.

If you wince when Boris Johnson appears on your TV screen, and you recognize that Labour cannot win in Buckingham or Buckinghamshire, please join us in our campaign to build the case for Liberal Democrat values in Buckinghamshire and beyond.

Yours sincerely

RT HON STEPHEN DORRELL

Liberal Democrat Candidate for Buckingham 2019

Conservative MP 1979 to 2015

P.S. The Buckinghamshire party is shortly going to employ a full-time campaign manager and is embarking on a full programme of campaigning in the build-up to the May 2021 election.

None of this will be possible without your financial support.

• £10 will buy some badges and rosettes
• £25 will fund up to 500 calling cards for canvassers
• £50 will fund up to 1000 street letters for local community action
• £100 will buy some targeted ads on Facebook
• £320 will pay a month's contribution towards the salary of our campaign manager
• £500 will cover a month's rent for office space
• £1000 will cover the full cost of a ward campaign

You can use the donate button or, if you prefer, our bank account details are:

Buckingham Constituency L D, Sort code: 40-08-39, Account no: 71286552

If you wish to donate a monthly amount, a standing order form is enclosed. You can also send a cheque to Buckingham Liberal Democrats, Reform House, 6 Castle Street, Aylesbury HP20 2RE

Please try to support the local party at this vital time!