Tag Archives: tom gordon

The Voice

Maiden speeches: Tom Gordon MP for Harrogate & Knaresborough

By The Voice | Tue 29th October 2024 - 4:10 pm

Tom Gordon made his maiden speech on Wednesday 16th October in a debate on Access to Primary Care:

Here is the full text:

Let me begin by congratulating my Liberal Democrat colleagues on some fantastic maiden speeches, which have given me a lot to live up to. While I am on the subject of thanking people, let me confess that I committed a cardinal sin at my election count: I reeled off my Oscars award-style speech recognising everyone who had played a part in the previous 30 years of my life, but importantly forgot to acknowledge my agent—the worst thing that any political candidate or Member of Parliament could do. I have not yet lived that down.

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The Voice

Our new MPs: David Chadwick, Manuela Perteghella, Tom Gordon

By The Voice | Mon 8th July 2024 - 9:08 pm

We thought you might like to find out a little bit about our new MPs. We didn’t think we’d have quite so many, but this is a lovely problem to have. All details come from the party website or the MPs’ social media. We’ll get to know them more over the next wee while, but here’s a taster. 

Our editor sleepily compiled a Twitter list of all our MPs’ accounts she could find. You can follow it here. 

David Chadwick MP: Brecon, Radnor and Cym Tawe

David lives in Brecon with his wife Gemma and young son William.

David works as a consultant in Cybersecurity and became interested in politics when his grandfather took him to see the steelworks in Port Talbot to see what it was like to work in a blast furnace stating it gave him an early insight into how politics, industry and communities are intrinsically linked.

David is keen to build on the hard work of local Liberal Democrat councillors who took control of Powys Council in 2022 after the Conservatives were left with just a single councillor across Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe.

David’s priorities include:

  • Making sure local farmers aren’t sold down the river in the name of cheap trade deals.
  • Protecting our pristine natural environment, including ending sewage dumping in the River Wye. Tawe and Usk.
  • Fighting for better economic investment, well-paid jobs and improved infrastructure in rural Wales and the former industrial heartlands of the upper Swansea Valley; making sure that our residents aren’t ignored by those in London and the South East.

Twitter: @libdemdavid

Manuela Perteghella MP: Stratford-Upon-Avon

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The Voice

Meet Tom Gordon, the new Lib Dem candidate for Batley and Spen

By The Voice | Thu 3rd June 2021 - 6:35 pm

Wakefield Councillor Tom Gordon is the new Liberal Democrat candidate for the Batley and Spen by-election.

He was chosen to fight the seat after previous candidate Jo Conchie stood down for health reasons.

Tom announced the news on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/tomgordonLD/status/1400469065588559876?s=20

The by-election takes place on 1st July and was caused by the election of Tracy Brabin, the former MP, as West Yorkshire’s mayor last month.

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Caron Lindsay

What a brilliant night – “the best local elections for the Lib Dems in a generation”

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 3rd May 2019 - 8:09 am

Four years ago, I was utterly heartbroken at this time in the morning. Not only had we lost almost all our MPs, but we’d suffered heavy losses in the council election.

Today, after spending most of yesterday in a darkened room whimpering in pain, I wake to absolutely brilliant results. Already we are up (at the time of writing) 271 councillors and most of the results aren’t in yet.

It’s not surprising that Ed Davey described the results on BBC Breakfast as the best local elections for the Lib Dems in a generation.

Some more of the highlights:

We seem to have surprised the BBC’s political editor:

A result we knew was on the cards a few weeks ago as it was clear that the Tory vote was disappearing like snow off a dyke.

And here are the very happy councillors:

Jacob Rees-Mogg has a Lib Dem councillor now.

Yvette Cooper’s backyard now contains Liberal Democrat Councillor Tom Gordon stormed to victory from a standing start in his home ward after moving down from Newcastle.

Three times the vote of the Labour Party. 9 times the vote of the Conservatives and Greens. And all that in just a few months’ spirited and energetic campaigning.

His former colleagues in Newcastle were delighted.

And here is Councillor Gordon:

 

Chelmsford’s result was simply outstanding – from 5 councillors to 31 and the Conservatives falling from 52 seats to just 21.

I have never been more glad to be proved wrong as far as Hinckley and Bosworth were concerned. They thought they might pull off overall control, but I thought that was a tiny bit ambitious, even with their ace team which has been honed to perfection over the years by former Lib Dem MP for Chesterfield, Paul Holmes. But they did it. It’s a fantastic result for Michael Mullaney and the team there.

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Caron Lindsay

Good luck, everybody!

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 2nd May 2019 - 6:55 am

As this post goes live, indefatigable Liberal Democrats the length of England will have been up for hours delivering last minute leaflets in the local elections.

They have a tough day of more leafletting and knocking up (which is nowhere near as exciting as it sounds) ahead of them.

One of the best smells in the world is the breakfast roll cooking when you come in from your good morning leaflets.

But after that, there’s still a good 12 hours of work left.

And usually after the local elections, you can put your feet up for a week or so. Well, that didn’t happen in 2017 because some woman had a rush of blood to the head on a walking holiday in Wales and called a general election. It’s not going to happen now either because of the impending European elections.

The polling day operation is a crucial part of the campaign. Voters in local elections aren’t always inclined to go to the polls – the turnout is usually pretty small compared to a general election. Getting more of ours out than the opposition gets of theirs is crucial.

However tired you may feel, hold on to the idea of how brilliant it will feel if we win these elections. It will give us huge momentum going in to the Euros.

Keep going up until 10pm tonight. I’ll be on the phones for candidates across the country this evening.

Special good luck to our regular contributor Ed Fordham who is seeking elected office for himself for a change in the Brockwell ward in Chesterfield, to the North Devon team led by our Kirsten Johnson, to April Preston in Manchester Withington and Tom Gordon in Wakefield’s Knottingley and Ferrybridge ward.

April has the support of Jo Swinson in this video recorded a couple of months ago.

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NewsHound

Carmichael: Job security and stronger economy mean more than illusory SNP independence promise

By NewsHound | Mon 6th January 2014 - 4:45 pm

The Sunday Herald carried an interview with Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael yesterday.

He talked about how he relaxes away from the stresses of his job, ensuring he gets home at weekends to spend time with his family:

“That’s important to me, that’s the sanity valve. As long as I can just spend some time mucking about with my boys, or walking the dog on the beach,” he says.

But can he really keep that up to September 18? “That’s my intention. Look, this is an important, exciting job, but I have other jobs as well. I’m

…

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