Category Archives: News

NewsHound

One in four expect to never turn their heating on this winter due to rising energy bills

By NewsHound | Mon 29th August 2022 - 11:30 am
  • New polling commissioned by the Liberal Democrats reveals the public are planning to make heartbreaking decisions to cope with spiralling energy prices this winter
  • Parents with children under 18 set to be hardest hit by energy rises according to new poll
  • Lib Dems warn of “the worst cost of living crisis in a century” if Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak do not scrap the energy price cap rise

New polling commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has revealed almost one in four (23%) of UK adults plan to never turn their heating on this winter. This rises to over one in four (27%) amongst …

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Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 29 August 2022 – aren’t politicians people too?

By Mark Valladares | Mon 29th August 2022 - 7:54 am

As my colleague noted yesterday, Sanna Marin, the Prime Minister of Finland, has been in the news for having the audacity to be (relatively) young, and dance at parties. Alcohol may even have been partaken of!

And I find myself wondering, since when did we start insisting that rather dull people represent us and why? Whilst expecting relatively high moral and ethical standards does seem reasonable, politicians are human and should be able to express themselves and, heaven forbid, let their hair down from time to time.

I thought that Tim Farron who, despite his frankly bizarre fondness for Blackburn Rovers, is as real a person as you could hope to find, put it well when asked for comment by the Guardian;

Social media is a mixed bag. I think it does change things but we have to accept our politicians are human beings – we should expect high standards in terms of integrity, but that doesn’t preclude you from having a couple of beers with your mates and dancing like nobody’s watching. I‘m an Olympic-standard dad dancer and I’m glad there are no pictures of me.

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Caron Lindsay

“I can’t have her starving to death” – Carer Clare describes energy bill terror

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 27th August 2022 - 9:30 am

We’ve mentioned several times before on this site about the impact of rising fuel bills on disabled people. It’s not just that if you are less mobile you need more heating, it’s about charging up wheelchairs, and running life sustaining equipment like feeding pumps.

Clare Steel* is a Labour Councillor in West Dunbartonshire. She cares for her 15 year old daughter Katie, who has complex medical conditions which mean she can’t walk, talk or swallow.

Katie depends on nine separate pieces of electrical equipment to keep her alive and make sure she can get washed and go up and down the stairs and move around and communicate- the very basic things required for human dignity.

Yesterday Clare spoke to Radio Scotland about her absolute terror about how she is going to pay the bills after 1st October. Right now I want to bundle up every single Conservative MP and put them in a room and make them listen to her. And I also want every person in the country to hear it so that they can understand the reality carers and disabled people are facing. You can listen here from about 20 minutes in.

Clare talked about the sort of equipment Katie has:

“Katie requires 24 hours care. That involves lots of medical equipment. Because Katie can’t eat, she has a pump which pumps high calorie milk into her bowel for 16 hours a day.”

She also has an 18 stone electric wheelchair which has a massive energy gobbling battery pack to get around as she can’t walk, a chairlift to get her up the stairs to her bed, an electric bath chair so that she can get in and out of the bath safely, a special bed and aids which enable her to communicate.

Every piece of equipment in Katie’s life allows Katie to be alive and function daily. I don’t have a choice about having these on charge constantly.

Clare was in tears when she asked:

How am I going to be able to keep Katie alive day in day out and not worry about how I am going to pay my energy bills. It’s just the reality. My worry is paying my electricity bill to have Katie’s machines. That’s not even including the cost of heat.

We don’t have options. There is no options. I was looking at a bath chair online which I could blow up so I might not have to use the bath chair, but that is only one thing. Katie’s wheelchair is 18 stone with a massive battery pack. Do I tell her she can’t have independence?

She needs her suction machine. I can’t have her choking to death. She needs her feeding pump, I can’t have her starving to death.

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Mark Valladares

26 August 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Fri 26th August 2022 - 11:15 pm
  • Davey – price rise “nothing short of catastrophe for millions”
  • Sewage: New Govt plan is a cruel joke and will result in 325,000 sewage dumps a year by 2030

Davey – price rise “nothing short of catastrophe for millions”

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey responds to price cap announcement:

This energy price rise is nothing short of a catastrophe for millions of families and pensioners already struggling to make ends meet.

The only option is for energy prices to be frozen before these rises wreak havoc on our communities. Then we need a proper plan to be put in place to bring bills down

…

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Charles Quinn

ALDC by-election report 25th August

By Charles Quinn | Fri 26th August 2022 - 9:11 pm

There is just one by-election result to report this week – but what a result!

East Riding Lib Dems scored yet another stunning by-election victory – their 3rd by-election gain in 5 months – as Diana Stewart took the Conservative seat of Beverley Rural with 59.4% of the vote. That’s a 36% increase in vote-share and a thumping majority of 832!

Congratulations to newly elected Cllr Diana Stewart and the Lib Dem team in the East Riding on another amazing win – a hattrick of by-election gains after winning Bridlington North in June, and South Hunsley in April.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Beverley Rural ward
Liberal Democrat (Diana Stewart): 1948
Conservative: 1116
Labour: 213

The full result can be found on the ALDC by-elections page here.

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Mary Reid

Energy price rises – are they really here?

By Mary Reid | Fri 26th August 2022 - 10:17 am

So at last we have the announcement that the cap on energy prices will rise on 1st October from £1971 to an unprecedented £3539 pa. That is a massive rise of £130 a month. Or put another way, during the last quarter of this year the cost of electricity will nearly double (from 28p per kWh to 52p) and gas will more than double in price (from 7p to 15p per kWh).

This is completely unsustainable for people on low incomes and comes on top of the huge rise in other costs. For example, food costs for an average family have risen by £454 per year (£38 per month). The impact will not be spread evenly across society – people on lower incomes spend a much higher proportion on necessities, such as food and energy, than those on higher incomes.

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation 22% of the UK population are in poverty – that’s 14.5 million. Of course, the actual number depends on which poverty index is used, in this case they use relative poverty, where households have less that 60% of the current median income after housing costs.

The costs of living crisis has been a hot topic over the summer recess, and we should not underestimate the stress it will have caused to so many people. The planned cashback will help but will not meet all the expected rises. So we will be hearing many more stories of people asking food banks for foodstuffs that do not need heating. The Trussell Trust has launched an emergency fund to help people with both food and fuel costs.

So far there is no response from the Government although the Prime Minister will be speaking later today.

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Mark Valladares

25 August 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 25th August 2022 - 10:30 pm
  • GCSEs: Government deserves an ‘F’ for letting down pupils
  • Missing: UK’s Foreign Secretary. Last seen leaving G20 early
  • Dentist crisis escalates as new data reveals drop in NHS dental appointments

GCSEs: Government deserves an ‘F’ for letting down pupils

Responding to today’s GCSE results, Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Munira Wilson MP said:

The Conservatives have fiddled the figures and failed our young people yet again. Ministers have thrown into question thousands of students’ futures by taking their grades away to correct two years of exam chaos.

Young people receiving their results today faced unprecedented disruption to their studies. The Government deserves an ‘F’ for letting down these pupils, their parents and their teachers since day one of the pandemic.

This uncaring Conservative carousel of Education Secretaries cannot be trusted with our young people’s future any longer. We need proper investment in helping children recover lost learning from the pandemic, and we need them gone.

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Caron Lindsay

Carmichael: Ministers must explain themselves over Jagtar Singh Johal allegations

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 23rd August 2022 - 10:30 am

The BBC reports that UK intelligence services have been accused of tipping off Indian authorities about a British national, leading to his abduction and alleged torture. Jagtar Singh Johal was detained on a visit to India in 2017 and says that he has been tortured. But how did the Indian authorities catch up with him?

The BBC cites a claim from human rights organisation Reprieve that the information may have come from UK intelligence:

Reprieve says it has matched several details relating to his case to a specific claim of mistreatment documented in a report by the watchdog that oversees the intelligence agencies.

“In the course of an investigation”, says the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO) report, “MI5 passed intelligence to a liaison partner via the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).

“The subject of the intelligence was arrested by the liaison partner in their country. The individual told the British Consular Official that he had been tortured.”

Mr Johal is not named in the report, but Reprieve’s investigators are adamant the facts match his case due to the dates concerned, the lobbying by British prime ministers and supporting evidence detailed in the Indian press.

Human rights are hardwired into the DNA of liberals, so as you would expect, Alistair Carmichael, our Home Affairs spokesperson, has demanded that ministers explain themselves:

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NewsHound

Sewage dumped in shellfish water 29,000 times by water companies

By NewsHound | Mon 22nd August 2022 - 10:30 pm
  • New fears shellfish could be contaminated by sewage dumps as over 200,000 hours of sewage is pumped into their habitat
  • The worst offenders are South West Water and Southern Water
  • Tim Farron slams lack of action from the Government: “Why aren’t Government Ministers listening to the public on this? They are ignoring the country’s outrage at this scandal.”

Analysis by the Liberal Democrats has found sewage was dumped into waters containing shellfish a staggering 29,000 times last year. The party has raised fears this could be taking place again this summer.

This equates to 207,013 hours worth of sewage in shellfish waters in England …

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Mark Valladares

Verily, welcome to my day: 22 August 2022 – “with much ado at length have gotten leave”*

By Mark Valladares | Mon 22nd August 2022 - 7:45 am

Language evolves, as any fule kno

It’s funny how often, if someone doesn’t like an argument, or if the subject matter is too complex for them to understand, they revert to petty kibitzing in order to “put down” the holder of a view they can’t easily refute. As Statler and Waldorf so eruditely put it;

One assumes that, in the absence of an argument, the establishment figures work on the basis that, if you make life uncomfortable for others wishing to penetrate your safe spaces, especially those perceived to be outsiders, they’ll give up and leave you alone to carry on as you always have. But, for liberals, that generally runs contrary to our ethos. We welcome challenge, so long as it is moderately respectful. That said, perhaps we should extend ourselves beyond our comfort zone so as to encourage the broader base of support we always claim to want.

I may talk about that in a piece later today though, so perhaps I ought to move on.

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The Voice

Seaside sewage monitors revealed to be faulty or not even installed

By The Voice | Sun 21st August 2022 - 11:30 pm

Monitors which are supposed to measure the amount of sewage being pumped into popular seaside spots found to be broken or not even installed.

As many as one in eight southern sewage monitors installed for designated swimming areas are either faulty or not installed.

Sewage monitors along popular Cornish and Sussex coastlines not even installed – Lib Dem MP slams the water companies: “This is a national scandal and these new figures stink of a cover-up.”

New analysis of Environment Agency data by the Liberal Democrats has revealed water companies are failing to monitor sewage discharges at popular British seaside resorts. …

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NewsHound

Times: Keir Starmer is “Ed Davey tribute act”

By NewsHound | Sat 20th August 2022 - 8:12 am

In the Times (£), Matt Chorley points out that Keir Starmer is on a push to steal the Lib Dems’ big ideas:

So the Labour leader is back. And we now know what he was doing in Spain: trying to get on the Lib Dem website using up whatever 4G was left in his mobile package now that free roaming, which wasn’t going to disappear after Brexit, amazingly disappeared after Brexit.

I’ve lost track of where we were with the Starmer Relaunch Roulette game, but whoever had “Ed Davey tribute act” has had a good week. On October 26 last year Davey called for a windfall tax on energy companies. Twelve weeks later, Starmer did the same. And then Rishi Sunak did it. On August 9, Davey called for the energy price cap rise to be scrapped. Five days later, Starmer came back from his hols and followed suit.

And he hasn’t stopped yet:

Also back on August 9 the Lib Dems demanded that parliament be recalled. It took Starmer a few more days to get to that bit of their snazzy new website, but lo and behold, yesterday Labour emailed Boris Johnson demanding parliament be recalled.

Chorley quotes Ed’s tweet:

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NewsHound

Helen Morgan challenges Greg Clark on Community Heating Hubs

By NewsHound | Fri 19th August 2022 - 10:31 am

On 16 August, Helen Morgan wrote to Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities calling for action to protect those who will not be able to afford to heat their homes this winter. She has also written to Shropshire Council leader Lezley Picton:

Places like libraries and leisure centres could easily be adapted to provide a safe space for people to sit and keep warm during the day, at no extra cost to the tax payer.

Community Heating Hubs are simple, easily implemented and could be a literal lifeline for some households this winter.

In her letter to Greg Clark, Morgan said the country faces a cost of living emergency. She urges him to tackle the emergency this winter by requiring all local authorities to provide Community Heating Hubs, making public buildings available to those who can’t afford to keep their heating on at home.

I’m hoping you will wake this zombie government and take action to help the millions of people being pushed towards poverty by the cost of living emergency. Please ask all local authorities to take this simple step.

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Mark Valladares

Farron & Foord: Water executives get bonuses despite sewerage scandal

By Mark Valladares | Fri 19th August 2022 - 7:30 am

In a press release that is receiving widespread coverage in this morning’s media, Tim Farron and Richard Foord attacked the huge bonuses received by water bosses while sewerage pours into our rivers and seas.

  • Average water company executive pay and bonuses rose by a fifth compared to last year despite 2.7 million hours of sewage being pumped into rivers and swimming spots
  • Average water company executives paid themselves £100,000 more in bonuses alone. Their average annual bonus now stands at over £600,000
  • New Lib Dem figures revealed as hosepipe ban is announced for Thames Water who lose a quarter of all their water due due to leaking pipes going unfixed.

In the week that sewage flowed into Britain’s treasured seaside swimming spots, new analysis of water companies’ Annual Reports by the Liberal Democrats has found that executive pay packets have spiralled out of control.

Next week, millions of Thames Water customers will also suffer from a hosepipe ban despite the company leaking a quarter of all its water from leaking pipes. The firm failed to invest in fixing the leaks, but found over £3 million to pay their execs, an increase on last year’s executive payout.

Combined bonuses and salaries pay packets per water company executive rose by a fifth (21%) from 2020/2021 to 2021/2022. This is a year-on-year average rise per executive of nearly £200,000.

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NewsHound

Farron: Avanti Oxenholme lock-in an “unacceptable farce”

By NewsHound | Thu 18th August 2022 - 10:48 am

On Tuesday night, around 30 passengers alighted from the Avanti West Coast service from London Euston to Glasgow at Oxenholme. Alas, the station was closed. One of the passengers described the situation . They could scale the 8ft high gate, walk across the live tracks or “pick somewhere to try and sleep on a pavement until the morning”. Some reports suggest some passengers “took to climbing the 7-foot spiked gates and fences surrounding the station in order to get out.”

https://twitter.com/helenpidd/status/1559951453610991618

The hour was late but one passenger has the wits to ring Tim Farron, who got onto Avanti. “It was only when someone contacted Mr Farron that any help came, with a Network Rail worker opening the gate 45 minutes after the passengers arrived.”

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Mark Valladares

17 August 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 17th August 2022 - 10:30 pm
  • Inflation figures: People will never forgive this Government for abandoning them
  • Thames Water hosepipe ban: slap in the face for millions of people
  • “Nasty party”: Kwarteng must clarify Truss’s shameful ‘graft’ comments
  • 75,000 A-Level grades set to be deflated under Government’s exam plans
  • Councillor Sykes welcomes change in law barring sex offenders from standing for or holding elected office

Inflation figures: People will never forgive this Government for abandoning them

Responding to inflation reaching 10.1% this morning, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

Britain is heading for the worst economic crisis in a generation, yet the Prime Minister has clocked off early whilst Sunak and Truss are too busy squabbling amongst themselves.

Families and pensioners will never forgive this Conservative Government for abandoning them in the middle of a cost of living catastrophe.

The answer is staring Conservative MPs in the face but they refuse to act. Energy bills must be frozen immediately or else millions of people will be plunged into financial devastation this winter.

Thames Water hosepipe ban: slap in the face for millions of people

Responding to the news that Thames Water will enforce a hosepipe ban, Liberal Democrat Environment Spokesperson Tim Farron MP said:

This is a slap in the face for millions of people when Thames Water is losing a quarter of all their water to leaks.

Their gross negligence to fix leaks is set to inflict hosepipe ban misery across the South. We wouldn’t be in this mess if Thames Water bothered to invest properly. Instead, water companies are choosing to pay themselves billions of pounds in profits and reward their CEOs with insulting bonuses. Thames Water is putting profit above the public and environment.

Ministers are to blame for letting profiteering water companies get away with it. Under this Government, our rivers have become polluted with sewage and water pipes rusting with leaks.

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NewsHound

Moran: Britain’s response to Taliban is a story of betrayal

By NewsHound | Wed 17th August 2022 - 9:29 am

Witing in yesterday’s i newspaper, Layla Moran said we must help Afghans in the UK by moving them out of hotels and into homes.

The UK Government promised that our doors would be open to Afghans at risk – including women, LGBTQ+ people and minority groups – but it has shut them as soon as they thought nobody was looking.

What about those who did make it to the UK?… Ten thousand Afghans remain stuck in hotels up and down the country… A significant proportion of these people put their lives on the line to help UK forces during the war and were promised the chance to start a new life here in the UK. Instead, they’ve been left in limbo by the Conservative Government.

A year on government promises to Afghans and to the British public lie in tatters, Moran says. “We will not let those commitments be forgotten.”

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Mark Valladares

16 August 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 16th August 2022 - 10:30 pm
  • Pay squeeze: Families are being hammered by a cost of living catastrophe
  • Lib Dems: As the country floods, water companies are pumping out untold amounts of sewage

Pay squeeze: Families are being hammered by a cost of living catastrophe

Responding to the latest monthly wage figures which show real-term wages falling by 3%, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

Families are being hammered by a cost of living catastrophe and yet the Government is nowhere to be found.

This Zombie Government has no plan and is failing our country. People can’t wait any longer for the Conservatives to play out their

…

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Mark Valladares

15 August 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 15th August 2022 - 10:35 pm
  • 34 hospital buildings revealed to have dangerous roofs at risk of collapsing
  • Lib Dems call for “double bill freeze” this winter to save families £2,000

34 hospital buildings revealed to have dangerous roofs at risk of collapsing

  • The poor quality roofs described as “chocolate aero bars” by fearful hospital bosses
  • NHS chiefs are emergency planning for the roofs to collapse at 16 different hospitals
  • One of the hospitals affected is in Liz Truss’s Norfolk constituency

A new Parliamentary Question tabled by the Liberal Democrats has revealed 34 hospital buildings across 16 different NHS trusts are fitted with roofs which NHS chiefs have warned could collapse at any moment. Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey is demanding the Government action plan for emergency upgrades to the hospitals as patients and staff safety are put at risk.

The government revealed that 34 buildings at 16 NHS trust have been identified as being fitted with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) which is said to be ‘structurally weaker’, ‘lightweight’ and ‘cheaper’ than a regular fitting.

NHS chief executive of Queen Elizabeth in King’s Lynn, Caroline Shaw, likened the material to a “chocolate Aero bar” with bubbles that could break and collapse at any point. It has been reported that some of the roofs are even being held up by steel props due to their structural weakness. This hospital is in Liz Truss’s constituency in Norfolk.

Hinchingbrooke in Cambridge, also impacted by these dangerous roof fittings, last year banned patients weighing more than 19 stone from having surgery in two of its operating theatres in case it put too much strain on the floor.

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Mark Valladares

14 August 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Sun 14th August 2022 - 10:30 pm
  • Government set to recover just a third of the £1 billion it pledged to claw back from Covid fraudsters
  • IPPR Analysis: Energy bills threaten to plunge millions into poverty this winter

Government set to recover just a third of the £1 billion it pledged to claw back from Covid fraudsters

  • The Government promised to recover £1bn between April 2021 and April 2023, but with just £226 million collected in 2021-22 it is all but certain to break its pledge.
  • Fraudsters are now on track to get away with £8 of every £10 they stole with £3.7bn of taxpayers’ money written off.
  • Liberal Democrats call on Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to appoint a new fraud minister on day one to track down stolen taxpayers’ cash

The Government’s Covid fraud taskforce is on track to recover just a third of the £1 billion it pledged to claw back from fraudsters, new analysis of HMRC figures have revealed.

In 2021 Ministers set up the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce with the aim of recovering £1 billion of stolen funds related to its Covid support by the end of 2022-23. But new figures published by HMRC show the Government is lagging far behind this target.

They show the taskforce has recovered just £226 million so far in 2021-22, plus a mere £9 million in the first month of 2022-23. If it continues at this sluggish pace, the taskforce would bring back just £335 million by April 2023 – missing its target by two thirds, and allowing fraudsters to get away with another £665 million of stolen taxpayers’ money.

It means Covid scheme fraud is currently set to land taxpayers with a total £3.7 billion, with fraudsters keeping £8 of every £10 they stole. That money could fund the increase of nearly 2.3 million families’ energy bills as prices are set to rise again this October.

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The Voice

Cole-Hamilton calls for action to stop spread of Monkeypox

By The Voice | Sun 14th August 2022 - 5:45 pm

Alex Cole-Hamilton has urged the Scottish Government to do more to deal with the Monkeypox outbreak which has so far infected 71 people in Scotland.

  • Whether the First Minister or Health Secretary has discussed Monkeypox with the JCVI;
  • What briefings ministers have had from health officials;
  • Whether it is intending to offer vaccination to all those most at risk of contracting monkeypox;
  • What conversations have been had with Health ministers and officials in other parts of the UK;
  • How many doses of the MVA smallpox vaccine it has access to and whether it will be ordering more.

Alex said:

During the Covid crisis we saw that government policy was better when precautions were explained to people, contingency plans laid out in public and scrutiny encouraged.

It was when the government chose to make decisions behind closed doors and failed to take the public with them that many of the worst decisions of the pandemic were made.

This is an opportunity to show that lessons have been learned from the Covid crisis. The WHO says that this is an emergency so while caseloads are still low, it’s important that ministers act.

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NewsHound

Carmichael accuses SNP of “criminal negligence” over ferries

By NewsHound | Sun 14th August 2022 - 4:15 pm

In today’s Scotland On Sunday, Alistair Carmichael rips through the SNP for their failure to ensure basic ferry services to Scotland’s islands.

Alistair grew up on Islay and now represents Orkney and Shetland so he knows exactly how important this is.

“The fundamental rules of island life and island economics are if you get the transport right, then just about everything else falls into place because without decent transport links you don’t have the access to the full range of medical facilities that the community will need

“You cannot grow your economy because the people who are catching fish or farming fish or raising stock are not going to be able to get them off the island.

“This is absolutely criminal. This just should not be allowed to be happening.

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The Voice

Young Liberals affirm support for trade unions

By The Voice | Sun 14th August 2022 - 2:45 pm

A motion passed at the Young Liberals Summer Conference yesterday criticises Lib Dem MPs for their comments over the RMT strike action. YL believe that the action was justified.

Their motion said:

(Conference notes)…

The recent industrial action taken by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) was aimed at, amongst other things:

Tackling fire and rehire;
Protecting against compulsory redundancies;
Seeking to protect the safe running of the railway by maintaining staffing
levels;

The industrial action was held with the support by 89% of members balloted.
There has been a recent controversial response to the RMT strikes by the Federal Party, including:

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems uncover massive fall in permanent contracts for new teachers

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 14th August 2022 - 1:15 pm

Children in Scotland go back to school this week. You would think that after three hellish years of pandemic related disruption and a widening attainment gap, the SNP Government would want to make sure that there were as many permanent teachers in the classroom as possible.

Every year the Scottish Liberal Democrats at Holyrood look for the number of newly qualified teachers being offered permanent posts rather than fixed term or supply contracts. In the past 5 years, that has fallen from 56%, which was low enough, to just 23%.

On the back of those figures, STV News has spoken to three teachers about the impact that this uncertainty has had on them. Heaven knows we need more girls doing STEM subjects, and here is a woman teacher in those subjects who can’t get a permanent job:

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NewsHound

Alistair Carmichael in blistering form on Any Questions

By NewsHound | Sat 13th August 2022 - 10:30 am

Alistair Carmichael turned up in 37 degree London in a tweed jacket yesterday morning. He had needed it at the airport in Orkney.

He was on his way to Swindon to record Any Questions. He was on fine form.

I won’t spoil too much for you but he absolutely eviscerated the Tories on education, the environment, their pitiful efforts to help people with rising costs and dentistry.

He even managed to poke a wee bit of fun in Diane Abbott’s direction.

At one point, he talked about water companies getting away with so much while paying their managing directors millions in bonuses. He made the point that if you are going to privatise a natural monopoly, you need to regulate it within an inch of its life. He was speaking from the heart given that he is kicking the backsides of both energy companies and the regulator for their abject failure in installing electricity meters in new builds in the Northern Isles.

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Caron Lindsay

Layla on Salman Rushdie’s “Beautiful pieces of literature”

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 12th August 2022 - 10:46 pm

The news of Salman Rushdie’s stabbing at an event in upstate New York is profoundly shocking.

My first thoughts were with those police officers and a doctor in the audience who put themselves in harm’s way to help the author and no doubt give him the chance of survival. At the time of writing he is still in surgery and I know that everyone reading this will hope that he pulls through and our thoughts will be very much with his loved ones.

We don’t know the motivations for this particular attack, but we are well aware that Salman Rushdie had to spend a decade in hiding after the Iranian Government issued a fatwa against him in 1988 after they decided that his book, The Satanic Verses, was blasphemous.

Rushdie has had to live with this threat for decades for doing nothing other than challenging orthodoxy. For using his considerable creative talent to make us think.

Tonight, Layla Moran described how the threat to Rushdie encouraged her to read his books:

She said:

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Caron Lindsay

Young Liberals head to Birmingham for their Summer Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 12th August 2022 - 2:55 pm

About a million years ago I travelled from Aberdeen to Birmingham to attend my first ever SDP Students Conference. It was held in the Birmingham University Guild of Students and we all slept on the floor in our sleeping bags.

It was a great learning experience. I remember it was the first time I had done public speaking training and it scared the life out of me. It really helped, though.

I really enjoyed the experience and it obviously dug me deeper in to the party. Not even the SDPS “Have you got the guts to vote SDP” campaign the following year could put me off.

I met some lifelong friends in those early days.

So it warmed my heart a bit to see Young Liberals heading to Birmingham for their Summer conference. And they even have beds to sleep in in the 2020s.

Got to love Callum’s suitcase:

And it’s great to see that there are loads of new people heading to Conference for the first time:

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The Voice

Sarah Olney: GDP figures are proof that the Government is missing in action

By The Voice | Fri 12th August 2022 - 1:52 pm

Lib Dem Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney has demanded that the Government take action  to avoid a recession immediately after the announcement of the fall in GDP

She said:

The warning lights are flashing red but the government is missing in action.

There’s no time to waste, ministers must act now to boost confidence and avoid a recession.

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Simon McGrath

English Heritage plaque unveiled to Dadabhai Naoroji

By Simon McGrath | Fri 12th August 2022 - 11:55 am

A Blue Plaque has been installed on the house at  72 Anerley Park, Penge where Dadabhai Naoroji lived. Naoroji was the first  Indian elected as an MP ( by 5 votes!), one of the founders of the Indian National Congress and a leading member of the Zoroastrian community. A recent biography was reviewed by me on LDV here.

The unveiling included a Zoroastrian  prayer and a number of speeches about his life.  Representing the Lib Dems at the unveiling  were myself, Cllr Julie Ireland Leader of the Lib Dems on Bromley Council , Amna Ahmad the Party’s Vice President responsible for working with ethnic minority communities and local Lib Dem and former Director of Policy at LD HQ , Neil Stockley.

Cllr Julie Ireland said:

 I frequently drive past this house and had no idea that it had been the home of such a distinguished Liberal. Dadabhai Naoroji was an extraordinary man – he wasn’t just interested in India, he was outspoken in his support for women’s rights and their right to education and a supporter of Home Rule for Ireland.  We are proud that  he was a former resident of Bromley

Amna Ahmad said :

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Caron Lindsay

Ron Waddell’s funeral to take place on 16th August – livestream available

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 12th August 2022 - 10:25 am

You may remember we brought you the sad news that much-loved former Scottish Lib Dem Chief Exec died suddenly on 17th July.

As I wrote at the time:

In every single conversation I have had with people about Ron in the past two days, the words kind and gentle have featured very highly. He was a lovely man, always wise and one of those people who could instantly calm a frazzled situation or, dare I say, bruised egos.

He was one of the best humans, gone way too soon.

Ron’s wife Sandra Grieve would like us to share details of his funeral, which will take place next Tuesday, 16th August, at 1pm at Holy Trinity Church in Mapperley.

Sandra is aware that not everybody who wants to be there will be able to travel so the service will be livestreamed. Sandra and Ron moved to Derbyshire to be closer to their family in 2016. They lived in Lanark for a long time before that and the service will be conducted by their minister from there, Rev Bryan Kerr, who has helped organise the streaming.  Details of how to join are at the end of this post.

Jim Wallace, former Scottish Lib Dem Leader, Lib Dem Lords Leader and Scottish FIrst Minister knew Ron for many years. He said to me:

On Tuesday, we shall gather in Mapperley and online to pay tribute to Ron, a great Liberal, and to offer to Sandra and the family our comfort and support.

I knew Ron from days of Scottish Young Liberal conferences in the late 1970s. He served both the Scottish Liberal Party and Scottish Liberal Democrats in many different roles and ways, but always with enthusiasm and commitment. What a number of his party acquaintances may not know, is just how well respected he was in his other career as a teacher and education administrator. Talking to people who were Ron’s colleagues in politics or in education, similar comments re-echo: “wonderfully kind”, “caring and compassionate”, “loyal”, “unflappable” and “a good sense of humour”.

Ron’s was a life cut short all too soon, but through his contributions to politics, education and in the communities where he lived, it was a life well lived.

The details of the live stream are as follows;

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