Chris Bowers

What does Chris Bowers stand for?

As the son and grandson of Liberal Party members, it has always been very natural for me to think of myself as a Liberal, and I am happy to stand on the Liberal Democrat platform.  But here are a few paragraphs about my own motivation and personal priorities.

It took a long time – and many attempts at persuasion by others – before I agreed to stand for election, both for a council and for parliament.  What finally swayed me has to do with my father’s history, and forgive me if this sounds a bit twee.  My father was turfed out of the country of his birth because the political system became so devalued and the population so cynical about politicians that a group of thugs was able to take over the running of national affairs.  I’m talking of Nazi Germany, but that description could refer to other countries too.  Although I’m not Jewish myself, ‘Bowers’ is the Anglicisation of an old German Jewish name, and while it took until November 1938 for my grandfather to be thrown into a concentration camp, thrown he was nonetheless.  Thanks to something of a bluff, my grandmother got him out, so the family was able to move to England (yes, I’m the son of an immigrant!), and since then my father has served this country admirably.

It’s become very fashionable to become cynical about politics in this country – we think it’s somehow cool to suggest that politicians are all corrupt, and to make jokes about bogus expenses claims and secret fees paid in unmarked brown envelopes.  I don’t mind the jokes – humour makes life bearable – but a combination of my family background and the fact that I’ve studied history makes me deeply concerned about the possible consequences of people holding politics in contempt.  That’s why I believe this country is crying out for a more grown-up form of politics (especially in a recession), in which people work together to find sensible solutions rather than throw insults at each other because they disagree on something.

The four areas I’m most keen to be active on are:

Safer communities ... whether it’s crime or the fear of crime, people’s lives are being ruined by lawlessness.  But it’s important to tackle crime in a way that makes it less likely to happen again, rather than simply looking for revenge.  Yes, we must do all we can to catch criminals and make sure people aren’t encouraged to break the law and make people’s lives a misery, but we must also look at ways of stopping criminals re-offending.  We mustn’t be soft on criminals, but we must try to get them back into society, which in many cases means confronting their victims so they see just what damage they’ve caused.

Education and older people’s services ... it’s easy to say we must put education first, but we need to know why we’re doing it.  In many ways we’re a society of people from 18 to 65, which means we risk overlooking the wonderful talents kids have and the invaluable experience of our senior citizens.  We must meet the needs of 3-7 year-olds by giving them smaller class sizes and stopping telling them they must read a certain number of words by a certain age.  We must give reasonable (but not excessive) facilities to our teenagers so they can make the transition from being children to responsible adults.  And we must treat the grey-haired generation with greater respect, as the wisdom they have picked up over seven decades and more of real life is too valuable for us to toss away.

Environment ... it’s easy to think the environment is less of an issue during a recession, a bit like those things you know are important but aren’t at the top of the priority list.  But the environment is desperately important, and it’s on our doorstep as we need to cut down on our waste given the dwindling holes in the ground for our rubbish.  My mantra these days comes from the Stern report: if it doesn’t make sense environmentally, it won’t make sense economically in the long run.  Getting our environmental policy right now really is crucial to leaving a world that our children and grandchildren can value.

A new kind of politics ... this links in with my earlier point about people becoming cynical about politics.  Don’t get me wrong, I will still disagree with people.  But the idea that everything my party says is right and everything other parties say is wrong is both silly and inappropriate for our difficult times.  I can’t promise I’ll never get involved in a slanging match because you need two people to discuss things sensibly, but I am open to a more grown-up type of politics.