All round love walrus John Thurso MP is currently heading a poll to be crowned sexiest man in the Liberal Democrats on the blogger of the year’s site. It’s the ‘tache that does it. Lib Dem Voice unsucessfully lobbied for Jeremy Purvis MSP to be included on the list.
Jenny Willott is currently leading the field for the ladies and… look, I’m just not sure how much more I can say on this whole article without offending anyone, OK? So …
Via Duncan Borrowman comes the welcome news that Hilary Stephenson, one of the party’s most experienced campaigners, has been appointed to succeed Paul Rainger as Director of Campaigns.
Among the many campaigns she has run was the (relatively) recent Cheadle by-election to defend the seat following the death of Patsy Calton MP, which saw local man Mark Hunter successfully sent to Westminster.
We wish her well!
The Lib Dem DCMS team have clearly just had their Christmas Radio Times delivered, and they’re not impressed.
Don Foster has been campaigning against Christmas repeats for years. And this year it’s worse than ever!
…
At the start of this month, the proposals from the Liberal Democrats’ Trident policy group were published – just ahead of Tony Blair announcing his own proposals.
The Liberal Democrats’ Federal Policy Committee (FPC) will meet on 11th January for a substantive discussion about the proposals and – assuming the FPC decides to go ahead with having a motion on the proposals for our spring Harrogate conference – a motion will then be published in the agenda sent out to conference representatives and there will be a chance for people to submit amendments for debate.
It’s likely to be one of …
First your former Commissioner announces the result of the Diana enquiry, then a couple of hours later your colleagues announce they’ve been knocking on the PM’s door. And all over lunch time too. It’s just not cricket.
And all this on the day the government announces the likely closure of 2500 Post Offices. While the latter will have by far and away the greatest impacts on the lives of “ordinary people”, there’s barely a dicky-bird in the press.
Congratulations to John Barrett MP, re-selected to fight the seat next time round, and also to Mary Varrall who has been selected to take another shot at Bexhill and Battle.
Councillor Andy White, leader of West Dunbartonshire Council has announced he is to resign.
According to BBC News online Cllr White could “no longer tolerate the behaviour of two of his fellow Labour councillors and some Dumbarton Labour Party members. Cllr White alleged he had been subject to vindictive and personal abuse by some politicians after investing resources in schools in Clydebank. ”
The latest Lib Dem MP to appear on YouTube is Julia Goldsworthy, who has done a piece about the Sustainable Communities Bill:
Cllr Peter Willows, a long-standing Conservative councillor in Brighton and Hove has today been found guilty of a breach of Section 5 of the Public Order Act, which outlaws language causing alarm, distress or harassment.
He was alleged to have likened homosexuals to paedophiles, at a reception hosted by the mayor of Brighton and Hove.
Pink News had a reporter in the hearing and will doubtless have more soon.
Just a quick reminder to the good people out there running Lib Dem local parties that the deadline for returning forms to HQ detailing next years officers, conference reps and regional conference reps is fast approaching.
The forms were sent to local party officers earlier in the year, and have to be back by the 15th December. What with Christmas posting times, if you haven’t done yours already, please sit down and do it right now! (I know I am!)
It seems the last PPC update was written while Colin Ross was still updating his site, so we missed the selection of our first BME candidate in the current round – in Birmingham Hodge Hill.
Congratulations to Cllr Tariq Khan, who has been selected for this “moving forward” status seat. As Colin says “At the May 2005 General Election Birmingham Hodge Hill saw a massive swing from Labour of 18.3%, and should be regarded as one of the seats the Liberal Democrats should pick up from Labour at the next …
We keep reading in the Westminster-centric press about the “resurgent” Tory party but what’s really going on? Like lots of you I’ve been riveted by the conservativehome website and what appears to be meltdown in the conservative associations out there in the sticks. OK only four associations have come seriously unstuck, but is this the tip of the iceberg?
I always thought Dave was going to run into trouble with his grassroots. Think about that solid 30% of the electorate who stuck with the Tories through all the wilderness years. They really hate Europe. They truly believe in low taxes, small government and the welfare state as a simple safety net for the indigent. They think being green means support for foxhunters because they “look after the countryside” (you bet they do, how else are there still going to be foxes to hunt?).
This week has seen Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and Conservative Assembly Member Roger Evans trade harsh words over the policy of free bus travel for the capital’s youth.
Commenting on his blog Evans said if the eventual Tory Mayoral candidate solicited an opinion he’d recommend axing the scheme. Livingstone responded to the comments by penning an article on Comment is Free and issuing a press release.
Evans in turn wrote a rebuttal for Conservative Home and took his point of view to the wider public with a Comment is Free entry of his own.
Looking at their
…
Will Howells has started work today in Cowley Street as our new internet campaigns officer. Welcome Will!
This time it’s Tynemouth, where a local was beaten by an outside A-lister who didn’t make the original shortlist.
That makes it six Tory candidate troubles now, with the candidates starting to open a clear lead ahead of their four lost councils in a week.
I feel a barchart coming on …
Commenting on reports that half the country’s post offices might be shut, Liberal Democrat Shadow DTI Secretary Edward Davey MP said:
Ministers’ claims that post offices must close in their thousands are simply wrong.
These closures have been Government driven as ministers have taken away businesses like pensions, TV licences and passports.
Post offices can be viable if they are set free from Royal Mail restrictions on who they can trade with and given investment boosts to embrace new technologies and fresh business ideas.
We need less buck passing from ministers and more determination to save our post offices which are so crucial
…
I thought now was a bad time to be a Conservative Parliamentary candidate, but it’s almost as bad being a Conservative council leader – with three four councils in a week moving out of Conservative control.
The Labour Party has been accused of depriving taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of pounds in stamp duty in the sale of its London headquarters, despite the Chancellor’s clampdown on stamp duty avoidance schemes in his mini-budget last week.
The Independent on Sunday has learnt that Labour sold its Westminster headquarters this year using a specially created company. The device, which Labour insists is a normal commercial transaction, cost the Treasury about £210,000 in lost stamp duty.
Congratulations to Liz Leffman who has secured the selection for the new constituency.
Colin Ross brings news that Alan Beddow has been selected as the Warwick and Leamington PPC (Beddow caused a bit of a kerfuffle last week when he made a blog entry about his selection contest, but has clearly survived!).
John Hemming has been re-selected for Birmingham Yardley.
PPC list will be updated in a couple of days – I’m off up North until Tuesday.
Crawley Borough Councillor Marcella Head has left the Conservatives and joined the Liberal Democrats according to local Lib Dem Councillor Gordon Seekings.
The defection means the Tories’ lose their majority on the Council which is now 18 Con, 16 Lab and 3 Lib Dem and becomes NOC with the Lib Dems holding the balance of power.
This comes just days after a defection by a Conservative on Dover District Council led to the Tories losing their majority on that Council which is now 22 Con, 17 Lab, 3 Lib Dem and 3 Ind.
Marcella is distributing a letter to all her constituents and writes:
Running local parties must be one of the least lauded jobs in Britain.
Its hard work. There are (rightly) increasing numbers of checks (especially on the money), some with potential legal implications. Its not as glamorous as being a Councillor, and there is no allowance attached. And if you’re a Tory, there’s a high chance that CCHQ will come down on you if you misbehave and do something terrible like select a popular local candidate.
I was reminded of this when I attended the London New Local Party Officer training. I was impressed by both the calibre of the trainers – in the case of Treasurers the estimable David Allworthy – and the enthusiasm of the various participants (its still early days!).
Ultimately getting good local party Execs is critical to both the ability of a party to campaign -but also to the political health of the UK as a whole. They are the ones who sweat to make things happen, who ensure that the right candidates get selected to (ultimately) run the country and whose day-to-day activity keeps the whole democracy show on the road. And these are often the same community-minded people who might also run a local charity or the village fete.
Toby Horton, former constituency chair in William Hague’s Richmond constituency, has joined UKIP: “There was a Polly Toynbee moment – that was the tipping point”.
The Times has the full story.
Ralph Scott has scored an excellent victory in the Kentish Town by-election in Camden, taking a Labour seat and beating the Green candidate – their newly elected principal speaker (equivalent of party leader), Sian Berry – who had told the Camden New Journal hours before the polls closed: “We are ahead”.
Labour’s eve-of-poll election leaflet in Kentish Town looks like it could land them in legal hot water for breaking election law.
Home Affairs spokesperson Nick Clegg has hinted at a future leadership bid in an interview with Internet TV station 18 Doughty Street.
In a wide ranging and thoughtful interview, Nick covered a wide range of subjects and the interview is well worth watching here (requires Windows Media Player).
A short audio teaser is available below.
Whilst writing up the troubles facing four Tory candidates, I missed the fifth story of woe – this time from Portsmouth. The selection of a Conservative candidate for Portsmouth South has had to be abandoned because not enough people were interested – perhaps they’ve been put off by all the troubles elsewhere?
UPDATE: All these troubles are starting to make it into the mainstream media – see today’s Guardian.
Paul Offer, the Conservative candidate in Chester, has now resigned.
And this presumably means that Ian Lewis will shortly be eating his hat…
Lord Thomas of Gresford has become Shadow Lord Chancellor with oversight of all the Law Officers and of legal reform. This follows Lord Goodhart’s appointment as Chair of the Delegated Powers Committee and changes in the designation of Government departments. Lord McNally and Lord Tyler will cover Constitutional Affairs, including reform of the House of Lords.
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer will continue to lead the Defra team in which Lord Redesdale and Lord Teverson will cover energy, with environment, food and rural affairs continuing to be covered by Baroness Miller. Lord Redesdale becomes an agriculture spokesperson. Lord Dykes and Lord …
It’s one year since David Cameron became leader of the Conservative party. There has been, is and will be plenty of stuff about this anniversary, so I’ll just point out this animation.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Mathew on Monday: Davey has been given a second chance. Now he must show us what his leadership is for (Mathew Hulbert)
The decapitation strategy (Michael Taylor)
Welcome (belatedly) to my day: 12 October 2026 – a leadership challenge, or a challenge to the leadership?… (Mark Valladares)
Is Ed Davey toast? (Caron Lindsay)
A plea from a member – more ambition and less equine pacification please… (Nick Baird)
Peter Wrigley 
Meg Thomas 
David Le Grice 
David Raw 
Nick Baird 
How many councillors has Reform UK lost since the May 2026 elections?
IFS warn on the budget
Crash! (1971): An experimental television film with J.G. Ballard and Gabrielle Drake