By Paul Walter
| Sun 15th September 2019 - 1:30 pm
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My wife and I once gave a small donation to a Nuns’ mission in Kenya that helps the desperately poor. A week or so later we received a hand drawn card which had been signed by all the nuns in that mission, thanking us most effusively for our donation. It was the nicest thank you we have ever received and we treasured that card for months.
Recently I made a donation to a re-wilding project in Scotland. I received not one, but two personally signed thank you letters, one from the treasurer and one from the chair of the project. They were both long letters, explaining how my money would be spent. One of them said: “Your donation arrived at a crucial time for us, so was particularly welcome.”
By Paul Walter
| Sun 15th September 2019 - 8:20 am
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A few hours before his stunning unveiling as the latest Liberal Democrat MP, Sam Gyimah told The Observer why he has joined the Liberal Democrats:
Centrists are being cast out of both main parties. Lots of people are politically homeless. Who can you work with to build a movement?
By Paul Walter
| Sat 14th September 2019 - 9:08 pm
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I have been staggering along to more conference rallies than I care to remember. But tonight’s conference opener was the most thrilling rally I have been to.
Hard on the heels of Sal’s fantastic presidential swan song, Tim Farron was on fire as he started it.
Well done to Mark Allen and team on a fantastic victory in Middleton Cheney. They won the South Northamptonshire seat from the Tories in yesterday’s by-election. This was despite local MP Andrea Leadsom campaigning hard for the Tory candidate (see above).
Full result in Middleton Cheney, South Northamptonshire – @towcesterfocus
LD Mark Allen: 384 (44.3% +10.2) Con 345 (39.8% -2.3) Green 89 (10.3% +6.2) Labour 49 (5.7% -14.1)
By Paul Walter
| Thu 12th September 2019 - 9:30 am
Here below is the Conference Brexit motion in full. It is motion F17 “Stop Brexit” to be debated at 11:50 on Sunday. In the main Conference Agenda document, this motion simply appears as “F17 Europe” with no detail. This was to allow a motion to be written closer to conference that is up-to-date. The motion text appears in the Conference Extra document which has now been published.
You can find all the Conference papers here and the excellent Conference app is available for iOS/Apple and Android. With the app you can read through the agenda and fringe meeting list. You can then add items to your phone calendar so you can assemble your “wish list” of conference activities all in one place and get the usual reminders etc.
Like most of us, I have spent an inordinate amount of time wandering around the streets of England and Wales. But last week in Sheffield was the first time I have seen one of these.
By Paul Walter
| Thu 5th September 2019 - 10:30 am
Laura Gordon in the Sheffield campaign HQ
Yesterday morning I caught the bus out to the HQ. After a most welcome cuppa, I packed up my rucksack and went off with a full load of leaflets and targeted envelopes.
By Paul Walter
| Tue 3rd September 2019 - 12:11 pm
I seem to have a habit of arriving in places on milestone days. I arrived in Llandrindod Wells on the day the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election writ was moved. Today I have arrived in Sheffield Hallam on the day the MP is expected to resign (2:30pm is the crucial moment).
The range of large protests across the country today is incredible. It is particularly heartening to see Lib Dems marching alongside those from other parties and none.
#PlymouthLibDems parliamentary candidate @SimaDavarian gave a passionate & positively received speech in Plymouth today. Hundreds of us, from different groups & parties, were demonstrating against the suspension of Parliament & several speakers addressed the crowds. #StopTheCouppic.twitter.com/0ICjCx2ynY
— Plymouth Liberal Democrats 🔶 (@PlymouthLibDems) August 31, 2019
Leader of the Liberal Democrats Jo Swinson has added her name to the legal challenge from Gina Miller aimed to prevent Boris Johnson from suspending Parliament. This follows yesterday’s High Court announcement that the case would be considered.
Earlier today, I signed the petition against proroguing parliament and about 150,000 people had also signed it. I’ve just looked and now 604,612 people have signed – and it’s going up all the time! (P.S As I published this post it had gone up to 622,453)
Boris Johnson was described as a threat to the very nature of British democracy at a cross party meeting of MPs who signed a pledge to an alternative parliament in the event of the prime minister shutting down parliament to make a no deal Brexit happen.
Norman Lamb has told the Eastern Daily Press that he will not stand for election again:
Sir Norman Lamb, who was elected under the Liberal Democrats for North Norfolk 18 and a half years ago, said Brexit had stalled so much of parliament’s business he no longer felt other issues got the time they deserved.
Sir Norman, 61, spoke exclusively to this newspaper to announce he would not be standing at the next election – which he expected before the end of the year – but also to launch his next endeavour to help improve mental health care in the county.
Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson has told the BBC’s World at One programme that the meeting in Jeremy Corbyn’s office with other leaders trying to stop no-deal Brexit was “very positive”. Swinson confirmed that the leaders did not discuss who would lead a caretaker government if the prime minister lost a vote of no confidence
She told the show:
Labour politicians in place in the room where the cross-party talks were held this morning
The following joint statement has been issued by the Labour Party, the SNP, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and the Independent Group for Change following this morning’s meeting of their leaders:
The leaders of the opposition parties held a productive and detailed meeting on stopping a disastrous No Deal exit from the EU.
Jeremy Corbyn outlined the legal advice he has received from Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti which calls Boris Johnson’s plans to suspend parliament to force through a No Deal “the gravest abuse of power and attack upon UK Constitutional principle in living memory”.
WARNING: This article contains high amounts of hysterical optimism (or at least non-pessimism)
Here are, to my mind, three significant things about Boris Johnson in the context of the current Brexit dilemma:
1. It is conceivable that he harbours ideas of having statues of himself built in future. When grappling with the choice of being a politician or a journalist, he allegedly once said:
You may have seen reports that Boris Johnson is considering closing Parliament for six weeks in order to block MPs from extending Article 50 for a further period.
Our Shadow Brexit Secretary Tom Brake remarked on this yesterday:
If Boris Johnson can find a kooky or irregular way to shut Parliament out of the Brexit process it will be an outrage.
No deal will destroy our economy, it will have a dramatic impact on the cost of living and it will mean less access to medicines that keep people alive. Parliament must be able to challenge Ministers on the damage it will cause.
Today the Leader of the Liberal Democrats Jo Swinson has written to Jeremy Corbyn ahead of a meeting between opposition leaders in order to ensure that no option is off the table to stop No Deal.
Jo Swinson has proposed an agenda for the meeting requesting that it focuses on four critical points:
Strategy to take over the order paper to prevent No Deal
Plan to beat the government in a vote of no confidence
The steps that would need to be taken in forming an emergency government
Clarity on where all opposition parties stand on the matter of stopping Brexit altogether
We are the only ethnicity in this country where it is openly acceptable to denigrate us, people to say things, and no one bats an eyelid.
I recently dug through the Twitter archive relating to a recent event (which I will not specify, as it is now sub judice) and found over 100 separate incidents in the last week alone where Twitter users were (in arguable contravention of Twitter’s own rules) “abusive or harmful” in ‘directing hate towards a protected category’, in relation to Irish Travellers (a UK government registered ethnic group).
Most of the relevant tweets used a grossly derogatory word beginning with “p” or an abusive word beginning with “g” and ending in “o”. Some of the worst tweets combined those words with the word “scumbag”, the word “vermin” or a slang word for excrement. All made generalised remarks about the grouping and some expressed the view that drastic action should be taken against that group, in contravention of their basic human rights. (I have reported 90+ incidents to Twitter and I am now having to deal with a blizzard of emails from them asking for further information). The short video above gives even more graphic illustrations of such routine abuse, collated by the Traveller Movement.
I’m going to sound like a misty-eyed old fossil now, but often I find my base reference point, with respect to the police, was the actor Jack Warner playing “Dixon of Dock Green“.
Yes, I know most people under 60 years old won’t remember him. Yes, I know “Dixon of Dock Green” probably gave an idealised version of law and order even when it was broadcast from 1955 until 1976.
Jane Dodds celebrates victory with helpers at the Brecon campaign HQ in the early hours of Friday 2nd August
Many thanks to Callum Littlemore for letting us show some of his behind-the-scenes photos, from Friday morning, at the Brecon and Radnorshire campaign HQ in Brecon.
Here are some photos, via Getty Images, from last night and this morning, showing celebrations in Brecon and Radnorshire. Scroll down to see more photos. Hover over the photo to see the full caption, or click on the photo to go to its origin on the Getty Images website. The first photo below shows Jo Swinson speaking in the constituency at 8 o’clock this morning:
The Brexit party plane over Brecon and Radnorshire yesterday
After an early night on Wednesday, my alarm went off at 4:50am on Thursday. I successfully managed to switch it off, disenabling the “snooze” function. So, of course, I then went back to sleep and woke up at 5:25am, leaving myself exactly 30 seconds to get dressed and into the car to meet Kirsten Johnson, North Devon PPC and LDV colleague.
The Llandrindod Wells office team gave us an exceptionally well ordered and tightly-knit set of “Good morning” leaflets which we delivered very quickly. Only about seven dogs started barking.
John Reed This is such a disappointing announcement.
We must push to have the present system for pricing all electricity based on the cost of the most expensive, usual...
Peter Hirst I would add caring to bold and relevant. Getting a sympathetic ear at the end of a telephone help line is as important as an extra pound in your pay slip. Under...
Peter Hirst One of the more important issues that the electorate care about is how much political parties understand what matters to them. This varies from person to person...
Peter Hirst Inequality must be seen in the round. I appreciate living in the north-west because it gives me easy access to mountains such as in Snowdonia, The Lakes and Der...
Peter Hirst One of the aims of most societies is some sort of redistribution. So fiscal federalism must have a mechanism for the rich regions giving to the poorer. Without ...
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Brexit and summer holidays
The pine martens of Shropshire
The shame of Liverpool Labour councillors taking their allowances but not turning up to do the work
John Reed 
Peter Hirst 