Caron Lindsay

LibLink: David Steel: We need liberalism more than ever

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 22nd April 2016 - 8:48 am

David Steel has written an article for the Scotsman explaining why liberalism is needed more than ever in the face of both domestic and international challenges. He praises both Tim Farron and Willie Rennie and urges liberals to “re-assert themselves and support them.”

His comments about the SNP also struck a bit of a chord with me. It’s not just that they stitched up the Scottish Parliament with their majority, giving themselves control of the committees so that they couldn’t be effectively scrutinised, it’s their general attitude to politics. They are reminiscent of Labour in the ’80s and ’90s, with such a sense of entitlement to power and objection to even the mildest, most evidence based criticism. Yesterday, we had three shouty nationalists in the space of a couple of hours in our office. Clearly such intimidatory tactics are designed to spook us. Actually, we enjoy the fact that they are clearly rattled by the scale and success of our campaign. It is very like the days in Derbyshire when Labour thugs would shout at you as you delivered leaflets and it’s sad to see that kind of politics.

Anyway, back to David’s article. He wrote:

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Caron Lindsay

The Queen’s advice to Tim Farron

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 21st April 2016 - 11:40 pm

I am far from being an ardent royalist. The idea that someone should just inherit the position of head of state is very strange to me. However, that doesn’t stop me acknowledging that the current incumbent has been doing a fantastic job since way before I was born. I’ve always admired her dignity, dedication and the experience that comes from dealing with Prime Ministers as diverse as Alec Douglas-Home, Tony Blair and Winston Churchill and having an unrivalled perspective of almost six and a half decades of world events.

Today, MPs paid tribute to her service as they wished her a happy birthday. Here is Tim Farron’s contribution in which he tells us how she gave him a good tip to deal with a common problem:

I thank you, Mr Speaker, for calling me to speak, especially as I managed to make it into the Chamber only when the Prime Minister was concluding his remarks—my apologies to him. On this occasion I am convinced that, not having heard one of his remarks, I would have agreed with them all.

It is a massive honour to give praise and to acknowledge the service of Her Majesty on her 90th birthday. Unlike many people in this place, I have spoken to Her Majesty on only a limited number of occasions. It was on one occasion really, as a very new Member of Parliament. She was asking me how I was getting on as a new MP and how I was coping with the correspondence. I did confide that, on occasions, people would come up to me in the street and say thank you, or acknowledge a letter that I had written to them, and I would sometimes just go blank. I am sure that colleagues share that sensation and think, “Right, what are they talking about? I can’t quite remember the detail.” Her Majesty said, “Yes, that happens to me all the time. I always say that it is the least I could do”. Perhaps we should all cling on to that as a good get-out-of-jail card.

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Antony Hook

EURef: Judgment reserved in Ex-pats’ legal challenge

By Antony Hook | Thu 21st April 2016 - 9:22 pm

This week the High Court in England heard argument in a legal challenge by UK citizens’ living abroad to their disenfranchisement in the European Referendum on 23 June.

British citizens who have lived abroad for more than 15 years are to be denied the vote, unless (as their counsel pointed out) they hastily move back to the UK.

They cannot vote while Commonwealth citizens living in the UK, whether for a long or a short time, can vote.

Aidan O’ Neill QC for the claimants pointed out the great deal at stake for the claimants – their right to live, work or study …

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The Voice

Undeclared Conservative election expenses unearthed by Channel 4 News

By The Voice | Thu 21st April 2016 - 6:04 pm

Michael Crick, Channel 4 News’s political correspondent, has spent months investigating the Conservative Party’s election expenses from last year’s general election, focussing on the party’s “battle buses”, which moved activists around the country, and the associated costs incurred (e.g. hotels).

Last night’s programme featured another report, this time looking at the use of the buses in the South-West, where the Conservatives successfully targeted every one of the 14 seats held by the Lib Dems:

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NewsHound

What they said about Kirsty in the Welsh Leaders’ Debate

By NewsHound | Thu 21st April 2016 - 2:30 pm

Last night, ITV held a debate for the six Welsh party leaders.

As expected, Kirsty Williams put in a strong performance on education, taking on UKIP’s Nathan Gill on the folly of his education policies, emphasising Liberal Democrat successes such as the Welsh version of the Pupil Premium which was implemented because of Liberal Democrat influence and Kirsty’s More Nurses Bill. She was also keen to emphasise that the stark choice voters face on the list, with key seats being a choice between Kirsty’s Lib Dems and UKIP.

You can see for yourself by watching the whole thing here:

Here’s what commentators in the press and on Twitter had to say about Kirsty’s performance. 

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Nick T

Review: Coalition, by David Laws

By Nick T | Thu 21st April 2016 - 1:01 pm

Coalition: The Inside Story of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government (Biteback; £25)

David Laws CoalitionIf journalistic reportage is the first rough draft of history, then the politicians’ memoir has a good claim to be the second — at least as far as contemporary political history is concerned.

Few are better placed to give the inside account of the UK’s first national coalition in living memory than David Laws. Laws was at the heart of the coalition before it had even been conceived, as part of a small Lib Dem team preparing for a hung parliament, and was then one of four Liberal Democrats to make up the party’s negotiating team when possibility became a reality in May 2010. From thereon in he bore witness to every significant decision made over the next five years, even though two of those years were ostensibly spent on the backbenches.

Laws has two other advantages, too. The first is the intelligence and insight that has earned him respect across the Lib Dem party — even from those with whom he often disagrees — and beyond. The second is his proximity to Nick Clegg, who allowed Laws access to his papers from his time as deputy prime minister in the preparation of this book.

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Antony Hook

EURef: RSPB demands Remain and Leave answer environmental questions

By Antony Hook | Thu 21st April 2016 - 10:25 am

I remember a time, in the early 2000s, when it felt like every discussion on the future of the Liberal Democrats or of political parties in general mentioned the fact the RSPB had 2 million members whereas political parties were reduced to a few hundred-thousands between them.

This massive organisation has now spoken out in the referendum debate. It has not taken a side but demanded that each campaign answer how the environment will be effected.

My view, taking part in public IN/OUT debates every week, is that the environment itself will not swing a huge number of votes but there are some it …

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Guy Russo

We can’t forget about our core vote if we want to win on June 23rd

By Guy Russo | Thu 21st April 2016 - 8:55 am

It’s been said that the case to stay within the European Union will work at its best if it successfully appeals to the varied policy interests of different types of party-aligned voters. The idea is that Labour voters will be drawn to EU achievements like the Social Chapter on worker’s rights, Greens to the bold environmentalism of the Union and Lib Dems to human rights and free trade statutes. But most interestingly (and perhaps most vitally), Conservative voters are being courted by appealing to their party emphasis on maintain the integrity of British foreign policy.

Whilst this is fascinating and deeply important, I think that only constructing a convincing case for foreign policy that suits Tory voters runs the risk of portraying our foreign policy interests within the EU in a one-sided manner – and does so in such a way that we risk alienating Liberal and Internationalist-minded voters who might still be undecided. To put it bluntly, if we only talk about foreign policy towards the EU in terms of maintaining geostrategic alliances, a significant part (admittedly not a majority) of our (and the IN campaign’s) core vote might at least switch off or at worst be turned off the campaign. We must also remind people about the often scandalously poorly- publicised work of the EU as a global humanitarian actor if we are to stimulate our core vote.

I’m proud that it was our leader who first got the ball rolling on this kind of position – by talking not about the EU simply in terms of alliances, jobs and interests but in terms of peace and common progress. We have to build on this by talking to Liberal-minded voters about the humanitarian element of the European Union. 

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Antony Hook

EURef: Simon Hughes rallies support in Gibraltar

By Antony Hook | Wed 20th April 2016 - 5:44 pm

Gibraltar is part of the UK for purposes of EU membership and will vote in the referendum on 23 June.

The Gibraltar Chronicle has reported on a speech to rally support for Remain by former Deputy Party Leader, Simon Hughes:

Gibraltarians should use their personal, professional and family networks to campaign for the UK to remain in the European Union, Sir Simon Hughes said this week.

The former deputy leader of the UK’s Liberal Party said Gibraltar had a role to play ahead of the ahead of the June 23 referendum on EU membership.

“You have friends, you have family, you have children

…

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Caron Lindsay

Federal Conference registration opens – but discounted period only lasts for a week

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 20th April 2016 - 2:00 pm

I got an email 24 minutes ago inviting me to register for Federal Autumn Conference. This year’s event takes place from 17-20 September.

I acted on it immediately and have secured my place. I’m not impressed with just a week being allocated for the early bird discount though.

We’re offering a special early bird rate of £60 for members who book by 27th April so register now!

Hang on a wee minute. It’s giving us a week to register at the early bird rate before whacking the price up? In the middle of an election when most of us are rushed off our feet? Before the end of the month when most people get paid?

I think that the Federal Conference Committee should at the very least extend the deadline for the early bird discount until the end of May. That gives people another month to budget for it. After all, registration normally opens after any May elections, round about the beginning of June.

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Neville Farmer

Your Liberal Britain: What would a Liberal Britain look like?

By Neville Farmer | Wed 20th April 2016 - 12:35 pm

Your Liberal BritainHow many times have you heard it? “What do the Lib Dems stand for?” I mean, it’s not as though Labour have been socialists for the last 20 years. There is clearly no such thing as one-nation Conservatives, or fiscally responsible Tories, or compassionate Conservatives. Yet the public seems to think they understand the main parties’ positions.

The typical voter thinks it’s the Lib Dems who have no stance, the piggy in the middle that invited the Cameron treatment for five years. Not a party of government, as our failed campaign slogan confirmed last year. Our position as a party is one of the reasons the Your Liberal Britain group was created. So, here’s my two penn’orth.

I joined the party because I believe that government is about nurturing and investing its citizens’ talents, not putting the fear of God into them, not reining them in or nannying them and certainly not spreading anxiety and mistrust.

Fundamental to our system of justice is the presumption of innocence. We are supposed to trust each other. But recent legislation doesn’t reflect that.

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Caron Lindsay

Farron: the Welsh Assembly needs a strong liberal voice

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 20th April 2016 - 11:23 am

What is it about politicians and hi-vis jackets? They always come out during an election. Building is, I guess, a sign of economic health and everyone wants to be involved. Tim Farron and Kirsty Williams visited a building company in Wales yesterday:

Tim then went on to Ceredigion where he campaigned with the amazing Liz Evans:

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Baroness Liz Barker

Baroness Liz Barker writes…Osborne’s social care omnishambles

By Baroness Liz Barker | Wed 20th April 2016 - 9:29 am

This week I am asking the Tory government how much revenue they anticipate local authorities will raise from May 2016 when they are given the power to add to council tax a precept of up to 2% to fund social care.

During the last government  Paul Burstow and Norman Lamb achieved something which had eluded all governments of the last thirty years, an equitable and sustainable settlement for social care. The Care Act restated the purpose of social care:  enabling the wellbeing  of both the person needing care and their carer, prevention and delay of the need for care and support and putting people  in control of their care.  The inclusion of the main proposals of the Dilnot Commission, paved the way for a funding system in which the costs of care would be shared, essentially between property owners and the state, thereby enabling individuals to avoid having to meet catastrophic costs at times of greatest vulnerability. 

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Antony Hook

EURef Roundup: Treasury’s £4,300, likely turnout changing, leaflet’s impact on support, TUC on Race, EG on investment risk

By Antony Hook | Tue 19th April 2016 - 10:37 pm

James Kirkup in the Telegraph has analysis of the Treasury’s study that says we would be £4,300 worse off if we leave than if we remain in Europe.  The report is summarised:

The Government analysis is that without full membership of the European Union and access to its single market, UK businesses would find it harder to sell goods and services to customers in the EU and, in some circumstances, elsewhere in the world. The UK would also become less attractive place for foreign businesses to invest. Some businesses would grow less quickly. Some would close down. Over time, the UK

…

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The Voice

And the new Lib Dem peer is…

By The Voice | Tue 19th April 2016 - 5:28 pm

John Thurso…Despite failing to submit a manifesto
…Despite one of his opponents submitting a manifesto with the word “cupidity” in it
…the new Lib Dem peer is the old Lib Dem Peer and former MP John Thurso.

He won the strangest by-election ever, the election of another Liberal Democrat hereditary peer to replace Eric Avebury who sadly died in February.

There was an electorate of 3 to choose between a field of 7.

We don’t need the full STV rundown because all 3 of the electors voted for Lord Thurso.

The BBC has more information:

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Caron Lindsay

Cooking with Kirsty

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 19th April 2016 - 4:35 pm

Kirsty Williams faces her ITV leaders’ debate on ITV Cymru tomorrow at 8pm.

Away from the formalities of the campaign, she has been cooking with ITV Cymru’s political editor Adrian Masters. He’s been doing this with all the party leaders. I do hope he asked the men what their families thought of them being party leaders as well.

He helped Kirsty make Sloppy Joes.

Kirsty had a great story about being brought back to earth after meeting President Obama. If it had been me, I’d have wanted to talk about nothing else for about a year. Her husband, Richard, had something else he needed to ask, though:

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Caron Lindsay

Willie Rennie’s most embarrassing moments – and his favourite films

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 19th April 2016 - 3:05 pm

In London, they have the taxi thing, but in Scotland, the BBC are doing a Leaders’ Lift Challenge. As they travel up the lift in what I presume is their Glasgow HQ, people get on and ask random questions.

Here’s Willie Rennie’s. The answer to “Who would you most like to be stuck in a lift with?” is very sweet. And we find out about the transgressions in his past. Stealing apples, indeed.

This comes out as a BMG opinion poll had two bits of potential good news. First of all, 51% backed the idea of a penny on tax for education, which is the party’s key policy in this election. On hearing this, Willie said:

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Joe Otten

Brexiters have nowhere to hide on crime, policing, terror and intelligence

By Joe Otten | Tue 19th April 2016 - 1:38 pm

With the Brexit debate currently focusing on the question of trade, Brexiters are able to wrongly claim that the UK would enjoy better trade agreements outside the EU, sooner or later. This exercise in hand waving complacency is not available when it comes to our security.

This is not just about the European Arrest Warrant, responsible for the

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News Meerkat

‘I came from Bangladesh, the Government lost my passport and now I’m a Liberal Democrat’

By News Meerkat | Tue 19th April 2016 - 11:54 am

The Plymouth Herald reports:

Voters in next month’s council election will be confronted by a host of new names – but none with a more fascinating story than the Liberal Democrat candidate for Efford.

Rafiqul Haque grew up in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, and came to the UK on a family holiday aged 14.

While they were here their home country elected a new government and their citizenship was revoked, rendering them effectively stateless.

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Suzanne Fletcher

What you can do to make a difference to the Immigration Bill

By Suzanne Fletcher | Tue 19th April 2016 - 10:24 am

The Immigration Bill returns to the House of Commons on Monday, April 25th. Some very important amendments will be coming from significant wins in the House of Lords, when it was debated there. ALL MPs need to be lobbied and told how important it is that these amendments are incorporated into what is a terrible Bill, to at least make a difference to many asylum seekers already in the UK, as well as the 3,000 unaccompanied children seeking refuge, already in Europe.

Please do take the time to write, meet, or otherwise lobby your own MP on these issues.

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Steve Trevethan

Value for Money and Power Education

By Steve Trevethan | Tue 19th April 2016 - 8:55 am

No action can have a single consequence.

Can the stated purpose of an action distract us from considering its several unstated/understated consequences?

Can unstated consequences be unstated purposes?

Can/does the iceberg profundity of the governmental decision/action to academise all English schools have a single consequence/purpose?

Academisation of our schools involves more than education. It also involves money, property, power, politics, cartel-control, democratic freedom, governance and accountability, to name but some of the areas of our lives it affects/controls, now in the future.

Some questions:

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Mary Reid

GCHQ apologises to gay people

By Mary Reid | Mon 18th April 2016 - 4:53 pm

 

The boss of GCHQ has apologised for banning gay people from working for the organisation right up until the 90s. Robert Hannigan was speaking at a conference run by Stonewall, when he referred to a spy called Ian who was sacked in the 1960s for being gay.

After seven years of exemplary service, with very strong prospects for the future, he was interrogated on suspicion of being homosexual, he was summarily dismissed and escorted out of the building. He got no support from anyone in authority at all, even his union, and no-one ever followed up to check on his well-being or to show any compassion. Not surprisingly, his health suffered and the psychological effects of that humiliation were long-lasting.

… Their suffering was our loss and it was the nation’s loss too because we cannot know what Ian and others who were dismissed would have gone on to do and achieve.

Whenever a group of people are excluded from areas of employment and expertise for reasons that have nothing to do with their competence, then we have to ask what could have been achieved if they had been included in the pool of talent. There is always the question about ‘what might have been’ if the organisation had been completely free to choose the best candidates for a job.

What caught my eye, though, were the references to Alan Turing in Hannigan’s speech:

But in our building he is revered as a genius, as a problem-solver who was not afraid to think differently and radically – an example to others. And in the horrifying story of his treatment, a small ray of light is that he was not abandoned by all of his colleagues at GCHQ – many stood by him and our then Head of Cryptanalysis – chief code breaker – testified at his trial.

… We did not learn our lesson from Turing.

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John Marriott

We need to challenge some of those Brexit statements

By John Marriott | Mon 18th April 2016 - 3:34 pm

 

Well, the ‘official’ EU referendum campaign has finally begun. Funny, it appears to have been going on for months already.

I was interested to see the images of the two official campaigns juxtaposed the other day in the BBC report on my TV screen. The ‘Leave’ campaign was illustrated by old footage of Tories Grayling, Gove and Whittingdale etc. manning the phone lines, whereas the ‘In’ footage showed Tory, Labour and Lib Dem politicians, including the Prime Minister, doing the same thing. For an organisation that has tried so far to be unfailingly impartial in its reporting of the campaign in its ‘phoney war’ stage, I have a feeling that the BBC has possibly given the ‘In’ campaign a visual leg up, by showing its multi party nature. Now, whether we get politicians of different parties actually sharing a platform as we did in 1975 is a different matter.

So far, the arguments for and against have been pretty well rehearsed. We should park immigration for a moment, which could be the deciding factor, but which will still pose problems for us whether or not we stay in the EU. As an EU pragmatist, who thinks that, on balance, leaving the EU now would be a massive gamble, I do have to say that some of the arguments being put forward repeatedly by the Brexiters need challenging.

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Liz Lynne

Who makes the decisions in the EU?

By Liz Lynne | Mon 18th April 2016 - 1:38 pm

 

I have become increasingly frustrated that so many people, including journalists and UK politicians, do not seem to know how the EU actually works and who is responsible for making the decisions on legislation. Over and over again I hear that unelected bureaucrats are in charge and people endlessly talk about the democratic deficit. The reason they do that is that they have been fed this misinformation by the majority of the press and media for years.

I thought it was about time to try and put the record straight. Having been both an MP and then an MEP I can genuinely say that I had more power to shape legislation as an MEP than I did as an MP even though I was a front bench spokesperson.

Most legislation in the EU has to be passed by both the MEPs and the Council which are made up of Ministers from each Member State that is why I get so frustrated when people say that unelected bureaucrats make the decisions. They are usually under the misapprehension that the Commission are the ones who actually legislate.

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Lord William Wallace

In the Spring …

By Lord William Wallace | Mon 18th April 2016 - 12:23 pm

 

In the Spring every Liberal Democrat activist goes out delivering and canvassing.  To pass the time, and increase the interest, many of us play mind games about the political tendencies of the streets and houses we are approaching, trying to anticipate what we may expect.  In Bradford we have to anticipate first of all whether the front door and letter box will be at the front or the back – well, we hardly ever open our own front door in Saltaire, though the letter box is there. In generations past, front doors  in West Yorkshire were only used for weddings and funerals; now, you are more likely to encounter thick piles of clothes and shoes which prevent the person you wanted to talk to from getting close enough to open it.

The most successful game I ever played, with others in our group, was in an affluent area of Sheffield Hallam in the 2010 campaign: guessing the sort of reception we would get, and the likely political leanings, from the make of the car in the drive. BMWs indicated solid right-wing views, Mercedes only slightly less so.  Minis denoted concern not to hog the road or to look aggressive, Peugeots had a definite tendency towards Liberalism, and Volvos were a pretty sure bet.  When one of my nephews was lodging with us a few years later, and looking for a car to buy, he explained to me how each make and model of car carries a particular image that the purchaser buys into: male, female, assertive, family-oriented, socially aware.  This reassured me that I had not been idly associating choice of car with political tendency.

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The Voice

LibLink: Miriam Gonzáles says free trade has won: adapt or die is the only option left to us

By The Voice | Mon 18th April 2016 - 10:53 am

Writing on the Tata steel crisis in the Guardian, Miriam Gonzáles, who is a partner at the global specialist law firm, Dechert LLP, specialising in international trade, writes:

The Tata Steel sale has revived the battle between protectionists and free traders, a debate that became particularly acute in the run-up to the creation of the World Trade Organisation in 1995, which marked the success of “free traders” all around the world.

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Andrew Venning

Is Liberalism Dead?

By Andrew Venning | Mon 18th April 2016 - 9:10 am

Every day as I read the news and listen to the radio I dread the erosion of Liberal principles across the globe and there seems to be an increase in extremism and antagonistic attitudes toward the most seemingly inoffensive issues. Due to the growth of fascism both in the UK and particularly across Europe it feels as if Liberal ideology is utterly at threat.

The LibDem fight back is about more than a party but an ideal. We need to convince people that we can moderate as well as keep the door ajar to our left wing allies. We must fight the corner for workers and the poor and those lives that have been utterly ruined by the Conservative party cuts. We must keep a balance of sensible politics and reject extremism in any form, right or left. It is not a healthy route to achieve political, social and geopolitical cohesion. Liberal ideas must be kept alive and not end up squeezed out and squashed into nothingness.

The ideas of being Liberal must be at the nucleus of our thinking, behaviour and actions. We need to embrace our historical “founders” Erasmus, Montesquieu, John Locke, Simone de Beauvoir or whoever else you choose as your own personal poster person for liberalism. We need to keep the best of their ideas alive. If we don’t, we risk losing the liberal ideal and getting left behind.

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Caron Lindsay

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #455

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th April 2016 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 455th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (10 -,16 April 2016), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

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Caron Lindsay

How the Scottish Liberal Democrats are winning this campaign

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th April 2016 - 3:55 pm

This morning I headed into Edinburgh at the crack of dawn to take part in a panel on Radio Scotland show Good Morning Scotland.

I got a bit of a shock at the station as there was hardly anywhere to park, which I hadn’t expected for that hour. The reason became clear when I got to the platform and saw lots of people in running gear, heading into town for the Great Edinburgh Run.

I have to say it is much easier to be discussing your election campaign when your leader is on the form of your life and when voters are repeating your campaign messages back to you on the doorsteps and you are winning the campaign with fantastic events involving seals, planes, canoes and happy children in a soft play area. You can listen to what I had to say here from about 1 hour 41 minutes in.

People like the optimism, boldness and fun of our campaign. They like the penny on tax for education, investing from nursery to college. They like the investment in mental health that we’d bring. They like Willie Rennie. He had people in Alloa, not the most ardent Lib Dem stronghold, come up to him yesterday and tell him they were voting for us for the first time. It feels better out there than it has for a long time. I’m not going to make any wild predications, but I think it is reasonable to think that it is possible for us to send a bigger contingent to Holyrood than we currently have. We need to build on the early success of the campaign over the next three weeks.

I wanted to concentrate on us and the good things about our campaign, but if I had had the chance to talk about the others, I’d have taken the SNP to task on their utter timidity. They have been going on about getting more powers for Scotland forever. Now they have them, they are barely using them. It’s like giving them a Ferrari that they won’t ever get out of second gear. 

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The Voice

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

By The Voice | Sun 17th April 2016 - 2:25 pm

7 bestMany thanks to the 12,800 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Baroness Lynne Featherstone writes…The State killed my nephew (4 comments) by Lynne Featherstone.

UKIP’s ongoing collapse – ducking a by-election in Farage’s “top target” (10 comments) by Antony Hook

Why, after a year of being involved with the Lib Dems, I’ll be renewing my membership (27 comments) by Benjamin Sims

Offshore 101, or can we please stop asking David Cameron to resign? (47 comments) by Alice Thomas

Breaking… A duo of by-election wins – one strong hold, one great gain (20 comments) by Caron Lindsay

The Bearing Group, helping to build a more liberal UK (25 comments) by Tristan Gray

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