Category Archives: News

8 am update: “The Lib Dems are the only ones to have won on the night”

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 4th May 2018 - 8:14 am

So said the BBC News website first thing this morning.

I’m become very used to writing “Oh my days, how awful” posts after local elections. This morning, the picture is much more positive.

We’ve ended the night, with two thirds of results in, on +41 councillors which compares to 31 for Labour and 3 for the Tories.

We’ve retained control in places like Cheltenham, Eastleigh and, after a few wobbles, Sutton.

We gained Richmond on Thames pretty handsomely. I was being told in the run-up to the election that it was on a knife edge. We ended up gaining …

Tagged local elections 2018 | 23 Comments

Brilliant result in Richmond – and high hopes for Kingston

By Mary Reid | Fri 4th May 2018 - 7:10 am

Liberal Democrats have gained control in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, leaping from 15 seats to 39. This is in spite of the deal with the Greens which allowed them to take 4 seats.

Richmond upon Thames, vote share:

LDem: 46.7% (+19.9)
Con: 37.6% (-1.8)
Lab: 10.4% (-0.7)
Grn: 4.5% (-8.2)

Seat results:

LDem: 39 (+24)
Con: 11 (-28)
Grn: 4 (+4)

LDem GAIN from Con.

— Britain Elects (@britainelects) May 4, 2018

Historically we controlled Richmond from 1986 to 2002, then from 2006 to 2010.

Meanwhile, in nearby Sutton, which we have controlled for the last 28 years, we retained control, though with fewer seats than before, dropping from 45 to 33 out of 54.

Liberal Democrats: 33 (-12)
Conservatives: 18 (+9)
Independents: 3 (+3)

Attention now turns to Kingston upon Thames which lies between Richmond and Sutton. Their count starts at 10am today, and we have hopes of taking back control there as well.

Tagged local elections 2018 | 6 Comments

2 am update – Lib Dems making steady gains all across the country

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 4th May 2018 - 2:10 am

Just a quick update of where we are at 2am. We are currently on +14 seats and generally doing a little better than expected.

Every English local election night since the formation of the Coalition has been an absolute nightmare to sit through. Tonight is much more pleasant.

John Curtice says that we are having our best night at local elections since the formation of the coalition.

We look like we might gain Richmond, though it’s going to be close.

We’ll take a bit of a hit in Sutton and party sources are less sure than they were earlier that …

Tagged local elections 2018 | 7 Comments

Local elections open thread

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 3rd May 2018 - 10:01 pm

Well, there’s nothing more we can do. The polls have closed. Knackered candidates and their teams who have been up since dawn now head to their counts. A massive thanks to everyone who has been involved in the campaigns – the literature writers, data whizzes, organisers, deliverers, canvassers, candidates, poster people, agents, people who keep the Lib Dem army marching on its stomach, people who allow their homes to be used as temporary HQ

We know that this isn’t going to be a massively brilliant night for us. This one in the electoral cycle has been historically brutal. The best we’ve done in the last 20 years is a net gain of 43 seats and we have to go back to 2002 when Charles Kennedy was leader to find that.

Let’s look in more detail.

In 1990. when we were pretty low in the polls, we lost 78 seats

Our best night ever came in 1994, a pretty good year for us after we’d won a fair few seats off the Tories, we gained a whopping 428 councillors

In 1998 we lost 7 seats

In 2002, we gained 43 seats

In 2006, bearing in mind we were at the height of our powers post Iraq and had won the Dunfermline by-election a few months previously, we had the massive net gain of 2 seats.

In 2010, bearing in mind we did not so badly in the General Election that day (not brilliantly, but not badly), we lost 132 councillors.

2014 was an absolute horlicks. I went back and read the posts I’d written at the time and they made me want to cry as I remembered how bruised and battered we all felt then. We lost 310 fantastic councillors.

Tagged local elections 2018 | 38 Comments

Wera Hobhouse secures PM’s backing for her call to make upskirting a criminal offence

By The Voice | Wed 2nd May 2018 - 10:34 pm

Today, Wera Hobhouse secured the backing of the Prime Minister for her quest to make the awful practice of up skirting an offence.

Tagged PMQs, upskirting and wera hobhouse | Leave a comment

Manchester: Your children are watching….

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 2nd May 2018 - 1:25 pm

You certainly can’t accuse Lib Dems in Manchester of shirking in this election campaign.

The party hopes to build on its one councillor, former Withington MP John Leech, who has provided the sole opposition to Labour’s 95 councillors since his election in 2016.

They’ve produced a hard-hitting film highlighting the worst of Labour’s excesses and offering a better way forward for the city.

Tagged featured, john leech, local elections 2018 and manchester | 3 Comments

LibLink: Christine Jardine: Creative industries face serious threat from Brexit

By NewsHound | Wed 2nd May 2018 - 11:55 am

Edinburgh relies on the creative industries. For a month a year, the city is home to all sorts of weird and wonderful productions from all over the world during its iconic Festival and accompanying Fringe. It’s not surprising that the city’s Lib Dem MP is a massive supporter of the creative industries. Christine Jardine has written for the Scotsman about the damage Brexit stands to do to evens like the Festival.

She outlines the threat to the creative industries:

UK Music has warned that touring and live events will be at risk because of the potential loss of technical talent from the EU. And all events will lose a valuable stream of talent from the EU. Talent which is its life blood.

But it’s not just the impact on culture. It will have an impact on the tourism it supports. Tourism is worth around £127 billion a year to the UK. That’s about 9 per cent of GDP. Across the UK, it supports approximately 3.1 million jobs. It incorporates about quarter of a million small and medium-sized enterprises. Its growth is on a par with the digital sector we hear so much about.

Tagged brexit, christine jardine, creative industries and the scotsman | Leave a comment

Pauline Pearce: People can still knock on my door if I become Mayor

By The Voice | Wed 2nd May 2018 - 10:25 am

Our Pauline Pearce is running an energetic campaign to be Mayor of Hackney.

On Monday night, she appeared at a hustings, outlining her plan to cut knife crime – an evidence based Violence Reduction Unit which has been successful in Scotland. She also emphasised that she really is at the heart of her community. From the Hackney Citizen:

Pauline Pearce, who is also standing in Brownswood ward, said: “I have no mass of qualifications, but what I do have is common sense.

“Everyone out there who knows Pauline knows they can knock on my door. And if I become mayor, nothing will change. That door is still always open.

Pearce, who has put knife crime at the top of her camaign, said: “I’m here because of passion, because I care.

“I have to be here to stand up for those who are disenfranchised and need a chance to have a voice that speaks out for them. So please consider me on the third of May.”

Sal Brinton has been to help her campaign:

Tagged hackney, pauline pearce and sal brinton | 1 Comment

Roger Roberts attacked on front page of Daily Mail

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 1st May 2018 - 10:25 pm

Most Lib Dems would feel a bit worried if the Daily Mail expressed any admiration for them, let’s be honest.

Today, many of us felt huge pride in our amazing 82 year old Welsh peer – and frequent LDV contributor – Roger Roberts when he was attacked on the front page of the Fail. His son Gareth lauded him on Twitter:

My father attacked on today's front page of @DailyMailUK – he's a man who has stood up all his life for fairness, equality and working together with all people from all countries and creeds to eradicate poverty. He's 82 and I am more proud of him today than ever. @LibDemLords pic.twitter.com/xSrDxkwl5k

— Gareth Roberts (@GarethRoberts3) May 1, 2018

Roger is one of the kindest, most compassionate advocates for the most vulnerable people in our society. He speaks up for the rights of refugees, for the right of young people to be given a say in their own future, for a fair system of social security, for treating people with dignity and respect and humanity.

Tagged daily mail and roger roberts | 16 Comments

Ed and Vince appeal to Sajid Javid to retain people’s rights to access Home Office data about them

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 1st May 2018 - 9:21 pm

Sajid Javid has been urged to dump the controversial Immigration Exemption Clause from the Data Protection Bill when it returns to the Commons next week.

Vince Cable and Ed Davey have written to the new Home Secretary to urge him to protect people’s fundamental rights when their data is being processed for immigration purposes.

Many immigration decisions are overturned at appeal because the Home Office has made mistakes. But the bill puts at risk the right for individuals to see what information the Home Office holds on them and the Lib Dems are pressuring the government to make a concession on this point.

The letter says:

Congratulations on taking up your new post. As you have acknowledged, the task facing you is immense.

Further to exchanges in the House yesterday, can we urge you to clear the air by publishing any report made by Philip Hammond as Foreign Secretary in 2016 to the Home Office about deportations of the Windrush generation, following his meetings with Caribbean ministers and their representations to him? In the chamber you only said you would ‘consider’ publication in the House of Commons library. We hope you will agree that the House should know whether the Prime Minister knew these deportations were happening and what actions she took as Home Secretary to stop them.

Tagged data protection bill, ed davey, home office and vince cable | 5 Comments

@ALDEParty Council Report: and now, the end is near?…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 30th April 2018 - 9:51 pm

The sun was beating down in Sofia, the sky was blue, there wasn’t a cloud to spoil the view. But there was Brexit in our hearts…

Yes, it was time for the Spring Council meeting of the ALDE Party, hosted by our Bulgarian sister party, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. The key items of business were the continuing work towards the 2019 European Parliamentary election manifesto and the adoption of the 2017 audit. In truth, the latter was never going to be an issue – finances are healthy, and likely to become …

Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged ALDE, alliance party, europe and manifesto | 1 Comment

60 years of women in the House of Lords

By Helen Tamblyn-Saville Christina Morgan-Danvers Tad Jones | Mon 30th April 2018 - 8:05 am

The Mother of Parliaments had seen many fine sons, not least those who sat on the Liberal benches, but the number of daughters was far too few for the health of the nation.

Elizabeth Shields, Liberal MP for Ryedale (1986-87)

Today is the 60th anniversary of the Life Peerages Bill, which enabled women to sit in the House of Lords. Since that time 250+ women have sat on the red benches in Parliament, this represents something like 18% of all life peer appointments since 1958. The House of Lords is currently 26% female, so things are (slowly) improving, but the House …

Also posted in Parliament | Tagged gender equality, Life Peerages Act and Parliament | 4 Comments

Jo Swinson: I’ll take my baby in a sling to protest Trump

By The Voice | Sun 29th April 2018 - 2:40 pm

When Donald Trump visits the UK on Friday 13th July, many Liberal Democrats will take to the streets to protest against the racist, misogynist, transphobic, views he holds and the actions he has taken in Government to undermine human rights.

On today’s Peston on Sunday, Lib Dem Deputy Leader Jo Swinson said that, if she’s able, she’ll be among them, just as she was on the Women’s March last year the day after the inauguration.

Her baby will be just weeks old at that time and she says that she’ll take the wee one to the march in a sling because he is anathema to British values of respect for others.

.@LibDems Deputy Leader @joswinson says she is up for protests when @realDonaldTrump visits this summer. #Peston pic.twitter.com/J90uBLXDtr

— Peston on Sunday (@pestononsunday) April 29, 2018

She also talked about our prospects in the local elections. Vince had been quite modest about it on Marr and Jo continued in the same vein. She said that we were looking to get a foothold back in areas where we had been wiped out four years ago. She added what we are all experiencing – that our reception on the doorsteps is much friendlier and enthusiastic than it was then.

On Amber Rudd, she was clear that if the Home Secretary had misled Parliament, then she would need to go. She also said that Cabinet Ministers don’t see every memo and what we really needed to do was to have a positive debate on the benefits of immigration.

She was on Sunday Politics later on with Brexiteer Bernard Jenkin talking about the customs union.

Tagged brexit, Customs Union, donald trump, Jo Swinson and single market | 6 Comments

Vince: Supermarket mega-merger must be referred to competition watchdog.

By The Voice | Sun 29th April 2018 - 9:32 am

The news that two of the big four supermarkets in this country were in merger talks was greeted with concern with many people.

If this goes ahead, the new company would control 30% of the market which is in few enough hands as it is.

Vince Cable basically said that it was a no-brainer that this should be fully investigated before it was allowed. He said:

The grocery market – and the British shopper – already suffers from the mid-market being dominated by just a handful of big players. What the merger of the second and third biggest supermarkets threatens is the creation of

…

Tagged asda, business, competition, sainsburys and vince cable | 16 Comments

The Friday the Thirteenth horror franchise continues

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 27th April 2018 - 11:55 am

To be fair, I don’t watch horror films. In fact I rarely watch anything more upsetting than Fraulein Maria going back to the abbey in The Sound of Music. However, Donald Trump’s visit to the UK on July 13th is pretty horrific, more because it seems like a rather desperate attempt to pretend that we are going to be relevant as a country once we’re in not very splendid post Brexit isolation.

We should not be pandering to someone who uses his keyboard to lambast people from marginalised groups on Twitter and, worse, his pen to sign executive orders which make …

8 Comments

We need to ban upskirting

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 26th April 2018 - 10:16 am

Lib Dem members yesterday would have received an email from our Bath MP Wera Hobhouse asking for support in her campaign to get upskirting banned.

If you want to sign the petition, the link is here.

What is upskirting? The OED defines it as “the action or practice of surreptitiously taking photos or videos at an angle so as to see up a woman’s skirt or dress.”

It is sickening and appalling that people even think they have the right to do this!

Wera is calling for upskirting to be made a criminal …

Tagged private members bill, upskirting and wera hobhouse | 4 Comments

Will Brexit Affect the NHS

By Tahir Maher | Wed 25th April 2018 - 4:30 pm

We all remember Boris’s epitaph on the side of the Out-campaign bus saying “Let’s fund our NHS instead”. This related to the £350 million a week that we supposedly pay to the Europe Union (the net figure was of course significantly less). The question is, is the NHS going to be worse off because of Brexit?

Currently, we don’t know how the negotiations are going to end. The government talks about leaving without a deal suggests that they can start trading with the EU on World Trade Organisation tariffs or the complicated agreement implied by May’s Florence speech. With no overall …

14 Comments

Mick Clark selected for Yeovil

By The Voice | Wed 25th April 2018 - 1:33 pm

Another former Lib Dem seat has selected a candidate for the next General Election. Getting a candidate in place early on to lead campaigning boosts our chances.

Members in Yeovil, formerly held by Paddy Ashdown and David Laws between 1983 and 2015, have selected Mick Clark to fight the seat. Like Paddy, he has a record in the forces:

From the Chard and Ilminster Times:

Born and bred in Yeovil, Mick served in the Royal Air Force and NHS.

He said: “I cannot wait to get started.

“I’m looking forward to meeting local residents across the constituency in the coming weeks and months to

…

Tagged liberal democrat candidate selected, mick clark and yeovil | 1 Comment

Layla Moran: Public Accounts Committee report shows Government in Brexit chaos

By The Voice | Wed 25th April 2018 - 10:25 am

In a report published today, the influential Commons Public Accounts Committee slams the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s approach to Brexit. The Chair, Meg Hillier, had this to say.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy appears to be operating in a parallel universe where urgency is an abstract concept with no bearing on the Brexit process.

The Department is responsible for around a fifth of the work streams the Government must complete as the UK leaves the EU. It is an extremely important, challenging and time-sensitive workload.

Yet the Department told us it had not re-prioritised its overall programme of work, had not begun procurement for around a dozen essential digital systems and could not provide vital information about its workforce.

We have grave concerns about this apparent complacency, compounded by the lack of transparency on the Department’s progress with what in some cases will be critical projects.

Our Layla Moran is a member of the Committee, said that all that BEIS had done was add to the sense of chaos surrounding Brexit:

A functioning business and energy department is crucial to the future success of our economy, the fact that there is no confidence about its preparedness for Brexit is deeply concerning.

The Liberal Democrats have asked BEIS on several occasions how it will spend allocated funds on Brexit but so far we have not been given any substantive information.

Tagged brexit, layla moran, Parliament and public accounts committee | 1 Comment

What the Lib Dems offer Manchester

By The Voice | Wed 25th April 2018 - 8:58 am

Manchester Liberal Democrats have launched their local elections manifesto. Details of their policies on subjects like homelessness,housiing, refugees and schools follow.

The Liberal Democrats hope to make gains on the Labour-suffocated Council. Labour currently has 95/96 seats. The 96th is held by our own indefatigable John Leech, who was MP for Manchester Withington until 2015. There are all-up elections next Thursday.

John said of the manifesto:

Our campaign is about everyone and everything that makes Manchester the great city it is today; a strong local community, a celebration of diversity and non-conformity.

Liberal Democrats care passionately about our local communities because it’s where we live and it’s what we believe in. We will always put local people first and it’s about time our council did too.

On the 3rd May, we have a chance to elect a council that leads from the front; that cities around the world look up to; where we celebrate diversity, house the homeless, welcome the desperate and build a future for our children. But only a vote for the Liberal Democrats can break this one-party state and build that vision.

Key Pledges:
ON REFUGEES AND OUR MORAL DUTY:

Immediately develop plans to house 50 at-risk families from refugee camps. In the long-term, we will also investigate how best to house as many orphaned child refugees as possible.

ON EU CITIZENS:

Demand the Brexit secretary guarantee the rights of EU citizens and maintain our stance on a referendum on the Brexit deal.

ON TRANSPORT AND ROADS:

Use some of the estimated £50million Manchester Airport dividend to establish a SmartTransport Development Fund dedicated to offsetting heavy carbon transport.
Introduce for a young commuter’s price cap, so they never pay more than half the hourly living wage rate to commute to work.
Crackdown on lazy road re-surfacing.

ON HOUSING:

Demand all developments over 15 dwellings meet the 20% affordable quota, and where not economically viable, force the developer to contribute financially to the benefit of the local community.
Guarantee safe, affordable housing for young people transitioning from foster care to adulthood.

ON HOMELESSNESS:

Launch an investigation into all emergency housing applications to make sure that no one slips through the net.
Use council-owned premises to house every rough sleeper in Manchester before approving any further city centre developments.
Provide an administration address to every homeless person so that they can take the first step in getting their life back on track – this means they can begin applying for jobs.

Tagged featured, john leech, local elections 2018 and manchester | 3 Comments

Manchester Together – Liberal Democrats launch powerful campaign video

By The Voice | Tue 24th April 2018 - 8:55 am

Manchester Liberal Democrats produced a campaign video for their Council election campaign. In 2016, former Lib Dem MP John Leech was elected as the only opposition councillor to Labour. That’s right, it was just him and 95 Labour councillors. He punched well above his weight, though, frequently exasperating the Council leadership by subjecting them to some serious scrutiny.

Tagged john leech, local elections 2018 and manchester | 8 Comments

Publication of Report on Sexual Impropriety Complaints Handling – an update from Special Investigation Counsel, Isabelle Parasram

By Isabelle Parasram | Mon 23rd April 2018 - 5:09 pm

In November 2017, I was appointed by the Federal Board of the Liberal Democrats as Special Investigation Counsel to conduct an investigation and produce a Report on the handling of sexual impropriety complaints within the Party.

I am pleased that, after a period of being embargoed, the report has now been published and you can access it here.

My appointment was one of a number of steps taken by the Federal Board in response to concerns expressed by members of the party towards the end of last year. These concerns related to allegations of sexual impropriety that were, at that time, …

Also posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged isabelle parasram and macdonald review | 2 Comments

Welcome to my day: 23 April 2018 – there’s never a dragon around when you want one…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 23rd April 2018 - 8:06 am

It’s St George’s Day today, the anniversary of Queen Anne being crowned at Westminster Abbey (1702), and of the chartering of Connecticut as an English colony in 1662. And, coincidentally, on this day in 1516, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria endorsed “The German Beer Purity Law”, which I think we could all support.

I’ve been spending the weekend celebrating a significant anniversary, and clearly you’ve all been outside enjoying the fine weather (except our Scottish colleagues, who’ve been at their Conference), or campaigning for elections, as we’ve got precious little in the kitty …

2 Comments

The highlights of Scottish Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 22nd April 2018 - 8:34 pm

Scottish members left Conference at Aviemore in upbeat mood, motivated to get out there and make sure that we secure a vote on the final Brexit deal.

We had some lovely weather in a beautiful location and an agenda full of interesting fringe meetings, a bit of controversy in the Conference hall and some highly informative training. We were also really thrilled to welcome a fair few members of federal party staff who met with key seats and provided training in campaigning, the new data protection legislation and fund-raising.

Staffing and office bearer changes meant that this Conference was put together on a much shorter timescale than usual. Huge thanks are due to new party manager Jenny Wilson for her excellent work in organising everything and to Conference Committee Chair Paul McGarry. Conference Committee members Callum Leslie, Rebecca Bell, Vita Zapooroczenko and Ross Stalker never seemed to stop working. Laura Thomas seemed to spend her entire conference helping out at the registration desk as did Oliver Mountjoy – and the Young Liberals also stepped in first thing on Sunday morning when there was a gap in cover.

You can watch BBC Scotland’s Conference programme here. Towards the end, three of the brightest and most talented young people in our party are interviewed – former youth president and campaigning genius Jenny Marr, environment spokesperson Mariam Mahmood and Cllr Ben Lawrie who won a Council seat last year in an area where we’ve never had a Councillor and who has made an excellent short film about his experience of Depression and Anxiety.

Here are some of the key decisions.

Syria

Am emergency motion talked about the need for parliamentary approval of military action. Christine Jardine explains why this is so important, to ensure that constituents’ views are repreaetned and that we have consulted as widely as possible as we attempt to do the right thing:

Those are just some of the decisions taken this weekend. I’ll write more about the fringe later.

Protecting puppies and kittens

Some may have mocked a little

The animal welfare motion passes at #sldconf, with cats successfully amended in there as well as dogs pic.twitter.com/ny1zMNWYj8

— Philip Sim (@BBCPhilipSim) April 20, 2018

I don’t think I can imagine a more Lib Dem scenario than a conference debate about dog breeding featuring a series of terrifically earnest speakers describing themselves as “more of a cat person”. Wonderful stuff

— Philip Sim (@BBCPhilipSim) April 20, 2018

Tagged scottish liberal democrat spring conference 2018 | Leave a comment

WATCH: Vince Cable’s speech to Scottish Conference

By The Voice | Sun 22nd April 2018 - 10:50 am

Here is Vince Cable’s speech to Scottish Conference yesterday. He challenged the SNP to back a People’s Vote on the Brexit deal, saying that their silence on the issue was embarrassing. He said he had been working with them perfectly well on issues like the customs union and he single market and called on them to put the national interest above their party interest.

He also made it clear that the Scottish Conservatives, without whom Theresa May would not be able to form a Government, are wholly signed up to the hard right Tory-UKIP agenda.

He said that he was optimistic about our party’s future, saying that we are on the right side of history. We can stop Brexit, which he said would be a nightmare for EU nationals and said that there was no solution for the Irish Border that didn’t involve staying n the customs union.

Enjoy:

Tagged scottish liberal democrat spring conference 2018, speeches and vince cable | 2 Comments

Vince Cable as you have never seen him before

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 22nd April 2018 - 8:50 am

We’re used to seeing Vince outlining his Liberal Democrat vision in typically thoughtful style. Action shots are more likely to be gliding effortlessly across the dance floor in a graceful and flawless foxtrot.

We’re used to seeing Willie Rennie dialling the fun in any photo opportunity up to the maximum level.

When Vince came to Aviemore yesterday to speak at Scottish Conference, he got a taste of photo-ops, Rennie style – and he loved it. He threw himself, quite literally, into the spirit of the occasion when he found himself next to a sign saying “Jump and Smile Adventure Park”

…

Tagged scottish liberal democrat spring conference 2018, vince cable and willie rennie | 3 Comments

WATCH: Willie Rennie’s speech to Scottish Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 21st April 2018 - 11:45 am

Here is Willie Rennie’s leaders’s speech to Scottish Conference. In it he talks about how the Liberal Democrats have influenced Scottish politics and policy in education, mental health and justice, calls on the Health Secretary to resign, tells us we can stop Brexit and has a huge challenge to Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader.

The text is below:

Tagged scottish liberal democrat conference 2018 and willie rennie | Leave a comment

Future Women MPs Weekend – DEADLINE EXTENDED

By Natalie Chindipha | Sat 21st April 2018 - 9:45 am

DEADLINE EXTENDED: The location for the Future Women MP’s Weekend has now been confirmed as Milton Keynes. Apologies for the delay! Given this we are extending the deadline by 48 HOURS so applications will now close on Tuesday 24th at 23:59 https://bit.ly/2GD3w0F

Female? An aspiring MP? This is the event for you!

Normally an annual event, the Campaign for Gender Balance and the Candidates and Diversity Team will be running a second Future Women MPs Weekend to support and develop female talent within the party.

Empowering and thought-provoking, this intensive training weekend for aspiring female MPs will provide you with the knowledge and skills required to run as a successful candidate.

Many current and former female Lib Dem MPs started their journeys at an FWMP event and you could be next!

The invaluable opportunities, skills and advice you will gain include:

How to plan and win your seat
How to strategically plan a career in politics
Personalised guidance from experts in the field
Building a network of useful contacts and engaging with other aspiring women.

What’s happening at Scottish Conference today

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 21st April 2018 - 8:24 am

Here’s what happened yesterday at Scottish Conference:

Tagged scottish liberal democrats spring conference 2018 | 1 Comment

What’s happening at Scottish Conference today?

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 20th April 2018 - 8:00 am

There will almost certainly be several sore heads this morning as Alistair Carmichael held one of his celebrated whisky tasting events last night.

Here’s what’s happening the rest of today.

Morning Session

Cervical Cancer Screening

Police Reform

Speech by Christine Jardine MP

Emergency Motion

Animal Welfare

Lunchtime Fringe

I am shamelessly abusing my position to put the meeting I’m chairing first – about addressing Scotland’s housing crisis with Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP and speakers from Shelter Scotland, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and the Chartered Institute of Housing.

There’s also an NFU Scotland fringe meeting with Mike Rumbles discussing The Good Food Nation and Brexit – what will be needed …

Tagged scottish spring conference 2018 | 1 Comment

Actually, this Summer of Strategy could be quite good…

Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy

Alison Suttie writes: Thank you to our volunteers

What’s going on with party strategy?

Category Archives: News

Syria

Protecting puppies and kittens

Morning Session

Lunchtime Fringe

Subscribe

Most Read

Search

Op-eds

Recent Comments