Author Archives: The Voice

Welsh Lib Dem leader Jane Dodds has given her keynote speech to the party’s Spring Conference.

https://twitter.com/CIOBWales/status/1114564036262289410

Here it is in full:

Gynhadledd… Gynhadledd ddiolch i chi bawb am ddod heddiw. Dyma fy nhrydedd gynhadledd fel arweinydd ac mae’r angerdd a’r brwdfrydedd sydd gennym yn ein plaid wedi creu cymaint o argraff arnaf.

Conference thank you for all coming today. This is my third Conference since becoming your leader and I am still so impressed with the passion and enthusiasm we have within our party.

So, what is going on?  Let’s take ourselves back to that strange broadcast from Theresa May 2 weeks ago.

In the past few months we’ve seen increasing instability, a lack of political leadership and the national embarrassment that is this government’s handling of Brexit.

And while Brexit dominates every debate, every storyline, just spare a moment’s thought for the issues that have been ignored. Poverty rising, money for our public services cut and climate change forgotten.

Conference, have we ever seen a Westminster Government that’s more of a mess and a shambles than the one we have today?

I say Wales demands better.

 

This cannot be the kind of world we want our children to grow up in.

Around the world we are seeing the rise of right-wing populism, intolerance and the politics of fear and division. From Trump in the US, to Bolsonaro in Brazil to Orban in Hungary, we live in dangerous times.

Here in UK, we’ve seen the rise and, much more pleasantly, the fall of UKIP.

Every day we’re seeing the effects of the Brexit vote.

A vote that has been tainted even more by the Vote Leave campaign’s decision to withdraw its appeal against fines for breaking electoral laws.

In the near 3 years since the referendum, we’ve seen a Conservative Prime Minister who has put her own party first at every stage – not our country. Her real masters have become the ERG and the DUP.

Only in the last week have we seen her reach out across the political divide for the first time – and only then because there was no choice.

In the Conservative Party, a party that took Britain into the Europe and into the single market, we’re seeing good, honest, pro-European MPs like Dominic Grieve and Nick Boles labelled as traitors and facing votes of no confidence.

All while Jeremy Corbyn continues to ignore most of his members and voters by consistently failing to oppose what is clearly a Brexit that will hurt our economy, our future and frankly the most vulnerable in our society.

In all this I say thank goodness for the Liberal Democrats.

It was Tim Farron that showed great courage after that referendum and first put forward the idea of a People’s Vote.

It was Vince Cable that took this fight forward and put the Liberal Democrats at the heart of a movement of millions to give the people the final say on the deal.

Conference, there is an alternative to right wing populism, to the politics of fear and to Brexit. It is the Liberal Democrats and liberals around the world.

Now is OUR time to demand better and take a stand.

We demand a People’s Vote and we will not waver in our stand.