Author Archives: Paul Walter

Paul Walter

Chesham & Amersham: This isn’t a dream is it?

By Paul Walter | Fri 18th June 2021 - 2:41 am

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Paul Walter

Chesham & Amersham: Video from the count

By Paul Walter | Fri 18th June 2021 - 2:36 am

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Paul Walter

Chesham & Amersham: Thank you!

By Paul Walter | Fri 18th June 2021 - 2:34 am

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Paul Walter

Chesham & Amersham: That stunning, historic result in full

By Paul Walter | Fri 18th June 2021 - 2:27 am

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Paul Walter

Chesham & Amersham: Majority is 8,028!!!!!!!!!!! – ITV news

By Paul Walter | Fri 18th June 2021 - 2:19 am

From ITV News:

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Paul Walter

Chesham & Amersham: Congrats Sarah Green MP!!!!!

By Paul Walter | Fri 18th June 2021 - 2:15 am

Let’s just say that this has woken me up!

8K!!!!! I’ll be saying that in my sleep for the next six months!!

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Paul Walter

+++++Chesham & Amersham: Lib Dems win the by-election!!

By Paul Walter | Fri 18th June 2021 - 1:59 am

Sky News have just said this.

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Paul Walter

Going down to the wire at Chesham & Amersham

By Paul Walter | Tue 15th June 2021 - 6:23 pm

Today I again went to Chesham & Amersham to help Sarah Green and team. I helped to deliver targeted letters to residents in Great Missenden and Chalfont Saint Peter.

My task was greatly assisted by my excellent co-deliverers, Baroness (Liz) Barker and Mukta Patil from Chesham & Amersham Young Liberals. They both greatly helped in plotting our various routes and in making the task a great pleasure in the sunshine! The selfie above shows us with our suitably coloured conveyance!

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged and | 7 Comments
Paul Walter

Sir Nick Clegg lecture: “The end of global internet”

By Paul Walter | Fri 28th May 2021 - 10:40 am

The Shirley Williams Lectures are now getting well into their stride. On Wednesday evening we had the honour of welcoming Nick Clegg direct from Atherton, California USA.

It was the day of Facebook’s AGM, so a busy one for Nick.

I was very impressed by Nick’s lecture, which was delivered flawlessly from notes.

After paying a very warm and heartfelt tribute to Baroness Williams, Nick outlined how he regards 1989 as the key year in his life. The Berlin Wall fell and Tim Berners-Lee invented the Worldwide Web.

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Paul Walter

Chesham and Amersham needs YOU

By Paul Walter | Tue 25th May 2021 - 5:43 pm

Maddi Crickmay, Liberal Democrat Youth and Student Development Officer and Shrewsbury Councillor Alex Wagner at Amersham party HQ today

I spent today helping Sarah Green‘s campaign at Amersham.

What a great day! I don’t think I have had such a beautiful delivery round since the heady days of Littleborough and Saddleworth in 1995.

Then, I had to walk several miles up to a farmhouse to deliver one leaflet. But it was blazing sunshine and the surroundings were idyllic – so I didn’t mind.

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Paul Walter

How easily we have surrendered our private freedoms….

By Paul Walter | Tue 18th May 2021 - 9:45 am

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On Sunday we had a visit from a relative in the garden at a two metre distance.

On Monday they kindly returned and we hugged several times.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 30 Comments
Paul Walter

Tories’ southern “Blue wall” is crumbling

By Paul Walter | Tue 11th May 2021 - 2:10 pm

In the Independent today, Daisy Cooper MP says:

The Tory Blue Wall has started crumbling in this election as the Liberal Democrats move forward in Tory former heartlands.

From Cheltenham to Cambridgeshire, Wiltshire to Woking, nowhere is safe for the Tories in their Blue Wall. The age of no-go areas for the Liberal Democrats in traditionally Tory southern cities towns and villages is over.

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Paul Walter

Scrapping Vagrancy Act should be part of Queen’s Speech

By Paul Walter | Tue 11th May 2021 - 12:40 pm

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Layla Moran has put this very well:

Today it’s still the law for rough sleepers to be arrested and prosecuted for the crime of not being able to afford a roof over their head. It’s a moral outrage that a Victorian-era law continues to punish those who desperately need help.

The clock is ticking for this Government. We urgently need a more compassionate and holistic approach to ending homelessness in this country. There is significant cross-party support for the Vagrancy Act to be repealed as

…

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Paul Walter

I love it when a plan comes together

By Paul Walter | Tue 11th May 2021 - 9:40 am

By-elections are funny old things.

In a by-election, the focus on the candidate is huge. Every utterance is monitored and liable to blow up a minefield.

I remember David Rendel, returning to the 1993 Newbury by-election HQ after a long evening’s canvassing. Just outside the entrance he was approached by, ostensibly, a member of the public who wanted to express their support for him. It turned out that they had a microphone stuck up the back of their jacket and were trying to catch David off-guard. Their plan failed. Apart from anything else, David on-the-record was just like David off-the-record!

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Paul Walter

Immoral – Conservative MPs are tarnished by association with PM Johnson

By Paul Walter | Tue 27th April 2021 - 7:32 am

Roger Roberts – Lord Roberts of Llandudno – has written a letter to his MP, Robin Millar, as follows:

Dear Robin,

Like many other constituents, especially Christian church members I am deeply disappointed in this government and this prime minister. Whether this attitude is reflected in the coming elections is of little importance, so much of the moral lead necessary in a prime minister cannot be found in Mr Johnson. Your own character is tarnished by association with him. I would welcome a meeting and discussion with you.

Yours faithfully,
ROGER – Lord Roberts of Llandudno

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Paul Walter

“Creeping authoritarianism” – Liberal Democrats condemn government’s plan for Covid passports

By Paul Walter | Tue 6th April 2021 - 10:20 am


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Over the weekend, Liberal Democrat MPs have been very busy condemning the government’s plans for Covid passports.
The BBC quoted Ed Davey as accusing the government of “creeping autoritarianism” over the plans, adding:

As we start to get this virus properly under control we should start getting our freedoms back. Vaccine passports – essentially Covid ID cards – take us in the other direction.

Yesterday evening, Ed tweeted:

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Paul Walter

The strong Christian grounds for disestablishing the Church of England (as well as the democratic/fairness grounds)

By Paul Walter | Tue 30th March 2021 - 3:15 pm

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The Humanist and Secularist Liberal Democrats held a very interesting fringe meeting at the Spring Conference, entitled “Is it time to disestablish the Church of England?”

I was very pleased to hear from Simon Barrow from the website Ekklesia, which has always struck me as a very progressive-thinking website, with its “roots in Christians social thought” but “vital” partnerships with people of other convictions (both non-religious and religious).

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 28 Comments
Paul Walter

Confessions of a first time virtual conference speaker – Where’s the bar?

By Paul Walter | Sat 20th March 2021 - 8:32 am

I can’t claim that this is my first Liberal Democrat conference – by a long chalk (snort!). That was back in 1992ish. And I think I made my first conference speech then (or shortly afterwards).

But last night was quite exciting. I attended my first virtual Liberal Democrat conference and made my first virtual conference speech.

I have to say that I was very impressed indeed by the whole set-up. Well done to Geoff Payne and the team for an excellent job putting it on!

It’s just like attending a “terrestial/physical” conference except for the absence of a certain essential facility – of which, more later.

I haven’t spoken at conference for a while. In fact, I think the last time I spoke was in 2013 when we rejected the idea of an automatic block on internet pornography.

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Posted in Conference, Humour and Op-eds | Tagged | 4 Comments
Paul Walter

Ed leads Lib Dems back onto the streets

By Paul Walter | Tue 9th March 2021 - 8:46 am

As stated on the Lib Dem website, yesterday was a major milestone for leaflet delivery and canvassing in England:

Delivery of leaflets by members and volunteers
Applicability: England from 8th March, Scotland from 15th March, Wales tbc
Volunteer delivery is permitted and has been risk-assessed. Volunteer delivery should be organised in line with the agreed party protocols, which can be found here on the Campaign Hub (Sign up here for access to the Hub).

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Posted in LDV campaigns | Tagged | 2 Comments
Paul Walter

Post Brexit trade – a refreshing British-Austrian perspective from an experienced UK industrialist

By Paul Walter | Wed 17th February 2021 - 11:45 am

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Last night’s Shirley Williams Lecture (SWL) was really enlightening but also quite scary.

The speaker was Juergen Maier CBE, described as follows on the SWL website:

One of the UK’s leading industrialists and business thinkers, Juergen Maier rose to prominence as the Chief Executive of Siemens UK. A regular on Question Time and a Board Member of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, Juergen has been outspoken on major issues such as Brexit, Industrial Strategy and the 4th Industrial Revolution.

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Posted in Speeches | Tagged , , and | 15 Comments
Paul Walter

Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President – film review

By Paul Walter | Sun 7th February 2021 - 2:00 pm


“Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President” is a documentary movie which has recently been shown on Sky Arts. You can watch it via Sky On Demand, or via a slew of other home viewing methods.

I can’t recommend it highly enough. As a reader of Lib Dem Voice, there’s a very good chance you will find it riveting and also extremely entertaining.

I was privileged to visit the Jimmy Carter Presidential Museum and Library in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He’s a surprising fellow. You see the smile and hear his high-minded words, but there are some surprises behind that image. I was interested to learn that, when growing up, most of his friends and daily companions were black. It is also often forgotten that he has a BSc in Nuclear Physics and gave up a promising career as a US nuclear submarine commander to go into politics.

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Posted in Films | Tagged | 9 Comments
Paul Walter

Should we thank Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon for 10 million vaccinations within a month?

By Paul Walter | Wed 3rd February 2021 - 6:14 pm

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I could go on for hours about the government’s lamentable response to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the one the government has got right, in my view, is the speed and volume of vaccination.

Some of my favourite heroes are Edward Jenner, Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain. – Not the sort of names you hear bandied about with your normal Shakespeare, Churchill, Nelson hero names. But, we owe much of our longer life expectancy to those scientists. The whole idea of the vaccine itself is a miracle. The fact that the scientists were able to come up with several vaccines for Covid-19 is a super-miracle.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 23 Comments
Paul Walter

US Presidential inauguration – potential meteorological impact of millions of simultaneous signs of relief

By Paul Walter | Wed 20th January 2021 - 5:16 pm

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If all 7.7 billion of people alive on earth jumped up at the same time, apparently (when they hit the ground afterwards) there would be a huge ear-piercing sound of 200 decibels and severe ground shaking which could cause 4-8 scale earthquakes and a tsumnami with 100-feet waves.

I wondered about that prospect when I read the words “Trump departs the White House” this morning. I certainly heaved a huge sigh of relief. I should imagine that millions of other people did the same thing at roughly the same time. So one speculates that all these sighs of relief may well have had some form of meteorological impact.

There was a lot of relief around as the Presidential inauguration proceeded today.

In the same place as rioters broke into the Capitol 14 days ago, we saw Joe and Dr Jill Biden serenely proceed up the steps flanked by military guards.

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Paul Walter

US politics: Amidst the mud-slinging, a ray of hope

By Paul Walter | Thu 14th January 2021 - 8:45 am

In the aftermath of the November 2000 US presidential election, I was off-work with a stress-related mental illness. In a good way, this meant I had plenty of time to read about the Bush/Gore hanging chads dispute. As a result, I discovered Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire. In the twenty years since then, hardly a day has gone by that I have not logged on to Political Wire – often several times a day.

It is a news aggregation website which is “light touch” – providing a miscellany of key political news and articles each day.

In the last few years, I have enrolled as a Political Wire member. The other day I saw a post advertising a webinar for members. I thought it would be fun to join it. This meant staying up until 1am last night! But it was a real treat. Amongst an audience of 900, there were such eminences as legendary pollster Charlie Cook and Obama adviser David Axelrod!

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Paul Walter

History is made – Trump is the first US President to be impeached twice

By Paul Walter | Wed 13th January 2021 - 10:09 pm

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Just a few minutes ago, I watched as Nancy Pelosi brought down her gavel on the US House resolution to impeach Trump a record second time.

That means, the President is referred to the US Senate for a trial chaired by the Chief Justice, where a two-thirds majority is needed to convict President Trump of “inciting an insurrection”. The timetable appears to suggest that a Democratic-controlled Senate will consider the matter after President-elect Biden is sworn in.

Extraordinarily, ten Republicans voted for impeachment in the US House. This included Rep Liz Cheney – which is very significant. This was the most bipartisan impeachment in the history of the United States.

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Paul Walter

The beauty of the US electoral vote certification process

By Paul Walter | Thu 7th January 2021 - 3:59 pm

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As a fan of US Congressional language, I was pleased to hear Vice-President Pence going through the electoral college certification process this morning.

Each state is taken in turn. Their envelope has been opened. Their certificate has been checked by the clerks to check that it is all in order – right date, right signature, right text – that sort of thing, I suppose.

Over and over again, for each state, VP Pence repeats the same officialese:

This certificate from State X, the Parliamentarians advise me, is the only certificated vote from the state, it purports to be a return from the state and is annexed to a certificate of authority from the state according to a point of ascertained electors.

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Paul Walter

Tragic end to Trump’s deceit

By Paul Walter | Wed 6th January 2021 - 11:29 pm

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The National Statuary Hall.

It’s not a name that trips readily off the tongue. It’s a big hall with about a hundred statues in it, in the US Capitol building in Washington DC. Each state is allowed to choose two statues, which they can replace if wanted.

When I was shown round it in 2019, I noticed Rosa Parks. Her statue was not chosen by her home state, Alabama. In an exception to the rule, she was placed there by unanimous vote of both chambers of the Congress. That speaks volumes.

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Paul Walter

Georgia on my mind – is it too early to do cartwheels?

By Paul Walter | Wed 6th January 2021 - 11:25 am

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Political Wire’s Taegan Goodard wrote a few hours ago:

It Appears Democrats Have Won Control of the Senate

As of this post, there is still no official projection in either U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia, but the New York Times’s needle is very confident that both Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff will win.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 19 Comments
Paul Walter

How on earth does this man still have access to a nuclear weapons trigger?

By Paul Walter | Mon 4th January 2021 - 6:00 pm

It is worth listening to this tape at length.

It ought to send a shiver down the spine of anyone who believes in democracy.

What staggers me is that this sort of call is happening well into January, rather than on November 4th last year.

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Paul Walter

Perhaps the best TV series the BBC has ever produced – and what it tells us about our society

By Paul Walter | Tue 15th December 2020 - 11:00 am

Apologies for an England-centric article.

I’ve recently been catching up on my TV viewing. I have finally watched most of the episodes of Michael Wood’s “Story of England”.

This series follows the history of England from the Romans to the present day, through the prism of one village – Kibworth in Leicestershire.

It really is an amateur historian’s dream – because it focuses not on wars and kings, but instead uses basic digging by present-day villagers, and original documents (some of which haven’t been touched for over 500 years). Thereby, it focuses on history from the roots of our society. It dwells on the history of actual families through the centuries.

Two themes emerge which caught my eye.

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Posted in TV and film | Tagged and | 3 Comments
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