Liberal Democrats need to be honest when talking about Digital Services TaxThe party has had a long standing policy, at least since 2021, on the Digital Services Tax (DST), whereby it has backed its use starting from Autumn 2021 through the "Towards a Fair Global Corporation Tax System" motion passed. Since then we've gone into the 2024 general election to triple it from 2% to 6% to fund mental health support in schools, and since then we have wanted to raise to 10% to fund our increases to defence spending in this critical time. All well and good but next fiscal year it's projected to bring in £1.1billion, so an extra ... (more) |
The Lib Dems are at a crossroads - an open letter to the leadershipAbout a month ago I wrote a piece on my blog examining the rhetoric coming from Ed Davey about appealing to One-Nation Conservatives, and found that his words didn't actually align with our current position electorally at all. This created a bit of a splash with it being featured on Liberal England, and even earned a response from political analyst William Lane detailing where we should go next. So imagine my annoyance when after the latest budget was unveiled by Labour Ed began speaking out against tax increases in a Tory-like fashion, most shockingly targeting the Mansion Tax of all ... (more) |
West End weekly ward surgeries tonight #dundeewestendOur joint weekly ward surgeries take place tonight. This week they are as follows : Blackness Library (Tuesdays 5pm - every week during school term time) Ancrum Road Primary School (1st Tuesday of each month at 5.45pm during school term time) All welcome - no appointment necessary! (more) |
Will the Welsh government allow councils to go bust?The BBC reports on comments by Welsh auditor general, Adrian Crompton, that "One or two" of Wales' councils are close to going bust. The auditor general told Radio Wales that councils face a "real squeeze" as costs spiral for children's care and other services, while at the same time local authorities have reacted with concern after the Welsh government announced an extra £169m in funding for next year, less than a third of what they said they need. The settlement could mean major cuts if a council failed to balance the books: There have been warnings for years that some ... (more) |
Manifesto meetingGateshead Lib Dems held another meeting on Sunday to work on the manifesto for the local elections next May. We already had a first draft as a result of our manifesto meeting held in the summer. The meeting yesterday saw us go through the draft in fine detail. Some additions were made, some sections were revised or removed. We had 30 members at the meeting, held at Sunniside Social Club. We (more) |
This is not how to launch a new partyI'll start with a little confession: there was a time when I thought I was a socialist. I was the type who didn't actually join a party, I just sold the paper... but I was active in groups associated with these left-wing parties. I was involved in campaigns related to the NHS, anti-racism, LGBTQ+ inclusion and, later, opposition to the Iraq War. Inevitably this brought me into contact with many on the left of politics. I was also a trade unionist, which again inevitably led to encountering certain types of people - many of whom I retain a lot of ... (more) |
A chance to see Frankie Howerd's BottomPut your titters away, because I'm talking about Shakespeare. In 1957 Frankie Howerd was invited to appear as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Old Vic. And very good he was to, at least according to Francis Wyndham in The Queen (7 January 1958): Some members of the audience may have feared that his gift for gagging might interfere with the sacred text; others, that his comic genius might be constrained within the limitations of a classic. On the first night he struck a happy medium, under-acting in the rehearsal and Titania scenes but bursting out with hilarious ... (more) |
We're building walls to separate social and private housing againThe segregation of the classes is back, and it's not done only by price. Here's a report by Jessica Murray and Michael Goodier from the Guardian: The homes of people in Nunsthorpe, a postwar former council housing estate known locally as "The Nunny", sit only a few metres away from their more affluent neighbours in Scartho with their conservatories and driveways. Walking between the two is almost impossible because of a 1.8-metre-high (6ft) barricade between them, which blocks off roads and walkways that link the two areas in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Journeys that should only take a few seconds become a ... (more) |
Mathew on Monday: Why the Lib Dems must be the credible alternative in a chaotic political landscapeThe launch of "Your Party" over the weekend – the Jeremy Corbyn/Zarah Sultana-backed left-wing challenger to Labour – was hyped as being a show of unity, clarity, and a bold new politics. Instead, it descended into exactly the sort of chaotic spectacle that leaves most voters even more weary: factional infighting, activists and organisers being banned within hours, claim and counterclaim splashed across social media, and a level of internal turmoil that normally takes years, not mere minutes, to ferment. For a party that's mere days old, and that hasn't contested a single election yet, it was an extraordinary, almost ... (more) |
An OK budget, but it could have been much betterRachel Reeves' second budget has some things which we should like plus some things we should dislike. Ed Davey shouldn't attack the government for increasing the tax burden. We as a party should accept that people want better public services and this means that the tax burden has to increase. We should welcome the ending of the two-child benefit cap which has been our party policy for years. Ed has welcomed the changes to fund three-quarters of the cost of the increased use of renewable energy from the government rather than consumers, which will reduce energy bills. We should welcome ... (more) |