Welcome...

...to the online headquarters of my campaign to become our new Parliamentary Candidate and the City's next Liberal Democrat MP! This site will grow during the coming weeks to provide what I hope will be useful information about myself and the motivation behind my candidature. Should you require any further information, or have any queries at all, please do not hesitate to contact me by

e-mail at tim.bick@btinternet.com.

This is not the place to rehearse the entirety of the Liberal Democrat policy platform. Our official party website already does this excellently. But at this time when party members are choosing a local leader, I would like to share what particularly motivates me, as one of the candidates.

I spent a lot of the early part of my political career fighting to protect schools from cutbacks at Conservative hands. I was proud later to be instrumental in increasing resources for them, enabling smaller class sizes and providing more new technology for the classroom. I strongly believe that there is no finer investment a liberal society can make than in its people. Not only liberating for individuals, but improving for the community in general, its welfare and its prosperity. Open access to learning is therefore a principle for me. For this reason I am pleased that our party holds out alone against this government’s university tuition fees, which either load student debt ever higher, or deter those without independent means.

Tim has been shortlisted to be the Liberal Democrats’ next Parliamentary Candidate for Cambridge. Selection will be made by local party members on January 15th.

•Represents the City Centre on Liberal Democrat run Cambridge City Council

•Past party leader on Warwickshire County Council and campaigner on education

•Works in Cambridge’s Technology sector

•International view of the world from a decade living and working abroad

•Graduate in Politics and Economics from Oxford University

•A career of practical experience on the people side of business from shopfloor to Executive team

To make sense of the world, I like always to try to assess situations from the perspective of the underdog. It’s usually very different. Liberal Democrats are not at all comfortable with using the power of the state to manage people’s lives, but we do look to it as a guarantor of rights and fairness to those, who without it would have little leverage in a sometimes bitterly competitive world. I very much support our bold proposals for redistribution through the tax system: I find it extraordinary that a Labour government has allowed the gap between the very rich and very poor to grow in a way that is unhealthy in a civilised society.

In the eyes of many, many people, the past year’s scandal over MPs expenses has brought all of politics into disrepute. In David Howarth we have been fortunate to have an MP whose personal values have set a high standard. But the underlying problem remains an antiquated political system which shields too many MPs from true accountability. The Liberal Democrat prescription of fair votes, recall of disgraced MPs, elections to the House of Lords and reform of party funding are more sharply relevant now than they have ever been before. We may have succeeded in winning more and more elections in the current system, but we have never stopped our campaign to change it. Voting for us as agents of change is the only serious option to make it happen!

The Copenhagen Climate Change summit was a disappointment - but must not stop continued striving for a comprehensive global agreement. Meantime Britain has plenty to do to meet targets already set. My preferred focus is on the honesty and boldness that is needed to achieve changes in both individual citizens’ and domestic government behaviour. The Liberal Democrats’ proposed green taxes are a great practical way forward, as are our plans for investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy generation. Cambridge City Council’s pioneering standards for energy-efficient homes shows that Liberal Democrats in power mean business.

War should only be a very last resort and only when it’s within international law, as sometimes it has been, in self defence or to prevent genocide. Where there really is no alternative, honesty with the public, good planning and protection for our military and clear realistic goals controlling their withdrawal are vital. The cynicism of the Labour government in these respects is being daily recalled in the current Iraq Enquiry. In one of the boldest stances of a political party in recent history, the Liberal Democrats opposed the War from the start. To help heal the rift with the Muslim world, I want to see the West expend its energy in securing Middle East peace by addressing the aspirations of the Palestinian people for statehood.

The Liberal Democrats have been the most far-sighted and sure-footed in their approach to the economy over recent years. Economics lessons from Keynes, that great modern Liberal from Cambridge, are consistently ignored by the Conservatives today, as they were in the 30s. They simply can’t wait to start cutting back again before growth is underway. Our party is committed to reduce the deficit, but to do so when it’s sure not to tip us back into recession, giving time for openly debated and properly planned restructuring, which minimises the impact on the delivery of services and protects long term investment.

I believe that the movement and mingling of people of all kinds and backgrounds brings enormous mutual social and economic benefit, especially in an area like ours. In my professional work, I have personally witnessed the creativity it can unleash in organisations, given tolerance and respect. These are true liberal values – and it is core to our party to promote and defend them. In today’s political climate, no-one will stand up for them unless we do!