I’ve been looking back at Liberal Democrat Voice past over the weekend, and jolly interesting it has been too – the archives are a glimpse into a rather different political party and, indeed, a rather different Liberal Democrat Voice. As for us, we’re not the same people we used to be, indeed, the Editorial Team of ten years ago bears little resemblance to today’s lineup.

But something drew my eye, and so, in magpie style, I’m stealing it, or perhaps more generously, recycling it. The Daily View feature ran in 2009 and 2010, and was meant to be an early preview of two of the big news stories of the day, and a click-through to two interesting blog posts (yes, people still do that) that have caught my eye. It might encourage a few of you to either blog a bit more or, perhaps, take up blogging. One day, it’s going to be our social history, you know.

So, without further ado…

2 Big Stories

I can hardly start without a coronavirus story. With members of the Cabinet increasingly in self-isolation, and Parliamentarians staying away from Westminster even before it went into an early Easter recess, who is actually in charge of getting protective gear to NHS staff? With two doctors dying over the weekend, and confirmation now in that the super-facilities at the ExCeL Conference Centre in East London, the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham and Manchester’s Central Convention Centre will be staffed by existing NHS staff, can the Johnson administration convince the public that they are on top of things?

Meanwhile, with a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showing that the gap between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is closing, despite of the latter’s cack-handed handling of the Coronavirus outbreak, is the impossible now actually likely, that America will re-elect Donald Trump to a second term in the White House? And, if so, what does this mean for international co-operation going forward?

2 Blog Posts

For those who were involved in groups such as Liberal Democrat European Group and Liberal International over many years, the name Derek Honeygold will have been very familiar. Beyond that, or West London, perhaps not so many people might have known him. Sadly, he died on Saturday after developing pneumonia, and Jonathan Fryer, the current Chair of the Party’s Federal International Relations Committee, remembers him.

We’ve already seen the definition of key worker shift substantially over the past fortnight or so, as shopworkers, delivery drivers, care workers and the like all suddenly appear as core elements of ensuring that people are fed and protected. Peter Black brings to our attention the desperate need for farm labour, and what farmers are willing to attempt to fill the gap so that we might have fresh fruit and vegetables over the coming months.