Liberal Democrat Voice

Maiden speech: Pippa Heylings MP

By The Voice | Wed 14th August 2024 - 2:30 pm

Our final stop, for now, on the Maiden Speech Tour takes us to South Cambridgeshire. Pippa Heylings MP made her debut on 26 July.

The text is below:

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What’s our line on public spending?

By Lord William Wallace | Wed 14th August 2024 - 11:55 am

What should be our overall party line on taxation and public spending? We have a new government that came into office promising not to raise any of the major revenue-raising taxes. It claims that it has now discovered far larger holes in public spending plans than it had expected. The reality is that the Conservatives and their media allies managed to focus attention in the run-up to the election entirely on the level of taxation, without addressing what that implied for public services and long-term investment.

So Labour are now stuck. They knew well before the election (as the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and even the business pages of the Times were telling them) that government spending projections were unreal, that maintaining Tory plans would necessitate cuts in core programmes, and that Jeremy Hunt’s reductions in national insurance were almost criminally irresponsible. But they didn’t dare to be honest with the voters, for fear of the Tories branding them as a ‘tax and spend’ party.

We have been here before. Tony Blair similarly promised before the 1997 election not to raise overall rates of tax. We Liberal Democrats were braver, promising ‘a penny on income tax’ to raise the quality of education. I was then chairing our manifesto group, and vividly recall a Labour adviser telling me that we were mad to do so; ‘voters will never support a party that talks about raising taxes.’ But voters don’t want to vote for cuts in schools, health services, police numbers, courts and prisons either. It turned out to be the most distinctive theme of our campaign.

Posted in News | Tagged economy, featured, public spending and taxation | 68 Comments

Lib Dems must get tougher on wealth inequality

By Chris Whiting | Wed 14th August 2024 - 10:25 am

It’s beyond infuriating.

We’ve waited 14 long years for a so-called centre-left Chancellor, only to find ourselves on the brink of more belt-tightening when we desperately need bold, transformative action. After the havoc of a global pandemic, a bruising cost of living crisis, and a recession that destroyed the livelihoods of millions, Rachel Reeves is already sounding the alarm for further austerity. Instead of rallying for the public investment we so desperately need, she’s searching for corners to cut and taxes to squeeze from the working and middle classes. But let’s be clear: the money to fund our public services is out there. The only thing missing is the political will to seize it.

We’re teetering on the edge of an inequality crisis so severe, it threatens to tear the very fabric of our society apart. The problem is not those on six figure salaries, it’s not even really the millionaires—it’s about the billionaires at the summit, whose wealth allows them to wield power and privilege in ways that are as undemocratic as they are dangerous.

If we don’t embrace radical wealth redistribution, we’re condemning ourselves to a future where the super-rich rule over the rest, unchecked and unchallenged.

In the last few years alone, UK-based billionaires have seen their fortunes soar by 1000%, concentrating economic power in the hands of a microscopic elite. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is the poster child for this grotesque disparity. When Musk bought Twitter, he acquired a global loudspeaker to broadcast his toxic, transphobic race-war baiting rhetoric. This is not benign accumulation of wealth; it’s a direct assault on democracy itself. In a country like the UK, where social tensions are simmering at best, Musk’s actions are a recipe for disaster.

And let’s not forget J K Rowling. Her wealth has given her a platform to dismiss the rights of trans people—a group she neither belongs to nor understands.

The influence of billionaires isn’t just a moral abomination. It’s a fundamental threat to the economy. Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of billionaires in the UK rose by 20%, while the rest of us were plunged in to a cost-of-living crisis and the highest tax burden in a generation.

When a handful of individuals control more wealth than millions of citizens combined, they can bend politics and policy to their will, sidelining the needs of the many. This isn’t just wrong – it’s a betrayal of the social contract, a breach of the promise that every person should have a fair shot at success.

The billionaire class doesn’t just hoard wealth, they weaponise it. They use their riches to lobby for tax breaks, deregulation, and policies that entrench their power and rig the system even further in their favour. This isn’t simply an economic issue, it’s a moral crisis. A society that allows such staggering inequality to flourish is one where the social fabric is ripping at the seams, where the chance for upward mobility is little more than a cruel joke.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged inequality and wealth inequality | 21 Comments

Maiden Speech: James MacCleary MP

By The Voice | Wed 14th August 2024 - 8:29 am

Our maiden speech tour today, like yesterday, starts in Sussex in the constituency of Lewes represented by James MacCleary.

The text is below:

Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged james maccleary, maiden speeches and speeches | Leave a comment

Maiden Speech: Brian Mathew MP

By The Voice | Tue 13th August 2024 - 1:26 pm

Our maiden speech tour heads to the West Country now, to hear Brian Mathew, our MP for Melksham and Devizes.

The text is below:

Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged brian mathew, maiden speeches and speeches | Leave a comment

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Four ways you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Tue 13th August 2024 - 11:59 am

The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that’s fine, we’re grateful for people taking the time to read the site.

You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are four simple ways:

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LibLink: Alistair Carmichael MP Why Musk and Robinson are now threats to democracy

By NewsHound | Tue 13th August 2024 - 11:19 am

Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael had some wise things to say about the riots that have plagued the country over the past two weeks.

He compared what happened here to the events of January 6 when MAGA types invaded the Capitol as some Republicans in Congress tried to steal the 2020 election from its rightful winner, Joe Biden.

Today the man who encouraged and stood to benefit from that political violence, if it had succeeded, is an even bet to be elected as President of the United States.

As the UK faces down our own wave of misinformation-fuelled rioting, albeit less directly targeted at our democratic institutions, we must learn the lesson from our American cousins – and refuse any attempt to normalise political violence.

He warned that we need to tackle the root causes of this violence:

In the short term, the problem may primarily be a matter of policing and the courts, but in the long term, we need political solutions to the issues thrown up by these riots. Violence and threats of violence cannot become normalised in the way that they increasingly have been in the United States.

Posted in LibLink | Tagged Alistair Carmichael, riots and the scotsman | 16 Comments

Maiden Speech: Alison Bennett MP

By The Voice | Tue 13th August 2024 - 9:16 am

LDV has been bringing you our new MPs’ maiden speeches. We’re catching up with those made at the end of the Parliamentary session with Alison Bennett from Mid Sussex.

The full text is below:

Posted in Parliament | Tagged alison bennett mp, maiden speeches and speeches | 1 Comment

Beacons

By Mick Scholes | Mon 12th August 2024 - 9:45 am

The beacon is lit! North Shropshire calls for aide!

Such was the cry in December 2021 on the Facebook HQ page of the by-election campaign that eventually saw a stunning victory for Helen Morgan and her team as the campaign went into the final week.

The fantastic result this July has given us a huge boost, especially coming on the back of a great set of May election results, where we displaced the Tories and came second in the seat table in England for 2024 – now sadly overlooked by the national media.

What I want to consider is the effect winning, and keeping certain seats has on the regional and in the case of Wales and Scotland, national scale, and how they shine a light into their surrounding areas.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged media strategy | 9 Comments

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 11th August 2024 - 10:21 am

United States

Weird is the new catchword of the American presidential elections. It is weird that Donald Trump – a convicted felon – is the Republican nominee for the presidency of the United States.

It is weird that J.D. Vance – an anti-abortionist who claims that America is run by a miserable “bunch of childless cat ladies” – is the Republican nominee for the presidency of the United States.

It is weird because both those images sound totally “un-American” and thus unlikely to win the votes of the American electorate. So it is weird that those two men have been nominated for the two highest offices in America.

Not weird is that Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, has been chosen by Kamala Harris to be her running mate in the presidential elections. Governor Walz is – as they like to say – as American as apple pie.

For a start he is from the mid-West which is often viewed as the traditionally American part of America. He attended Nebraska State College where he met his wife Gwen. They have two children – very American.

He taught high school social studies and coached the football team. The team went on to win the state championships. That is very, very American story almost worthy of a based-on-a-true-story Netflix film.

Walz was in the National Guard for 24 years, and reached the rank of Master Sergeant. Military service is almost a requirement for American politicians.

He served six terms in Congress before being elected Governor of Minnesota in 2018. He was re-elected in 2022. It was while he was Governor that Republicans have veered away from his all-American roots and towards what they might regard as weirdness. Walz legalised marijuana, passed strict gun laws, affirmed abortion rights, introduced free school meals and free college tuition. The liberal democrats love him. Which could explain why he is also chair of the Democratic Governors Association.

Walz is also credited with coming up with the catchword “weird” to describe Trump and Vance. President Biden had been focused on Trump’s threat to democracy. Walz reckoned that threat talk was a bit of a stretch for most American voters. “Weird” is easier to understand.

Bangladesh

From Nobel prize-winning micro-banker to leader of Bangladesh is quite a leap. But at the tender age of 84 Professor Muhammad Yunus has made the jump.

He replaces Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed who has fled the country after an estimated 400 people died in student-led riots against her quota system for the civil service.

Yunus probably doesn’t need the headache of running a country of 170 million people. He already secured the Nobel Peace Prize for creating the micro-finance banking system which has lifted millions out of poverty.

Yunus’s Grameen Bank pioneered micro-credit which is acknowledged as one the factors that transformed Bangladesh from the world’s second poorest country to the 38^th wealthiest.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged bangladesh, tim walz, ukraine and United states of America | 3 Comments

Observations of an Expat: Creator of the Great Replacement Theory

By Tom Arms | Sat 10th August 2024 - 10:15 am

Holed up in a 14^th century castle in southwestern France is the philosophical architect of the far-right right race riots that have recently swept Britain and inspired White supremacists around the world.

77-year-old Renaud Camus is the man responsible for the “Great Replacement Theory.”

This race-driven conspiracy theory claims that a liberal elite is plotting the destruction of White civilisations by encouraging African and Asian immigrants to replace European culture with their own.

So who is Renaud Camus? For a start he is quite bright and quite driven. He has degrees in history, literature, philosophy and law and has taught at American and French universities and contributed to various encyclopaedias. At the age of 21 he came out of the closet to help establish a gay brigade during the 1968 student riots in Paris. For the next 20-odd years Camus established himself as one of France’s leading gay icons as an award-winning journalist and prolific author.

In 1992 Camus sold his Paris apartment and moved to the crumbling hilltop Chateau de Pilieux. While taking a break from restoring the castle to edit a local guidebook Camus noticed that the demography’s of the populations in France’s old villages had “totally changed,” and, in his view, not for the better.

He described this realisation as an “epiphany” which quickly morphed into The Great Replacement Theory. This was elaborated in three subsequent books: “Abedarium of No Harm,” “The Grand Replacement “and “You Will Not Replace Us.”

Camus asserts that ethnicity plays a defining role in a country’s identity and he warns that “immigrants are flocking to predominantly white countries for the precise purpose of rendering the white population a minority within their own land or even causing the extinction of their own populations.”

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged great replacement theory and renaud camus | 3 Comments

The venue for Spring Conference is …

By The Voice | Fri 9th August 2024 - 3:11 pm

… Harrogate!

The Federal Conference Committee has announced that the Spring Conference 2025 will take place from 21st to 23rd March at Harrogate.

The main venue will be Harrogate Convention Centre, Kings Road, Harrogate HG1 5LA. And the Conference Hotel and Conference HQ will be at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Kings Road, Harrogate HG1 1XX, which is a one minute walk from the Harrogate Convention Centre.

You can book your accommodation by clicking here.

They have also released some preliminary timings:

Friday 21 March: 18.30-19.30 Rally
Saturday 22 March: 09.00-18.00
Sunday 23 March: 09.00-13.00 (Leader’s speech: 11.45-13.00)

Please note that fringe events will happen outside these timings.

Posted in News | Tagged 2025 spring conference | 1 Comment

After the riots

By Adrian Sanders | Fri 9th August 2024 - 1:11 pm

I have never not been proud of my country, but there have been historic events and current unrest that has made it difficult with my daily international contacts to promote all the wonderful things the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has to offer.

My work brings me into contact with people across Europe, Asia, Australasia and North America and since Brexit, that was seen as a massive own goal by people overseas, our image and reputation has been damaged. This past week only reinforced an image of decline that the previous 9 years with 5 Prime Ministers, one referendum and three general elections had imprinted on the minds of many looking in from outside.

These most recent events have worried everyone, and yet the violence was a consequence of deliberate misinformation, lies and political opportunism by the likes of Farage and others with an agenda to disrupt and divide.

The very descriptions of the riots the mainstream media has used have themselves misled. These were not far right riots. Far right inspired yes, but most of those taking part wouldn’t know the difference between right, left or centre.

The local politicians who then pop up to claim this is all the work of outsiders, and their community is not like this, were also misleading, mostly themselves, because the people arrested have largely turned out to be local to the riots.

The reality is every community has a few extreme right-wing nutcases, and a much larger number of people, disgruntled, upset and failed by the system who for years now have been wound-up by irresponsible media outlets and politicians blaming foreigners and people of difference for the very real challenges they have to face.

Add in social media massaging, reinforcing and heightening prejudices and you have a tinder box waiting to be ignited, and all it took to light the fuse was a false name and back story circulating within minutes of the dastardly and tragic incidents in Southport.

Posted in Op-eds | 21 Comments

Ed Davey’s email on Islamophobia

By Mary Reid | Fri 9th August 2024 - 11:19 am

Yesterday evening Ed Davey sent an email to members in response to the public violence over the past week. It says:

The last ten days have been immensely difficult for our country.

First, the horrific attack in Southport that claimed the lives of three innocent young girls.

Then, the far right extremists who exploited this tragedy to incite and commit appalling acts of violence. Violence that targeted Muslims, asylum seekers and communities of colour.

These thugs do not speak for Britain or our values. But how we respond does.

My response to last night’s events:

It is heartwarming to see so many people

…

Posted in News | Tagged ed davey | 4 Comments

Maiden speech: Bobby Dean MP for Carshalton and Wallington

By The Voice | Fri 9th August 2024 - 8:47 am

Apologies for not covering Bobby Dean’s maiden speech earlier. He gave it during the debate on the Budget Responsibility Bill on 30th July.

Here is the full text:

Posted in Parliament | Tagged Bobby Dean NP, maiden speeches and speeches | 2 Comments

Nominate someone for the 2024 Councillor Awards

By Mary Reid | Thu 8th August 2024 - 11:55 am

Each year the Local Government Information Unit awards exceptional councillors across England Wales and Scotland. They have five categories:

Community Champion
Leader of the Year
Young Councillor of the Year
Innovator of the Year
Lifetime Legend

Last year Cllr Hannah Perkin won the Community Champion award for England and Wales. Hannah is Leader of the Lib Dems on Swale Borough Council, but her award focussed on her work to increase diversity and inclusion. She set up the Faversham Disability Forum, which campaigns to improve access for people with a range of disabilities in local public spaces, including playgrounds and swimming pools. Hannah has also campaigned across a range of issues including violence against women and environmental matters. You can read her citation and interview here.

Many of you will know a Lib Dem councillor worthy of one of these awards, so you know what to do. You can read more about the categories and submit a nomination here. Nominations close on Friday 13th September.

Posted in News | Tagged Local government and local government information unit | Leave a comment

FCC report following agenda selection meeting

By Nick da Costa | Thu 8th August 2024 - 9:05 am

The Federal Conference Committee met on Saturday to run through a number of items leading up to Autumn Conference in Brighton, which is being held from 14 to 17 September 2024.

We are looking at a very different conference to recent years, having had the most successful election of our party in over a century; and I am certain there will be lots of celebrate in Brighton.

The general election has really constrained all of our deadlines, so the agenda selection meeting was almost a month later than usual. Furthermore, the election has impacted all of our planning. The amazing Conference Team are delivering a conference, which usually takes 5 months of intense work in less than two months.

Because all deadlines have been pushed back, we will not be producing a paper agenda; instead it will be available online and we will inform members when it has been uploaded. We will still produce printed version of Conference Extra and Daily in the Conference Centre.

Furthermore, we have set a later deadline for submission of amendments, which will be Monday, 9 September at 13:00.

We are hoping to publish the full text of the motions shortly, so that you can start planning amendments, questions to reports and emergency motions.

Conference is an excellent opportunity to engage with members from all across the country, to influence the party policy and strategy, and to a huge array of fringe and training events, which I recommend those attending to take full advantage of.

Our amazing election result has meant that we’ve had an increase in interest in events at Conference; we’ve seen a great upsurge in fringe bookings and exhibitions – and both of these were sold out pretty much the day after the General Election. Please do visit as many exhibitors and fringes as you can.

Understandably, many members, AOs and other party groups have been busy on the General Election, so we have seen a reduction in motions submitted from across the party – therefore, the FCC has also made time in the auditorium for some different types of sessions; including a panel discussion on Defence and Veterans, the General Election Review, and a consultation on our New Policy Agenda.

We received a large number of motions from across the party, and are extremely grateful for the time and effort that members make in formulating policy motions and ideas for debate at Conference. We really wish that we could select so many more that ended up on the final list, but as always time at conference is at a premium and a large number of motions, although selected in the first round, did not make it through the second round when we then started to look at reducing timings.

As regularly mentioned, time is tight at conference, and we are unable to take all motions submitted to Conference. Regarding the motions which were not selected, we have provided a summary of reasons why motions have not been submitted, and have provided further information to those people whose motions were not selected. I have tried to keep this succinct for the purposes of the list of motions.

Posted in News | Tagged 2024 autumn conference and federal conference committee report | 1 Comment

Obituary: Andrew De Freitas

By Ed Fordham and Ian Barfield | Wed 7th August 2024 - 4:49 pm

Liberal Democrat former councillor Andrew De Freitas has died: he was truly a unique and special man who deserves a prominent place in our history. As his friends we have jointly written this tribute.

Based on outdated inaccurate perceptions, very few people expected that Grimsby and Cleethorpes would be bright blobs of gold on the UK map of local government control. Few people ever thought that the Leader of North East Lincolnshire Council might be a Liberal Democrat, that he would be of Caribbean descent, and that his tenure as Leader would …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged andrew de freitas and obituaries | 5 Comments

Christine Jardine urges Government to appoint Independent Advisor on Islamophobia

By The Voice | Wed 7th August 2024 - 9:33 am

Lib Dem Equalities Spokesperson Christine Jardine has written to Women and Equalities Minister Anneliese Dodds to welcome the work the Government has done so far in measures to support Muslim communities and urging them to go further by filling the post of Independent Advisor on Islamophobia that the Conservatives left vacant for two years.

The text of her letter is below:

Dear Anneliese,

I wish to share my concerns about the shocking violent Islamophobia unfolding on our streets and urge early action to fill the position of Independent advisor on Islamophobia left vacant for two years by the previous Conservative Government.

Like the rest of the country, I am deeply distressed by the riots, violence and disorder we have seen in recent days. A small minority of far-right extremists have exploited the unfathomable tragedy in Southport to commit appalling acts of violence, targeting Muslims, asylum seekers and communities of colour.

I fully support your government in calling the motivation behind some of this violence what it is – Islamophobia.

Racism and Islamophobia have no place in our society. Everyone has the right to feel safe in their homes, communities and places of worship. I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues utterly condemn this violence.

Posted in News | Tagged anneliese dodds, christine jardine, equalities, islamophobia, ldcre and roderick lynch | 4 Comments

Hina Bokhari writes…I don’t want to keep talking about Islamophobia

By Hina Bokhari | Wed 7th August 2024 - 7:28 am

“Are you ok? Was the first question Natasha Devon on LBC asked when she interviewed me about the rising Islamophobia.

We really shouldn’t be talking about Islamophobia. We should be talking about the tragedy of three little girls being brutally killed, the continuing violence against women and girls and the factors that led to these terrible murders.

But instead, the news is focussed on extremist thugs who have spread disinformation and caused chaos on our streets. Quite rightly Starmer and Davey have called it out.

And now our leaders have also said that these were not legitimate protests but riots targeting Muslims, asylum seekers and communities of colour.

I’m glad that there has been progress here. Words matter. And it shouldn’t take Muslim groups like the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) or Muslim commentators or Muslim politicians having to call out the racism we have seen recently.

Muslims need allies. They need the Government, MPs from all parties and community leaders to call it out too. When a riot starts because disinformation is spread about a killer being Muslim and then those rioters shout “f*** Allah” and attack a mosque – that’s called Islamophobia or anti-Muslim hatred or just simply racism!

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured, hina bokhari and islamophobia | 1 Comment

6 August 2024 – yesterday’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 7th August 2024 - 1:05 am

Ofwat fines: A game of catch up after Conservative Ministers turned a blind eye
Cole-Hamilton: SNP must take action to avoid winter crisis at A&E
Welsh Lib Dems call on new First Minister to “restore trust in Welsh Politics”
Police office numbers are lowest on record
Number of people stuck in hospital reaches new high
Scot Lib Dems criticise SNP exam failings

Ofwat fines: A game of catch up after Conservative Ministers turned a blind eye

Responding to Ofwat imposing a £168m fine on Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water, Liberal Democrat Environment spokesperson Tim Farron MP said:

After years of inaction and failure under the last Conservative government, it is welcome to see the regulator finally impose proper fines.

This should only be the start if these polluting firms are to clean up their act.

We now need a ban on bonuses and an end to bumper profits on the industry.

Sadly this is all a game of catch up after Conservative Ministers turned a blind eye to this environmental scandal.

Cole-Hamilton: SNP must take action to avoid winter crisis at A&E

Responding to new figures showing only 69% of people attending A&E were seen within the 4 hour target in June 2024, while 14,126 people waited over 8 hours and 5,936 waited over 12 hours, Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

Normally in summer we would see an improving picture at A&E, but these waiting times are already very long, and moving in the wrong direction.

Under the SNP the NHS is teetering on the brink, staff are overwhelmed, and thousands are waiting far too long to be seen.

We need to see action from this SNP government to address long waits at A&E before we are staring down the barrel of a winter crisis.

Scottish Liberal Democrats would overhaul the SNP’s failed NHS Recovery Plan, get you fast access to GPs and help people leave hospital on time through a new minimum wage for care workers that is £2 higher.

Welsh Lib Dems call on new First Minister to “restore trust in Welsh Politics”

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have called on the new First Minister of Wales Eluned Morgan to rebuild trust in Welsh politics.

Posted in News, Press releases, Scotland and Wales | Tagged accident and emergency, alex cole-hamiton, educational attainment, hospital occupancy, jane dodds, liam mcarthur, policing, tim farron, trust and water companies | Leave a comment

The role of social media – a crisis of conscience for Lib Dems?

By Richard Kemp | Tue 6th August 2024 - 10:25 am

One of the issues that has come to the fore following the appalling murders then just as appalling lawlessness in Southport earlier this week is the question of free speech. There can be no doubt that misinformation has caused much of the rioting and sheer criminality of the past few days. There are a lot of similarities between what happened in the 1981 Toxteth riots and what happened in 2024 in Southport but there is one crucial difference – social media and the various mobile phones and appliances that supercharge them.

Just to recap within a couple of hours of the murders false information was put out through social media that the person who committed the murders was an immigrant who came over on small boats and was a Muslim. The Police are bound by law to restrict information about suspects, but they did release one nugget of information that, in a rational world, would have shut down the rumours. They said that the suspect was from Rwanda.

The UK has few Rwandan refugees, and they came over 30 years ago at the time of the massacres and genocide in that Country. Rwanda is a member of he Commonwealth of Nations although we were not the colonial rulers. Commonwealth membership gives Rwandans greater rights to come to our Country just as we Brits have greater rights to go to their countries. So, the perpetrator was not a ‘boat person,’ his family came here with the support of the UK government all those years ago and was not a Muslim. 96% of the population of Rwanda are Christian and only 2% is of the Islamic faith.

I believe that this means that we must think carefully of the advantages and disadvantages of social media. I use social media a lot. I blog for example. I tweet. I regularly communicate with my grandchildren, using facetime. I email which is a process which saves so much time and paper. So social media must stay but there must be constraints on it.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged free speech, right wing violence, social media and southport murders | 24 Comments

The real conflict in the land between the Sea and the River

By Leon Duveen | Tue 6th August 2024 - 7:44 am

The real conflict in the land between the Sea and the River is not between Palestinians & Israelis, it is not a religious war (there are Jews, Muslims, Christians & believers of other religions supporting both sides). It is a conflict between, on one side, those who want that land exclusively for their side, realising that it will mean an ongoing war for the foreseeable future, a war that neither Palestine nor Israel can win but both Palestinians & Israelis will lose, and, on the other side, those who are willing to trade exclusivity for peace, who are willing to accept that both Palestinians & Israelis have the same right to claim the land as their people’s homeland and to be a free people in it.

The exclusivists on both sides are very good at painting the 100+ years of conflict in black and white, us or them, win or lose terms. Indeed, the exclusivists on both sides are not above working with each other to stop those who accept the need to compromise being accepted as the real patriots. Even the recent assassination of Ismail Haniyeh can be seen like this, the removal of a relatively moderate Hamas leader in such a way as to strengthen the hawks on both sides.

The reality is the opposite, it is those who believe Palestinians & Israelis both have rights to that small sliver of land, who believe both people have ancient ties to it and that they both need to learn to live alongside each other who are the real patriots, the people who really love both the land the people who live there & want to see an end to the continual violence.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged israel, middle east and palestine | 6 Comments

5 August 2024 – today’s press release

By Mark Valladares | Mon 5th August 2024 - 11:50 pm

Ed Davey responds to COBRA on riots

Responding to the Prime Minister chairing COBRA following riots across the country, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

The country has rightly been appalled and outraged at the despicable actions of a tiny minority. All those thugs who have rioted and carried out racist attacks must face the full force of the law.

Everyone has the right to feel safe in their homes, communities and places of worship.

We welcome the actions taken by our brave police officers and the new measures announced today by the government to clamp down on criminals attempting to terrorise our

…

Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged ed davey and riots | 1 Comment

Liberal Democrats must drive the new government hard on housing

By Charlie Murphy | Mon 5th August 2024 - 4:39 pm

It is a familiar story that parties find it politically expedient to oppose new homes being built, particularly within a given politician’s local area. It happens time and again, even among those who profess an understanding or recognition of the scale of the housing crisis and its injustice.

We desperately need more homes nationally, but problems with housing affordability are most acute in the South East of England and the Home Counties surrounding London. When we talk of “the right homes in the right places” it is all too easy to think that means “not here”.

The reality for the Liberal Democrats is now that “not here” doesn’t work. We have been enormously successful in selling a vision of a progressive, forward looking and practical politics to large parts of the South East and Home Counties. In the East of England we won seven MPs, and in the South East we won twenty-four – around 3,500 votes off of supplanting the Conservatives as the second party in the region.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged housing policy | 6 Comments

The Independent View: Kinship Carers in the Spotlight: A Call for Continued Commitment and Support

By Dr Lucy Peake | Mon 5th August 2024 - 2:26 pm

Kinship carers play a vital role in our society, providing loving, stable homes for more than 141,000 children in England and Wales whose parents are not able to care for them.

Grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings, other relatives and family friends step up, often at a point of crisis and in very challenging circumstances, to prevent children from entering the care system.

Despite their critical contribution to the lives of many, kinship carers have been overlooked by successive governments. As a result, most kinship families receive little to no support, and according to our research, many are at breaking point. Nearly 1 in 8 told us a lack of financial support and help with their children’s needs meant they were concerned about their ability to continue caring for their children in the next year if their situations didn’t improve. This could mean devastating consequences for children, families and the state.

The previous Government’s National Kinship Care Strategy (December 2023) finally gave kinship families some recognition, but the ‘radical reset’ proposed by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care has yet to be delivered.

Kinship carers and the children they are raising need security and support as a matter of urgency.

2024: turning the tide?

This summer has been a watershed moment. For the first time, kinship care was mentioned in the manifestos of England’s three leading political parties. Tireless campaigning over many decades by kinship carers – themselves already overstretched by the challenges of caring for children with little support – has got us to this point.

And they’ve had some welcome help.

In recent years, Liberal Democrats have stepped up to bring the experiences of kinship carers and the case for greater support for kinship families directly to Westminster.

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged bobby dean, ed davey and kinship care | Leave a comment

What our new MPs bring to the political debate

By Lord William Wallace | Mon 5th August 2024 - 11:35 am

Liberal Democrats who are frustrated at the modest media impact of our 72 MPs in the first month since their triumphant election should remember how long it takes to recruit new staff, discover the intricacies of parliamentary life and the surrounding media, put their diverse skills to effective use, and decide which specific issues they are going to make their own. In the last Parliament our 11 MPs had to cover the full range of issues thrown at them, with a skeleton supporting staff, with each by-election winner making a welcome difference to the load. When our Lords group met together with our new MPs, Ed Davey generously thanked us for the policy support and advice we had provided (with our larger numbers, though very limited staff) in combatting Tory legislation in the past 3 Parliaments. A much larger Commons Party, with significantly-increased staff both in MPs’ office and attached to the Whips’ Office, will transform our capabilities.

Few of us will yet have discovered the wealth of experience and expertise our new MPs bring to their new, fulltime, responsibilities (I’m still discovering constituencies that I didn’t realise we’d won…). Clearing some papers today, I discovered a memo on the government’s data strategy that Tim Clement Jones and I had written four years ago with a Liberal Democrat expert called David Chadwick – and realised that I’ve already met our new MP for Brecon and Radnor, and that he’s an established expert in a delicate field of public policy. A rapid look through our MPs’ short biographies shows a wealth of local Council experience, with all that provides for grappling with issues of social care, public services, environment and housing. I see that Gideon Amos, our Taunton MP, is also an architect and town planner by profession.

Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Tagged members of parliament | 14 Comments

Devolution – but not as we know it…’

By Roger Shelley | Sun 4th August 2024 - 1:30 pm

Great to see William Wallace’s recent critique of the elected Mayoral system This creeping assault on local democracy by the usual unholy Labour-Conservative alliance is now gathering pace, with the new Labour government committed to its expansion.

William is right that the Mayoral system is a mess, but so too is local government as a whole, weakened by decades of underinvestment, now undermined further by the mayoral expansion process.

England currently has a chaotic patchwork, with largely the north being used as a ‘test bed’ for the mayoral system. I use the term advisedly, and note Liz Kendall’s call last week that ‘we need to experiment to get evidence’. Quite. Where is the empirical evidence that Combined County Authorities, like the ‘East Midlands’ one, just imposed on Notts and Derbys, are going to work efficiently, let alone democratically, in improving people’s lives? As a district councillor on the only non-Labour or Tory led authority in the new Mayoral authority area, I feel I am entitled to some proof, on behalf of my residents.

I am concerned that the LGA, and for that matter, think tanks with a role in public policy analysis, seem at best uncritical, at worst supine in their acceptance of this false devolution. I’ve tried hard and cannot see who is providing essential critical analysis of the democratic deficit and effectiveness of delivery or projects, targets and growth that these Mayoral authorities actually give – and crucially how ‘Metro Mayors’ are performing compared to the Combined County Authorities.

I can sort of understand that cohesive predominantly urban areas like Greater Manchester and London might achieve some improved delivery, in for example, public transport, but where is the evidence that this is working in diversely dispersed combined urban-rural authorities? I would like to see our new overwhelmingly southern MPs wake up to this issue, before it is presumably rolled out inexorably across their counties.

Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire’s new EMCCA has a desultory budget of £38m over the next 30 years – unless it raises extra through higher local taxation, or where a lucky few councils may succeed in bidding for extra central government grants, filtered through the Combined Mayoral Authority, in a divisive competitive race.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged devolution and Local government | 7 Comments

The importance of saying “Thank you”

By Jean Low | Sun 4th August 2024 - 11:30 am

As someone who first got involved with the Liberals at the General Election of February 1974, I suppose I might be described as a veteran of election campaigns. At various times over the decades I have been a candidate (national and local), an agent, and a foot soldier.

Last month I was excited to be able to help out in three target seats, two of which were fairly close to my home, and one which involved a lengthy journey. Some health issues prevented me from doing as much as I did 50 years ago, but I am of course delighted that in all three constituencies, Lib Dem MPs were elected with very healthy majorities.

Like all the other 69 MPs that were elected, none of these three would now be in Westminster if it had not been for the thousands of volunteers up and down the country who faced up to fierce dogs, fiddly gates and difficult letter boxes, who knocked on hundreds of doors, and who wrote interminable envelopes. Like others I guess, I was shouted at, barked and growled at, had balled-up leaflets thrown at me, and also met some lovely people.

Whilst I appreciate that new, and returning MPs, have a huge amount to cope with in their first few weeks, not least finding somewhere to live, setting up an office, and coping with the inevitable flood of case work, there is one thing which I believe they should all do, as a priority, and that is say “thank you” to those whose sterling efforts ensured that they were elected.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged 2024 general election and campaigning | 6 Comments

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