Author Archives: The Voice

The Voice

Jo’s Day – 4th June 2019

By The Voice | Tue 4th June 2019 - 10:45 pm

It was a busy day for Jo too.

She was on the anti-Trump front line.

 

As business minister, Jo introduced the scheme which saw employers who didn’t pay the minimum wage named and shamed. No surprise, then, that the Government is now trying to water it down.

She tackled the Minister during an Urgent Question on the matter in the Commons:

Naming and shaming employers who fail to pay even the basic minimum is one of the strongest ways that society can send a message that such behaviour is unacceptable. The Minister talks about the impact on employers of being named, but I am more concerned about the impact on workers who are underpaid—some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Whether it is deliberate or otherwise, they feel that impact. I recall the opposition that I had to face from the Minister’s Conservative colleagues when I was in her role and introduced this scheme. Will she give the House an assurance today that the review will include no watering down of the scheme to let employers off the hook, and will she name the date when the next round of naming will happen?

Then this evening a keynote speech on the future of Liberal Democracy at The Convention, an event highlighting the threat of social media and dark money to our democracy.

Jo’s speech is at 31:45 in.

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 4th June 2019

By The Voice | Tue 4th June 2019 - 9:45 pm

After a relative lull yesterday, Ed had a bit of a whirlwind of a day.

He joined other Lib Dems in protesting Trump and wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post explaining why.

Trump has insulted the mayor of the capital hosting him, insulted the Duchess of Sussex just days before being hosted by the Queen, and insulted thousands of people working in the NHS by telling his ambassador to demand that American companies must be able to win contracts to run our hospitals. There is much I admire about America, but its health system isn’t one of them.

I marched against Brexit and now I will march against the same politics of division that President Trump personifies.

Our so-called government might be prepared to roll out the red carpet in a desperate attempt to curry favour with a president who’s willing to rip up international progress on the climate crisis, roll back women’s rights and demonise migrants. But for a Tory Party that prided itself on its royalism, it clearly doesn’t care that it has forced the Queen to host one of her most awkward visitors since Nicolae Ceausescu.

Then he challenged the Government on failure to make good its promise on the Dubs Amendment to take unaccompanied refugee children.

It is good to hear the Minister accept that the best way to prevent refugees from taking these dangerous crossings is to provide safe, legal routes to sanctuary for those fleeing persecution. Going back to the Dubs amendment, the Government promised two years ago to provide a scheme for 480 unaccompanied refugee children. When will that promise be delivered?

And he wished everyone Eid Mubarak

And chaired the board of an environmental organisation

And when the ChUK’s fell apart he said:

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The Voice

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By The Voice | Tue 4th June 2019 - 8:55 am

Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email?

Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

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The Voice

Ed’s Day – 3 June 2019

By The Voice | Mon 3rd June 2019 - 10:55 pm

After a frenetic weekend, it’s been a quieter day for our two leadership candidates.

Like Jo, Ed had something to say about our unwelcome house guest.

And he visited a local children’s cancer charity.

Check out Ed’s website for updates.

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The Voice

Jo’s Day – 3rd June 2019

By The Voice | Mon 3rd June 2019 - 9:55 pm

For both our leadership candidates, today has been relatively quiet after a frenetic weekend.

But there was a common theme in their tweets:

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The Voice

Jo’s Weekend – 1st and 2nd June 2019

By The Voice | Sun 2nd June 2019 - 10:15 pm

The Liberal Democrat leadership election has got off to a blistering start.We’ll be looking at what the leadership candidates get up to each day during the week and once at the weekend.  Here’s a summary of  Jo Swinson’s weekend.

There was a joint interview on Channel 4 with Ed Davey on Friday night.

And then the first party leadership hustings in London, which have been recorded here.

On Saturday there were hustings in Winchester. What a venue!

And on to Bath:

There was a Guardian interview too:

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The Voice

Ed’s Weekend – 1st and 2nd June 2019

By The Voice | Sun 2nd June 2019 - 9:15 pm

It’s been a hectic weekend for the leadership candidates. Numerous media interviews, travelling across the country for three sets of hustings. It’s a gruelling pace and there’s two months to go.

We’re going to try and keep up with them every day during the leadership campaign, once at the weekend.

The weekend kicked off on Friday night when the first hustings took pace in London.

Watch here:

And there was a joint interview on Channel 4 News. 

Yesterday it was on to Winchester

And Bath

Today, Ed was interviewed on Pienaar’s Politics on Radio 5 Live talking about the differences between him and Jo, climate change and Donald Trump.. Listen here.

Then he went to Wales to do some recall campaigning in Brecon and Radnor.

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The Voice

Ed and Jo round 1 – the London leadership hustings

By The Voice | Fri 31st May 2019 - 9:05 pm

It’s going to be a gruelling month for our Lib Dem leadership candidates. They’ve both had a fair bit of media exposure the last couple of days and tonight they are in Jeremy Corbyn’s backyard having their first hustings.

If anyone who is actually there wants to write up a report of the event, it would be very gratefully received. There were a lot of you there – which is fantastic on a Friday night on not that much notice.

In the meantime, here’s the pick of the tweets from the event. London Lib Dems did a fairly comprehsensive blow by blow account. Here are some other voices.

New members are impressed:

https://twitter.com/WestminsterJane/status/1134523130150563842

Opening statements

 

Questions

First, Brexit

https://twitter.com/RoryFitzESS/status/1134527271568650241

https://twitter.com/kangavallo/status/1134528282882428928

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The Voice

Jo Swinson launches leadership campaign

By The Voice | Fri 31st May 2019 - 8:06 am

It’s official. After a teasing video last night

Jo made the announcement that she was running to be leader of the Liberal Democrats on Question Time

She released her campaign video on Twitter this morning

Her campaign website is here.

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The Voice

Ed Davey launches campaign to lead Lib Dems

By The Voice | Thu 30th May 2019 - 2:12 pm

Ed Davey has launched his campaign to be Lib Dem Leader in a video posted on Twitter.

He has a new website, Ed for Leader.

Ed’s plan has three main themes:

Winning campaigns

Fighting for Liberal values

Tackling the climate emergency

And for those of you who have just joined the party, here’s a bit more about him:

Ed first got active in politics after reading Seeing Green by Jonathan Porritt as a teenager – and green issues have remained close to his heart ever since. After serving as the Economics Adviser to Paddy Ashdown, Ed won his seat of Kingston and Surbiton in 1997, when it was 106th on the target list.

From there, Ed has helped Liberal Democrats across the country, at all levels, get elected, including a diverse and majority female group in his home borough.

Ed lost both his parents as a child – and was a young carer for his mum before she passed away when he was 15, So Ed knows how challenging life can be – and how important the NHS is. Caring for the less fortunate has been the hallmark of his political career – for constituents and his campaigns for the bereaved, the disabled and the homeless.

In Coalition Ed began as a Business Minister, laying the groundwork for Shared Parental Leave under Vince Cable. In 2012 Ed became the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change where he quadrupled renewable power and made the UK the world leader in offshore wind. In Europe, Ed led climate change negotiations and won ambitious news targets people never thought would be agreed – so directly helping to get the Paris Climate Treaty.

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The Voice

Gladstone Lecture and Dinner 2019

By The Voice | Wed 29th May 2019 - 10:30 am

proxy.duckduckgo.com.jpg

The Liberal Democrat Christian Forum, one of the party’s Associated Organisations, is having its annual Gladstone Lecture on Wednesday, June 12th, in the Lloyd George Room of the National Liberal Club.

The guest speaker is Revd. Canon Mark Oakley, Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge and former residentiary Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral.

This year’s Gladstone Lecture is entitled “Poets, Prophets and Protestors: Liberty, Christianity and the Future.”  Mark is particularly interested in the interworking of politics, poetry and faith, and will explore these themes in his lecture.

The event begins with pre-lecture drinks at 6:30pm on June 12th, followed by the Gladstone Lecture at 7pm. Tickets for the lecture are £10 (with concessionary tickets available).

After the Gladstone Lecture, there will be a fund-raising dinner for the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum held in the Lady Violet Room at the National Liberal Club. Come meet Mark Oakley, the LDCF Executive and some of our Peers & MPs. Pre-drinks, Lecture and Dinner is priced at £100.

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The Voice

+++Vince to hand over to new Lib Dem Leader on July 23rd

By The Voice | Fri 24th May 2019 - 4:10 pm

So Theresa May isn’t the only leader to resign today.

Vince has just sent this message to party members announcing that he will be handing over to his successor on 23rd July.

The difference between the two departures is that Vince is going as part of a managed transition first announced nearly 9 months ago and is going out on a high. We’ll see just how high on Monday when we know all the results of the European elections.

Vince deserves our thanks for taking on the challenge of leadership and building on what Tim Farron had started. When we think of the bloody mess we were in after the last European elections, we can see how far both men took us.

Here is Vince’s email.

Dear Member,

Last night, the British people finished voting in the European elections. We have fought a very strong campaign and when the votes are counted on Sunday, I expect us to do well.

I want to thank the volunteers who have made that possible I was very touched while campaigning around the country by the enthusiasm and optimism of our members and supporters.

Many who kept going through difficult years for the party are now enjoying our resurgence as a major national force.

Our long and proud tradition of success in local government was revived this month by the best local election results in our party’s history. In the last two years, we have gained 780 more council seats and 15 new councils.

And membership is at record levels with a strengthening base of supporters amongst students and young people.

Together, we have rebuilt the Liberal Democrats – thank you.

I said earlier this year that the time would soon come to hand over the leadership of the party to a new generation. That process begins today: I will be proud to hand over a bigger, stronger party on July 23rd.

If you have friends who would want to vote in the election to choose my successor, urge them to join by Friday 7th June. Every new member can help shape our future.

There are major challenges ahead. One is to win, finally, the battle to stop Brexit. Our campaigning has given hope; now we need to secure a referendum in Parliament, and then win it.

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The Voice

Cable: Conservative Party interest has always trumped national interest

By The Voice | Fri 24th May 2019 - 11:03 am

Responding to the PM’s resignation, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable said:

The Prime Minister is right to recognise that her administration has reached the end of the road.

Sadly her compromises through the last three years have too often been with the right-wing of her own party, rather than about bringing the country together.

Conservative Party interest has always trumped national interest, and yet Conservative MPs continue to demand an ever more extreme Brexit policy.

The best and only option remains to take Brexit back to the people. I believe the public would now choose to Stop Brexit,

…

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The Voice

It wouldn’t be an election without a Willie Rennie stunt

By The Voice | Thu 23rd May 2019 - 8:53 am

And here he is, waterskiing to show the Lib Dem wave of support.

https://twitter.com/katie_armour/status/1130784202755063808

Sone people enjoyed it too much.

And there’s video too:

Former Scottish Camapigns director Adam Stachura had his own take

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The Voice

Greg Dyke urges Remainers to vote Lib Dem

By The Voice | Wed 22nd May 2019 - 8:00 am

Greg Dyke, television executive, broadcaster and former Director-General of the BBC, has endorsed the Lib Dems as the party of Remain. He is encouraging all Remainers to vote Lib Dem.

Greg says:

I strongly believe that Britain is better off inside than outside the European Union and will therefore be backing the Liberal Democrats – the leading pro-European party, and the one that has fought longest and hardest against Brexit – in this week’s European election.

If you too oppose Brexit, and favour the UK Remaining in the EU at this crucial moment in our country’s history, I would urge you to vote Lib Dem on Thursday too.

This follows a series of celebrity endorsements calling for remain voters to vote Lib Dem in the European Elections on Thursday. Bamber Gascoigne, Katy Brand, Emma Kennedy and Simon Callow have pledged their support, urging voters to support the Liberal Democrats as the party of Remain.

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The Voice

Vince: Lib Dems snapping at heels of Brexit Party

By The Voice | Tue 21st May 2019 - 10:25 am

Vince Cable was on the BBC News Channel’s Ask This last night talking about how the Lib Dems would have liked to have been part of a Remain Alliance but it didn’t work out. He said we were best placed to stop Farage’s Brexit Party from winning the election. Watch here:

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The Voice

Liberal Democrats storm the Rock (very genteelly)

By The Voice | Mon 20th May 2019 - 9:35 pm

As part of the European election campaign, Vince Cable visited Gibraltar a few days ago, accompanied by our lead candidate in the South West and Gibraltar, Caroline Voaden, former MEP Sir Graham Watson, and Luke Stagnetto, the Gibraltar-based list candidate.

Here’s how the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation covered it…

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The Voice

Michael Heseltine to vote Lib Dem to stop Brexit

By The Voice | Sun 19th May 2019 - 12:39 pm

If you have voted one way for almost 70 years, it’s hard to do anything differently. But former Tory Cabinet Minister Michael Heseltine is doing just that on Thursday.

His passionate internationalism and support of the European Union means that he will be supporting the Liberal Democrats.

Heseltine famously fell out with Margaret Thatcher over Europe and it was his challenge that led to her downfall in another Tory fight over Europe.

From the Observer:

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The Voice

Scottish Lib Dems’ PEB: A vote for the Lib Dems is a vote to stop Brexit and against independence

By The Voice | Thu 16th May 2019 - 11:55 am

The Scottish Lib Dem version of the European Elections PEB is a thing of beauty.

Narrated by Party Manager Jenny Wilson, it features Willie Rennie, Vince Cable, Borders candidate Jenny Marr and European candidates John Edward and Vita Zaporozcenko.

Enjoy.

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The Voice

Katy Brand and Emma Kennedy back Lib Dems for European elections

By The Voice | Thu 16th May 2019 - 6:52 am

Celebrity endorsement for the Lib Dems in the European elections:

https://twitter.com/KatyFBrand/status/1128576813289082880

And Emma Kennedy joined in:

https://twitter.com/EmmaKennedy/status/1128680088990552071

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The Voice

David Steel’s membership reinstated

By The Voice | Tue 14th May 2019 - 5:24 pm

Former leader David Steel’s membership of the Scottish Liberal Democrats has been reinstated following an investigation by the Scottish Party Executive.

Willie Rennie issued a statement today outlining the conclusion, according to the BBC:

The party’s executive group has now determined that there are “no grounds for action” against the former MSP and Holyrood presiding officer.

Mr Rennie said: “We take the issue of vigilance and safeguarding incredibly seriously, so it was important to investigate following the evidence that David Steel gave to the independent public inquiry. In part because of a hearing difficulty and a lack of precision in providing some answers it was necessary to seek further information from him for clarification.

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The Voice

Layla: I’m not standing for leader this time

By The Voice | Tue 14th May 2019 - 11:56 am

A statement this morning from Layla Moran:

I am very grateful to the large number of constituents, supporters, party members and elected representatives who have encouraged me to throw my hat into the ring in the forthcoming Liberal Democrat Leadership contest.

As a relatively new MP, however, my first priority has to be to serve my constituents to the best of my ability.

I hope they consider that I am doing a good job so far, but I do not believe that I would be able to continue to do so to the standard they have the right to expect if I took on the busy role of Party Leader as well.

For this reason, I wrote to local party members last week to let them know that I would not be standing for the Leadership this time.

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The Voice

WATCH: North East Lib Dems Stop Brexit video – featuring Bail Out Barry and Lib Dem Fiona Hall

By The Voice | Mon 13th May 2019 - 7:50 pm

The North East Lib Dems have produced a brilliant campaign video – a brilliant contrast between Labour chaos (starring Barry “Bail the Tories out” Gardiner) and what the Lib Dems offer for the north east – the NHS, the countryside, the environment.

Don’t put our future at risk, they say. Vote Lib Dem to stop Brexit says Fiona Hall.

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The Voice

Poll surge for Lib Dems in European elections

By The Voice | Fri 10th May 2019 - 6:54 am

Well, this is interesting. Clearly people are seeing that Lib Dems are the biggest and best Remain Party based on our spectacular local elections results where we gained 704 candidates.

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The Voice

Lib Dem Beki Sellick to fight Peterborough by-election after efforts to find single remain candidate falter

By The Voice | Thu 9th May 2019 - 10:53 pm

There had been some speculation in the media that there would be one single Remain candidate in the Peterborough by-election, which will take place on June 6th following the recall of MP Fiona Onasanya.

However, nominations closed today and that didn’t happen. Lib Dem Beki Sellick was duly nominated to fight the by-election for us:

The official party line is as follows:

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The Voice

Listen: Alistair Carmichael MP is first guest of new podcast series

By The Voice | Wed 8th May 2019 - 4:24 pm

Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Alistair Carmichael took some time to speak to the new team behind Debated, Will Barber Taylor and Conrad Lewandowski .

Alistair talks about the resurgence of the Lib Dems, the success of the local elections, the impact of Brexit on that vote, and what is next.

Have a listen!

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The Voice

Vince Cable’s message for a peaceful Ramadan

By The Voice | Tue 7th May 2019 - 12:19 pm

Over on the Lib Dem website, Vince Cable has wished Muslims a peaceful Ramadan:

Across the country, British Muslim communities will be taking time aside to engage in acts of charity, prayer and self-reflection.

The contributions of British Muslims to Britain are ever-growing; adding to the richness and diversity of our nation. However, we are witnessing a worldwide resurgence of exclusionary, right-wing nationalism that has led to acts of terror against the Muslim community. We demand better.

The attack in Christchurch earlier this year was a reminder that we must do all we can challenge those who seek to erase or limit religious freedoms. As a party we have adopted the APPG on British Muslim’s definition of Islamophobia: we all have a shared duty to challenge hate and intolerance.

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The Voice

Your last chance to register to vote in the European elections

By The Voice | Tue 7th May 2019 - 7:55 am

At 23:59 tonight, it will be too late to register for the European elections.

So if you know anyone who isn’t registered, you might like to direct them here. And if they are an EU citizen, they will have to fill in this form and deliver it personally to their local electoral registration office by close of business today.

This is such a crucial election and the future of our country depends on it. It is our chance to send a message to the Government that this deeply flawed Brexit process must be stopped.

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The Voice

Election results status: “Conservatives ☹️…Labour ☹️ Lib Dems 😁” – open thread

By The Voice | Fri 3rd May 2019 - 6:18 am

**6:33 summary: The Lib Dems have gained control of eight councils (two from NOC) and held two. We’ve won 177 extra council seats – making a total of 384 including seats held. The Tories have lost 11 councils and 254 seats. Labour have lost 2 councils and 45 seats. We’ve gained control of:

FROM THE TORIES:

CHELMSFORD
SOMERSET WEST AND TAUNTON
HINCKLEY AND BOSWORTH
BATH AND NORTH EAST SOMERSET
COTSWOLD
WINCHESTER

FROM NOC:

NORTH NORFOLK
NORTH DEVON

We’ve also held South Lakeland and Eastleigh.

Layla Moran has summarised this as “the best @LibDems local election results since 2003 – right in the aftermath of the Iraq war”. Ed Davey has described this news as “the best results in a generation”.**

7:07 ++The Lib Dems have won control of the Vale of the White Horse district council from the Tories after winning 20 out of 38 seats with several results still to come.

6:53 The Guardian Live results tracker has us on 259 gained seats and 253 held. They have the Tories with 377 lost seats and Labour with 63 lost seats.

6:44 The Press Association report:

The Conservatives have failed to take control of Torbay, after winning 15 seats of the 35 declared with just one result to come.

6:42: Our Bath and North East Somerset victory includes a win in ward where Jacob Rees-Mogg lives! Here’s a great quote from defeated former Conservative council leader Tim Warren, who lost to Lib Dem David Wood:

The guy who took my seat did a great campaign and when you are running a council you have to work full-time, and I didn’t have the time to match him.

The above title quote is from the BBC’s Nick Eardley.

Well done everyone for all your hard work! It’s great to see some really good news this morning. Look at this snapshot!:

The Guardian online front page is a treat:

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The Voice

Cable calls for criminal investigation into Williamson’s conduct

By The Voice | Wed 1st May 2019 - 8:03 pm

Embed from Getty Images

Following the sacking of Gavin Williamson as Defence Secretary over the Huawei leak, Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable has called for a thorough criminal investigation into breaches of the Official Secrets Act. He said:

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