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Councillor Richard Streatfeild visits

On the 27th of September 2022, Councillor Richard Streatfeild gave a talk to the Politics, Economics and Current Affairs Society.

Cllr Streatfeild is a local Liberal Democrat who serves on both Kent County Council and Sevenoaks District Council. In his talk, Cllr Streatfeild described his political journey, as well as what he thinks needs to change in politics.

Cllr Streatfeild’s life story was both interesting and insightful. We were able to understand the influence his experiences overseas and in the army had on his political worldview. In his talk, Cllr Streatfeild outlined many of his core principles, such as that of individual liberty, as well as his belief in a basic standard of living for all. Cllr Streatfeild drew on the works and ideas of John Rawls, who happens to be a key thinker in our politics course. When asked why he was a Liberal Democrat, Cllr Sreatfeild responded by saying that he thought the Liberal Democrats struck the right balance between workers’ rights, entrepreneurship and environmentalism.

Cllr Streatfeild also outlined some of the problems in modern politics. For example, he gave a detailed explanation of why he believes that proportional representation (PR) should be introduced in the UK. At the end, Cllr Streatfeild answered several questions that the audience had, further developing the ideas mentioned above. Cllr Streatfeild was the first external PEACAS speaker of the academic year, but we have many more to come.