Tim Farron

Tim Farron
Name	Timothy James Farron (born 27 May, 1970)
Nicknames	Tim (everyone)
Politics
Party	Liberal Democrat
Constituency	Westmorland and Lonsdale (2005-present)
Positions	• Leader of the Liberal Democrats (July 2015 - present) • President of the Liberal Democrats (2011 - 2014) • Lib Dem Environmental Spokesman (2007 - 2010)
Likes	Football metaphors, campaigning, Jesus
Dislikes	The Lib Dems' record in government
Friends	?
Enemies	Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, Paddy Ashdown (currently)
Relationships
Partners	Rosie Farron (?-present)
Children	Two daughters, two sons
Personal Attributes
Nationality	English
Religion	Church of England
Sexuality	Straight
Height	?
Eye Colour	Green
Handedness	Right
Accent	Lancashire

The rhetoric of Tony Benn and the voting record of George Osborne.~ Owen Jones

Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, is known for his leftwing politics and his giant caterpillar eyebrows which make him look like England from Hetalia. He is an enthusiastic campaigner and a devout Christian.

Life and Career

Early Life

Farron was born in Preston, Lancashire, and educated at Lostock Hall High School and Runshaw College, Leyland, before going on to Newcastle University where he gained a BA in Politics in 1992 and was elected to the National Union of Students

In 1987 he was part of a 'fourth-rate New Order' style band.

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  Tim with his fellow band mates

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  A legit promotional shot for the band

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  Fashionable Farron rocking those sunglasses

Pre-political Career

Tim worked at Lancaster University from 1992 to 2002 and St. Martin's College, Ambleside, from 2002 to 2005 before entering parliament.

Early Political Career

Tim joined the Liberals at 16. As a Lib Dem he fought the 1992 general election in North West Durham.

Tim served as a local councillor on various councils on and off from 1993 to 2008.

Parliamentary Career

Which bit of the sanctimonious, god-bothering, treacherous little shit is there not to like?~ an Orange Booker

In 2005, Tim won his seat of Collins in Westmorland and Lonsdale with just 267 votes. Tim has held many front-bench positions for the Liberal Democrats in his time as an MP, including Home Affairs Spokesman and DEFRA Spokesman.

Tim was President of the Liberal Democrats during the first half of the 2010-2015 Parliament. In this role he alternated between giving morale-boosting speeches to Lib Dem activists outside the Commons and pretending to still be in Opposition within it, voting against the tuition fee increase and other iconic Lib Dem "betrayals". Nick Clegg and the other pro-Government Lib Dems were understandably frustrated by this habit, a frustration which only increased as it become obvious that Tim was angling for the leadership once the messy bloodbath of the 2015 general election was out of the way. Paddy Ashdown blasted him in a radio interview, claiming "His well-known ambition would be better served with a little more patience and a little more judgement." Tim struck back by giving the Lib Dems a 2 out of 10 for their performance in government at their recent spring conference. (This was fairly generous; at the European elections the public gave them a 1 out of 11.)

Tim, for pretty much the whole 2010 - 2015 Parliament

2015 Leadership Bid

I'm fascinated by the possibility of the Lib Dems being led by a man who is neither an economic nor a social liberal.~ Sam Trevelyan

After the election Tim was one of the last men standing, and predictably announced his candidacy for the leadership.

As the Lib Dem president for much of the Coalition period, he had been a very visible campaigner and morale-booster during the party's grim encounter with government and he was an obvious choice to lead it through the dark period that followed. Much of the left already loved him for his ambivalence about Cleggism and his opposition on key issues like tuition fees, so he came into the campaign as the frontrunner. However, the Orange Bookers disliked his commitment to social democracy and others raised his uneven record on social issues like abortion or gay rights.

He ultimately defeated his opponent Norman Lamb with 56.5% of the vote- a comfortable victory but not an overwhelming one.

As Leader

In his first proper interview after being elected leader, Tim refused to comment on whether or not he thought homosexuality was a sin. Given Tim's patchy voting record on certain big equality legislation (most notably his abstention on equal marriage) his refusal to answer wasn't exactly greeted with surprise. Most people had assumed during the leadership campaign that Tim would know how to deal with these sort of issues since they had been raised so many times in the hustings and the party descended into infighting about whether Tim is actually homophobic, "too Christian", or just plain bad at interviews.

Since the Lib Dems only had 8 MPs after the slaughter that was the 2015 general election, Tim decided that the traditional Shadow Cabinet structure would just make them look pathetic and people would invariably have to take on numerous briefs. Instead, he intends to turn the Lib Dems into an issue-by-issue campaigning party. Which issues he intends to focus on has yet to be seen.

Full List of Appointments
• Liberal Democrat Environment Spokesperson (18 December, 2007 - 13 May, 2010)
• President of the Liberal Democrats (1 January, 2011 - 31 December, 2014)
• Leader of the Liberal Democrats (16 July, 2015 - present)

Ideology

Integrity is important. You must not only keep your word but be seen to keep your word. You can say no.~ Tim the flip-flopper

Tim is very, very Christian. His religious devotion sometimes comes into conflict with his otherwise very leftwing politics and prompts him to do something illiberal, like opposing sex and relationship education or supporting the right of businesses to discriminate against LGBT people or signing a letter with two other MPs calling for the Advertising Standards Authority to prove evidence that prayer does not cure sick people. In the past he has voted for bills to limit abortion rights, although since 2010 he has consistently supported the current law and voted against attempts to change it.

Tim came into trouble with the way he engaged with the Same-Sex Marriage Bill. He voted in favour of the Bill at the second reading, and then in favour of a timetabling amendment which many saw as a wrecking amendment that could have seen the Bill talked out. He then abstained from the third reading vote along with 8 other Liberal Democrat MPs which means more Lib Dem MPs abstained on the Same-Sex Marriage vote than there currently are Lib Dem MPs.

Tim has since said that he was mistaken and that if the vote were to happen again, he would vote in favour of the legislation.

Appearance

With his blond fringe, green eyes and enormous fuzzy eyebrows, Tim bears more than a passing resemblance to England from Hetalia. In this photo they even appear to have the same coat.

He also constantly wears Doc Martens and promised that if he ever had to go to an important even, he would make sure they were well shined.

Portrayal

In the Media

The media used to be quite nice to him because he was a Lib Dem would openly criticized the party and Nick Clegg in particular and the media love shit-stirring. Once it became clear that Tim would be important in the party and since winning the leadership, the media in general have focused on his religion and voting record on gay rights.

In Fanon

Since the fandom is pretty lefty, general opinion swings from positive to exasperated, quite often within seconds of each other during one of Tim's speeches or interviews.

Tim briefly appeared in the RP.

Meme

Tim has appeared in a number of prompts on the meme, most of which have gone unfilled. Often he appears in the background of other fics as a generic Lib Dem. Despite their real life acrimonious relationship, Tim has been most often shipped with Nick Clegg.