The Liberator Collective

Liberator 428 is out

By The Liberator Collective | Tue 8th April 2025 - 12:04 pm

The new issue of Liberator is out.

Liberator 428 is out and can be downloaded for free here:

In Liberator 428 we have Commentary, news in Radical Bulletin, Letters, Lord Bonkers’ Diary and:

TRUMP DRIVES US BACK TO EUROPE.

America’s pivot away from Europe got noisier under Trump but is a long term policy change. Time for a European Defence Union, says Nick Harvey

GIVING UP ON SOFT POWER

Deliberately cruel actions by the Trump administration mean the end of international development aid and the influence of its former donors in developing countries, says Rebecca Tinsley

THE CRUEL CONMAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE

Martha Elliott explains Donald Trump’s assault on America’s constitution and separation of powers

IT WON’T WORK THIS TIME EITHER

Labour is set to follow a series of failed planing reforms that will erode local democracy, weaken nature protection, and fail to deliver sufficient homes, says Bridget Fox

SPEAKING OF FREEDOM

Jonathan Calder delves into a new book on radical Liberalism in an age of crisis

WOULD PADDY DO THIS?

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Jonathan Parry

Is this a Liberal moment?

By Jonathan Parry | Tue 8th April 2025 - 10:03 am

Can the election of Donald Trump be a major opportunity for Liberal Democrats? Quite possibly, though the jury is still out. In fact I’ve just written a short history of British Liberalism which ends with that question.

I’ve argued in the book that British Liberalism has made the political weather when it has mobilised public opinion in favour of a political reset, or against a particular threat. Liberals have campaigned best when they have attacked powerful vested interests and damaging concentrations of power – when they have urged constitutional reform (the nineteenth-century Reform Acts) or stood against tariffs and sectional economic policies (the Corn Laws; Tariff Reform). But it’s not always easy to convince voters that constitutional and structural issues should matter to them. Timing is always central to political success.

In the nineteenth century, Liberals’ favourite slogan was ‘Reform’, which was shorthand for changes to the distribution of parliamentary seats and to the franchise. Reform was demanded for several reasons, particularly to stop high taxes and government oppression of minorities. It was a call for a new, more responsive politics.

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The Voice

Davey on Starmer speech: “End this trade war through strength not timidity”

By The Voice | Mon 7th April 2025 - 7:00 pm

Responding to the Prime Minister’s speech on supporting UK businesses following Trump’s tariffs, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Donald Trump has launched an assault on the global economy which threatens thousands of British jobs and family finances with another pasting in the midst of a cost of living crisis.

The Government needs to break from its policy of cowering in the corner and stand tall with our Commonwealth and European allies against Trump’s tariffs through a new economic coalition of the willing.

The strategy of hoping Donald Trump will be nice to us has not survived contact with reality.

…

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Simon McGrath

Making Labour Councillors more comfortable

By Simon McGrath | Mon 7th April 2025 - 4:04 pm

Labour Councillors in Merton have come up with a way of cutting down on scrutiny from opposition councillors – led by 17 Liberal Democrats. Last week’s Council meeting saw Labour force though a whole series of changes to the constitution which will drastically affect the ability of Opposition Councillors to hold them to account.

The draconian new rules:

  • Limit accountability on key issues by halving the number of questions to Cabinet Members.
  • Reduce the publication of key information on the administration’s performance and whether it’s meeting its own promises, by abolishing ‘strategic theme reports’ and questions.
  • Stifle debate on issues residents care about by limiting opposition motions. For smaller groups – like the Conservatives – that’s to fewer than one a meeting. Independent councillors will rarely, if ever be able to propose motions.
  • Gag minority political opinions. Again, smaller groups – like the Conservatives – will see their speaking time in debates limited.
  • Rig the rule’s in Labour’s favour by fixing it so that Labour councillors get more speaking time in debates, and giving the Labour Leader of the Council unlimited interventions.
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Stephen Harte

Selecting and not selecting people

By Stephen Harte | Mon 7th April 2025 - 1:21 pm

As I never tire of telling people, I’ve been in the Party all of my adult life, having joined, as a teenager, the Scottish Liberal Party (Livingston Constituency Liberal Association, to be exact, for that is how we did things back then) in the febrile months between the 1987 General Election and eventual merger and the creation of the Liberal Democrats.

I have stood under the Party banner in student elections (I once stood for Glasgow University SRC President against a certain Nicola Sturgeon – whatever happened to her? – we both lost!). However, I have never been a candidate in a proper election – not even in a euphemistically described “development” seat. So I don’t really know what it’s like to offer yourself for selection.

In Scotland (as in Wales) we are working hard to select first rate candidates for a General Election due next year. That’s got me thinking about what it means to seek to be a candidate – but, don’t worry, this is not a reflection on the rights and wrongs of motion F10 at the recent Federal Spring Conference in Harrogate or the diplomatic (or otherwise) skills of Tim Farron.

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Samuel Jackson

Further thoughts on Parliamentary Candidates’ debates: thinking beyond First Past the Post

By Samuel Jackson | Mon 7th April 2025 - 10:36 am

In a previous article, We Need Election Debates for a Parliamentary Democracy, I wrote about the current deficiencies in our broadcasted election debates, a recent innovation in British politics given their debut in 2010.

In short, I wrote about how First Past the Post has resulted in a failure to scrutinise the vast majority of parliamentary candidates, with candidates able to actively avoid limited public forums and tempted into committed egregious behaviour when in office that erodes public faith in politics. This in turn has resulted in election debates misrepresenting general elections as quasi-presidential elections for a Prime Minister, especially by the head-to-head debates between the Conservative and Labour leaders which serve to reinforce their artificial duopoly.

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Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 7 April 2025 – a reminder of what freedom really means…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 7th April 2025 - 7:30 am

And before I start, yes, this really is me this week. Last week’s article was something of a play on the Liberal Democrat Voice April Fool, although even my colleagues thought that it was credible. Perhaps I should be troubled by that…

Greetings from the Czech Republic, where I’m off interrailing. And yes, most of this week will be on trains, but I get to enjoy the scenery and allow my mind to wander a bit.

One of the great things about the past forty years is the impact of increased freedom. Freedom to travel, freedom to trade with minimal barriers. Both of these things have enhanced our lives, whether we always realise it or not. From the emergence of European supermarket chains, driving price competition, to the ability to travel randomly across Europe by train without, for the most part, passport checks or varying currencies, all of the benefits of a large free trade zone have made things better for many of us. And, given that Elon Musk apparently agrees on the benefits of free trade zones, it seems to me that support for the concept is pretty widespread.

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Vince Cable

Bullied bullies and the New World Order

By Vince Cable | Sun 6th April 2025 - 2:03 pm

It is a common trait of bullies that they resort to self-pity; claiming to have been bullied themselves. Yet such psychopathology is found not only in the school playground but in the affairs of nations.

Putin’s narrative justifying the invasion of a peaceful neighbour and attendant war crimes draws heavily on a history of post-Soviet Russia being taken advantage of by the West. When China behaves badly it is apt to invoke its own ‘century of humiliation’. The rulers of a newly confident India hark back to past conquests by Muslim invaders to justify persecuting religious minorities. The Balkans and the Middle East continue to suffer the trauma of bullied bullies who excuse themselves in appeals to their own past suffering.

But the USA? Taken advantage of by the world? Exploited and abused by cheaters; scavengers; plunderers; pillagers; rapists. Really? Trump is a smart politician and seems to have found in the MAGA crowd a deep vein of self-pity for all the unfairness heaped on America: ungrateful. free-riding Europeans; devious Asians who have stolen America’s industry; invading Latinos; even, the dastardly Canadians. 

Many countries nurse a mixture of pride and guilt about their history, and their identity. The former colonial powers, like the UK, have had to accept being thrown out of their colonies. Germany and Japan had to come to terms with comprehensive defeat. For sure, the USA has had to come to terms with the genocide of its native inhabitants and slavery. But it can also boast vast achievements: winner of the Cold War; a widely admired ‘shining city on the hill’; creator of the institutions and rules which led to 70 odd years of remarkable global progress; and, still, the undisputed economic and technological leader of the Western world. So why is the Trump bully boy so sorry for himself? 

One grievance is partly justified but has nothing to do with the trade war which Trump has unleashed:  the long-standing failure of America’s European and Asian allies to pay their share of common defence.  After all, the USA has taken on the risk of nuclear incineration which could conceivably be triggered by some miscalculation or mischief made by Europeans in the Baltic or the Balkans.  Trump is right to insist that if Europeans won’t pay up, they can’t expect continued protection.  But, typically ungracious, he fails to acknowledge that British, Danish, Dutch and other Europeans have given their lives supporting the Americans in their questionable wars of choice in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 6th April 2025 - 10:03 am

France

France’s Marine Le Pen has been hoisted upon her own petard. At the National Rally’s annual convention in 2015 she stood at the podium and declared that any politician found guilty of a crime should be barred from office.

Of course, she wasn’t talking about herself. She was referring to the long parade of French political leaders who had fallen foul of the law and been convicted of everything from incitement to hate crimes to pimping to old-fashioned corruption. They included her own father (Jean-Marie Le Pen) and two French presidents (Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy).

Most of them got off fairly lightly, heavy fines and mostly suspended sentences. Only one senior French politician in recent memory has been barred from office—former prime minister Alain Juppe who in 2004 was found guilty of an almost identical crime as the one committed by Ms Le Pen: misusing public funds for political purposes.

In the case of Ms Le Pen and her 24 co-defendants in the National Rally, they were found guilty of taking $4,412,000 earmarked for European Parliamentary business and using the money to pay people working for National Rally. Ms Le Pen was responsible for $520,000 of the money.

The parallels with the legal travails of Donald Trump are obvious. But the American courts took the position that they should go easy on him because he was on the cusp of becoming president. Ms Le Pen is also leading the polls. But the French judges have argued the opposite to their American counterparts.

They judged that because Ms Le Pen was a leading candidate for the presidency of France she should receive a harsher sentence. To do otherwise, argued the court, “would cause a major disruption to democratic public order.”

Ms Le Pen and Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Vladimir Putin, Giorgia Meloni, Viktor Orban and just under half of French voters think that the sentence is unacceptable interference by the courts in the political process. Everyone else thinks that it is important that the law be upheld—a law which Ms Le Pen herself supported.

Canada

It’s called the “Trump Factor” in Canada and it is defined as the out-sized impact that the American president is having on the Canadian elections scheduled for 28 April.

The focus of Canadians is not surprising as Trump has taken it upon himself to threaten Canadian sovereignty by calling for it to become the 51st state and is about to slap tariffs on Canada which will destroy the country’s economy and tens of thousands of jobs.

Which brings us to Canada’s conservative leader Pierre Polievre who has been referred to as “Trump light.” He favours private enterprise; wants some immigration controls; is an anti-vaxxer; is so-so on the issue of climate change; has promised the biggest crackdown on crime in Canadian history; and is seriously anti-woke.

Back in January—before Trump launched his anti-Canadian crusade—Polievre’s policies were enough to put him an apparent shoe-in for the premiership as his party polled 25 points ahead of the governing Liberals.

As of this week, the Liberals are 25 points ahead of Polievre’s conservatives.

The complete reversal is partly down to the resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. After nine years in office, the pretty boy of Canadian politics, had run out of steam and was deeply unpopular.

He was replaced by technocrat Mark Carney whose impressive cv includes stints as the governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England. Carney then played the card that was the second, bigger reason for the reversal in political fortunes—the Canadian public’s growing hatred of Donald Trump.

Carney has broken with diplomatic convention and refused make his first visit to Washington. Instead he flew to London and Paris. He has been adamant that Canada will never be part of the United States. He will retaliate against any Trumpian tariffs and work to reorganise Canada’s trading patterns away from America. “Our relationship with America will never be the same,” Carney declared.

He doesn’t need any policies other than being firmly anti-Trump.

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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Alex Cole-Hamilton’s speech from Scottish Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 6th April 2025 - 8:56 am

I’m just about to head down the road home from  a very buoyant and confident Scottish Conference in the beautiful Highland capital of Inverness. I shall have more reflections later, but first here is Alex Cole-Hamilton’s leader’s speech.

Here’s the livestream which picks up some interesting snippets of conversation in the build up. The first phases also include the fundraiser from our new chief executive Paul Trollope and introduction from Edinburgh Northern PPC Sanne Djikstra-Downie.

The full text is below.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an Expat: Boycott!

By Tom Arms | Sat 5th April 2025 - 9:52 am

It’s time to boycott American goods and services. Buy British. Buy European. Buy Chinese. Buy anything except American.

Non-Americans hit by Trumpian tariffs cannot influence American politics through the ballot box. But they can vote with their pocket books. And a point-blank refusal to buy American products would have more of an impact than retaliatory tariffs that make those products more expensive.

Individuals are already turning their backs on American merchandise.  Last month Europeans registered their displeasure with Donald Trump and his billionaire backer Elon Musk by cutting Tesla sales by 50 percent. Others have shown their disapproval by refusing to buy Coca-Cola or taking their coffee breaks at Café Nero instead of Starbucks.

But these are haphazard kneejerk boycotts which may give the individual a momentary self-righteous glow. They will have little if any effect on the Washington policymakers. What is needed is a coordinated effort that organises pickets, produces literature and stuffs it through letter products. A well-oiled machine with foot soldiers, a PR team and a website that identifies products and services to boycott and names non-American alternatives and goes on to monitor success.

A boycott would also help the re-ordering of trade patterns away from the United States. If people are not buying American goods than they are buying goods from other countries. The businesses in those countries will quickly realise the opportunity and divert their supply lines accordingly

The government can’t do the job of organising a boycott. Not because it is incapable of the task but because it would be politically irresponsible. A successful government-organised boycott would almost certainly result in retribution from the ever-mercurial Trump. It would be in character for Trump to retaliate with restrictions in vital areas such as intelligence gathering or weapons procurement.

No, what is needed is an existing political machine that has significant representation in parliament but is separate from the government. There is no time to re-invent the wheel.   The public requires an existing political party whose leader has already firmly staked out a firm anti-Trumpian position and called for a coordinated response to tariffs and other unacceptable behaviour by the current tenant of the White House.

What is needed is for Britain’s Liberal Democrats—led by Sir Ed Davey—to organise a proper boycott of American products. The government can’t do it. The Tories won’t do it. That leaves the Liberal Democrats – with a leader committed to doing something—with the opportunity and the responsibility.

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Charles Quinn

ALDC By-election Report, 3rd April

By Charles Quinn | Fri 4th April 2025 - 7:50 pm

This has been our most successful week of by-elections for quite some time. There were only 3 contests this week – and 2 of them resulted in Liberal Democrat gains! Quite spectacular gains too. So let’s celebrate some cracking results that will hopefully be just the start of a very successful month for us!

First of all congratulations to Cllr Susan Grounds and the team on Neath Port Talbot Council who gained Ystalyfera and Cwmllynfell ward from Plaid Cymru. Not only did we not stand in this seat in the previous election in 2022 – this is our first principal council by-election gain in Wales since 2019.

From a standing start we picked up 34% of the vote and jumped ahead of both Plaid and Labour whose votes collapsed by 26.5% and 30% respectively.

Neath Port Talbot Council, Ystalyfera and Cwmllynfell
Liberal Democrats (Susan Grounds): 383 (34%, new)
Plaid Cymru: 340 (30.2%, -26.5%)
Reform: 150 (13.3%, new)
Labour: 143 (12.7%, -30.6%)
Independent: 98 (8.7%, new)
Conservative: 12 (1%, new)

We also gained Park ward on City of Lincoln Council from Labour. Cllr Sarah Uldall increased the Lib Dem vote by 28.5% and beat Labour by a solid margin of 84 votes. We finished over 300 votes behind last time. Congratulations to Sarah and the team in Lincoln on a superb gain.

Lincoln City Council, Park
Liberal Democrats (Sarah Uldall): 366 (35.7%, +28.5%)
Labour: 280 (27.3%, -36.1%)
Reform: 180 (17.5%, +17.5%)
Conservative: 87 (8.5%, -9%)
Green Party: 87 (8.5%, -1.8%)
TUSC: 25 (2.4%, new)

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The Voice

Ed Davey’s speech to the Scottish Lib Dem Conference.

By The Voice | Fri 4th April 2025 - 4:41 pm

Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, Jamie Greene MSP, Ed Davey MP (Photo: Elaine Ford)

Scottish Lib Dems are delighted that the Conservative MSP, Jamie Greene, has joined the Liberal Democrats.

Our newest MSP, Jamie Greene!

With Jamie on our team, Scottish Liberal Democrats will keep making our voices heard on the issues that matter – getting you fast access to health care, lifting up Scottish education and growing our economy.

#sldconf

— Scottish Liberal Democrats (@scotlibdems.org.uk) April 4, 2025 at 3:28 PM

Ed Davey began his Leader’s speech at the Scottish Conference by welcoming him.

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Mary Reid

Join a Policy Working Group

By Mary Reid | Fri 4th April 2025 - 1:29 pm

Would you like to serve on one of the party’s Policy Working Groups? I have been on two groups in the past and they were a fascinating experience. We interviewed industry experts as well as policy specialists and had many challenging discussions as we put together the drafts of our eventual policy paper and motion to conference. Halfway through the process we consulted with members at federal conference.

If that appeals to you, and you already have some knowledge of the policy areas concerned, here are four new opportunities:

  • A Thriving Economy
  • International Security
  • Defending and Strengthening British Democracy
  • Primary Healthcare

The deadline for all applications is 21st April.

A Thriving Economy

Boosting productivity and getting the economy growing strongly and sustainably is critical for improving people’s living standards and wellbeing, expanding opportunity, and raising money to spend on public services and defence.

A new policy working group will build on our 2024 general election manifesto to further develop our distinctive Liberal Democrat narrative on why the economy has been performing so poorly, how to turn it around, and how to make sure everyone feels the benefits of growth equitably.

Apply here to join the Thriving Economy working group.

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Nick Baird

Trump has set out his tariffs – the UK should respond robustly

By Nick Baird | Fri 4th April 2025 - 10:51 am

So Donald Trump did exactly what he said he was going to do, and put tariffs on imports from all of America’s biggest trading partners. At time of writing, Keir Starmer has acknowledged there will be an impact on the UK economy, but has yet to say how he intends to respond beyond promising to “keep a cool head”. On top of the 25% tariffs on British steel and cars, there is now an additional 10% ‘everything else’ tariff, which interestingly is less than the 20% applied to EU exporters. While this may reflect the lower trade imbalance that the UK enjoys with the US compared to the EU, it is just as likely to be intended as some performative favouritism designed to drive a wedge between the UK and EU.

So how should the UK respond? It’s true that ultimately nobody wins a trade war, and mutual economic damage is always inflicted until a truce is negotiated.  Does this mean that maybe we should just suck it up, avoid any retaliation, and hope that we can dodge the worst of the harm until a new US administration arrives? Or should we respond robustly and hit back with significant tariffs of our own on the US, and risk provoking “retaliatory-retaliation”? Despite the inherent risks I suggest the latter, for three reasons.

Firstly, we know Trump doesn’t respect weakness, and a failure to respond will be seen as weakness by his administration. If you hand over your lunch money to the school bully with no resistance, what’s to stop him coming for your pocket money too?

Secondly, Trump is a very transactional negotiator who seeks maximum advantage with zero interest in right and wrong. Subsequent negotiations will start from the ‘facts on the ground’ at that point in time. Without applying retaliatory tariffs of our own, the question then becomes what does the Government offer to give away in exchange for tariff relief?  Scrap the digital services tax? Allow imports of US chlorine-washed chicken and hormone fed beef? At least if we apply tariffs of our own, first thing on the table is mutual reductions in tariffs before we give anything else away.

Finally, if we apply retaliatory tariffs it will affect US companies that export to the UK. Some of those are large corporations with armies of lobbyists in Washington, and many are political donors. We need those lobbyists and donors pressuring the Trump administration to negotiate tariff reductions, as they have far more influence on a cash-hungry campaigner like Trump than we can hope for.

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Caron Lindsay

Two brilliant by-election gains

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 4th April 2025 - 8:21 am

We have brilliant news to start our day today.

I do love it when GB News blazes that Reform are all out to win three by-elections and then we win two of them, gaining seats from Labour in, wait for it, Neath Port Talbot, and Lincoln.

The most remarkable gain was in Wales, in the Ystalyfera & Cwmllynfell Ward

Susan Grounds – Lib Dem – 383 34%
Plaid Cymru – 340 30.2%
Reform – 150 13.3%
Lab – 143 12.7%
Ind – 98 – 8.7%
Con 12 – 1%

We had never stood a candidate in this ward until this by-election. What a result! A great tribute to the work and profile of Welsh parliamentarians and a dedicated campaign team.

Thirty years or so ago, I spent a bit of time campaigning in Park ward in Lincoln. We did have a councillor there for a while back then. So it was great to see us gain a seat from Labour there last night.

Sarah Uldall, Lib Dem 366 35.7%
Lab – 280 27.3%
Reform – 180 17.5%
Con – 87 8.5%
Green – 87 8.5%
TUSC 25 2.4%

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Mo Waqas

It’s time to buy British – and mean It

By Mo Waqas | Thu 3rd April 2025 - 1:53 pm

President Trump’s new tariffs on British exports aren’t just a bump in the road they’re a direct threat to our economic independence. The Office for Budget Responsibility says they could knock a full percentage point off our GDP by 2026–27. That’s not abstract. That’s real people losing jobs. Real businesses, especially in places like the North East, struggling to survive.

We can’t afford to shrug this off. If we’ve learned anything from recent years, it’s that we need to be more self-reliant, more rooted, and far less dependent on volatile international partners. That starts with something simple: choosing to buy British, not as a token gesture, but as a conscious act of resilience and solidarity.

Backing our own

We’ve got world-class small businesses across the UK, family shops, independent bookshops, local food producers, run by people who care deeply about what they do and the communities they serve. They already make up over 60% of private sector employment. Every time we choose them over a multinational, we’re doing more than supporting a local business, we’re helping keep our high streets alive, our communities stable, and our economy balanced.

For too long, our towns have been hollowed out by the same big chains, offering the same tired products. The money we spend there often disappears offshore. But when we choose local, we keep that money circulating in our economy. We create jobs, nurture pride, and get something better in return, better service, better quality, and a genuine sense of connection. That’s how we build strong communities, not just strong economies.

Real leadership, real partnerships

This isn’t just about reacting to Trump’s policies. It’s about shifting our whole approach. When Ed Davey praised the Prime Minister for backing a military coalition to defend Ukraine, he was absolutely right, but he also called for the same level of ambition to build an economic coalition to push back against protectionism. We need to lead with ideas, with partnerships, with action.

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The Voice

Scottish Lib Dems select Andrew Baxter for top Highland target

By The Voice | Thu 3rd April 2025 - 10:46 am

Andrew Baxter has been selected as the party’s candidate for its key target of Skye, Lochaber & Badenoch at next year’s Scottish Parliament election.

The seat significantly overlaps with the UK Parliament constituency of Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire which was won by Liberal Democrat Angus MacDonald at the recent election.

Andrew Baxter is a well-known and hard-working community campaigner in South Lochaber, campaigning tirelessly on issues such campaigning tirelessly for rural communities to get a better deal from Highland Council and the Scottish Government and fighting for long-overdue investment in the Corran Ferry service. He has previously worked as a tour guide and ran his village post office in Kinlochleven for 17 years.

He now works in Fort William as Chief of Staff for Angus MacDonald MP.

At the recent Fort William and Ardnamurchan by-election in November 2024, Andrew was successfully elected with 58.9% of first-preference votes to the SNP’s 25.5%.

The current MSP for the seat is Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes.

Andrew said:

So many people feel like nothing works anymore and that politicians aren’t on their side.

I am committed to listening to the people and communities that make up Skye, Lochaber & Badenoch and giving my all to make sure they have the representation they deserve.

Under the SNP, our NHS has deteriorated, local schools are left in disrepair, and the cost of living has risen, making day-to-day life harder for everyone.

It’s time for change. I want to build on the success of Angus MacDonald in the recent UK parliament election and work to make life easier, fairer and more affordable for everyone who lives here.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

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Samuel Jackson

The Liberal Democrats are more than the new ‘Party of Middle England’

By Samuel Jackson | Thu 3rd April 2025 - 8:51 am

Ed Davey and Lib Dem MPs and activists with many diamonds launch election campaign On Monday, as our leader Ed Davey launched the Liberal Democrats’ 2025 local election campaign in Oxfordshire, he said that he wants our party to replace the Conservatives as the ‘party of Middle England’. This year, elections will be held in nineteen counties and local authorities whose councils are controlled outright by the Conservatives, most of which are located in southern England. These communities last voted for their local governments in 2021, when the Conservatives nationally had been buoyed by the fulfilment of Brexit and the coronavirus vaccination rollout but before Partygate, the mini-budget, the cost-of-living crisis and assorted scandals by their MPs.

We cannot fault Ed for wanting to pursue this strategy: it has a proven track record. Following our by-election gains in Chesham and Amersham, North Shropshire, Tiverton and Honiton, and Somerton and Frome, we got a total of seventy-two MPs elected to the Commons in 2024 by targeting Conservative constituencies primarily in the South of England. The Conservatives’ new leader Kemi Badenoch has done little to reposition the party either as an effective opposition or a government-in-waiting and is under the Damoclesian threat of removal in the face of losses in the local elections. We can understand the rationale behind this, but this should not be the be all and end all of our campaigning.

We must endeavour to extend our party’s geographic reach. As we targeted Blue Wall seats in 2024, eighty-two per cent of our current MPs represent constituencies in Southern England, a lopsided distribution that cannot be tenable in the long term. As there is a huge power and economic imbalance within the UK weighted in the South’s favour, our party may well come to be viewed as out of touch or elitist if we maintain this imbalance within our own parliamentary party.

While there is work to be done in Scotland and Wales – for which I will let more experienced and qualified voices speak – we should  consider the North of England. We have demonstrated our desire and ability to expand in the North. In 2024, we flipped the Conservative-held Westminster seats of Harrogate and Knaresborough, Cheadle, and Hazel Grove, centred on relatively affluent market towns similar to typical Southern Blue Wall seats. Despite the seeming focus on the south during this year’s local election, it is the North where we may bring a boon for our party. Hull City Council Leader Mike Ross is campaigning to become the first metro mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire, a position through which we can enact policies on a countywide scale and garner the same visibility and clout as Labour figures like Andy Burnham and Tracy Brabin. As there are local elections taking place in Conservative-controlled Northern authorities including County Durham and Lancashire, should we not be challenging them there as well?

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The Voice

Ed Davey: UK must stand firm against Trump’s attempts to divide and rule

By The Voice | Wed 2nd April 2025 - 11:28 pm

Ed Davey has responded to Donald Trump’s announcement of tariffs with various countries.

He said:

Today Donald Trump has launched a destructive trade war that threatens the jobs and living standards of people across the UK and around the world.

We need to end this trade war as quickly as possible – and that means standing firm with our allies against Trump’s attempts to divide and rule. The Prime Minister should bring our Commonwealth and European partners together in a coalition of the willing against Trump’s tariffs, using retaliatory tariffs where necessary and signing new trade deals with each other where possible.

If the Government gives in to Trump’s threats, it will only encourage him to use the same bullying tactics again and again.

On Peston he called for an EU/UK customs union and for an economic coalition of the willing to stand up to Trump. He also said we should work with our Commonwealth allies.

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Caron Lindsay

William Wallace writes..British Politics in a national and global emergency

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 2nd April 2025 - 1:55 pm

Martin Wolf, as so often, had it right in the Financial Times the other week.  He argued that in the multi-headed crisis we now face, the proper response of government is to tell the voters that this is both a national and a global emergency and that national economic and fiscal policies will have to take these exceptional circumstances into account.  The impact of Trump’s tariffs on the global economy could plunge us all into a deep recession.

Labour knew when they came into office that Russia’s attack on Ukraine had raised difficult questions about replacing stocks of equipment and munitions and increasing Britain’s defence capabilities.  They also had a good idea of how far the Conservatives in office had run down public investment and juggled financial figures to avoid recognising that state revenues did not match public spending needs.  It seems however that full realisation of the depth of the investment and income deficit only came when they were in office, well after they had boxed themselves in by promising not to raise any of the three main sources of taxable revenue.  And they had not predicted the third shock, which has hit them six months after taking office: the impact of Trump’s second presidency on the global economy, on transatlantic relations and on the conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East. 

These three crises together have undermined Labour’s growth strategy, and are likely to force it to choose unwillingly both further spending cuts and higher taxes.  Yet here, as elsewhere, Labour remains timid and uncertain in making hard choices, let alone in persuading the public to accept them.  Opinion polls show that most voters don’t yet support increased spending on defence, because they don’t yet see the Russian attack on Ukraine as directly threatening Britain.  Most aren’t happy about cuts in welfare, but are content for overseas aid and other budgets to be squeezed to provide some of the funds needed rather than higher taxation.  

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Mike Ross

We can win in Hull and East Yorkshire. But only with your help 

By Mike Ross | Wed 2nd April 2025 - 11:55 am

Lib Dems in sunshine with Mike Ross, Mark Pack and Shaffaq Mohammed

If you were at our recent Spring conference, you will hopefully have heard all about my campaign to become the first Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire. 

Last weekend, we were joined by Party President Mark Pack in Hessle, East Yorkshire, to formally launch our campaign for the mayoralty. 

It was an honour to be joined by Lord Pack and by so many activists, both from across the region and further afield, such as Lord Shaffaq Mohammed and a team from Sheffield. We’ve also had a visit from Ed Davey and many front-bench MPs. 

It’s clear the momentum is with us here, and it’s clear that local people want to send the Labour Government a message on 1st May. 

But we must not be complacent. The region is vast, comprising the city of Hull with the mostly rural East Riding, which spans almost 2,500 square kilometres, with hundreds of thousands of people registered to speak to. We must deliver to and speak with as many people as possible, as many times as possible, between now and 1st May. 

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Mark Pack

Mark Pack’s Monthly Report to members

By Mark Pack | Wed 2nd April 2025 - 9:45 am

Our electoral system cannot cope

Securing 30% of the vote in a general election used to be a general election losing vote share for Labour or the Conservatives. But it is now quite possible that the winner of the next Westminster general election will not top 30%, and that we will have four political parties within 10-15 points of each other. First past the post is really not designed for that…

This comes with two important implications for ourselves. One is the continuing importance of local elections, both in their own right and also as a way of establishing credibility for Westminster Parliament (and indeed Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd, along with Mayor) contests. Even if we finished a long way back on vote share in the previous election, gains at local election level can put us in the race – and show voters that we are in the race.

The other is the continuing importance of bar charts. Tactical voting was not just a one-off to remove the Conservatives from 10 Downing Street last year. As we have seen in council by-elections since last summer, it continues to be important – just as it continued to be so after the 1997 Conservative landslide defeat too. (In fact, anti-Conservative tactical voting was still a big factor in 2005, two general elections and one Iraq war on from 1997.)

So don’t mothball those bar chart templates quite yet.

Speaking of bar charts, here is one that shows how impressively our local campaign teams over-perform in council by-elections:

Federal Conference…

Many thanks to everyone involved in putting on such a well-run Federal Conference in Harrogate. Another impressive team effort by staff and volunteers!

Among the important measures passed were F9, Free to be who you are, which reaffirmed our support for trans rights and F10, about reforming our Parliamentary candidate process. This reached the two-thirds majority required (it looked like it passed about 80%-20%) and so now moves to the stage of state party approval.

I know it is an issue which raised many passions, and people were particularly heartfelt about the need for consultation – an important point for us all as we move on to the next stage.

Much of the debate focused on the two-thirds of constituencies which did not get to select their own candidate in the last Parliament. Helping more of them select, and in enough time to train and support their candidates, is an important task for this Parliament. Helping more of our non-target seats get candidates in place sooner, and then properly supporting and training those candidates, could be a massive step change in how we spread the breadth of our success across the country.

Conference also ratified the new set of election regulations for our big internal elections due this autumn (timetable here). The Board has also reappointed David Crowther to a new three year term as Federal Returning Officer.

If you did not make it to Conference – or did but want to relive any of the moments – you can watch again on the party’s YouTube channel.

Extra thanks to Jeremy Hargreaves, Nicholas da Costa and Daisy Cooper for kindly stepping in to cover things for me after I had to miss the event due to a bout of ill health.

See you all in Bournemouth in September!

Our fabulous Party Awards winners

Harrogate also saw our latest round of Party Awards, with a fabulous quartet of colleagues having their contributions recognised:

Albert Ingham Award

Named in honour of one of our party’s election agent greats, this award goes to Ed Thornley for his work on a cracking by-election win in Edinburgh in November. Thanks to Ed’s dedication, skill and commitment over five long months, we started in fourth place on 12% of the vote and ended up with more than treble that – with nearly double the vote of the second place candidate.

Bertha Bowness Fischer Award

This award is named after the pioneering female Liberal election agent and this time is awarded to someone who has already made their mark despite only recently joining us – Lou Timlin. Lou joined in 2023 but has already been a campaigner, diversity officer, Fleet super user, press officer and elected a councillor too. Following someone’s bereavement, she even stepped in at no notice to be agent in Wokingham for the general election – helping us win the seat on a 19% swing.

Laura Grimond Award

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Jack Meredith

Liberals and socialists – a response

By Jack Meredith | Wed 2nd April 2025 - 7:30 am

Last week, I came across an article by Chris Whiting on Lib Dem Voice, which you can read here. Chris makes a compelling case for why liberals and socialists should collaborate, and I highly recommend it. Nevertheless, I would like to offer an alternative perspective.

I want to focus on a line from Chris’s article in which he states, “If you follow the principles of liberalism to their logical conclusion, you arrive at socialism.” I disagree. Socialism aims to establish a society where private property has been abolished, and the working class owns the means of production. In contrast, liberalism places less emphasis on who owns the means of production and more on issues such as freedom of speech, liberal democracy, freedom of the press, and, most notably, freedom of enterprise.

While socialism is primarily an economic theory, liberalism emphasises individual freedom. Both socialism and liberalism support economic freedom as one of the most critical forms. However, while socialism focuses intently on this area, liberalism views it as merely one aspect of a broader framework.

Another specific issue when rereading this line is the established history of liberalism and socialism. Although I was born in the UK, my cousin’s family is of Polish descent. My cousin’s family were hunted down and executed on Joseph Stalin’s orders. Those who managed to escape fled to the UK and made new lives for themselves. Those who did not were taken into a forest, shot in the back of the head, and buried in a mass grave in a series of mass executions now more commonly known as The Katyn Massacre.

Stalin’s theories, particularly “Socialism in One Country,” came at a significant cost: mass deportations, state-sanctioned murder, and the complete dismantling of civil society. One might argue, “But this is merely an extreme example.” In response, I urge you to consider China, North Korea, Vietnam, or Cuba. To uphold socialism, these nations abolished liberal democracy, committed crimes against humanity, and ignored any semblance of freedom. Where socialism has emerged as the dominant ideology, bloodshed has followed.

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The Voice

It’s just gone 12 noon – were you fooled?

By The Voice | Tue 1st April 2025 - 12:01 pm

We enjoy preparing articles for April 1st each year.

Our “LDV and AI – a new venture” was, as usual, near the knuckle. The AI tool’s name of “Packed” had our esteemed Party President wondering out loud as to whether he should trade mark his name.

In an example of reality reflecting farce, our team editor Mark has now revealed that the article he wrote on Monday morning was in fact AI generated. This went unnoticed by all. Well, it did seem a bit verbose!

In other April 1st news, Christine Jardine MP circulated a draft early day motion as follows:

EDM – The Auld Alliance

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Caron Lindsay

LDV and AI – a new venture

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 1st April 2025 - 6:55 am

Last week, Conference in Harrogate passed a wide ranging science and technology paper, Victoria Collins MP contrasted our approach with that of Labour and Conservatives.

Liberal Democrats take a different approach, one grounded in our values of internationalism, respect for individual rights, and challenging concentrations of power.

One issue the policy paper looked at was how we should deal with AI.

In accordance with those values, our new policy calls for us to develop a legally binding code of ethics and a “Lovelace Oath” which would be similar to the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors.

Recently an author friend of mine posted on social media that the Meta AI had uploaded four of her novels to train its AI. I observed at the time that this seemed more like stealing than training. Our new policy says that we need to

Strengthen rules around copyright so that creators are treated fairly, with record keeping duties and robust, independent auditing of data and content use for AI developers.

In the run-up to the debate in Harrogate, the LDV team mused amongst ourselves about how we could best utilise AI. Running this site takes a phenomenal amount of effort and we decided to harness the potential of this new technology.

To that end, with help of the boffins at the Lib Dem Coders Group, we developed our own AI tool, Packed, which we trained by feeding it:

  • our entire archive
  • all the comments left on the site
  • all the emails LDV has ever received and the replies from the team
  • all the speeches ever made by parliamentarians
  • all policy papers passed since 1988
  • the constitutions of the Federal, Scottish, English and Welsh parties with all amendments since 1988

Someone observed that this was very close to the knowledge of the Party President, hence how our tool got its name.

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Donald McIntosh

Is the tax system shafting Gen Z and Millennials?

By Donald McIntosh | Mon 31st March 2025 - 5:45 pm

The tax system in the UK exacerbates age inequality and puts an increasingly unsustainable burden on Gen Z and Millennials.

A millionaire like Rishi Sunak pays an effective rate of 23% tax on his £2.2m income. And yet, someone in their late 20’s earning, say, £55,000 will pay 51% of every extra £ they earn (40% tax + 2% NI + 9% Student Loans). And we wonder why younger voters are disengaged and demographic time bombs arise.

In percentage terms, the tax burden rises, falls hardest on the struggling middle income, and then reduces, as wealth becomes sufficient to afford tax advisors. Once a level of wealth is achieved, the UK has some of the most generous tax relief schemes in the world. These need pruning.

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Chris Northwood

What Trans Day of Visibility means to me

By Chris Northwood | Mon 31st March 2025 - 12:15 pm

Today is the Trans Day of Visibility. It’s a day I’ve felt cynical about in past years.

The discussion around trans rights gets seen a lot. Whether it’s philosophical or academic debates on “what is a woman”, we’re also seeing the persecution of trans rights currently being seen most visibly under Trump’s government, but also the slow and steady dismantling of trans healthcare (particularly for under-18s) from Labour and Wes Streeting and legal protections in the UK through the courts emboldening transphobia.

But seldom in that visibility are actual trans people. There are a number of names involved in “the trans debate” but very few of those names are actually trans people. What we need is for trans people to be seen too.

What I need is not only to be seen as a hot topic or debate item, but to be seen as a person, messy and imperfect as everyone else. Not as a predator undertaking a shady underhand attempt to erode women’s rights (which as a woman protect me as much as anyone else, why would I try to erode them) who wants to destroy western civilisation or whatever UK broadsheets are accusing people like me of today, but as a human being who loves skiing, sharing bottles of wine with friends, making terrible jokes and turning up at the pub quiz to have a go at winning the prize. A software engineer who got elected to represent her local area, motivated by making the world a tiny bit better every day.

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Suzanne Fletcher

The speech I didn’t make at Conference – Suzanne Fletcher

By Suzanne Fletcher | Mon 31st March 2025 - 9:47 am

With my thinking dulled with pain killers and not properly reading the emergency motion, Restoring International Development Assistance – Liberal Democrats I didn’t put a card in to speak.

The speeches were excellent, and it was one of those times when I was very proud to be a Liberal Democrat.

While increased defence spending is essential to support Ukraine and ensure the UK’s security, it cannot and should not be met through unfair measures like cutting our Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the 0.7% of GDP agreed under The Coalition, to 0.5% under the Conservative Government, to Labour’s proposal of 0.3%. …

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Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 31 March 2025 – reflections on where we are…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 31st March 2025 - 7:30 am

British politics, in its endless ebb and flow, has a way of entangling the most basic human instincts with the intricate mechanisms of power. There’s a sense of theatre to it, a drama that plays out not just on the grand stages of Westminster, but in the quiet corners of pubs, the buzzing of conversations in local shops, the heated arguments at dinner tables. It’s the stuff of everyday life, at once far removed from and deeply connected to the headlines that flood the national consciousness.

It’s hard not to feel, at times, that the British political system is a relic of an era long past, yet somehow still alive, kicking with a tenacity that defies explanation. The parliamentary rituals — those long speeches in the House of Lords, the terse exchanges in the Commons, the speeches that always seem to run a little too long — have a peculiar, almost quaint quality to them. They’re traditions, yes, but also part of a performative aspect of politics that serves as both distraction and diversion. At its best, the system can still produce moments of genuine insight, but more often than not, it feels like a carefully orchestrated dance, the steps known to all, the outcome often preordained.

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