Category Archives: News

Caron Lindsay

How will you help Helen win North Shropshire tomorrow?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 15th December 2021 - 9:43 pm

I’ve not long finished hosting the eve of poll Maraphone for Helen Morgan in North Shropshire. It was a busy night – breakout rooms and everything. And it took Eastbourne PPC Josh Babarinde a whole hour to find anyone who would admit to voting Conservative tomorrow.

And what was absolutely amazing was that Ed Davey came along and joined us for a while. The indefatigable campaigner wasn’t going to let a wee tussle with Omicron get him down. He has been to North Shropshire so often they will probably send him a Council Tax bill and he is clearly gutted that he can’t be there tomorrow. But to come and hit the phones despite feeling poorly is above and beyond the call of duty.

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NewsHound

Javid snubs meeting with West Midlands ambulance trust – highlighting Tory neglect of North Shropshire NHS services

By NewsHound | Tue 14th December 2021 - 9:30 am

Embed from Getty Images

The Health Secretary Sajid Javid has ignored requests for a meeting with his local ambulance trust in the West Midlands, despite warnings that record delays are posing a “catastrophic risk” to patients in the region.

Board documents from the trust reveal that the Health Secretary was invited to a meeting over four months ago but has still not replied. It comes despite the local trust warning that record handover delays at the region’s hospitals are putting patients at risk of severe harm or even death, as it moved its risk rating to the highest possible level for the first time ever. The trust recently apologised to one 95-year old woman who was left waiting for 11 hours on the floor of her home for an ambulance with a suspected broken leg.

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Paul Walter

+++Physical conference returns to your actual Brighton next autumn

By Paul Walter | Tue 14th December 2021 - 8:02 am

The chair of the party’s conference committee, Nick de Costa, has made this announcement:

I can announce that the dates for autumn 2022 conference will be: 17-20 September 2022 at the Brighton Centre.

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Mark Valladares

ALDE Party Council – the view from the cheap seats…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 13th December 2021 - 7:43 pm

Billed as the first meaningful opportunity for European liberals to meet in person since the pandemic started, approximately one hundred delegates and senior figures gathered at the Westin Excelsior hotel in Rome to scrutinise the work of the Bureau and to make decisions about the running and finances of the ALDE parry, along with half as many again online. The British delegation was split fifty-fifty, with five delegates in Rome, and five scattered around England and Wales, including me.

The event started with a speech from Sandro Gozi, the Secretary General of the …

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The Voice

Daisy Cooper: PM ‘moving the goalposts’ on booster jabs

By The Voice | Mon 13th December 2021 - 1:47 pm

Responding to the Department of Health rowing back on the Prime Minister’s promise for everyone to ‘get their booster before the New Year’, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

Boris Johnson’s panicked announcement has once again caused chaos and confusion. Last night he promised people they could get a booster before the New Year, now ministers are moving the goalposts and saying people will only be offered one by then.

Their failure to prepare properly now means that NHS websites have crashed, lateral flow tests are running out, and everyone working to get people vaccinated have been left scrambling to

…

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The Voice

Daisy Cooper: Boris Johnson needs to go

By The Voice | Sun 12th December 2021 - 12:30 pm

The constant drip feed of stories of Government Covid rule breaking continues, most recently with the picture of Boris Johnson taking part in a quiz as the Daily Mirror reports:

After this latest revelation, Lib Dem Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper said that the Prime Minister was undermining the ongoing fight against Covid and needs to go.

She said:

This slew of rule-breaking revelations leaves Boris Johnson with nowhere left to hide.

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Brian Paddick

Brian Paddick: Police Bill is most authoritarian, illiberal Bill I have seen

By Brian Paddick | Sun 12th December 2021 - 10:29 am

The Police Bill is not just about curtailing the right to protest.  The new legislation allows the Home Secretary to force local authorities and other public bodies to hand over sensitive, personal information to the police, even against the informed judgement of professionals on the ground.  Liberal Democrats in the Lords will vote against this further extension of centralised power over local decision-making.

Part of the truly illiberal Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill that is not getting much publicity is a new duty on public bodies to give information to the police, so the cops can try to arrest their way out of the problem of serious violence.  What we actually need is a truly multi-agency, public health approach, where enforcement is only one part of the solution.  For example, when I went to Scotland I met a young father, whose partner committed suicide, who realised their son would grow-up without either of his parents if he did not turn away from violence, and with support, he has done just that.

Of course, if anyone has information that will help reduce or prevent serious violence, they have a duty to share it, and this Bill establishes a statutory duty on public bodies to share that information with each other, including the police sharing their information with others.  To the extent that the Bill removes barriers to allow the sharing of information, we support it.  In the wake of the horrific case of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, the importance of information sharing is vital, although the changes in this Bill would not have affected that case.

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NewsHound

Lib Dems call for hospitality summit amid “unprecedented” level of Christmas cancellations

By NewsHound | Fri 10th December 2021 - 3:27 pm

Daisy Cooper and Sarah Olney have joined with Paul Scully Conservative MP for Sutton and Cheam in a letter to the government calling for urgent support for hospitality firms impacted by plan B measures.

Concern has been mounting in pubs and restaurants in city centres about a drop off in trade during what is usually their busiest time of year after Boris Johnson issued new work-from-home guidance. The MPs say hospitality businesses are experiencing “unprecedented rates of booking cancellations” this Christmas.

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NewsHound

Lib Dems demand full statutory inquiry into Prime Minister’s flat refurbishment

By NewsHound | Fri 10th December 2021 - 1:16 pm

Boris Johnson continues to battle his way through the maelstrom of criticism over government partying while most of the rest of the country obeyed the social distancing rules at the cost of a happy Christmas. But as so often happens when one skeleton is found in the closet, another is found under the floorboards.

Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain today called for an independent public inquiry into the refurbishment of Boris Johnson’s flat, after new leaked messages show the PM knew more than previously alleged.

The party believes an independent, statutory public inquiry is needed to get to the bottom of the allegations. The inquiry would have the power to summon witnesses and require them to give evidence under oath, including current and former government ministers and officials, and demand the disclosure of any relevant official documents and communications.

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Mark Valladares

8 December 2021 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 8th December 2021 - 10:30 pm
  • PM press conference: Inquiry must look into all Downing Street parties
  • Covid pass app crashes days before vaccine passports introduced

PM press conference: Inquiry must look into all Downing Street parties

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has called for the Cabinet Office inquiry to be extended into all parties that took place in Number 10 last year, along with any that took place in other government departments.

It comes after Boris Johnson confirmed at a press conference today that he has only asked Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to look into the party that took place on December 18 last year, not an earlier gathering …

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Mark Valladares

ALDE Party Council preview – Rome(o), Rome(o), wherefore art thou, Rome(o)…

By Mark Valladares | Wed 8th December 2021 - 8:58 am

Holding any international meeting in a time of plague is a challenge, but when the rules are in such a state of flux as has been caused by the Omicron variant, there is a sense that you might be better staying at home. But, despite the requires for tests, passports and all the associated hassle, at least some of the party’s delegation to ALDE Party Council will be travelling to Rome for meetings on Friday and Saturday. It is a hybrid meeting so, for those of us who, for various reasons, can’t or won’t travel, it will be another series of sessions in front of laptops or PCs.

The key matters of business are;

  • finance – the 2022 budget is to be adopted
  • membership – we have two applications from parties in Georgia and Lithuania
  • urgency resolutions
  • the future of the ALDE Individual Members group

One of the joys of state funding is a degree of predictability, and the fact that the ALDE Party receives most of its income via a direct grant from the European Commission does make for a rather less fraught financial position than is the case for British political parties. All of the European political groupings are funded in the same way, with strict limits on corporate and individual donations, and as funding has become more generous in recent years, it enables more Europe-wide campaigning, albeit restricted to the confines of the European Union.

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Mark Valladares

7 December 2021 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 7th December 2021 - 11:40 pm
  • Davey: PM must fess up over Xmas party
  • Williamson party: Met Police must investigate

Davey: PM must fess up over Xmas party

Responding to a new leaked video which shows the Prime Minister’s former press secretary joking about a party in Downing Street last Christmas, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey MP said:

People will rightly be furious with Boris Johnson, not just for holding a party during lockdown, but also for refusing to own up to it. Once again he shows it’s one rule for us and one rule for him, with the Conservatives continuing to take people for granted.

Whilst millions

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Mark Pack

Only 1 day to go to have your voice heard!

By Mark Pack | Tue 7th December 2021 - 5:24 pm

The Party is currently consulting on how to reform the Federal Board.

The voices of members such as yourself are critical if we are to deliver on the recommendations of the 2019 General Election “Thornhill” review. We have already shown progress in Chesham and Amersham, and have an amazing opportunity to deliver another blow to the Tory Government in North Shropshire (volunteer here or donate!) but to be successful in the long term we need to get our own structures right.

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Mark Valladares

Guardian – vote Liberal Democrat in North Shropshire

By Mark Valladares | Mon 6th December 2021 - 9:40 pm

It would be fair to say that the relationship between Liberal Democrats and the Guardian has been somewhat lukewarm for some time. The likes of Polly “that Liberal Democrat idea is very good, vote Labour” Toynbee have given us a thorough kicking for doing a bunch of things in coalition that Labour would have probably done had they not lost in 2010. But I digress…

Today’s Guardian editorial, headed “The Guardian view on a byelection test: Labour voters should back the Lib Dems”, is perhaps a sign that the pragmatists are at the editorial helm. In a forceful piece, they note;

But

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Mark Valladares

UPDATED – two North Shropshire Conservative Councillors defect

By Mark Valladares | Mon 6th December 2021 - 1:04 pm

Well, well, well, what is happening to the Tories in North Shropshire? It is reported this morning that Anthony Allen, a Town Councillor in Market Drayton, has defected to Reclaim, who have claimed him as their first elected councillor.

Now, as a parish councillor myself, describing Mr Allen as a top Tory councillor, as Reclaim have done, is a bit like describing me as a senior figure in Suffolk local government, but it does give the impression of a Conservative campaign in disarray.

As reported by the Independent;

The 54-year-old cab company owner said his former party had “gone soft on illegal immigration,

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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Wendy Chamberlain’s first speech as Scottish Deputy Leader

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 5th December 2021 - 12:30 pm

Wendy Chamberlain has been elected as Scottish Lib Dems Deputy Leader.

 

She spoke to a gathering of party members in Edinburgh:

She said:

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NewsHound

Ed Davey says Lib Dems challenging Tories hard in North Shropshire

By NewsHound | Sun 5th December 2021 - 10:31 am

With just 12 days to go before the by-election, called after Owen Paterson resigned amid allegations that he had used his parliamentary position to lobby for companies that paid him, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey spoke to BBC Midlands Today yesterday from Oswestry.

We are getting a sense that it is very close between us and the Conservatives. We are clearly challenging them very hard and Helen Morgan, our candidate, is going on really well. We are focussing on the issues people really care about like ambulance waiting times. Frankly, people feel taken for granted by the Conservatives. So, we

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NewsHound

Tim Farron proposes bill to protect farmers from poor trade deals

By NewsHound | Sat 4th December 2021 - 2:31 pm

The Lib Dems have proposed new legislation to protect Welsh farmers from being undercut by food trade deals that do not meet the UK’s environment and animal welfare standards.

A private member’s bill from Spokesperson for Rural Affairs Tim Farron MP would require the government’s Trade and Agriculture Commission to assess the impact of any new trade deal on UK farmers, and guarantee that MPs had the final say on trade deals initiated by the government. This would include an assessment of the impact of new trade deals on farming communities in each region and nation of the UK.

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NewsHound

Ed Davey says Tories show utter disregard for small businesses and calls for tax cut

By NewsHound | Sat 4th December 2021 - 7:35 am

It is Small Business Saturday. Writing in City AM, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey says the Peppa Pig episode showed that Boris Johnson does not take the business community seriously. He says small businesses need help fast and calls for tax cuts which would benefit the smallest companies by an average of £5,000 each. He also wants the Employment Allowance to be quadrupled to £16,000, allowing a small business to employ five people without national insurance contributions.

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NewsHound

Johnson panic visit to North Shropshire a cynical attempt to gloss over decades of neglect

By NewsHound | Fri 3rd December 2021 - 5:41 pm

Commenting on Boris Johnson’s visit to North Shropshire today, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

The Prime Minister turning up in North Shropshire is nothing less than a panic visit, two weeks out from the election because he’s scared of an upset.

His visit will be seen for what it is – a cynical attempt to gloss over the fact that people are worried sick about ambulance wait times and feel taken for granted.

The people of North Shropshire are ready to send a message to Johnson’s government: their local health services have been failed, local farmers are being

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NewsHound

Ed Davey: Sajid Javid care package for unpaid carers “insulting”

By NewsHound | Fri 3rd December 2021 - 11:40 am

Cash for unpaid carers amounts to 87p a year, Ed Davey told the Independent yesterday. This comment followed the publication of the government’s long delayed white paper on reforming funding for social care.

Ed Davey said that the funding on offer over a three-year period was an “insulting” response to the sacrifices made by millions of people who have cared for disabled or ill family members and other loved ones during the pandemic. They are now at “breaking point” after months without respite.

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Low turnout as Tories retain Old Bexley and Sidcup with reduced majority

By Andy Boddington | Fri 3rd December 2021 - 7:15 am

Conservative Louie French won the suburban London seat yesterday but the vote saw the Tories’ majority of nearly 19,000 slashed to just 4,478. The by-election had been called after the death in October of the well-liked former cabinet minister James Brokenshire. French won 11,189 votes, well head of the Labour challenger Daniel Francis who gained 6,711 votes. The turnout was low at 34 per cent compared to almost 70 per cent in the constituency at the 2019 general election.

Labour increased its share of the vote by over 7 per cent while the Conservatives’ share of the vote fell by more than 13 per cent. Reform UK kept its deposit, while both Lib Dems and the Greens lost theirs.

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Caron Lindsay

Young Liberals produce new campaign guide

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 2nd December 2021 - 4:35 pm

As Helen Morgan’s campaign in North Shropshire gathers momentum – see last night’s post showing that we are doing even better there than in Chesham and Amersham at the same stage) – party members are flocking to the seat.

The Young Liberals are always a big part of any by-election and have already held several action days there with more to come until polling day on 16th.

You have no idea how much I want those shoes, by the way.

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Mary Reid

Wendy Chamberlain on QT tonight

By Mary Reid | Thu 2nd December 2021 - 9:13 am

Wendy Chamberlain, Lib Dem MP for North East Fife, is on the Question Time panel tonight. The programme is being broadcast from Weston-super-Mare on BBC 1 at 10.35pm.

With her will be Maggie Throup (Conservative MP for Erewash), Thangam Debbonaire (Labour MP for Bristol West), Professor Peter Openshaw (Professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College) and Theo Paphitis (retail entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den regular).

Expect questions on asylum seekers, No 10 Christmas parties and the impact of the Omicron variant.

 

 

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems mark World Aids Day

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 1st December 2021 - 9:30 pm

Today is World AIDS day. I lived through the 1980s when a Tory Government ramped up prejudice against LGBT people. It was awful. It made so many of my friends fear being open about how they were. It made them suffer bullying and harassment.

Russell T Davies’ drama It’s a Sin brought that horror to our screens earlier this year. I was in bits by the end of episode 1. It’s a very powerful warning against demonising any group of people.

The theme of the day this year is about ending inequalities. You can find out more on the World Health Organisation website here. We have to end inequalities in prevention and treatment. At present more than 1 in 4 people internationally don’t have access to antiretroviral medications. That has to be fixed.

Lib Dems have showed their support for the day:

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Caron Lindsay

Ed Davey challenges Boris Johnson to do more for farmers

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 1st December 2021 - 8:30 pm

Ed Davey took the opportunity at Prime Minister’s Questions today to challenge the Prime Minister to do more to support farmers. He mentioned three places in particular. Feel free to take a wild guess about which parliamentary constituency they are in.*

Farmers across our country are crucial to our nation’s prosperity, as has been shown, once again through the pandemic, but many are now on the brink. Farmers across the country, in villages such as Hodnet, Baschurch and Woodseaves and countless others, are about to see their payments cut by at least 5%, starting this very month. The Prime Minister promised a new support system, rewarding more sustainable farming, but in the meantime he seems prepared to see many British farms go bankrupt. There is an easy solution: stop cutting the current system’s essential payments until the new scheme is fully rolled out. Will the Prime Minister do that, and help our struggling farmers before it is too late?

The Prime Minister’s response will be of very little comfort to farmers who are struggling.

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems looking good in North Shropshire according to “confidential” briefing

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 1st December 2021 - 7:21 pm

If you want people to spread some news, the best way to get them to do it is to send them an email marked “Confidential” and tell them not to pass information on because it’s “secret”.

To add a dash of drama, you send it out at 6:03 am, saying that you’ve just come out of the “daily briefing with the by-election team in North Shropshire.”

I don’t doubt for a second that Lib Dem Chief Exec Mike Dixon is an early riser and his cannily timed email to catch party members when they had their breakfast or were on their morning commute was a great way to get the message out that we are doing well.

The news that he was imparting, that our internal polling shows that we are only 10 points behind the Tories in the postal vote, had already appeared on Twitter last night.

This compares well with the Chesham and Amersham situation at the same time.

Certainly this chimes with the accounts of every single person I know (and that’s a lot of people, including some hardened cynics) who has been knocking doors in North Shropshire, and with my own efforts on the phone.

There is a lot of excitement about this by-election and there is a real feeling that we should not limit our ambitions.

Our candidate, Helen Morgan, is absolutely brilliant and is already acting as an MP should:

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Mark Valladares

30 November 2021 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 30th November 2021 - 10:30 pm
  • Storm Arwen: Govt “abandoning” rural communities hit by power cuts
  • Zahawi breaks yet another promise as school absences soar by 80,000
  • Bring back work from home to help save Christmas

Storm Arwen: Govt “abandoning” rural communities hit by power cuts

The Liberal Democrats have demanded that the Government provide emergency support to rural communities who have been left without power for days after Storm Arwen.

In a letter to ministers from Liberal Democrat Communities Spokesperson Tim Farron MP, Welsh Party Leader Jane Dodds MS and local North Shropshire candidate Helen Morgan, the party warns that rural communities in areas like North Shropshire are being taken for granted and “abandoned by the Government in their time of need.”

Tim Farron also raised the issue in Parliament yesterday and criticised the Government for failing to make an official ministerial statement on the issue.

The letter calls for ministers to step in and provide food, emergency accommodation and other essential supplies to vulnerable people on the ground impacted by the storm. It also urges the armed forces to be brought in to provide emergency electricity generators to communities until power is restored, and for the Government to provide additional support to engineers working hard to bring back power as soon as possible.

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Mark Valladares

29 November 2021 – today’s press release

By Mark Valladares | Mon 29th November 2021 - 10:50 pm

PM must stop sale of vaccine manufacturing centre

The Liberal Democrats have demanded that Boris Johnson immediately steps in to halt the sale of the Vaccine Manufacturing Innovation Centre at Harwell near Oxford, describing the move as “short-sighted penny pinching.”

It was reported this morning that the centre is being sold off to recoup some of the money invested by the Government.

On a visit to the centre last year, Boris Johnson claimed that the new vaccine centre “will be able to manufacture enough vaccine doses for the whole UK population… which would transform how we beat this virus and prepare for future …

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The Voice

Daisy Cooper outlines Lib Dems’ 5 point plan for clinically extremely vulnerable people

By The Voice | Sun 28th November 2021 - 2:57 pm

As the world’s scientists try to work out the extent of the danger posed by new Covid variant Omicron and Governments grapple with with what it might mean for the Winter ahead and Christmas in particular, Lib Dem Health spokesperson Daisy Cooper has set out a 5 point plan to address the needs of one group of people let down by the Government.

In the first lockdown, those who were clinically extremely vulnerable had to completely isolate. Our Mary Reid wrote a brilliant Isolation Diary which she later expanded into a book.

The impact on those who had to shield was profound but in recent months they have been forgotten. In fact, the Observer reports that over 100,000 people with compromised immune systems have yet to have their booster.

The emergence of Omicron will no doubt be yet another moment of anxiety for those who were shielding and those who love them.

Daisy said that the Government needs to do much more for the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable:

It’s often said that how a society treats its most vulnerable is the measure of its humanity, but if that’s the case, then this Government does not measure up.

People who are clinically extremely vulnerable and their families are incredibly worried about the news of a new variant on our shores. For too long, the Government has ignored these people, their concerns around the vaccine programme and the lack of guidance and support.

The Government must not ignore them any longer: it must be proactive in tackling this new variant and protect those most at risk. The clinically vulnerable deserve clear guidance and support from ministers instead of being treated as an afterthought.

The decision to end the shielding programme – when many continued to shield – left our most vulnerable feeling like the rug had been pulled out from underneath them. It’s high time the Government put support measures back in place, including getting on top of the utter mess surrounding third primary doses and introducing a shielding programme that genuinely supports those who need it.

The five point plan is as follows:

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