Giles Goodall

A day of ignominy

By Giles Goodall | Fri 31st January 2020 - 6:02 pm

Today will go down in history. Not as a day of progress, joy, or unity, but as a day of ignominy.

It is the culmination of state failure on a massive scale, exposing the gaping holes and inadequacies in Britain’s shoddy political system and constitution, our dishonourable media, and our flawed political class.

Put together, the combined errors of decades have culminated in three full years of tragedy and farce. They have also seen the birth of the EU’s largest pro-European movement, with great passion, courage, and vigour – but it all came too late.

The world looks on, scratching its head in bemusement, at how such an apparently accomplished nation can conduct such an evident act of self-harm, simultaneously undermining the world order it helped establish and subverting its own foreign policy goals of centuries.

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Candidate update

By Richard Kember | Fri 31st January 2020 - 3:15 pm

2020 sees us in a new electoral cycle with a more stable Government than we’ve seen for many years. With it comes a new set of challenges for the Lib Dems leading up to the next General Election in or before May 2024.

As part of these preparations, the English Candidates’ Committee (ECC) will very shortly be launching it’s Post-Election Candidate Review. The purpose of the Review, which is conducted after every General Election, is to understand how candidates performed in the face of the various challenges of the campaign trail. This process will cover England only, with separate arrangements being made for Scotland and Wales.

The Review will consist of questionnaires sent by email to candidates, their election agents and senior local party officers. Each group will receive a tailored set of questions to help determine strengths, weaknesses and future opportunities for each candidate.

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Caron Lindsay

This is a shameful day in our country’s history

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 31st January 2020 - 1:45 pm

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Today is a horrible day and I feel overwhelmingly sad about the opportunities we are losing. We won’t notice an immediate difference because of the transition period but there is no longer anything we can do if we don’t like the changes that happen at the end of this year. We will no longer have the EU to protect our workers’ rights from the worst excesses of our government. We won’t have as easy access to the single market, so our prices will go up. The next generation’s chances to live, work and study in the EU will be severely limited and those EU citizens already here – our friends, family and neighbours face the Home Office hostile environment. Settled status doesn’t offer that much protection.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an ex pat: Blame Newt

By Tom Arms | Fri 31st January 2020 - 12:15 pm

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The blame for today’s polarised world is most often laid at the door of President Trump. He is credited with climbing to power on the back of colourfully-worded hate politics and of providing the inspiration for Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummins, Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Germany’s Alternative for Deutschland.

But who inspired Trump? The answer is the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich was—still is—a staunchly conservative Republican from the deep south state of Georgia who entered the political arena in the 1970s when southern Democrats were shifting to the liberal left in a vain effort to retain power in the South in the aftermath of the civil rights campaign. Gingrich believed that the answer to the loss to the conservatives was to replace it with a radicalised and more conservative Republican Party.

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Mark Valladares

A ray of hope in West Suffolk

By Mark Valladares | Fri 31st January 2020 - 11:23 am

It would be fair to say that Suffolk has not been a bright spot for Liberal Democracy for some years, and West Suffolk has been weak even in that context, with no representation on the District Council or its predecessors since 2015.

However, with a recent membership surge, the resignation of the newly elected MP for Aberconwy from both the District and County Councils offered an opportunity to get local members engaged. Our candidate, Jonny Edge, is a local school governor, and with support from some experienced old hands – many thanks to …

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Paul Walter

Getting back on the horse – and saying thank you

By Paul Walter | Fri 31st January 2020 - 10:45 am

Laura Gordon shows her fighting spirit with this tweet and begs the question – have you delivered your “thank you” Focus yet?

https://twitter.com/LibDemLaura/status/1222916748372062208

PS. As of this morning, 85.8% say Laura has got back on the horse!

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Paul Walter

Leaving the EU – some last day tweets

By Paul Walter | Fri 31st January 2020 - 9:13 am

Here are some EU last day thoughts from the Twittersphere:


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Ed Davey

Ed Davey: We fought the good fight – now what next?

By Ed Davey | Thu 30th January 2020 - 8:26 pm

This is the text of the speech given by Ed Davey today in Manchester.

Good morning.

For the last four years, the Liberal Democrats fought to stop Brexit.

We held street stalls, town hall meetings and we marched in our millions.

Today we stand strong in the knowledge that we did everything we could.

Tens of thousands of people got involved with our campaign. People who had never campaigned before. And old hands, campaigning harder than they ever had before.

We fought with good humour and great energy. We fought because we love our country.

Our pro-Europeanism is built on our patriotism.

So I will always be proud of the

…

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John McHugo

The response to Trump’s peace plan should be – recognise Palestine now

By John McHugo | Thu 30th January 2020 - 7:36 pm

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As we leave the EU, we need to show that we are not Trump’s poodle. Britain must therefore publicly be seen to reject the wholesale attack on the rule of international law that is unfortunately an important element in Trump’s so-called “deal of the century”, his plan for peace between Israel and Palestine.

Although the “deal” contains positive elements, such as aspects of its vision for cooperation in economic development, nothing can hide the fact that it contains a diktat to be imposed on the Palestinians that deprives them of their right of self-determination (whilst brazenly maintaining that the contrary is true), as well as the territorial integrity of the Palestinian land that Israel occupied in 1967.

The “deal” has understandably already been described as creating “disconnected Bantustans” rather than a Palestinian State. If it is successfully implemented in the form in which it is published, it is likely to mean the end of the two State solution and become the focal point for a struggle for equal rights for Arab and Jew between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. It also has the regrettable appearance of trying “to buy” the Palestinians so as to induce them not to insist on their rights. That is creating anger far beyond Palestine.

The plan claims to recognise the realities on the ground. This assertion must be called out.

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Shas Sheehan

A private member’s bill to keep fossil fuels in the ground – where they belong

By Shas Sheehan | Thu 30th January 2020 - 4:19 pm

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Last year Theresa May’s government declared a climate emergency and put into law the aim to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

But here’s the rub. The UK government’s current primary objective for offshore oil and gas is to enable as much as possible to be extracted. This is written into the Petroleum Act 1998.

To many people it is a matter of common sense that opening up new oil and gas fields – and building new fossil fuel infrastructure – is incompatible with acting to tackle the climate emergency and meeting the net-zero target by 2050. It is also incompatible with our commitments to the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The bald truth is that even if current developed reserves of fossil fuels are realised, we will easily pass the aspirant 1.5 degrees centigrade rise in temperature agreed in Paris; in fact we will hit the 2 degree rise in global temperatures that the IPCC have said will be catastrophic for the planet. To put things into perspective, currently global temperatures have risen to 1 degree centigrade (compared to 1880). According to NASA, the last five years are, collectively, the hottest on record.

Attitudes are changing. The World Bank announced in 2017 that it will phase out finance for oil and gas extraction. Mark Carney, when he leaves the BoE at the end of January, will take up a new role as UN envoy for Climate and Finance. He has already penned articles warning that divesting in fossil fuels by large institutions is happening too slowly and has warned that up to $20 trillion of “stranded assets” could be wiped out by climate change. There is growing acceptance that an economic transition is already underway, and we ignore it at our peril.

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Lord William Wallace

A party of ideas

By Lord William Wallace | Thu 30th January 2020 - 1:00 pm

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The Liberal Democrats, a recent LibDem Voice posting declared, ‘are the party of ideas.’

Except that we’re not very good at spelling them out, or at getting them across in the political debate, at present.  And that leaves us at a major disadvantage in national politics, since few voters and not enough journalists know what we stand for.  ‘Stop Brexit’ has now run out of steam.  Polls show us as credited with a positive approach to climate change, but little more.

When I joined the Liberal Party as a student, 60 years ago, a popular but cruel description was that we were an intellectual think tank, generating ideas that other parties then took over.  It had been true of Beveridge, Keynes, even Lloyd George.

Tudor Jones’s new and excellent intellectual history, The uneven path of British Liberalism, underlines our huge debt to Jo Grimond and those around him, in setting out domestic and international agendas that gave the party a new credibility after a long and incoherent decline.  His articulation of our internationalist approach, and its foundation in cooperation with our neighbours instead of nostalgia for empire and global status, still stands against the ‘global Britain’ illusions of Brexiters.  His domestic priorities – local democracy, mutuals and cooperatives as providers of public services, local enterprise and active citizenship – are less well remembered.

We have a great many new members who buzz with ideas about policy, from harnessing technology to rebuilding public trust in democracy.  But we lack the resources at the centre to bring them together.  In the gentle and amateurish politics of the 1960s party leaders had time to sit down with intellectuals and discuss ideas.  (Grimond was wonderful at that, with students as much as professors and expert journalists.)  In the 24-hour news round today our small band of MPs are fighting for coverage on passing issues, with limited time to step back and reflect.  And our small policy staff necessarily focus on parliamentary priorities, and on the slow collective processes of policy development managed by the Federal Policy Committee.

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Jane Dodds

Where we go from here

By Jane Dodds | Thu 30th January 2020 - 11:01 am

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On Tuesday I visited the European Parliament building for the first time.

I was awed by the beautiful modern glass buildings in the Place de Luxembourg, which merge together to form an impressive (and somewhat confusing) web of corridors and doorways.

The Parliament is the epicentre of the European Union and is where over 7,500 staff and 751 MEPs work. Sadly, from Friday, this will be reduced as our UK contingent leave Brussels – just 8 months into what should’ve been a 5-year term.

But my visit to the Parliament wasn’t just to marvel at the impressive architecture. I came to meet with our MEPs, and to represent Wales at an event entitled “Brexit: What next for the Nation States”. I was joined by the indominable Sheila Ritchie MEP, representing Scotland, and newly elected Alliance MP Stephen Farry, representing Northern Ireland.

I spoke of how there are so many people who feel behind in Wales, with little sense of being connected with the centres of power that made decisions.

Even though Wales received £680million per year from the EU, making it a nation that benefitted far more than it contributed, there is a huge disconnected between areas of high poverty and the actual financial advantages membership of the EU brought for their communities.

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Sophie Bridger

A tribute to Robbie Simpson

By Sophie Bridger | Thu 30th January 2020 - 9:06 am

Robbie Simpson, long-standing Lib Dem activist, died suddenly in Geneva at the beginning of January. He was 30 years old. To lose such a talent, and such a friend as Robbie, is a tragedy beyond comprehension. To try and summarise his impact is nearly impossible, but I hope this goes some way to remind us all of the wonderful friend we have lost.

I met Robbie at my first meeting of Glasgow University Liberal Democrats in September 2009. He was a very tall, kind looking man, although it took me three weeks to understand his accent (which was not unique to his village but in fact entirely unique to him). After spending the first two years of his Computing Science degree commuting by bus from Ayrshire (two hours each way every day), he had finally moved to Glasgow and was able to get involved in student politics. Within the month we, with many others, were being swept away by waves of Cleggmania, pounding the streets of Glasgow North with the indefatigable Katy Gordon.

Robbie stayed involved in student activism, becoming a member of Glasgow University’s Student’s Representative Council. He became the Treasurer of Liberal Youth Scotland (after an internship at Deutsche Bank, he stood unopposed for the unenviable position with the slogan ‘Vote Robbie – he speaks bank’) where he had a profound impact on both the youth wing and those he met through it. He turned it from a small group of activists into a credible voice within the party, and helped build a coordinated network of young Lib Dem campaigners across Scotland. He supported younger members to become involved, and was a kind and friendly ear. Those he met through Glasgow University Lib Dems and Liberal Youth Scotland remained some of his closest friends.

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Mark Valladares

30 January 2020 – the overnight press release

By Mark Valladares | Thu 30th January 2020 - 7:35 am

Davey speech on Brexit – Progressives must fight on

Today, Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey will make a keynote speech addressing party members and activists in Manchester ahead of the UK’s exit from the EU.

Ed Davey will make a rallying call to pro-Europeans ahead of our departure from the EU, calling on them to continue to campaign for close association with our allies in the EU and for the progressive values we share.

Ed will call for the end of the Remain/Leave division in our country and for progressives to unite to tackle other serious divisions.

Ed will declare that …

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Mark Valladares

29 January 2020 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 29th January 2020 - 10:45 pm
  • Liberal Democrats: PM must not ignore defence concerns about Huawei deal
  • Liberal Democrats: Sacking Northern is just the first step

Liberal Democrats: PM must not ignore defence concerns about Huawei deal

Responding to reports that Boris Johnson has defied his Defence Secretary by allowing Huawei to help to build Britain’s 5G network, Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson Jamie Stone MP said:

Boris Johnson must not ignore the Defence Secretary’s concerns. There are legitimate human rights and security issues associated with this move.

Three of our Five Eyes allies, the US, Australia and New Zealand, have already blocked the Chinese firm in full or in part

…

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Suzanne Fletcher

Bells are set to toll in the UK on Friday but a silent flame can send a gentler message

By Suzanne Fletcher | Wed 29th January 2020 - 3:40 pm


Candle flame by Shan Sheehan
This is a message for all, including those who voted for Brexit.

I live in the hope that all can agree with the following sentiments.

We have greatly different views on how they can be achieved, but can we all join in, in lighting a candle ( a safe one!) on the evening of January 31st?

Bobby McDonagh is a former Irish ambassador to London, Rome and Brussels. In an article in Monday’s Irish Times, he suggests lighting a candle in homes, churches – anywhere.

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The Voice

LibLink: Bob Maclennan – An appreciation by Sam Ghibaldan

By The Voice | Wed 29th January 2020 - 2:10 pm

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On January 20th, we republished, with kind permission of the author, a moving personal tribute to Bob Maclennan (Lord Maclennan of Rogart) by Andrew Page.

The Herald newspaper has published an obituary of Bob by Sam Ghibaldan.

The tribute begins:

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Mark Pack

Our party president and co-leader on the big challenges ahead

By Mark Pack | Wed 29th January 2020 - 12:40 pm

There are two versions of 2019 which future historians of the Liberal Democrats may write about. One is about a party that was on the road to recovery since 2015, took a big hit in December, but then continued upwards afterwards. It’s a story in which the successes of the first half of 2019 were the ones that pointed to the future. Or there is the version in which the Liberal Democrats were in continued decline after 2010, showed brief signs of life in early 2019 but where it was the disappointments of the general election that pointed to the future.

Either could yet turn out to be the one that’s written. Which one gets written is down to us here in the present.

That means getting our own house in order. It means learning the right lessons from last year – and acting on them, successfully electing a new leader and also making a success of the May elections.

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David Warren

Conference!

By David Warren | Wed 29th January 2020 - 11:10 am

Over a period of more than 30 years I have attended a lot of conferences including those of the Anti Apartheid Movement, Communication Workers Union, Trade Union Congress, Labour Party and most recently the Liberal Democrats. In my time as a CWU activist I sat for a term on its conference arrangements committee. My first Lib Dem conference was in 2012 and I really enjoyed the experience. I was particularly struck by the democratic nature of it. One delegate, one vote, no executive trying to sway us and no top table packed with party big wigs.

However, as we approach another …

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Paul Reynolds

Huawei and 5G: the tip of the iceberg for Johnson

By Paul Reynolds | Wed 29th January 2020 - 9:40 am

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What is the ‘Huawei and 5G’ mobile internet controversy really all about and why is it important for the UK ? Here’s a fly past the detail.

The British position has been clear since April 2019, up until now. The National Security Council (NSC) was advised by UK security institutions that there were no security issues with the proposed roll out of 5G mobile internet, using Huawei equipment. This was advice that followed pre-contract negotiations with different UK institutions. A formal decision was expected in May 2019, but has been delayed. Germany has taken a similar line to the UK. The UK’s largest mobile phone company, Vodafone, backs the UK position, despite Vodafone-related disinformation appearing in the pro-Brexit press.

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Mark Valladares

29 January 2020 – the overnight press release

By Mark Valladares | Wed 29th January 2020 - 7:27 am

Layla Moran: “Make 2020 the year that we finally scrap the Vagrancy Act”

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran will today urge the Government to adopt her legislation this year and “finally scrap the Vagrancy Act” during a homelessness debate in Parliament.

The MP will warn that “even one person sleeping rough in this country in 2020 is a disgrace” as she brings back to Parliament her campaign to scrap the Vagrancy Act.

Layla Moran is also expected to warn against the “out of sight, out of mind mentality’” shown in the installation of a new gate close to MPs’ and peers’ …

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Mark Valladares

28 January 2020 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 28th January 2020 - 10:30 pm
  • Tory proposals to end free movement will make it harder to recruit teachers, nurses and doctors
  • Liberal Democrats: Huawei decision shows no regard for its human rights record
  • Davey calls for ‘Net Zero’ department to slash UK greenhouse gas emissions
  • Liberal Democrats: Trump’s negotiations a sham

Tory proposals to end free movement will make it harder to recruit teachers, nurses and doctors

Responding to the publication of the Migration Advisory Committee report which has advised against against a full points-based system for UK, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Christine Jardine said:

The Conservative Government wants to impose an entirely new immigration system in less than 12

…

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Paul Walter

Good luck to Jonny Edge and team in Suffolk this Thursday

By Paul Walter | Tue 28th January 2020 - 4:10 pm



Jonny Edge (left) and his team in Newmarket and Red Lodge

There are two by-elections in Suffolk this Thursday, both caused by the resignations of a Conservative councillor who was elected as an MP in Aberconwy, North Wales.

Jonny Edge is our candidate in both the contest for the Newmarket North seat on West Suffolk District Council and also the battle for the Newmarket and Red Lodge seat on Suffolk County Council.

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NewsHound

Tories lose control of Surrey Heath council

By NewsHound | Tue 28th January 2020 - 2:40 pm

The following is a press release from Councillor Sashi Mylvaganam, Lib Dem Group Leader on Surrey Heath Borough Council:

Following the resignations of Councillors Richard Brooks and Charlotte Morley (former Leader and Deputy Leader) from their political group, Surrey Heath Conservatives have lost control of Surrey Heath Borough Council.

The council is comprised of 35 councillors. The opposition has 18 members whilst the Conservatives now have only 16. There is a vacancy following the tragic death of Councillor Sam Kay earlier this month.

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Bernard Aris

“God only knows what the next government will tell us” – EU citizens in UK watch Brexit happen with very mixed feelings

By Bernard Aris | Tue 28th January 2020 - 1:10 pm

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As a continental European citizen, I’m interested in how the EU citizens living in the UK are experiencing the Brexit process, and their treatment by the British authorities and their British fellow UK inhabitants.

If you live in a EU country where a referendum, in which you’re not allowed to vote, decides it will leave the EU and all the certainties that went with it, that is a fundamental transformation of your position in that country and that society; especially if the sitting government is not always as careful, let alone reassuring, about your position in their country.

Well, I’m not at all reassured that the British government has grasped how sensitive they have to be towards those EU citizens in such a transformative policy move.

Let me point to an Opinium Poll of British EU citizens last December, right after the barnstorming “Get Brexit Done” election campaign. It found that 75% of EU citizens polled thought that UK politicians didn’t care about their views; and 67% thought that they didn’t even listen. 57% said that under May and Boris, the UK government had grown “more hostile” towards EU citizens since the referendum.

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Paul Walter

YouGov poll on Lib Dem leadership: Ed Davey is a country mile ahead (contains caveats)

By Paul Walter | Tue 28th January 2020 - 11:20 am

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Stephen Bush has written the following on the New Statesman “The Staggers” blog:

Ed Davey is on course to win the looming Liberal Democrat leadership election, a YouGov poll for the Economic and Social Research Council-funded Party Members Project, run out of the University of Sussex and Queen Mary University has found. YouGov asked members to choose between a field of Ed Davey, Layla Moran and Daisy Cooper, the new MP for St Albans, all of whom are widely tipped to stand. In that field, Davey wins outright in the first round, with 52 per cent of the vote against Moran’s 24 per cent and Cooper’s 9 per cent.

I did a little light Googling to see if I could find the data on this poll.

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Robert Harrison

Huawei and 5G – a Liberal Democrat approach

By Robert Harrison | Tue 28th January 2020 - 9:50 am

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Starting with the Sunday Times, several media sources have reported that the Cabinet was facing a massive split on whether to allow the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei to supply major parts of the UK’s new 5G network. The company has been prohibited from supplying critical components into the US and Australian networks and Donald Trump has reportedly urged Boris Johnson to ban Huawei in the UK. How the UK should deal with Chinese high-tech companies is not just restricted to this issue alone – and whatever decision the British cabinet takes on Tuesday is unlikely to be the final word – it goes also to the heart of the future trading relationship with China and the UK, as well as with the US.

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Jonathan Fryer

We need a new international narrative

By Jonathan Fryer | Tue 28th January 2020 - 8:11 am

For the last four years the Liberal Democrats have been intensely focused on stopping Brexit, but we cannot ignore the fact that we failed to win that argument and Brexit is going to happen next Friday. Many of us hope that at some stage in the future Britain will rejoin the European Union. However, we need to adjust to the new reality. There is a strong case for crafting a clear political narrative that addresses major domestic problems such as the strain on public services (including the NHS), homelessness and the growing gap between rich and poor. But it would …

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Mark Valladares

28 January 2020 – the overnight press release

By Mark Valladares | Tue 28th January 2020 - 7:15 am

Electoral Commission must investigate ‘Get Ready for Brexit’ campaign

Responding to the The National Audit Office’s comments that the “Get ready for Brexit” campaign failed to significantly impact the public’s level of preparedness for Brexit, former Public Accounts Committee member and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said:

What a colossal waste of taxpayers money. This damning report shows what we knew all along: the Conservative government’s ‘Get Ready for Brexit’ campaign was an expensive propaganda stunt designed ahead of the election to help no one but Boris Johnson stay in Number 10.

Once again the Tories are misusing their powers at the expense

…

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Mark Valladares

27 January 2020 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 27th January 2020 - 11:00 pm
  • Liberal Democrats: UK access to crime databases at risk post Brexit
  • Welsh Liberal Democrats welcome landmark for Welsh education
  • Liberal Democrats challenge Minister on Met facial recognition surveillance

Liberal Democrats: UK access to crime databases at risk post Brexit

Following reports that the exchange of key security information is at risk post Brexit, due to concerns over Britain’s record in protecting personal information, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Christine Jardine said:

Our police rely heavily on co-operation with our EU partners to identify criminals and bring them to justice. It’s incredibly alarming that these government scandals threaten to undermine that co-operation, making us all less

…

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Recent Comments

  • suzanne fletcher
    thank you @Peter Wrigley, yes saw the Liberator article, and David Grace's too. @William Wallace, the jazz band - well words fail, I was in tears before we had...
  • Caron LindsayCaron Lindsay
    We usually do. Apologies if we missed it this year....
  • William Wallace
    So lots of us were at Michael Meadowcroft's funeral service, but none of you have mentioned the splendid jazz band... I had dug out some of Michael's pamphlets...
  • Peter wrigley
    @Suzanne Fletcher. Please feel free to quote whatever you wish. You might also find GordonLishman's obituary for Michael in the latest Liberator a useful sourc...
  • theakes
    Chloe: All the issues you set be an out are reasons there will not be an election....