Tim farron

Friday

20 May 2022
Steerpike
Steerpike
Tim Farron’s fake Twitter army

Twitter may not be the real world, but it sure does set the conversation in Westminster. Commentators once spoke of 'the ground war' of activists on the ground and the 'air war' of broadcast interviews, but increasingly social media is where battles are fought and won. This week an audit in the States found that nearly half of Joe Biden’s 22.2 million Twitter followers are bogus, according to a study by software firm SparkToro which reported that 49.3 per cent of the president’s followers are 'fake followers'. SparkToro has defined 'fake followers' as 'accounts that are unreachable and will not see the account’s tweets (either because they’re spam, bots, propaganda, etc. or because they’re no longer active on Twitter).

Tim Farron’s fake Twitter army

Sunday

26 Dec 2021
Steerpike
Steerpike
Tim Farron’s Christmas roast

Christmas is a time for tradition and nowhere embraces it quite like Westminster. If you work in a building that looks like Hogwarts, it's no surprise that MPs and ministers are keen to celebrate the festive customs, be that spending quality time with your (ever-growing) family like Boris or hanging out the £8 Big Ben decorations on the tree like Liz Truss. Merry Christmas Everyone!🎄 pic.twitter.com/FQJuqyojwq— Liz Truss (@trussliz) December 24, 2021 But in recent years a new-tradition has developed in SW1. Whereas once the Tory great and good would spend Boxing Day on the traditional hunt, these days another fox-related ritual has been established: the annual mockery of Jolyon Maugham QC. For it was two years ago today that the Babe Ruth of Remainia picked up his bat and entered baseball legend, after battering an unfortunate omnivore to death while wearing his wife's kimono.

Tim Farron’s Christmas roast

Thursday

10 May 2018
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman
Tim Farron just can’t escape gay sex

What does Tim Farron think about gay sex? Like Ken Livingstone's repeated reluctance to discuss Hitler, the former Lib Dem leader has never really offered his views on the subject. This time a year ago, for instance, he was so busy talking about all the things his party was putting into its general election manifesto that there was just never time for the matter to creep into interviews. He's never avoided questions on gay sex, or changed his views on gay sex, or offered formulations which sound as though he loves gay people (just not in The Way) but actually mean he doesn't think they should be having gay sex. So what a surprise that gay sex has cropped up as a problem for Farron this week. It's not like it's ever been in an issue before.

Tim Farron just can’t escape gay sex

Tuesday

19 Sep 2017
The Spectator
Vince Cable’s conference speech, full text

It is with a real sense of pride that I stand before you as leader of the Liberal Democrats. First of all, I’d like to put on record my thanks to my predecessor, Tim Farron. He hands over a Party, which is larger, stronger and more diverse than the one he inherited. He stood up for refugees whose plight the government had shamefully ignored. He established our very clear identity as the only real, undiluted pro-European party. We are all hugely indebted to him. It’s good, today, to be amongst friends. So please forgive me if I start by addressing people who are not yet our friends, but whom we might persuade.   People who say they don’t know what we stand for, or that we are irrelevant. Anyone who doubts the relevance of the Liberal Democrats should reflect on the three great disasters perpetrated by the two main parties in recent years: the war in Iraq; the banking crisis; now Brexit.

Vince Cable’s conference speech, full text

Wednesday

6 Sep 2017
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman
Can leading politicians get away with opposing abortion and gay marriage?

What can politicians with socially conservative beliefs expect from public life? Is there now a faith glass ceiling under which lurks would-be party leaders whose views on abortion and homosexuality are just too unpalatable for voters? If there is one, Jacob Rees-Mogg might have a good chance of telling us where it is located. The alleged contender for the Tory leadership told Good Morning Britain today that abortion was ‘morally indefensible’ in any circumstances and that he opposed same-sex marriage because ‘marriage is a sacrament and the decision of what is a sacrament lies with the Church not with Parliament’. William Hill has already cut the North East Somerset MP’s odds from 5/1 to 7/1. Of course, we already know what happens to people who hold conservative Christian views and aspire to lead their parties: Tim Farron stood down from the Lib Dem leadership after the snap election, complaining bitterly about the ‘suspicion’ that was directed at him during that campaign.

Can leading politicians get away with opposing abortion and gay marriage?

Wednesday

26 Jul 2017
Steerpike
Steerpike
Tim Farron goes rogue

Last week, Sir Vince Cable was appointed – unchallenged – as leader of the Liberal Democrats. While some in the party would have preferred a younger leader or at the very least a two-horse race, there is one thing they can all agree on: Cable comes with less baggage than his predecessor. There is a general consensus that the party's 'liberal' appeal was not helped in the election by Tim Farron spending so much time talking about how gay sex and abortion fitted in with his Christian faith. But is it too early for the Lib Dems to breath a collective sigh of relief? A little (yellow) bird tells Steerpike that there is concern at Lib Dem towers that Farron could cause the party more issues yet. As his widely respected spokesman Paul Butters departs from his role this week, Lib Dems are concerned Farron could be inclined to speak a bit too freely from the backbenches.

Tim Farron goes rogue

Wednesday

28 Jun 2017
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman
Theresa May will be feeling the heat at today’s PMQs

What a very different atmosphere the House of Commons Chamber will have today for its first PMQs since the election. In the week before Parliament dissolved, Tory MPs were in a most obsequious mood, reciting the ‘strong and stable’ slogan that Theresa May started her campaign with, and even telling the Prime Minister that ‘I am confident that the country will be safe after the election under strong and stable leadership’ (sadly Peter Lilley, who made this prediction, stood down at the election and so is not in Parliament to offer his insight into how he feels about the state of the country now). It will be interesting to see if anyone bothers to praise May at all in this session. It is far more likely that tribal types will want to take the fight to Labour, particularly when it comes to its position (a collection of different ideas which can only be described as a ‘position’ if you mean the sort of position adopted by a contortionist in a hall of mirrors).

Theresa May will be feeling the heat at today’s PMQs

Thursday

22 Jun 2017
Matthew Parris
Matthew Parris
What should party leaders be allowed to believe?

‘If he can’t be in politics,’ the Archbishop of Canterbury tweeted last week after Tim Farron resigned the leadership of his party, ‘media & politicians have questions.’ So prelates now think complex theological concerns can be despatched within the Twitter limit of 140 characters. They cannot. Let me now unpack Dr Welby’s abbreviated consideration of this subject and examine what’s behind it, because the subject is of profound importance —and not only for Christians. Nobody has said Mr Farron can’t be in politics. He has been returned as MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale with the support of 26,686 voters. Farron himself, however, has doubted he should be leader of a party with a long and prominent tradition of supporting homosexual equality and the rights of women to terminate a pregnancy, while continuing to believe that these are sins in the eyes of God.

What should party leaders be allowed to believe?

Tuesday

20 Jun 2017
Steerpike
Steerpike
Could Vince Cable be the Lib Dems’ answer to Jeremy Corbyn?

There was a time when progressives thought that politics had become too much of an old boys' club. In the place of ageing male politicians, liberals called for more women and ethnic diversity in politics. However, times are a'changing. After Jeremy Corbyn defied all expectations in the snap election by hoovering up 40 per cent of the vote, the Lib Dems could have found their own pale, male and stale answer to Corbyn: Vince Cable. The 74-year-old announced this morning that he is running to replace Tim Farron as Lib Dem leader. Cable said he was ready ‘to commit my energy, enthusiasm and experience to the task of leading the Liberal Democrats through what will be a period of chronic uncertainty’. If Cable wins, he’ll be the oldest ever leader of the party – and could be approaching 80 by the time he leads the Lib Dems into the next election.

Could Vince Cable be the Lib Dems’ answer to Jeremy Corbyn?

Thursday

15 Jun 2017
Melanie McDonagh
Melanie McDonagh
Tim Farron’s tormentors ought to be ashamed of themselves

The resignation of Tim Farron has left a bad taste in the mouth, don’t you think? There were a number of reasons why he was an unconvincing leader: the puppyish demeanour, the want of eloquence, style or confidence - even if you agree with him about Brexit, but they weren’t the reasons why he resigned. He was quite clear: the reason was “I have found myself torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader,” he said in a televised statement. To be a political leader – especially of a progressive, liberal party in 2017 – and to live as a committed Christian, to hold faithfully to the Bible’s teaching, has felt impossible for me.” He’s right, isn’t he? Not so much about the faith bit of it – I don’t recall him, or Theresa May, getting dissed about the Resurrection of the Dead or the Incarnation.

Tim Farron’s tormentors ought to be ashamed of themselves

Wednesday

14 Jun 2017
James Forsyth
James Forsyth
Tim Farron quits as Lib Dem leader

Tim Farron has resigned as Liberal Democrat leader. The Liberal Democrats did make a net gain of four seats but this was far lower than what they had been hoping for; early on in the campaign Farron talked about his desire to double the number of Lib Dem MPs. At the same time, their share of the popular vote fell half a percentage point—with them now down to a mere 7.4% share. Given that these were uniquely promising circumstances for the party, they were the only UK-wide party opposed to Brexit, these elections results were particularly disappointing for them. Farron’s leadership style has received much of the blame for their failure to gain much ground at this election. In Lib Dem circles, there has been particular criticism of how he handled questions about his religious faith and his views on abortion and homosexuality.

Tim Farron quits as Lib Dem leader

Monday

5 Jun 2017
Damian Thompson
Damian Thompson
The Christian views of Theresa May and Tim Farron are way below the radar. And that’s how they like it

There's a mischievous, not to say malicious, Twitter photograph of Theresa May circulating this morning. It shows her sporting shoulder pads and severely slicked-backed boyish hair, campaigning in the 1987 general election. On top of it someone has added the words: 'Curbing the promotion of lesbianism in Merton's schools starts with girls having male role models in their lives'. Did she say it? No one can source the quote. But Mrs May, then as now a weekly churchgoing Anglican, did vote against the repeal of Section 28 in 2000. In those days she was an opponent of same-sex marriage, as was Tim Farron, also a weekly churchgoer. Both the Prime Minister and the Lib Dem leader held this view for religious reasons, though they preferred not to be drawn into theological debate.

The Christian views of Theresa May and Tim Farron are way below the radar. And that’s how they like it

Thursday

1 Jun 2017
The Spectator
Andrew Neil interviews Tim Farron: full transcript

AN: Tim Farron, this election’s about electing MPs to sit in the British parliament, but you’re fighting on a manifesto which advocates UK laws being made in Brussels, having no control over immigration policy and for Britain to stay under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Why? TF: The Liberal Democrats are campaigning in this campaign to trust the people, and we know that people voted to leave the European Union last June. I grew up with, you know, people who voted to leave. I completely respect those who did. Obviously a whole different view. The issue now is how do we move forward? And we know that a deal will be negotiated between Theresa May and those from Brussels and it’s that we’ll have to live with, our children will have to live with for generations.

Andrew Neil interviews Tim Farron: full transcript

Thursday

25 May 2017
Steerpike
Steerpike
Gary Lineker to the rescue

Last month, Rachel Johnson managed to create a mini furore when it transpired that she had joined the Liberal Democrats. Given that the Mail on Sunday columnist has only ever voted Conservative in elections, the news came as a surprise to many -- not least her brother Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary. But has Rachel already got cold feet about her new home? In this week's issue of The Spectator, Johnson gives reason to believe that she's not completely loyal to the Liberal Democrats. She says that she recently got talking to Gary Lineker -- aka 'the people's snowflake' -- who she decided is the 'only proper opposition now': 'At the drunken dinner afterwards, the next step was clear. Gary (six million Twitter followers to Corbyn’s less than a million and the Lib Dems’ scant 184,000) should be the new Macron of the middle ground.

Gary Lineker to the rescue

Friday

19 May 2017
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman
Have the Lib Dems learned the wrong lesson from the SNP?

That the Tories would enjoy this general election campaign and Labour would spend it alternating between abject misery and total panic was a given from the moment Theresa May announced she wanted to go to the polls. More of a surprise has been how uncomfortable the Liberal Democrats have looked so far. Tim Farron has spent far too much time defending and then apparently recanting various unpopular beliefs. The party is averaging nine per cent in the polls. One analysis suggests they could end up with fewer than the nine seats they currently hold. What’s going wrong? Aside from Farron’s awkward media encounters over his religious beliefs, the party may also have made a mistake with its anti-Brexit strategy. It has tried to emulate the SNP, which picked up significant support after losing the 2014 independence referendum by tapping into a sense of betrayal amongst those who voted ‘Yes’.

Have the Lib Dems learned the wrong lesson from the SNP?

Wednesday

17 May 2017
Melanie McDonagh
Melanie McDonagh
Is Tim Farron prepared to defend any of his beliefs?

Are there any matters of principle, do you reckon, that Tim Farron isn’t prepared to give up on under pressure from a television journalist? After caving under repeated questioning from Channel 4’s Cathy Newman (how brave, Cathy!) to declare that he does not, in fact, consider homosexual acts to be sinful, he’s now had to conform again, this time on abortion. In an interview with ITV, he said he strongly believed that 'when procedures takes place, it should be safe and it should be legal,' and supported the law as it stands. Pressed on his personal view, he said: 'Again, what one believes in one’s personal private faith is just that.' A spokesman has also made clear that Farron supports a woman’s right to abortion.

Is Tim Farron prepared to defend any of his beliefs?

Monday

8 May 2017
Steerpike
Steerpike
Listen: Vince Cable says he would find it difficult not to vote for Labour MP

Tim Farron has said the Lib Dems won’t be forming a coalition with Labour. But it seems Vince Cable didn’t get the memo. Cable has been taped suggesting that Lib Dem voters should back Rupa Huq, Labour’s candidate in Ealing Central. Here’s what he said: ‘I’ll just give one example - there’s Rupa Huq, who’s the candidate in Ealing. Purely but coincidence I found myself - I think it was on 'Any Questions' or one of those programmes in Warwick a few months ago, and I gave her a lift back home to Ealing. We talked for a couple of hours and it was very clear that on almost every issue our views were almost identical. And so I would find it difficult to vote against somebody like that, and I hope that our people around the country are discriminating and think and act in a constructive way’.

Listen: Vince Cable says he would find it difficult not to vote for Labour MP

Thursday

4 May 2017
James Forsyth
James Forsyth
Never mind the election – Corbynism isn’t going away

General elections are meant to produce a government and an opposition — ideally, a decent version of both. It is obvious what government this election will deliver: a Tory one with an increased majority. That, after all, is one of the reasons why Theresa May has decided to go to the country three years early. But it is not clear what opposition there will be. What passes for optimism in moderate Labour circles these days is the belief that a shellacking in this election will lead to Jeremy Corbyn’s departure, as the party’s membership sobers up and elects a new and sensible leader. But it is far from certain that this will happen. The eagerness of the Corbynites to get their people parachuted into safe seats suggests that they are still more interested in capturing the Labour Party than winning power.

Never mind the election – Corbynism isn’t going away

Sunday

30 Apr 2017
Theo Hobson
Theo Hobson
Corbyn’s views on religion contribute to his lack of popular appeal

This election was won two days before it was announced, on Easter Sunday. Theresa May put out an Easter message in which she suggested that British values had a Christian basis. It was her version of David Cameron’s message two years before, in which he said that Britain is a Christian country. She was rather more convincing. I don’t know whether Cameron is sincerely religious, but he didn’t seem it. He didn’t even seem to try very hard to seem it, as if fearing that his metropolitan support might weaken, and perhaps that George Osborne would make a snarky jibe about it at cabinet. But it still did him good to make those pro-religious noises. St Theresa should keep her piety out of politics, said a few pundits.

Corbyn’s views on religion contribute to his lack of popular appeal

Saturday

29 Apr 2017
Rod Liddle
Rod Liddle
Tim Farron is a Christian, so of course he’s not allowed an opinion

Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I don’t remember the BBC running a documentary 100 days into Barack Obama’s first presidency and kicking him from pillar to post. Interviewing almost exclusively people who hated him, pouring scorn on his every utterance. They did it this week to Donald Trump, though, and even wheeled out Jeremy Paxman to present this travesty of a documentary. Because Jeremy was interviewing exclusively people with whom he wholeheartedly agreed, he didn’t get the chance to put on that famous supercilious expression we all used to love, back when he was good. Shame. With Obama, as I remember, it was a very different approach. The studio floors were still awash with liberal ejaculate well after 100 days of his singularly inept presidency had elapsed.

Tim Farron is a Christian, so of course he’s not allowed an opinion

Thursday

27 Apr 2017
Nick Hilton
The Spectator Podcast: Europe’s new emperor

On this week’s episode of The Spectator Podcast, we discuss whether France is voting for the lesser of two evils in Emmanuel Macron, consider whether Tim Farron made a mistake by bringing God into politics, and look at how the spread of Mayism across Britain could alter the Conservative party. First, following Emmanuel Macron's stunning victory in the first round of the French elections – taking a seemingly unassailable popularity into the run-off with Marine Le Pen – Jonathan Fenby considers, in this week's magazine cover story, whether Macron is in fact headed for disaster. He joins the podcast along with Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, to discuss whether the 39-year-old sensation is all he seems. As Jonathan writes: "The man who set up his own party to challenge the system, En Marche! (his own initials), is in fact a perfect insider-outsider.

The Spectator Podcast: Europe’s new emperor