Author Archives: Liz Leffman

Liz Leffman

A New Fair Deal for Oxfordshire

By Liz Leffman | Sat 3rd July 2021 - 10:41 am

A couple months of ago, Oxfordshire changed. For the first time in 16 years, the Conservatives no longer had a majority on the County Council and instead, an alliance was formed between the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and the Labour Party to form an administration.  We named this the Oxfordshire Fair Deal Alliance, and I was elected the Leader of the new council.

For many years, I have been asked by voters why the opposition parties can’t work together to effect change. In the Witney by-election of 2016, Robert Courts won 45% of the vote – why, I was asked then, did Labour, the Greens and the Lib Dems not get together and offer an effective and united challenge, breaking the Conservative dominance of local politics?  Perhaps that might have worked, but at the time, that was not an option.  But now, maybe things have started to shift.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 9 Comments
Liz Leffman

A way forward for the English Party

By Liz Leffman | Thu 14th December 2017 - 11:55 am

Since late 2016, the English Party has been reviewing its structure and governance. This was initiated following the consultation conducted by the Federal Party following the 2015 General Election, which revealed some considerable criticism of the English Party for a lack of transparency and accountability.

The English Party established the English Review Group towards the end of 2016, with members drawn from each of the 11 English Regions. This is chaired by Sally Symington, who has not previously been a member of any of the English Party committees. She was recommended for her common-sense approach, her fresh eye, and her experience …

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , and | 10 Comments
Liz Leffman

Opinion: We need to grab our current luck and champion the Lib Dems

By Liz Leffman | Sun 3rd November 2013 - 10:03 am

Far too often, information about the work our ministers are doing reaches us, and the general public, through a cloud of white noise created by the media. The information that we local activists get from Lib Dem HQ can be drowned out by what we read and hear elsewhere. It’s often difficult to tease out our ministers’ achievements in government from the work of the government as a whole. But in the past few weeks we seem to have found a way of dispersing our uncertainty and showing the public that we stand for something tangibly different from our coalition partners.

The discussion about energy policy offers a way of unlocking the conundrum we have faced for the past two and a half years. How do we remain constructive partners in coalition, while reassuring voters that we are different from the Tories?

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 8 Comments
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    Katharine: Do tell us what you are singing at present! I should tell all those who think that Westminster has no redeeming elements that the Parliament Choir ...
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    @ theakes "we need a strategy to combat them." More radical policies which appeal to the general public, more impressive leadership, and more door knockin...
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