Caron Lindsay

Scotland: The Results – open thread

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 5th May 2016 - 10:34 pm

This thread will be updated as often as I can during the night. I will be at the count in Edinburgh hoping to see a gain in either Edinburgh Western or the Lothians list.

The party is cautiously optimistic that it can grow from its 2011 nadir of 11 seats – but only by 1 or 2 seats. We have had a brilliant campaign and we can be very proud of Willie for the way he’s conducted himself. We’ve found that people are ready to listen to us and trust us again, but the rebuild is a long-term project.

Willie is standing …

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The Voice

Catherine Bearder wins Green Ribbon award for championing air quality

By The Voice | Thu 5th May 2016 - 12:06 pm

News reaches LDV that Catherine Bearder has won the Green Ribbon Political Award recognising her outstanding environmental achievements.

Catherine was awarded in the “MEP of the Year” category for her work fighting for stronger European targets to tackle air pollution. The judges commended Catherine for generating public awareness of the issue and championing EU action to improve air quality, often in the face of opposition from the UK government.

Catherine is currently a lead negotiator on the EU’s 2030 air pollution limits and has helped ensure that the European Parliament prioritises improving air quality ahead of the vested interests of individual industries …

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Jonathan Brown

March with Medics Under Fire – ‘Newbie’ Saleyha Ahsan leads the way

By Jonathan Brown | Thu 5th May 2016 - 10:35 am

Many Lib Dems will remember Junior Doctor Saleyha Ahsan’s rousing conference rally speech (37:45) in York, in which she joined the party ‘live on air’ and blasted Hunt for his attacks on our NHS. Of course, you may also recognise her from her work on the BBC’s ‘Trust Me I’m A Doctor’ or know her from the 2013 BBC documentary ‘Saving Syria’s Children’ in which, while working in Atareb Hospital in northern Syria she was required to help treat the dozens of casualties brought in from one of the Assad …

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Antony Hook

Good luck today!

By Antony Hook | Thu 5th May 2016 - 6:21 am

lib dem rosettes

Everyone in the UK has at least one election today.

Scotland, Wales, London and Northern Ireland are elected their devolved legislatures, and a mayor in London.

Large parts of England, particularly unitary authorities have local elections.

England & Wales are electing Police & Crime Commissioners.

Liberal Democrat campaigners have been working hard for all these elections.

A year ago, some people said the party was finished.  There is still a long way to go to build the Liberal Democrat party that Britain needs today. But in the last 12 months our candidates …

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Caron Lindsay

How Caroline Pidgeon would change London for the better

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 4th May 2016 - 8:00 pm

Caroline Pidgeon is spending the last day of campaigning for the Mayoral Election out in Putney with Nick Clegg

LBC has a list of ten ways London would change if she were Mayor.

1) £20 from your council tax will be used to build new houses
The Olympic precept will be maintained, but the money turned to building 50,000 council homes to rent and 150,000 for sale.

2) Tube fares before 7.30am will be half-price
The Lib Dems promise to “introduce half price fares for Tube, Overground rail and DLR travellers before 7.30am – to reduce the cost of travel for thousands of hard-working Londoners and ease peak congestion.”

3) All London’s buses and taxis will become fully electric
A Lib Dem plan is to switch London’s buses and taxis to be fully electric as well as helping to switch commercial vans too.

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Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron MP writes…The Government must deliver for refugee children 

By Tim Farron MP | Wed 4th May 2016 - 7:30 pm

In October 2015 I used my first PMQ as leader to urge David Cameron to give a home to 3,000 vulnerable unaccompanied children who had fled war and persecution and were now in Europe. Save the Children, who launched the campaign, had calculated that 3,000 was the UK’s ‘fair share’ of the 26,000 unaccompanied children estimated to have arrived in Europe since the start of the refugee crisis. Six months on and with the numbers of unaccompanied children in Europe having skyrocketed to 90,000 the Government has finally capitulated in principle to take some children from Europe.What started as a …

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Caron Lindsay

From new member to candidate – the Lib Dem newbies fighting their first election

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 4th May 2016 - 6:29 pm

Snow doesn't stop Becca Plenderleith and team campaigning Inspired by a post in one of those Lib Dem Facebook groups, I thought it would be a good idea to give a special shout-out for these wonderful new members of the party who have become so involved that they are standing for election this year. This is by no means an exclusive list, so please feel free to add to it. The enthusiasm of our new members has really invigorated the party the length and breadth of the country this year. In Scotland, people like Rebecca Plenderleith, a fantastic campaigner for mental health who has written for us about why she became a Lib Dem, Charity Pierce, Giovanni Caccavello, Bryn Jones, Lauren Jones, Kaitey Blair are flying the Lib Dem flag. Rebecca and colleagues are pictured above campaigning in the worst snow the Scottish Winter had to throw at us. Another of our regular contributors Alex H is standing and co-ordinating campaigns across his town. Greg Webb is running for the Council in Derby and gaining valuable experience for the future. In London, Rachel Waitt is standing in a Council by-election in Figge’s Marsh ward in Mitcham tomorrow. Julie Ireland is standing for the constituency of Bexley and Bromley.

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The Voice

Kirsty Williams: Vote Lib Dem to make more nurses and smaller class sizes a reality

By The Voice | Wed 4th May 2016 - 4:55 pm

Kirsty Williams has made her final pitch for Lib Dem votes in Montgomeryshire, supporting candidate Jane Dodds, where she will say that the Welsh Liberal Democrats are the only party to consistently work to achieve results and put narrow party-political interest aside, their leader Kirsty Williams has said today on the eve of the Assembly election.

Tomorrow’s vote is your chance to make a difference for your community. Before you cast it, I want you to ask yourself: who has delivered the most for you and your family?

More often than not, the people I talk to across Wales aren’t interested in the cheap party-political point-scoring. What they always ask me is, ‘What have you done to make my life better?’ As a Welsh Liberal Democrat, I always have a long list of things to tell them about.

When Labour wanted to cut the numbers of apprenticeships in Wales, we used our influence to stop them. When rural councils were getting a raw funding deal, it was us who secured more money. When our poorest pupils were consistently underachieving in our schools, it was us who stepped in and gave them that extra support.

Unlike the other parties, we’re not content with whinging from the sidelines. Welsh Liberal Democrats always roll up our sleeves and get things done for our communities, and for the people of Wales.

If our record over the last five years shows anything, it’s that a vote for the Welsh Liberal Democrats is a vote for our policies being put into action. Tomorrow will be no different – your vote could help make our ideas a reality.

If you support smaller class sizes, if you want more nurses on hospital wards, if you want an Opportunity Economy that enables people to get on life, then you have to vote for it – you have to vote Welsh Liberal Democrat. Only then can we begin to deliver a Wales that works for you.

The last few days of her campaign have been a whirlwind of campaigning that has seen her everywhere from Ceredigion to Cardiff to North Wales to her home patch of Brecon and Radnorshire.

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Phil Aisthorpe

Billingsgate – a crisis for Labour that can be solved by tactical voting for Lib Dem Joe Otten

By Phil Aisthorpe | Wed 4th May 2016 - 3:38 pm

I live in Rotherham and on May 5th I will vote to elect a Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire. Since its inception in 2012 the post of South Yorkshire PCC has been held by Labour. The first incumbent, Shaun Wright did not stay the course and was forced to resign in 2014 following a report into the Rotherham child abuse scandal.  His successor, Labour’s Dr Alan Billings has fared little better and was last week caught up in the aftermath of the Hillsborough inquest verdict. He bungled the suspension and replacement of the South Yorkshire Police chief constable and has subsequently failed to answer questions about the £18m of public money his office authorised to be spent on lawyers who unnecessarily presented false allegations against innocent people throughout the Hillsborough inquest. Incredibly Dr Billings failed to see any of this coming. On the very day of the Hillsborough verdict he was occupied launching his re-election campaign by declaring war on litter.

If the ballot papers for the election had not already been printed it seems unlikely that Dr Billings would have survived to fight another day and his ill-timed poor performance has placed Labour in an impossible position. They must back their candidate 100%, but if successful they can hardly be looking forward to the prospect of facing a growing crisis that seems likely to lead to Dr Billings’ resignation. Win or lose Labour is in trouble. The electorate will decide the good doctor’s immediate fate, but if a historic turnout for South Yorkshire PCC elections of under 15% is maintained a Billings victory is unlikely to convince the general public that he has a legitimate mandate.

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Caron Lindsay

What’s your top tip for surviving Polling Day?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 4th May 2016 - 2:17 pm

Polling Day is one of the most gruelling days in a political activist’s life. By its nature it comes at a time when you are already completely knackered. Liberal Democrats always work all year round, but there’s nothing to rival the intensity of an election campaign. By polling day, everything hurts.

A typical polling day starts before dawn as the early morning leaflets start to go out. Stealth is the key as you try not to wake up dogs or disturb people as you post that leaflet. I know a lot of people who got involved in the party or switched their support to us because of a good Good Morning leaflet, so it’s well worth doing.

For new members who have never done this before, it’s probably worth explaining a few things. Knocking people up isn’t as rude as it sounds. It’s about visiting people who have said they will vote for you and reminding them that the election is happening and how important it is that they vote.

You might also hear the word “shuttleworths” being bandied about. These are the lists of our supporters that we knock up. This is how they got their name, back in the day before computers when they were all hand-written.

Any activist will tell you that you need to keep going till 10 pm. One candidate in a council election lost by 3 votes last year after knocking off at 8 pm. Your polling day operation is really important and could make the difference between winning and losing.

And once the polls have closed, a particularly hardy few have to get themselves to the count and prepare themselves to concentrate as the votes are verified and counted. In a big national election, you may well be up for 24 hours or more.

So, how do you survive it?  You aren’t going to get much opportunity to rest, but you should take a short break after every stint to have some food (preferably involving carbs) and a nice cup of tea. There is not a challenge in life that can’t be helped by drinking tea. That’s a lesson taught to be by my beloved Granny and I swear by it. She would kill me if she knew I was making it with a teabag in a cup, mind you.

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Caron Lindsay

Catherine Bearder named MEP of the Year for championing air quality

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 4th May 2016 - 1:45 pm
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Caron Lindsay

Ten ways Willie Rennie made Scotland smile during #sp16

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 4th May 2016 - 12:45 pm

Many of the defining images of the election in Scotland have come from Willie Rennie. He has had a lot of serious points to make during this election, highlighting the need to invest in education, transform mental health, stand up for civil liberties, protect the planet from climate change and stop the SNP’s suffocating control and centralisation of public services, but he’s had tonnes of fun illustrating them.

In 2006, his by-election victory in Dunfermline was helped by an image on the front page of the Courier from the top of the Forth Rail Bridge. He’s had some similarly fantastic photos and videos this campaign.  On Monday he went go-karting and his photo on the podium afterwards, doing the “Schumi Jump” that Michael Schumacher always used to do when he won, made it into virtually every paper.

His bright and exuberant campaign has had loads of coverage and has caught people’s imagination. You know you are on the right track when people start repeating your campaign messages on the doorsteps. From a very challenging outlook, he has brought the party to the very real possibility of gaining a constituency seat against the SNP tomorrow. The media is watching Edinburgh Western and Alex Cole-Hamilton.

A lot of these photo-ops were very risky. Some could have been disastrous. Imagine the headlines if the canoe had capsized. Of course, one did go memorably wrong, but a few packets of Percy Pigs later, the journalists were laughing with rather than at us.

The manifesto launch was bright, exuberant and unforgettable. He got interviewed on a slide, for goodness sake.

There was the day they let him fly a plane.

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Caron Lindsay

Katy Gordon: I want to give hope to young people so that they can change their lives

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 4th May 2016 - 11:21 am

You don’t often find me quoting from the pro-independnece paperKaty Gordon The National, but I’m happy to do it today because they’ve done a really good profile of our top West of Scotland list candidate, Katy Gordon. She explains the influence Charles Kennedy and Jo Swinson had on her and how they inspired her campaigning spirit.

“I had always voted Liberal but sometimes you need a push to join, and I wanted to make sure Kennedy was leader,” Gordon remembers. “I did not join because I wanted to be involved in party politics but because of the Liberal ideas Charles Kennedy articulated.”

However, her abilities were soon recognised and she was asked to be a candidate in 2005 in Glasgow South West against Ian Davidson.

While her chances of winning were minimal, she discovered through campaigning with Jo Swinson in East Dunbartonshire that she loved hearing about what people were thinking, what their concerns were and what they needed.

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Caron Lindsay

Paddy: Dishonouring service of Afghan interpreters is our worst act of shame

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 4th May 2016 - 9:55 am

Paddy Ashdown condemned the Government after an Afghan interpreter, Nangyalai Dawoodzai, who had to leave his country after spending 3 years helping the British forces for, killed himself after being told his application for asylum in the UK had failed and he would be returned to Italy, the first European country he had arrived in.

From the Guardian:

The 29-year-old, who paid people smugglers to reach the UK, was told his request for asylum in Britain had been rejected when it was found he had been fingerprinted in Italy on arrival in Europe, according to the Daily Mail.

Under the EU’s Dublin regulation, aimed at preventing multiple asylum claims by individuals, Dawoodzai had to pursue his claim in the first country he applied in.

Faced with being sent back to Italy to claim political asylum there he killed himself, a fellow translator told the newspaper.

Paddy, who has long campaigned for these interpreters to be allowed to settle here, was understandably furious.

Lord Ashdown, who has championed the cause of Afghan war interpreters for years, said their treatment was scandalous.

It wrenches your heart out sideways. Here is a man who served in Helmand, probably on the frontline, who did it day in and day out for British troops, no going back home every six months, whose family were not tucked away safe but was in the community.

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Antony Hook

Labour ex-MEP Skinner jailed for 4 years

By Antony Hook | Wed 4th May 2016 - 8:26 am

peter skinner

Peter Skinner, the former Labour MEP for South East England has now been sentenced.  He was given 4 years by Mrs Justice McGowan, sitting at Southwark.

He was found to have misused £100,000 of public funds.  There will be a further hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.  If the Crown apply “the lifestyle assumptions” in that Act, the burden of proof will be on Skinner to show that any money he received for any source in the last 6 years was legitimate.  If he can’t show that …

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Paul Tyler

Lord Paul Tyler writes…Liberal Democrats force government climbdown on Trade Union Bill

By Paul Tyler | Tue 3rd May 2016 - 9:53 pm

This evening sees the culmination of five months’ work, led by the Lib Dems, which will finally knock some fairness into the Government’s proposals for reforming the relationship between Labour and the Trade Unions.

Late last year, the Left was raging – with some justification – about a Tory plot to remove up to £6m a year of funding from Labour, by restricting the right of trade unions to collect donations through a political fund.  While the principle of requiring individual ‘opt-in’ consent for such donations is an important one – with which Lib Dems agree – the Government’s endeavour was a naked, one-sided attempt to hobble the opposition.  Real party funding reform cannot be for only one party.  It must also restrict millionaire and big business donations too.

The question our team had to ask was how to amend these elements of the Trade Union Bill without it sounding like simple special pleading for anti-Conservative forces.  Clearly, our party is in a good position to start with, since the Lib Dems do not benefit from trade union political funds.  But we still needed to demonstrate in as non-partisan, dispassionate a way as possible that the what the Government proposed was simply lop-sided and self-interested.

So on the day before the House broke up for Christmas our small Lib Dem Bill team discussed a little-used mechanism to corral principled opposition to the party funding clauses of the Bill.  I suggested that we try to shift this issue to a special Select Committee of the Lords, where Ministers, the Unions, democracy academics, and all the parties could make their case.

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The Voice

Five ideas to fight for

By The Voice | Tue 3rd May 2016 - 5:06 pm

Five ideasAnthony Lester, the Liberal Democrat peer, lawyer and “the most eminent human rights lawyer in Britain” has been interviewed by the Huffington Post.  He highlights how, as a Jew, he was exposed to prejudice and discrimination from a young age, starting with the loss of relatives in the Holocaust, and later in the army when he was barred from attending a dance in the officer’s mess to “prevent miscegenation”.

As a barrister he devoted a large amount of his life to combating discrimination, and he also worked with Roy Jenkins, then Labour Home Secretary, on developing laws against race and sex discrimination. Later he fought for the Human Rights Act.

Anthony’s new book Five Ideas To Fight For will be published this week. He focuses on the ‘big ideas’ of human rights, equality, free speech, privacy and rule of law. He is very worried about the future of the Human Rights Act, which the current government is planning to repeal and replace with a British Bill of Rights.

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Caron Lindsay

The new Liberal Democrat Director of Campaigns and Elections is…

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 3rd May 2016 - 4:56 pm

Tim Gordon, the Party’s Chief Executive, this afternoon announced who will be heading up our Campaigns and Elections Department.

The new Director is what we would call in Scotland a well kent face. Shaun Roberts had a long record in the party’s campaigns team,  becoming National Campaigns Officer and ultimately taking charge of ground communications and messaging before joining Which three years ago. There he has been responsible for digital engagement.

His Deputy will be the newly promoted Dave McCobb, who will continue to be based in Hull where he is a Councillor. The Hull Liberal Democrats are one of the best campaigning teams this party has and it’s been great to have Dave’s experience as part of this formidable force in our Campaigns Department. It will be even better to have him as part of the leadership team.

Tim’s email tells us more about them.

I am delighted to announce that Shaun Roberts has been appointed as Director of Campaigns and Elections. Shaun has a strong track record both within the Liberal Democrats and, more recently at Which? He has played a key role in numerous campaigns including our byelection triumphs in Brent and Eastleigh and in the Ghurka Justice campaign. At Which? he has been focused on building up their digital campaigning arm (which now boasts one of the strongest supporter networks in the UK) which will help in our drive for campaign innovation. I hope that you will join me in welcoming Shaun when he rejoins us on June 20th.

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Simon Pike

Vote Labour in the local elections if you do not care about your community

By Simon Pike | Tue 3rd May 2016 - 3:01 pm

ppb 2106

Lib Dem Party Election Broadcast April 2016

Yesterday evening (Monday), Labour aired its party election broadcast for the local elections next Thursday. I know this because it said so at the beginning of the broadcast: I certainly could not have guessed this from its content.

This broadcast was entirely devoted to knocking the Tory Government, without any mention of the work of local councils. This single message of the broadcast was summed up by Jeremy Corbyn at the start: “This Thursday’s elections are a chance to send a message to David Cameron and his Government. It’s become increasingly clear – they simply cannot be trusted. They certainly cannot be trusted to make sure that the richest their fair share of tax…”

In contrast, the Lib Dem election broadcast on 20th April was entirely devoted to the work of local councillors, serving their communities. Tim Farron summarised this excellently: “You have the opportunity to use your vote to support somebody who will make a difference for your community, work hard, keep in touch and get things done all year round. Who won’t just disappear the day after they’ve got your vote, and not show up for another four years, but will be committed to your community. Because that is what the Liberal Democrats are all about.”

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Antony Hook

EURef: Disenfranchised Brits lose in High Court

By Antony Hook | Tue 3rd May 2016 - 12:40 pm

Royal-Courts-of-Justice-2

In a test case brought by two British citizens who have lives outside the UK for more than 15 years, the High Court has ruled that the state can deny them the right to vote.

It is estimated that 700,000 people are affected by the decision.  The Conservatives have pledged to scrap the restriction for future elections (in which they calculate it will assist them).

The court ruled that Parliament is entitled to restrict the franchise to those with a specified “closeness” to the country and also said it would be …

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Jonathan Ferguson

The last thing the Liberal Democrats need is an ethical foreign policy

By Jonathan Ferguson | Tue 3rd May 2016 - 10:25 am

 

In yesterday’s article I alluded to ‘a central contradiction going on in the Liberal Democrats at the moment: the incompatible melange of pro-asylum seeker and pro-interventionist rhetoric and ideology.’

Today, I will say firstly that I do support accepting some asylum seekers in the UK; in accordance with a rather hard-headed ethic of prudence and restraint, rather than the gushy sentimentality that so often afflicts our party (of which more shortly). I will also say that my reasons for accepting asylum seekers are completely different from some dominant lines of discussion in the Liberal Democrats; and that this is far from inconsequential.

What does this mean?

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Chris Key

It’s nurses and midwives who really need our support

By Chris Key | Tue 3rd May 2016 - 9:08 am

 

The ongoing junior doctors strike has unfortunately focused the attention of the public and the media away from the plight of nurses and midwives. I believe this group deserves much more sympathy.

Nurses and midwives, while not required to study for as long as doctors, nevertheless have to complete a degree course. Nurses’ standard hours are usually 37.5 to 40 hours per week and many work extra nights, weekends and evenings to earn enough to provide for themselves and their families. A Royal College of Nursing report from 2015 found that 35% of nurses have to work 12 hour shifts.

Unlike junior doctors  they are more likely to have to go home on public transport than jump into a car after a night shift. Even those  nurses and midwives who can afford a car are often required to pay for parking in hospitals, at a cost of up to £600 a year, while the Chief Executive has their nominated free parking space.

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Mary Reid

Voting in the London elections – after 16 years voters are still confused

By Mary Reid | Mon 2nd May 2016 - 12:49 pm

Caroline-Pidgeon

The Guardian has an interview with Caroline Pidgeon, the Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor.  After disclaiming any responsibility for the cold that has afflicted all the candidates, she says this about her campaign:

Overall, it’s gone well. Ordinary people are saying they like what I’m saying on childcare and cheaper fares that are affordable. And that’s not just in places where we are strong, like Sutton, or in Bermondsey, where I’m known.

She says this of her two main rivals, Zac Goldsmith and Sadiq Khan and the dirty campaign they have been running:

I think both of them, but particularly Zac, will wish they hadn’t done it. It’s damaged their reputations. Zac has always been seen by most people as a decent kind of guy.

On the doorstep voters are still confused about the voting processes for the London elections – and that is not surprising because they will be presented with three ballot papers, each using a different voting system.

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Jonathan Ferguson

No criticism is bad criticism (and none is worse)…

By Jonathan Ferguson | Mon 2nd May 2016 - 11:00 am

Not long ago, I wrote a piece on how pacifists and non-interventionists might respond to the recent decision on foreign intervention.

Although, on balance, I don’t regret writing it, I am deeply dissatisfied with some aspects of my article. The feedback from a large number of people has been very helpful not only in helping me clarify my own views to myself, but also to think very carefully about matters of presentation and framing.

If I am reading them correctly, some commenters felt that my stance was not robust enough. My problematic reference to ‘maintain(ing) unity’ and worse still, to the purported risks of ‘irresponsible criticism’ (sic) could easily be read as conformist, condescending, authoritarian, or any combination of these things. Certainly, there were some poor choices of words.

I will acknowledge that as I only recently joined the Liberal Democrats, it is possible that I have a distorted view of the boundaries of criticism. Certainly, I would not wish to indulge in tone policing. I am as outraged at anyone else at the recent decision to go along with David Cameron and the self-styled ‘International Community’s’ self-serving crusade in the Middle East; the latest in a long line of cynical interventions.

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Holly Matthies

Blogging Against Disablism Day

By Holly Matthies | Mon 2nd May 2016 - 8:29 am

 

As well a day for dancing around maypoles or celebrating workers and labour, the first of May is Blogging Against Disablism Day.

As explained on the blog of the person who started it, “This is the day where all around the world, disabled and non-disabled people blog about their experiences, observations and thoughts about disability discrimination (known as disablism or ableism).  In this way, we hope to raise awareness of inequality, promote equality and celebrate the progress we’ve made.”

There’s an example of disablism in a recent Lib Dem Voice article by Henry Foulds. He says he was told “by a senior activist that I should crop my cane from campaign photos or somehow hide it, I was horrified. I stumbled over my response and changed the subject. I’ve since explained to them that disability is nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of.”

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Caron Lindsay

Willie Rennie gets the biggest cheer of the final Scottish Leaders’ Debate

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 1st May 2016 - 11:57 pm

Seriously, I’m not joking.

See for yourself.

I thought he would do well, but I wasn’t quite expecting cheering, and rapturous applause for him.

On this occasion, it was his answer to a question on a second independence referendum which got the audience on his side. He said that the Parliament and Government needed to concentrate on the neglected issues like health and education, to concentrate on making Scotland the best country in the world again. You can’t do that, he said, while having a groundhog debate about independence. He told Nicola that she was the one being anti-democratic by refusing to accept the result of the poll just 20 months ago.

“When you don’t get the result you want, you just want to do it all again.” he shouted in an exasperated tone that had the audience with him.

I somehow managed to pass the BBC’s rigorous selection test, which consisted not just of an online questionnaire but also a phone interview. Here I am, on the right, in the blue dress, behind moderator Sarah Smith as she introduces the debate, captured on my friend Jade’s tv.

BBC Leaders' Debate

The debate was, rather bizarrely, held in the opulent surroundings of Hopetoun House in South Queensferry. From there, you can just about see where Willie Rennie rocked the political establishment by winning the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election in 2006. I arrived to discover that there was no internet signal. Being offline for four whole hours during  waking hours is almost unheard of for me, but I somehow managed.

Unfortunately there wasn’t enough signal to tweet that for some reason the BBC didn’t trust us to walk a few feet from the place where we registered to the ballroom where the debate was being held. They hired a bus to take us over. I kid you not. You could walk it in less than a minute. The ballroom is more used to hosting weddings than political theatre. There was certainly plenty of drama.

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The Voice

WATCH: Tim Farron on the Sunday Politics: Progressive, centre left voters are turning to us

By The Voice | Sun 1st May 2016 - 6:15 pm

Farron on Sunday Politics

 

Tim Farron was interviewed on the Sunday Politics today ahead of the local elections. Andrew Neil gave him a hard time, as you would expect, but he came out of it quite well.

You can watch the whole thing here.

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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Obama’s final White House Correspondents’ Dinner

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 1st May 2016 - 4:59 pm

Obama’s rocked all of his 8 speeches at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. This year is full of occasions that will be his last in the White House. It took me a while to warm to him, but he’s certainly been one of the best US Presidents of my lifetime. He hasn’t got it all right, by any manner of means, but his tenacity in getting his healthcare reform through despite everything the Republicans threw at it was particularly commendable.

Anyway, this speech doesn’t quite have a Lion King moment, but the bit where he has a go at Prince George was hilarious.

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NewsHound

When the Minister didn’t quite get Alistair Carmichael’s sarcasm…

By NewsHound | Sun 1st May 2016 - 3:30 pm

This week, Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael  put down an Urgent Question to the Home Secretary after she all too casually said that the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights. It’s clear that ,whatever the result of the Referendum, the Tories are desperate to have a big bonfire of all of our most basic rights. What they could object to about things like the right to privacy and freedom of expression is beyond me.

Anyway, Theresa May didn’t bother to turn up to face Alistair. She sent Attorney General Jeremy Wright instead. He didn’t really answer her question, prompting Alistair to say:

I am grateful to the Attorney General for that answer. I should make it clear that I hold him in the very highest regard; I enjoyed working with him as a Minister in the previous Government. But he is not the Home Secretary, and he should not be responding to the urgent question today. The Home Secretary was the one who could make the speech yesterday and she can, apparently, come and make a statement tomorrow. She should be here today. Yesterday she went rogue; today she has gone missing.

There is total confusion at the heart of Government policy. What the Attorney General has just said at the Dispatch Box contradicts clearly what has been said previously. Yesterday the Home Secretary said:

The ECHR can bind the hands of parliament, adds nothing to our prosperity, makes us less secure by preventing the deportation of dangerous foreign nationals – and does nothing to change the attitudes of governments like Russia’s when it comes to human rights. So regardless of the EU referendum, my view is this: if we want to reform human rights laws in this country, it isn’t the EU we should leave but the ECHR and the jurisdiction of its court.”

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Tagged , and | 5 Comments
The Voice

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By The Voice | Sun 1st May 2016 - 1:30 pm

7 bestMany thanks to the 11,400  visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Inquest verdict: the 96 were unlawfully killed (73 comments) by Joe Otten

Could Trumpland reach Britain? (35 comments) by Lord William Wallace

Poll boosts for Kirsty Williams and Eluned Parrott in Wales (5 comments) by Caron Lindsay

WSTCH: Tim Farron on the Andrew Marr Show (8 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Missing the civility of coalition (27 comments) by Nick Thornsby

We shouldn’t just be the party of remain, we should be the party of reform (30 comments) by Alex H

Farron makes plea to centre left voters (3 comments) by Caron Lindsay

 

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