Government 'must get a grip' as asylum backlog soars to 143,000 Raab emails: Lib Dems write to Cabinet Secretary demanding investigation Michelle Mone: Lib Dems table amendment to scrap VIP lanes Richard Foord MP raises sewage report in Parliament after his son fell sick swimming in Devon river Full Review in Social Services in Wales Needed After Logan Mwangi Report Government 'must get a grip' as asylum backlog soars to 143,000 Responding to new official figures showing that the asylum backlog has risen to 143,377, with 97,717 waiting more than six months, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: ...
"Since February, an isolated former RAF base near the village of Manston, in Kent, has been used by the Home Office to warehouse migrants reaching England's southeastern shores on small boats. These are desperate people fleeing conflict, persecution, immiseration, environmental degradation and other crises. Most of them claim asylum. They all deserve better." Joseph Maggs argues that Manston refugee camp is a "politically manufactured crisis": the foreseeable result of government policy towards the vast majority of the global poor who are unable to access "safe and legal routes" to the UK. Stephen Glenn explains why he is not watching the ...
This morning Labour's Angela Rayner asked an urgent question to the minister for the cabinet office on the procurement of personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic. But it wasn't that minister who came to the Commons to answer it: it was a junior minister from the Department of Health and Social Care, Harborough's own Neil O'Brien. Why he got the gig I don't know, but John Crace in the Guardian suggests: His schoolboy error had been to answer his phone. And boy does Crace have fun with him: So it was a queasy-looking O'Brien who turned up for the ...
No regular visitor to LDV can have missed the growing debate over trans gender issues. Here we publish the response from the English Party to recent events in full. Given the sensitivity of the subject we will be pre-moderating all comments in line with our editorial policies. The English Council Executive, meeting last weekend, have agreed two motions in support of trans rights and in response to the Federal Board changing the Party's definition of transphobia. A motion of censure for the appalling communications calling for an apology and a plan to make sure nothing like this happens again. A ...
Assuming that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had stabilised the money market last month, his main task was to try to ensure we are in recession for the shortest period possible by reducing inflation while not deflating the economy. Therefore his biggest concern should have been the energy price increases forecast for next year. He failed to deal with this issue adequately. He has said that ending the price cap freeze would increase inflation by 5%. He has increased the energy price cap from next April by £500 to £3000 and this means that every household has to find this ...
Mole Valley Liberal Democrats report: Former army officer Chris Coghlan has been selected as Mole Valley Liberal Democrats' Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the next general election. Chris takes over from Cllr Paul Kennedy, who stood in the last three general elections and increased the Lib Dem vote from 14% in 2015 to 34% (19,615 votes) in 2019, the local party's best ever result in Mole Valley constituency. Paul said: "With his strong local background, Chris has a great chance to win next time, particularly in the new Dorking & Horley constituency which the Boundary Commission has proposed from July 2023. ...
The Guardian has an important scoop today in which they say that documents available to them reveal that Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her children secretly received £29m originating from the profits of a PPE business that was awarded large government contracts after she recommended it to ministers. They add that Lady Mone's support helped the company, PPE Medpro, secure a place in a "VIP lane" the government used during the coronavirus pandemic to prioritise companies that had political connections. It then secured contracts worth more than £200m: Documents seen by the Guardian indicate tens of millions of pounds of ...
There is no need to go into the detail of the current crisis in the asylum system. Everyone is talking about it but are the Lib Dems pushing and promoting our well thought out policies, agreed by the party, that have positive solutions? After two policy papers that an enormous of work had gone into, we can talk honestly and with passion on the issues, but do we? Parliamentarians, policy units and members put in a lot of work, but was it worth bothering? I alternated between shouting at the radio and despair on hearing Yvette Cooper on the Today ...
I am pleased that last the Council unanimously agreed a Lib Dem amendment that will begin the process of bringing openness and transparency into our proceedings Last night Liverpool City Council agreed an amendment that I moved on behalf of ... Continue reading →
The Supreme Court has delivered the judgement everyone expected from it - the obvious statement that, under the law as it stands, the Scottish Parliament does not have powers to call a referendum on Scottish Independence without the consent of the UK parliament. This judgement presents one opportunity and one threat to Liberal Democrats. The opportunity is the chance to cut through the squabbles between Conservatives and the SNP by pushing our own policy - that of a truly federal UK. A Federal UK has been Liberal policy for over a century and to my mind we do not emphasise ...
From Sheena Wellington : At the Wighton Centre, Central Library this Saturday - 26th November - at 11am. Chloe Matharu, singer, songwriter, harpist, sailor Chloe Matharu is a singer songwriter and harpist from the West Coast of Scotland. A Navigational Officer in the Merchant Navy, she offers an authentic voice for the female seafarer in the folk scene. Her ethereal and innovative music gives a glimpse into the modern mariner's life, and is truly unique. Small Voyages is an eight track album of original songs inspired by Chloe's time at sea as a deck cadet, sailing around the world on ...
Wed, 13:39: Ex-Tory who slammed European Court of Human Rights takes UK to ... European Court of Human Rights - what flaming hypocrisy! Owen Paterson's problem is that he was caught bang to rights breaking the rules, and the procedure was entirely fair. https://t.co/ngLflxfcex Wed, 16:43: January 2019 books https://t.co/VTl1PzjYUj
