Category Archives: News

The Voice

New campaign poster highlights “Dickensian” Tory school meals plan

By The Voice | Sun 28th May 2017 - 12:55 pm

 

The Lib Dem focus this weekend has been attacking the Conservatives for their most controversial domestic policies – school lunches and the dementia tax.

We put out a poster that channels Oliver Twist to highlight the Tory plans to abolish provision of school lunches and replace them with breakfasts.

When Nick introduced the lunches policy in coalition, he made sure that there was some pretty detailed nutritional standards to go along with it.

Each week, pupils eating free school lunches get: five portions of fruit, five portions of veg, five portions of protein (meat, fish, eggs or beans), five portions of starchy food (at least one being wholegrain) and five portions of milk or dairy.

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The Voice

Liberal Democrats set 10 questions for Theresa May on the “Dementia Tax”

By The Voice | Sun 28th May 2017 - 11:55 am

Rarely has such an ill-thought out policy made it into a manifesto. The Tory proposals for what’s been dubbed a “dementia tax,” going back on previous proposals to set a cap on care costs for those who need care, don’t even seem to have the agreement of senior Conservatives. In fact, if the Sunday papers are to be believed, they don’t even have the backing of Theresa May’s two chiefs of staff.

Vince Cable outlines the main issues here:

The Liberal Democrats have today put 10 questions to Theresa May on the implementation of this policy. Her speech last Monday was initially presented as a u-turn. She then claimed in her Andrew Neil interview that it was anything but. Voters need to know exactly what this policy means before they go to the polls in 11 days’ time.

The questions are:

1. At what level will the cap on care costs be set?

2. How will it be uprated? Will it be in line with house prices?

3. Does the £100,000 floor apply to households or individuals?

4. Will the cap and £100,000 floor apply to care costs only, or will it also include accommodation costs?

5. Will people still need to pay an arrangement fee and interest for care costs, and if so how will these charges be set? The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (RBWM) currently charges 2.25% interest and a £900 set up fee plus £300 a year.

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Caron Lindsay

Alpacalypse

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 28th May 2017 - 10:55 am

It wouldn’t be an election without photos of Willie Rennie with cute animals.

This time, they even behaved themselves.

I thought that the election hadn’t had enough alpacas in it, so I was delighted when I heard that he was off to visit an alpaca farm. Here he is with Edinburgh West candidate Christine Jardine and Edinburgh South West candidate Aisha Mir:

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Linda Jack

No bright new dawn

By Linda Jack | Sat 27th May 2017 - 10:55 am
Like all of us I have spent the last few days deeply impacted by the events in Manchester.
 
As a mother who has, like so many of us, lain awake waiting for the turn of the key in the lock to know, however old your kids are, they are home, I grieve for every young life that has been taken from us. Their loss is not just to their families, or communities, but to us all. John Donne puts it so beautifully ‘ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee’.
 
Youth should be a time of such optimism, such promise, such dreams, such fun, such excitement. Death is something that happens to old people, not you, you are invincible. Yet now, for so many children and young people – no bright new dawn. 
 
So as shock turns to anger, grief to the need to understand why, the narrative changes accordingly.
But what is often missing in debates which feature the great and the good, as this Independent article highlights is the voice of the very young people we are concerned about. 
 
An exception was the interview (47:30 in) on Radio 4’s PM programme with a young Libyan who expressed the kind of views I have heard so many times over the years working with Muslim young people. I was also struck by this analysis from Nafees Ahmed.
 
It is clear that the Prevent programme is failing and just throwing money at it won’t help – our party has it right in focusing on community engagement. But many of us are very disappointed that there is no mention of our policy on Youth Services in our manifesto. 
 
As Children and Young People Now report, it was a youth and community worker who first warned the authorities about  Salman Abedi, to quote NYA CEO Paul Miller
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NewsHound

Norman Lamb “The best MP in the region”

By NewsHound | Sat 27th May 2017 - 8:55 am

“Can Norman Lamb hold on in Leave voting North Norfolk?” is the headline from a PoliticsHome article.

The constituency is profiled and this is what Norman has to say about it:

After four general election victories, can the region’s lone Lib Dem fend off the Tories and cling on his largely rural constituency for a fifth time? On the surface the signs are ominous. In 2015, his majority dropped to just over 4,000. In last year’s referendum, North Norfolk voted to leave the European Union by 59%. And while the Greens are getting behind Lamb, Ukip has pulled out of the race and urged supporters to vote Tory to “rid ourselves of our Liberal Democrat MP”.

But Lamb – who defied his party line and abstained on the vote to trigger Article 50 – says Brexit doesn’t come up on the doorstep very much and “the majority of people you talk to don’t mention it at all”. The clumsy Ukip intervention has galvanised non-Tories who “don’t like that sort of attitude and language”, he claims.  He is also finding it “very easy to persuade people who in the past voted Labour to support us this time”. And above all, he is optimistic that his personal connections with voters will win the day.

“In a way, this is a contest between the Conservative national message … and a growing sense that a Tory landslide is pretty much an inevitability. So do we really want a one-party state? And do people actually want to lose an MP who has a got a long track record of active campaigning?” he asks.

“Interestingly, as you go round talking to people on the doorsteps and in town centres and outside schools, a lot of people are saying ‘I will vote for you because of what you have done here or what you’ve done for our family’. Yesterday, someone said ‘You saved my daughter’s life’. It was a case of an eating disorder where they weren’t being listened to and I intervened on their behalf and got things moving.

“A lot of people say ‘We’ll vote for you, we want to keep you as our MP’. And this is a side of politics that the commentators often don’t see.”

“The best MP in the region”

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Caron Lindsay

Kirsty Williams on the “divisive” political atmosphere

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 26th May 2017 - 3:55 pm

Former Welsh Lib Dem Leader Kirsty Williams has spoken out about the unpleasant divisiveness of our political atmosphere after one of her team was racially abused and she had the unsettling experience of a man making a shooting gesture and telling her Liberals should be shot.

From Wales Online:

Describing the change she has seen since the EU referendum, she said: “I think ever since the Brexit vote I think politics has become very divisive in a way I haven’t witnessed in all these years and I think in some ways that has unleashed something where the country is very, very, very divided and that’s to be regretted and unfortunately I don’t see how that divide is going to be healed.”

Acknowledging the responsibility of politicians to take care in the language they use, she said: “I think all politicians at all times need to be mindful about how they express their arguments.

“There are legitimate arguments to be expressed but words are powerful and the influence politicians have is powerful and therefore there is a responsibility on all of us to be very mindful about how we conduct ourselves and the language we use.

She described what had happened to her volunteer and the effect that has on people:

“Unfortunately it just seems that this kind of discourse is becoming the norm. We’ve had a volunteer racially abused this week.

“She feels that she can’t go and deliver any leaflets because she was racially abused while just out delivering leaflets.”

The volunteer was someone who wanted to “do her bit in support of the values she believed in and unfortunately feels she won’t be able to do that again”.

The AM fears such experiences will stop people from getting involved in politics.

“That’s the issue, isn’t it,” she said. “Why would people want to put themselves and potentially their families through this?

Read on to find out how she reacted to a Conservative sign being planted in her hedge.

I do agree with Kirsty that politics can be pretty vicious at the moment. I am not sure it’s any worse than when I started out back in the 80s, though. It did calm down for a while in the late 90s. It used to be Labour who were the worst. Power came too easy to them and they responded with an aggressive arrogance to anyone who tried to take it from them. 

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The Voice

Farron: Corbyn putting politics before people at a time of tragedy

By The Voice | Fri 26th May 2017 - 11:25 am

Jeremy Corbyn seems hellbent on squandering any advantage that he may be gaining in the polls due to Theresa May’s stumbling over the “Dementia Tax.” She really struggled in her Andrew Neil interview on Monday night. She’s laid her weakness bare. Her opponents should be all over that. Instead, Jeremy Corbyn has chosen to make some comments linking terrorism to British foreign policy at a time when people are really hurting after Manchester, which, as well as being insensitive when people are hurting, is also opening the door for all the usual attacks on him. He had the chance to go on the front foot and he fluffed it. It’s hardly the first time. Remember the Article 50 Bill…

Tim Farron has called Corbyn out, accusing him of putting politics before people:

A few days ago, a young man built a bomb, walked into a pop concert and deliberately slaughtered children. Our children. Families are grieving. A community is in shock.

Jeremy Corbyn has chosen to use that grotesque act to make a political point. I don’t agree with what he says, but I disagree even more that now is the time to say it. That’s not leadership, it’s putting politics before people at a time of tragedy.

Earlier Paddy had said that, yes, there is a time to think about what the attack means for the direction of future policy – but not now.

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Labour and the Tories are talking about the IRA but, as ever, not about Ireland

By Sarah Tebbit | Fri 26th May 2017 - 8:55 am

The recent revelations about Diane Abbott’s support for Irish nationalists in the 1980s have not been particularly surprising. For many old enough to remember the horrendous violence and terror the IRA inflicted on people, such support is unpalatable; but we already knew that, as a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, she was likely to have shared his rigidly anti-West approach to world affairs. Criticism of the British State’s policies can of course be healthy, and indeed must be present in a functioning democracy. But in the pattern of Corbyn‘s criticisms there seemed to be something more extreme, an apparent dislike of the State that led him to become close to IRA leaders. The claim that he was purely concerned with peace is rather belied by the absence of his reaching out to any unionists prior to the creation of Stormont in 1998.

It is not wrong for the Conservatives and the national newspapers to be pointing out these things. Many people of voting age are too young to have experienced the IRA threat. But there is another reason that people should be aware of Corbyn’s perspective, and which the Conservatives are not highlighting: understanding Corbyn’s views is relevant to the situation we find ourselves in right now.

It is noticeable that, even recently, Corbyn has only condemned the IRA in the vaguest possible terms while pointing out that force was used by the State too. He believes in a united Ireland. And that is of course legitimate, but were he to become Prime Minister it would have potentially profound implications for Northern Ireland on account of Brexit, and would change completely the dynamic of discussions around the future of a border that has extraordinary political significance.

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The Voice

The campaign starts up again

By The Voice | Fri 26th May 2017 - 7:00 am

It’s the first day of national campaigning since the Manchester attack on Monday night.

For Tim Farron, it’s not an immediate return to hostilities. Instead, he’s going to Warrington to visit a Jonathan Ball/Tim Parry Peace Foundation in Warrington.

The Foundation was set up by the parents of the two boys who were killed by the Warrington Bomb in 1993.

Tim wants to learn about the charity’s work.

Later he will attend a remembrance service at a Mosque with the Ahmadiyya community in Manchester.

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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Lib Dems replace Party Election Broadcast with personal message from Tim Farron about Manchester

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 25th May 2017 - 10:11 pm

Powerful stuff from Tim Farron tonight. We withdrew our scheduled Party Election Broadcast and replaced it with two and a half minutes of Tim talking about the Manchester attack and how it bringing people together, not creating the division the terrorists want.

He talked about the Manchester he loves and the experience of being at the vigil on Tuesday night.

It was a very heartfelt and moving monologue, an act of solidarity before the election campaign starts again in earnest tomorrow. It’s not going to win us seats, but it is a good thing for our country.

Watch it here. A transcript is below.

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The Voice

Former Lib Dem MP for Hereford, Paul Keetch has died

By The Voice | Thu 25th May 2017 - 8:40 pm

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Paul Keetch, former Liberal Democrat MP for Hereford. We offer our sincerest sympathy to Paul’s family and friends.

The Ross Gazette has a report which begins:

Paul Keetch, former Liberal Democrat MP for Hereford died on Wednesday, May 24th in London, aged 56.
Paul was a liberal, a democrat and an internationalist and amongst Liberal Politicians, a rarity in that he had never lost an election.

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The Voice

Statement from Mark Williams on Manchester attack

By The Voice | Wed 24th May 2017 - 3:30 pm

This is Welsh Lib Dem leader Mark Williams’ statement on the Manchester attack.

I am deeply shocked and saddened by the events that took place in Manchester last night, which took the lives of at least 22 people and has injured 59 more.

This attack is an act of utter barbarity that was aimed directly at thousands of our children and young people.”

I praise the brave action of our emergency services, who acted quickly to tend to those at the Manchester Arena.

As a parent myself, I can only imagine the anguish that many are feeling, and my thoughts and prayers go out

…

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NewsHound

LibLink: Tim Farron: The nature of the victims puts this attack in a different order

By NewsHound | Wed 24th May 2017 - 1:30 pm

On the Times Red Box, Tim Farron has been writing about the Manchester attack:

Music brings people together, often in joy, and Ariana Grande’s music in particular is that infectious pop loved by children and young people. Monday’s concert will have been a rhapsody of happiness, laughter and unadulterated joy. The fact that anyone would look at that and see a target for their anger and hate is monstrous.

That is why this attack is of a different order, because of who the victims are. Who the attacker hoped his victims would be. It is not by chance that so many children have been caught up in this atrocity. It was a deliberate and calculated attack on innocence. And to me this is incomprehensible.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of those who have lost their loved ones and to all those who wait by hospital beds and by phones for news of those who continue to fight for their lives. I cannot even begin to imagine the anguish being felt across Manchester right now as the families and city come to terms with what has happened.

Amongst all the horror there have been rays of light and hope. Our emergency services responded with great bravery and compassion and continue to work round the clock, either on the ongoing investigation into who is responsible and how this happened or in the hospitals caring for those injured in the attack.

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Caron Lindsay

National campaigning to remain suspended tomorrow – but local campaigning can resume

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 23rd May 2017 - 9:41 pm

The party is advising candidates tonight that, while national campaigning remains suspended, local campaigning can resume tomorrow.

The  advice came in an email from Federal Campaigns and Elections Chair James Gurling who said:

 

Further to our advice this morning following the terrorist attack in Manchester, national campaigning will remain suspended tomorrow.

Like other parties we have agreed that local campaigning may resume with due sensitivity and at the discretion of local campaign managers.

We will continue to review the advice given on national and local campaigning.

So, take the lead from your local campaign manager and act accordingly.

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The Voice

Willie Rennie statement to Parliament on Manchester attacks

By The Voice | Tue 23rd May 2017 - 8:07 pm

The Scottish Parliament is still sitting and all Scotland’s political leaders made statements of solidarity with Manchester and the victims of the murders at the Ariana Grande concert last night.

Here is Willie Rennie’s:

I want to express my absolute condolences to the people affected, their families and the support services helping them as best they can.

This morning was a moment that, when you woke up to the news on the radio, you tried to turn it off. As if, by not hearing it, you could make it not true. We are all horrified that such an attack can take place on

…

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The Voice

General Election campaigning has been suspended

By The Voice | Tue 23rd May 2017 - 9:15 am

An email from the Chair of the Federal Campaigns and Elections Committee James Gurling has been sent  explaining what the suspension of campaigning in respect for the victims of the Manchester attack means:

By now you will all have seen and heard about the terrible events of yesterday. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the tragic attack in Manchester.

We, along with the other political parties have agreed to suspend our campaigns until further notice.

That means until further notice, please do not carry out any public campaigning activity – that includes canvassing, campaigning online, leaflet delivery and any street stalls.

This site …

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Caron Lindsay

Liberal Democrats react to Manchester bombing

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 23rd May 2017 - 8:46 am

Last night people would have dropped their kids off at Manchester Arena for the Ariana Grande concert. The kids would have been so excited. In the normal course of events, they’d have come out afterwards completely buzzing about the whole thing and would have spent hours reliving it and singing the songs.

They will certainly never forget the awful events of last night.

It is utterly impossible to comprehend what goes through the mind of someone who targets children and young people in this way.

One of my friends wrote on Facebook that we should think about what the terrorists want us to do – and then do the exact opposite.

They want us to turn on each other and change our lives to pander to them or fear of them. We can’t let them diminish us like that.

And in fact, we can see from the acts of kindness and solidarity from the people of Manchester that the generous, open-hearted spirit of that wonderful city will prevail.

Our hearts go out to all those who have lost loved ones, or who are going through the raw anxiety of not being able to track someone down, or who are waiting for news of an injured friend or relative.

All of us need to think about what we can do to make the world kinder, more open and gentle – and then go and do it.

Senior Liberal Democrats have been reacting to last night’s attack. Tim Farron said:

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Mary Reid

A tale of two buses

By Mary Reid | Mon 22nd May 2017 - 1:51 pm

 

Apparently that bus now looks like this:

 

Which might explain why Boris Johnson got a bit confused yesterday on Peston on Sunday.

Would you like to see him claiming that the Conservative manifesto promises £350m a week for the NHS? Of course you would.

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NewsHound

Business leaders: Only Lib Dems are speaking for business and the people

By NewsHound | Mon 22nd May 2017 - 12:55 pm

In a letter, more than 50 business leaders, including Nicola Horlick and the founders of EBookers and Innocent Drinks, have said that they will be voting Liberal Democrat because of our stance on Brexit.

From the Times (£)

The 53 signatories who say they intend to vote Lib Dem include senior players in the investment and IT sectors, two industries that could be hit by a poor Brexit deal. They represent small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) rather than FTSE 100 companies.

“The Conservatives’ failure to even mention a transitional deal threatens Britain’s status as one of the best countries in the world with which to do business,” the letter reads. “While we may not have voted Liberal Democrat in the past and we may not agree with the party on all issues, they are now the only party speaking for business and the majority of Britons on the key issue at this election.”

Richard Reed, the co-founder of Innocent Drinks and board member of Britain Stronger in Europe, Dinesh Dhamija, the founder of the Ebookers travel site and the businesswoman Nicola Horlick are among the signatories.

In response, Vince Cable said:

The Liberal Democrats now have support from a large number of serious figures in the business community, showing that we are rapidly emerging as the party of business, both big and small.

Theresa May’s determination to take us out of the single market would devastate the financial sector, while taking us out of the customs union would cause incalculable disruption to manufacturing .

Theresa May herself warned of the Brexit dangers to our exports in a speech at Goldman Sachs. Since then she has taken on the agenda of Nigel Farage, who has understandably declared himself delighted with her.

That is scary. It is vital that the next parliament contains enough Liberal Democrat voices to argue for Britain’s future in the world’s most lucrative single market. The more Liberal Democrat MPs, the better the deal we can secure on Europe.

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Katharine Pindar

‘Fiery Farron’ will fight false Mayism – but so may leading Tories

By Katharine Pindar | Mon 22nd May 2017 - 11:55 am

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron was given a new title by the Mail on Sunday. Under the striking large-caps headline, THE WRATH OF FIERY FARRON, Tim was reported as  fired up to denounce the Tory manifesto declaration that the value of people’s homes will be taken into account in future to help pay for extensive home care. People will only be able to safeguard £100,000 of their total assets, including their home. ‘If you have dementia’, Tim is said to have told the Mail journalist Simon Walters, ‘Theresa May is coming for you. Your house is up for grabs.’ He said it showed the hardness of May and her party. ‘She’s making the Tories nastier than ever.’

This is the Prime Minister who pledged herself when taking office last July to ‘a vision of a country that works not for the privileged few but that works for every one of us.’ Here is a May policy which seems likely to dismay every modest home-owner in England and Wales who contemplates retirement without much other wealth, in fear now that the lottery of life may make them or their partner housebound with long-term illness.

Mayism in practice already seems far from the Prime Minister’s vision. Inflation has reached its highest level in almost four years, with consumer prices at 2.7% now rising faster than earnings at 2.3%. As always, it will be the poorest families who suffer most, with the greater part of their income going on necessities including food and energy. And there is no relief proposed in the Tory manifesto for families on frozen or reduced benefits, already suffering from the government’s austerity programme. Instead, pensioners will lose the present guarantee of a 2.5% annual rise in their pensions, and primary-school children are to be denied their nutritious free school lunches, reversing policies initiated by the Liberal Democrat ministers in the Coalition government.

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Caron Lindsay

Willie Goodhart’s son writes about his father’s Dementia

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 21st May 2017 - 12:45 pm

When Willie Goodhart died in January, in our tribute post, we put in a link to a wonderful piece written by his son Benjie during the 2010 election.

In it, he talked about what it was like growing up in a very political household.

It is one of those pieces that enrich your life.

Benjie has done it again with a beautiful article, written with so much love, about the progress of his father’s Dementia. It first became clear that something was wrong during a Today programme interview.

For us – my sisters, my mother and me – the door closing on Dad’s career marked the beginning of a new era: one that was by turns agonising, baffling, heartbreaking and, I must confess, comedic. Alzheimer’s affects everyone differently, including those around them – but the ability to laugh at its quirks and peculiarities sustained us all in the darkest times.

For almost 50 years of married life, Dad got up in the morning and brought Mum a cup of tea in bed. This came to a rather abrupt halt the morning her cup of tea consisted of orange juice, milk, and some potted shrimps all stirred together. My mother demurred, though Dad consumed his with alacrity and chided her for being fussy. At times like that, it is easier to laugh than to cry.

On another occasion, two years ago, Dad took me and my wife to the opera. An opera devotee, it was his last visit: as the lights went down for act three of a rather lengthy German comic opera, he called out in despair, “Oh God.” A few minutes later, he heckled (I suspect a first for the rarefied audience): “Get on with it!” My wife and I, being of reasonably sound mind, were inclined to agree. That was also the evening Dad looked at his diary, which he did every five minutes, for reassurance, and read “To opera with Benjie.” Then he looked up at me. “Are you Benjie?”

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Caron Lindsay

Edinburgh West profile: Labour candidate accepts that voters will vote tactically to defeat the SNP

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 21st May 2017 - 10:58 am

Radio 4’s PM programme covered Edinburgh West the other night and the profile was surprising in some ways. The Labour candidate, Mandy Telford, was pretty candid about tactical voting to stop the SNP:

Labour is out there fighting for every vote but ultimately we are dead set against the SNP and their desire to have an unwanted second divisive independence referendum. That’s the message we are getting back on the doorsteps very strongly. People will use their votes in whatever way they want to defeat the SNP.

It’s a cleverly crafted comment. She’s obviously not endorsing any other candidate but she’s summed up the reality of the situation on the ground pretty well.

People want a decent MP who will champion what is important to them and fight their corner. In Edinburgh West they know that Lib Dems deliver on that score. They are also highly motivated to get the SNP and to do whatever it takes to do so. Here and elsewhere I have been staggered by the intensity of people’s desire to see the back of the nationalists for all sorts of reasons. It’s primarily independence, but they are also sick fed up of falling school standards and an NHS lurching from one crisis to another.

Our Christine Jardine had this to say.

People are looking for the party who are more likely to beat the SNP and in this election stopping that independence bandwagon is the most important thing.

Conservative and Labour voters recognise it’s the Liberal Democrats who can beat the SNP.

That was certainly backed up by two Tory voters who were interviewed saying that they were voting Lib Dem.

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NewsHound

Amna Ahmad on her life and why she wants to be a Lib Dem MP

By NewsHound | Sun 21st May 2017 - 9:30 am

There’s a super interview with Sutton and Cheam Lib Dem candidate Amna Ahmad in The Pool.

So, who are the Lib Dems now, I ask Ahmad when we meet for coffee. She answers by telling me her issues: she is, of course, against a hard Brexit; she campaigns for NHS funding and sits on Norman Lamb’s committee on the subject. She’s against grammar-school funding, but not grammar schools per se: “I want the comprehensives to have a fighting chance.” When I ask how she became a member, she recalls turning 18 the day before the Stop The War demo and identifying with then-party leader Charles Kennedy’s refusal to support war in Iraq.

But perhaps a more interesting question is: who is Amna Ahmad? When first campaigning in Brixton in 2013, she was accused of being an Oxford-educated careerist with a posh voice. And it was this depiction of her that made her decide to talk about her own life. Yes, she went to Oxford and, yes, her voice could be clarified as “posh”, but the real story goes something like this: Ahmad grew up in a violent house in one of London’s poorest boroughs, Lewisham. At 15, she called the police to report her father, who was arrested and taken into custody. She and her younger brother and sister were split up and put into care. Ahmad was in care for just a week, because she was turning 16. “‘You were on time every day for school’ was the only thing my teacher said to me about that week,” she laughs. Her brother and sister were only five and seven at the time, however. “It was heartbreaking. My brother went on hunger strike. There were issues around cultural sensitives. They made him eat bacon.”

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Caron Lindsay

Jo Cox tribute: Election campaigning to be halted for an hour in her memory

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 21st May 2017 - 8:09 am

Batley and Spen is a gathering of typically independent, no-nonsense and proud Yorkshire towns and villages. Our communities have been deeply enhanced by immigration, be it of Irish Catholics across the constituency or of Muslims from Gujarat in India or from Pakistan, principally from Kashmir. While we celebrate our diversity, what ​surprises me time and time again as I travel around the constituency is that we are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us.

Those were the words of Jo Cox in her maiden speech to the House of Commons

Looking at that just now, I’ve just realised that her maiden speech took place just after the House had paid tribute to one of its former members, our Charles Kennedy, who had died two days before. What extraordinary talents those two people were.

Election campaigns are about the debate of different ideas. At their best they should be inspiring and uplifting and full of vision. But political activists of all parties have a lot in common – the dedication, the determination and the exhaustion for a start.

Tomorrow, though, there will be a pause in campaigning in Jo’s memory, a chance to reflect on the things that unite us rather than divide us. From the Guardian:

Party leaders will halt political activity and instead visit community projects. The parties have asked all their candidates to do the same.

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Caron Lindsay

What do you make of the “Vote her, get him” poster?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 20th May 2017 - 10:45 pm

Vince Cable launched a new Lib Dem campaign poster today.

This is how he explained it:

This week has been about manifestos

To understand what is going on you have to listen to the voices of the people who are Mrs May’s cheerleaders and admirers.

Nigel Farage. He purrs like an elder statesman, his job done.

He said of the Prime Minister “she is using exactly the words and phrases I have been using for 20 years. I’m thrilled”

He should be. She has adopted wholesale the UKIP model of Brexit. No half measures. Out of the Single Market. Out of the customs union. Out of all the sensible cooperation around science and environment. The agenda of the hard right.

And not just on Europe. Do you remember the man who smiled with President-elect Donald Trump in a gold-encrusted lift? Who used his good offices to secure a meeting for our Prime Minister. Her hand-holding. Backing for the Trump administration. The close bonding. The treat of a state visit to come. Not that it achieved anything. The tough American trade negotiators have made it clear that economic size, not sentiment, determines priorities: the EU before the UK.

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The Voice

Tories in social care meltdown

By The Voice | Sat 20th May 2017 - 10:02 am

It appears that the brutal Tory approach to social care is not going down so well with its own candidates.

From PoliticsHome:

One candidate said the author of the proposal “should be shot”, The Times reports.

Another candidate standing for re-election said it is “very hard to justify” the plan. “This plan was coming up on the doorstep this morning and there has not even yet been much coverage it. It is very hard to justify, because people with a house of £300,000 could have a liability now of £200,000. I thought the campaign was just right until yesterday,” they said.

Bob Blackman, the Tory candidate in Harrow East, told the Evening Standard: “I broadly support the policy but clearly there needs to be a limit on how much any individual or family should be required to pay.”

A third candidate said the plan was “not great. Theresa should have stuck with Dilnot and an insurance scheme.”

Norman Lamb said:

The Tory high command is now in meltdown. It realises it has misjudged the British people, who don’t like this cold, mean-spirited Conservative approach to our most vulnerable citizens.

First Theresa May was revealed as the lunch-snatcher. Now she is pushing a Dementia tax. This will go down as her poll tax – not only a colossal political miscalculation, but also cruel, showing that she just doesn’t care.

No wonder the Tories are panicking. The Liberal Democrats will continue to campaign to give social care the extra funding it needs, properly funded with a penny on income tax to pay for it, and to give Britain a brighter future.

The Tory plan was also condemned by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, who said:

A life-time cap on care costs, as proposed by the Dilnot Commission, is a solution to the insurance problem. It is effectively a form of social insurance, funded from general taxation. It may also make it easier for a private market to emerge that would offer insurance against care costs up to the cap.

By contrast, the Conservative plan makes no attempt to deal with the fundamental challenge of social care funding. That is the big problem – not how many people might win or lose.

In response to that, Norman said:

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The Voice

What’s happening on the campaign trail today? Cole-Hamilton appeals to young voters

By The Voice | Sat 20th May 2017 - 8:50 am

Scottish Liberal Democrat general election campaign chair Alex Cole-Hamilton and  young activists will be outside the U.K. Green Investment Bank headquarters in Edinburgh where Alex will call on young voters to register before Monday’s deadline so that they can have a say in their future

He will declare that only the Liberal Democrats are making the steps necessary to leave behind a green legacy for future generations.

Leaving a sustainable legacy for our children is the most important task of this current generation and both UK and Scottish Government have failed in that task.

The Conservatives don’t care for the environment and the selling off of the Green Investment Bank is just one example of the UK Government rolling back progress made by the Liberal Democrats and neglecting the needs of future generations. Meanwhile the reckless cut to Air Passenger Duty by the SNP will only further pollute our air.

While the Conservatives continue to put forward a cold and mean-spirited vision of Britain, Liberal Democrats are committed to seeing a better future where we leave behind a world that is sustainable and green for our children and I urge those that want to see a greener future to vote Liberal Democrats.

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The Liberator Collective

New issue of Liberator out

By The Liberator Collective | Fri 19th May 2017 - 10:23 am

Issue 384 of Liberator is on its way to subscribers.

This necessarily rather truncated pre-election issue’s free sample online content is from Claire Tyler on why the poor pay more by being excluded from financial services, and Andrew Duff on why the UK should seek an association agreement with the EU

Elsewhere in the issue there is:
How the Lib Dems Lost Their Think Tank – Seth Thevoz analyses Centre Forum’s slide out of liberal politics and eventual demise
Out With the Old – English county results show some old guards should step aside, says Chris White

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The Voice

Today on the Lib Dem campaign trail

By The Voice | Fri 19th May 2017 - 8:06 am

Today, Tim Farron is in Hazel Grove. With Lisa Smart, our candidate there, he will attend a digital inclusion class.

In Scotland, Willie Rennie will be visiting a candlestick maker in North East Fife. He has already visited a butcher and a baker during this campaign.

He will use the visit to condemn the Conservatives for embracing UKIP policies over Brexit and immigration.

He will say:

The Conservative immigration policy is badly thought through and will hit Scottish universities, businesses and our NHS hard.

Nigel Farage himself has said that the Conservatives are adopting his old policies.

The Scottish Conservatives have done nothing to stop this cold

…

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Mark Valladares

Liberal International: meanwhile, in a small country far away…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 19th May 2017 - 7:44 am

Good morning, and welcome to Liberal Democrat Voice’s coverage of the 70th Anniversary Congress of Liberal International from sunny Andorra.

Liberals from around the world have gathered in the Co-Principality to talk about human rights, debate the big global issues of the day, elect a new Bureau and, most importantly, formally adopt a newly-updated “Liberal Manifesto” which aims to express how liberal values and ideas are relevant in a rapidly changing world. For, whilst policies are forever evolving in the face of events, values offer insight into the types of solutions on offer.

The …

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