My Liberal Mother

This may have been Conference weekend but today has a special significance in being Mother's Day. My mother and I woke up in Brighton to a lovely view of the sea before dashing off to the emergency debate on 'secret courts' which is an illiberal move. Ever since I was little I have recognised liberalism by instinct. I have my mother to thank for nurturing this moral, political and humane view that I have. At conference someone told me, as people often do, that I will cease to be as idealistic as I grow up. That may be so but I do think that people often confuse the act of being 'unrealistic' with 'idealistic'. It doesn't matter. I am neither an 'unrealist' nor a hopeless idealist. I am a realistic idealist who is growing up in a world where Liberal values seem to hold the key increasingly to societal problems. I want to thank my mother for this.