Catherine Bearder
Catherine has been politically active for over 30 years and has represented her local communities at Parish, District and County level. She was a parliamentary candidate for Banbury (1997) and Henley (2001) and elected to the European Parliament in 2009. She was re-elected to the Parliament twice and led the successful group of the Liberal Democrat group in 2019. During her 11 years as an MEP she was also elected as a Quaestor of the Parliament and sat in the President's Bureau. Before coming into politics, Catherine was in management in the voluntary sector.
Her work in the parliament concentrated on protecting the environment, tackling human trafficking. She sees it important that we maintain close links to the EU with the aim of rejoining it sometime in the future. However, these international issues will not be accomplished whilst we have the dysfunctional electoral system in the UK that cannot cope as multiple parties compete for a less tolerant and sceptical voting public.
Democracy is being stretched to breaking point in the UK with the rise in far right nationalism combined with a two chamber system that relies on political cronyism and patronage. This is why, when her term of office came to a close with Brexit in 2020, she was keen to put her energies into changing the way the UK is governed. She was first elected to Unlock Democracy's Council in 2020 and subsequently onto the Management Board.
Until the UK has a form of PR, reformed Houses of Commons and Lords and a written Constitution to defend our liberties, this country will never perform as an open and free democracy where every voter has their interests protected, where votes count FOR their elected representatives, not where votes are cast against who they don't want. The UK is crying out for a different way of governance and Unlock Democracy is becoming a leading voice for those reforms.
Catherine is keen that UD works to build on that vocal and effective democratic movement and continues to work with other organisations to further our aims.
She says "The country is looking for alternatives and representatives that respect our citizens. Unlock Democracy should be the voice they hear in this debate. I am keen to do what I can to help advance these reforms and to support UD in their aims. Please support me to support this great organisation."