Parliament is back tomorrow after the two week Christmas recess. You would think that our MPs would have been taking a well earned rest after a brutal year of campaigning and then settling in to their new roles.
Not a chance. They’ve been on the doorsteps, doing urgent casework, attending events in their constituencies. They’ll have full inboxes to attend to. The holiday gives their regular correspondents plenty of opportunity to write in with their asks on many different subjects.
So what will our MPs be up to this week?
On Wednesday, Keir Starmer will face his first PMQs of the year – and he’ll have five Lib Dems to look forward to. Marie Goldman has the second slot, Victoria Collins the fourth Andrew George and Christine Jardine are at 9 and 10 respectively. And Ed will also have his usual two questions.
All the questions sessions in Parliament are replete with Lib Dems these days. You can see who’s coming up in each session here.
Two Lib Dem MPs have Westminster Hall Debates this week. Richard Foord has one on National Security and preparedness on Tuesday at 11 am. On Wednesday at 4 pm, Clive Jones will be leading a debate on welfare for children and young people with Cancer.
On Monday, the petition demanding a General Election, which has 3 million signatures, is being debated. It’s going to be interesting to see who speaks in favour, given that the whole premise undermines our system of parliamentary democracy and we had an election 6 months ago. Perhaps what we need is PR to make people feel that their democracy is actually working for them. Our Jamie Stone is in the chair for that one.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
An alarming decline in Welsh nature
Weekly Road Report - West End Ward #dundeewestend
Remembering Don Cupitt and his television series The Sea of Faith
How to improve the regulation of political polling - The Week in Polls
Why the government are getting it wrong on local government reorganisation
Mick Taylor
John Mc
Simon R
David Evans
5 Comments
After the General Election it was a bit of a shock to find so many Lib Dems elected that some of us had never heard of previously. Conference in September replaced uncertainty with reassurance and the old tag “never mind the width feel the quality”. So Caron’s alerts should be taken seriously.
However outside of the House of Commons there is the changed media landscape. Last week there was a remarkable slot on Channel 4 News dealing with the Government’s Care
semi-announcement. There was a one line report on what the Conservative leader had said which was followed (for all sorts of reasons) by a substantial and well argued piece from Ed. Meanwhile following an interview with the Reform UK leader Laura Kuensberg made it clear that Starmer, Badenoch and Davey would be interviewed during January –
no ifs no buts!
Even if we seem to be benefitting from the usual excessive focus on the House of Commons and a seriously flawed system choosing its members, we can enjoy being in a seriously different place which our parliamentarians are soberly and effectively exploiting.
For all the good things that our MPs are saying, the Liberal Democrats are not being heard and seen enough nationally. Neither on Laura Kuennsberg nor the equivalent ITV programme at 9 am was our party mentioned, and it has been the same on Newsnight and on the quality papers apart from The Guardian. Frankly, I’d like to see us get some legitimate coverage by denouncing Nigel Farage as UNPATRIOTIC. His parrotting of Musk’s disgraceful attacks on our Government should surely be denounced, and the Reform bubble burst. Ask them, why do you go on supporting this party led by a man apparently in thrall to America’s Trump and Musk?
Ideally like this idea Katharine. I’m not particularly moved by either patriotism or anti-patriotism, but I do like judging politicians by their own stated standards, and Farage continuously fails his own. I’d add to that his evident indifference to actually solving problems, only in making people more angry and afraid.
*I really, not ideally.
Typing fail.
The Lib Dems aren’t being heard because they aren’t saying much worth reporting.
Why indeed has there been no really robust attack against Farage, the snake oil salesman who lumbered us with Brexit as a gimmick to win votes and help hedge fund speculators get rich? Are the Lib Dems too scared to stand up to a “nice bloke” who quaffs pints (and quietly peddles dog-whistle racism) – ?
If that’s too much like sticking the Lib Dem neck out, what about listening to van Tulleken, who has identified the scandal of ultra-processed food manufacturers designing food they know will massively harm people’s health, but will win sales? What about campaigning against that?
If even that’s too much like “strong meat” for the diffident Lib Dems, how about telling Starmer that you can’t overturn 14 years of NHS neglect by spending a pittance on upgrading an app?
Come on Lib Dems, don’t just bungee-jump, please please justify your existence!