We were very honoured to welcome Paddy Ashdown to the Silk Mill Studios in Frome, where in conjunction with Winstone’s Hunting Raven bookshop, Paddy gave a fascinating talk about his new book ‘Nein‘, an epic study of the German resistance to Hitler.

This work offers a radically different view of the Second World War, and tells the previously untold story of the high ranking officials in Nazi Germany who worked hard to prevent the war starting, and then to prevent Hitler becoming victorious. Paddy’s talk was utterly inspirational. He reflected on the question of whether the war could have been prevented, and helped the audience reflect on whether we would act in the same way as the heroes he depicted, who were prepared to stand up against the tide, even when their cause was hopeless, and at the cost of their own lives.

Paddy compared what happened in the 1930s to what is happening in the world today – ‘nationalism and protectionism were on the rise, and democracies were seen to have failed; people hungered for the government of strong men; those who suffered most from the pain of economic collapse felt alienated and turned towards simplistic solutions and strident voices; public institutions, conventional politics and the old establishments were everywhere mistrusted and disbelieved; compromise was out of fashion; the centre collapsed in favour of the extremes; the normal order of things didn’t function; change – even revolution – was more appealing than the status quo, and ‘fake news’ built around convincing untruth carried more weight in the public discourse than rational arguments and provable facts. Painting a lie on the side of a bus and driving it around the country would have seemed perfectly normal in those days’.

It is not often you get to hear from someone who has had such an amazing career – as a Royal Marine, a Special Boat Service officer, a youth worker, an MP for 16 years (11 of those as Leader of the Liberal Democrats), a British Intelligence Officer and a diplomat, and then as the International community’s High Representative for Bosnia. Paddy was a key witness for the prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes, and saved many lives in the Bosnian war through his personal interventions. He is also now an award winning author, a member of the House of Lords, and was a founder member of More United, the cross-party liberal movement named after a key section of Jo Cox’s maiden speech (Jo Cox was the MP murdered by a Nazi sympathiser during the EU referendum campaign in 2016).

Before the talk Paddy met up with party members and inspired us all with his thoughts on the country’s current situation – ‘Theresa May has boxed herself and the country in with Brexit red lines that she had no need to create, and keeps kicking issues down the road to avoid difficult decisions. Anything could happen – another snap general election, a Prime Minister resignation, even a People’s Vote. Competence is in short supply in our current Government. We – the Liberal Democrats and the wider liberal movement – are needed more than ever to prevent the madness of the extremes from taking hold.’

Those of us present agreed it was an inspiring and thoroughly enjoyable evening. We hope that Paddy will be able to visit us again in the not too distant future.

 

 

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