Category Archives: Op-eds

Tom Arms

Stick to the values to win the war

By Tom Arms | Tue 6th December 2016 - 11:01 am

We have won the battle of Richmond Park. No, let’s be honest, we routed the opposition, beat them into the ground and then stomped on them. Quite a feat for the nice people’s party. Richmond Park was an upset of historic proportions of which every Lib Dem can be justifiably proud.

BUT, it is still only the first battle in what will be a long, hard and bloody war. Just how difficult it will be was demonstrated during the BBC’s by-election night coverage when plucky Baroness Susan Kramer skilfully parried vicious attacks from every other person in the room, including chairman Andrew Neil.

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Paul Sagar

Brexit and the denial of democracy

By Paul Sagar | Mon 5th December 2016 - 7:01 pm

 

No sooner had Sarah Olney swept to her dramatic victory in Richmond Park, than some panicking Brexiteers began peddling a ‘clever’ rhetorical question on social media. It went roughly like this:  “With a candidate that didn’t win the popular vote on only a 53% turnout, shouldn’t Tim Farron be calling for a second by-election?!” The ‘joke’, of course, is an attempt to claim that Lib Dem attitudes towards the referendum are hypocritical, or self-undermining.

A moment’s thought, however, brings home that any alleged comparison between Richmond Park and the Brexit result is really rather silly. More interestingly, however, seeing why it is silly points us towards a striking fact about a now prominent wing of the Brexit position: how deeply undemocratic it has become.

We can see this by first stating a blindingly obvious truth: that there will be a second vote in the Richmond Park constituency. It will happen when the next general election is called. (And then after that, and after that, and after that again, whenever there is a parliamentary poll.) The Liberal Democrats are entirely prepared to have their victory contested, and potentially overturned. That’s just in the DNA of parliamentary democracy. No Lib Dem thinks of denying it.

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Bernard Aris

Dutch “Liberal” VVD cosying up to the Tories and distancing itself from “European” Liberals

By Bernard Aris | Mon 5th December 2016 - 4:56 pm

vvdIn the past week, attentive British citizens could see a clear divide opening up between the two Dutch ALDE member parties, the EU-enthusiasts and Social Liberals (in Beveridge’s tradition) D66, and the populist (see the enduring stature of prominent ex-leaders like Hans Wiegel) VVD.

On Monday, a short furore erupted in the British tabloid media over conversation notes gleaned from the writing pad of a Tory political assistant coming out of Downing Street 10 (or 9: the Brexit Department). She was the assistant of Tory party vice-chairman (International) Mark Field, and she and Field were accompanying foreign visitors who obviously had had a meeting about Brexit. The notes appeared to suggest that the Tory Brexit strategy is as Boris Johnson sometime brags: “have your cake and eat it”. Nobody asked or mentioned who those foreigners were: the leader, Mr. Halbe Zijlstra, and Foreign Affairs spokesman, Mr. Han ten Broeke, of the VVD parliamentary party.

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Arnold Kiel

How the UK economy’s key sectors link into the EU’s single market

By Arnold Kiel | Mon 5th December 2016 - 3:15 pm

A report with this title was released last week by the Centre for Economics and Business Research for Open Britain.

This report was somewhat shyly presented by cautious Remainers as a case against sectoral EU-negotiations. More importantly, however, it makes a compelling case for continued full membership in the European single market.

It should be mandatory reading for everyone who still believes that:

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Katharine Pindar

Goodwill towards us is growing, and so it should

By Katharine Pindar | Mon 5th December 2016 - 1:11 pm

 

More than 2000 years ago, so the story goes, angels sang ‘Goodwill towards all mankind.’ It’s a sentiment that Liberal Democrats can generally support. The point I want to suggest, however, is that the British people feel an increasing goodwill towards us, which seems likely to grow and enhance our electoral chances.

The first essential was that we should be seen and heard. Now Sarah Olney’s magnificent victory has given us the media coverage that dispels the 18-month myth of our irrelevance.

The next essential was that the image projected should be an attractive one. For the voters of Richmond Park and Kingston it obviously was, and for us Lib Dems the sight of the beaming faces of victor and Leader together in front of the cameras was a delight.

Image is vital for success in politics, but what did that image amount to for the public? What, for a start, was the new MP saying? “I knew I was a Liberal – I believe in openness, fairness, compassion, working with our neighbours at home and around the world”, Sarah said in her acceptance speech. She spoke of the rise of anger and bitterness in politics, and pledged that “We will stand up for the open, tolerant, united Britain that we believe in.”

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William Hobhouse

Next priority – elect a second Green MP

By William Hobhouse | Mon 5th December 2016 - 9:32 am

caroline-lucas-600

I hope it hasn’t been forgotten that the Green Party didn’t stand a candidate in Richmond Park, and expressly backed Sarah Olney. Labour did stand a candidate, but it was widely reported that some Labour members didn’t think they should have.

On the other side of course, neither the Conservatives nor UKIP stood, therefore leaving the centre-right vote clear for Zac Goldsmith. It was an unusual by-election, 95% of the vote went to two people. There may not be another by-election like this in this parliament.

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Caron Lindsay

Sleaford & North Hykeham: Steeped in Lib Dem history and an important part of the Lib Dem revival

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 4th December 2016 - 10:23 pm

Every time I hear more about what’s going on in the Liberal Democrat campaign in Sleaford and North Hykeham, it just makes me smile.

My 11 years in the East Midlands has left me with a huge affection for the area and I’m just thrilled that an initially small band of Lib Dems with a mission are delivering an energetic and positive campaign in a part of the world that has been relatively unblessed with regular Focus delivery. Until now.

Candidate Ross Pepper and ace campaigner and regular LDV contributor Ed Fordham have put together a campaign that has reached all those communities the Tories have been taking for granted for years. They even have a minibus!

Ross has the advantage of being the only candidate who voted for Remain in the referendum so he alone is in tune with 40% of the electorate. But it’s not just about Remain and Leave. Many people are alarmed by what has happened since the Referendum, how the Tories are pushing us towards a hard Brexit and how Labour don’t really seem interested in doing even the most basic job of an opposition. They like what we have to say about putting the power in their hands by giving them a vote on the final deal.

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Paul Walter

Don’t pass by homeless/needy people on the street

By Paul Walter | Sat 3rd December 2016 - 6:31 pm

Often we get into a habit of walking past homeless/needy people sitting on the side of the street. We are told that it is wrong to give them money, so we just pass awkwardly by.

It takes a lot of courage, but with temperatures dropping, I would suggest just stopping and chatting to the next person you see in such a situation. They may ask for money – and I would suggest declining that request. But what you can do is offer to go and buy them a drink of coffee/tea/soup or a sandwich or some chocolate.

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Natalie Chindipha

January Training for Trainers – book your place now!

By Natalie Chindipha | Sat 3rd December 2016 - 11:55 am

The Diversity Team is delighted to announce that it will be organising a two-day Training for Trainers Course, from Saturday 7 – Sunday 8 January 2017 in London at Lib Dem HQ.  The course is designed to accredit new trainers who can deliver training courses on behalf of the party.

This course is part of our ongoing effort to increase the amount of diversity training (ethnic minority, gender balance and unconscious bias) available within the party, therefore priority will be given to those we who can demonstrate a commitment to diversity training.

The course will cover a range of essential skills including:

  • How to develop your presentation skills
  • How to deliver effective presentations
  • How to design engaging training material
  • How to give and receive feedback
  • Understanding how different people learn and absorb new information
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Jon Taylor

1250 days to save the NHS: A new approach

By Jon Taylor | Sat 3rd December 2016 - 9:55 am

First a little about myself. I am 53 years old and have worked in health care for over 22 years. I have voted Liberal, latterly Liberal Democrat, for nearly 40 years now. I, like others, have been frustrated by the ongoing swing politics that has affected the United Kingdom since the last war. Whilst like many others I am saddened by the outcome of the referendum I know as a party we are committed to be outward looking and pro-European. This will mean maintaining and fostering close links our European neighbours. However we need to plan now as to how we can win the next General Election in 2020, and in doing so protect to NHS as a public service.

The voting public must be made aware what is at stake and we must put forward a radical but costed vision for the health service. In 1997 New Labour came to power and pumped money into the NHS whilst establishing targets for waiting times. This was a sensible approach, but in recent years this has evolved into ever-increasing ‘fines’ for failing to meet those targets. Therefore, despite the Conservative government’s much lauded promise ‘to increase funding’ for the NHS, the reality is that year on year hospital trusts fall ever further into debt, leading to cuts in staff & frontline services in real terms. This is neither a responsible or sustainable approach to meeting the needs of the public or the NHS.

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Mary Reid

What a campaign!

By Mary Reid | Fri 2nd December 2016 - 5:38 pm

sarah-olney-2

The Richmond Park campaign was the biggest the party has ever done. Phew!

In writing this post I don’t want to give away too many campaigning strategies, although the media have been pretty quick to spot our ways of working. They know that we are good at ‘deploying’ volunteers, but they don’t really understand how we do it. How, they wonder, do we manage to recruit 1000 people in one weekend, from all over the country? How do we get them to travel and stay at their own expense and then embark on some punishing walking, talking and delivering in the cold and dark for hours on end?

However, I know that many of our readers do understand what that is all about. We all care passionately about our values and the vision we have for our society, and we enjoy putting them into action in the company of like-minded people, who quickly become our friends.

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Kirsten Johnson

The Green Agenda: Lib Dems in Business dinner

By Kirsten Johnson | Fri 2nd December 2016 - 3:45 pm

The environment was our theme at the Liberal Democrats in Business dinner in Oxford last night (after a session of polling-day phone banking for Sarah Olney!).

We were pleased to welcome as speakers Baroness Kate Parminter, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader in the Lords and Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Dr Imad Ahmed of the Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University.

Dr Ahmed spoke of recent research into nano-particles in air pollution and how they affect our brains. The study, and how air pollution is a possible cause of Alzheimer’s, has been reported here in the UK and around the world.

Just in the news today is reporting of a move by major cities to ban diesel vehicles. This is due to their production of particulate matter (PM) and nitrous oxide (NOx). Dr Ahmed, in his talk, showed pictures of the effect of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on the brain.

The link between our health and the air we breathe was also made by Kate Parminter. Baroness Parminter spoke to us on environmental policy and what we should be doing now.

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The Voice

WATCH: Nick Clegg: Voters don’t like being told by Brexiteers that they have no right to a say

By The Voice | Fri 2nd December 2016 - 2:13 pm

Classy stuff from Nick Clegg on the BBC News Channel. It was put to him that we couldn’t extrapolate a wider Liberal Democrat resurgence from the Richmond Park result. That’s perfectly right, he said, and then came out with a whole stream of stats showing how well we are doing in local government by-elections and everywhere where people get a chance to hear what we have to say.

He also said that Brexiteers are rubbing voters up the wrong way by dismissing their concerns and right to be heard. Watch the interview here.

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Caron Lindsay

Richmond Park: what happens next for Sarah Olney and her team?

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 2nd December 2016 - 12:23 pm

10 years ago, I was part of the team in the last by-electon we gained, when Willie Rennie spectacularly won Dunfermline and West Fife in then Chancellor Gordon Brown’s backyard. At that time it was a political earthquake. It was also a huge victory at a time of crisis for our party. Only weeks before, Charles Kennedy had resigned as leader. During the by-election campaign there seemed to be a tabloid scandal about our leadership candidates around every half hour. We still came through and elected Willie as our 63rd MP.

A decade on, we only have a 7th of that number and the Richmond Park by-election win comes at a time when our party has stared down extinction. It confirms what we have come to realise over the past few months – that the old adage that where we have a presence, and are willing to put the effort in, we can have some spectacular results. That should also impress anyone who might be thinking about backing us financially. That backing in turn gives us the capacity to expand our operations, creating a virtuous cycle. We have to make sure that we seize this moment.

Sarah Olney enters the Commons as part of a band of 9 and as the only woman. The 8 men will need to make extra effort to make sure that they welcome her and listen to her.  One of the things we found really useful was the advice and support from colleagues and I’m sure that they will have lots of helpful advice for her and her team.  Susan Kramer as the previous MP for the constituency will no doubt be a marvellous help too.

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Caron Lindsay

Richmond Park is an important milestone – but it’s only the start

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 2nd December 2016 - 9:58 am

Well, we’re winning parliamentary by-elections again. Who’d have thought it possible on that awful night almost 19 months ago?

Liberal Democrats everywhere are grinning this morning. We’ve seen the brilliant local government results over the past few months. We saw the amazing Liz Leffman surge forward in the Tory heartland of Witney in October. Now, we have actually won another MP.

We shouldn’t under-estimate how massive a task winning Richmond Park was. It’s only been 37 days since Zac resigned. We had just over 5 weeks to change the agenda from Heathrow to Brexit and win the argument. A combination of clever literature, a fantastic candidate and an army of activists prepared to drop everything did it. Way back in the 90s when we were winning by-elections all the time, we had at least 3 times as long to make our case.

We also shouldn’t under-estimate how important it was that we won this. It was a seat we used to hold with a whacking great Remain vote. If we hadn’t, even if we had had a Witney type surge, people would have doubted our ability to change the political weather.

Sarah Olney’s victory has shown that we have still got what it takes to win the big moments. That is incredibly important for the outside world to see. Theresa May will be hoping that her MPs in similar seats to Richmond, where there is Liberal Democrat history, don’t cause any further by-elections.

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David Thorpe

What if productivity statistics are not truly telling the tale?

By David Thorpe | Wed 30th November 2016 - 4:06 pm

In the Autumn Statement, Philip Hammond spoke at length about the productivity crisis in the UK, and how he intends to address it.

And doubtless, the creation of higher skilled jobs, of better broadband, of better trains, will all make it easier for UK workers to do more, benefitting the workers and the economy alike.

But what if the productivity statistics are wrong?

Although they hardly belong to the same generation as me, I have three friends or acquaintances who have yet to reach retirement age, but have pension provisions sufficiently large that they are not seeking employment, nor do they claim unemployment benefit.

The government has such folk as a zero in the productivity number, they don’t appear in the unemployment data, nor in the wage data.

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Caron Lindsay

Maria Munir chosen as Girls’ Champion for BBC’s 100 Women

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 30th November 2016 - 2:40 pm

Lib Dem member Maria Munir, from Watford, won widespread global respect and admiration when they came out as non binary to President Obama at a town hall meeting in April this year. Let’s remind ourselves of that moment:

They spoke to the BBC here about their experience:

I just felt this moment of euphoria that finally I would be able to raise and highlight the issue that non-binary transgender people face.

If anyone has the power to change things for people like myself across the world, it is President Obama.”

Maria said their family history made the situation even more poignant.

“I started to feel the tears well up. My parents are immigrants. My granddad did manual labour in Pakistan. My dad worked as a manual labourer in Saudi Arabia before coming here to start a business with literally nothing.
“For me, aged 20, to be sat in front of the President of the United States, leader of the free world, to be able to pitch to him social action…

Maria has now been named as one of eight Girls’ Champion as part of the BBC’s 100 Women series. They will be able to use their voice to highlight issues that affect girls and non binary and transgender people.

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Tony Lloyd

But we are the party of freedom

By Tony Lloyd | Wed 30th November 2016 - 8:55 am

Martin Roche wrote an eloquent piece, with a follow up,  calling for Liberal Democrats to brand themselves:

The Party of Freedom

Though generally well received some thought the branding conflicted with other values; fairness, equality, and community. Many thought the slogan linked us to the excesses of market ideologues and libertarians.

Are fairness and equality such rivals of freedom? Is someone’s freedom not limited if they lack decent housing or other basic needs? Is their freedom not limited if they cannot access information or lack the education needed to make use of it? Is someone’s freedom not limited if they suffer from discrimination or if they are sufficiently impoverished that they are excluded participating in society?

Of course that person’s freedom is limited. Others do not understand that. We do. That is why we are The Party of Freedom.

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Scott Craig

A great compromise is needed to reunite the United Kingdom

By Scott Craig | Tue 29th November 2016 - 1:58 pm

When the American constitutional convention assembled in Philidelphia in 1787 to revise the articles of confederation and create the present US Constitution, it had to find a way of balancing the interests of large states with those of smaller ones.

The problem was that some states wanted the number of congressional representatives to be proportional to the population of a state, while others wanted the number of representatives to be the same for all states. Naturally, each state preferred the plan which would give them a larger say in how the government was run.

After much debate, the impasse was solved by …

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Joe Otten

Reaction to Fidel Castro’s legacy

By Joe Otten | Tue 29th November 2016 - 12:01 pm

The death of Cuban revolutionary, dictator and hard left cause celebre, Fidel Castro has reopened a debate on his legacy.

Tim Farron released the following statement

There is no doubt that Fidel Castro was a vastly significant 20th century leader, but even as we respectfully acknowledge this on his passing, we must not overlook the appalling human rights abuses including brutal summary executions for which he was responsible

As expected Jeremy Corbyn was among the more fulsome in praise, to objections from progressives:

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David Gray

The post-truth era is here – what does it mean?

By David Gray | Mon 28th November 2016 - 12:32 pm

 

We’ve been hearing a lot recently about the ‘post-truth‘ era and what that means for the world. Generally, this is framed as meaning that the truth doesn’t matter any more; that it is becoming easier, and perhaps fully acceptable, for politicians to lie and get away with it. But I have started to wonder: what if it’s worse than that? What if the post-truth era means that people now deny the very existence of truth?

The roots of this lie in resentment towards politics as a whole. People have always dismissed politicians as ‘all a bunch of liars/crooks’, but it’s arguably become more commonplace to do so since the global recession hit. The natural progression from this is that you get to a point where the truth doesn’t matter. You start to draw a false equivalency between all politicians, painting them all as equally bad as each other, when in reality there are many good politicians as well as shades of grey within the bad ones. The US Presidential election is the obvious example here.

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Simon Foster

Lib Dems surge as Corbyn’s Labour falters behind Tories

By Simon Foster | Mon 28th November 2016 - 10:49 am

Since May 2016, the Liberal Democrats have been the clear winners when it comes to taking seats in local by-elections.  Many campaigners will have seen the following graph:
bar-chart
With 21 seats gained, and only 1 lost, the net result of +20, with our vote share averaging up 9% is a good recovery which the party should be proud of.   We need to continue to work hard, but at the same time, steady progress.

Conventional thinking would have us believe that when a party is in Government, they do badly in elections.  Conversely, opposition parties should be doing well.  Therefore, if Labour were to be on a serious road to power, it should be thrashing the Conservatives by achieving net gains from them.

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Robert Coster

Let’s stop scapegoating older people

By Robert Coster | Mon 28th November 2016 - 8:59 am

 

Since the Referendum and in the reaction since the Autumn statement I’ve seen a worrying rise in the amount of abuse being directed to older members of society based on the notion that they are somehow groaning under the weight of so much cash, greedily demanding benefits, whilst denying subsequent generations access to the EU with their vote to leave.

I am worried.

We, as a society, seem to be lurching from one scapegoat to the next in a desperate attempt to blame anyone except ourselves for the state this country finds itself in. Whilst it is true that many pensioners have large savings pots, pensions and may have done well from the property booms of the 80’s and 90’s, others do not and find themselves truly just about managing. The exception is not the rule. Yet the generalisations seen during our last panic towards working age benefits recipients seem to be being applied to pensioners. They are all bleeding this country dry and something must be done, some penalty must be paid for denying the generations to come access to a European future.

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Martin Roche

The Party of Freedom – where now?

By Martin Roche | Sun 27th November 2016 - 2:30 pm

Liberal Democrat Voice was kind enough to run my piece on the Liberal Democrats adopting the strategic slogan, The Party of Freedom, as an umbrella proposition for all the party stands for and to give voters an elemental reason to want to vote for us. The article elicited a lively range of opinions. Most, I think, favourable to my thinking.

So, I want to keep the debate alive because I think the idea has real electoral legs.

As a new member of the party I am completely ignorant of its structures and processes. I’m equally ignorant of its internal traditions. So, I think I can use the freshness of my membership to be pretty objective. In this case, ignorance may have some benefits.

By achievement, by attitudes, by policy, by instinct, the Liberal Democrats have always been the party of freedom and the party that gave people an alternative to the excesses of free market economics, spirit crushing Marxism and the xenophobia and insularity of UKIP.

For a time, it looked like the battle of capital versus labour was old hat, but not any more. Corbyn’s hard left Labour is lined up against May’s hard Right Tea Party Tories and her champions of The City and multinational business (how she reconciles this is anyone’s guess). Extremes always threaten freedom. Extremist parties by instinct want to quiet the voices of moderation. Freedom is at risk.

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Stuart Bonar

Want to stay an EU citizen? Now is the time to start lobbying for it

By Stuart Bonar | Sun 27th November 2016 - 10:28 am

It has come sooner than we might have thought. But the first crunch parliamentary vote on Brexit is about to take place. Not in Westminster, but 200 miles to the east, in Brussels. And the British press is waking up to it.

Splashed across the front page of Saturday’s edition of The Times is the news that Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian MEP who leads the Liberal group in the European Parliament, backs the idea of offering EU citizenship directly to Brits who want it post-Brexit. The Guardian and others have reported on it too (if you don’t have access through the paywall).

I first blogged about this idea last month, and wrote about it here in Lib Dem Voice earlier this month after learning that another Liberal MEP, Luxembourg’s Charles Goerens, had started to push for it.

Brexit might not yet happen, but on 8 December MEPs on the Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee will cast the first votes on whether Brits might be able to opt back in to the EU as individuals in the event that it does.

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Chris Maines

Richmond Park – a few days to win

By Chris Maines | Sun 27th November 2016 - 9:06 am

Since the end of October our energy in London has been focused on the Richmond Park by-election. We have spent hours campaigning and gathering data about which voters will support our superb candidate, Sarah Olney next Thursday. We now have a few days to get those people who have said they will vote Liberal Democrat to do so on Thursday. Everything is now concentrated on getting out the vote (GOTV).

The next few days will be even more intense, with thousands of letters and leaflets to be delivered and, we hope, hundreds of Liberal Democrat activists moving in for the win.

Rarely has there been such an important by-election for the party and for the country. We stand to elect a Liberal Democrat woman who will add her experience to our team of MPs and demonstrate the party is back in game of taking on big money and winning. Many pundits have doubted the Liberal Democrats could bounce back within 18 months of the last General Election and achieve a sensational win. Our army of enthusiastic and energetic activists is determined to prove them wrong.

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The role of education in creating a fairer and more equal society

By Carolin Hollingsworth | Sat 26th November 2016 - 9:20 am

My daughter recently turned four and we had to start thinking about schools for her. Not that you actually have to remind yourself of that as I sensed an almost obsessive attitude with schools and what school you would chose for your child around me.

I always felt myself getting very upset in a lot of the school conversations and I had to think for a moment why that was. To me, it is that this talk about needing to get into “the good school” always seems less related to any real knowledge of what the school actually teaches or how they relate to children, but that “the good school” will prevent a child from ending up in a lower social class. This deep-seated fear of downward social movement is something that worries me greatly when it comes to promoting a fairer and more equal society, and yet the competition around schooling and the Ofsted regime seem to do a great job keeping the anxieties going. While I understand very well that we all want our children to find a good job and be financially comfortable, I simply cannot stand for the idea that this is the only determinant in making a good life and promoting a strong society.

There is so much talk about needing to value nurses and social workers and teachers and the like more, that these professions are overworked and under paid. The government resents the fact that it is losing good lower level medical staff to countries like Australia.

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Kirsten Johnson

Ratifying the Istanbul Convention

By Kirsten Johnson | Fri 25th November 2016 - 12:15 pm

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It is also the start of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign which runs to December 10th, Human Rights Day. Two women each week are killed by a male partner here in the UK. One in four women in the UK (one in three internationally) experience abuse. Whilst the majority of victims are women, 700,000 men each year suffer domestic violence.

The Istanbul Convention, which the UK Government has signed but not ratified, was devised to tackle all forms of violence against women and domestic abuse worldwide. The full title, the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, covers all forms of violence against women and within domestic situations (including men, women and children).

As it happens, I was present at a conference on Violence and Human Rights in Istanbul back in 2012, the year after Istanbul Convention was written. Hearing Turkish academics and lawyers talk about domestic violence, often from a personal point of view which has influenced their public advocacy, was enlightening and brought home to me the global nature of this issue. 

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Claire Tyler

Baroness Claire Tyler writes…Commitment secured on mental health assessments for looked after children

By Claire Tyler | Thu 24th November 2016 - 3:33 pm

In the last few months I have been fighting to secure an important amendment to the Government’s Children and Social Work Bill. I want to ensure there is a commitment for the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of children in the care system to be promoted; and to ensure children have an assessment of their mental wellbeing as soon as possible after they enter the care system. I am delighted that following discussions with ministers and officials at the Department for Education, this important change will go ahead.

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Ross Pepper

From Witney to Richmond Park – and then to Sleaford and North Hykeham

By Ross Pepper | Thu 24th November 2016 - 8:55 am

ross-pepperWow.  That’s the only response that I have found so far that fully expresses our delight, surprise, joy and gratitude at the level of activity and campaign that has been launched so quickly and so effectively for the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election.

Our objective in this by-election is simple – we want to build and light as many beacons of liberal democracy across the towns and villages here in the middle of Lincolnshire.  We are determined to end the way that the Tories have taken Lincolnshire for

…

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