Charles Quinn

ALDC by-election report, 27th July

By Charles Quinn | Fri 28th July 2023 - 5:25 pm

It has been a busy week for by-elections with a number of principal and town council elections and some great Lib Dem victories and performances.

We start with a couple of excellent town council Lib Dem wins.

On Sevenoaks Town Council, Lionel O’Hara gained Northern ward for the Lib Dems from the Conservatives. Impressively this gain now means that the Lib Dems hold every single town councillor and district councillor in Sevenoaks! Congratulations to Cllr O’Hara and the team in Sevenoaks for truly turning the town GOLD!

Sevenoaks TC, Northern
Liberal Democrat (Lionel O’Hara): 351 (73%)
Labour: 131 (27%)

We also held Summerlands ward on Yeovil Town Council with a fantastic 58% of the vote. Congratulations to Cllr Kayleigh Fieldsend and the local team in Yeovil.

Yeovil TC, Summerlands
Liberal Democrats (Kayleigh Fieldsend): 329 (58%)
Independent: 128 (22.6%)
Green Party: 71 (12.5%)
Unaligned: 33 (5.8%)

We have excellent town, parish and community council by-election wins every week up and down the country. Let us know if you have a town or parish election coming up that you are contesting, or a good win, by emailing [email protected] and we will make sure we report it.

We stood in 4 principal by-elections on Thursday – improving our vote share in all of them.

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David Gray

Act now to prevent the death of cash

By David Gray | Fri 28th July 2023 - 2:08 pm

I recently returned from Scandinavia, where I busked my way around for a few weeks. I spend a lot of my time travelling in this way – often around half the year. This time, I’d planned my trip around various Bruce Springsteen gigs that were occurring in the area – a tactic that had worked wonderfully well in other countries.

Scandinavia, though, is now one of the toughest busking destinations in the world. I’ve made easily more money in Peru and Bolivia than I did in Norway. The reason is nothing to do with a lack of generosity (I was last there in 2016 and did very well indeed), but the almost total elimination of cash from their societies.

The UK is not far behind. A recent report suggests that the number of cash transactions amounted to 10% of all payments in 2022, down from 27% in 2019. This is still higher than the 4% in Sweden and Norway, but the downwards trend should give us pause for thought.

Few would suggest that these figures indicate a need to restrict card/contactless payments. To do so would be to inconvenience people for no obvious benefit. But it is vital that politicians act to protect cash before it is too late. In the example of Norway, the law stating that it is illegal to refuse cash as a payment method has been widely flouted, and only very recently have lawmakers stepped in to strengthen it. But this has been done too late. We should act now before we get to a similar point.

It is understandable that many will wonder why this is necessary, or claim that the death of cash is simply an inevitable indicator of progress, and I am aware that as a professional street musician, I have ulterior motives for championing its survival that may not be thought to be particularly important. However, the destruction of busking as a form of work is not the only effect that a cashless society would cause (at this point I should say that I’m aware buskers, including myself, can and do accept contactless payments, but these do not go anywhere close to replacing the amounts earned through cash, for reasons that would take another entire article, so please do take my word for it!).

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Jack Meredith

Unity or compromise – the dilemma of tactical voting

By Jack Meredith | Fri 28th July 2023 - 10:21 am

Labour leader Keir Starmer confirmed in an interview with Nicky Campbell that he believes a woman is an “adult female”, a commonly used transphobic dogwhistle which undermines the legitimate identity of trans women.

This statement follows a long-standing public back-and-forth between the Westminster Labour Party and the Scottish Labour Party on whether to support self-ID, allowing trans people to identify as their rightful gender rather than the gender forced upon them at birth.

How far the Labour Party have fallen; once a party that championed individual liberty, now echoing right-wing populist nonsense, fearful they’ll lose their ever-growing lead over a failing Conservative government.

I imagine the late, great Roy Jenkins rolling in his grave. The man that decriminalised homosexuality, legalised abortion, liberalised divorce and theatre censorship laws, and played a significant role in the abolition of capital punishment would be an outsider in the same party that gave him his start in politics.

What is the justification for this decision from Labour? Human rights are supposed to be at the heart of their politics. This stance is a betrayal of liberal democracy and progressivism. While I agree hyper-progressivism can lead to more harm than good, acknowledging and upholding a people’s rights is basic decency.

Labour’s abject failure to do the right thing by trans people makes the argument for “tactical voting” all the more disagreeable.

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Mary Reid

The importance of political cartoons in a liberal democracy

By Mary Reid | Thu 27th July 2023 - 11:18 am

Years ago a cartoon of me was published in a local newspaper. Those were the days when the local press was actually local and effective, with reporters who turned up at events and interviewed people. It was a gentle depiction of my curly hair in a Council meeting. I rather enjoyed the fact that I had been portrayed in this way. But that is not really what political cartooning is about – if it had done its job properly I should have been angry.

We expect our cartoonists to speak truth to power, and that should make their targets uncomfortable. The great political cartoonists – Ronald Searle, Gerald Scarfe, Steve Bell, Peter Brookes, Matt – satirise the rich and powerful, focusing on greed, corruption and hypocrisy. But there is a line between satire that is biting and satire that is cruel, between images that are shocking and images that are pointlessly savage. Not surprisingly cartoonists sometimes cross that line.

Which brings us to Martin Rowson. Some weeks ago he drew a cartoon in the Guardian that showed Richard Sharp leaving the BBC with his cardboard box of belongings. It had Rowson’s characteristic elements, including a naked Boris Johnson sitting on a large pile of poo, but he was roundly condemned for something else. Critics claimed that the depiction of Sharp was anti-semitic, and included well known tropes including exaggerated features, references to banking and objects such as a squid, recalling Nazi images of Jews in the 1940s.

Now I don’t particularly like Rowson’s style, but what he does is important. Of course, he can expect backlash from time to time, but it was clear that he had crossed that line on this occasion. The cartoon was withdrawn, and Rowson took a break, but not before writing about the sequence of events and offering a genuine apology:

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The Voice

By-Election winner Sarah Dyke to visit Mid Bedfordshire

By The Voice | Wed 26th July 2023 - 9:12 am

It’s just five days since Sarah Dyke became MP for Somerton and Frome in that stunning by-election win.

But she may not hold the crown of most recent by-election winner for long.

Emma Holland-Lindsay hopes to win in Mid Bedfordshire if and when Nadine Dorries ever gets round to resigning.

Emma’s campaign is going well and the odds of a Lib Dem victory are becoming more favourable, shortening to 8/15, while Labour have seen their odds slashed to 4/1 after they failed to win in Uxbridge.

It sounds like that “two horse race” phrase might be used soon….

Here’s our newest MP on her trip east:

Last week marked another stunning success for the Liberal Democrats, now the momentum is with us as we take on this out-of-touch Conservative government.

I’m so proud to be handing the by-election baton to Emma Holland-Lindsey who will make an incredible local champion for people in Bedfordshire.

Just like in Somerset, people here are fed up with having an absent MP failing to stand up for them in Parliament. Families are facing soaring mortgage costs and struggling to see a GP, while there is an endless Conservative circus in Westminster.

It’s clear it’s a two-horse race between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives in Mid-Bedfordshire.

Emma added:

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Mark Valladares

Lib Dem Lords’ maiden speeches – Earl Russell

By Mark Valladares | Tue 25th July 2023 - 12:16 pm

I noted a few weeks ago that it has been a very long time since there was a Liberal Democrat maiden speech in the Lords but, following the recent hereditary Peer by-election, John Russell took the opportunity to make his maiden speech during a debate on climate change yesterday evening…

My Lords, I rise to speak very aware of the history of this great Chamber, and very aware of my small part in the narrative. I am honoured to be a Member of this House and I wish to thank everyone, particularly the doorkeepers, who have made me so

…

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The Voice

Unsolved burglaries soar to more than 580 a day

By The Voice | Tue 25th July 2023 - 10:01 am

A staggering 213,279 burglaries went unsolved across England and Wales in the 2022/2023 financial year – an average of 584 a day, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats of Home Office statistics released last week has revealed.

The figures show that in 2022/2023, a grand total of 213,279 burglary investigations across England and Wales were closed without a suspect being identified, accounting for 76.8% of all cases.

The South Yorkshire force recorded the worst outcomes, with a staggering 84.4% of all recorded burglaries going unsolved. They were followed closely by Hampshire Police (83.1%) and the Met (81.6%).

The Liberal Democrats have slammed the …

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Roisin Miller

Blue walls to giant cannons and all the memes in between

By Roisin Miller | Tue 25th July 2023 - 6:55 am

Love them or loathe them – those victory stunts should teach Lib Dem campaigners one thing: clear, simple communications will be key to success at the next election.

There seems to be a new dividing line in Lib Dem WhatsApp groups: between those who are excited for each new stunt, and those hiding behind the sofa, wondering when they are safe to emerge.

Whichever camp you might be in, there is a serious point we all must take from these stunts. They cut through. But why?

Money-can’t-buy coverage

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but these stunts are probably not aimed at Lib Dem party faithful. They are designed to captivate photojournalists, meme developers, social content writers.

These stunts achieve what so many who work in brand communications crave – wall to wall coverage complete with a key message. I cannot count as a seasoned communications professional the number of times the ask has been summaried as “help us go viral”. Whilst there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, an authentic stunt with a clear message that links to your campaign and that is a bit fun, is the best way to get attention. Authentic really is key to success as without authenticity they flop. If you need proof beyond the political sphere, look at the plethora of Barbie stunts – some very small but all authentic and on-message.

The thing about these stunts is they have media hooked, they all want to know what the next Lib Dem celebration will be, what the photos will look like. This means media turn up, they give us more attention than they might otherwise and therefore we get more coverage.

For local parties, the same principle can be used for social channels or focus leaflets – if you make a simple point in a compelling manner, people will come back again and again. They will want to know what you have to say and you will be seen as an authority.

For all the jokes, the Blue Wall stunt did change the narrative. It introduced the phrase into media vernacular and made it clear, the Lib Dems were back.

Simplicity is key

I make this point as we’ve all seen those focus leaflets – three-line headlines with commas, sub-clauses followed by an article written in 8pt font face and full of every intricacy of a piece of planning policy. This is great for a certain section of Lib Dem members (not me) or an online article for those who are interested. Focus leaflets like this won’t win elections.

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Mark Valladares

24 July 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 24th July 2023 - 11:00 pm
  • Lib Dems demand GP rescue plan as one in six left waiting two weeks for appointment
  • Rhodes Fires: Call to protect holidaymakers by adding to no travel list

Lib Dems demand GP rescue plan as one in six left waiting two weeks for appointment

  • One in six (16.5%) GP appointments had waits of two weeks or more over past year
  • The South West was the worst-affected region with one in five (20%)
  • Liberal Democrats call for GP rescue plan over summer including campaign to urge retired GPs to return back to work

One in six GP appointments over the past year involved waits of two weeks or more, House of Commons Library commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

The figures show the length of time between when a GP appointment was booked and when it took place, with data covering the year to May 2023.

The data shows the South West was the worst-affected region with one in five GP appointments taking place two weeks after being booked over the year. Gloucestershire (24.6%) and Dorset (23.6%) were the top two worst areas for two-week waits in the country. This was more than double the 9.2% of two-week waits in Liverpool.

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Health Secretary Steve Barclay to launch a GP rescue plan over the summer, including a campaign to urge retired GPs back to the workforce.

It comes after the party’s successful by-election campaign iin Somerton and Frome. The newly elected Lib Dem MP Sarah Dyke campaigned hard on the issue of access to GP appointments in Somerset.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a new right for patients to see a GP within a week, or within 24 hours if in urgent need. This would be achieved by increasing the number of GPs by 8,000.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey commented:

The Conservative government’s neglect of our local health services is having real consequences for so many. People unable to get a GP appointment are being left waiting in pain, anxious about when they will get the care they deserve.

This week the people of Somerton and Frome spoke for the whole country. They are fed up with this failing government and fed up with ministers who just don’t get it or don’t care.

Conservative ministers must listen for once and come up with a plan to tackle the GP crisis before Parliament returns. That should include a recruitment campaign over the summer to encourage retired GPs back to work.

Ministers should also back the Liberal Democrat plan to guarantee everyone a GP appointment within seven days for a first appointment, or 24 hours if it’s urgent. Anything less would be failing patients up and down the country.

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Tom Reeve

Elon Musk shows Lib Dems the way

By Tom Reeve | Mon 24th July 2023 - 8:44 pm

Elon Musk, in his finite wisdom, is axing the Twitter bird logo in favour of the letter X. This follows his recent decision to rebadge the company as X Corp. 

‘What’s this got to do with me?’ I hear you say. ‘I’m a Lib Dem and I’ve got leaflets to deliver.’ Yes, you do have leaflets to deliver, but stay with me – this could be a golden opportunity for the Lib Dems, but only if we have the courage to seize it.

In the infinite reaches of his multidimensional consciousness, Musk has realised the truth about birds: they’re boring. (In fact, they probably don’t even exist )

It’s visionary stuff, right? I mean, what do birds do for us, apart from inspire us with their majestic soaring and melodious tunes? Birds may be the descendants of the dinosaurs and have colonised every continent on Earth including Antarctica, but can they make a cheese sandwich or send a Tweet? No, they opted for beautiful plumage rather than hands – that was their choice, now they have to live with it. 

So, he’s going to axe the blue bird of acrimony and replace it with – surprise, surprise – an X.  As letters go, there are so many reasons to use X. It’s a structurally sound letter, it’s associated with mystery, it’s the 24th letter in the alphabet. Pirates use it on maps, mathematicians use it in equations, and Musk names all his bloomin’ companies after it. 

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Caron Lindsay

Party Awards – just over a month to get your nominations in

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 23rd July 2023 - 11:55 am

There’s just over a month to get your nominations in for the party awards which will be presented at Autumn Conference.

You need to get your nominations together by 24th August.

All the information you need about how to do this is here.

The awards being presented in Bournemouth are:

The President’s Award

Eligibility: open to any Party Member elected to public office and who has demonstrated excellence and commitment.

Criteria: the winner will be recognised for outstanding commitment and service to the Party. Local, regional, and state parties should be seeking to nominate people who deserve recognition for their hard work, long service, and demonstrable dedication to the party, at whatever level. It is expected to be special awards to be awarded from the Party for whom public recognition is overdue. Nomination portal

The Harriet Smith Liberal Democrat Distinguished Service Award

Background: this award is named for Harriet Smith, who campaigned and worked tirelessly for the Party, notably alongside Paddy Ashdown, with the Federal Conference Committee, and in the Bath party. A beloved figure, she is also missed from the Conference revue and by the team at the Liberator Magazine.

Eligibility: open to any Party Member never elected to public office.

Criteria: the Harriet Smith Award shares its conditions with the President’s award. Nomination portal

The Belinda Eyre-Brook Award

Background: this award is named for legendary campaigner Belinda Eyre-Brook, whose achievements with the Party include being Ed Davey’s agent in 1997, overturning 15,000 Tory Majority, and establishing one of the party’s longest-serving MPs.

Eligibility: given to recognise and celebrate the efforts of people working for our elected representatives in their local areas – from local party employees to political assistants to council groups, to people working in MPs’ constituency offices.

Criteria: the winner of this award will care about their local area and be committed to the success of Liberal Democrats within it. Turning local political priorities into electoral success, and priorities for elected officials is a key part of the work of successful local Party figures – as is linking with the national party. Nomination portal

The Dadabhai Naoroji Award

Background: this award is named for the ‘Grand Old Man of India’, Liberal MP, and joint founder of the Indian National Congress, Dadabhai Naoroji. His work highlighting the reality of British rule over India and campaign for justice is an example to us all and his place in history, as the first non-white and first Indian Parliamentarian, is assured.

Eligibility: presented annually to the local Party that has done most to promote ethnic minority participants to elected office as Councillors, Assembly Members, Members of Parliament or Members of European Parliament.

Criteria: this award is designed to encourage local parties to work towards the goal of increasing their ethnic diversity to more accurately reflect the areas they represent, and to recognise those that already make a great effort to involve different communities in their work. Nomination portal

The Penhaligon Award

Background: this award is named for former MP David Penhaligon, a cherished former stalwart of the Cornish Party who took the seat of Truro in 1974. David was a prominent figure in the party and the nation and will always be remembered for his succinct advice to local campaigners: “‘stick it on a piece of paper and stuff it through a letterbox’.

Eligibility: any local Party

Criteria: presented to the local party anywhere in the world which demonstrates the most impressive increase in membership and exemplary activities to deliver and involve members and supporters. It recognises the hard work done to build a Party which is attractive and effective at a local level. Nomination portal

The Patsy Calton Award

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The Voice

Look how hard Lib Dem MPs work!

By The Voice | Sun 23rd July 2023 - 9:53 am

As MPs head off on their Summer break, which will often include weeks of visiting every community in their constituencies, the House of Commons Library has produced a sort of “end of term report” which shows how much they have contributed in this Parliament from December 2019 to the beginning of this month.

To access the data, you need to go to this page and put in their constituencies. You will then see the four graphics for each of them.

You can see how many debates they have taken part in, how they voted, how many questions they have asked, how many words they have spoken, what Committees they are on and there’s even a word cloud which shows the words they use most. It’s hardly a surprise that people, health and community feature so strongly. As well as the names of their constituencies.

When you consider that the average length of a novel is around 90,000 words, and most of our MPs are well over that, it shows just how much they contribute to life in Parliament.

A few MPs’ local papers have highlighted that they are the hardest working MPs in their area.

The Edinburgh Reporter stated that Christine Jardine was Lothians’ busiest MP:

Earlier this year, Ms Jardine was re-selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Edinburgh West at the next general election, having first taken the seat from the SNP in 2017.

Christine Jardine MP said:  “It is a real privilege to represent the people of Edinburgh West in the House of Commons, and I see these figures as little more than a spur to do so much more.

“For me the most important thing is being available to constituents and anyone who lives in Edinburgh West can make an appointment to meet me in my office or at my surgeries around the constituency, to discuss any issues they may be having.

“So often what we do in Parliament is as a result of issues that constituents bring to the office, rather than any party policy or point to be made.

“But for me, these figures also prove that when people elect a Liberal Democrat, they get a Member of Parliament that will always fight their corner in Westminster.

“I am committed to making our community a better place to live and work for everyone, and I will continue to stand up for what is right for Edinburgh West.”

Behind a paywall, the Courier highlighted that Wendy Chamberlain was the hardest working MP in Fife and Tayside.

These figures are truly impressive when you consider that they only spend around 40 weeks of the year in Parliament and they do so much more work in their constituencies attending events, holding surgeries. That’s not to mention what they do on the media, going on things like Any Questions and Newsnight and the local press or what they do for the party, going to dinners and regional and state party conferences.

Here’s how many words each of our team has spoken in this Parliament, and the percentage of votes they have taken part in.

The OGs

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Caron Lindsay

Kicking off the weekend

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 22nd July 2023 - 11:03 am

Welcome to the first proper weekend of the Summer holidays,  in England at least. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, we’re about half way through.

Powys Lib Dems help low-income families during Summer holidays

For many of us, it’s a chance to relax and unwind with our families. For others, it can be an incredibly stressful time. For parents on low incomes, the Summer holidays can be a nightmare. In Powys, Liberal Democrats have helped a bit with that, as we reported earlier in the week, by finding the money to continue the vouchers for families entitled to free school meals in their area. It was shocking that the Welsh Government scrapped the scheme introduced by our Kirsty Williams when she was Education Minister.

Labour is doing its best to kick struggling low income families in the teeth with Keir Starmer’s announcement that Labour would not get rid of the two child limit on benefit claims. He’s got himself in hot water with his own party. I have to say that if I had been a single mother with 3 kids in Uxbridge,  struggling to pay the bills, I’d not have been inclined to go out and vote Labour on Thursday. They can blame ULEZ all they like for their narrow defeat, but could they have won if they had had anything hopeful to say to people living in poverty?

Somerton and Frome shout-outs

Of course, it’s always great to wake up on the Saturday after a glorious by-election win. The heroes of the campaign have, I hope, managed to get some sleep. A huge shout out to Paul Trollope, whose arrival in Somerset within 24 hours of the by-election being a reality got the short campaign off to a flying start. Ruth Younger, match fit from 3 by-elections already helped deliver Sarah Dyke’s victory yesterday.

I suspect all of the staff involved had plans for the Summer which probably involved getting some r and r before the build up to a General Election year. For the fourth time in two years, they mobilised and delivered a cracking campaign so well done to all of them.

And to everyone who travelled there, including the fair few who went from Scotland, a massive thank you.

One group of people who don’t often get thanked are the volunteers who host the Maraphones. Richard Huzzey, Jacquie Gammon, Stephanie Ouzman and Hannah Perkin have been running these events at least 4 days a week since June. On polling day, they were joined by Federal Conference Committee Chair Nick Da Costa who just popped in to make calls but ended up pulling a 12 hour shift as a host to help with the many people who joined in the event. Thousands of calls were made during the maraphones, to voters and to members to encourage them to go, which is crucial in the early days of the campaign to build momentum.

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Charles Quinn

ALDC By-Election Report 20th July 2023

By Charles Quinn | Fri 21st July 2023 - 6:35 pm

While attention may well have been on this week’s three Parliamentary by-elections, there have also been Council by-elections across Britain with some great holds for the Lib Dems and some very tight and dramatic results.

Firstly we would like to say a huge congratulations to Cllr Raymond ‘Truck’ Evans and Ceredigion Lib Dems for holding Llanfarian ward on the Ceredigion County Council.

We know the local team worked extremely hard for the win, beating Plaid Cymru by 8 votes. Such a narrow victory shows that every single leaflet and every single door knocked on really does count!

Congratulations once again to Councillor Evans and the local team.

Ceredigion CC, Llanfarian
Liberal Democrat (Raymond Evans): 298 (48.2%, -19.8)
Plaid Cymru: 290 (46.9%, +15.0)
Conservative: 30 (4.9%, +4.9)

Our second win of the evening came on Dorchester Town Council as Cllr Kate Reid held the seat of Dorchester East for the Lib Dems.

It was a competitive election with all 4 main parties standing plus an independent. But well done to Kate and the local team for polling exactly double the number of votes as the Green Party in second place.

Congratulations Cllr Reid on a great win!

Dorchester TC, Dorchester East
Liberal Democrat (Kate Reid): 480 (39.6%)
Green Party: 240 (19.8%)
Independent:181 (14.9%)
Conservative: 168 (13.9%)
Labour: 142 (11.7%)

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Mary Reid

Rosie Jones is a brave woman

By Mary Reid | Fri 21st July 2023 - 4:14 pm

Yesterday evening I watched Rosie Jones’ programme on Channel 4 about ableist trolling and would strongly encourage you to watch it too. In case you haven’t come across the term before I rather like this explanation:

Ableism is the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior. At its heart, ableism is rooted in the assumption that disabled people require ‘fixing’ and defines people by their disability. Like racism and sexism, ableism classifies entire groups of people as ‘less than,’ and includes harmful stereotypes, misconceptions, and generalizations of people with disabilities.

There is meta-irony in the fact that Rosie Jones has been trolled for her choice of title for the programme: “Rosie Jones: Am I a R*tard?”. In fact she spends the first few minutes explaining why she decided to go with those words, and even before the programme started the continuity announcer had warned us that it contained offensive language.

But the shock value was justified. Some time ago the she had used a company to remove offensive material from her Twitter feed, but in the programme she asked them to show her what she had been missing. I do hope she was receiving counselling at this point, because it was pretty awful.

She homed in on the use of the term “retard”, and then decided to report one of the comments to Twitter as a test case and ask them to remove it. Twitter responded suspiciously quickly and said that they couldn’t see anything offensive in the use of the term. She became very angry at that point, on behalf of the many disabled users who might have also reported similar tweets. When she discussed that response with a social media expert she learnt that it was an automated response, so she needed to find a way to speak to a real person. So she delivered a cookie (geddit?), decorated with the offending tweet, to the headquarters of Twitter UK, and that seemed to do the trick.

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Mary Reid

Barbenheimer

By Mary Reid | Fri 21st July 2023 - 1:20 pm

From the Young Liberals:

Happy Barbenheimer Day to all who are celebrating.

Are they right? Apparently there are some robust debates going on in MPs’ offices today.

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The Voice

Get these clowns out of No 10!

By The Voice | Fri 21st July 2023 - 10:55 am

Liberal Democrats teased us with this cryptic graphic earlier this morning.

What did it mean? (Hint: We’re going to need a bigger tractor)

Well, now we know what the two queries stand for:

A circus cannon and “Get these clowns out of No 10!”

 

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The Voice

The reactions and the speech

By The Voice | Fri 21st July 2023 - 10:24 am

Last night’s result in Somerton and Frome was astonishing, wasn’t it?  Ed Davey released a comment soon after the result was announced.

This stunning victory shows the Liberal Democrats are firmly back in the West Country.

Sarah Dyke will be an incredible local champion for the people of Somerset who have been neglected for far too long. She will fight for stronger local health services, better access to GPs and a fair deal for rural communities during this cost of living crisis.

The people of Somerton and Frome have spoken for the rest of the country who are fed up with Rishi Sunak’s out-of-touch Conservative government.

Then Twitter got pretty busy.

And here is the moment when the result was announced.

Here is Sarah Dyke’s victory speech:

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The Voice

++BREAKING NEWS++ Massive success in Somerton & Frome

By The Voice | Fri 21st July 2023 - 2:56 am

“I think we’re going to need a bigger tractor”

The news from Somerton & Frome has surpassed even our most optimistic predictions.

  • Sarah Dyke, Liberal Democrat: 21,187 (54.6%)
  • Conservative: 10, 179 (26.2%)
  • Green: 3,944 (10.2%)
  • Labour: 1009 (2.6%)

That’s a 29% swing from Conservatives to Liberal Democrats.

Huge congratulations to Sarah Dyke MP, and to everyone involved in the campaign.

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John Shreeve

Putting the leaves on the Magic Money Tree

By John Shreeve | Thu 20th July 2023 - 2:59 pm

Putting the leaves on the Magic Money Tree, seeking a radical Liberal approach to economics.

Fairness and the pursuit of it is essentially the purpose of the Liberal Democrats. If that is the case, how then do we expect to be taken seriously without that we have a radical agenda for economic reform?

The last 40 years of our national political story has been dominated by the Thatcher / Reagan /Hayek economic experiment. It has failed. If we agree that to be the case, then it is essential that rather than pretend to seek a better way to manage the status quo (in just the same way that we are supposed to be able to grow an economy without equality of access with our competitors to our nearest and largest market) that we commence the task of considering alternatives.

Free from the constraints of any economic dogma we are free to consider options in the widest and freest sense. Essentially, I believe that our core instinct is one where intervention and constraint of seemingly uncontrollable forces are our natural territory. Capital is like water, if left unchecked it will seek the easiest route. Unlike water, capital fails if it does not engender belief in those then required to consume its final output.

To this end the Social Liberal Forum are commencing on a series of events looking to consult and define a new exciting, entirely radical, free approach to economics.

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Tom King

Generosity is the only acceptable antidote to the UK’s cynical politics

By Tom King | Thu 20th July 2023 - 12:13 pm

Even by the standards of the UK’s post-Brexit decline, this is a banner week for the cynicism that now acts as a cipher for political debate.

10 years after the passage of the Same-Sex Marriage Act – one of the only remaining positive legacies of the Liberal Democrats’ ill-fated coalition with the Conservatives – both the Tories and Labour have chosen to double down on their respective impulses towards the mean-spiritedness that a supine media has long mistaken for competence.

On one side, you have Rishi Sunak, standing for a forward-to-the-past elitism by pledging to reduce the chances that young people have to access one of the last drivers of social mobility going: higher education. 

No need to wonder whether the breathtaking, cognitively dissonant claim that a policy capping student numbers is somehow ‘widening access’ is a true reflection of his beliefs: he is on record talking to Tory members about how cutting numbers is “great news for the universities largely full of, you know, people who don’t vote for us anyway.” He has a tendency to ‘gaffe’ – that is, say what he really thinks – in this manner: remember how he also proudly boasted of taking money from deprived urban areas?

Surely, with the incumbent government so transparently wedded to such callous cruelty, the government-in-waiting just needs to sit tight and wait for a population that already appears to have signed Sunak’s P45 to vote them in? After all, this weekend saw the pre-resignation of Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace – presumably on the basis that his chances at the next election range from zero to absolute zero.

Instead, Sir Keir Starmer went on Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday show to offer up his most brazenly cynical u-turn to date: not just leaving wiggle room on his previous commitment to end the Conservatives’ 2-child benefit cap, but saying quite emphatically that Labour will keep it.

The evidence for the impact of this heartless, anti-family, anti-child policy is clear: its main effect is to push families with three or more children even deeper into poverty, without creating any of the compensatory ‘benefits’ claimed for it in terms of fertility decision-making.

Starmer’s statement has apparently created consternation within Labour, including at Shadow Cabinet level. Presumably that’s because everyone in the Shadow Cabinet has, at some point, described the two-child policy as ‘heinous’ or other words to that effect – including Starmer himself.

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Mary Reid

Ed Davey sends a message to Somerton & Frome

By Mary Reid | Thu 20th July 2023 - 9:16 am

So today’s the day. Three by-elections to fight, although Lib Dems are really just concentrating on the one in Somerton & Frome.

Ed Davey has sent this message:

Today voters across Somerton and Frome have a chance to send a clear message to the Conservatives that they have failed our country on the NHS, the cost of living crisis and protecting our rural communities.

Every vote for Sarah Dyke, our brilliant Liberal Democrat candidate, is a vote for a local champion who will put Somerset first and hold these Conservatives to account.

It’s clear this by-election is a two horse race between the Liberal Democrats and an out of touch Conservative party.

If the Liberal Democrats succeed in overturning this massive 19,000 Conservative majority, it will show voters in Somerset are fed up with being taken for granted by Rishi Sunak and his failing government.

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Caron Lindsay

What on earth is Keir Starmer playing at by refusing to remove two child limit?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th July 2023 - 8:43 pm

One of the cruellest things that the Conservatives introduced was limiting benefits claims to two children.

Just last week, the Child Poverty Action Group and other children’s charities wrote to all party leaders highlighting the impact of this dreadful measure and calling for its removal.  They said:

The two-child limit is a discriminatory policy which is a clear breach of children’s human rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The two-child limit robs children of the basic joys of childhood. It forces parents to take out a loan to buy a school uniform. Children give up hobbies because of the costs associated, and they miss out on birthday parties as they cannot afford to bring a gift for a friend.

The cost of living crisis has made the impact of the policy even more acute. The number of affected families struggling to pay for gas, electricity and food has risen sharply in the last 12 months.

The two-child limit has a devastating effect on families like Joanna’s.  Joanna works full-time and lives with her partner and three children. Her partner is too unwell to work at the moment. They lose out on £270 a month due to the two-child limit. Joanna has struggled to keep up with rent payments and, in June 2023, her landlord was granted an outright possession order to evict the family. They have just 14 days to leave their home.

Scrapping the two-child limit is the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. It would lift 250,000 children out of poverty and mean 850,000 children are in less deep poverty.  This single policy change would transform the life chances of 1.5 million children across the UK, children like Joanna’s, who are currently facing homelessness.

Children deserve the chance to thrive, but continued inaction will permit a cohort of children to grow up in poverty, to miss out on play, to be held back at school and denied a better future. If nothing is done, over half of children in larger families will be growing up in poverty by 2027/28.

So I was genuinely shocked to see Keir Starmer tell Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday that Labour would retain this regressive, poverty increasing measure.

Of all the bad things the Tories have done, surely to goodness this would be one of the first to go?

For the avoidance of doubt, Liberal Democrats would get rid of it. We opposed it when the Tories brought it in and continue to do so.

UPDATE 20 July 9 am

In fact here is Ed telling Kay Burley exactly that yesterday.

As well as being the wrong thing to do morally, Starmer has now put himself in a position where he has picked an unnecessary fight with his party. Scottish Labour MSPs Monica Lennon and Pam Duncan Glancy expressed their frustration on Twitter:

They were joined by constituency Labour Parties, MPs and other MSPs.

Monica Lennon later wrote in the Daily Record:

Knowingly plunging children and their families into hardship is heartless and with the cost-of-living crisis hitting low-income families hard, it’s never been more vital to scrap the cap.

Many of those affected are working families, who despite grafting to provide for their kids, struggle to put enough food on the table in our unequal society. Single mothers are hit the hardest.

It’s no wonder many people are feeling scared and hopeless because the choice between heating and eating is no choice at all.

I agree with every word of that.

Starmer has given himself a problem he didn’t need to have.

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The Liberator Collective

Liberator 418 is out!

By The Liberator Collective | Wed 19th July 2023 - 12:50 pm

What’s inside this issue?

You can download Liberator 418 for free here: 

https://liberatormagazine.org.uk/recent-issues/

 

“PAPERS PLEASE”.

Voter ID has caused a damaging fall in the number of people who can vote and must be reversed before the assault on democracy worsens, says Shaun Roberts

 

THE DIVIDE STARTS TO BREAK.

Stephen Farry MP reports on the Alliance party’s progress in Northern Ireland as its politics slowly sheds past sectarianism

 

HOW TO SUP WITH STARMER’S DEVILS

It may be necessary to have a tacit ‘progressive alliance’ at the next election but Liberal Democrats should remember that Labour is only slightly better than the Tories, says Peter Wrigley

 

HOW LABOUR KEPT CHERWELL BLUE

Labour scuppered a progressive majority alliance at Cherwell District Council, the last bit of blue in Oxfordshire, says David Hingley

 

WILL THE LAW FINALLY STICK TO THE TEFLON DON?

Donald Trump is in legal trouble, but there could be Republican candidates who are even worse, says Martha Elliott

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NewsHound

LIb Dem led Powys County Council continues free school meal holiday scheme

By NewsHound | Wed 19th July 2023 - 9:07 am

In the middle of a cost of loving crisis, any extra demands on household income can be catastrophic for some families.

The Summer holidays should be a carefree time of play and fun for children. For parents on the lowest incomes, though, it can be incredibly difficult to find the money to provide an extra daily meal if their children are on free school meals.

In Wales, the Labour (just have a think about that for a minute) Government ended the scheme to give families entitled to free school meals vouchers during the Summer holidays. This policy was, of course, introduced during the pandemic by our own brilliant education secretary Kirsty Williams.

However, three Welsh Councils, including Lib Dem led Powys, have decided to take over the scheme so that children do not go hungry during the Summer.

Our Councillor Jake Berriman said:

The late notice that councils across Wales were given about this scheme stopping would have had a detrimental impact on low-income families. Not only would they lose out on the voucher scheme but they would also have had a very limited time to adjust their family finances accordingly.

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The Voice

Last day of campaigning in Somerton and Frome – how you can help elect Sarah Dyke

By The Voice | Wed 19th July 2023 - 6:55 am

Imagine how great it would feel to wake up on Friday morning to find that the voters of Somerton and Frome had elected Sarah Dyke as the 15th Lib Dem MP, and the fourth Lib Dem by-election winner in just over two years? You can be part of the campaign either on the ground or from the comfort of your own home. All the information you need to help is here.

Our campaigners have been flocking to this gorgeous bit of Somerset from all over the country.

Scottish Lib Dem Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton is spending the week there:

Eastleigh PPC Liz Jarvis seems to have hardly been away from Somerset these past few weeks:

The place seems to be turning Lib Dem orange:

The Guardian is really positive about our chances:

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The Voice

Nick Harvey to head up European Movement

By The Voice | Tue 18th July 2023 - 8:26 am

Former Lib Dem MP Nick Harvey is to become CEO of the European Movement.

He had been MP for North Devon from 1992-2015. He was armed forces minister during the first two years of the coalition. He was Chief Executive of the Federal Party during Vince Cable’s leadership.

He was always seen as a bit of a eurosceptic in the party, as he had been the only Lib Dem MP to vote against the Maastrict Treaty back in 1992. However,  in his new role, he wants to take Britain back into the EU.

He  said: 

I am absolutely delighted to be joining the European Movement at this pivotal point and looking  forward to the huge challenge of helping put Britain back at the heart of Europe. The EMUK  executive and staff team have worked wonders to get on the front foot again in recent years, with  growing membership and campaigning strength. With public opinion on the European issue shifting  all the time, my aim is to take our message out to new places and people who may have been hard  to reach previously, to restore our cultural, political and economic relationship with Europe.

Vince Cable,  who is Vice-President of The European Movement and former Lib Dem Leader and Business Secretary, added 

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Caron Lindsay

10 years since Same Sex Marriage Act

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 17th July 2023 - 12:55 pm

One of the Lib Dems’ major achievements in coalition was giving same sex couples the right to marry. Today, it’s 10 years since the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 received royal assent. It would be another eight and a half months before the first marriages took place in England and Wales. Scotland would pass its own legislation on 4 February 2014.

Each of the Parliamentary stages saw mostly bright and cheerful vigils outside. The picture comes from the second reading in the Lords on 3rd June.

Brightness, positivity and reasonableness were the …

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The Voice

Liberal Democrats announce London Mayoral shortlist

By The Voice | Mon 17th July 2023 - 11:22 am

The Liberal Democrats have announced their shortlisted candidates for next year’s London Mayoral election. Rob Blackie and Chris French have been shortlisted and will now have the summer to win the support of London Liberal Democrat members. The result will be announced in September.

Rob Blackie advises startup technology companies, working on challenges such as accelerating cancer treatments and tackling climate change. In 2022 Rob founded the award-winning Breaking Putin’s Censorship Campaign – fighting Russian propaganda about the Ukraine war. Rob is number 2 on the Liberal Democrats London Assembly List for the 2024 elections.

Chris French is a community …

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Mark Valladares

NHS waiting lists: One in eight patients in some areas waiting over a year for treatment

By Mark Valladares | Mon 17th July 2023 - 9:10 am
  • Analysis reveals “stark postcode lottery” with Manchester and Brighton hardest hit by waits of one year or more
  • 15% increase in year-long waits across the country, despite government pledge to end them by 2025
  • Lib Dems warn patients are being left waiting in limbo and the NHS is “on its knees”

One in eight NHS patients in some areas of England have been waiting a year or more for treatment, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

The party said the figures revealed patients are facing a stark postcode lottery, with waits of a year or more far more common in some areas …

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