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Alex Cole-Hamilton’s debut speech: EU is most important charter for freedom the world has ever seen

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 26th May 2016 - 3:48 pm

There is a reason I have spent so much time and energy over the past decade trying to get Alex Cole-Hamilton elected to the Scottish Parliament. I hope the video of his debut speech this morning will help you understand it too.

I had pretty high expectations, if I’m honest. The subject, the EU, is one of his strong points. Last year he won best speaker in the Charles Kennedy Memorial Debate on our continued membership of the EU. Alex managed to exceed even my lofty expectations today.

He paid tribute to his immediate predecessor and to Margaret Smith, who, as Liberal Democrat MSP for Edinburgh West until 2011, had played such a huge role in getting Free Personal Care through.

On Europe, he highlighted the role of the EU in preserving the peace. Only the last two generations of his family have been free from the losses of European war. As well as preserving the peace, the EU helps us tackle the challenges facing our world which know no borders, like climate change and human trafficking, he argued. The case he made for the EU was persuasive, inspiring and optimistic.

The full text is below:

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Posted in News | Also tagged Alex Cole-Hamilton, eu referendum, holyrood, Scotland, shirley wiliams and tim farron | 7 Comments

Online abuse might not break bones, but it can come close to breaking your spirit

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 22nd May 2016 - 6:22 pm

The internet is a pretty torrid place at the best of times. Some users delight in throwing rage, bile and abuse around the place. If you are a woman the abuse can be particularly graphic, sexualised and incredibly unpleasant.

In a feature for Radio 5 live, 3 politicians, including our former minister Jo Swinson, talk about their experiences of online abuse and how it affected them. Also taking part are my SNP MP Hannah Bardell and Labour’s Diane Abbott, who gets a whole load of racist bile thrown in just for good measure.

This is fairly routine for any woman who commits the “offence” of going on the internet in possession of an opinion. I’ve come in for it myself and it does wear you down. There was a time a couple of years ago where it really started to affect me badly and reduced me to tears on several occasions. The European elections disaster and the independence referendum combined to create what seemed to be a never-ending spiral of abuse. The most hurtful came from commenters on this site, members of the party, some of whom I actually know in real life, who said some pretty unpleasant personal stuff, but they were just part of it. It felt that wherever I turned, there was nastiness.

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Posted in News | Also tagged Jo Swinson and online abuse | 30 Comments

David Rendel memorial event will be held on 4th July

By Paul Walter | Thu 19th May 2016 - 10:45 am

Earlier this week, we reported the sad death of former Liberal Democrat MP David Rendel.

David’s funeral will be attended only by members of his family but all will be welcome at a memorial event to be held on Monday 4th July at the Corn Exchange, Market Place, Newbury, starting at 1.00 pm.

There will be an opportunity to make a donation to charity in David’s name – details will be announced in due course.

It is particularly fitting that the memorial event is being held at the Corn Exchange. It is an historic and striking building in the centre of the town he loved, Newbury. David led the campaign to save the Corn Exchange from closure and revitalize it as a modern arts and entertainment venue.

My photo above shows David, with the Houses of Parliament in the background, on the anti-Iraq war demonstration with other Liberal Democrats on 15th February 2003.

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Posted in Obituaries | Also tagged david rendel and newbury | Leave a comment

Was this the funniest moment of the coalition?

By Nick T | Thu 19th May 2016 - 9:34 am

Four years ago this week. Enjoy:

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Posted in Humour | Also tagged tessa munt | 1 Comment

What being in the EU has meant for my family

By Stuart Bonar | Wed 18th May 2016 - 2:20 pm

What has Europe ever done for me? It’s a question that the impending referendum has caused me to ask myself. I had always been supportive, but throwing myself into the campaign to remain meant I needed to be clear in my mind why I was supportive and what the benefits were. And having helped so far at street stalls in Truro, Plymouth, Taunton, Yeovil, Bristol and Stroud, it has proved a useful exercise as voters have rightly demanded to know what good the EU has done.

And the way I thought about it was to think about the generations of my own family. How have their lives been different because the EU exists and because we’re in?

Take my father, for example. He was a Royal Marine in the Sixties and Seventies. My brother too served in the armed forces, in the Eighties and Nineties, and his daughter – my niece – too. And my brother-in-law is a serviceman today and has been so for about 20 years. All of them have seen active service, but none of them thankfully were thrown into a conflict on the European mainland. Indeed, in the case of my father and brother, they once stood ready to defend our country from communist dictatorships in eastern Europe that are today our democratic friends and allies.

It is true that Nato helped prevent war between the West and the East during the Cold War, and stands ready to defend us today should Putin get a bit too trigger-happy. But there is a difference between an absence of war and a culture of peace. And it has been the European Union that has made it the boring, day-to-day norm that European countries talk with each other and work with each other on the big issues facing our continent. And it was the pull of EU membership, not the defensive military alliance of Nato, that helped embed democratic government and civil liberties in those eastern Europe countries that joined the EU a decade or so ago.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged eu and eu referendum | 19 Comments

What does the Queen’s Speech mean for Liberal Democrat strategy?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 18th May 2016 - 7:48 am

When the Government sets out its agenda for the next year in the Queen’s Speech, it gives the other parties a chance to do the same. What can we learn from the frenzy of Liberal Democrat activity in the press in the past few days about where we might be going.

Well, Tim had a piece in the Huffington Post the other day that put education at the heart of our thinking. This is far from being a new concept. It’s one of our core principles that we’ve always talked about. Tim had developed a 5-point education charter with the aim of giving young people and the economy the skills they need for the modern world.

The future is full of exciting opportunities, as technology changes the way we work and live. However, there are also massive challenges, from giving people the skills they need to adapt to our changing economy, to tackling climate change.

Education is key to meeting these challenges. That is why the Liberal Democrat vision is for a country which enshrines the rights of every child to a decent education. We believe this should be the number one priority of the Government when they set out their agenda. We are calling for a Charter for Education which guarantees every child is taught a curriculum which includes creative arts subjects, sports, languages, technical and vocational courses and practical life skills.

Over the years education has become more about passing tests and getting a good Ofsted rating than making sure children get the skills they need and grow into healthy, happy and confident adults. This is harmful for young people, and my fear is that it will leave them ill-equipped to deal with the challenges – and opportunities – of the future.

It’s a bit more satisfying than the Tories’ battle with teachers and local authorities for the sake of it. It also looks at wellbeing and happiness which are crucially important.

The nuts and bolts of the Charter are:

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged Alistair Carmichael, alternative queen's speech 2016, jim wallace, queen's speech 2016, tim farron and tom brake | 10 Comments

David Rendel 1949-2016

By Paul Walter | Tue 17th May 2016 - 1:18 pm

As we reported earlier, former Liberal Democrat MP David Rendel has died aged 67.

David was born in 1949 in Athens, Greece. His father was a foreign correspondent for The Times, and he was a great-grandson of civil engineer Sir Alexander Meadows Rendel, and a great-great-nephew of Liberal MP Stuart Rendel, the first Baron Rendel, a benefactor of William Gladstone, as noted in Roy Jenkins’ book “Gladstone: A Biography”.

David was educated first at Horris Hill school, Newtown, Hampshire, and then as a scholar at Eton College. He spent 14 months as a volunteer teacher in Cameroon and Uganda with Voluntary Service Overseas. Afterwards he went to Magdalen College and St Cross College, Oxford where he gained a degree in Physics and Philosophy and rowed in the record-breaking Boat Race crew of 1974.

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Posted in Obituaries | Also tagged david rendel, obituaries, paddy ashdown, roy jenkins and william ewart gladstone | 7 Comments

Liberal Democrats for Free Trade

By Richard Flowers | Thu 12th May 2016 - 12:51 pm

In my view, trade benefits all countries. It spreads technology and good practice; it stimulates competition and rejuvenates economies.

Vince Cable, less than six months after being appointed Business Secretary, said that back in 2010 as he welcomed the EU-South Korea trade agreement.

Liberal Democrats should loud and proud make the case for Free Trade.

It ought to be inconceivable that we have to have this argument again.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged free trade, ttip and vince cable | 69 Comments

#Intogether’s National Day of Action to make positive case to remain in the EU

By Iain Gill | Wed 11th May 2016 - 4:00 pm

With the local elections behind us, the time has come to turn our full attention as a Party to the upcoming Europe Referendum which is just 6 weeks away. On 23^rd June, Britain must decide what kind of country we want to be: inward-looking and cut off from the world or proudly leading from the front, at the heart of Europe.

Tonight, Tim Farron, speaking in London, will make the positive, progressive case for Britain remaining in Europe, recognising the future benefits of close relations with our neighbours and natural partners, and how investing in each other’s economies and sharing in prosperity can make Britain even greater than it is now.

This Saturday we are hosting our first National Day of Action of the #INtogether campaign and the response from local parties has been overwhelming! We have 199 street stalls planned across the country, with well over 150 local parties taking part.

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Posted in News | Also tagged #INtogether, eu and national day of action 14 may | 10 Comments

Lord Anthony Lester writes…We will march in the streets for the BBC

By Lord Anthony Lester | Wed 11th May 2016 - 11:58 am

Embed from Getty Images

Tomorrow the government will publish a white paper setting out its plans for the future of the BBC. At the BAFTA awards on Sunday the director Peter Kosminsky rightly received a standing ovation. He used his acceptance speech to voice his fear that the White Paper will compromise our precious, independent, world-renowned organisation. He cautioned that the BBC was on a path to evisceration that would leave the broadcasting landscape bereft – and the output of television and radio determined solely by what lines the pockets of shareholders.

Those fears are not fanciful. The BBC has retained its reputation for world-class programming over the last decade despite increasingly painful cuts. As Lord Patten pointed out in a major lecture at the Reuter’s institute last week, the BBC’s real income has fallen over the past decade by more than 15%. In the past five years alone BSkyB’s revenues went up by more than 16% and ITV’s increased by 21%.

Being effective as a public services broadcaster depends on having a guaranteed source of revenue. That is and has been the licence fee. It must be owned by the BBC, not by the government. It must not be sliced off to feed commercial rivals. The government has no business raiding it, like when it dumped the cost of free licences for the over 75s on the BBC rather than taxpayers. That undermined morale within the BBC as well as public trust and confidence. The BBC is not an arm of government that sets welfare policy and it would cause public outrage if it were forced to become one. The BBC must stand independent from government, free to call it to account.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bbc, broadcasting and liberal democrat lords | 19 Comments

Kirsty Williams stands down as Leader of Welsh Lib Dems

By Mary Reid | Fri 6th May 2016 - 5:47 pm

Kirsty Williams has announced that she is standing down as Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, following the bruising results in the Assembly election. She explained here:

I can’t tell you how much of a privilege it has been to serve this party as leader over the last eight years, but with that privilege comes responsibility. Despite our best efforts, and a positive campaign, it has not been enough.

And for that, I must take responsibility.

In these new circumstances, the party will want to reflect and consider the way

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged kirsty williams | 19 Comments

Tim Farron MP writes…The Government must deliver for refugee children

By Tim Farron MP | Wed 4th May 2016 - 7:30 pm

In October 2015 I used my first PMQ as leader to urge David Cameron to give a home to 3,000 vulnerable unaccompanied children who had fled war and persecution and were now in Europe. Save the Children, who launched the campaign, had calculated that 3,000 was the UK’s ‘fair share’ of the 26,000 unaccompanied children estimated to have arrived in Europe since the start of the refugee crisis. Six months on and with the numbers of unaccompanied children in Europe having skyrocketed to 90,000 the Government has finally capitulated in principle to take some children from Europe.What started as a …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged child refugees and tim farron | 10 Comments

Tom Brake MP writes…It’s time to reform renting

By Tom Brake | Fri 29th April 2016 - 7:40 pm

Recently at my surgery I met a distressed young woman who came to see me with her mother. Repairs are outstanding on their rented property. The landlord is refusing to sort them out while at the same time putting pressure on them to leave their flat. She didn’t know where to go or what to do.

This is a familiar story and it is no exaggeration to say that we have a national emergency in housing. There are vast numbers of people living in fear and uncertainty and in 2016 that is simply unacceptable.

We clearly have a rental sector which is broken. Many people are spending over half their disposable income on rent and yet a third of homes fail to meet the Government’s decent homes standard, with over 60% of renters having experienced either damp, mould, leaking roofs or windows, electrical hazards, animal infestation or gas leaks, according to a recent survey commissioned by Shelter.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged housing, Parliament, private rented sector, renting and tom brake mp | 13 Comments

Tim Pickstone writes…Help make the difference next Thursday

By Tim Pickstone | Fri 29th April 2016 - 12:59 pm

All Liberal Democrats will remember what it felt like on Friday 8^th May last year, the morning after the terrible 2015 General Election results .

This Thursday is our first big chance to build a more positive story about the progress we’ve made since, with voters going to the polls in one or more elections right across the UK.

A lot has been said about the Lib Dem ‘fightback’, but in politics it is elections that matter and our opportunity to ensure the Party makes a massive step forwards from 2015.

How well we perform next week will largely be up to us: Lib Dem members, activists and helpers. We will make the difference between Lib Dems getting elected, or the opposition winning.

Thousands of people – candidates, activists, helpers, party staff have already been working hard for months. But to get across the finish line we need everyone to help.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged elections and tim pickstone | Leave a comment

Farron makes pitch to centre left voters – support Lib Dems for good local councillors and effective opposition to Tories

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 29th April 2016 - 8:54 am

At about 8:45, Tim Farron made a flying visit to Alex Cole-Hamilton’s campaign HQ in Edinburgh Western. He did notice that the SNP office next door was already in darkness.

The visit had an additional bonus for us as the campaigns staff from Scottish HQ pitched up yesterday afternoon and pronounced the place not tidy enough to receive the leader and proceeded to tidy it up for us. No doubt we won’t be able to find anything this morning.

Tim was highly impressed with what he’d seen, which is definitely a compliment given the amount of campaigning that goes on on his patch.

He also told us of his visit to Cardiff Central and candidate Eluned Parrott where he visited a refugee centre and played football with some of the refugees. We know how strongly he feels that we should be doing more to help refugees from conflict and particularly those children already in Europe. He told us how he’d just been speaking to one of the “Windermere Boys”, a group of young men who were welcomed to the Lake District after being rescued from the death camps at the end of World War 2. They had gone on to build successful lives for themselves, serving the community in many ways, too. Helping people in these desperate circumstances is, Tim said, the least we can do.

This morning, he is visiting a nursery in Cowdenbeath with Willie Rennie, with the challenge from us that he has to at least match Willie Rennie being interviewed on a slide at our manifesto launch.

First, though, he was up early to be on both Radio 5 live and the Today programme to talk about the Lib Dem local election campaign. He made a very clear pitch to centre left voters, asking them to lend their vote to the Liberal Democrats. For that, they’ll get a brilliant local councillor to represent them locally and the appalling Tory government would be held to account He emphasised how the Liberal Democrats had shown more gains in votes and seats in local council by-elections since last May than anyone else.

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Posted in News | Also tagged Alex Cole-Hamilton, local elections 2016, Scotland, scottish parliament elections 2016 and tim farron | 3 Comments

Congratulations to Suzanne Fletcher for winning ALDE’s Lifetime Achievement Award!

By The Voice | Mon 25th April 2016 - 4:38 pm

In a ceremony earlier today Suzanne Fletcher was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).

Suzanne is known nationally amongst Liberal Democrats for her tireless campaigns in support of refugees and asylum seekers, and in particular for setting up Liberal Democrats for Seekers of Sanctuary (LD4SOS).

Amazed, humbled to win Lifetime Achievement Award #ALDELeaDeR2016.wonderful to be amongst so many wonderful Liberals doing good work in Eu

— LD4SOS (@LD4SOS) April 25, 2016

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Posted in News | Also tagged ALDE and suzanne fletcher | 2 Comments

Review: Coalition, by David Laws

By Nick T | Thu 21st April 2016 - 1:01 pm

Coalition: The Inside Story of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government (Biteback; £25)

If journalistic reportage is the first rough draft of history, then the politicians’ memoir has a good claim to be the second — at least as far as contemporary political history is concerned.

Few are better placed to give the inside account of the UK’s first national coalition in living memory than David Laws. Laws was at the heart of the coalition before it had even been conceived, as part of a small Lib Dem team preparing for a hung parliament, and was then one of four Liberal Democrats to make up the party’s negotiating team when possibility became a reality in May 2010. From thereon in he bore witness to every significant decision made over the next five years, even though two of those years were ostensibly spent on the backbenches.

Laws has two other advantages, too. The first is the intelligence and insight that has earned him respect across the Lib Dem party — even from those with whom he often disagrees — and beyond. The second is his proximity to Nick Clegg, who allowed Laws access to his papers from his time as deputy prime minister in the preparation of this book.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david laws | 23 Comments

In conversation with David Laws

By York Membery | Sun 17th April 2016 - 8:55 am

Embed from Getty Images

The former Liberal Democrat MP and government minister discusses his new book about the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government, says what he would do differently in hindsight, and looks into his crystal ball to see what the future holds for the party…

Your new book about the Coalition has certainly made a few waves following its Sunday newspaper serialisation – the right kind of waves?

I think inevitably there is a temptation in the press to shed light on things which are currently topical, such as Tory divisions on the referendum. But the primary reason I wrote the book was to give an accurate, historic account of the Coalition and a proper explanation of our part in it – and if the serialisation results in more people reading the book, so much the better.

It sounds like you’re, by and large, proud of what the Lib Dems achieved in government?

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged coalition, david laws and interviews | 22 Comments

The “trailblazing, hell-raising rule breaking Rennie”

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 15th April 2016 - 4:28 pm

Another Friday, another day Willie Rennie wins the internet.

I don’t think there has ever been such fun at a manifesto launch ever.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats’ manifesto is centred around opportunity in so many ways. Children are at the very heart of it, so it seemed appropriate that the event took place in a soft play event in Edinburgh. And if you are going to go there, you need to get into the spirit of the place. You can’t afford to look too stiff and sober. And Willie didn’t.

The team got three specific things right. First a bit of humour, reminding everyone how you won the internet last week too.

Yaaaaas. Percy Pigs have been laid on by the Lib Dems after that video incident. pic.twitter.com/9UHLvni9HQ

— Jamie Ross (@JamieRoss7) April 15, 2016

And, let’s be honest, it’s a bit of a treat to imagine hard-nosed political hacks being asked to wait in a room like this:

This is the press room at the Lob Dem manifesto launch. pic.twitter.com/8wRCsKu14e

— Jamie Ross (@JamieRoss7) April 15, 2016

Finally, if you have a leader who can do a 3 second pitch while going down a slide, then that’s a talent you have to exploit.

Jamie Ross from Buzzfeed absolutely loved it:

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged manifesto 2016, Scotland, scottish parliament elections 2016 and willie rennie | Leave a comment

Offshore 101, or: Can we please stop asking David Cameron to resign?

By Alice Thomas | Thu 14th April 2016 - 12:56 pm

One of my favourite things about the Liberal Democrats is members don’t just get stuck into debates – they go looking for the evidence to back up what they’ve got to say. That’s why this week’s furore around what David Cameron did or didn’t do has been so frustrating.

The Panama Papers are fascinating to me, as a lawyer and a would-be tax specialist. It looks likely that when the dust has settled there will be evidence of money laundering, of tax evasion, of tax avoidance and of regulatory failings. But so far most journalists and commentators are throwing around words like fund and trust as if they’re the same thing, and treating tax avoidance, tax evasion and money laundering as equivalent acts. Unfortunately, much of the social media discussion so far has accepted these red herrings.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david cameron and panama papers | 57 Comments

LibLink: Vince Cable makes the case for TTIP and free trade

By The Voice | Thu 14th April 2016 - 9:36 am

Vince Cable, who was involved in negotiations over the proposed EU-US trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, in his role as business secretary, has been writing about the issue, and that of free trade more generally.

Vince first summarises the rationale for TTIP:

The European Commission has prioritised a bilateral agreement with the USA: TTIP, which is proving a source of unexpected controversy, although negotiations are still at an early stage. The underlying objective is to apply, on a transatlantic basis, the same approach that helped to create the EU Single Market. Since, as within the EU, tariffs and quotas are no longer a major issue the emphasis has been on preventing differences in standards, mainly technical, acting as a barrier to trade. There are, for example, different specifications for seatbelt design and testing that make it difficult to export in both directions. In effect, a different production line is required to sell into the USA, which can be prohibitive, especially for low volume manufacturers.

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged free trade, ttip and vince cable | 41 Comments

Tim Farron launches blueprint for UK to take 3000 unaccompanied refugee children

By The Voice | Wed 13th April 2016 - 5:22 pm

Tim Farron has this afternoon published his blueprint for how the UK could take 3000 unaccompanied refugee children.

Earlier he spoke to the Daily Politics about the plan and his visit to Northern Greece yesterday.

“We know at least 10,000 have gone missing in the hands of traffickers” says @timfarron on child refugees #bbcdp https://t.co/VTpacwulaZ

— DailySunday Politics (@daily_politics) April 13, 2016

The plan has been drawn up in consultation with the charities and NGOs who attended his recent summit on the issue. The main recommendations are as follows:

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Posted in News | Also tagged eu, refugee crisis and tim farron | 11 Comments

Baroness Lynne Featherstone writes…The State killed my nephew

By Lynne Featherstone | Mon 11th April 2016 - 10:00 am

It’s true. Nick was a haemophiliac and was infected with Hepatitis C and exposed to CJD through NHS treatment. And the Government knew the treatments were contaminated. They were warned. The NHS used blood treatment which bought blood – from American convicts. But the government carried on using contaminated blood products despite those warnings.

The result was 4670 haemophiliacs in the UK infected with HIV, Hepatitis C or both – and many exposed to CJD. In regard of the latter the consequences of that exposure are still unknown. In terms of HIV and Hepatitis C almost all haemophiliacs were infected with one or other or both. Over 2000 have died.

Nick died of Hepatitis C – or rather he died from a treatment meant to cure it. Nick was 35 years old, and left a 10 month old daughter, his partner of fourteen years. Nick’s mother (my sister), his father and his twin will never get over that loss. And that loss is made worse by the battle to get financial support and to get the government to admit its fault. It has never done so. The crucial papers were destroyed according the Department of Health. Lord David Owen, former British Health Minister said ‘I can see why some people would be unhappy with having all the facts revealed because it will show negligence’. No public inquiry has taken place. It must.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged compensation, contaminated blood, england, haemophilia and hepatitis c | 4 Comments

Tim Farron on tax: “We must not miss this opportunity to change the system”

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 10th April 2016 - 5:03 pm

Tim Farron has written a note about tax on his Facebook page. As party leaders publish their tax returns, (including Willie Rennie, that’s 5 minutes of your life you won’t get back if you choose to read this unremarkable document), he says that it’s actually the system you need to change. He’ll publish his in the next few days, but that is not really the point. Here are his comments in full:

The politics of envy helps no-one, but trust in politics does.

I have no desire to poke around in the Prime Minister’s private wealth, and definitely have no desire to force him to relive the pain of losing his father, having to confront that time all over again through the pages of national newspapers.

It is absolutely essential that British people have full confidence in our leaders, and that when decisions are made and Budgets are written there is not even a slightest hint of a conflict of interest or personal gain. But we are now in a position where people no longer have complete faith in this Government’s decisions.

Trust in politics and our ability to get things done is taking another hammering. It’s an poor indictment of our political system that the demand is now so great for the public to see politicians’ tax affairs. Are we now in a world where there is an assumption that a politician is doing wrong, or is playing the system?

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Posted in LibLink and News | Also tagged tax, tax returns, tim farron and vince cable | 17 Comments

ALDC’s by-election report: 31 March 2016

By ALDC | Fri 1st April 2016 - 5:17 pm

Five principal council by-elections took place yesterday. In Craven (DC), an Independent candidate made a gain from the Conservatives in Embsay with Eastby ward. In a head-to-head contest with the Conservatives, the Independent polled 79.9% in what was the fourth by-election loss for the Tories in March.

There was also success for the Richmondshire Independents in the Richmond Central by-election in Richmondshire (DC). The Independents made a gain from the local Liberal Democrats in receiving 35% of the vote to finish 31 votes ahead of Lib Dem candidate Philip Knowles.

Elshewhere, the SNP collected 49.5% of the first preference votes in securing a hold in Maryfield ward in Dundee (UA). Christopher McIntyre came in fifth place for the Liberal Democrats with 3% of the first preferences. There was also a comfortable hold for Labour in Caerphilly (UA) as they polled 55.7% in Moriah ward.

In Essex (CC), the Holland-on-Sea Residents Association gained a seat from Tendring First in Clacton East division with an 820 vote majority.

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Posted in News | Also tagged local government by-elections | 5 Comments

Exciting new venue for Spring Conference

By The Voice | Fri 1st April 2016 - 8:31 am

Embed from Getty Images

A party source has exclusively revealed to LDV that the Federal Conference Committee is seriously considering holding the 2020 Spring Conference in the Isles of Scilly.

As a first priority, after complaints about the lack of real ales in the Novotel at York, members of the Committee have rigorously checked the quality of the cask ale on offer in the conference hotel and can reassure party members on that score.

Travel to the venue will be memorable. Inspired by the razzle-dazzle ferries in Liverpool, the Conference Office is discussing with a ferry company the possibility of painting one for the occasion in a variety of Lib Dem shades of yellow and orange; there will also be an aqua-coloured rowing boat with sufficient capacity for that colour’s fans.

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Posted in News | 29 Comments

Papers score Willie Rennie as debate winner

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 30th March 2016 - 2:30 pm

After the second televised Scotish Leaders’ debate of the election, three newspapers have judged Willie Rennie to be the winner. The Press and Journal, not known for its undying devotion to the Liberal Democrat cause, gave him and Labour’s Kezia Dugdale the winning 7/10 score, saying that he “spoke with a personal touch.”

The Scottish Daily Mail, similarly without a history of Lib Dem love, also gave him 7/10, but made him the outright winner.

The Courier gave him 8/10 and also called him the winner.

Here’s a summary of the media coverage:

The verdict on #ScotDebates is in. @willie_rennie had so much fun he wants another debate https://t.co/9mHboQ1gVW pic.twitter.com/gks5rfJn3o

— Scot Lib Dems (@scotlibdems) March 30, 2016

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged Scotland, scottish leaders' debates and willie rennie | 10 Comments

John Pugh writes: Our vision for Education

By John Pugh | Mon 28th March 2016 - 4:16 pm

In 2010 Michael Gove, acting before the ink was dry on the Coalition agreement, rushed the Academies Bill through Parliament. Governors were free to turn their school into an Academy Trust, without canvassing parental or local opinion . This being a little high-handed, I moved an amendment during the Commons debate requiring school governors to consult parents – particularly important as the government were pressing on with this radical change during the school holidays.

Gaining the support of Ed Balls, then Labour party Education spokesman, I pushed it to the vote and divided the House. We lost as most of my colleagues voted against and the Whips angrily informed me that trying to amend government legislation, however crass, was not how coalition in the Commons was meant to work. Now in 2016 we have even school governors sidelined as the Academy bandwagon, courtesy of the Tories smashes through every barrier.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged academies and education | 19 Comments

A longer read for the weekend: Tributes to Lord Eric Avebury

By Keith Porteous Wood | Sat 26th March 2016 - 10:05 am

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Eric Reginald Lubbock, Fourth Baron Avebury, died last month aged 87. The House of Lords held a memorial meeting for Lord Avebury last Tuesday, 22nd March. Here are some recollections of the meeting, and a personal note, from Keith Porteous Wood, who was Lord Avebury’s honorary researcher the last 15 years. For his role over the abolition of the blasphemy law, Eric was co-awarded Secularist of the Year by the National Secular Society of which he was an Honorary Associate, and of which Keith Porteous Wood is Executive Director.

Relatives, parliamentarians, friends and other admirers of Lord Avebury gathered to pay their respects at a meeting led by Baroness Hussein-Ece. The meeting was convened at the request of Rubab Mehdi Rizvi, chairperson of International Imam Hussain Council of which Eric was a patron and trustee. The family will be arranging a memorial meeting on 30 June.

Eric’s eldest son, Lyulph, now the fifth Baron, made clear that he had not followed the family tradition of being a politician. Six of the eight past family members who had been had been parliamentarians were Liberal or LibDem.

John William, Eric’s youngest son, spoke movingly of his Father and gave a spectacularly long list of Eric’s many campaigns, but even this proved incomplete as speaker after speaker added yet another worthy feat.

My strongest impression of the meeting was the number of people who said that Eric had made them feel “really special”. One who said this amused everyone by saying that she had almost felt jealous on discovering how many other people she had to share this with.

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Posted in Something for the Weekend | Also tagged lord avebury | 4 Comments

David Laws’s ‘Coalition’ – the coverage

By Nick T | Thu 24th March 2016 - 11:00 am

David Laws’s account of his and our party’s time in government, Coalition, was published earlier this week by Biteback, having been serialised in the Mail on Sunday.

Keep an eye out for a review here on LDV soon, but in the meantime here’s a round-up of what others have been saying.

The BBC have put together this film featuring former Lib Dem advisers Polly Mackenzie and Phil Reilly, and David was on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.

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Posted in News | Also tagged david laws | 23 Comments