I came across a new podcast today - Garlic & Pearls- via a really good episode on Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap. It's thoroughly researched and emphasises how far from cosy Christie's works can be. The Mousetrap is set in a dislocated postwar world in which the class structure has been shaken and there is an air of paranoid watchfulness. The BBC's adaptations of the Miss Marple books, which starred the incomparable Joan Hickson, were set firmly in this world. And it's noticeable that when Bertram's Hotel appears to have survived the changes unscathed, it turns out to be too ...
I took delivery of 2000 Sunniside Focuses yesterday. My next job is to bundle them into their patches. Tomorrow we start delivering them! They all have to be out before 26th November. That's when the Christmas tree lights switch on is happening, and the front page of the Focus is all about it.
This week, there were ten by-elections, of which two were on Tuesday. Three by-elections did not have a Liberal Democrat candidate. Congratulations to Councillor Jan Goffey and the local Liberal Democrat team for gaining a seat in Devon, despite beginning from a standing start. We were able to secure a decisive victory, whilst both the Conservatives and an independent were vying for second place. West Devon BC, Okehampton South Liberal Democrats (Jan Goffey): 356 (57.1%, new) Conservative: 152 (24.4%, -5.9) Independent: 116 (18.6%, - 17.0) Liberal Democrat GAIN from Green Party Turnout: 22% Congratulations are also due to Councillor Martin ...
Fri 7th
16:39
Beyond the picket line: why Liberal Democrats must rebuild bridges with Britain's workers
In an era when populism erodes democratic norms and insecurity pervades the modern workplace, the defence of liberal democracy must extend beyond parliaments and ballot boxes. It must reach the factory floor, the classroom, and the hospital wards. The right to organise, to be treated fairly, and to have a voice at work are not socialist luxuries. They are the foundations of a free society, and the current situation demands our immediate attention and action. More than twenty years ago, Charles Kennedy understood this. In 2002, addressing the Trades Union Congress in Blackpool, he declared: We Liberal Democrats believe in ...
I've noticed here on LibDemVoice that when we have a discussion about the economy and what the Government can afford, it usually descends into a very technical argument about the nature of money: is money a flow, as mainstream economics says, or is it destroyed by tax, as Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) advocates believe? Wouldn't it be nice if there were an alternative way to think about expenditure that avoided these arguments and got to the root of what is really going on when we decide whether something is affordable? Well, there is! Instead of counting money, try thinking about ...
They don't quite have the sparkle of the results of the past couple of weeks but nonetheless, yesterday's by-elections were still favourable for the Lib Dems.Let's start with Okehampton, West Devon:The Greens were defending but lost. They weren't helped by their own failure to field a candidate. Why didn't someone from their surging claims of new members come forward to defend the seat? Anyway
One of the things I enjoy most about blogging these days is publishing guest posts. Have you thought of writing something for Liberal England yourself? I'm happy to entertain a range of political views, but I'd hate you to spend time writing something I wouldn't want to publish, so please get in touch first. These are the 10 most recent guest posts on Liberal England - as you can see, I welcome posts on subjects beyond politics:Dad's Army and the decline of the Conservatives - Anselm AnonThe state of our canals - and canalside pubs - today - Peter ChambersForget ...
Rose Runswick argues against building Liberal Democrat strategy on an attempt to win over one-nations Conservatives. They are not natural Liberals and our advance at the last general election came through tactical anti-Conservative voting. "Our polling suggests that a clear divide exists in local government along overlapping economic and cultural lines. Reform councillors typically take the most right-wing positions (except on the NHS), followed by the Conservatives, including on the tax and spend question. There is often little difference between Labour and the Liberal Democrats on the centre left/left, and then the Greens take the most left-wing position."David Jeffrey and ...
Ending Wars is the bold title of a new book co-edited by Lord John Alderdice and Padraig O Malley and published earlier this year by the New England Journal of Public Policy. Its companion publication entitled The Changing Character of War and Peacemaking (2023) was curated along the same lines as a compilation of articles penned by a wide range of contributors to the conferences organised by the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflicts (CRIC) held at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford in 2023 and 2024 respectively. Most would remember Francis Fukuyama's End of History and the Last ...
The next West End LCPP meeting is on Thursday 20th November from 9.30am until 11am at The Friary in Tullideph Road. Working with What Matters to You this will be the first Café Conversation in the West End. The LCCP Chair said : "These sessions have been held in other parts of Dundee and offer a relaxed space for community members, practitioners, and strategic leaders to come together. The aim is to talk about what's working well, what could be better, and how we can improve things together. We're encouraging people to share real experiences. We'll spend time listening, identifying ...
The Independent reports that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has admitted to breaching the governance code for public appointments regarding her choice for the new football watchdog's chairman. The paper says that in a letter addressed to Keir Starmer, Nandy apologised for contravening the rules by not disclosing that David Kogan, her appointee, had previously donated to her leadership campaign. They add that a report by the Commissioner for Public Appointments, investigating Mr Kogan's selection as chairman of the Independent Football Regulator, concluded that she had "unknowingly" committed this "error". I know Labour party members who will put this down to ...
Ten principal authority council by-elections this week, split across Tuesday and Thursday. Although not all the vacancies had a Lib Dem candidate, the number of wards contested by the Lib Dems was up two on the previous time these places were up. The contests included a Green Party defence, except that – for the third time since May – this is no Green candidate to defend their own seat. That was in Conservative Shadow Cabinet member Mel Stride's constituency – and resulted in the third Lib Dem gain in his seat in recent months: [IMG: Jan Goffey pointing] Jan Goffey ...
This Terence Carroll documentary on the last days of the line from King's Lynn to East Dereham was first broadcast on BBC2 on 2 June 1969, though Wikipedia tells us the line had been closed for the best part of a year by then: The line was not listed for closure in the original 1963 Beeching Report. But it was nonetheless closed to passenger and freight services by the Eastern Region of British Railways on Saturday 7 September 1968, save for a three-mile section for sand freight from King's Lynn to Middleton. Wendling station continued for a short while as ...
I thought I'd played chess for Northampton Working Men's Club (or Whyte Melville, as we were often called) only in the national club knock-out competition, which was a tournament to which Market Harborough did not aspire. But, sorting out some old files, I found I had also played a season for them in the Northamptonshire league and done rather well too. All of which makes more sense of this memory... I was playing some five-minute games at Whyte Melville after winning my league game, and there was a beat-up old guy watching us. Even non-players are entranced by people playing ...
Yesterday I went into the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Great Bowden for the first time, and here's the Doom painting on the north wall of its north chapel. I photographed another one in Wycliffe's church at Lutterworth a few years ago. They were doing coffee in the church, and one of the women in charge was a friend of mine. Not only that. Her husband, who I was at school with back in the day, had written the words for the plaque explaining this fine Edwardian stained glass window. Perhaps we really are the grown ups ...
Editor's Note: This month party members will be voting to elect our next Party President. At Lib Dem Voice we welcome posts from each of the candidates - one to launch their candidature plus a maximum of one per week during the actual campaign. Local government is the bedrock of Liberal Democrat politics. It is the layer of politics that is closest to the everyday lives of people – from the mundane to the momentous. It is local government that controls everything from bin collections and fixing roads to adult social care and SEN provision. In fact, around 800 essential ...
'Het kan wel', a play on Barack Obama's 'Yes, we can' quip, was ringing out in the Netherlands as Rob Jetten and his liberal D66 party surprised the pundits by winning the Dutch General Election last week. It was a close-run thing though, and it was only after all the postal votes had been counted that he was declared victorious against Geert Wilders' nationalist PVV party, by a historically small margin of 28,000 votes. D66 will now be able to look to form a coalition government after increasing their seats from 9 in 2023 to 26 seats. Jetten's style in ...
What can the Liberal Democrats learn from Zohran Mamdani's clean sweep victory of the NYC Mayoral Race? This week, American Democrat Zohran Mamdani ended a year-long campaign with a decisive victory in the New York mayoral race, winning over 50% of the vote on record turnout. For progressives across the Western world, it was a breath of fresh air: a politics of hope had won. That same evening, at my local party's AGM, we heard from Martin Tod, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the newly created Hampshire and the Solent Combined Authority. One line from his speech has stayed with ...
Last night I chaired the meeting of Sunniside History Society at Sunniside Social Club. The speaker was Dr Paul Stott who used to work as a naval architect in the shipbuilding industry in the North East before moving into the world of academia where he lectured on the industry of which he had lots of practical experience.Paul's presentation looked at the decline of UK shipbuilding from its
Large Remembrance poppies have started to appear in Sunniside. Thank you to the volunteers from Planting Up Sunniside who have been hard at work placing the poppies around the village.
Planting Up Sunniside held their monthly meeting on Tuesday and I was invited to come along and discuss a number of issues with them. Most of them was about the Christmas tree switch on event on Wednesday 26th November. Most of the details are now sorted. There will be live music and the mayor will do the switch on at 5.30pm. I've also arranged for three donkeys to be there (my links to farming
I canvassed seventy-five doors for the Liberal Democrats last Saturday. I know it's not a massive number by many politicos' standards — I mean, I did seven hundred and sixty-nine across the short campaign period last year — but it's still a decent amount to do on one casualish action day, I think. And yet, when I watch my partner (our local candidate) trawling through the local rag's website for things we can use as Focus stories, I can't help but wonder what I'm doing here. I am (as far as I'm aware) the only trans member of our local ...
The Guardian reports on one Reform voter in Lancashire, who is learning the price of supporting Nigel Farage's party. They tell us about Phil Price, whose mother is in Grove House in Adlington, one of the homes earmarked for closure by the Reform-run council: He said: "My mum is 93. If she finds out about this, it'll kill her." He said he was disgusted at what he fears is a conflict of interest involving Reform's cabinet member for adult social care, Graham Dalton, who owns a private care company in Lancashire. "I'm a paid-up member of Reform and I'm disgusted ...
We are holding a Thursday street surgery tonight to speak with residents on any local issues or concerns they may have. Should you have an issue you wish to discuss with us, e-mail us at westend@dundeelibdems.org.uk or call Dundee 459378 and we will be pleased to meet you - many thanks.
Here's the tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held between the May 2025 and the May 2026 local elections: Con Lab Lib Dem Green Reform SNP Plaid Ind/ Other Net Con [10] +2 (+2/0) -8 (+1/-9) +1 (+1/0) -15 (+2/-17) -1 (0/-1) – 0 (+1/-1) -21 Lab -2 (0/-2) [13] -4 (0/-4) -5 (0/-5) -22 (0/-22) – – -5 (0/-5) -38 Lib Dem +8 (+9/-1) +4 (+4/0) [26] +2 (+2/0) +1 (+2/-1) +1 (+1/0) – +3 (+3/0) +19 Grn -1 (0/-1) +5 (+5/0) -2 (0/-2) [6] – – – -1 (0/-1) +1 Ref +15 (+17/-2) +22 ...