Category Archives: News

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.

Tagged 2017 autumn conference | 9 Comments

Vince: I’m a proud saboteur

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 18th September 2017 - 10:00 pm

Vince Cable’s debut Conference speech as leader will be very different from Tim Farron’s. We won’t find him bouncing about the stage. His style is quieter but no less compelling and interesting to listen to.

Below we get a flavour of the thing he’ll be saying tomorrow, establishing us firmly as the Party of Remain.

On Brexit

“A disaster looms. Brexit. The product of a fraudulent and frivolous campaign led by two groups of silly public school boys living their dormitory pillow fights.

“And now, thanks to Boris Johnson, they have degenerated into a full-scale school riot with the head teacher hiding, barricaded in her office.

“In the real world, we have yet to experience the full impact of leaving Europe. But we have a taste of what is to come in the fall of the value of the pound.

“Foreign exchange dealers are not point scoring politicians. Their cold, hard, unsentimental judgement has been, quite simply, that Brexit Britain will be poorer and weaker after Brexit than if we had decided to stay in Europe.

“Brexit was described by the Brexit Secretary himself as an operation of such technical complexity that it makes the moon landing look simple.

“It is a pity that the Brexit landing is being managed by people who would struggle to get their heads around a toddlers’ Lego set. They live in a world of infantile fairy tales.

On Labour

“We might have expected better from Labour. Many people got behind them in June, expecting a better politics and a better future from him. They are already being betrayed.

“Today’s Labour Party isn’t into problem solving; let alone governing. Jeremy Corbyn’s acolytes are focused on how to maximise the contradictions of capitalism.

“You don’t qualify for the Shadow Cabinet these days unless you have studied the Venezuelan guide on how to bankrupt a rich economy.

“No wonder they back Brexit. No wonder they lined up behind Theresa May, maximising the chance of chaos and disruption.

“Then a few weeks ago the moderates briefly penetrated the Corbyn bunker. They persuaded him that collaborating quite so closely with the class enemy didn’t look too good.

“So, they have a new policy: to stay in the Single market and Customs Union, possibly; or to leave, maybe. Or maybe to stay in for a bit, and then leave.

“I am trying to be kind here: I am trying to understand what they are trying to say. I think the current line is, we should transition to the transition gradually while we prepare for a post-transition world.

“This is what they mean by the smack of firm leadership on the biggest issue of the day.

“But if Jeremy Corbyn sits on the fence any longer, he is in danger of being sliced up the middle by the serrated edge.

“He would do better to get off the fence and refurbish his revolutionary credentials. Jeremy – join us in the Anti Brexit People’s Liberation Front!”

Political adults

“What the people want. What the country now desperately needs is some political adults.

“That’s you. That’s us.

“Fortunately, we are not alone. There are sensible grown-ups in the Conservative party and the Labour Party and the Greens. And beyond them are millions of people deeply worried about what is happening.

“We have to put aside tribal differences and work alongside like-minded people to keep the Single Market and Customs Union, essential for trade and jobs;

“Europe’s high environmental and social standards; shared research; help for our poorer regions; cooperation over policing and terrorism.

“Europe, of course, needs reform but you don’t achieve reform by walking away.

“Our position is clear: the Liberal Democrats are the party of Remain.

WATCH: Willie Rennie’s speech to Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 18th September 2017 - 6:04 pm

Willie gave one of the best speeches I’d heard him give. It was robust and clear – putting the Liberal Democrats back at the forefront of driving change in Scotland.

The text is below.

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Tagged 2017 autumn conference and willie rennie | Leave a comment

In Full: Tim Farron’s speech to Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 18th September 2017 - 11:53 am

All former leaders get a keynote speech at the first Conference after they step down. Tim Farron’s was, as you would expect, loud, funny in parts, optimistic, loyal and ended by giving the party a serious mission.

There was a lot of love in the room for that man.

“I was at Euston the other day and a lady came up to me, half my size but still somehow able to look down her nose at me.

“She said ‘well, I’m not surprised you stepped down! Never trust a man who wears doctor marten shoes!’

“If only we’d known. I’d have worn the boots instead, cherry red with yellow laces up to my knees. And that would be the only thing I’d change.

“I’m not giving up, so this wont be a giving up speech. And I’m not retiring,

“I mean I turned down celebrity Dancing on Ice!

“Because Lembit Opik is a friend. Not a blueprint.

“Look, I’m not going to give you a long list of advice – I’m not Paddy.

“Just one bit of advice really, it’s this:

“If you have joined this party as a fast track to a career in politics, then your careers officer wants sacking.

“This is not the place if you want an easy life. It is the place to be if you want to make a difference.

“31 years ago I joined the Liberals.

“Like the rest of you I chose the tough route in politics, I chose that tough route knowingly.

“Any old mediocrity can join labour or the tories, hold office, be someone for a bit, but do exactly the same as any other careerist would have done.

“But I also know you can only make a difference if you are brave enough to be different.

“When I first got elected, getting lost on the parliamentary estate was pretty much a daily event. Its like going to big school for the first time. One night Greg Mulholland and I were trying to find our way out of parliament, and we got lost, its just possible that we might have had a pint.

“Anyway, we wandered into the house of lords lobby by mistake and Greg whispered to me ‘I think we’re in the wrong place’ to which the policeman on the door responded ‘not in the wrong place sirs, just 30 years too early.

“Which tells you something about how folks see the comfortable trajectory of the career politician.

“Anyhow, about a week later I decided to join year 6 of Dean Gibson Primary School from Kendal on their tour around parliament. Everything I know about what’s where in parliament I got from that guided tour.

“As the tour progressed we ended up again in the House of Lords lobby, and I got distracted by Geoffrey Howe moving rather slowly out of the chamber and into the lobby.

“I don’t mind telling you, I was rather star struck, I mean he was chancellor of the exchequer when I was at school!

“One of the kids saw who I was looking at, and she said ‘who is he?’ and I said ‘that’s Geoffrey Howe, he brought down Margaret Thatcher’ and she said, ‘who’s Margaret Thatcher?’

“Which goes to show that, you know, there is some justice.

Tagged 2017 autumn conference, speeches and tim farron | 13 Comments

Federal International Relations Committee – the unofficial official report…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 18th September 2017 - 10:45 am

A little while ago, I described FIRC as being “the Cinderella committee of the Party, erratically mentioned in the Constitution, in need of rapid evolution in terms of its relationships with other Federal Committees and generally overlooked by the Federal Board, who haven’t yet commented on our work, engaged with our reports or provided any guidance as to its desired strategy”.

I stand by that, and there is a sense that there are elements on the Committee whose skills and talents are not best utilised by a structure which doesn’t exactly reach out to include them, let alone our wider …

1 Comment

Universal Credit a train wreck that must be stopped – Stephen Lloyd

By NewsHound | Mon 18th September 2017 - 9:15 am

As Winter approaches, the last thing you would want is for people to be without money for weeks on end, yet this is what the Government is about to inflict on thousands of benefit claimants as it rolls out Universal Credit. Evidence shows that the 6 week wait (and longer in many cases) for the first payment is causing real suffering and distress.

This morning, Conference will debate an emergency motion calling for the roll-out of Universal Credit to be halted until the problems with it can be fixed. From the Guardian:

The party’s work and pensions spokesman, Stephen Lloyd, is to say in a speech on Monday that the party has lost faith in the coalition’s flagship welfare reform with its accelerated rollout just weeks away, and that the Conservatives have altered it beyond recognition.

“The Tories ideological fixations over universal credit are leading to appalling consequences for thousands of people,” he will say. “And if it is not checked, stopped right now, in its tracks, so the failings can be addressed, it will be tens of thousands of our fellow citizens slipping into into grotesque levels of debt.”

Lloyd is convinced thousands of families will lose their homes unless the policy is rethought, and hopes the Lib Dems will work with Labour and some Conservative MPs to force a change.

6 Comments

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.

Tagged 2017 autumn conference and vince cable | 3 Comments

ALDC Campaigner Award 2017 winners announced

By ALDC | Sun 17th September 2017 - 2:25 pm

The winners of the ALDC Campaigner Awards 2017, sponsored by Midshires, were presented at the ALDC AGM at Autumn Conference by Sarah Olney, celebrating the best campaigners and campaigning teams from across the country.

This year’s winners and runners-up are:

Best By-election Campaign
Runner up is Emmbrook by-election in Wokingham
Winner is the Brinsworth By-election in Rotherham

Best Online Campaign
Runner up is Westhoughton Lib Dems
Winner is Surrey Lib Dems

Best Community Campaign
Runner up – Bristol Lib Dem with the Save Jubilee Pool campaign
Winner – Oldham for the Defibrillator Campaign

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WATCH: Christine, Jo, Vince and others at the Conference rally

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th September 2017 - 11:30 am

The Conference rally was as upbeat and optimistic and positive as you would expect that motivational event at the start of Conference to be. You can watch the whole thing below.

I’d heard earlier that Vince was not going to be making a speech, but he did. He came on and made some very serious comments about terrorism in the wake of the Parsons Green attack, praising the emergency services and condemning Donald Trump’s tweets. He then rather cheekily gave the speech that was more suited to the debate on Europe this morning, talking about the need for a referendum, a “first referendum on the facts” to give people the chance to #exitfromBrexit if they choose. He was very clear – the Lib Dems are the party of Remain, not the party of a soft exit. No deal will be better than what we currently have.

There was an extended advertisement for ALDC as it approaches its Golden Jubilee. The best things were born in 1967, let me tell you. Veteran Councillor and former Council leader Kath Pinnock, Mayor of Bedford Dave Hodgson, younger former councillor Victor Chamberlain and newbie Becky Forrest all told how ALDC helped them. I certainly couldn’t contemplate running a campaign without their expertise, so you really should join them.

Having been through the Edinburgh West campaign, it was obviously quite emotional for me to see Christine Jardine up on the stage. The bit that brought the biggest lump to my throat was when she said that she was there for the working class kids like she was who don’t have the support that she had to get on in life. That is her driving force in politics.

It was great to see two people who had joined us from other parties – Azi Ahmad from the Tories and Cllr Andrew Cregan from Labour. They talked about what had brought them to our party and the welcome they had received.

Finally, Deputy Leader Jo Swinson brought proceedings to a close, saying:

Our clarity about protecting our place in Europe, and our unity behind this goal, have helped us reach out and achieve our highest ever membership.

“We achieved a fantastic string of council by-election gains, and an impressive result in Witney, where Liz Leffman slashed the Tory majority in David Cameron’s own backyard.

“And then there was our stunning and oh so sweet by-election victory last December in Richmond Park, where so many people travelled from all over the country to help elect the fabulous Sarah Olney.

“That victory had deeper resonance too, because it showed how people from different party backgrounds could come together to send a message about the kind of politics we want.

“Or more accurately, what we do *not* want. The kind of dog-whistling, racist, personal attack campaign that Zac Goldsmith endorsed in his mayoral bid against Sadiq Khan is unacceptable and should have no place in our democracy.”

“We Liberal Democrats have an important message about the very character and values of our great family of nations.

“Fighting for Britain to stay modern, green and internationalist, forward-looking, open-minded, and open-hearted.

“As populist forces rise up across the world, Britain should be leading the fight to promote liberal values, not shutting ourselves off from our neighbours.

“Our economic and political systems are broken. We need to shape a new and inspiring vision for the 2020s and beyond.

“That’s what will beat the rabble-rousing, hate-stoking rhetoric of populists on right and left.

“Britain needs a liberal voice now more than ever.

“We are that liberal voice.”

Enjoy.

Tagged 2017 autumn conference, brexit, jo swinson. christine jardine, rally and vince cable | Leave a comment

Lynne Featherstone’s speech in climate change debate

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th September 2017 - 10:09 am

Here is Lynne Feathestone’s speech to yesterday’s climate change debate. The party passed entirely predictable policy – in summary, Paris Agreement is fantastic. Trump and the Conservatives are awful and we are the party of renewables and the green economy.

This is what Lynne said:

It was a glorious moment in time

The signing of the Paris Agreement

The world coming together to do the right thing

Thinking of future generations

Accepting responsibility

Taking real action to turn the tide

A moment in time

But time is not on our side

And the battle intensifies

Even as 97% of experts – so beloved of Michael Gove – agree on climate change

Even as the world agrees on Climate Change

Even as we have had the hottest summers

The wettest storms

Sea levels rising

And the fiercest hurricanes in history

Climate deniers still propagate untruths

It’s a hoax made up by the Chinese

It’s a scam

scientists are fudging the numbers

In my time as Minister for International Development

I saw first hand the impact that climate change is already having in some of the poorest areas of the world

I stood in Darfur and felt desertification under my own feet.

I saw with my own eyes the ravages that too little water in Africa and too much in Asia can bring.

I implored governments and leaders to stop the fight between peoples over scarce resources.

I visited communities learning to adapt to climate change.

Those living in areas already deeply affected by climate change don’t question its existence.

They see it. They suffer from it. They didn’t cause it.

If we don’t succeed in adaptation, mitigation and keeping temperature rise below 2 degrees centigrade – then the tide of human misery we have seen fleeing conflict will be as nothing compared to those fleeing the worst ravages of climate change

Tagged climate change, environment and lynne featherstone | 6 Comments

What’s on at Conference today? LDV on the Fringe

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th September 2017 - 8:27 am

Here is today’s shameless plug for the events LDV is putting on or helping to run.

At 1pm in the Bayview 2 at the BIC, we’ll be looking at the effect of Brexit on the Irish border and on Gibraltar. We have an incredibly illustrious panel. David Ford was until last year leader of the Alliance Party in Northern Ireland and is a former Justice Minister. The Hon Joseph Garcia MP is the Deputy Chief Minister of Gibraltar. I’m old enough to remember when the border between Gibraltar and Spain was closed. Being part of the EU sorted that out and Brexit casts a huge shadow over the daily lives of people on both sides of that border. Alistair Carmichael will be putting the party’s view. And if that wasn’t enough, we have scones. Lots of them. When we were thinking about refreshments, we thought they would be a bit different, but I thought it would just be a rather unimpressive plateful of miniature scones with a scraping of jam and cream. At our fringe last night, we had the most amazing spread. Large, warm fruit scones with huge bowlfuls of clotted cream and jam to help yourself to. They were utterly delicious and I didn’t need any dinner after eating one and a half of them – which is lucky because I didn’t have time to eat before the disco anyway. I apologise to those I have offended by doing the jam and cream this way round. I’m from Scotland. You have to make allowances for these things. David Ford gave his perspective on the Irish border situation here.

Although some nationalists are suggesting that Northern Ireland should remain within the Customs Union while GB leaves (citing our vote for Remain), this would be at least as destabilising from a unionist perspective as border posts would be to nationalists, and would also create major difficulties for trade between the constituent parts of the UK. While there may well be a need for a special deal for Northern Ireland, that is not the same as special status.

Despite the constitutional position, recent years have seen increasing integration of business and public services across the island of Ireland. Justice agencies work in partnership to fight terrorism and organised crime. We have a single energy market, significant cross-border supply chains (especially in agri-food), shared provision of acute hospital services. Business regulation is different in Northern Ireland from that in England, Wales and Scotland.

All of that leads to the possibility that Northern Ireland could remain in the Single Market, even if the rest of the UK left. It would be a unique arrangement, but might be a way of squaring the circle.

Tagged 2017 autumn conference, ldv on the fringe, refugees and scones | Leave a comment

That Lib Dem Disco set list in full

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 16th September 2017 - 9:34 pm

It is almost time for the Lib Dem Disco. A little bird has let us have details of the tunes our intrepid DJs will be playing.

Here is how the night will unfold

Of course, these are just the tunes. The success of a DJ set is all about the performance.

In the meantime, I have my dancing shoes on.

10:40 Tim Farron

Last Nite – the Strokes
Rock the Casbah – The Clash
This Charming Man – The Smiths
Girls on Film – Duran Duran

11:00 Kelly-Marie Blundell

Tagged lib dem disco | 1 Comment

WATCH: Layla Moran’s speech to Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 16th September 2017 - 5:53 pm

New Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran gave a brilliantly inspiring, gutsy speech on education to Conference today. She basically challenged a huge amount of educational orthodoxy around selection and league tables and challenged the Liberal Democrats to come up with a bold new policy, saying that we have the imagination and the gall to do so. She got a well-deserved standing ovation.

The text is below.

Tagged 2017 autumn conference | 3 Comments

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 …

Vince: Lib Dems can make a real difference to the future of our country

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 16th September 2017 - 6:59 am

Vince Cable’s team will be happy if we do two things at this Conference. The first is to present a very strong line on Brexit, marking the Liberal Democrats out as the unequivocally anti-Brexit party who want the people to have the final say on whatever emerges from the negotiations. The second is to establish Vince firmly in people’s minds as one of the most credible, authoritative voices on the economy that this country has. They want people to understand that he has the answers to address the concerns that they had when they voted Leave. It’s been fantastic to see him talk about reducing the inequality that is harming our society.

In the last few weeks, he has complemented the work he’s done on Brexit with talking about improving things for people who are struggling. He is particularly keen to offer young people a hopeful future which is why he launched a report with NUS setting out ideas for improving Further Education last week.

Vince is quite definitely the grown-up in the room in British politics and this week is the chance to show the country that the Lib Dems understand the problems we face and can do something about it. Ahead of Conference, he said:

Tagged 2017 autumn conference and vince cable | 12 Comments

Federal Policy Committee Report 13 September 2017

By Geoff Payne | Fri 15th September 2017 - 11:56 am

This report relates to the meeting of the Federal Policy Committee which took place on 13th September 2017. The committee had not met for a few months. Its last meeting, which was scheduled for 12th July 2017, had been cancelled. There was therefore quite a lot to catch up on.

Vince Cable Update on Priorities

It hardly needs saying but, since the last meeting, a new Leader has taken over. Vince Cable attended the meeting to update the committee on his priorities.

Vince said that he had been to eighteen meetings around the country as a substitute for leadership hustings. He had also …

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New from the Liberal Democrat History Group

By Duncan Brack | Fri 15th September 2017 - 10:25 am

As well as publishing the quarterly Journal of Liberal History (which features one of the esteemed editors of Lib Dem Voice on its Editorial Board), the Liberal Democrat History Group also publishes a range of books and short booklets on aspects of Liberal history.

New out, just in time for Bournemouth conference, is the second edition of Mothers of Liberty: Women Who Built British Liberalism. This booklet contains the stories of the women who shaped British Liberalism – including Mary Wollstonecraft, Harriet Taylor Mill, the suffragist leader Millicent Garrett Fawcett, the first woman Liberal MP Margaret Wintringham, Violet Bonham Carter, Megan Lloyd George, Nancy Seear, Shirley Williams and many more. This second edition updates some of the entries, adds two entirely new ones and a table of all Liberal, SDP and Liberal Democrat women elected as MPs, and includes a foreword by Jo Swinson MP.

We have also published a new edition of our popular Liberal History: A concise history of the Liberal Party, SDP and Liberal Democrats. This has been revised and updated to include the 2015 and 2017 elections and their aftermath, including the election of Vince Cable as leader.

Starting with the earliest stirrings of Liberal thought during the civil wars of the seventeenth century, the booklet takes the reader through the coming together of Whigs, radicals and free-trade Peelites in 1859 to form the Liberal Party; the ascendancy of the Victorian Liberals under Gladstone; the New Liberalism of Asquith and Lloyd George and the party’s landslide election victory in 1906; dissension and eclipse; the long decades of decline until nadir in the 1950s; successive waves of Liberal revival under Grimond, Thorpe and Steel; the alliance with the SDP and merger in 1988; and the roller-coaster ride of the Liberal Democrats, from near-obliteration in 1989 to entry into government in 2010 to electoral disaster in 2015 and, now, the path to recovery.

Tagged history and liberal democrat history group | 3 Comments

WATCH: Christine Jardine on the “mindless, vindictive” online attacks she endured on day of her husband’s funeral

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 14th September 2017 - 8:24 pm

One of the most awful points of the General Election was seeing Christine Jardine coming under attack from a whole load of people online. They’d accused her of breaking the campaign pause in Edinburgh West. She had, in fact, been at her husband’s funeral. Even when they were told the situation, they kept going and kept throwing even more abuse. It was shameful.

This afternoon, in a debate on online abuse in the House of Commons, Christine spoke very powerfully about those experiences. Sure, politicians were going to be subject to disagreement and comment but nobody signs up for intimidation and abuse.

I thought that she made some really sensitive and intelligent comments about mental health, too. She outlined how social media could be a force for good for those who suffered from mental ill health and how it could really help with isolation. I actually know that from my own experience. Back in 2009, Twitter kept me going when I was laid low for months by Glandular Fever. That was in the early days when it was a lovely place to be. I actually made some friends on there who became friends in real life. But social media also has a potential to do much harm to mental health if people were subjected to abuse and bullying.

Last year I wrote of my own experience of online abuse and how it came pretty close to breaking my spirit.

Here is Christine’s speech in full. The text is below.

Mr Speaker sir thank you for calling me to speak in a debate which, for me, has such personal resonance.

During the most recent General Election I was one of those who discovered just how easily an on line platform can be used to spread hurtful or personally abusive lies.

My experience – which is far from the worst example – actually started with something I originally put down to a genuine mistake or misunderstanding…. Before quickly realising it was actually an attempt to gain political advantage with no respect whatsoever for the personal impact… or the truth.

During the break in campaigning as a mark of respect following the Manchester attack I was accused, on social media, by an activist from another party, of ignoring that and going out campaigning.

I had, in fact, been at my husbands funeral.

Tagged christine jardine mp, online abuse and social media | 7 Comments

Lib Dem Women at Conference: First steps on a long road towards equality in Parliament

By Flo Clucas | Thu 14th September 2017 - 2:55 pm

There is a television advertisement for a well-known bank that has the strap line ‘for the journey’. You may know it.

First steps in a political career can be very daunting and extremely difficult. Much of the research shows that for women, particularly with family responsibilities, the passage from Newbie to Old Hand can be more of an impossible dream than a real prospect. Even with a supportive family, it isn’t easy. So, is there a way that we, as the Liberal Democrat Party, with our constitution proudly proclaiming that we do not want anyone ‘enslaved by gender’ can begin to ease the way?

LDW has asked each of our new women Members of Parliament to describe their journey. To tell us not only how they made the transition from Candidate to MP, but also what their experience of Parliamentary life has been. We need to learn from their experience and use it to make change possible during our Decade for Women.

Tagged 2017 autumn conference | 7 Comments

Brexit and the Irish Border

By David Ford | Thu 14th September 2017 - 11:55 am

There are more road crossings on the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic than on the entire Eastern border of the European Union. Actually, there are 275 Irish border crossings, compared to 137 from Finland to Greece, according to figures obtained by my Alliance colleague Stephen Farry MLA.

That emphasises why the Irish border is such an issue for Northern Ireland, for the UK and for Ireland. Yet the Government’s “Position Paper” on Northern Ireland and Ireland is woefully inadequate, failing to deal with issues of both trade and justice co-operation.

It is clear is that this is one area where those leading the campaign for Brexit have no idea how to resolve matters. We have had simplistic thoughts from the likes of Owen Patterson, citing TIR freight and Customs seals, while DUP MPs have suggested that automatic number plate recognition works on Irish toll motorways, so ANPR could perform border checks. Has Owen Patterson forgotten all that he and I heard about smuggling when he was Secretary of State for NI and I was Stormont Minister of Justice? While ANPR can identify a vehicle, can the DUP tell me how to identify who and what is in it?

Having campaigned for Remain, and horrified by all that is emerging from negotiations on an almost daily basis, I remain of the view that the people of the UK and Gibraltar should have the right to vote on the final deal. Second to that comes the softest possible way of leaving the EU. Ideally, the UK as a whole would remain in the Customs Union and in the Single Market. This would avoid the need for any form of physical border controls on the land border, which would present clear targets for dissident republican groups.

Tagged brexit and northern ireland | 23 Comments

Cheer up Britannia, Brexit is coming

By John King | Thu 14th September 2017 - 10:25 am

Cheer up Britannia, Brexit is coming. Can John King be writing this? As regular readers of my posts will know, I belong to the ‘Stay Angry and Fight Brexit’ school. And I still hope and pray that this madness can be averted.

All the same, in my more sombre moments, I sometimes wonder if we are clutching at straws. Even if we could turn back now, the Brexiters would cry betrayal for ever more. According to the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee, many Remainers in parliament are privately wishing for disaster. Bound and gagged by the three line whip, they reflect grimly that Britain will have to learn the hard way.

Out of the ashes of cataclysmic devastation, by this calculation, a new Britain could arise like a phoenix, resolved never to make the same mistakes again. It is a scenario recalling not only Germany but also ancient Rome, whose Emperor Claudius, surrounded on all sides by perversion and foolishness, could only mutter “Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out”.

But what if the country’s demise were relatively painless? What if the unacceptable gradually became the norm? It is a fact that with many serious types of sickness – and Brexit is a sickness – other people see a deterioration first, whilst the sufferer is mercifully oblivious.

Tagged brexit | 72 Comments

Dutch support for a Millicent Fawcett Statue in Parliament Square

By Bernard Aris | Wed 13th September 2017 - 4:37 pm

For Dutch Social Liberals, being a party activist and being a feminist have always been strongly (90%) overlapping aspects of our social behavior and social activism. Whereas Dutch Social Democracy until 1934 neglected the women’s emancipation struggle because the emancipation of all proletarians came first, we are proud that from the beginning, Dutch social-liberal parties (Radikale Bond/RB, 1892-1901, VDB, 1901-’46, D66) have always had feminist spokespersons in their parliamentary parties. Aletta Jacobs, our most famous late 19^th century feminist, was a RB founder/activist, and it was a VDB bill which gave Dutch women the vote. And the 1966 founders of D66 were strongly involved in the Second Feminist Wave (raising male consciousness about issues like equal pay, equal family law rights, childcare and family planning), and proudly conscious of the RB and VDB feminist tradition.

And British feminists, Millicent Garrett Fawcett (and her sister, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson) in particular, played an indispensable role in getting that Dutch feminist tradition going.

In 1870-’76 a young Dutch liberal, Victor Gerritsen, lived in London where he immersed himself in the Radical and Liberal scene around John Stuart Mill and the Garrett sisters. In those years (thanks to permission by liberal prime minister Thorbecke), Aletta Jacobs was able to study medicine including her Ph. D. promotion. On his return here, Gerritsen heard about this, and that Jacobs wanted to study medical practices in London. Gerritsen wrote her, giving her useful contact addresses, and telling about the advent of British female medical doctors (this proved the start of their love- and later marriage relationship).

According to the authoritative biography of Jacobs, she visited London in March-September 1879. Via the brothers George and Charles Robert Drysdale (women’s doctors and pioneers in Neo-Malthusianism) she met Elizabeth Garrett (Britain’s first female doctor meeting the first Dutch one), and worked with her in the London Medical School of Women, New Hospital for Women, and in Garrett’s “St. Mary’s Dispensary” aimed at mothers and children. Via Elizabeth, Jacobs also met Millicent Garrett and her husband, the Cambridge economist/suffragist Henry Fawcett (their mutual supportive, loving relationship was to be copied by Jacobs and Gerritsen), who were more involved in the women’s voting right movement. Gerritsen already subscribed to the suffragist “Englishwomen’s Review”, and had his British friends send him new Liberal, feminist and radical publications; when the Dutch feminist movement got started in the 1880’s, his substantial library was used by everybody in Dutch social liberalism and feminism.

Tagged feminism and millicent garrett fawcett | 9 Comments

Welcome to Everyone Matters

By Pete Williams | Wed 13th September 2017 - 11:55 am

Hello from Everyone Matters – what was formerly known as ‘Activate’. We are a group of Liberal Democrats based in North Wales who decided after the General Election in June to try and raise awareness of what being a Lib Dem is all about. Unlike Momentum or the recently press covered Tory Activate, we are committed to running wholly positive campaigns based in local communities and working with charities to raise money for good causes.

We aim to show constituents that as Liberal Democrats we will work with people all year round to make politics both local and real. Everyday issues have

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Perhaps it’s time for…

By Jane Reed | Wed 13th September 2017 - 10:25 am

I am writing this in response to Paddy Ashdown’s Essay to the Party of Monday 11^th September in which he extolls us to follow Vince Cable’s lead and start coming up with our own new, dangerous ideas and debate them at conference.

I know from talking with friends and meeting people on the campaign doorstep that many people have a very negative attitude to the Liberal Democrats. I know from being a member since 2015 that the party is well organised, with plenty of ground troops, puts its principles into practice in how it deals with members, has socially valuable ideas and is full of very able and well intentioned people perfectly capable of government. However this does not seem to be picked up by many of the electorate. If we are to gain traction with the electorate something has to change. One aspect that I think would be worth looking at is our branding. If this was changed and was seen to be genuine in that the new branding reflected other more substantial changes I think it could have a positive effect. I know rebranding is often seen as a nightmare and certainly can be expensive but if done at the right moment can be effective.

I have not given great thought to how the branding could be changed but just a few comments. I think we should stick with the yellow colour but perhaps make it a more golden yellow. I personally like our present emblem with its sense of freedom and development but I wonder if it comes across as rather weak. One possible emblem, suitable in terms of shape, could be a sunflower head but it is yellow, possibly used by BP and would be probably perceived as too soft. Perhaps we should also consider changing the name of our party.

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Conference issue of LIberator out

By The Liberator Collective | Wed 13th September 2017 - 8:55 am

Issue 386 of Liberator is on its way to subscribers.

Find out with our two free articles from this issue why Norman Lamb wants the party to tackle the endemic powerlessness that helped lead to Brexit, and why Sarah Olney might have benefitted from a ‘progressive alliance’ in Richmond Park, but views the idea with great suspicion.

Also in this issue:

John Pugh says a state that wants to enable has to be active too.

Sarah Green looks at who the new Liberal Democrats are, as they now vastly outnumber the old ones.

Jonathan Calder revisits the work of Richard Rorty, a philosopher who has much to tell liberals now about what happened when the cultural left supplanted the reformist one.

Roger Hayes argues that opposing Brexit and the economic crisis it threatens isn’t Liberal Democrat policy, but the context against which the party must set its policy.

Wendy Kyrle-Pope looks at how to tempt savers into investing in new affordable housing, while Jon Reeds says homes should not be directed into ’garden towns’ that waste land.

Rebecca Tinsley reports on why too much foreign aid money goes into perpetuating inadequate education systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

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WATCH: Vince’s LBC phone in

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 12th September 2017 - 9:14 pm

Today Vince did the show formerly known as Call Clegg.

As I well know, a row with Nick Ferrari is a great way to start the day.

Here’s a clip.

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Federal Conference Committee Report – amendments and emergency motions for Bournemouth

By Zoe O’Connell | Mon 11th September 2017 - 6:15 pm

Federal Conference Committee (FCC) met on Saturday to discuss amendments and other issues for debate in Bournemouth this weekend.

As a quick recap, and for those who haven’t been to conference before, three things can happen to an amendment: They can be accepted for debate and voted on my conference, they can be drafted in as if they were part of the original motion or they can be rejected. Drafted in amendments should not be controversial or ambiguous in any way, and typically they will update a motion to reflect recent events, or correct or clarify wording.

The time for each motion is listed, as this can be a factor when deciding to select an amendment for debate. One amendment is the realistic limit for a 45 minute debate, and longer debates allow us to fit more in.

Some disclaimers needed: The titles are my own brief summaries to give a flavour of the types of things people seek to amend, as the submitters of amendments do not need to include them. Errors or lack of clarity are my own fault. As with motions, non-selection does not mean that the topic is not worthy as amendments may contain technical errors, a lack of clarity, are too insubstantial or not sufficiently within scope of the original motion.

Tagged 2017 autumn conference and federal conference committee report | 17 Comments

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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Liberal International, Dictatorship and the United Kingdom in 2017

By Paul Reynolds | Mon 11th September 2017 - 1:25 pm

Global war followed the descent into dictatorship in parts of Europe in the 1930s. The horrors of WW2, and the dark shadow of communism that fell over east and central Europe and USSR subsequently, led to the consolidation of liberal ideals in the freer world.

A reassertion of liberal and democratic ideals and the principle of human rights was expressed in the Oxford Manifesto in 1947 at Wadham College, Oxford and in the creation of Liberal International. It was the first modern declaration of liberal and democratic principles following the defeat of Nazism, principles which contrasted starkly with the totalitarian tenets of Soviet communism.

The successor of the Oxford Manifesto was the Universal Declaration of Human rights by the UN (UN UDoHR) in 1948; a beacon for democrats and liberals the world over, since. The Oxford Manifesto and the UN UdoHR provided a common reference point for political parties across the globe who bravely opposed dictatorship and corruption, enabling Liberal International to shed light on oppression and authoritarianism and support those parties.

There were high hopes after the fall of communism in 1989 and 1991, that essential principles of liberalism, democracy and human rights would take hold in much of the world. However, the rise of authoritarian populism a decade ago has threatened that progress.

Advocates of liberalism and democracy have fought back against this new wave of pro-dictatorship populism. In April 2017 Liberals from around the world came together on the same spot at Wadham College, University of Oxford, where Liberal International was established 70 years earlier. A new Oxford Manifesto was born, addressing this new wave of authoritarianism and reaffirming liberalism in this more modern context.

Tagged 2017 autumn conference and liberal international | 8 Comments

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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Op-eds

Welcome (belatedly) to my day: 12 October 2026 – a leadership challenge, or a challenge to the leadership?… (Mark Valladares)
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We need better conversations on AI and the environment (Josh Matthews)

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