The Ukraine War continues to create tectonic shifts on the global diplomatic scene. This week it has helped Beijing stake its claim to Afghanistan and Central Asia as a Chinese sphere of influence. Also in Asia, New Delhi has become the centre of diplomatic ferment as East and West bid for support from the South Asian giant. At the same time, the EU has ditched its "talk about trade only" policy with China to join the US in pressuring Xi Jinping to come out against the war. In the meantime, Putin has turned the energy screws on Europe by demanding ...
The May local elections may just be over the precipice but there are still many hotly contested by-elections to contest until polling night. Three principal authority council By-elections this week and a Town council By-election for a good measure saw the Lib Dems back on the By-election trail. First up we have Morecambe TC where newly elected Phil Forster gained the seat of Bare South West from the Conservatives. The Lib Dems really do love Town and Parish councils. Morecambe TC, Bare South West Liberal Democrat (Phil Forster): 85 Conservative: 67 Labour: 62 Next, we turn our gaze to Melton ...
Darren Childs, known for his campaigning on ambulance provision in rural areas such as Ludlow, has been elected to Ludlow Town Council. The vote went to a recount and he won by four votes. That must be the closest result in Ludlow since Viv Parry lost to Martin-Taylor Smith for the Ludlow South unitary ward by just two votes a decade ago. The score on the doors: Darren Childs: 173 votes Tom Scott Bell: 169 votes. The turnout was 16.5%, which is fairly typical for a town or parish council by-election. There are local elections across the country in May ...
As far as I know keeping its citizens secure, protecting us from threats, is universally regarded as the first duty of any government. Most governments seem very enthusiastic about protecting us from external threats, particularly attacks from other countries. So throughout history governments have been happy to levy taxes and spend them on the latest weaponry and the necessary forces to operate them. I'm pretty confident that, as a result of the current confrontation between Russia and Ukraine we shall have on all sides further calls for greater expenditure on our armed forces and their equipment. Governments are more mixed ...
Yesterday we acknowledged the Transgender Day of Visibility with a post that highlighted comments from a number of Liberal Democrats. In that post we mentioned that the Government had decided not to ban conversion therapy, to much consternation. Amazingly, overnight the Government has U-turned again and is now planning to bring forward legislation to ban conversion therapy in the next Queen's speech. But – and a very big but – the ban will not cover trans people. On the one hand it is pleasing that gay conversion therapy will at last be outlawed. But it is deeply disappointing that trans ...
Well, of course, no one has ever been able to say it's a fair tax but the Northern Agenda article, linked below, makes the unfairness point only too clearly:- Anyone would think that a more fair and equitable way of funding local government had never been thought of or proposed. Oh but hang on, wasn't it those pesky Liberal Democrats who found what they thought at the time (Charles Kennedy era) was a solution – Local Income Tax – based on the ability to pay? Think it may well have been! Here's a link about LIT from Institute for ...
We hope you enjoyed this morning's post. This time last year we were musing on whether the party should take over a cruise ship for our Autumn Conference. It seems The Guardian has had a similar brainwave in relation to the superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs. Meanwhile, Tim Farron had a splendid idea. [IMG: 🚨] [IMG: 🚨] [IMG: 🚨] Excited to announce that I will be hosting a ground-breaking new show on @GBNEWS where politicians will settle their differences by actually having a fight. 'GBH with Tim Farron' coming to your TV screens soon! — Tim Farron (@timfarron) April 1, ...
The answer to that question is of course, yes. The Guardian reports that public sector unions have reacted with fury after ministers announced that pay increases across the civil service would be pegged at an average of 2% for the year ahead, despite surging inflation. In contrast, the paper says that the latest official figures showed average pay across the economy was increasing at an annual rate of 4.8%. It is little wonder that the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, Paul Johnson, has suggested that with civil service pay already having been hit by a decade of ...
Alison Bennett is the Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for the Mid Sussex constituency.
Tucked away at the end of the Agenda for Spring Conference we find this constitutional amendment: In Article 20.1, delete 'not less than' and insert 'not fewer than' on both occasions. What is not immediately apparent is that such grammatical errors could result in disciplinary action in future. In an attempt to smarten up communications the party can now apply sanctions to anyone who violates good grammar in public-facing documents such as Focus leaflets and press releases. Any party member responsible for such errors will have to attend training. If they refuse, they face expulsion. Here are some examples of ...
Responding to the progress report on the Windrush Scandal, published by independent expert Wendy Williams who was appointed to advise the Home Office, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Home Affairs Alistair Carmichael MP said: "The Conservative Government's abysmal response to the Windrush Scandal is now a scandal all of its own. "Priti Patel has utterly failed to get a grip on the broken immigration system or scrap the hostile environment that saw innocent people wrongly detained, deported and made homeless. In fact, she is only making things worse. Her failure to sort out the Home Office is clear from the appalling ...
