Author Archives: The Voice

On Thursday we reported on Ed Davey’s call for the Conservatives to cancel their Conference and get on with sorting out the mess they have created in the economy. We will all feel the effects of their recklessness in the months and years to come.

The party’s comms teams have backed this up with this social media ad. If you haven’t seen it in your feeds, that’s probably a good thing as party members and supporters aren’t usually the target audience of our campaigns.

New Lib Dem ad just droppped on social media ahead of Conservative Party conference. pic.twitter.com/W8gfZ2cQpE

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 30, 2022

Conferences are supposed to be a moment to showcase the best your party has to offer, to make the most of that spot in the media. The sight of Conservatives drinking champagne while people face soaring bills and find it increasingly difficult to get a mortgage will not, we suspect, go down particularly well with voters.

Alex Cole-Hamilton has urged the Scottish Government to do more to deal with the Monkeypox outbreak which has so far infected 71 people in Scotland.

• Whether the First Minister or Health Secretary has discussed Monkeypox with the JCVI;
• What briefings ministers have had from health officials;
• Whether it is intending to offer vaccination to all those most at risk of contracting monkeypox;
• What conversations have been had with Health ministers and officials in other parts of the UK;
• How many doses of the MVA smallpox vaccine it has access to and whether it will be ordering more.

Alex said:

During the Covid crisis we saw that government policy was better when precautions were explained to people, contingency plans laid out in public and scrutiny encouraged.

It was when the government chose to make decisions behind closed doors and failed to take the public with them that many of the worst decisions of the pandemic were made.

This is an opportunity to show that lessons have been learned from the Covid crisis. The WHO says that this is an emergency so while caseloads are still low, it’s important that ministers act.

Lib Dem Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney has demanded that the Government take action  to avoid a recession immediately after the announcement of the fall in GDP

She said:

The warning lights are flashing red but the government is missing in action.

There’s no time to waste, ministers must act now to boost confidence and avoid a recession.

Our efforts in Shropshire have not gone unnoticed.

I’m absolutely delighted to welcome former Labour Mayor and MP candidate Jon Tandy to the Liberal Democrat ranks in Shrewsbury.

We met in Harlescott yesterday to welcome Jon to the team. 👇https://t.co/ohgTDLDJjb

— Cllr Alex Wagner 🦁 (@alex__wagner__) August 10, 2022

This week former Labour Mayor and parliamentary candidate for Shrewsbury joined the Lib Dems and was welcomed by local councillor Alex Wagner.

From Shropshire Live:

Jon Tandy said: “I was a Labour Councillor for 16 years, and served Shrewsbury as Mayor. I even ran to be our Labour MP. Joining another party is not a decision I take lightly, and has played on my mind for some time.

“Ultimately, the Labour Party I joined 35 years ago is gone. The influence of Corbyn and Momentum is still present like a nasty hangover, especially in Shrewsbury and Atcham. I can’t sit by and stick with them when there are other strong alternatives locally.

I’m born and bred in Shrewsbury, I love this town. The Liberal Democrats are providing the community leadership that we need to keep making Shrewsbury a better place to live for everyone. They really care about our town, and I’m going to be backing the Lib Dems all the way to win votes and seats from both the Tories and Labour.”