Hughes News November 2007

Written by Simon Hughes MP, Liberal Democrat Federal Party President on Wed 21st Nov 2007

My good and lovely mother sadly lost her struggle to recover from major heart surgery and died in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on 13th November. My younger brother Jamie, who was an SDP Alliance councillor in Southwark in the 1980's, was with me and with Paddy as she died. It had been a pretty rollercoaster time since we took mother to hospital in Birmingham at the end of August. Mercifully she died peacefully and in no pain, and in the last weeks had been in no distress and always positive about the future.

Of course her family and friends will miss Paddy very much. But at the end of a long life and with many of us strengthened, like Paddy, with a strong Christian or other faith, there is a huge amount to be positive about and thankful for. She lived a long, active, productive, caring and campaigning life and enriched the lives of thousands - many of them, much younger than her.

It seems a good time to reflect, therefore, on the huge importance which parents and children, husbands, wives and partners, and other members of our more extended families play in supporting those of us who end up as politicians locally and nationally and in the public eye.

When I look around and think of those who back up the work of colleagues in the Commons and Lords, in other parliaments and assemblies and in council chambers up and down the land, there are thousands of family members who never seek election but give huge amounts of time in practical as well as emotional support to the politicians they love! There are our children and teenagers stuffing and delivering leaflets, and laying them out, the people in our homes who become our organisers and agents, and those who take on roles as secretaries, personal assistants, office managers - and many other things besides. Of course there are some families where two or more adults are councillors or candidates or both. Much more frequent are those where one person ends up as the public figure and the others cannot escape!

So today I want to say a huge thank you to all those who support and help the development of liberal democracy by allowing and enabling somebody else to work or campaign in the front line. Forgive us please when we seem to forget how important relationships and families are and when we think that we are indispensable to some activity which clearly other people could do. Be strong with us please when we lose our perspective and risk forgetting that unless we have other lives doing the shopping, going to the cinema and collecting children from school or spending time with older relatives we are far less well equipped to be public representatives. And never forget that, while there are some people who may be happy to be campaigners for life, others quite reasonably do politics for a while and then move on. I always say to people whom I recruit to the party or persuade to stand as candidates that if elected to party or public office it absolutely must be for one term at a time with a chance of stepping back again when they chose.

Two last things. Mum's care in Hereford and Birmingham by our doctors, nurses and other NHS staff was absolutely superb. At it's best our National Health Service is the most civilised and wonderful legacy of twentieth-century political activity in Britain, and we must always build on its successes and, even when critical, never run it down.

Finally, family preoccupations have meant that I have been less involved in the current leadership campaign by a long way than for many years! It always amazes me that even in political parties quite high numbers of members do not vote. As well as choosing our new leader, please help us obtain a really good turnout in the days ahead.

Simon Hughes

Federal President