Caron Lindsay

Why classroom assistants matter and why the SNP’s pressure on local government harms kids’ education and attainment

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 30th December 2015 - 5:15 pm

US Navy 061026-N-5271J-014 Jennifer Tonder (right), a teacher's aide for a 3rd-4th grade multi-age class, discusses the various books available from the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) grant given to Sasebo Elementary School with
Scottish Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Liam McArthur has been doing some research into classroom assistant numbers in Scotland and has found some very worrying results. Like many other council services, education has been put under massive pressure after nine years of Council Tax freeze which predominantly benefits those in larger properties – e.g. the richest. The SNP are not so progressive when you put their record under scrutiny.

While some local authorities have increased the numbers of classroom assistants, others have seen huge drops. Aberdeen has lost 92 out of 299 in 2007 when the SNP came to power. In my own council area, West Lothian, 10% of classroom assistants have been gone despite a massive reduction in special needs provision.

I asked a teacher why classroom assistants matter and what impacts such reductions in their numbers have on children’s education. This is what they said.

In the modern classroom, classroom assistants, learning assistant, pupil support assistants, are key to facilitating learning. From working individually with children who, in the past, would have perhaps been taught in a school for children with special needs to supporting small groups within the classroom or being there to allow the teacher to work with small groups/individuals. Active learning is a key part of Curriculum for Excellence. This often involves spreading out of the classroom and using other spaces such as library, sensory room, outdoor classroom etc. This is all the more possible with  classroom assistants rather than having to move 33 kids en masse all of the time.

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The Voice

Kirsty Williams blasts cuts to student nurses’ financial support

By The Voice | Wed 30th December 2015 - 3:55 pm

One of the worst elements of the Governemnt’s Comprehensive Spending Review was the proposals to cut bursaries for student nurses. This is particularly reprehensible given that nursing students spend so much of their time actually working on wards. In fact, there are many wards that would buckle under the pressure if they weren’t there.

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams, who has led the way in proposing a bill that would guarantee safe nurse staffing levels in Wales, has blasted the proposals and written to health secretary Jeremy Hunt to express her concerns. She said:

The UK already has a shortage of nurses; it’s outrageous that the Tories are now scrapping the valuable support available to student nurses. This will likely only exacerbate the problem by putting people off training to be a nurse.

This ill thought-out decision will badly impact student numbers in England, which would then no doubt have consequences for Wales’ ability to recruit too.

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The Voice

LDV’s 2015 Best: our 7 most-read articles this year

By The Voice | Wed 30th December 2015 - 2:26 pm

7 bestMany thanks to the 675 000 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice between 1 January and 27 December 2015. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

The night of the long sgian dubhs (79 comments) by Charles Kennedy

It was emotional enough reading this at the time, but even more so now that we know it was the last article he was to write for us.

The Lib Dem Voice election night live blog (291 comments) by the Lib Dem Voice team.

Not going to lie, this is a tough one to read. It’s the first time I’ve actually gone through it since the horror of that night and my stomach is churning.

My thoughts fairly on into the night as we realised that the Tories were heading for victory:

I’ve said all along that there was a risk of a Tory majoirity. Blukip could be a reality on these results. This really feels like 1992 all over again – although the Tory right wingers then were cuddly teddy bears compared to the worst of them now.

And so it transpired that they were.

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Kirsty Williams AM

Kirsty Williams’ New Year message: Welsh Lib Dems are “united, growing and up for the fight”

By Kirsty Williams AM | Wed 30th December 2015 - 1:30 pm

2016 will be a big year for Wales.  With the Assembly elections just around the corner, people will soon decide who they want representing them in Cardiff Bay.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats head into these elections with our heads held high and a record to be proud of.  During this Assembly, we have used our influence in budget negotiations to secure, amongst other things, over £200 million extra investment in schools through our Welsh Pupil Premium.  This policy, directed at pupils that need it most, is central to what we believe in: ensuring that everyone, no matter their background, will get a fair start in life.  Despite being a small group in the Assembly, we have made a big difference to the communities we represent.

We combine this dedication to fairness with a pro-enterprise agenda.  We believe in supporting people who have ambition and ideas.  We understand that it’s not just government that creates jobs, but business too.  We recognise that in the real world, even our brightest need support to create and innovate.

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The Voice

Liberal Democrat Voice Stars of 2015 Part 2

By The Voice | Wed 30th December 2015 - 11:55 am

We wanted to honour those Liberal Democrats that our readers felt were true stars of 2015, which has been one of the toughest years in our party’s history. Over the past few days, we have sought out  nominations and now have a rather impressive list that we’ll be publishing in instalments during this week. Here is the second part. Part 1 is here. Their names come with the comments made about the contribution they have made. Some are parliamentarians, some are councillors, most are grassroots activists. Let’s celebrate them and the many others who are fighting fto keep that Liberal Democrat flame alive. These are our Liberal Democrat stars of 2015.

Kris Castle

She gave up her London job to go at the Yeovil South Ward like a PPC. Lib Dem but unworked for perhaps 8 years, she came a close fourth when the tsunami came in, with the largest losing vote in the region. She also worked three other wards keeping South Somerset DC under LD leadership (NOC) for the 34th year. Kris also initiated work to transform the Constituency after losing our MP. Whilst this is not a tale of unmitigated success, it is one of determination and care.

Pete Dollimore

For his ceaseless efforts on behalf of London Lib Dems, one of those backstage heroes who do the bulk of the work in so many organisations, without ever being recognised.

Pete has supported me so much over the years offering advice and support. I know many others would say the same too.

All the staff who lost their jobs after the election

I nominate the staff who lost their jobs together with their supportive families, along with all those constituency activists everywhere who didn’t deserve the results they got.

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The Voice

“Chancellor has key questions to answer on flooding”- Farron

By The Voice | Wed 30th December 2015 - 10:27 am

York flooding 2Tim Farron has written to George Osborne to ask him to provide additional funds to help repair flood-hit infrastructure. He also had some fairly pithy comments about David Cameron’s visit to the north, inviting him to do more than parade around in wellies.

He said:

The Government’s approach to flood defences is short-sighted.

In 2012 I said more funding was needed to deal with the torrential rain and ‘freak’ weather that was becoming more prevalent.

In the years since I have repeated that call and do so again today. We need to urgently review every shelved flood defence scheme.

The Prime Minister pulling on his wellies, wading through some water for a photo op and doing a couple of interviews doe not make people believe he is doing enough.

He needs to show he cares about the North by following up his words with deeds.

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Caron Lindsay

Farron stands up for families on low incomes facing cuts in Universal Credits

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 30th December 2015 - 8:48 am

Tim Farron has challenged Conservative and Labour parliamentarians to join with the Liberal Democrats to overturn the Government’s proposed cuts to Universal Credit. These are almost identical to the cuts to tax credits which the Chancellor reversed in his Autumn Statement. It is surely only logical that the changes to Universal Credit should also be reversed.

The Party is to put an amendment repealing those changes. It will be discussed as part of the Committee stage on the Welfare Reform and Work Bill in the New Year.

Tim Farron said:

The first big political battle of 2016 is already looming.

The Liberal Democrats worked hard to stop Tax Credit cuts and we won’t let the Government bring it in through the back door.

The Prime Minister and Chancellor claim they want to make work pay, but cuts to Universal Credit will mean people pocket less of what they earn.

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Keith Aspden

York Floods: As the clean up commences, questions must be asked

By Keith Aspden | Tue 29th December 2015 - 8:52 pm

York Flooding 1Over recent days the news has been full of images of York underwater. Hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes after the city’s two rivers burst their banks, flooding houses, shops, businesses and threatening historical buildings. The River Ouse peaked at over 5 metres above its typical level, while the River Foss has hit record heights.

We of course owe a debt of gratitude to all the staff and volunteers from the City of York Council, the emergency services, Environment Agency, armed forces and voluntary organisations, for the hard work they have put in (and continue to do with the clean up) to try to minimise the impact of the floods and assist those affected. After the damage this has caused to our city we must now focus on helping residents and businesses through the cleanup. There are however questions that need to be answered including on the planned levels of investment in both flood defence schemes and maintenance of existing defences.

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Caron Lindsay

Miriam Gonzalez Durantez to interview Theresa May on Today programme tomorrow

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 29th December 2015 - 4:25 pm

Miriam González Durántez by Cabinet OfficeIt’s great to see Radio 4 continuing with their holiday tradition of having guest editors for the programme.

Tomorrow it’s Miriam Gonzalez Durantez in the hot seat. Miriam has done brilliant work with her Inspiring Women campaign, taking women professionals into schools to talk to girls about their careers. During the election, she campaigned tirelessly for our key seat women candidates.

There is much to love in her line-up for tomorrow. For a start, she’s talking to the amazing Great British Bake Off winner Nadiyah Hussein. What we will need the popcorn for, though, is when she interviews Theresa May. I can’t imagine the Home Secretary getting an easy ride on Europe, immigration and civil liberties. I will probably have a nap when she interviews Manchester City footballer Vincent Kompany, though.

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The Voice

Liberal Democrat Voice Stars of 2015 Part 1

By The Voice | Tue 29th December 2015 - 2:55 pm

We wanted to honour those Liberal Democrats that our readers felt were true stars of 2015, which has been one of the toughest years in our party’s history. Over the past few days, we have sought out  nominations and now have a rather impressive list that we’ll be publishing in instalments during this week. Here is the first part. Their names come with the comments made about the contribution they have made. Some are parliamentarians, some are councillors, most are grassroots activists. Let’s celebrate them and the many others who are fighting fto keep that Liberal Democrat flame alive. These are our Liberal Democrat stars of 2015.

 Mathew Hulbert

For welcoming me into the party, being a guiding light, and a voice of sense

Kirsty Williams

For her excellent advocacy work for my friends throughout the last 6 months.

Gwynoro Jones

Gwynoro Jones for his excellent articles, his rooting us off the old SDP in the traditions, and his views going forwards.

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The Voice

Richard Kemp is selected as our candidate for Mayor of Liverpool

By The Voice | Tue 29th December 2015 - 1:23 pm

richard kempLiverpool Lib Dems have announced that they have selected Cllr Richard Kemp to run for Mayor of Liverpool in the election in May 2016. On his blog, Richard says:

You will know from your own conversations that people are tired of our Mayor. He has made a laughing stock of Liverpool time and time again. The result is that Manchester is leaping ahead of us on all fronts but especially those that relate to the economy and employment. But I am not standing just because I don’t like the Mayor. I will be fighting on a range of liberal issues which are the ones on which we rescued this City and gave it a future from 1998 to 2010 when we controlled the City.

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Martin Petts

Spanish liberals have everything to play for

By Martin Petts | Tue 29th December 2015 - 11:54 am

The morning after the Spanish General election,  those of us who follow Spanish politics suffered from a sore head. The electorate gave no clear direction when the votes were counted last week, with the previous governing party winning first place, but with far fewer seats and votes and no viable combination of parties able to group together to form a stable government.

Those of us who  two weeks ago  had dreamed that Spain’s new centrist party, Ciudadanos, were about to break the mould and become, if not a governing party, at least the kingmakers, can be forgiven for being disappointed with the result. But put into perspective, a party that four years ago did not exist on a national level, with no infrastructure and a single issue policy platform, has burst onto the scene with 40 deputies in Congress, gaining 14 per cent of the vote.

There will now follow weeks of horse trading to try to build a government out of such a fractured parliament. Rajoy, as ever a poor imitation of Angela Merkel, initially seemed to open the door to a grand coalition with the Socialists, with his call for a stable government with a majority. A pact between the two largest parties is the only combination that could provide a majority government without an unwieldy coalition of small parties. But such a coalition would surely undermine the raison d’etre of the Socialist Party as an anti-Conservative force.

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged | 4 Comments

Privatisation: Keeping the NHS afloat

By A Liberal in Leeds | Tue 29th December 2015 - 10:35 am

 

Privatisation. It’s a word which strikes fear into the hearts of progressives everywhere. Perhaps understandably so; previous governments have made a complete mess of privatising our NHS. From signing contracts for building hospitals without reading the small print to providing poor healthcare, privatisation has often been a failure.

That doesn’t mean it can’t be done though and it certainly doesn’t mean it isn’t needed. The uncomfortable truth is that our beloved NHS is unsustainable. Expenditure on healthcare has rocketed from £75 billion in 2000 to almost £130 billion in 2013. As healthcare improves, the number of elderly patients served by the health service increases. It is a vicious cycle.

So what is the liberal solution? Let’s look at the solutions politicians are currently trying. Increasing taxation regularly to fund the NHS is fundamentally illiberal and unsustainable – it puts an unnecessary and unfair burden on workers. The only other option is borrowing the funds. That is clearly also unsustainable as it is merely kicking the problem into the long grass.

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Tristan Gray

On Liberal Democrat Unity

By Tristan Gray | Tue 29th December 2015 - 9:15 am

The Liberal Democrats are presently rebuilding. We are welcoming in huge numbers of new members and fighting back to regain or retain seats across the country. Part of the challenge of rebuilding means refocussing our message around our values. The battle over which direction the party should take on economic matters especially can be a fierce one. It is a vital one, but it can begin to obscure what we are trying to achieve in the first place.

With the focus on these divisions it can become easy to forget what unifies so many in the party and that the vast majority focus on these unifying ideals. That despite our differences over economics and size of the state that our focus is more unified than any other major party. In my eyes, and I hope most will agree, these unifying ideals fall into two parts.

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Posted in Op-eds | 16 Comments

Brave New World – How the Liberal Democrats must use multipotentialism to survive

By Ian Thomas | Mon 28th December 2015 - 6:42 pm

Political parties and their structures developed from the transformation of society in the nineteenth century, and as such are based along the structured hierarchies of the factory floor. While the factory was perfected to make a product it stripped away identity, with workers being components in the machines they worked. While such certainties have given both Labour and the Conservatives strength by dominating their position within this system, they are also trapped by the very system that gives them that strength. To use another industrial analogy; while their parties are huge and powerful locomotives, they are confined to the tracks they roll upon.

But we no longer live in an industrial age. Instead we grapple with complex, multi-dimensional problems of a post-industrial interconnected world. Hierarchical structures in business and industry have been replaced by networks that constantly evolve and reshape themselves to meet the needs of the world around them. In order to deal with the issues that face us as a nation and as a society we need creative, out-of-the-box thinking – something the Liberal Democrat Party used to be famed for.

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Dawud Islam

Time to end this defection madness

By Dawud Islam | Mon 28th December 2015 - 4:57 pm

 

Yesterday, for the second time in the space of six months, one of my local Liberal Democrat councillors resigned the party whip. Two different geographical areas. Two entirely different sets of circumstances. But two similarly devastating impacts on the blood, sweat and tears of hard working local activists.

The first occasion was in Rochdale this summer. After our previous council leader Andy Kelly lost his Milnrow & Newhey seat by a meagre 15 votes a year earlier local activists worked around the clock to help deliver a stunning victory this May with a 700 plus majority in a general election year and in so doing return the party to ‘group status’ on the council. Or so we thought. Less than a month later our other long standing councillor, Peter Rush, crossed the floor to join Labour and we were back to square one.

Fast forward six months and you find me living in Edinburgh. Last night I learnt that our Almond Ward councillor, Alastair Shields, has resigned the party whip after losing out in his recent re-selection contest to local activist Kevin Lang. Cllr. Shields will now sit as an independent until May 2017. As a result the Lib Dem presence on Edinburgh City Council is reduced from three to two.

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Sarah Noble

What are the Tories hiding in their Northern Poorhouse?

By Sarah Noble | Mon 28th December 2015 - 3:50 pm

I’ve previously written about the shambolic “Northern Powerhouse” as promoted by the Tories, particularly in relation to the “pause” in the electrification project on the Trans-Pennine Lines. It’s a personal subject for me, living between the two lines that run from Leeds to Manchester, filled with trains barely fit for purpose when they were introduced.

As someone who lives in Osborne’s “Northern Powerhouse”, I have a right to know if the Tories were lying to us when they promised unprecedented infrastructure spending. If it was known in the industry that the electrification of the Great Western Main Line would mean that electrification in the North would have to be delayed, then ministers almost certainly knew. But voters were not told when they went to the ballot box in May.

So I used the best tool in the arsenal of any activist: the Freedom of Information request. Back in July, I asked for the minutes of any meetings between the Department for Transport and Network Rail regarding “the delay of electrification of the Manchester–Leeds via Huddersfield line”. Then I waited and waited.

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The Voice

Tim Farron on why he supported air strikes – and other things

By The Voice | Mon 28th December 2015 - 2:09 pm

 

Yesterday the Independent on Sunday published an interview with Tim Farron under the headline ‘Lib Dem leader on why he went against his party over Syrian air strikes‘.

Tim Farron has argued that the Liberal Democrats are “not a pacifist party”, following grassroots criticism of his decision to back Syrian air-strikes – a move opposed by two-thirds of members.

The Independent on Sunday can reveal that the Lib Dem leader was rebuked at a meeting of a senior party committee this month for failing to consult properly on the controversial vote.

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Alan Depauw

A positive case for remaining in the EU

By Alan Depauw | Mon 28th December 2015 - 12:35 pm

 

Many voices express concern that pro-EU activists should avoid emphasising the dire outcome of Brexit because, as we learnt during the Scottish referendum debate, concentrating on the negative makes for a dismal campaign.

Yet how can we not point out that a Brexit, with its consequent uncertain trade agreements especially with the UK’s major partner, would be catastrophic? But yes, we must also give a positive message. Proclaiming past EU achievements doesn’t seem to play well; too many people take them for granted, believe they would have happened anyway and in any case find them boring. However, everyone who supports continuing membership acknowledges the EU’s many flaws. Why not tackle these failings head-on and make improving the EU Britain’s mission? With its Liberal and Social Democrat tenets, LibDems are particularly well placed to develop an optimistic and constructive reform agenda.

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The Voice

“Whatever jokes he made about himself, he was nobody’s fool”

By The Voice | Mon 28th December 2015 - 11:00 am

 

Ian Hislop remembered Charles Kennedy in The Observer yesterday.  He writes:

I think Charles would have laughed. David Cameron was one of the last to arrive at his memorial service and walked down the aisle looking for a seat. The only one available was in a pew next to Nick Clegg. “Awkward,” said someone sitting next to me as the prime minister greeted his former coalition partner warmly and sat down.

Politics is a funny business in both senses of the word – bizarre and comic – and Charles Kennedy always had a keen sense of this. It was why the public warmed to him so strongly because he realised that the world that engaged him so passionately could strike ordinary people as strange or ridiculous. Acknowledging this was a way to bridge the gap and he was always very good on Have I Got News for You, irreverently answering questions using exaggerated political cliches or avoiding them entirely using absurd evasive euphemisms.

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Mary Reid

Get rid of expiry dates on gift cards

By Mary Reid | Mon 28th December 2015 - 9:25 am

 

Did a kindly relative give you a gift card for Christmas? If you enjoy shopping, then a shop card or voucher provides the double pleasure of receiving a pressie on the day and of later choosing an item that is exactly what you want.

But have you also found a forgotten gift card lurking in your pile of papers-to-deal-with-someday, and discovered that it was past its use by date, hence worthless?  If you assume these cards are like cash and not time limited, then you may be in for an unpleasant surprise.  The actual expiry terms vary from company to company, and are often overlooked, so you can easily be caught out.

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The Voice

Former BBC Director General: Liberal Democrats secured better settlement for BBC

By The Voice | Sun 27th December 2015 - 12:00 pm

Former BBC Director General Mark Thompson has told how the Liberal Democrats in coalition government secured a “different and better” settlement for the BBC. Now that the Conservatives are unmoderated, things are not so good for what many feel is the highest quality public service broadcaster in the world.

The Guardian reports:

Giving his his first interview about the BBC since he left in 2012, after eight years at the helm, Thompson said the broadcaster was having to pay for government policy. “It’s welfare … It’s totally inappropriate to use BBC to support social transfer in this country.”

When George Osborne tried to impose the same cost on the BBC during negotiations in 2010, Thompson started writing his resignation letter, along with several BBC Trustees. This July the current director general, Tony Hall, agreed to shoulder the burden in return for relief from other costs.

“In 2015 the political circumstances are very different and it is much tougher for the BBC. In 2010 it was the coalition government and the Liberal Democrats … played a very big part in securing a different and better settlement. That recourse has not been available to the BBC this year.”

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dem Lords vs the Home Office #2: Sally Hamwee

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 27th December 2015 - 10:00 am

Part of the Christmas story involves the baby Jesus and his parents fleeing for his life after Herod ordered the slaughter of the innocents. David Cameron, with all his talk on Christian values the other day, might like to reflect on that. If he did, he’s be withdrawing his appalling Immigration Bill. We won’t be holding our breath for that to happen. Liberal Democrat peers lined up to condemn it the other day and, over the Christmas period, we’re publishing all their speeches. Sally Hamwee had some strong words, implying that it was closer to Trump than Trudeau. It’s a long speech, but worth reading.

My Lords, from these Benches we find little that is positive in the Bill. We fear that it will increase discrimination, exploitation, destitution and homelessness. It will risk children’s welfare, turn citizens into enforcers through outsourcing and reduce the UK’s reputation in employment and other sectors—all of this, and more, without making any progress on a time limit for immigration detention, on family reunion, on integration and on community cohesion. This is the Bill we would have had in the last Parliament had it not been for the moderating effect of coalition government.

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Caron Lindsay

Farron slams Fallon’s human rights comments: “We do not win by joining terrorists in the gutter”

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 27th December 2015 - 8:31 am

Strong words from Tim Farron, but the occasion warranted them.

The Tories’ cavalier attitude to our human rights laws has long been a worry. Now that they are in power on their own, unmoderated by Liberal Democrats, it’s a problem. Those human rights laws protect all of us from the abuse of power by governments, local authorities and anyone else with significant influence over our lives. Look at this 50 page document for professionals dealing with older people and you’ll see the huge array of protections that our parents and grandparents have.

The Tories would dearly love to get rid of these protections so they try to do it by arguing that they make troops less effective. The Telegraph reports the Defence Secretary Michael Fallon as saying:

We don’t need these ambulance-chasing British law firms,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “It is not only extremely expensive but it inhibits the operational effectiveness of our troops because they start to worry about whether they will end up in a court or not.

This is nonsense for many, many reasons. Apart from anything else, being seen to be upholding the highest standards of human rights is a very, very good thing for our international reputation. It’s also not as if individual soldiers end up in court. That’s deliberately worded to make it sound like individual troops are going to end up in the dock under human rights legislation when in fact it’s the Ministry of Defence who would be sued in a civil court. Basically, Fallon doesn’t want to spend the money defending human rights cases. We need to be careful of that kind of logic. Elections are quite expensive things as well but they are a critical and essential part of our democracy. I’m very happy to pay for all citizens to have their human rights protected. The actual cost to each of us will be so tiny as to be inconsequential and is well worth paying. 

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NewsHound

LibLink: Catherine Bearder: There will be no 12 days of Christmas if we lose the turtle dove

By NewsHound | Sat 26th December 2015 - 2:00 pm

This year the turtle dove officially became an endangered species. Psssionate conservationist Catherine Bearder MEP, who’s been made the dove’s species champion by the RSPB, has written tot the Guardian about what we stand to lose:

Hunting is affecting turtle dove populations across their European breeding grounds. Every spring, hunters in Malta shoot and trap thousands of migratory birds as they fly over the island. Malta is now the only country in the EU that allows spring hunting of turtle doves. EU conservation laws ban the killing of endangered birds, but Malta still has a derogation to do so during the spring period. Several other countries also allow the hunting of turtle doves in the autumn.

Ever since he took office, I’ve been piling the pressure on the EU’s environment commissioner Karmenu Vella to demand that laws protecting turtle doves from illegal hunting are strengthened and properly enforced. These migratory birds belong to the whole of Europe. That is why we need strong EU laws to ensure they are protected at each stage of their journey. So I’m pleased that following this pressure the EU is taking Malta to court for breaking rules that protect birds.

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The Voice

Lib Dem Lords vs the Home Office #1: Roger Roberts

By The Voice | Sat 26th December 2015 - 12:00 pm

Last week the Government’s appalling Immigration Bill was debated in the Lords. Liberal Democrat peers made some cracking speeches opposing it. As it’s Christmas, we thought we’d publish them all in full over the next few days, beginning with Roger Roberts.

Roger’s record on standing up for the vulnerable people caught up in our immigration system is fantastic. Here he does it again:

My Lords, it has been a heart-warming month in a way. We saw refugees from Syria being welcomed to the Isle of Bute, and I am proud of some Canadian connections when we hear that Justin Trudeau promised that Canada, under its new Liberal Government, will welcome 25,000 refugees by the end of February. Last week when the first plane arrived in Toronto, the call went out: “Please do not go to the airport: too many people are already there welcoming the refugees”. I only wish that our country had a similar feel.

I know that there are some people who will oppose this. Indeed, some even opposed Welsh people coming to London and opening dairies 100 years ago. However, most people are compassionate and kind, yet this Bill flies against all that compassion and kindness. So much has been said already that I must make my speech shorter than it was. One of the provisions of the Bill is the “deport now, appeal later” system. What will happen then? What percentage of those who appeal now have their appeals accepted? Is it 30% or 50%? Some say that it is 70%. That will not be possible with this measure. It will overturn the judicial appeals process of our country: “Go abroad and we will forget all about you”.

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Caron Lindsay

Help us find the Liberal Democrat stars of 2015 – starting with Rosie Farron, Janet Rennie and Richard Rees

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 26th December 2015 - 10:00 am

For the last couple of years, around this time,  we’ve  asked you to name your Liberal Democrat Stars of the year.  Little did we know that in 2013, what we thought might be an interesting comments thread for a day or two would turn into a six part Liberal Democrat Roll of Honour  with some really lovely tributes to some fabulous people.

This year has been the worst time ever to be a Liberal Democrat, I’m not going to lie about that. What’s kept me going, though, is the camaraderie, inspiration and sheer dedication of so many people in this party. This coming year has its challenges, mainly in Scotland, Wales and London and with the EU Referendum. Our colleagues will sustain us in so many ways. It’s good to celebrate them.

This isn’t just about honouring the Great and the Good, although they are as eligible as anyone else. It’s about appreciating anyone from grassroots activist to Cabinet Minister who has made your Liberal Democrat journey easier, more stimulating and satisfying or who has provided comfort and inspiration for the future.

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The Voice

Merry Christmas to you and yours

By The Voice | Fri 25th December 2015 - 12:01 am

christmas

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Caron Lindsay

Stephen Lloyd’s hilarious Christmas card

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 24th December 2015 - 4:45 pm

Former Lib Dem MP for Eastbourne Stephen Lloyd has one of the funniest Christmas cards this year.

Stephen Lloyd Alpaca

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NewsHound

Vince Cable is working on a novel

By NewsHound | Thu 24th December 2015 - 3:35 pm

According to the Daily Fail, Vince Cable is working on a novel, a political thriller:

Cable, 72, is already deep into the tome, having already bashed out 40,000 words.

It will apparently be a political thriller, set around a controversial arms contract affecting India and Britain. Details thus far are scant, but a friend informs me the prose will be quite ‘pared-back and spare’, in the style of Irish novelist William Trevor. Cable certainly has insight into Anglo-Indian relations, not just because he is a former government minister. His first wife Olympia, who passed away in 2001, was Goan. ‘I am indeed well advanced on a novel,’ Cable tells me sheepishly. ‘But there are a few hurdles before it gets to publication stage.’

Paddy Ashdown apparently had a 120,000 novel turned down for publication. We’d be happy to serialise it, of course…

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Recent Comments

  • Simon Robinson
    It's good to have an MP putting herself forward for this. The manifesto seems a bit vague though. All good thoughts and nothing you can really disagree with, b...
  • Robin Bennett
    I am sure Alan will have the sympathies of all of us. The situation is sad and frustrating. Forgive me for making one small point, Alan: you said that 40 Ho...
  • Jonathan Brown
    @George - me too. I know that not everyone is happy about this, but it's perfectly reasonable policy and I think all care is being taken to try to reassure thos...
  • George Thomas
    It follows the position of what I believe is a majority of UK population of supporting Israel but being against these unlawful settlements. Maybe not brave in t...
  • David Le Grice
    I don't get your point. Starmer's problem was that he had no charisma or any broader understanding of how to be popular. Boris Johnson managed to deliver the ...