Good news from the heart of Tim Farron country – a solid win in Thursday’s Windermere Bowness North ward on South Lakeland District Council for Colin Jones. He’s pictured here with local MP and Party President Tim Farron.
The result was:
Liberal Democrat Colin Jones: 431
Conservative: 248
Labour: 29
60.8% of …
Adrian Sanders, Lib Dem MP for Torbay did not attend Thursday’s debate. Writing on his blog, he explains he is:
Currently representing the UK at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in South Africa with other MPs from the Labour and Conservative Parties so was unable to attend the debate. I made it clear that were I present I would have voted against military action.
As other MPs at the conference would have voted the other way, our votes effectively cancelled themselves out. However, I was in touch with all of my Lib Dem colleagues in the UK and urged them to
…
This afternoon, Nick Clegg answered questions put by Lib Dem members. The half hour interview, by Helen Duffett, is now available on YouTube.
This is the first of three extracts from the forthcoming collection of essays Green liberalism: a local approach to the low carbon economy. Similar collections will be published under Green Alliance’s ‘Green social democracy’ and ‘Green conservatism’ projects as part of the Green Roots programme, which aims to stimulate green thinking within the three dominant political traditions in the UK.
A sustainable and low carbon transport system is something which UK governments have historically struggled to achieve, thanks to years of poor forward planning and systems which revolve heavily around cars, a highly inefficient mode of transport. But mobility patterns are …
When I originally flagged up that Jim Hume was intending to introduce a bill to the Scottish Parliament making it illegal to smoke in your car if you had children present, it’s fair to say that it inspired some heated discussion.
And then I’m sure we all forgot about it. I certainly did. Until I saw on Facebook a little while ago that today is the last day to respond to his consultation. By 5pm to be precise. After uttering a few sweary words, I thought I’d better remind you all before I filled it in for myself.
There are 11 …
Cable should revisit Mill’s Principles of Political Economy
With new analysis this week showing as many as 50,000 women lose their jobs each year while taking time off to have a baby, insecurity appears to be the new normal for British workers.
From mothers losing out whilst on maternity leave, to the rocketing growth of zero hour contracts on which as many as 1m people are now employed, millions of people face instability at work. These bad employment practices combined with the on-going squeeze on wages means that over half of people say they struggle to keep up with bills. As conference approaches, Vince Cable would do well to consider these issues as matters of pressing importance.
I join Paddy Ashdown in feeling depressed about my country today.
In my near thirty years as a Liberal Democrat I have heard two tropes consistently from campaigners: that policy is irrelevant and that foreign policy is particularly irrelevant. Yet it is foreign policy above all that shapes our party’s fortunes.
Take the SDP split over Europe – that got me into the party in ’85. Then came our opposition to the UK’s ban in letting in Hong Kong residents before the handover to China – several of my friends joined too, and it put Paddy Ashdown on the map. In the 90’s it was Bosnia and subsequently Kosovo that made us carry a uniquely and sometimes lonely flag for freedom and humanitarian intervention – last night the same isolationist Foreign Secretary of that period was arguing against doing anything in Syria – some things don’t change! We subsequently made the right call on Iraq, and will shortly see the trial of Seif Gaddafy in Libya – who threatened to stamp out Libyan dissenters as cockroaches. Despite current troubles, on balance I am proud that we averted that.
Stephen, as an internationalist you should applaud and accept the outcome of the democratic House of Commons last night. Do not be ashamed. Be proud. Do not be dismayed. Be hopeful.
The biggest destroyer of lives and life chances is anarchy. Anarchists work to bringing the whole house down. That is their objective. The rule of law is anathema to them.
I quoted earlier in the week, Gavrilo Princip, whose assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austrian precipitated the loss of 21 million lives and, if you see the Second World War, the Cold War and the dominance of Stalin as a …
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Last night, thirty-three Lib Dems voted for the government’s motion; 9 voted against; one abstained and 14 did not vote.
Alexander, Danny: For
Baker, Norman: For
Beith, Sir Alan: For
Birtwistle, Gordon: Against
Brake, Tom: For
Brooke, Annette: Did not vote
18 March 2003: I remember how I felt when the House of Commons voted to approve military action against Iraq. Sad. But not surprised. Sad because like millions of others, many of whom I marched with, I did not believe the case for war had been made and that we were rushing headlong into a conflict we were likely to make worse. But not surprised because with most Labour and almost all Conservative MPs four-square behind military action the vote was a formality.
29 August 2013: Today, following Parliament’s decision to rule out military action against Syria, I feel both sad …
Yesterday’s Commons vote on intervention in Syria is a landmark. And a surprise.
All day I had been reading the pundits in the national press and listening to the BBC. No one expected the government to lose the vote. Least of all the government.
My view is that is one of the most significant votes in our recent history.
This perhaps – hopefully – is the moment when we stop believing we are a world power. At long last we, or at least our parliament, believe that we cannot bomb our way to peace. This could be the point where we believe our best interests, and those of the world, lie in using our financial and political resources to promote a world that works without war.
In last night’s debate, Nine Liberal Democrats voted against the government’s motion, and thirty Conservatives.
Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley)
Michael Crockart (Edinburgh West)
Andrew George (St Ives)
Julian Huppert (Cambridge)
Dan Rogerson (Cornwall North)
Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove)
Ian Swales (Redcar)
Sarah Teather (Brent Central)
Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire)
Paul Burstow (Sutton and Cheam) voted in both lobbies, and thereby abstained
The Coalition Government’s motion backing a strong humanitarian response “which may include military action” has just been DEFEATED in the House of Commons by 13 votes (285 votes against to 272 in favour).
Responding, David Cameron has said he “gets” the will of the House.
Earlier, Labour’s amendment – urging further evidence of the Assad regime’s responsibility for chemical attacks – was defeated by 112 votes.
No official list yet, but here’s an *unconfirmed list* of Lib Dem MPs thought to have abstained or voted against the Government:
Gordon Birtwhistle
Malcolm Bruce
Paul Burstow
Tim Farron
Andrew George
Julian Huppert
John Pugh
Ian Swales
Sarah Teather
Roger Williams
(David Ward)
Writing in tonight’s London Evening Standard, Nick Clegg, Simon Hughes, Paddy Ashdown and Shirley Williams set out the case for international action in Syria.
After describing the horrors of chemical weapons, they declare:
We four believe a strong response from the international community is now necessary.
So the pot has addressed the kettle again. Tom Brake and Chloe Smith have accused 38 Degrees of being either alarmist or scaremongering about the effects of Part 2 of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill. Perhaps they would like to add the famously hysterical Electoral Commission to their list of doom-mongers, as they have also expressed serious concerns.
Mr Brake and Ms Smith claim that Part 2 will save the UK from unaccountable big-spending American-style Super-PACs. No alarmism there, then – especially when the only thing preventing this horror is that non-party spending …
Yesterday afternoon I emailed about 1000 voters in Oxford West and Abingdon asking them for their views on Syria.
What is interesting is that despite the complexity of the situation, there has been broad consensus in their views. Many start by saying things like ‘I am no expert’ and ‘I am torn’ but when they explain their reasoning the convergence is clear.
I summarise the responses received so far in the hope that a) it has a cathartic effect on those who haven’t expressed their views as I suspect many people feel the same and b) to ask if this is the …
Dear Nick,
Today Parliament is considering international action in Syria and you will take the most important decision of your leadership of the Liberal Democrats.
It would seem to me that there are four clear questions that must be answered before any military intervention is launched in Syria.
Is there compelling evidence of Assad’s guilt?
If compelling evidence of Assad’s guilt emerges, has an international arrest warrant been issued under international war-crimes law?
Have all non-military avenues for extradition to The Hague failed?
Has the Security Council sanctioned the necessary action to execute the arrest warrant?
Right now there appears to be no compelling evidence of Assad’s …
The conflict in Syria has continued with greater or lesser public notice for more than two years now. In this time thousands have died, millions have been displaced within Syria and into neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. And the international community has done little or nothing, hamstrung by Russian support for Assad, Chinese support for non-intervention, and ultimately, lack of western interest.
The large-scale chemical attack in a Damascus suburb claiming at least 300 lives at once changed everything and nothing. Everything, in that such an egregious violation of the laws of armed conflict, along with President Obama’s previous warnings of …
The government ministers leading on the transparency of lobbying, non-party campaigning and trade union administration bill need to make their minds up. Last week, the newspapers were briefed that the government was “open to changes” to the bill following severe criticism from senior charities. This week, Tom Brake and Chloe Smith are lining up to attack 38 Degrees for “scaremongering” over the bill. So what is the truth?
Unlock Democracy has campaigned for several years now for the introduction of a statutory lobbying register and so has taken a keen interest in this bill. Our
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Lib Dem Voice yesterday polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the situation in Syria. Some 580 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results today. The survey remains open and we’ll update these results in the next day or so if they change.
First, we asked about views of UK involvement in recent conflicts abroad. There was a big span of views. Unsurprisingly, given the Lib Dems were the only party to vote against military action against Iraq …
It is easy to work out what I disagree with on Syria.
The absurd politics of those on the left who have never lifted the smallest placard in protest again Assad’s wide scale murders but break out a garage-full the moment there is a whiff of US involvement in something.
Or those who talk about Syria with reference to Iraq but without references too to countries such as the Ivory Coast or Sierra Leone, where military intervention worked. Or without reference to countries such as the former Yugoslavia where the problem was not that military intervention took place but that it took …
Syria is not Iraq. While Liberal Democrats were right to be sceptical of Blair’s claims about the existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction against the better advice of Hans Blix, the UN and his own legal advisers, the situation in Syria is different in important respects. In one case Blair and Bush wanted to invade and used chemical weapons as an excuse. There were no chemical weapons. In the other case a genocide against civilians, ethnic cleansing of Sunnis particularly in Alawite-majority areas has been going on for over two years. Chemical weapons not only exist but have been used …
Our Michael Moore is many people’s favourite cabinet minister. He is also one of our most successful. As a Scot, I’ve seen at first hand how he played a blinder in ensuring that both Holyrood and Westminster parliaments were willing to pass the Scotland Act 2012. Then he brokered the Edinburgh Agreement, setting out the process for the Scottish independence referendum. For this feat, he was described by John Rentoul as Westminster’s answer to James Bond. Because of his work, 16 and 17 year olds will get their first vote …
The experience of the war in Iraq rightly made us all more sceptical about involvement in the Middle East. But the underlying principle of ‘responsibility to protect’, that as human beings we have a duty to one another, remains as true as it has ever been. It is too late for there to be a good outcome in Syria, but there are ‘less bad’ alternatives we should aim for.
No one is considering sending in the army. There’s no support for it, scant evidence we could do it legally and little reason to think it would make things better rather than …
The new LDV members’ survey focusing on Syria is now live. So if you are one of the c.1,500 registered members of the Liberal Democrat Voice forum — and any paid-up party member is welcome to join — then you now have the opportunity to make your views known.
There are five questions relating to the current situation in Syria. 300 Lib Dem members have completed the survey within a couple of hours of it going live. We’ll be reporting the initial results on Thursday, though the survey will stay live for a couple more days to give as …
Nick Clegg has just sent the following email to Liberal Democrat party members:
Dear member,
Tomorrow Parliament will consider international action in Syria.
I have been adamant from the outset: any case for international action must be taken to the UN in an effort to achieve as great an international consensus as possible. And I have made certain this is taking place.
We must wait until we hear from the weapons inspectors.
For the past week I have been in regular discussions with the Prime Minister, …
In part 1, I looked at where the Syrian uprising came from and argued that we should not be afraid to ‘pick a side’. This time I want to review the failures of the UK’s current policy (or lack of one).
It’s probably uncontroversial to say that most of us would have wished for the Assad regime to hold elections, release its grip on power and transition peacefully to democracy. And that as a fallback option, many of us would have been happy with a negotiated pact between the regime and the opposition, along the lines of what was more …
I live near Forbury Gardens in Reading where the Maiwand Lion statue was erected in 1886 to commemorate the loss of 280 soldiers from the 66th Royal Berkshire Regiment at the Battle of Maiwand in Afghanistan on 27th July 1880. There is talk of a memorial for our brave soldiers who fought and have lost their lives in the current campaign in Helmand. In my opinion, when the Americans and the British leave, Karzai won’t be too far behind and Mullah Omar will be reinstated as leader. In recent years we also have the experience of the war in Iraq …
The deadline for amendments to Conference motions is 1 pm next Monday, 2nd September. This means that, all over the country, people will be emailing all their contacts trying to drum up support for their particular amendment. This can be quite a difficult process. So, I thought, why doesn’t Liberal Democrat Voice try and make it a bit smoother?
I have asked about in various places for details of proposed amendments going round and I’ll give details of them further down. If you want to highlight one that you are working on, please post details in the comments. We’ll need to …
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