Tag Archives: candy piercy

Party legend Vera Head dies at 97

The sad news that party legend Vera Head had died came via Candy Piercy on Facebook:

Sad news. The redoubtable Vera Head died last week at the age of 97 after a long illness.

Long time campaigners and members of Lib Dem Women will remember her dedication to Women’s Rights and to getting women elected.

Vera taught me so much as an agent. And I still quote her in training sessions today.

When I was a Campaigns Officer in 1992 I asked Vera to agent Liz Lynne in Rochdale. I could not think of anyone else who would stand up to Cyril Smith and make sure Liz won her seat. And of course Vera delivered a famous victory.

Again in 1997 I asked Vera to be the agent for Jackie Ballard in Taunton. Again Vera pulled the campaign together and Jackie was elected. Another great win.

There are so many stories about Vera. We will put them all together soon. But to end on, until this May Vera was a councillor on Amershsm Town Council.

Still enjoying scaring the living daylights out of the local Tories as one of the oldest councillors in the country!

Oh, and scaring a few Lib Dems along the way too!

A fierce friend and a ferocious political adversary. And I suspect you are now giving St Peter a hard time about his organisation of Heaven!

Vera, we shall miss you. RIP.

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Tales from the Federal Executive: The one where we discussed the elections

London December 9 2013 064 Thames Low Tide (4) ParliamentThe Liberal Democrats’ Federal Executive met last night in a Westminster Committee room looking out on a grey and brooding Thames.

The meeting had a bit of a comedy start with a last minute change of venue leaving member scurrying from one end of the Parliamentary Estate to the other.

The major item of business was, of course,  discussion about the recent elections. Several Federal Executive members had consulted widely amongst members to get their views. Only Candy Piercy, though, had been organised enough …

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Liberal Democrats in the New Year Honours list

While we have been preparing our own Liberal Democrat Stars of 2013 (you can still submit your nominations), the Government has published its own list of recipients of New Year Honours list. For the first time ever, surprisingly since women make up more than half the population, they make up a slight majority of this list. It really might be time, though, for them to change the outdated way they list women. Married women are listed as their first names, then Mrs surname. Others have the designation Ms.  This is not the case for men, who are simply listed …

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Candy Piercy replaces Jo Shaw on the Lib Dems’ Federal Executive

Jo Shaw’s resignation from the Liberal Democrats on Sunday created a vacancy on the Liberal Democrats’ Federal Executive committee.

The votes from the original internal party election in 2012 have now been recounted and Candy Piercy has been elected.

Candy told Lib Dem Voice:

Although I am very glad to be on the FE again, I am very sad that the reason for this is the resignation of Jo Shaw. Jo was a fierce campaigner on the FE who always spoke up loud and clear for her principles.

I will do my best to carry on that approach. I will stand up

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Inspiration Day for Scottish Liberal Democrat women

Credit Katy Gordon

I have attended hundreds of extremely useful Liberal Democrat training sessions over the years. Virtually all of them have been very good, but the ones which have been most helpful have been those run by Women Liberal Democrats. I’ve been to several “inspiration days” now and always learn something new or meet fabulous new people who become great colleagues.

My most recent session took place in Glasgow last Saturday. The idea of these sessions is to give women members an idea of the wide range of options …

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