As I said earlier, the party's presidential and vice presidential elections have been counted. Josh Babarinde and Victoria Collins have been elected as President and Vice President respectively. The presidential result was as follows: Josh Babarinde 3742 69% Prue Bray 1698 31% The vice presidential race was closer Victoria Collins 2788 57% Kamran Hussain 2102 43% Congratulations to both Josh and Victoria who take up their new roles on 1st January. The President chairs the Federal Board and is there to be the voice of the members to the leadership. The Vice President is responsible for increasing diversity in the ...
Last week I wrote that Leicestershire County Council, which is run by a Reform UK minority administration, is to pay £1.3m to consultants. That's peanuts! The Leicester Mercury reports: Documents published last week revealed that the "estimated contract value" has actually been set at "up to £30 million" as a whole, with the £1.4 million audit just phase one of that contract. A spokeswoman for the authority has stressed that no further work beyond phase one has yet been agreed. The county council currently needs to plug an expected £90 million gap in its day-to-day spending by 2029 in order ...
My term has President of the Liberal Democrats comes to an end on 31 December, and with a two-term limit I was always definitely on the way out. Members have now chosen my successor, as this news release from the party reports: Josh Babarinde, MP for Eastbourne, has been elected today as the new President of the Liberal Democrats. Josh will assume the role of Liberal Democrat President on 1 January 2026 for a three-year term, with Mark Pack remaining in post until then. Newly elected president Josh Babarinde said: "I'm so grateful to Liberal Democrat members for electing me ...
Gateshead West Lib Dem branch meeting was held last night in Winlaton. Most of the meeting was taken up with planning for the local elections next year and with reporting back on ward campaigns. Ward Focuses have been or are about to be delivered in Ryton, Whickham North and Swalwell, Whickham South and Sunniside, Dunston Hill and Whickham East, Birtley North and Lamesley and Birtley South.
Wed 12th
09:33
Presidential and Vice Presidential counts to get underway at 10 am but all committee counts postpone...
Today the counts get under way for the federal internal elections. Online voting ended at 2pm yesterday but the voting period was dominated by the changes to the diversity quotas announced the day before polling started on October 28th. On that day, presidential candidate Prue Bray wrote that she was so angry she could barely type. It is far from clear what the law is exactly at this point, but even if we are not compliant with it, the party should have to be dragged kicking and screaming to do this! If we give up without a fight, not only ...
Wed 12th
09:04
Trump's words mock those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for us all in the two World Wars
Anyone who reads my blog regularly cannot fail to be aware that I do not like Donald Trump any more than I like Nigel Farage. I believe that both men see fit to either lie or distort the truth with impunity although even I would say that that Farage is not as bad as Trump. I am also confident that there are more checks and balances in place with deeper and stronger roots to keep despotic people under control than exist in America. I vowed never to talk about Trump ever again but sometimes he says things that are so ...
From Dundee Westgait Church : "You are invited to a community meeting on Thursday 13th November at 7.15pm in the Memorial Hall of our Shaftesbury Terrace building - formerly known as Logie & St John's (Cross). The aim of the meeting is to understand what the community needs from a local church, and also to explore whether the local community is willing and able to work with us in order to keep their local church open. All welcome - we look forward to seeing you there."
Labour's first year in power has been an unmitigated disaster for them and it's all their fault. In scrapping the winter fuel allowance, making cuts to benefits, refusing to abandon the two-child allowance cap, and ignoring the very real case for compensating WASPI women, a cause they campaigned for in opposition, Labour have alienated key constituencies, while undermining their own USP amongst Labour voters. It's little wonder that the Greens, with their new socialist identity are snapping at their heels. Having realised that these betrayals are causing them irreparable harm, Labour Ministers have started to u-turn. They have reinstated some ...
Here's Hilary Mantel, writing in the London Review of Books, 21 February 2013: Royal bodies do change after death, and not just as a consequence of the universal post-mortem changes. Now we know the body in the Leicester car park is indeed that of Richard III, we have to concede the curved spine was not Tudor propaganda, but we need not believe the chronicler who claimed Richard was the product of a two-year pregnancy and was born with teeth. Why are we all so pleased about digging up a king? Perhaps because the present is paying some of the debt ...
Here we are again – polls have closed, results will appear tomorrow. What should the avid Lib Dem watcher be looking for in the results? The Presidential race this year lacked the chaotic fireworks of Liz Webster's run in 2022: in both Prue Bray and Josh Babarinde, the leadership faces working with a somewhat more critical socially liberal friend on the party's centre-left. The question facing the party's voters thus doesn't really break across the different lanes and is more one of style: Josh, as an MP, is well placed to lead from the front, whereas Prue is a long-standing ...
Like many Lib Dems I was immensely pleased to read of the victory of Sam Ammar in Bromsgrove South last week, taking a seat from Reform. I had met Sam at the London Region Conference a few weeks ago and was really struck by her story of how she joined us from Labour and her energy and enthusiasm and I wanted to find our the inside story of how our Bromsgrove Team beat Reform. The by election was called after a Reform Cllr ( who had not attended any Council meetings since her election in May ) resigned due to ...
One month after the Gaza ceasefire, and the prospect of a just and lasting resolution feels as distant as ever. In Gaza, Israel continues to dictate the terms of an increasingly fragile peace - obstructing humanitarian access, committing near-daily ceasefire violations, and showing little sign of any genuine commitment to withdrawal or reconstruction. But it is in the West Bank that Israel's true intentions are most clearly revealed. While global attention has remained fixed on Gaza, Netanyahu's government has quietly pressed ahead with the steady consolidation of its grip on the occupied territory. This year has already seen record levels ...
On Sunday, the Remembrance parade and wreath laying service in Whickham took place. It was well attended with over 40 wreaths laid and around 1500 people attending.You can see our full set of photos of the day on this link.
There are many things that Labour and the Liberal Democrats may disagree about, but on one issue they are of one mind - a Reform government would be a disaster for the UK. It might even mean the end of the UK. You would think that when the BBC reported recently that Davey wants to work with government on electoral reform the Labour government would have embraced the idea. After all, Keir Starmer supported electoral reform during his bid to become Labour leader in 2020. True, he then seemed to lose interest in the idea, and it never appeared in ...
The BBC is under attack as never before. Donald Trump and his cronies have it squarely in their sights - and there are no prizes for guessing why. The BBC is the world's number one source of trusted news, so of course snake-oil salesmen such as Trump see it as their enemy. If your power is built on conspiracy theories and distortions of the truth, the last thing you want is respected, independent journalists exposing that and holding you to account. Ed Davey speaks up for the BBC in a Guardian article today. Later on he says that Robbie Gibb, ...
Tue 11th
10:24LibLink: Ed Davey - The first step towards saving our precious BBC: remove Robbie Gibb from the boar...
Ed Davey has written an article for the Guardian continuing his uncompromising support of the BBC: The BBC is under attack as never before. Donald Trump and his cronies have it squarely in their sights - and there are no prizes for guessing why. The BBC is the world's number one source of trusted news, so of course snake-oil salesmen such as Trump see it as their enemy. If your power is built on conspiracy theories and distortions of the truth, the last thing you want is respected, independent journalists exposing that and holding you to account. You can read ...
The furore over the BBC's alleged bias against Donald Trump is starting to get out of hand, not least through Trump's own actions in threatening to sue the UK's national broadcaster in a Florida court for $1 billion. The Guardian reports that Tim Davie, the BBC's director general, and the head of BBC News, Deborah Turness, have resigned after a former adviser to the corporation accused it of "serious and systemic" bias in its coverage of issues including Donald Trump, Gaza and trans rights. They add that the BBC chairman, Samir Shah, is also expected to apologise for the way ...
At this critical juncture, liberal democracy is facing a profound global crisis. Populists, masquerading as the voice of 'the people', are gaining traction, while liberals are often perceived as mere mouthpieces for institutions. However, as Charles Kennedy eloquently articulated two decades ago, liberalism is not elitist; it is the most valid form of democracy, deeply rooted in compassion, honesty, and trust in ordinary people. It's time to reclaim populism for liberal democracy, wresting it from the grip of extreme factions. This could be a pivotal strategy in our efforts to revitalise liberal democracy, and it's a task that cannot be ...
Some decades are characterised by a name. The last of the nineteenth century was "the Naughty Nineties," though by current standards I suspect they were very straight-laced. The second decade of the twentieth Century was the "roaring Twenties" when people enjoyed the relief of the end of the First World War. I suspect most of the "roaring" was done by the better better-off. There followed the "Swinging Sixties." I lived though these. There wasn't much swinging in my life-style, but I do recollect a tremendous amount of optimism and hope. We really thought we could "Build the New Jerusalem in ...
Our joint weekly ward surgeries take place tonight. This week they are as follows : Blackness Library (Tuesdays 5pm - every week during school term time) Harris Academy reception area (2nd Tuesday of each month at 5.45pm during school term time) All welcome - no appointment necessary!