EURef: Remind friends and relatives abroad to register to vote

Many of us have family members or friends abroad.  British citizens who emigrate, whether permanently or temporarily, retain their right to vote for 15 years.  They need to register like all voters.

There is a lot at stake for British people abroad in the EU referendum.

For the 2.2m British citizens living, working or studying in other EU states there is the obvious point that if we leave the EU they lose their rights to be there.  They would be exposed to risks such as having to leave, not being able to work, having to apply for a visa, having to pay …

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Tim Farron’s speech to Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference

Tim had already been in Cardiff once last week, campaigning with AM Eluned Parrott in Cardiff, and he was back yesterday. After he left, he went to East Dunbartonshire before returning home to Cumbria. You can’t accuse him of not putting the work in. He’s certainly setting a good example.

Here is his speech in full. He encompassed many of the themes around community and public services that had been much mentioned, but also spoke about flooding, climate change and Europe.

He also had a big plea to activists – get out on the doors again, because “where we work we win” is working again.

Enjoy.

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Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference open thread #4: The sex education motion

Welcome to the final open thread of this year’s Welsh Conference. The motion is printed in full at the end of this article.

Cadan ab Tomos proposes the motion, telling the story of why the 18 references to sex caused the Assembly’s porn filters to have a hissy fit.

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Baroness Sal Brinton writes…Electing diverse MPs

One of the most shocking events of the 2015 General Election night was the loss of our top held and target seats with women and BAME candidates, which resulted in an entirely pale and male parliamentary party. Members were rightly upset by this, and there has been much discussion about what steps the party needs to take to ensure that in 2020 and beyond our party looks like the countries and communities we represent. Top seats are already beginning the process of selecting Westminster candidates for 2020. We can’t afford to delay any arrangement, hence the motion coming to York Conference.

Under our current constitution, these arrangements are the responsibility of the three state parties. We hope members will let their state party officers know their views as well as responding to the Federal consultation and debate in York.

In the governance consultation response last autumn the Federal Executive received many comments and proposals saying that ‘something must be done – doing nothing is not an option’. In fact it was one of the top topics members wrote in about. FE and the Joint States Candidates Committee has investigated possible options, and the resulting motion that will be debated at York Spring Conference sets out a wide range of proposals, including limited application of All Women Shortlists (AWS). We know members have divided views on the issue of AWS, but it is important that the debate before and at conference is much broader, because it includes support for other under-represented groups. Indeed, not every member of FE supports all the details in the motion, but there was broad acceptance that it was right for members to debate and vote on this. You can see the full motion here.

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Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference open thread #3 Europe debate

Former MEP Peter Price kicks off the Europe debate saying “Stonger In” is an understatement. We can’t be anywhere other than where geography and history has placed us.

Go home and start digging, he says – not the conventional way to open a debate – but see what continent you are in. Then he talked about how we’ve spent 20 centuries being interested in what goes on in Europe, so why would we opt out now?

The EU, he says, has come a long way since its foundation. Many people have forgotten it’s guaranteed the peace these last six decades. We have shared democracy, human rights and openness, research programmes in which UK universities lead, potential to halt climate change by working together, co-operation in fighting organised crime and opportunities for young people to travel and study.

He asks us to imagine if we were outside. Would we be more able to deal with these challenges. Get campaigning, he says, it’s not enough just to support the motion.

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Kirsty Williams’ speech to Welsh Conference: Community, better public services and a new initiative to Ask Wales

Below is Kirsty Williams’ keynote speech to Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference. It’s a good read,

Dream

Conference: ‘I had a dream’

Okay… you may have heard that one before, but as we head into our 5th set of elections since the start of the Assembly, I think back to the time it was first established

I was excited. Enthusiastic. Full of hope.

We had a dream.

Liberals had been fighting for Home Rule for over a hundred years. This was our chance.

You know, I made my first media appearance during the run up to the ’97 referendum.  I had the midnight shift – being interrogated by Andrew Neil.

Sure, I was nervous, of course I was.

I couldn’t quite believe I was sitting next to these professional politicians, who I’d only ever seen on the telly.

But what overrode my nerves was excitement.

We were on the cusp of achieving all that we had hoped for

We’d campaigned for over 100 years for this moment. For Welsh devolution. To bring power closer to the people.

Nearly two decades later, and ask yourself – has that happened?

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Kirsty’s #AskWales2016 initiative: If you were First Minister, what would be the first thing you’d change?

Kirsty Williams announced a new initiative in her speech yesterday. She’s always listened to people, but now she wants their voices to be heard and she needs the help of Welsh Liberal Democrat activists to reach as many as possible. The idea is that people ask people they know what their first priority would be if they were First Minister. They film them responding (obviously with their permission) and post to social media.

Here’s the first video.

#AskWales1

What would be your priority if you were First Minister? #AskWales #AskWales2016

Posted by Welsh Liberal Democrats on Saturday, 6 February 2016

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What’s happening at Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference today? Europe and sex

Here’s a rundown on what’s happening today at Welsh Spring Conference with debates on Europe, and a motion on sex education by IR Cymru.

The Debates

10:00 Policy Motion
PM5: Winning in Europe

10:40 Speech: Peter Black AM, Assembly Member for South Wales West

11.00 2016 Election Briefing Closed, Member-Only Session

12:00 Policy Motion
PM6: Let’s Talk about Sex

 

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Welsh Lib Dem Conference: Friday night rally, and the wit and wisdom of Wales’ Lib Dem women

Last night’s Conference rally was one of the highlights so far. As party members gathered in a hotel suite, four fantastic Welsh Lib Dem women, two current AMs, two target seat candidates helped set out the Liberal Democrat vision and values ahead of May’s election. Eluned Parrott proved to be a very funny chair of the event, with a little anecdote about each of the speakers. Veronica German used to work as a tester for Cadbury’s. Nice work if you can get it. Her great Uncle was an ice cream pioneer as the original Mr Whippy. Liz Evans is known as the Queen in some circles because of her love of corgis and has a great hat collection. And Kirsty, she told us, was named  the 47th coolest woman in Wales. A massive theme of this whole conference has been about giving communities control over their own destiny and Liz Evans highlighted that this is instinctive to us.

Another big theme of the weekend has been public services and how they are being pretty atrociously run in Wales.

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Elizabeth Evans’ speech to Friday night Conference rally

Liz EvansWay back in 2011, Mark Cole wrote for this site about his wonderful local candidate for Ceredigion, Elizabeth Evans:

So she knows her stuff does our Elizabeth and she’s taking her passion for her home county out onto the doorsteps. Her concerns for our local health service are chiming with the fears and worries of local residents – it being the biggest concern the length and breath of the county. The packed public meeting held in Aberystwyth only last week regarding the future of healthcare provision in Bronglais Hospital proved testament to that. Elizabeth has a particular empathy with these concerns because as a past-chair of Mencap Ceredigion, she has an interest that is reflected in her current campaign to secure local facilities for elderly patients suffering from dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Last night, I met her for the first time when she spoke at the rally. She spoke with such clarity and passion and concern for her community. She’s smart, caring, strong and funny and she’d be a fab AM.

Here is her speech in full:

Fellow Liberal Democrats. I wish I knew then what I know now!

I’m going to take you back to 2011.

I was the candidate in Ceredigion and the Liberal Democrats were a year into the Westminster coalition. Yet it felt like a Westminster election – of course Plaid and Labour wanted it that way. They behaved as if they truly had the moral high ground, preaching the politics of betrayal and blame. The Liberal Democrats in coalition had let everyone down. Really? Well look at the government we have now!

In 2011 Plaid said they wouldn’t close schools, wouldn’t close libraries, and they certainly wouldn’t close residential homes. Well they’ve done all that running Ceredigion County Council!  Plaid made so many manifesto promises they knew they couldn’t keep and they’ve broken just about all of them. We broke one.

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Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference open thread #2 Aled Roberts’ speech Manifesto debate

This is being posted much later due to lack of wifi, but I hope this gives you a flavour of the debate.

Aled Roberts’ speech

Aled Roberts was introduced by chair Mark Cole in Welsh and delivered his speech in Welsh. He highlighted education:

Let’s not forget that the Lib Dems secured the Pupil Premium while not even in Government and have had it virtually trebled in the past 5 years as well as extending it to early years. Imagine what we could achieve if we were actually in Government?

Class sizes in Wales under Labour are among the highest in the developed world. Over 71740 infant pupils are taught in classes of more than 25 with 59% of infant classes having more than 25 pupils.

The younger the pupils, the more time and attention they need from their teachers. We would invest in more teachers to give them the time to focus on each child’s individual needs.

Manifesto Debate

Chloe Hutchinson talks about benefits to young people on a range of issues from housing to votes at 16. She says she’s proud to support the manifesto motion and calls on Wales to vote to stay in the EU.

Speaker now highlighting the fact that equality impact assessments will be done as a matter of course and that this will help to win back the trust of a more diverse range of people.

IR Cymru speaker Rhys Taylor now talking about the need for politicians to consider needs of young people as today’s generation faces being poorer than parents. He is glad to see policies which reflect the concerns of young people from skills development, environmental sustainability and access to physical and mental health services.

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Kirsty Williams’ speech to Friday night Conference rally

Kirsty will be making her keynote speech in an hour or so. She always speaks with such warmth and passion and sensitivity so I’m really looking forward to it.

Last night at the opening Conference rally, she was in great form. Here’s her speech from that event in full:

Before we begin, I just wanted to point something out to you.

Every single one of the people who’ve spoken tonight are women.

In fact, all the candidates in our most gainable seats are female

Eluned Parrott in Cardiff Central

Elizabeth Evans in Ceredigion

Veronica German leading the regional list in South East Wales

And Jane Dodds in Montgomeryshire too.

All of them in seats we want to win.

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Sex education motion leads to National Assembly wifi ban for Welsh Lib Dem website

Talking about sex can lead to internet filters having a bit of a hissy fit.

A very sensible IR Cymru motion on sex education has meant that the Welsh Lib Dem website, where it appears on the Conference agenda. The Daily Post has the details:

Just hours before the rally to kick start their annual conference the party’s website has been barred by the bulding’s public wi-fi.

It has been placed in the same category of proscribed sites along with hard core porn sites.

But it has emerged the reason for the block is that the conference programme mentions the word “sex” or “sexual” 18 times.

The policy motion – named “let’s talk about sex” – includes calls for parents’ legal right to remove their child from any part of sex education classes to be binned.

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Assange: From Townsville to Knightsbridge via Cloud Cuckoo Land

In Evelyn Waugh’s “Handful of Dust”, the fortunate owner of a fantastic Gothic English country pile, Tony Last, has an idyllic life which is gradually brought crashing down by a series of unfortunate events including betrayal by his wife. He ends the book trapped as a prisoner in the Brazilian jungle – the plaything of an insane tribal chief – having to continually read Charles Dickens’ “Little Dorrit” to the inhabitants.

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Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference open thread #1 – introduction and policing debate

I shall just start by saying that I love this auditorium. It’s a lecture theatre so I am sitting up the back with my laptop on an actual desk, not precariously balanced on my lap.

I should also mention that this is a Conference which has smashed all its budget projections. There are a healthy complement of stalls from external exhibitors, 6 fringe meetings today and a healthy attendance of over 250 members.

Eluned Parrott AM opened Conference with a speech outlining how the Liberal Democrats would strengthen communities and transform the economy by “ditching the Thatcherite mantra” and levelling the playing field, investing in infrastructure to maximise inclusion and minimise isolation.

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What’s happening today at Welsh Spring Conference? Leaders, manifesto, policing, education

Here’s a rundown on what’s happening today at Welsh Spring Conference. The highlights are obviously keynote speeches from Tim and Kirsty and a debate on the manifesto.

The Debates

09:10 Opening of Conference: Eluned Parrott AM, Assembly Member for South Wales Central

09:30 Policy Motion
PM1: Policing in Wales

10:15 Speech: Aled Roberts AM, Assembly Member for North Wales

10:35 Policy Motion:
PM2: A Manifesto for 2016

11:55 Speech: Tim Farron MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats

13:30 Speech: Kirsty Williams CBE AM, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats

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LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League: how it stands after Week 24

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The shocking truth about FGM

Lynne FEatherstone 2007 Brighton conference by Liberal DemocratsResponding to reports that a case of FGM is reported in England every 109 minutes, former Liberal Democrat DfID Minister Lynne Featherstone said:

The Liberal Democrats in Coalition ensured the NHS must report cases of FGM , it is vital that we shine a light on this barbaric practice.

It is shocking how many cases are now coming forward but we must see this as a positive. Without knowing the true extent of the problems we do not face a hope of stopping it. The rate in which cases are reported shows how much work is still left to do. We must highlight the issue in schools, ensuring that young girls are educated about the issue at a young age.

Tomorrow is International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation and the fight is far from over. The more we increase awareness of the horrific nature of FGM the easier it will be to end it.

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LDV on Tour: Bringing you Welsh Lib Dem Conference as it happens

I’m sitting in the lounge of the Holiday Inn in Cardiff with all a blogger really needs, wifi, coffee and Macbook. I arrived in Cardiff early this morning on a flight which contained a very joyful stag party. I’m sure their mothers would be very worried to see them consuming quite so much vodka at barely past the crack of dawn.

This is only the second time I’ve been to Wales. The first visit was for a Doctor Who convention in 2012 and this one is to cover the Welsh Liberal Democrats’ vital pre-election Spring Conference, so it’s a place very associated with the things that I love. Last time I saw very little other than the hotel and the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. This time, I’ve already had a wander through the beautiful centre of Cardiff and at the moment am looking out on the castle. When I’ve finished writing, I’m off to the Doctor Who Experience for my fix of everyone’s favourite Time Lord. I saw the exhibition in Newcastle and London before it found its permanent home, just across fron the BBC studios where the programme is filmed.

So, why have I come 400 miles from home for this? Firstly because it’s important. Kirsty Williams leads a group of five Welsh Liberal Democrat AMs. In the last five years, they have been as highly effective an opposition to Labour as Willie and his team have been to the SNP in Holyrood. Kirsty persuaded Labour to introduce the Pupil Premium so that Liberal Democrat idea is already helping children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Welsh schools. Kirsty’s bill to ensure safe nursing levels in Welsh hospital faces its final parliamentary hurdle next week.

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#TeamLibDem – 3 months to Go…

CZP-Wn_WkAAKu6r

At 10pm, three months from today on 5th May 2016, it will all be over bar the counting.

In this May’s election as many people will have the chance to vote as in last year’s General Election. Well over 300 Lib Dem elected representatives are defending their seats.

The Liberal Democrat results in these elections will be largely up to us – Lib Dem activists and volunteers on the ground. Many thousands of us give our time and energy campaigning for our local communities and standing up for the important issues that make us Liberal Democrats.

In my job at ALDC – Liberal Democrat Campaigners and Councillors, I’m lucky enough to hear about the great work that activists are doing every day of the year. Highlights for me in January include:

  • Our first local by-election win in 2016 in Launceston Central where Gemma Massey was elected with an impressive 63% of the vote
  • In Edinburgh, Scottish Parliament Candidate Alex Cole-Hamilton is launching a five point plan to tackle poor air quality and severe pollution caused by traffic congestion in Edinburgh Western
  • There’s a great team, and a great deal of activity, building up around the hard work of John Leech in the Didsbury West ward in their brilliant campaign to stop Manchester being a one-party state
  • In Wales, our Leader Kirsty Williams AM is campaigning on safe staffing levels for nurses, with the Bill now at its final stage in the Assembly
  • In London’s City and East constituency the team have got campaigning off the ground by working hard to get members involved with action days, fundraising and putting effort into training activists and assigning ‘buddies’ for new campaigners
  • In Portsmouth the team are campaigning to save their local fire services with a Tory proposal to cut the number of fire engines and fire fighters. The team got well over 2,000 signatures to get the issue debated in the council chamber
  • Many Lib Dem councillors in the north of England and elsewhere gave up much of their Christmas break to support their local communities who were devastated by floods from Boxing Day onwards.
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Putting in a good word for Turkey and the Turks

I couldn’t believe the UKIP Party Political Broadcast (PPB) earlier this week. It really is a new low for a PPB to comprehensively denigrate an entire country and its people.

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Bring a friend – they might even enjoy it

2015 policy pitch autumn conference by Paul Walter

Conference has a buzz and many local parties have suggested that it could be a good way of encouraging someone who is supportive to drink in the magic conference potion and become a full member – or even better.

But it hasn’t been easy to do this under the existing conference registration rules. Until now.

There is a new scheme designed to make it much simpler. You can find details here.

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So what’s the evidence?

 

Can anyone think of a worse time to deliberately put weaker candidates into our winnable parliamentary seats? I refer to the All Women Shortlists (AWS) proposal being put to the York conference. Now I can hear the howls of protest, “women are NOT weaker candidates”. Indeed, that’s why this measure is totally unnecessary.

We all want to see more women in the parliamentary party and agree that there is a real problem. However AWS are only a solution if women are not being selected by Local Parties.

So what’s the evidence? Ten MPs stood down in 2015 (including nine men). Six women and four men were selected to replace them. The men included Redcar where no women applied. When the man dropped out in Brent Central he too was replaced by a woman. Looking at the next tranche of target, or recently held, seats the list was dominated by excellent female candidates; Oxford East, Chesterfield, Camborne, Guildford, Winchester, Harrogate, Hereford, Watford, Hull East etc.

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Just when you thought Police and Crime Commissioners couldn’t get worse

Police helmet

As a Party we have never been fans. Some even suggested (mistakenly in my view) that the concept was so bad that we should boycott the elections in 2012.

The idea that one person (usually a white man) should have such a significant say on such a sensitive area as policing – and often over an area covering several counties – was clearly absurd. It still is.

The Government is already thinking of giving PCCs the control of fire authorities on the time-honoured principle of ‘if it’s not broke, then fix …

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Making the boat go faster

I have been a party member for two years now. One of the first things I learnt was that the online Lib Dem forums on Facebook were an odd mix of conversations. Some of which were useful and constructive, but then there were those posts which, when I read them, made me think of a saying we have here in Sheffield’s local party, ‘How is this making the boat go faster?’. I’ve recently seen another spate of these and it is that which prompts me to write this.

Often these conversations are vitriolic (in my opinion) and only seem interested in attacking Nick Clegg and his supporters as some kind of Tory cabal. A sleeper cell planted years ago designed to destroy this party. The one we have all chosen.

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Lib Dem parliamentarians mark #timetotalk day

Today has been Time to Talk day, Time for Change’s annual initiative to get more people to talk about mental health. It’s something we’ve done to great effect over the last couple of years. You can read the many moving and personal articles our readers have written here.

One Liberal Democrat parliamentarian who was definitely talking about mental health today was Welsh AM Eluned Parrott. She led a debate in the Senedd this afternoon.

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Sal Brinton on Question Time tonight – will she confront Farage over UKIP’s awful broadcast?

So much for my early night tonight. I have to get up before the Cool Kids have gone to bed to get a flight to Cardiff to go to Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference. I can’t miss Sal Brinton on Question Time (BBC1, 10:45pm), though. Especially as there may be a bit of an awkward moment for Nigel Farage. He’s on the programme yet again on the day that Tim Farron and Meral Ece have complained to the BBC and Ofcom about UKIPs Party Political Broadcast last night. They say that it incited religious and racial hatred.

I don’t normally go out of my way to watch UKIP broadcasts. Life is just too short. However, I steeled myself to look at this one and, sure enough, my skin was soon crawling. It was basically a brash and ugly attempt to create division and distrust and gives a very false impression of Turkey and its people. It made me feel very uncomfortable. The premise was that Turkey was just about to join the European Union and this was a bad thing. It’s not as if that’s likely to happen any time soon, but they made it sound like it was going to take place next week.

UKIP are using exactly the same tactics as they did in 2013 over Romanians and Bulgarians. It’s truly horrible. I remember people in Eastleigh telling me on the phone that 40 million Romanians and Bulgarians were going to come to Britain – a massive proportion of the populations of those two countries – because UKIP leaflets were full of it. In fact, this time last year, there were 172,000. Those figures estimated that there were 1.9 people here from other European countries. There are 2 million British people elsewhere in the EU. Freedom of movement works both ways.

Tim explained why they had reported the ad to OFCOM:

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Tim on Tour – talking, campaigning and almost not getting fed

Tim Farron has been out and about doing what he loves best around the country – campaigning with big groups of Liberal Democrats, knocking on people’s doors and spreading the Lib Dem word.

In a hectic 36 hours, he fitted in stops in Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff. He’s actually going to Cardiff again on Saturday to speak at Welsh Conference, too.

He recorded this video from the campaign office of Alex Cole-Hamilton, candidate for Edinburgh Western and one of the few human beings who could challenge Tim for sheer campaigning energy:

My latest TimTalks, straight from Alex Cole-Hamilton’s campaign office in Edinburgh Western!

Posted by Tim Farron on Wednesday, 3 February 2016

His theme was partly about motivation and encouraging people to get out on the doorsteps and partly one-party states – highlighting the situation in Manchester where Labour hold virtually every Council seat and the SNP’s stranglehold on power in Scotland.

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Baroness Kath Pinnock writes…Flexible childcare: Another Lib Dem victory

Who is going to look after the children?

One of the biggest worries for working parents is finding high quality and affordable childcare. It is also one of the biggest barriers, especially for women, to getting back into work.

So, when the chance came to ease those worries by improving what childcare the Government were offering, we grabbed it.

Liberal Democrats, of course, recognise that childcare is a critical issue for parents of pre-school children and successfully introduced childcare for two year olds from disadvantaged families. An increase in hours available for all 3 and 4 year olds was in our Manifesto. So we were in broad agreement with the Government Bill to increase the free childcare offer to 30 hours per week during school times.

Throughout the Bill we argued that this was a great opportunity to extend the free hours to school holidays and outside the normal school day. Parents and providers told us that the school holidays often turned out to be a nightmare to organise and could cost a small fortune. Parents who worked non-standard hours in a great variety of jobs such as nursing, cleaning, social care, and catering told us that they ended up paying for childcare when parents who worked during the school day were able to have free childcare.

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Willie Rennie: Why I need you to back me on diversity

Willie Rennie has made clear that he wants to see a more diverse team of parliamentarians elected at all levels over the next 5 years. Today, he has emailed Scottish Party members to set out the case for them to back his plans at Scottish Party Conference in three weeks’ time.

His email is copied below:

In periods of adversity organisations have opportunities to renew, refresh and reorganise to prepare for future successes. For the Scottish Liberal Democrats that opportunity is to build a team of candidates in winnable seats that is more reflective of society.

It cannot be a mark of a system of equality and opportunity that only five of the thirty six new parliamentarians in the last twenty years were women. Yet that is what our current system has produced and I am determined to change it.

Our conference in Edinburgh later this month will have a choice. We can try, yet again, to achieve more balance amongst our future parliamentarians with the same system that has delivered white, male dominated parliamentary groups since the war (No, I’m wrong. It’s forever).

Or we can back the proposals that I have developed with a group of wise and experienced campaigners. These campaigners were sceptical but have now developed a package that will get results. Sheila Ritchie, Sophie Bridger, Fred Macintosh and Jo Swinson were all against such action in the past. In fact many spoke up at conferences against such measures. The motion we will debate has been crafted by them and has their endorsement.

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