ALDE Party Council meets in celebration in Zurich

There was a celebratory mood at the Council meeting of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in Zurich at the weekend. The May European elections sent a record 108 ALDE Party MEPs to the European Parliament, a cohort largely boosted by Emmanuel Macron’s MPs from France and Britain’s own Liberal Democrats plus Naomi Long from the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. Under pressure from the French (who have a problem with the word “Liberal”, because of its economic neo-liberal resonance), the parliamentary group is renaming itself Renew Europe, but …

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Freedom Across Borders

Since April this year, Russian and Syrian aircraft have bombed over twenty-five hospitals inside the Idlib ‘Deconfliction’ Zone in northwest Syria, prompting hundreds of thousands of Syrians, many of whom have already been internally displaced, to flee once again. The UN watches helplessly as most of the rest of the world turns its back on the country, uncomfortably grateful that this ongoing horror story rarely makes headlines any more.

Even now, Syrian civil society activists struggle on, attempting to provide basic health and rescue services and to resist the brutality of both the regime and its allies and the …

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SOS – how to summon help using your smartphone

On Sunday afternoon, I was out walking my dog when I was threatened by a man on a path about 15 minutes’ walk from my house.

I’ll spare you the details but the five or so minutes until I was able to get away from him felt like a great deal longer and it is not an exaggeration to say that I feared for my life.

It was the second most terrifying experience of my life – the first being when my husband was rushed back into theatre in the middle of the night following his open heart surgery.

It will be some time before I can easily walk those paths again.

However, one good thing that has come out of this is that I discovered, courtesy of Jennie and my son’s friend, that there is likely a feature on your smartphone that enables you to summon help. I was frantically fumbling with my phone trying to get it to call anyone. Heaven knows, it makes enough pocket calls, but the one time I actually needed it to…..

On an iPhone, you hold down the lock button and the volume button until the SOS screen appears. It’s slightly more complicated as you have to then use the slider which may be difficult if it’s in your pocket. But if you can work the sliding button thingy, it will automatically call the Police and text two of your contacts with your location.

On an Android phone, you search SOS and you can set it up from there. This article explains a bit more about what it can do.

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1 July 2019 – today’s press releases

‘No-deal war chest’ shows Hunt lost all sense of reality

Responding to Jeremy Hunt’s proposed ‘£6 billion war chest’ to prepare for a no-deal Brexit, Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake said:

Jeremy Hunt’s ‘no-deal war chest’ is no more based in fact than the mythical promises that were made during the referendum. £6 billion is nowhere near enough to protect the people of Britain from a no-deal Brexit.

Jeremy Hunt keeps promising that he will mitigate the effects of no-deal on British business, but what he could do is just not throw our economy under the bus in the first place.

It is

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Geoff Tordoff (1928-2019)

Last week we learned the sad news that Geoff Tordoff had died. This is a personal tribute and assessment of his life as a Liberal. Geoff was essentially a very nice person. He had a modest even self-effacing manner and invariably had a smile on his face and a chuckle in his greeting, but his Liberal commitment was deep and his impact on the party’s organisation and strength was significant indeed for over half a century. Geoffrey Johnson Tordoff was a politician who made friends rather than enemies.

Geoff started life in Lancaster and was educated at Manchester Grammar School …

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Leadership contenders answer questions on social democracy, social justice and reaching beyond our base

As you can imagine, the various groups within the Party have been keen to question the candidates about their response to the issues that matter more than most to their members. Today, we publish, at their request, the questions put to Jo and Ed by the Social Democrat Group…

The Social Democrat Group are very grateful to the answers that Jo Swinson and Ed Davey, the leadership contenders for the Liberal Democrats, have given to our questions. The letter we sent to them with the questions is below.

At this moment of great opportunity for our party, we would like to thank …

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What happens the day after the next General Election?

In my last article for LDV I spoke about the end of two-Party politics. Since then we have had three more opinion polls with Lib Dems ranging from first with 30% to fourth with 19%. What doesn’t change is the fact that 4 Parties, Lib Dems, Brexit, Tory and Labour are bunched fairly closes around the 20s with the Green Party on 8-10%. I do like the 30% Lib Dem one though. Many people must have gone to bed dreaming of that magic moment of being declared an MP when they saw that.

Although I am not ‘Mystic Dicky’ with a …

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A global advert for the Hong Kong Anti Extradition Bill campaign – implications for the Remain Campaign

An advertisement to support the Hong Kong Anti Extradition Movement appeared in 14 newspapers around the world on 27th June. The press was puzzled by 2 questions: who created the campaign and how did they manage to execute it?

Two million Hong Kong citizens participated in the Hong Kong anti extradition bill protest on 21st June. The protesters made three demands:

  1. the amendment of the bill to be retracted;
  2. the definition of the clashes between police and civilians on 12th June as ‘riot’ to be retracted; and,
  3. an independent commission to be formed in order to investigate the police behaviour on 12th June.

The Hong …

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29 June – 1 July 2019 – the weekend and overnight press releases

Labour leadership tone deaf to a People’s Vote

Responding to Len McCluskey’s comments on the Andrew Marr show this morning, Liberal Democrat Brexit spokespeson Tom Brake said:

No matter how loudly some in the Labour party demand that the leadership change its position on Brexit, it is clear it is still falling on deaf ears.

It is insincere to only offer a People’s Vote if it’s a Labour deal on the table. Any Brexit plan must go back to the British public.

Any Brexit deal, whether negotiated by Theresa May, Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn will be bad for our country. It will damage

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Jo’s Day – 28 June 2019

Friday started with an endorsement for Jo (£) from the Independent:

Sir Ed trumpets his greater experience, which would serve the party well in such troubled times for the country. But we think Ms Swinson’s instincts on the critical issue of relations with other parties make her the right choice for Lib Dem members.

And a message on the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots

The G20 needs to fix the world’s broken social contract, argued Jo in a piece for Wired:

We need a hopeful vision for the future, powered by a strong, liberal voice that understands that the new economy can neither be left to its own devices or be overly-managed by the state. Rather, it must be harnessed for the benefit of everyone. And it must take the public with us, building trust by placing liberal values of privacy, accountability, and transparency at its core.

The UK can and must be at the forefront of this change, leading the G20 and the world in creating an ethical tech-led economy centred on social well-being and environmental sustainability. That means overhauling how our society works, valuing the strengths of empathy, passion, and resilience that make us human, while embracing technology as an indispensable ally in meeting our biggest challenges.

In fairness to Ed, we do have to put a massive health warning before the next item. YouGov did a poll to determine the outcome of the next election around various scenarios of potential Labour Party policies.

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Ed’s Day – 28 June 2019

Our Netflix style binge through the last week of the leadership campaign before the ballots come out tomorrow nears its conclusion.

For Ed, Friday started with a reflection on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

Challenging Putin on the end of liberalism

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Jo’s Day – 27 June 2019

First of all, answering the major question of the day:

And on to the Victoria Derbyshire BBC live tv hustings

And, later on, the Gatwick hustings:

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Ed’s Day – 27 June 2019

Victoria Derbyshire’s live tv hustings has been covered here, but here’s Ed’s take.

Here’s his opening pitch.

And talking again about climate change:

Slamming Boris on immigration:

Immigration has been a great thing for our country. But politicians like Johnson have vilified those coming to help build and contribute to our great country for their own political gain in the Brexit debate.

Yet businesses across the country are already having to deal with acute shortages of staff thanks to the Brexit uncertainty, and this proposal from our potential next PM does nothing to solve that. If implemented, an Australian-style visa cap would only make it worse.

Johnson is only pandering to the likes of Farage, who has long pushed for this kind of unfair system. Nigel Farage ought to be the last person a potential Prime Minister should be looking to for inspiration on how to run a fair and effective immigration system.

Then off to the Gatwick hustings;

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The people who will make the new party complaints system work

As  Lead Adjudicator for the new party complaints system I am writing to introduce the people who will make it work. 

The great strength of successful political parties lies with their members.  In our party it is the members who campaign, make policy, choose our leaders and, to a great extent, run the party.  We have more than 100,000, but all our members are human beings and subject to human frailties.  As a result, it is a sad reality that members will from time to time do things and be accused of things that bring the party into disrepute.

After years of debate a new system for handling complaints has been created.  You can read about it in Alice Thomas’s excellent post, and I wanted to introduce you to the volunteers who will make the new system work.

The first thing to make clear is that there is no ‘complaints supremo’.  The new system breaks up the tasks involved so that each decision in the process of determining complaints is made by an independent person appointed in a way that ensures that there is no perception that panels are hand-picked or results pre-ordained.

The largest number of volunteers are the Adjudicators.  All are members of the party and they have a wide range of experiences.  At various points in the process of each complaint an Adjudicator will assess the severity of a Complaint and how it is will be handled and in most cases a different three Adjudicators will later sit on a Complaints Panel to decide whether to uphold or dismiss the complaint.  Adjudicators are permitted to stand as candidates for the Party or hold office at a Local Party level, but are barred from holding office elsewhere in the Party.

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Chuka’s first Lib Dem canvassing session

The other night, Chuka Umunna had his first proper canvassing session with the Lib Dems.

He seems really happy and relaxed with the choice he has made to join us.

 

A word about Helen. Until a couple of weeks ago, she was the PPC for Streatham. And then suddenly she finds that there is a Lib Dem MP. She has shown such generosity of spirit in welcoming Chuka and we should recognise that.

So Chuka definitely has promise. He can hold a diamond the right way up, he can deliver leaflets with a bar chart and he seems to have got the hang of Minivan very quickly indeed.

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Jo’s Day – 26 June 2019

On Wednesday, the world was incredulously amused at Boris’s revelation that he liked to make model buses.

Jo got it, though:

Jo was also at the Climate Lobby

Onto the Lobby Hustings

And then a Facebook Live with our newest MP, Chuka Umunna.

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Ed’s Day – 26 June 2019

Wednesday saw a mass lobby of Parliament on the climate emergency. Ed was there:

Then thee was a hustings with Parliament’s journalists:

He elaborated on his Government of National Unity to stop Brexit idea as Politics Home reported:

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Jo’s Day – 25 June 2019

Continuing our catch-up for the two leadership candidates.

On Tuesday, Jo’s interview with our former editors Mark Pack and Stephen Tall came out.

And sharing photos of constituency visits.

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Ed’s Day – 25 June 2019

Our campaign diaries have fallen a bit by the wayside this week due to life and illness getting in the way. But we decided to catch up now so we have a full record of the campaign and so that you can binge watch, Netflix style, in the couple of days before the ballot papers arrive.

So, let’s go back to Tuesday.

Boris and Jeremy are getting the Iain Dale treatment at Conservative hustings around the country. He interviewed Ed on his radio show on Tuesday night.

Watch the whole thing here:

Earlier, he had been working cross party to challenge the impact of privatising the visa application process was having on people, forcing them to travel long distances to make applications.

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28 June 2019 – today’s press releases

Lib Dems: Conservatives are not doing enough to make our country safe

Commenting on the National Audit Office’s report into serious and organised crime, which reveals ‘significant and avoidable shortcomings’ by the government, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey said:

From County Lines drug trafficking to child sexual exploitation and modern slavery, organised crime gangs are ruining lives and damaging our country. This report reveals that the Conservatives are not doing nearly enough to prevent these appalling crimes and keep our country safe.

Police forces and the National Crime Agency need urgent additional resources to deal with the growing scale

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The new complaints process goes live on 1st July

It’s a good year to be a Lib Dem: we’ve gained thousands of new members, hundreds of council seats and 15 new MEPs because we are united while the Tories and Labour tear themselves apart from within. No party is immune to mistakes though and that’s why I’m proud to say that – from 1 July* – if a new complaint is made against a Lib Dem member, it will be handled under our new complaints procedure, which is consistent, clear and fit for purpose.

Federal Conference voted for this procedure at Brighton in Autumn 2018 and it has since been accepted by each of the state parties in England, Scotland and Wales. It is now time to implement it.

No complaints procedure can work without people to run it. That is why I am proud to say that more than 400 people responded to call for volunteers and we will be ready to hit the ground running. 

From 1 July 2019, complaints should be reported to the Standards Officer at LDHQ who will record the details in the case management system and send it on to the Senior Adjudication Team or “SAT”. The SAT comprises a Senior Adjudicator from each state party and our brilliant Lead Adjudicator, Fred Mackintosh.  The four members of the SAT have many years’ experience in the party and a background in making decisions and dealing with complex problems.

When a case is first raised Fred will randomly assign it to one of at least forty trained and impartial Adjudicators, who will assign any case which is more than frivolous to one of either the formal or informal routes.  At the same time the SAT will decide whether the member complained about should be suspended from membership whilst the complaint is resolved.

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Stonewall 50 years on

“The first Pride was a riot.”

So said many signs at Pride, Edinburgh last Saturday.

It’s 50 years today that a community, after much discrimination and harassment, finally said it had had enough. Yet another Police raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City, pushed its customers over the edge, with trans women of colour leading the fightback.

Pink News has the story of how Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera threw things at the Police, sparking 3 nights of rioting and the birth of a movement that has won rights for the LGBT community. Back then, you could be sacked for being gay, you couldn’t marry and you had no rights if your partner died or took ill. Imagine what it must have been like to have your partner dying in hospital but his or her family won’t let you anywhere near them and you have no power to stop them. That was the reality for far too many people.

If Stonewall happened today, it would be all over Twitter in seconds. There would be rolling news coverage. 28th June 1969 was my husband’s 18th birthday.  I asked him if he was aware of what was happening and he said it was years later, through music, that he first became aware of Stonewall.

The Stonewall riots led to the joyous, colourful Pride celebrations we have today when the LGBT community celebrates and looks to advance its rights. At the moment, it’s trying hard not to see rights rolled back as the toxic atmosphere over Gender Recognition Act reform frightens legislators.

It is hardly surprising, then, that the BBC reported this week about the surge in hate crimes against transgender people. And when I say surge, I’m talking an 81% rise. We can’t stand by and see that happen.

Both our leadership candidates have been very vocal in calling out transphobia and supporting Gender Recognition Act Reform and you get the feeling from both of them that this is important to them.

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27 June 2019 – today’s press releases

Johnson pandering to Farage over immigration

Responding to Boris Johnson’s promises to investigate an ‘Australian-style’ policy for immigration, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Ed Davey said:

Immigration has been a great thing for our country. But politicians like Johnson have vilified those coming to help build and contribute to our great country for their own political gain in the Brexit debate.

Yet businesses across the country are already having to deal with acute shortages of staff thanks to the Brexit uncertainty, and this proposal from our potential next PM does nothing to solve that. If implemented, an Australian-style visa cap would

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If you’re not at Brecon and Radnorshire today, this is what you are missing….


And this:

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D66’s Sophie in t’ Veld MEP confirmed as Keynote speaker at Social Liberal Forum Conference

We delighted to report that D66 MEP Sophie in ‘t‘Veld will be speaking at the SLF Conference and contributing our new book The Wolves in the Forest.  Lib Dem Voice readers who watch BBC’s Newsnight will be familiar with the contribution of Sophie in t’Veld who has frequently been brought on to patiently explain the reality of Brexit. You can register for the conference here.

The new Social Liberal Forum (SLF) book will shortly be on its way to the printers. The editorial group are reading through the contribution and we are impressed by the quality of writing. Lib Dem Voice readers may recall that this book, which we plan to launch at the Conference in Bournemouth, examines a Liberal response to inequality. 

I have just been reading Kirsten Johnson’s (PPC North Devon) really important contribution on ‘Inequality and the Arts’ and , as mention above, I am awaiting Sophie in t’ Veld’s essay (MEP from D66) to arrive in my in box. Altogether we have fifteen chapters covering the topic from a wide range of perspectives.

The title of this new publication is ‘Wolves in the Forest – tackling inequality in the 21st Century’ is taken from Lloyd George’s budget speech of April 1909: “we shall have advanced a great step towards that good time, when poverty, and the wretchedness and human degradation which always follows in its camp, will be as remote to the people of this country as the wolves which once infested its forests.

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An island by-election as Tavish Scott steps down for job at Scottish Rugby

Former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott has announced that he is leaving the Scottish Parliament to take up a job as head of External Affairs with Scottish Rugby.  He’s one of a handful of MSPs remaining who were first elected in 1999. Anyone want to have a go at naming the rest?

Tavish led the Scottish Party from 2008-2011 and had three ministerial posts in the Labour/Liberal Democrat coalitions. In 2001, he resigned as a Minister for Parliament after refusing to support the Executive in a vote on fishing because of the impact on his constituents.

He came back into Government in 2003 and served as Deputy Minister for Finance, entering the Cabinet as Minister for Transport after Jim Wallace’s resignation as Deputy First Minister in 2005.

Tavish said:

Representing the people of Shetland has been my life for 20 years. It has been an enormous privilege and honour to have been Shetland’s MSP since the Scottish Parliament opened in 1999.

I want to thank people the length and breadth of the islands for their support over the years. The bread and butter of representing people is helping solve problems and making their case to government, organisations and businesses. I have always enjoyed the challenge of serving Shetland and it is the part of the job that I will, without doubt, miss the most.

There have been many highlights, wonderful moments and intense political drama that I would not have missed for anything. I leave the Liberal Democrats at an exciting time in the party’s development. There have been excellent recent results in the recent European elections, improved poll ratings and there is genuine optimism about the future for the party.

So on this, the 20th anniversary week of the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament, it is the right time for me to change direction.

I am absolutely delighted to be joining Scottish Rugby at this incredibly exciting time for the sport in Scotland and across the world.  To have the opportunity to work for Scottish Rugby is a huge challenge and one that I cannot wait to begin. I will miss the cut and thrust of politics and the people I have met and represented for 20 years, but there can be no better new beginning than working for Scottish Rugby.

Willie Rennie paid tribute to his decades of service:

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+++August 1st is date of Brecon and Radnorshire by-election – LDV video from the constituency

https://twitter.com/paulwalteruk/status/1144170404635979777?s=12

The government have just moved the writ for the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election – to occur on August 1st.

As I say in the video above, please come and help here as soon as you can! We can win this and it is a beautiful area to campaign in!

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Victoria Derbyshire Lib Dem Leadership hustings open thread

Stay with us as Jo and Ed take part in a live head to head tv debate on BBC2 and BBC News Channel in a few minutes. This is particularly important as ballot papers are despatched tomorrow.

The BBC have actually been promoting this well, too.

The pair will take questions by a studio audience comprised of Lib Dem members and voters.

And we’re off.

(UPDATE: Watch the whole thing here.

The budget doesn’t seem to have stretched to stools, thankfully.

First up – each gets a minute’s pitch

Jo says she says country is crying out for a liberal movement to stand up against the narrow nationalism Farage and Johnson. Our country deserves better, a vision of hope. We need to build an economy that puts people and planet first.

Ed says he wants to end Brexit quickly by a people’s vote. If we stay we’ll have a lot of money to tackle problems like inequality and building public services. He says that we need to green our economy and that his experience and vision are what we need. He reveals that he turned down the chance to be “double oh davey”. He chose to work for Paddy Ashdown rather than MI6.

Derbyshire challenges them that there is no time for a People’s Vote. It can’t be done by October 31st.

Jo Swinson says that we will get an extension from the EU for a People’s Vote. The prospect of a No Deal exit focuses the mind of MPs who have not yet backed a people’s vote.

Ed Davey says that MPs need to grab the order paper to require a vote by MPs before we leave.

He describes the nuclear option of a vote of no confidence in the government which could lead to a general election. He would prefer a government of national unity headed by a backbench Labour MP which will pass legislation for a People’s Vote.

Ex Lib Dem Member Luke to join Renew asks what they would do to work on a Remain Alliance.

Jo says we should do whatever it takes to stop Brexit as the threat to our country is so huge. Lib Dems are biggest, most consistent remain party. In a general election, we need to be smarter about working together. In Peterborough all of the practicalities were put in place for a Remain candidate before he pulled out at the last minute. She says that local members are important.

Ed says he agrees with Jo. We have to get the Remain vote together in a general election. He advocates tactical voting as in 1997 and 2001. He says he’d be up for going further  if we are faced by the horror of a Leave alliance between Farage and Johnson. Lib Dems have been least tribal – standing down for Caroline Lucas.

Torrin Wilkins from Liberal Leave (Victoria Derbyshire observes this must be a lonely life) says if we end up with a Norway style deal after another referendum, would Lib Dems deliver that.

Jo says People’s Vote needs to have a specific Brexit on the ballot paper. In 2016, Brexit meant whatever you want it to say.

She says that now we know what Brexit means, people will be able to vote on that specific proposal.

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“Sorry. I’m not a biker, I’m a Liberal” – Brecon campaign diary

Brecon and Radnorshire is an enormous constituency. By my reckoning it takes up about a seventh of Wales. Geographically, it is the largest constituency in Wales and England.

There are two HQs for the Brecon and Radnorshire campaign. The Brecon HQ is perhaps most accessible for those coming from the south of England. The HQ in Llandrindod Wells is probably a better bet for those coming from the north.

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26 June 2019 – today’s press releases

Lib Dems: Giving revenge porn victims anonymity is long overdue

Responding to reports that the Government is considering granting anonymity to victims of revenge porn in prosecutions as part of a review of image-based sexual abuse laws, Liberal Democrat Justice Spokesperson Wera Hobhouse said:

Revenge porn is a despicable form of abuse. Guaranteeing anonymity for victims is a change that is long overdue.

The Liberal Democrats led the fight to outlaw revenge porn in 2015, but prosecutions are still far too low.

That’s why the Liberal Democrats tabled legislation to extend anonymity to victims back in 2016, but the Conservatives

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