Last week, we brought you news of a consultation on the party’s internal election regulations which opened in mid December and closes on 3 January.

It’s clearly Consultation Season in the Party because members have had an email inviting them to contribute to the Federal Policy Committee’s Policy review by 6 January.

In the email, Ed Davey says:

In July, millions of people put their trust in the Liberal Democrats, many of them for the first time. They have handed us an exciting opportunity and a humbling responsibility.

So now we must continue to lead the way, with big, bold policies to tackle the challenges facing our country in the years ahead. Not just clearing up the enormous mess left by the Conservatives, but building the fair, free and open society we all believe in.

That’s why our Federal Policy Committee (FPC) has set up a new working group to develop a strategic programme for renewing our policy in the years ahead.

We want to hear from you, to help chart our course towards a policy platform that serves us well as we tackle the priorities of the British people; be a responsible opposition to the Government; finish the job against the Conservatives; and paint a clear vision of the more liberal Britain we want to build.

As a first step, we want to hear from you what are the most important areas for us to focus on, to help guide our work over the coming months.

You can respond to the consultation here.

As a party we are set up to be open to our members’ views. It is our members who make policy at our Conferences. It is our Conference which will debate a paper put together which is informed by the results of this consultation. It is absolutely vital that FPC hear from a wide range of people the length and breadth of the country.

What do you think are the biggest issues we need to be tackling? How crucial is our relationship with our with Europe to our future prosperity and wellbeing as a country? Most Liberal Democrats would be somewhere between very and intensely. How do we remove the structural barriers that certain groups of people face which hold them back from living their best lives? How do we restructure economy and our politics so that they better serve the people and leave nobody behind? These are big, meaty issues that we need to have the answers to and soon.

So take some time to sit down with a nice glass of mulled wine and a mince pie (or whatever festive treat you like) and make sure your voice is heard.

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