A goat yesterday. BBC News should thank a Liberal England reader for nominating them for our coveted Headline of the Day Award.
Today, at their Conference, the Liberal Democrats have backed ambitious plans to safeguard private health data. The party is calling for the establishment of a five-point 'Health Data Charter', which will set out key tests for whether data sharing is in the interest of the public and the NHS. They also propose a 'Sovereign Health Data Trust', which would bring together experts, clinicians and patient representatives to oversee the implementation and observance of the new charter. Commenting on the proposals, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Munira Wilson MP said: In an increasingly digital world, it's important that we understand how companies ...
The Sixth Sense won the first Nebula Award for Best Script for 22 years, after the original Star Wars in 1978. The other 1999 finalists were The Devil's Arithmetic, The Iron Giant, The Uranus Experiment: Part 2 and The Matrix. I find several things puzzling about this. I can't understand why anyone would have voted for it ahead of The Matrix; I also don't understand why Galaxy Quest, which won the Hugo that year (beating The Sixth Sense and The Matrix) and the Nebula the following year, was not on the 1999 Nebula ballot. The Nebula ballot notoriously included The ...
Layla Moran has written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak urging him to "demonstrate a clear commitment" to the Conservatives' manifesto pledge of ending rough sleeping by the end of this Parliament by rolling out Housing First across England at the forthcoming Spending Review, and by pushing for the scrapping of the Vagrancy Act. In her letter, Layla says that the "time is right for a new national and political effort to tackle homelessness", adding that "Because Housing First works, we also know in the long term it saves us money." There have already been successful pilot schemes in England, and in ...
The Liberal Democrats have passed a motion at their party conference that calls for sanctions on Chinese officials and a boycott of the Winter Olympics. The motion also calls for family reunification of those forced into "re-education" camps and calls on the Foreign Secretary to grant asylum to Uyghurs fleeing persecution. Liberal Democrats have consistently called on the UK Government to take urgent action against those perpetrating these atrocities, including the use of Magnitsky sanctions. Ahead of the vote at their party conference Lib Dem Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Layla Moran has written to every UK Government Minister urging them to ...
Sat 18th
13:31
Paul McGarry talks of his "chaotic" youth in debate on support for care leavers #ldconf
Earlier today, Conference passed a motion calling for better support for care leavers up until the age of 25. During the debate, Scottish Lib Dem Housing spokesperson Paul McGarry talked about why the measures outlined in the motion were so important and would have helped him. He describes the terrifying experience of being homeless at 16 after a "chaotic" childhood. He has kindly sent us his speech so that readers can understand the reality our young people have to go through. Conference I am one of a small group within our party with a lived experience and today I want ...
It was a very busy night for the Lib Dems with by-elections up and down the country and some amazing results. We saw a 34% swing towards the Lib Dems in a Sheffield ward, sadly short of a win. Lib Dem candidate Tanya Tucker won a fantastic gain from Labour on Bishop Auckland Town Council. Jack Ashington Carter won polling 74% of the vote for a Malvern Town Council ward. Alton Wooteys held his ward on Alton Town Council with in increased share of the vote. Firth Park Ward, Sheffield Labour 1091 (-16.5%) Lib Dem 1050 (+34%) Conservative 258 (-14.7%) ...
Back in 2000, when the then Welsh Liberal Democrats group of Assembly Members were considering entering into a coalition government with Labour, we were, at one point, gathered into Mike German's office for a telephone conference with the federal leader of the party, Charles Kennedy. I am still unsure what those who arranged this meeting hoped to achieve. Maybe, it was considered that Charles could sway the waverers into taking the plunge. If that was the case then the organisers would have been sorely disappointed, for Charles had come to listen, not to exhort. He understood that the decision had ...
A party press release brings the news from the Liberal Democrat autumn conference: The Liberal Democrats have passed a motion at their party conference that calls for sanctions on Chinese officials and a boycott of the Winter Olympics. The motion also calls for family reunification of those forced into "re-education" camps and calls on the Foreign Secretary to grant asylum to Uyghurs fleeing persecution. Liberal Democrats have consistently called on the UK Government to take urgent action against those perpetrating these atrocities, including the use of Magnitsky sanctions. Ahead of the vote at their party conference Lib Dem Foreign Affairs ...
Be honest. When did you last collect a campaign leaflet from the doormat, see a six-figure housing target, and scream, "this is the Party for me!"? Probably never. Why? First, because everybody knows housing targets are empty slogans. No Government has hit their magic number since 2007, but they've never been held accountable for missing it. Second, every Party picks the same number... or tries to out-do the other lot by 50,000. On Saturday evening, Conference will debate and vote on Policy Motion F20: Building Communities. I'm supporting an Amendment to the Motion which increases local authorities' compulsory purchase powers, ...
I've been thinking about how long I'll keep up this series of ten-day check-ins. On the one hand, regular writing is good discipline in general. On the other hand, I really hope this will all be over soon. I posted my 540-day update on the way to a reception hosted by POLITICO: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nicholas Whyte (@nwbrux) At the reception, I got talking to Morten Rud Petersen, a former Danish minister; he told me that Denmark was to drop all COVID-related restrictions in a few days' time, declaring the pandemic effectively over. I ...
Our Party has something to offer everyone in England Scotland and Wales and therefore it makes sense that we should stand a candidate in every seat (our friends in the Alliance Party do a great job in Northern Ireland). That might seem like common sense - but at the last election we participated in the Unite to Remain Agreement by which we, the Greens and Plaid Cymru (Labour refused to participate) agreed to stand down in some constituencies - and it was a disaster. Not only did it make no difference to the results, but the way in which our ...
Fri, 18:04: Friday reading https://t.co/KOqinxGf2c Fri, 18:07: RT @benphillips76: Break through the tired old metric vs imperial measurements debate with a third way: https://t.co/pqwG3Nu7aA Fri, 18:16: February 2013 books https://t.co/mAcjZXWPYz Fri, 19:00: Wow. Belgium, with a fifth of the population, has 7 deaths per day at present. The death rate in England is three times higher! https://t.co/UnAcBKe9a9 Fri, 20:48: RT @sarahmanavis: This weekend brought back a lot of memories for me so I wrote something very different from anything I've ever written, a... Sat, 08:17: RT @damonwake: Very interesting, detailed piece on why Australia pulled out of the submarine deal ...
The Liberal Democrats have agreed upon a new deal for Care Leavers at their party conference today. The package calls for support measures for Care Leavers particularly in the area of education. The party is calling for further provision to support carers right the way through their education, with support measures proposed from the early teens right the way to further education. The motion calls for young people and Care Leavers to have specialised mentoring, extra exam support and tuition. The package also calls on the Government to increase the Care Leaver Bursary from £1,000 to £2,000. The Liberal Democrat ...
Sat 18th
10:3340 years on from Steel's "Go back to your constituencies and prepare for Government" speech
1981 was the year when, at the age of 14, I went full throttle into supporting the SDP/Liberal Alliance. Shirley Williams was my absolute hero and will always stay that way. But I will never forget the sense of hope instilled by David Steel in his leader's speech, especially that optimistic crescendo at the end when he instructed the assembled activists: Go back to your constituencies and prepare for Government. We had to wait a long time for national government. It was nearly 18 years before Jim Wallace took the Scottish Liberal Democrats into a successfully transformative coalition at Holyrood ...
Conference was barely four hours old and I had already been in tears four times. The debate on ending conversion therapy had some brilliant speeches where people shared their accounts of the damage that this appalling practice can do to LGBT people. I am hoping to have some of those speeches to publish on here. I also cried at a wonderful fringe event where former leader Jo Swinson talked to Lib Dem Councillor Rabina Khan about her excellent book My Hair is Pink under this Veil It is such a good book that had me raging and crying as she ...
In an almost effusive leader column, today's Guardian praises Ed Davey, Lib Dem strategy and calls the Chesham and Amersham victory stunning. It says the Liberal Democrats are determined to make that win just the first step in bringing down the Conservatives' "blue wall". Boris Johnson can't be ejected from Downing Street without a Lib Dem revival. Although Ed Davey will not be telling delegates to go back to their constituencies and "prepare for government" there are good reasons to believe something is happening, including the May by-election results. With their party conference starting on Friday, the Liberal Democrats are ...
The Anglo-American decision to sell nuclear submarines to Australia has launched a new round of geopolitical musical chairs with long-lasting repercussions. The Americans, Australians and British are very happy with their new seats and the new nuclear sub deal and the creation of a new alliance called AUKUS. The French are furious with the three allies. They have been left standing on the outside. It completely scuppers their $50 billion deal to sell the Australians electric submarines. It also weakens the Franco-British defence agreement that had become one of the pillars of the Western Alliance. "It is a stab in ...
A call to oppose the exclusion of the press and public before Shropshire Council debates the future of Shrewsbury's Shopping Centres next Thursday has been made by the Leader of Shropshire Council's Liberal Democrat Group, Councillor David Vasmer (Underdale). "It's a disgrace," commented Cllr Vasmer. "£51 million was spent by Shirehall's Tories on buying Shrewsbury's shopping centres and now they are worth just over £12m - that's a loss of nearly £39m. Just think of the improvements that could have been made, not just in Shrewsbury, but throughout Shropshire with that sort of money." "Now adding insult to injury, the ...
As residents will be aware, I welcomed the final abolition of parking charges at Ninewells Hospital, having campaigned against them for many years. The charges have acted as a tax on ill-health - as Ninewells is a hospital serving a large region and for many patients and visitors, particularly from outwith Dundee, public transport options to Ninewells are often limited or non-existent. Additionally, however, the charges have resulted in many vehicles parked on adjacent residential streets. Scottish Government made a promise to abolish all hospital parking charges back in 2007. It may have come 14 years late, but the decision ...
Sainsbury's is writing to residents in the Rocks Green area to tell them that the store will be open by Christmas. We don't have a date yet but it looks like being sometime in November. The external works are nearing completion and should be completed in the next month. The internal fitting out inside the store has begun early. The store will also host a small Argos where customers will be able to order or collect having ordered online. For those looking for a job, Sainsbury's is now beginning to recruit. Letter from Sainsbury's We're writing to you regarding the ...
