Category Archives: Events

John Barrett

Supporting Ukraine with music – liberal action beyond party politics

By John Barrett | Mon 9th September 2024 - 4:15 pm

After forty years of political party membership, and having held almost every post possible in the party, from being a humble newsletter deliverer, constituency party office bearer, newsletter editor, fundraiser, party executive member at Scottish and Federal level, conference delegate for decades, Edinburgh City councillor, election agent at local council and Westminster level, Member of Parliament at Westminster for Edinburgh West (retiring undefeated) and more, I decided to continue campaigning outside the political bubble and leave party political activity behind.

Instead, I have moved on, and back, to community campaigning, where I started when I first joined the Liberal Party in 1980.

My old Council ward (where I still live) now has all three of its Councillors Liberal Democrats, my MSP, Alex Cole-Hamilton, now leads the party in Scotland, and my old seat at Westminster is ably represented by Christine Jardine with a massive majority. Forty year of hard work has helped build a solid Liberal Democrat heartland.

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Mark Valladares

Ed Davey launches the campaign battlebus in South Cambridgeshire

By Mark Valladares | Sun 26th May 2024 - 3:03 pm

Greetings from Whittlesford in South Cambridgeshire, where Ed Davey launched the battlebus in front of an enthusiastic crowd…

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Mark Valladares

Volunteering Opportunity: Delegate to Liberal International Executive Committee

By Mark Valladares | Wed 29th March 2023 - 8:20 am

Location: Ottawa, Canada
Date: 2-6 May 2023

Liberal International will convene its 206th Executive Committee in Ottawa between 2-6 May 2023. For five days the global liberal family will come together at the seat of political decision-making in Canada – the federal capital – as LI returns to North America for its first statutory event in the region for 14 years.

Together with LI full member, the Canadian Group of Liberal International (CGLI), delegates will not only contribute to developing liberal policy and engaging throughout the ExCom between 2-4 May with new applicant parties but are cordially invited to fully participate in the Liberal Party of Canada (LI full member) convention which takes place (4-6 May) at the same venue directly following the conclusion of the 206th executive committee meeting.

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Humphrey Hawksley

A blue print for a modern, post-Putin Russia

By Humphrey Hawksley | Sun 15th January 2023 - 3:00 pm

Fears are growing for the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny whose health is deteriorating with chills, fever and severe cough. In a brave show of force, some five hundred Russian doctors have signed an open letter to Vladimir Putin demanding an end to the ‘abuse of Alexei Navalny’.

Alexi Navalny, 46, has long been the most prominent face of Russian opposition.  Even from prison, he and his team had been mapping out a road map for the emergence of a democratic, modern Russia after Putin goes.

On Thursday evening, in a Liberal Democrat European Group webinar debate, I will be in an hour-long conversation with Navalny’s close friend and former campaign chief-of-staff, Leonid Volkov, currently in exile in Lithuania. Navalny and Volkov came to prominence through the freshness of their vision, their anti-corruption campaigns and their skills at deploying the Internet and live streaming to get their message across to millions.

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Mark Valladares

Review: “Treason: People, Power & Plot” at the National Archives

By Mark Valladares | Mon 21st November 2022 - 4:13 pm

Treason. It’s a word with connotations of vindictive kings putting potential rivals to death. But, with talk of potential revisions to the existing legislation, it’s perhaps an interesting choice of subject for the new exhibition at the National Archives.

I was lucky enough to take part last week in an in-depth exploration of the exhibition with Dr Neil Johnston, one of the team behind it, as we examined key pieces of original source material and discussed how accusations of treason were used to secure and maintain power over the centuries, from the passing of the Treason Act in 1352 to the …

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The Voice

President Xi’s next five years – What should Europe’s strategy be?

By The Voice | Sun 6th November 2022 - 4:31 pm

For readers interested in geopolitics, an event organised by the Federal International Relations Committee may be attractive.

The online webinar starts at 6.30 p.m. on Tuesday evening (8th November) and will be opened by Lord Jeremy Purvis.

George Cunningham, the panel’s moderator, will welcome:

  • renowned sinologist Prof Kerry Brown of King’s College London;
  • Vera Kranenberg, a researcher at the Clingendael China Centre
  • Reinhard Bütikofer MEP, Chair of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with China
  • Ms Meia Nouwens, Senior Fellow for Chinese Defence Policy and Military Modernisation at International Institute for Strategic Studies

Anyone interested is asked to register in advance here.

The Federal International Relations …

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Charley Hasted

Black History Month Messages from Ed Davey, Alex Cole-Hamilton and Jane Dodds

By Charley Hasted | Tue 11th October 2022 - 5:30 pm

As we near the middle of Black History Month Ed Davey Alex Cole-Hamilton and Jane Dodds have all made statements which LDV reproduces in full or part below.

In the UK we use October to highlight and amplify the amazing contributions black people have made in the UK and around the world, to spotlight the struggles and oppression they have faced throughout history and the impact these had and continue to have on black communities. Most importantly it is a time we should remember and commit to continuing to support black communities including making our party and our politics more diverse.

Ed Davey writes:-

“October is Black History Month – a time to celebrate the Black British community, recognise their contributions and discover their stories. We owe a great debt to the Black pioneers who have transformed our society’s cultural and political landscapes.
{…} So we will keep campaigning to abolish the Conservatives’ cruel and discriminatory Hostile Environment, and end the disproportionate use of Stop and Search.  And we will keep working to combat racism – whether conscious or unconscious, individual or institutional – wherever we find it. As we honour the legacy of the Windrush generation and the countless others Black pioneers who helped shape our country, we owe it to them to stand up to bigotry, hate and injustice. I hope you will join me in this fight for equality.”

Full text here

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Michal Siewniak

World Mental Health Day

By Michal Siewniak | Mon 10th October 2022 - 8:35 am

A few days ago, I received an email from someone, who said that as a direct result of the cost of living crisis and high inflation, she will have to find a second job. She was feeling down and quite overwhelmed with the whole situation. She is not the only person who is desperately worried about her finances.

Nowadays, the world is facing many difficulties; war in Ukraine, famine in Africa, climate emergency, divisions and political polarization. It is often hard to see the light in a dark tunnel. Local, national and global news are not always too heartening. It is …

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Graham Lippiatt

See an Award Winning Movie and Help Ukraine

By Graham Lippiatt | Sun 15th May 2022 - 2:52 pm

The Lloyd George Society and Rights-Liberties-Justice are sponsoring a showing of the film Mr Jones at the National Liberal Club on 20 June. The movie tells the story of Gareth Jones, a Welsh journalist and former employee of Lloyd George, who travelled secretly to the USSR to uncover the truth about the Holodomor, the great famine of 1933 under Stalin’s regime in the Ukraine. Jones witnesses appalling conditions, including starving people whose grain has been forcibly taken away for consumption elsewhere, villages whose entire populations have died or just vanished and ‘horrifically, he stumbles across examples of cannibalism. Yet despite his evidence, Jones finds it hard to get the matter taken seriously once back in Britain.

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Phil Bennion

2022 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy

By Phil Bennion | Tue 5th April 2022 - 5:29 pm

EDITOR NOTE: some of this report contains references to torture and abuse.

I arrived in Geneva last night for the first time in two years for the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, an annual event raising the plight of political prisoners worldwide and drawing attention to human rights abuses by state actors. It is always a privilege to be in the company of the speakers, who are variously former political prisoners, family members and representatives of prisoners and front line human rights defenders.

The event at the UN was opened by the Canadian permanent mission to the UN who asked for full support for the suspension of Russia from the Human Rights Council this week.

The first speaker was Nazanin Boniadi, an Iranian human rights defender who focusses on the denial of due process in Iranian courts and torture of defendants. She pointed out that 72 deaths have occurred in custody in a decade.

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George Cunningham

China: What should be our long-term response?

By George Cunningham | Mon 13th September 2021 - 9:25 am

This year’s autumn conference will see the launch of the party’s Federal International Relations Subcommittee on China to help the party and its members understand and deal with the multifaceted challenges of a rising authoritarian China.

In March 2019, when the UK was part of the EU, the Joint Communication EU-China: A Strategic Outlook came out. It defined the EU’s approach to China in the following way:

China is, simultaneously, in different policy areas, a cooperation partner with whom the EU has closely aligned objectives, a negotiating partner with whom the EU needs to find a balance of interests, an economic competitor in the pursuit of technological leadership, and a systemic rival promoting alternative models of governance.

The broad-based nature of the relationship allows us to take such a differentiated approach, although it must be said that the possibilities of cooperation are continually narrowing as China takes more strident positions in the world, backed by its Wolf Warrior diplomacy.

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David Chalmers

The Liberal Democrat Conference on the Future of Europe

By David Chalmers | Tue 7th September 2021 - 1:28 pm

As we head into the Autumn conference and debating season, for those of us for whom Europe is still the most defining issue of our time, the next couple of months are going to be very exciting. As a member of the Liberal Democrats you are going to have the opportunity to have your say.

In June the European Union launched its “Conference on the Future of Europe”, whose purpose is to generate ideas and set out a vision for how the EU should develop and improve in the future.

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged , and | 17 Comments
Duncan Brack

Liberalism in the United States

By Duncan Brack | Tue 29th June 2021 - 10:27 am

What is political liberalism in the United States? That’s the topic of the Liberal Democrat History Group’s next discussion meeting, at 6.30pm on Tuesday 6 July. All are welcome.

The original conception of liberalism in America was the protection of people from arbitrary power, support for the free market and advocacy of religious tolerance. Many of these concepts found their place in the American Declaration of Independence and in the constitution of the emerging United States. The Federalist Papers, written by Alexander Hamilton (who may have been surprised to find himself, 230 years later, starring in a rap musical), John Jay and James Madison are now regarded as classics of western constitutionalism, laying out the doctrine of limited government, representative democracy and federalism.

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George Cunningham

Webinar: will the tragedy of Afghanistan become Europe’s tragedy?

By George Cunningham | Sat 5th June 2021 - 12:43 pm

If peace negotiations collapse and the Taliban take power in Afghanistan, the UK and Europe may well be faced again with another wave of mass migration (are we really going to turn away women and their families at deadly risk from the Taliban?), a strengthened base for the export of terrorism (Taliban have not broken links with Al Qaeda, CIA reckons even US at risk again within three years) and continued supply of opium to European youth from the largest producer in the world.

Dr Abdullah Abdullah, a figure well-known in the UK who is the Afghan Government’s chief negotiator for the intra-Afghan peace talks with the Taliban and former Chief Executive Officer of the Unity Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2014-2020) will be addressing UK Liberal Democrats on the latest state of play 18.30-20.00hrs this Monday 7th June. You are encouraged to register for this LIBG/Lib Dems Overseas event at the Paddy Ashdown Forum.

Dr Abdullah Abdullah will be joined by members of the Afghan Civic Democrats, a parliamentary grouping in the Wolesi Jirga (lower house), with whom Lib Dems Overseas have a strong association, as well as the Head of Office from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, direct from Kandahar/Helmand province. The Lib Dems response will be given by Baroness Northover, our Foreign Affairs spokesperson in the Lords.

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Paul Walter

Sir Nick Clegg lecture: “The end of global internet”

By Paul Walter | Fri 28th May 2021 - 10:40 am

The Shirley Williams Lectures are now getting well into their stride. On Wednesday evening we had the honour of welcoming Nick Clegg direct from Atherton, California USA.

It was the day of Facebook’s AGM, so a busy one for Nick.

I was very impressed by Nick’s lecture, which was delivered flawlessly from notes.

After paying a very warm and heartfelt tribute to Baroness Williams, Nick outlined how he regards 1989 as the key year in his life. The Berlin Wall fell and Tim Berners-Lee invented the Worldwide Web.

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Shaun Ennis

The Shirley Williams Lectures

By Shaun Ennis | Mon 17th May 2021 - 4:20 pm

It is such an exciting time for the new Cheadle-based fundraising project, The Shirley Williams Lectures. In the absence of in-person conferences and party events, the SWL club has offered party members and other liberal-minded people across the country a way to connect – with the speakers, with other progressive campaigners and with the ideas.

Next up on the programme of speakers is former Leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Nick Clegg. As Vice-President of Facebook since 2018, Nick is well placed to tackle this month’s lecture entitled ‘The End of Global Internet’. Social media and the internet have played an …

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Jon Alexander

Event review: How to win with Basic Income

By Jon Alexander | Mon 15th March 2021 - 12:15 pm

Nearly 200 Lib Dem activists signed up to join the “How to win with UBI” online event on Tuesday 9th March, organised in partnership between Lib Dems for Basic Income, the Social Liberal Forum, the Compass-hosted Basic Income Conversation, and justLiberals.

This was the first of three events being co-hosted by this partnership of organisations to explore what is arguably our biggest new party policy for some time.

The second event is What Kind Of UBI?, on 29th March, and this will be followed by an exciting conversation with Michael Tubbs, the man who introduced a …

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Isabelle Parasram

What’s it like to be disabled in Britain in 2021?

By Isabelle Parasram | Tue 9th March 2021 - 10:28 am

I’m in the midst of preparing for my forthcoming webinar: ‘What’s it Like to be Disabled in Britain in 2021?’ with speakers Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Michelle Daley and Dan White.

And I have learned so much. – Especially from members of the public who’ve sent in descriptions of their experiences to me*.

Emma shared with me that being disabled in Britain for her is being anxious about an appointment she’s been to numerous times before, but never knowing if she’s going to be able to park safely. Or, even if she can park safely, being able to get out of the car.

It’s about never being spontaneous, because she has to spend hours on Google figuring out whether there’s a disabled toilet nearby or whether she can access a particular building. She described it as her freedom taken away from her.

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The Voice

Event: Liam MacArthur MSP to take part in Question Time on tackling global poverty and climate justice

By The Voice | Tue 2nd March 2021 - 9:16 am

Voters in Scotland are being given the chance to quiz politicians – including Scottish LibDem MSP Liam McArthur – and make their voices heard on Scotland’s role in building a greener, fairer world.

Scotland’s International Development Alliance (The Alliance), which represents over 200 diverse organisations operating in over 100 countries, is hosting an online Question Time event to encourage Scottish political parties to include commitments to global sustainable development in their manifestos ahead of the forthcoming Scottish Parliament elections in May.

Scotland for a Fairer World: Question Time will be held on Thursday 11 March from 6.30 to 8pm, chaired by campaigner and writer Talat Yaqoob. The politicians taking part are the SNP’s Jenny Gilruth MSP, Minister for Europe and International Development, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie, the Liberal Democrats’ environment spokesperson Liam McArthur, Scottish Conservative Shadow Economy Secretary Maurice Golden, along with a representative from Scottish Labour.

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New Event: How to win with Basic Income

By Mark Henderson | Wed 24th February 2021 - 4:00 pm
At last year’s Autumn Conference, Liberal Democrat members voted overwhelmingly to adopt Universal Basic Income (UBI) as party policy.
Now, we have our first opportunity to make this vital policy part of our campaigning platform for the bumper set of elections coming up on 6th May.
Not only are there council seats and mayoral positions up for grabs all over the country, but there are also the elections for Members of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd.
So now it’s time for the really big questions:
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Iain Brodie Browne

Britain in a Post-Trump, Post-Brexit world

By Iain Brodie Browne | Tue 16th February 2021 - 2:15 pm

The Social Liberal Forum’s highly successful online programme continues on Monday 22nd February with Britain in a Post-Trump, Post-Brexit World. Our two guests are William Wallace-well known to Lib Dem Voice readers- and Professor Anand Menon. You can register for free by following this link to the SLF website: Britain in a Post-Trump, post-Brexit World .

Professor Anand Menon is the Director of the UK in a Changing Europe and Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at Kings College, London.

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Isabelle Parasram

An announcement from Isabelle Parasram

By Isabelle Parasram | Wed 6th January 2021 - 2:30 pm

I am hosting a webinar on women and justice. It ties in with the CPS consultation on the prosecution of rape offences. 

Do you think that the legal system has failed women?

Join me as I chair a webinar featuring:

  • former Chair of the Bar Council Amanda Pinto QC
  • barrister and part-time Crown Court Recorder Maryam Syed and
  • Elaine Storkey, author of ‘Scars Against Humanity’, a book about violence against women and girls.

Baroness Lorely Burt will be introducing the session and psychologist Dr Jermaine Revalier will be co-chairing.

The timing of the webinar coincides with the deadline for comments on the CPS …

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James Bliss

Young, liberal and free?

By James Bliss | Tue 30th June 2020 - 8:10 am

The Young Liberals are delighted to finally announce the dates and preliminary agenda for our Online Conference, which will take place between Sunday 19th and Sunday 26th July.

We’ve had over 150 people pre-register and near 40 submissions, making this by far the largest conference we will ever have held! The conference will be totally free for Young Liberals members, including those between 26-30 who have opted in (which you can do here). This is a really exciting opportunity for policy debates, socialising with other Young Liberals and some great speakers.

You can sign up to Conference here!

There are plenty …

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Merlene Emerson

The Dawn of Webinars

By Merlene Emerson | Mon 18th May 2020 - 11:02 am

Whilst we have been physically isolating due to Covid19, the virtual world has turned into a global village. Not a day passes without seeing news of another virtual conference or webinar.

A less propitious phenomenon, however, has been the alarming rise in hate crime towards British Chinese and other East Asian communities due to the pandemic. This has exposed deep seated racism against those who look Chinese in our society. Meanwhile misinformation in the media, whether deliberate or unintentional, has heightened fears and bigotry, leading to harassment, abuse and in some cases physical attacks.

To better understand the history of the …

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Dick Newby

You are cordially invited to a gathering of North of England Liberal Democrats…

By Dick Newby | Mon 11th May 2020 - 12:05 pm

When the York Conference was cancelled, I was annoyed, not because I love conference per se, but because I’d been involved in planning the launch of a new organisation – Northern Liberal Network – which had to be cancelled.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised when 140 people signed up for the digital launch of the organisation on Zoom a couple of weeks’ later. And for the breadth of attendance from every corner of the NE, NW and Yorks and Humber.

The enthusiasm at the launch confirmed what the founders of the organisation had instinctively felt. That there was something distinctive in policy …

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Alan Muhammed

National Action Weekend: 20th-22nd March

By Alan Muhammed | Tue 3rd March 2020 - 1:46 pm

The Party has set an ambitious goal of knocking on 100,000 doors across England and Wales over the weekend of the 20th-22nd March and has a dedicated webpage for getting involved.

This is in support of the hundreds of local and regional elections happening in England and Wales in May this year, including Council, Mayoral and Police & Crime Commissioner elections.

These present an excellent opportunity to make huge gains across the country.

The Party is encouraging local parties to get involved by running dedicated events and campaigning sessions.

This coordinated weekend of campaigning will help boost the profile of the Party across the country and build momentum ahead of the elections. It’s also a good chance to get newer members involved in campaigning for the first time.

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Jasneet Samrai

Dwi’n hoff iawn o gerddoriaeth Gymraeg!*

By Jasneet Samrai | Tue 11th February 2020 - 7:30 pm

So Happy (late) Welsh Language Music Day!

Ddydd Miwsyg Cymru Hapus! Happy Welsh Music Day to everyone! With it actually being celebrated last Friday, I was a sad to see minimal party coverage. Whilst it might seem somewhat trivial, niche and irrelevant to the ‘powers that be’ inside our Westminster HQ, or ‘too unimportant’ to those leading our party in Wales itself; it is, in fact, the opposite.

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Jonathan Brown

Freedom Across Borders

By Jonathan Brown | Tue 2nd July 2019 - 8:12 am

Since April this year, Russian and Syrian aircraft have bombed over twenty-five hospitals inside the Idlib ‘Deconfliction’ Zone in northwest Syria, prompting hundreds of thousands of Syrians, many of whom have already been internally displaced, to flee once again. The UN watches helplessly as most of the rest of the world turns its back on the country, uncomfortably grateful that this ongoing horror story rarely makes headlines any more.

Even now, Syrian civil society activists struggle on, attempting to provide basic health and rescue services and to resist the brutality of both the regime and its allies and the …

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The Voice

Gladstone Lecture and Dinner 2019

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

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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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Theo Butt Philip

Come and see Layla Moran, Siobhan Benita and Dillie Keane at the National Liberal Club…

By Theo Butt Philip | Mon 4th March 2019 - 8:15 am

If you want to know how you can spend a wonderful evening in the company of Layla Moran, Siobhan Benita and Dillie Keane, keep on reading.

Did you help campaign to win Richmond Park? Did you spend the summer of 2003 knocking on doors in Brent East? Did you graduate from university and then get on a train so you could help with he last of the knocking up in Cheadle? I did and I helped out in by-elections too numerous to mention where we came within a few hundred votes of winning, saw massive surges in our vote or …

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