Tag Archives: featured

Alisdair Calder McGregor

Plan ahead – rail strikes planned for Spring Conference weekend

By Alisdair Calder McGregor | Fri 17th February 2023 - 9:00 am

The railway workers’ union the RMT has announced a series of strikes planned for March and April.

The dates of the strikes are the 16th, 18th and 30th of March, and the 1st of April.

The first two dates are the Thursday right before conference, and the Saturday of Conference, both of which dates might impact those travelling to conference.

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The Voice

Out now – Spring Conference Agenda and Directory

By The Voice | Thu 16th February 2023 - 4:09 pm

The agenda and directory for Spring Conference has been published today. The first in-person federal conference since September 2019 takes place from 17-19 March.

You can read all the details of the motions up for debate, fringe meetings, exhibitors and training here.

If you read any of the motions and think, you know what, they’ve missed out this, or we should do this instead, you can submit an amendment with the support of 10 members, or an affiliated organisation like the Young LIberals by 1pm on 6th March.

You can ask the Federal Conference Committee to advise you on how to draft your suggestion by 1pm on 20th February.  That is next Monday. You don’t have to get drafting advice, though, n order to submit an amendment.

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems react to Sturgeon resignation

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 15th February 2023 - 12:38 pm

I might disagree with Nicola Sturgeon on many things, but I have long liked her personally.  She is one of the best political communicators we have had, someone who is very good at empathy and emotional connection. Her resignation speech today was dignified, sincere and candid about the pressures she has faced after eight years in the role.

Sturgeon is standing down on her own terms at a time of her choosing. Her work ethic is pretty legendary and she feels that she doesn’t have within her the capacity to continue working at this pace after 8 years in the top job.

Her leadership during the pandemic, described today by Scottish Lib Dem Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton as “a hell of a shift,” was not perfect but had a clarity and compassion that others lacked. Alex said in a BBC interview that today was not a day for throwing political brick bats and paid tribute to the First Minister personally:

The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats says Scotland faces “many challenges” and he calls on the SNP to “get stability restored” after the first minister steps down.

But today is “not a day for political attacks”, Alex Cole-Hamilton tells BBC News.

Despite having a “combative” relationship with the outgoing first minister, Cole-Hamilton recalls a warm moment between the two when the FM offered him “words of comfort” after his young daughter choked on a coin and had to be resuscitated around five years ago.

Watch here:

Later he added:

Nicola Sturgeon’s talent has undoubtedly shaped Scottish political life and she deserves to be thanked for her public service. Today is not a day for political attacks.  I wish her well for everything that comes next.

It is to Nicola Sturgeon’s credit that she has been open about the pressures and stresses that leadership has involved.  Everyone will recognise how hard it will have been particularly to steer the country during the pandemic and the weight of those decisions.

Scotland needs leadership that will focus on what really matters because every corner of our NHS is in crisis, the cost of living is punishing, islanders still need new ferries and education deserves to be a top priority.

Scottish Liberal Democrats will work hard to move the debate on from the divisions of the past because people can’t wait for years behind yet more arguments about independence. Scotland needs new hope, right now.

Alex is not the only person to have been impressed by her kindness. Back in 2011, she took time out of her day to send me, a random nobody activist in an opposition party, a lovely message of sympathy when our much loved campaigns director Andrew Reeves died.

It is also worth saying while she has recently been attacked on women’s rights, mainly by people who have never done anything for women in their lives, she is a committed feminist who has done a great deal to improve all diversity strands in her own party.  She also – eventually – delivered 30 hours of term-time childcare for 3 and 4 year olds and introduced the Scottish Child Payment which gives £25 per week to families on the lowest incomes.

Here’s what other Lib Dems have been saying about her resignation and we’ll update as more comments come in:

Christine later wrote a very generous column in the Express.

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Lord William Wallace

The alternative reality of the political right

By Lord William Wallace | Tue 14th February 2023 - 9:17 am

Liberal Democrats operate in a world in which we assume that those we talk to and work with are reasonable, open-minded, fair and generous, and share broadly the same assumptions about society that we do. Except, of course, that those in power don’t. To an increasing degree, Conservatives who read the Telegraph, Mail and Spectator, watch Talk TV and GB News, follow research by right-wing think tanks and see US Republicans as their closest political soulmates live in an alternative reality.

Liz Truss is a classic example of this. After her rapid exit from the Prime Ministership, she travelled to Washington, to institutes already well-familiar from previous visits, to regain her intellectual self-confidence. The lengthy essay the Telegraph has since published for her was headlined ‘I was brought down by the Left-wing economic establishment’. That’s the Treasury, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the City of London, the solid ranks of economists in leading universities in the UK and other wealthy countries, even the business journalists of the Times. They’re all part of a left-wing consensus, against which right-wing free marketeers must valiantly struggle, with only the support of hedge-fund and property billionaires to finance their fight.

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Age does not give a blue political rinse

By Andy Boddington | Sun 12th February 2023 - 12:33 pm

There is a long standing aphorism that people become more conservative with age. A well known example that comes to is Winston Churchill. However, the evidence for age giving a blue rinse to voter’s politics has been uneven. New surveys and analyses suggest that while many people may previously have swung to the right in later life, that is possibly no longer the case. People are remaining liberal thinking longer and later in life. This gives hope for progressive parties as the “Thatcher’s children” generation ages and a more liberal cohort advances in age and remains liberal thinking.

This has implications for all parties. The Conservatives have recently swung to the right, playing to the older generation. Leading Tory politicians seem to believe that voters are made in their own image. That folly means they are losing the younger voter.

There is now a challenge for progressive parties, which need to ensure that they retain liberal thinkers into old age. There are signs that is happening.

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The Liberator Collective

Liberator 416 is out

By The Liberator Collective | Sat 11th February 2023 - 4:00 pm

Liberator 416 can be downloaded here (click on the 416 icon). This is the free February-March online-only edition of Liberator and we hope you enjoy reading it.

You can sign up here to be emailed each time a new bi-monthly Liberator comes out. There’s also a free archive back to 2001.

What’s inside this issue?

Alongside Radical Bulletin, Commentary, Letters and Lord Bonkers’ Diary, Liberator 416 includes:

DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISTS

Liberalism used to be about enabling free thought and giving communities a voice. Has a series of centralising measures in the party stifled that creativity and innovation? Gareth Epps investigates

BUSY DOING NOTHING

The Liberal Democrats have ignored two sets of recommendations on race because other equalities issues are more ’popular’. They will therefore go on losing to Labour in urban areas, says Janice Turner

SEEING RED OVER LABOUR

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Caron Lindsay

Another Daily Mail misogyny fail

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 11th February 2023 - 1:05 pm

I woke up around 6am this morning. After rearranging dogs so that I wasn’t clinging to the edge of the bed, I should have gone back to sleep. Instead I made that error of picking up my phone and looking at Twitter. Ok, so I might have wanted to see what people were saying about last night’s episode of Death in Paradise, but that’s not really an excuse.

What I saw enraged me. A Daily Mail headline asking “Did living in the shadow of his high achieving wife lead to unthinkable tragedy?” This referred to the murder of Epsom College head Emma Pattison and her 7 year old daughter by her husband.

That was bad enough, but then I discovered the previous day’s headline. Apparently the murderer was “desperate to do more with his days” after his business failed.

Suggesting that either of these things is remotely an excuse, particularly in a headline, perpetuates attitudes that have no place in a civilised society.

The media tries to construct a false narrative that women being murdered by their domestic partner  is “isolated” rather than two or three occurrences per week.

 

For as long as men have been abusing and murdering women, their excuses for doing so have carried much more weight in society than they deserve.

Women’s behaviour, clothes, sexual history, earnings, weight, or careers are just some of the things that have been blamed rather than the behaviour of the perpetrator themselves.

I am fed up of the media gaslighting women into believing that they are responsible for the behaviour of abusive men.

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Caron Lindsay

Kira Rudik: The fuel we are living on is hope

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 10th February 2023 - 7:00 am

Editor’s Note: Updated with video on 12 February. 

Last night the Lib Dem European Group hosted an event with the leader of Ukraine’s Holos Party, Kira Rudik. Holos is one of five parties now in ALDE and was the first liberal party to gain seats in the Ukrainian Parliament.

LDEG have now put the video on their You Tube channel.

If you haven’t got time to watch it now, here are some of the highlights of Kira’s conversation with former Lib Dem President and vice President of ALDE, Sal Brinton. But do go back and watch it when you can.

Kira first appeared at Lib Dem Spring Conference last year, just 18 days after the invasion. She talked then about how she would never have expected to be learning how to fire a rifle and described her 2 hour daily Kalashnikov training as “a hell of a workout.” At that point she was wanting the international community to give Ukraine a chance against the Russian invaders.

Almost a year later, she talked about what life was like in Ukraine. Certainly they had held off the Russians and had even taken ground back off them, but they had lost 50 % of their energy infrastructure.

They can produce enough energy but can’t distribute it. They make sure that critical infrastructure like hospitals have what they need – the rest, she says, they figure it out as the go along. They  have electricity outages which have impact on water supplies and heating. In Ukraine’s freezing Winter, the  priority is heating, then running water then electricity. She said that when you wake up, you check if your phone is charged, if you have heat, it’s 50/50 if you have running water. You need water stored everywhere at home as you may not have it for 2-3 days at a time.

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Sunak reshuffle road to oblivion?

By Andy Boddington | Thu 9th February 2023 - 6:04 pm

It seems to be a sign of a prime minister’s prowess that new departments are created or existing departments are reshaped during their tenure. All politicians want to leave their mark but there is always a parallel agenda. Promoting loyal supporters and getting rid of those causing trouble, and of course, those who have found to have broken the rules.

The need to replace the ambitious Nadhim Zahawi came after he was sacked as Chair of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio for breaching the ministerial code.  All that Rishi Sunak needed to do was to appoint a new Chair of the Conservative Party and give them a seat at the cabinet table.

But Sunak instead decided on a mini reshuffle.

The new department structure was heralded as delivering Rishi Sunak’s five promises: to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists and stop the boats.

Grow the economy? Fair enough but not in the short term. Halve inflation? Only perhaps in the margins. Reduce debt? No way. Cut waiting lists? Irrelevant. Stop the boats? Of course not. The reorganisation of departments that might prove a lasting legacy for the UK but it will have no impact on the Tories electoral prospects.

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The Voice

Chamberlain’s Carer’s Leave Bill closer to becoming law

By The Voice | Sat 4th February 2023 - 4:00 pm

On Thursday, a private member’s bill promoted by Wendy Chamberlain, MP for North East Fife passed its third reading without opposition and now goes to the Lords. As the Conservatives do not oppose the bill, it is set to become law.

Chamberlain said the new employment rights in the bill are vital at a time when the Government are trying to get people, especially the over-50s, back to work. The bill creates a new entitlement for employees to take up to a week of unpaid leave a year in order to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need.

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The Voice

Lib Dem success on sewage in Commons

By The Voice | Thu 2nd February 2023 - 10:26 am

Yesterday, the Conservatives caved into the Liberal Democrat campaign to end sewage discharges into rivers, by accepting the party’s amendment which stops taxpayers money going to water companies unless the discharges stop.

Liberal Democrat MP Richard Foord tabled the amendment to the UK Infrastructure Bank Bill, which originally allowed water companies to benefit from loans from the bank, even though they are paying their executives huge bonuses and giving shareholders generous dividends while allowing sewerage to be discharged into rivers and coastal waters.

The change to the Bill means the UK Infrastructure Bank can only fund water companies if they produce a costed and timed plan for ending sewage discharges into rivers.

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The Voice

Ed Davey on kinship care and his experience

By The Voice | Thu 2nd February 2023 - 8:57 am

Ed Davey spoke to Jason Farrell, Sky News’ home editor about his own experience of kinship caring. Ed explained his grandparent’s involvement in his own upbringing and how his maternal grandfather and mother were critical to looking after him after the death of this father when he was just four. Ed spoke movingly, at times tearfully, about his mother’s illness and how that created strain between his mother and grandmother. When his mother died 11 years later, his grandparents looked after him full-time while living with the loss of their only child. Kinship care, where grandparents are supported and encouraged in looking after grandchildren alongside foster or adoptive parents, is the best form of care he says.

 

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Mary Reid

If I were a teacher would I strike?

By Mary Reid | Wed 1st February 2023 - 2:24 pm

I taught in schools and colleges for most of my professional life. At one stage I chaired our local union branch and joined in a couple of strikes. So you can guess where my sympathies lie with the current school strikes.

Now I don’t argue for pay parity between the public and private sectors of industry. In many areas of the economy the gap in pay between the top and the bottom of industry is eye-wateringly wide and contributes to inequality right across society. Simply copying what I see as immoral practices in the public sector would simply compound the problem. Instead the public sector, including education, should model a fair and equitable earnings distribution.

Teachers were put under huge strain during lockdown. Their teaching practices changed from day to day, many doing a combination of in-person and online teaching, they took on extra health risks, they had to keep adjusting their teaching plans to match the latest assessment/examination requirements – and doing all this while trying to home educate their own children.

As one teacher told The Guardian:

Teachers are on their knees. I absolutely love my job, I am still passionate after 25 years and have never considered leaving but every year a little more is asked and expected of us: we’re dealing with the creeping effects of growing class sizes, teaching assistants disappearing from the system, higher levels of poverty, inadequate school budgets. This week alone I have worked almost 11 hours’ overtime.

This is not just about pay, it’s about the workload and the impact this has on the students.

Ah yes, workload. Throughout my career I was generally treated as a professional, but not always. One boss would indulge in staff re-organisations every five years or so and that inevitably meant signing a new contract if you wanted a job in the new structure. And the new contracts always increased workload, whether measured in teaching hours or class size. I felt I was being treated as a functionary, hired to do a task. I loved my job, and loved teaching my students, and would normally put in 55 to 60 hours work per week, and far more than most people might think during the “holidays”.

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How much does your constituency regret Brexit?

By Andy Boddington | Tue 31st January 2023 - 11:05 am

New data based on a survey by Focaldata for UnHerd maps current opinions on leaving the EU by constituency. Published on the third anniversary of the UK leaving the EU, it shows that opinion has shifted since the Brexit referendum. The survey estimates that half of in England, Scotland and Wales think it was wrong to leave the EU (54%) while only a quarter Brexit was the right move (28%).

Regretting leaving the EU is not the same as wanting to rejoin. But there is a growing swell of people who wish to rejoin as I discussed here on LDV on Sunday.

This MRP analysis is potentially very important as it gives a guide to where it is beneficial for Liberal Democrats to campaign on a pro-EU ticket. Whether that is campaigning to rejoin or to forge closer relations with the EU is a matter for campaign strategy, national and local policy.

In every constituency except three, more people think that Brexit was a mistake than think it was right. The three dissenters are in east Lincolnshire, and only Boston has more people thinking Brexit was nothing they regret.

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What has Brexit done for us?

By Andy Boddington | Sun 29th January 2023 - 2:00 pm

Next Tuesday will be the third birthday of the UK’s exit from the EU. I can see nothing to celebrate though we might expect champagne corks to pop in Jacob Rees Mogg Land.

With hindsight it was like a pantomime. Campaigns of lies, deceptions and bluster. An Olympic competition for the biggest lie.

The referendum on 23 June 2016 saw a high turnout of 72.2%, with 48.1% against and a winning 51.9% in favour, though Scotland voted against. The UK duly left the EU at 11pm Friday 31 January 2020.

In the fantasy land occupied by Boris Johnson (now raking in the cash), Jacob Rees Mogg (now of GB news) and some newspapers, everything since then has been glorious. But that is a political fiction.

People realise that. In a poll published by the i this weekend, 49% of those that expressed a view wanted to rejoin the EU and 51% were against. That’s the closest margin yet.

The tide is turning against the Brexiteers.

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Paul McGarry

How you can join Operation Social Equality

By Paul McGarry | Sat 21st January 2023 - 12:30 pm

I am pleased to tell you about a new Affiliated Organisation we are starting called Operation Social Equality. It is open to all members of the Liberal Democrats but has a specific focus to support members from low-socio economic backgrounds.

Studies tell us that those from low socio-economic backgrounds are amongst the most under-represented in politics and also the least engaged. So three years ago the journey started to look at what can be done to help the Liberal Democrats become more inclusive and to encourage more people from low socio-economic backgrounds to engage with the party.

I heard from many people who shared experiences just like those that I had experienced myself. I heard stories of some who had walked away from the party.  Some found doors to be closed or opportunities held just too far away to grab. It was from these conversations that Operation Social Equality was born.

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Duncan Brack

If Not Us, Who? If Not Now, When?

By Duncan Brack | Tue 17th January 2023 - 12:29 pm

Why does Ed Davey never talk about Europe? To be clear, I am not advocating launching a campaign to rejoin the EU. Although party policy supports this as a longer-term objective, there is no chance that the EU would treat an application from the UK seriously until a new government has taken steps to rebuild the EU–UK relationship –the kind of measures we set out in the policy paper Rebuilding Trade and Cooperation with Europe, endorsed by conference last year. This set out a detailed strategy for moving progressively towards a closer relationship with the EU, including ultimately joining the Single Market. These are of direct benefit in themselves, as well as steps the UK will have to take if we are to rejoin one day.

Over the last few months hardly a week has gone by without someone arguing for this, both here in Lib Dem Voice and in the mainstream press. So why isn’t our party leadership talking about it? I’m not defending their position – I think it’s wrong – but it’s worthwhile thinking through the reasoning behind it to see whether it’s justified. Although Ed Davey hasn’t shared his thinking with the party at large, I think we can identify three main reasons behind his consistent avoidance of the topic.

First, because, like Keir Starmer, he’s worried about alienating former Leave voters, particularly in the party’s 30 or so top target seats, almost all of which are Conservative-held. But opinions change – and over the last year they’ve changed significantly. Compared to most of 2021, when more people supported being outside the EU than inside, by the end of 2022, average support for reversing Brexit had reached 57 per cent. This is mainly due to Leave voters changing their minds: in November, one in five Leave voters told YouGov that they regretted voting Leave – the highest number yet recorded. In December Savanta found that 47 per cent of all respondents would favour a closer relationship with the EU compared with 14 per cent who wanted to be further apart. Even 30 per cent of Leave voters said they wanted the relationship to be closer, while 18 per cent wanted to be further away. So our position, of rebuilding the UK–EU relationship, has substantial support.

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Caron Lindsay

Four ways you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 14th January 2023 - 11:16 am

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

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

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Tom Arms

Observations of an expat: Latin Fandango

By Tom Arms | Fri 13th January 2023 - 4:36 pm

South America is in a mess. The problems stretch from Patagonia to Cartagena and further north into Central America and Mexico.

Almost everywhere there is violence, political instability and economic problems.

The main spotlight has been shone on Brazil. The Portuguese-speaking nation is the economic giant of South America. Its GDP is four times the next largest Latin economy and the eighth largest in the world. Brazil has tremendous potential and political problems.

It is deeply divided after left-winger Luiz Inacio da Silva (aka Lula) narrowly defeated right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro in October elections.

Bolsonaro and his supporters has claimed the elections were rigged and demanded a re-run. Thousands of Bolsonaristas (as they are called) stormed government offices in the capital Brasilia including Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace. 1,200 have been arrested.

But the real problem is not the validity of the elections but the deep divide between Brazil’s political left and right. Conservatives, which include the military, police, middle classes and growing Christian evangelical movement, view Lula as a crypto-communist set on destroying Brazilian democracy and taking their country down the path of Cuba or Venezuela. Bolsonaro’s opponents worry that he will return Brazil to a military dictatorship.

To the south, Argentina is suffering another bout of Peronism and a division at the top of the country’s political structure. President Alberto Fernandez and Vice-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner simply don’t speak to each other. On top of that, Ms Kirchner has been convicted of fraud totalling $1 billion.

The resultant political vacuum and distractions at the top of the Argentine political tree, coupled with Peronism’s irresponsible spending has left the country with a crippling debt and 100 percent inflation rate. Thirty-seven percent of the country live below the poverty line.

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Mary Reid

Church of England creates community fund as compensation for investment in the slave trade

By Mary Reid | Wed 11th January 2023 - 1:21 pm

The Church of England has committed £100 million to a fund to “address past wrongs” over its investments in the slave trade in the 18th century. Of course, people will say it is too little, too late and will not reach those most affected, and I have some sympathy for that reaction. But it is nevertheless both a substantial commitment and a symbolic act which will hopefully encourage other public bodies to follow suit.

As an active member of the Church of England I applaud the stance of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Faced with demands for compensation he commissioned the “Church Commissioners Research into historic links to transatlantic chattel slavery“. (The Church Commissioners are the trustees responsible for the charitable funds of the Church of England.)

He has now set up an oversight group to manage the new fund “with significant membership from communities impacted by historic slavery”. However he does not use the term “reparations”, as the fund will not pay individuals; instead it will finance community projects in areas most affected by the slave trade.

Nothing can ever compensate for the greatest crime in western history, but that does not mean that nothing should be done.

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The Voice

“A wholly preventable NHS crisis”

By The Voice | Sun 8th January 2023 - 12:23 pm

Embed from Getty Images

For weeks now, our Health spokesperson, Daisy Cooper, has been energetically raising the issue of the crisis in the NHS on a daily basis. She has been calling for the Prime Minister to declare a major incident and to recall Parliament.

Here is today’s tweet.

 

In a press release she has outlined the Liberal Democrat’s Winter Plan for Ambulances.

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The Voice

Reminder: Conference motions deadlines on 11th January

By The Voice | Sat 7th January 2023 - 8:30 am

One great thing about being a member of the Liberal Democrats is that you can submit motions to be considered for debate at our two Conferences.

Scottish Spring Conference takes place in Dundee from 10-11 March and Federal Spring Conference is in York the weekend after. Both motions deadlines are this coming Wednesday, 11th January.

For Scottish Conference, all the info you need on how to submit motions is here. You need 10 members, or a party body, or local party to support you.

For Federal Conference, the motion submission form is here.

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Callum Robertson

Right diagnoses, wrong solution: why we should be a critical friend of maths until 18

By Callum Robertson | Thu 5th January 2023 - 10:31 am

On 4th January, Rishi Sunak announced plans to enforce the study of mathematics until students turned 18. This would be a major departure from current education policy of free subject choice for post-16 students in England.

This was immediately met with criticism from a range of groups, from education professionals who argue that the teacher shortage of maths professionals is just too great to cope with the additional demand, to people who had a bad experience in school with maths. The former problem is one I have substantial sympathy for, the latter is not a credible argument.

If we go beyond the headline and the immediate hyperbolic reaction, the proposal makes sense. Numeric illiteracy rates are costing the United Kingdom around £20 billion a year, or 1.3% of GDP according to research by the National Audit Office.

The Prime Minister’s proposal is an attempt to address the knowledge gap large parts of our population have. In this sense it is an exceptionally good idea. We must also combat the policy on what it is. Rishi Sunak has not proposed making students take an additional A Level in Mathematics. Nor has he proposed that it takes the same weighting as any other qualification 16-19 year olds are taking.

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NewsHound

Lib Dems call for government to declare NHS “major incident”

By NewsHound | Mon 2nd January 2023 - 5:42 pm

Over the New Year, Lib Dem MPs have been attacking the government’s record on our crisis ridden NHS. Government ministers are conspicuous by their absence and have not yet responded, leaving any comment to civil servants.

Today’s Times, Guardian the Independent and other media report that people are resorting to DIY medical treatments after failing to get face-to-face appointments with GPs. Some go to A&E instead. But up to 500 people a week are dying due to A&E delays according to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. Several NHS trusts have declared critical incidents. Ambulance staff in some trusts have been urged to conserve oxygen supplies due to a surge in demand.

The British Medical Association said:

The current situation in the NHS is intolerable and unsustainable, both for our patients and the hardworking staff desperately trying to keep up with incredibly high levels of demand.

The BMA has repeatedly invited the government to sit down and talk about the pressures on our health service, but their silence is deafening. It is disingenuous for the prime minister to talk about ‘backing the NHS’ in his new year message, when his own health secretary is failing to discuss how this crisis can be fixed.”

Daisy Cooper, Lib Dem health spokesperson said:

This is a life or death situation for huge numbers of patients. The NHS is collapsing in front of our eyes whilst the Prime Minister and Health Secretary are nowhere to be seen. This is a national crisis and the country will never forgive the Government if they refuse to recall Parliament whilst hundreds of people die in parked ambulances or hospital corridors.

Nobody should lose a loved one because the Government was asleep on the job.

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Old Bodders Political Almanac 2023

By Andy Boddington | Sun 1st January 2023 - 10:25 am

None of this is true but some of it could become true, though hopefully not.

January Records

After three prime ministers and 49 secretaries of state in 2022 — and more ministers than Old Bodders can count –  the Conservative Party applies to the Guinness Book of Records for the most changes in political leadership in a year. Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi tells the media: “At least we will have achieved something last year.”

Railway unions announce they will renounce strikes and work overtime to deliver record performance if train companies run well maintained trains to timetable. The train operators refuse saying they are not going to break with a long standing tradition.

February Fantasies

The Health Secretary Steve Barclay, the fourth since the beginning of 2022, announces that rural areas will get better treatment services and ambulance response times will be reduced. BBC R4 offers Barclay a late night comedy slot but ITV poaches him for I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. Brenda from Bristol tells the Today programme she’s also a celebrity and asks could someone get her out of hospital and into care.

Matt Hancock is confirmed as a contestant on ITV’s Love Island.

Not to be outdone by commercial rivals, the BBC announces a series of Celebrity Castaway. Sue Braverman and Priti Patel are invited to take part but must arrive on the island in rubber dinghies.

Keir Starmer, pressed to raise his profile, announces he is to join the next series of Big Brother saying: “If it’s good enough for George Galloway…”

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George Cunningham

President Xi’s Grand Zero-COVID Reversal: What are the Risks? 

By George Cunningham | Sat 31st December 2022 - 4:45 pm

President Xi has announced he will be opening China’s borders to travel by Chinese citizens  from Sunday 8th January,  a fortnight before the start of the 15-day celebration of the Chinese New Year which sees hundreds of millions of Chinese go on holiday inside and outside China to visit family and friends. 

Whilst this is normally a time of celebration, the number of COVID cases in China is rocketing into the hundreds of millions as well. The failure and then sudden reversal of Xi’s zero-COVID policy is a disaster for Chinese citizens. Their plight does not only deserve our fullest attention but any support we can give. 

The answer clearly is to fix the problem at home. However, Xi has turned down German Chancellor Scholz’s offer of our more effective mRNA COVID vaccines whilst not having concentrated on a comprehensive vaccination programme, even with China’s own less-potent vaccines. The cruel illogic of dictatorship is revealed once more, prestige and political survival counting more than life. 

Instead, Xi is putting at risk the health of the rest of the world, the second time COVID is being exported globally after the Chinese Communist Party initially suppressed information on COVID for a month when it appeared in Wuhan in 2019, allowing for its spread.

What should we do? Do the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe feel our citizens are protected enough with our own vaccines to open up to our Chinese visitors? Even if we could be, Xi’s folly is putting at risk those populations such as in Africa and Asia who have not been vaccinated to the same degree as in developed countries.  

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The Voice

Alex Cole-Hamilton’s New Year Message

By The Voice | Sat 31st December 2022 - 3:30 pm

Alex Cole-Hamilton committed the Scottish Liberal Democrats to fighting for the issues the Scottish people care about, such as the climate emergency and violence against women and girls, and help for those suffering from Long Covid in 2023. He paid tribute to health workers and said that Scots would overcome the challenges we face.

Here is his message in full:

As we approach the end of another year, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the twelve months that have just passed.

A year ago, while we were allowed to spend the holidays with our families and loved ones, we were still facing the emergence of Omicron and accessing pubs and bars still required ineffective Covid ID cards.

Now, thanks to the dedicated staff of our National Health Service and all those who served as vaccinators we have seen real progress both in Scotland and across the world in our fight against the pandemic and it is this which has allowed us to get back to some kind of normality.

This year has been a trying one for healthcare workers around the world, and we are incredibly grateful for their tireless efforts to keep us safe and healthy. Your hard work and dedication has not gone unnoticed, and Scottish Liberal Democrats will continue to support you and campaign for investment in the NHS and its staff to ensure it has the resources it needs to continue serving our communities.

In the new year, my party will continue to work across party lines to help find a way forward for our country. From tackling domestic violence to mental health to the climate emergency, the biggest issues facing the people of Scotland need to be give the time and attention they deserve.

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Ed Davey

Ed Davey’s New Year message

By Ed Davey | Sat 31st December 2022 - 11:00 am

Happy New Year! There’s a lot to look back on fondly in 2022:

  • The wonderful Jubilee street parties that brought communities together after so long kept apart by Covid.
  • The Lionesses brought football home at Wembley, and the men’s team put on a brilliant run at the World Cup too.
  • And another fantastic by-election victory for the Liberal Democrats!

But it has been a very difficult year too:

  • Vladimir Putin’s appalling war that has claimed the lives of thousands of brave Ukrainians.
  • Political chaos in the Conservative party, inflicting economic chaos on the rest of us.
  • And, of course, the very sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The end of a truly magnificent reign.

The New Year is an opportunity to turn the page and look ahead. And although things are tough for millions, I sense change is possible – so I look to the New Year with hope and optimism.

In 2023, we can look forward to a truly historic and joyful occasion for our family of nations: the coronation of our new King. Another chance for people to come together and celebrate in our communities and – hopefully – under clear skies.

So for 2023, I wish you and your family all the best. Let’s hope it’s a year of fresh starts – in more ways than one.

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Mary Reid

Munira Wilson challenges Government on free school meals

By Mary Reid | Fri 30th December 2022 - 10:08 am

It was Nick Clegg who introduced free school meals for all 5 to 7 year olds, while the Conservative partners in the coalition, notably George Osborne, resisted the proposal.

You might be surprised to learn that school meals date back over a century, although access and the quality of provision was variable until the 1944 Education Act. That required all Local Education Authorities to provide school meals for all, free to those who met certain poverty criteria, plus free school milk for all. It also laid down nutritional requirements for the meals.

Since then the requirements have been gradually eroded, in spite of numerous research findings which show the health and economic benefits, as well as educational ones, of providing universal access to nutritious meals to all children.

Maggie Thatcher was famously tagged “Milk snatcher” when, as Education Secretary, she removed free school milk in 1971. Then the Education Act 1980 removed the requirement to provide meals to all children unless they qualified for free meals. School canteens were given over to private contractors or simply turned into teaching spaces, packed lunches became the norm and nutritional guidelines withered.

It took a celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver, to lead the campaign for good food in schools and for a while things started to look better for the health of the nation’s children. But by 2019 60% of schools were still not meeting food standards.

And it took a celebrity footballer, Marcus Rashford, to shame the Government into extending free school meals into the holiday periods during Covid.

But it is a constant struggle between those who care about the impact of poverty on education versus those who worry about the “nanny state”.

Munira Wilson, our Education spokesperson, has consistently challenged the Government on its current provision of free school meals, achieving front page coverage.  Her latest campaign is seemingly quite a modest one – to ensure that all children who are eligible for free school meals under the current rules actually get them. It seems, astonishingly, that nearly a quarter of a million children go without because they haven’t been registered. She claims this should be an automatic process rather than one relying on opt-ins.

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Divided and confused Tories need a rest and we need a rest from them

By Andy Boddington | Wed 28th December 2022 - 9:45 am

If I was the editor of Conservative Home, I would be embarrassed to publish its annual poll of the most popular Tory MP. Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield won.

If you are struggling to remember who Anderson is, think of cooking 30p meals, a challenge a reporter from the Nottingham Post found impossible. Anderson is the former Labour councillor turned Tory MP who said people going to food banks can’t cook or budget. I wonder what he had for Christmas dinner. Maybe an out of date wet lettuce reduced at the supermarket checkout. He is a fully paid up member of the nasty party and infamously can’t cope with hecklers, telling one: “If you smartened yourself up, you’d make a good tramp.” And he faked a doorstep interview but didn’t have the sense to turn off a microphone while arranging the stunt.

Perhaps it was this this nastiness and lack of integrity that led to him being voted Backbencher of the Year by Conservative Home’s panel of readers. How representative those readers are of Conservatives at large is unknown. Anderson gained a mere 54 of 553 total votes. You don’t have to have a degree in statistics to recognise that is less than 10% of votes. What a dismal showing. Although Conservative Home voters could select their own candidates, it is clear there nowhere near a consensus among dedicated Tories.

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