We hope you enjoyed our traditional offering as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
The star of the piece, our party President Mark Pack, had his own news splash on Ed Davey’s battlebus with a difference.
And so the party’s cheese-merchants-in-chief have been bashing around ideas to replace a traditional battlebus with something more eye-catching.
Which is why that local election launch featured Ed Davey in a tractor.
If you watched very closely, you’ll have seen that he wasn’t driving it, but rather had a driver beside him, a press officer squeezed in behind them both next to a compact coffee machine, with a trailer pulled along behind loaded up with a group of mannequins.
For the choice of a tractor wasn’t a subtle jibe at the previous Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton. Rather, it was a test for doing a leader’s election tour by tractor.
Neil Fawcett, who also featured briefly in our piece, made his own announcement on Facebook, presumably to detract attention:
Two recent events have triggered a decision I have been mulling over for some time:
1 The refusal by Party President Mark Pack to allow an emergency meeting of the FCEC to discuss my proposal that we should use an electric tractor, rather than a diesel one, for the recent ‘blue wall’ stunt;
2 The release of the frankly excellent album, I Saw, A Star Behind Your Eyes, Don’t Let It Fade Away, by my talented Green councillor colleague Robin Bennett. (Fans of the Byrds, CSNY etc. will love it.)
As a result, I will be switching to join the Greens with immediate effect.
Given that Neil is genuinely indispensable, I’m very glad this is an April Fool.
One of my personal favourites was the Scotsman’s scoop of a new statue of Nicola Sturgeon to be erected in the Scottish Parliament. One of the big real news stories in Scotland at the moment is the absolute horlicks the SNP Government has made of building ferries but every cloud appears to have a silver lining:
Crucially it appears to be an infrastructure project which the government should, with a fair wind, be able to deliver. MSPs will walk past the statue every day and be inspired, while grateful citizens can come to pay tribute to the beloved former First Minister.”
He added: “Building the ferries has of course been challenging and an error at the procurement stage actually meant we ended up with a load of surplus steel. Repurposing it for this truly exciting project will both help keep costs to a minimum and prove the SNP is committed to value for money. We are confident the statue will be delivered on time and on budget, and in all likelihood before the Glen Sannox sets sail.”
Richmond’s Lib Dem Council Leader Gareth Roberts had some exciting inter-planetary news:
Cllr @Gareth_Roberts_ announces Richmond Council is in line to be the first local authority on Mars.
Visit https://t.co/BZaRL2yyyv to find out more. pic.twitter.com/j5dMP99pEx
— Richmond Council (@LBRUT) April 1, 2023
Do click on the link.
McDonalds, UK, offered an unmissable fashion opportunity:
📣Calling all fashionistas 📣
We’ve got the must have drop of the season.
Unveiling the Big McNugget Boot, the most flavoursome shoe of SS23. Releasing exclusively through the McDonald’s App this Monday. pic.twitter.com/1hjFuFZOfG
— McDonald's UK (@McDonaldsUK) April 1, 2023
And Waitrose has this offer for Lib Dems.
Introducing… Merlonay! 🍷
This fool-proof bottle lets you blend your own rosé wine, making it as pink or pale as you like.
Mix 10ml of red with 165ml of white for a delicate Provençal pink, or 65ml of red with 100ml of white for a deep-coloured rosé. pic.twitter.com/gZV36VGpAo
— Waitrose & Partners (@waitrose) March 31, 2023
Enjoy the annual prankfest! And feel free to post other 1st April offerings in the comments.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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8 Comments
Our silence on the EU continues. Please can someone take action on the chaos at Dover with busloads of schoolchildren waiting up to 14 hours:
Simon Calder, travel correspondent at the Independent, said processing times since leaving the EU had increased sharply “and that would seem to explain the delays”.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said that having an EU border at Dover meant things were “gumming up”, and that each individual passport must now be inspected and stamped.
This means that coach loads of passengers must disembark to have their passports checked, adding to delays.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65143093
A big thanks to the tories for creating this mess. The problem is this won’t get any better until we get rid of them and start having closer links with our European brothers and sisters. We must also encourage the French to have more staff there side and find a way for us to get through the custom checks quicker. We all know this was caused by *rexit but we owe it to the people of the country to sort it out quickly. If we LIBDEMS could come up with a plan ASAP and get it passed by the government it would be a “feather in our cap” ahead of local elections
My wife is a Dane and I now have an Irish passport. We are treated by Europeans as European and have freedom of movement through the EU. At the Channel Tunnel terminal, the French glance at our passports and wave us through.
The Brits must have their passports scanned so it updates the computer which checks that they do not stay more than 90 days in the EU during any 6-month period. This takes time particularly for a family in a car and a bus even longer.
My son-in-law who is British and lives in the US but works a lot in Europe has had to cut short trips to Europe as he would go over his 90 day period. Not good for business!
The answer is to SCRAP BREXIT and return to the good old days.
@M E LARKIN
“We must also encourage the French to have more staff their side and find a way for us to get through the custom checks quicker.”
Perhaps the British government should pay for these extra staff ? It isn’t France’s fault that we left the EU.
@ John Waller “Please can someone take action on the chaos at Dover”
Why?
Surely we need more people to feel the pain of Brexit to help build the momentum to some form of rejoining…
However, I am a little surprised at the size of the queues given scanning a passport with modern equipment is a simple and fast process.
@Roland
Passports have to be stamped – I think that is what is taking the time.
Not just the stamping of passports, but the checking for stamps in the passport to see that you haven’t gone over the 90 days in 180 rule.
Simon Calder’s article makes it crystal clear that this is a direct result of Brexit, and specifically the Tory Government going for a hard Brexit and not the Norway type deal, which was on offer.
So why are the Liberal Democrats not saying that loud and clear?
It is an indictment of UK politics that the only effective challengers to the Conservatives seem Journalists and Lawyers. Both the Liberal Demnocrats and Labour seem to be either scared of their own shadows or scared of the Daily Mail)
There is a good piece here about the full extent of the new document checks ( ie. The checks the EU requires for third-parties, a status Brexiteers wanted): https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/think-the-queues-at-dover-are-bad-you-aint-seen-nothin-yet/
This chimed with the hoops I had to go through to get a friend a visa for Australia recently, however that was entirely online, hence she only needed her passport to be automatically read at customs, for officials to see she could be waved through. This I suspect is part of the problem, the EU system isn’t fully online and integrated.
Looking at what is being reported, it would seem the key contributing factors were suspension of service due to poor weather in the days prior to Friday, the large number of coaches, a shortage of French officials.. I also suspect many from the UK, unused to ‘papers’ didn’t have all their necessary documents ready for inspection.