Category Archives: Op-eds

Suzanne Fletcher

How good that LDV posts don’t fade away

By Suzanne Fletcher | Thu 19th June 2025 - 9:26 am

Whilst looking up the words “Put it on a piece of paper, shove it through a letter box”, David Penhaligon, this LDV link came up from September 2012:

“What the three departing Lib Dem ministers said as they leave Government”

How interesting and I am afraid depressing to read what three of our retiring Ministers said on their dismissal 13 years ago.

Sarah Teather rightly saying:

I’m hugely proud of the part I have been able to play in ending child detention, and rolling out the pupil premium, giving free nursery places to disadvantaged two year olds, amongst many other achievements.” And we should never forget that.  But also “Particularly close to my heart has been the work to reform the system of support for children and families with special educational needs and disability.

One of the crying out needs today about the need for a much better system for SEND children and their families.  Let us not forget that the fight started there,

Paul Burstow:

Having dedicated most of my political career to improving the health and care of others it has been an absolute privilege to be directly involved in framing a new social care law and working closely with colleagues in the sector to set out a reform agenda in the Care and Support White Paper.  In the last two years or so I have been able to introduce policies that will improve the mental health of adults and children, the care of older people and the diagnosis of dementia.

How crucial it is today that the care system is reformed.  Let us not forget the fight that started with that white paper.

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The civil service impact statement for the Assisted Dying Bill could be very inaccurate

By A retired medical doctor | Wed 18th June 2025 - 5:31 pm

Editor’s note: This article contains details of terminal medical procedures which some readers may find upsetting.

The Civil Service has done an ‘impact assessment’ for what the NHS and hospice sector will look like if Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying (AD) Bill becomes law.

It’s chosen a sample of a  few ‘comparator’ US jurisdictions  and New Zealand to show how many cases of AD there are (expressed as percentage  of total deaths). The population of the sample is equivalent to England and Wales.

The projection estimates a few hundred AD cases here a year initially, rising annually. However, New Zealand, in its first year of AD, recorded an AD rate six times the rate that was recorded in the first year in  California – equivalent to 4,000 England/Wales deaths if we scale up for population size. The maximum Civil Service estimate for the first year in England and Wales is 1,600 deaths. So what has gone wrong ?

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Simon McGrath

Lib Dems should say no to the UK acquiring tactical nuclear weapons

By Simon McGrath | Wed 18th June 2025 - 12:34 pm

The Strategic Defence Review, published on 2 June, contains plenty of ideas which I believe our Party should support – an increase in the number of ships in the Royal Navy, increased reserves of munitions, and a big increase in our capacity to produce them, many more drones and protection of our underwater communications are all sensible proposals in the more dangerous world in which we now live.

But there is one part of the review which I do not believe we should support, and that is a proposal for the UK to acquire tactical nuclear weapons and the capacity to deliver them. The SDR says (Recommendation 30):

“Commencing discussions with the United States and NATO on the potential benefits and feasibility of enhanced UK participation in NATO’s nuclear mission.”

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Andrew Chandler

Why I support the right to die with dignity; a Liberal case

By Andrew Chandler | Wed 18th June 2025 - 9:29 am

I will always remember my Catholic mum said to me; last time we had this debate about Assisted Suicide when it went to the then High Courts sometime in the 00’s. I remember her saying as we watched the announcement on TV in our living room with great sigh “I think people should just be allowed to go to heaven on their own flight plan.” Mum was always great to make something sound so simply to sound so deep and meaningful.

Some year’s passed, and my mum had Bowel cancer, stage four. Eventually she had to be moved to a hospice. By the final weeks, even pain-relief could no longer dull her agony. What do you say to someone who is desperate to die, not because they are suicidal, but because they are exhausted? Frail and failing. Her dignity, slowly stripped away by bedpans and catheter tubes. She didn’t want to die soon, she wanted to die free.

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Mark Valladares

Diary of a Returning Officer: Week 1 – the Regional Candidates Chair has called, and I’ve said yes…

By Mark Valladares | Tue 17th June 2025 - 1:00 pm

There’s been a lot of debate, dare I say controversy, over the recent proposal to Federal Conference regarding how Parliamentary candidate selections are managed. But perhaps it might be interesting to see how the process actually works…

I’ve been a Returning Officer for the Party for a very long time, more than thirty years. My “patch” has generally been the South East of England, covering four of the Party’s Regions – London, South East England, South Central and the East of England. There was a time when I “had ballot box, will travel” but, for a variety of reasons, I’m not willing to take on too many these days. On the other hand, the modern processes don’t actually require me to leave my home office, so I can theoretically cover more territory.

A few days ago, I had a phone call from our Regional Candidates Chair. That’s not totally unusual, as I was foolish enough to stand for the Regional Candidates Committee which, of course, she chairs. And, as a veteran of the candidate selection processes, she apparently values my opinion – or humours me, you’d have to ask her that. She had a request, would I take on a selection? I thought about it for a moment, but agreed readily enough. She promised to put me in touch with the Local Party and, after a quick chat about general business, we said our goodbyes.

So, I need to do some preparation. First of all, there are new Selection Rules, approved by English Council in March. As I’m not a member of English Council, I hadn’t read them. And now I have. They are, it must be said, a streamlined version of what had previously existed which, in turn, was a streamlined version of its predecessor. The new version runs to just nine pages plus some Appendices, which cover another ten. They aren’t as daunting as they might have been.

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Jack Meredith

You can’t spend sovereignty, Mr. Farage

By Jack Meredith | Tue 17th June 2025 - 11:09 am

In 2015, Nigel Farage visited Swansea, Wales, in the run-up to the referendum on European Union membership. He made several claims during his visit, stating that Wales was receiving a “rotten deal” from the EU, alleging its membership was causing severe damage to the Welsh steel industry and that small businesses were at risk of collapse. He claimed that the UK had ceded control of fishing, industry, farming, and business to the EU, but provided no evidence to support these claims.

Fast forward four years. By this time, the UK had voted to leave the EU, and Mr Farage was back in Wales once more, this time in Merthyr Tydfil, campaigning for a UKIP victory in the European elections. When questioned by a BBC reporter about the benefits to Wales of leaving the EU, by then referred to as “Brexit”, Mr Farage was unable to answer. When questioned about the money Wales received from the EU, specifically £250 million a year, Mr Farage simply responded that “we” have given away hundreds of billions over the last few decades.

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Samuel Jackson

We need a debate on Electoral Reform

By Samuel Jackson | Mon 16th June 2025 - 7:15 pm

As we approach the first anniversary of Labour’s loveless landslide general election victory, it is worth taking stock of the current state of British politics.

The Starmer ministry has committed a series of unpopular acts, many of which run contrary to the ethos of the Labour Party as the left-leaning of the two major parties and have proven alienating to some of their key voters. The Conservatives have failed to make any significant recovery in the opinion polls, likely due to ongoing backlash against their disastrous decisions over austerity, Brexit, coronavirus, the cost-of-living crisis and the mini-budget. And Reform UK seems on track to form the next government on a lower vote share than Labour won in 2024, with Labour and the Conservatives seemingly aping their anti-migrant, anti-woke policies in a desperate bid to reattract disaffected voters.

Such a picture would surely highlight the need for a more responsive democracy in the UK. Having usually elected a single party to majority government on under half of the national vote, First Past the Post has proven unconducive to delivering such a democracy. With declining support for the two-party status quo, FPTP may serve to elect Parliaments that have little or no bearing on voters’ intentions.

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Mathew Hulbert

Mathew on Monday: We must never deny the importance of soft power

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 16th June 2025 - 4:35 pm

No one can deny the reality that we live in an increasingly dangerous world.

Russia’s attempted invasion of Ukraine. Israel’s war with Hamas. The dangerous stand off between Iran and Israel. Ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. The Democratic Republic of Congo. And on and on.

With the benefit of hindsight how foolish it now seems for the political scientist Francis Fukuyama to have declared, in an at the time much lauded book in 1992, the ‘end of history.’ The argument that, with the conclusion of the Cold War, Western liberal democracy had won the battle of ideas and beaten autocracy; as he wrote, ‘not just… the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: That is, the end-point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalisation of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.’

If only, eh?

Less than a decade later such a theory began to be tested to distruction with the 9/11 attacks on American power by Islamist terrorists and the subsequent ‘war on terror.’. Two decades on from that, the world, as noted above, whilst not quite in flames is certainly more dangerous and uncertain than since the end of the Cold War if not longer.

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Mark Paine

‘What is truth?’ (and why this matters to Liberal Democrats)

By Mark Paine | Mon 16th June 2025 - 2:16 pm

We live in a post-truth age. No longer is there any such thing as objective reality. On both Left and Right, the media, commentators and politicians present their own subjective reality, primarily based on feelings and lived experiences. These alternate realities allow facts to be denied, history to be altered and new ‘facts’ to be created which are more conducive to the mindset of other people who live in this particular simulacrum of ‘real’ reality. When facts do not matter, when a lie is believed even when all the evidence points to the contrary, when we cannot or refuse …

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Suzanne Fletcher

How to empty the hotels

By Suzanne Fletcher | Mon 16th June 2025 - 11:15 am

It is a Labour pledge to empty all hotels of asylum seekers by the next general election. So how are they going to do it?

I sincerely hope not by expanding sites like Wethersfield where, as the Helen Bamber Foundation has said that accommodating people at the base causes harm to their physical and mental health and “Housing people, including survivors of torture and trafficking, in an isolated, overcrowded camp reminiscent of an open-air prison, with inadequate healthcare and legal services, is an inhumane way to treat those seeking protection.”.

There are Liberal Democrat alternatives, other than “I wouldn’t have started from here.”. All the following is established Lib Dem policy.

We start from the premise that there needs to be radical reform, independent of central Government, to speed up decision making. Such should be taken out of political control completely and move towards a caseworker-model of support for applicants, to seek just outcomes that are right first time. It is no use moving policy-making to different departments if the Home Office retains control of the process of administering and assessing applications. It isn’t just a quicker decision that is needed but one that is right first time. 75% of decisions are appealed and 33% of those are allowed first time. If the cost of appeals were to be transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the Home Office that in itself would make a difference. It is easy to refuse and then hope a person did not appeal. Sometimes the Home Office do not even bother turning up at an appeal hearing. If they had to pay for it, they would do a better job.

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John Jewers

Governments must do more for survivors of same-sex sexual assault

By John Jewers | Mon 16th June 2025 - 7:30 am

There’s a strange fact which you may not know about the UK. You live in the world’s only country that tells the world that no person (man or woman) can ever be raped by a woman. 

Imagine telling a lesbian that they don’t count because their assaulter wasn’t a man? We live in a time where it is in vogue to put on a rainbow in June but gay or lesbian survivors of same-sex assault aren’t even recorded. Is this not the peak of homophobia? But this is our law.

Here’s another funny fact. We’re the world’s only jurisdiction that records sexual violence against men as a crime against women and girls. The state telling men who are sexually assaulted that they are actually women is one of the worst and most demeaning insults male survivors can endure. I know, because I am one. It implies that my manhood is gone because I was victimised. Alas, neither Labour or the Conservatives seem to think this is a big problem. 

The situation for male survivors especially is worsening. Today a little under half of crisis centres will turn men away from their door. But in 2025, the government is cutting the country’s only support line for male survivors. The cost of maintaining this line is not much, a mere £250,000 pa.

Empathy is a value that our party puts first. I am a survivor of sexual violence. I live in a world that is hostile to my existence.

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John Kelly

UK sanctions on Israeli ministers must be a turning point, not a token gesture

By John Kelly | Sun 15th June 2025 - 12:15 pm

This week, the UK government announced sanctions on Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, alongside Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Norway. citing their incitement of violence and abuses of Palestinian human rights. This marks a significant shift – from targeting individual settlers to sanctioning sitting ministers – and is a move the Liberal Democrats have long called for in parliament. 

But if this action is to be more than symbolic, it must mark a broader change in UK policy. Sanctions should not stop at ministers who incite violence; they must extend …

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 15th June 2025 - 10:11 am

United States

The Los Angeles riots started at a local Home Depot store. These stores are a national network of shops selling hardware and DIY material.

Throughout America they act as a magnet for illegal aliens—main Hispanic and Latinos—who base themselves outside shops in search of part-time construction and handyman jobs.

Where illegal aliens gather you will now find Trumps ICE (Immigration Control Enforcement) agents ready to swoop down, arrest, detain and deport. Which is exactly what happened last Friday at the Home Depot store in Los Angeles’s Westlake District and at LA’s Huntington Park.

Normally, the arrests are relatively peaceful. The arrestees may try to run for it, but generally, they are quiet affairs. This time they fought back. They were soon joined by friends, neighbours and family trying to prevent the arrests.

The result was a riot. There was looting and cars were set alight. But the fighting was confined to a few city blocks. Elsewhere in Los Angeles life continued as normal.

Trump did not care. The Los Angeles riots were an opportunity to project his strong man image on the one issue that resonates most with American voters—immigration. Despite the local nature of the riots he went over Governor Gavin Newsom’s head and ordered in 2,000 National Guardsmen and 600 marines.

According to the LAPD, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass and Governor Newsom, Trump inflamed the situation and – most important of all—broke the law.

The law which they claim Trump broke is the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 which restricts the use of federal troops for domestic law enforcement. There are exceptions, mainly those governed by the 1807 Insurrection Act which says the president can order in federal troops in order to suppress rebellion or insurrection or to enforce federal law when local authorities are unwilling or unable to do so.

The Home Depot disturbances were not an insurrection—however much far-right nationalists claim otherwise. Neither were they a rebellion. And as for the willingness of the local authorities, the mayor had already ordered in the police who said they were in control.

The end result is three-fold. First liberal progressives are now convinced that Trump will use every demonstration as an excuse to shout “insurrection” and possibly declare martial law which could lead to a postponement of elections. Secondly, MAGA Republicans think their president is even more wonderful which means the country is even more divided. Finally, Trump faces another court case. This time he is being taken court by Governor Newsom who also happens to be the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028.

Trump v Musk

The Battle of the Titans—Trump v. Musk—is over. And Trump has won.

It was inevitable. Alright, Musk is the world’s wealthiest man at $400-plus billion. But Trump controls the machinery of the world’s most powerful country, and he has repeatedly proven that he is not afraid to use that power to further his own ends.

Musk talked—or rather tweeted—big about exposing Trump’s sexual antics and funding a third political party. But his power is based entirely on his pile of cash and Trump has the power to reduce it.

Musk does have some leverage. Both NASA and the Pentagon are dependent on the billionaire’s technology to maintain vital satellite communications and complete planned lunar expeditions. The contracts to provide this technology are worth billions for several years to come.

Trump—in one of his more peevish moods—did threaten to terminate those contracts. It was an empty threat.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an Expat: Bombing Iran

By Tom Arms | Sat 14th June 2025 - 10:03 am

There is no safe way to bomb an Iranian nuclear reactor.

This is especially true of Iran’s facilities as the key ones are buried deep underground and heavily protected.

The more impregnable the target. The bigger the bomb required to destroy it. The greater the risk of a nuclear disaster.

This is why Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), quickly called a press conference when he heard of Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear power plants.

Nuclear sites, he said, should never be attacked. He added: “Any military action that jeopardises the safety and security of nuclear facilities risks grave consequences for the people of Iran, the region and beyond.”

The 1986 Chernobyl Disaster resulted in radioactive dust carried to a dozen European countries. Forests died in Scandinavia. Fish stocks were polluted and restrictions on sheep grazing were in place in Wales and the English Lake District for decades. A total of 2,600 square kilometres around Chernobyl has been closed.

Iran has five nuclear facilities – Natanza, Fordow, Isfahan, Arabk and Bushehr. The ones suspected of producing nuclear warheads are Natanza and Fordow. Natanza’s reactors are buried 40-50 metres underground. Fordow’s are also buried deep inside a mountain.

If one of them is severely damaged than the Shamal wind would blow radioactive particles towards Iraq, Syria, the Persian Gulf, Lebanon and even Israel.

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Kieron Franks

Leading the Fight for Local Government: Why you should vote in the LGA elections

By Kieron Franks | Fri 13th June 2025 - 12:16 pm

3000

No, I’m not quoting the Busted song – this is the approximate electorate for this year’s Lib Dem Local Government Association Group Elections! It’s a number of councillors that only a few years ago would have looked completely inconceivable and it’s a testament to the hard work of councillors and campaigners across the country that we’re in range of overtaking the Tories as the 2nd largest party in local government.

Our 2025 cohort join us during the most critical time for local councils in over 50 years with Local Government Reorganisation and local budgets stretched to the absolute limit. We now have 76 council leaders (we might need some new giant numbers for Autumn Conference…) managing billions in council budgets and countless opposition groups holding their administrations to account while fighting for a new structure of local government that can still deliver for our residents. No pressure!

Who we elect as our leadership at the LGA is central to ensuring that we have the powers and the money to shape our communities, working with the Government where we can and taking them to task when they push to transfer even more power to Whitehall. While we know who most of our group officers will be (congratulations to Joe Harris, Bridget Smith and Heather Kidd on their re-election), we also need to decide who will represent us when negotiating key areas of LGA policy – fighting for effective regulatory powers, planning policy that works for our communities and funding for children’s services.

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Andrew Chandler

Reeves’ Spending Review lacks vision

By Andrew Chandler | Thu 12th June 2025 - 1:23 pm

In the afterglow of Rachel Reeves’ Spending Review, Labour’s press machine was quick to declare victory. Behind the slogans, the figures, and the bumptious cheers from the Labour benches, reality reared its head — fast and unflinching.

Yes, the NHS has gotten a financial uplift. Day-to-day spending is to increase to 3% per year. A welcome move. But let’s not uncork the bubbly just yet – since 1999, most parliaments have averaged a 4% increase. And anyone who’s ever tried to buy medical equipment knows, health inflation tends to swagger above consumer average.

And behind the figures and planted slogans; Reeves tried to hide—like a magician shuffling a bent card back into the deck—the real sin. The real detail, if you look hard enough, is hidden in plain sight. The capital budget – for bricks, beds, scanners and surgical machines – is flat. Flat in real terms over the review period. So while Reeves praises its “Labour choices”, the reality is a Review that feels like it offers the NHS by putting on fresh coat of paint on a house riddled with damp.

And what of social care? A passing mention? No. Not a word. A critical part of tackling patient backlog, ignored. As Daisy Cooper rightly called it – a missed opportunity. Labour hoped some wouldn’t notice. But some of us did while social care is kicked back again into the long grass.

Much like some of us noticed Labour’s clumsy sleight of hand with the bus fare cap. “We’ve kept it at £3!” I saw them gloat on their social media’s. Yes, after you raised it from £2 last year. The party that hiked the fare now wants applause for “protecting” the price they hiked up. Working people, like myself, who actually use buses – we’re not daft. The message smells less of sincerity, more of spin and exhaust fumes.

Still, I’ll admit: not all was bleak.

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Jack Meredith

Make Wales great again? Reactions to Nigel Farage’s vision for Wales

By Jack Meredith | Thu 12th June 2025 - 10:04 am

This past week, Nigel Farage took to Wales Online to outline his vision for Wales, ahead of the 2026 Senedd elections.

His article, published on Sunday, June 8th, at 10:30 PM, bears all the hallmarks of what is to be expected from a regressive, right-wing populist voice such as Mr Farage.

Firstly, his first reference to Wales isn’t of the 20s, the 10s, the 00s, or any time in modern history; it’s 1851. Mr Farage’s entire argument relies upon the 1851 census to justify Reform’s manifesto, citing the number of people in industrial jobs rather than agricultural ones, and even makes the bold claim that Reform will “reindustrialise Wales” by reopening coal mines, in one of his many attempts to defeat “woke spending”.

Of course, I can’t speak for everyone in Wales, but I can for my family. My grandparents’ relatives worked down the mines, and they did not live to see past 50 years old due to ill health and complications related to coal dust in their lungs. I’ve no doubt this story is the same for so many others in Wales. Nobody in their right mind wants to see the mines reopened.

Mr Farage goes on, moving from the coal mines to the need for regional technical colleges, to teach young people trades such as welding, plumbing and industrial automation. While I am far from opposed to apprenticeships and believe they are vital for providing a wide variety of career choices, Mr Farage’s support for them doesn’t stem from the same sentiment. He believes that there are “useful degrees,” and that people not studying science, technology, engineering, medicine, or mathematics need not bother going to university and should instead invest in a trade.

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Caron Lindsay

What are Liberal Democrats looking for from the spending review?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 11th June 2025 - 8:15 am

Today Rachel Reeves announces her spending review. What are Liberal Democrats looking for from it?

It will surprise nobody to hear that social care is top of the agenda, alongside a closer relationship with Europe. Without the latter, Treasury Spokesperson Daisy Cooper says, Labour will be trying to drive the economy forward with the handbrake on. And anyone who has tried to do that in a car will know how impossible that feels and how much of an idiot you feel when you realise that you have forgotten to take the handbrake off.

Daisy said:

People have been left desperately disappointed in the Government’s failure to break clean from years of Conservative neglect and finally start delivering the change that people were promised.

Today’s spending review must deliver progress on social care. The Government’s bid to start reforms has barely progressed since it was announced six-months ago. Yet we all know the simple truth: without solving the social care challenge, putting money into the NHS today will be like pouring water into a leaky bucket.

Ministers should also be slashing the reams of red tape that are holding local businesses back and negotiate a bespoke UK-EU customs union, rather than pursuing painful cuts to already stretched budgets. Until they do, the Chancellor will still be trying to drive the economy forward with the handbrake on.

Here she is speaking about the key issues:

The Party has also commissioned House of Commons library research into the impact of possible cuts.  The Independent reports;

However, the analysis, carried out by researchers at the House of Commons library commissioned by the Lib Dems, found that unprotected departments — which excludes NHS England, the core schools budget and defence — could see real-terms cuts worth nearly £5 billion in total by 2028/29.

The calculation, based on Reeves’ promise that will not hike taxes, was made before the chancellor committed a further £1.25bn a year to reversing cuts of winter fuel payments to pensioners, a U-turn which was confirmed on Monday. It also does not take into account another potential U-turn on ending the two child benefit cap, which could cost a further £3bn.

The Home Office budget is forecast to take a huge hit, being almost half a billion quid short. The Independent report forecasts dire outcomes for social care and education. These would be incredibly short-sighted. It is so obvious that fixing social care is vital to sorting out the whole NHS, and why would you cut back on skills development when you are also hell bent on cutting social security and putting even greater holes in the safety net than the Conservatives’ best efforts managed?

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Jack Meredith

The Lib Dems must be the party that listens to what local people need and reflects that in the next Senedd elections

By Jack Meredith | Tue 10th June 2025 - 11:30 am

This series of articles sees me exploring the options available to the Welsh Liberal Democrats ahead of the 2026 Senedd elections. You can find the first instalment here and the second here.

In this article, I aim to explore an alternative approach that fully embraces the principles of community politics.

Many thanks to the numerous Lib Dem Voice commenters who suggested this idea throughout the various discussions generated under my articles. Without the support of our community, these articles would still be sitting in my drafts folder!

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Anne-Marie Simpson

Gaza: an open letter to Ed Davey

By Anne-Marie Simpson | Mon 9th June 2025 - 7:30 pm

Dear Ed,

As the Chair of Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine, I am writing to you to express my appreciation for your principled leadership in speaking out against the atrocities unfolding in Gaza. Your question to the Prime Minister in this week’s PMQs powerfully highlighted the dire humanitarian situation in the Strip, where Israeli forces are shooting at starving Palestinians as they attempt to access aid. The Early Day Motion you tabled on Tuesday, signed by every Liberal Democrat MP, sets out a clear and unified statement condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank and reaffirming our Party’s commitment to peace, accountability, and a just two-state solution. At a time when many remain silent or equivocate, your leadership has given voice to the values we share and the urgency this moment demands.

As your EDM acknowledges, the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has reached appalling new levels. The entire population is facing famine, while the US-Israel aid distribution plan has been exposed as insufficient, unworkable, and profoundly dangerous. Israel’s renewed ground offensive has brought intensified bombing, forced mass displacement, and the continued killing of civilians and aid workers. Meanwhile, as attention remains fixed on Gaza, the Israeli Government has approved 22 new settlements in the illegally occupied West Bank – the largest such expansion in decades – with Defence Minister Katz vowing to “build a Jewish Israeli state” in the territory.

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Mathew Hulbert

Mathew on Monday – When is a campaign win not actually a win?

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 9th June 2025 - 4:30 pm

As I type these words early afternoon on this fine June Monday, the big political story dominating the headlines and the airwaves is more details on the government’s at least partial u-turn on winter fuel payments for pensioners.

The top story on the BBC website as I write this is ‘More than 75% of pensioners to get winter fuel payments as Reeves confirms major u-turn.’ The sub-head reads, ‘Pensioners in England and Wales with an annual income below £35,000 will now be eligible, reversing one of the government’s first major policies.’

Liberal Democrats are claiming this as a campaign win, understandably given how often Ed Davey has spoken about the issue at PMQs, not to mention campaigners across the country raising this matter locally and having it raised with them on the doorstep. I myself have dutifully repeated the party line on this when doing political punditry on TV.

But here’s the thing: are we right on this or are we actually mistaken?

Consider this for a moment. The changes announced by the Chancellor today means that a pensioner couple on a combined £70,000 a year will now get the winter fuel payment. As the i paper’s housing correspondent Vicky Spratt has said on social media today,

This is going to become increasingly harder to justify when young adults in work who earn less receive no support at all despite having higher housing costs.

before going on to say,

Winter fuel changes (those originally announced last year) may be an example of a good policy that was communicated very badly by Labour. Why didn’t they consult properly and discuss thresholds before dropping the announcement? The whole thing is such an obvious own goal.

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Vince Cable

What Rachel is Doing Right

By Vince Cable | Mon 9th June 2025 - 1:00 pm

This coming week will see the Public Spending Review: probably the most difficult test of this Labour government since it was elected a year ago.

The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will be attacked from all sides. Friday’s newspapers write themselves: hostility from the ‘over-taxed’ tribunes of the Right, much of it wrapped in misogynist language about bird-brain ‘Rachel from Accounts’; frustration from the Left that the Magic Money Tree is not producing the expected crop of seasonal fruit; and disappointment from everyone else that she isn’t, after all, the Growth Fairy promised in the Labour manifesto.

In fact, the Chancellor is a competent and decent, economically literate individual, tied hand and foot by political and economic bondage. She inherited an almost stagnant economy burdened by barely sustainable public debt, the legacy of a series of damaging economic shocks: the financial crisis; Brexit; the Covid lockdown; the Ukraine War and ‘cost of living crisis’. She also inherits a nonsensical set of commitments on tax from the Labour Manifesto. And to add to all that, the madness and badness of Trump are creating chronic uncertainty in global markets.

Nevertheless, and acknowledging some silly mistakes, she has done three good big things. The first is to promote public investment. Gordon Brown, for all his formidable qualities and that he operated in easier economic conditions, was never able to persuade the Treasury to borrow to invest. Public investment took place through the expensive and over-complicated PFI scheme. Infrastructure was starved of investment capital.

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Rebecca Jones

For a lot of trans people, it’s hard to feel pride right now

By Rebecca Jones | Sun 8th June 2025 - 9:08 am

Just a few years ago it looked like our country was moving in the right direction. There was a broad consensus for trans rights, things were moving forward. Yet now, not only have trans rights not progressed,  they have actually regressed. Even for the few thousand of us that have gone through the burdensome procedure of getting a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), we still almost no legal recognition of our true gender.

In the aftermath of the UK Supreme Court ruling, trans people are experiencing a roll back of our rights at a pace not seen since Section 28.  With many companies even instituting ‘bathroom bans’ for trans people – akin to far-right Republican states in America. It’s an incredibly scary time to be trans in the UK right now, and for many of us it seems like it will only get worse. Just recently we saw Conservative politicians proposing amendments to forcibly change all trans people’s identity documents to reflect their birth sex instead of the gender they live as now.  This barely scratches the surface of the tide against us. It’s incredibly difficult to be positive about it all.

And to be honest, we’re scared. I’m scared.

As a community, we have no faith in the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to uphold our rights, with their leadership repeatedly speaking out about trans exclusionary policies. Many of us hoped things would get better after Kishwer Falkner leaves office, but the Labour Government seems determined to install someone who looks like they could be equally opposed to our rights, freedoms and equalities. For many of us, we feel little hope of the situation getting that much better as Labour continues to chase the far right at the expense of vulnerable groups in society. I speak to a lot of trans people, who really cannot see much hope right now, and I don’t have much I can tell them. 

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Merlene Emerson

Wherefore the Indo Pacific?  A brief thought piece

By Merlene Emerson | Fri 6th June 2025 - 3:47 pm

The past week has been an eventful one vis a vis discourses relating to the Indo Pacific.  It started for me at a round table held at RUSI’s HQ in Whitehall on Thursday 29th June on the topic of “UK & Europe’s Relations with the Indo-Pacific”.  Then to keeping a watching brief on the Shangri-la Dialogues organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in Singapore (30th May – 1st June), and ending with the Government’s Strategic Defence Review 2025 which was unveiled on Monday 2nd June.

So what is the significance of the “Indo-Pacific” region?  A German academic Karl Hauschofer is often credited with coining the term in the 1920s, referring to the countries connected via the Indian and Pacific Oceans.  However often we see its use as coded expression to exclude any mention of China, by far the most influential power in the region.  The Indo-Pacific has become more commonly used in the context of defence and security issues whereas “Asia Pacific” would for example be a more neutral term, whilst ASEAN+5, or signatories to CPTPP or RCEP (both excluding the US) more specific references where discussions revolved around trade matters.

The round table at RUSI organized by the Centre for Geopolitics, Cambridge was focused on the study of the Indo-Pacific to cover security, economic and other dimensions.  However inevitably discussions would lead back to the US and China rivalry – the elephant and dragon in the room!  This was of course unavoidable given that we are in the era of Trump 2.0 with rapidly shifting geo-political sands, not to mention and a full-blown trade war between the US and the rest of the world!

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Hina Bokhari

Disability inclusion can’t wait – Why won’t Sadiq Khan act?

By Hina Bokhari | Fri 6th June 2025 - 12:59 pm

As the Labour Party prepares to make devastating cuts to disability support, the Mayor of London has remained conspicuously silent. While Labour leaders in other parts of the country have spoken out, Sadiq Khan has so far proved content to more or less toe the party line.

Yet with hundreds of thousands of disabled Londoners set to be hit by sweeping cuts to Personal Independence Payment, whatever his political calculations may be, there is still no excuse for Sadiq Khan failing to step up now as Mayor and use every lever at his disposal to engage and support disabled Londoners in response.

Disabled people are already feeling abandoned and scapegoated by Westminster. Now, more than ever, London’s Mayor should be charting a different course — not with vague pledges or sympathetic soundbites, but with meaningful, decisive action and engagement.

One demand has come up again and again from disability rights groups: appoint a dedicated Disability Champion in City Hall. Someone with lived experience, real authority, and the mandate to ensure disabled voices are not just heard occasionally but embedded in every stage of policymaking.

Over 1.2 million disabled Londoners face daily, systemic barriers in accessing their own city. They deserve leadership with focus and accountability. This isn’t a matter of symbolism. London has a Commissioner for Walking and Cycling. Why not one for disability equality?

That’s why, working with Inclusion London, I introduced a motion last September calling for exactly that. It passed unanimously – backed by every party in the London Assembly. Yet nine months later, the Mayor has done nothing whatsoever to implement it. He insists his Deputy Mayor for Social Justice is “good enough,” despite repeated feedback from campaigners that it isn’t.

Because all too often we still see a total failure across GLA bodies to include Disabled Londoners. Take the “Towards a New London Plan” consultation, a flagship planning strategy launched without accessible formats like Easy Read or British Sign Language versions, excluding both people with learning disabilities and deaf Londoners.

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Jack Meredith

How should the Welsh Liberal Democrats fight the Senedd elections?

By Jack Meredith | Fri 6th June 2025 - 10:19 am

A few days ago, I authored an opinion piece examining the measures the Welsh Liberal Democrats must undertake to avert total defeat in the 2026 Senedd elections. This piece advocates for a renewed emphasis on federalism, and as one commentator articulated, “Devo-Maxing” (a term I have come to employ quite frequently).  

In this article, I intend to investigate an alternate approach that embraces the principles of social democracy.  

It is widely acknowledged that Wales embodies a social-democratic ethos. Since 1999, it has consistently elected Labour into government, routinely repudiating free-market rhetoric in favour of left-of-centre ideals, regardless of whether a Conservative or Labour administration presents the rhetoric. From David Lloyd George’s People’s Budget, the establishment of the welfare state and pension schemes, to Nye Bevan’s implementation of Beveridge’s concepts to realise the National Health Service, to Rhodri Morgan’s notion of “clear red water” distinguishing Welsh Labour from Tony Blair’s New Labour, social democracy intricately permeates the fabric of Welsh identity.  

It is, therefore, quite remarkable that only one Liberal Democrat leader has ever addressed the Trade Union Congress: the late, esteemed Charles Kennedy.  

Mr. Kennedy delivered a speech at the conference on Wednesday, September 11, 2002, following the address by former TUC general secretary John Monks at the Liberal Democrat conference held on Wednesday, September 20, 2000.  

During his address, Mr. Kennedy articulated how some of the earliest trade union members in Britain were affiliated with the Liberal Party and emphasized that Beveridge posited that liberty transcended mere freedom from governmental control; it included liberation from “economic servitude to want and squalor and other social evils.” He highlighted that the Liberal Democrats champion dialogue and cooperation with both sectors of industry, acknowledging that, while disagreements with union perspectives may arise, we remain committed to listening and addressing their concerns.  

As we transition to contemporary Wales, we observe that Welsh Labour have significantly diminished from their former stature. Current First Minister Eluned Morgan was compelled by her party to condemn the UK government’s decision to reduce support for the most vulnerable, lamentably stating that voters were “taking Welsh Labour for granted,” and employed fear tactics regarding the potential termination of free prescriptions should another party assume power.  

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Jack Meredith

NHS forerunner – Conversations with my grandparents

By Jack Meredith | Tue 3rd June 2025 - 10:48 am

Throughout my life, I have had the privilege of living in a household with both my parents and grandparents.

During this period, I have been fortunate to hear my grandparents recount stories from their childhoods. Both my grandmother and grandfather, whom I affectionately refer to as my nan and bampa, grew up both before and after the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS). I wish to share some of these anecdotes with you today.

My nan was born on November 5th, 1935, in Briton Ferry, South Wales. As one of four daughters, she had a father who dedicated his entire career to engineering, while her mother remained at home to care for the children. She was attended to hand and foot by an adoring mother, and her father ensured that there was always food on the table and a gift for each daughter at Christmas.

At the age of four, she began to develop a back issue that necessitated her mother taking her to “the clinic.” This clinic was a group of physicians who provided free, on-demand medical care to the local community, often operating from their own residences and offering walk-in appointments throughout the day.

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Neil Casey

Ideology over Industry: the SNP’s Defence blind spot

By Neil Casey | Tue 3rd June 2025 - 8:30 am

Over the weekend, the SNP Government’s decision to withhold a £2.5 million Scottish Enterprise grant for a Clyde-based submarine welding centre laid bare its flawed approach to defence and industrial policy. Rolls-Royce had already pledged £11 million in specialist equipment for the facility, intended to deliver advanced welding techniques, reduce carbon emissions, and create hundreds of high-value jobs. Yet Holyrood classified the project as “munitions”-related, despite Rolls-Royce clarifying that its nuclear propulsion systems are not used for delivering warheads. UK Defence Secretary John Healey condemned the move as “student-politics” that will undermine vital skills development and cost generations of Scottish workers hundreds of decent jobs. In effect, by grouping any submarine-adjacent work under a blanket anti-munitions policy, the SNP has chosen ideological purity over Scotland’s economic and security interests.

The question for Scotland is whether our engineers, welders, and high-tech firms will benefit from the surge in UK defence spending, or be shut out by Holyrood’s self-indulgent obstruction.

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Mathew Hulbert

Mathew on Monday – When will the Lib Dem leadership defend immigration?

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 2nd June 2025 - 4:30 pm

A quote from a speech given this past week:

But let us say this clearly.
This country could not survive without immigrants. It requires immigration. This continent requires immigration if we are to prosper. I ask you. In the 1960s who drove the buses that kept this city moving.

Immigrants.

Who kept the factories running when there was labour shortages like my grandfather who worked in the Singer sowing machine factory in Clydebank?

It was immigrants.

Today when our loved ones need care be that in the NHS or our social care system who is there propping up our vital public services?

Immigrants.

When the crops need picking, the parcels need delivering, and the children need teaching who’s ready and willing to put in the hard graft?

Immigrants.

The truth is this country doesn’t just benefit from immigration, though it does.
It needs immigrants.

I’d love to be able to say that this powerful, full-throated defence of immigration and immigrants was made by a Lib Dem leader/MP/MSP etc. But it wasn’t. It was made by SNP MSP and former First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf.

And three cheers for him for what was an important, timely, and, in the current political climate, really rather brave contribution to a national conversation which often sees political leaders (current or former) on a race to the bottom of the barrel and grasping for increasingly insulting and dehumanising rhetoric which shames our nation.

When I saw the clip of Yousaf’s speech it got me thinking. When was the last time any prominent Liberal Democrat made a similarly clear, strong willed, and heartfelt defence of immigration? Anyone remember?

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Caron Lindsay

It’s Pride month – protest has not been needed this much for a long time

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 1st June 2025 - 10:11 pm

In a week where Nigel Farage seems to have had the stage to himself to talk about his plans to do away with anything remotely woke and to get women, British women that is, (and we all know what he mean by that) to have lots of babies, to ruminate on curtailing access to abortion, we can see that the right are not going to stop curtailing people’s freedoms once they’ve dealt with trans people.

This year’s Pride month comes as the rights of trans people have already been rolled back as a result of over-zealous interpretation of April’s Supreme Court Judgement. The Scottish Parliament announced that trans people would have to use gender neutral toilets at Holyrood and that male and female facilities would be based on “biological sex.” That is hugely problematic as it could require staffers to out themselves. That is why if I were there, I would feel that I would need to use the gender neutral facilities in solidarity.

Alex Cole-Hamilton questioned the Parliament’s Corporate Body about this last week after he was a signatory to a cross-party open letter expressing concern about the changes:

Christine Grahame suggests that the decision was taken on the basis of the need to balance the legal responsibilities of the Parliament related to the Supreme Court judgment. However, as we heard from Patrick Harvie, the former Supreme Court Justice Lord Sumption has made it clear that there are no legal responsibilities for the Parliament. He said that judges did not take a side and that the judgment does not provide an obligation to create single-sex spaces—it is a matter of choice for institutions. The EHRC has been challenged on how it will police that. We have heard about the use of birth certificates. I understand that the SPCB does not expect this to be policed, but others may. Can I ask that no parliamentary staff member will be put in the position of having to challenge a toilet user in the future?

Contrary to the view that this subject is simply a load of nonsense, many members are far more concerned about the wellbeing of those who choose to make the Parliament their workplace. We owe them dignity and respect. Given the answer to a previous question, I ask the corporate body simply to ensure that the aforementioned complaints procedure must not and will not be used as a means of prejudicing anyone in the Parliament, nor to force the disclosure of any details of their private life, including their status relative to their gender.
We have seen backlashes like this before. 21 years after Roy Jenkins as Home Secretary legalised homosexuality came Section 28 which made it impossible for LGBT young people to seek or receive support at school. The impact this had on many of my friends was profound and they have never forgotten how stigmatised they felt.
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