Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 12th May 2024 - 9:26 am

Russia

It was a week of military parades, trumpets, nuclear sabre-rattling and an inauguration in Russia this week.

It started with another threat from President Vladimir Putin when he announced on Monday the start of military exercises involving non-strategic nuclear weapons. This was in response to America releasing its $61 billion aid package to Ukraine, and the repetition of French President Emmanuel Macron’s threat to consider sending French troops to Ukraine.

Then there was Putin’s inauguration as he started his fifth term in office with a long walk past applauding crowds lining the red-carpeted corridors of the Kremlin. Putin’s first inauguration in 2000 was hailed as Russia’s transition to democracy. This one followed an election in which he “won” 87.5 percent of the vote while all his political opponents were either dead, in exile or in prison.

On Thursday it was the Victory Day Parade to mark the end of what the Russians call “The Great Patriotic War.” May Day was the big parade in Soviet days. May 9, was important, but it was not even a public holiday until 1965. Putin, has revived the celebration and elevated it to a collective remembrance resembling a religion.

One of the highlights of the parade is the march of the “Immortal Regiment” in which relatives troop past the reviewing stand holding aloft pictures of family members who died in the war. The scene is reminiscent of icons being carried in Russian Orthodox Church services. The 60th and 70th anniversaries of the war’s end (in 2005 and 2015) were the biggest public holidays in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the inauguration and Victory Day were marked by increased Russian bombardments and missile attacks as Russian troops tried to gain the military upper hand before the latest batch of Western military aid arrived.

Palestine

The two main Palestinian factions – Hamas and Fatah – hate each other almost as much as they do the Netanyahu government.

They have barely spoken since 2007 when Hamas won elections in Gaza and booted Fatah and the Palestinian Authority out of the seaside strip.

That is why it is significant that representatives from the two factions met recently in Moscow and Beijing. The Chinese meeting was especially interesting because Beijing is keen to project itself as Middle East peace broker as opposed to its characterization of the US as Middle East war monger.

The Chinese have already successfully brokered the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between regional rivalries Iran and Saudi Arabia. Shortly after that success, foreign minister Wang Yi wrote to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offering to mediate in the decades-old Arab-Israel conflict. Netanyahu politely refused.

Brokering a rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas could be a diplomatic back door for Beijing to constructively inject itself into the Middle East conflict. It is generally agreed that the two-state solution is the logical solution to the conflict.

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Stephen Harte

Why Eurovision gives me hope

By Stephen Harte | Sat 11th May 2024 - 12:55 pm

 Happy Eurovision!

Today is the highest and holiest days of the camp calendar – the grand final of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest from Malmo, Sweden.

Growing up in Thatcher’s dismal 1980s in West Lothian (immediately to the west of Edinburgh but with none of the cosmopolitan colour of Scotland’s capital and getting all of the bust and none of the boom of those Tory years), I never travelled abroad until I left school. Eurovision was a glimpse into another exotic world. Eurovision wasn’t cool in the 1980s (and ABBA were yet to be reborn in Gold) and I often thought I was the only person I knew who was drawn into the spectacle. It never occurred to me that I was one of many queer people for whom Eurovision gave life.

Camp theory teaches that we can often find the most profound truth in the silly and irreverent. Eurovision has been that to my liberal, European heart. Our shared European home has been a place of war and division – and remains so today, with war in Gaza and Ukraine and the spectre of the far right stalking virtually every country (not least this ugly Tory Brexiteer government in the UK). The fact that something as camp and outrageous as my beloved Eurovision Song Contest unites us speaks to me and gives me hope in the way that a speech from Macron never could.

For example, in the 1993 contest in Millstreet in rural Ireland, at the height of the Bosnian war, the Bosnian act had to be flown out, under fire, in a UN helicopter. We had a jury in Sarajevo under siege calmly give their votes over a crackly UN line. The Irish compère thanked Sarajevo and simply told them to take care. Not a dry eye in the house!

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Tom Arms

Observations of an expat: The hip thigh bone theory of the world

By Tom Arms | Sat 11th May 2024 - 10:20 am

It is time for a review of the hip thigh bone theory of the world. The theory is based on the 1920s African-American spiritual “Dem bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones.”

The ditty in turn was based on a Biblical passage in which a collection of dry bones reassemble themselves before the astonished eyes of the prophet Ezekiel.

The foot-tapping, hand-clapping tune is a roof raiser in evangelical churches around the world. It is also a popular song in young children’s anatomy classes.

For the purposes of this article, however, it is a perfect metaphor of how the rapidly shrinking and interconnected world has become increasingly dependent on its constituent parts (or bones) working together. Recognition of this interconnectability is becoming increasingly important as the world’s political leaders appear to be intent on disassembling the skeletons and protecting their constituent parts behind fast growing economic, political and – sometimes – physical walls.

Globalisation has become a dirty word. Forget the fact that it lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty in the 1990s and early part of the 21st century. And that it ushered in decades of growth and low inflation. Substituted in its place is the mantra of “economic security” and “national interests.”

Also forget the fact that the new buzzwords totally ignore reality. Like it or not – that the world body politic has become totally interconnected. In fact, the bones that comprise the skeleton of our globe are not so much connected as fused  and then overlaid with a complex web of nerves, muscles, sinews, international political and trade organs, ligaments and a protective skin of military alliances. In fact, it seems, that the only thing missing from this political metaphor is a functioning brain.

The advantages of free trade are not new. They have been propounded for centuries. They are at the very core of the capitalist’s Bible, Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and were later developed by David Ricardo who urged countries to exploit their “comparative advantage” through free trade.

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Charles Quinn

ALDC by-election report, 9th May

By Charles Quinn | Fri 10th May 2024 - 8:12 pm

The first by-election of 2024/25 electoral cycle took place this week in North Ayrshire.

It follows a brilliant set of local election results for our party as we won 522 seats (with a net gain of 104) and pushed the Conservatives into third place in the overall result.

We also gained 3 seats in local council by-elections held on 2 May which took our total net gains in the 2023/24 by-election cycle to 28. By far and away the best performance of any party with the Green Party in a distant second place with 8. Both the Conservatives and Labour have gone backwards in by-elections over the past year.

Congratulations to all our winners, and thank you to everyone who has stood or campaigned in a by-election this year to contribute to our excellent results.

In the North Ayrshire by-election this week we contested Kilwinning ward. Thank you to Ruby Kirkwood for flying the flag for the Lib Dems here and achieving an increase in our vote share. Labour gained the ward from the Conservatives in the final result.

North Ayrshire Council, Kilwinning
Labour: 2171 (54.3%, +8.3%)
SNP: 916 (22.9%, -12%)
Conservative: 619 (15.5%, -0.1%)
Liberal Democrats (Ruby Kirkwood): 154 (3.9%, 0.5%)
Scottish Family Party: 136 (3.4%, new)

A full summary of all results can be found on the ALDC by-elections page here.

Included on this page are the by-elections we won on 2 May (full results from the rest of the 71 by-elections on 2 May will follow soon). There were some great results here including a gain from the Green Party on Torridge DC and gains from the Conservatives in Leicestershire CC and Huntingdonshire DC.

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Allan Tweddle

Is pornography really free speech?

By Allan Tweddle | Fri 10th May 2024 - 2:21 pm

Pornography is notoriously difficult to define, but it is estimated that it accounts for 12% of websites and 30% of all web traffic. And while broadcast media is subject to ever more content warnings, or outright censorship, on racial or cultural grounds, explicit sexual content has become ever more acceptable on our screens.

Now, porn isn’t my thing. Watching porn as a blind person is akin to standing outside McDonalds, engulfed in the delicious aroma of Big Mac and fries, while not being able to find the door. Despite that, being a staunch believer in free speech, I’ve always supported the right of its makers and consumers to get on and enjoy themselves, provided they are not harming others in the process.

I suspect this is a common view, but an episode of The philosopher’s Zone podcast I recently heard has left me wondering. The Philosopher’s Zone, published by ABC, examines a different philosophical topic every week with the help of experts. You can listen to the relevant episode here in which Caroline West, a philosopher from the University of Sydney and author of the chapter on pornography in the Oxford Handbook of Freedom of Speech, considers whether pornography should be classified as free speech, or even as speech at all.

It isn’t written speech, at least not at the point of consumption. And it would be hard to argue that what passes for a pornography movie script can stand in as a representation for the final product. It is also not, for the most part, spoken speech either. I don’t suppose many folks consume pornography for the witty repartee.

But even if we assume that pornography does count as speech, it still may not fall under the protective umbrella of free speech. Legal scholars and philosophers have argued that there are plenty of things we would count as speech in the normal sense that no one would argue should be protected. Examples include criminal solicitation, defamation, perjury, and whites only signs. In a similar vein, there are plenty of things that would be counted as free speech that are not normal speech. These include flag burning, silent vigils, and sit-ins.

The conclusion, as far as I understood it, was that when we define free speech, what really matters is the underlying justification for why that speech should be free. John Stuart Mill’s argument that rational debate and the free flow of ideas is more likely to lead to true and justified beliefs feels relevant when discussing the activities of Extinction Rebellion, but less so when considering the latest R-rated movie. The same goes for the vital role free speech plays in a well-functioning democracy.

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The Voice

Hina Bokhari is the new Lib Dem Leader on the London Assembly

By The Voice | Fri 10th May 2024 - 10:42 am

Our team has announced that Hina Bokhari AM is the new Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the London Assembly. She takes over from Caroline Pidgeon who was Leader for the previous 14 years.

Hina is the first ethnic minority woman to lead any group on the Assembly. She was first elected to the Assembly in the last round of London elections in 2021 (postponed from 2020). She has been a councillor on Merton Council since 2018. Hina taught for 20 years and founded a couple of charities to support underprivileged young people.

We have a quote from her:

It is a privilege to lead the Liberal Democrat Group on the London Assembly and to be the first ethnic minority woman to lead a group on the Assembly.

I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Caroline Pidgeon who led the Lib Dem Group tirelessly for the last 14 years and who was widely regarded as one of, if not the best scrutineers the Assembly has seen since its establishment.

I passionately believe that at its heart, London is a liberal city with liberal values and one that thrives on its great diversity.

It is with these values I intend to hold the Mayor of London to account on the promises he made during the election to ensure that London continues to thrive as a welcoming global city that is safe and accessible and that the challenges currently facing many Londoners are addressed.

To all the women of all backgrounds across London, I hope I can offer some hope that barriers are being broken and politics is becoming more representative of the society we live in.

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Mary Reid

13 Tory MPs are standing down in Blue Wall seats

By Mary Reid | Thu 9th May 2024 - 5:54 pm

Lib Dem HQ have told us that 13 Conservative MPs are standing down in Blue Wall seats where we are the main challengers. Many of them lie within Council areas where Lib Dems have done well in local elections in the last two years.

Here is the full list (with my comments):

  • Nadhim Zahawi – Stratford-on-Avon. Lib Dems won control of Stratford-upon-Avon Council last year.
  • Steve Brine – Winchester. Lib Dems have controlled Winchester Council for some time.
  • Stephen Hammond – Wimbledon. Wimbledon is our top target seat and with the new boundaries now includes parts of Lib Dem controlled Kingston upon Thames.
  • Dominic Raab – Esher and Walton. Lies within Elmbridge Council where Lib Dems are the largest party.
  • Chris Grayling – Epsom and Ewell. A bit of an outlier as Epsom and Ewell District Council has been controlled by Residents’ Associations for many years, so it is difficult to gauge the current support for mainstream parties.
  • Adam Afriyie – Windsor. Lies within Windsor & Maidenhead Council where we took control last year.
  • Paul Beresford – Mole Valley. Lib Dems have controlled Mole Valley Council for some time.
  • John Howell – Henley. Lies within Lib Dem controlled South Oxfordshire District Council.
  • Philip Dunne – Ludlow/South Shropshire. Seat previously held by Lib Dem Matthew Green.
  • Paul Scully – Sutton and Cheam. Sutton has been a Lib Dem controlled Council for many, many years.
  • Theresa May – Maidenhead. Lies within Windsor & Maidenhead Council where we took control last year.
  • James Heappey – Wells. Lies within Somerset County Council, controlled by Lib Dems.
  • Nickie Aiken – Cities of London and Westminster. The unusual structure of the City of London makes this difficult to call, but Chuka Umunna put up a strong showing in 2019.
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Neville Farmer

Strong Parliament is better than strong Government

By Neville Farmer | Thu 9th May 2024 - 9:35 am

Kier Starmer’s invitation for Natalie Elphicke to join him on the Labour benches is a dreadful piece of political opportunism. At a time when public trust in politicians is at an all-time low, welcoming an MP who was a member of the ERG and whose views have long placed her to the far right of Ghengis Khan is a staggering shot in the foot. The backlash the following morning runs from the Guardian to the Express. Few see this as the move of a statesman.

So, why has he scored this own goal? He doesn’t need her to improve Labour’s polling, and he will soon discover what a thorn in the flesh she is to any party. But he just couldn’t resist sticking the knife into Rishi Sunak and twisting it a little further. It’s pathetic. Such naiveté is troubling for anyone viewing him as a viable Prime Minister, especially for many Labour MPs and members. It will undoubtedly lose him more votes than it gains.

For the Liberal Democrats and other progressive parties, he has created an opportunity. Many centre-left voters will baulk at the idea of someone with such poor statecraft having an overwhelming majority in Parliament. For decades, the pushback against electoral reform was that proportional representation promised coalitions and ‘weak’ government. But since 2015 we have seen unassailable majority parliaments wielded like wrecking balls by a slew of dreadful Prime Ministers. Boris Johnson alone proved how dangerous unfettered majority government can be in the hands of a maniac.

Of course, the LibDems are still hampered by the residual disdain for coalition that both Labour and the Tories disseminated throughout the electorate. But it is residual and Rishi Sunak’s inept steering of Johnson’s legacy majority is much more in-your-face vote influencer.

The path the LibDems must surely follow now is one of vision, maturity and common sense. Whatever the Jenricks, Bravermans, Andersons, Tices and Farages, or even the Corbyns may think, the majority of British people are centrist – that’s why it’s called the centre. They want change, indeed they may be desperate for it, but they don’t want more ideology forced upon them.

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The Voice

Ed Davey at PMQs – asking PM to back “Ann’s Law” on care home staff

By The Voice | Wed 8th May 2024 - 8:12 pm

Ed Davey today questioned the Prime Minister on whether he would back a proposal to ensure safety for residents of care homes.

The proposed law is named after Ann King, whose abuse while in a Surrey care home was exposed by hidden camera footage captured by her children.

Following her death in October 2022, her children, including her son who is a constituent of Ed’s, are now campaigning for “Ann’s Law” which includes:

A register for care workers.

CCTV in care homes overseen by independent third parties.

New guidance for police and prosecutors on dealing with abuse of vulnerable people.

Ed said to Rishi Sunak:

The abuse suffered by 88-year-old Ann King at the hands of staff in her care home was captured on a hidden camera. The footage is stomach-churning.

Ann died in October 2022, and it took nearly a year before the CQC launched a criminal investigation.

Now, Ann’s children are working to protect other care home residents from being subjected to such appalling abuse. Her son came to see me as his MP, to ask for my help in their campaign.

So will the Prime Minister join me in backing ‘Ann’s Law’ – a proposal that would include a national register to professionalise the care workforce and hold those staff who are abusive to account? And will he meet with Ann’s family and me to discuss this?

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Caron Lindsay

Lunchtime Debate: Lib Dems and Trade Unions

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 8th May 2024 - 12:30 pm

Last night my watching of the first Eurovision semi-final was rather interrupted with a Twitter storm created by Liberal Reform, or at least someone with access to its Twitter account. Liberal Reform is a group within the party which exists, according to its website, to

promote personal liberty and a fair society supported by free, open and competitive markets as the foundation of the party’s policy.

So what had they said that wound people up so much?

We need to have a rethink about how we regulate trade unions in the UK.

Far too often, rail union barons are able to cause economic damage

as they retweeted a post talking about the rail strikes this week.

When I was growing up in the 1970s, unions did seem pretty scary to me. My experience was watching mass meetings at car plants where they all voted to go on strike. Even then, I questioned how comfortable you would feel about disagreeing. But I was also mad keen on history, and learning about how important unions were in giving people better chances of making it out of their workplaces alive and in challenging abuse by employers put them in a much better light. There’s not a lot that the Thatcher government did that I like, but their legislation insisting on strike ballots was a good thing. Some of the other Conservative reforms since, including the bill passed last year, have gone way too far and I am glad that we didn’t vote for them.

Every day union reps fight for workers who are being treated unfairly. An effective union rep is one of the workplace’s most valuable assets.

Way back in the mists of time, I was also heavily attracted to the SDP’s policy on industrial democracy, giving people more say in their workplace and I also liked co-ownership models.

I think it is so important that we do all we can to improve workers’ rights, to make workplaces safer, more inclusive and work more enjoyable and fairly rewarded. Unions have a huge role to play in that. We should always be suspicious of and curious of any power imbalances, but it is clear that they often lie with employers.

In terms of the current ongoing strikes in healthcare and rail, I think that we should broadly be supporting the workers, whose requests are pretty reasonable. When you think how people’s earnings have shrunk because of inflation over the past few years, it is not surprising how many are struggling. Added to that, labour market shortages caused, among other things, by Brexit and people being too sick to work thanks to the state of the NHS, have made workplaces so much more stressful.

Our current policy on unions was passed in our Towards a Fairer Society paper in York last Spring. This snippet gives a much more collaborative flavour:

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Caron Lindsay

Final agenda published for Scottish Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 8th May 2024 - 10:55 am

Scottish Liberal Democrats gather in Hamilton on 18 and 19 May for their Spring Conference. It may have seemed a risky decision to hold a Conference in what could have been the middle of a General Election campaign, but it’s great that we have the chance to set out our stall at a time of change.

The Final Agenda has now been published. In his introduction, Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

It’s great to be back. We meet at such an important time for the liberal revival both in Scotland and across the UK. Recent election successes show us poised to tear down the blue wall of the Conservatives in the South, but we have our grappling hooks in the acid yellow wall of the SNP as well. The General Election cannot come soon enough and from Cupar to Cape Wrath, from Milngavie to Mallaig, only the Scottish Liberal Democrats can take on the SNP in huge swathes of Scotland.

We will also mark an important anniversary, after 25 years of devolution, I’m delighted that our friend, former leader and former Deputy First Minister of Scotland Lord Wallace will offer us a key note speech on that important milestone.

Conference Convener Paul McGarry said:

There’s a real buzz in the air, not just across the UK, but especially here in Scotland. We’re right in the centre of shaping the future and this makes this conference more important than ever. It’s a fantastic opportunity for all of us to come together, share our ideas, and pave the way forward.

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The Voice

Alex Cole-Hamilton stands for First Minister

By The Voice | Wed 8th May 2024 - 8:39 am

Alex Cole-Hamilton’s bid to become Scotland’s First Minister was never going to end in success, unfortunately. It was important that he did it though. The MSPs in the Chamber were not his audience. That snippet on Reporting Scotland where he got the chance to be on the record, speaking to the people of Scotland, was an important part in Liberal Democrats setting out our stall.  Hope, he said, was at the heart of everything the Scottish Liberal Democrats stood for as he outlined our vision for better healthcare, education and giving power back to communities.

Watch here:

The text is below

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The Voice

Lib Dems up ⬆️ Conservatives down ⬇️

By The Voice | Tue 7th May 2024 - 6:19 pm

The party has sent out this excellent May 2nd election result summary to members:

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Shane Burke

Liberals, save us Irish from ourselves

By Shane Burke | Tue 7th May 2024 - 12:06 pm

Arguably Anglo-Irish relations have reached their lowest point in many years. Of all the issues that could have set back relations between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, it is not likely many would have suggested a divide would open over asylum seekers.

How this has come about is comments from the Irish political establishment regarding the United Kingdom governments Rwanda Plan, a plan to send asylum seekers to the third country of Rwanda while their asylum claim is processed. Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Michael Martin said, ““So, they’re leaving the UK and they are taking opportunities to come to Ireland, crossing the border to get sanctuary here and within the European Union as opposed to the potential of being deported to Rwanda.”

In response the Irish government, facing an influx of asylum seekers into the Republic of Ireland, through the soft border of Northern Ireland plans to return asylum seekers to the United Kingdom by designating the UK as a safe country. To date Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has dismissed the idea of accepting refugees by disputing the UK has any ‘’legal obligation’’ to do so. Even so the Irish government has a “legitimate expectation” that an existing November 2020 agreement on the return of asylum seekers between the two countries would be upheld.

While the spat between both the UK and Irish government continues the context for support of a Rwanda Scheme in the Republic is around 40%, according to the latest Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll. Where do the Liberal Democrats come into this?,  it is plausible the Irish government will have to drop it’s objection to joining the UK government offer to join the Rwanda Scheme. Joining would signal Ireland’s move away from humane liberal values.

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Mary Reid

Ed Davey tabling no confidence motion today

By Mary Reid | Tue 7th May 2024 - 9:32 am

The House returns today after the Bank Holiday weekend, and Ed Davey is ready for it with a no confidence motion. If it passes it will force a General Election next month.

The actual wording is: “That this House has no confidence in His Majesty’s Government.”

Ed says:

These local elections showed the country has had enough of Rishi Sunak and his out-of-touch Conservative Government.

The Conservatives were pushed into third place for the first time in a generation as Liberal Democrats swept the board in former true blue heartlands.

Yet Sunak continues to desperately cling on to power, holed up in Downing Street until the bitter end.

Conservative MPs need to wake up and smell the coffee, and back giving the country the election it so desperately wants and needs. The longer this appalling government stumbles on, the worse it is for the NHS, people’s living standards and our environment.

So what are the chances of the motion passing? The last time a Government lost a no confidence vote was in 1979, when Jim Callaghan was Labour Prime Minister. It was brought by the Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher, who formed the subsequent Government. It is worth noting that Callaghan was leading a minority Government, and he lost the motion by one vote. It is very rare for a vote of no confidence to succeed when a party has a solid majority.

Since then there have been 9 unsuccessful motions of no confidence, all targeted at Conservative Governments. One of these was brought in the House of Lords.

The convention is that a motion of no confidence takes precedence over anything else timetabled for the day. Today’s will give opposition parties an opportunity to note the Conservatives’ very poor performance in last week’s local elections and to raise the demand for an early General Election.

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Michal Siewniak

Entering adulthood

By Michal Siewniak | Mon 6th May 2024 - 4:08 pm

Stress, anxiety, a bit of nervousness; there are a wide range of emotions in May, when our children are about to start their exams. Some of these feelings are amplified by the fact that it is also a very important time to choose their next career path. University? Work? Gap year? Maybe an apprenticeship?

Our eldest daughter is about to embark on this crucial period, which in many ways, might determine her future. For those of us, who are blessed to be parents, it is also quite a delicate moment in terms of supporting our children in relation to their next “big move”. Some kids are quite good at listening to parents advice, others are quite independent thinkers and they want to be “in charge” of making these decisions.

As a Polish national, who has been living in the UK for the last 19 years, I am also learning quite a lot about the Higher Educational system in Britain, which has significantly changed since we came over.

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Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 6 May 2024 – there’s always someone worse off than you are…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 6th May 2024 - 12:12 pm

The advantage, or disadvantage if you like, of having been a Liberal Democrat for so long is that you’ve seen triumph and disaster over the years. The pain of seeing friends and acquaintances lose seats not because they’d performed badly as individuals but because of a national swing against the Party, especially during the Coalition years, will never be forgotten. And so, whilst the past week has been extremely enjoyable, I’m trying not to get carried away.

The one emotion that dominated our travails between 2010 and 2016 was sadness. We expected a kicking but accepted it as a penance for …

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Caron Lindsay

The Scottish Parliament Election – 25 years on

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 6th May 2024 - 9:30 am

Election night 1997. The tv room at the count in Chesterfield. Two people in the room – me and Tony Benn who was eating a white chocolate magnum and ignoring me. He might have been ignoring me because I was blubbing a bit because I was so happy that we were finally, after years of campaigning, going to have a Scottish Parliament.

The cross-party co-operation that had built the case for that Parliament across political and civil society was a great model. The Conservatives opposed the idea but even the SNP were eventually persuaded to come on board.

Fast forward two years to 6 May 1999 when the first elections to the new Parliament took place, with a nice shiny new proportional electoral system. 129 MSPs, 73 representing constituencies and 56 on regional lists were elected. The campaign had seen Alex Salmond and the SNP get into disfavour for not backing the NATO airstrikes on Kosovo aimed at stopping the humanitarian disaster and ethnic cleaning.  Paddy Ashdown and the Lib Dems were strongly in favour of this action.

Our big issue was tuition fees – we opposed Labour’s plans to introduce them and were very clear about our position on that. And we honoured that.

I couldn’t vote in this election because I lived in England. In fact, on election day, I was, at 37 weeks pregnant,  running a committee room in Chesterfield whee we boosted our Councillor numbers from 9 to 19.  Those were very happy times.

However, I was very invested in what was happening back home. I was up at the crack of dawn watching the final results come in the next day.

The Scottish people had elected 56 Labour MSPs, 35 SNP, 18 Conservative, 17 Liberal Democrats, 2 Greens and a Socialist. The whole system was meant to encourage co-operation and no party was meant to have a majority.

The coalition that eventually emerged after a few twists and turns between us and Labour did some amazing things in its 8 years – abolition of tuition fees, free personal care, free eye and dental checks, land reform, STV for local Government among them. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a functional partnership that was prepared to wring the neck of the powers we had to get stuff done. Our Jim Wallace was Deputy First Minister and Ross Finnie became Rural Affairs Minister.

Alex Cole-Hamilton reflected on the anniversary:

I am proud of the part Scottish Liberal Democrats played in delivering a Scottish Parliament and in the successes we have delivered through it.

In government, the Scottish Liberal Democrats delivered pioneering legislation like the abolition of upfront tuition fees, the introduction of free personal care and the smoking ban. We also legislated for the building of the Borders Railway, gave communities the right to buy land, made dental and eye tests free, introduced free bus passes, and opened up the business of government to proper scrutiny through Freedom of Information law.

These are Lib Dem successes delivered because of devolution, and without which we would never have achieved them.

So what do I want to see our powerful Parliament do next?

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems gain a seat in Salford Quays – and most Council seats in past 5 years

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 5th May 2024 - 8:38 pm

The final results of the 2024 local elections are in and we had a fantastic result on ALDC’s doorstep in Salford. Cllr Jonathan Moore took a seat in Salford Quays. The result was:

Jonathan Moore: 39.2% (+13.1)

Lab: 37.4% (-9.8)

Green: 15.4% (-3.1)

Conservative: 8.0% (-0.3)

We finally have a brilliant piece of media coverage that I suspect we will be sharing far and wide between  now and the General Election. Someone at HQ has crunched a lot of numbers and discovered that we have gained more Councillors than anyone else over the past five years. From the Guardian:

The Lib Dems have added more council seats than any other party over the last parliament, gaining more than 750 in the last five years, largely in the south-west and south of England.

As Ed Davey’s party won more seats than the Conservatives in the local elections last week, the Lib Dems said Tories would be “looking over their shoulder terrified” as the general election approached.

Data analysis by the party shows that the Lib Dems have gained 768 seats, Labour 545 and the Greens 480, while the Conservatives have lost 1,783.

That is pretty impressive given that Labour and the Conservatives are much better resourced than we are.

Whitehall Editor Rowena Mason writes:

The party’s strong gains in local elections suggests its strategy of focusing on building up votes in key strongholds could help deliver seats at the election

.

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Caron Lindsay

You wouldn’t think the Lib Dems had come second from the media coverage

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 5th May 2024 - 1:20 pm

It took Laura Kuenssberg 52 minutes to get round to talking about the Lib Dem success on her show this morning. And the fact that we got more councillors than the Conservatives for the first time in 28 years got the most perfunctory of mentions.

To add insult to injury, there were 3 Conservatives and 2 Labour people in the studio and nothing at all from us.

And it wasn’t from lack of effort on our part, given that Tim Farron was, rightly, complaining on Twitter:

Errrr…

…

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 5th May 2024 - 9:34 am

Germany

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party has problem in Thuringia. The East German Lander is an AfD stronghold, but their main candidate, MEP Maximilian Krah, has become a non-person.

The reason for his disappearance from the campaign for the European Parliament is the arrest of his aide Jian Guo on charges of spying for China. Krah himself, may not be above suspicion. He is known as one of the Asian giant’s biggest backers in the European Parliament.

The case of Jian Guo is only one of several scandals affecting AfD candidates for June’s European parliament elections. There have also been allegations that another AfD politician, Petr Byrstron, was paid $21,300 by a Russian disinformation network.

The ensuing political disgrace appears to be having effect on the electorate. In December, opinion polls showed the AfD with 23 percent of the national German vote. Another poll at the end of April showed them with the support of only 16 percent of the electorate.

In the meantime, Herr Krah’s name remains on the ballot in Thuringia. It has to. Once the parties submit their list of candidates then their names cannot be removed. Krah’s name is right at the top. But he is at the bottom of the list for speaking opportunities.

Gaza

Compromise appears to be in the air in the Hamas-Israel talks in Egypt. Israel is talking to negotiators about a six-week truce – possibly longer. Hamas is saying that it is looking at the latest proposals in a “positive light”.

So, what are the proposals? Specifics are a diplomatic secret. But what can be gleaned so far indicates that international pressure on Israel and Israeli pressure on Hamas is wringing concessions out of both sides.

A long truce will almost certainly mean the end of Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge of total victory and the destruction of Hamas. But in return he wants to release of about 100 hostages which means that Hamas will have to relinquish their only bargaining chip.

The proposal currently on the table would call for a phased deal which American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators hope will lead to a permanent ceasefire.

The first phase would be the release of all female hostages in exchange for an undetermined number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Once the initial exchange is completed Israeli troops would withdraw from the coastal road in Gaza. This would facilitate the movement of humanitarian aid and allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes in northern Gaza. Once northern Gaza is re-opened the remaining hostages would be released along with the remains of hostages who have died in captivity. Israel would also release another batch of Palestinian prisoners.

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Caron Lindsay

And, finally – we have 2 Lib Dem London Assembly members

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 4th May 2024 - 9:47 pm

In this last round-up of the day, we bring news of the final London result, the 11 list Assembly Members who work alongside the 14 constituency members.

We have always had list members because until our Gareth Roberts won South West London this afternoon nobody other than a Conservative or Labour had won a constituency.

Once the list votes had been counted, the absolutely brilliant news is that Hina Bokhari has been re-elected. The rotten news is that Rob Blackie, our fantastic mayoral candidate who has run such a good campaign and took us to third place in that contest,  missed out on a place. It would have been so good if all three of them had got in. It’s the tough aspect of these list systems. If Gareth hadn’t won the constituency, I’d have been as sad for him as he would not have got in on the list as he was in 4th place. Huge thanks to Rob for putting together such a good campaign with significantly less resource than the other parties.

The new Assembly comprises 11 Labour, 8 Conservatives, 3 Greens, 2 Lib Dems and 1 Reform.

There is still much number crunching to do, but it is way too late at night to start wrestling with spreadsheets.

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Mary Reid

Great achievement in SW London

By Mary Reid | Sat 4th May 2024 - 4:48 pm

The BBC has shamefully ignored the London Assembly during this election. Nearly 9 million people live in Greater London – more than the populations of Scotland and Wales combined.  And London does not have a Metro Mayor who is accountable to the local authorities that make up the Metro area. Instead it has a full blown Assembly with 25 Assembly Members.  So it is inexcusable that the BBC is not reporting on it in its election coverage.

Rant over, because we do have some very good news to report. We have won our first constituency member ever for the Assembly for the SW London seat (which cover 5 Westminster constituencies). Gareth Roberts won decisively with 66,675 votes against Labour with 50,656 and Conservative with 49,981. This has been a Tory seat from the start.

Congratulations all round!

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Mary Reid

London Mayor

By Mary Reid | Sat 4th May 2024 - 4:35 pm

Sadiq Khan has comfortably won the Mayor of London contest although it hasn’t yet been officially announced. We can be sure of the result because the votes have been counted across the fourteen super-constituencies and their totals have been announced, so it’s a simple matter of arithmetic to work out the final result.

This contest was always a two horse race between Labour and Conservative, and voting reverted to FPTP this time around. We know that many of our voters voted tactically to keep the Tory out. Under those circumstances it is very pleasing that the Lib Dem candidate, Rob Blackie, came in third, albeit by a narrow margin of 70 votes.

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Caron Lindsay

Saturday afternoon round-up: Lib Dems win more Council seats than Tories for first time in 28 years

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 4th May 2024 - 4:13 pm

With just one Council left to declare, the Lib Dems will end the local election second to Labour in terms of Councillors, with 105 gains and 2 more Councils. The last time this happened was in 1996. Second place and a 25% gain is not a bad result for us at all.

The Tories have lost more than half of the seats they were defending and are languishing in 3rd place. The only consolation for them so far is that Ben Houchen held on as Tees Valley Mayor. Even if Andy Street clings on in the West Midlands, it looks as though the result will be pretty close.

 

Ed Davey had this to say about our success:

Up and down the country Conservative MPs will be looking over their shoulder terrified of the Liberal Democrats who have won more seats than them in this election.

This was the final test before the General Election and it’s clear Conservative MPs are on notice.

We’ve moved forward in blue wall battlegrounds and we’ve seen a real collapse in support for Rishi Sunak and his out of touch Government.

The choice for millions of people at the General Election is clear – they can get a fair deal with the Liberal Democrats or have 4 more years of Conservative chaos.

Just for the hell of it, we need to see those dinosaurs from yesterday again:

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The Voice

LibLink: Mark Pack’s round-up of local elections results so far

By The Voice | Sat 4th May 2024 - 1:55 pm

Party President Mark Pack has been recording results and commentary throughout the counts. You can read today’s post here: How are the local elections going for the Lib Dems?

Here are some takeaways:

As of Saturday morning, the results look pretty good.

Before getting into that, it’s important to recognise that’s not the same as universally good. There are, for example, two wards I campaigned in this time around which we lost out on by very small margins. Defeats like those, or losing your seat while others are gaining those on the same council, are in some ways made all the worse by most other people around you celebrating. I hope though that our overall progress means those nursing disappointment this weekend can also take some consolation from the fact that our continued progress means, if they decide to stand again, better times are coming in their ward too.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an Expat: Campus Powder Keg

By Tom Arms | Sat 4th May 2024 - 10:22 am

America has for years been a polarised powder keg waiting for the spark to ignite the fuse. It has come in the form of student protests against American support for Israel.

Protesters, counter-protesters and rent-a-mob have violently coalesced around the conflicting fates of Palestinians and the State of Israel.

As of Friday demonstrations have broken out on 140 college campuses in 45 states. More than 2,000 students have been arrested by police storming barricaded encampments and university buildings with riot gear.

President Joe Biden is trying to thread his way through the oft conflicting principles of freedom of speech and the rule of law. “There’s the right to protest but not the right to cause chaos,” he said. At the same time he is standing firm on his support for Israel while privately bemoaning the fact that he is not being given sufficient credit for pressuring the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

The political result could be a November victory for Donald Trump as young people continue their Gaza protest by boycotting the polls and the older generation vote for the strong man politics of Trump.

But what do the protesters want? It varies. Some what the total destruction of Israel. Others are focused on a ceasefire and the two-state solution. Still others have been drawn to the barricades by the issue of free speech. Counter-protesters fear that Israel and Jews in general are facing the problems of the 1930s. Rent-a-mob just sees an advantage in chaos.

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Mary Reid

London waits

By Mary Reid | Sat 4th May 2024 - 8:14 am

It’s going to be a long day in London. The counting process began yesterday in fourteen venues across the region, one based in each of the Assembly super-constituencies.  Votes on the three differently coloured ballot papers were being verified yesterday and then counted today.

To understand the scale of the process you have to remember that the population of Greater London is more than those of Scotland and Wales taken together.

Results will be announced this afternoon in this order: Mayor of London, London Assembly constituency members, London-wide Assembly members (from the top up lists).  We already know that turnout was 40.5%. Previous turnouts have varied from 34% to 46%, so there is nothing particularly surprising in that figure.

Lib Dem interest is focussed on the SW London Constituency (Richmond, Kingston and Hounslow) which we are hoping to win. If we do then it will be the first ever constituency win for us.

The best place to follow the election results is on London Elects.

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Mary Reid

The stragglers

By Mary Reid | Fri 3rd May 2024 - 11:03 pm

Catching up on a couple of councils that I was watching…

Gloucester has certainly seen an upheaval from a clear Conservative majority to a slightly awkward NOC. The good news is that the Lib Dems are the largest party with 17 (an increase of 7), compared with Conservatives on 11, Labour 7 and Others 4. Let’s hope our Council Group can find 3 others they can work with to make a working majority.

I have now moved the news about Elmbridge here. Our team in Elmbridge increased their seats but were just two short of the number needed for an overall majority. They will continue to run a minority administration, no doubt with the support of some of the Residents Associations, which has been working well for the past year.

And then we left Woking at the point where we knew they had won, but before all the results were in. And a great outcome – Lib Dems hold 24 out of 30 seats on the Council – and that included defeating Michael Gove’s election agent. No Conservatives left at all, in fact.

As we wrap up for the night there appear to be five councils that are nowhere near a result, or may not have actually started counting yet. None of them carry much interest for the Lib Dems.

In terms of control of Councils, Lib Dems have held 10, gained 2 and lost none.

And finally, here is the score line for the number of council seats won so far.

Feels good, doesn’t it?

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Mary Reid

And we’ve gained Dorset!

By Mary Reid | Fri 3rd May 2024 - 8:54 pm

Brilliant result! We have an overall majority of 2. Lib Dems 42, Con 30, Others 10. A magnificent gain from the Conservatives. Congratulations!

 

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