Category Archives: News

Mark Valladares

21 October 2022 – the overnight press release

By Mark Valladares | Fri 21st October 2022 - 7:00 am

Chamberlain to lead debate on Carer’s Leave Bill

North East Fife MP Wendy Chamberlain will tomorrow lead a debate in the House of Commons on her Carer’s Leave Bill, after which it will be voted on by MPs. The Bill would give carers the right to take unpaid leave and has cross-party support.

Ms Chamberlain’s Private Member’s Bill would give an estimated 2.3 million carers across the UK a statutory right to take five days of unpaid leave per year. Carer’s UK have described this as a ‘landmark’ piece of legislation which would help carers to better balance work and care.

The Bill …

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Mark Valladares

20 October 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 20th October 2022 - 10:30 pm

You don’t expect press releases to become obsolete quite so quickly but the past forty-eight hours have been historic (or hysterical, depending upon your perspective), so these, published in chronological order, perhaps sum up the events of the day…

  • Trevelyan refuses to back Truss: Conservatives way past their sell by date
  • NHS waiting list in Wales hits three-quarters of a million as health service “brought to its knees”
  • Truss resigns: Conservatives must do patriotic duty and back election
  • Welsh Lib Dems – Conservatives must do patriotic duty and back election
  • Conservative MPs must block Boris Johnson’s return
  • Deny Truss the £115k a year taxpayer dividend offered to ex-PMs, say Lib Dems

Trevelyan refuses to back Truss: Conservatives way past their sell by date

Responding to the latest Conservative chaos, with Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan failing to to answer whether Liz Truss will lead the Conservatives into the next election, Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain said:

Liz Truss and the Conservatives are way past their sell by date. This is a government that can’t govern, led by a prime minister whose authority has been totally shredded.

People worried sick about how to pay the bills are looking on aghast at this never ending chaos and incompetence. The Conservatives must stop clinging to power and give the country the general election it needs.

NHS waiting list in Wales hits three-quarters of a million as health service “brought to its knees”

Responding to the news that the NHS Wales backlog has now hit 750,000 Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS said:

Behind these figures are countless human tragedies. In every corner of the country people are frightened, suffering and waiting in pain because our NHS can no longer cope.

Labour is letting the NHS fall to its knees and patients are paying the price. Wales routinely has the worse health figures in Britain despite all nations facing similar challenges. This cannot go on.

The Government must come forward with a proper plan to bring down waiting times and recruit and retain more NHS staff. The Welsh Liberal Democrats will continue to call for greater investment in primary healthcare facilities, GPs and social care.

We must prevent people from getting so ill they require either treatment in A&E or complex treatment paths if we are to reduce pressures on the system, this starts at ensuring people can access their GP easily. We also need to ensure patients can be discharged safely once their treatment is finished.

Truss resigns: Conservatives must do patriotic duty and back election

Responding to Liz Truss resigning as Prime Minister, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

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Caron Lindsay

Ed Davey: Country wants a General Election

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 20th October 2022 - 7:23 pm

“I have just publicly congratulated a lettuce.” Now there’s a sentence I never thought I would write. But after six weeks in which the Government had descended into a destructive and self-destructive parody, it seemed appropriate. The Daily Star’s “Can Liz Truss outlast a lettuce” livestream was childish, but appealed to our sense of the ridiculous as our politics became more absurd.

My plan for yesterday evening was to watch the Doctor Who Easter special. I knew it would shred my emotions, so I’d been putting it off, but the thirteenth Doctor’s tenure ends on Sunday so I’d better get on with it.  Anyway, Channel 4’s Gary Gibbon started to explain the bizarre events in the Commons voting lobbies and I ended up binging on the news channels until I fell asleep.

Of all the weird things about last night, the strangest was that the vote didn’t even matter. It was on an opposition motion, which the Government usually just ignores. What on earth possessed them to make such a big deal out of it when the Parliamentary Party was already in a highly sensitive state? Apparently making it an issue of confidence would nullify any of the rebels’ letters, but chucking them out of the parliamentary party would surely reduce the threshold and invite more letters from disgruntled MPs.

Not content with crashing the economy with the binfire budget, they turned in on themselves.

The Conservative Party is in so much pain that it is not capable of governing. It really needs to go and lie down in a darkened room for a few generations until it sorts itself out. Yet they are about to inflict their third PM in three years on to us.

I am not convinced that the 1922 Committee has thought through its high nomination requirement, which has presumably been set to keep out Boris Johnson. There is every possibility that you have one person with the backing of 100 MPs, and two others just short of that. They will be just as split as ever and we have seen how they behave when they all hate each other.

The country shouldn’t have to deal with this. Every household in the country on low and middle incomes will be paying more for borrowing, energy, basic costs of living because of Liz Truss’s folly. And the folly of MPs who allowed her to go forward to the members.

Ed Davey, Daisy Cooper and Christine Jardine have been commenting on various aspects of the Conservative chaos

Ed  has been doing the media rounds this afternoon making the case for a general election so that the country can finally get some decent government. Here he is on the BBC, Sky and ITV:

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The Voice

Our new party political broadcast

By The Voice | Thu 20th October 2022 - 10:35 am

And here it is:

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Mark Valladares

19 October 2022 – today’s press releases (part 2)

By Mark Valladares | Wed 19th October 2022 - 11:00 pm

And here are the rest (at the time of writing)…

  • Liberal Democrats Press Conservatives on HS2 Funding for Wales
  • Braverman departure: a “carousel of Conservative chaos”
  • Fracking vote: The Conservatives will not be forgiven
  • This Conservative soap opera needs to end now
  • Conservatives Cannot be Trusted to Maintain Fracking Ban if they Came to Power in Wales

Liberal Democrats Press Conservatives on HS2 Funding for Wales

During today’s Wales Office questions in Westminster, the Liberal Democrats continued to press the UK Conservative Government to release the £5 billion of consequential funding owed to Wales from HS2.

The HS2 rail line is currently classed by the UK Government as an “England and Wales project” despite not a single metre of the track being located in Wales and economic impact assessments showing that the rail line will result in a slight net loss to the Welsh economy. As a result, the UK Government is avoiding paying out over £5 billion in consequential funding to the Welsh Government, which could be spent on rail transport in Wales itself.

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Mark Valladares

19 October 2022 – today’s press releases (part 1)

By Mark Valladares | Wed 19th October 2022 - 10:00 pm

It’s been an “interesting” day, to say the least, and there have been so many press releases coming out of HQ that, rather than try to get them into one post, it’s probably easier to do it in two. Think of it as a display of governance and organisation…

  • Inflation figures: Truss must confirm rise in pensions and benefits today
  • Welsh Liberal Democrats Respond to Proposed Boundary Changes
  • PMQs: Truss refuses to increase support for carers
  • Fracking vote: Conservative MPs must “show some backbone”
  • Triple lock: Truss dragged kicking and screaming into protecting pensioners

Inflation figures: Truss must confirm rise in pensions and benefits today

In response to the announcement of an inflation rise of 10.1%, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney said:

In the midst of this cost of living catastrophe, pensioners and those relying on benefits cannot be undercut and left to struggle further.

Liz Truss must act today to reassure the public and confirm in Parliament that pensions and benefits will rise to match inflation.

Not one penny can be lost, to do so would be gross negligence and failure of our most vulnerable members of society.

Welsh Liberal Democrats Respond to Proposed Boundary Changes

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Mary Reid

Ed Davey gets no comfort in Prime Minister’s Questions

By Mary Reid | Wed 19th October 2022 - 2:20 pm

Today at PMQs Ed Davey asked about carer’s allowances. He started by referring to the daily care that one disabled child needs and asked how carers can meet the additional costs this winter. In particular, he demanded that carer’s allowance should be raised in line with inflation.

Mr Speaker, millions of family carers have been forced to cut back on food and heating. One told Carers UK: ‘My son is incontinent… if we don’t wash him in warm water several times a day this will cause him to physically decline. So how do we pay for the gas to heat the water if we are currently at max budget?’

Vulnerable people and carers are struggling enough already in this cost-of-living crisis, Mr Speaker. So will the Prime Minister guarantee that support for the vulnerable – including Carer’s Allowance – will rise by at least today’s inflation rate of 10.1%?

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Mary Reid

Meet the candidates for Party President

By Mary Reid | Wed 19th October 2022 - 12:45 pm

Update: Since this post was published we understand that the date for the hustings for England will be rearranged. We will update you as soon as we can.

Following on from the Newbies Guide to the party elections we now have the dates for the presidential hustings.

There are three candidates for President of the Liberal Democrats:

  • Lucy Nethsingha
  • Mark Pack
  • Liz Webster

Three online hustings have been arranged, one each for England, Wales and Scotland.

  • England: Sunday 23rd October, 6pm to 8pm  New date Thursday 27th October, 6pm to 8pm
  • Wales: Wednesday 26th October, 6pm to 8pm
  • Scotland: Sunday 30th October, 1.15pm to 2pm.

These meetings are for members only. You do need to book here in order to receive the link to the online event.

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Newbies’ Guide to the party elections

By Lib Dem Newbies Admins | Wed 19th October 2022 - 10:23 am

It’s not long now until the internal party election season gets underway. Nominations have closed, but we have a few days until ballots go out by email.  In the meantime, here’s a brief overview of what’s up for election, why they matter, and how you can vote, that the Lib Dem Newbies Admins have put together.

WHAT’S UP FOR ELECTION?

The main party committees, and the posts of President and Vice-President of the party. All the posts are elected by ranked-choice voting of the entire party’s membership, for a term of three years.

WHAT DO THEY ACTUALLY DO?

🔶 Party President (1 elected position out of 1) – Just as the Leader acts as the leader of the party in Parliament and the party overall, and the CEO acts as the leader of the party’s staff, the President acts as the leader of the party’s membership. The President sits on or chairs many of the important committees and stands in for the leader when if the leadership unexpectedly becomes vacant.

🔶 Party Vice-President (1/1) – Is specifically there to represent and work with ethnic minority groups and provide leadership for the party’s BAME inclusion efforts.  There was only one candidate for this position (Amna Ahmad) so there won’t be an election for it.  Congratulations to Amna!

🔶 Federal Board (3/15) – Is effectively the ruling council of the party as a whole, making key strategic decisions and electing some members of some committees which don’t have members directly elected by the party’s members (such as the Finance Committee and the People Development Committee).

🔶 Federal Council (21/34) – Is a scrutiny committee for the Federal Board, meeting four times a year and with the ability to call-in and even overturn decisions made by FB if a supermajority of the FC votes to.  It’s newly-created, after the Thornhill Report after the 2019 election setback concluded that the old version of the Federal Board was too big to be effective.

🔶 Federal Policy Committee (15/29) – Is the policy research and drafting body of the party. Its members spend time developing new policies for the party and writing detailed papers like those often voted for at Conference; they also help write the party’s manifestos for elections.

🔶 Federal Conference Committee (12/22) – Organises, arranges, and runs the Spring and Autumn Federal Conferences, including deciding where and when they’re held, and what the agenda is, including which policies, papers, motions and amendments are accepted for debate.

🔶 Federal International Relations Committee (6/12) – Manages the Party’s relations with international bodies like the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe, Liberal International, and so on, as well as maintaining relations with other parties in other countries, like the Canadian Liberals, American Democrats, and D66 in the Netherlands.

🔶 ALDE Delegation (10) – Represents the Lib Dems to our pan-European political grouping, ALDE (the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe), which is the group our MEPs used to sit with in the European Parliament, and which the Lib Dems are still a member of.

WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHO’S STANDING?

Everyone who’s standing for positions has filled in a questionnaire and been invited to send in a manifesto, which you’ll be able to read along with your ballot. While Lib Dem Newbies and its related P&P group are internal-campaigning-free spaces, there is an unofficial Facebook group for internal elections where you might be able to ask candidates questions – though not all people standing are members of this group.  Some candidates are also active on Twitter and on other social media platforms, and hustings will be held for the Party Presidency candidates.

HOW DO I VOTE?

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Mark Valladares

18 October 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 18th October 2022 - 11:40 pm
  • Triple lock: Truss looks set to betray struggling pensioners in the middle of a cost of living crisis
  • Lib Dem Amendment Put to Vote to End Sleaze in Parliament
  • Anti-sleaze amendment passed to stop MPs “marking their own homework”
  • Calls for Action as Drug-Related Deaths in Wales Rise to Highest Level Ever
  • Welsh Government Must Act to Stop the Brain Drain of Doctors in Wales

Triple lock: Truss looks set to betray struggling pensioners in the middle of a cost of living crisis

Responding to the Prime Minister’s spokesperson refusing to say the Government is committed to the triple lock pension, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Work and Pensions Wendy Chamberlain MP said:

Liz Truss has trashed the economy and now looks set to betray struggling pensioners in the middle of a cost of living crisis.

This Conservative Government’s botched budget has already sent mortgage bills spiralling. It would be a kick in the teeth for millions of people if Truss now backtracks on her triple lock promise. The British public will never forgive the Conservative party if they break this promise.

This chaotic Government has to go. Britain needs a general election before Liz Truss and her Conservative Ministers do anymore damage.

Lib Dem Amendment Put to Vote to End Sleaze in Parliament

The Liberal Democrats have today led a cross-party Parliamentary effort to finally end the practice by which MPs are allowed to vote on motions regarding their own misconduct.

The Lib Dem Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain is today putting an amendment to a vote on the Government’s motion on standards, which the Government has tabled to implement recommendations from the Standards Committee, later this afternoon.

This practice was notoriously brought to attention by the Owen Paterson scandal, when he voted against his own suspension from the House of Commons in 2021 – a saga which ultimately resulted in a Liberal Democrat victory in the North Shropshire by-election.

The amendments, which have support from Conservatives (David Mundell, Alicia Kearns), Labour (Kim Leadbeater, Cat Smith) and the Green Party (Caroline Lucas), would prohibit members from voting on anything concerning their own conduct.

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Caron Lindsay

Olney: PM’s apology brings nothing but cold comfort

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 18th October 2022 - 9:38 am

Yesterday afternoon, Penny Mordaunt was given an impossible job – defending the indefensible. She was asked to deputise for the Prime Minister in the Commons for Labour’s urgent question on the sacking of the Chancellor.

Mordaunt did much better than Truss ever could have done. She had a reasonable balance of “**** you”, humility, and even a bit of sincerity in the face of quite an onslaught from opposition MPs. It is hard to imagine anyone having a go at the opposition when they were part of a government that had made a crap economic situation much worse.

Labour missed a trick …

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Mark Valladares

17 October 2022 – (the rest of) today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 17th October 2022 - 11:20 pm
  • The British public don’t need more economic turmoil
  • Hunt’s out of touch advisory panel of asset managers
  • Hunt hints at windfall tax u-turn

The British public don’t need more economic turmoil

Responding to the news that the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is to fast-track measures to pay for Liz Truss’s mini-budget, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

The Conservative Party have used the British people as an economic football for far too long.

Jeremy Hunt now expects families and pensioners to cope with increased mortgage costs, soaring energy bills, sky-high petrol prices and rising food costs while the unfair bankers bonus is still in place.

As

…

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The Voice

Mini-Budget goes down with all hands…

By The Voice | Mon 17th October 2022 - 12:34 pm

The inevitable abandonment of the “Kamikwazi” budget by Jeremy Hunt has been greeted by the derision one might expect, even if there was no easy alternative. No cut in the basic rate of income tax, the withdrawal of IR35 changes and the withdrawal of guaranteed support for energy costs beyond April, none of this will win votes, even as it placates the markets.

Responding to Jeremy Hunt’s mini-budget statement, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said:

So much damage has already been done by these Conservatives and they will force millions of struggling families and pensioners to pay for it.

The Conservative

…

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The Voice

Metropolitan Police – a welcome admission of past failings, but what next?

By The Voice | Mon 17th October 2022 - 10:29 am

Following the release of the Casey Report into the Metropolitan Police’s disciplinary systems, Liberal Democrats have been quick to respond.

Wendy Chamberlain, the only former female police officer in the Commons, said:

This devastating report must not be ignored. From decent vetting at the recruitment stage to real diversity, the Met must change dramatically and at lightning speed.

Investigations and whistle-blowing must be also prioritised and concluded quickly.The Home Secretary must come to Parliament and explain how the largest police force in the country has come to this under the Conservative’s watch.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, former Deputy Assistant Commissioner with the Metropolitan Police, and now Liberal Democrat Peer, Brian Paddick, was quick to highlight what the report means;

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Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 17 October 2022 – as the S.S. Brexit sinks under the weight of its own contradictions…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 17th October 2022 - 7:47 am

Aside from the obvious crisis the Government is in, the past few weeks have demonstrated once and for all why Brexit was doomed to failure as a means to transform the nation for the better.

There were always three key arguments in favour of Brexit – sovereignty, immigration and deregulation. During the campaign, the fact that they were inevitably contradictory didn’t matter, for all that was needed was to harvest the votes sufficient to win. And whilst those of us on the losing side assumed that, having won, there was a strategy for handling the transition. As it turned out, what strategies existed were contradictory too.

But now, each of the arguments has been eviscerated, one by one.

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Caron Lindsay

Olney: Jeremy Hunt expects people to pay for Conservative mistakes

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 15th October 2022 - 12:15 pm

Jeremy Hunt’s media round this morning was sobering stuff. Tax rises and public spending cuts seem to be the order of the day.  While he might talk about protecting the most vulnerable, Conservatives have never been good at understanding how to do that.

Our Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney had this to say:

This may be a new Chancellor but it’s still the same old Conservative party whose failed economic experiment has cost this country billions.  Now Jeremy Hunt expects struggling families and pensioners to pay the price for those mistakes.

Thousands of families are facing increased mortgage costs and rising prices at the checkouts while our struggling public services will have their spending slashed.

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Mary Reid

Lib Dems demand Parliament must sit tomorrow

By Mary Reid | Fri 14th October 2022 - 4:43 pm

On a fast moving day in Downing Street, Lib Dems have called for Parliament to sit tomorrow so that Jeremy Hunt can deliver a new fiscal statement. This is sorely needed to calm markets before they open on Monday.

Sarah Olney is our Treasury spokesperson and she says:

This government has overseen a slow-motion car crash as Britain’s economy barrels towards disaster. For weeks Ministers have sat on their hands as their mini-budget unfolded. Parliament must sit tomorrow so we can hear from this new Chancellor.

Every day this disastrous Conservative Government staggers on, it plunges Britain into more turbulence and pain. Rather than show leadership, they’ve just delivered more chaos and confusion. After shamefully cutting her press conference short this afternoon, the Prime Minister and her new Chancellor must come to the House of Commons tomorrow to face questions from MPs.

As the revolving door at Number 11 continues the very least the latest one can do is come to Parliament tomorrow and deliver an urgent statement putting the final nail in the coffin of this budget.

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Mary Reid

Reactions to the churn

By Mary Reid | Fri 14th October 2022 - 2:15 pm

So Kwasi Kwarteng is out and Jeremy Hunt is in. How long can Liz Truss last after today’s extraordinary moves?

Prominent Lib Dems have, of course, been giving us their take on the news:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think we can see a clear message here!

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Caron Lindsay

Ed Davey calls for General Election after Chancellor leaves office

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 14th October 2022 - 12:48 pm

We know now that Kwasi Kwarteng is out as Chancellor just hours after Downing Street told the BBC’s Chris Mason that he and Liz Truss were “in lockstep.” Whether he jumped or was pushed is for the journalists to work out.

I would be very surprised if we see them leaving Government in lockstep together, which seems unfair given that he was basically implementing the policies she put forward during her leadership campaign. In fact, he blinked first when the markets first went wild, putting out a statement after what was described at the time as a heated row between him and Truss.

It’s going to be interesting to see who she appoints as Chancellor – and who would be willing to do the job. Could we see Penny Mordaunt in No 11, or some  have suggested Jeremy Hunt.

We just have to wait to see what Liz Truss says at the press conference later this afternoon. She’s not a great one for humility and if there was ever an occasion that called for that in huge amounts, this is it.

While a u-turn, or partial u-turn (a j-turn?) on the Budget of Chaos will likely calm down the markets, the damage has been done to people’s mortgages and they will be feeling that for years to come.

Ed Davey has called for a General Election to get this lot out of office:

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NewsHound

Carmichael: Scottish Independence is a double dose of Brexit disease

By NewsHound | Fri 14th October 2022 - 11:20 am

Alistair Carmichael is in blistering form in a Scotsman article in which he argues that the SNP’s push for independence is like treating the Cold with Flu.

He compares Nicola Sturgeon’s pursuit of independence against all the evidence to Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s ideological trashing of the economy:

The accusation has never been that leaving the UK would be “too good” for our economy. The concern was that those advocating the nationalist cure-all were blithely or intentionally ignoring the harm to businesses and livelihoods.

In Brexit and the disruption of recent weeks, we have had an abject lesson in the harm caused by ignoring reality in favour of fervently held beliefs. The only surprise is the SNP think that these failures are an endorsement.

He reminds us all what the SNP Government does (or doesn’t) with the powers that they already have:

Set aside for a moment the cack-handed, indifferent approach taken by the SNP over the aspects of the economy they are already responsible for; the drip-drip of scandals around hundreds of millions spent on overdue ferries, the reckless gambling of our taxes in the Lochaber deal, or businesses’ struggles under their watch.

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Mary Reid

Daisy Cooper on PMQs

By Mary Reid | Wed 12th October 2022 - 7:18 pm

Daisy Cooper had a question about hospitals with dangerous roofs at Prime Minister’s Questions today. Bizarrely Liz Truss seems to be answering a totally different question.

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Graham Lippiatt

Harold Wilson – The Winner

By Graham Lippiatt | Wed 12th October 2022 - 3:14 pm

The Lloyd George Society will be holding a meeting on the evening of Tuesday 18 October in The Lounge at the National Liberal Club starting at 7.30pm.

Our guest speaker will be the Labour MP for Torfaen and Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, Nick Thomas-Symonds. Mr Thomas-Symonds, who is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, published a new biography of Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson in September: Harold Wilson – The Winner.

Mr Thomas- Symonds has already published biographies of Clement Attlee and Nye Bevan. His book on Wilson, which makes use of new and previously restricted material, aims to rehabilitate the politician’s widespread reputation for political chicanery and explore his numerous achievements in government as the only Labour leader to win four general elections. Nick will be talking about his book and we have asked him to comment on Wilson’s relationship with the Liberal Party over the years as part of his presentation.

The meeting will be chaired by Liberal Democrat peer, Baroness Smith of Newnham (Julie Smith). Please come along for what should be an entertaining and fascinating new insight into one the most successful practitioners in British politics in the post-war era.

Admission is free and open to all.

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Mary Reid

Candidates announced for internal party elections

By Mary Reid | Wed 12th October 2022 - 2:13 pm

Nominations for the party elections closed this week and the full list of candidates has now been published.

There are three candidates for Party President: Lucy Nethsingha, Mark Pack and Liz Webster, but only one for Vice President: Amna Ahmad.  Only three people have been nominated for the three places for Scottish representatives on the Federal Council, but all the other committee places are fully contested so we can expected lengthy ballot papers.

The ballots, which for most of us will be online, will be sent out on 25th October.

The makeup of each body is subject to diversity rules which you can read at the bottom of this page.

Note that this post is announcement only. We have turned off comments to avoid references to individual candidates.

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Mary Reid

How will the Coronation affect local elections?

By Mary Reid | Wed 12th October 2022 - 10:12 am

It has been announced that the Coronation of King Charles III will take place on Saturday 6th May 2023 (although that news on the BBC was quickly eclipsed by the information that he will be appearing in The Repair Shop).

So how will that affect the local elections due to take place on Thursday 4th May? These will include elections to a number of metropolitan, unitary, district and parish Councils that elect by thirds, together with many where the whole council will be elected, plus some directly elected Mayors.

There are several factors to take into account:

  1. Many Councils now do the count on Friday during the day, instead of overnight, and some carry on into the Saturday, especially where there are elections at several levels. Parish Councils are normally counted on Saturday.
  2. We would expect a day to be announced as a Bank Holiday in lieu of the Saturday. Could that be on the Friday?
  3. The week will be full of news on all media of the preparations for the Coronation which could deplete turnout.
  4. Is it possible that the coverage in the run-up to the event, with a lot of patriotic fervour, may sway voters?
  5. If the results are bad for the Conservatives – which would not be surprising! – this news will be conveniently buried.

Your thoughts, please.

Note that this is a post about the impact of a major national event on local elections – it is not about the monarchy itself. 

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Caron Lindsay

Liam McArthur wins right to bring forward Assisted Dying Bill to Scottish Parliament

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 11th October 2022 - 10:45 am

Orkney MSP Liam McArthur has earned the right to introduce a Members’ Bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people in the Scottish Parliament.

His proposal is supported by 36 out of the 129 MSPs.

Last month Liam  published the outcome of his public consultation on the proposals.  Out of 14,038 responses, 76% of individuals who responded expressed full support with a further 2% partially supporting a change in the law.

Mr McArthur will now work with the Scottish Parliament’s Non-Governmental Bills Unit to draft the actual bill which he hopes to introduce in Parliament next year.

Liam said:

“I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all MSPs who have put their names behind my proposed change in the law. The support among colleagues has been deeply heartening, and demonstrates the growing recognition that there is a need to end the ban on assisted dying in Scotland.

“The Scottish public has long been ahead of the parliament on this issue. The public consultation on these proposals, published last month, demonstrated that there is strong and passionate support for offering people more choice at the end of their life.

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NewsHound

Lib Dems demand probe into Chancellor’s post-budget champagne party

By NewsHound | Sun 9th October 2022 - 4:32 pm

Christine Jardine, the Lib Dem spokesperson has written to the Cabinet Secretary to ask for an enquiry into whether the champagne bash Kwasi Kwarteng attended on the night of his budgetary earthquake breached the Ministerial Code:

From The Observer:

“The image of the chancellor quaffing champagne with bankers just hours after announcing his tax cuts for the very wealthiest in society is bad enough,” she said. “But it would be unforgivable if it turns out Kwasi Kwarteng discussed his plans with hedge fund managers who have since been profiting from the fall in the pound.

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NewsHound

Three in four blame Kwasi Kwarteng budget for higher mortgages

By NewsHound | Thu 6th October 2022 - 11:59 pm

New polling commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has revealed three in four (75%) blame the Government’s budget for higher than expected mortgage rates.

The findings reveal even the majority of Conservative voters (68%) blame the expected rise in rates on the Government’s budget last month, which sent the financial markets into turmoil.

The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates to as much as 6% next year, adding considerable costs to mortgages. This week Moneyfacts reported the typical two year fixed rate mortgage has topped 6% for the first time in 14 years.

Those who own their home with a mortgage also blame the likely rise on rates on the Government’s budget (76%).

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Mary Reid

Vast majority of burglaries are unsolved

By Mary Reid | Wed 5th October 2022 - 10:18 am

You would think that police would be obliged to attend all household burglaries, wouldn’t you? Apparently they don’t. And even when they do the chances of them actually finding the criminal is very slim.

In England and Wales last year 73% of all domestic burglaries were unsolved. An even smaller percentage (3.5%) resulted in someone being charged. Put another way, in the last five years 1.4 million burglaries went unsolved. And the percentage resulting in a charge has gone down year on year so that by last year it was less than half that in 2017 (which was bad enough, anyway).

These figures were provided in a press release today from the Lib Dem Media Team. You can see the police figures, broken down by area, here.

So now we hear that police forces in England and Wales have pledged to attend every home burglary. This would appear to be the minimum expectation on a police force. I can’t imagine how devastating it would be for a person to come home to find their home has been broken into, and items stolen, but when they report it to the police no-one comes to investigate. However we have to ask whether this will increase the clear-up rate. Or more pertinently why the clear-up rate is so low.

We have a comment from Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael:

It is devastating for victims that the overwhelming majority of burglaries go unsolved.

While this is a positive step, without proper resources from the Government this pledge risks being nothing more than a box-ticking exercise.

The Conservatives are letting down victims and allowing burglaries to run rife.

Ministers must give police the officers, time and resources they need to properly investigate crime.

The fear of crime has a noxious effect on our social lives, whether it makes women afraid of going out after dark, or keeps people who live alone awake at night. Sales of home security systems with cameras have rocketed, but it seems that even where there is an image of a burglary or attempted burglary the chances of anyone being arrested are very low. Burglary must seem like an attractive career choice to some.

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Caron Lindsay

Just deserts at Conservative Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 4th October 2022 - 7:30 am

Last week Ed Davey called on the Conservatives to cancel their Conference and sort out the economic mess they had created.

After days of rebellion, doom and u-turns, I bet they wish they had listened to him.

They aren’t getting the best press, that’s for sure, but then they don’t deserve it.

Kwasi Kwarteng’s feeble attempts at humour in his speech belie any contrition. And I doubt many of those who are now condemned to years of high mortgage payments will feel that either he or Liz Truss truly do get it.

The u-turns on the 45p tax rate and the publication of the OBR forecasts, although major events, are not the only things that need to change.

The Conservatives are showing themselves up as way nastier than they were when Theresa May gave her warning to Conservative Conference a whole twenty years ago.  This generation of leaders seem to have taken it as encouragement to become even worse.

For example, party Chairman Jake Berry had this to say to people struggling to pay their bills this Winter:

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Mark Valladares

3 October 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 4th October 2022 - 12:30 am
  • Departing Conservative ministers handed over £410,000 in redundancy pay
  • Davey: Kwasi Kwarteng must resign so botched Budget can be scrapped
  • Conservative ministers slammed for holding 67 parties as British economy implodes
  • Kwarteng speech: Laughing about the turbulence is an insult to millions

Departing Conservative ministers handed over £410,000 in redundancy pay

Former Conservative ministers are set to be handed more than £410,000 in redundancy payments, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.

This includes £18,860 for Boris Johnson, £16,876 for former cabinet ministers including Priti Patel and Michael Gove, and £14,491 for the former Solicitor General Alex Chalk.

The Liberal Democrats have called on Johnson and other outgoing ministers to forgo the thousands of pounds in redundancy payments, so the money can be used to support struggling families instead.

Under the Ministerial and Other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991, those resigning from office are entitled to 25% of the annual salaries they were paid when holding that office. Analysis by the Liberal Democrats suggests that, across government, this will lead to a total bill to the taxpayer of at least £410,642.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office Spokesperson Christine Jardine, said

It is outrageous that as families cut back on food and heating, outgoing Conservative ministers are being awarded thousands of pounds, many of them after just a few weeks in the job.

It seems Liz Truss is against handouts for the British people, but not for her Conservative colleagues. Once again it’s one rule for Conservative MPs, another for everyone else.

Former ministers are given financial security, while struggling families and pensioners are facing economic chaos, higher bills and collapsing health services.

Outgoing Conservative ministers should do the decent thing and pass up their payoffs for the good of the country.

Davey: Kwasi Kwarteng must resign so botched Budget can be scrapped

Responding to Kwasi Kwarteng’s refusal to resign this morning despite his U-turn over the 45p tax rate, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Kwasi Kwarteng didn’t listen when people’s mortgages soared, the pound tanked and the economy nosedived. Now he’s only acting because of internal rows at the Conservative party conference.

It just shows the Conservatives are totally out of touch with the country.

The Chancellor has lost all credibility and must resign now. Then Parliament needs to be recalled so we can scrap this rotten Budget, offer extra help to struggling mortgage borrowers and ensure our NHS and schools get the funding they need.

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