Category Archives: News

Finally – We have 72 MPs

Finally, after a combined total of about 18 hours of counting over 2 days, we have our 72nd MP. Angus MacDonald was confirmed as MP for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire a while ago.

Alex Cole-Hamilton was very happy indeed:

My heart is in the highlands today. The Liberal Democrats were all but wiped out in 2015, but that wasn’t the worst thing to happen to us that year. Weeks later we lost Charles Kennedy.

That the final act of this general election should see his old seat returned to Lib Dem hands and the care of Angus MacDonald is simply wonderful.

I’m overjoyed that Angus has become the sensational sixth Scottish Liberal Democrat MP.

Angus has shown that the Liberal Democrats are the strongest voice for the Highlands. He will focus on what really matters, such as getting you NHS care close to home, improving dangerous roads and fighting for a fair deal for the Highlands.

Millions of people have voted for change and put their trust in us, so our job now is to repay it in full and be their local champions.

Join the Liberal Democrats today and you can be part of the change in both Scotland and the UK.

Here is the result

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Our new MPs – Ian Sollom, Bobby Dean, Luke Taylor, Paul Kohler, Tom Morrison

We thought you might like to find out a little bit about our new MPs. We didn’t think we’d have quite so many, but this is a lovely problem to have. All details come from the party website or the MPs’ social media. We’ll get to know them more over the next wee while, but here’s a taster. 

Our editor sleepily compiled a Twitter list of all our MPs’ accounts she could find. You can follow it here

Ian Sollom MP- St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire

Ian has lived in Cambridgeshire with his wife Bec since 2005 when they both came to Cambridge for postgraduate studies. Completing his PhD in Astrophysics in 2010, Ian has since worked as a strategy consultant, helping businesses improve their decision making. Their son Erik arrived in 2012 and they now live in St Neots.

Ian grew up in rural Shropshire, attending the local comprehensive school. He studied Physics at Oxford before coming to Cambridge.

A District Councillor in South Cambridgeshire from 2018-2022, Ian was widely respected for his hard work and diligence. His time as a councillor has given Ian a deep understanding of local issues affecting residents and the challenges they face every day.

Twitter: @iansollom

Bobby Dean MP – Carshalton and Wallington

Bobby lives in Carshalton with his wife Gemma and dog Chester.

He was raised on a council estate, the son of a cleaner and a scaffolder, and now runs his own small business advising charities tackling global poverty.

It’s his family’s work ethic that inspires Bobby to roll up his sleeves and get things done for the community. He is passionate about making a difference, serving as a local Councillor and leading the fight to protect St Helier Hospital.

Bobby is hoping to follow in Tom Brake’s footsteps, working hard right across the constituency and always being on hand to help.

Luke Taylor MP – Sutton and Cheam

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Our new MPs – Marie Goldman, Charlotte Cane, Victoria Collins, Steffan Aquarone, Pippa Heyling

We thought you might like to find out a little bit about our new MPs. We didn’t think we’d have quite so many, but this is a lovely problem to have. All details come from the party website or the MPs’ social media. We’ll get to know them more over the next wee while, but here’s a taster. 

Our editor sleepily compiled a Twitter list of all our MPs’ accounts she could find. You can follow it here

Marie Goldman MP – Chelmsford

Marie has lived in Chelmsford for over twenty years. Her children were born in Chelmsford and she runs a small business here with her husband.

Marie got involved in politics to make here home city an even better place to live, leading projects such as refurbishing the theatre and Council support for small local businesses.

Marie has fought for improved GP services – Marie knows how important GP services are to Chelmsford residents. She made sure that Lib Dem-led Chelmsford City Council is investing to improve much-needed facilities, such as Sutherland Lodge surgery and allocating a site for a new surgery in the west of Chelmsford development.

Marie has championed the need for affordable local housing – Marie understands how difficult it is for everyone to buy or rent the home they need and can afford. This has been made even worse by the cost of living crisis. Marie has worked to get more affordable housing for our city, including new social-rent housing in places like Woodhall Road.

Marie has fought for better health services for our children – Marie shares the concern of many parents about the effects of the pandemic on children’s mental health. She is fighting to extend free school meals and better health services. She backs the Lib Dem plan to put a mental health professional in every school and ensure children never go hungry.

Twitter – @mariecgoldman

Charlotte Cane MP – Ely and East Cambridgeshire

Charlotte has lived in East Cambridgeshire for thirty years. As a child, she moved home often with her Army father. Her mother, a teacher, worked wherever he was posted. She read Ancient History & Archaeology at Birmingham, where she and her husband worked as field archaeologists. When interest rates hit 15% in 1990 they had to sell their home and Charlotte retrained with KPMG as a Chartered Accountant.

In 1994 a job with an arts charity brought Charlotte to Reach. Her two children were born in the Rosie and attended Swaffham Prior Primary, Bottisham Village College, and sixth forms in Cambridge.

As a teenager Charlotte wanted to end apartheid and protect the environment. She’s still campaigning for equality and fairness, while deaths from floods, droughts and heatwaves show why we must tackle climate change.

“East Cambridgeshire is a place which I love, and for whose residents I want the best. I want to help rebuild our NHS, with GPs, dentists, district nurses, prompt hospital treatment, and high-quality care at home. Protect our rivers, fens and chalk grasslands and give people a fair chance in life.”

Twitter: @charlottecane8

Victoria Collins MP – Harpenden and Berkhamsted

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Inverness recount: WATCH LIVE

Are you excited for the Inverness result which could give us our 72nd (yes, that’s SEVENTY TWO) MP?

Highland Council are streaming it on  You Tube. Watch, live from Dingwall.

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Observations of an Expat: How Did We Get Here?

It has been a bad week for democracy. In fact it has been a bad year for democracy. The only exception is the UK. But don’t worry Britain’s time will come.

Now, however, the rise of the populist far-right just about everywhere else is dominating the world’s headlines. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally is knocking on France’s gates to power. A conservative-dominated US Supreme Court has granted serial law breaker and liar Donald Trump immunity from prosecution. A cognitively-impaired Joe Biden is endangering democracy by clinging to power. A far-right anti-immigrant government has been formed in the Netherlands.

And those are only the most recent examples. In Israel, Hungary, India, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Austria, and Germany the far-right is either in government or growing in power and influence.

So how did we get here and where are we going?

Back in the naughty nineties everything looked so different. The collapse of the Soviet Empire appeared to be a great victory for liberal democracy, globalism, free markets and capitalism. We won, and countries around the world flocked to democracy’s banner.

First in the queue were the members of the old Soviet system, with Russia right at the front. That was the first problem. The transition from a Soviet-style command economy and from dictatorship to democracy was more difficult than envisaged.

A broken system was replaced not with capitalist prosperity but with hyper-inflation, economic breakdown and mass unemployment. Life expectancy in Russia fell with up to five million excess adult deaths between 1991 and 2001. Birth rates collapsed and organized crime grabbed the levers of power.

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Christine Jardine: “We have a job to do, a country to repair and liberalism to defend”

At about 4am on Friday, 26,645 residents of Edinburgh West voted for Christine Jardine to continue as MP. This gave her a stonking majority of almost 16,500 over the SNP. To put this in perspective, in 2017, when she won the seat for the first time, she got 18,108 votes and a majority of just under 3000. It is the best  performance in the seat since 1955.

She is pictured here with her daughter Mhairi. Here is her victory speech.

 

Returning officer, counting staff, police, everyone who has worked to distribute polling cards, postal voting packs, staff polling stations and count the votes.Thank You.

What you have done has allowed us to demonstrate just how well we do democracy, and just how much we should value it.

To the people of Edinburgh West thank you. Thank you, for the faith you have shown in me, and my party, at a time when people are crying out for better governments you have put your trust in us to fight for the change that you want to see.

At a time when democracy across the world is under threat and there are those in this country who would undermine it, I promise you I will do everything in my power to protect those rights we hold dear for all of us.

This is also a hugely significant night for representation in Scotland and for the Liberal Democrats.

Nine years ago, we suffered a very difficult, different evening which Charles Kennedy described as the night of the long Sgian dubhs.

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There may be more good news to come….

This post comes with heavy caveats. Nothing is ever official until it is properly declared.

However, the BBC is reporting this about that the SNP have conceded defeat ahead of tomorrow’s recount in the Inverness, Skye and Ross West seat where Angus Macdonald is our candidate. This is the latest incarnation of the seat held between 1983 and 2015 by Charles Kennedy and has enormous emotional resonance for the party.

It seems likely the constituency will go to the Liberal Democrats – although the result is not expected to be officially announced until after a second recount which will begin at 10:30 on Saturday.

SNP candidate Drew Hendry said he would be unable to attend the recount due to an “unmovable prior commitment”.

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Ed Davey’s victory speech

This is what Ed said after his result was announced in Kingston & Surbiton:

Thank you. It’s been a great privilege to serve our Kingston and Surbiton communities over many years.

And I am humbled that you’ve put your faith in me – to do it again. So let me say a big “thank you”.

And thank you too, to Sarah our Returning Officer, and to all the staff and police who’ve worked here through the night.

You are the unsung heroes of our democracy. It simply wouldn’t work without you. And thank you to my fellow candidates. For making this, a campaign we

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An early morning apology

I’m afraid that the speed of the results – plus increasing tiredness – has meant that we have got a bit behind in reporting Lib Dem successes.

I will be putting together a (almost) final summary of our wins shortly.

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The LibDem wins keep on coming…

We’ve won Edinburgh West – well done Christine and team – a majority of 16k!

Westmorland and Lonsdale – Tim and team win by a margin of 21k!

Shropshire North – Helen and team win with a majority of a staggering 15k!

Harpenden and Berkhamstead – LibDem gain with a nearly 11k majority.

St Albans – LibDem hold by a stonking 20k majority

Oxwab – Layla wins by 14kish

Chippenham – LibDem gain by 8k!

Taunton – LibDem gain by 12k

Tiverton and Minehead – LD gain by 3k

Winchester – LD gain by a staggering (nearly) 14k

Lewes – gain by 13k

In other news, Jacob Rees-Mogg has gone!!!

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More new seats – and some old ones

Glastonbury and Somerton is one of those newly drawn constituencies that is difficult to predict, but it has been shown as a Lib Dem gain from Conservatives. Sarah Dyke was our by-election winner in the overlapping constituency of Somerton & Frome so we are delighted to see her success in the new patch.

And how lovely to see Tessa Munt returning to Parliament after losing her seat in 2015. Her new seat is called Wells and Mendip Hills.

Wera Hobhouse has held Bath, I’m pleased to say.

Over in North Norfolk Steff Aquarone has regained the North Norfolk seat where Norman Lamb was MP until he stood down in 2019.

Another scorching victory in Wimbledon where Paul Kohler has taken the seat from the Tories with a 12,000 majority. (There is a bit of a theme developing here – 12,000 is the cool number).

Dorking and Horley is another blue wall seat that has fallen to us. Chris Coghlan is our new MP there.

Another pleasing gain in Melksham & Devizes – so congratulations to Brian Mathew.

Sadly for us we did not manage to snatch Jeremy Hunt’s seat of Godalming & Ash, in spite of a strong campaign by our candidate.

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More blue wall and South West seats

Another South West seat has come our way – Ian Roome has won Devon North from the Conservatives. It was previously Nick Harvey’s seat – until 2015.

Hampshire North East has also come to us, thanks to Alex Brewer overturning a huge Conservative majority.

And Jess Brown-Fuller has achieved a whopping 12,000 majority in Chichester – another seat we have never held before!

Tunbridge Wells is similar – another blue wall seat that we have never held – but Mike Martin has taken it with a 8,000 majority.

We are building up pockets of Lim Demmery and in Cambridgeshire Ely & East Cambridgeshire lies alongside St Neots & Mid Cams and South Cambridgeshire. Charlotte Cane is now the MP for Ely & East Cambridgeshire.

Then what can we say about Thornbury & Yate? Claire Young has regained the seat previously held by revered Pensions Minister Steve Webb in the Coalition.

And now Yeovil is back with us! Adam Dance has managed to overturn the Conservatives to come in with a 12,000 majority. This was, of course, Paddy Ashdown’s seat, followed by David Laws so it is good to see it back in the fold again.

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And still they come!

Another substantial gain – this time in South Cambridgeshire, which we have had our eyes on for many years.  Pippa Heylings  takes the seat from the Conservatives with a 10k majority.

Down in the South West Martin Wrigley has taken Newton Abbot – formerly a solid Conservative seat.

Back in Cambridgeshire Ian Sollom also took St Neots and Mid Cambs from the Tories.

And down in Eastbourne the town has returned to the Lib Dems – well done to Josh Babarinde who takes it with a 12,000 majority.

We have just heard that we have also regained Cheadle from the Conservatives – another seat lost in 2015.  This time thanks go to Tom Morrison who  achieved another 12,000 majority.

And well done to Clive Jones in Wokingham – John Redwood’s seat since 1987 – now Lib Dem.

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More Lib Dem wins

Well, Ed Davey’s record was short lived. Munira Wilson has held on to her Twickenham seat with a massive 21,000 majority!

Huge congratulations to Marie Goldman who took Chelmsford from the Conservatives with a good majority! This is the first time we have won that seat.

Then there is Steve Darling in Torbay, who turns the town orange again, following a challenging campaign.

And Lisa Smart in Hazel Grove (back with us at last!).

Bobby Dean regains Carshalton and Wallington – another seat we lost in 2015.

They are just announcing that we have regained Cheltenham, one of our top target seats, as well – well done to Max Wilkinson!

And now Sutton & Cheam returns to the Lib Dems with Luke Taylor.

Now Sarah Olney matches Ed Davey’s majority in her seat of Richmond Park.

And we have gained Stratford on Avon for the first time – previously held by Nadhim Zahawi with a huge majority.  Welcome to Manuela Perteghella!

Congratulations to all our new MPs – 1r so far.

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Ed Davey romps home

Ed Davey has held on to his Kingston & Surbiton seat, increasing his majority from 11k to 17k. This is the largest majority ever by a Lib Dem MP in a General Election – that’s quite something.

I am personally rather pleased that the location is given as Chessington, which lies within the constituency, because it is where I live. The count was held at the Kings Centre not far from my home. Up until now Chessington was only famous for our theme park.

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Our first gain(s) of the night!

Congratulations to Tom Gordon – our first MP so far, and our first gain, in Harrogate and Knaresborough.

Lib Dems first won the seat in 1997, and Phil Willis held on to it right through until he stood down in 2010, when it passed to the Conservatives. Wonderful to gain it back!

And the next one to come in is also technically a gain, though one we held before the meltdown in 2015. Eastleigh is triumphant again with Liz Jarvis!

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There’s already one new Liberal Democrat Parliamentarian tonight…

Congratulations to Caroline Pidgeon, our recently retired Leader of the Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly, who has been appointed to the House of Lords in the Dissolution Honours List.

Responding to the announcement, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Caroline Pidgeon is a fantastic Liberal Democrat and has been an incredible public servant for more than a quarter of a century. She has a brilliant track record of fighting for better public services, from policing to public transport.

I am delighted to welcome Caroline to Parliament to fight for a fair deal for the British people.

Caroline Pidgeon MBE …

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That exit poll

So – the prediction is 61 Lib Dem MPs!

That is a rise of 53 on the 2019 result!!!

Just brilliant.

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Campaigners hold memorial for loved ones outside Conservative HQ

Yesterday, campaigners, including friend of this site Mathew Hulbert, held a vigil outside Conservative HQ to remember their loved ones who had died while waiting for emergency treatment.

You may remember that Mathew’s mum Jackie died in July 2022 after an 11 hour wait for an ambulance.  Mathew’s courage in speaking out about their ordeal since then has been incredible.

Yesterday,  he took part in this video explaining why they were there.

They also spoke to The Mirror:

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Bungee jumping and Zumba – all in a day’s campaigning for Ed Davey

In this long election campaign, we’ve had Rishi Sunak deliver a never-ending stream of negativity and misery, Keir Starmer being so nervous about screwing things up that he’s coming across as walking on eggshells and Nigel Farage being as objectionable as ever.

Ed Davey’s bright and happy photo opportunities have provided a welcome contrast and attracted lots of positive comment.

Today, he decided to throw himself off a platform from a great height by way of inviting people to vote Liberal Democrat.

Watch, courtesy of Sky News:

The rationale for this:

To get the change our country needs this week and beat the Conservatives in scores of seats, I am asking people to take a leap of faith and vote for the Liberal Democrats.

A lot of people are on the cusp of doing something they’ve never done before on Thursday and voting for the Liberal Democrats, so I decided to do something I’ve never done before too.

Every vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote to fix the NHS and care, end the sewage scandal and tackle the cost of living crisis.

Ed talked to The Guardian about the rationale for the stunts:

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Liberal Democrats winning here

Local parties and residents have been creative in the use of posters.

This splendid display is in our target seat of Esher and Walton:

Here is a novel cantilevered approach in Ed Davey’s constituency:

I like the way the diamond points to a leaflet. Thanks to Ruth Bright for this one from a home in Eastleigh:

Got a (copyright-free) photo to share? Landscape works best. Email them to [email protected] and we will add them to the post.

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Stolen Signs

When I was canvassing for Charlie Maynard, the Lib Dem candidate in Witney and West Oxfordshire, I asked a lady who has traditionally voted Conservative but is voting Lib Dem if she’d put a sign in front of her house.

“I’d rather not,” she said. “There’s a man across the street who takes down signs he doesn’t like, and I don’t want to get into a fight with him.”

“How about a small sign that you can stick to the inside of your front window?” I asked. “Surely he wouldn’t put a rock through it?”

She declined, looking like she thought he just might. A couple of days later, the Lib Dem sign in front of my house disappeared. Her neighbour is getting ambitious! I thought, and What’sApped the canvassing group to request two replacement signs to make a point. It’s happened at my house and all over, the newly elected Lib Dem local councillor replied, and brought two signs right away. He showed me CCTV footage of a person in a white shirt on a bike pulling away from his house with his sign. Does that lady’s neighbour ride a bike? I thought. Does he have a white shirt?

But who the person in a white shirt on the bike is, and if he or she is acting alone – based on the number of signs disappearing, she or he would have to have a very fast bike – isn’t really what matters, although it would of course be good if she or he or they are caught for attacking the right to express one’s views.

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Doctor Who actor endorses Lib Dem candidates and compliments Ed Davey

There were some bleary eyes in many campaign headquarters yesterday after many of our campaigners had stayed up beyond midnight to see the finale of this year’s all too short series of Doctor Who. There are a lot of Doctor Who fans in this party.

They will be interested to know that actor, writer and director Nicholas Pegg, who has spent much of the past 20 years as a dalek operator on the series, has endorsed two Lib Dem candidates in Devon, where he lives. He also had some very positive things to say on Twitter about Ed Davey’s performance on Question Time this week.

He said:

I continue to be impressed by Ed Davey. He’s not a sensation-seeking populist quote machine. He’s not rising to the bait thrown by a patently partisan presenter, and he’s dealing superbly with her pugnacious interruptions. He’s a grown-up. He’s a proper politician.

His own vote in this election is going to Lib Dem Paul Arnott in order to beat the Conservative in Exmouth and Exeter East:

In the new constituency of Exmouth & Exeter East, I shall be voting for the Lib Dem candidate @paularnottLd, a well-known and well-liked Devon councillor with years of local experience. The Electoral Calculus website predicts a close run, but only Paul Arnott can beat the Tory.

He is also supporting our by-election winner Richard Foord to win in the new constituency of Honiton and Sidmouth:

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Access our manifesto

The BSL version of our manifesto has now been launched.

The web based manifesto can be read here.

You can also download other versions from this page (scroll down to the bottom), including Braille, clear print, plain text and easy read versions and as a normal pdf.

The costings of our manifesto can be examined here.

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So what has Ed Davey been up to today?

He has been building bug houses! Not as eye-catching as falling into water, but still a good ploy to talk about housing.

Over in The Guardian he is seen wearing a halo. Martin Kettle writes: “The Tories are fixating on Reform. They should be focused on a far bigger threat” – meaning the Lib Dems.

If wartime analogies are your thing, you could say that the Conservatives have a Singapore problem. Before the second world war, the British empire armed Singapore to fight naval battles against Japan. Famously, most of Singapore’s heavy artillery faced out to sea. But in 1942, the Japanese army overran Singapore from the rear, coming in from the Malayan mainland.

Today, the Tory high command and many supporters, especially in the media, look fixedly out to sea at the advance of Reform. As a result, they have all underestimated the threat from the Lib Dems at their rear. Even now, the Conservatives have not understood that Ed Davey is a far bigger danger to their majority than Nigel Farage.

Yesterday he met trainees who were making chilli jam at the Nickel Support community interest company in Carshalton, which works with adults with learning disabilities.  Interestingly different …

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Guardian features Lib Dem Calum Miller in article on Lib Dem blue wall strategy

An article in today’s Guardian features Lib Dem candidate in Bicester and Woodstock and also has a wider look at the other seats where we are competitive.

Knocking on doors in the community on the fringes of Bicester, just north of Oxford, the Liberal Democrat candidate spoke to locals with all manner of political backstories and motivations, some who had previously voted Tory, Labour or neither, as well as those who had either backed Brexit or wished to remain.

All, however, had arrived at a common conclusion: this time they would vote for him, to try to defeat the Conservatives.

And this is not a unique feature of this constituency:

While the Lib Dems are cautious in their predictions and finite in their campaign resources, with a fair electoral wind a swathe of nearby ultra-true blue seats could also turn yellow.

Calum talks about the conversations he is having on the doorsteps:

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A “herbivorous showpony” – behind the scenes of the Scottish Manifesto launch

As we reported yesterday, the Scottish Lib Dems launched their manifesto at the beautiful Craigie’s Farm near South Queensferry. If you are in the area, do pop in for a visit, pick some fruit, enjoy the gorgeous views and buy some lovely food and drink from the shop and cafe. You can even order online.

The event looked great. There were a couple of hiccups though.

Frankly, Wendy Chamberlain should get danger money for appearing with leaders. In 2021, Willie Rennie accidentally hit her with a shinty ball during a photo opportunity for the Holyrrod Elections.

Yesterday, they let Alex Cole-Hamilton loose with a tractor. When Ed Davey did similar for the local elections last year, he demolished a mock up of a blue wall. Alex nearly demolished his deputy leader, not once, but twice.

The BBC have a video here.

Thankfully Wendy survived and she was much more forgiving than we would have been. Later she and Alex recorded a video about the event:

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Cole-Hamilton and Chamberlain launch Scottish Manifesto with focus on carers, warm homes and agriculture

 

Alex Cole-Hamilton and Wendy Chamberlain have launched the Scottish version of our manifesto.  

At a farm inAlex’s Edinburgh constituency (photo of Alex driving a tractor to follow), they set out plans to fix the broken care system, invest in Scottish agriculture and ensure everyone has a warm home.

At the heart of the proposals is a £500 million rescue package for care, enabling people to be released from hospital, relieving pressure on the NHS and giving a fair deal to family carers. It will:

  • Create a new Carer’s Minimum Wage, boosting the minimum wage for care workers by £2 an hour;
  • Give unpaid carers a fair deal, lifting Carer’s Allowance/Carer Support Payment by £1,040 a year and removing the earnings cliff-edge.

Other key proposals include:

  • Establish the world-class mental health services Scotland needs, meaning every school pupil has fast access to a mental health counsellor, new mental health staff working alongside GPs and A&Es, and extra help for businesses, backed by £150m from taxing social media companies;
  • Deliver £170m more for Scottish agriculture;
  • Generate an extra £1 billion in capital funding for Scotland which  could be used to build new local health facilities, tackle the housing emergency, end the scandal of crumbling concrete in public buildings, and stop sewage dumping.
  • Make homes warmer and cheaper to heat with a ten-year emergency upgrade programme, starting with free insulation and heat pumps for those on low incomes.

At the launch, Alex said:

Every vote for the Liberal Democrats at this election is a vote to elect a strong local champion focused on getting you fast access to GPs and dentists, and giving our nation’s carers a fair deal.

We will stop sewage being dumped in our rivers, lift up Scottish education, and deliver warm homes that insulate you from the cost of living crisis.

Our vision is of a better Britain where we work in partnership, restoring your faith in politics and fixing our broken relationship with Europe.

Just like they Conservatives, the SNP have got to go. Only the Scottish Liberal Democrats can beat the nationalists in huge swathes of Scotland.

Hope and change are just around the corner, you only need to vote for them. Back the Liberal Democrats for a fair deal for you, your family, and for Scotland.

On the plans to fix care and the NHS, Alex added:

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Ed Davey on Kuenssberg: Lib Dems could make real gains at this election

It was Ed Davey’s turn to be interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg this morning.

Her first question was from a sub post master who actually compared Ed to Boris Johnson because of the various attention grabbing stunts. How can this encourage trust?

Ed replied that all these stunts have engaged people.

We’re talking about social care and cost of living and the environment. I am determined in all the seats we can win that people hear about what the Lib Dems stand for from our local champions. We could make real gains at this election.

We are taking the voters’ concerns really seriously. I don’t take my self too seriously but we don’t take ourselves too seriosly. When I came down that slide, we were talking about our policy on improving mental health for children. We want to see a qualified mental health professional in every school, paid for by rise in Digital Services Tax.

Kuenssberg asked him about the protections for whistleblowers in the Lib Dem manifesto and pressed him (again) on his actions when he was Post Office minister. Those proposals are:

Ensure justice for the victims of scandals and prevent future scandals, including
by:
• Providing full and fair compensation to all victims of the Horizon Post Office
scandal and the Infected Blood scandal as quickly as possible.
• Protecting whistleblowers by establishing a new Office of the Whistleblower,
creating new legal protections, and promoting greater public awareness of
their rights.
• Introducing the Hillsborough Law: a statutory duty of candour on police
officers and all public officials, including during all forms of public inquiry and criminal investigation.

Ed responded that it was vital to protect whistleblowers because it was the
whistleblower from Fujitsu whose evidence in 2015 provided a huge step forward for the sub-postmasters getting justice. Their revelation that the Post OFfice was lying to ministers was crucial to getting this sorted.

He said that he took Alan Bates’ issues really seriously and was the only one who put his concerns to the Post Office in any level of detail but he was lied to.

We need to change the system – we have seen it in contaminated blood and Hillsborough. You can’t run a system if people are lied to. Lib Dems have led on whistleblower protection and duty of candour.

Kuenssberg then turned to the issue of carers, and acknowledged how Ed had talked of his own caring experience.

However, she challenged him on the Coalition Government’s record. During 2010-15, social care spending had been cut in real terms. Did he regret that?

Ed could point to the Care Act of 2014 which, he said, would have improved care for people from 2015-16 as something we had contributed to that made life better for carers and those they care for. He added that we had stopped the Conservatives making the exact cuts to the social security budget that they made with indecent haste when we were out of the picture.

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Ed Davey: “Lib Dems are a progressive, liberal party and we believe in investment in public services”

There’s a great interview with Ed in the Observer today. He talks about how the Liberal Democrats will hold Labour to account and push them to do more radical things in the next Parliament. In fact, he says some Labour people want more of us there to keep a cautious Labour Government on track.

He sets out what the Lib Dems are about:

“We are a progressive, liberal party and we believe in investment in ­public services,” Davey said. “We believe in making taxes fairer, and we believe in really transformative environmental action. I think people who want to see that level of change in our country can vote Liberal Democrat knowing that we’ll have lots of Lib Dem MPs in the next parliament championing that.

“Frankly, if you want the change, I think we’re offering the most ambitious change. I even have Labour people saying that they’re really Labour people, but they hope we get lots of Liberal Democrat MPs in because they can hold the Labour party to account.”

Where would we push them to go further? Issues like the two child cap, and closer relationships with Europe.

“On things like our relationship with Europe, the Liberal Democrats are passionately pro-European. It’s been a tragedy that we have seen the Conservatives poison that relationship with our closest friends and allies. Are we going to campaign for a better trade deal with Europe? Yes. Are we going to campaign for allowing young people to move across Europe with an agreement on youth mobility? Yes we are.

He’s not getting wildly over-excited about polls which show the Conservatives in third place, citing their deep pockets and capacity to get their message out in the last two and a bit weeks of the campaign.

However, Davey said it would be a “historic mistake” to underestimate the Conservatives, despite some high-profile mishaps during their campaign.

“I just think people who want real change should be cautious about the polls,” Davey said. “The Conservatives are not going to give up. They’ve got more money than any other party. They’re going to spend it in the last few weeks on attack ads on social media. Get ready. I remember 2017 when everyone thought Theresa May was going to get a landslide. I thought she was going to get a landslide. I didn’t expect to get re-elected in 2017. Certainly, Liberal Democrats are not going to take voters for granted.

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