Three brilliant LIb Dem Women have been honoured for their work in the New Year’s Honours list. There may be more Lib Dems, but I can’t find any on searching the list, which was published at 10:30 pm last night.  Please let us know in the comments if you find any ore and I’ll add them into this post.

Sheila Ritchie MBE

Sheila Ritchie (pictured here with her predecessor Elspeth Attwooll) was, for now at least, one of the last contingent of Lib Dem MEPs, representing Scotland from May 2019-January 2020, but her involvement with the Lib Dems, and the Liberals before, goes back much further. I first came across her nearly 38 years ago as a student. She was so keen to involve the Liberal students in Aberdeen in the local party. She taught me and many others pretty much everything we know about campaigning and politics. As a councillor, campaigner, and more recently Convener of the Scottish Party,  she is a total liberal legend.

She is unafraid to deliver a good kick up the backside when it is needed and she inspires you to do more than you had intended.

Ed Davey said

Sheila is literally one of the greatest forces of nature I have ever been lucky enough to work with. Whether she’s coordinating volunteer activists across Scotland or fighting in the European Parliament for stronger support for agricultural and rural communities.”

The Liberal Democrats are so much stronger as a party thanks to indefatigable campaigners like Sheila. She rightly deserves this accolade, and we are so proud of her.

She took on the convenership of the Scottish Party at the beginning of 2018, at a tricky point for us. She travelled the length and breadth of the country helping local campaigns with enthusiasm and sorting out a lot of the admin stuff that had been building up as the party had fought 2 general elections, 2 Scottish elections, 2 council elections and 2 referenda in 7 years. She left the party in much greater shape when she stepped down at the beginning of last year.  She was a passionate and articulate advocate for Scotland on the Federal Board and, my goodness, she spoke truth to power when needed. She was also instrumental in developing the new disciplinary process as a member of the Disciplinary Sub-Group.

The last year has been horrible for her. In May, Keith, her husband of 43 years,  died of Cancer. A few weeks later, though, she was up in the Western Isles campaigning in a by-election and more recently supported our candidate in an Argyll and Bute Council by-election. She’s also been leading efforts to grow our membership in Scotland.

She has devoted much of her adult life to the party, often at pretty huge personal cost, and I am so delighted to see her work being recognised.

Cllr Helen Belcher OBE

Wiltshire Lib Dem Councillor Helen Belcher has been awarded an OBE for her services to the transgender community.

Helen was the Lib Dem candidate in Chippenham at the 2017 and 2019 General Elections and has written several articles for us.

In an article for Transgender Awareness Week last year she said:

I think that we, as a party, should be building a society where, to quote Paris Lees, “everyone feels safe, valued and respected”, not one that is giving in “to visceral prejudices”. Freedom to be yourself is at the core of liberalism. Without that, we have nothing to offer.

She is chair of Trans Actual UK, an organisation which aims to improve health care, recognition and media representation for trans people. In an increasingly toxic climate, Helen is one of the few trans people who gets an all too rare chance to put her side of the story. She is always reasonable, clear and persuasive in the face of often hostile questioning.

On receiving the honour she said:

I was very surprised to hear that I was to receive this award and it still doesn’t feel quite real.

I’m also acutely aware that everything I’ve done has been accomplished with the assistance of fantastic teams of people, so I hope they will appreciate that this award is partly for them too. There’s still a lot of work to do, but hopefully this honour will make some of that slightly easier.

Ed Davey said:

Helen is an amazing campaigner for the trans community within the Liberal Democrats and beyond. She has helped so many overcome misconceptions about trans and non-binary people – either through her work as a writer, as an openly trans councillor, or as a party activist.

“Her wisdom and compassion are qualities I value highly as both a colleague and friend. We in the Liberal Democrats are so proud of her and this well-deserved accomplishment.

Rev Dr Margaret Joachim MBE

Margaret Joachim, the English Party’s long-serving candidate’s chair has been awarded the MBE for her services to women in politics.

Her role involves a huge amount of work, making sure that candidate approval and selection runs smoothly. She was responsible for implementing in England  the diversity measures, including all-women shortlists, passed by Conference in 2016 which have led to us having a parliamentary party which has a majority of women MPs.

She previously stood for Parliament three times, once opposing Margaret Thatcher in her Finchley constituency.

Ed Davey said:

For over thirty years, Margaret has gone above and beyond for the Liberal Democrats. Where she shines most, however, is in her work getting more women involved in politics.

I’m proud that for the first time ever, women make up the majority of our parliamentary party. But this couldn’t have been possible without Margaret’s tireless efforts in implementing our all-women shortlist policy. We are all in awe of her energy and passion to make a difference – and are so proud of this incredible achievement.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social