Category Archives: Party policy and internal matters

Anything to do with Lib Dem internal business, including policy development, consultations, rules and constitutions.

Brooke, Horwood and Huppert join the list of Liberal Democrat co-chairs

By Mark Pack | Mon 28th March 2011 - 12:27 pm

A news release from the party brings the news of the following three appointments:

Martin Horwood, co-chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee for International Affairs (replacing Tim Farron, who has stood down on becoming President)
Julian Huppert, co-chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee for Transport
Stephen Lloyd, co-chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee for Northern Ireland
Annette Brooke, co-chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee for Communities and Local Government (covering for Simon Hughes for six months during his tenure as the Government’s Advocate for Access to Education

The full list of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee …

Tagged annette brooke, julian huppert, martin horwood and stephen lloyd | 1 Comment

The party strategy debate: rolling highlights

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th March 2011 - 10:05 am

Note: If you’re catching up with this post after it was published, read it from the bottom up.

Final result – both amendment and motion passed overwhelmingly. The overall tenor of the debate was more good natured than might have been expected – people did not take the opportunity to express any unhappiness in strident tones, and the party being in coalition with the Tories until 2015 was accepted and expected, explicitly or implicitly, by all speakers. Tuition fees and NHS got mentions, but brief ones. Norman Lamb’s comments about the health debate (see below), however, were unexpected and welcome.

James Gurling, …

Also posted in Conference | Tagged david abrahams, david matthewman, david rendel, evan harris, gordon lishman, higher education, james gurling, norman lamb, shirley williams, simon hughes, suzanne fletcher, tim farron, triple lock, tuition fees and universities | 1 Comment

Conference preview: Improving the diversity of our MPs

By Mark Pack | Thu 10th March 2011 - 8:55 am

Motion F9 Improving the diversity of our MPs is up for debate late on Saturday afternoon at the Liberal Democrat Sheffield conference. It attempts to be a successful, and not toothless, compromise between the strongly held conflicting views in the party on what should be done in response to not only the continuing dominance of the (Commons) Parliamentary Party by white men but also the significant slippage of the party’s diversity record compared to that of both Labour and Conservatives over the last few general elections.

As it is a motion explicitly about MPs, I can appreciate why it does not address local government. However, the flatlining of the proportion of Lib Dem councillors who are female for two decades now is a much neglected subject, and the male (and white) dominated pool of councillors is an important contributory factor to the similar pattern amongst MPs in my view.

What the motion does cover is better mentoring, setting of targets and then the heart of the proposals:

The creation of a Leadership Programme for outstanding candidates from under-represented groups, which will:

a) Have a maximum number of approved candidates, with a minimum of 30 by the end of 2011, and within that, 50% of the places will be reserved for women, and 20% for those from BAME backgrounds, and 10% for those with disabilities.
b) Provide advanced training and support, particularly in media, leadership and team building skills, and fundraising.
c) Provide mentoring and coaching from the moment they are approved as a candidate until after the election day.
d) Offer them opportunities to shadow a Parliamentarian.
e) Raise funds to provide practical support to PPCs from under-represented groups.

As an added impetus, the motion says that if there are enough applicants, then at least two people from the Leadership Programme must be included on the shortlist for a priority seat. Also, development seats should advertise in clusters, making it easier for them to hit targets for diversity in shortlists across the whole cluster.

Liberal Democrat Spring Conference Agenda and Directory 2011

Also posted in Conference | Tagged featured | 10 Comments

Everything you ever wanted to know about… Policy and the Parliamentary Party (part 3)

By Mark Valladares | Thu 3rd March 2011 - 2:43 pm

In the first two parts of this mini-series, I looked at how policy is made, and how its creation is managed. Today, I want to look at its failings, the implications of those failings, and how future policy making might be shaped.

As a party of perpetual opposition, our inclusive but often ponderous policy-making regime allowed members to influence core policy, in the knowledge that it would be a means of attacking the Government, but was unlikely to be applied. Occasionally, that led to somewhat populist ideas being espoused but, if a Government did something in a field where our policy was obsolete, or overtaken by events, our spokespeople had a set of principles to fall back on.

Such an arrangement worked, for the most part, especially in small Parliamentary Parties. However, its weaknesses became more apparent as Labour’s mania for legislation produced a plethora of technical changes in need of detailed scrutiny.

Tagged coalition agreement, Danny Alexander, digital economy bill, federal policy committee, house of lords and Special Conference May 2010 | Leave a comment

My question for the Federal Executive

By Mark Pack | Tue 22nd February 2011 - 8:55 am

Here’s the question I’m submitting to the Report of the Federal Executive at the party’s spring conference in Sheffield:

The report makes only very brief mention of several important topics (e.g. the party’s KPIs and review into the general election, for neither of which are details provided). Overall it is far shorter than previous FE reports, with for example less than a third of the words of that from the first spring conference after the 2001 general election. Will the FE consider providing more substantive reports in future?

The Federal Executive’s report is being debated at 5:30pm on the Saturday in the main …

Also posted in Conference | Tagged federal executive | 1 Comment

Everything you ever wanted to know about… Policy and the Parliamentary Party (part 2)

By Mark Valladares | Sat 5th February 2011 - 11:55 am

(This is the third column from Lib Dem Voice’s Party Bureaucracy Columnist Mark Valladares – for Part 1 see here.)

Ah yes, the Federal Policy Committee, or FPC for short, a body of twenty-nine members, consisting of Nick Clegg, as Leader, one other MP elected by and from the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons, one MP each elected by and from members of the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons representing constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales respectively; one Peer elected by and from the Parliamentary Party in the House of Lords; one MEP elected by and …

Tagged fpc and policy | 10 Comments

The political thought of the Liberals and Liberal Democrats since 1945: book review

By Mark Pack | Wed 26th January 2011 - 10:25 am

Kevin Hickson’s volume, The political thought of the Liberals and Liberal Democrats since 1945, may be a short volume from an academic publisher with an academic book price tag to boot (look out for cheaper second-hand copies) but its contributors include many political practitioners. With Vince Cable, Steve Webb, David Howarth , Richard Grayson and Duncan Brack amongst them, this book has a very strong representation of people at the coalface of policy making rather than simply those who know of it only in theory.

As Hickson points out in the book’s introduction, the policies of the Liberal Democrats – even more so than other aspects of the history of the party and its predecessors since 1945 – have had very little coverage in books, an omission which this volume sets out to remedy and which political fortunes in the year after the book’s publication has made all the more useful a task to tackle.

Also posted in Books and Op-eds | Tagged david howarth, duncan brack, kevin hickson, richard acland, richard grayson, social mobility, steve webb and vince cable | 1 Comment

Federal Executive elects people to key party posts

By Mark Pack | Sun 23rd January 2011 - 4:55 pm

During the week, the Federal Executive elected the following:

Deputy Chair, Federal Executive – Alison Goldsworthy
Chair, Federal Finance and Administration Committee – Duncan Greenland
Treasurer – Richard Duncalf
Chair, Campaigns & Communications Committee- James Gurling
Chair, International Relations Committee – Robert Woodthorpe-Browne
Chair, Campaign for Gender Balance – Ros Gordon

Tagged federal executive | 8 Comments

Wanted: one party locksmith

By Mark Pack | Fri 21st January 2011 - 8:55 am

The Guardian‘s splash about the first meeting of the party’s newly elected Federal Executive makes for rather generous coverage of a completely unexceptional decision by the FE.

That the first meeting of the newly elected committee, faced with deciding what motion to put to the Spring Conferences, goes for saying that the party should fight the next general election as an independent party is about as unsurprising an outcome as you could expect. But if The Guardian wants to give heavy coverage to the Lib Dems and Conservatives not being one and the same, that’s not exactly the worst the …

Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged federal executive | 10 Comments

Everything you ever wanted to know about… Policy and the Parliamentary Party (part 1) – at the beginning was the word

By Mark Valladares | Thu 20th January 2011 - 1:47 pm

A fortnight ago, the question was put to me, “How do you influence the Parliamentary Party?” At the time, I indicated that this was a very complex question – normally shorthand for “You don’t think that I’m going to touch that with a bargepole, do you?”. But not this time… So, how do Liberal Democrats make policy?

The sovereign policy-making body of the Party is the Federal Conference, and policy motions can be submitted by State Parties (England, Scotland and Wales), the regional parties in England, local parties, Specified Associated Organisations (e.g. Liberal Youth), any ten conference representatives or the Federal …

7 Comments

New Lib Dem councillor representatives elected for party committees

By Mark Pack | Thu 20th January 2011 - 12:50 pm

Via the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors (ALDC) comes the news:

Elections have taken place to elect the principal councillor representative on two Federal Party Committees for 2011-2012:

On the Federal Executive Committee the following have been elected:

Cllr Stan Collins (South Lakeland DC and Cumbria CC)
Cllr Keith House (Eastleigh BC and Hampshire CC)

On the Federal Policy Committee the following have been elected:

Cllr Louise Bloom (Eastleigh BC)
Cllr Stan Collins (South Lakeland DC and Cumbria CC)
Cllr Chris White (St Albans CC and Hertfordshire CC)

Tagged federal executive and federal policy committee | Leave a comment

‘Cowley Street’ may not be ‘Cowley Street’ for long

By Helen Duffett | Thu 13th January 2011 - 9:53 am

Photo credit: Loz Flowers on Flickr.

The Liberal Democrats are looking for new headquarters in Westminster, and plan to vacate their current offices at 4 Cowley Street.

From Property Week:

4 Cowley Street is a Grade II listed building which was originally constructed in 1905 as the London headquarters of the North Eastern Railway Company and provides just over 7,000 sq ft of offices.

A similar amount of space is being sought on a single floor and several properties have already been

…

Tagged cowley street | 28 Comments

Party reviewing internal election rules: you have until 21 January to send in your views

By Mark Pack | Wed 12th January 2011 - 8:55 am

In November I blogged my suggestions for how the party’s internal election rules should be changed. In brief – fewer restrictions on candidates and voters being able to talk about the contests and who they support, more leeway for online campaigning and a series of steps to encourage more debate and discussion within the party about the elections and merits of candidates. The last point was fuelled by my experience of standing (successfully) for the Interim Peers Panel – and being asked almost no policy questions by voters in the process.

Following the federal committee, interim peers panel and …

Tagged david allworthy and federal executive | 4 Comments

Everything you ever wanted to know about the internal workings of the Liberal Democrats but were afraid to ask…

By Mark Valladares | Thu 6th January 2011 - 12:25 pm

Welcome to my new column, a humble bureaucrat’s contribution to internal Party debate and participation. When Mark Pack invited me to become a columnist for this august website, I was a mite surprised but, after some thought, realised that this might be an opportunity to help people to take a greater role in their Party. So here we go!

The Party’s internal workings are varied and strange. Indeed, so strange are they that when Ros Scott asked for an organogram before taking office as President two years ago, she was moved to remark, “Shouldn’t the boxes be joined to each other?”. …

Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged nick clegg, ros scott and tim farron | 17 Comments

Party posts up for election: nominations close 7 January

By Mark Pack | Wed 29th December 2010 - 10:25 am

News from David Allworthy, the Deputy Acting Returning Officer:

Nominations are now open for the election of:
· Chair of the Federal Finance & Administration Committee (FFAC)*
· Five members of the FFAC
· Party Treasurer
· Chair of the Campaigns & Communications Committee (CCC)
· Chair of the International Relations Committee (IRC)
· Two members of the IRC
· One representative on ELDR Council
· Two representatives on ELDR Congress
· Two representatives on the Liberal International (LI) Executive
· Two representatives to the LI Congress
· Chair Campaign For Gender Balance
· Two Vice Chairs Campaign For Gender Balance
· Three members of the Diversity Engagement Group

*The Chair of the FFAC is registered as the Party’s Treasurer for the purposes of the PPERA 2000, …

4 Comments

Opinion: How Lib Dems make policy – or fail to – and the consequences

By Geoff Crocker | Mon 27th December 2010 - 3:25 pm

Causal chains can be very long, with surprising connections between initiating events and final outcomes. Severe violence between protesters and police on the streets of London resulted from the debacle over student fees, broken pledges, and continuing double talk as to whether this is a coalition compromise, or has now somehow magically become best policy. But it has its roots further back in a faulted policy making process in the Lib Dem party. How did an intelligent political party get such policy so wrong less than a year ago, when it already knew all the current economic issues? To understand …

Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged mansion tax and vince cable | 40 Comments

The Saturday debate: Should federal committees be elected by all party members?

By Mark Pack | Sat 11th December 2010 - 8:55 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

Key party committees such as the Federal Executive and the Federal Policy Committee have a large block of members elected in a postal ballot every two years by the party’s federal conference representatives.* These directly elected members sit alongside committee members such as MPs elected by the Parliamentary Party in the Commons.

The arguments in favour of having federal conference representatives rather than party members as the electorate have tended to focus on practicality (the cost would be much higher to have all …

Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged weekend debate | 25 Comments

Opinion: time to end the special treatment for sitting MPs

By Hywel Morgan | Tue 7th December 2010 - 12:26 pm

Like many other Lib Dem local parties my own is currently working its way through selecting candidates for next May’s local elections.

In at least one ward a sitting councillor will be facing a challenge and a contested (re)selection meeting. I think that few people would argue that that was a bad idea, that the person who had been the representative should have to show that they still have the confidence of their local membership.

On a wider scale we are seeing selections for the list members for the Greater London Authority. Two sitting members are standing down but the one person restanding is having to put herself in front of the membership and seek their continued support.

A similar process applies for the re-selection of MSPs on both the lists and for the constituencies.

At some point in the next 18 months or so our MEPs will, if they want to restand, have to do the same. Just as they did before the 2004 and 2009 elections.

When our elected Mayors come up for re-election they also will have to go before their membership to show they still have their support.

Of course in many of these cases, particularly at a more local level, such re-selections are done unopposed. However the principle, that re-selections are open contests still remains.

However there is one group of Liberal Democrat elected representatives who don’t have to face an open reselection contest: Westminster MPs.

Also posted in Op-eds | 10 Comments

Changing the party’s internal election rules

By Mark Pack | Tue 30th November 2010 - 10:26 am

The party’s new President, Tim Farron, is committed to changing the rules for how our elections are conducted, as he revealed in answer to a question I posed during the contest:

Do you believe the party’s rules for elections for federal committees and the Interim Peers have the right level of restrictions on what campaigning can be done by or on behalf of candidates, and if not what would you alter?

Far too restrictive – there should be very tight expenditure limits to make sure that the well off don’t have any kind of advantage but apart from that it seems

…

Tagged tim farron | 3 Comments

Federal Policy Committee elects its three Vice-Chairs

By Mark Pack | Thu 18th November 2010 - 8:44 pm

Last night Cambridge MP Julian Huppert, former Oxford West and Abingdon MP Evan Harris and Jeremy Hargreaves were elected to be the Federal Policy Committee’s three Vice-Chairs. Evan and Jeremy have long been high-profile figures in the party’s policy-making process and Julian has rapidly joined their ranks as his profile in the party has risen over the last couple of years.

So what is notable about the trio is not any of their presence in it, but that Danny Alexander, former FPC Vice-Chair and in charge of the 2010 manifesto team but now a Cabinet Minister, is no-longer one of the …

Tagged Danny Alexander, evan harris, federal policy committee, jeremy hargreaves and julian huppert | 6 Comments

Does the alphabet matter when it comes to Liberal Democrat internal elections?

By Mark Pack | Thu 18th November 2010 - 8:54 am

There is consistent evidence that in public elections people with names higher up the alphabet, and hence higher up the ballot paper, do slightly better than people lower down. It is not a major effect, though in a marginal seat a small difference can mean you win rather than lose, and seems to be strongest where ballot papers are more complicated, e.g. if all three seats in a council ward are up for election.

So it is no great surprise that after the Liberal Democrat federal committee and interim peers panel election results were declared on Saturday, several people made comment about how the results looked to benefit people higher up the ballot paper. The large number of candidates means these were just the sort of contest where you might expect an effect to come into play, and with the final few places on committees or panels often decided by small margins, there might be an important prompt here for reform.

But what does the evidence say?

Tagged featured | 16 Comments

Opinion: Interpreting the internal election results

By David Hall-Matthews | Tue 16th November 2010 - 3:57 pm

The bare bones of the internal party election results were set out here on Saturday showing who had been elected by conference reps to the various committees.

The detailed results for the Federal Executive and the Federal Policy Committee, hosted by Colin Rosenstiel, show some revealing trends when compared with previous years’ election results.

This year, in the Federal Executive elections, Evan Harris came top on first preference by a long stretch with 263 votes. Following him was David Rendel (107) and Ramesh Dewan (77) with others on 55. Evan is clearly identified with the progressive, Social Liberal wing …

Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged david rendel, duncan brack, evan harris, gareth epps, linda jack, ramesh dewan, sandra gidley, social liberal forum, susan gaszczak and tony greaves | 38 Comments

More results: party committees and interim peers panel

By Helen Duffett | Sat 13th November 2010 - 1:20 pm

Liberal Democrat Federal Conference representatives have voted for members of party committees for 2011-2012 and members of the panel from which future Liberal Democrat nominees for the House of Lords will be drawn.

The results are as follows:

Also posted in News | Tagged eldr council delegation, featured, federal conference committee, federal executive, federal policy committee, interim peers panel and international relations committee | 6 Comments

English Party election results 2010

By Helen Duffett | Thu 11th November 2010 - 4:08 pm

Yesterday the counts took place for the English party elections.

The Acting Returning Officer, David Allworthy, reported the results as follows:

At the close of nominations on 29 September 2010 the following were declared duly elected, unopposed:

Chair of English Party:
Jonathan Davies

Chair of English Candidates’ Committee:
Margaret Joachim

English representative to Federal Conference Committee (1 place):
Geoff Payne

English Candidates Committee (5 places):
Dawn Davidson
Sal Jarvis
Brian Orrell

The following were elected:

English representative to Federal Executive:
Brian Orrell: 46
Michael Wheatley: 32

English representative to Federal Policy Committee:
Dirk Hazell: 10
Geoff Payne: 68

English Executive Committee (12 places):
Nigel Ashton
Stan Collins
Dawn Davidson
Kay Friend
Anders Hanson
Sean Hooker
Sal Jarvis
Steve Jarvis
Brian Orrell
Geoff Payne
Neil Walton
Mike Wheatley

The turnout was 65.5% (higher …

5 Comments

Last chance to vote in Party Committee Elections 2010 (online voting closes noon today)

By Helen Duffett | Wed 10th November 2010 - 6:53 am

Online voting in this year’s Liberal Democrat Committee elections closes at NOON today, so if you’re a Federal Conference Rep who hasn’t yet returned your vote, there’s still time to get online and do so.

To vote by internet, go to:

www.votebyinternet.com/partycommittee2010 and follow the online instructions.

You’ll need to enter your security code, which is printed on your ballot paper.

The counts for the Party Committee and Presidential elections will take place this Saturday, 13th November.

To get the results keep an eye on this site – I’ll be at Cowley Street, to bring you the results as soon as they are announced.

Also posted in Party Presidency | 3 Comments

Opinion: Keeping our voice – restating our democratic structure on fees and beyond

By Adam Gillett | Tue 9th November 2010 - 2:25 pm

I have no natural will to oppose the party leadership – I am, above all, a Liberal Democrat because of our unique party structure and the balance of opinion that allows it through its democratic structure to express a comprehensive view through its representatives. I am one of us because I believe in our ability to hold these representatives to account.

But even internal democracy is difficult to manage – occasionally we don’t work our structure well, and in some recent moves our natural process of internal compromise/external compromise seems to have been reversed. While the technology exists to carry out rapid-fire online and telephone membership votes on party policy, we have not yet built such a system and as such we rely on our Executive and representatives to listen to branches and party organisations and take their views as mandate for or opposition to a given policy.

Now that we are in a position of power, this sensitivity must take on a more concrete form than simple quelling emails or the occasional LDV article. Our problem is that reinvigoration through power of the party at parliamentary level has not been translated into a reinvigorated sense of democracy and power extended to all parts of the party. Conference is simply not regular enough to do us service in our bold new position.

Also posted in Op-eds | 4 Comments

Should the Lib Dems elect our (shadow) cabinet members?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 28th September 2010 - 4:35 pm

The election of Ed Miliband as Labour leader — despite losing the vote among Labour party members and MPs/MEPs — presented an easy target for the Lib Dems, a party which has always believed in one-member-one-vote, and where the views of our MPs carry equal weight as any other party member.

However, there is another election about to take place within the Labour party: for the 19 places available in their shadow cabinet. All MPs are eligible to stand, and the electorate comprises their colleagues; a separate ballot will decide who will be the Labour chief whip. So far it’s …

Also posted in Op-eds | 20 Comments

Liberal Democrats Abroad launches today

By Helen Duffett | Thu 23rd September 2010 - 6:08 pm

The Liberal Democrats have today launched an organisation to communicate with the party’s overseas supporters.

Liberal Democrats Abroad aims to keep members and supporters in touch with the UK party, to encourage supporters to join, and to register to vote in the UK.

So, who’s eligible to vote?

Also posted in News | Tagged electoral registration, liberal democrats abroad and nick clegg | 1 Comment

Jo Swinson new Deputy Leader of Scottish Liberal Democrats

By Helen Duffett | Thu 23rd September 2010 - 12:13 pm

Jo Swinson MP has been announced as the new Deputy Leader of the Scottish Lib Dems. Michael Moore MP, now Secretary of State for Scotland, is stepping down after seven years as Deputy Leader.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats website quotes Jo:

After just four months in opposition, Labour has gone back to the cheap tricks and opportunism of the 1980s.

In office, Labour ran up £23,000 of debt for every man,

…

Tagged Jo Swinson, Michael Moore and tavish scott | Leave a comment

Facing the Future: the missing international question

By Mark Pack | Mon 20th September 2010 - 8:56 am

A combination of meetings and media mean I cannot make it into the hall later this morning for the debate on the party’s Facing the Future policy consultation (pdf copy of document here). It is a document setting out the broad questions (sixty-two in all, though Q59 bears a striking resemblance to Q53) intended to shape the party’s future policy development. Had I been able to make it, this is the necessarily brief speech I would have wanted to give about the last three in the document, on international affairs.

There are two near certainties about any broad policy review …

Also posted in Conference and Op-eds | Leave a comment

Op-eds

Mathew on Monday: “We need to be bold” (Mathew Hulbert)
As a party we must be better defined for the 2029 general election (Chris Bowers)
From national averages to local realities: inequality in our communities (Tom Walker)
We do have a two tier system, Part 2 (Neil Hickman)
A Federal Britain: 3. Fiscal Federalism and a complete constitutional settlement (Iain Donaldson)

Advert

Alison Suttie writes: Thank you to our volunteers

What’s going on with party strategy?

A strange but welcome feeling

Observations of an Expat: The Elephant Returns

Category Archives: Party policy and internal matters

Brooke, Horwood and Huppert join the list of Liberal Democrat co-chairs

The party strategy debate: rolling highlights

Conference preview: Improving the diversity of our MPs

Everything you ever wanted to know about… Policy and the Parliamentary Party (part 3)

My question for the Federal Executive

Everything you ever wanted to know about… Policy and the Parliamentary Party (part 2)

Federal Executive elects people to key party posts

Wanted: one party locksmith

Everything you ever wanted to know about… Policy and the Parliamentary Party (part 1) – at the beginning was the word

New Lib Dem councillor representatives elected for party committees

‘Cowley Street’ may not be ‘Cowley Street’ for long

Party reviewing internal election rules: you have until 21 January to send in your views

Everything you ever wanted to know about the internal workings of the Liberal Democrats but were afraid to ask…

Party posts up for election: nominations close 7 January

Opinion: How Lib Dems make policy – or fail to – and the consequences

The Saturday debate: Should federal committees be elected by all party members?

Opinion: time to end the special treatment for sitting MPs

Changing the party’s internal election rules

Federal Policy Committee elects its three Vice-Chairs

Does the alphabet matter when it comes to Liberal Democrat internal elections?

More results: party committees and interim peers panel

English Party election results 2010

Last chance to vote in Party Committee Elections 2010 (online voting closes noon today)

Opinion: Keeping our voice – restating our democratic structure on fees and beyond

Should the Lib Dems elect our (shadow) cabinet members?

Liberal Democrats Abroad launches today

Jo Swinson new Deputy Leader of Scottish Liberal Democrats

Facing the Future: the missing international question

Most Read

Op-eds

Recent Comments

Alison Suttie writes: Thank you to our volunteers

What’s going on with party strategy?

A strange but welcome feeling

Observations of an Expat: The Elephant Returns

Category Archives: Party policy and internal matters

Subscribe

Most Read

Search

Op-eds

Recent Comments