Ed Davey today questioned the Prime Minister on whether he would back a proposal to ensure safety for residents of care homes. The proposed law is named after Ann King, whose abuse while in a Surrey care home was exposed by hidden camera footage captured by her children. Following her death in October 2022, her children, including her son who is a constituent of Ed's, are now campaigning for "Ann's Law" which includes: A register for care workers. CCTV in care homes overseen by independent third parties. New guidance for police and prosecutors on dealing with abuse of vulnerable people. ...
The local elections have gone and the general election is not yet upon us. So this could be a good time to write a guest post for Liberal England. Please drop me a line if you've got ideas or opinions you'd like to share with the readers of this blog. As you can see from the list below, I accept posts on subjects far beyond the Liberal Democrats and British politics. I'm happy to entertain a wide variety of views, but I'd hate you to spend your time writing something I wouldn't want to publish. So do please get in ...
We should all be more like Jason Beer KC, the lead counsel to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. Because you don't hear politicians accused of lying any more. Instead, they're accused of gaslighting us. The concept comes from Gas Light, a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton set in the London of the 1880s. In it, a man tries to convince his wife that she is going mad. The story is so well known because, under the title Gaslight, it was twice filmed. First in England in 1940 and then in Hollywood in 1944. It was the latter production that ...
Jan Dehn outlines the many questions being considered by the government inquiry into what happened on Alderney under Nazi occupation: "It is known that the camp held Russian and Ukrainian prisoners as well as Spanish Republicans, captured French resistance fighters, and jews, but precisely how many people were there, who they were, and where exactly they came from remains clouded in mystery. There are also suggestions in some quarters that there are mass graves on Alderney, but where they are located and who is buried in the pits is unknown." Carlos Moreno, the father of the '15-minute city' has a ...
Last night my watching of the first Eurovision semi-final was rather interrupted with a Twitter storm created by Liberal Reform, or at least someone with access to its Twitter account. Liberal Reform is a group within the party which exists, according to its website, to promote personal liberty and a fair society supported by free, open and competitive markets as the foundation of the party's policy. So what had they said that wound people up so much? We need to have a rethink about how we regulate trade unions in the UK. Far too often, rail union barons are able ...
Scottish Liberal Democrats gather in Hamilton on 18 and 19 May for their Spring Conference. It may have seemed a risky decision to hold a Conference in what could have been the middle of a General Election campaign, but it's great that we have the chance to set out our stall at a time of change. The Final Agenda has now been published. In his introduction, Alex Cole-Hamilton said: It's great to be back. We meet at such an important time for the liberal revival both in Scotland and across the UK. Recent election successes show us poised to tear ...
Alex Cole-Hamilton's bid to become Scotland's First Minister was never going to end in success, unfortunately. It was important that he did it though. The MSPs in the Chamber were not his audience. That snippet on Reporting Scotland where he got the chance to be on the record, speaking to the people of Scotland, was an important part in Liberal Democrats setting out our stall. Hope, he said, was at the heart of everything the Scottish Liberal Democrats stood for as he outlined our vision for better healthcare, education and giving power back to communities. Watch here: The text is ...
The damaged bollards in Mid Wynd were recently replaced. However, there have been unfortunate instances of some riders of motorbikes ignoring the 'no through road' at great speed and causing alarm to pedestrians. Along with local residents, we asked the City Council if the spacing between the bollards could be narrowed to prevent this and the Senior Engineer in the council's Traffic and Road Safety Team responded helpfully as follows : "(The bollards) have been installed to our regulation/design criteria of 1.2m, an absolute minimum. This allows for pushchairs and various widths of mobility scooters to pass through as they ...
The Guardian reports that MPs and election candidates are being provided with a guide on recognising conspiracy theories - ranging from false claims about 5G technology to others about vaccines and global organisations such as the International Monetary Fund. The paper says that the guide was commissioned by Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, who launched it on Tuesday with the shadow leader, Lucy Powell, amid concern about the impact of conspiracies theories, in many cases with antisemitic overtones. The paper lists some of the conspiracies covered: The Great Reset Originally a vague set of proposals from ...
