NewsHound

LibLink: Tim Farron: The EU is bloated and bureaucratic but it just needs reform

By NewsHound | Sat 18th June 2016 - 4:53 pm

You can’t say Tim Farron isn’t brave! He’s written for the chiefest of the Brexity newspapers, the Daily Express.

The comments under his article are in the main as you would expect. When the nicest thing you can see is a comparison to Ashley Peacock from Coronation Street, you know it’s not going down well in some quarters.

However, as we know, commenters do not always reflect the opinion of the majority of readers. We need to win people over to the Remain cause  and we’re not going to do that by snuggling up to passionate pro-Europeans.

Here’s what he had to say:

There is no doubt in my mind that to work alongside those countries who share our interests and share our values, we need to remain.

And there is no doubt in my mind that to be the beacon of hope and freedom, in a turbulent and dangerous world, we must vote to remain.

We are a proud nation that stands tall in the world. We are home to freedom, ingenuity, creativity.

He then goes on to tackle the sovereignty issue:

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Caron Lindsay

Towards a more inclusive politics

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 18th June 2016 - 2:26 pm

There tends to be a load of solidarity between women across party anyway. Many of us put up with the same issues within our parties and in politics generally, so there’s a great deal of common ground.

Jo Cox chaired Labour’s Women’s Network and our own Women’s organisation, Liberal Democrat Women, made its own tribute to her.

We have been deeply saddened by the news of Jo Cox’s death. It is particularly heart-breaking to see that this happened whilst she was working for her constituents. Jo was a woman who fought for equality and justice daily through her role as a Member of Parliament and also as Chair of the Labour Women’s Network. The Liberal Democrat Women commend her for her work in being a charismatic and thoughtful leader in Parliament as well as an inspiration to women and girls in the UK.

We hope that we can all pull together to ensure her memory and her work is never lost or forgotten. We also hope that in light of this tragedy we all remain confident in the democracy we have in our country and that we do not let political views divide or silence us. Our sincere condolences to her husband Brendan Cox and her two young children.

One really lovely sight in an utterly hellish week happened at the Glasgow vigil for Jo Cox last night, attended by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, and Scottish Labour Leader Kezia Dugdale, who knew Jo well. As they both lay their flowers, Nicola put her arm round Kez. This is how things should be.

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The Voice

Jonny Oates on rejecting the easy option of cynicism and taking the harder route of making the world a better place

By The Voice | Sat 18th June 2016 - 11:30 am

Late on Thursday night, Liberal Democrat peer Jonny Oates put his very powerful reaction to Jo Cox’s murder on his Facebook page. With his permission, it’s reproduced here.

Enough, now, with the angry people. Enough with the raging and the cries of betrayal. Enough with the cynicism. Enough with the shout that every politician is dodgy, or on the take or untruthful. Enough with those who fuel the cynicism in their puerile, childish headlines or their languid, over-sophisticated commentaries. Enough with those who would never step up to the plate, do the work or accept the accountability. Enough with those who twist the slightest openness in the words of politicians and then complain when their words become closed and their language obtuse. Enough with those who have never done anything for anyone but are happy to question the motives of any person who attempts to do so. Enough of those people who listen only to their own opinion and then castigate MPs for being out of touch – MPs who week in and week out are in their towns and villages, on the doorsteps, in their surgeries, listening to others, soaking up pain and grief and suffering and often abuse. Enough of the people who fuel the rage, enough of those who can take the image of suffering and desperate people, robbed of dignity and hope and of the lives of those they love and use it for their political advantage. Enough of all the rage and division and hatred.

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Caron Lindsay

Kirsty Williams on supporting teachers, pupils and students: her vision for Welsh education

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 18th June 2016 - 9:55 am

Kirsty Williams has been talking to Wales Online about her plans on education secretary. Here are some of the best bits:

On supporting teachers

She used tact and sensitivity, unlike some education secretaries in Whitehall. You are not going to get anything done in schools without getting teachers onside.

“I think there is some excellent practice,” said Ms Williams.

“I think that there are schools and other education institutions that are doing amazing work and children that are having a great education experience, but my concern is that it is not universal.

“There are too many variables between schools – even between schools that find themselves in the same local authority.

“What I want to do is focus on making sure that good practice, that undoubtedly exists within the system in Wales, is shared and adopted by all schools so all of our children, regardless of where they live, have access to the very best education.

“What I have been struck with in recent weeks is that the profession in many areas does not feel valued and I want to raise the status of the teaching profession.

“We are going to be asking a lot of them, it is they that will make the difference to school standards in Wales, not me in an office in Cardiff Bay – so we need to support them to do the job that we expect of them.”

Curriculum reform

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NewsHound

Jo Cox: Brexit is no answer to real concerns on immigration

By NewsHound | Fri 17th June 2016 - 5:15 pm

As part of our tributes to Jo Cox, we’re linking to this article in the Yorkshire Post, published last Friday. In it, Jo Cox very persuasively argues that Brexit will not solve concerns over immigration. She accepts that those concerns are genuine – sincere worries about pressures on GP surgeries or schools.

But she explains that Brexit will not answer the concerns and calls for practical steps to improve the situation.

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Graham Watson

Reflections on Jo Cox MP’s murder

By Graham Watson | Fri 17th June 2016 - 4:00 pm

The tragic killing of Jo Cox tells us three things about this campaign.

First, that it has become bad natured. We are perhaps all guilty: I tweeted a picture of the England-Russia Sebastopol replay last Saturday under the headline ‘English nationalists in France show the other side of Vote.Leave’. In the end, demeaning our opponents demeans us too. It’s time to tone down the rhetoric, as Paddy Ashdown reminded us on Twitter a few hours ago.

The second thing it tells us is that MPs’ security needs review. Jo is the third victim in recent years, after Andy Pennington of Nigel …

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The Voice

Moving message from Tim Farron about Jo Cox MP’s murder

By The Voice | Fri 17th June 2016 - 3:00 pm

Our party leader, Tim Farron has just sent this moving message to Liberal Democrat members:

This morning with my kids all I could think about was the family who’ve woken up with their lives changed forever.

Yesterday a mum, who left home to do her job to serve her constituents, was cruelly and brutally taken from them. Her husband and their children are in my thoughts and prayers.

When something terrible happens, I feel it. I am not one of those who shies away from emotion. And I, like so many others, am really feeling it today.

In Orlando, when all those people were massacred for simply being themselves, the hurt was overwhelming. And here in Britain, we have seen terror on our streets and lost an incredible woman.

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The Voice

Jo Cox MP

By The Voice | Fri 17th June 2016 - 2:05 pm


Readers may have noticed that we suspended normal posting yesterday, as soon as news came through of the tragic death of Jo Cox MP.

As a mark of respect, for 24 hours after that cruel blow to the operation of democracy, we have carried only material related to tributes to (and vigils for) Jo Cox MP.

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The Voice

A selection of tweets in memory of Jo Cox MP

By The Voice | Fri 17th June 2016 - 12:30 pm


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The Voice

Vigils will be held across the country tonight in memory of Jo Cox MP

By The Voice | Fri 17th June 2016 - 11:03 am
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The Voice

Jo Cox MP 1974 – 2016

By The Voice | Fri 17th June 2016 - 9:40 am

As a simple tribute to Jo Cox MP, here, on video first and then in text form, is her sparkling maiden speech in the House of Commons from 3rd June 2015:

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Caron Lindsay

RIP Jo Cox MP

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 16th June 2016 - 6:07 pm

I never met Jo Cox, but I was very much aware of her warmth, energy, talent and total commitment to standing up for the most vulnerable people in our world. She made a massive impact in the political world and was admired across parties.

I’m sitting here in shock, as many of you reading this will be, at the brutal and violent way in which her life was taken as she was going about her work. We had all taken for granted that she would be making the headlines for decades to come.

Every week, MPs get out there into their communities, helping their constituents with problems, helping them to break down barriers, often battling to get unwilling agencies of the state to accept that they have made mistakes and to sort things out. It’s an essential part of our democracy. They do it because they are decent people with a massive commitment to public service.

On behalf of LDV, I want to express our love and sympathy to Jo’s family and friends first of all, to our friends in the Labour Party who will be grieving and to everyone across politics and the third sector who knew and admired her.

Many tributes are being paid to her. In this post, I’ll include those from Tim Farron and Paddy Ashdown. Tim said:

I am utterly heartbroken at the news of the death of Jo Cox.  This is a devastating attack on our peaceful society. An attack on an elected representative is an attack on everyone.

She was outstanding representative who stood up for her community diligently.  She also stood up for the desperate and those in need – I am proud of the stance she took raising the plight of refugees.

Her compassion for the voiceless and dispossessed absolutely shone through to me. She was a star of the 2015 intake and was inspiring to listen to.

A young family has lost a mum and a wife, a community has lost a great MP and Parliament has lost an authentic and passionate voice.

It seems the vile politics of hate has gone from the darkened corners of the internet to violence on our streets. Our country is poorer for this mindless slaughter.

My thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends and with all her colleagues in the Labour movement and throughout her community. We stand with you.

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Antony Hook

EURef: Government needs to make the benefits of migration blatantly obvious

By Antony Hook | Thu 16th June 2016 - 1:00 pm

Doing over 50 debates, speaking for the Lib Dems and Remain, in the past few months I have seen that our arguments are more solid than Leave’s and win over undecided people.

A problem is that the points that people like me at a regional and local level, and Tim Farron nationally, are using are not the same as the less effective points being emphasised by Cameron.

You have to argue “the EU is good” not simply  “I’ll make it less bad”  or  “disaster if we leave” as the PM has done.

A factual point that has a big impact of many undecided is that EU citizens …

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Liam McArthur MSP

Liam McArthur MSP writes…From Orkney, why I’m voting to Remain

By Liam McArthur MSP | Thu 16th June 2016 - 11:55 am

Next week voters across United Kingdom will go to the polls to decide on our country’s future relationship with our European partners.

This decision could not be more important and I urge you to make sure your voice is heard on Thursday 23rd June.  For my part, I wanted to set out why I am passionately in favour of the UK remaining in the European Union.

As an internationalist, I see the European Union as an opportunity for us to punch way above our size on the global stage.

Through our membership of the European Union, businesses in Orkney and across the have access to freely export to the largest common market in the world, a market of some 500 million people. Indeed, in 2014 that market was worth £5.1bn for our Scottish food and drink sector alone.

In other parts of Orkney’s economy too we see the vital importance of European Union. The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy provides £20 million a year in support for Orkney’s farmers. Our renewables sector benefits from key EU funding, keeping us at the forefront of research and development. Meanwhile, over half the value of our vital tourism sector relies on tourists from the EU, travelling without visas.

To leave the European Union and walk away from the single market would be to close the door on these opportunities for Orkney.

Whilst the economic arguments are compelling, for me they do not represent the fundamental purpose and values of a union we helped build. Jo Grimond was right to describe the creation of the European Community as “the disappearance of the cloud which has lain over Europe for a thousand years – the plague of Western European wars….it is alone worth any petty tribulations that the EEC may inflict”.

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Iain Gill

Referendum Pledge Challenge – the week 1 winners

By Iain Gill | Thu 16th June 2016 - 11:15 am

Pledge card01Last week the referendum pledge challenge was launched. We threw down the gauntlet to local parties, setting them the challenge to get voters in their area to pledge to vote REMAIN.

In return, local parties could earn themselves up to £3,000 during the last three weeks of the campaign!

Take up of the challenge has been fantastic – local parties up and down the country have thrown themselves into it and have got behind the scheme.

This was a chance for us as a party to try a new way of campaigning and to really influence the outcome of this referendum. As we know, this referendum is now scarily close – a high turnout is vital to ensure REMAIN wins the day.

No doubt many of you have already begun focusing on this week’s challenge but here’s who’s triumphed in the first week:

£1000 Cardiff – for embracing the challenge and coming top in the UK!

£750 to Hull, Wiltshire & Hazel Grove – for taking up the challenge and securing a significant number of pledges and emails.

£500 each to Tower Hamlets, Wimbledon, Bedford, Berwick, Cambridge, Sheffield & Southwark – to reward their significant level of activity asking the Referendum question in this short period.

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Malcolm Wood

It’s time for the Remain campaign to talk about change

By Malcolm Wood | Thu 16th June 2016 - 8:44 am

There are a lot of similarities between the EU referendum and the recent one on Scottish Independence. One is the tedious focus on money, when the issues at stake are much more important that. Another is the difficulty of making an exciting case for keeping things the same. Another is the Leave/Yes campaign’s curious belief that, while the politicians in the further away place are incompetent and self-interested, those closer to home are much better (and don’t expect that line of argument to continue much beyond 24th June, regardless of which way the result goes!).

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Newspuppy

About Nigel Farage and the British fishing industry

By Newspuppy | Wed 15th June 2016 - 4:20 pm

You may have read, seen, giggled at reports of the Leave and Remain camps taking to the Thames today. Nigel Farage led a flotilla of “fishermen for leave” from Southend to the Houses of Parliament.

This is particularly interesting because, as Catherine Bearder points out, Nigel is spending more time showboating on the Thames than he has ever spent actually standing up for the British fishing industry at the European Parliament Fisheries Committee which it’s part of his job to be on.

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Caron Lindsay

Scottish Parliament honours Orlando victims and stands with LGBTI community

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 15th June 2016 - 2:55 pm

The horrific murders in Orlando on Sunday have upset me greatly. To see one particular group of people targeted only for who they are is just awful. On a typical Saturday night, many of my friends will be in gay clubs and bars, enjoying themselves in exactly the same way those people were in Pulse. Euan and Jenny have already written about their reactions to this crime of homophobic hatred.

It gets me very time I see those texts from the young man to his mother from his hiding place. She must have felt so powerless to help her child.

It’s so important to understand the shock and sadness felt by the LGBTI community. We must acknowledge that and never allow it to be airbrushed out as US politicians focus on the racist notions of the Republican nominee and yet another argument over gun control. Don’t get me wrong, it’s well beyond time for gun control, but we need to make space for the LGBTI voices to be heard.

Many of my friends have commented that few of their work colleagues have appreciated how they are feeling about this attack on their community. It’s not just another remote shooting in a far flung part of the world.

I was particularly struck by John Peart’s blog to his heterosexual friends which was shared by my friend Stephen on Facebook:

It hurts because it’s not so different from the violence we experience every day. Until you’ve been scared to hold your partner’s hand in public, unless you’ve faced fear of revealing yourself to those closest to you; you can sympathise, but you can’t understand.

This hurts because whilst families and our community are grieving, the media is denying our collective identity.

The world around us tries to politicise every part of our lives as an LGBT community: our fundamental rights, who we can marry, whether we can donate blood. And yet, the rare occasion we want our community to be at the forefront of politics, the politics of hate is erased from the discussion.

This wasn’t “America’s Bataclan”. It wasn’t an attack on ‘the West’ or Western culture. This attack was specific. Pre-meditated. Fuelled by a hatred of people like me.

This hurts because so many remain silent when usually they are most vocal. They’ll mourn the death of a gorilla but they won’t mourn 50 dead LGBT people.

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Caron Lindsay

Four reasons why your local party would benefit from doing even more EU campaigning

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 15th June 2016 - 1:32 pm

Pledge card01Liberal Democrats across the country are campaigning hard for a Remain vote, with hundreds of events from Cornwall to the Highlands.

With the polls leaping from squeaky bum territory to something much worse, we have all the motivation we need to work even harder over the next few days. My experience is that it’s not been very difficult to persuade people from undecided to Remain and secure a commitment to vote. We need to speak to many, many people over the next few days. It’s difficult to imagine a greater motivation than avoiding handing our country over to the likes of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, whose racist and mendacious campaign to Leave is deceiving the electorate.  I always thought the Better Together campaign was the worst in the history of democracy. Vote Leave takes that mantle by some margin.

Anyway, there are some very positive reasons why local parties should do more campaigning.

Potential new members

If you find people who are very pro EU, the chances are you will be able to persuade them to join us.

More money

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Caron Lindsay

Liberal Democrats are being excluded from referendum debate – don’t put up with this

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 15th June 2016 - 11:55 am

We Liberal Democrats are used to not getting our fair share of media attention. Since last year’s general election, that has got even worse. However, we still aren’t getting anything like the coverage we should have based on our size.

Research carried out by the University of Loughborough during the EU referendum campaign shows that we are only being included in 1% of both press and broadcast media. Mind you, the official opposition doesn’t fare that much better, although that has definitely changed in the last few days.

Coverage by party during EU Ref

 

If you were thinking that there was a gross over-representation of right wing men, the study confirms your instincts.

The debate is highly presidential in character, focussing on key individuals. The top six individuals are all right-of-centre and are all men. Despite concern expressed by left-of-centre and female politicians about media coverage it’s still largely a ‘Tory story’ and a male dominated, ‘blue-on-blue’ tale at that.

So who are the main media performers?

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NewsHound

Sally Hamwee explains why she’s introducing her Missing Persons Guardianship Bill

By NewsHound | Wed 15th June 2016 - 10:25 am

Yesterday, Sally Hamwee introduced her Private Members’ Bill which would enable guardianship orders to be made for missing people so that their affairs could be managed.

Earlier she wrote for the Missing People website:

With no legal system for managing a missing person’s affairs, they can fall into disarray with disconcerting speed.  Salaries may stop being paid into a bank account, but direct debits, mortgage payments and rent will continue to be paid out – until the funds run out.  However sympathetic a bank may be, it needs the signature of its account holder to change arrangements. Some may even regard themselves as unable to provide information.

Once you grasp the legal position, you can begin to see the practical impact.  You can’t use the missing person’s money to pay his rent and other bills.   You can’t sell a house which is in your and your missing husband’s joint names, but because your family’s circumstances have changed neither can you afford the mortgage.

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Jenny Marr

Where is the love?

By Jenny Marr | Wed 15th June 2016 - 8:55 am

One of the first things I tell people about myself, really as a warning, is that I cry a lot. At good news, bad news, RSPA appeals. Even a particularly nostalgic Hovis advert will do it.

Since Orlando, I’ve cried on public transport. In the office. In a car park. At home. In response to eye witness accounts, doctor’s stories, and politician’s reactions. I suppose like many I’ve been grieving. But what with it this time is a physical reaction. A need to reach out my arms and hug the relatives, the police, the victims. To run and be there, as if that would somehow help. A need to shout out that I’m a human too, that I get it, that though I’m from the other side of the planet we feel it just the same.

Of course that’s probably no use at all, I don’t know. But on a practical level, what can we do? There are crowd funder pages to help the victims families, we could attend vigils, continue to live our lives.

Though for me, when I’m sitting on a train trying desperately not to hug the stranger sitting next to me, I need to do more.

My mind wandered to the mindset of the shooter, and all those committing these atrocities. And I thought, have they ever been in love? Sometimes when my mind wanders I think about what would happen if the person I love fell under a bus. Though not likely but they are incredibly clumsy. And that single thought will make me cry every time. I’m so lucky to feel this, but many people don’t know what that’s like.

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The Voice

Lib Dems “deeply shocked and horrified” by ITV report that Clement Freud sexually abused two young girls

By The Voice | Tue 14th June 2016 - 10:46 pm

ITV News tonight had a very disturbing story about former Liberal MP Clement Freud, who died in 2009. Two women have gone on the record to say that he sexually abused them, when they were teenagers, two decades apart.

From ITV News:

One of the women, Sylvia Woosley, spoke in public for the first time to  ITV Exposure about the abuse she suffered at the hands of Freud, who died in 2009.

She said Sir Clement, who was a close family friend and 14 years older than her, initially started to groom her and touch her inappropriately when he lived close to her parents’ house in the South of France…

Exposure spoke to a second woman, on the condition of anonymity, who said she was groomed by Freud in the 1970s, when he was an MP…

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Joe Otten

Proof arrives that Remain are right on the economy

By Joe Otten | Tue 14th June 2016 - 4:57 pm

Until now the economic argument in this EU referendum has been whether you believe the experts – whose reputations depend on the quality of their prognostications – or whether you believe that an ‘expert’ is someone who automatically has less expertise than everybody else.

Just to summarise, thanks to Sky News:

  • International Monetary Fund – Britain could cause “severe regional and global damage by disrupting established trading relationships”, should it vote to leave the EU. “Negotiations on post exit arrangements would likely be protracted, resulting in an extended period of heightened uncertainty that could weigh heavily on confidence and investment, all the while increasing financial market volatility.” The consequences ranged from “pretty bad to very, very bad”, managing director, Christine Lagarde added
  • PWC for the Confederation of British Industry – GDP down 3 to 5% by 2020, 5% corresponding to 950,000 jobs and £100bn lost.
  • Institute For Fiscal Studies – Brexit would cost the UK between £20bn and £40bn, according to the IFS. The Government would need to find equivalent of £5bn of public spending cuts, £5bn worth of savings from social security spending and roll out tax hikes worth £5bn – two more years of austerity – to cover the cost.
  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – GDP in the UK could be between 3-5% below the level it might have been if it had remained in the EU, equivalent to £2,200 loss per household.

No longer need we believe them. With polls in the last few days showing a high risk of Brexit, the markets have reacted.

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Joe Otten

LibLink: Tim Farron – Britain braced for momentous day of decision

By Joe Otten | Tue 14th June 2016 - 11:38 am

Tim FarronTim Farron writes for the Yorkshire Post today, looking behind the Blue on Blue punch up to see what is at stake for the region.

The leave campaign wants you to forget that voting to leave will endanger our access to the world’s most valuable single market. Over 250,000 jobs in Yorkshire, or almost one in 10, are linked to trade with the EU. I would never suggest these jobs would all vanish if we left, but the fact is Yorkshire remains hugely dependent on trade with

…

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Antony Hook

EURef: *Anyone* can help by making calls through Connect

By Antony Hook | Tue 14th June 2016 - 10:11 am

phone picture zoomed in

Local party Connect managers can create “phone bank only” Connect accounts for anyone who wants to help win a Remain vote by making calls through our system.

They can be anywhere in the world and it does not matter if they normally support another party.  All they need is a phone, a computer and a genuine wish to help Remain win.

Accounts for this purpose can be set to expire on 24 June.

Don’t worry about “giving away secrets”.  The way Connect / VAN works is well documented online as it …

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Ed Fordham

London’s LGBT Vigil to be sung and sung loudly

By Ed Fordham | Tue 14th June 2016 - 9:07 am

If it didn’t exist would you create it? Well based on last night, the answer for the London Gay Men’s Chorus was a resounding Yes.

As thousands of members of the LGBT community poured into Soho, supported by friends, family and a host of straight allies – everyone was very uncertain. The nervousness was palpable with no-one clear what was going to happen. There were a few attempts to get a political chant going, but the crowd was more contemplative. As the hour of 7pm approached there was a hanging sense of expectation.

And sure enough as 7pm there was a raft of whistle blowing then then the cloak of silence fell over everyone – Soho is said to be the only identifiable district in London which has no buses through it and when the silence fell you could hear a pin drop.

The silence was held for what seemed to be an age and the tension was real and then slowly, quietly and determinedly the joyous noise gathered pace and rose up. Here was London Gay Men’s Chorus singing ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’. Conducted by the deeply impressive Simon Sharp the Chorus absolutely delivered. Clad in their distinctive blue t-shirts this community chorus – which operates an open access policy – totally filled the yawning void of emotion, anger and optimism. The men next to me were openly crying, holding each other tight. It was a wave of song, of love and of gratitude: a surge of shared affinity for the heartache being witnessed in Orlando.

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The Voice

Tim Farron attacks Farage poster over Orlando atrocity

By The Voice | Mon 13th June 2016 - 5:21 pm

On LDV we rarely reproduce press releases from HQ word for word, but this one needs to be given wide coverage. Although the poster has disappeared from the Leave.EU website it is still circulating across social media.

Tim Farron accused the Leave.EU campaign of racism today after the group endorsed by Nigel Farage released a poster saying: “Act now before we see an Orlando-style atrocity here before too long.”

The poster was taken down online but Leave.EU failed to apologise. Tim said:

The latest poster from the leave side shows that campaign’s true colours. It is scaremongering at its worst. Their decision to take the

…

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Coalition 2.0: The EU Referendum

By Lib Dem Member | Mon 13th June 2016 - 3:32 pm

celebrities

Coalition: painful for us Lib Dems at times, but this isn’t about the last parliament, it’s about the referendum. Over the last few weeks’ economists, historians, scientists and celebrities have emerged, arguing the benefits of our membership of the EU. However, recent polls indicate increased support for Brexit; prompting calls for all campaigns to up their game.

But something else is happening; Brexit campaigners are making more extreme claims as the debate goes on. Farage telling his supporters to ‘go out and bully them’, Boris Johnson accusing the EU of excessive banana regulation, Diane James’ claim of ‘we just don’t know’ when asked about border controls and, of course, the £350 million bus – to name a few. This isn’t surprising, the UKIP machine has driven this referendum from day one and they will throw everything, including the kitchen sink, at it. For Boris Johnson, this campaign is a career test; as a serial risk taker he too, will throw everything at it.

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Mary Reid

Alex Glassbrook on the by-election this week in Tooting

By Mary Reid | Mon 13th June 2016 - 2:09 pm

This Thursday we are fighting a by-election in Tooting, caused by the resignation of Sadiq Khan as MP and election as Mayor of London. Our candidate in Alex Glassbrook, and here is a video of him talking about his campaign – with BSL signing.

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  • Jason Connor
    Excellent and a good speaker. Highly admired in Richmond and would certainly get my vote...
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