Simon McGrath

The Lord Mayor, the packets of dates and the lie

By Simon McGrath | Thu 16th March 2023 - 8:00 am

An extraordinary case was concluded  in the election court in Birmingham last month    in which a former Labour  Lord Mayor of Birmingham  was given leave by the Election Court to withdraw an election petition  seeking to overturn his loss at the May 2022 elections to two Lib Dem Councillors.

The background is that in the election Labour’s Muhammed Afzal and a colleague were  defeated by Lib Dem Cllrs – Ayoub Khan and Mumtaz Hussain  – the  relevant bit of the result was:

Ayoub Khan (Liberal Democrat) 3012 votes

Mumtaz Hussain (Liberal Democrat) 2542 votes

Muhammad Afzal (Labour) 2463 votes

Nagina Kauser (Labour) 2223 votes

During the election the Lib Dem candidates had said that Mr Afzal   had been ‘treating’  voters –  by giving out packets of dates with a Labour sticker on while canvassing. Cllr Khan had said on his Facebook page

Such is Labour’s desperation in the Aston Ward…that the current sitting councillor has decided to bribe the people of Aston for votes by giving them a special treat. They ought to know better…this is not Pakistan where you can buy votes.

The election petition said that this claim was false  and intended to defame Mr Afzal’s personal character and that therefore  the result of the election should be overturned.

This was clearly a very serious allegation: apart from losing their hard won council seats, losing the petition would make the 2 Lib Dem councillors responsible for heavy costs putting their homes at risk, possible criminal charges and  and as Cllr Khan is a barrister it  may have had  very serious consequences for his career.

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Rob Parsons

I have about twenty years left

By Rob Parsons | Wed 15th March 2023 - 7:32 pm

I have about twenty years or so left on this planet. I very much hope that before I shuffle off, the UK will have rejoined the EU. I think it will be touch and go whether we manage it. Apologies to our more enthusiastic Europhiles if that disappoints you, but I think it is realistic.

The EU needs to see a steady majority in favour of joining over a period of time. We don’t have that stable majority yet, though I expect we will. It will then need to remain stable for a number of years (particularly important for us, given Britain’s current and immediate past tendencies towards exceptionalism and fascism). Then the process of accession will take several years even if, in the meantime, we have laid the groundwork by joining the EEA, rejoining the single market, rejoining Horizon, or whatever we choose to do.

It will take a lot of work, and although we are enthusiastic about this ourselves, it is very difficult to persuade other people of an objective that may be fifteen or twenty years off. So it is not necessarily helpful to make a greater noise about wanting to rejoin, as some would have us do. It may make more sense for us to stand for an intermediate objective, one which is necessary for this country, as well as necessary if we are to have any realistic prospect of rejoining.

If we are to hope to rejoin, we need to make this country different to what it is now. We actually need to do that anyway. Regardless of our chances of joining the EU, I do not want to live in a country where millions rely on foodbanks to fend off starvation while the Prime Minister changes the grid to have electricity delivered to his swimming pool; a country where a previous Prime Minister seeks to ennoble his wife-beating father; a country where the Home Secretary uses language about asylum seekers reminiscent of 1930s Germany (yes, I will say that, because it is true); a country where the heroism of NHS staff is rewarded with applause but not with a pay rise.

So I propose a slogan: “Let’s fix this country”. Let’s fix things so that they actually work for the people and not just the elite.

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Nigel Lindsay

Lib Dems and Europe – Scotland shows the way

By Nigel Lindsay | Wed 15th March 2023 - 1:24 pm

We know that if the UK were in the European Union, GDP would now be £120bn higher, and tax revenues £40bn higher every year. We know that the UK is the only major European economy not to have returned to its pre-pandemic size. And polling shows us that there is a growing majority view that Brexit was a mistake which has delivered negligible benefits and has done substantial damage to Britain. Yet the Party’s leadership at Federal level still does not seem keen to explain these things to voters, nor to offer leadership to the large number of people across Britain for whom becoming part of the EU again is a political and economic priority.

Grassroots members, fortunately, see things differently. On Saturday, the Scottish LibDem conference in Dundee considered a motion calling for the party to re-commit itself to re-joining the EU. Conference unanimously supported the motion, which also called on the UK government to develop a roadmap towards re-joining the EU and initially re-joining the Single Market and Customs Union. Speaker after speaker stressed internationalism as a fundamental thread of Liberalism, and the personal, cultural, and economic gains that would accrue if the UK could work its way back to full membership of the European Union. There were calls for MPs and MSPs to mount a communications campaign explaining the benefits of membership, and for activists and party members to support this.

The motion ended with a call for Liberal Democrats to put campaigning for our European future at the heart of our approach. Gratifyingly, Scottish LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton gave a speech on the same day in which he committed himself wholeheartedly to a European future and stressed the importance of internationalism to his Liberalism.

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The Voice

Reactions to the Budget – “Conservatives so out of touch they are living on another planet”

By The Voice | Wed 15th March 2023 - 1:19 pm

Here’s some of the Lib Dem reaction to today’s Budget. Mary and Caron will keep updating it as the day goes on.

First up:

And Wera Hobhouse amplified this point:

Ed Davey’s first reaction was that the Budget showed how out of touch the Conservatives are:

This Budget shows the Conservative Party is so out of touch they might as well be living on another planet.

Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak had a chance to show they care about the cost-of-living crisis that’s hitting millions of Britain’s families and pensioners but they failed miserably.

People are desperate for real help especially a cut to their energy bills – but all the Chancellor could offer is empty words and more unfair tax hikes.

We also saw a total failure to invest in fixing our crumbling hospitals and supporting local health services. It shows the Conservative Party doesn’t understand that you can’t get Britain ‘back to work’ without fixing the crisis in our NHS and social care.

Tim Farron was quick to get a cheeky comment in after the story about Rishi Sunak paying for the grid to be upgraded for his private heated swimming pool.

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David Green

The Independent View: Our voting system’s rubbish

By David Green | Wed 15th March 2023 - 11:30 am

On May 4th, the one third of voters in England who can be bothered will traipse off to their local polling stations to vote in this year’s round of council elections. They will cheerfully sign away their democratic rights with an X and, if they think of it at all, many will assume that, if a party polls 4 out of 10 votes, the voting system will ensure that they win 4 out of 10 seats.

Unfortunately, our inefficient Victorian First-past-the-post voting system fails to achieve this, with disastrous consequences for English local government. On most English councils, seats taken fail to match votes cast.

And crucially, because the relevant statistics are not readily available, these injustices are not published by the media, and so go unnoticed by the electorate.

Accordingly, in an endeavour to draw attention to the damage being done to local democracy by continued use of the First-past-the-post-voting system (FPTP), I have compiled an Awful A-Z of English Council Election Disasters, comprising a summary of the results for all English local authorities listed in alphabetical order.

This list is available to view at www.supervote.org.uk which is a small website I run in aid of voting reform.  While it is essentially an amateur compilation, I believe this is the first time that a snapshot of the disparities between seats won and votes cast in all local elections across England has been attempted.

I am afraid the overall picture is quite shocking; some of these results are not so much undemocratic as downright obscene, far worse than the worst Westminster results.

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Jeremy Hargreaves

Raise a glass in York

By Jeremy Hargreaves | Wed 15th March 2023 - 9:03 am

Conference has always been a central element in my involvement in the Liberal Democrats. Like many of us, all year round I spend a large proportion of my waking hours doing things for the party – and being able to make links, exchange ideas and, yes, gossip with people from across the country at conference not only makes doing that year-round work easier, but also makes it very very much more fun. I have really missed them over the last three and a half years – with the final cruel punch of the last-minute cancellation for non-pandemic reasons of last autumn’s big return conference feeling particularly unfair.

So I will be thrilled to be back in York this weekend, surrounded by Liberal Democrats.

But as I finally get to catch up again with many of you, I will be giving more than a thought or two to some of those who I will not get the chance to see again at conference.

That last conference we held, in Bournemouth in 2019, “the one where Jo Swinson was leader”, was the last time I saw my former boss, Steve Hitchins, previously Leader of Islington Council. Steve was certainly not about to allow his walking difficulties stop him from getting up on to the stage and telling us how the health policies we were debating seemed to him as a former chair of an acute NHS Trust. Steve tragically and unexpectedly passed away just a few weeks later – a much too early sad loss of one of the party’s most robust campaigners and one of its most effective champions of frontline diversity.

In York I will, as always, go to an LDEG fringe meeting. But I will not see Derek Honeygold sitting – like Ted Heath – in a corner seat on the front row, as he must have done at pretty much every LDEG fringe meeting ever. In March 2020 Derek became one of the first victims of covid. LDEG fringes will not be the same without his twinkling eyes and intriguing contributions to the debate.

When I make it to the bar later, I will not turn round from ordering drinks to see there the beaming smile of Robert Woodthorpe-Browne, long a smiling stalwart of the party’s international scene, with something funny and interesting to say to me. Always so enthusiastic and encouraging, from LI Congresses in Africa and being chair of the international relations committee (FIRC), to the streets of London that I once went canvassing with him on, Robert’s utterly irrepressible energy made a huge contribution to the party before his very sudden death from a stroke this last autumn.

I will not have the chance to sup again from the well of the erudition of Jonathan Fryer – another deeply committed Liberal Democrat internationalist, former chair of the international relations committee and eternally super-enthusiastic MEP candidate. But too a regular BBC broadcaster, public Quaker, lecturer and so many other things – including, astonishingly, biographer and friend of Christopher Isherwood – before his awfully sudden and tragic death from a brain tumour.

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Mark Valladares

14 March 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 14th March 2023 - 10:30 pm
  • ONS economy stats: Tomorrow is judgement day for Jeremy Hunt
  • Braverman must apologise to women and girls for police dropping complaints
  • Conservative MPs must back amendments to ban child detention
  • Budget is “judgement day” for Chancellor on cost of living crisis
  • Jane Dodds responds to Health Minister statement on Dental Reform

ONS economy stats: Tomorrow is judgement day for Jeremy Hunt

Responding to this morning’s ONS earnings and employment figures, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said:

Tomorrow is judgement day for Jeremy Hunt. He must finally end the cost of living crisis and the endless pay squeeze which is crippling families across the country.

The revolving door of Conservative Chancellors in recent years have all failed at keeping prices down. Jeremy Hunt can take action tomorrow and cut energy bills by £500, by introducing a proper windfall tax on the bumper profits of oil and gas firms. They are raking in billions off the back of higher energy bills and the public won’t stomach it any longer.

Braverman must apologise to women and girls for police dropping complaints

Responding to the figures that show police forces drop most complaints of officer violence against women, Liberal Democrat Chief Whip and former Police Officer, Wendy Chamberlain MP said:

These statistics tell us what millions of women and girls already know. Across the country, they look to the police to protect them and ultimately the buck stops with the Home Office to fix this crisis.

Violence against women and girls has no place in our society, not least in the police forces that are meant to keep us all safe.

We need swift action from Suella Braverman, including a promise to tighten vetting and investigation regulations. But first, she needs to apologise for the Government and police forces letting women and girls across the country down.

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‘That’s if they really *are* children’

By Anonymous | Tue 14th March 2023 - 3:45 pm

I recently attended an event in a civic capacity. The event, although unrelated, was just next door to an underutilised hotel in which the Home Office has recently placed a number of refugee families with children.

Because of its isolated setting, I was concerned that the people housed there would have insufficient access to facilities including medical care, schooling and shops to supply small daily needs. I was also concerned that due the corporate nature of the premises it would be inappropriate for the needs of young children.

Accordingly, I arrived early at the event venue and had a quick walk about the outside of the hotel. As I expected, there was no evidence of any play equipment or any toys, which would have softened the experience a little for already traumatised children.

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David Chalmers

Liberal Democrat European Group visit to Berlin

By David Chalmers | Tue 14th March 2023 - 10:01 am

Last week Liberal Democrat European Group LDEG made its first study trip overseas since the pandemic to brave Berlin’s wintery weather. In the past, regular visits to Brussels helped to foster a greater understanding of European politics and develop relations with our sister parties. Germany was chosen as this year’s destination, because of its pivotal role in European affairs and because, post Brexit, we are going to need allies within the EU like our German sister party the FDP – who currently form part of the ‘traffic light’ coalition with the Social Democrats and Greens.

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Mark Valladares

13 March 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 13th March 2023 - 11:40 pm
  • Lineker is back, Sharp must go
  • Liberal Democrats urge Conservative MPs to ‘examine their conscience’ ahead of Small Boats Bill vote

Lineker is back, Sharp must go

Responding to the news that Gary Lineker and the BBC have come to an agreement, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey MP said:

Everyone will be pleased to see Gary Lineker and the football and sports coverage back to normal on the BBC next weekend.

However, given his ties to Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party, and the scandal surrounding his appointment, the public simply cannot trust Richard Sharp to restore the BBC’s credibility.

Rishi Sunak must sack him

…

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Robert Harrison

The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank – what does it mean for the UK?

By Robert Harrison | Mon 13th March 2023 - 1:37 pm

A few days ago, I started writing a piece for Liberal Democrat Voice about the creation of the new Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and what it might mean for the entrepreneurial science-based economy. I was going to look at financing of science-based companies and how it could be improved. The news of the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on Friday came as the piece was almost finished and has overtaken some of my conclusions in that article.

It’s likely that most Liberal Democrats will never have actually heard of the SVB until this weekend. As its …

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Keith Melton

Multilateralist, respecting international law and learning from history

By Keith Melton | Mon 13th March 2023 - 11:38 am

International security is a hot topic since Putin`s “Special Military Operation” launched against Ukraine a year ago. Most people recognise it for what it was, an invasion by a despot of questionable sanity. A wide debate has been prompted by Putin having “moved the goalposts of the conditions under which Russia would launch a first nuclear strike.”

The Lib Dem “Defence Team” has put together a motion which is an ultra-cautious approach to defence policy, probably not wishing to rock the middle-of-the-road approach thought to be necessary in order not to frighten off the soft conservative vote. But it is a …

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Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 13 March 2023 – a Byrd in the hand?

By Mark Valladares | Mon 13th March 2023 - 8:54 am

This year sees the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd, one of this country’s great composers. As a Catholic myself, I am reminded that he converted to Catholicism in his thirties at some personal risk given the culture of the day. It is a reminder that state-sponsored attacks on minorities and other vulnerable people is not a new concept, and that the conservative right have never been afraid to secure power through the demonisation of others.

My colleague, writing about the Lineker saga over the weekend, said:

And of course what is particularly ironic is that Tory MPs, who are usually championing the right of people to be as racist, sexist and transphobic as they like in the name of free speech, are now going after Gary Lineker.

There is a perfectly obvious reason for this, which is that not only are these people hypocrites, but they don’t care that they contradict themselves over and over again. It’s all about stirring up anger and distracting attention from their failure and incompetence. Find the smelliest, deadest cat they can find and hurl its foul carcass on the table so that we’ll talk about that rather than stick to the issues that matter.

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NewsHound

Two million patient admissions at NHS hospitals with crumbling roofs last year

By NewsHound | Mon 13th March 2023 - 7:30 am
  • Lib Dems demand this week’s Budget includes emergency funding to fix dangerous hospital roofs
  • 18 trusts have buildings fitted with roofs which NHS chiefs warn could collapse at any moment
  • Almost 6,000 patient admissions a day last year at hospital trusts with crumbling roofs

There were a staggering two million patient admissions at hospitals with crumbling roofs at risk of collapse last year, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has found.

The Liberal Democrats are demanding emergency funding in this week’s Budget to replace the crumbling roofs at every affected hospital and prevent patients’ safety being put at risk.

18 NHS hospital trusts around the …

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Mark Valladares

11-12 March 2023 – the weekend’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Sun 12th March 2023 - 10:30 pm
  • Davey: Richard Sharp must resign
  • Hunt’s budget set to be “more hot air and no real or urgent help”

Davey: Richard Sharp must resign

The Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey has called on Richard Sharp to resign.

Davey has said that Richard Sharp’s position is “untenable” and blamed the Conservative Government for “systematically attacking the independence of the BBC”.

Richard Sharp has spent recent months wrapped in controversy around his role in an £800,000 loan for Boris Johnson. The Chairman of the BBC is head of the BBC Board and responsible for maintaining the independence of the BBC.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Leader …

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Caron Lindsay

Sue Miller highlights falling breastfeeding rates in Lords International Women’s Day debate

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 12th March 2023 - 2:30 pm

Back in the day, I spent a few years as a breastfeeding counsellor, doing what I could to support parents when they hit trouble and helping them find solutions that worked for them.

I got involved in that because I wanted to give something back after my breastfeeding journey was helped back on track by a lovely and patient volunteer called Louise who came to my house and sorted me out with great empathy.

Her help motivated me to help other women who desperately wanted to breastfeed but hadn’t been able to overcome their problems but hadn’t had the support that they needed. The guilt that comes along with that is huge, but misplaced. It is not their fault. Those running the health services failed to provide it.

I also became very interested in the implementation, or lack of it, of the International Code for the Marketing of Breastmilk substitutes and the ways that formula manufacturers got round it and how their powerful lobbying of governments kept regulation at bay.

I was also struck by research at the time that, in this country that showed  a poor breastfed baby had better long term health outcomes than a formula fed baby from an affluent background.

You would hope that we might have made some progress with providing support and regulating the manufacturers in the intervening 15 years.

Unfortunately, Lib Dem Peer Sue Miller, in her contribution to the International Women’s Day debate, highlighted that we are actually going backwards. You can read her whole speech here, but here are the highlights:

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The Voice

Liz Barker highlights attacks on women’s rights worldwide

By The Voice | Sun 12th March 2023 - 1:00 pm

This week, Liz Barker spoke in the International Women’s Day debate in the Lords. She highlighted the orchestrated attacks on women’s rights worldwide in all its forms. She particularly focused on the treatment of trans women. She added that an attack on the rights of one group of women is an attack on the rights of all women.

She also criticised the Government’s reduction in international aid and the impact that has on things like HIV research – and which could leave us unprepared for future pandemics.

Finally she talked about women’s health care, in particular the under-reporting of mental health, particularly if they have learning difficulties or autism. And she cited some very troubling data around the availability of contraception.

Here is her speech in full.

My Lords, I too wish to pay tribute to Baroness Boothroyd. Because of the proximity of our offices, we often used to bump into each other in the lift. One day I complimented her on one of her fabulous outfits—she was always beautifully turned out—and in that unmistakeable voice she said, “give it brass and go big.” I have always thought that I will for ever hold that as my phrase: give it brass, go big.

The theme of today’s International Women’s Day is “Embrace Equity”. It is a very good phrase, as the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, has just said, because it carries within it the implication that we are, as women, diverse—very diverse. 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. We are beginning as we go through, to see a greater emphasis on unpicking this campaign and understanding the motivations behind it. The Council of Europe, for example, in 2022 produced a thematic report on legal gender recognition in Europe, which began to show what this campaign is about. Ultimately, it is about the rolling back of human rights and the destruction of human rights legislation and the organisations which are there to protect and promote it. That is a key concern for all women because human right lies at the basis of our equality and equity.

In the UK we know that there is a daily campaign against trans women. We see it day after day in our media. It is a campaign that seeks to pit women against women. It portrays trans women as a significant and systemic threat to other women. I have to say that, after six years, it is a campaign that has yet to provide evidence of that, and it is yet to win significant approval. That is not to say that some politicians have not been taken in by this and have been ever ready to use it to their political advantage. I have to say today that some of us will always reject playing with human rights, because if you play with the human rights of some people, you play with the human rights of all, and if you jeopardise the rights of some women, you jeopardise the rights of all. I hope that politicians in this country will look again at some of the aspects of this campaign and will desist in the demonisation of a very small minority of people in this country. They are at the moment under attack and very frightened, and today, on International Women’s Day, it is important to give them some hope and solidarity.

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Chris Bowers

Standing up to government is the only way the BBC will get out of the corner it’s backed itself into

By Chris Bowers | Sun 12th March 2023 - 10:59 am

It would be easy to conclude that if you want to have an influence on British political life you have to be a name in top-level football.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford succeeded where many politicians had failed in getting free school meals to disadvantaged children. In the past fortnight, the England women’s football team, the ‘Lionesses’, have used the leverage from their 2022 Euros title-winning run to secure over £600 million in government funding to give girls the same opportunities in sport that boys currently enjoy. And over the past few days, the former England striker Gary Lineker has been the focus of opposition to the controversial proposals by Rishi Sunak’s government to severely curtail the right of asylum in the UK (although the story of Lineker’s future as presenter of the BBC’s football highlights programme Match of the Day is threatening to overshadow his opposition to the asylum policy).

If suggesting that footballers are more influential than politicians seems a flippant remark, it’s not. We may well have reached the point where ‘celebrities’ (however you define them) have more clout than politicians, in which case their comments have to be taken more seriously than just to dismiss them as celebrity fluff – they become part of the checks and balances of a democratic society. And when Lineker talks about something of which he has direct experience – he has taken refugees into his own home – his comments come with added gravitas.

It’s important to note what he’s actually said, as some of the more hysterical reporting of it might lead you to think he’s accused the British government of sending people to gas chambers. Having described the policy as “beyond awful” in an initial reaction on his personal Twitter feed, he said in a second tweet that the proposed new UK asylum policy was “an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.” Note the important nuance that the reference to Germany in the 1930s was about the language, not the policy.

I must declare an interest here. My father’s side of my family came from Germany and were thrown out for being Jewish. My father came to Britain as a Kindertransport refugee, my grandfather spent 12 days in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and great aunts and great uncles perished in other camps.

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 12th March 2023 - 9:42 am

UK

British Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s “Stop the Boats” policy is in danger of being torpedoed by the European Convention on Human Rights. But then Ms Braverman may have an answer to that problem: Withdraw from the convention and the jurisdiction of the administering European Court of Human Rights.

The Illegal Migration Bill – as it is officially called – is aimed at stopping the estimated 50,000-plus people who are expected to cross the English Channel in small boats this year. It is one of the five cornerstone goals of Rishi Sunak’s premiership.

A key element of the policy is that any small boat refugee crossing the channel to seek asylum in Britain will be detained for 28 days without access to the law. At the end of that period, if they are not granted asylum, they will be flown to Rwanda or transported back to their home country. There will be no right of appeal and anyone deported will be banned from future asylum applications.

Most legal eagles agree that the proposed law is a breach of the International Convention on Refugees and the European Convention on Human Rights which binds the British government to protect people (including refugees) from being killed or subject to inhumane and degrading treatment. It also exposes the Home Secretary to the charge of unlawful imprisonment and the denial of basic legal rights.

In anticipation of these obstacles, Ms Braverman has said that the European Court of Human Rights is “at odds with British values” and the “will of the British people,” thus raising the spectre of British withdrawal. It was British lawyers in the early post-war years who were largely responsible for drafting the European Convention of Human Rights and establishing the court. For their template they used Magna Carta and the 1689 English Bill of Rights with the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, the US Bill of Rights and the UN Declaration of Human Rights thrown in for good measure. Ms Braverman would appear to be “at odds” with legal history.

Ukraine

Russian missile attacks on Ukraine reached new levels this week and raised the danger levels at Europe’s largest nuclear reactor at Zaporizhzhia.  The missiles temporarily knocked out the outside power source which was needed to cool the reactors.

Power was restored on Thursday, but this was the sixth time that outside power has been cut off and workers have been forced to switch to emergency diesel generators to protect the reactors. Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN’s International Atomic Entergy Agency, said: “Each time this happens we are rolling the dice. One day our luck will run out.”

He accused the international community of complacency over the fate of the Zaporizhzhia power plant and urged the Russians, Ukrainians and all other interested parties to “commit to protect the supply and safety of the plant.”

Not all, nuclear experts agree with Senor Grossi’s dire warning. Some say that the reactors have been shut down to such an extent that they require little or no power to stay safe. They all agree that the ones in greatest danger are the Russian soldiers guarding the site and the Ukrainians working there.

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The Voice

WATCH: Alex Cole-Hamilton’s speech to Scottish Conference

By The Voice | Sat 11th March 2023 - 4:00 pm

Below, in full, you can watch and read Alex Cole-Hamilton’s speech to Scottish Lib Dem Conference. In it he paid tribute to Kira Rudik, Leader of our sister party Golos, who addressed the Conference this morning.  He also, of course, celebrated our spectacular by-election victory in Edinburgh yesterday. But he also went further than any Lib Dem I have heard recently on talking about the need for closer ties with Europe and about the failures of Brexit:

Friends, Boris Johnson said that Ukraine should be at the front of the queue to join the European Union. He’s not wrong, but just think about that for a minute.

After all his Brexit lies, that really grated, but it was recognition of the value and protection working with our European neighbours offers in terms of security and prosperity.

We should be more united than ever with our nearest neighbours in the face of Russian aggression, the climate emergency, and the mass displacement of people.

Our economic growth is below that of Russia, investment is down, empty shelves, skills shortages, diminished on the world stage.

Conference, Brexit has been a disaster.

I still grieve for what we have lost.

Charles Kennedy used to say that he was a Highlander, a Scot, a Brit and a European. Each was a critical part of his identity, without contradiction or conflict.

Conference, make no mistake, Scottish Liberal Democrats are the most pro-European party there is. We do not apologise for it, and we do not deny it.

I am a European to my fingertips. I believe in Europe for Europe’s sake.

Conference, it is my mission to untangle the problems,

to re-establish cultural and economic ties,

to build back our close connections,

to forge relationships with our European friends.

It means re-establishing Erasmus, as our party has done in Wales.

Getting back into the Horizon university research funding scheme.

Mutual recognition of trades and professions so people can work across the UK and EU.

We should be optimistic about the demonstrable shift in public opinion towards re-engaging with the European Union, and we should harness that.

This country needs a party that will propose practical, tangible solutions to bring us closer to Europe.

Conference, we are the ones they are looking for.

Because you can take us out of Europe, but you’ll never take Europe out of us.

Watch here

The full text is below:

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems score historic by-election win in Edinburgh

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 11th March 2023 - 2:30 pm

Lib Dem Fiona Bennett became our 13th Councillor in Edinburgh at just before midnight on Thursday, securing our highest ever vote in a local government by-election in Scotland. We are now the second largest group on the Council behind the SNP’s 17, Labour’s 11,  Greens’ 10 and Conservatives 9.

Here’s Alex Cole-Hamilton gloating  talking about it on yesterday’s Good Morning Scotland ahead of our Conference in Dundee.

Fiona becomes the 3rd councillor in the 3 member Corstorphine/Murrayfield ward which is in Christine Jardine’s Westminster constituency and Alex Cole-Hamilton’s Holyrood seat. She gained the seat in the by-election caused by the resignation of SNP former Lord Provost Frank Ross.

The unexpected passing of the Lib Dem budget two weeks ago means that she will have £11 million for pothole fixing. Which is a good thing. I almost got a concussion as the bus drove over the potholes on Corstorphine Road yesterday on my way to work.

As Christine Jardine told Scottish Conference in her best M and S ad voice yesterday, this is not just representation, this is Lib Dem representation.

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Caron Lindsay

Has the BBC been impartial over Lineker?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 11th March 2023 - 12:30 pm

There was a moment last night when I wondered if we were going to see tonight’s Match of the Day presented by Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries after pundits and commenters alike responded to Gary Lineker’s suspension with solidarity.

Gary Lineker is a national treasure and sports presenter. While he is on telly, he talks about football. If he talked about politics, I doubt he’d have the following among football fans that he has. I never watch him because I am not a football fan. However, I have a very positive opinion of him from Twitter, where he has, for years, been chatting away about all sorts of stuff. He wasn’t a fan of Brexit, you know.

Lineker is far from the first BBC star to have political views. One of the first I remember was Kenny Everett, with his Let’s Bomb Russia comments and cruel jibes about Michael Foot back in 1983 at a Conservative Party election event.

And what about Ian Hislop and Paul Merton? They have rarely been complimentary about any Governemnt? Are they next in line for the chop?

When Rishi Sunak tweeted on Tuesday with some pride that he was removing modern slavery protections from people who arrive in this country illegally,  anyone with a commitment to human rights was rightly concerned:

Here was our Prime Minister basically giving a free pass to slavers who could then tell their victims, correctly, that there was no recourse to help. It’s hardly surprising people were angry.

Lineker’s response was strong but justifiably so. He called the Bill:

An immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s

The way in which the Tories have been othering vulnerable members of society, from immigrants to people who need social security to survive to trans people to fat people to those suffering from addictions, disabilities and mental ill health has been of concern for some years. Remember when David Cameron described migrants crossing the Channel as a “swarm?” It’s dehumanising and creates a culture where vulnerable people are seen as a threat and not as fellow human beings just like us. It’s done to set people against each other to distract from a failing government.

Our Tim Farron is both a mad football fan and passionately pro supporting refugees. He tweeted:

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Lord William Wallace

Are we ready to fight the Culture War?

By Lord William Wallace | Sat 11th March 2023 - 10:30 am

Two op-eds in the Sunday Telegraph in recent weeks have hailed Ron de Santis, Governor of Florida and strongest alternative Republican candidate for the US Presidency in 2024 to Donald Trump, as showing the way forward for British Conservatives: to fight the culture war as vigorously as possible. It looks as if the Conservatives are already doing so.

The whole point of culture wars is to distract the attention of voters from economic difficulties and concerns about inequality by attacking ‘the liberal establishment’ which – it is claimed – is betraying the instincts and traditions of ordinary people. Migration, friendliness with foreigners, intellectual sophistication (instead of ‘common sense’ and ‘what you know in your gut’), concerns about diversity, gender, rewriting history and what used to be called political correctness and is now called ‘woke’ make up the mix.

De Santis is a graduate from Yale University, where he now claims that he was ‘taught that communism was superior’, and Harvard Law School, who is now attacking the autonomy of Floridan universities. He’s tightened state laws on abortion, thrown doubt on climate change, resisted the Covid lockdown and removed tax privileges for the ‘woke’ Disney Corporation. That’s the example that many Tory strategists want to follow.

Over the past week we have seen the political technologists of Tory political strategy take over from the reasonable face Rishi Sunak has been presenting. ‘Stop the boats’ is a three-word slogan borrowed from Australia rather than the Trump phrasebook. A ‘new’ deal has been launched which is much the same as last year’s anti-migrant initiative, with no clearer indication of how its targets can be reached or those who manage to reach the UK removed. At Prime Ministers’ Questions on March 8th a ‘red-wall’ Tory MP raised the threat of ‘graphic lessons on oral sex, how to choke your partner and 72 genders’ to children in English schools, and the Prime Minister promised an ‘urgent review’ into sex education. And the following day Conservative HQ circulated a digital message in Suella Braverman’s name blaming “an activist blob of leftwing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour party” for blocking her attempts to stop the flow of undocumented migrants across the Channel.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an expat: Adjusting the thermostat

By Tom Arms | Sat 11th March 2023 - 8:33 am

European thermometers dropped this week. But generally speaking it has been a relatively mild winter and temperatures are starting to rise. This is good news for Ukraine. Good news for Europe. Bad news for Russia and great news for America.

Twelve months ago the Western Alliance was seriously worried that Europe’s reliance on Russian gas and oil would render it powerless to stand up to Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The outlook is now considerably brighter. Cash-strapped consumers turned down thermostats. Russian gas supplies have been cut by two-thirds. Nordstream pipelines have shut down (thank you saboteurs whomever you  may be). New storage facilities have been built for liquefied natural gas (LNG). The US has increased its shipments of LNG and Europe is moving faster towards renewable energy sources.

Glitches remain. Landlocked countries such as Austria, Hungary and Slovakia remain heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas and some 20 billion cubic metres (BCM) of Russian gas is still being pumped by pipeline into the EU. Ironically, the pipeline runs through Ukraine. Also, Europeans have increased purchases of Russian LNG, but moves are afoot to reverse that.

The bulk of Europe’s gas is now coming from America. Exports from the US are up 137 percent from a year ago. Companies such as Chevron and Exxon have stepped up fracking operations in Texas, Appalachia, New Mexico and Louisiana. They freeze the gas in terminals and then ship it to Europe. There it is transferred to either newly built storage facilities or specially adapted ships where it is returned to its gaseous state and piped to homes, power stations and factories.

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Mark Valladares

10 March 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Fri 10th March 2023 - 10:30 pm
  • ONS: Economy still suffering consequences of Conservatives
  • BP boss pay doubles: Sunak must bring in bonus tax now
  • Lineker: Today is a reminder that we need a properly independent BBC
  • Lee Waters must apologise to Welsh nurses

ONS: Economy still suffering consequences of Conservatives

Responding to the latest ONS GDP figures from January 2023, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

These disappointing figures are yet another reminder that our economy is suffering under this Conservative Government, and people are feeling this under-performance in their own pockets.

The Conservative party has broken this country’s economy with record energy bills, rising food prices and soaring mortgage costs. Yet they are completely out of touch with people’s worries.

The Chancellor needs to take action in next week’s Budget by cutting people’s energy bills by £500, and putting in place a proper plan to get our economy growing fairly and sustainably.

BP boss pay doubles: Sunak must bring in bonus tax now

The Liberal Democrats have demanded that the government bring in a tax on the bonuses of oil and gas company bosses, following the news that the chief executive of BP’s pay doubled to £10m.

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Mary Reid

Nepotism

By Mary Reid | Fri 10th March 2023 - 11:01 am

I can’t remember an actual case of nepotism – strictly offering a leg-up to one’s nephew – but the spirit of nepotism lives on. The word was coined to refer to the practice of mediaeval popes when they appointed family members, usually nephews, as cardinals.  It is used more broadly today to include family members and friends, although cronyism is a variant that specifically refers to friends and associates.

Donald Trump famously practiced the art and gave White House and advisory posts to members of his own wider family (although he actually denied his nephew essential medical care).

Is there a word for favouring one’s father? Not paternalism, which refers to a benign form of dictatorship. Can we invent one, as it seems to be a thing? Maybe paterism?

Anyone in public office who offers jobs or awards to people close to them can expect to be ridiculed and criticised. This is true even where the recipient genuinely deserves the honour – those decisions should be left to others.

As a councillor I was well versed in the need to declare an interest when a proposal was being discussed.  That would certainly have included instances when members of my family or close friends would have been affected, for better or worse, by the outcome. If in doubt we were encouraged to take advice, if necessary from the Council’s Monitoring Officer (usually the Head of Legal Services). If the interest was substantial or pecuniary then I would remove myself from the debate and not vote. This is standard practice in local government.

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Mark Valladares

9 March 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 9th March 2023 - 10:50 pm
  • Davey: Shell boss £10m pay packet shows need for “bonanza bonus” tax
  • HS2 Delay Must Trigger Barnett Consequential Funding for Wales

Davey: Shell boss £10m pay packet shows need for “bonanza bonus” tax

The Liberal Democrats have reiterated their calls for a tax on the bonuses of oil and gas company bosses, following the news that the former chief executive of Shell’s pay rose more than 50% to nearly £10m in 2022.

Shell announced today that former chief executive Ben van Beurden received a bonus of £2.6m in 2022, up from £2.2m the previous year. Under Liberal Democrat plans, this would be taxed at …

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Caron Lindsay

My highlights of International Women’s Day

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 9th March 2023 - 2:11 pm

The internet always goes wild for International Women’s Day. If we thought more of improving women’s lives for the rest of the year, the world would be a much better place for half its citizens. For example, how can you have decent economic growth if women are being forced out of work because of the cost of childcare.

From the Guardian:

Data for 2021 showed the gender pay gap widening four times faster in the UK than the average for the OECD, primarily due to the financial penalty from motherhood.

Larice Stielow, a senior economist at PwC, said: “An 18-year-old woman entering the workforce today will not see pay equality in her working lifetime. At the rate the gender pay gap is closing, it will take more than 50 years to reach gender pay parity.

“The motherhood penalty is now the most significant driver of the gender pay gap and, in the UK, women are being hit even harder by the rising cost of living and increasing cost of childcare.

“With this and the gap in free childcare provision between ages one and three, more women are being priced out of work. For many it is more affordable to leave work than remain in employment and pay for childcare, especially for families at lower income levels.”

That said, here are some of my highlights of yesterday:

Wera calls for misogyny to be made a hate crime.

Predictably the replies are an absolute bin fire.

Later she talked about the importance of understanding the impact of sexual assault on victims:

Gender pay bot

Social media is awash with platitudes from every organisation in the country, trying to show that they are there with the women.  Gender Pay Bot’s Twitter account calls them to account by highlighting their gender pay gap.

Of course all of this is possible because Jo Swinson introduced the legislation requiring companies with more than 250 employees to report on their gender pay gap.

It’s worrying that so many of them are NHS related;

The Daily Express had a gap of 15.7%, although this is down 6.8% in the last year.

Sotheby’s is doing terribly.

Emma Ritch Law Clinic

Some of you may remember Emma Ritch, (pictured here back right) who spoke at our 2018 fringe meeting at Brighton Conference on how Scotland’s feminist and LGBT organisations worked together to help achieve better rights and status for all. She talked about the concept of “radical kindness” which underpinned relations between these organisations – something that we could do with in these awful times.

Sadly, Emma died suddenly in July 2021. She was an outstanding feminist, with the sharpest and wisest of minds, the best sense of humour and a flair for snazzy pencil cases. Scotland misses her a lot. Yesterday, Glasgow University announced that a law clinic, specialising in rape and sexual violence, opening this September would be named for her.

From Glasgow University’s announcement:

As well as offering legal advice, through a specially constituted legal practice unit, the Emma Ritch Law Clinic will offer innovative teaching to students, enabling the next generation of Scottish lawyers to gain critical legal and ethical skills. It will also produce valuable research, providing an insight into the difference that specialist legal advice and representation can make to complainers’ experiences of prosecution, and gather data to better understand why cases might fail to reach, or progress, through the criminal justice system.

The Clinic will also instil awareness of trauma-informed lawyering, and the practice of criminal law, an area with longstanding issues in terms of recruitment and retention.

Engender’s Making work visible

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NewsHound

Christine Jardine – Windsor Framework a hopeful sign for future relations with EU

By NewsHound | Thu 9th March 2023 - 11:15 am

In the Scotsman this week, Christine Jardine pointed out the irony of Rishi Sunak’s pronouncement on Northern Ireland’s special and unique position:

The picture became even more ridiculous when this arch-Brexiteer enthusiastically proclaimed the benefits Northern Ireland could derive from being in both the EU single market and the UK. Is that not what we all used to have?

Are what Rishi Sunak described with a smile as the “exciting prospects” for Northern Ireland not what we all used to take for granted? And yet even as the Tories basked in this self-proclaimed Brexit victory, there was just the slightest hint, a tiny glimmer of hope that our future relationship with the European Union might be salvageable.

It’s good to hear a Lib Dem actually talking about the problems with Brexit:

The reality remains that the Conservatives erected immense barriers to trade between the UK and the EU. Farmers, fishermen and small businesses across Britain remain tied up in red tape and the Conservative government are, as yet, doing nothing to help them. But in recognising the importance of creating a special agreement for Northern Ireland, they may, perhaps, have taken an important step towards reconciliation.

But the SNP saw it as an excuse to get something for Scotland:

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Neil Stockley

Shirley Williams: Liberal Lion and Trailblazer

By Neil Stockley | Thu 9th March 2023 - 8:55 am

When Shirley Williams died in April 2021, Sir Ed Davey paid tribute to a “a Liberal lion” and remembered her as a “trailblazer” and an “inspiration to millions”. 

There were many other affectionate tributes. Unusually for a politician, Shirley was widely loved during her lifetime. David Steel once described her as “a national treasure, rather like the late Queen Mum”. As a Liberal Democrat icon, she stood alongside Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy.

Shirley Williams was, after all, the most popular of the “Gang of Four” who broke away from Labour in 1981 and formed the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Roy Jenkins and David Owen provided the political weight and gravitas, but Shirley provided the personal warmth and empathy. With her stunning victory at the Crosby by-election in November 1981, she was the first candidate to be elected as an MP under the new party’s banner. “Shirl the Pearl”, as she was known, later became the first president of the SDP. 

Even so, her broad and enduring popularity was, in some ways, remarkable. Shirley last held government office in 1979 –as education secretary in Jim Callaghan’s ill-fated Labour government, from when she was best remembered for expanding the comprehensive school system. She passed up the chance to contest the SDP’s first leadership election in 1982 and lost Crosby the following year, a victim of adverse boundary changes, and never returned to the Commons. 

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