Author Archives: Caron Lindsay

Caron Lindsay

Is Ed Davey toast?

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 11th October 2026 - 8:30 pm

The news that two Lib Dem  front benchers, Alison Bennett quietly and Charlie Maynard with a bit more noise have resigned their positions  this week should concern the party.

It’s been clear for some time that all is not well within the party, and the controlling, top-down management style adopted by the party leadership since the General Election in 2024. This sort of rigid discipline didn’t work so well in the Labour Party in the first two years of the Starmer administration and it sure as hell is doomed in a liberal party. We are supposed to encourage independence of mind and spirit.

Nick Baird’s critique of the “equine pacification” strategy on Friday encapsulated well what many party members think and it is clear that this view is reflected in a fairly significant chunk of the parliamentary party. The sense I get is that a fair number of MPs don’t necessarily want to change leader, but they do want us to show ourselves as a radical liberal party that speaks to the whole nation, not just the blue wall and they do want to be treated like adults whose contribution to party strategy should be listened to.

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Caron Lindsay

Andy Burnham’s speech was good: Here’s how Lib Dems can make the implementation better

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 30th September 2026 - 8:05 am

Chris Bowers talked about the lack of a “Yesss” moment at our Conference yesterday.

Well, like buses, if you wait long enough, several come along at once – the problem is that they were in the speech of the leader of another party.

Andy Burnham’s speech yesterday was quite simply one of the best I have ever heard from a UK politician. It had heart and soul and ideas and emotion and mission. I had goosebumps and it’s a long time since a speech has done that to me. I’d have to go back to Obama for that.

A speech that targeted the good emotions, ignited the things that bind us together. You have to give it credit.

I will never, ever join the Labour Party a) because I am a liberal to my core and b) because they, whatever good they do are so authoritarian and centralising and one size fits all that they need a liberal party to stop them when they go too far.

But the job of a liberal party is to help rebuild a culture of togetherness to combat the horrific targeting of marginalised communities we have seen from Reform and its evil twin Restore, the Conservatives and, yes, from the Labour Party when it’s tried to ape Reform in a cowardly quest to get its vote back.

We should broadly welcome Andy Burnham’s clear enthusiasm to get moving on closer relations with Europe, social care, electoral reform, getting utilities into more public ownership. So what has our reaction been:

“Andy Burnham spent years telling the country what he would do if he were in power. Now that he is sitting in Number 10, what we got was a lot of ‘Definitely Maybe’ and a total absence of action today.

“Families struggling with a broken social care system cannot wait until after another election and it can’t be funded from the pockets of our poorest pensioners. Communities blighted by sewage cannot wait yet another decade to finally stop profit trumping morals in our water industry.

“This Prime Minister had a historic opportunity to start to fix our broken voting system and rebuild our relationship with Europe, but everything remains a maybe.

“This looks too much like Starmerism with a veneer of panache.”

It’s all a bit po-faced.

Surely we should be saying that there are things we can work with him on?

Now, it’s not surprising that we are rushing to defend the Pension Triple Lock that was our idea. Over the past decade and a bit it’s worked to restore poorer pensioner’s incomes. And pensioners on fixed incomes have a lot to lose as, for example, energy bills get higher leading to wider inflation.

I get that it’s an important thing for us, but I do think we need to look at whether there is some wriggle room here. Has it done its job? Do we need to look at what Burnham is proposing in more detail and look at what it does to affect older people’s lives in a holistic way?

The right are going to go after Burnham on this big time. Do we really need to be part of that chorus? Using some savings from the triple lock while protecting poorer pensioners does seem like an idea that we should not immediately dismiss.  We could perhaps be more nuanced in our comments.

Yet I suspect we will be contributing to the noise with petitions and campaigns and votes against. Let’s be a bit more constructive. Let’s listen to young people as well who feel as though their generation is being forgotten.

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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Max Wilkinson’s speech to Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 23rd September 2026 - 3:55 pm

Creep glasses and jokes at Robert Jenrick’s expense were high on the agenda for Max Wilkinson in his speech to Conference.

I am used to being disappointed by Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesperson’s speeches. I’d rather a more positive message on immigration but this was better than we have had in recent times.

I was glad to see him prioritise tackling violence against women and girls. While I had been worried about the packaging of the campaign about smart glasses,it’s an important issue to tackle. Anna Sabine and Wera Hobhouse’s amendment at Conference called for it to be very clear when …

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Caron Lindsay

What do we think of Ed Davey’s tax cut announcement?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 23rd September 2026 - 8:48 am

I always find it odd that, when we have had hundreds of Lib Dems discussing policy for days, we then have the leader announcing a major new policy in his speech, just as everyone’s about to go out the door.

In Spring it was a new British nuke, which we’ve mercifully not heard much about since. However the tax cut policy announced yesterday might have more longevity.

Basically we are going back to one of the really popular ideas from the coalition years, and raising the threshold at which you pay tax to £15,000. This is the idea initially brought forward by my Lib Dem Women colleague Lizzie Jewkes and which was talked about in a New Statesman podcast just last week. Lizzie was described as an “ordinary woman” and anyone who knows this very lovable force of nature will know she is as far from ordinary as you can get.

When we were in coalition, the Tories constantly claimed credit for this policy because it was so popular without mentioning that it was our idea, of course.

Anyway, the other proposal is that we would raise the threshold at which you pay the 40% tax rate to £56,000.

This would all be paid for by the benefits of rejoining the single market and customs union, proposals which we can probably all get behind.

The detail is set out n this article on the party website.

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Caron Lindsay

What does a Lib Dem “trans activist” look like?

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 22nd September 2026 - 9:30 am

Yesterday afternoon, Lib Dem Conference passed a motion calling for the EHRC’s Code of Practice to be withdrawn and for work to be done on a cross party basis to work out what changes in the law were necessary to ensure that everyone, women, trans people, everyone can go about their lives in dignity and safety. It is not beyond the wit of people to find a way of doing that, and it is something that can be relatively easy given the political will.

The motion was passed overwhelmingly, as these things usually are. In fact, it looked to me as if the number voting against was even smaller than usual.

There has been much criticism on social media and the actual right wing media by members of the gender critical group within the party. They’re accusing Ed Davey of being in the thrall of militant “trans activists” in the party.

Now, and I say this with love, the idea that Ed Davey takes a blind bit of notice of anything ordinary party members say to him, is a bit of a stretch. He makes his own mind up about things and, like every leader in the existence of this party and most others, takes as much power as he can get his hands on. This is just what leaders do. But the idea that he is in thrall to any of us masses is just ridiculous.

Anyway, what do these “trans activists” who apparently make up around 90% of those in the hall and a probably similar proportion of the online vote look like?

Well, I guess I must be one.

So, what am I like?

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Caron Lindsay

What’s on at Conference today?

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 21st September 2026 - 9:15 am

Conference kicks off with two brief policy debates on making recruitment fairer and regulating abusive use of the legal system. Then GP services in England before a keynote speech by Max Wilkinson.

After a three hour lunch break for fringes, there’s a debate on supporting people to age well in England, a keynote speech by Jane Dodds and a motion on stopping violence against women and girls in the digital age from Lib Dem Women and Marie Goldman, our Women and Equalities spokesperson.

The day ends with the parliamentary parties’ report and two emergency motions. One is from YL on wildfires and the other is from LGBT+ Lib Dems setting out a way forward after the imposition of the cruel and unworkable EHRC Code of Practice on access to services. Under this code, trans people can be banned from facilities associated with their lived gender, and, for trans men and some non binary people, also from facilities associated with their sex assigned at birth. It also suggests that access can be policed based on how people look so if you are a cis woman who is very tall, or with a deeper voice, you could find yourself being challenged when you go to the toilet.

The motion suggests a cross party committee of MPs to work out a way to fix this to ensure dignity and safety for everyone. All very sensible.

The Young Liberals have also put in a motion on action to tackle wildfires which calls for a number of things including preventative measures, assessing risk, temporary restrictions in areas of high risk.

Here’s the day in full.

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Caron Lindsay

Caron’s kitchen table diary

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 20th September 2026 - 10:31 am

I’m settling in to day 2 of watching Conference. I’ve already spent more time “in the hall” than I have in the past 3 in person conferences. I’m uaually to be found on the Lib Dem Women or LGBT+ Lib Dem stalls, or flitting about the place from meeting to meeting.

And how gorgeous is this stage set?  When I saw the purple, I wondered at first if our Jennie Rigg had had a hand in it. But, seriously, if she had, it would have had a lot more purple and Libby would have been turned into a bat.

What I really like is that we are wearing our heart on our sleeve. Right there, the quote from the preamble to our constitution closest to our hearts:

No-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.

On the other side of the stage, “Liberty, Equality, Community.”

And that’s not all. I usually avoid the rally for two reasons. First of all, I can watch it on You Tube any time. I get the chance to catch up with my friends and Lib Dem family twice a year. Secondly, the rally can be a bit of a vomit inducing cringe-fest.

Last night it was an assault on the emotions as speaker after speaker spoke about what motivated them as Lib Dems. Anton Georgiou from Brent talking about his grandparents arriving from Cyprus with £20 and working hard to make their lives here and how that has inspired him to do all the work he does to support refugees.  Wendy Chamberlain talking about how her mother caring for her Grandad and her husband caring for his mum inspired her to achieve her Carer’s Leave Act.

I wonder if all this values-forward stuff has anything to do with James Holt, our excellent head of media during the coalition years who has returned as our Director of Political Strategy. I am sure that he will understand the need to make sure that our actions match up.

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Caron Lindsay

What’s on at Conference today?

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 20th September 2026 - 7:30 am

First up today is a wide-ranging motion on music covering things like AI, planning around music venues, support for music and the right to education in music. That last is so important. Playing an instrument or singing is such a good way of getting out of your own head and the links between musical tuition and attainment are clear.

Then it’s on to active travel – walking, wheeling and cycling with three amendments, one from the Lib Dem Disability Association looking at making active travel safe and accessible for disabled people from the start, one from Lib Dem Women looking …

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Caron Lindsay

How Lib Dem Councillors get things done on temporary accommodation

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 19th September 2026 - 8:15 pm

Paul Walter wrote about the Temporary accommodation debate in his diary earlier

It was a great and sobering debate.

I just wanted to highlight two things that Lib Dems have done. Prue Bray spoke about what her Council in Wokingham has done to reduce the numbers of people in temporary accommodation and to make it a lot safer for those who are.

She said:

Temporary accommodation is a subject that could drive us to despair, but I want to give you some hope by telling you how a Lib Dem council is making a real difference. I am really proud

…

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Caron Lindsay

What’s on at Conference today?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 19th September 2026 - 7:30 am

I’m feeling quite sad this morning.

I’m not able to be at Conference this year as my husband and I get to grips with our new normal following a life-changing diagnosis a couple of months ago.

I’m missing everyone, but at least being at home means I’m not in the whirlwind so I can keep up with what’s going on and let you all know about it. Also I can watch the Strictly launch show.

So what can everyone in Brighton look forward to today?

In the main hall, I’d be wanting to speak on the heartbreaking and disgraceful situation of children in temporary accommodation. The damage that housing insecurity does to children is simply unforgivable.

The family courts motion is also interesting, particularly in its calls for regulation of therapists who give evidence. It’s frankly frightening that this does not happen already.

A motion on candidate safety looks to tackle the abuse and threats faced by candidates, particularly those from marginalised groups.

And don’t forget the opportunity to question the Federal Conference Committee and Federal Policy Committee. An important part of our internal democracy.

The chilling evidence that 2/3 of maternity units are not alway safe to give birth in is dealt with in the motion on maternity services.

Early life also comes under discussion in motion on rebuilding health visiting.

Debates on rural education, business and the scary state of our world complete the policy debates.

There are also keynote speeches from Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton, Education spokesperson Munira Wilson and Gloucestershire Council leader Cllr Lisa Spivey.

Here’s the day in full:

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dem Women chair Donna Harris writes to Reform over violent ejection of woman protester

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 9th September 2026 - 9:18 am

There’s not going to be anything to please liberals or progressives at a Reform conference, but what happened to a woman protester should disgust everyone, not matter their politics.

From LBC:

One woman who stood up to disrupt the speech can be seen in video footage being removed from the room. While several security guards remove her, members of the crowd appear to grab at her face and hair, and hit her with a walking stick.

The woman told LBC: “Yesterday I was hit and grabbed by the hair and by my jaw by attendees at the Reform UK conference after calling out Nigel Farage for being a conman during his keynote speech.

“All of this was just 2 hours after Sarah Pochin announced Women for Reform, cynically claiming that migrants are the ones women like me should be afraid of, as opposed to members of their own political party.

“I think it’s dangerous that Reform cannot be trusted to hold their members accountable.

“Nigel Farage himself, as well as members of the audience, are inciting this violence by celebrating assaults like the one I experienced.

“In fact, this morning Lee Anderson joked, joked about it by offering to buy a new cane for the man who assaulted me, which I think is simply pathetic.

Donna Harris chairs the official organisation representing women in the Liberal Democrats, Lib Dem Women. She has written to Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick to express LDW’s “disgust” at the way the woman was treated and how the men in Reform have reacted since to minimise and trivialise the incident, with Lee Anderson offering to buy their delegate a new walking stick.

First page of Donna Harris's letter to Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick

Letter from Donna Harris to Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick Page 2

The full text is below.

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Caron Lindsay

Welcome to Lib Dem Friends of Gaelic Language and Culture

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 2nd September 2026 - 4:24 pm

Logo for Lib Dem Friends of Gaelic Language and Culture

A bheil Gàidhlig agaibh? Do you speak Gaelic?  Would you like to learn? Are you interested in Gaelic language and culture?

If so, read on.

Four years ago, I started learning Gaelic on Duolingo after my son bullied me into it.  Since then, I have completed the online introductory course at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Scotland’s Gaelic College and have just started on the next course. I spent a week at the college on Skye in the Summer being taught by a very funny German, Michael Klevenhaus, who has a real passion for finding traditional Gaelic melodies in Beethoven’s work. There’s even a BBC Alba documentary about it which, sadly, is no longer on the iPlayer.

The course was brilliant and very well paced.  Michael would do a heavy grammar session and then get the Tesco website up and get you to say how much things cost, or ask you the date. He had us making up stories in Gaelic a line at a time.

We also had to sing two songs at the ceilidh on the last evening.  One was a pretty rowdy drinking song but the second was quite emotional. Michael has written Gaelic words to Ode to Joy, the European anthem that is very close to our hearts as liberals.

I initially started learning to support my son. I did not expect to fall in love with the language. I mean, how on earth can you not when (one of) the words for bluebell translates to “cuckoo’s shoe”?

It’s connected me to my heritage in a way that I didn’t expect and made me understand so much more about my family. My Granny’s parents were born around about the time as the 1872 Education Act, a major part of which was to suppress the language. Children were belted in school for speaking it and all education was carried out in English.  Gaelic Medium Education was only reintroduced in the 80s.

So my Granny grew up in a culture where there was a deep sense of shame about speaking Gaelic. We discovered from census records that her dad had Gaelic, and conflicting information about her mum but she didn’t. However, I now realise that she spoke English in a very Gaelic way.

Language suppression is never a good thing and the work that is being done now to keep the language alive is vital to preserve an important part of our Scottish identity.  I think that there are some things we could do better in making the language a lot more audible as well as visible and getting it out there into communities.  The new award winning  Kilbeg development near Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on Skye aims to be a community where Gaelic is regenerated and we need to see how that works out and if it can be extended.

I will confess to being relatively indifferent to Gaelic until my first visit  to Wales in about 2012, seeing how Welsh was embedded everywhere, that changed my mind. In 2016, I went to Welsh Conference and was really amazed to see Welsh speakers and headphones with for translation between the two languages.

Gaelic was once spoken virtually everywhere in Scotland except Caithness and East Lothian. There are, according to a BBC Alba documentary about the Fife Coastal Path, more Gaelic place names in Fife than in the Isle of Lewis.

There’s a lot to think about how we ensure that Gaelic not only survives but grows in the future. This matters to so many of the communities to represent. Angus Macdonald recently asked a question about it at a House of Commons committee. The point he made about Gaelic being essential to the economic development of rural communities in the Highlands is a good one. Watch below.

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems call for action on smart spectacles – some constructive feedback

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 2nd September 2026 - 9:26 am

Whenever a new piece of technology comes out, I always think about how it might be used to assault and abuse women and girls. It’s sad that I have to, but that’s the world we live in.

Air tags – brilliant idea for someone like me for those moments when my husband is not around to use his superpower of Knowing Where I Have Put Things.  Not so brilliant if they are used by an abusive partner, or even a stranger – most often a man on a woman – for stalking purposes.

At least if you have an app on your phone, like some members of my family do, you can choose to do that, or you at least know it is there. I had a message from my sister a couple of years ago asking me if I’d been murdered and put in a skip because the Google earth photos Life 360 uses were out of date. I was in fact at the Book Festival in Edinburgh’s new venue which had been a building site a couple of years before.  But I knowingly gave her the ability to track my every move.

Similarly, if someone, again, most often a man, is filming, again, mostly women for God knows what purposes using a camera phone, at least you have a chance of being aware that he is doing it, although often you won’t be aware. Not so much if he is using smart glasses, which allow you to see an augmented reality and can be used as a camera. As a friend told me “I’ve been filmed by men before and at least with a phone you can see that they are doing it.”

These things have the potential to bring a whole load more pain to an already unsafe world for women and girls.

So it was really good  to see that the party is aware of this. Yesterday they put up a social media image saying:

Nobody should be secretly filmed through smart glasses and have it shared with millions online.

Liberal Democrats are demanding stronger safeguards, including a ban on convicted sex offenders being able to purchase them.

How on earth is that solution enforceable?

And anyone with nefarious purposes doesn’t have to purchase them. They just have to borrow a mate’s.

And if it is enforceable, surely anyone convicted of domestic abuse, particularly coercive control, should not be allowed within a million miles of these things.

I’m not sure what the solution is, but education and awareness is a huge part of it, as is making sure that anyone who films someone with or without their knowledge and shares it online faces very serious consequences that significantly restrict their liberty.But the biggest problem with yesterday’s social media post was the accompanying image:

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Caron Lindsay

Scottish Lib Dems object to huge Scottish Water bonuses

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 26th August 2026 - 8:30 pm

We’re used to hearing about bosses of English Water companies getting rewarded for failure, but north of the border, things are just as bad, if not worse. It’s particularly egregious to see  publicly owned Scottish Water pay out £250,000 in bonuses to senior management when the company’s record is far from unblemished.

Scottish Lib Dem Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton and Emvironment spokesperson Sanne Dijkstra-Downie have written to John Swinney to ask him how such bonuses could be justified. They said:

Dear John,

We are writing to you following the publication of Scottish Water’s annual report, which included the executive members’ renumeration for 2026.

The report shows that executive members have received more than £250,000 in bonuses over the past year. It comes at a time when billions of litres of sewage are being discharged into Scotland’s rivers, lochs and beaches every year. New research has also suggested that almost all raw sewage spills in Scotland could be illegal.

Meanwhile, ongoing pollution incidents at Portobello Beach, a designated bathing water, have led to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) advising the public against entering the water. Indeed, analysis has found that Portobello Beach recorded E.coli levels ten times above the safe limit. Wardie Bay, a popular wild swimming spot in the north of the city, has also experienced problems with water pollution, with a sewage pollution alert issued this month.

The continued water-quality issues at Kinghorn Beach means that the site faces being stripped of its designated bathing water status if it receives a fifth successive “poor” SEPA rating. The watchdog said that the water could be a risk to human and animal health.

As you will be aware, the bonuses paid to Scottish Water are only to be payable if the organisation meets its performance targets, which includes measures like customer satisfaction and a reduction in incidents. It is extremely difficult, therefore, to understand why such high bonuses continue to be paid when sewage discharges are consistently high and popular beaches are being forced to close.

Indeed, these bonuses will simply seem unjustifiable, especially for the many people who have been directly impacted by sewage problems and pollution at some of the country’s most beloved bathing spots. It is not at all clear how Scottish Water, a public body, is being properly held to account when these bonuses persist despite consistently disappointing performance.

Will you, therefore, explain why such high bonuses continue to be paid out and what, if any, consideration is given to significant factors like sewage dumps and beach closures in the decision to pay them?

We look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Alex Cole-Hamilton

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and MSP for Edinburgh North Western

Sanne Dijkstra-Downie

Scottish Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson and MSP for Edinburgh Northern

I suspect we may have seen the subject of Alex’s first First Minister’s Question of the new session next week.

Christine Jardine MP used a recent Scotsman column to criticise the bonuses too:

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems at the Edinburgh Festival

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th August 2026 - 11:22 am

If you happen to be visiting Edinburgh in the next few days, you’ll find that choosing the Fringe show you want to go to is even more challenging than working out your Conference diary.

Over the four weeks, 3649 shows take place over 268 venues, for a total of 53000 performances in the biggest cultural festival in the World. And that’s before you start on the Book Festival.

Two Scottish Lib Dems are performing in shows this week and beyond.

Fife Council candidate Eliza Twaddle appears in The Real Housewives of the Zombie Apocalypse.

The dead have risen! But that won’t stop our seven housewives from serving high-camp drama in the most high-body-count reunion episode yet! Can our favourite OG queens of reality TV survive the hordes – and each other – and manifest their way to the end? Clydebuilt Theatre Company’s original musical returns! ***** (MusicalTalk’s Pick of the Fringe 2025, podcast). **** (Scotsman).

The reviews refer to technical problems on one performance but these are easily resolved.

Elsewhere, Charles Dundas, the Scottish Party’s Campaigns and Candidates Convener, is appearing in a whole load of improv shows between now and the end of the Fringe. He has very usefully listed them all here.

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Caron Lindsay

Let’s celebrate: LDV turns 20 next week

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th August 2026 - 8:57 am

On 27th August 2006, LDV burst onto the blooging scene with a post suggesting that Simon Hughes was “certain to be challenged for the party presidency.”

Word reaches the Voice that weeks before the position had been advertised in Lib Dem News, party officials in Cowley Street received a call requesting a copy of the nomination papers for party President – the caller was not acting on behalf of Simon Hughes.

Word also reaches us that one potential candidate is positioning himself to blitz Autumn Conference with an army of supporters bearing nomination papers, to seize the momentum.

A Presidential contest is no bad thing – though there is an argument that there are better ways to spend the money. The Voice has been told that a proposal is being put to the Federal Executive to double the campaign expenditure limit – to  £5000 per candidate.

Clearly this put off any rival as a month later...

Multiple unofficial, but reliable, sources tell the Voice that Simon Hughes will not face an election for the post of Party President.

PS This time I am assured the Voice is right, unlike the other time. I really am right this time. 100%. There’s a press release coming, and everything.

UPDATE: The party’s official announcement is here.

For other elections (Federal Executive, FCC etc) the timetable now is as follows:

  • The final opportunity for candidates to withdraw their nomination has passed

  • The final opportunity for candidates to submit manifesto artwork has passed

  • Ballot papers will be sent out on 16 October

  • They should be returned by 3 November

  • The results will be announced on 6 November

Well, at least we were noticed. By September 2006, LDV was  posting several times a day and since then has been there through the tension of leadership elections, the anxiety and rage of the coalition years, the dark days that followed and the rebuild to our best ever General Election result in 2024.

We’ve reported on births, deaths, marriages, party controversies, policy ideas, conferences, speeches. We’ve showcased Lib Dem achievements at all levels of Government. We’ve tried to encourage our party to be the best it cam be. We’ll be looking back on our two decades as part of the Liberal Democrat community over the next, well, for as long as we feel like it.

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Caron Lindsay

Getting ready for Conference – Directory now out

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 16th August 2026 - 2:42 pm

Front cover of directory Autumn 2026There are two ways you can prepare for party Conference.

Six weeks out, when the agenda and the directory come out, you could sit down with a nice cup of tea and work out a tentative plan for how you are going to spend the 4 and a bit days in Brighton.

If you are new to Conference, the agenda has all the motions up for debate – (you can read more about that here) so you can start to plan whether you might like to put in an amendment or a request for a separate vote before the deadline on Monday 7th September at 1pm.

The directory has all the details of things like the exhibition, the fringe and the marvellous array of training on offer. There will be at least five things in every time slot that you want to do and that’s before you even think about catching up with your friends.

The other way of doing it is to follow my all to often example. Leave it all to the last minute and end up filling in your schedule in the excellent Conference app on the way down while you are trying to write speeches and fill in speaker’s cards.  Ditto with packing. Rather than plan what I’m going to wear and travelling light, I usually end up throwing every piece of clothing I possess into a big suitcase half an hour before I leave the house. Or I panic that I don’t have enough to wear and buy things I really don’t need on next day delivery.

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Caron Lindsay

Zack Polanski on the Fringe

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 12th August 2026 - 8:55 am

Iain Dale and Zack Polanski

My weekend at the Edinburgh fringe continued with Iain Dale’s All Talk event with the Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Zack Polanski.

I’m usually one of the younger people at Iain Dale’s shows. This time I felt positively geriatric. The audience was very young. The event didn’t have to be moved to the bigger theatre, like Nicola Sturgeon’s earlier that day, but the smaller theatre was full.

Polanski talked about his decision to change his name to one that reflects his Jewish heritage. He had thought originally that his family had changed their surname because of the persecution they faced in Nazi Germany. In fact, he said, it was because of anti-semitism in the UK.

He also talked about the tensions of his childhood and the impact of his parents’ messy divorce had on him.

I found it quite strange that someone who has barely been out of the public eye in the past year spent a good while whinging, Lib Dem style, about the Greens not getting decent media coverage. He said that he was frequently booked to appear on shows, cancelled at the last minute and the same stations would run stories about how he had disappeared.  He did say that Sky and LBC (two of the biggest broadcasters in the UK) were better at giving them a fairer amount of coverage, which feels like more than we get.

The impact of being in the public eye, though, had taken its toll on him and his partner. He talked about his housemates being worried for their safety because of his presence and his decision not to go on the electoral roll because he was worried about his address being circulated to all political parties.  It is awful that any politician should have that sort of fear and that those around them felt threatened.

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Caron Lindsay

Nicola Sturgeon talks to Iain Dale at the Edinburgh Festival

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 9th August 2026 - 10:55 am

iain Dale talks to Nicola Sturgeon in EdinburghIt’s that time of year again when Edinburgh transforms into one of the most exciting and occasionally bizarre places on earth.

You can be casually walking down the street and see people dressed up as genitals coming towards you. There are brilliantly creative street artists and ingenious living statues everywhere. It’s also absolutely hoaching with people and this year, with Princes Street remaining closed due to the awful fire last month, getting from A to B is even more frustrating – unless you walk.

LBC host Iain Dale is hosting his regular run of “All Talk” shows with politicians and media types and, as usual, I have tickets for a fair few of them.

His opening interviewee was former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Opinions about her are very divided, even in this party. South of the border, Lib Dems often love her. North of the border, opinion can be more mixed. I love her. Always have. That’s not to say that I agree with her on everything – although if you take independence out of the picture, we have a lot in common.

Like her, I spent most of my childhood with my head in books. I could not get enough of them. Like her, the political bug hit me early and we both joined our respective parties when we were 16. Like her, feminism is (and always will be) one of the driving forces of my life.

Of course she made mistakes in Government. Who doesn’t? Failure is an integral part of being human. But she put in place the Scottish Child Payment which has at least prevented child poverty from getting worse in Scotland. That and the way she led the nation with clarity and reassurance during Covid (and before that Swine Flu as health secretary) will probably be her greatest legacies in office.

One of the reasons I have always liked her is that when she qualified as a lawyer, she went to work in a law centre, not for a swanky law firm. I always appreciate people who work to give access to justice to those who need it most.

Years ago, when a friend died, she showed me real kindness. She didn’t have to. I was a complete nobody from another political party. Things like that tell you a lot about what makes someone tick.

She tended to keep her sense of fun well hidden when she was First Minister, and nobody could ever accuse her of being lazy. I remember one of her friends saying that it was hard to get her to relax and finish up early the night before her wedding.

It was therefore good to see hungover, sweary Nicola Sturgeon yesterday. A skinful of red wine with friends after a few weeks off the booze had had a predictable effect. She started off by talking about the novel she is writing, a political thriller which is progressing slowly. She said she’d asked her friend the “Quine of Crime” Val McDermid, how to get through Writer’s Block. Val’s pithy response was “Stop faffing about on WhatsApp and write.”

She’s just finished filming War Games on Channel 4 which she enjoyed making. She plays the Deputy PM of the UK with a host of other former ministers and they make decisions, COBRA style, during a rapidly escalating crisis.

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Caron Lindsay

A piece of Liberal history destroyed in Edinburgh fire

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 15th July 2026 - 8:24 pm

Last week, a fire destroyed the former Debenhams building in the heart of Edinburgh. The Princes Street building was once the home of the Scottish Liberal Club. The premises were sold in 1970 and many of the artefacts, including a bust of Gladstone, were removed by the Scottish Liberal Club. However, the beautiful wood panelled library was destroyed in the fire.

This was covered by the Edinburgh Evening News in which Convener of the Scottish Liberal Club Faith Sutherland and President (and LDV contributor) Lin Macmillan were quoted:

The Scottish Liberal Club, which once owned the property, has urged Historic Environment Scotland, the Cockburn Society and the City of Edinburgh Council to “work together towards restoring these historic buildings”.

In a joint statement, club president Lin Macmillan and convenor Faith Sutherland said: “We deeply regret the loss of 109 Princes Street and the damage to the adjoining premises.”

They confirmed a “fine bust” of former Prime Minister William Gladstone was saved after being moved into storage, but noted valuable oak panelling and other original features were left behind in the Gladstone Memorial Library, which remained a centrepiece of the store until its sale in 2023.

First opening its doors as the Palace Hotel in 1869, the building spent much of its pre-Debenhams days as the Scottish Liberal Club – a centre for political and social activity during the decades of Liberal Party dominance in Victorian Scotland.

During the creation of the Debenhams department store in the late 1970s, it merged with the neighbouring former Conservative Club. Despite the major construction project, the building retained much of its Victorian grandeur, including an ornate entrance hall, elaborate ceiling plasterwork, and the historic library.

John Lawrie, the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ wisest counsellor and co-writer of its constitution, was also interviewed by Edinburgh Live. He gave his memories of the building which he first visited as an 18 year old in 1961.

“I went there for meetings, and other functions too, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and you know it was a very fine building and it’s so sad. Princes Street doesn’t have that number of fine buildings, and it’s a great shame that this has happened.

“I suppose the first time I remember going there was for the Scottish Liberal Party, I think it was it twice a year council meeting something in the spring or summer of 1961 I would guess, when I was an enthusiastic 18-year-old young liberal.

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Caron Lindsay

Yi-Pei Chou Turvey MSP first UK “rising star”

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 5th July 2026 - 11:15 am

Hi-Pei Chou Turvey speaks after receiving ALDE’s Rising Star AwardI had a tear or too yesterday when I saw Yi-Pei Chou Turvey MSP become the first British politician to receive the European Liberal Forum’s “Rising star” award.

It is fantastic to see her recognised for her work on Aberdeenshire Council at the start of her term as the North East’s Lib Dem MSP.

Sal Brinton was there and sent me this video of the event and Yi-Pei’s speech.

Yi-Pei said:

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Caron Lindsay

Alistair Carmichael challenges “bizarre” Europcar policy on Shetland

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 28th June 2026 - 1:30 pm

A lionness defening her cubs would bave nothing on Alistair Carmichael in defence of the island communities he represents.

Alistair’s constituents from Shetland had booked a car hire in Glasgow. Europcar insisted they present their passports, which they hadn’t thought to bring given that they come from Shetland, clearly part of the UK. They were told that this was because they were from a “British island”. They were later told that this is defined as “one who, at the time of rental, is not resident in the United Kingdom or Northern Ireland. Included in this definition are residents of the Shetland, Orkneys, Hebrides, Isle of Man, Isle of Scilly, Channel Islands and the Isle of Wight.”

They therefore ended up stranded and out of pocket. After Alistair’s intervention, they got heir money back but have not changed their absolute nonsense of a policy.

Alistair explained in a video:

Alistair said:

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Caron Lindsay

Actually, this Summer of Strategy could be quite good…

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 14th June 2026 - 12:28 pm

Party President Josh Babarinde wrote to all members and on this site this week inviting us to share our views on the development of the party strategy which will be debated at our Brighton Conference in September.

The consultation process involves a Typeform which has to be completed by this Thursday and 3 online consultation sessions over this weekend. The final one is tomorrow night at 5:30pm and I can promise you that if you go to it, you will retain your will to live and will feel that your time has been well spent.

This is not usually the case with party consultations, I’ll be honest. I have come out of many before wanting to pull off my own toenails because they involved some party luminary talking at you and power-pointing you within an inch of your life.

I went to this morning’s one tired and hungover after the football and not expecting much. In fact, I was cursing Josh for organising it 5.5 hours after the match ended. However, it was actually very good. Even some of our grumpier members thought so, too.

Josh set the scene for 20 minutes or so and then there were two breakout sessions on what our party is for and organisational priorities.  We were put in breakout rooms of 4-5 people with a series of questions to answer and feed back. There were some really useful discussions with a lot of common themes, particularly about developing an emotional message which connects with people.  “Stop the word salad” was my contribution to that – we need to show our sincere  trust in people, our ambition for everyone to be able to live the best life they choose and show a hopeful vision where we fix things together not do nothing and turn on each other like Farage wants.

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Caron Lindsay

Good luck Scotland and England

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 13th June 2026 - 8:43 pm

In less than 6 hours’ time, Scotland will play their first World Cup match against Haiti in Boston.

I’ll be honest. I struggle to care about football unless it involves Inverness Caledonian Thistle or Ross County, and even then I don’t actually have to watch it.

I knew so little about this World Cup that it was only last night that I realised that the Scotland game was in the middle of tonight. I’d previously assumed that because the Scottish Government had made Monday a bank holiday (which only 6 of the 32 Scottish local authorities are taking) that the match had to be in the middle of Sunday night.

My first experience of the World Cup was in 1978, when Scotland qualified to go to Argentina and I was totally caught up in the hype of Ally’s Tartan Army. I also had a monster crush on Kenny Dalglish. I was incredibly disappointed at the outcome – typically, we beat Holland, but lost to and drew with teams who were below us in the international rankings.

Fast forward nearly 50 years and here we are again. Several of my friends are over there in Boston – some staying for the whole tournament. Some people have spent thousands on travel and accommodation. You would have to have a heart of stone not bo be moved by the sight of the Tartan Army in Boston’s hostelries and squares. When an American reporter described them as “perfectly unhinged” last night, I seriously had never been prouder.

I would like nothing better than for the Scottish team to fight their way to the Final and then, after a brilliant game in which every single player excelled themselves, score in the last minute to take the trophy. But I can dream that without needing to watch a single game.

I hope that everyone who is sitting up tonight has a marvellous time. And I know that there are people of many nationalities reading this. Let’s just hope we have a tournament that brings joy.

Anyway, newly elected Scottish Lib Dem MSPs Sanne Dijkstra-Downie and Adam Harley had a chat about the World Cup the other day.

Sanne describes a recurring nightmare of the Dutch team that will be familiar to England fans too. Let’s hope that we don’t end up with too many blood-pressure busting penalty shootouts.

Happy World Cup everyone!

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems in Birthday Honours list

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 13th June 2026 - 9:16 am

I’ve had a look at the King’s Birthday Honours list this morning, searching under “political service” and “local government”.

I’ve only found two Lib Dems so far. That doesn’t mean that I’ve found everyone, so please, hive mind, let me kmow who I’ve missed. Lib Dems may be honoured for things that aren’t politics. And indeed, this was barely published when I discovered a third, honoured for non Lib Dem reasons. And the Noble Lord Packula found another I didn’t know about.

So the two I have found  and the one our Charley Hasted told me about are:

Ruth Williams MBE

Ruth, from Orkney, received her award for political and voluntary service.

She’s had the job for many years of being election agent to our illustrious parliamentarians in Orkney.

Alistair Carmichael told me:

Ruth Williams has made a phenomenal contribution to Orkney life and Liberal politics for decades.

She is well known in the Scottish Liberal Democrats for having been the party’s most successful election agent. She first campaigned for Jo Grimond in several campaigns and then served as agent for Jim Wallace, Liam McArthur and myself.

Beyond that she is a stalwart of village life in Finstown and wider Orkney where her contribution to local organisations are too numerous to list.

Quite apart from that she is one of the kindest and most generous people you could ask to meet. As well as being my agent, she is godmother to my younger son.

If more communities had a Ruth our country would be a much better place!

Cllr Clare Apel MBE

Clare, a Lib Dem Councillor in Chichester and Chair of the District Council, received her award for  “For services to the Voluntary Sector, to Local Government and to Holocaust Education.”

Two years ago she was shortlisted for the Local Government Unit’s lifetime legend award as Sussex World reported:

[Clare} said that, for all the hard work and all the challenges of local government, its real joy is working alongside people who want to make a difference. “You meet some amazing people doing incredible stuff quietly and you can really, in the area you cover, help people. I’d like to think, if you spoke to my constituents, they’d say ‘whenever there’s a problem, she’ll come out and see us.’ I don’t believe in doing things over email.

“I just feel very strongly that a lot of people get a tough bite of life, and if you can help them a bit, you should.”

Jess Brown-Fuller, MP for Chichester, told us:

Clare has been a respected Liberal Democrat Councillor for 40 years, as well as being a driving force behind holocaust education with the forming of Chichester Marks Holocaust Memorial Day. She was a founding trustee of Stonepillow and much more besides. A very well-deserved recognition and I am proud to call her a colleague and a friend.

Terry Stacy MBE

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Caron Lindsay

David Green pledges to fight for Caithness maternity care

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 7th June 2026 - 3:30 pm

David Green has delivered  his first speech at Holyrood.

All our seven newbies have now done so. Every single one of them made me cry, David more than any of them.

Not just because he is the best of people and I’ve known him for pretty much half his life (which is a tiny proportion of mine), but because he represents where I spent my teenage years and, much further south, where my husband’s family comes from. His constituency is massive, stretching from John O’Groats in the north, almost to Skye in the west.

I’ve driven the long, long road from Wick to Inverness many, many times. It’s a good bit shorter, with the Dornoch Bridge, than it used to be, but it is still a very, very long way. Even in the Summer when it’s pretty much light till well gone 11pm, it’s long. In the Winter when it’s dark at the back of 3 and the wind and the ice and the snow are doing their thing, it’s terrifying. Also, there’s a lot of rural Caithness and northern Sutherland that is very much further away than that.

I say this because a succession of SNP health ministers have done nothing to reverse the downgrading of maternity services which means that mums have to traverse that road to give birth. Now when I was in labour, I had to drive 15 or so miles on a relatively straightforward road to have my baby. And that was not a fun experience, I can assure you. So David’s commitment to fight for a full maternity unit in Caithness means something to me.

Watch his speech here.

The text is below:

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Caron Lindsay

Andrew Baxter: I want to be a voice for the Highlands

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 6th June 2026 - 3:07 pm

New Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Andrew Baxter made his first speech in Holyrood this week. He looked very happy about it, as well he should given that he represents what I think are some of the most beautiful places in the world, especially my happy place, Rosemarkie Beach.

He paid tribute to the “resilient” communities of his constituency and set out his desire to be a voice for the Highlands on issues like building public services that are accessible, reliable and closer to home.

I was in tears when he talked about the lady whose husband had been put in a care home 2 hours away – the unnecessary reality of life in the Highlands.

I am also ashamed to say that I didn’t know about Nessie’s sister Morag, who apparently lives in Loch Morar, though Loch Ness is plenty big enough for two monsters, to be honest.

Watch here:

The text is below:

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Caron Lindsay

What’s going on with party strategy?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 6th June 2026 - 12:19 pm

Once per Parliament, the Federal Board is obliged to put before Conference a party strategy. Article 5.1 of the Federal Constitution states:

The Federal Board shall have the responsibility periodically, and at least onceper Parliament, for preparing a document outlining the Party’s strategy, inconjunction with the Leader’s political strategy, for submission for debate and
agreement by Conference.

The Board’s plan is to bring a strategy to Autumn Conference. If the anger following the local elections is anything to go by, members will be looking for a commitment to developing a nationally relevant message to re-establish us as a viable national alternative. Ed Davey’s comments about wanting us to be “the party of Middle England” have sparked huge concern in the party. There is a feeling that we are being too timid for fear of upsetting the Daily Mail at a time when the country is screaming out for a liberal alternative to the populist parties of right and left. Imagine that, a party that fixes stuff, stands up for liberal values and really resonates with people who are, to use a good Scottish word, scunnered with politics.

PoliticsHome has an article this weekend titled “Inside the Lib Dem strategy rethink.” Several MPs are quoted, including Tom Gordon, Layla Moran, Daisy Cooper along with some who are un-named.

Politics Home says the party is looking at changing direction:

To that end, the party is undergoing a strategy and policy overhaul, with key areas of discussion including the economy, welfare, and, as the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum approaches, a bolder stance on the European Union.

Tom Gordon confirmed the rethink:

I don’t think it was necessarily the wrong approach, but just given the nature and the timeline of where we’re at in this parliament and the political events and that fragmentation, I think there is now a rethinking of what we do, what we offer, how we’re more punchy, how we’re bolder, and what the offer from us is.

A senior MP hinted at an approach that to me sounds too managerial:

The MP said the party is “starting to think about the economy in a much more structural manner”, and the frontbench team had been “set a task of properly scrutinising departmental budgets, where money is being spent”.

They added that the party needs to “make sure we are economically credible”, with there being more appetite from figures at the top of the party towards thinking about what the Lib Dem offering would be in a potential future coalition.

Layla Moran sounded optimistic about what was coming:

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Caron Lindsay

Morven-May MacCallum MSP: No-one in Scotland should have to fight harder to be believed than to get well

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 4th June 2026 - 8:51 am

When she was 14, new Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for the Highlands and Islands Morven May-MacCallum contracted Lyme Disease after being bitten by a tick.

Yesterday made her first speech in the Scottish Parliament in which she spoke of her experience and committed to campaign on behalf of people living with ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, POTS, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and other chronic illnesses.

It’s an incredible speech which will resonate with anyone who suffers from these and other conditions and who has had to fight to be believed.

Watch here:

The text is below.

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Caron Lindsay

Adam Harley’s first speech

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 3rd June 2026 - 5:30 pm

New Strathkelvin and Bearsden MSP Adam Harley made his first speech in Holyrood yesterday, highlighting the importance of providing young people with opportunities, protecting important community facilities and restoring trust in politics.

Adam originally worked in theatre and the arts before moving over to the charity sector, fighting for the rights of people with cystic fibrosis to access life-saving medicines.

He has also volunteered for organisations educating children from disadvantaged backgrounds and has worked with community groups supporting young people in danger of becoming involved in the criminal justice system, helping them turn their lives around.

The text is below

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