Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Farron, Clegg and Cole-Hamilton’s messages of EU defiance

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 25th March 2017 - 8:03 pm

Today, Tim Farron, Nick Clegg and Alex Cole-Hamilton have done us proud. Their passionate messages of defiance were very different. Clegg’s anger, Farron’s optimism and Cole-Hamilton’s emotion were exactly what we need right now.

Here are their speeches. Sit back, enjoy, and tomorrow get out there and help them by persuading others to oppose the stark, extreme Brexit that will hurt so many people.

Farron said that the future has not been written yet and we can change the country’s course:

Nick’s focus was young people and holding this awful government to account:

And Alex told Theresa what she’d have to do to deprive him of his EU citizenship:

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Ruth Bright

Keep on keeping on

By Ruth Bright | Sat 25th March 2017 - 10:55 am

The talk of the Blitz spirit in London can become a bit mawkish at a time like this. A family member of mine went through the real Blitz in 1940 and 1941 and she told me that all was far from the myth. Class still pervaded all – for example, many looked down on those without a shelter who hid from bombs in the tube. Not everyone sang “Roll out the barrel”; not everyone cooed with gratitude as Queen Elizabeth wafted by in chiffon. Looting was a common occurrence. Horrible things were covered up by the authorities.

And yet it was also a time of extraordinary solidarity. The resilience of the East Londoner was not made up. Grandma talked matter-of-factly about being bombed out, of losing home and possessions – not once but twice, as if it were a minor inconvenience.

When I was a child in the seventies I was taken to see the Christmas windows at Selfridges. Not far from where my Grandma worked throughout the Blitz. Selfridges was bombed later that day (the IRA gave a warning and there was enormous damage but no loss of life). Twenty five years later the office where I worked received damage when a nail bomb was left in Brixton market. My colleagues and I were lucky. It was a weekend and none of us were in the building but many Saturday shoppers suffered horrible injuries.

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems gather for March for Europe

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 25th March 2017 - 9:45 am

My Twitter and Facebook timelines are full of people heading to march for Europe today. Tim Farron and Nick Clegg are speaking at the march in London. Tim Farron is on second and the Cleggster is on last. Alex Cole-Hamilton is speaking for us, as he has done so movingly on so many occasions, in Edinburgh.

It’s such a poignant, emotional day. It’s 60 years since the Treaty of Rome was signed. It’s the Diamond Jubilee of a real diamond of international co-operation and collaboration and partnership. In just four days, Theresa May will set in train the process of us leaving it. That absolutely breaks my heart. And, in time, it will cause real hardship for everyone in this country, but most of all, the poorest, who mainly voted Leave.

In London, Lib Dems will be meeting at 10 am at Marble Arch. In Edinburgh, meet at Waterloo Place at 1pm.

Tim Farron will touch on the tragic events of Wednesday before going on to talk about Brexit.

“The unspeakable outrage that happened in this city on Wednesday will not defeat us, or silence us or divide us. Democracy continues, free speech continues, our way of life continues. Terrorism will not win.”

He will then move onto Brexit and will say:

“We respectfully say that Parliament is not enacting the will of the people, it is interpreting the will of the people.

“Theresa May could have chosen a consensual Brexit… she’s chosen the most extreme version… divided the country.

“Departure not destination. The choice is who should decide the final deal. Should it be politicians or the people? The Liberal Democrats say the people.

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Dan Hunt

A safe haven for Labour migrants

By Dan Hunt | Sat 25th March 2017 - 8:55 am

If politics is a numbers game then evidence is gathering which shows how misguided the Labour party’s attempts to straddle the electoral fence truly are.

A Labour party intent on waving Brexit bills through parliament in a misguided attempt to preserve the notional ‘will of the people’ at the expense of principled opposition is now leaking members. The dramatic surge of Corbynista enthusiasm which saw party membership top 500,000 last year is now looking more like a freak high water mark than a prolonged shift in progressive politics as has been claimed.

A report in the Guardian details how Labour party membership is on the decline as record numbers of members fall into arrears whilst others simple don’t renew when the time comes.

For the Liberal Democrats, these internal fluctuations of a rival’s fortunes matter enormously. Those people who are leaving Labour in disillusionment are the people who will help us continue our fightback. These former Labour members either are, or were, politically engaged and likely to hold views that can be broadly defined as progressive. While accepting that these are wide generalisations, the trends of the last 2 years which saw the surge in Labour party membership would seem to support them. You have to be engaged to sign up to any political party and the Corbyn revolution was publicised as a progressive one, no matter what one’s views on the validity of such statements. 

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David Thorpe

Why politicians should tread carefully before using Quantitative Easing to build infrastructure

By David Thorpe | Fri 24th March 2017 - 4:25 pm

At a time when politicians grapple with how to use the tools at their disposal to reduce inequality of opportunity and outcome, quantitative easing {QE) can seem like an easy option.

To those blessedly unversed in the intricacies of the monetary policy tool that has dominated more than anything else the economy of the UK since the financial crisis, QE sounds like, ‘printing money and spending it on infrastructure.’

If only it were that simple. QE is a policy of central banks to buy the bonds  issued by their own governments, the aim being to push interest rates down and drive capital into assets more likely to make the economy grow.

So the first problem with any idea of using QE to increase government spending is that, well, the government doesn’t have the power to do it, Politicians can issue the bonds, the Bank of England can choose not to buy them, and the Bank of England is independent of government. 

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Iain Donaldson

Nuclear fudge on the Lib Dem stall

By Iain Donaldson | Fri 24th March 2017 - 2:55 pm
Bismark is quoted as having said that “politics is the art of the possible” and in perpetuating a nuclear defence policy that can never be realised, the Liberal Democrats  have succeeded in stepping out of the debate on nuclear weapons.  The policy of having a part time submarine which probably isn’t carrying any nuclear warheads is neither possible nor deterrent.
 
This position is the sort of contingency that is adopted by fence sitters who do not expect ever to have to implement the policy that they have adopted and quite frankly for a party that aspires to government it is an entirely unsustainable policy.
 
There are in fact on the nuclear debate only two main questions, do we want a nuclear based defence policy or not?  If the answer is yes then the policy of the Liberal Democrats is not that policy as it means in reality that we leave the warheads at home until after war has been declared.  If the answer is no then the policy of the Liberal Democrats is not that policy as it retains the warheads.

Fundamentally we are saying that we want to negotiate away warheads that we will never use and will never have the opportunity to use and so we have taken our warheads out of any possible multi-lateral agreement.
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Lee Howgate

Thoughts on York

By Lee Howgate | Fri 24th March 2017 - 1:30 pm

So, what was the most enduring memory of the York Liberal Democrat Spring Conference? Tim Farron taking on the Tories in a rousing final speech, or Nick Clegg in blistering form on Brexit? The feisty debate on faith schools, or the brief flirtation with unilateral nuclear disarmament, cunningly timed to coincide with England’s Grand Slam decider?

Or was it York itself, magnificent in the spring sunshine, giving us the perfect backdrop to the #libdemfightback?

Well, for me, the abiding memory is being a part of a vast hopeful army of conference newbies, who, like me, had chosen to get up off the canvas of 2016′s despair and do something- anything- to stop the world lurching into hate-filled extremism.

You can’t bottle “essence of York spring 2017″. But if you could, you might be intoxicated by the scent of a new libdemmery. One that had a heady dose of optimism, energy and hopefulness. But also a hint of something bloody, a visceral sense of patriotism that Tim Farron captured by announcing “I want my country back”.

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Joan Walmsley

Joan Walmsley writes…Taxing patience and taxing patients

By Joan Walmsley | Fri 24th March 2017 - 11:55 am

In order to “incentivise employers to think differently about their recruitment and skills decisions and the balance between investing in UK skills and overseas recruitment” (Lord Nash in the Lords on Tuesday) the government has decided to introduce an Immigration Skills Charge, a tax of £1000 per employee, per year, paid in advance by an employer wishing to recruit a skilled worker from outside the European Economic Area.

It does not apply to everyone, of course. Exceptions have been made for a variety of post-graduate scientists (including social and humanities scientists), research and development managers, and higher education teaching professionals.

Two groups that have not been exempted are professionals in health and social care. We know that both of these sectors are heavily dependent upon recruiting professionals from all over the world. We know only too well, from report after report, of the dire financial straits of the NHS: three quarters of NHS trusts are in deficit; nearly every A&E has limped from crisis to crisis this winter; we are short of nurses and retention is awful; hospital doctors’ rosters are unfilled; and GP practices can’t replace retiring doctors. The staff have become the shock-absorber for the NHS.

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Ben Andrew

In defence of the “second referendum”

By Ben Andrew | Fri 24th March 2017 - 10:21 am

When Farron announced that we were pushing for another referendum on Europe, I agreed with those who accused the Lib Dems of ignoring democracy because we didn’t like the result. While I still sympathise with these criticisms, I have eventually come around to the party’s position. Or at least – I think that there is a strong principled case for it (I still have some practical questions).

This case is based on accountability. Election results are not the be all and end all of democracy, they are part of a wider process. In a General Election, this process involves political parties making their case to the British people, and the public choosing which party they like best. Crucially, the people then judge how well that party has followed through with their promises, and hold them to account at the next election (as we know only too well in the Lib Dems).

Of course, I understand that you can’t have referendums every five years, but there still has to be some mechanism of accountability to make a vote democratically viable.  Otherwise, campaigners can just say whatever they think will get people to vote for them, whether it’s achievable or not. The alleged “£350 million for the NHS” was the most infamous case of this, but Leave campaigners also hedged their bets wildly on the single market – much more significantly in my view. The Remain camp lied too (Osborne said that he would introduce an emergency budget after Brexit, Cameron said that he would stay on as Prime Minister) but as we lost anyway, these lies aren’t as pressing from a democratic perspective, as we know they didn’t change the result. 

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Tom Arms

Observations of an Ex Pat: Brexit goes nuclear

By Tom Arms | Fri 24th March 2017 - 8:55 am

The EU is worried about losing their American nuclear umbrella.

The UK is worried about losing their European market and their seat at the European top table.

Britain has nuclear weapons. The EU has markets. Is there a fit?

If so, the result could be a tectonic strategic shift with far-reaching political repercussions.

My sources say there is enough of a fit for Prime Minister Theresa May to be thinking of offering to extend the British deterrent to EU countries in return for Brexit concessions.  This is most likely to be in cooperation with the French.

The reaction of the strategic eggheads ranges from “not incredible” to “logical,” to “totally unrealistic” and then “utterly crass” with a lot of “no comments” thrown in for good measure.

No comment was what the British Ministry of Defence said. No reply was all I could elicit from The Foreign Office and Downing Street. But The Department  for  Exiting the European Union, was more forthcoming. It referred me to Mrs May’s 18 January  Brexit strategy speech in which she said: 

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Caron Lindsay

Yet another Liberal Democrat GAIN from the Conservatives

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 24th March 2017 - 7:49 am

Congratulations to Peter Pilkington, elected to West Somerset District Council with an amazing gain from the Conservatives last night. In a ward that we didn’t stand in last time.

There was another good increase in vote share from a standing start in Herefordshire:

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Antony Hook

Flying our flags – @timfarron and @libdems at Conference

By Antony Hook | Fri 24th March 2017 - 7:41 am

Tim Farron has shown British politics the meaning of political leadership. On Brexit, his fight for the public to be allowed a further say and against ultra-Brexit that no-one voted for has been bold.  In contrast, the leader of the supposed official opposition has dithered.  The unelected Prime Minister pursues a course she herself described as a catastrophe.

Too much of our future is falling under the Brexit axe, which people were reassured by the Leave campaign would not happen.

So, straight after business in the conference hall was concluded on Saturday, Tim Farron was able to join a large group of EU …

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The Voice

Video – Farron: Those who attack us hate our freedom, our peaceful democracy, our love of country

By The Voice | Thu 23rd March 2017 - 4:06 pm

Courtesy of the Lib Dem Facebook page, here is Tim Farron’s response to the prime minister’s Commons statement earlier today:

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Harriet Shone

The Africa Liberal Network launches new youth network in Nairobi

By Harriet Shone | Thu 23rd March 2017 - 10:04 am

It’s an old and accepted wisdom that Africa’s progression – in fact the world’s – is dependent on investment in its young people. With over 70% of the population across the continent aged 35 and under, it couldn’t be clearer that Africa’s challenges and its priorities, must be those of its young people.

Despite this, leadership in Africa is on average 10-20 years older than leadership in Europe and America, despite the western world’s older populations. The Africa Liberal Network (ALN) itself, despite progress in this area with, for example, the appointment of the liberal politician Sidi Toure to the position of Minister for Youth in Cote D’Ivoire, is dominated at the leadership level by politicians over a certain age.

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Caron Lindsay

Tim Farron’s statement on Westminster attack

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 22nd March 2017 - 9:40 pm

I was reflecting on this a couple of hours after the awful events started to unfold this afternoon. On a daily basis, the highest concentration of people I care about in terms of sheer numbers is in and around the Palace of Westminster. From parliamentarians and staff to my friends and colleagues in LDHQ across the road.

I love that part of London. If I’m down for a meeting, I’ll often wander around Parliament Square, soaking up the atmosphere, watching tourists try to get the right angle for their photo to get Big Ben in, thinking of all the people in …

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NewsHound

LibLink: Edward McMillan-Scott: Letter from a disunited kingdom

By NewsHound | Wed 22nd March 2017 - 2:55 pm

Former Liberal Democrat MEP Edward McMillan-Scott ahs written an open letter to his former Brussels colleagues explaining from a pro-EU British perspective what the hell is going on over here.

As you all know, what started as former prime minister David Cameron’s attempt to pacify the UKIP tendency within the Conservative party – the reason I left it – has resulted in the dominance of that group in the Theresa May administration, and their determination to push for a hard Brexit – and as soon as possible. Do not underestimate their determination to sever all ties with the EU at whatever cost to the UK: they are ideologues, mostly inspired by what they believe is Thatcherism, but in reality in many ways resembles 1930s political extremism.

As a lifelong pro-European, with 30 years as an MEP, the last ten as a Vice-President, I know most of the key players on both sides of the argument in Britain, and many of the EU politicians too. I urge you to ignore the ideologues and listen to the silent majority: in a recent poll, 56 per cent said they do not want Theresa May’s Hard Brexit.

Today I am one of many in the UK campaigning not just for the British parliament to have a meaningful role in all the stages ahead and also for an “outcome” referendum if and when the negotiations produce an agreement.

So why did Leave win?

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Lynne Featherstone

Lynne Featherstone writes: Smart consumers: the bedrock of the clean energy revolution

By Lynne Featherstone | Wed 22nd March 2017 - 1:25 pm

“Our roofs will power our washing machines. Our cars will be charged at home. Our homes will be warm without turning the heating on. Our energy will be British, it will be clean.”

This is the vision Tim Farron set out as part of our strategy for Britain to lead the clean energy revolution.

A smarter energy system is a key piece of the puzzle, which will mean this vision can be delivered.

Academics such as Professor Dieter Helm have frequently talked about the potential of this change to improve how our energy systems work. Not only will smarter energy benefit our environment and help to reduce our carbon footprint, but it will support economic growth, innovation, competition and choice in the energy market.

Today, our interaction with energy is simple. We pay for the energy we use, often sticking with the same energy supplier for many years.

Many consumers pay far too much for their energy as a result.

But how we buy energy could be very different and lead to far cheaper bills.

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Jackie Pearcey

Jackie Pearcey writes… Why Galloway just boosted the Lib Dems chances in Gorton

By Jackie Pearcey | Wed 22nd March 2017 - 11:55 am

I am no big fan of George Galloway. His comments that rape allegations against Julian Assange were nothing but “bad sexual etiquette” and his attacks against his female opponent at the 2015 general election showed he is not only a hard left, Brexit-supporting political dinosaur, but has deeply disturbing views towards women. Meanwhile his political approach, based on dividing communities instead of bringing them together, is the polar opposite of that of the Liberal Democrats. So I’m looking forward to taking on his controversial views head on in the campaign ahead. I am confident that the people of Manchester Gorton, a diverse and tolerant area where people from all over the world run along well together, will firmly reject Galloway’s divisive politics.

But there can be no doubt that Galloway’s decision to run does boost our chances. He may have no chance of winning, but he will no doubt take away votes directly from Labour. That leaves us, as the only party able to beat Labour here, in an even stronger position. And it seems the bookies agree, with the odds being slashed that we could pull off a stunning victory here in Manchester Gorton from 9 to 1 at the start of the campaign to just 5 to 1.

We have been strong here in the past, with Lib Dem councillors in every ward over the last 11 years. There is a real possibility that we could achieve something incredible. But to do that, I need your help. So wherever you are, please do get involved, whether it’s delivering leaflets or making a few calls. People in Manchester are sick and tired of being neglected by the Labour-run city council and let down by this Conservative Brexit government. They deserve a party that will stand up for them, both locally and nationally, and ensure their voice is heard.

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The Voice

Tessa Munt to challenge Somerset Tory County Council Leader in May

By The Voice | Wed 22nd March 2017 - 11:07 am

Former Liberal Democrat MP for Wells Tessa Munt hopes to make a political comeback in May as she is standing for Somerset County Council against the current Tory leader.

From Somerset Live:

A spokesman for the Lib Dems said the party has identified mid Somerset as a key battleground.

Speaking as Wells Lib Dems introduced their local candidates, Ms Munt said: “I simply cannot stand by for the next three years and watch as the Conservatives run our county into the ground.”

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NewsHound

LibLink: Nick Clegg: The EU is facing a liberal insurgence. Now is not the time for Britain to leave

By NewsHound | Wed 22nd March 2017 - 10:24 am

Nick Clegg has been writing for the Independent in the wake of the Dutch elections in which the racist populist Geert Wilders didn’t do as well as expected. He recounted a family gathering in the Netherlands at Christmas time.

What was striking when we were talking about the Dutch elections, however, was almost everyone around the table wanted to cast a vote that provided the best guarantee of keeping Wilders out of power. For most, that seemed to point towards supporting Mark Rutte, the affable and skilled Dutch PM, even if they’d never voted for him before.

It worked and the lesson, he finds, from D66’s success is not to pander to populism. Be yourself.

The polarisation of politics along new lines – no longer left vs right, but now open vs closed – is mobilising voters against right-wing populism. We are witnessing the beginnings of a liberal backlash against the backlash against liberalism. Of course, it wasn’t just Mark Rutte’s VVD which benefited, but other parties too.

D66, the second Liberal party in the Netherlands (lucky Dutch to have two liberal options) did well, surging to almost level pegging in the polls with Geert Wilders and adding seven seats to their tally in the Dutch Parliament. D66 are, ideologically, most similar to the Liberal Democrats in Britain. Alexander Pechtold, their experienced leader, told me when we met how he was going to run an unapologetically pro-European campaign. He was not going to bend to the populist times. His decision paid off handsomely.

And he sees the chance of reforms that would make British voters want to stay in the EU.

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Rebecca Yates

From selfies with Clegg to the Glee Club stage – my first Liberal Democrat conference

By Rebecca Yates | Wed 22nd March 2017 - 8:53 am

I am currently in my first year at the University of Leeds, studying Politics and Parliamentary Studies. I officially became a party member in November 2016, but I have always been a Liberal Democrat at heart!

Last weekend was my first time at a party conference and I can honestly say it was one of the best weekends of my life. I did not really know what to expect, but I certainly did not expect to get to meet Nick Clegg on the first day! This was a pretty momentous occasion for me as you could call Nick my ‘Lib Dem hero’ given that he was the main reason I first became interested in the party.

My experience of conference undoubtedly proves that I joined the right party. What other party would have the unique event that is Glee Club? Slightly bizarre at first, but after a couple of G&T’s my (not so) secret love for karaoke shone through. Anyone who witnessed my attempted parody of “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse can vouch for this (along with the fact that I am a terrible singer). 

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Caron Lindsay

Willie Rennie goes all Alice in Wonderland AND uses the F-word

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 21st March 2017 - 7:14 pm

Have you ever thought that what Parliament really needs is a few more Alice in Wonderland references?

This afternoon the Scottish Parliament started a two day debate on whether to call for a Section 30 order, the device that would enable them to hold a second independence referendum. Theresa May has said that “now is not the time” in much the same tone of voice as she said “brexit means brexit.”

It’s funny, because, as Lib Dem MSP Mike Rumbles pointed out today, they’ve managed to clear 2 days of parliamentary time for this (although the length of the debate was something we agreed with) at a week’s notice and put so much effort into setting it all up, yet we’ve gone 445 days without a mental health strategy. Priorities, and all that.

I started watching the debate as Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale started speaking. Of all poisoned chalices, hers is the biggest. She’s one of the most caring, articulate, engaging politicians I’ve come across, yet she’s lumbered and with and constantly undermined by Corbyn. During the last referendum, I watched her speak particularly to women’s groups and she was fantastic at putting across a positive case for the UK. She and Willie Rennie are both very good at that but they were both sorely under-used on the national stage.

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The Voice

WATCH: The Conference rally with Olney, Clegg, Farron, Malik and Pearcey

By The Voice | Tue 21st March 2017 - 6:00 pm

We reported on the Conference rally the other night. Now you can watch the whole thing here. See Sarah Olney thank her helpers and talk about why she joined the party and is fighting Brexit. See Nick Clegg take apart the Brexiteers’ case and warn of the populists undermining the checks on their power. See Jackie Pearcey tell us why we should go to Manchester Gorton to help her. See Hina Malik talk about her passion for dives it and how Simon Hughes and Nick Clegg persuaded her to join the party.

Finally, Tim Farron, after the obligatory pops at George Osborne and Dr Paul Nuttall, talk of Liberal Democrat values of internationalism and of giving EU nationals the right to stay and about why the people having the final say on the Brexit deal was so important.

Enjoy!

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems: Inflation rise hits the poorest

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 21st March 2017 - 4:28 pm

Senior Liberal Democrats have been commenting on the inflation rise today. I have to say that although  0.5% in a month is a lot, it feels like so much more. The prices of so much of my supermarket shop seems to have gone up by a lot more.

In Scorland, our Economy spokesperson Carolyn Caddick said:

Rising inflation shows that the British public are paying the price for Theresa May’s decision to take Britain out of the Single Market. With the pound falling in value by 18% since the referendum, the price of imports have shot up and broken the official target. Every Scot going on holiday abroad is seeing that their pounds do not buy what they used to.

Worst of all, the dramatic leap in food prices is hitting the poorest the most.

The fragile UK economy has been kept on life support by consumer spending, but with prices rising, that is now threatened. If Theresa May should change course immediately, and recognise that you can’t have a hard Brexit and affordable prices.

Our Shadow Chancellor Susan Kramer also blamed Brexit, saying that “You can’t have a hard brexit and affordable prices.”

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Brian Paddick

Brian Paddick writes…A government without a moral compass was always going to end up on the rocks.

By Brian Paddick | Tue 21st March 2017 - 3:00 pm

Like a dog that has been let off the lead after five years under Lib Dem restraint, this Conservative government is all over the place with its legislative programme and that’s before we even start on Brexit.  To add to the list of obnoxious new laws such as the new offence of ‘driving while being a suspected illegal immigrant’  and giving the police unfettered access to innocent people’s web histories, the Tories have waded into the swamp of online pornography and they are completely out of their depth.

The Digital Economy Bill, another universal answer to everything they couldn’t get through when we had one hand on the reins of power, professes to protect children from online pornography.  Even those like me whose access to porn when I was younger was the top shelf magazines in the newsagent, know that, as with other forms of prohibition, those determined to get their hands on it will succeed.  It is far better to educate children how to deal with online pornography when they come across it rather than, Canute-like, trying to keep it away from them.

Nonetheless, if we are to prohibit access to online adult material unless there is an age-verification solution in place, the privacy of those who are being forced to part with their sensitive personal information in order to verify their age, must be protected.  We have already seen user databases for a couple of major porn sites, containing sensitive personal information, being hacked and the details traded on the dark web.  When details of users of the Ashley Madison site were leaked, it reportedly led to two suicides.

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Caron Lindsay

Farron: Galloway boosts Lib Dem chances of victory in Manchester Gorton

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 21st March 2017 - 2:00 pm

So the hard left maverick George Galloway chose the ultra right Westmonster website set up by UKIP donor Arron Banks to tell anyone who would listen that he’s be standing in the Manchester Gorton by-election.

Tim Farron reckons that makes a Lib Dem win more likely.

While George Galloway won’t pick up enough votes to win, he clearly will take a number of votes from Labour. That increases our chances of winning as the only party that can beat Labour in Manchester Gorton.

George Galloway is a divisive, hard left campaigner of the old school and an ardent supporter of Brexit.

There will be little support for his brand of politics in Manchester Gorton, which is a diverse and tolerant place and voted 62% to remain in the EU.

His decision to enter the race is yet another consequence of the chronic splits and weak leadership in the Labour party. People in Manchester want change, they deserve better than a failed politician and a failing Labour party.

Our candidate Jackie Pearcey said on Twitter:

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Caron Lindsay

Tim Farron comments on Martin McGuinness’ death

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 21st March 2017 - 1:00 pm

We woke this morning to the news that the former Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness had died.

There is no doubt that he was a significant figure in the peace process. It was quite incredible for me to see him as part of the power-sharing executive after my childhood had been punctuated with disturbing news reports from Northern Ireland. I can’t underestimate how unachievable the current peace seemed to be at that time. It was a remarkable achievement which took a great deal of international effort. It’s one of the things that we can be rightly proud of both John Major and Tony Blair for.

Martin McGuinness was pivotal in bringing about that peace and persuading others on his side of the divide to do so and for that he deserves respect.

Tim Farron had this to say on his death.

Martin McGuinness, for all his past, became a statesman. One moment sticks with me, the remarkable – and unlikely – images of McGuinness when he shook the hand of the Queen on her visit to Belfast in 2012. This single picture epitomised the changes in Northern Ireland.

This is something I, and millions of others, are thankful for. Peace in Northern Ireland is down, in part, to his leadership of the Republican community.

The Leader of our sister party, the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, Naomi Long, expressed her sadness:

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Martin Roche

Are all the Brexit Tories rock solid for the “precious union”?

By Martin Roche | Tue 21st March 2017 - 11:59 am

Theresa May was in Wales this week, talking of “our precious union.” I imagine she is genuine in her wish to maintain the United Kingdom, if for no other reason than avoiding her place in history as its last prime minister. Enough of my cynicism. Better we assume history’s verdict is not her prime motivating factor. That it is indeed “our precious union.”

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T J Marsden

Here we go again…

By T J Marsden | Tue 21st March 2017 - 9:30 am

 

We all know about the announcement from Nicola Sturgeon. Some have written here in support of Liberal Democrat leadership figures maintaining a staunch unionist position, to the extent of wishing to block an independence referendum in the first place. Others have written in support of the Liberal Democrats crossing the divide and actively backing Scottish independence this time around.

I have made no secret of the fact that in 2014 I was a reluctant Yes voter. I am also open about the fact that in the next referendum, the only thing that will have changed for me is my increased certainty that independence is the least worst option on the ballot, in the wake of Brexit. However, many others within the party will be similarly convinced of their position behind a No vote.

In the wake of the recent Northern Irish election, I remember reading a Mark Pack article asking what lessons Liberal Democrats could learn from our Northern Irish sister party, which had enjoyed a strong result. The Alliance Party exists as a cross-community endeavour to defend and advance liberalism, tolerance and understanding across sectarian and nationalistic divides. Crucially, it does so without declaring either the British union or a future reunion of Ireland as the correct context to achieve those goals in.

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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Tim Farron’s speech to Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 20th March 2017 - 9:25 pm

As I distract myself from the horrors of Brexit by listening to Eurovision songs from the 1980s and writing blue envelopes for the two people I hope will be the next councillors for Almond ward in Edinburgh, Kevin Lang and Louise Young, It thought you might want the chance to watch Tim Farron’s speech from yesterday.

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