Kevin Langford

We should not oppose some stealth taxes

By Kevin Langford | Wed 2nd November 2022 - 7:30 am

The autumn statement on 17th November will probably provide reassurance for the markets, but bad news in other respects.  We don’t yet know how the unpleasant ‘medicine’ will be mixed, but it will include higher taxes (including stealth tax rises through long term freezes to personal allowances), cuts to services and to government investment, and real terms cuts to some welfare payments.

Elements of our response to the forthcoming statement are easy.  1 The Tories got us into this mess through the Truss shambles, through Brexit, and through the lack of policies to build a decent economy over many years of poor stewardship.  2 We don’t want cuts to services and to welfare.  3 We should increase levies on companies which have happened to have benefitted from the war in Ukraine.  But when it comes to any tax rises that may be proposed in the statement, we need to think carefully.  We need to balance the short term expediency of pointing out everything the government is doing which could be unpopular, against longer term considerations of how to deliver a better society.

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Mark Valladares

1 November 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 1st November 2022 - 10:30 pm
  • BP profits demonstrate utter incompetence of government
  • Hotels for migrants in non-Tory areas is “party first, country last” approach
  • Matt Hancock should lose his MP salary while he’s in the jungle

BP profits demonstrate utter incompetence of government

Responding to the news this morning that BP has announced £7.1bn in underlying profit, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney said:

These profits demonstrate the complete and utter incompetence of this Conservative government. As families and pensioners across the country struggle to pay their energy bills, BP are posting unimaginable profits raking off the backs of hard-working people.

Liberal Democrats proposed a strong windfall tax over a year ago, yet the Conservatives have only attempted an incredibly weak version. Clearly, they’ve been too busy with their own chaos to act.

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The Voice

Emily Davey talks to the Guardian about living with Multiple Sclerosis

By The Voice | Tue 1st November 2022 - 7:32 pm

The Guardian has just published an interview with Ed Davey and his wife Emily in which they talk to political editor Pippa Crerar about Emily’s Multiple Sclerosis. They have decided to do so now so that they can use their platforms as an MP and Councillor to advocate further for disabled people and their carers.

Emily was diagnosed with the condition in 2012, but she has noticed a deterioration since lockdown, when she was  not able to be as active. She and Ed have decided to talk about this now to highlight how this is affecting other people:

 (Emily) Davey, who ran Kingston council’s public health portfolio during the pandemic, said: “We’ve got a problem here, we have people with mobility problems, including the elderly, who aren’t suddenly going to recover and get better. How do you manage to get people active again on that scale?”

Her husband added: “Here is just another example of the impact Covid had on the nation’s health which is probably not well recognised. We know both from our own personal experience, but also from our constituents and from talking to doctors, there’s a massive issue out there across the country.”

Emily talked about how she her condition is changing:

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Paul Walter

70 years of data suggest the Conservatives will suffer a big defeat at the next election’

By Paul Walter | Tue 1st November 2022 - 12:25 pm

Over on The Conversation, Professor Paul Whiteley has written a piece entitled: “70 years of data suggest the Conservatives will suffer a big defeat at the next election – here’s how I worked it out“.

Professor Whiteley goes back to 1945 and looks at polling for the Conservatives taken 19 months before each general election, compared to the seats they won at the subsequent election.

The result is a remarkable correlation, with exceptions for a couple of occasions.

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Paul Walter

Link: Ed Davey interview: ‘I made my priority very clear and it is to beat Conservative MPs’

By Paul Walter | Tue 1st November 2022 - 10:55 am

Embed from Getty Images

Over on Politics Home, there is an in-depth interview with Ed Davey.

Their journalist Tali Fraser covers a broad range of topics with Ed from his personal story, his passion for carers, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, energy policy and our recent by-election successes.

Ed has this verdict on the current situation:

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Michal Siewniak

The importance of empowerment in an education setting: visiting Poland and my former secondary school

By Michal Siewniak | Tue 1st November 2022 - 9:23 am

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There are moments in life which often stay with us forever. The return, after 24 years, to the “Biskupiak” secondary school in Lublin, which I attended from 1994 to 1998, was just such a day, to which I will return very often.

I was invited to give a talk about my journey, the work with the Polish community as well as the reasons why I decided to stand in the local elections. My presentation, which took place in the school auditorium, and which was attended by about 200 students, was a truly wonderful experience. There were questions; some easier than others on the role of Monarchy, Polish Saturday School, immigration or the process of becoming a Councillor. I spoke in both Polish and English, which was quite extraordinary. I was impressed by the very good level of English of Polish students.

It was a truly beautiful return to the past, full of emotion and positive energy.

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Mark Valladares

31 October 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 31st October 2022 - 10:30 pm
  • COP27: Boris Johnson embarrassing Rishi Sunak into attendance
  • Braverman: One rule for Conservative Ministers and another rule for everyone else
  • Scandal-ridden Home Secretary has no credibility left
  • Suella Braverman Risks Inciting Violence – Jane Dodds

COP27: Boris Johnson embarrassing Rishi Sunak into attendance

As Rishi Sunak refuses to confirm his attendance at COP27, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change, Wera Hobhouse MP said:

It shouldn’t take Boris Johnson going to COP to embarrass Rishi Sunak into doing the right thing.

He must immediately confirm his attendance at COP27 and appoint a climate minister to the Cabinet.

We cannot wait another second to tackle the climate crisis. Rishi Sunak must act before he destroys our country’s reputation and the planet even more.

Braverman: One rule for Conservative Ministers and another rule for everyone else

Responding to the Home Secretary’s letter to the Home Affairs Committee, Liberal Democrat Chief Whip, Wendy Chamberlain MP, said:

This was not a one-off error, the Home Secretary has admitted breaking the rules on an industrial scale. Deliberately sending a sensitive government document to a friend without clearance is completely beyond the pale.

If the Home Secretary wants to maintain even a shred of her dignity and credibility, she must resign now and apologise for her violations of the public’s trust.

Unless Suella Braverman resigns for the second time, the Conservatives will be putting their own party ahead of this country’s security. By reappointing her, Rishi Sunak showed there is one rule for Conservative Ministers and another rule for everyone else.

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Mark Valladares

31 October – 3 November – this week in the Lords

By Mark Valladares | Mon 31st October 2022 - 11:29 am

I used to do this regularly, primarily because the party’s press releases seldom mention the work of the Lords Parliamentary Party. Perhaps it is time to reincarnate this feature…

Time once again to return to the red benches at the more dignified end of the Palace of Westminster, for a preview of events this week, and in particular the Liberal Democrat highlights.

Monday is a relatively low-profile day for the Liberal Democrat peers, with the Third Reading of the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill and the more controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill reaching its Committee Stage. Incidentally, it’s a sign of the rapidly changing makeup of the Government that the sponsoring Minister in the Commons on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is someone called Elizabeth Truss. Whatever happened to her, I wonder?

There is also a debate on plans to review the powers and functions of Police and Crime Commissioners, something that Liberal Democrats opposed at the time of their introduction. Brian Paddick, unsurprisingly, will be speaking from the Liberal Democrat benches.

In Grand Committee, the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill starts its Committee Stage, intended to enable the sort of people that you’d cross the street to avoid to have the freedom to be unpleasant on campuses. Think of it as part of the culture war that some people think we really need.

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Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 31 October 2022 – whatever happened to Grigori Zinoviev, anyway?…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 31st October 2022 - 7:31 am

Historians amongst our readers might recall the “Zinoviev letter”, published on 25 October 1924, just four days before the General Election of that year, in which the Daily Mail suggested that the normalisation of UK relations with the Soviet Union under a Labour government would radicalise the British working class and put the Communist Party of Great Britain in a favourable position to pursue a Bolshevik-style revolution. It was, of course, a hoax but did its job, leading to a huge Conservative win and, in the process, the crushing of the Liberals.

The notion that Labour might be the opportunity that the Soviet Union needed was sufficiently credible to allow the hoax to work.

And here we are, nearly one hundred years later, in a situation where the Russian Government has infiltrated a British political party at the highest level. You wouldn’t have predicted that a decade ago, would you? And, whilst there is no suggestion that the Conservative Party is acting for the Putin regime, it is a mystery that Conservative and other right-wing politicians have been so welcoming towards Russian influence.

The receipt of significant sums of money from Russian donors, the welcome mat put down for Russian oligarchs, the willingness to be seen in public with said oligarchs, the appointment of one of their number to the House of Lords, all of these would have been unthinkable for the anti-communist warriors of the Conservative Party in the eighties.

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Mark Valladares

28-30 October 2022 – the weekend’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Sun 30th October 2022 - 10:30 pm
  • Lib Dems call for Suella Braverman to hand over texts and emails for future inquiry
  • Jane Dodds – The Housing Sector in Wales is Broken
  • COP27: Nadine Dorries as the voice of reason?
  • Liz Truss phone hacking story: Urgent investigation needed
  • Suella Braverman: Government must publish legal advice on detention of asylum seekers

Lib Dems call for Suella Braverman to hand over texts and emails for future inquiry

The Liberal Democrats have written to the Home Office Permanent Secretary, asking him to facilitate the handover of Suella Braverman’s text messages, WhatsApps, and emails for use in any future inquiry into her misconduct.

Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael raised concerns that the embattled Home Secretary could take advantage of a loophole exploited by Boris Johnson during an inquiry into the funding of the refurbishment of the Downing Street flat. The former Prime Minister claimed that he had been unable to hand over important messages because he had changed his phone.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson, Alistair Carmichael said:

We need an independent inquiry with access to all the relevant evidence, to establish the true scale of Suella Braverman’s rule breaking.

We saw how Boris Johnson and other Conservative ministers have tried time and again to duck accountability and cover up the truth.

Suella Braverman must be required to hand over all relevant evidence now before it is too late.

It took less than a day for Rishi Sunak’s government to be mired in the same old Conservative sleaze. His promise of ‘integrity’ was broken within hours of entering Downing Street. If he was serious about integrity he would commit to an independent inquiry now.

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Ellen Nicholson

Why aren’t we talking about Nursing?

By Ellen Nicholson | Sun 30th October 2022 - 4:30 pm

It’s difficult to imagine our healthcare system without Nurses, particularly after the past few years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We all stood on our doorsteps back in 2020 and clapped for the NHS staff on the frontline, putting health and care first, yet so quickly ‘the clap turned to a slap’ and consciousness of the vital work faded. Nursing is an essential service, part of the fabric of healthcare that no one realises they need until suddenly you do.

As a challenge, how much do you think about nursing? I would imagine unless you know someone who is a registered nurse, probably not much. Does the word nurse make you think of someone working on a hospital ward, or do you recognise that nurses are present across all spheres of society, in general practice, prisons, industry, the armed forces, research and academia, schools, local and national government to name just a few.

The previous Health Secretary’s under-developed ‘ABCD’ plan for the NHS didn’t even mention nursing, it doesn’t feature highly on the government agenda or to be honest in policy discussions. There is little understanding across Government and perhaps society of the complex education and skills developed to be an effective nurse, and yet this is the largest profession within the health service, the backbone of the NHS.

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 30th October 2022 - 10:54 am

China

We will probably never know the reason for the removal of Hu Jintao from the recent Chinese People’s Party Congress. Was it the result of the medical problems of a confused old man? Or was it a crude attempt by Xi Jinping to emphasise that he is now totally in charge?

79-year-old Hu was Xi’s immediate predecessor. His administration was known for corruption, market reforms and greater political freedom; all of which are being suppressed by Xi. There must have been some discomfort among the party grandees about Xi amending the constitution to allow himself to serve a third (and probably fourth, fifth…) term as party leader and president.

Publicly humiliating Hu could have been his way of warning off potential critics. There aren’t many left in the upper reaches of the Chinese Communist Party. Xi has used the party congress to eliminate rivals and confirm acolytes. Good for Xi but bad for the world. Having the world’s most powerful dictator surrounded by Yes Men is not good news.

Franco-German Alliance

The Franco-German Alliance has been at the heart of peace in Europe since 1962 when Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle buried a century of brutal animosity in a service at Reims Cathedral.  But what has been termed the “engine room of the EU” is now showing signs of stalling in the face of the energy crisis, the Ukraine War and relations with America.

French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for an EU-wide agreement to cap gas prices and share resources. Such a move was approved in principle at a recent EU summit but Germany’s Olof Scholz is dragging German feet on agreeing the details. At the same time, the Germans have been using their buying power to secure gas supplies at the expense of less well-off EU members. So far the Germans have filled about 90 percent of their storage capacity while countries such as Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are struggling.

There are also differences over defense and how military and economic aid should be directed towards Ukraine. The Germans are keen to use Ukraine to tie Washington closer to the defense of Europe. France sees the war as an opportunity to increase European defense cooperation and are angry at the Germans’ cancellation of Franco-German projects involving a new generation of fighter aircraft and battle tanks. Scholz and Macron were keen to smile for the cameras and minimise their differences at their most recent meeting, but they also postponed a 26 October regular Franco-German ministerial conference until “sometime in January.”

US and Ukraine

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Tom Arms

Observations of an expat: elephants and grass

By Tom Arms | Sat 29th October 2022 - 10:48 am

When the elephants fight it is the grass that suffers. So goes the ancient proverb of Kenya’s Kikuyu tribe. And at the moment, the adage is particularly apt.

The war in Ukraine is creating an energy and food crisis. This is combined with the effects of climate change, recession and the continuing effects of the Covid pandemic. The world is in the thick of a perfect political and economic storm of global proportions.

Within the developed world, allies are starting to bicker as rich countries use their buying power to outbid their less well-off neighbours in order to hoard dwindling resources.

Money allocated for the welfare of people at home and abroad has been redirected to pay for the wasteful costs of war.  $350 billion has been set aside for rebuilding ravaged Ukraine.

Meanwhile drought, famine and war are ravaging the Horn of Africa. In Kenya the UN reports that 4 million people are “food insecure.” In Ethiopia the fifth drought season in succession is exacerbated by a civil war. And in Somalia Islamic fundamentalists and drought are estimated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to have displaced 6 million people.

On the other side of Africa, desertification in Mali, Niger and northern Nigeria is forcing farmers off the land and providing fertile recruiting conditions for Boko Haram.  Nigeria is also suffering from recent floods which destroyed 175,000 acres of farmland and displaced 1.4 million people.

Africa is not the only continent to suffer. It will take Pakistan years to recover from its recent floods. A quarter of the farmland was lost in a country where a quarter of the country’s national income is dependent on the agricultural industry. The total damage will exceed $40 billion or about one-sixth of the country’s GDP.

In the meantime, Western countries are borrowing heavily to finance subsidising energy price. This is on top of record borrowing related to the Covid pandemic. The World Bank and IMF have declared their financial policies “unsustainable.”

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Simon McGrath

Why aren’t the Government talking about the winter fuel crisis?

By Simon McGrath | Fri 28th October 2022 - 6:09 pm

One of the characteristics of this Government has been an extraordinary inability to plan in advance for obvious  problems ahead and to take basic steps to avert them.

Last week the National Grid issued a statement about  the possibility of power cuts this winter if a cold snap is combined with gas shortages, with households experiencing 3 hour black outs.

This scenario has been entirely predictable  since Russia invaded Ukraine but as usual the Government has acted with a mixture of sloth and ignorance. The UK doesn’t directly import much Russian gas but  we will still be affected by reductions elsewhere – and while there are many advantages to our increasing renewable energy supplies  they are, give the problems of storing electricity , prone to problems if the wind doesn’t blow ( or blows too hard ) and the sun doesn’t shine.

So we have an urgent need to ensure we have a good store of gas and are reducing demand as far as possible. The UK has very low gas storage capacity – there is the ‘Rough’ facility, a former gas field which as used by Centrica  but which closed down in 2017 – the Government acting  at its usual (low) speed finally negotiated and reached agreement with Centrica in August about reopening – but its not clear how much gas it will hold this winter.

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Charles Quinn

ALDC by-election report – 27th October 2022.

By Charles Quinn | Fri 28th October 2022 - 4:04 pm

There were only two principal council by-elections this week. The very good news is there were Lib Dem candidates in both of them, and both achieved positive results that moved the Lib Dems forward in the ward. So well done and thank you to everyone involved.

We start in the East Midlands on Derbyshire County Council where our candidate Rachel Allen achieved an impressive result in Long Eaton ward – increasing the Lib Dem vote share by 5% and jumping into 3rd place. Well done to Rachel and the team in Derbyshire! Labour gained the seat from the Conservatives.

Derbyshire CC, Long Eaton
Labour: 1104 (51.1%, +15.1%)
Conservative: 723 (33.5%, -16.5%)
Liberal Democrat (Rachel Allen): 239 (11.1%, +5.1%)
Green: 94 (4.4%, -1.6%)

Next we move over to the West Midlands to Sandwell MBC and Wednesbury South ward. Thank you to Manjit Singh Lall, for not only standing and making sure there was a Lib Dem on the ballot paper, but also finishing an impressive 3rd out of 5 candidates. This is the first time we had stood in the ward since a by-election in October 2009! Finishing so high up is a great achievements and it just goes to show the importance of always standing a candidate!

Sandwell MBC, Wednesbury South
Labour: 854 (51.3%, -6.3%)
Conservative: 654
Liberal Democrat (Manjit Singh Lall): 77 (4.6%, from nowhere)
Green: 56 (3.4%, from nowhere)
TUSC: 23 (1.3%, from nowhere)

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Mark Valladares

Your Parish and Town Councils need you!

By Mark Valladares | Fri 28th October 2022 - 12:30 pm

ALDC are often reminding us that we should run candidates everywhere in local elections, and far be it for me to disagree. But it isn’t always easy – not everyone wants to be a councillor, and in years like 2023 with the prospect of a Conservative collapse in the Districts, there is a risk that even supposedly paper candidates may get elected.

But let me introduce you to a world where elections are usually uncontested, and where not every seat is filled.

The National Association of Local Councils has published its review of the 2022 elections at Town and Parish Council level and, whilst it was a relatively “off year” for the tier, with just 10% of local councils holding elections, just 11% of those elections were contested, representing 888 of the 8,068 council seats up for grabs. Worse still, 1,639 seats remained vacant after the elections, or 20% of the available places.

As liberals, that tends to offend, especially given our general view that citizens should be engaged and consulted by those who represent them. Indeed, the laws that determine how local councils are elected permit co-options within thirty days of an election where vacancies remain unfilled, a recipe for affirming undemocratic local cliques.

For many small Parish Councils, the lack of power is a contributory factor – how can you entice people to sit in meetings every two months where most of the issues are dealt with at higher tiers of local government? – but even towns with five figure populations and significant budgets struggle to find sufficient candidates.

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The Independent View: How the Liberal Democrats can grab the headlines they need

By Anon Anon | Fri 28th October 2022 - 10:26 am

Far more than the other major parties, the fortunes of the Liberal Democrats rest entirely on whether the party can grab the headlines. The Conservatives and Labour dominate British political life while the SNP play a key role in two Parliaments and the Greens receive climate-based coverage. The Lib Dems lack these outlets and have to string together by-election wins to get even the briefest spike in coverage. This struggle is what I believe is holding back the party. It is why the Liberal Democrats remain stuck around 10% in the polls even while the Tory vote collapses.

Many would say that this is an unavoidable consequence of the 2015 Collapse but I believe that this is something that can be changed. What the Lib Dems need is something else that other parties already have. The Liberal Democrats need representation among public figures to match the Conservatives and Labour.

What I mean is that the two biggest parties both have dozens of recognisable names. There are Journalists, Commentators, MPs and Cabinet Ministers who have all attained a form of celebrity status. They are household names, involved in projects across the media and attract press attention even when they are doing nothing. For example, when a newspaper posts an article about Alistair Campbell, Campbell is part of why people are reading. It is his brand, not just the Labour brand he was connected to, which is bringing in the viewers. When he makes appearances across radio, television and audio, Campbell is making people think about Labour.

The Liberal Democrats need figures like this. At the moment, the only attention the party gets is what it can generate by itself. It lacks passive representation in popular (and political) culture and it lacks recognisable names to draw people’s attention. Figures who used to fill this role like Paddy Ashdown, Nick Clegg (after 2015) and John Cleese are no longer involved and the party now struggles to get its message out. Anyone who doubts the power of public figures should look at the example of the Social Democratic Party which has no Parliamentary representation but it stays in the conversation because of notable figures like Rod Liddle.

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Mark Valladares

27 October 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 27th October 2022 - 10:30 pm
  • Shell profits: Lack of proper windfall tax an insult to families struggling to pay bills
  • Suella Braverman: Sunak must correct record if he misled Parliament
  • Shell rebate shows government’s windfall tax is failing
  • COP27: Rishi Sunak must not turn his back on progress

Shell profits: Lack of proper windfall tax an insult to families struggling to pay bills

Responding to Shell announcing £8.2bn ($9.5bn) in the third quarter, around double last year’s, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

The Conservative government’s refusal to properly tax these eye-watering profits is an insult to families struggling to pay their energy bills.

Even the CEO of Shell has admitted that oil and gas companies should be taxed more to help protect vulnerable households.

It’s time Rishi Sunak introduced a proper windfall tax and used the extra money to support people facing heart-breaking choices this winter.

Innocent families and pensioners should not be left to pick up the bill for this Conservative government wrecking the economy.

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COP27: If Sunak won’t go to Egypt, King Charles should

By Andy Boddington | Thu 27th October 2022 - 7:40 pm

Alok Sharma lost his cabinet role shortly after Rishi Sunak picked up the keys to No 10 Downing Street. It was a shocking action. Sunak could have kept Sharma in place until after COP27. A simple act that would have shown the new prime minister’s commitment to the challenge the world faces as the atmosphere and oceans heat. It would have shown a mark of respect for one of Britain’s greatest champions in tackling climate change. Another simple act would be for the prime minister to attend COP27 for a day to show that Britain is not wavering on its commitments on easing climate change.

The industrial revolution began here in Britain, just up the road from me in Ironbridge. Its achievements are to be celebrated. Its consequences must now be mitigated. We, and the other nations most responsible for greenhouse emissions, must be at the forefront changing the way we work, the way the world works.

This is more a necessary transition than a painful transition. Of course, it costs money up front, but the payback of being ahead on technology change gave us the advantage more than two centuries ago. It should do so again.

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The Voice

Nominate top women in Westminster: Helen Morgan “one to watch”

By The Voice | Thu 27th October 2022 - 6:13 pm

The House magazine runs an annual poll to identify the top 100 women in Westminster. To quote from the launch publicity from The House:

There are more incredibly talented women from across politics and public service than ever before, from parliamentarians, to journalists, civil servants, and activists.

Some might say, yes, but there is now a shortage of women in Rishi Sunak’s cabinet.

Putting that to one side, we Lib Dems and liberal thinkers have a lot of talented colleagues in both houses and across the broader Westminster village. Why not spend a few minutes shouting out for Lib Dem women that you admire? You can do so here.

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John Cole

Lib Dems should call out the emperor for having no clothes

By John Cole | Thu 27th October 2022 - 4:29 pm

At his first PMQs Sunak twice attempted to wrong-foot Sir Keir Starmer by accusing him of being insufficiently supportive of the 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU.

Unlike Mrs May and Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak was a Brexiter from the start. His performance at PMQs indicated that he remains a Leaver and is bullishly unrepentant. I think this provides the Liberal Democrat parliamentary team with a wonderful line of attack.

We now have a shedload of evidence that Brexit is having an adverse impact in all sorts of areas. Only last week the Financial Times issued an excellent video that catalogued the damage that Brexit is causing.

Additionally, we may note that that the YouGov polling tracker of how voters view Brexit showed on 19 October 54% as “wrong to leave” and only 34% as “right”. Dissatisfaction with Brexit has become palpable.

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Richard Elliott

We need a bolder economic vision for the Party

By Richard Elliott | Thu 27th October 2022 - 10:30 am

The recent political upheaval necessitates an assessment of our position as a party. How do we respond when Labour now has a large poll lead and the Tories have tanked but have a new leader? Our lack of visibility, reflected by a slight drop in our poll figures, is in part a consequence of the recent drama but is it also that we haven’t yet got enough to say?

The exposure of Tory Brexiteers as both morally and economically bankrupt leaves a large political space to be filled – what is the way forward for the UK? Policy positions and messages have a balance to strike between bold and safe – too bold and we are thought of as scary (for example, revoke), but if we are only ‘safe’ (i.e., the same as other anti-Tory parties) one could ask what is the point of the Lib Dems.

We need a combination of the safe/consensus and the bold that is unique to Lib Dems. These positions also have to combine as a story of what is wrong and how it can be fixed, and also define our role in the post-election parliament. In addition to representing our voters and values, a key role in parliament is not to present ourselves a government or opposition in waiting (as in 2019) but to influence government policy. We can argue that we have already done this re the energy cap and windfall tax but we should go further.

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Mark Valladares

26 October 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 26th October 2022 - 11:40 pm

Apologies for the lateness of the hour – I was trawling through my ballot paper for the Party’s internal elections…

  • Braverman appointment: Lib Dems call for Cabinet Office inquiry
  • Cancer diagnosis postcode lottery revealed as over 60,000 wait more than two weeks in August alone
  • Fiscal plan delay leaves families in a cloud of uncertainty
  • Concerns Over Welsh Government Housing Targets
  • PMQs: PM refuses to commit to 40 new hospitals
  • Scrapping triple lock would be a betrayal of pensioners

Braverman appointment: Lib Dems call for Cabinet Office inquiry

The Liberal Democrats have called for a Cabinet Office inquiry into the appointment of Suella Braverman to Home Secretary after she was sacked for breaching the ministerial code.

Liberal Democrats Home Affairs Spokesperson, Alistair Carmichael MP said:

Suella Braverman’s appointment makes a mockery of Rishi Sunak’s claims to be bringing integrity to Number 10.

There must be a full independent inquiry by the Cabinet Office into her appointment, including any promises Sunak made to her behind closed doors.

If it is confirmed that Suella Braverman repeatedly broke the ministerial code and threatened national security, she must be sacked.

A Home Secretary who broke the rules is not fit for a Home Office which keeps the rules.

Cancer diagnosis postcode lottery revealed as over 60,000 wait more than two weeks in August alone

  • 108 NHS trusts miss the two week cancer referral target (72% of all trusts).
  • Top 10 worst places for cancer referrals revealed.
  • Lib Dems call on the Government to bring forward an urgent plan to improve cancer care after NHS targets missed.

New analysis of the latest NHS data by the Liberal Democrats has revealed the worst places in the country to see a cancer specialist within two weeks after being referred by a GP.

A staggering 62,360 people had to wait more than two weeks to see a cancer specialist after a GP referral in August alone.

Despite the Government setting a target of 93% of patients seeing a cancer specialist after a referral, just 30 NHS trusts met the target. Some trusts only managed to see one third of people in time, as a post-code lottery is revealed.

The Liberal Democrats have revealed the top 10 worst places for cancer referrals in the country. Norfolk and Norwich NHS Trust is the worst, where only 34% of people were seen within two weeks of a referral.

Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

This grim postcode lottery is a national scandal. The evidence tells us how critical a speedy cancer diagnosis is yet thousands of people are left waiting far too long. The sheer number of people anxiously waiting is completely unacceptable.

Our health services cannot be ignored any longer. The Government must prioritise resources to clear record backlogs, slash dangerously long ambulance waiting times, and solve the healthcare postcode lottery.

All we’ve had from this Government is broken promise after broken promise. It is time for real action.

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Mary Reid

Daisy Cooper asks Sunak about the future of hospital funding

By Mary Reid | Wed 26th October 2022 - 6:15 pm

Today Daisy Cooper asked a question during Prime Minister’s Questions.

Two weeks ago she asked a very similar question of the then Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and received a very evasive answer.

Did she get any further this time?

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Mary Reid

The Government must protect the triple lock on pensions

By Mary Reid | Wed 26th October 2022 - 4:18 pm

Our saintly Steve Webb – the Lib Dem pensions expert who became Pensions Minister during the coalition – created the triple lock pledge on pensions. Here he is talking about its history.

And the only thing that Liz Truss did that was commendable on the economy – admittedly under pressure – was to reaffirm the triple lock in her final Prime Minister’s Questions last week.

As a reminder, the triple lock on state pensions means that they will rise by average earnings, inflation or 2.5%, whichever is the highest.

So it is hugely disappointing to realise the Rishi Sunak is refusing to commit on the triple lock, which presumably means that it is “under review” in the run-up to the Budget on 17th November.

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Paul Walter

Calls for inquiry into Braverman return as home secretary

By Paul Walter | Wed 26th October 2022 - 1:01 pm

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The Guardian reports that both the Liberal Democrats and Labour have called for an inquiry into the reappointment of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary:

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Mark Valladares

25 October 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 25th October 2022 - 10:30 pm
  • Liz Truss’s legacy: Dossier reveals damage done in 50 days of failure
  • Sunak speech fails to reassure public worried about winter ahead
  • Reshuffle: Stop “revolving door” payouts to Conservative ministers

Liz Truss’s legacy: Dossier reveals damage done in 50 days of failure

  • 932,000 people seeing their mortgage rise
  • 176,000 more people on NHS waiting lists
  • 365,000 hours of sewage discharges

The Liberal Democrats have published a dossier on Liz Truss’ legacy, showing the damage done to the country during her 50-day premiership.

The analysis shows over 930,000 people saw their mortgage rise due to the Government’s botched mini-budget, the number of people on NHS waiting lists grew by 170,000 and 6.2 million people waited over two weeks for a doctor’s appointment.

A shambolic Home Office oversaw 27,000 unsolved burglaries, 492,000 more victims of fraud and 1,100 police officers leaving the force. The Government also oversaw sewage being dumped a staggering 51,000 times into rivers and waterways across the country, for a total of 365,000 hours.

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Paul Walter

Guardian features two Lib Dems whose first date was delivering Focuses in the snow

By Paul Walter | Tue 25th October 2022 - 6:12 pm

This will warm the cockles of your heart, dear reader.

The Guardian has a regular feature called “How we met”, where couples recall the early days of their relationship.

This week, they feature “Nicky, 37, and Simon, 40”. They found love at first sight when they both got up to close a window together at a Lib Dem training weekend in Derby!

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Khaled Hassan

Transforming our party and winning votes; a medium- and long-term strategy

By Khaled Hassan | Tue 25th October 2022 - 3:24 pm


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The past few weeks since Boris’s resignation offer us some of the most valuable lessons in the history of British politics. What we learn from these turbulent times will be instrumental in shaping our party, and will have a profound impact on our performance in the next general election and every other election afterwards.

Over the past 15 years, I worked with national and international organisations, and a current head of state. I witnessed history being made, in the Middle East and US. Alas, I also saw expertise, professional and ethical standards undermined across much of Europe and in the US. It all boils down to one thing, perception.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 48 Comments
Paul Walter

Reaction to Sunak as PM

By Paul Walter | Tue 25th October 2022 - 9:34 am


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Rishi Sunak will (not) be kissing the King’s hand this morning.

Here’s some of the Lib Dem reaction to Sunak’s elevation:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 24 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Ruth Bright
    Mary's first clarification here is really important as this point frightens many (ie losing a home they CURRENTLY live in to pay for someone else's care)...
  • David Allen
    Mary Reid (your first post on this thread): You're right - IF you want to rely on the tender mercies of your local council to part-fund your partner's care home...
  • Pawel Urbanski
    The choice seems clear – either funding care or protecting inheritances. If the first £10bn is scarce, it should go to carers and domiciliary care, not a cap...
  • Tristan Ward
    "Money is not a resource because it has no direct utility and no intrinsic production value." I think this means that I am better off being paid in kind rath...
  • Mary ReidMary Reid
    @Rif Winfield. Actually Carer's Allowance is not available at all to a large proportion of family carers - those on State Pension. To quote: "If your pension i...