FAQs

The basics
What kind of a website is this?
This is a political magazine and discussion forum in the form of a multi-user blog. It is intended to be a forum and resource for those who see themselves on the liberal-left.

What do you hope to achieve with this site?
We aim to bring together and re-invigorate the liberal-left in Britain. We want this movement to be built, sustained and developed over the long-term. See our mission statement for a better explanation.

How do you define the liberal-left? Am I part of it?
We don’t define what it means to be on the liberal-left. Instead we want to challenge conventional ideas by constantly asking: ‘what should the liberal-left position be on this issue?’ You can join in as long as you somewhat share our broad goals and aims (social justice, equality, eradicating poverty etc.)

Are you in bed with a particular political party?
No we are not. See the section below on political parties.

Are you against single-issue groups?
We have nothing against single-issue groups that concentrate on civil-liberties, feminist ideals or the environment. But there should also be a space to bring them together as a political movement so they can be united to support each other’s agendas. Otherwise there is a danger they fail individually and the progressive movement fails under attack from the conservative right.

I’m a bit right-wing and loathe liberals. Can I join in?
If your comments are not constructive they will be deleted. See our comments policy below.

Comments policy
These points govern the Liberal Conspiracy comments policy.

1. The right to free speech and having the space to exercise that is a fundamentally important part of a free society and should be protected by law.

2. In public discourse however it is also a different concept to the idea of civility: which is a defining feature of a civil society. Point one incorporates our political beliefs, the second governs our comments policy.

3. This is a private not a public space. We have the right to set our own rules and codes of conduct.

4. Our aim is to open the discussion to the widest range of people and not restrict it to a narrow group. People who write hostile comments or hate-speech end up shutting out others who may have also wanted to join in. We want to avoid that.

5. Laws against free speech deny people the opportunity to exercise their mental muscles to be civil to each other; they try and encourage civility by law. We would prefer to encourage people to exercise those mental muscles.

6. Therefore: abusive, highly sarcastic and xenophobic comments will be deleted without notification. Potentially libellous comments may be edited or deleted without notification too.

7. The editor, Sunny Hundal, and a select group of editors have the right to delete comments across the site. We may not always get the balance right but you are welcome to get in touch for further explanation or if you think you have been treated unfairly. We may get back to you but we are under no obligation to.

Political parties
Our collective allegiance is towards liberal-left policies and ideas than specific parties. Unlike other blogs dedicated to promoting specific political parties, we are dedicated to developing, discussion and promoting good ideas and policies.

Contributors to LC may be, and are in some cases, members of the Labour, Libdem and Green party.
This does not violate our rules or compromise our position – our aim is to encompass a broad church.

Writers and commenters are free to criticise any political party as long as they do so constructively and back it up with an argument.