Author Archives: The Voice

The Voice

In full: Jo Swinson’s response to the Budget – with a cheeky intervention from Tom Brake

By The Voice | Wed 22nd November 2017 - 9:30 pm

It was Jo Swinson who led the Lib Dem speeches in the Commons today in response to Philip Hammond’s insipid budget. Here is her speech in full. Note the cheeky intervention from Tom Brake, reminding of us of some words on the side of a bus.

The British economy today faces three key challenges. First, we have low productivity, with the associated wage stagnation that comes with it, and of course the reduced tax receipts. Secondly, we have high public sector debt. We must recognise the constraints that that places on what is possible economically, and be honest about some of the hard choices that need to be made. Thirdly, there is Brexit, which has already been described as the elephant in the room. We see the uncertainty it is creating for businesses and investment in the country, its impact on our economy, and the opportunity cost of all the energy and money being spent on preparing for it that could otherwise be directed elsewhere.

The Chancellor is a serious man. We had significant differences in coalition but in recent months he has appeared to be one of the few voices of reason in the Cabinet on Brexit. He had an unenviable task coming to the House today, given the picture of higher inflation, lower growth, lower productivity and high levels of debt. It really is bleak. The economy will be £45 billion smaller in 2021 than had been projected just in March this year, so his attempts to paint a cheerful vision of the future were rather less successful than his jokes. The truth is, as the Chancellor knows, that this Budget, the next one, the Budget after that and all future Budgets are made all the more difficult because of Brexit and the extreme approach to it that this Government are pursuing. Making it clear that an exit from the single market and the customs union is a red line for the Government—this is aided and abetted by the Labour Front-Bench team—imperils the future of the UK economy, and the Chancellor knows it.

The right hon. Member for Loughborough (Nicky Morgan) rightly said that there is no pot of gold at the end of the Brexit rainbow, although the more appropriate metaphor is that of a thunderstorm. We learned today that the cost of Brexit preparations is not just the £700 million already allocated but a further £3 billion, which is more than the extra money that could be found for the NHS, and that tells its own story. We need to add to that the exit bill, and who knows what that will be—£20 billion, £30 billion, £40 billion? In addition, there is the overall hit to the economy, which the OECD has suggested could be £40 billion. It is no surprise that these figures were not stuck on the side of a bus in the referendum campaign.

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The Voice

Jo vs Boris: On Russian interference and cyber-attacks

By The Voice | Wed 22nd November 2017 - 10:25 am

Yesterday Jo Swinson took on Boris Johnson at Foreign Office questions:

The text is below:

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The Voice

LibLink: Jo Swinson on “Sexual harassment: a chance for change”

By The Voice | Sun 19th November 2017 - 4:21 pm

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Jo Swinson has published an article on Medium titled “Sexual harassment: a chance for change“. She writes:

Many people have been shocked by recent revelations about the extent of sexual harassment in politics. Sadly to many of us it does not come as a shock, but we have welcomed the focus on a persistent problem that has too often been trivialised or ignored. Some sections of the media have — without any sense of irony — provided illustrative answers to the endless questions about why victims hesitate to come forward to tell their story. While it is depressing still to be having these conversations in 2017, it is also an opportunity — let’s welcome this scrutiny and turn it into a positive force for change.

A cross-party working group in Parliament to create an independent grievance procedure and provide better advice and support for those who experience bullying and harassment met for the first time this week. As the Liberal Democrat MP on that group, I am determined that the outcome should be sufficiently broad to protect people in constituencies and in Parliament, as well as ordinary members of the public.

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The Voice

Lib Dem staff elect reps to Federal Committees

By The Voice | Fri 17th November 2017 - 2:49 pm

Lib Dem staff at LDHQ in London have clearly not had enough of elections for this year! They have just held their own elections for staff reps to the federal committees.

An insider explained to us what the staff reps did:

Staff reps have two main roles. Firstly, each rep either sits on a Federal committee or is a social rep. Staff reps are non-voting members of Federal committees they sit, their job is to express to views of staff and communicate how plans that Federal committees propose will affect staff. The second part of the staff rep role is to act in the role of a union rep where they will be able to accompany a member of staff to a meeting with management if you are you’re facing a disciplinary charge or you wish to raise a grievance with your employer. Any member of staff employed by the Federal party can stand and vote in the staff rep elections.

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Protecting Nature After Brexit

By The Voice | Thu 16th November 2017 - 3:20 pm

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Liberal Democrat MEP Catherine Bearder has put pen to paper in a letter to MIchael Gove MP, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

This joint letter to Mr Gove was also signed by Seb Dance MEP, Keith Taylor MEP and Julie Girling MEP.  Together, these MEPs form a cross-party group of UK MEPs who sit on the European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee.

The letter follows the successful vote on November 15th in Strasbourg on the EU Parliamentary …

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The Voice

EU withdrawal bill debate “pointless and dangerous political ploy”

By The Voice | Tue 14th November 2017 - 8:59 pm

Tom Brake had this to say as the House of Commons debated the first batch of line by line amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill:

Today the Prime Minister’s desperate attempt to buy off her hard Brexit supporters with red meat has been found out for what it is; a pointless and dangerous political ploy which has no legislative coherence and boxes the UK into an arbitrary timetable. This will only make our negotiations harder, limit our room for manoeuvre and increase the risk of No Deal.

It has been rightly and resoundingly rubbished by both sides of the House.

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Vince Cable’s message for Remembrance Sunday

By The Voice | Sun 12th November 2017 - 10:30 am

Vince Cable’s message for Remembrance Sunday is below:

It is an honour to have been invited to the National Remembrance Day event at the Cenotaph.

It is almost a century since the end of World War I. My grandfather was captured in a First World War battle, and maltreated in a prison camp. As with many survivors, he suffered from permanently damaged health.

Nearly every family in this country has a relation who was killed, injured or suffered in a major war.

Today we honour their sacrifice

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The Voice

Rennie: Stand up for immigration to save our universities, health service and farms

By The Voice | Sat 11th November 2017 - 2:30 pm

Willie Rennie puts immigration front and centre of his Leader’s speech to Scottish Conference today. He will will set out positive examples that immigration brings to local communities and call out hard line Brexiteers who risk tanking the economy in their obsessive pursuit of a damaging Brexit. He will say:

The Conservatives are about to betray Leave voters or trash the economy. This is the real political car crash that is heading our way.

If immigration is not cut with Brexit then Leavers will feel betrayed because that is what they voted for. If the Conservatives keep that promise, and immigration is cut, it will damage our economy and public services, and even more will feel betrayed because they were not told this would happen.

Whilst leaders bicker about transition periods and single markets and common external tariffs the elephant in the room is immigration. In the Brexit vote people were promised fewer foreigners in our country. Yet people were not told the price of that policy.  And it is big.

The price is a shortage of workers to get food from British farm into the shops.

The price is a shortage of carers, nurses and GPs.

The price is billions of pounds of lost taxes from these jobs.
They are already going home and Brexit has not even happened yet.

Some say that too much immigration is a threat to our way of life. But the truth is that not enough immigration is the real threat to our way of life. It’s not the workers from Poland, Romania or Bulgaria who we should fear. We should fear all those political leaders who are blindly backing Brexit. These are the people we should be sending home.

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Willie Rennie’s speech as Nicola Sturgeon apologises to gay men for historic convictions

By The Voice | Wed 8th November 2017 - 10:25 am

It was an emotional day in the Scottish Parliament yesterday. In the balcony, men openly wept as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon delivered a heartfelt apology to gay men for historic convictions as the Scottish Parliament prepared to pass legislation that would pardon them.

All the Scottish party leaders joined in to add to the apology. Here is Willie Rennie’s speech:

Can I start by thanking the First Minister for making her statement and her apology on behalf of the Scottish Government.

It is an important thing to do.

For many gay people the idea of a pardon carries with it connotations of forgiveness for a wrongdoing

The apology today from the First Minister makes it clear that it was the law, the enforcement of that  law and the attitude of those in authority, in our country’s past, who were wrong.

Today we are all adding to that apology by reflecting on the wasted potential and lost achievements of those men whose lives were limited or tragically cut short because of this injustice.

People were imprisoned and fined.

Their lives and families were in many cases ruined.

Men became outsiders from their families and their communities.

Our country is poorer for the limits we placed on those men’s freedom.

It is right that Parliament stands together to apologise for that.

It is easy today, to imagine that this is all ancient history.

Certainly when we see Alan Turing we see photographs in black and white.

But the estimates are that most prosecutions were in the 1980s.

Within easy memory.

With many of those arrested and prosecuted, and those who made the arrests and led the prosecutions still with us.

In the summer the BBC showed their dramatised documentary “Against The Law” which commemorated fifty years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality.

One of the testimonies was from Professor Roger Lockyer, who lived with his partner, later his husband, for more than fifty years. He described with great humour, but also great poignancy the struggle, the secrecy and the injustice of the law of this country over those fifty years and the decades before.

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Vince’s email to party members: Lib Dems will work across parties to stamp out sexual harassment

By The Voice | Sun 5th November 2017 - 11:55 am

As the Sunday papers are published this morning, there are yet more disturbing stories about sexual harassment in Westminster, in Holyrood, and in politics more widely.

Harassment of this kind is absolutely unacceptable under any circumstances, and Liberal Democrats will work across parties to stamp it out.

I want to see a political system in which everyone is represented, and political institutions – from Parliament down to every local authority – that reflect the society they serve. It is absolutely crucial to this ambition that everyone feels they are in a safe and professional environment when they get involved, stand for political …

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The Voice

Laura Gordon selected as PPC for Sheffield Hallam

By The Voice | Sat 4th November 2017 - 10:10 pm

Nick Clegg’s successor as Lib Dem candidate in Sheffield Hallam has been chosen.

Laura Gordon won the selection contest last night.

The Star has more details.

Following her selection by Lib Dem party members on Friday, Ms Gordon said: “I am really honoured to be selected by the Liberal Democrats to be the candidate in Sheffield Hallam. “The Liberal Democrats have a long history in Sheffield Hallam

…

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Vince: CBI survey shows small businesses losing confidence in Government over Brexit

By The Voice | Wed 1st November 2017 - 8:38 am

Optimism amongst small and medium-sized manufacturing firms has fallen for the first time in over a year, according to the CBI’s latest quarterly survey published today.

Vince Cable, unsurprisingly, talked about the need for that exit from brexit referendum.

Small businesses in the manufacturing sector appear to be losing faith in the Government’s ability to negotiate a Brexit deal that serves their interests.

Lacking anything resembling a strategy, the Conservatives’ willingness to entertain the foolishness of no deal is killing business confidence by the day.

The promise that a weaker pound would boost manufacturing exports has largely failed to materialise; the same will almost certainly

…

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The Voice

Cable: PM right to call for reforms to Parliament grievance procedures

By The Voice | Mon 30th October 2017 - 8:15 am

Vince Cable has backed Theresa May’s calls for new grievance procedures in Parliament following allegations of sexual harassment of staff by MPs.

The Prime Minister set out proposed reforms in a letter to Commons Speaker John Bercow, copying in the other party leaders.

Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable said:

The Prime Minister is right to be calling for these changes.

Parliament clearly needs improved procedures to respond to allegations of harassment.

The Liberal Democrats have introduced similar changes since a review in 2013, which has proved a positive step.

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The Voice

Vince Cable’s message for Diwali

By The Voice | Thu 19th October 2017 - 9:00 pm

Full text is below:

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Campbell: Every time Trump opens his mouth, the world becomes a less safe place

By The Voice | Fri 13th October 2017 - 6:58 pm

Back in the day when he was leader, he was referred to as Ming. Now he’s in the Lords and newly appointed Defence Spokesperson, he’s back to being Menzies.

Anyway, our new Defence spokesperson had this to say about Donald Trump’s latest destabilising shenanigans over Iran:

This is yet another example of Trump’s boneheaded belligerence.

Not content with senseless responses to every provocation of Kim Jong Un, he is determinedly undermining a treaty which has proved to be an important influence on nuclear non-proliferation.

Every time Trump opens his mouth, the world becomes a less safe place.

Surely, by implication, every time he reaches for …

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Lib Link: Nick Clegg – You can stop Brexit by joining the Labour party – or even the Tories

By The Voice | Sun 8th October 2017 - 4:27 pm


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Writing in the Observer, Nick Clegg argues that the pro-Brexit agenda is being pushed by a moneyed elite, at the disadvantage of “the little people” they pretend to support. He goes on to say:

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Willie Rennie to hold talks with SNP over support for Brexit deal referendum

By The Voice | Sun 8th October 2017 - 9:23 am

The quest to build a case for an “exit from Brexit” referendum continues. In his speech to the Bournemouth Conference, Willie Rennie said he would be trying to work with the SNP to build support for the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ campaign for an “exit from Brexit” referendum.

He wrote to the First Minister and she has agreed that this merits discussion.

Willie will now meet the Scottish Government Minister Mike Russell for talks on this issue. He welcomed this invitation:

This is a welcome step forward from the Scottish Government and shows that there is support from across the political spectrum for a clear approach to Brexit that gives the British people a final say.

Both Nicola Sturgeon and Mike Russell have shown support for our campaign to give the public the final say but this can only be achieved if parties are willing to work together to protect the UK’s relationship with the EU. I know that there are colleagues across all UK parties who support this position and I urge them to join this movement and build the momentum further.

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Christine Jardine wants your WASPI stories

By The Voice | Thu 28th September 2017 - 8:55 am

We know that women born in the 1950s are facing real struggles because of a steep rise in the age at which they become entitled to their state pension. They were not properly informed of decisions taken years ago and so have not had time to prepare.

If we think that this is unfair, the most important thing that we can do is to gather evidence about the real impact of this on women’s lives.

Women are more likely to be in lower paid jobs and so will have less entitlement to occupational pensions. This means that many women will find themselves suffering poverty and hardship as they approach retirement.

One of the first things that Lib Dem MP for Edinburgh West Christine Jardine did in Parliament was to join the All Party Parliamentary Group on State Pension Inequality. She is the co-sponsor of a Bill aimed at reviewing the impact on women.

She wants to find women to tell their stories about what the delay in their entitlement means to them.

I want to make sure that we have as much evidence as possible of just how much hardship has been caused by the way these changes were made.

It’s heartbreaking to hear what women who have worked all their lives and planned for their retirement have been put through simply because they weren’t warned about what was about to happen.

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Obituary for Tor Foster

By The Voice | Wed 27th September 2017 - 8:55 am

Sad news, reported in the Bath Chronicle, that Tor Foster, married for almost half a century to Liberal Democrat peer and former Bath MP Don Foster, died last week.

From their obituary:

Tor supported Don ceaselessly in his political career. Intelligent, articulate, wise and warm she was universally admired, although always happier to take a back seat in public life.

When they moved to Bath in 1992, after Don had unseated the sitting MP, Chris Patten, Tor took great pleasure in creating a fine home in Northend. Myrtle Cottage became a haven for family, friends and political colleagues alike. An excellent cook – insisting on an aga, wherever they lived – many will recall long convivial lunches and suppers alive with discussion and debate. Often challenging and thought provoking, Tor had her own opinions and was never afraid to challenge Don, or anyone else, but always in a warm and inclusive manner.

As Don’s career progressed, and their children left home (Stuart, their son, to settle in Australia), Tor’s career in adult education also developed. She was a lecturer in education at both the University of the West of England (UWE) and latterly at Bath Spa University, and many tributes have been paid by former students, particularly citing her kindness and her sense of humour – and her insistence on good grammar.

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Lib Dems react to Theresa May’s Florence speech

By The Voice | Fri 22nd September 2017 - 8:03 pm

Vince said that it was no wonder the Brexiteers were terrified of giving the people a say on the deal:

Both the Conservatives and Labour have now essentially converged on the same position, which is to kick the can down the road and simply delay the economic pain caused by an extreme Brexit.

Neither are prepared to fight to keep Britain in the single market and customs union or to offer people a chance to exit from Brexit

Voters were promised £350m a week for the NHS, instead Theresa May is admitting the UK will have to pay a hefty Brexit bill worth billions of pounds.

No wonder the Brexiteers are terrified of giving the British people the final say through a referendum on the facts.

Willie Rennie said the “delinquent’ May was trashing our relationship with Europe.

Theresa May is kicking the can down the road. Sixteen months on from the Brexit referendum this delinquent Prime Minister is trashing our relationship with Europe.

She seems incapable of deciding what kind of relationship she wants with Europe and that prolonged uncertainty is causing economic damage.

We were promised Brexit would be an easy negotiation and that £350 million each week would be invested in the NHS. Neither are true.

This makes the compelling case for a Brexit deal referendum even stronger.

Yesterday, the Lib Dems laid out seven tests for Theresa May’s speech. Tom Brake said that only one of them was even slightly met. 

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In full: Kirsty Williams’ speech to Conference

By The Voice | Tue 19th September 2017 - 9:39 am

The Lib Dems’ only Cabinet Minister, Kirsty William, Cabinet Secretary for Education in Wales, addressed Conference on Sunday. Here is her speech in full.

Introduction

I would like to open this speech with a thank-you to Tim Farron for his leadership over what, unquestionably, has been the toughest period this party has ever faced.

At our lowest point, Tim stepped up to the plate, helping reverse our fortunes.

In an unexpected election, Tim nearly doubled the number of seats we held in Parliament, and took our membership to over 100,000. A record.

As I look across the room and see plenty of new faces, Tim can rightly be proud of the liberal vision that he put forward that attracted so many new people to our party.

I would also like to thank Mark Williams. Wales has lost a tremendous MP, and a strong advocate for radical Welsh Liberalism.

Mark worked tirelessly for the communities of Ceredigion, dealing with thousands of pieces of casework, leading major campaigns such as changing the legal definition of child neglect, and continuously being a strong voice for rural Wales.

Mark, we thank you.

Now, conference, despite our solid performance in the General Election, it is clear that many shifted back to the old way of doing things: red versus blue. Left versus right.

Increasingly, people are feeling powerless, neglected, excluded.

Some look to exploit those fears. Exploit them with easy answers. Tell them it’ll all be ok if we just turn back the clock.

Sometimes back to the 1950s, sometimes 1970s… sometimes the 1670s if you’re Mr Rees-Mogg.

But liberal values haven’t gone away. The populist voices have just got louder. Shouting down all that disagree.

Too often, especially in recent years, the louder voice has won the day.

Well here’s an idea – isn’t it time the liberal voice was heard again?

There are people across Britain looking for reasons to support us.

We must provide the leadership Britain needs, standing up for what is right.

It’s our turn to be loud.

Building a coalition that fights for fairness. Fights for reason. Fights for tolerance.

Conference, we must fight to win today’s arguments – so that we can win for tomorrow.

Education

It’s 75 years since William Beveridge published his ground-breaking report.

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WATCH: Vince’s Q & A session

By The Voice | Mon 18th September 2017 - 7:35 am

Imagine Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn taking questions from members that hadn’t been scripted in advance. That’s what our Vince Cable did yesterday in the traditional leader’s Q & A session.

Watch it here – and you will have to get to the end to find the bit that made his team look very anxious indeed when he answered how he likes to relax.

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In full: Jo Swinson’s speech to Conference

By The Voice | Sun 17th September 2017 - 12:50 pm

Here is Jo Swinson’s speech to Conference.

Let me take you back to a rainy Saturday morning, 28 years ago. I’m doing what many 9-year-olds do on a Saturday morning, watching TV. It’s a children’s programme called Going Live, presented by Philip Schofield – some of you might even remember it, and depending on your age, nostalically feel it was no match for Swap Shop or Saturday Superstore.

“That particular morning’s show sticks in my mind because in amongst Gordon the Gopher, kids’ cartoons, and celebrities getting gunged, there was an amazing competition. The prize was to win a piece of the Berlin Wall, recently torn down in one of the most pivotal moments of 20th century history.

“It was pretty obviously in an entirely different league to the usual phone-ins to win toys, or CDs, or tickets to concerts. I didn’t win the competition, but later on my dad visited Berlin and brought me back a little piece of that history.

“I think it’s fair to say that as a child, apart from one Christmas watching the animated film “When the Wind Blows”, I hadn’t given much thought to nuclear war. But the cloud had hung threateningly over the world, at times perilously close to disaster on an unimaginable scale.

“Thanks to the diplomacy, courage and political leadership which led to the end of the Cold War, we have enjoyed three decades with much reduced levels of nuclear threat, until now.

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What’s on at Conference today? The Fringe

By The Voice | Sat 16th September 2017 - 8:20 am

There are some lively fringe events today.

One of the most popular, which sadly clashes with a Federal Board meeting so I can’t be there, is an ALDE event with Catherine Bearder MEP and Nick Clegg. “Britain’s place in the EU – Lib Dems are not giving up.” That’s in the Bryanston Suite in the Marriott.

Your Liberal Britain has some ideas about turning the party into a much wider social movement. I think that they need to do more in the way of diversity and appealing to local government, but they have a lot to offer the party. Join Jim Williams …

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Countdown to Conference: Two unmissable events if you are interested in policy

By The Voice | Mon 11th September 2017 - 2:51 pm

If you have a particular interest in policy, there are two events that you should definitely put in your Conference diary.

The first is the consultative session on the manifesto, 1630 – 1800 Monday in the main auditorium. This is designed to let people have a chance to say what they thought of the manifesto. It’s particularly important because if there is another snap election in the not too distant future, then the Federal Policy Committee will have to produce another manifesto without going through the pre-manifesto consultation stage they would normally employ. So it’s particularly important for people to let us know what they thought of this one and make suggestions for how it could be done in the future.

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Bournemouth Briefing: Sunday’s #stopBrexit event

By The Voice | Mon 11th September 2017 - 10:55 am

Thanks to Lawrence Fullick for filling us in on an anti-Brexit event that ‘s taking place in Bournemouth to coincide with our Conference.

Pro EU organisations are organising events at all 3 party conferences. They will not have to try too hard to persuade people at ours. In fact, they recognise that it’s about them showing us that people support our stance.

The Pants to Brexit theme could enable us to show off our creative genius.

It takes place all afternoon on Sunday so everyone should be able to nip out at some point if they want.

From the organisers:

#StopBrexit in Bournemouth is a fun event with a serious message where we will engage with local people over their concerns about Brexit and empower them to have their voices heard.

We are planning a number of events – fun and serious – on Sunday 17th September to coincide with the Liberal Democrats Conference long weekend.

We want to show the only party that unambiguously supports Britain’s continued membership of the EU, that the public wants to #StopBrexit.  We will be holding a march, a spectacle with music by the Pier and an evening speakers’ event, among other things, and encourage all Dorset supporters to come along, as well as Britain for Europe’s other local and affiliated groups to join us and support our event

EVENT DETAILS

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WATCH: Tom Brake’s speech in Brexit Bill debate: This Bill must be resisted at every turn

By The Voice | Thu 7th September 2017 - 7:54 pm

Tom Brake spoke for the Lib Dems in the Commons debate on the Brexit Bill today. Watch in full here. The text is below.

There were some excellent speeches after the Secretary of State’s. Things went slight downhill after that but things started to look up with the maiden speech by the hon. Member for Canterbury (Rosie Duffield). I have just one slight criticism: she did not mention Barham in her list of villages, which is one I know very well. I thank the right hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield (Mr Grieve) for his speech and his reference to the monstrosity that is this Bill.

The Liberal Democrats believe that Parliament must be given comprehensive sovereignty and scrutiny over this process. This opinion is widely supported, not just by many Members on both sides of this House but organisations such as the Law Society, which states that the Bill

“must respect parliament’s role in making and approving changes to UK law”.

Parliament must drive the future of the United Kingdom and of Brexit, not Ministers using executive—indeed dictatorial—powers to exercise total control over the legislative process. The Government’s decision to provide just two days for Second Reading means that Members will have just five minutes in which to make their points and eight days in Committee for a Bill that unravels 40 years of closer EU co-operation, shows the extent to which Parliament is held in contempt by Ministers.

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What’s going on in our Parliaments this week?

By The Voice | Mon 4th September 2017 - 8:55 am

So MSPs and MPs head back to Holyrood and Westminster this week. For MPs, it’ll be a short-lived two week session before another three week break for Conference recess. AMs in Cardiff have another two weeks off. MEPs have their plenary session in Strasbourg next week.

To say that the agenda was light for this week would be to over-estimate things.

On Tuesday, we have all the remaining stages of the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Relief from non domestic rates) Bill. I might be wrong but I can’t see this being too hotly controversial.

Wednesday has questions, including PMQs and an adjournment debate on knife crime. Thursday gets a bit more contentious when we come to the Repeal Bill which has the first day of its second reading.

There are some interesting Westminster Hall debates including one on banning letting agency fees to tenants – a long-standing Lib Dem policy pushed for by, among others, Lib Dem peer Olly Grender.

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Vince Cable provides road map for “exit from Brexit”

By The Voice | Sun 3rd September 2017 - 10:25 am

Vince Cable has set out how the process of Brexit could be stopped, saying that there was a “strong possibility” of a further referendum on the facts. The FT has the story from an event they ran this weekend:

In a debate at the FT Weekend Festival held at Kenwood House in North London on Saturday, Mr Cable said: “I think there is more than a possibility that Brexit may never happen.” He added: “The balance of probability is still that it does, but there is a strong possibility of it being stopped because tensions within and between major parties are so large, that one or other may want to let the public decide on the facts whether this is something they want to go ahead with.”

He was speaking after Theresa May’s visit to Japan in pursuit of a trade deal:

The Lib Dem leader said that prime minister Theresa May was struggling to prove Britain could strike good trade deals with non-EU economic powers. “We’ve just seen in the last few weeks how absurd this is,” he said. “The PM has gone off to Japan to negotiate some special trade deal and they have said they would much rather deal with the EU.” Mr Cable said that the government had asked India for a special deal on whisky and financial services, and that India had asked for more visas. “To which said, ‘sorry we can’t, we are trying to keep people out,’ and the Indians said, ‘get on your bike’,” Mr Cable said.

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Tories require senior Lib Dems to stand down from Council Executive pending investigation

By The Voice | Sat 2nd September 2017 - 11:13 am

There’s trouble in the Council administration in York as the Conservative leader of the Council required two senior Liberal Democrat coalition members to stand down temporarily pending an investigation on which there is precious little detail. The rest of the Lib Dem group boycotted a meeting of the Executive in protest on Thursday night.

From The Press:

Cllr Andrew Waller, a one time council leader who is now executive member for the environment, tweeted: “Lack of meaningful response to questions today following the actions of Cllr Carr&snr officers mean that I will not be at Executive tonight.”

A statement from the Lib Dem group confirmed that Cllr Waller and the party’s other remaining member on the ruling executive had sent their apologies.

“Councillors Waller and Runciman sent their apologies to this evening’s Executive Meeting. Councillor Runciman briefly attended the meeting to speak to one item relating to her portfolio,” the statement said.

It said that following the day’s events, Liberal Democrat Councillors were “pressing for assurances as to how the joint administration will continue to function in the best interests of the city.”

“The Liberal Democrat Group will now meet to decide the best way forward and we will continue to work hard representing our residents,” the statement added.

Watch this space for further developments. It certainly seems odd that no details of the alleged issues under investigation have been made public.

The Liberal Democrats have clearly been doing a lot of good work in York, Keith Aspden, one of the suspended councillors, wrote here last month about efforts to tackle homelessness, not notably a priority of the Conservatives.

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