In 2024 we spent the first 10 months of the year on election footing. We had local elections in May necessitating the first 4 months of the year working on electioneering, then we had 2 weeks off before the general election was called. Then along came 2 council by-elections in September and October. It meant that I spend a large amount of time in the Lib Dem print room churning off an
Celebrations are taking place this year to mark the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Tanfield Railway. Starting off as horse drawn on wooden rails in 1725, ably assisted in some areas by gravity, the railway carried coal from the northern Durham coalfield to the Tyne for export (much of it to London). Steam haulage and wrought iron tracks replaced timber and horses and the railway
Gateshead's budget meeting was held on Thursday 20th February 2025. The Lib Dem group had met on the Monday before to decide whether to vote for, against or abstain. The budget itself was a standstill. In effect there were no cuts though the council still faces a deficit in the years ahead. The standstill however is only on the basis of a 4.99% rise in council tax. Had the Council not
Malcolm Saville was a Sussex man, but his most popular books were those set in the Shropshire hills. This advertisement from the Wellington Journal (12 January 1963) shows him making an appearance at a Shrewsbury bookshop to sign books before giving a talk at the town library. Saville had long worked in publishing - I believe he was even Enid Blyton's publicist at one time - and did not give up that day job when his career as a children's writer took off.
When all we see before us is a dystopian hellscape with populists everywhere and everything we have ever valued (or taken for granted) about living in a liberal democracy where human rights are valued has suddenly turned on its head, we need a way of sorting things out. A book published today, edited by our friend and regular contributor Paul Hindley and Ben Wood, seeks to provide some of the answers. When we speak of Freedom: Radical Liberalism in an age of crisis is published by Beecroft Publications in association with the John Stuart Mill Institute. The book has also ...
Our universities used to be among the few British institutions that the rest of the world really did envy. But from 2010 the Coalition was determined they should be run more like businesses. In recent weeks the collapse of this policy has been demonstrated by the wave of redundancies engulfing British universities. Looking for mainstream media coverage where I would expect to find it, it's hard even to locate the education coverage at all on the BBC or Guardian sites these days, but the story has been well covered on social media. And the pithiest comment on it is to ...
Wed 26th
13:55
3 New Lib Dem MPs to speak at the Social Liberal Forum pre-conference lunch in Harrogate
The Spring Lib Dem conference in Harrogate starts at 4.30pm on the Friday 21st March. Before that at midday we in the Social Liberal Forum (SLF) are organising a pre-conference lunch event at the Crowne Plaza hotel near the conference centre. Last year the spring conference was in York and we organised a similar lunch time event with 3 prospective Lib Dem MPs as speakers; Josh Babarinde, Victoria Collins and Bobby Dean, all of whom got elected last July. This year we invite back Bobby Dean with 2 more new MPs; local MP Tom Gordon and Pippa Heylings who is ...
I took these photos in the opposition office on Thursday 20th February 2025, before the council budget meeting. As you can see, we are rather crowded. We were joined by a number of Lib Dem campaigners as well. SO we need to eye up bigger office space as we outgrow the opposition office. The Council Leader's suite of offices would be ideal for the growing Lib Dem group. It is potentially
After leading a strikingly successful first general election campaign, the next thing on a Liberal Democrat leader's to do list is the book. And Ed Davey is about to tick that one off too. The Bookseller reports: HarperCollins has bought Why I Care: And Why Care Matters, the debut from Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats. Editorial director for HarperNorth Jonathan de Peyer acquired world all-language rights directly from the author. The book will be published in hardback, e-book and audio in May 2025. "Care is the thread that runs through Ed's life," the synopsis reads. "Aged only four, ...
Federal Conference is nearly here It is fabulous we are not only returning to Harrogate for a Liberal Democrat conference, but that now it is also a venue with a Liberal Democrat MP, following Tom Gordon's win last July. The very first winning general election campaign I worked on was that for Phil Willis, also in Harrogate, back in 1997. Back then, we all thought the 1997 election result across the country was a cracking one for our party, winning 46 seats. But we far surpassed that in 2024. People will still smile while saying '72' for a good while ...
I love publishing guest posts here on Liberal England, whether they're on politics or wider culture. And I'm happy to entertain a wide range of views. But I'd hate you to spend time writing something I really wouldn't want to publish, so do get in touch first. These are the last 10 guest posts on Liberal England:This blog is not suitable for kids - Laurence WarnerThe future's bright, the future's orange - Stuart WhomsleyAn Oasis reunion? Have we not suffered enough? - Stuart WhomsleyThe night the Walker Brothers played a Market Harborough club - Jo ColleyAn essay in identifying Englishness ...
I was going to write today about the appalling behaviour of The USA in standing along with the anti-democratic forces of Belarus and Russia. However, I then read an excellent editorial in the Indepednent Newspaper. As I agreed with every work that they have said, and they say it better than me I am simply reproducing their editorial with full acknowledgement of its ownership of their work. It does, however, add impetus to my last blog where I suggested that the UN should come to London (if not Liverpool!) The Independent Newspaper really is an important place for receiving quality ...
In an email to Party members, Ed Davey set out his support for the Prime Minister's plans to raise defence spending – though he urged him to go faster and to get all-party talks going to work out how. However, he criticised the fact that it was being funded from the international aid budget. The Liberal Democrats have long championed international aid and it was our Michael Moore who successfully enshrined the previous 0.7% target in law back in 2015. Watch Ed's reaction to the Prime Minister's statement yesterday: Ed said in his email: Today, the Prime Minister did what ...
I never thought I would end up writing an article about NHS procurement—which, on the face of it, sounds like a terribly dry subject. But having recently navigated the system on behalf of an SME, I have seen first hand how its failings contribute to waste, inefficiency, and the exclusion of innovative and agile suppliers. Due to a conflict of interest and confidentiality concerns, I am posting this anonymously to avoid disadvantageing my client in an ongoing tender. The SME I work with has decades of experience supplying medical equipment to international governments, NGOs, and global health organisations; in the ...
The last thing I expected when I wrote the previous post condemning the cutting, indeed abandonment, of USAid by the amoral/immoral President Trump, was that i would have to follow it with a similar article on a similar decision by what I had supposed was a relatively moral and upright British Labour Government. A previous post, written five months ago . . . https://keynesianliberal.blogspot.com/2024/10/ . . .details the fifty year struggle for the British government to fulfil its promised, made by a Conservative government under Ted heath, to devote 1% of our relatively massive GDP to aid the development of ...
Climate Café® Dundee takes place at Dundee Rep, last Wednesday of the month from 10.30 am to 12 noon - Fraser is pictured at an earlier meeting with Amanda Lowson of Dundee Rep Theatre. The next Climate Café® Dundee is therefore this morning at the Rep. Eilis Stevenson of Binn Group is the speaker. All welcome!
I have only just come across this article of a few weeks ago in Politics Home and the pessimistic view it takes of Welsh Labour's prospects in next year's Senedd elections. The greatest interest though is the view of anonymous Labour MPs as to the way that the Welsh Labour Government has become its own worst enemy. The reference of course, is to the rather bizarre electoral system designed to give maximum control to poltical party bosses and imposed on us without proper consultation, which with the rise of Reform, takes the next Senedd election into uncharted territory, Welsh Labour's ...
