Wide gunmetal skies. Plans reach an end. Nemesis falls in flakes like snow.
The next issue of Liberator - "The magazine for all Liberals"- will drop in a couple of weeks. If you'd like to be notified as soon as it's posted on the magazine's website, then add your email address to the magazine's mailing list. Liberator publishes six issues a year. Once you're on the list you will receive an email each time a new one appears. You can download issues from the magazine's website as a pdf free of charge. There's also a large archive of back numbers of Liberator to explore there. See the recent issues and the archive of ...
It's the wrong time for any serious party leader to advocate getting rid of our nuclear weapons. Yesterday, Ed probably said the most sensible thing anyone could say. If we're going to keep nuclear weapons, there is now a pressing need for them to be British. It's been said that it might be possible to jailbreak an F35. It's also been said it doesn't work like that. I don't know if you can jailbreak a nuclear missile, but maybe we should have somebody working on it.* But there is a substantial argument that our nuclear weapons will soon be useless ...
The local elections in May will elect an entirely new Council. If you are going away on Thursday, 7th May and don't have a Postal Vote, your voice will not be heard. You can apply for a Postal Vote here: really important that everyone has a chance to have their say so if you are going to be away please do apply for a
Over the weekend, Lib Dem spring conference was held in York. 5 of us from Gateshead attended: me, David Randall, Daniel Duggan, Amanda Wintcher and Jamie Rickelton. Amanda and Jamie attended as stewards but were given time off to take part in debates (Jamie made his maiden speech) and to meet up with us for a Gateshead Lib Dem dinner. Here are the first photos. Some more to follow
Six years after Britain left the European Union, the promise that we would "take back control" rings hollow. The truth is painful: Brexit has weakened our country. It has diminished our prosperity, our standing, and our confidence. What was sold as liberation has instead become a slow estrangement from our closest allies and from the European identity that once helped define us as an open, confident nation. For Liberal Democrats, the damage goes deeper than trade or economics. Brexit was a rejection of something essential: our belief that Britain's strength lies in cooperation and shared purpose. It narrowed our horizons ...
Searchlight has the measure of Reform UK's leader: "It's a script Nigel Farage knows well. Candidates or causes closely linked to him, perhaps even bearing his name and his photograph, make large, attention-grabbing promises. Votes are won on the strength of them. Then, once the votes are counted the promises are declared - with an air of wounded innocence - to have never been made, and certainly not by him." AI fakes spread disinformation but, asks Anna Merlan, is the distrust they create even worse? "Julie Critchlow, one of the mums involved, told The Times in 2006 that much of ...
Ed Davey's speech to Conference yesterday is already proving controversial within the party. His announcement that we are now calling for the country to develop its own independent nuclear deterrent had one member in tears and others mystified. Given that we will be debating a paper on international security in Autumn, people were wondering why that proposal could not have been properly announced as part of that process. Anything to do with nuclear weapons has long been an emotive issue for the party. Over dinner the other night, we were talking about the (before my time) leadership defeat on its ...
Following on from yesterday's post about the limited funds that might be available to the next Welsh Government with which to effect change, the BBC report on other aspects of the IFS analysis that suggests that spending more may not be the answer anyway. The broadcaster says that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has concluded that Wales' health and education systems are underperforming compared with England despite significant increases in spending. The IFS report concludes that despite recent falls waiting lists remain far higher than before Covid struck, and school absences remain 50% higher than in 2019: David Phillips of ...
I've made it back from York. Our spring conferences always seem to involve too much travel and not enough conference, so I rarely attend them. But it was good to meet old friends and have a look round the city where I took my first degree many years ago. One sight I made sure of seeing in York this time was the blue plaque on Frankie Howerd's early childhood home. The map suggested you could walk to it through a park that runs along the banks of the Ouse, but the park turned out to be flooded. I was forced ...
Here is the full text of Ed Davey's speech to Liberal Democrat Federal Spring Conference in York. More about the nuclear deterrent policy is on the party website and in coverage from The Guardian. Thank you friends. What a wonderful weekend it's been - here in York. It's hard to remember now, just how different things were - the last time we met here. Only two short years ago. We didn't know it, but we were just two months away from Rishi Sunak standing outside Number 10 - as he called that general election. Wishing he'd remembered his umbrella. And ...
Emergency motion – for my sins, I once got an emergency motion (on the situation in Fiji, since you ask) onto the ballot at a Bournemouth conference. Baroness Ludford was very sympathetic to it. It wasn't chosen in the ballot but it gave me an appreciation of the work and energy involved into putting forward an emergency motion to conference. So, well done to the Young Liberals for getting "A Liberal Future for Under 18s" into the hall for debate. The Tories are proposing an outright ban on social media for under 16s following the ban in Australia (the home ...
Lib Dem Culture and Media sportsperson Anna Sabine delivered a robust defence of the BBC in her keynote speech to Conference yesterday. She compared our public service broadcaster to the dreadful right wing news channels which broadcast the most outrageous and emotive misinformation. She set out Lib Dem plans to protect the BBC – a supermajority and ratification by all nations for any changes in its charter to be implemented, and banning all political appointments to the BBC board among them. There is even mention of farting. Enjoy! * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at ...
I came across this on BBC Radio 3's Night Waves, but what they played was an orchestration of In a Studded Procession rather than the electronic version above. If you want to hear that, and I think it's preferable, then go to Night Waves for 1 March on BBC Sounds and you will find it starting at 35:50. If you don't want to bother with that, the version here is still very good. Abul Mogard? Digital in Berlin explains: Abul Mogard is an alter-ego created by Guido Zen, an Italian musician currently based in Rome. He has performed at renowned ...
Today at Conference, after a hotly contested emergency motions ballot, Conference will be debating a motion by the Young Liberals which would introduce a ratings system for social media for under 18s. You can read it in Conference Extra here. Local Government finance and a motion on how to deal with Trump's increasingly illegal and dangerous policies are also on the agenda before Conference ends with Ed Davey's keynote speech. Here's the full agenda: 09.00-09.30 F15 Emergency motion – Social media for under 18s 09.30-10.00 F16 Question and Answer Session: Parliamentary Parties 10.00-10.15 F17 Speech: Peter Taylor, Elected Mayor of ...
Invigorating. That's the best word to sum up the LDER (Liberal Democrats For Electoral Reform) fringe last night. The panel, brimming with optimism and passion, was (L to R in the photo above): Chair Keith Sharp (LDER), Emma Harrison (Make Votes Matter), Lena Swedlow (Deputy Director, Compass), Lisa Smart MP (Cabinet Office spokesperson & Vice Chair Fair Elections APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group)). The Representation of the People Bill (ROPB) is going through Parliament, currently entering the committee stage. While it contains some good things such as votes for 16 and 17 year olds, Lisa Smart said that the bill ...
As we approach the business end of the elections for a new Welsh Senedd, all the parties will be preparing to publish their manifestos, complete with a list of expensive promises and actions that they believe will transform Wales, however the reality might prove more difficult to navigate than they think. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has published its own analysis that suggests that the next Senedd is not going to be an easy ride for whoever forms the next government. The IFS say that increases in resource funding are set to slow significantly and capital funding is set to ...