It is noticeable that Venezuela is prominent in the British media at the moment. To be honest, the chaos of a typical Latin American banana republic seldom causes such interest, but given the links between the Venezuelan Government and Jeremy Corbyn, its failure is a convenient stick to beat him with.
And let’s be honest, things are bad there. I had the opportunity to go to Caracas in December 2015, when things were already falling apart, inflation was spiralling and the bolivar was on its way to toilet paper status. At that point, the government had stopped publishing most economic data – it was pretty meaningless anyway – and had acknowledged its exchange rate difficulties by offering an alternative exchange rate for tourists.
The official rate was six bolivars to the dollar. As a tourist, you could legally get two hundred bolivars to the dollar. The black market, usually a fair judge of reality, was offering eight hundred bolivars to the dollar. And, as the largest bank note in circulation was a one hundred bolivar note, you can easily imagine what that meant in terms of carrying money.
So, why are things so bad in Venezuela? Firstly, the economy is almost entirely underpinned by oil exports (which represented 96% of total exports) and when the price of crude fell, GDP fell catastrophically. A market economy can adjust to that, albeit painfully. Sadly for the Venezuelan people, they have a government which not only doesn’t believe in markets, it doesn’t appear to understand them either.
It’s time, once again, for another 
Regardless of whether you support or oppose Brexit, there is no doubt that you’d prefer your negotiators to be both united and organised. In a 
Welcome, once again, to Liberal Democrat Voice’s preview of the week in Parliament or, to be more precise, the (usually) more dignified end of the Palace of Westminster.
Today sees the 200th anniversary of the declaration of independent Venezuela by Simón Bolívar. Frankly, there isn’t much to celebrate there at the moment, the pile of notes pictured being what $100 looked like in bolivars two years ago (and it’s much worse now), and perhaps the Danes might not be celebrating the 153rd anniversary of the end of the 
On Saturday, the European liberal family gathered in the Slovene capital, Ljubljana, to compare notes and to start the process of preparation for the 2019 European Parliamentary elections. It offers your correspondent an opportunity for reflection and, if you’ll excuse me, more than a hint of regret.
Good morning, and welcome to Liberal Democrat Voice’s coverage of the 70th Anniversary Congress of Liberal International from sunny Andorra.
Hello, hello, can you hear me? Is this thing working?
A packed lecture theatre in St James’s Square, London, was the setting for this year’s Isaiah Berlin Lecture, hosted by Chatham House and introduced by Liberal International President, Dr Juli Minoves. Tickets had been swallowed up within three hours of becoming available in anticipation of a typically robust contribution from the recently appointed negotiator for the European Parliament, and Guy Verhofstadt didn’t disappoint.
Yes, it’s election time again, as the ALDE Party elects different positions in alternate years, the Presidency and some Vice-Presidents in odd-numbered years, the Treasurer and a few more Vice-Presidents in even-numbered years.
Yes, this week saw the last meeting of the International Relations Committee in its current form, as the Governance Review has renamed it the ‘Federal International Relations Committee’ and given it a perhaps sharper focus than hitherto. And, whilst the agenda wasn’t exactly a full one, there were matters of import to discuss.
The tombstone of Susan B Anthony, the great campaigner for women’s suffrage, covered in “I voted” stickersBack again for another stint, as Caron is still quite rightly focused on Bob, and I suppose that it’s appropriate that a member of the Party’s International Relations Committee should be at the wheel today. As I write, polling stations are beginning to close across the United States, and, as the end of what can only be described as one …
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