Caron Lindsay

Caling all trans allies in Brighton – show support at 1pm today

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 15th September 2024 - 10:58 am

Jude Parker spent two days this week sewing a huge trans Pride flag with the help of Douglas, her much loved sewing machine. It’s pretty massive 15 metres and weighs 4.5 kg. She carried it to Brighton along with the rest of the merch for the LGBT+ Lib Dems stall. It was a real labour of love in response to the blow of hearing that an anti trans group had been allowed to have a stall at Liberal Democrat conference.

This flag will be unfurled outside the Brighton Centre at 1pm today in a show of solidarity with trans people in our country and in our party. Everyone who supports trans rights is welcome to show support.

We are proud of our history as a party that has always stood up for LGBT+ rights, as we’ve stood up for women’s rights, for racial equality and human rights generally. It’s in our core.  So what on earth are we thinking allowing in a group that does not align with our values?

This group have been wanting to have a stall for some years and we have turned them down. In fact, the Federal Conference Committee turned them down again for this Conference. Unfortunately, the legal advice the party sought was apparently clear that we could be liable for significant costs and damages if, as was considered likely,  this group sued us.  They seem to have the resources to do so, and, unfortunately, LGBT+ people in the party do not have access to such deep pockets. So, FCC was over-ruled and they were given a stall.

There is surely an issue around access to justice in all of this. If only the rich can take action which sets legal precedents, there is a clear power imbalance which should worry us.

Some would argue that the party should have said, as Harry Willcock famously did in 1950 when asked to show his ID card “We’re liberals and we’re against this sort of thing.”

I can definitely see the logic in that and a bit of me wishes we had the courage to stand up against an unfair and illiberal law, even if the sums involved in defending a legal action makes me, as a recovering state party treasurer, wince with pain. Even if you win your case, you rarely get all your costs back and it’s expensive and time consuming.

Our conference exhibition is our shop window to the world. A law which compels us to include people who do not share our values on the grounds that they have a “protected belief” seems ridiculous. As a political party, we surely should have the right to choose who sits in our shop window.

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Caron Lindsay

Ed Davey on Kuenssberg: We’ll be a better opposition than the Conservatives

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 15th September 2024 - 10:09 am

Ed Davey did his Conference interview with Laura Kuenssberg this morning. Speaking from the top of the Brighton Centre after arriving at the Conference by jet-ski yesterday, he was quizzed about whether we were going soft on Labour. Were we actually going to challenge them.

Ed was keen to point out that we already had on issues like the Winter Fuel Payment, and we’d do it more effectively than the official opposition.

We will challenge them when we disagree with them. We’ll be a better opposition than the Conservatives who are going further to the right

We are keeping people’s trust by talking about the issues they care about – the NHS and cost of living.

He said that the Government had already made mistakes on both of those things.

Being constructive means you have a different tone. You don’t do the yah-boo politics that people are sick of.

We are trying to put forward our own ideas.

Kuenssberg suggested that Labour don’t have to listen to us. Ed replied

You have to do opposition in a particular way to get heard. We’ll put forward ideas we championed at the election and our MPs will be champions for our constituents and we will get our voices heard.

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 15th September 2024 - 9:35 am

United States

Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene WAS the female darling of the Republican far-right. No longer. The new girl on the block is 31-year-old Laura Loomer who is so far to the right that right-wing Ms Greene has called her “mentally unstable and a documented liar.”

Ms Loomer is also emerging as a confidante of Donald Trump. She travelled on his plane to the 10 September presidential debate in Philadelphia and is said to have fed him the story about immigrants eating pets in Ohio.

She continued with the former president to New York and was with him when he attended the bipartisan services to commemorate the 9/11 terrorist attack. This despite the fact that Ms Loomer has claimed that 9/11 was an “inside job” perpetrated by the Deep State liberal elite.

Laura Loomer loves right-wing conspiracy theories. In her playbook the mass shootings at Last Vegas, El Paso and Parkland were all staged by the anti-gun lobby. The winter storm that disrupted the Iowa caucus was created by meteorologists hired by Deep State Democrats to help Republican candidate Nikki Haley.

Ms Loomer proudly identifies as an “Islamaphobe.” When told that 2,000 Muslim immigrants had drowned while crossing the Mediterranean, she tweeted: “Good. Here’s to 2,000 more. “

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have all banned her for spreading hate speech and misinformation, although Elon Musk reinstated her account. She has also been banned by the online banking services Paypal, Gofundme and Venmo. The taxi services  Uber and Lyfft have barred her from using their vehicles because of her attempts to ban Muslim taxi drivers. She is suing all of the above – unsuccessfully.

Twice Ms Loomer has run for Congress for a Florida seat. Twice she lost and twice she was endorsed by Donald Trump. She has written for Alex Jones’s Infowars; The Geller Report which pushed the Obama birther lie; Rebel Media which describes as a counter-Jihad platform and Veritas, a major broadcaster of conspiracy theories.

Ms Loomer denies that she is a White Supremacist but proudly admits to being a White Nationalist. She is not a Christian nationalist because she is Jewish and has been the target of death threats from the anti-Semitic wing of America’s far right.

Her loyalty to Donald Trump is rock solid. She told the Washington Post: “If Trump doesn’t get in I don’t have anything. Ms Loomer attacked Florida governor Ron de Santis and his wife for daring to challenge the former president and has advised Trump that he should make a list of those who have challenged him in the courts and elsewhere and, when re-elected president, “execute them for treason.”

United States – more

What if Trump loses? Will there be a repeat of January 6 when rioters stormed the US capitol in a vain attempt to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory?

Unlikely. But only because this time around Biden – not Trump – controls the security apparatus. And he has put in place an array of measures to protect not only the capitol building, but the entire metropolitan area of Washington DC.

No. If there is a threat to the election it will be in the voting booths, the counting rooms, the election boards and the courts.

As in 2020, Trump is planting the seeds for a legal challenge in case the vote goes against him. This time his objections will be based on illegal immigrants voting for Harris. He told a rally in Las Vegas this summer that “the only way they can beat us is to cheat.”

In the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin the Trump-controlled Republican National Committee has put 102 election deniers on local and state election boards. In Georgia, for instance, the election deniers control the state-wide board and have already introduced rules that allow them to delay voter certification while they conduct “investigations” into “unspecified irregularities.”

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Caron Lindsay

Sunday at Conference: What’s on?

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 15th September 2024 - 7:30 am

So what’s on at Conference today? You can find full details in the agenda here. Don’t forget about the Lib Dem Conf app too – available on your app store.

If, like me, you are stuck at home, you can watch all the main hall action live here.

One of the highlights is Ed’s question and answer session. He’s generally very good at these, better I would say than his big keynote speech.

There’s a keynote speech from Munira Wilson.

There are big policy debates on the NHS and national parks and a discussion on our policy in the future.

Here’s how the day unfolds:

09.00-09.30 F16 Policy motion: National Nature Parks

09.30-10.25 F17 Policy motion: Our Plan to Save The NHS< 10.25-11.05 F18 Topical issue discussion 11.05-11.20 F19 Speech: Munira Wilson MP Lunch break and fringe

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Caron Lindsay

Breaking: that Lib Dem Disco set list

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 14th September 2024 - 10:28 pm

It’s nearly time for the Lib Dem Disco and, in accordance with tradition, we are publishing the set list.

Ed Davey dropped a fairly big hint at the rally tonight that he might put in an appearance. Could we hear Sweet Caroline? If so I am manifesting video.

UPDATE: I do not need to manifest after a wonderful friend Vita sent me this:

Sweet Caroline at Lib Dem Disci

 

 

Anyway, here are the DJ set lists. Good luck to them all.

David Chadwick MP:

Murder on the dancefloor, (Sophie-Ellis Bextor),
Blue Da Ba Dee (Eiffel 65, ft – Gabry Ponte)
Alors on danse, Stromae
El Merengue – Marshmello
Europopa – Joost.

DJ Smartie (Lisa Smart MP):

Don’t stop me now, Queen
Shake It Off, Taylor Swift
Crazy In Love, Beyonce
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, Arctic Monkeys
Mr Brightside, The Killers

Susan Murray MP:

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Caron Lindsay

Conference Day 1 highlights

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 14th September 2024 - 7:39 pm

I’m usually in the pub during the rally and catch up on You Tube later. Tonight I listened to Al Pinkerton open the event while I was chopping coriander stalks to go in a chlli. So far, after Al, we’ve had Max Wilkinson’s shocking admission that he doesn’t like Abba, Pippa Heylings describing some doorstep encounters and  Josh Babarinde describing the experience of having his mother and Ed Davey critique his bungee jump and Sarah Olney talking about her terror on that rollercoaster.

I am missing Conference terribly. The livestream is fine, but it’s nothing compared to being in the auditorium …

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Tom Arms

Observations of an Expat: The Debate

By Tom Arms | Sat 14th September 2024 - 9:27 am

Trump lost. In the words of his acolyte Senator Lindsey Graham: the debate was a “disaster.” Not surprisingly, Trump has refused to debate Kamala Harris again, making it one of the few times that he has turned down the opportunity to blow his horn.

The former president did land a few punches in Tuesday’s verbal brawl. In fact if you listen to the first and last ten minutes then you might come away thinking that Trump won.  But the political theatre will be remembered for how he was mocked, rattled and lied, lied and lied.

Millions around world sniggered or guffawed when the former president claimed that immigrants were eating the pets of the residents of Springfield, Ohio.

He was clearly rattled when Kamala Harris invited viewers to attend one of his rallies and added the pointed observation that numbers of attendees are dropping and people are leaving early, bored with his rambling monologues. Rubbish, he retorted, and then falsely claimed that Kamala Harris paid people to attend her rallies.

The lies came fast and furious – Millions of criminals are flooding across America’s borders. In reality, of the 1.4 million illegals who entered the US in the past year, 14,700 were found to have a criminal record or .01 percent. They were immediately deported. Among native-born Americans there were 16.5 violent crimes for every 100,000 in 2021.

Violent crime, claimed Trump, was going through the roof (again, he said, because of immigrants). Wrong. According to the FBI homicides were down 26 percent in 2023 and violent crime as a whole is at its lowest level in 50 years.

Abortion is a hot election issue. Trump claimed that the Democrats want abortions in the ninth month of pregnancies and are killing babies after they are born. This earned a gawp of disbelief from Kamala Harris and was quickly corrected by moderator David Muir.

Inflation, according to the former president, “is the worst in US history.” It was bad. It reached 9.7 percent. But it has been higher five times since they started keeping records.

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Caron Lindsay

Saturday at Conference: What’s on?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 14th September 2024 - 7:30 am

Lib Dems are gathering in Brighton and there’s a mood of optimism and celebration. Our spectacular General Election result has given us 74 reasons to be cheerful – 72 MPs, an adorable guide dog and the restoration of our third party status.

We have had to deal with a fair few lean years so we might be forgiven a bit of shameless gloating.

There will come a time when we have to make decisions about our strategy to deal with the new political environment. Conversations will take place in earnest in bars and fringe meetings. There is a feeling that we were very lucky. We managed to combine an upbeat campaign with a few key messages and we succeeded.  We were a bit light on overall vision and that’s not going to be enough the next time round.  We need to have answers that will work to prevent the country falling back into the grip of populists. We need to show our distinctive liberal colours and show ourselves as a credible alternative to populists, Conservatives and Labour.

So what’s on at Conference today? You can find full details in the agenda here. Don’t forget about the Lib Dem Conf app too – available on your app store.

If, like me, you are stuck at home, you can watch all the main hall action live here.

We don’t have to wait too long for the first of many chances to cheer a new MP. Alison Bennett, our MP for Mid Sussex opens Conference.

We have keynote speeches from Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain, 9 years after she first joined the Party and 8 and a half years after her first Conference in York and from Cotswold District Council leader Joe Harris.

We start the day with a bit of Lib Dem procedural nerdery, changes to the reference back procedure to ensure that requests for references back must be submitted at the same time as amendments.

There are some good policy debates. The official organisation representing women in the party, Lib Dem Women, has submitted a motion on supporting women and anyone giving birth through pregnancy and the neonatal period. There are motions on supporting free movement of young people around Europe, liberalising  the Sunday trading laws (they are already much more liberal up here in Scotland and the universe has not imploded), supporting disadvantaged children and consumer law.

After a day of debate, there’s all the razzle of the Conference rally. Plenty room for a bit of well earned self indulgent celebration there. If I were there, I’d probably spend it in the pub with my friends, though, and watch it back later.

Here is how the day unfolds:

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Michael Bukola

Sunday Trading Reform: Open All Hours or Keep Sunday Special

By Michael Bukola | Fri 13th September 2024 - 5:27 pm

Party conference this year will be a moment of celebration, after our stunning General Election results – but it will also be the occasion where we look forward, and develop our responses to the host of massive challenges facing the nation.

Yet, reading through the agenda, as we prepare to gather in Brighton, I see that the first policy motion is to further reform Sunday trading laws. Should this really be a key priority?

The motion describes Sunday, the traditional day of rest, as ‘outdated social norms’, a reference to cultural norms that have largely faded from public consciousness as the country evolves towards patterns of lifestyle where consumerism, overindulgence, and social media are more evident. That feels far removed from the collective fellowship, reflective contemplation and communion enjoyed by millions seeking direction and salvation – at least where I live, in the London Borough of Southwark, along the Old Kent Road, where these values still very much matter today.

We should not forget why Sunday trading laws were introduced in the first place: the ‘Keep Sunday Special’ campaign was introduced in part to protect the Sabbath. Epitomised by the Parliamentary Tory rebellion, when 72 backbenchers defied a three-line whip and defeated Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1980’s. Liberal MP, David Alton, led the charge of Mrs Thatcher’s only parliamentary defeat on the Shops Bill of 1986.

Look, it is fairly obvious that there are millions of people who do shop on Sunday. So, on exactly what basis should they be prevented from doing so?

In fact, there are a host of non-religious reasons for limiting Sunday retail trade – a point highlighted by the breadth of the broad coalition behind the famous 1986 campaign to oppose liberalisation.

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Tony Vickers

Budget Challenge from Lib Dems: Capture Land Values

By Tony Vickers | Fri 13th September 2024 - 2:32 pm

According to ONS, the land value alone of UK accounts for 60% of its net worth and is “the most valuable asset in the economy, estimated at £6.3trillion (2020).

It accounts for 98% of all non-produced non-financial assets and these – as a proportion of all national assets including those produced (buildings, goods and services) or ‘financial’ (such as stocks and shares) – rose from 39% in 1995 to 58% in 2020. Almost all that rise in non-produced assets was due to increased residential land values.

The role of land wealth in our economy is commonly overlooked. Yet the cost of land, and access to it, affects all aspects of life. Land has no cost of production. Its value only arises from our demand for homes, businesses, food production, leisure, public services, transport etc. The same applies to all natural resources – oil, gas, minerals, the radio spectrum, solar energy, wind, water, rivers, oceans, etc.

In 2018, helped mainly by ALTER and its allies in the Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ), a new All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Land Value Capture (LVC) was set up. Vince Cable was its first chair and the then Chair of ALTER, Joe Bourke, acted as its Secretary. He still does.

When Vince stepped down from Parliament, John McDonnell took over the Chair. The Labour Party has an active group of MPs – mainly on the left and including Jeremy Corbyn – who support Land Value Tax, called the Labour Land Campaign. The Green Party is a member of CEJ – north and south of the border. The SNP also supports it.

An APPG can’t exist without support from members of the governing party in the Commons and plenty of Conservative MPs in the last Parliament across a wide spectrum in that party also favoured various forms of LVC, albeit few backed LVT as strongly as the Liberal Party did in the 20th century. Tory led governments consistently blocked all efforts to implement any form of LVC throughout that time.

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Brandon Masih

VAT cuts – is it really a fair deal for musicians?

By Brandon Masih | Fri 13th September 2024 - 11:55 am

Cast your minds back to the pandemic, it was a time, would you believe it now, where Rishi Sunak was a very popular Chancellor. This was a period, where at the time, Sunak had introduced “eat out to help out” to public praise for wanting to stimulate the economy after the end of the first Covid lockdown. Even with doubt of its effectiveness in those two summer months alongside the potential contribution towards rise in Covid infections afterwards, it remains in the minds of people as a move to get things to bounce back.

Less talked about from that time is the VAT cut on hospitality, tourism and other attractions, from the standard rate of 20% to the reduced rate of 5%; first from July 2020, to January 2021, then to end of March then up to end of September. Then Rishi created a special rate of 12.5% up until end of March 2022. Much like the chopping and changing of corporation tax, this is emblematic of the previous Conservative government not giving long term certainty on what they intended to do with tax. I would suspect* that this VAT cut, as opposed to many single type of product VAT reclassifications like with sanitary products and e-books, would have had an effect on price cuts to consumers and demand stimulation, owing to the not insignificant share of public consumption going towards the industries benefiting from the cut in VAT, and the fact it would last for nearly two years.

Then you must wonder what further analysis the Culture, Media and Sport Committee considered when they released their report of May this year on Grassroot Music Venues (GMVs), calling for a temporary VAT cut… only on GMVs, which are venues with capacity below 1000 people.  The evidence, in fact, is simply the assertion that a VAT reduction would have saved events cancelled last year, and that the Covid era VAT cut meant that there were 100 more shows coming out of the pandemic, and that success can therefore be targeted to GMVs.

Within the statements given from industry we do however see a recurring theme, that being the VAT threshold distorting decisions on whether to go through events at GMVs. The problem of UK’s high VAT registration threshold, now at a turnover of £90,000 per year, means that small businesses hold off on taking on additional sales, events etc. to avoid needing to be VAT registered. Dan Neidle, Institute for Fiscal Studies and Adam Smith Institute have all at various points, called for action on lowering the VAT threshold, to alleviate these distortions in business decision making. Yet, the evidence provided to the committee, and the subsequent recommendations, have been to just do a targeted and temporary VAT cut.

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Ruth Bright

The milk of human kindness

By Ruth Bright | Fri 13th September 2024 - 9:43 am

“Reading the room” is a vital skill in politics. It is that knack of understanding, just clicking with an atmosphere or individual and knowing how to make a spontaneous pitch or knowing when to tone it down. Kwasi Kwarteng, with almost endearing under statement said in a recent interview that it was a skill that his old boss Liz Truss did not have.

If you are instinctive about reading the room you can make a lot of money in business or even in politics, but in low paid work like care (£21,000 a year if you are over 21, less if you are under 21) it is an essential part of your role. Yesterday I visited a residential home I know well. You cannot miss the atmosphere when you go in the door. It is warm, friendly, giggly even, with in-jokes and gentle humour. The care staff (not a single one of them, incidentally, British born) have an uncanny knack of pre-empting small mishaps and instinctively knowing when a vulnerable resident is not quite themselves.

What is also striking, as someone who had to use the NHS a lot two years ago, is that my friends working in care seem to have retained this extra something, what Lord Darzi, in his report, calls “discretionary effort” in a way that seems largely lost in the Health Service.

As an inpatient in the last 2 years I have experienced things that would have resulted in disciplinary action against a careworker:

  • Shouted at by a nurse when I tried to use the “wrong” toilet on the ward.
  • Blanked and ignored to my face by a doctor when I politely complained to him that I had been waiting five and a half hours in the ward prepped for an operation.
  • Subjected, under general anaesthetic, to an intimate procedure conducted by a surgeon without specific consent. (This matter was investigated by the police and is now with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman)

Not a single Lib Dem Voice reader will be surprised by this small list. All of you will have your own and have experienced worse.

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Shaun Roberts

A step change in the fight for PR

By Shaun Roberts | Thu 12th September 2024 - 6:16 pm

The 2024 General Election was the most disproportionate in our history.

Or to put it another way, people didn’t get what they voted for, not even close!

As a result, for a few weeks at least, electoral reform became a real talking point in the media and amongst the public. The door that leads to Proportional Representation, which has been locked shut for more than a decade, is slightly ajar.

That’s something the Liberal Democrats, who have been campaigning for PR longer than anyone, need to exploit. With a record number of MPs, there are more Liberal Democrat Parliamentarians than ever to push the case for PR forward in this Parliament.

Even better, there are more allies in this battle than ever before. Research conducted by democracy organisations shows that more than 250 MPs in the House of Commons have indicated support for PR for Westminster elections. Fewer than 150 MPs have declared their opposition.

There has never been a Parliament like this one when it comes to support for PR.

Furthermore, support for PR from political parties has never been higher. The Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru and Reform back PR. Within the Labour Party, both the trade unions and party members have strongly supported PR for Westminster elections. There have even been rumblings about growing support for PR in the Conservative Party after their record defeat in July.

And crucially, every public opinion poll shows clear support for electoral reform, with the same polls confirming that trust in politics has never been lower.

The respected British Social Attitudes survey showed in its most recent report that support for changing the voting system had never been so high, nor trust in government to put country before party so low.

All the ingredients for change are there, but for one very important thing.

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Mary Reid

How Lib Dems pioneered e-petitions

By Mary Reid | Thu 12th September 2024 - 2:40 pm

So congratulations to the three Lib Dem chairs of Select Committees. But I expect some of you are wondering about the Petitions Committee, now chaired by Jamie Stone. It was only set up in 2015 and its job is to review all petitions submitted to the UK Parliament, either through the Parliament Petitions website or as traditional paper petitions. Paper petitions have to be presented to Parliament by an MP, but e-petitions go straight to the Petitions Committee. An e-petition which reaches 10,000 signatures receives a written response, whilst those that attract 100,000 signatures are considered by the committee for debate.

The vast majority of petitions to Parliament are completed online, and you may not be surprised to learn that there is a strong Lib Dem history behind the development of e-petitions.

Over twenty years ago the Bundestag developed the first system for online petitions to Government. This was followed by the innovative Scottish Parliament (under the Labour/Lib Dem coalition), who commissioned a petitioning system from the pioneering International Teledemocracy Centre at Napier University. The term “teledemocracy” never caught on and was soon replaced with “e-democracy”.  Those two were at the time the only e-petitioning systems in the world – this was before public systems like Change.org appeared.

At that stage Westminster and local government in the UK had fairly rudimentary websites (in fact, some councils did not have them at all), which were largely information-giving and not transactional. However paper petitioning to local Councils was well established in many areas (though not all), and Lib Dems were not bashful in collecting signatures on issues that mattered to them.

The Government had set up a series of National Projects whose aim was to transform local government using the power of digital technologies. The projects focussed on many aspects of local government business including online planning portals, systems for payments, schools admissions, e-procurement, benefits, plus the underlying customer relationship management.

In 2003 I was asked to chair the National Project on Local e-Democracy in England, which carried out action research into techniques for increasing citizens’ understanding of, and participation in, local authority decision making.  We pioneered webcasting of council meetings, consultation portals, local issues forums (long before social media), blogging for councillors and we encouraged councils to provide all councillors with web and email facilities. If you check councillors and council meetings on most council websites you will probably be using a system developed for our project.

Within that mix we drew on the experts at Napier University to set up the first e-petitioning systems for local government in the world. The two local authorities that trialled it were my own council of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (Lib Dem controlled) and Bristol City Council (NOC with Lib Dem Leader).  Both re-examined their petitioning policies to make sure they encompassed online ones. Community groups were contacted to explain the new system and e-petitions started to appear.

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The Liberator Collective

Liberator 425 is out for conference …

By The Liberator Collective | Thu 12th September 2024 - 12:01 pm

… and you can download it for free here.

With more Lib Dem MPs than ever we have four writing for Liberator about how they see their role and what the party should do next.

Come and see us on stall H8 at Brighton.

WHAT WE DO NOW
To build on the 2024 result, Liberal Democrats must show they are the real opposition party and can challenge Labour authoritarianism, says Paul Kohler.

SOCK IT TO ME
Sorting out a constituent’s socks shouldn’t be an MP’s work, but the deluge of emails to a new one shows a better induction is needed, says Marie Goldman.

HOW TO INSPIRE THE NEW DAWNS.
Calum Miller borrowed Dawn’s vote in July. Now he wants the Lib Dems to give the ‘Dawns’ positive reasons to support the party.

FACE UP TO LABOUR
There’s a moral case to fight Labour in its urban heartlands, says Rachel Bentley.

CULTURE SHOCK
Westminster’s adversarial culture can drive good people out of politics. Sarah Green looks to the large crop of new MPs to change that.

RACE AGAINST TIME
Six years after a report told the party how to campaign among ethnic minority communities little has happened. The Lib Dems will pay the price at the ballot box, warns Janice Turner.

CAN HARRIS DO IT?
Kamala Harris’s late entry into the US presidential race has spared her several dangerous moments and united a fractious party like never before, says Martha Elliott.

PUBLIC BAD OR PUBLIC GOOD?
The Tories thought growth came only from private firms. Does Labour think the same, asks William Tranby.

ACTION CALL AS BANKS VANISH
Financial exclusion is getting worse and needs an answer, says Claire Tyler.

40 YEARS ON
The Liberal Revue delivered 14 full performances and a ‘crucifixion’ from its 1984 start until 2008. Mark Smulian looks back at when satire took centre stage.

REINTERPRETING RAWLS
The American Liberal philosopher John Rawls may be little known but his ideas remain important. Simon Banks looks at a new book that seeks to put Rawls in a modern context.

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The Newbies Pint returns to Conference

By Lib Dem Newbies Admins | Thu 12th September 2024 - 9:53 am

Nine years ago, Nick Clegg’s resignation speech prompted a surge of new members to join the party as it reeled from the 2015 general election.  Many of those new members, who by then had formed a Facebook group to welcome new members to the party, attended the autumn conference in Bournemouth and met for an informal drink the night before it started.

At every in-person autumn conference since (except for last year), the Lib Dem Newbies Pint has been a fixture, the evening before Conference opens.  It’s been attended by hundreds of members, by MPs, peers, and has even been addressed by party leaders.

We’re pleased to announce that the Newbies Pint is back for a special edition this year, marking how far we’ve come since those dark days of 2015 when the surge of new members gave us hope amid the crushing blow of the election result.  Of the thousands of new members the group has welcomed to the party online, many have gone on to become councillors, MPs, and even MEPs.

We’ll be hearing from two fantastic newbie MPs, Pippa Heylings (South Cambridgeshire) and Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne).  We first met in 2015 in the aftermath of our worst election result ever; this year we’ll be celebrating our best.

Come and join us in the Steinbeck & Shaw bar at Pryzm, near the conference centre, from 7pm on Friday the 13th of September.  Entry costs only £2 and all proceeds will go to the Newbies Fighting Fund supporting first-time candidates.  Newbie-ness is a state of mind, not a joining date: all members are welcome.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Brighton!

Yours,

The Lib Dem Newbies admins

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Caron Lindsay

Caron’s guide to the craziness of Conference, updated for Brighton 2024

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 11th September 2024 - 7:47 pm

In just 2 days’ time, Liberal Democrats will be gathering in Brighton for our annual Conference.  Sadly, for the first time since 2011, I won’t be there.  I was only going to be able to come for 24 hours, but, unfortunately, my husband is ill. He’ll be fine, but now is not the time to leave him.

I’m still scarred by my trip to the Witney by-election in 2016. He hadn’t been well just before but seemed to be on the mend. To cut a long story short, within hours of my return the next evening, he was spirited away to hospital in a blue light ambulance and he was there for 51 nights. The virus we thought he had was in fact an infection in his heart which ate one of his heart valves. Vegetation on a leaflet they called it.  An ironic affliction for a Lib Dem.

However, 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.

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.

If you have any questions, there are lots of places to get answers. There’s Federal Conference Committee helpdesk in the Brighton Centre. And if they can’t help, ask someone on one of the party organisation stalls in the exhibition – if they don’t know the answer, they’ll probably be able to point you in the right direction.

1. Plan your days

The Conference day has a huge variety of things to do. As well as the debates in the hall,  there’s a comprehensive training programme and a massive fringe.  There are spokespeople Q & As. There are competing fringe choices to be made.  You can guarantee that you will never be bored and that several things you want to see will be on at the same time.  Spend some time now poring over the Agenda (which gives details of the policy motions) and Directory (which has details of the exhibition, fringe and training) to work out what you don’t want to miss. Conference Extra, which has details of amendments will be published shortly.

Don’t forget to pick up the Conference Daily which has news and important information.

Be aware as well that you can eat quite well for free by choosing the right fringe meetings – look for the refreshments symbol in the directory.

Believe me, it’s much easier if you sort out your diary in advance. The best laid plans will always be subject to a better offer or meeting someone you haven’t seen for years randomly in a corridor, but it’s best to at least try to get some order into the proceedings. The Conference App is a real help for this. You can download it from whichever App store you use on your phone (search for Lib Dem Conf). Fully updated now for Brighton, it allows you to add events to your schedule and has all the papers loaded on to it.

2. Make time to do the Exhibition properly

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Lord William Wallace

Defending Liberalism against illiberalism

By Lord William Wallace | Wed 11th September 2024 - 2:30 pm

Liberals are naturally optimistic and reasonable.  We recognise the past struggles to establish open, tolerant societies, the rule of law and accountable government, but too easily assume that those battles have been won.  In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the most optimistic Liberals thought we were entering a post-conflict liberal world.

It’s now clear that the principles of a liberal political and economic order have to be defended against multiple threats.  Our society has become far more socially liberal than our grandparents; but not all are persuaded, and illiberal groups within Britain and outside are doing their best to reverse what has been won.  Our economy is deeply integrated into a global economy which is unstable, grossly unequal and environmentally unsustainable.  Corruption and crime are embedded in the global economy, and spill over into the UK; we have seen some painful examples of domestic corruption in recent years.  Political liberalism – liberal democracy – is on the defensive, across Europe and Asia, within the USA and within Britain itself.

Behind our immediate relief at the disappearance of populist Conservative government, British politics is in a volatile state.  Popular alienation from Westminster is at the highest level yet recorded in surveys.  Local democracy has been shrunk and weakened through successive reorganisations, increasing central control and reductions in funding.  The Labour government has won a massive parliamentary majority on 33.7% of the popular vote, with under 60% of voters turning out – and with efficient targeting by all parties leaving many constituencies without any visible local campaign.  There are now 10 groups in the Commons with 4 or more MPs; yet Labour and the Tories are still acting as if Britain has a two-party system.  It’s possible that the next election will see right-wing reaction against Labour constitute a major political force. Reform won 14% in July from almost a standing start.

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Dr Jonathan Carr-West

The Independent View: Celebrating councillors has never been more important

By Dr Jonathan Carr-West | Wed 11th September 2024 - 12:59 pm

The Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) & CCLA Cllr Awards offer an annual opportunity for members of the public to highlight the contributions of the often unsung heroes of local democracy. 

The glittering Awards ceremonies, held at The Guildhall, London, for English and Welsh councillors and City Chambers, Edinburgh, for Scottish elected members, have always provided an evening of glamour and gratitude for those working tirelessly behind the scenes to improve the places we live. 

However, with the Awards now in their 15th year, it’s never been more important to shine a light on councillors across Great Britain who go above and beyond in their service and work under increasingly difficult conditions.

Local representatives are often the first point of contact for residents’ concerns, whether it is a housing, public services, or safety issue. They are the most accessible and accountable level of government. 

With trust in institutions declining and public disillusionment with politics growing, councillors’ ability to make tangible changes in people’s lives can build trust in democracy at a grassroots level.

But being a councillor is no easy task, particularly in the current economic climate.  Many councillors juggle full-time jobs alongside their public duties. The vast majority of councillors are ordinary people doing extraordinary things to help their communities thrive, and they represent the best of public service.

So, as local communities face growing challenges, it has never been more important to recognise and celebrate the work of our councillors. The LGIU & CCLA Cllr Awards celebrate excellence in a wide range of categories, from Community Champion to Leader of the Year. 

Previous winners include Cllr Hannah Perkin (awarded Community Champion in the 2023 LGIU & CCLA Cllr Awards), who entered politics to challenge the closure of the children’s centre in which she worked. As a Liberal Democrat Councillor for Faversham Abbey in Swale Borough Council in Kent, she was recognised for her commitment to her community, being involved in local projects and charities, and prioritising and representing her residents’ voices in the council.

She told us:

I try to inspire people to get more involved in telling local government what their priorities are and then shaping local government to represent them. When I first stood, I didn’t see myself represented: I was a young mum and I worked in a children’s centre. Lots of people don’t think local government represents them but when you boil it down, people realise it is all about them.

The Cllr Awards demonstrate the essential role councillors play in building better communities, whether that’s by developing innovative policies to address local challenges or providing support to vulnerable residents. 

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The Voice

Maiden Speeches: Will Forster MP for Woking

By The Voice | Wed 11th September 2024 - 10:25 am

Our next maiden speech comes from Will Forster, the new Liberal Democrat MP for Woking who spoke in the Budget Responsibility Bill.

This text is below:

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The Voice

Maiden Speeches: Marie Goldman MP for Chelmsford

By The Voice | Wed 11th September 2024 - 8:14 am

Marie Goldman, the new Lib Dem MP for Chelmsford, made her maiden speech in the debate on the Budget Responsiblity Bill.

The text is below:

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Mark Valladares

10 September 2024 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 10th September 2024 - 10:50 pm
  • Winter Fuel vote: Cut will be deeply worrying to millions
  • 589 people die from suspected drug death in first half of 2024
  • Alcohol deaths highest in 15 years
  • Cole-Hamilton: Supporting 168,000 Long Covid sufferers is vital economic investment
  • Rennie responds to Michael Matheson’s return to parliament
  • Rennie responds to Children’s Commissioner free school meals comments

Winter Fuel vote: Cut will be deeply worrying to millions

Responding to the vote to cut the Winter Fuel Payment, Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions Spokesperson Wendy Chamberlain MP said:

Millions of pensioners will be left deeply worried about how they will get by this winter with this cut to the Winter Fuel Payment. So many pensioners are already facing another winter of a cost of living crisis and this will make things worse.

The damage left by the Conservatives to our economy is unforgivable but cutting payments to vulnerable pensioners is no way to bring about the change the country deserves.

Liberal Democrat MPs proudly opposed the Government today and stood up for the many pensioners across the country who are now at risk of an even bigger winter cost of living crisis.

We’ll keep fighting this cut tooth and nail anyway we can, we’ll continue to be a constructive opposition to the new Government and we’re fighting for the real change people want to see.

589 people die from suspected drug death in first half of 2024

Responding to new figures published by the Scottish Government which show that 589 people died of a suspected drug death in the first six months of 2024, including 269 deaths between April and June, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

This is nothing short of a national tragedy; my thoughts today are with all those who have lost someone from a drug death.

Scotland’s drug deaths crisis is worse than anywhere else in Europe. Despite deaths more than doubling over the last decade, the SNP government have chosen to freeze the funding for drug and alcohol policy, amounting to a real-terms cut to the budget for critical services.

When this issue comes before parliament later this week, I want to see ministers committing to fresh measures to stop people dying. This includes rolling out a full nationwide network of drug testing and safer consumption facilities- centres that are proven to keep people safe, prevent fatal overdoses and open up new pathways for treatment and recovery.

My party also wants to see a much stronger frontline response to synthetic opioids- including nitazenes, which are 50 times more powerful than heroin- through enhanced information, detection and treatment.

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The Voice

Alistair, Layla and Jamie, our three new Select Committee Chairs

By The Voice | Tue 10th September 2024 - 8:03 pm

So the new Chairs of the three Lib Dem led House of Commons Select Committeeshave been announced They were all elected unopposed.

Alistair Carmichael will chair the Environment, Food and Rural Affaiirs Committee.

Alistair said on his election:

I am honoured to be confirmed today as the Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. I look forward to meeting with the EFRA committee team in the coming days and indeed with the different organisations and experts with a role to play in this sector as we begin our work.

Whether on fishing, farming, water quality or pollution, there is no shortage of issues for the committee to tackle in the coming months. It will take some time for the remaining members of the committee to be appointed and our “to do” list is going to be lengthy, but I intend for us to hit the ground running.

Jamie Stone will head the Petitions Committee which holds debates on those Parliament e-petitions which get more than 100,000 signatures.

He said:

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Roderick Lynch

Alderdice 6 years on: Where are we now? Join LDCRE at Conference

By Roderick Lynch | Tue 10th September 2024 - 2:06 pm

The Liberal Democrat Campaign for Racial Equality will be holding a very important fringe meeting  on Sunday 15th September at 7:45 pm in room 1D in the Brighton Centre.

We will be discussing progress on implementing the Alderdice Review, six years after it was published.

The event is being held in association with Liberator and the Social Liberal Forum.

The speakers are:

Dr Mark Pack, Party President

Meral Hussein Ece, Lib Dem member of the House of Lords

Rt Hon Sir Vincent Cable , former Lib Dem Leader

Janice Turner

Victoria Collins MP

As a young black man born and raised in the London Borough of Southwark. I came to the Liberal Democrats via Jonathon & Veronica Hunt and Sir Simon Hughes. I had issues around my business. My company was a a victim of alleged fraud. My company the third largest employer in my borough behind Southwark council and Kings College Health Care Trust  employing 800 people and completing 10,000 trips for disabled people every day across 26 London Boroughs.

Those remarkable Lib Dem MPs councillors and activist took up my case and I won back my contract that my company had won in a bonafide OJEU tender process which had been illegally removed.

I was hooked, those Lib Dem people I came in to contact with I believed spoke for me. I joined the Lib Dems in Southwark over 22 years ago.

As time went on I got involved in an  equality SAO / AO because our local party  did not look like the people the party wished to represent.

I was determined to do something about it. I spoke with former Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg in 2009. He told me that we will do something about the lack of race equality in this party. We need to be quick as we could be seen to be “worse than the Tories.”

Well we have seen the Cameron A list in all their glory at dizzying heights in the Conservative Party and in government.

In 2018 I had my arm twisted by Merlene Toh Emerson to do something on race equality within the party. I became the founding Chair of LDCRE along with Vice Chairs Janice Turner and Dr Mohsin Khan.

We welcomed a review that was being carried out Lord John Alderdice. A lot of my colleagues did not have any faith in the process whatsoever. I persuaded my then colleagues to give the man a chance.

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Chris Perry

The Winter Fuel Payment cut will harm older people and increase pressure on NHS

By Chris Perry | Tue 10th September 2024 - 7:30 am

The Office of Budget Responsibility estimates that the most recent 2% cut in National Insurance, in the run up to the General Election, will cost an average of £10.3billion per year over the next ten years. If one adds to that the previous 2% cut in National Insurance (a few months earlier) that would explain the £22billion short fall in public finances identified by the Government.

Presumably, the previous Government hoped to recover this “pre-election give away” by growth and, more particularly, the frozen tax free personal allowance which the Office of …

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Mark Valladares

Liberal Democrats to oppose winter fuel allowance cuts

By Mark Valladares | Mon 9th September 2024 - 11:55 pm

Winter Fuel Allowance: Over half of pensioners say they will heat their homes less this winter

  • Over half (55%) of UK pensioners polled say they will likely heat their homes less this winter due to the withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Payment, while four in ten (39%) say they will cut back on essentials.
  • Two-thirds (65%) say they will take cost-cutting measures due to the government’s announcement to withdraw the Winter Fuel Payment support. One in five (19%) say they will eat less this winter.
  • Liberal Democrats call on the Labour government to urgently rethink cuts that will affect around 11 million people

…

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John Barrett

Supporting Ukraine with music – liberal action beyond party politics

By John Barrett | Mon 9th September 2024 - 4:15 pm

After forty years of political party membership, and having held almost every post possible in the party, from being a humble newsletter deliverer, constituency party office bearer, newsletter editor, fundraiser, party executive member at Scottish and Federal level, conference delegate for decades, Edinburgh City councillor, election agent at local council and Westminster level, Member of Parliament at Westminster for Edinburgh West (retiring undefeated) and more, I decided to continue campaigning outside the political bubble and leave party political activity behind.

Instead, I have moved on, and back, to community campaigning, where I started when I first joined the Liberal Party in 1980.

My old Council ward (where I still live) now has all three of its Councillors Liberal Democrats, my MSP, Alex Cole-Hamilton, now leads the party in Scotland, and my old seat at Westminster is ably represented by Christine Jardine with a massive majority. Forty year of hard work has helped build a solid Liberal Democrat heartland.

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Gareth Roberts

‘Going for growth’ nationally must mean more devolution locally

By Gareth Roberts | Mon 9th September 2024 - 12:45 pm

As a proud leader of a London borough, vice chair of London Councils, and a member of the London Assembly, I am dutybound to declare London the greatest city in the world.

However, the capital faces major challenges.
London is home to individuals with incredible wealth alongside some of the poorest in the UK. Around a third of children in London live in poverty – an appalling statistic.

We are also in the midst of a homelessness emergency, with one in 50 Londoners currently homeless and living in temporary accommodation arranged by their local borough.

And on top of all this, London’s economy is struggling. While the capital remains a key source of revenue for the Treasury, there is considerable evidence that London is underperforming economically and even holding back UK productivity rates.

These challenges clearly have a big impact on the lives of the Londoners I represent – but they also have implications for the rest of the country and for national policy.

Going for growth

The recently elected government has declared boosting economic growth its “most central mission of all”. Get the economy growing and we’ll be in a better position to do things like tackle poverty and homelessness. With growth, there will be more resources available to fix social ills and provide much-needed investment in public services.

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Caron Lindsay

Alistair Carmichael to stand to be Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Chair

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 8th September 2024 - 8:30 pm

As we have previously reported, the Lib Dems have been allocated three Select Committees to chair in the new Parliament. Alistair Carmichael has announced that he is standing to chair the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. He set out his priorities for role:

As the son of Islay hill farmers and having represented a rural constituency for 23 years, the issues on which the EFRA Select Committee works have always been close to my heart. For the Northern Isles and indeed for the entire country, the next few years are going to be critical in determining the future of our rural economy and rural communities, which is why I am standing for election as committee chair.

Being chair of a select committee does not give you the decision-making powers of a minister. Done properly, however, it can give you some influence in scrutinising the work of government and raising the profile of issues that matter to communities such as our own. In that way you can be a vehicle for change.

In a department where most of the incoming Labour ministerial team come from urban backgrounds, there is a danger that the needs and wishes of rural communities will not be properly understood. That is where a strong voice in Parliament with experience in these issues can make a noticeable difference.”

If elected as chair of the EFRA Select Committee, my priorities will be to:

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The Voice

Your last chance to question Federal Committees

By The Voice | Sun 8th September 2024 - 7:10 pm

It’s your last chance to submit questions to Federal Committees!

This is an important part of scrutinising those we party members entrust to run the party.

The deadline is 1300 hours tomorrow, Monday 9 September – which is the same as the deadline for amendments and emergency motions.

So if you have a question on, say, the direction the party is taking, ask the Federal Board, what we are doing on diversity, menbers and training, ask the Federal People Development Committee, how Conference is run, ask Federal Conference Committee, how the party is approaching future elections, ask Federal Communications Committee. …

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