The Voice

WATCH: Helen Morgan’s speech to #ldconf

By The Voice | Fri 28th March 2025 - 9:47 am

Our Health and social care spokesperson Helen Morgan made a keynote speech to Conference this weekend.

Watch here.

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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: All the fun of the Conference Rally

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 27th March 2025 - 1:41 pm

The quality of my life dramatically improved when I realised i didn’t actually have to sit through the rally. I could go and have a quiet dinner out with friends and then watch it on You Tube later.

Here is Friday night’s event which had a real live member of the Tracy Family from Thunderbirds. Honest.  It wasn’t Wokingham MP Clive Jones dressed up, honest.

Enjoy.

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Alan Grant

Why liberals should back CANZUK

By Alan Grant | Thu 27th March 2025 - 10:24 am

Reading the Financial Times is not for the easily troubled. At once the news it is mission-bound to report is confusing, intimidating, and depressing when the reader becomes aware of just how much money we don’t have and trivialities on which the rest of it is being spent. 

However, amidst the gloom of flicking through the pink ‘un these days, there is the occasional flicker of light, such as the recent article featuring Sir Ed Davey in which the Lib Dem leader endorsed a great idea – a closer working relationship between Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and our own United Kingdom. 

The notion has a snappy name, it’s called CANZUK, and liberals should support it.

But, CANZUK has an image problem in liberal minds. The idea has previously been misrepresented as a colonialist retread and championed by those who suggested it’s a better alternative to the European Union. The reality is far from that. 

In fact, it is a drawing together of the nations of the world who have gained the most from the fine tradition of British liberty found in the pages of Mill, Hume, Smith, and Locke and whose lineage disappears into the fog of time on these islands. As for being an alternative to the EU, why think so small? 

A throat-clearing is required here. I believe that Brexit was a huge mistake and has left us poorer, more isolated, less confident, and more exposed to global shocks. I am no Brexiteer and would prefer it had never happened. 

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Chris Whiting

Why I’ve realised I’m a Socialist, and why Liberals and Socialists must work together

By Chris Whiting | Thu 27th March 2025 - 8:30 am

For a long time, I simply considered myself a liberal. I believed in personal freedom, a strong but fair economy, and the power of government to create opportunity. I wanted a system that worked for everyone, but I also thought markets, when properly regulated, could be a force for good. But over the years, I’ve come to realise that these values of equality, fairness, and a society that serves all its people are not just liberal values. They are socialist ones too.

This isn’t about abandoning liberalism. My liberal resolve has never been stronger. But, I have been forced to recognise that if you follow the principles of liberalism to their logical conclusion, you arrive at socialism. If you believe in fairness, then you have to acknowledge that an economy where billionaires accumulate wealth while millions struggle is inherently unfair. If you believe in democracy, then you have to ask why it stops at the ballot box. Why workers don’t have real power in their workplaces, or why people don’t have a say in the essential services they rely on.

For too long, liberals have sought to mitigate capitalism’s excesses rather than confront the system itself. They have pushed for fairer taxation, stronger public services, and better protections for workers. But these are reactive measures that attempt to manage inequality rather than prevent it. And the problem with inequality is that it isn’t just an unfortunate byproduct of capitalism. It’s a feature.

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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Layla Moran on Peston

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 27th March 2025 - 6:30 am

Layla Moran appeared on the Peston programme last night to talk about, amongst other things, the Spring statement.

Watch here:

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The Voice

Watch: Daisy Cooper respond to the Spring Statement

By The Voice | Wed 26th March 2025 - 11:09 pm

Watch our Treasury Spokesperson Daisy Cooper respond to the Spring Statement:

The text is below:

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Caron Lindsay

Liberal Democrats respond to the Spring Statement

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 26th March 2025 - 4:15 pm

Rachel Reeves’ Spring statement was so depressing. There is no denying that Labour inherited a whole herd of pigs in pokes when it came to the Government finances, but the way in which they have dealt with it has been so wrong both in the October budget and now. A friend of mine accused the Chancellor of writing George Osborne fan fiction. He’s not wrong.

Faced with the choice of taxing tech giants, banks and large corporations or cutting the lifelines of some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the country, they chose the latter.

Today’s announcement of further cuts to social security for sick and disabled people prompted our DWP spokesperson to criticise the Chancellor:

He said:

Jennie, his beautiful and lovely guide dog, stayed resolutely on her side of the Commons after last week’s friendly overtures to the opposition. 

The Government acknowledges in an impact assessment that its changes will push an additional quarter of a million people, including 50,000 children, into relative poverty.

The potential impact of these reforms on poverty projections has been estimated using a static microsimulation model. Using this model, we estimate there will be an additional 250,000 people (including 50,000 children) in relative poverty after housing costs in 2029/30 as a result of modelled changes to social security, compared to the baseline projections.

For me, it’s just too cruel to cut vital income to people who are sick, who can’t in many instances get treatment, and force them to participate in a job market when the odds are stacked against them as additional costs being forced on to employers via the National Insurance increase.  Are employers seriously going to take making reasonable adjustments seriously if they are hiring? I won’t hold my breath.

Tim Farron told Times Radio that the Chancellor had loads of opportunities to create growth but hadn’t taken them.

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Discrimination and autism: an analysis from a queer, autistic woman

By Anonymous Author | Wed 26th March 2025 - 10:55 am

Hello liberals.

LGBT+ Lib Dems recently made a statement about the safety of its members at Spring Conference. In it, they mentioned some incidents of harassment occurring at Autumn Conference last year. I am one of the people who was harassed by a supporter of Liberal Voice for Women while on the Plus stall.

I have been informed that LVW also made a public statement in response to Plus. In it, they attempt to persuade the reader that the man who harassed me was, essentially, too pathetic to be intimidating. This is an odd choice for a group who state they care deeply about the rights of women and girls, but we don’t really need to rehash all that here (although I will say that when sitting alone, a man who leans into your personal space so far you could count his nose hairs doesn’t need to be built like a bouncer to be intimidating).

No, my biggest concern with their statement is their ableism.

As both statements are publicly available, it’s OK to tell you that the man concerned was diagnosed as autistic after harassing me. The LVW statement implies that he shouldn’t be held accountable for his actions.

Let’s unpack that.

I’m autistic and dyspraxic. Dyspraxia is a specific learning difficulty which means a person struggles with sequences. It’s associated with coordination problems. Because of my dyspraxia, I find driving lessons much more challenging than the average person. Should I, as a disability accommodation, be offered a less rigorous driving test so I have a better chance of passing? 

Hopefully, reader, your answer is an obvious “hell no”. It would make the roads less safe for everyone, including me. Someone who hadn’t learnt to drive safely could just pass the simplified test because of a diagnosis that says they’re inherently slower to learn physical skills. The correct accommodations are those that don’t compromise everyone’s safety (including mine). These include learning to drive an automatic (which several dyspraxic people I know have done) but could also just mean doing more driving lessons than the average person.

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The Voice

WATCH: Ed Davey’s speech to Conference

By The Voice | Wed 26th March 2025 - 9:30 am

Enjoy Ed Davey’s speech to Conference in Harrogate:

The text is below:

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George Cunningham

No time to waste – Block a tsunami of far-right financing!

By George Cunningham | Wed 26th March 2025 - 8:00 am

In December 2024, Elon Musk planned to donate US$100 million to Reform UK via one of his British companies, an amount of money which would have swamped our electoral system. After falling out with Nigel Farage, he now seems to be expressing an interest to back an alternative to Reform UK.

However, the possibility of such a huge donation – which would turn British politics upside down – does not seem to sufficiently worry the Labour government which – no hurry – only intends to introduce legislation for some limited election financing reform in 2026. 

But now, potentially outflanking current UK electoral Law, we have the trans-Atlantic arrival on our shores of a newly-minted far-right Great British PAC (Political Action Committee) (which claims to be centre-right but its intention seems anything but once you read the website).

As stated in an accompanying article,  the PAC’s mission is said to be “resolutely British: to unite the right, fortify it, and prepare it to govern by 2029” when they would indulge in “torching EU laws, axing 400+ bloated quangos and NGOs, restoring judicial accountability, and building a new cadre of patriotic leaders through nationwide training academies.”

An “Operation Shield” will, in the meantime, mount “robust legal challenges and procedural interventions to halt the implementation of legislation that undermines Britain’s sovereignty, economy, and traditional values”. This would be coupled once in power with an “Ultimate Repeal Act” which would introduce “a comprehensive legislative package designed to roll back the layers of bureaucratic overreach and damaging regulations introduced by this socialist Labour government.” 

Now where have I heard something like that before? 

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The Voice

WATCH: Mike Ross’s speech to #ldconf

By The Voice | Tue 25th March 2025 - 11:30 am

Mike Ross is one of our best hopes of winning a mayoral election in May.

The Hull Council leader is our candidate for Hull and East Riding Mayor.

We run the Council in Hull and have a long track record of vigorous, incessant campaigning there.

Here is Mike’s keynote speech to Conference this weekend.

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Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett

Why we must protect non binary identities

By Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett | Tue 25th March 2025 - 9:13 am

Editor’s Note: This is the speech Adrian would have given had they been called in the heavily over-subscribed debate on the Free to be who you are policy paper in Harrogate

Firstly a big thank you to our mover Christine Jardine MP for spending the time in talking at length with so many of us to bring together a wide-ranging motion which covers many topics which for those of us who are at the core of campaigning for LGBTQ+ rights are extremely pleased to have one concise paper to refer to.

I want to speak particularly to lines 112-113 – about recognising non binary identities.

In our general election manifesto in 2024, we specifically highlighted the neglected legal area of recognising and putting into law through the equality act – explicitly the recognition of non binary identities. I also may add that this didn’t cause us any harm to a record haul of 72 MPS so for those in the room who believe there are only two genders…. I’m sorry but we’ve already stood on and won on a position that is diametrically opposed to that view.

Secondly, Around the world, many nations have already recognised non binary identities – including the likes of Germany, Spain, Malta, New Zealand, Argentina to name just a few etc which is one of the key reasons that the UK has slipped from being 1st in ILGA lgbtq+ rankings in 2015 (after the coalition brought in Same Sex Marriage (led by Baroness Featherstone) to 17th in the most recent 2024 list because we have fallen back and regressed on trans and non binary protections in particular.

As a non binary individual, though staunchly retaining my same-sex attraction the laws are vague, and there have already been cases which have affirmed non binary rights within the gender reassignment protected characteristic – however those are being challenged and we need a much firmer recognition in law to protect my gender position – thankfully here at Conference, I have the option of Mx and they/them pronouns but that as many of you will know in the DEI field is being withdrawn due to excessive interference from governments – particularly in the US.

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Mental health crisis, or mental health failure?

By Catherine Wilson | Mon 24th March 2025 - 4:30 pm

There is much talk about the crisis in mental health. A significant number of young people are not in employment or education, and there is a big rise in autism and ADHD diagnoses.

There is an odd dichotomy between the advice you read in newspaper problem pages, like Philippa Perry’s in The Guardian, and treatments offered on the NHS.

In the former, childhood experiences are considered, with links made to current problems. The unique complexity of each individual and their situation is recognised.

As a mental health professional, I found that this approach is the most helpful in bringing about positive change. It enables people to stay in work, and make good relationships.

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Cian Tynan

Young carers and SEND education

By Cian Tynan | Mon 24th March 2025 - 2:07 pm

I was pleased with the motion at conference on Sunday, where conference overwhelmingly voted to back the SEND education motion. The debate consisted of those who had experienced that system as a child, facing adversity at school, others were parents who had to navigate the system where waits for EHCPs are well over the legal limit, or schools simply do not provide support. In this article, I wish to highlight the issues that a third group face, our young carers.

We are the party of carers, and thus I was disappointed not to see any young carers voices emphasised in this debate, there is a fresh perspective to be had. The SEND education system, as it currently stands, places many more siblings in the position of a young carer. A lack of holiday provision, and a lack of wrap around care for school, plunges many more young people into the position of carers. My brother has a global learning disability, which makes life challenging, not as challenging as others, granted, but certainly not easy! He goes to a special school twenty miles from where we live. My mother is a GP, working until 6pm on certain days. School finishes at 3.15 pm. This is where the problem lies. There is no wraparound care whatsoever. We can feel bored sitting at a GP surgery, waiting, at the best of times. Now, imagine trying to do this as a 9 year old with special educational needs. The solution? I look after him as often as I can.

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Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 24 March 2025 – the Joni Mitchell tribute version…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 24th March 2025 - 11:41 am

“Stoking the star maker machinery behind the popular song”

And so, the massed ranks of the Party hierarchy, featuring an unexpected appearance from the Leader, swept aside virtually all reservations and moved responsibility for Westminster selections from the States to the Federal Party. Given the rumours of widespread opposition, the overwhelming nature of the vote in favour – and if anyone tells you it was close, it really wasn’t – gives the new regime some credit in the bank as the transition takes place.

I’d already outlined my concerns but, at the end of the day, the focus should be on making whatever emerges work.

On a final note, however, whilst a large vat of molasses was poured over English Candidates Committee and other key players in the candidate approval and selection system, the damage to that relationship will take a long time to be repaired, if it ever is. For volunteers are people too, no matter how far up the Party structure they are…

“I was a free man in Paris, I felt unfettered and alive”

I was pleased to be in the Conference hall for the debate on F9: “Free to be Who You Are”, and the vast majority in favour of the motion as amended will, hopefully, put further internal Party debate into abeyance for a while.

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 23rd March 2025 - 9:18 am

Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on a high. His Syrian proxy is in power in Damascus. The Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan has called on his followers to lay down their arms and disband. Kurdish fighters in Syria are doing that and amalgamating their forces with those of the new Erdogan-backed government.

It is the perfect time for the Turkish president to go after his domestic opposition. And that is exactly what he has done.

This week he arrested his chief political opponent—Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu– on charges of corruption and aiding and abetting terrorists. Funnily enough, the arrest came just before Imamoglu was due to be nominated as the candidate for the presidency by the Republican People’s Party (CHP).

The elections are not due until 2028, but the opposition wanted to give Imamoglu the maximum campaign time to break the stranglehold that Erdogan has on the media, courts, police and electoral processes.

Erdogan shouldn’t be worried about the Istanbul mayor simply because he has announced that he is retiring in 2028 when his term of office ends. In fact, he has to retire. Unless… he changes the constitution.

The current constitution limits the president to two terms in office. Erdoğan was first elected in 2014, but changed the constitution so that he was able to serve three consecutive terms instead of the two under the old constitution.

Erdoğan has made statements in the past indicating that he would retire in 2028, but there’s also speculation that he might seek to alter the constitution or push for an extension of his term. Both of which are possible given the dominance of his Law and Justice Party (AKP). And his chances are improved even more by the elimination of the only personality presenting a serious challenge.

Putin

In 2007 President George W. Bush declared: “I looked into the soul of President Putin and found a man I could trust.” He later admitted that that he was wrong.

In 2014 Putin denied that Russian troops were in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. They were “local militia” or “volunteers,” he claimed. He also denied any intention of annexing Crimea. He lied about the “volunteers” and annexed Crimea.

In July 2014 Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over Eastern Ukraine. Putin blamed the Ukrainians. A multinational investigation determined it was the Russians.

At Helsinki, the Russian leader told Donald Trump that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 US presidential elections. The Mueller Report and every one of the US intelligence agencies said it did. Putin dismissed the allegations as part of a wider conspiracy against Russia.

In 2018 former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with novichok in the quiet English town of Salisbury. Putin said it had nothing to do with Russia. British intelligence determined that he ordered the attempted assassination and identified the assassins.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an Expat: First Shots Fired

By Tom Arms | Sat 22nd March 2025 - 10:14 am

The first shots were fired this week in the war between the White House and the American judiciary.

As expected, the courts have moved to block Donald Trump’s disregard for the constitution and the rule of law and to nudge him toward legality.

Not so expected is the Republicans response: The threat of impeachment.

So far four judges have either been threatened with impeachment or have had articles of impeachment lodged against them in the House of Representatives. They are:

  • Judge Paul Engelmayer issued an order preventing DOGE from accessing the federal payments system.
  • Judge John Bates ruled that health agencies must restore data related to gender-affirming care,
  • Judge Amir Ali granted a temporary restraining order that halted Trump’s 90-day suspension of foreign aid.
  • Judge John McConell ordered the White House to lift a freeze on federal spending.

But the bulk of the White House’s venom has been saved for and directed against Judge James Boasberg. He had the temerity to challenge the administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport suspected Venezuelan gang members to an El Salvadorean prison.

The deportation was wrong on so many counts. For a start, the deportees were suspected criminals. They had not been convicted in a court of law. Furthermore, the Alien Enemies Act allows for the deportation of citizens of countries with which the US is at war. America is not at war with Venezuela. Finally, the administration ignored the judge’s ruling not to land the deportees in El Salvador and to return to the US.

Trump has chosen his fight well. Immigrants are unpopular. Immigrants who are suspected members of a violent Venezuelan gang even more so. So, MAGA—and the Republican Congress—is standing four-square behind Trump.

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Matthew Ma

ALDC By-Election Report, 20th March

By Matthew Ma | Fri 21st March 2025 - 11:07 pm

This week saw 6 principal council by-elections held across England and Scotland, with the Conservatives, Labour, and Lib Dems each defending 2. The Lib Dems lost a seat to the Tories while Labour lost both of their Scottish defences to the SNP. The Lib Dems and Tories both held the remaining seats.

The headline win this week belongs to Cllr Bradley Nelson and the team in Mole Valley DC, who won the seat in Holmwoods & Beare Green by a huge margin. Congratulations to Cllr Bradley and the team on the win!

Mole Valley DC, Holmwoods & Beare Green
Liberal Democrat (Bradley Nelson): 748 (46.5%, +1.1%)
Conservative: 437 (27.2%, -2.8%)
Reform: 348 (21.6%, +11.5%)
Green Party: 76 (4.7%, -3.6%)

The other Lib Dem defence this week was held on Wednesday. In the Abbots Langley & Bedmond ward in Three Rivers DC, the Conservative vote doubled, leading us to slip to second place. Thank you to Aidan Betley and the local team for running a hard fought campaign, so close.

Three Rivers DC, Abbots Langley & Bedmond
Conservative: 657 (40.0%, +19.9%)
Liberal Democrat (Aidan Bentley): 552 (33.6%, -24.9%)
Reform: 214 (13.0%, new)
Green Party: 128 (7.8%, +0.3%)
Labour: 91 (5.5%, -8.3%)

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Mark Frankel

Just because you’re paranoid …

By Mark Frankel | Fri 21st March 2025 - 11:23 am

I suggested in the LibDem Voice the other day that the collision in the North Sea was Russian sabotage. There were some sceptical comments. But was it just a coincidence that the captain of the offending vessel was Russian and most of his crew were too? The police are investigating and are discouraging such speculation. But I’m writing this when the headlines are ‘Major disruption as Heathrow closed all day after nearby fire causes power outage’. The Fire Brigade are investigating. I wonder what they will find?

The US-based Centre for Strategic & International Studies says Russia is conducting an escalating and violent campaign of sabotage and subversion against European and U.S. targets in Europe led by Russian military intelligence. The number of Russian attacks nearly tripled between 2023 and 2024. Russia’s targets are transportation, government, critical infrastructure, and industry, and its main weapons and tactics have included explosives, blunt or edged instruments (such as anchors), and electronic attack.

Frank Gardner, the BBC’s security correspondent, says Nato believes Russia is waging an undeclared war, something called “hybrid warfare”, and that the target is Western Europe itself, with the aim of punishing or deterring Western nations from continuing their military support for Ukraine. Russia and the Soviet Union have a rich tradition of conducting this type of warfare. Hybrid warfare, also called “grey zone” or “sub-threshold” warfare, is when a hostile state carries out an anonymous, deniable attack, usually in highly suspicious circumstances. It will be enough to harm their opponent, especially their infrastructure assets, but stop short of being an attributable act of war. Gardner highlights in particular the threat to the UK lurking on our sea beds, from Russian sabotage of submarine cables. In January the Defence Secretary John Healey MP told parliament about a Russian spy ship, the Yantar, which is gathering intelligence and mapping the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure.

I believe the collision in the North Sea and the fire at Heathrow are part of an emerging pattern. I may be paranoid but doesn’t mean Putin is not out to get us.

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Mary Reid

In the dog house

By Mary Reid | Fri 21st March 2025 - 8:25 am

So this happened:

Wendy Chamberlain, our Chief Whip, called Jennie in for a reprimand.

We now have an official statement from Jennie.

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Dorothy Thornhill

Dorothy Thornhill writes: We need to modernise our approach to candidate selection

By Dorothy Thornhill | Thu 20th March 2025 - 10:07 pm

People who know me well know I always say it as it is. So I won’t mess about.

For me, there is some unfinished business at conference this weekend – and that’s why I’m asking you to support Motion F10 on Saturday.

How many more reports do we need before we modernise the party’s approach to candidates?

The 2015 General Election Review called for serious changes to candidate selection and support. And so did the 2019 General Election Review that I chaired.

And three years ago yet another report by my colleague Alison Suttie spelt out the real changes that needed to happen.

Yet here we are. A decade later, three major reports on – and there are still people arguing we don’t have a problem, and there’s no need for change.

I know that a lack of change is wrong – and so do many members up and down the country.

The need for speed

There has been a lot of information flying around about F10 over recent days, some of it not always completely accurate.  We need to face facts. What we’re currently doing on candidates isn’t working. For a start, it’s just not fast enough. In the last parliament we had virtually no candidates selected for two years. In the end, time ran out to run member ballots – with only just over 200 candidates in place.

That meant members in over 400 constituencies didn’t get to choose their candidate. They were all appointed, many right at the very last minute. It also meant that there was no time to train and support those candidates properly after selection, and no time for them to grow their constituencies.

Any campaigner worth their salt knows that having a candidate in place, building a team and showing leadership, drives up campaigning activity. That’s just common sense, and we have clear stats to prove it.

Yet we insist on sticking with a system that delivers too few candidates, and too late on in the election cycle.

Clarity and diversity

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The Independent View: Nature-friendly farming cut

By Paul Behrens and Simon Oldridge | Thu 20th March 2025 - 3:52 pm

Farmers hung out to dry while fossil fuels cash in—more bad news for climate and nature

The Government’s outdated climate and nature targets, coupled with a lack of joined-up decision-making, have delivered yet another disastrous policy blunder. Last week, the Government announced a pause in payments to farmers under the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

SFI is one of the key Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes designed to support farmers in working in harmony with nature—to restore ecosystems, lock up carbon, cut pollution in our rivers, and help to protect communities from downstream flooding. Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Tim Farron MP, rightly said that the closure of the SFI was a “betrayal” that will “outrage everyone who cares for our environment”.

This reckless decision strikes a blow to the very work needed to stabilise our environment for a liveable and prosperous future. It also betrays hardworking farmers who, despite their crucial role in ensuring food security and environmental sustainability, struggle to make ends meet in an unfair food industry. Most farming household income is well below the national average, contrary to the image portrayed by wealthy hobbyists like Jeremy Clarkson. In horticulture—whose products we need more of for a healthy diet and planet —average incomes are even lower.

This abrupt pause to the SFI puts vital nature-friendly farming at risk and adds further financial strain to farmers’ wafer-thin margins.

A failure of joined-up government

The Government’s approach in tackling the climate and nature crisis, which Liberal Democrats MPs have been challenging, undermines support for a just transition to an environmentally friendly future.

On one hand, DEFRA is pulling the rug out from under farmers striving to adopt sustainable practices, who will have to wait “a year without support” as Sarah Dyke MP correctly points out. On the other, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is pouring tens of billions of public funding into the oil industry, using the fig leaf of unproven, costly carbon capture technology to justify a new wave of gas power stations and polluting blue hydrogen plants.

Labour was given the chance to fix this systemic failure in January when Liberal Democrat MP, Roz Savage, proposed the Climate and Nature Bill. The Bill offered a joined-up approach to tackling the climate and nature crisis that would lock the UK’s international commitments into domestic law.

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Caron Lindsay

Caron’s Guide to the craziness of Conference – Updated for Harrogate 2025

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 20th March 2025 - 12:43 pm

Spring 2024 voting passConferences in Harrogate have, so far, been very special for me. The first time I went there, in 1992, I saw a message on the Wednesday for me on the noticeboard to contact the main desk. They told me to ring my parents. I had to go across the road to a payphone and feed coins into it – something that some people reading this will probably never have done. Obviously I was very worried, as my Dad had just had surgery. But the news was brilliant. My sister had given birth to her first child, the gorgeous Laura, two whole days before. And I had been too absorbed in Conference to realise. That Wednesday was in fact Black Wednesday too.

Seven years later, I was back in Harrogate with my own baby son. He was then just 3 months old and he came all over Conference with me.

This year, I should get in just in time to go to the Social Liberal Forum lunch at the Crowne Plaza. Last year’s event was fabulous and I met Bobby Dean and Victoria Collins for the first time. I was so impressed with them and I am thrilled that they are both now MPs. This year, they have local MP Tom Gordon, Pippa Heylings and Bobby is back for a repeat performance.

I have revamped my Guide to the Craziness of Conference for this year. Enjoy. And if you have any questions, ask away in the comments.

Federal Conference is probably the best fun that you will ever have in your life. You will thoroughly enjoy every exhausting moment. If you’re new, it can be a bit overwhelming until you get used to the sensory overload. I had a long break from going to them and when I returned, in 2011, I spent the first day wandering round in a state of wide-eyed amazement,  like a child in a toy shop. Spring Conference is smaller than Autumn, but a look at the agenda tells me that there are at least two things going on that I want to go to at all times.

So, with that in mind, I thought I’d throw together a fairly random list of tips and hints for getting the best out of the annual cornucopia of Liberal Democracy. If you have any other Conference survival tips, let me know.

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Mary Reid

Conference Extra

By Mary Reid | Thu 20th March 2025 - 10:37 am

Tomorrow Lib Dems will be gathering in Harrogate ready for Spring Conference. Whilst the formal opening will be on Saturday at 9am, there are a couple of events on Friday. There will be a Consultative Session on the Policy Review at 4.45pm and the Conference Rally at 6.30pm.

Conference Extra is a vital document if you want to make sense of the debates, because it includes all the amendments to motions.  You can read or download Conference Extra here. It should be read in conjunction with the Agenda and Directory. Conference Extra also lists all the questions submitted on reports, plus proposed emergency motions.

Debates include:

F4: Science, Innovation and Technology. Note that part of the motion was omitted in the Agenda and Directory. The extra lines are in Conference Extra. There are three amendments.

F9: Free to be who you are. There is a drafting amendment, plus three amendments for debate.

F10: Implementing the Lessons of the General Election Review. This is a constitutional amendment which has generated a lot of discussion. It proposes changes to the processes for selecting Parliamentary Candidates. There are two amendments.

F14: The UK’s response to Trump. There is a drafting amendment, plus three amendments for debate.

F22: Emergency Motion. Members attending in person or online will be able to vote to select which motion will fill this slot. The choices are between:

  • Dropped Targets – A Threat to Care
  • Local Elections – Democracy Delayed is Democracy Denied
  • New Hospitals Programme – A Broken Promise
  • Restoring International Development Assistance
  • Securing a Path to Citizenship for Refugees

F23: Animal Welfare in the Food System. There are two amendments.

F25: Ending the Crisis; A Fair Deal for Children with SEND. There are two amendments.

The Leader’s speech will be on Sunday at 11.45am.

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Mark Valladares

19 March 2025 – yesterday’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 20th March 2025 - 7:30 am
  • US-Russia call: Putin is “stringing Trump along”
  • NICs vote: Labour MPs vote for “health tax” on GPs, pharmacies and care homes
  • Conservative local election launch: “buck stops” with Badenoch
  • “Time for a fair deal for farmers” – Carmichael to introduce Food Supply Chain Fairness Bill
  • Scottish Government admits it failed to conduct safeguarding review
  • Minister visited Skye House just months before cruelty allegations surfaced
  • Severn Estuary Commission Report – Get on with Building the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon
  • Rennie responds to damning evidence session on funding crisis at Dundee University

US-Russia call: Putin is “stringing Trump along”

Responding to Putin’s phone call with Trump, Calum Miller MP, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, said:

Donald Trump’s fawning call with Putin couldn’t be more different to his and JD Vance’s shameful bullying of Zelensky in the Oval Office.

It’s clear Trump is being played by Putin – stringing him along and currying favour even as his savage war machine continues to push deeper into Ukraine.

Now is the time for the UK and our allies in Europe and the Commonwealth to redouble our efforts to support Ukraine’s defence and achieve a lasting peace.

NICs vote: Labour MPs vote for “health tax” on GPs, pharmacies and care homes

Responding to the Government voting to reject a Liberal Democrat amendment which would have exempted health and care providers from the national insurance rise, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

Labour MPs today have voted for a health tax on GPs, dentists, pharmacies, hospices and care homes, and it is patients who will pay the price.

The Liberal Democrats are proud we have led the fight to exempt health and care providers from this misguided tax hike, and we will not give up now.

On April 6th worried social care providers and GP surgeries are going to be hit with bills they simply cannot afford. Rachel Reeves must finally see sense, U-turn on this disastrous policy and exempt health and care providers from this damaging jobs tax.

Conservative local election launch: “buck stops” with Badenoch

Commenting on the Conservatives’ local election launch tomorrow (20th March) a Liberal Democrat spokesperson said:

The buck stops with bungling Badenoch. If she fails to deliver in the local elections, the writing will truly be on the wall for her and for the Conservative Party.

Whilst they compete with Reform and tilt ever further to the right, the Liberal Democrats are focused on delivering for residents on issues including the cost of living, sewage in our rivers and the emergency in our NHS and care.

We’re hearing on the doorsteps that people haven’t forgiven the Conservatives for all the damage they’ve done. If Kemi speaks to voters tomorrow, she will doubtless hear the same. Voters have a clear choice in May, and across the country, including in Buckinghamshire, they are turning to the Liberal Democrats as community champions who will stand up for them.

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Mark Valladares

18 March 2025 – yesterday’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 19th March 2025 - 11:30 pm
  • Badenoch speech: Scrapping net zero would ‘undermine national energy security’
  • Helen Maguire: Not enough has been done to address abuse against women in our Armed Forces
  • Children’s Bill: Labour vote against free school meals “deeply disappointing”
  • Scotland’s disease burden forecast to increase by more than half

Badenoch speech: Scrapping net zero would ‘undermine national energy security’

Responding to Kemi Badenoch’s speech today claiming that Net Zero by 2050 is ‘impossible’, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Daisy Cooper said:

Kemi Badenoch is taking a leaf straight out of Nigel Farage’s playbook while turning her back on the millions of former Conservative voters who care about protecting our environment.

Scrapping net zero and renewable energy targets will simply increase our reliance on foreign fossil fuels, lining the pockets of the likes of Vladimir Putin and his cronies.

Whether it’s abandoning plans for clean energy, slashing maternity pay or undermining the UK’s national energy security, bungling Badenoch’s plans would leave our country worse off.

Helen Maguire: Not enough has been done to address abuse against women in our Armed Forces

Commenting on the Ministry of Defence’s announcement of a new Task Force to tackle violence against women in the military, Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson and Iraq Veteran, Helen Maguire MP, said:

We welcome today’s announcement of a Task Force targeting violence against women and girls in the military. It’s shameful, though, that not enough has been done to address what appears to be widespread abuse in our Armed Forces.

It is shameful how previous policies have continued to fail these brave women. There have been abject failures in leadership in our Armed Forces and from government over many years on this.

The Liberal Democrats have argued consistently that much more must be done to safeguard women in the military. Labour needs to move urgently to fully implement the remaining recommendations in the 2021 Atherton Report. This is the least we owe to the women serving courageously across our services.

Children’s Bill: Labour vote against free school meals “deeply disappointing”

Responding to Labour voting against a Liberal Democrat amendment to automatically enrol eligible children for free school meals, Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Munira Wilson MP said:

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Caron Lindsay

Statement from LGBT+ Lib Dems

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th March 2025 - 4:30 pm

LGBT+ Lib Dems co-chairs Charley Hasted and Luke Allan have issued a statement concerning distressing incidents that took place at Federal Conference in Brighton. 

At the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference in Autumn 2024, a volunteer for Liberal Voice for Women harassed two members of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats on two separate occasions. The volunteer in question admitted waiting until our members, one of whom was an autistic woman less than half his age, were alone on our exhibition stall to target them. We are pleased that a disciplinary panel recognised his behaviour for what it was and upheld a complaint against him.

We are disappointed, though, that when his behaviour was raised with members of LVfW- including members of their committee, both at the time and after the fact, our concerns about this man’s behaviour towards a vulnerable woman were roundly dismissed by them.

For an organisation that claims to care about women’s safety, it is hypocritical in the extreme for them to dismiss concerns about a man’s behaviour towards a woman being harassing or intimidatory, when the basis for their dismissal seems only to be his age and/or that they agree with the opinions that led to him harassing our members.

LGBT+ Lib Dems stands firmly behind the principle that targeted harassment of the kind our members experienced is unacceptable, regardless of the age or views of the person doing it. Moreover, we have been consistently clear that we expect our volunteers to behave decently towards all attendees at Conference, and have worked productively with Party Leadership at various levels to ensure this is the case, and try and minimise conflict.

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George Sykes

Making the cement for the yellow wall – how candidate selection reform will make us stronger

By George Sykes | Wed 19th March 2025 - 1:48 pm

On May 22nd last year, I watched Rishi Sunak announce the general election. Little did I know that a few hectic weeks later, we’d be celebrating having 72 MPs, an enormous achievement that is a testament to the hard work of volunteers and staff across the party.

However, we did not achieve that success by continuing to do what we had always done; we did it by ruthlessly introspecting and improving. Just because we have won does not mean we should stop our self-reflection. By my calculations, if we introspect as hard as we did last time, we should end up with 468 MPs at the next election…

As the chair of a Local Party that covers ten constituencies (with two being shared with other local party’s) in a labour facing area I had a few key aims at the election:

  • Stand a candidate in every constituency
  • Campaign in the seats we had existing campaigns in to ensure our voters had their views represented in the general election debate
  • Win in our designated local target seat

I’m proud to say that with the hard work of a team of volunteers across Leeds and the whole region, we achieved all of those. However, all was not entirely rosy for the following reasons:

  • Failed to stand a single women candidate across all ten seats
  • Lost our deposit in all but two seats (costing the party £4,000)

This is far from ideal, and if we are serious about being a diverse, representative, national party, we need to fix it.

Firstly, we need to enable our amazing volunteer teams to focus on what they can do best, identifying the members in their areas who can be recruited as parliamentary candidates. We know that proactively identifying and talking to potential candidates rather than waiting for them to come to us is key to increasing diversity. Who is better placed to do this than volunteers drawn from and embedded in our local parties?

By offloading the administration element of candidate recruitment, we can enable our volunteers to focus on building connections with potential candidates. This will develop a deeper pool of potential candidates more representative of the communities we seek to represent.

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Tony Paterson

Let Lib Dems, not Farage, “Reform UK”

By Tony Paterson | Wed 19th March 2025 - 11:55 am

At this time of crisis, the Lib Dems must seize back the `Reform UK’ initiative from Nigel Farage and his ramshackle party. Freedom is at stake.

Voting intentions (polling data from 10 March) are 15% for the Lib Dems and 23% for Reform UK (from 11% and 25% last December). Here’s how to build on this poll hike.

Farage’s stated belief in electoral reform contains an inherent contradiction: while he ostensibly champions PR, his dream of being PM in 2029 hinges on First Past The Post being maintained.      

To be recognised as the real party of reform, the Lib Dems must recapture the initiative. First, use PR as a protest vehicle for appealing to voters disenchanted with a system which gave 2/3 of seats to a party with only 1/3 of the votes. 

Secondly, keep flagging up Farage’s championing of Putin during the 2024 GE campaign, when, pointing to NATO’s and the EU’s eastward expansion, he claimed that ‘we provoked this war’. Already in 2014, in an interview with GQ magazine, Farage had named Putin as the world leader he most admired. And let’s not forget his many appearances on Russia Today, at least three of them after Putin invaded Crimea in 2014.

But more recently, Farage has been presenting himself as the voice of moderation within his party. We must highlight Farage’s volatility, contrasted with our consistent liberalism.

Ed Davey, who is stalwartly supporting Ukraine, has proposed large increases in our defence spending as a percentage of GDP and, over the past few weeks, has used many of his PMQs to back Ukraine, is best placed to challenge Reform UK over UK military reform. Farage’s well publicised association with Trump makes it hard for him to follow suit. Polling data shows how deeply split Reform voters are over whether their party would do better with or without Farage.

World War III, using modern means of warfare to undermine Western freedom and democracy, has already begun. (See Economist `Want to stop a third world war?’, 30.5.24). Warfare today is hybrid: insidious, dangerous, but not always obvious. It includes ‘grey zone’ warfare: ‘salami-slicing’ (as Putin did to Crimea in 2014, severing it from Ukraine while causing little Western reaction), cyber warfare, sabotaging crucial infrastructure, etc. 

Ideologically, the strategy involves harnessing populism to build up far-right parties across Europe, including in the UK. How can we jolt the country as a whole into recognising that we, on the other hand, stand for freedom and democracy?  

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James Baker

The Independent View: We need to shine a light on attacks on encryption.

By James Baker | Wed 19th March 2025 - 8:30 am

Save Encryption Practice safe text next to speech bubble in progress pride flag coloursLast Friday, journalists and civil liberties organisations waited outside London’s High Court while inside a secret court hearing took place. Despite efforts to petition the court, they were denied access even though the outcome impacts people in the UK and around the world.

Leaks to the press suggest that Apple may have been appealing a Technical Capability Notice (TCN) issued under the Investigatory Powers Act — often dubbed the Snoopers’ Charter. The TCN is believed to have instructed Apple to introduce a capability that would allow the company to access encrypted data stored in the cloud. We say believed because Apple are not permitted to disclose the detail of the TCN.

These secretive actions by the Home Office have already had real-world consequences. Apple has disabled its Advanced Data Protection service in the UK — a move that undermines the security of users’ iCloud backups and their overall digital privacy.

Liberal Democrat MPs have rightly written to the Home Secretary, warning that any government-mandated “backdoor” to end-to-end encryption (E2EE) introduces vulnerabilities that bad actors — including criminals and hostile states — could exploit. They also raised concerns about the lack of scrutiny surrounding such notices.

Discussing issues such as E2EE can often seem technical. I like to use a really simple analogy of locks to explain things. Most of us use locks every day — on our homes, cars, or devices. Criminals, of course, use locks, too, for example, to secure stolen goods. But we don’t respond to that by banning locks. That would be foolish as we understand the benefits to the law-abiding majority outweigh the benefits to criminals. 

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged and | 6 Comments
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