This is a gentle reminder that you can still take advantage of the “early bird” discount if you register before January 7th – that’s this coming Tuesday – for the York Spring Conference.
Due to feedback from our esteemed LDV editor, Caron, the deadline was extended especially to allow people sufficient time after the hard work of the election.
The most common injunction is currently is to go back to basics, build up the local base, immerse ourselves in community politics,set out on the long march again.
Like Sisyphus we may find this necessary even obligatory- even if tinged with reluctance and a sense of sad futility. We can see it as a consequence of living in this vale of tears where FPTP rules and political power inevitably goes to those with most economic clout. Breaking the mould can seem impossible if you don’t control those forces that set the mould in the first place.
After ensuring that a “thank you” leaflet went out, most of them are having to knuckle down to sort out the expenses.
They are over-shadowed by a huge pile of receipts and facing a form, the complexity of which makes an HMRC Self-assessment form look simple.
Added to that, they face legal penalties if they don’t do it all correctly and on time.
No pressure then…
So this is a big “thank you” to all our agents for the complex and highly responsible job that you do!
I read the other day that former Labour Deputy Leader, Tom Watson, is training to become a gym instructor.
That started me thinking about what had happened to our vast number of MPs from before the election in 2015.
Stephen Gilbert, former MP for St Austell and Newquay, for example. Whatever happened to him after he posted a “Gone Surfing” post-it note on his Twitter account in 2015? Well, it turns out he’s a teacher.
I then thought I’d better find about some of the others and, before I knew it, I was launching a vast spreadsheet and had started a huge task.
Anyway, here is the first part of my researches, starting in alphabetical order. If you spot any omissions or errors, please let me know in the comments below:
I am no supporter of what the deceased General’s Al Quds brigade has been up to in Iraq and Syria, but the extrajudicial killing of a such a senior Iranian figure is reckless beyond words. And counter-productive.
Lib Dems respond to Iran Crisis
Responding to reports of the death of General Qasem Soleimani by a US Air Strike, Liberal Democrat Acting Leader Ed Davey said:
Iran is governed by a brutal regime which has been openly hostile to the west.
Donald Trump has yet again radically and recklessly escalated tensions in an area where peace-keeping was already on a knife edge.
There is a real danger this will stoke further conflict, undermining peace and stability in the region. Given the severity of the crisis, the Prime Minister must make a statement about the UK’s position immediately.
The UK should
…
New year is a time for new projects. And with a parliament likely to last four years, we have time to devote to thinking about where we want the party to be by 2024 – and how we get there. So before Christmas, Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) and I met up for a pub lunch in the Peak District. We picked Hope, partly because it’s halfway between our homes, and partly because… well… we could use some hope.
While this election was disappointing across the board, the result masks significant regional variation. We did relatively well in London and the south east, despite heartbreaking near-misses in Wimbledon and Carshalton and Wallington. But elsewhere in the country our performance was weaker – even in areas, like Sheffield Hallam, that voted remain.
This is Willie Rennie’s New Year message:
Around the globe, dark currents have buffeted liberal democracy. Boris Johnson’s Brexit threatens to cut us off from our European neighbours, while Donald Trump’s trade wars and Twitter tirades threaten to undo America’s status as a global leader. Meanwhile from Hong Kong to Xinjiang, protestors and activists face brutal clampdowns. These are the challenges we must face up to over the next twelve months.
Closer to home there are huge challenges too. From long waits for mental health treatment to the bungled rollout of the new childcare entitlement, Liberal Democrats will highlight, debate and scrutinise the government so that everyone can rely on great public services that help them to build a brighter future.
A lovely tweet from Lib Dem MP Layla Moran tonight:
2020 is a new decade and a new path in my journey. Last year I fell in love with a wonderful woman. Something I’d never even considered before. Now I am just happy #Pansexual #OutAndProud pic.twitter.com/jdfz87Hdkx
— Layla Moran 🔶🕊️ (@LaylaMoran) January 2, 2020
She talked to Pink News about her relationship with former Lib Dem Press Officer Rosy Cobb:
I believe in robust debate and in holding our opponents to account. Those who have campaigned with me will know that despite my light-hearted personality, I’m not prone to giving much ground. Scrutinising our opponents is a vital part of politics and our democracy is worse off if the tough questions aren’t asked.
But after a divisive election, in a time of damaging and sometimes poisonous debate, I want to do something just as important as robust campaigning. I want to offer praise and thanks to my opponents. In Cheltenham we managed to squeeze a large number of hustings into the campaign. I spent a lot of time debating with Alex Chalk (Conservative) and George Penny (Labour), and I exchanged messages of goodwill with Tabi Joy (Green), who had stood aside as part of the Unite to Remain initiative. In what can sometimes be a dehumanising process, regular meetings with opponents renewed my respect for everyone who took part.
So here goes:
To Alex, I thank you for continuing your service in Cheltenham when many expected you to do a ‘chicken run’ to a safer seat. I will always respect you for engaging with pro-European campaigners who protested at your office, though I disagreed strongly with your stance on the Brexit debate. Others would have found an excuse to run away and it is to your credit that you engaged in face-to-face conversation. I also congratulate you on campaigning on schools and the environment. We won’t always (or even often) agree on the way forward, but I want you to succeed.
To George, I admire your bravery in standing for parliament so soon after leaving university. You mastered the craft of debating at the hustings remarkably quickly and clearly have a gift for communication. You did not deserve to become the first ever Labour candidate to lose a deposit in Cheltenham. I know that when you stand in a winnable seat you will make a fine MP.
To Tabi, I owe you huge thanks for being part of the Unite To Remain initiative. Stepping aside was a huge political and personal sacrifice to make. I’m only sorry your big-hearted gesture and our campaign didn’t help deliver more MPs from our two parties. When we did share platforms before the election in events focused on the EU and the environment, you spoke with great passion and knowledge.
And onto the future:
The 2019 Conservative Manifesto promised that ‘in our first year we will set up a Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission…to look at the broader aspects of our constitution.’ The Queen’s Speech confirmed that promise. We should welcome this with both hands, and use it to challenge the government’s agenda with our own.
Boris Johnson wants to reassert executive power against parliament. The manifesto’s criticism of ‘the failure of Parliament to deliver Brexit’ shows impatience with criticism and debate. Dominic Cummings wants to cut through the cautious policy-making of the civil service and impose radical changes to central government. Right-wing think tanks have attacked judicial review and the Supreme Court. He manifesto wants to maintain our current voting system, but tighten up on postal voting and voter identification. We have a very different agenda – but a Commission will give us the opportunity to press our case against theirs.
The British constitution desperately needs critical examination and reform. Johnson has broken several of its accepted conventions, and now that he has a majority wants to break more. Popular alienation from Westminster politics is widespread. The Tories’ manifesto promise that ‘we will ensure…that every vote counts the same’ refers to redrawing constituency boundaries, not to any adjustment of the voting system. Liberal Democrats, along with any NGOs, have called for a constitutional convention. We’re not being offered exactly what we want – but we should grab hold of what is on offer and do our utmost to reshape the government’s assumptions.
I’ve watched the Boris Johnson New Year greeting to the nation – feel free to take a look if you’re so inclined – and am as unimpressed as I am unsurprised.
We are promised a decade of growth and innovation, a better NHS, safer streets, an improved environment, and so on and so forth. All very nice, after all, how could anyone disagree with any of that? But, despite the suggestion that we are being invited to pull together, that we now have “a People’s Government, delivering the People’s priorities” (yes, he really did say that… again), he said little that …
Not going to lie, I’m still reeling from the rollercoaster we’ve been on this year. The physical exhaustion of the general election campaign is slowly diminishing, but, for me, the emotional effect is still weighing heavy.
In January 2019, we were starting to make a tiny step forward and were in double figures in the polls most of the time. We had 12 MPs who were doing their damnedest to make sure we didn’t leave the EU on 29th March. Jo Swinson was just about to come back to full time work after her maternity leave.
We had high hopes that we might gain 300 or so seats on a good night in the local elections in May.
We all kind of dreaded Theresa May getting her Withdrawal Agreement through with the help of Labour votes.
And then she didn’t. And a million people at least took to the streets to call for a People’s Vote.
We gained over 700 councillors o that first Thursday in May. Our success was a springboard into a vibrant and uncompromising European election campaign where our Bollocks to Brexit message resonated. Although the Brexit party won more seats, more votes were cast for remain parties and the Liberal Democrats won an unprecedented 16 MEPs, 20.3% and 3.3 million votes. Between them, the Conservatives and Labour Party didn’t get much more than that.
For a time, we thought sense would prevail after all and we might be able to stop Brexit.
We had a friendly and uplifting leadership contest between Jo Swinson and Ed Davey and, to our surprise, our poll ratings hovered around the 20% mark.
Our parliamentary ranks swelled as, first, Chuka Umunna joined us in June and Sarah Wollaston, Angela Smith, Phillip Lee, Luciana Berger, Sam Gyimah, Antoinette Sandbach followed suit.
In the Summer, we’d decamped to the gorgeous Welsh constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire where a by-election had been called following a successful recall of the Conservative MP. We were thrilled when, in the early hours of 2nd August, Welsh Leader Jane Dodds triumphed.
We had a brilliant new leader, we had maintained our high poll rating and, in fact, there were four parties in the 20% range.
As we end the year after a brutal general election which saw us one seat down from our 2017 total and minus a brilliant leader, we have to ask where it all went wrong. There will be a formal review of the General Election – this takes place after every election – and all the decisions we took, from deciding to vote for the election to the targeting decisions we made during the campaign will be subject to scrutiny. Did we deliver enough/too many leaflets? Did we sell ourselves well enough?
As my Presidency draws to an end on New Year’s Eve, I wanted to write to you with a final thank you for the extraordinary help that you have given the liberal cause over the last five years.
To have faced three General Elections and the EU Referendum during these five years – as well as the snap European elections this year – has been unprecedented, draining for everyone who has worked in them. Our candidates and teams, party staff and the many members and supporters who have continuously found that extra bit of energy and effort kept fighting the liberal cause.
Added to this, our local government teams, led by ALDC, have worked consistently hard in elections every year and their success has been rewarded with substantial growth in councillors and councils that we control or run jointly with others. And in Scotland our MSPs hold the SNP to account, and Kirsty Williams is a brilliant Education minister in the Welsh Assembly.
I have been really proud to campaign with colleagues across the UK over the last five years, seeing members building the party in their areas and I want to thank you for your warm welcome over my Presidency. In 2017 alone I covered over 4,000 miles, getting to every part of the country! I have also witnessed the party develop its use of online campaigning, not least honed on the Stop Brexit campaign over the last three years.
What’s your New Year’s Resolution @LibDems? 👇 HNY! https://t.co/9oJFJZxTPA
— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) December 31, 2019
I’ve made a New Year’s Resolution.
I want to show my community better than ever what liberalism means in action.
So I’ll be working harder than ever in my constituency advice surgeries, helping local people with their financial problems, with their housing issues and working with local people to strengthen our communities, that we’re privileged to serve.
If that sounds like old-fashioned, grassroots, community politics, you’re hearing me.
Last December’s election was, on several levels, deeply depressing.
But flip it over. There’s actually a huge opportunity here for us, the Liberal Democrats.
Of course, we’ve a job to do, continuing to oppose Brexit. To remain Britain’s leading pro-European, internationalist party.
Yet that’s never been our sole purpose, has it? Liberalism is so much more.
We’ve always been a party determined to shake up the system.
Socially. Economically. Politically. Environmentally.
We know Liberal Democrats care passionately about tackling social injustice, creating opportunity, beating climate change.
The question for 2020 is can we show all that to the rest of the UK – our full Liberal purpose?
Many of our readers will remember speeches given at Conference by David Buxton. They were notable because they were given in British Sign Language. On each occasion a member of the wonderful BSL interpreting team switched roles and gave the spoken interpretation. At the end we all showed our appreciation with jazz hands instead of the usual clapping.
David was our Parliamentary candidate in East Hampshire, where he increased the Lib Dem vote by a very creditable 9%. But:
I’ve ended up having to pay £5,000 out of my own pocket for sign language interpreters, which has been very disappointing as the Conservatives abolished the The Access to Elected Office Fund, which helps disabled people with the costs of standing for election, in 2015.
So after multiple years of campaigning within the coalition – lots of campaigning for that – unfortunately that was abolished.
He appealed directly to Damien Hinds who was re-elected in the seat for the Conservatives.
I’m sure that most of us hadn’t realised that this fund had been cut. But now that we do know about the impact it has on candidates we should be campaigning with David to get it reinstated. A resolution for the New Year?
The New Year’s Honours have been published and Baroness Floella Benjamin becomes a Dame for services to charity.
The former Play School presenter, now a Lib Dem Peer, spent the weekend after the election on the phone consoling defeated Lib Dem candidates. A friend of mine who received a call from her was absolutely delighted.
Kishan Devani, who joined us from the Conservatives a couple of years ago and was our candidate in Montgomeryshire at the election gets a British Empire Medal. Thanks to Peter Taylor for telling us.
To those of you that said this is not my country:
I've only gone & been awarded a Queen's Honour & made a BEM (British Empire Medal) For Services to Community Cohesion – in the Queen's New Year's Honours List 2020! Thank you @RoyalFamily & @cabinetofficeuk!#NewYearsHonoursList pic.twitter.com/LHUQNrWDM7
— Professor Kishan Devani BEM (@Kishan_Devani) December 27, 2019
We will be taking a break until later in the week. We won’t be checking emails to the voice address until we return, so please be patient.
And have a great time yourself!
Happy Christmas! I’ve got three big tasks this Christmas.
First, my daughter’s present. Ellie wrote to Father Christmas with her present wish list.
The good news was Santa collected her letter. And he ate the mince pie! Although he did leave some tell-tale crumbs.
The bad news is I now have to get Santa to bring three live unicorns.
It’s my own fault – I bought Ellie this snow globe unicorn last year. But I’m not sure where to start looking for a live unicorn. So I’m thinking of ringing the Prime Minister. Apparently Mr Johnson does a good line in unicorns.
But my second task is easier. To celebrate my own birthday. I wasn’t born in a stable – my mum had me, at home, at ten past eight Christmas morning 1965.
Apparently my dad cooked the Christmas lunch. And my mum ate seconds. And afterwards, they all watched the Queen’s Speech – her Majesty’s Christmas message.
A short post, prompted by a comment from one of our Lib Dem Voice editors. She was keen to read something other than Brexit and post-election analysis on these pages.
I haven’t read a proper book in what feels like months – the election campaign left little time or energy for reading. This is something I plan to put right over the Christmas break and there are two books in particular which I have in mind.
Firstly, I’m looking forward to re-reading Penhaligon, about David Penhaligon MP, written by his widow Annette. He represented the seat where I stood in the election, and it is remarkable how frequently his name still comes up on the doorstep more than thirty years after he died in a car crash. It’s a great read, and the lessons – about campaigning, and about what it means to represent the community – are still relevant today.
I’m also going to track down New Power by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms which was making waves last summer. I’m interested in what it can teach us locally about how we organise and campaign.
What’s on your Christmas reading list? Share your tips in the comments.
The article by the American BBC journalist, Anthony Zurcher, “Does UK hold clues to Trump’s Fortunes?” referred to by John Leaver yesterday, compares Wrexham, recently much in the limelight, with the rust belt in Trump’s America.
I have lived in Wrexham all my life and fought the seat five times as a Liberal candidate. Due to the defection of Tom Ellis from Labour to SDP in 1982 and his choosing to fight the neighbouring South Clwyd seat, 1983 produced the closest three way result in the UK, with less than 2000 votes separating the parties. I was third. By the 1990s, Labour had lost control of the Council, and for a time, Aled Roberts led an effective Lib Dem administration. Currently, it is led by independents.
In my youth, there were still 12 collieries in the Wrexham area, not least the ill fated Gresford. There was a steel works at Brymbo producing the highest quality steel for Rolls Royce aero engines. There were numerous brickworks, two breweries and a leather works and, on the former wartime ordnance factory on the outskirts of the town, the Wrexham Industrial Estate was developing.
The heavy industry disappeared. In 1980, ten miles down the road at Shotton, nationalised British Steel axed 6,500 jobs, the largest redundancy in a single day in Western Europe. Brymbo closed in 1990 with a loss of 1,100 highly skilled steelworkers. The last colliery at Bersham closed in 1989. The breweries and leather works were long gone. Were these closures due to malign Thatcherism, or international economic pressures and influences? Labour holds fast to the former explanation.
‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’. The Lib Dems did not communicate a positive vision to the electorate because we have not created that vision for ourselves. Vision is derived from values and without a vision there is no plan. Our manifesto was wishy washy; no ifs, no buts, we failed to “Get it Done” and hence the General Election result. Here are some ideas for debate. We need a Lib Dem vision and thereby a radical and progressive agenda.
When mathematicians discuss categories such as groups, rings and fields, they are all agreed about exactly what they discussing. Unfortunately, much political debate today degenerates into a dialogue of the deaf, because we fail to define our terms precisely enough.
This is particularly true with the subject of inequality in society. Let me illustrate.
In country A, the top 1% own over 6% of total wealth, and the top 10% own almost 49% of total wealth.
This contrasts dramatically with the bottom 50% of the population. They own only 1.5% of total wealth.
Indeed, the bottom 30% of the population own absolutely nothing, while the 1.5% of wealth mentioned in the previous sentence is owned by those in the population range 31% – 50%.
Who could possibly justify such an unequal society? Isn’t Country A is rigged against the poor?
In country B, there is no inheritance. Everyone has the same life expectancy.
Everyone attends university until the age of 21, without incurring a penny of debt, and then starts work.
Country B is so equal that every person starting work at age 22 earns exactly the same salary. Each year they get an identical pay rise.
Everyone saves exactly the same proportion of their income. They also achieve exactly the same return on their investments.
Everyone works until the age of 70 when, they die, and the state takes 100% of their assets because no inheritance is allowed.
This society is so equal that only the most extreme socialists would envisage creating imposing such equality by government edict.
On Friday night I was on my way home from a wonderfully festive day with amazing colleagues who spend huge amounts of time and energy helping vulnerable people solve their problems. I was feeling at peace with the world. Then I made the mistake of logging onto twitter and I saw some news that changed my mood completely.
Our new government had sneaked some amendments into their revised version of the Brexit withdrawal bill. Despite repeated promises to the contrary Boris Johnson has dropped the government’s commitments to work to reunite unaccompanied refugee children in Europe with their families here in the UK.
Suddenly I found myself both blood boilingly angry and on the verge of tears. A year and half ago I spent three weeks volunteering with an educational charity in the refugee “camps” of Northern France. Whilst there I met numerous unaccompanied teenagers, some as young as twelve and thirteen. They had all experienced harrowing journeys to get that far often being exposed to traffickers, police violence and unimaginable destitution. These were our continent’s most vulnerable children; they had witnessed things that no one should ever see, especially as a child. They were alone in the world and facing hostile state authorities and abuse on all sides. We volunteers had one tool in our arsenal to get those children to safety quickly; the Dubs protections.
The results of the GE have not been easy to digest. As one of the many target seat candidates who almost made it, the results hold a double dose of sadness. Sadness that in Guildford we came so close yet didn’t succeed this time and also for our nation that it’s ended up with a government so unrepresentative of the values that I still believe it holds at its core – fairness, openness, welcoming of diversity and a desire for integrity in its politicians.
Locally and nationally we will review the election campaign in due course, but I want to share two of my take-aways from this election.
Never underestimate the passion and resilience of Lib Dem campaigners!
In recent years Guildford have struggled to build a team. Yes, we took the leadership of Guildford Borough Council in May but when the election was called my campaign manager and I questioned how we could deliver the scale of campaign needed. Our action days have been poorly attended, our delivery network had shrunk significantly, and the team of active campaigners had shrunk to 10 maybe 15. We couldn’t envisage what happened once the election was announced.
It’s easy, after an electoral setback such as that we suffered last week, to look for easy answers and quick solutions.
The truth is, there are none.
We need a proper analysis of what the raw data tells us and, yes, we need some soul searching about the prospectus we put to the people and the personnel (behind the scenes and in front of the cameras) that came up with and sold-or failed to sell-the message.
But on one thing, I argue, we can be clear. The Centre must hold firm.
As I prepare to enter my fourth decade (I turn forty on Leap Year Day 2020…or just ten in actual birthdays celebrated!), I’ve shifted my political thinking from when I first joined this party almost a decade ago.
Though my values and principles absolutely remain broadly Centre-Left, I no longer believe that ‘the Centre’ is-at best-some meaningless phrase or-at worst-a mushy middle which appeals to only a few. I now understand that the broad Centre (Centre-Right, Centre, and Centre-Left) is still where most voters are.
Of course, in elections, especially this one, given who the leaders of the two main parties were, it can feel as if the extremes are the new status quo. But most voters still want a government that’ll run a sound economy, deliver investment into public services, be a responsible player on the world stage, and do what’s right by the Climate.
With things calming down approaching what in 1980s UK terms used to be called Chrimbo in North Bury (Labour seat turned Tory), I thought I’d share some US-UK cheer in the spirit of Trump, the Brexit salvationist. Your author teaches in a Title 1 school in Hinesville, Georgia, USA. Title 1 offers extra Federal Funding for school’s students disproportionately in poverty. Our school, because Hinesville is an Army base, gets generous federal funding.
Statewide 2015-16, Georgia paid 46% of education spending. The Georgia Department of Education (GaDoe) ranks us on a 100-point scale. We are a 75.3 CCRPI (College and Career Readiness Performance Indexes) school. The average is 77. This, as sometime Lib Dem supporter, Alistair Campbell (campaigning for Luciana Berger) had it, is a ‘bog standard (American) Comprehensive School’.
GaDoe for our school – non-ironically one administrator calls it Godot – reports 55.1% African-American, 66.2% economically disadvantaged, 19.7% white and 14.4% Hispanic students. Last month, waiting for Godot ended: we managed a 2-point CCRPI improvement. CCRPI rank us by complex metrics against unattainable goals. After a decade here, an achievement given staff churn, your author, teaching 12th English has some observations.
I notice a vogue for predicting US politics based on the UK’s general election and visa versa. The BBC’s Anthony Zurcher recently asked Does UK hold clues to Trump’s fortunes?. The answer is no. The US has a constitution; the UK does not: well, not a modern, European style written constitution anyway. But that, as so many Brexiters appear to believe, makes the UK better, since “We didn’t lose World War Two” – a bit of an obsession of theirs, no? “We” didn’t win it either – not without the USA. There won’t be trans-Atlantic salvation this time, whatever Johnson flunkies think. Contrast what I hope will still be in the UK with what has existed here for decades.
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Somerset’s farmers are on the front line of climate change (Sarah Dyke)
Mathew on Monday: Local Government Reorganisation review welcome (Mathew Hulbert)
Reform is winning because liberal Britain is not listening to its own society (Michal Simon)
Tom Arms’ World Review (Tom Arms)
Why Holborn and St Pancras deserves our all (Rosemary Runswick)
Printing again
Six month absence and he stands again
Chowdene action day
Three way split for parties of the right
Geoff Marshall asks: What are Britain's least served stations?
Kent Police has admitted ignoring intelligence on Dover disruption
The executions continue in Iran
Traffic Cop Nick Lovatt sacked after committing more than 20 driving offences
Billions lost to Brexit could save NHS
Jana 
Michael BG 
Michal Simon 
Andy Daer 
Ben Mathis 
