Tag Archives: featured

Lord William Wallace

We should be setting the agenda, not following it

By Lord William Wallace | Mon 2nd September 2024 - 1:45 pm

After such a successful national election campaign, led by a coherent leadership team, I hesitate to disagree with Mark Pack’s August Report (LibDem Voice August 20th) on ‘the New Political Landscape’. But I don’t agree that in the first year after a decisive election our party’s campaign themes should be driven primarily by what the polls tell us about public priorities and what voters want to hear. Political parties should aim to set the agenda when they can, not simply respond to existing public anxieties.

A political party has to appeal to three different audiences: to the wider public, directly on the doorstep, through leaflets and postings, and indirectly through the access we hope to gain via the respect of professionals in the media; to the small proportion of UK citizens actively interested in political issues, who we hope will be persuaded to join us and contribute actively (and financially) to our campaigns; and to the even smaller group of commentators on politics in written, broadcast and social media, who summarise and interpret partisan politics to the wider public.

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Zagham Farhan

In defence of Britain – lessons from death

By Zagham Farhan | Sun 25th August 2024 - 8:55 am

Earlier this week I lost my grandmother, and while it’s been a deeply challenging week, especially for my mother and grandfather, I’ve been struck on numerous occasions with the way in which the British state came to our aid- and made the process go as perfectly as we could have asked for. 

The healthcare she received was beyond excellent and was done with a kindness and compassion that still surprises me in its depth. My sister heads off to medical school in about three weeks, and I very much hope that that is the kind of Doctor that she turns into. 

Having worked at a GP surgery for a year, I’m cognisant of the fact that the NHS is on its knees, and I suspect won’t survive for many more years bar reform of the highest order (which our new Prime Minister has neither the will nor the political capital to deliver). But I sincerely hope that we never lose the ethos of the system; that everyone matters, and that health doesn’t come with the tap of a credit card, but instead with a beaming smile. 

We knew from about 10.00 on Wednesday that she wasn’t going to make it through the day, and from that moment to her passing at almost 18.00 the staff in the ICU did not make a single mistake. The rest of my family remains quite religious, and at no point did they falter in aiding us in the religious acts that people wanted to undertake. They provided white string and cotton wool, tracked down a hijab for my sister. I will never forget the image of a female Chaplain with a Scottish accent delivering a booklet of Islamic prayers and asking if the Chaplaincy could help find an Imam. I said to my parents at the time; in how many other countries would we get this? Multiculturalism in all its glory, and human compassion shining through.

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Vince Cable

Vince Cable writes: Caring less for Carers

By Vince Cable | Wed 21st August 2024 - 11:55 am

One of the political messages which did get through in the July General Election – thanks to Ed Davey – was the vital importance, but also the chronic neglect, of carers. There are an estimated 1 in 5 of the population who care, unpaid, for sick or disabled loved ones: a vast invisible army without whom society would literally fall apart. Ed was able to use his own direct experience as a carer, and that of his upbringing, to highlight some of the problems – which are growing as the population ages and as fiscal pressures grow. 

Having got the issue on the agenda, what do we say and do about it? First, we need to sweep away some of the complexity and topical red herrings like the mooted, but now abandoned, ‘cap’ on social care costs.  A key starting point is the distinction between the 1.5 million care workers who are the professional backbone of adult social care (that is, care outside the NHS) and the estimated 10 million unpaid carers who are estimated to be the equivalent of 4 million paid care workers. The care workers are usually very badly paid, have minimal career progression and often have stressful working conditions which is why 10% of vacancies are unfilled and why recruitment depends very heavily on immigration from Asia and Africa. 

The unpaid carers are more numerous and less visible. Any conscientious MP or councillor will know however of the horror stories and heroics amongst carers: bereaved or abandoned children caring for other children to stay out of care homes; parents struggling to manage children with complex needs requiring 24-hour attention; elderly couples with waning powers and strength trying to help each other to manage a home and combat loneliness;  or the daughter (usually) of a frail or disabled parent trying to manage children, part-time job and mum.  Local councils provide some domiciliary support subject to means tests and -rising- thresholds of physical need which, itself, needs – scarce – social worker assessment. Almost 80% of carers receive no support. 

Carers’ needs are not just financial or physical. Caring imposes heavy emotional demands. My limited experience caring for my late wife when terminally ill was demanding enough and I was lucky to have a supportive family and friends and reasonable finances.  My wife was brave, lucid and engaged unlike the growing numbers of elderly, dementia sufferers who tax the emotional reserves of their carers. Many carers have had to give up careers and leisure, are isolated and lonely and worried stiff about money. The most useful support is often respite: time out for exercise, shopping, meeting people. But day respite care, let alone holidays, is patchy at best.

Helping carers usually involves money- for more, high quality, professional carers to support those struggling at home; more, better funded respite centres; more generous carers’ allowances; more generous eligibility tests for support. And that means more money channelled through cash strapped local government. Eyes inevitably roll at the mention of money. But support for carers is not a financial black hole; it keeps the frail elderly out of hospital and in the community; children out of care homes and specialist institutions. It keeps families together and the elderly from expensive institutional care. 

But for those of us who don’t subscribe to the tree theory of money there are difficult choices and trade-offs to be made. That is the context of the review of public spending being undertaken by the Labour government. The care sector – and local government, which is responsible for most of it – is facing austerity piled on austerity and is in competition for funds with the courts, prisons, defence, public sector workers and much else. Clearly taxes must rise but no one expects the tax increases to be remotely adequate to meet the current pressure on public services. It is important therefore to get priorities right.

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Mark Pack

Mark Pack’s August report: The new political landscape

By Mark Pack | Tue 20th August 2024 - 11:42 am

The new political landscape

We can – and should and will – continue to celebrate our general election result, and to thank everyone who contributed to it, for a good while yet. As people catch breath after those huge efforts, we also need to start to look to the future political landscape.

We have a mandate from the millions of people who voted for us, we need to work to deliver that mandate. But what difference to that task will the new political landscape make?

That is the question we need to collectively address as we develop our plans for this Parliament.

As we do so, there is an important lesson to bear in mind. It is perhaps the most salutary lesson for anyone involved in politics, particularly in a party in opposition. It comes from looking at the long-run data series from pollsters Ipsos (formerly MORI) asking people which issues are most important to them and to the country.

It is both electorally wise – and fundamentally liberal – to pay attention to what people say matters most to them. We are not paternalists who think we know what is best for others, we are liberals who believe people know best for themselves.

As the Ipsos series uses an open ended question, and so caters for changing terminology and focus over the years (e.g. from European Community to EEC to European Union to Brexit), it provides a good insight into how and when the public’s concerns change.

The salutary lesson? You can certainly see people’s concerns change as events happen, such as rising inflation driving cost of living concerns up. You can also, to a degree, see the impact that a sustained focus on a policy area by the government can make, such as – although spectacularly unsuccessfully as their landslide defeat showed – by the last Conservative government on immigration.

But for the main opposition party, let alone for a smaller one? It is very hard to spot much scope to shift the public’s agenda. Rather, the real political skill comes from leaning into that reality, instead finding the overlap between a party’s values and the public’s interests – and concentrating on that.

It is what we did so successfully in the last Parliament, focusing in particular on health and social care and on the cost of living.

It is also why we need to be open-minded, and ready to be flexible, about how that issues landscape will change during this new Parliament. How long the government’s (limited) political honeymoon will last, how the next leader of the opposition performs and how events influence what matters most to people: those will all set the landscape in which we then need to find the best route to continue to grow and win more elections.

Which means that this early in the Parliament the important strategic issues for the party are about how we deliver the mandate on which our MPs were elected, and how to keep our options beyond that open as we see the new landscape develop – and how to continue to grow our grassroots organisation so that we can make the most of the opportunities that will come.

A change of Prime Minister in Downing Street has not taken away the rationale for concentrating on NHS and social care, the cost of living and sewage in particular. Those are all challenges that still need addressing. Our MPs got elected on that platform: they both have a mandate for action on that platform – and it is important that we show voters that those are the issues we still care about.

Plus of course health, and social care in particular, are the issues that Ed Davey is closely associated with, has expertise in and were at the heart of his and our general election message.

The gains at that general election in our target seats were only the most eye-catching part of growing our grassroots strength. Alongside that we made gains on a much broader scale in local elections through the last Parliament, making net gains in fact in every round of local elections and now running more councils with a Lib Dem majority than before we went into coalition in 2010.

With a Labour government now in Westminster, and so many of our second places at general elections now first places leaving us with relatively few second placed seats, it is a new set of challenges to keep that growth going over the next five years.

But as we have shown in the last five, when we set our minds to it, we can achieve so much together.

General election review

One important post-election task for the Board is setting up a general election review. This should be a happier affair than our 2019 review, but it is still important.

Much of our success in the last Westminster Parliament came from our willingness to learn from what had and had not worked for the party in 2019, and to change as a result. It would be foolish and complacent to assume that we have now maxed out all the progress we can make. We need to discover our next set of lessons, which is where this review comes in.

The review is being chaired by Tim Farron and the other members of the review team are Ade Adeyemo, Paul Farthing , Donna Harris, Emma Holland-Lindsay, Mike O’Carroll and Sally Pattle. The team brings extensive experience from different perspectives, and is also made up of people who were not key decision makers on the campaign itself, so that they can properly evaluate – and hold to account – those who were.

The review has been asked to report by the end of the year, so that if there are any recommendations that need to come to Conference they can be submitted for Spring next year (subject of course to Federal Conference Committee’s decisions on the agenda). Thank you also to FCC for providing time at the Autumn Conference for the review to get feedback.

This timetable combines the need to have enough time to do a proper review, consulting with members, with moving quickly enough that related important decisions, such as over target seats, do not get unduly delayed in this Parliament.

Watch out for opportunities to submit your views to the review, including at our Autumn Federal Conference in Brighton.

Financial plans

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Lord William Wallace

What’s our line on public spending?

By Lord William Wallace | Wed 14th August 2024 - 11:55 am

What should be our overall party line on taxation and public spending? We have a new government that came into office promising not to raise any of the major revenue-raising taxes. It claims that it has now discovered far larger holes in public spending plans than it had expected. The reality is that the Conservatives and their media allies managed to focus attention in the run-up to the election entirely on the level of taxation, without addressing what that implied for public services and long-term investment.

So Labour are now stuck. They knew well before the election (as the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and even the business pages of the Times were telling them) that government spending projections were unreal, that maintaining Tory plans would necessitate cuts in core programmes, and that Jeremy Hunt’s reductions in national insurance were almost criminally irresponsible. But they didn’t dare to be honest with the voters, for fear of the Tories branding them as a ‘tax and spend’ party.

We have been here before. Tony Blair similarly promised before the 1997 election not to raise overall rates of tax. We Liberal Democrats were braver, promising ‘a penny on income tax’ to raise the quality of education. I was then chairing our manifesto group, and vividly recall a Labour adviser telling me that we were mad to do so; ‘voters will never support a party that talks about raising taxes.’ But voters don’t want to vote for cuts in schools, health services, police numbers, courts and prisons either. It turned out to be the most distinctive theme of our campaign.

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Hina Bokhari

Hina Bokhari writes…I don’t want to keep talking about Islamophobia

By Hina Bokhari | Wed 7th August 2024 - 7:28 am

“Are you ok? Was the first question Natasha Devon on LBC asked when she interviewed me about the rising Islamophobia.

We really shouldn’t be talking about Islamophobia. We should be talking about the tragedy of three little girls being brutally killed, the continuing violence against women and girls and the factors that led to these terrible murders.

But instead, the news is focussed on extremist thugs who have spread disinformation and caused chaos on our streets. Quite rightly Starmer and Davey have called it out.

And now our leaders have also said that these were not legitimate protests but riots targeting Muslims, asylum seekers and communities of colour.

I’m glad that there has been progress here. Words matter. And it shouldn’t take Muslim groups like the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) or Muslim commentators or Muslim politicians having to call out the racism we have seen recently.

Muslims need allies. They need the Government, MPs from all parties and community leaders to call it out too. When a riot starts because disinformation is spread about a killer being Muslim and then those rioters shout “f*** Allah” and attack a mosque – that’s called Islamophobia or anti-Muslim hatred or just simply racism!

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Janey Little

The Party of young people: The critical contribution of young members

By Janey Little | Thu 1st August 2024 - 6:01 pm

Young people are the life and the soul of the Liberal Democrats.

Having long forgiven the party over tuition fees, young people played a pivotal role in the party’s successes in the General Election. We in the Young Liberals have built a reputation over time for being committed campaigners and enthusiastic door-knockers, but even we were amazed at quite how much young people across the party poured their hearts and souls into this election. We have come leaps and bounds from where we were in 2019. Since then, the Young Liberals have professionalised, built capacity and communities across states and regions, and worked together more effectively to ensure that we could maximise our impact in the General Election.  As members, volunteers, party staff, candidates, federal committee members, state executive members, and across all levels of the party, Young Liberals led the way during the General Election.

We had the pleasure of being at the forefront of the campaign. The YL Development Officer fed back to HQ where the Young Liberals were campaigning at different points in the election, helping to inform decisions about where best to organise action days and divert resources throughout the rest of the party. Young people’s commitment to the party strategy and campaigning efforts helped to lock down seats earlier in the campaign, meaning that resources could then be diverted elsewhere, ultimately helping the party to achieve the phenomenal result of 72 MPs.

Each one of us contributes to what we can achieve and what we can become as a party, and we should be nothing but proud as young people in the party for what we collectively accomplished in the General Election.

But more than our efforts on the ground, Young Liberals helped to shape the narrative and the policy offer of the Liberal Democrats in this election. Firstly, it was the Young Liberals who championed carers a few years ago, before it became a key piece of the party’s identity under Ed Davey’s leadership.

Moreover, at autumn conference, Young Liberals worked with the Lambeth local party to pass a policy on ending period poverty. The result is that we were the only major political party to even mention periods in our manifesto. We as a party are leading the way on this issue.

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Richard Kemp

A flashback from Southport 2024 to Toxteth 1981

By Richard Kemp | Wed 31st July 2024 - 2:58 pm

Last night I had a flashback to when I was relatively young councillor representing Dingle which was part of Liverpool 8. The media had turned remorselessly to focus on the so-called Toxteth riots and the “disgraceful and illegal behaviour” of the people who lived in that area. Well, that was the description from the right-wing press about what was happening there although that did not accord to reality.

Yesterday I visited Southport on behalf of the people and council of Liverpool to show solidarity with the people of Southport and Sefton Council.

On Monday three children died after the stabbings and five more plus two adults are on the critical list. The children are in one of the best children’s hospitals in the world at Alder Hey and we can only hope for a successful outcome to all the medical procedures. 

Over the years to come the parents and families of the children killed will always be thinking, “what would my child have been doing and shaping up into as they grew older”. In 12 short, short years perhaps the oldest of the children killed would have been celebrating their own University graduation, or A Levels, or GCSEs. How they would have developed nobody will ever know because those opportunities will never be available to them

As I attended the vigil it was clear that I could see a massive coming together of the people of Southport and further afield. People came to show their support for ‘their’ children and ‘their’ community. Many were a bit dazed and numbed as indeed we all were. How could you not be taken aback by such an event? However, there was no anger there.

No one was there to point fingers, assign blame or cause trouble. A couple of attempts by individuals to heckle and make points out of the proceedings were quickly hushed by the those surrounding them. There was a respectful silence as the Mayor of Sefton spoke and when I accompanied her to lay flowers in the Atkins Park outside the Town Hall.

We went from Liverpool to express our concern for the council of Sefton and the people of Southport as we have ourselves faced up to tragedies involving the death of young people, albeit it not at this scale. We have never had to face up to a situation where so many young lives have been taken or put at huge and continuing risk. 

But shortly after I left for home another tragedy occurred to scar the life of the people of Liverpool. The rumour was circulated that the killer was a Muslim immigrant from Rwanda. The police quite rightly have not issued much detail other than to say that he had been born in the UK of parents of a Rwandan background. I know the Rwandan community within Merseyside well. They are a peaceful hard-working community who put back into the community more than they take out. 

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Wera Hobhouse MP and Daisy Cooper MP

Creating a fairer, greener future for all

By Wera Hobhouse MP and Daisy Cooper MP | Wed 31st July 2024 - 11:55 am

The climate-nature crisis remains an existential threat to the future prosperity, wellbeing and security of the UK. We can see its effects all around us—from last Monday being the hottest day ever recorded, to the deafening silence of birds and butterflies across our once wild isles. The recent Climate Change Committee report shows that the UK Government is off track to meet its 2030 target (to cut emissions by 68%) and that only a third of current plans are credible.

Our natural environment is being destroyed at pace. The last State of Nature report set out the drastic declines in our native biodiversity, stark reductions in our woodland cover, and the collapse of many of our precious species. Nature is deeply intertwined with our climate. They’re two sides of the same coin. When viewed holistically, it’s clear that we cannot solve the climate crisis without also solving the nature crisis, and vice versa. 

The science is crystal clear. We’re now operating on a knife edge of breaching our Paris Agreement obligations to do all we can to limit “global boiling”. With June marking the twelfth consecutive month of global temperatures of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, it’s clearer than ever that the (already small) window for action is rapidly closing. We must act as fast and as fairly as possible to get the world on track for a liveable future.

The new Labour Government has inherited one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. A country where 75% of our rivers pose a serious risk to human health—a country where an ever changing climate is damaging our health, prosperity and security. But the mandate given by the British public on 4 July is clear. We need a new approach that puts climate-nature action at the heart of our decision-making. We Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for a fairer, greener future; a UK where everyone can benefit from—and help shape—the huge opportunities of the just transition to a zero carbon, nature positive future. 

Crucially, we recognise that our once world leading legislation no longer meets the challenges of today. The Climate Change Act was passed seven years before the 2015 Paris Agreement was agreed—and our biodiversity targets don’t align with the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in Montreal. As internationalists, we believe that the UK now needs to lock these global commitments into law. 

As MPs, we have a duty to send a strong message to the public, civil society and businesses that we’re serious about improving their lives and livelihoods. In the years ahead to 2030, we must reverse biodiversity loss and we must rapidly reduce our emissions via a new, joined-up approach. Small, incremental changes won’t cut it; especially given the last Government’s inaction, delays and U-turns.

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Caron Lindsay

2024 Parliament: Lib Dem MPs get to work

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 9th July 2024 - 8:33 pm

This is what the last four years’ hard work has all been about.

Today, 72 Lib Dem MPs and Jennie, the gorgeous guide dog of Torbay MP Steve Darling posed for the 2024 team photo.

How many can you name? If you are not sure, have a look at our posts on our new MPs

Earlier, our MPs had filled up row upon row in the House of Commons, with Ed taking up the place traditionally occupied by the leader of the third party, last occupied by Nick Clegg up until the 2010 election.

Our Parliament really has some incredible pomp and ritual that some might argue reinforces its remoteness from the people. Black Rod is despatched from the Lords to summon senior MPs to read a proclamation from the King that is written in centuries old English.

Back in the Commons, they elect a Speaker who is dragged to the chair as a throwback to the days when being the Speaker was a dangerous occupation so the unfortunate victor was never enthusiastic about taking on the job.

With Lindsay Hoyle duly re-elected unoposed, each party leader was given a chance to say a few words of congratulation and intent:

Here’s Ed:

The text is below:

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The Voice

Simon Foster’s campaign photos

By The Voice | Sun 7th July 2024 - 6:45 pm

The ever energetic and creative Simon Foster has been putting up amazing displays of stakeboards across the South Central region. He has sent us six of his best. Enjoy:

Local residents give their thanks in Winchester


Newly elected Cllr Richard Murphy (left) who won a district council election with a majority of over 1,000 on the night
with Danny Chambers MP (right)

A shrine to Liberalism which appeared in Eve of poll next to the strongest green display, right in the heart of Winchester.

The Shield Wall at an Eastleigh committee room. The people of Wessex were “invited to rise up in revolt at their evil Tory overlords. It worked!

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Caron Lindsay

Ed Davey on Kuenssberg – what next for the Liberal Democrats?

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 7th July 2024 - 10:03 am

There was a lovely shot at the top of this morning’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg of a very happy looking Ed Davey standing in his garden. Some might say he even looked a wee bit smug, but he is entirely entitled to do so after our amazing result on Thursday.

Lib Dem MPs will make up the third largest group in Parliament. That means that Ed will get two questions to the Prime Minister every week. We’ll get more speaking time. We’ll get more media time. I mean, we’re on Kuenssberg for the second  Sunday in a row.  We will still need to make the absolute most of every opportunity we get, but it’s a massive step forward. It’s strange to think that there will be only 49 more Tories than there are of us. While they will be ripping themselves apart trying to decide whether they are going to go full throttle ultra right or to try to regain some semblance of one nation conservatism, we will be united, dynamic and brimming with ideas.

It will be a change in dynamics, too. Our returning MPs have had to juggle several portfolios each and they have done so admirably.  We will now have the capacity to share the workload and have backbenchers for the first time in a decade. Maybe we might get a Select Committee chair or two.

Anyway, back to Ed’s interview.

Congratulations, I suppose, said Laura. A bit grudging, I have to say.

Her first question: What do you plan to do with all these new MPs?

It was an amazing result for us. We are excited by this opportunity. We fought the campaign putting health and care at the top of our list and we will fight in Parliament on health and care. I have already called for an emergency budget for health and care this month so we can start to rescue our NHS which has been brought to its knees by the Conservatives.

Will we be as tough on Labour as the Conservatives? Ed said that we would be putting forward our ideas on care, on the environment in the hope that Labour would take some of them on board.

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Richard Kemp

We need to move from the shires and suburbs into the deprived areas of the UK

By Richard Kemp | Sat 6th July 2024 - 2:30 pm

No matter how successful we have been in the many General Elections that I have been involved in since my first in 1970 there has always been someone who, after the elections, says, ….”but!” So, it might as well be me! In fact, let me correct my own first sentence. For the first time since 1970 I have not been involved in the General Election at all. Convention in Liverpool is that for the year that you are in office the Lord Mayor plays no part in politics so that they can act as the only member of the council able to speak in Purdah periods but also, as with the Speaker, can be neutral throughout the year.

For most of my political life I have been involved in the school of hard politics, which is Liverpool, but it could be any other rough, tough, urban core city or borough. Although I represent a reasonably affluent area now, the fabulous Penny Lane Ward, for much of my time on the council I represented difficult inner-city areas. My lament through the whole of this period has been that the Liberals and then Liberal Democrats have been a party of the suburbs and shires. A quick look at the map of where Lib Dems took seats on Thursday will see that this has not changed at all.

I do understand the need for targeting and believe that this policy was absolutely necessary to ensure that we came back from the political wilderness to enable the Party as a whole to be relevant to the law-making processes of the nation as a whole. But we have now achieved that and my plea to Ed Davey and our other leaders is that now is the time to be bold and push for real representation in our major cities.

Now I know that we are not entirely unrepresented in urban areas at local level. We control Hull and have significant and growing numbers of councillors in places like Sheffield, Newcastle and a growing re-energised presence in my own city of Liverpool. But over the whole of my 50 years in Liverpool we have had to do everything ourselves and fight a poorly funded urban guerilla warfare against Labour’s well-funded mighty machines.

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Lord William Wallace

Didn’t we have a good national campaign!

By Lord William Wallace | Sat 6th July 2024 - 12:17 pm

Few of us dreamed that we could come out of this election campaign with over 70 seats.  The willingness of Liberal Democrats across the country to travel to target seats, the high quality of the local campaign organisation when we got there, determined efforts to raise more money than most local campaigns have ever thought of before, all helped to maximise our gains.  But we must also give full credit to the high quality and sustained consistency of the national campaign.

I expect that many Liberal Democrats – naturally argumentative, with strong opinions of our own – have had their doubts about aspects of our national strategy over the past year or more: a focus on sewage and water pollution rather than Europe or Liberal values, a ruthless approach to target seat selection and to the demands placed upon them, stunts and photo-opportunities that attracted attention but didn’t seem sufficiently serious. 

Well, the results have justified the hard discipline our central organisation imposed.  Concentrated campaigning harvested tactical votes and used our limited funds effectively.  Ed Davey’s standing in the polls rose as Sunak’s fell; he was seen to be the most human and approachable of the three main party leaders.  And as to sewage: the issue of water pollution ‘cut through’, as the phrase goes, to a point where much of the Thames Valley has turned orange.

Liberal Democrats outside London may grasp only with difficulty how much smaller our professional staff is than those who have thronged Conservative and Labour headquarters in their hundreds: extensive media and digital teams, multiple fundraisers, ranks of policy advisers, organisers for national and local campaigns.  Our headquarters has unavoidably remained small, within our limited budget – with its staff probably paid a good deal less than elsewhere, and helped by volunteers.  I think I have had half our media team in my Lords office once or twice – and it’s not a large office!  

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Caron Lindsay

That went pretty well

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 5th July 2024 - 10:15 am

Anticappointment is a concept coined by Toby Hadoke, a prominent Doctor Who commentator, to describe how Doctor Who fans approach a new series. They worry that they are not going to like it, even though they probably will. As a Liberal Democrat it fits well with how we approach elections.

Over forty years of disappointing election results has made me very cautious about predicting how many MPs we will end up with. I eventually decided to predict 32 MPs, pretty much our main target list. By the time polling day arrived, I knew that even though I was trying to limit my expectations, I’d be devastated if that was all we won.

But it wasn’t. We have 71 MPs. 71. SEVENTY ONE.  By the time I’ve finished writing this, it could be 72. Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, in essence much of Charles Kennedy’s old seat, is recounting and I hear our folks our chipper.

Here’s Ed Davey exuberantly dad dancing and loads of Lib Dems singing Sweet Caroline. I always loved that song, but this has written it on my heart forever.

It’s a brilliant night for us. The best we have known in the history of our party by some margin.

Since Mary’s last update, we have added Chesham and Amersham to our list of technical gains. Sarah Green won it in a by-election in 2021, and few expected her to hang on to it. But she did. With a majority of around 5,500.  We also held on to our other three by-election gains. Helen Morgan’s vote in North Shropshire practically had to be weighed as she romped to a 15,300 majority. Incredible to think that in 2019 and forever before this was a rock solid Tory seat.  The one people were really worried about was Honiton and Sidmouth, the re-boundaried half of Tiverton and Honiton, won by Richard Foord in June 2o22. But Richard smashed it, beating Tory Simon Jupp by around 7000 votes. As an added bonus, the Tiverton part of the by-election seat was won by our Rachel Gilmour.  Sarah Dyke also held onto Glastonbury and Somerton by 6,500 votes. The icing on that cake was Anna Sabine winning the other half of that by-election seat for us.

We also held on to all the MPs we won in 2017.

There’s always one result that breaks your heart, though. Poor Paul Follows had been widely anticipated to beat Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in Godalming and Ash. He just fell short by 800 votes.

I am thrilled beyond measure to see Vikki Slade finally elected in Mid Dorset and North Poole. After four attempts to win the seat, she made it, with a majority of just under 1400.

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The Voice

Go for it!

By The Voice | Thu 4th July 2024 - 8:56 am

Embed from Getty Images

Our warmest wishes go to everyone out campaigning today.

If you are a candidate realistically hoping that you will be an MP tomorrow, then go for it (and stop reading political blogs for the time being!).

If you are a candidate with little chance of winning, then keep cheerful – we owe you a huge thank you for giving so much to this campaign and keeping the Lib Dem diamonds bright.

If you are an activist or supporter who will be spending the day door knocking, delivering, telling or doing those all vital back room tasks, then you are the real heroes of this campaign. Enjoy the day, and be pleased that you have participated in an election that we will be talking about for many years to come.

You won’t be hearing much from the Lib Dem Voice team during the day today – we are all a bit busy. But we will be offering news and commentary throughout the night so do check in after 10pm and maybe share stories with us at [email protected].

We should also remember the many council by-elections taking place today as well. The news about those contests may get buried under the national news, but please let us know and we will highlight what we can.

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The Voice

It’s Eve of Poll. How are you going to help Lib Dems win tomorrow?

By The Voice | Wed 3rd July 2024 - 1:21 pm

It’s hard to believe that it’s 6 weeks since Rishi Sunak stood in the rain in Downing Street to fire the starting gun to the General Election campaign.

Since then, there hasn’t been much movement in the polls, apart from a few points up for us, sparked by the brilliant, positive, incredible images and messages coming from our leader. What a time to come in to the form of your life, Ed Davey!

This party has fought our best campaign for years at every possible level. Our media spokespeople have been amazing. Ed has shown in the debates, Question Times and interviews that there is a huge amount of substance behind the style. He has tackled tough questions head on, with honesty and humility.

It’s all getting real now. Tomorrow, people in our target seats will have to clear a path through their Lib Dem leaflets to their door and go out to vote. Some will still be wrestling with their choice even as they stand in the voting booth with the pencil in hand. We need to be in their heads with our positive messages at that point. That is why it is so important that we get our eve of polls and good mornings out and knock on as many doors and make as many phone calls as possible.

And it’s why it is really really important that every single ounce of our efforts goes into seats where we are in the running.

If you need convincing of this, here’s the North East Fife result from 2017:

Stephen Gethins Scottish National Party 13,743 32.9% -8.1%
Elizabeth Riches Liberal Democrat 13,741 32.9% 1.5%
Tony Miklinski Conservative 10,088 24.1% 7.8%
Rosalind Garton Labour 4,026 9.6% 1.9%
Mike Scott-Hayward Independent 224 0.5% 0.5%

Two votes in it. Don’t let that happen again.

And even this May 97 more votes could have given us control of 3 more Councils.

What you do and where you do it on Polling day really matters. If you can’t travel, please think about making calls from home – or from holiday.

The messages that the Tories are putting out might seem bizarre to us. Their “letter from July 2044” aimed at bringing Reform voters back on board is probably the weirdest bit of literature we’ve ever seen, but we are not their target audience.

Mel Stride’s extraordinary comments this morning that you need enough Tories around to scrutinise Labour are very strange indeed. The only thing that the Tories will be capable of scrutinising over the next five years will be each other, with menaces. They are a party riven with irreconcilable differences and they will make a load of ferrets in a sack seem like the best of friends.

If you want a really good opposition to Labour, you will need a coherent, confident, capable party to keep their feet to the fire. So you obviously need lots of Liberal Democrats.

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The Voice

This is why you need to help Lib Dem target seat candidates win

By The Voice | Wed 26th June 2024 - 9:19 am

With just 8 days to go before the election, our target seat candidates need the help of every single one of us between now and polling day.

They have a huge amount to do and the more people we can talk to between now and polling day, the better the chance we have of filling up those green benches and once again being the third party in the House of Commons. That will guarantee us more media coverage and Ed will get two questions to the Prime Minister every week.

Our target seat candidates have been campaigning at high intensity for years. Some of them have completely given up other work this year to concentrate full time on their campaigns. That is a huge personal sacrifice. But it’s what we need to do to win.

The last thing we need to wake up to on 5th July  is a string of near misses. Remember in the local elections, a handful more votes would have given us control of another 3 councils.

We know that the Conservatives are going to pull out all the stops in the last few days of the campaign to stop us winning. They are very worried about the scale of the losses we can inflict. On the For the Many Podcast last Friday, broadcaster Iain Dale said:

I hear on the grapevine that Conservative candidates in Conservative seats with a majority of, say 5000 or 6000,  they are all being re-deployed to seats which have a majority of say 15,000 or 20,000.

He confirmed to co-host Jacqui Smith that this included candidates who are defending their seats.

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The Voice

Cole-Hamilton and Chamberlain launch Scottish Manifesto with focus on carers, warm homes and agriculture

By The Voice | Mon 17th June 2024 - 1:27 pm

 

Alex Cole-Hamilton and Wendy Chamberlain have launched the Scottish version of our manifesto.  

At a farm inAlex’s Edinburgh constituency (photo of Alex driving a tractor to follow), they set out plans to fix the broken care system, invest in Scottish agriculture and ensure everyone has a warm home.

At the heart of the proposals is a £500 million rescue package for care, enabling people to be released from hospital, relieving pressure on the NHS and giving a fair deal to family carers. It will:

  • Create a new Carer’s Minimum Wage, boosting the minimum wage for care workers by £2 an hour;
  • Give unpaid carers a fair deal, lifting Carer’s Allowance/Carer Support Payment by £1,040 a year and removing the earnings cliff-edge.

Other key proposals include:

  • Establish the world-class mental health services Scotland needs, meaning every school pupil has fast access to a mental health counsellor, new mental health staff working alongside GPs and A&Es, and extra help for businesses, backed by £150m from taxing social media companies;
  • Deliver £170m more for Scottish agriculture;
  • Generate an extra £1 billion in capital funding for Scotland which  could be used to build new local health facilities, tackle the housing emergency, end the scandal of crumbling concrete in public buildings, and stop sewage dumping.
  • Make homes warmer and cheaper to heat with a ten-year emergency upgrade programme, starting with free insulation and heat pumps for those on low incomes.

At the launch, Alex said:

Every vote for the Liberal Democrats at this election is a vote to elect a strong local champion focused on getting you fast access to GPs and dentists, and giving our nation’s carers a fair deal.

We will stop sewage being dumped in our rivers, lift up Scottish education, and deliver warm homes that insulate you from the cost of living crisis.

Our vision is of a better Britain where we work in partnership, restoring your faith in politics and fixing our broken relationship with Europe.

Just like they Conservatives, the SNP have got to go. Only the Scottish Liberal Democrats can beat the nationalists in huge swathes of Scotland.

Hope and change are just around the corner, you only need to vote for them. Back the Liberal Democrats for a fair deal for you, your family, and for Scotland.

On the plans to fix care and the NHS, Alex added:

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George Cunningham

The Overseas Vote: Please encourage your British family and friends abroad this weekend to register!

By George Cunningham | Fri 14th June 2024 - 1:00 pm

An additional 2.1 million Brits abroad will be eligible to vote at the General Election on 4th July, but many still don’t know about their new rights. There’s just five days left to get the word out and have them register, as registration closes on Tuesday at 23.59hrs UK time, whether at home or abroad.

The abolition of the 15-year rule – which had previously stopped the right to vote for any Brit who has been out of the country for longer than that – means that all British citizens abroad of voting age who have ever lived in the UK have their right to vote restored since January this year for general elections and some referendums.

This has more than doubled the number of eligible British voters abroad from approximately 1.4 million to about 3.5 million, a sizeable increase!

Please take action – send your family and friends abroad an email straight away or give them a call. They should go online this weekend and register at https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote if they have not done so already. They will be registered to vote at their last constituency address they lived in.

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Lord William Wallace

William Wallace writes.. .Tax Cuts versus Public Investment and Services

By Lord William Wallace | Fri 14th June 2024 - 9:38 am

The Conservative Manifesto confirms that they have dug in on tax cuts as their core offer to the voting public.  They know that this is an illusion, on which they would not be able to deliver if they won.  Opinion polls show that most of the public don’t think it’s realistic.  An IPSOS poll in early June found 68% of the public describing public services as ‘underfunded’ – confirming similar responses in multiple polls over the past year. 

Labour have been so frightened of the Daily Mail that they have committed themselves to holding almost all major sources of revenue to current levels.  They promise instead to fund increased spending out of future growth – a dubious prospect when UK growth is currently minimal and the global economy is being hit by wars in Ukraine and Israel and by the threat of a China/US trade war.  This has made the campaign so far surreal, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies (and the Institute of Government, and BBC Verify) pointing out the widening gap between promise and necessity, and with both major parties refusing to engage on where future cuts must fall.  Happily our manifesto has focussed on fair tax rather than low tax, and received compliments from the business pages for daring to do so.

Any of you who may be going to meetings with Tory candidates in the next three weeks can have a field day over the gap between rhetoric and reality.   Sunak’s party have promised to raise defence spending by 0.5% of GDP, and attacked Labour for its more cautious half promise.  Given the re-emergence of Russian threats to Europe and the current weakness of UK armed forces, such an increase is irresistible. So ask the Tory candidate what other budgets they will cut to fund this significant increase?  Education, when teachers are leaving in increasing numbers, universities in danger of bankruptcy, and apprenticeships less than half of what our economy needs?  Justice and prisons, which are already buckling from court delays, prison overcrowding, and probation understaffing?  Local government, where budgets have been squeezed to the point where key services are disappearing?  Or maybe the NHS, of all things?

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The Voice

WATCH: Our new Party Election Broadcast featuring health and carers

By The Voice | Wed 12th June 2024 - 10:24 pm

A “Young Carer’s Premium” to help young carers in school is just one of the measures the Lib Dems would implement to help and support carers. In the latest video he talks to a young woman, in the middle of her A levels, who cares for her autistic brother.

Ed said:

When I speak to young carers and listen to their experiences, it’s clear they have so many skills and so much to offer. But many just aren’t getting the support they need to balance their education with caring for loved ones.

“We need to support those who give so much of their time to caring. No young carer should fall behind the rest of their class.

“Our plans for a Young Carers Pupil Premium would help these fantastic young people fulfil their potential. I am proud that the Liberal Democrats are putting a fair deal for young carers at the heart of our plans.

Here’s the broadcast in which he talks to people across the UK with experience of caring and cancer services.

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Victor Chamberlain

This is the Liberal blueprint we desperately need to solve our housing crises

By Victor Chamberlain | Tue 11th June 2024 - 10:02 am

The preamble to the Liberal Democrat constitution states the party exists to ensure “no-one shall be enslaved by poverty”. The many housing crises we currently face are plunging millions into poverty, substandard homes and an unfair and unaffordable housing market. People suffer worse health, children don’t receive the opportunities they deserve and our economy is less productive because our housing sector is broken. Fixing the housing crisis is central to creating the more equal and fair society our party believes in. I was delighted to read the Liberal Democrat manifesto for the 2024 General Election. It offers a clear, comprehensive, and pragmatic roadmap to addressing the housing crises that have long plagued our country.

The commitment to building 380,000 new homes annually, including 150,000 social homes, is particularly significant for cities like London where in a councillor. Every day I see how the lack of good quality homes residents can afford is leading to worse health outcomes, forcing families into temporary accommodation and schools to close and leaving swathes of young people living with parents or in poor quality shared housing. The chronic shortage of genuinely affordable housing has driven up costs and poverty and made home ownership a distant dream for many. By advocating for new garden cities and community-led developments, the manifesto promises to inject much-needed diversity and sustainability into urban planning, ensuring that growth benefits all residents. Liberal Democrats should be proud to be a YIMBY (yes in my back yard) party – we need a lot more homes and a lot more variety of homes to solve the many different housing challenges we face. It’s great to see the party committing to being the party of home building – that’s the liberal approach to the housing crisis.

The manifesto’s focus on renters’ rights is another critical area. In my borough (Southwark) we have tens of thousands of social renters who are ignored by the Council and housing associations, so I’m especially delighted to see greater protections proposed for social renters. We need better enforcement of standards, quicker repairs and greater transparency and accountability. The proposed ban on no-fault evictions and the establishment of three-year tenancies as the norm will provide much-needed stability for renters. Many of our residents live in constant fear of sudden evictions, disrupting their lives and communities. Creating a national register of licensed landlords will further enhance accountability and improve living conditions across the rental sector.

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The Voice

WATCH: Lib Dem manifesto launch

By The Voice | Mon 10th June 2024 - 2:54 pm

In case you missed it, here is all the fun of the manifesto launch.  The text of Ed’s highly personal speech about his experience of caring for both his mum and his son is below.

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The Voice

“You can get through if you’ve got love” – a Party Election Broadcast with a difference

By The Voice | Wed 5th June 2024 - 3:53 pm

Love and tenderness are not words you generally associate with Party Election Broadcasts.

Our one, to be broadcast tonight is the exception. Ed Davey tells his story of life as a carer for his mum and his son. He talks about the millions in similar situations, keeping going with love. That, he says, is who I will fight for every day. It’s just incredible.

From The Guardian

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The Voice

Ed Davey opens up about juggling the LibDem leadership and caring for his teenage son

By The Voice | Tue 4th June 2024 - 9:38 am

Ed Davey has given an extremely moving interview about caring for his teenage son, while leading the Liberal Democrats.

Click below for some clips. You can find a full article and more clips on the ITV News website.

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Caron Lindsay

The problem the Tory “National Service” idea is trying to solve

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 26th May 2024 - 9:22 am

Most people who read this site are well used to being sickened to their stomachs by not just Conservative policy ideas but what they have done in practice.  In the past few months alone, we’ve seen them pick on disabled people, sick people, vulnerable people seeking safety in this country, people coming to this country to share their skills in the workplace and pay taxes,  trans people and anyone over 50 who isn’t working full time.

Today their big idea insults a generation of young people who have been failed by the Conservatives in spectacular style. A generation who, for the first time in a long time, is less well off than their parents.  According to the Conservatives, the way to fix this generation is national service, forcing them into either a year of military service, or 12 weekends of volunteering.  At a cost of £2.5 billion.

It doesn’t take long to think of better uses for that sum. Perhaps more housing so that young people don’t have to live with their parents into their 30s, perhaps by removing the discrimination in the minimum wage, perhaps by increasing social security to help the 1 in 4 children growing up in poverty, perhaps by making sure young people in distress can access mental health treatment quickly, perhaps by rebuilding youth services so young people can get the support they need in their communities. Perhaps by doing more to save the planet for future generations.

And then you come to the practicalities of all of this. Many young people are stuck in low quality, minimum wage jobs where they are treated badly – and which require them to work at weekends. And will they get expenses for travel to and from their volunteer placement? What if they are carers, or parents, or disabled?

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Caron Lindsay

And we’re off: Lib Dems welcome the 4th July General Election!

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 22nd May 2024 - 6:39 pm

Who would have known when I booked my dentist appointment for 5:30 tonight that the Prime Minister would choose 5pm on a wet Wednesday in May to make the most farcical General Election launch announcement I have ever known.

It could have come straight from The Thick of It. The Prime Minister standing in the pouring rain, his suit getting shinier by the second, his words drowned out by anti Brexit campaigner Steve Bray blasting “Things can only get better” by D:Ream, Labour’s campaign anthem from 1997.

Our Press Office tweeted: “Things can only get wetter.”

Ed Davey welcomed the General Election as a chance to kick out the Tories and deliver the change the country needs. He said:

This General Election is a chance to kick Rishi Sunak’s appalling Conservative government out of office and deliver the change the public is crying out for.

For years the Conservative Party has taken voters for granted and lurched from crisis to crisis while the problems facing the country are getting so much worse.

The NHS has been brought to its knees, people’s mortgages and rents have soared by hundreds of pounds a month, and water companies have got away with pumping filthy sewage into our rivers and beaches. All because this Conservative Government is more interested in fighting between themselves than standing up for the needs of the country.

Every vote for the Liberal Democrats at this election is a vote for a strong local champion who will stand up for your community and health services. It’s clear that in many seats across the country, the best way to beat the Conservatives is to vote for the Liberal Democrats.

Scottish Lib Dem Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton highlighted his ambition to see liberals replace nationalists as the third party in the House of Commons.

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Caron Lindsay

Autumn Conference: What did Federal Board decide?

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 21st May 2024 - 8:32 pm

We have known for some months that the Federal Board was going to decide at its May meeting what to do with Federal Conference in Brighton this Autumn. Last night they discussed the matter looking at feedback from party committees and staff as well as a consultation exercise carried out in March.

They had a lot to consider. What if Rishi Sunak called the General Election and we ended up having our Conference in the short campaign? What opportunities were there from having Conference just before the General Election if he didn’t? And what damage could it inflict on our campaign if we did not take the opportunity to set out our stall when the other parties would at their own events? What impact would two major events in quick succession, a conference and a General Election, have on staff?

So what did they decide?  Well, Conference is going to happen – sort of. It’s going to be shorter. It will now only run from Saturday 14 to Monday 16th September and technically will be a special Conference.

Party President Mark Pack explained on the party website:

After extensive feedback from members, the Federal Board has agreed a plan for our Autumn Federal Conference.

We agreed that it would be in the best interests of the party to hold such an event if possible, and that due to the unusually close proximity between the event and the next Westminster general election, the maximum benefit would come from amending our normal conference plans so that it can be tailored to the requirements, opportunities and risks of an event so close to a general election.

These include making it a 2.5 day event (14-16 September 2024 in Brighton), providing the best trade-off between a shorter conference lowering costs and staff time while also preserving enough time to maximise the benefits of conference, including commercial income. The Tuesday rather than the Saturday would be dropped in order to maximise the chances for members to participate.

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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Ed Davey’s speech to Scottish Conference – Bring on the General Election

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 20th May 2024 - 4:45 pm

The text is below,

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