Christopher Hudson

What I wish I’d known when I started out in the Lib Dems

By Christopher Hudson | Fri 14th April 2023 - 7:54 am

Bright eyed, bushy tailed and knowing almost nothing in 2017, being handed the keys to run a Local Party’s finances was a bewildering and exciting moment. I’m sure there are thousands of people who have had similar feelings.

There was always a mountain of things that needed to be done, matched by an enthusiasm to get going. As I moved through other roles, and went through elections, I picked up skills as I tried to work out what I should be doing and the best ways of doing it. While there were hugely experienced people around willing to teach what they knew, I realised quickly that there was no complete manual or guide. As people came and went from local politics, so too did the institutional knowledge they had nurtured.

So, I decided used my time in lockdown productively reading up, interviewing and collating best practice from different people who had done different roles across the country.

While there may have been quirks to Local Parties there were also many common problems and bright ideas. For me the big lessons from the process of writing Winning Here Winning There were:

  1. Keeping a group of volunteers organised and motivated is no easy task
  2. You can quickly get distracted and consumed by immediate issues
  3. You need a long-term multi-election strategy to win
  4. Working hard will not guarantee success, you also need to work smart
  5. Local Party know-how is easily lost when people leave/retire
  6. Coming up with reasons to logically vote Lib Dem is easy, creating an emotional argument is much more difficult
  7. There’s so much more to being in a political party than delivering leaflets
  8. Get a head start by learning the lessons of the past rather than replicating their mistakes

Having been a Local Party Chair, Treasurer, Agent, regional executive member, and campaigner in London, as well as helper at by-elections, I have witnessed the enthusiasm of campaigners keen for success, as well as the disappointment of wasted effort reinventing the wheel.

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Mark Valladares

13 April 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 13th April 2023 - 11:25 pm
  • NHS waiting lists rise to new record high as Sunak breaks pledge
  • Fly-tipping “effectively legalised” as just one in 500 incidents lead to a prosecution

NHS waiting lists rise to new record high as Sunak breaks pledge

The number of people waiting for NHS treatment has risen to a new record high of 7.22 million, new figures reveal today, despite Rishi Sunak’s New Year pledge that “NHS waiting lists will fall”.

Three million people have been waiting longer than the Government’s target of 18 weeks, while 360,498 have been waiting more than a year.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for an NHS rescue plan to relieve the burden on hospitals and bring down waiting lists, including recruiting more GPs to guarantee patients an appointment within a week and raising the minimum wage for care workers to fill the vacancies in social care.

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David Chalmers

LibDem EU Liaison Councillor Scheme

By David Chalmers | Thu 13th April 2023 - 5:44 pm

At the Spring Conference in York, one of the Saturday lunchtime fringe debates, hosted by LibDem European Group (LDEG), focused on developing links at local government level between the UK and the EU. As several speakers pointed out, whilst we were still members of the EU, numerous channels existed to keep these channels open. But not anymore – which is yet another example of things that we once valued, lost through Brexit.

For the past year I have been holding discussions with the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) to find a way for the UK – initially led by the LibDems – to participate in the informal network of local councillors, which is being set up across the member states of the EU, responsible in their local communities for keeping up to date with EU affairs, sharing relevant information with other councillors in their community and informing constituents via newsletters, social media posts, surgery-style meetings or engaging with them on the streets or in cafes and other places where the local community comes together.

As the relationship between the UK and the EU develops over the coming years, helped hopefully by the policies the LibDems are crafting ranging from education to science to trade and farming, we will be reconnected with our European neighbours, and it would help our cause to offer our fellow citizens a source of contact offering factual information from trusted people in their community, that would help to foster greater awareness of the benefits to be gained from a closer relationship with the EU and lead eventually to the UK regaining its star as a member state.

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Mary Reid

There is a solution to fly-tipping

By Mary Reid | Thu 13th April 2023 - 2:06 pm

Tim Farron has been speaking out about fly-tipping; specifically the fact that only 1 in 500 incidents last year led to prosecution. He claims that it has been “effectively legalised”.

He says:

The fact that fly-tipping is going unpunished is simply appalling. If people aren’t being fined, it’s no wonder that they think they can dump their rubbish on the streets without consequence.

Brits do the right thing with their waste, but a badly behaved minority is spoiling our environment.

The lack of action on this issue from the Government sends out the message that they do not take it seriously enough. They have effectively legalised littering through their inaction.

The Lib Dems take more action against fly-tippers by increasing the cost of the fine and using the profits to crackdown on fly-tippers.

With local elections around the corner, communities must vote to clean up the mess that the current government has created.

Fly-tipping is a good issue for campaigners in the current local elections, because it is visible and no one (apart from the culprits) likes it.

I’m sorry, though, that he didn’t mention some of the innovative solutions that are being used where Lib Dems are in control. It’s not simply a matter of increasing fines – it has to be about identifying and chasing the perpetrators. We learnt about one approach in a recent post from Cllr John Sweeney in Kingston upon Thames, who has a portfolio that includes waste and recycling. “Beyond potholes … addressing fly-tipping is an issue LibDems can campaign on in cities everywhere“.

John explains here:

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Samuel Jackson

Douglas Ross: A tale of two voting systems

By Samuel Jackson | Thu 13th April 2023 - 11:28 am

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has recently called for a Unionist tactical voting pact in Scotland during the next UK general election to unseat Scottish Nationalist MPs, with free rein given to Labour in urban seats and to the Conservatives in rural ones. However, this proposal was ultimately rejected by both Scottish Labour and the UK Conservatives.

Ross inhabits two different worlds, having won one election under Additional Member System and another under First Past the Post. He is simultaneously one of seven regional MSPs for the Highlands and Islands elected via Closed Party List, and the sole MP for Moray. His position at Westminster is precarious, having won just 513 votes more than the SNP runner-up, whilst List-PR grants him greater job security at Holyrood. For the Conservatives generally, they are the second-largest party in Scotland at both Westminster and Holyrood. However, at the 2019 general election, the Conservatives won only six of Scotland’s fifty-nine seats with a quarter of the votes cast there, whilst at the 2021 Scottish parliamentary election, they won thirty-one out of 129 seats, or around twenty-four per cent, in line with their constituency and regional vote shares.

It cannot be denied that Douglas Ross has practical, real-world experience of both FPTP and PR, making him a unique figure in British politics. However, given how their Scottish branch has fared better under PR than they have under FPTP, he is also an uncomfortable paradox for the Conservatives, to which the story around his proposed pact is testament.

A prominent feature of FPTP is vote splitting, whereby electoral support split amongst several likeminded parties or candidates can result in an ideological opponent winning. Whilst this has historically benefitted the Conservatives, it has recently given a boost to the SNP, and for not dissimilar reasons. Both parties have virtually monopolised their voting bases – the right and Nationalists respectively – allowing them to disproportionately win more seats than any one party amongst their diverse oppositions.

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NewsHound

What has made Tim Farron happy today?

By NewsHound | Wed 12th April 2023 - 11:45 am

To make you laugh this lunchtime.

Tim Farron has just posted this on Twitter.

Someone had taken time out of their day to write to Viz, a Farron favourite, to say:

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NewsHound

LibLink: Christine Jardine We must not take peace in Northern Ireland for granted

By NewsHound | Wed 12th April 2023 - 9:07 am

As Joe Biden visits Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Christine Jardine writes in the Scotsman that we should not take the huge step forward to peace for granted.

She started by looking at how we got to the agreement:

Progress towards the Belfast Good Friday agreement had begun shortly before Christmas 1993 with the Downing Street Declaration. The joint statement by Prime Minister John Major and Taoiseach Albert Reynolds stated it was the right of the people of Northern Ireland to decide between the UK or a United Ireland. It also acknowledged the importance of mutual consent in the north and south of the island in resolving issues.

In the following five years, there were ceasefires, cross-party talks and false starts before that historic announcement on April 10, 1998, which in essence contained three basic principles. They are: the parity of esteem of both communities, the principle of consent underpinning Northern Ireland’s constitutional status, and the birth-right of the people of Northern Ireland to identify and be accepted as British or Irish, or both, and to hold both British and Irish citizenship.

And she highlighted the dramatic reduction in loss of life and injury that has followed in the ensuing quarter of a century:

In the 25 years before the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, there were more than 3,000 deaths and 47,000 people were injured as a result of the conflict. Since 1998, there have been fewer than 200 deaths. Still too many, of course, but a reflection of changed times.

Current circumstances, she says, mean that we still have to work to maintain this peace.

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Jack Clark

Every scandal is one of one thousand cuts to our institutions

By Jack Clark | Tue 11th April 2023 - 12:11 pm


Last Wednesday, I Whatsapp’d my mum a screenshot of a BBC Breaking News article with the headline “Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell arrested in SNP finance probe”, along with the message, “What a way to start the day!”.

As someone deeply involved in politics and with some strong opinions on the SNP, I will admit I was rather gleeful. The news came just a day after Donald Trump was arrested over “hush money” payments, Robert Jenrick was disqualified from driving for 6 months for speeding, and on the same day that Blackpool South MP Scott Benton was was reported to have been involved in a lobbying “sting”.

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Simon McGrath

My complaint to IPSO about a story in the Telegraph about the Lib Dems

By Simon McGrath | Tue 11th April 2023 - 10:11 am

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me about an article in the Telegraph by Iain Dale entitled “Trans activism is eroding tolerance in politics” which included this passage:

Last weekend, in a little noted decision, the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference passed a motion which urged anyone in the party who didn’t subscribe to full self ID and the wider trans agenda to leave the party. How very “liberal” of them.

The original article is behind a paywall but an amended version can be found on Dale’s website.

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The Voice

The weekend in the Lib Dem Local Elections

By The Voice | Mon 10th April 2023 - 11:09 am

Everyone knows that the Easter Bank Holiday for political activists is not about lying around and scoffing chocolate.

With the local elections three and a half weeks away, activists up and down the country have been delivering leaflets and knocking on doors.

And there’s a lot to play for.

Yesterday’s Observer had a great article on our campaign, showing how our number of candidates has gone up, while the Tories are not putting up a full slate in areas where they have done before:

While the number of Tory candidates registered to stand – 7,512 – is still comfortably the highest, Ed Davey’s party says there are clear signs that it is now in a better position to exploit Tory difficulties at national level than for many years.

Lib Dem officials say that in many councils across the country where the Tories should be strong, from Stockport in the north-west to Lewes in East Sussex, the Tory party is not fielding full slates of candidates.

The Conservative peer and local government expert Robert Hayward said the Tories would be disappointed not to be able to field more candidates, and that it was clear the Lib Dems were making progress. But he said this was partly to do with council reorganisations, which meant that some areas where the Tories were traditionally strong were not being contested this time.

Ed is quoted:

“In councils across the country, the Liberal Democrats are the party to take on the Conservatives, who have failed people for far too long.

“Whether it is the Conservatives’ cost of living crisis, their failure to manage our NHS or the fact they let water companies pump filthy sewage into our rivers, people are ready for change, and the Liberal Democrats are ready to deliver.”

And yesterday’s I has an article on our hopes and aspirations in the Blue Wall:

Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Berkshire are among the areas where Sir Ed Davey‘s team is confident of making gains. Insiders say demographic change has helped their cause: the “Surrey shuffle”, which has seen young professionals move out of London due to rising house prices, is putting pressure on long-serving MPs such as Dominic Raab and Sir John Redwood, both top targets for the Lib Dems at the next general election. Strategists also suggest the passage of time has helped erase lingering bitterness about the legacy of the coalition government, which had long put off many left-leaning voters.

Around the country, campaigners have been out in the sunshine:

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems should stand up against EHRC claims on sex and Equality Act

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 9th April 2023 - 2:39 pm

In February, the Women and Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch wrote to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to ask them to consider the current definition of “sex” in the Equality Act.

It should not be a surprise that the EHRC replied this week identifying eight areas, ranging from book clubs to sport to access to single sex spaces in which amending the Equality Act so that sex means what they call “biological sex” would bring “greater legal clarity.”

It is not an exaggeration to say that this, if implemented, would have a massive impact on trans people’s ability to live their lives. Not only that, but women who aren’t trans, but who don’t look “feminine enough” could face challenge in single sex spaces. It would essentially make life more miserable and dangerous with no gain for anyone.

Not only that, but part of the requirement for getting a Gender Recognition Certificate is that you do use single sex spaces after you have transitioned. So restricting those to sex on your original birth certificate creates a Catch 22.

The EHRC is led by Kishwer Falkner, who was once a Liberal Democrat Peer but now sits in the Lords as non-affiliated after leaving the Party over our continued opposition to Brexit. She was appointed by the Government to her current role in December 2020 and the organisation has been adding to the anti-trans mood music since.

I have spent my adult life campaigning for women’s rights and I’m far from being done. The Scottish Lib Dem Women constitution cites smashing the patriarchy as an aim and I am here for that.

I know what it is like to be on the receiving end of threatening behaviour from men in a public place and to actually fear for my life.

None of that makes me think it is ok to stop trans women accessing women’s spaces, or fail to do them the most basic courtesy of respecting their identity. Because if you don’t accept them as the women they are,  how on earth are they supposed to go about their lives? What facilities are they supposed to use?

Falkner says in her letter to the Government that she wants to see a more informed and constructive debate on these issues. One way to do that would be to target the misinformation and fear being spread by anti trans groups and to recognise that this is part of a global effort to undermine women’s rights and LGBT rights.

Liz Barker pointed this out in her International Women’s Day speech in the Lords:

Women have different life experiences, different economic circumstances and all sorts of differences between us, yet we have common aspirations for safety, health, autonomy and prosperity. It is important to bear that in mind as we have this debate, because it takes place against the background of a campaign originated and orchestrated by Christian nationalists in the United States, Europe and across Russia, which is very definitely about curbing the aspirations and autonomy of all women.

In the United States and places like Poland and Hungary the focus is on anti-abortion activities. In Africa, the focus is against equality and LGBT rights. In the US and UK, the key focus of this campaign is anti-gender.

The constant drip feed of anti trans stories in the media brings to mind the constant drip feed of anti EU stories over many years. And we know that didn’t end well.

It is therefore hardly surprising that trans people are worried and fearful about their safety in this sort of environment as hate crimes against them soar.

Women are equally understandably worried and fearful about their safety as violence against women and girls increases. The threat to women’s safety is not trans women though – it is predatory men in a society structured in such a way that those men are rarely  held to account for their behaviour.

If we turned our attention to dismantling the power structures and the culture that enables that to happen rather than picking on trans women, the world would be a lot safer for all women.

EHRC officials met LGBT representatives the day after the letter was released. And it is fair assessment, from Jane Fae’s account, that they do not fully understand what they are talking about. I am in awe of our own Helen Belcher for keeping her cool through that meeting and calmly and forensically questioning them on their assertions:

Well, I can understand that might be an aspiration but when your letter talks about reasons for, erm, excluding trans women from women’s spaces, how, how do you expect me to live my life? How do you expect me to be a councillor and represent my constituents? How do you expect me to do my work in Parliament if I cannot use women’s facilities? …

That’s a really basic element of human rights and the proposal seems to me to demand that I am openly identifiable as trans in any interaction with public services. So how does that square with my right to privacy?

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 9th April 2023 - 10:17 am

USA

America’s looking glass politics dominated the news agenda again this week. Donald Trump is not a perp. He is a victim. And he is exploiting his victimhood to the maximum political advantage.

The ex-president has re-galvanised his base with classic hyperbolic claims about Democratic witch hunts. The sad thing is that in the case of this week’s indictment – the first of a past or present American president – he may actually be right.

The office of District Attorney for South Manhattan is an elected one, and Alvin Bragg won the vote on the back of a promise to bring Donald Trump to trial and convict him. Lady Justice is portrayed blindfolded with her sword and balancing scales. She is not elected.

The law is meant to be based on precedent.  No man (or woman) should be protected by their political position but neither should their political position be the determining factor in their innocence or guilt.

Of course, Donald Trump, is more than prepared to play both sides of the legal coin. His 2016 campaign rallies were marked by the endless chant/rant of “Lock her up” related to Hillary Clinton’s use of private emails for government use. The demand was dropped as soon as Trump entered the White House.

Possibly the saddest aspect of Trump’s indictment is that DA Bragg’s case is the weakest against the ex-president. Secret documents at Mar-a-Lago, the January 6 riots and attempts to fix the Georgia election returns all look more promising. Legal eagles believe he can beat the rap on the Stormy Daniels case – if only on one of several technicalities. If Trump is acquitted then he could use that acquittal to fight off other legal challenges and ride the victimhood express all the way to the Republican Party nomination and possibly beyond.

China

Diplomats say interesting things sometimes. Fu Cong, Beijing’s ambassador to the EU was certainly in expansive and interesting mode when he spoke to the New York Times on the eve of the Macron/von de Leyen state visit to China.

At the top of President Emmanuel Macron’s agenda in Beijing was Ukraine. In fact, his feet had barely touched Chinese soil when he was telling Xi Jinping: “I am counting on you to bring Russia to its senses.”

France, America and the rest of the West are terrified that the Xi/Putin “friendship without limits” will eventually lead to Chinese weaponry supporting Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Ambassador Fu, however, dismissed the “limitless” phrase as “rhetoric.” He also pointed out that Beijing has refused to recognise the 2014 annexation of Crimea or the more recent Russian land grabs in the Donbas.

All of the above is true. It is also encouraging that a senior Chinese diplomat has gone on record to try and balance the debate. But friendship with Russia and Putin remains at or near the centre of Xi’s world strategy. To put it bluntly, Xi sees Russia as key to his plan of eroding the Western-oriented world order and replacing it with one that is more autocracy-friendly.

The Chinese president hinted at his big picture plan in his opening remarks to Macron’s visit when he said that China and France have the responsibility to transcend their differences “as the world undergoes proposed historical changes.”

To realise this plan, Xi wants to drive a wedge between European and American policymakers. To do this he is dangling the financial incentive of improved Sino-European trade links. That is why EU Commission President Ursula von de Leyen and an accompanying herd of French businessmen have been tacked onto Macron’s state visit.

The question remains whether the fine words that come out of the Macron/von de Leyen visit will be mere “rhetoric.”

Finland

Russia’s border with NATO is now 800-miles longer. Finland has ended decades of neutrality and joined the Western Alliance. Simultaneously it has changed its government.

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Caron Lindsay

Good Friday Agreement anniversary reminds us that politics should be about healing divisions

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 8th April 2023 - 10:49 am

I grew up at a time when every week had a grim story of loss of life from Northern Ireland. I remember being inspired as a 9 year old by the efforts of Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for their efforts in trying to bring about peace. It was so disappointing when their efforts failed.  I had skin in this game as my favourite Auntie and Uncle lived there – and still do along with my cousins and cousin’s children.

It was another 22 years before we’d see a stable peace there, and it was another woman, the incredible and much missed Secretary of State Mo Mowlam who put her heart and soul into bringing it about.

I remember being on the edge of my seat that Easter weekend, hoping for the breakthrough that eventually came. It was barely a year into Tony Blair’s Labour Government. A lot of the ground work had been laid by the previous administration. I remember Paddy Ashdown paying sincere tribute to John Major’s leadership in getting people talking to each other.

I thought it might be good to look back on the exchanges in the Commons when the agreement was first discussed in Parliament.

Mo Mowlam spoke first, announcing the deal:

This is a unique agreement born of a unique set of negotiations that involved Unionists, nationalists, republicans and loyalists around the same talks table. This is a situation in which, although compromises have been made, everyone can be a winner. Everyone’s political and cultural identity is respected and protected by this deal. Northern Ireland politics, for so long, has been seen as a zero sum game. This agreement demonstrates the potential for the people of Northern Ireland to move beyond that, into a new type of politics in which everyone can gain. This agreement represents a sensible, fair and workable way forward for both communities.

I should like to pay a particular tribute today to the negotiating teams of all the parties involved. I should also like to pay tribute to a group who, though often vilified, have worked for many years to bring about this agreement, often at personal risk to themselves and their families—the civil servants in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.

It is important, when we are talking about all the positive developments, that at the same time we do not lose sight of the terrible price that has been paid by the victims of violence and their families. No amount of progress in the search for lasting peace will bring back those loved ones who have been lost, or take away the pain felt, day in and day out, by their families. I hope that Ken Bloomfield’s victims commission, which we have set up and which I hope will report later this month, will provide us with some practical suggestions as to how we can best recognise the suffering endured by the victims of violence and their families.

Even at such a dramatic moment, she showed her heart and sense of fun. Our then leader Paddy Ashdown opened his comments with:

The Secretary of State will have received enough plaudits, well justified and well deserved, from enough quarters not to need me to add to them.

She responded:

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Tom Arms

Observations of an expat: Israel’s political demographics

By Tom Arms | Sat 8th April 2023 - 8:30 am

Supreme Court changes. West Bank settlers. Fighting on Temple Mount and renewed missile exchanges between Israel, Lebanon and Gaza.

They are the result of growing divisions within Israeli society and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is as much a reflection of these realities as he is a driver and exploiter of the splits.

Roughly a quarter of Israel’s 9.2 million Jews are Orthodox. Another quarter regard themselves as Secular. The 50 percent balance are a variety of in-between shades which means a more or less even split between the two sides of the debate.

And it is a debate. A vicious and increasingly divisive one. Virtually everyone is agreed on Israel’s role as the Jewish homeland. A big majority support the 2018 law which defines Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people and were pleased that the Israeli Supreme Court upheld that law with a 10-1 vote.

But there are heated arguments about what should be the values of the state of Israel and how to achieve them.

One big difference is the special treatment handed out to religious Jews. Until 2014 they were exempt from military service– a big deal in a country which prides itself on a semi-professional citizen’s army. In that year the Supreme Court ruled the exemption unconstitutional. They have, however, allowed postponements for the purposes of religious studies. They have also allowed the exemption for Orthodox Jewish women to continue.

Unsurprisingly, secular Jews are angry that they bear the brunt of physically protecting their homeland.

The situation is exacerbated by generous welfare subsidies paid to Orthodox men to allow them full-time study of the Torah. Sixty percent of Orthodox Jewish men live on welfare compared to 10 percent in the population as a whole.

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Mary Reid

Our latest Party Political Broadcast

By Mary Reid | Fri 7th April 2023 - 7:48 am

In case you missed it yesterday, here is our latest PPB, supporting the local election campaign:

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Mark Valladares

6 April 2023 – today’s press release

By Mark Valladares | Thu 6th April 2023 - 11:00 pm

Police failed to attend over 45,000 burglaries last year

  • Over 100 burglaries going unattended by police every day
  • Postcode lottery as police in some areas attend fewer than one in two break-ins
  • Ed Davey calls for “Burglary Response Guarantee” with every case attended by police

Over 45,000 burglaries reported last year went unattended by the police, stark figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.

The data, obtained by the party through Freedom of Information requests, shows there were 45,233 reported burglaries in 2022 where a police officer didn’t then visit the scene of the crime. This is equivalent to over 120 burglaries a day going unattended by police.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey will today call for a guarantee to ensure burglary victims are visited by a police officer and their cases properly investigated.

The figures also show a postcode lottery, with over one in two burglary reports going unattended by police in some areas. The worst performing police force was Bedfordshire, with police officers failing to visit the scene of over 60% of reported burglaries.

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Colin Bloodworth

Today is a sad day for half a million pensioners

By Colin Bloodworth | Thu 6th April 2023 - 8:55 am

Why on earth should it be a sad day? On this day around 11 million British state pensioners are due a 10.1% uplift in their state pensions. That is, all except some half a million living around the world who have been denied annual increases. This is due to the legacy of an unjust policy that was set in very different times over 70 years ago, but has since been maintained by successive governments to save money. 

Lib Dems Overseas have been supporting a campaign for several years to ‘unfreeze’ these pensions and we have the strong support of our leader Ed Davey alongside Lords William Wallace and Chris Rennard and Lib Dem MP Wendy Chamberlain. We are also working closely with British overseas pension organisations in Australia, Canada and elsewhere and we are pressing for our case to be backed in the party’s next general election manifesto.

Under the frozen pension policy, those who live in certain countries that do not have reciprocal agreements with the UK are denied an annual cost-of-living increase, even though they paid their national insurance contributions in full during their working lives. The countries affected include most commonwealth nations as well as most developing countries. Some of the ‘frozen pensioners’ are fortunate in that they emigrated to Australia or Canada where the host governments provide a social net that prevents them from becoming destitute. This should be a cause for shame and embarrassment to the British government.

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The Voice

PAC Report: Perfect storm for holidaymakers

By The Voice | Thu 6th April 2023 - 7:15 am

Responding to the Public Accounts Committee Report showing that hundreds of thousands of passport applicants let down by unacceptable delays, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson Wera Hobhouse MP said:

The Government’s endless track record of incompetence is creating the perfect storm for holidaymakers. Families just trying get away are now being saddled with the misery of passport delays and what seem like eternal queues at Dover.

The Home Secretary should apologise to the countless families she has let down this Easter and get to grips with this shambles. Families should be able to relax instead of having their holidays ruined by bureaucratic

…

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Mark Valladares

4-5 April 2023 – catching up with the press releases…

By Mark Valladares | Wed 5th April 2023 - 11:15 pm
  • Social care funding halved: Elderly and disabled people will be the victims
  • Post-Brexit customs checks will mean more red tape for businesses
  • South Wales Police – Facial Recognition Technology Restart ‘Wrong Move’
  • Sunak must strip Scott Benton of the Conservative Whip

Social care funding halved: Elderly and disabled people will be the victims

Responding to reports that the social care reform budget has been halved, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Elderly and disabled people will be the victims of the Conservatives’ decision to slash funding for recruiting care workers at a time of chronic staff shortages.

By damaging social care again, Rishi Sunak is also damaging our NHS. Patients stuck in hospital will face more delays in discharge, leading to longer delays in A&E and for operations. Only the Conservatives could damage people’s care and the nation’s health at the same time.

Liberal Democrats want a new Carer’s Minimum Wage to attract workers back to the social care sector and ease pressure on family carers, GPs and hospitals. It’s shocking that the Government refuses to back our fair deal for carers.

Post-Brexit customs checks will mean more red tape for businesses

Responding to the government’s announcement on the introduction of post-Brexit customs checks, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney said:

These new checks are only going to make trade between us and Europe harder. It’s staggering that the Conservatives looked at the chaos at Dover and said, ‘more of that please’.

The Government’s claims that these plans are going to ease trading chaos are downright dishonest. Let’s be clear: these proposals mean more checks and more red tape, not less – the last thing anyone wanted.

Businesses and the public have had enough of the Conservatives’ red tape and their botched deal with Europe. If you want to grow the economy, you have to fix our broken relationship with our closest neighbours.

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Lord William Wallace

The changing media for public debate

By Lord William Wallace | Wed 5th April 2023 - 5:41 pm

How do Liberal Democrats get our message across to the wider public?  When I was briefly the party’s assistant press officer, over half a century ago, the answer was fairly straightforward.  There were mass-circulation newspapers, with a range of political perspectives, which welcomed stories and Op-Eds; there was also a thriving regional and local press.  And there was the BBC, stolid and serious, to hold the national debate together.  I pride myself that the largest audience I have ever reached was when I wrote an Op-Ed for the News of the World for Jo Grimond: its circulation then was over 4 million.

The situation now is far more confused and difficult.  Newspaper circulation is in steep decline.  No national paper sells more than a million copies, and the ‘quality press’ sell a few hundred thousand each.  Few people under 40 bother with printed newspapers; they go straight to websites, to newspapers on-line or alternative sources.  The BBC website is reportedly the most trusted for news, but most heavily accessed by people over 40.  Younger generations choose between a very wide range of channels, on-line, audio-visual and printed.  Political campaigners struggle to keep up with changing tastes and fashions in following news and public debates.

Our written media have become absurdly biased.  I’ve almost given up on The Times, after 50 years reading it over breakfast while my wife reads the Guardian.  Over the past week it has carried articles downplaying the threat of climate change, supporting Netanyahu in his attack on Israeli judges, and a two-page spread on the pernicious ‘liberal elite’ that allegedly runs Britain – as well as the usual undercurrent of anti-BBC stories and culture-war scares.  The Telegraph appears to live in another world, in which Daniel Hannan, David Frost, Julia Hartley Brewer and others rage against political correctness, modernity and evidence-based arguments.  The Mail is even more hysterical in its headlines than it used to be.  Their influence lingers on in the way the BBC still follows the cues of their news stories, and covers ‘the papers’ in its reporting; but the evidence from surveys is that the majority of the public trust the BBC for news far more than any newspaper.

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Mary Reid

Where are the women?

By Mary Reid | Wed 5th April 2023 - 1:10 pm

Earlier this week the Fawcett Society published a report on the gender balance on Councils across the UK. The headline story is that only 36% of elected councillors are women. In only 5% of Councils were at least half of the councillors female.

It gets worse. You might imagine that Lib Dems would be ahead of the other parties on this, but tucked away in the report is the embarrassing fact that only 35% of our councillors are women – a figure below that achieved by five other parties and only higher than the Conservatives and some Northern Ireland parties.

This is a subject dear to my heart, and I have provided training and mentoring across the party on candidate diversity with a particular interest in encouraging more women to stand. In my own local party I have co-ordinated the recruitment, approval and selection of Council candidates for over 10 years, only recently handing on to two other members. Kingston upon Thames is a London Borough so we have all-out elections every 4 years, and this is what we achieved on my watch:

  • In 2014, we lost control to the Conservatives and took 18 seats out of 48, of which 10 (55%) were held by women.
  • In 2018, we regained control with 39 seats, and 22 (56%) were held by women.
  • In 2022, we increased our majority by winning 44 seats, including 20 (45%) women.

Not surprisingly, I was called to account by our local party Executive for the drop in female representation last year. I explained that finding 48 electable candidates during a pandemic was challenging; in fact, the outcome demonstrated the effectiveness of the strategies that we had used in previous cycles but were unable to use during Covid lockdowns and restrictions.

So what needs to be done?

There are four stages in the election of a councillor – recruitment, approval, selection, election. It is easy to assume that discrimination must be at play at each of those stages; but whilst it is important to examine both conscious and unconscious biases we must be careful to avoid pointing the finger at the electorate or our members and instead should examine our own practices.

In fact, using the language of blame, discrimination and victimisation is not helpful. Rather we should be asking what we need to do to encourage women to participate. And we should be concentrating on our target seats, where the real battles lie.

So let’s see what we can learn about each stage, taking them in reverse order.

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Merlene Emerson

In conversation with the founder of LibDem Friends of Taiwan, Jonathan Philip Bird

By Merlene Emerson | Wed 5th April 2023 - 9:23 am

Jonathan (JPB) talks with Merlene Emerson of the Chinese Liberal Democrats (CLD)

CLD: Please tell us a bit about yourself and how you developed your interest in Taiwan?

JPB: I joined the Liberal Democrats in 2004. I would have been a member of an Alliance party from 1983/84 but I was brought up as a Jehovah’s Witness, and the group forbids political involvement. I have been an active member of my branch since then, running as a ward candidate a number of times.

As well as Taiwan I am passionate about Europe being a core member of the cross-party campaign Cardiff for Europe since 2016.

I lived in Taiwan in 2009 and 2010. I found the political situation of the island fascinating. I discovered the Liberal English language newspaper Taipei Times, in a newsagent. Since my time there I have been a daily reader of the Taiwanese press, and kept up with developments, there.

The year of 2015 saw both ends of my political interest overlap. The historic victory of our Liberal International sister the Democratic Progress Party victory in Legislative assembly and Presidential elections. That contrasted so strongly with the trauma of May 2015 here. I contacted Tim Farron as Liberal Democrat leader and suggested he send a letter to Tsi Win as a fellow liberal. He did so and
I believe it is important that those who champion democracy should support each other.

CLD: What are your observations of the political future of Taiwan?

JPB: Unfortunately, the status quo is not an alternative allowed by the CCP. In 2008 the People’s Assembly passed the “Anti Succession act” it caused consternation in Taiwan and extended the post TianAnMen Square European Union ban on arms exports. Not only did it threaten war on Taiwan should it declare independence or redefine its constitution as the Republic of Taiwan etc.. but also, commands the Bejing regime to continually assess the rate of progress to unite with China. If that progress is considered to have stalled, then to use force to “reunify” China.

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The Voice

Sewage dumped on Blue Flag beaches 1,500 times last year

By The Voice | Tue 4th April 2023 - 7:15 am
  • Lib Dem Leader visits Eastbourne beach with local dog walkers amid concerns of sewage harming coastlines
  • Liberal Democrats call on the Government to ban sewage discharges onto Blue Flag beaches to protect swimmers and wildlife

New analysis of the latest Environment Agency data by the Liberal Democrats has revealed that water companies in England have dumped sewage onto England’s Blue Flag beaches 1,504 times last year, lasting an astonishing 8,497 hours last year.

Blue Flag status is an international mark of recognition that a beach is deemed safe and environmentally friendly. However …

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Mark Valladares

3 April 2023 – some reflections as the day ends…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 3rd April 2023 - 11:50 pm

Tomorrow sees the deadline for nominations for local elections in England and, like many of you, my nomination papers are with my local District Council for inclusion on the ballot on 4 May. We take on a serious responsibility, especially for those of us with prospects of victory, as representing our communities is not to be taken lightly, regardless of the level and scale of that position. But, whether you’re a target seat candidate, or an incumbent, or even just a name on a ballot paper, thank you in anticipation of what you’ll be doing over the next thirty-one days.

It’s been a testing few weeks for the Scottish Nationalists, with a leadership contest which exposed the philosophical divides within their ranks, and a new Leader who has attracted much ad hominem criticism from, it must be said, the usual English media suspects. I don’t pay enough attention to Scottish domestic politics to really know whether or not Humza Yousuf is up to the job, but he has a huge challenge on his hands following on from Nicola Sturgeon, whose leadership transcended the ideological question marks within SNP ranks.

I’m an agnostic on Scottish independence (sorry about that, Caron) as I respect the notion of self-determination. I’ve always said that independence comes with a price in terms of “blood and treasure” and, if Scots are allowed to make a properly informed decision and vote to go ahead, then so be it. That said, one does wonder if the SNP would long survive a victory given the loss of the one obvious factor which currently unites them.

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Mark Valladares

3 April 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 3rd April 2023 - 11:00 pm
  • Welsh rivers some of the most sewage filled in the UK
  • Water Plan: Taking the public for fools by re-announcing a policy from years ago

Welsh rivers some of the most sewage filled in the UK

An analysis of the sewage dumping statistics released by Welsh Water/Dŵr Cymru has revealed Wales’ rivers are some of the most sewage filled in the entire UK. The stats have sparked an angry response from the Welsh Liberal Democrats who have accused both Labour and the Conservatives of not doing enough to tackle the problem.

The latest figures show sewage was dumped in Welsh rivers 83,000 times …

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Mark Valladares

1-2 April 2023 – the weekend’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 3rd April 2023 - 5:06 pm
  • Water company fines: Pointless whilst it remains legal to dump sewage into swimming waters
  • Braverman pushes botched Rwanda scheme while queues pile up in Dover

Water company fines: Pointless whilst it remains legal to dump sewage into swimming waters

Responding to the Government re-announcing they will change the fine structure on water companies, Liberal Democrat Environment spokesperson Tim Farron said:

This is pointless whilst it remains legal for water companies to dump sewage into swimming waters. It is a national scandal that water companies are allowed to pump sewage into our rivers and coastlines all because Ministers refuse to get tough with them.

Conservative MPs have blocked taking tougher action on water companies, and these new half-baked plans from Ministers will do nothing to deter water companies from their polluting actions.

Thérèse Coffey must now resign. She has had months in post with nothing but hot air and empty rhetoric. Under Coffey’s plan, sewage will be pumped into our rivers for decades to come. Shamefully, the Environment Secretary has refused to ban water companies rewarding themselves with multi-million pound bonuses. It is time we had an Environment Secretary who actually cared about the environment.

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Andy Daer

A Way Out of the Chaos in Israel

By Andy Daer | Mon 3rd April 2023 - 3:13 pm

Joe Biden has lost patience with Benjamin Netanyahu.

Previous US Presidents must have been exasperated by the succession of Israeli Prime Ministers who paid lip service to international law, UN resolutions and human rights, and then ignored them in practice, but this time the frustration is public. Netanyahu is no longer welcome in the White House, and Biden has told him he must end his attempt to destroy democracy in Israel. Jewish organisations like Yachad in the UK have demonstrated around the world that Israel’s leader must not be allowed to join the autocrats’ club, along with Putin, Erdogan and Orban. In stark contrast to Biden, the UK government kowtowed to Netanyahu only days before the US condemnation of his latest moves, and has published what must now be a deeply embarrassing ‘roadmap’; it ticks off virtually everything on Netanyahu’s wish-list.

Netanyahu’s initial response to Biden’s announcement was to say Israel could manage without US help, and to call on his supporters to stage counter-demonstrations opposing those seen over the last few recent weeks. Tens of thousands have shown their disapproval of the planned legal reforms, both in Israel and in cities around the world. The truth is that Israel needs its friends more than ever, and dismissing Biden’s call to end his attack on the Israeli judiciary was a mistake.

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The Voice

15,000 children’s operations cancelled last year as bed and staff shortages bite

By The Voice | Mon 3rd April 2023 - 1:10 pm
  • Children left waiting almost three years for an operation
  • Cancelled children’s operations surge by 23% compared to last year
  • Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey calls for NHS rescue plan on local election visit to hospital

Almost 15,000 children’s operations were cancelled at hospitals in England last year, many due to a shortage of staff and beds, figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey will today urge the government to come up with a rescue plan to bring the health service back from the brink.

The figures show 14,628 children’s operations were cancelled in 2022, up 23% from the previous …

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The Voice

Christine Jardine calls for recording of bereaved children

By The Voice | Sun 2nd April 2023 - 5:38 pm

This week in Parliament, Christine Jardine continued her efforts to get the Government to find some way of recording when children are bereaved so that they can get the help and support that they need.

This matters to her. She was an adult when she lost her Dad at the heartbreakingly young age of 20, but her sisters were 13 and 8 respectively. She spoke in the debate about how that experience had affected all three of them to this day. Had they had access to counselling and support to help them navigate through the trauma, it might have made it easier for them.

She is calling for a simple process of recording whether there are children affected when registering a death. The details could then be passed on to organisations who could offer them help. As she said in the debate, there is plenty political will to address this, it’s simply a question of how.

 

Here is the text of her speech in full:

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Caron Lindsay

Polls put SNP majority in doubt

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 2nd April 2023 - 3:33 pm

Humza Yousaf has been Scotland’s First Minister for 5 days and it looks as though he’s not going to get a honeymoon. Two polls this week have shown the SNP vote falling and Labour surging while Lib Dems look as though we will gain and, in Alex Cole-Hamilton’s catchphrase of the moment, “be part of what’s next”

A Savanta poll published on Friday put us on 7 seats, giving us and Labour 49 seats between us. Between 2007 and 2011, the SNP minority government had just  47 MSPs.

This weekend, a Sunday Times/Pnaelbase poll showed a slightly different outcome, but still a significant drop for the SNP.

Humza Yousaf’s win by the cursed ratio of 52% to 48% means that the divisions opened up by a febrile campaign will be more difficult to heal. The refusal of Kate Forbes to take the post of Rural Affairs Secretary, a role which would have put her on a collision course with the Greens over the introduction of controversial Highly Protected Marine Areas  leaves her as a powerful rallying point on the back benches.

Unforced errors such as abolishing the job of Social Security Minister, sending its previous holder Ben Macpherson to the backbenches, have also raised concerns. It seems ridiculous to have a Minister for Independence and not one to be over the transfer of disability benefits to the new Scottish Social Security Agency.

The commentary on Yousaf’s debut at First Minister’s Questions was not positive. In fact, the Herald’s Tom Gordon  was brutal:

The banks of schoolkids flagged visibly, hating their teachers, hating democracy.

It was like detention without end. Oh, think of the children!

On and on Mr Yousaf went, clubbing his audience with the cliches of Nicola Sturgeon and the charm of Alex Salmond in a lift.

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