to be such that Tibetans become just
a kind of footnote in their own country.
That’s what’s happening now. In a way
that’s when this is apartheid – you
get worse jobs, you get less money,
Tibetan language is discouraged, you
can’t go anywhere without speaking
Chinese and so on. The Tibetan culture’s
being demolished and so on and that’s
happening now. We’ve got, I think,
probably no more than ten years before
it’s too late. This has happened before,
of course. It happened with Manchuria
if you go back far enough in Chinese
history, that’s just now an afterthought
and that’s what’s Tibet’s becoming. Of
course the outside world can’t do much
about it, because China’s too powerful.
I only hope that the Chinese themselves
will wake up to this and what the Chinese
leadership will realise is it’s actually in
their interests to have autonomy, dare
I say Scottish-style, for Tibet. I mean,
what is the problem with Tibet having
their own administration system? What
is the problem with that, you know?
When they do it the world will get off their
back. So there’s no indication they’re
going to do that. I had a long chat with
the Chinese ambassador and put this
point to him – there are people in China
who understand this and actually a lot
of the Chinese diaspora in this country
understand it. The Chinese are brought
up to believe something about Tibet
which is not true. And once they know
the facts then they are as open-minded
16
and generous as anybody else in the
world. But they don’t know the facts, so,
you know, my hope is that the Chinese
government will have enough people
entering it to say, “Hang on, let’s do
something different before it’s too late”.
Going back to UK politics, what actually
happens when you lose your seat?
It really depends how people deal with
that. I mean in the sense that I’m no
longer the MP. You’re given a period of
time to wind down your affairs and given
some money to do that. I’ve got to sadly
make all my staff redundant, which is the
worst bit of losing, actually but after 28
years you know, I’m all right about it, but
my staff aren’t all right. They’ve worked
very hard. I feel very sorry for my team
of volunteers who pulled every stop out
to try and get me back in without the
money that the Tories had, I mean the
Tories just ran the campaign largely from
London or Peterborough or somewhere
else in the country, you know? With
phone calls and leaflets bombarding
people from miles aw ay, you know? My
campaign was all people who live in the
area. I feel very sorry for them, but how
it works is that I clearly have to get out
of my office, that’s now underway, I’ve
got to get rid of my staff, sadly, and I
feel very bad about that. Some people
who, who’ve been defeated will want
to fight again and therefore they keep
themselves involved in the local party
organisation. I don’t want to do that
because I’ve done it long enough, so I’ll
step away from that and – but the party
will carry on. I speak a week after the
election and 11,000 new members joined
nationally, so the membership went up
by 25 per cent in the week. I don’t know
why, but it has. I think because people
realise that Liberalism cannot die. We
need Liberalism in this country and they
want to be part of that, so that is a good
sign, but that’s for others to take forward.
I mean, I half-thought about standing for
my own party this time or not, because
I’ve done such a long time around, so
that’s fate. But Paddy Ashdown always
said two things to me a long time ago.
He said “always do something else after
being an MP”, so that was in my mind as
to whether or not to stand again anyway,
and the second he said is “always have
people asking what you are doing not
asking what you’re not doing”, which is
another reason for getting out of it, so
I’m, I’m actually quite sanguine about it.
I’m much more sorry for Stephen Lloyd
in Eastbourne, who mortgaged himself
up to the hilt to get elected again for
Eastbourne, and he has been rejected by
them, and I think that whether he wants
to stand again or not, he’s got a financial
situation to sort out, but, you know, I
have to say if I was Stephen Lloyd I’d
say, “Eastbourne, well you’ve made your
choice”. And he’s been a brilliant MP for
Eastbourne and if they want to choose a
second-rate Tory that’s their problem.