Chloe Hutchinson

Liberalism GO

By Chloe Hutchinson | Sun 24th July 2016 - 10:55 am

Last week the new mobile phone game Pokémon Go was launched in the UK (you can download it on Apple and Android devices) and it seems to have been a great hit. The point of the game is to explore the real world to find these little Pocket Monsters (“Pokémon”) which show up on your phone. In addition to this, there are numerous “Pokéstops” and gyms placed throughout the world which allow players to collect in-game items and compete against other players in battles to become the very best.

Now this might sound silly to you or not your cup of tea but here are a few ways in which it could help you (at least over the next month or two).

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Caron Lindsay

Some questions for More United

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 24th July 2016 - 9:41 am

In a blaze on social media. the More United project, supported by Paddy Ashdown, launches this morning.

It’s certainly ambitious:

MoreUnited.uk is a new movement setting out to change British politics. We’re going to transform the way politics is funded, giving a voice to the millions of open and tolerant people in Britain who feel the political system no longer works for them.

It has a Facebook page here and you can follow it on Twitter here.

They intend to fund candidates who subscribe to a series of pretty broad principles:

 A fair, modern, efficient market based economy that closes the gap between rich and poor and supports strong public services

A modern democracy that empowers citizens, rather than politicians

A green economy that protects the environment and works to reverse climate change

An open and tolerant society where diversity is celebrated in all its forms

A United Kingdom that welcomes immigration, international co-operation and a close relationship with the EU

There some example policies to flesh this stuff out.

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The Voice

Lib Dem Jobwatch special: Last chance to apply for internship with ALDC

By The Voice | Sat 23rd July 2016 - 4:34 pm

The Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners is this party’s foremost authority on local campaigning. They know how to win council seats and run councils like nobody else. A chance to work for them is a brilliant opportunity.

They run an internship scheme and are currently advertising for a campaigns and communications intern to work for them for a year from 1st September. Details are as follows:

This is a full-time role, paid at the UK National Minimum/Living Wage (currently £7.20 per hour for 25 year olds and over, and the applicable rate for under 25s) based at our offices in Manchester city centre.

ALDC is the national organisation for Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners. This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in the work of the organisation as we continue to build on the gains in this year’s local elections and by-elections.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Alistair Carmichael: We put an end to child detention. Now the Tories have backtracked

By NewsHound | Sat 23rd July 2016 - 2:49 pm

Alistair Carmichael writes for STV News about the Tories sneaking out the announcement about the closure of the Cedars facility:

It is the oldest trick in the parliamentary book. Slip out all the bad news on the last day when MPs are already looking out the Ambre Solaire and the flip flops. By the time the Commons returns in September the moment for protest will have passed and the pressure will be off.

Thursday’s clutch brought the usual mix of the good, the bad and the indifferent. And one more — the shameful. Buried in amongst announcements about schools funding, Ecofin and Armed Forces Pay Review Body appointments, there is one entitled “Cedars pre-departure accommodation”. It is a cosy-sounding title that betrays its true nature.

Cedars was the accommodation set up under the coalition government when implementing the commitment in the coalition agreement to end the detention of children for immigration purposes. It meant that children in families awaiting removal from the UK would no longer have to spend time in lock-down institutions.

Why should we treat children of asylum seekers less well than we would want our own to be treated, he asks.

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The Voice

Amna Ahmad selected to fight Sutton and Cheam

By The Voice | Sat 23rd July 2016 - 2:10 pm

Selections for a potential snap general election continue. Amna Ahmad has been selected to fight Sutton and Cheam, the seat held until the 2015 general election by former health and social care minister Paul Burstow.

She announced the news in a tweet:

You can find out more about Amna and what makes her tick in an interview she gave to the Croydon Citizen when standing for the GLA for Sutton and Croydon this year:

I grew up in south London, but I was born in Pakistan, moving to London when I was less than a year old. When I was growing up, there was domestic violence in my home, and I spent some time in foster care. I spent a lot of time dealing with the authorities at a young age and realised that it can be difficult to speak up and be heard. These experiences have given me the drive to speak up for others wherever I can. That’s why I got involved in politics, and I joined the Liberal Democrats because I believed that going to war in Iraq was the wrong decision. The Liberal Democrats were the only party to wholeheartedly campaign against that war.

I believe in community politics and local decision making, which is why I am a Liberal Democrat…

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Caron Lindsay

How Lib Dems are using Pokemon Go

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 23rd July 2016 - 1:15 pm

This week I succumbed, only for the sake of family bonding, to the latest craze sweeping the planet, or at least that part of it that can afford a mobile phone with enough 4G data to do it. Pokemon Go is, actually, a good thing. If it does nothing other than get the nerds some Vitamin D, it will have succeeded. It’s also a pretty social occupation. It’s great to see crowds of people gathering around landmarks actually talking to each other. The speed at which phrases like “I only have to walk another 5k to hatch my egg” have become normal is quite staggering.

Everyone seems to be doing it. Even the Lib Dem Press Office claimed to me that they were hunting Pokemon in a London car park when they found this:

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The Voice

Liberal Democrat position on Police merger vindicated by Scottish think tank

By The Voice | Sat 23rd July 2016 - 12:20 pm

The Lib Dems have form for calling things right – the Iraq War, the Credit Crunch, Mystic Clegg’s account of what would happen post Brexit vote. We also said from the beginning that merging Scotland’s eight police forces into one was a disaster waiting to happen. So it has been proven in many ways from routine arming of Police in the Highlands to the failures related to the M9 crash where two people died after being left for 3 days, to the closing down of saunas in Edinburgh, ruining years of a system that worked.

Now think tank Reform Scotland has published a report that vindicates the Lib Dem position and supports the measures for reintroduction of local accountability that we called for in our Scottish Parliament election manifesto. Its research director said:

However we remain concerned that, under the current centralised structure, there is no obvious way to actually make localism happen.

For that reason, we have proposed that both the funding and governance structure must change. He who pays the piper calls the tune, and on that principle we believe that local authorities should again be responsible for funding 50% of policing, with the Scottish Government continuing to fund the other 50%.

Furthermore, we believe that each local authority should be able to nominate a member of the Scottish Police Authority to ensure that local priorities are adequately represented.

The creation of Police Scotland was a mistake, and in the absence of any further wholesale reform we all have a responsibility to make the smaller changes which can help re-create local policing.

Liam McArthur, Scottish Lib Dem Justice spokesperson said:

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Steve Trevethan

Suggestions for constitutional changes after Brexit and Chilcot

By Steve Trevethan | Sat 23rd July 2016 - 11:20 am

The EU referendum was both democratic and dictatorial.

This form of democracy was, is and will be profoundly self-harming of our nation. It destroyed opportunities, such as negotiating for a more democratic and less finance controlled EU, and precipitated unnecessary difficulties, such as having to deal with a massive range of trade negotiations from a position of weakness.

It was imposed unilaterally by the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, in an inept and selfish attempt to cohere his party and keep in his job. It has cost us our powerful place in Europe and may cost the United Kingdom the kingdom of Scotland and lead to problems resulting from an intensified Anglo-Irish border.

The Chilcot Report proves that Great Britain was misled into a bloody war by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and an unaccountable clique of cronies and apparatchiks. Its dangerous and cruel consequences increase daily. The costs to our armed forces were, and are needless death, mutilation and mental damage.

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Paul Walter

Brexit: How we could be in the single market with greater control over immigration – the Adam Smith Institute

By Paul Walter | Sat 23rd July 2016 - 9:10 am

The words of President Hollande on Thursday reinforced the UK’s apparent dilemma:

It’s the most crucial point… Britain will have to choose: stay in the single market and accept free movement or have another status.

I have banged on about this since the referendum. There is a halfway house – that of being in the EEA and EFTA.

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ALDC

ALDC’s by-election report: 21 July 2016

By ALDC | Fri 22nd July 2016 - 5:30 pm

ALDC Master Logo (for screen)From one week of fantastic by-election results to another, with a Liberal Democrat gain in the Northampton Council, where the local Westone team increased the Lib Dem vote share by 36.4% to get our candidate Brian Markham elected. Councillor Markham received 49.7% of the vote, compared to the Conservatives’ 27.2% and Labour’s 23.0%.

The local team ran a fantastic campaign to “Bring Back Brian” to the area, as Brian first won the seat at another by-election in 1993 and represented the area for 18 years. Team Lib Dem engaged many of their new members in Westone as part of the campaign, with Brian saying that “we have had quite a few new members recently and it’s been great to be able to get them involved and see their enthusiasm”.

We also enjoyed success in the town council by-election in Burbage Parish, where the Conservatives enjoyed a 200 vote majority in the Stretton ward last year, but was gained yesterday by the Liberal Democrats with a 58 vote majority, receiving 47.2% of the vote.

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David Hopps

In protecting the liberal age, the charge of elitism must be avoided

By David Hopps | Fri 22nd July 2016 - 3:59 pm

There is a sense that if an election happens at any time in the next year, it will be fought out as much on values as economic policy. The argument is no longer just about fairness and equality. It is also about a philosophy of life.

Fears that the liberal age is now under threat both from Right and Left has the potential to galvanise those who have previously taken our liberal traditions for granted. The #libdemfightback has the potential to happen.

Identifying the 48% Remain voters as fertile ground for the Liberal Democrats was a fast and valid response, not just a sound political gambit for a party polling so low but one that was true to the party’s internationalist values.

Remain voters are desperate to embrace a coherent narrative and the liberal attitudes held by many of them will only turn into Lib Dem votes if that narrative is provided.

But that should only be the beginning. The Lib Dems must also respond powerfully and clearly to the illiberal, isolationist and anti-elite sentiment that lay behind Brexit.

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Anna Pitcher

Why does the Tory Government want students to be even poorer?

By Anna Pitcher | Fri 22nd July 2016 - 2:40 pm

If you’re a prospective undergraduate student, you’ll have been shocked to see a number of universities, including Durham and Royal Holloway, offering courses above the £9000 a year threshold, which has now been increased to £9250. If you’re a current student or have confirmed your place for September 2016, you’ll be even more shocked to find out that your tuition fees could potentially increase, after you agreed on a price.

When applying for university, both student finance and my school assured me not to worry about the student loans: I would only be paying it back if I earned £21,000 and until I was 50 years old, and I would be getting a lovely bursary to support me through too, due to coming from a low income family. Of course that’s all changed and I will now be in about £60,000 worth of debt due to doing a four year course and my reliance on the bursary from Student Finance England. With tuition fees rising, is there really any incentive for students to go to university in the UK?

Jo Johnson said that ‘higher fees lead to better teaching’, yet the QS top 100 universities is not entirely dominated by British universities, with only 15 English universities making the top 100 and three Scottish universities making their way to top 100 (all of which are free to Scots and EU Nationals). In comparison there are a number of EU universities making the top 100 which have no tuition fees to EU students, including Germany, Finland and Denmark, with others offering incredibly low fees such as the Netherlands and France and many of these cheap or free courses are offered in English. That’s a lot better value for money if it’s £9000 a year (potentially more) cheaper for the same quality of education and same standard of universities.

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems react to closure of Cedars family immigration facility

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 22nd July 2016 - 1:20 pm

One of the great things that Liberal Democrats ensured was that children would no longer be detained for immigration purposes. Instead, a pre-departure facility for families, Cedars, was set up with advice and support from Barnardos.

When we left Government, I feared it would be a matter of time before this excellent facility was closed.

And so, amid the flurry of announcements put out by the Government on the last day before the Summer recess, the news came yesterday. Cedars was being closed and families with children will once again be held in a detention centre Tinsley House.

Unsurprisngly, Liberal Democrats have reacted with horror.

Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said:

Cedars was a civilised way of dealing with some of the most vulnerable young people in our care.

Ending the detention of children in lock-down institutions was something that the Liberal Democrats forced Theresa May as Home Secretary to do against her will. Now there are no restraints on her, she will indulge the more callous instincts of her party.

Having Tories in government is a bit like sharing your home with a cat. You may think that you have a domestic pet but the feral animal is never far beneath the surface.

He also sought assurances that families in Scotland would not be held in the Dungavel facility:

One of the first things that Lib Dems in government forced the then Home Secretary Theresa May to do was end the detention of children for immigration purposes. Days after coming to power she has thrown away years of progress.

What this decision means in practice is a return to situation where young children will find themselves in detention centres surrounded by razor wire and guards. This is a huge step backwards.

Previously, we had seen some children locked up at Dungavel for more than a year and there were damning reports on the level of educational support provided to children at the site. The last thing we need is a return to a situation where young people in the immigration system are treated like cattle, not children.

The Prime Minister needs to scrap her plans to close Cedars and we need urgent assurances that this inhumane decision will not open the door to a return to child detention at Dungavel.

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Antony Hook

“Brexit plunges UK economy to worst level since 2009”

By Antony Hook | Fri 22nd July 2016 - 12:00 pm

The BBC, whom many people thought unfairly generous to Leave during the referendum campaign reports worrying economic data.

Data from Markit’s Purchasing Manager’s Index, or PMI, shows a fall to 47.7 in July, the lowest level since April in 2009. A reading below 50 indicates contraction.

Both manufacturing and service sectors saw a decline in output and orders.

The report goes onto say that most businesses are attributing the causes to “Brexit” (which appears to mean the vote to Leave, rather than leaving itself which has not yet happened).

Unless the economy improves in coming months we will be officially in recession.  A …

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NewsHound

LibLink: Tim Farron: Turmoil makes case for voting reform

By NewsHound | Fri 22nd July 2016 - 10:50 am

Tim Farron has written a thoughtful article for the Yorkshire Post saying that we need to reform our voting system to make it fairer and to reflect the views of the people.

What’s surprising is that there’s more than just Lib Dems talking about it:

But just as extraordinary in its way has been the letters page of The Yorkshire Post. It has been bursting with debate on the need for electoral reform in the light of Brexit and the divided state of our country.

Tim went on to talk about conversations with Leave voters in Preston who felt that their concerns were not reflected in Westminster:

Many said that London had boomed while places that had been hit hard by the recession still haven’t seen much evidence of a recovery.

True, there were some who had voted Leave because they were worried about what they saw as an erosion of sovereignty. But many raised issues such as low wages, poor housing and lack of investment.

Even when immigration was mentioned, it was in the context of lack of training and opportunities for people in cities such as Preston to improve their lives and share in prosperity. I pointed out that London certainly has its share of disadvantaged people, but several people asked: “Where is the infrastructure investment in other parts of the UK?”

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Edwin Moriarty

Liberal Democrats need to have radical solutions to collapse of industrial communities

By Edwin Moriarty | Fri 22nd July 2016 - 9:21 am

It is with more than a little sadness and apprehension that I watch the drawn-out self destruction of the Labour Party, as its leader, a man who I once respected and liked, seems hell bent on bringing Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition to its knees. The details of this destruction have been covered extensively in other places, and I won’t repeat them here, but one thread does deeply concern me as a liberal: the seeming blindness the Labour Party has to industry and the traditional worker.

Britain’s industrial past, I believe, played a key part in the result of the EU referendum, where those who feel disenfranchised by the crippling of their communities, and the industrial centre that were once at their heart, did what they felt they needed to in order to enact a change. Labour’s solution to this has, broadly, been to carry on as they were and to promise a restoration of this industrial past.

We live in an era of hard truths.

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The Voice

LIb Dems GAIN in Northampton

By The Voice | Thu 21st July 2016 - 11:52 pm

Good news from the East Midlands that few really expected tonight. A good GAIN of a Parish Council seat in Burbage along with a District Council GAIN in Westone, Northampton.

A 33% swing! Blimey!

This is the second time representing the seat for new/old Cllr Brian Markham, who originally won the seat 23 years ago and represented the area until 2011. I actually remember that first by-election win back in 1993!

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Antony Hook

EURef: Science already suffering – but how do we explain to Leave voters this matters?

By Antony Hook | Thu 21st July 2016 - 4:45 pm

microscope

I spoke for Remain at about 50 debates during the campaign.  Whether they were in village halls, church halls, schools or pubs, I mentioned science.

The EU sensibly allocates its science funds by competitive bids and for years a lot has come to universities and research companies in Britain.  The benefits for a society in which there are a lot of scientists and science work go beyond simple economics.  There is a cultural benefit too from having more people in our community who think with the logical, disciplined mind of a scientist.

If the …

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The Voice

Tom Hanks, Carly Rae Jepsen, an under-the-weather Nick Clegg and a day in Gravesend

By The Voice | Thu 21st July 2016 - 3:32 pm

With thanks to The Times, for a headline I never thought I’d write here on LDV:

There are lots of reasons why the Liberal Democrats were wiped out at the general election. To the long list we might now add that the world never got to see Nick Clegg’s version of a pop music video in which he pretended to be Tom Hanks.

In the weeks before polling day last year the deputy prime minister spent several days, and almost £8,000 of party funds, starring in a shot-for-shot re-creation of the video for I Really Like You by Carly Rae Jepsen, the Canadian singer.

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Lester Holloway

Taking a stand against post-Brexit racism

By Lester Holloway | Thu 21st July 2016 - 2:03 pm

Tim Farron has rightly taken a stand against the upsurge of race hate crimes post-Brexit, but as a party Liberal Democrats need to develop a coherent response that does more than state how repellent racism is or how much it jars with liberal values.

The issue is not likely to disappear soon. Just yesterday Scotland Yard’s deputy commissioner Craig Mackey reported that race crimes in the capital had doubled.

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Hannah Bettsworth

Tales from Cleveland, Ohio…Part One

By Hannah Bettsworth | Thu 21st July 2016 - 12:00 pm

I’ve had the opportunity to go out to Cleveland, Ohio to campaign for Hillary Clinton for the next two weeks. My friends Ryan and James are out there working as campaign fellows and I thought that it would be fun to go and join them. It is great fun at the moment – I’ve met loads of friendly people in the office and out at events.

The Republican National Convention is downtown right now, as you’ll all probably know, and we were trying to register voters around the area. Ryan and James got a few, but I’m still learning the ropes …

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Paul Walter

Brexit: The betting on what will happen next

By Paul Walter | Thu 21st July 2016 - 10:55 am

CGP Grey is an Irish American You Tuber and podcaster. He’s done some excellent animated YouTube videos which explain complex issues very quickly. I recommend viewing his masterpiece on what would happen if the USA’s presidential electoral college is tied, and his corker on the Canadian-USA border. They are both priceless.

CGP Grey has now turned his attention to the Brexit options. He talks very fast on this following video. In fact, I don’t remember him talking this fast on any of his previous videos. He talks faster than the actors on West Wing. In 6’57” he beautifully explains the Brexit scenario and the post-Brexit options. It really is brilliant.

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Paul Walter

Through careful language, Theresa May leaves her options open on Brexit

By Paul Walter | Thu 21st July 2016 - 9:30 am

I’ve mentioned before that Theresa May is, as one might expect, using very careful language on post-Brexit options.

In her leadership launch statement, she said:

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NewsHound

Nick Clegg: We need more than warm words and bromide from May

By NewsHound | Wed 20th July 2016 - 9:51 pm

In his first few hours as our EU Spokesperson, we’ve had more sense from Nick Clegg than we’ve had from the whole government in the four awful weeks since the referendum.

Tonight he was on Radio 4’s PM programme saying that it was really important that we started to see some detail from the Government on its plans for Britain’s exit from the EU. We need, he said, a very detailed plan to extricate ourselves from the complex web of economic and legal ties between us and the EU.

He said that if the Government wanted to retain the closest possible ties with the single market, their own backbenchers would kick off.

You can listen to his interview here from about 39:30.

In a piece for the i newspaper, Nick pointed out a few discrepancies between what the Tories say they want and the likelihood of it happening without compromise:

Theresa May can’t, for example, promise that we will be able to enjoy all the benefits to our economy that full access to the world’s largest borderless single market will bring, without accepting freedom of movement in return. So which is it? What matters more – our economy and jobs or clamping down on immigration?

David Davis, Theresa May’s new Brexit minister, appears to believe the single market is just a free trade arrangement. It isn’t. Free trade means removing tariffs so that companies can trade without paying different levels of tax on the goods they buy and sell. But the single market is much more ambitious. It is about harmonising all the standards and regulations that apply to goods and services across Europe, so that companies can trade with each other on a truly level playing field.

So it’s good that someone is on the case. He sets out his own plans:

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Antony Hook

EURef: UK stripped of 2017 EU Council Presidency

By Antony Hook | Wed 20th July 2016 - 6:30 pm

The Presidency of the European Council rotates between the member states who hold it for 6 months at a time.  The UK was due to hold the Presidency in the second half of 2017.

Some people expected David Cameron’s pledge to hold an EU Referendum “by the end of 2017” indicated he planned to use the Presidency in a way that would then springboard him into a successful campaign.

He called it early and lost.  Now it appears there will be no UK Presidency in 2017.  The Independent reports it has been cancelled and the slot will be taken by another …

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Mathew Hulbert

Tories downgrade youth policy

By Mathew Hulbert | Wed 20th July 2016 - 4:47 pm

I was astonished and saddened to discover this week that the Government appears to have downgraded the importance it gives to Youth Policy.

The ministerial role in which Youth Policy is included, the Civil Society brief, has been moved by no-mandate Prime Minister Theresa May from the Cabinet Office to the so-called ministry of fun, the Department of Culture of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS.)

When based at the Cabinet Office, youth policy was at the heart of government.

Now, of course, this didn’t by any means guarantee good decision-making on youth-related issues and, indeed, I disagreed strongly (and continue to do so) with the Tories doing virtually nothing to safeguard the future of vitally-needed out-of-school youth services and the role of professional youth workers.

But I think it a clear downgrading of youth policy that it’s been moved to DCMS.

Youth Policy, by its very nature, covers a full range of issues and to see it moved to a ministry whose sole focus is culture, media and sport (as important as all three are) means, to me at least, that youth issues are set to be all-but forgotten by this government.

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Ciaran McGonagle

My vision of a liberal economy

By Ciaran McGonagle | Wed 20th July 2016 - 3:30 pm

By any objective measure Osbornomics has failed.

At best, the former Chancellor’s economic policies merely stalled the post-recession economic recovery. At worst, they have stunted growth, further entrenched economic inequality and exacerbated social division throughout the country. The Liberal Democrats can take some encouragement from the fact that, when in coalition, they were able to moderate the more insidious and ideologically-driven elements of Osborne’s economic doctrine. One must only look to the unmitigated disaster of the Chancellors post-election budget where, for example, he sought to slash disability benefits as one example of what unfettered Osbornomics may have looked like.

For decades however, under both Labour and Conservative governments, the UK has suffered from persistently high levels of both wealth and income inequality. Socially, politically and economically, the geographic divide between north and south has grown. The north-east of England has for years been ignored when it comes to public investment with almost 25 times as much spent on infrastructure per resident in London. Osborneís proposed Northern Powerhouse appears to have done little to mitigate the long-standing effects of decades of under-investment in both people and infrastructure.

In purely demographic terms, the wealth divide between the old and the young is growing exponentially due to the institutionalized, structural deficit in public spending on the young (e.g. education and training) versus the elderly (e.g. pensions and health care).

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Caron Lindsay

Six Lib Dem MPs selected to fight their former constituencies

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 20th July 2016 - 2:13 pm

The frantic pace of by-election style selections so that we are prepared for a snap election.

Six of our former MPs have been re-selected for the constituencies they used to represent.

The most marginal seat in the country is Cambridge, which voted heavily to Remain. With Labour all over the place on the EU, Julian Huppert must now be in a very strong position, whenever the election comes:

In Cheltenham, 300 members reselected Martin Horwood:

Former Cheadle MP Mark Hunter won in that seat. He said:

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Joan Walmsley

Baroness Joan Walmsley writes…Will new PM’s actions speak louder than her words?

By Joan Walmsley | Wed 20th July 2016 - 11:55 am

On Tuesday, just two days before parliament starts its recess and less than a week after Theresa May first addressed the commons as Prime Minister, Sir Simon Stevens, CEO of NHS England, wrote about his priorities for the NHS. 

For most of us his comments and overall strategy will seem eminently sensible. The question I ask myself is this: Will Theresa May’s government pay lip service to Simon Stevens’ strategy or will they actually commit to the funds and action needed to carry it through?

You might say I am being unduly cynical and that I am not giving this new PM a chance. You may be right, although keeping Mr Hunt as her Secretary of State for Health does not strike me as very smart, given that he is so toxic to the doctors.

Stevens expresses concerns about two policy areas in particular – obesity & mental health, both of which are not getting the focus they deserve.

He points out the vital importance of effective action on obesity. This is not a matter of the nanny state lecturing people on how much they should eat. This is a critical health issue that affects the whole health service, not just in terms of funding but through the need to treat a whole range of different diseases. Financially the cost to the Treasury is now more than the police and fire services combined. One result of the separation of our health care services into NHS, on the one hand, and local authority social care and public health responsibilities on the other, is that it is your under-funded local council’s job to prevent obesity but it is the NHS that has to treat the myriad of diseases that arise from it. However, there are strong rumours that the long-awaited obesity strategy has been weakened because of business lobbying since it was first mooted by the government last year, while the LGA reports that funding cuts are threatening councils’ ability to be effective in this and other areas of public health.

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NewsHound

LibLInk: Alistair Carmichael: Theresa May’s liberal rhetoric a surprise

By NewsHound | Wed 20th July 2016 - 10:29 am

Alistair Carmichael has written an article for today’s Scotsman in which he matches up Theresa May’s words on entering Downing Street to her actions in government. Certainly we can all remember Margaret Thatcher’s warm words about bringing peace and harmony when she entered No 10, and we know how that turned out.

For many people there were three main reasons for being pleased to see Theresa May enter No 10 Downing Street last week. Firstly she was not Boris Johnson; secondly she was not Michael Gove and thirdly she was not Andrea Leadsom. As a father, I felt it could have been worse. Mrs May, a vicar’s daughter we are told, delivered a little homily for the benefit of the world’s media outside her new residence. The rhetoric was good. I know from five years in coalition government that getting some Conservatives even to acknowledge the inequalities of modern life can be difficult. Here we had a Conservative prime minister not just acknowledging them but promising to tackle them.

But her record so far doesn’t quite reflect this:

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