Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 24 March 2025 – the Joni Mitchell tribute version…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 24th March 2025 - 11:41 am

“Stoking the star maker machinery behind the popular song”

And so, the massed ranks of the Party hierarchy, featuring an unexpected appearance from the Leader, swept aside virtually all reservations and moved responsibility for Westminster selections from the States to the Federal Party. Given the rumours of widespread opposition, the overwhelming nature of the vote in favour – and if anyone tells you it was close, it really wasn’t – gives the new regime some credit in the bank as the transition takes place.

I’d already outlined my concerns but, at the end of the day, the focus should be on making whatever emerges work.

On a final note, however, whilst a large vat of molasses was poured over English Candidates Committee and other key players in the candidate approval and selection system, the damage to that relationship will take a long time to be repaired, if it ever is. For volunteers are people too, no matter how far up the Party structure they are…

“I was a free man in Paris, I felt unfettered and alive”

I was pleased to be in the Conference hall for the debate on F9: “Free to be Who You Are”, and the vast majority in favour of the motion as amended will, hopefully, put further internal Party debate into abeyance for a while.

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 23rd March 2025 - 9:18 am

Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on a high. His Syrian proxy is in power in Damascus. The Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan has called on his followers to lay down their arms and disband. Kurdish fighters in Syria are doing that and amalgamating their forces with those of the new Erdogan-backed government.

It is the perfect time for the Turkish president to go after his domestic opposition. And that is exactly what he has done.

This week he arrested his chief political opponent—Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu– on charges of corruption and aiding and abetting terrorists. Funnily enough, the arrest came just before Imamoglu was due to be nominated as the candidate for the presidency by the Republican People’s Party (CHP).

The elections are not due until 2028, but the opposition wanted to give Imamoglu the maximum campaign time to break the stranglehold that Erdogan has on the media, courts, police and electoral processes.

Erdogan shouldn’t be worried about the Istanbul mayor simply because he has announced that he is retiring in 2028 when his term of office ends. In fact, he has to retire. Unless… he changes the constitution.

The current constitution limits the president to two terms in office. Erdoğan was first elected in 2014, but changed the constitution so that he was able to serve three consecutive terms instead of the two under the old constitution.

Erdoğan has made statements in the past indicating that he would retire in 2028, but there’s also speculation that he might seek to alter the constitution or push for an extension of his term. Both of which are possible given the dominance of his Law and Justice Party (AKP). And his chances are improved even more by the elimination of the only personality presenting a serious challenge.

Putin

In 2007 President George W. Bush declared: “I looked into the soul of President Putin and found a man I could trust.” He later admitted that that he was wrong.

In 2014 Putin denied that Russian troops were in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. They were “local militia” or “volunteers,” he claimed. He also denied any intention of annexing Crimea. He lied about the “volunteers” and annexed Crimea.

In July 2014 Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over Eastern Ukraine. Putin blamed the Ukrainians. A multinational investigation determined it was the Russians.

At Helsinki, the Russian leader told Donald Trump that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 US presidential elections. The Mueller Report and every one of the US intelligence agencies said it did. Putin dismissed the allegations as part of a wider conspiracy against Russia.

In 2018 former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with novichok in the quiet English town of Salisbury. Putin said it had nothing to do with Russia. British intelligence determined that he ordered the attempted assassination and identified the assassins.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an Expat: First Shots Fired

By Tom Arms | Sat 22nd March 2025 - 10:14 am

The first shots were fired this week in the war between the White House and the American judiciary.

As expected, the courts have moved to block Donald Trump’s disregard for the constitution and the rule of law and to nudge him toward legality.

Not so expected is the Republicans response: The threat of impeachment.

So far four judges have either been threatened with impeachment or have had articles of impeachment lodged against them in the House of Representatives. They are:

  • Judge Paul Engelmayer issued an order preventing DOGE from accessing the federal payments system.
  • Judge John Bates ruled that health agencies must restore data related to gender-affirming care,
  • Judge Amir Ali granted a temporary restraining order that halted Trump’s 90-day suspension of foreign aid.
  • Judge John McConell ordered the White House to lift a freeze on federal spending.

But the bulk of the White House’s venom has been saved for and directed against Judge James Boasberg. He had the temerity to challenge the administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport suspected Venezuelan gang members to an El Salvadorean prison.

The deportation was wrong on so many counts. For a start, the deportees were suspected criminals. They had not been convicted in a court of law. Furthermore, the Alien Enemies Act allows for the deportation of citizens of countries with which the US is at war. America is not at war with Venezuela. Finally, the administration ignored the judge’s ruling not to land the deportees in El Salvador and to return to the US.

Trump has chosen his fight well. Immigrants are unpopular. Immigrants who are suspected members of a violent Venezuelan gang even more so. So, MAGA—and the Republican Congress—is standing four-square behind Trump.

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Matthew Ma

ALDC By-Election Report, 20th March

By Matthew Ma | Fri 21st March 2025 - 11:07 pm

This week saw 6 principal council by-elections held across England and Scotland, with the Conservatives, Labour, and Lib Dems each defending 2. The Lib Dems lost a seat to the Tories while Labour lost both of their Scottish defences to the SNP. The Lib Dems and Tories both held the remaining seats.

The headline win this week belongs to Cllr Bradley Nelson and the team in Mole Valley DC, who won the seat in Holmwoods & Beare Green by a huge margin. Congratulations to Cllr Bradley and the team on the win!

Mole Valley DC, Holmwoods & Beare Green
Liberal Democrat (Bradley Nelson): 748 (46.5%, +1.1%)
Conservative: 437 (27.2%, -2.8%)
Reform: 348 (21.6%, +11.5%)
Green Party: 76 (4.7%, -3.6%)

The other Lib Dem defence this week was held on Wednesday. In the Abbots Langley & Bedmond ward in Three Rivers DC, the Conservative vote doubled, leading us to slip to second place. Thank you to Aidan Betley and the local team for running a hard fought campaign, so close.

Three Rivers DC, Abbots Langley & Bedmond
Conservative: 657 (40.0%, +19.9%)
Liberal Democrat (Aidan Bentley): 552 (33.6%, -24.9%)
Reform: 214 (13.0%, new)
Green Party: 128 (7.8%, +0.3%)
Labour: 91 (5.5%, -8.3%)

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Mark Frankel

Just because you’re paranoid …

By Mark Frankel | Fri 21st March 2025 - 11:23 am

I suggested in the LibDem Voice the other day that the collision in the North Sea was Russian sabotage. There were some sceptical comments. But was it just a coincidence that the captain of the offending vessel was Russian and most of his crew were too? The police are investigating and are discouraging such speculation. But I’m writing this when the headlines are ‘Major disruption as Heathrow closed all day after nearby fire causes power outage’. The Fire Brigade are investigating. I wonder what they will find?

The US-based Centre for Strategic & International Studies says Russia is conducting an escalating and violent campaign of sabotage and subversion against European and U.S. targets in Europe led by Russian military intelligence. The number of Russian attacks nearly tripled between 2023 and 2024. Russia’s targets are transportation, government, critical infrastructure, and industry, and its main weapons and tactics have included explosives, blunt or edged instruments (such as anchors), and electronic attack.

Frank Gardner, the BBC’s security correspondent, says Nato believes Russia is waging an undeclared war, something called “hybrid warfare”, and that the target is Western Europe itself, with the aim of punishing or deterring Western nations from continuing their military support for Ukraine. Russia and the Soviet Union have a rich tradition of conducting this type of warfare. Hybrid warfare, also called “grey zone” or “sub-threshold” warfare, is when a hostile state carries out an anonymous, deniable attack, usually in highly suspicious circumstances. It will be enough to harm their opponent, especially their infrastructure assets, but stop short of being an attributable act of war. Gardner highlights in particular the threat to the UK lurking on our sea beds, from Russian sabotage of submarine cables. In January the Defence Secretary John Healey MP told parliament about a Russian spy ship, the Yantar, which is gathering intelligence and mapping the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure.

I believe the collision in the North Sea and the fire at Heathrow are part of an emerging pattern. I may be paranoid but doesn’t mean Putin is not out to get us.

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Mary Reid

In the dog house

By Mary Reid | Fri 21st March 2025 - 8:25 am

So this happened:

Wendy Chamberlain, our Chief Whip, called Jennie in for a reprimand.

We now have an official statement from Jennie.

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Dorothy Thornhill

Dorothy Thornhill writes: We need to modernise our approach to candidate selection

By Dorothy Thornhill | Thu 20th March 2025 - 10:07 pm

People who know me well know I always say it as it is. So I won’t mess about.

For me, there is some unfinished business at conference this weekend – and that’s why I’m asking you to support Motion F10 on Saturday.

How many more reports do we need before we modernise the party’s approach to candidates?

The 2015 General Election Review called for serious changes to candidate selection and support. And so did the 2019 General Election Review that I chaired.

And three years ago yet another report by my colleague Alison Suttie spelt out the real changes that needed to happen.

Yet here we are. A decade later, three major reports on – and there are still people arguing we don’t have a problem, and there’s no need for change.

I know that a lack of change is wrong – and so do many members up and down the country.

The need for speed

There has been a lot of information flying around about F10 over recent days, some of it not always completely accurate.  We need to face facts. What we’re currently doing on candidates isn’t working. For a start, it’s just not fast enough. In the last parliament we had virtually no candidates selected for two years. In the end, time ran out to run member ballots – with only just over 200 candidates in place.

That meant members in over 400 constituencies didn’t get to choose their candidate. They were all appointed, many right at the very last minute. It also meant that there was no time to train and support those candidates properly after selection, and no time for them to grow their constituencies.

Any campaigner worth their salt knows that having a candidate in place, building a team and showing leadership, drives up campaigning activity. That’s just common sense, and we have clear stats to prove it.

Yet we insist on sticking with a system that delivers too few candidates, and too late on in the election cycle.

Clarity and diversity

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The Independent View: Nature-friendly farming cut

By Paul Behrens and Simon Oldridge | Thu 20th March 2025 - 3:52 pm

Farmers hung out to dry while fossil fuels cash in—more bad news for climate and nature

The Government’s outdated climate and nature targets, coupled with a lack of joined-up decision-making, have delivered yet another disastrous policy blunder. Last week, the Government announced a pause in payments to farmers under the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

SFI is one of the key Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes designed to support farmers in working in harmony with nature—to restore ecosystems, lock up carbon, cut pollution in our rivers, and help to protect communities from downstream flooding. Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Tim Farron MP, rightly said that the closure of the SFI was a “betrayal” that will “outrage everyone who cares for our environment”.

This reckless decision strikes a blow to the very work needed to stabilise our environment for a liveable and prosperous future. It also betrays hardworking farmers who, despite their crucial role in ensuring food security and environmental sustainability, struggle to make ends meet in an unfair food industry. Most farming household income is well below the national average, contrary to the image portrayed by wealthy hobbyists like Jeremy Clarkson. In horticulture—whose products we need more of for a healthy diet and planet —average incomes are even lower.

This abrupt pause to the SFI puts vital nature-friendly farming at risk and adds further financial strain to farmers’ wafer-thin margins.

A failure of joined-up government

The Government’s approach in tackling the climate and nature crisis, which Liberal Democrats MPs have been challenging, undermines support for a just transition to an environmentally friendly future.

On one hand, DEFRA is pulling the rug out from under farmers striving to adopt sustainable practices, who will have to wait “a year without support” as Sarah Dyke MP correctly points out. On the other, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is pouring tens of billions of public funding into the oil industry, using the fig leaf of unproven, costly carbon capture technology to justify a new wave of gas power stations and polluting blue hydrogen plants.

Labour was given the chance to fix this systemic failure in January when Liberal Democrat MP, Roz Savage, proposed the Climate and Nature Bill. The Bill offered a joined-up approach to tackling the climate and nature crisis that would lock the UK’s international commitments into domestic law.

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Caron Lindsay

Caron’s Guide to the craziness of Conference – Updated for Harrogate 2025

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 20th March 2025 - 12:43 pm

Spring 2024 voting passConferences in Harrogate have, so far, been very special for me. The first time I went there, in 1992, I saw a message on the Wednesday for me on the noticeboard to contact the main desk. They told me to ring my parents. I had to go across the road to a payphone and feed coins into it – something that some people reading this will probably never have done. Obviously I was very worried, as my Dad had just had surgery. But the news was brilliant. My sister had given birth to her first child, the gorgeous Laura, two whole days before. And I had been too absorbed in Conference to realise. That Wednesday was in fact Black Wednesday too.

Seven years later, I was back in Harrogate with my own baby son. He was then just 3 months old and he came all over Conference with me.

This year, I should get in just in time to go to the Social Liberal Forum lunch at the Crowne Plaza. Last year’s event was fabulous and I met Bobby Dean and Victoria Collins for the first time. I was so impressed with them and I am thrilled that they are both now MPs. This year, they have local MP Tom Gordon, Pippa Heylings and Bobby is back for a repeat performance.

I have revamped my Guide to the Craziness of Conference for this year. Enjoy. And if you have any questions, ask away in the comments.

Federal Conference is probably the best fun that you will ever have in your life. You will thoroughly enjoy every exhausting moment. If you’re new, it can be a bit overwhelming until you get used to the sensory overload. I had a long break from going to them and when I returned, in 2011, I spent the first day wandering round in a state of wide-eyed amazement,  like a child in a toy shop. Spring Conference is smaller than Autumn, but a look at the agenda tells me that there are at least two things going on that I want to go to at all times.

So, with that in mind, I thought I’d throw together a fairly random list of tips and hints for getting the best out of the annual cornucopia of Liberal Democracy. If you have any other Conference survival tips, let me know.

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Mary Reid

Conference Extra

By Mary Reid | Thu 20th March 2025 - 10:37 am

Tomorrow Lib Dems will be gathering in Harrogate ready for Spring Conference. Whilst the formal opening will be on Saturday at 9am, there are a couple of events on Friday. There will be a Consultative Session on the Policy Review at 4.45pm and the Conference Rally at 6.30pm.

Conference Extra is a vital document if you want to make sense of the debates, because it includes all the amendments to motions.  You can read or download Conference Extra here. It should be read in conjunction with the Agenda and Directory. Conference Extra also lists all the questions submitted on reports, plus proposed emergency motions.

Debates include:

F4: Science, Innovation and Technology. Note that part of the motion was omitted in the Agenda and Directory. The extra lines are in Conference Extra. There are three amendments.

F9: Free to be who you are. There is a drafting amendment, plus three amendments for debate.

F10: Implementing the Lessons of the General Election Review. This is a constitutional amendment which has generated a lot of discussion. It proposes changes to the processes for selecting Parliamentary Candidates. There are two amendments.

F14: The UK’s response to Trump. There is a drafting amendment, plus three amendments for debate.

F22: Emergency Motion. Members attending in person or online will be able to vote to select which motion will fill this slot. The choices are between:

  • Dropped Targets – A Threat to Care
  • Local Elections – Democracy Delayed is Democracy Denied
  • New Hospitals Programme – A Broken Promise
  • Restoring International Development Assistance
  • Securing a Path to Citizenship for Refugees

F23: Animal Welfare in the Food System. There are two amendments.

F25: Ending the Crisis; A Fair Deal for Children with SEND. There are two amendments.

The Leader’s speech will be on Sunday at 11.45am.

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Mark Valladares

19 March 2025 – yesterday’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 20th March 2025 - 7:30 am
  • US-Russia call: Putin is “stringing Trump along”
  • NICs vote: Labour MPs vote for “health tax” on GPs, pharmacies and care homes
  • Conservative local election launch: “buck stops” with Badenoch
  • “Time for a fair deal for farmers” – Carmichael to introduce Food Supply Chain Fairness Bill
  • Scottish Government admits it failed to conduct safeguarding review
  • Minister visited Skye House just months before cruelty allegations surfaced
  • Severn Estuary Commission Report – Get on with Building the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon
  • Rennie responds to damning evidence session on funding crisis at Dundee University

US-Russia call: Putin is “stringing Trump along”

Responding to Putin’s phone call with Trump, Calum Miller MP, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, said:

Donald Trump’s fawning call with Putin couldn’t be more different to his and JD Vance’s shameful bullying of Zelensky in the Oval Office.

It’s clear Trump is being played by Putin – stringing him along and currying favour even as his savage war machine continues to push deeper into Ukraine.

Now is the time for the UK and our allies in Europe and the Commonwealth to redouble our efforts to support Ukraine’s defence and achieve a lasting peace.

NICs vote: Labour MPs vote for “health tax” on GPs, pharmacies and care homes

Responding to the Government voting to reject a Liberal Democrat amendment which would have exempted health and care providers from the national insurance rise, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

Labour MPs today have voted for a health tax on GPs, dentists, pharmacies, hospices and care homes, and it is patients who will pay the price.

The Liberal Democrats are proud we have led the fight to exempt health and care providers from this misguided tax hike, and we will not give up now.

On April 6th worried social care providers and GP surgeries are going to be hit with bills they simply cannot afford. Rachel Reeves must finally see sense, U-turn on this disastrous policy and exempt health and care providers from this damaging jobs tax.

Conservative local election launch: “buck stops” with Badenoch

Commenting on the Conservatives’ local election launch tomorrow (20th March) a Liberal Democrat spokesperson said:

The buck stops with bungling Badenoch. If she fails to deliver in the local elections, the writing will truly be on the wall for her and for the Conservative Party.

Whilst they compete with Reform and tilt ever further to the right, the Liberal Democrats are focused on delivering for residents on issues including the cost of living, sewage in our rivers and the emergency in our NHS and care.

We’re hearing on the doorsteps that people haven’t forgiven the Conservatives for all the damage they’ve done. If Kemi speaks to voters tomorrow, she will doubtless hear the same. Voters have a clear choice in May, and across the country, including in Buckinghamshire, they are turning to the Liberal Democrats as community champions who will stand up for them.

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Mark Valladares

18 March 2025 – yesterday’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 19th March 2025 - 11:30 pm
  • Badenoch speech: Scrapping net zero would ‘undermine national energy security’
  • Helen Maguire: Not enough has been done to address abuse against women in our Armed Forces
  • Children’s Bill: Labour vote against free school meals “deeply disappointing”
  • Scotland’s disease burden forecast to increase by more than half

Badenoch speech: Scrapping net zero would ‘undermine national energy security’

Responding to Kemi Badenoch’s speech today claiming that Net Zero by 2050 is ‘impossible’, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Daisy Cooper said:

Kemi Badenoch is taking a leaf straight out of Nigel Farage’s playbook while turning her back on the millions of former Conservative voters who care about protecting our environment.

Scrapping net zero and renewable energy targets will simply increase our reliance on foreign fossil fuels, lining the pockets of the likes of Vladimir Putin and his cronies.

Whether it’s abandoning plans for clean energy, slashing maternity pay or undermining the UK’s national energy security, bungling Badenoch’s plans would leave our country worse off.

Helen Maguire: Not enough has been done to address abuse against women in our Armed Forces

Commenting on the Ministry of Defence’s announcement of a new Task Force to tackle violence against women in the military, Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson and Iraq Veteran, Helen Maguire MP, said:

We welcome today’s announcement of a Task Force targeting violence against women and girls in the military. It’s shameful, though, that not enough has been done to address what appears to be widespread abuse in our Armed Forces.

It is shameful how previous policies have continued to fail these brave women. There have been abject failures in leadership in our Armed Forces and from government over many years on this.

The Liberal Democrats have argued consistently that much more must be done to safeguard women in the military. Labour needs to move urgently to fully implement the remaining recommendations in the 2021 Atherton Report. This is the least we owe to the women serving courageously across our services.

Children’s Bill: Labour vote against free school meals “deeply disappointing”

Responding to Labour voting against a Liberal Democrat amendment to automatically enrol eligible children for free school meals, Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Munira Wilson MP said:

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Caron Lindsay

Statement from LGBT+ Lib Dems

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th March 2025 - 4:30 pm

LGBT+ Lib Dems co-chairs Charley Hasted and Luke Allan have issued a statement concerning distressing incidents that took place at Federal Conference in Brighton. 

At the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference in Autumn 2024, a volunteer for Liberal Voice for Women harassed two members of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats on two separate occasions. The volunteer in question admitted waiting until our members, one of whom was an autistic woman less than half his age, were alone on our exhibition stall to target them. We are pleased that a disciplinary panel recognised his behaviour for what it was and upheld a complaint against him.

We are disappointed, though, that when his behaviour was raised with members of LVfW- including members of their committee, both at the time and after the fact, our concerns about this man’s behaviour towards a vulnerable woman were roundly dismissed by them.

For an organisation that claims to care about women’s safety, it is hypocritical in the extreme for them to dismiss concerns about a man’s behaviour towards a woman being harassing or intimidatory, when the basis for their dismissal seems only to be his age and/or that they agree with the opinions that led to him harassing our members.

LGBT+ Lib Dems stands firmly behind the principle that targeted harassment of the kind our members experienced is unacceptable, regardless of the age or views of the person doing it. Moreover, we have been consistently clear that we expect our volunteers to behave decently towards all attendees at Conference, and have worked productively with Party Leadership at various levels to ensure this is the case, and try and minimise conflict.

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George Sykes

Making the cement for the yellow wall – how candidate selection reform will make us stronger

By George Sykes | Wed 19th March 2025 - 1:48 pm

On May 22nd last year, I watched Rishi Sunak announce the general election. Little did I know that a few hectic weeks later, we’d be celebrating having 72 MPs, an enormous achievement that is a testament to the hard work of volunteers and staff across the party.

However, we did not achieve that success by continuing to do what we had always done; we did it by ruthlessly introspecting and improving. Just because we have won does not mean we should stop our self-reflection. By my calculations, if we introspect as hard as we did last time, we should end up with 468 MPs at the next election…

As the chair of a Local Party that covers ten constituencies (with two being shared with other local party’s) in a labour facing area I had a few key aims at the election:

  • Stand a candidate in every constituency
  • Campaign in the seats we had existing campaigns in to ensure our voters had their views represented in the general election debate
  • Win in our designated local target seat

I’m proud to say that with the hard work of a team of volunteers across Leeds and the whole region, we achieved all of those. However, all was not entirely rosy for the following reasons:

  • Failed to stand a single women candidate across all ten seats
  • Lost our deposit in all but two seats (costing the party £4,000)

This is far from ideal, and if we are serious about being a diverse, representative, national party, we need to fix it.

Firstly, we need to enable our amazing volunteer teams to focus on what they can do best, identifying the members in their areas who can be recruited as parliamentary candidates. We know that proactively identifying and talking to potential candidates rather than waiting for them to come to us is key to increasing diversity. Who is better placed to do this than volunteers drawn from and embedded in our local parties?

By offloading the administration element of candidate recruitment, we can enable our volunteers to focus on building connections with potential candidates. This will develop a deeper pool of potential candidates more representative of the communities we seek to represent.

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Tony Paterson

Let Lib Dems, not Farage, “Reform UK”

By Tony Paterson | Wed 19th March 2025 - 11:55 am

At this time of crisis, the Lib Dems must seize back the `Reform UK’ initiative from Nigel Farage and his ramshackle party. Freedom is at stake.

Voting intentions (polling data from 10 March) are 15% for the Lib Dems and 23% for Reform UK (from 11% and 25% last December). Here’s how to build on this poll hike.

Farage’s stated belief in electoral reform contains an inherent contradiction: while he ostensibly champions PR, his dream of being PM in 2029 hinges on First Past The Post being maintained.      

To be recognised as the real party of reform, the Lib Dems must recapture the initiative. First, use PR as a protest vehicle for appealing to voters disenchanted with a system which gave 2/3 of seats to a party with only 1/3 of the votes. 

Secondly, keep flagging up Farage’s championing of Putin during the 2024 GE campaign, when, pointing to NATO’s and the EU’s eastward expansion, he claimed that ‘we provoked this war’. Already in 2014, in an interview with GQ magazine, Farage had named Putin as the world leader he most admired. And let’s not forget his many appearances on Russia Today, at least three of them after Putin invaded Crimea in 2014.

But more recently, Farage has been presenting himself as the voice of moderation within his party. We must highlight Farage’s volatility, contrasted with our consistent liberalism.

Ed Davey, who is stalwartly supporting Ukraine, has proposed large increases in our defence spending as a percentage of GDP and, over the past few weeks, has used many of his PMQs to back Ukraine, is best placed to challenge Reform UK over UK military reform. Farage’s well publicised association with Trump makes it hard for him to follow suit. Polling data shows how deeply split Reform voters are over whether their party would do better with or without Farage.

World War III, using modern means of warfare to undermine Western freedom and democracy, has already begun. (See Economist `Want to stop a third world war?’, 30.5.24). Warfare today is hybrid: insidious, dangerous, but not always obvious. It includes ‘grey zone’ warfare: ‘salami-slicing’ (as Putin did to Crimea in 2014, severing it from Ukraine while causing little Western reaction), cyber warfare, sabotaging crucial infrastructure, etc. 

Ideologically, the strategy involves harnessing populism to build up far-right parties across Europe, including in the UK. How can we jolt the country as a whole into recognising that we, on the other hand, stand for freedom and democracy?  

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James Baker

The Independent View: We need to shine a light on attacks on encryption.

By James Baker | Wed 19th March 2025 - 8:30 am

Save Encryption Practice safe text next to speech bubble in progress pride flag coloursLast Friday, journalists and civil liberties organisations waited outside London’s High Court while inside a secret court hearing took place. Despite efforts to petition the court, they were denied access even though the outcome impacts people in the UK and around the world.

Leaks to the press suggest that Apple may have been appealing a Technical Capability Notice (TCN) issued under the Investigatory Powers Act — often dubbed the Snoopers’ Charter. The TCN is believed to have instructed Apple to introduce a capability that would allow the company to access encrypted data stored in the cloud. We say believed because Apple are not permitted to disclose the detail of the TCN.

These secretive actions by the Home Office have already had real-world consequences. Apple has disabled its Advanced Data Protection service in the UK — a move that undermines the security of users’ iCloud backups and their overall digital privacy.

Liberal Democrat MPs have rightly written to the Home Secretary, warning that any government-mandated “backdoor” to end-to-end encryption (E2EE) introduces vulnerabilities that bad actors — including criminals and hostile states — could exploit. They also raised concerns about the lack of scrutiny surrounding such notices.

Discussing issues such as E2EE can often seem technical. I like to use a really simple analogy of locks to explain things. Most of us use locks every day — on our homes, cars, or devices. Criminals, of course, use locks, too, for example, to secure stolen goods. But we don’t respond to that by banning locks. That would be foolish as we understand the benefits to the law-abiding majority outweigh the benefits to criminals. 

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Why Liberal values require us to vote against the Federal party’s conference power grab

By Thomas Prince | Tue 18th March 2025 - 6:02 pm

The F10 function key on my keyboard serves as a Mute button.

And that, unfortunately, is what the F10 motion up for a vote this Saturday in Harrogate would also do: mute the voices of all those that want to be able to choose their candidate for Parliament in their hometown.

You know when the Federal Party is worried because it takes a sudden interest in what ordinary members think, and uses the same skills it directs at the electorate in an effort to win votes.

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Larry Ngan

Liberals are leading in calling out Beijing’s distortions in UN Resolution 2758

By Larry Ngan | Tue 18th March 2025 - 5:30 pm

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has sidelined Taiwan from participating in the United Nations and the related NGOs since UN resolution 2758 was adopted in 1971. China claims the legitimacy of its actions based on the resolution and its distortion of the actual meaning of the UN resolution. In recent years, parliaments in the free world took a tougher stance in calling out Beijing’s distortions in the Resolution’s actual wording. This included The Canadian House of Commons, where the Liberals hold a majority, passing a motion on November 2024 stating that UN Resolution 2758 does not establish the People’s Republic China’s (PRC) sovereignty over Taiwan and that UN2758 has not determined Taiwan’s future participation in the UN or other international organisations.

In my opinion, it is beyond doubt that the PRC mischaracterised the meaning of UN resolution 2758. Through these distortions, Beijing holds the view to legitimise its expansionism into Taiwan.

The resolution reads as:

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Stephen O'Brien

Labour has abandoned disabled people – the new nasty party has arrived

By Stephen O'Brien | Tue 18th March 2025 - 3:58 pm

The Labour Party has officially abandoned disabled people. Worse still, they are trying to spin it as a success story, framing cuts to vital support as an increase in employment. But we see through it. This is not a genuine attempt to support disabled people into work. It is a cold, calculated attempt to cut costs at the expense of those who rely on support to live independently and contribute to society.

For years, the Conservative Party earned the title of the “nasty party” when it came to welfare reform. Their cuts to benefits, their cruel and arbitrary assessments, and their obsession with slashing support for the most vulnerable have caused immense suffering. Yet now, Labour has stolen their clothes. Keir Starmer’s party, which once promised to stand up for working people and the most vulnerable, has become indistinguishable from the Tories when it comes to welfare.

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George Cunningham

Trump’s steal deal with Russia on Ukraine

By George Cunningham | Tue 18th March 2025 - 1:52 pm

This weekend, the party will be debating the F14 motion “The UK’s Response to Trump” at conference.

Recent statements by our party and the motion itself pretty much encapsulate the UK public’s feeling about the Trumpist revolution in the United States. The Lib Dems, as an opposition party, can more easily be the voice of reality, saying what the UK government dares not to say as it seeks in vain to seek some shred of common ground with Washington, especially over the future of Ukraine.

The reason for Trump’s partiality towards Putin is simply that the business opportunities are too tempting for making money for his family, associates and MAGA agenda.

Here Trump’s model is a reflection of Putin’s, with his entourage of compliant oligarchs. The US context however makes Trump’s oligarchs not quite as beholden to him, having mostly made their own money rather than looted it.

Trump’s long business relations with Russia are well-documented.  That they are alive and well was recently reinforced by the reported presence of long time Trump associate Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev acting as a go-between at the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia.

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Roderick Lynch

Spring conference fringe: Building a more diverse and representative party

By Roderick Lynch | Tue 18th March 2025 - 9:05 am

The Liberal Democrat Campaign for Race Equality are taking active steps to ensure greater diversity within the party, both in its membership and among its candidates. This is about engaging with communities we haven’t spoken to before and breaking down barriers that have historically limited representation.

Why is this important?

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Mark Valladares

18 March 2025 – the overnight press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 18th March 2025 - 7:30 am
  • Lib Dems force crunch vote on free school meals as 200,000 children miss out
  • Pharmacies: Government has left a “question mark” over support and now consequences “painfully apparent”
  • 51,100 violent incidents directed at NHS staff since 2019
  • New Social Attitudes Survey shows overwhelming support for assisted dying

Lib Dems force crunch vote on free school meals as 200,000 children miss out

New Liberal Democrat analysis estimates that over 230,000 children eligible for free school meals are not receiving the food they’re entitled to, though the true figure could be much higher – as the party prepares to push a key vote in Parliament to bring free school meals to over a million children.

New analysis by the Liberal Democrats has suggested that at least 230,000 children eligible for school meals may not be enrolled to receive the benefit. Combined with the Child Poverty Action Group’s estimate that 900,000 children in poverty are not eligible for free school meals, this figure would bring the number of total vulnerable children in England not receiving free lunches to over 1 million.

On Tuesday, Liberal Democrats will force MPs to vote on auto-enrolling eligible children for free school meals. They will also table a vote on raising the income threshold for free school meal eligibility to £20,000.

The number of eligible children not claiming meals could be far higher than the 230,000 estimated figure. Shockingly, the last Government analysis of the issue took place in 2013. That study suggested 89% of those entitled to free lunches were claiming them, leaving 1 in 10 eligible children missing out. If those numbers hold true today, that would mean over 230,000 young people are going without the meals to which they’re entitled – with the Lib Dems slamming the Government for “flying blind” on this crucial issue.

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Mark Valladares

17 March 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 17th March 2025 - 10:30 pm
  • OECD: Chancellor cannot ignore “steady drumbeat of economic misery”
  • Thames Water appeal: Govt must put company into special administration
  • Scottish Lib Dems: We must end big city bias in creative spend
  • Rennie: Dundee University needs a ministerial taskforce
  • Ferguson missing out on ferries order “hangover” from SNP fiasco

OECD: Chancellor cannot ignore “steady drumbeat of economic misery”

Responding to the OECD revising down their 2025 growth forecast for the UK by 0.3 percentage points to 1.4%, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

The Chancellor cannot ignore this steady drumbeat of economic misery any longer. Trump’s senseless tariffs and the Government’s own economic policies are acting as an anchor on any meaningful growth.

At the Spring Statement, Rachael Reeves cannot bury her head in the sand. She must admit that her Budget has failed to break from the years of Conservative economic vandalism.

The Chancellor must change course by first scrapping her growth-crushing jobs tax which is about to hammer small businesses, and second, by embracing the idea of a bespoke UK-EU Customs Union which would unleash growth.

Only then will we see the growth needed to rebuild our public services and properly protect family finances.

Thames Water appeal: Govt must put company into special administration

Responding to the news that the court has rejected his appeal to prevent Thames Water from an additional £3 billion bail out, MP for Witney Charlie Maynard said:

Thames Water remains a cash cow for its lenders, while its 16 million customers are left to foot the bill for the company’s ludicrously expensive interest charges and advisory fees.

It is in the Government’s power to end this now for the benefit of the British public and seek to put the company into special administration.

We must not stand back and allow Thames Water’s lenders to keep lining their pockets at the expense of customers and the environment while our regulators sit on their hands and the company pumps gallons of sewage into our rivers, neglects basic repairs and hikes up customers’ bills.

Scottish Lib Dems: We must end big city bias in creative spend

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today revealed the disparities in arts spending across Scotland and urged the SNP Government to ensure that creative talent can flourish in every corner of the country.

Creative Scotland is the public body responsible for funding the creative industries in Scotland and distributing funding from the Scottish Government and the National Lottery.

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Denis Mollison

The best democracy money can buy

By Denis Mollison | Mon 17th March 2025 - 5:08 pm

To take just a few recent examples: Musk offering $100 million to Reform, a Health Minister supported by substantial funding from private health companies, and – not quite so recent – millions wasted in Covid contracts given to party donors. The influence of big money on our politics is greater than ever.

Yet `The majority of the public support stringent measures to crack down on the perception that political influence can be bought, including capping, or even banning political donations. Politicians are out of step with the electorate on this issue.’

So says a recent report on Money and Democracy from the
Institute for Constitutional and Democratic Research (an offshoot of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and the Constitution).

Liberal Democrats could reasonably protest that we are in step with the electorate on this – our 2024 Manifesto included a commitment to `Take big money out of politics by capping donations to political parties’. But what the ICDR report offers is a clear analysis of the fundamental problem, and some simple principled solutions. As they say ` The existing rules on political finance are excessively complex and fail to address the core problem’.

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Chris Bowers

We can solve the housing crisis without creating rural sprawl

By Chris Bowers | Mon 17th March 2025 - 2:33 pm

The two biggest issues that concern young voters are housing and climate change. Housing is the more hands-on challenge, as plenty of young adults just can’t get on the property ladder, whether buying or renting. The traditional rite of passage of children fleeing the nest when school ends now unravels three or four years later when they return to their parental home as their only financially viable living option – which can remain their home for several frustrating years. So if we want to be taken seriously by the youngest voters, we have to have a credible housing policy.

The option all political parties have chosen to tackle the housing crisis at the last few elections is to promise mass housebuilding. It has led to unseemly and meaningless auctions – one party promises 200,000 new dwellings a year, another raises that to 250,000, another to 300,000 – plus antagonistic debates about housebuilding targets at Lib Dem conferences. The developers love it, but the numbers of houses being built don’t really change. And anyway, do we really need to build our way out of trouble?

With the Liberal Democrats holding 72 MPs, many seats in the kind of small towns whose peripheries are threatened by the surge in housebuilding promised by Starmer’s government, we have something of a dilemma. We don’t want to be Nimbyist, but at the same time we don’t want our rural towns to become sprawling car-dependent suburbia.

The implicit assumption behind mass housebuilding is that there isn’t enough residential property. Yet for years suggestions have abounded that we do have enough living space – we just don’t use it well. Even if that’s technically true, to be ultra-efficient would result in a loss of freedom as the state would have to order people to live in others’ houses to maximise residential space. That would be a hard pill for Liberals to swallow, let alone the rest of society that remembers the centralised residential diktats of the Soviet bloc.

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Mark Valladares

F10: the right means to a desirable end?

By Mark Valladares | Mon 17th March 2025 - 12:15 pm

As a veteran of the Party’s candidates process – Returning Officer, candidate assessor, member of Regional and State Candidates Committees – over more than thirty years, you might not be surprised to find that I’ve been following the debate on this ornate, detailed constitution proposal with some interest.

And, whilst the General Election review published in January was, whether inadvertently or by design, somewhat bruising towards those who have been at the heart of running selection and approval processes over past years, what it stated as desirable outcomes had a lot of merit. Getting candidates in place earlier, finding and developing more Returning Officers and candidate assessors, and increasing transparency and consistency across the piece, are all obviously sensible.

The “solution”, however, appears to be to take responsibility from the structures that currently exist and replace them with a new Federal one, in the expectation that it will do a better job.

This may or may not be true. It does rather depend on who takes on the new responsibilities, how well they are resourced and how well they work with a core group of volunteers who will still be relied upon to do the “grunt work”. For very few people act as Returning Officers and candidate assessors “because it’s fun”. They do it predominantly because someone has to do it, and they fit in it around a range of other commitments.

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Phil Bennion

Europe and Africa – an Alliance for the Future?

By Phil Bennion | Mon 17th March 2025 - 10:03 am

With a Trump induced rethink of strategic alliances in throw, should Europe (including the UK) turn to Africa for a long-term economic partnership? The RENEW group in the European Parliament have been working on this idea for 2 years now through RENEWPAC, it’s engagement project with the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) allied political groups. The third such congress took place in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire last month, the second I have attended on behalf of Liberal International, and the enthusiasm for a deep economic partnership was heightened by the unstable geopolitics of the moment. It was hosted generously by the Ivorian government and in particular Fisheries minister Sidi Touré, my fellow Vice President of Liberal International.

The basic theory is that Europe has shortages of labour and natural resources alongside an inward migration challenge, largely across the Mediterranean, but is relatively rich and well placed with investment resources. Africa conversely has an excess of available labour and copious natural resources, but a severe shortage of capital for investment. The African perspective is that Europe is a far better fit for economic partnership than China, as China also has excess labour and is more interested in importing African raw materials than the possibility of adding value in Africa. Europe is also much closer geographically and culturally. The Africans all stress that they do not want to replace Chinese investment, but to more than match it with investment from Europe.

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Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 17 March 2025 – still hazy after all these years…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 17th March 2025 - 7:30 am

Regular readers might have noticed that I’ve been a bit quiet of late. The regular Monday morning columns where I touch upon things that have caught my eye, or that I simply want to get off of my chest, have been absent, and as the Day Editor, I’ve struggled to do much more than post articles that have come in. This is, perhaps, because politics, and the world generally, have become a bit depressing. With an American administration that sets examples that trouble me philosophically, and an increasingly unpeaceful world, it is often difficult to lift your eyes to the …

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Mark Valladares

15-16 March 2025 – the weekend’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Sun 16th March 2025 - 10:30 pm
  • Davey on PM’s virtual summit: only way to achieve peace is to strengthen Ukraine’s hand by seizing frozen Russian assets
  • NHS England: Same urgency must now be shown for social care
  • SNP RAAC response non-existent compared to England
  • Rennie responds to Gilruth Dundee University comments

Davey on PM’s virtual summit: only way to achieve peace is to strengthen Ukraine’s hand by seizing frozen Russian assets

Responding to the Prime Minister’s virtual meeting with world leaders to discuss Ukraine, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Putin could end this war today if he wanted peace, but it’s clear he’s only interested in destroying Ukraine’s sovereignty and turning it into a vassal state of Russia.

The only way to achieve a just and lasting peace is to strengthen Ukraine. We must redouble our efforts to support their defence in the face of Putin’s barbarism. If Ukraine loses, all of Europe will be less secure.

The PM must now commit to seizing the frozen Russian assets in the UK, and forge an agreement to do the same across Europe, to help strengthen Ukraine’s hand and ensure we can achieve real peace.

NHS England: Same urgency must now be shown for social care

Responding to the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, speaking this morning on scrapping NHS England, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care Spokesperson, Helen Morgan said:

The Health Secretary is right that the NHS is broken and in need of major reform after years of Conservative failure. The focus must now be on ensuring that scrapping NHS England, and any further cuts, do not have negative impacts on the quality of care for patients.

The Government must also take the same sense of urgency shown here to social care, and complete their review by the end of the year rather than continuing to kick the can down the road.

SNP RAAC response non-existent compared to England

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has criticised the SNP for doing nothing to support health boards in dealing with RAAC, after research by his party found that the dangerous building material has been removed in scores of NHS buildings across England.

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Michal Siewniak

What next for Councillor remuneration? 

By Michal Siewniak | Sun 16th March 2025 - 2:30 pm

I remember it so well. In July 2024, at our Handside Residents’ Forum, we looked at the Council finances. A rather interesting topic! I must say that even today, I am quite surprised how many people are unaware of the actual “wage” Councillors earn. First, I have to explain to people that we don’t get paid but we receive a small monthly allowance, which of course varies from District to District. The allowance, which is taxed, helps to cover some of our duties, which are associated with our roles; traveling, petrol, or even booking venues for some meetings as other elements of the budgets have been cut e.g. Community Chest funding in our case. I get paid just over £400. I receive only a basic allowance as I don’t hold any senior positions within the Council and I don’t Chair any of the remunerated Committees.

Although the Council’s Independent Remuneration Panel reviews our allowance, I always struggle when this topic is being discussed at our Full Council meeting. The last one took place on 12th March.

We all had a civic debate about this subject and it was important to listen to what my fellow colleagues had to say. Some were lucky enough not to rely on the Councillor allowance and asked whether they could reject the increased allowance. Others were saying that due to their personal or financial circumstances, they actually rely on it. Yes, every little helps as one famous advert says, especially if you are a student Councillor. Given the ongoing cost of living crisis, the immediate increase of NI and other pressures on public finances meant that the actual debate on the increase of the Councillor allowance was at times uncomfortable.

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