Slightly left field interview here with Carl Cashman, Leader of the Lib Dems on Liverpool City Council. Is he correct? View this post on Instagram * Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
Barrister at law Alan Robertshaw is our guide to the complexities of the law on insider trading and misconduct in public office.
A skater dress, a teenage look on fifty-plus maturity; a knowing glance, seductive eyes, excitement springs eternal! Seeking the surge of ecstasy then succour, held tight in their arms...
By-elections invite panic. Turnout drops, narratives harden fast, and parties start talking as if politics is a single emergency in which only one "responsible" outcome is acceptable. The coming Gorton and Denton by-election in Greater Manchester is already being framed that way. In the i paper, Vince Cable is reported urging Liberal Democrat supporters to vote Labour, and leaning into an "Operation stop Farage" style argument. I understand the instinct. First Past the Post encourages defensive voting, and Reform thrives when an election is reduced to a binary contest. Many liberal voters will look at the race on polling day ...
Thu 5th
11:31
"A man of profound faith and exceptional talent": Alistair Carmichael pays tribute to Jim Wallace
Embed from Getty ImagesAlistair Carmichael has written a tribute to Jim Wallace - "a man of profound faith and exceptional talent"- for The House magazine. You can find it on the Politics Home website: At a time when our political debate is often ill-tempered, Jim's career is a reminder that to be productive our politics should allow parties to cooperate where they agree. He led the Scottish Liberal Democrats into and through the Scottish Constitutional Convention that eventually produced the blueprint for the Scotland Act of 1998. He then led us into a coalition with Scottish Labour in the first ...
"Without doubt, information provided during the height of the global financial crisis by a senior Member of the British Government, will have been operationally beneficial to a hedge fund manager, international financier and broker like Jeffrey Epstein. Without doubt, Mandelson will have known this when he was sending this information."Gareth Roberts makes the case for charging Peter Mandelson with misconduct in public office. Catherine Barnard and Denzil Davidson ask if Greenland can join the European Union: "Whether Greenlanders decide that it should be attempted, and how such an attempt would be received in Washington, will be an important question for ...
... the Three Politicians who walked into a bar? "Mine's a pint of Red!" declaimed the Socialist. "For Society, Fairness and Solidarity. With Labour in charge, of course!" "Beg pardon" said the Liberal "but I don't like your coarse chumminess. Individual Liberty must come first. I am the Captain of my Soul. A glass of Yellow, if you please!" "While you two are fiddling" declared the Green "The planet is burning. We only need buckets of water!" "I don't understand you people!" said the Barmaid. "Isn't it obvious that we all need to be free, happy, thriving individuals, living in ...
Which means it's time for this song, courtesy of the ever excellent John Finnemore Souvenir Programme: Lyrics by John Finnemore, music written and played by Susannah Pearse, performed by Simon Kane, with Carrie Quinlan and Margaret Cabourn-Smith.
The BBC reports that the minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol in Wales will increase from 50p to 65p from October. It means a can of lager currently available for £1 will cost at least £1.30, a £2.50 bottle of cider will increase to £3.25 and a bottle of whisky now costing £14 will cost a minimum of £18.20: It comes after Senedd members backed Welsh government proposals to increase the MUP. Welsh ministers said this "landmark policy to help reduce deaths and harm from excess alcohol" brings the country into line with the rate in Scotland. But the Conservatives ...
"Unlike the England cricket team," remarked one of the judges. Together with her fellows, she gave our Headline of the Day Award to Essex Live.
The House of Lords also paid tribute to Jim Wallace yesterday. Our leader in the House of Lords, Jeremy Purvis led the speeches. You can watch here. My Lords, many of us aspire to be a good politician, to do good and to be a good person. More times than not, we fall short. Jim Wallace was a good man who saw it as his role in life to do good things. He did, and they will last. With great sorrow, we have been denied the opportunity of hearing a valedictory speech in this House from Jim. He would have ...
It is part of Jim Wallace's legacy that three of our MSPs worked for him in some capacity. Willie Rennie was the Chief Executive of the Scottish Lib Dems who helped us win 17 seats in the new Scottish Parliament in 1999. He then went to Holyrood to head up our operation there for the first term. This is his tribute to Jim yesterday: The text is below: Even though it seemed that Jim Wallace had lived many lives in one, he was taken from us far too soon. I worked for Jim as the party's chief executive during the ...
Alex Cole-Hamilton also worked for Jim Wallace – in the Scottish Parliament Liberal Democrat staff pool. Here is his tribute in yesterday's Scottish Parliament session, detailing when Jim and his wife Rosie first met. The rest of the speeches can be seen here. The text is below. Presiding Officer, I start by thanking you and the First Minister for such heartfelt words. Jim's family and my party have been overwhelmed by the kindness that has been shown to us in these difficult days. We are heart-sore at his loss, but the outpouring of love and respect that has come forth ...
There have only ever been two MSPs for Orkney: Jim Wallace and his successor Liam McArthur. Liam worked for Jim as a Special Adviser when he was First Minister. You can see Jim's influence in the way that Liam works to bring people together. Yesterday the Scottish Parliament held tributes and flew flags at half mast. We start with Liam's heartfelt tribute to his old boss and mentor. The text is below: I thank colleagues for their generous comments this afternoon, and I thank those who have been in touch over recent days with wonderful messages. I have drawn huge ...
It has been said many times over the past few days that Jim Wallace was a kind man. It speaks volumes that almost everyone you might ask has an example of this kindness. Here is my own. It is a doubly useful anecdote because it is quite embarrassing for me, and very complimentary to Jim. Just a day or two into the Shetland by-election of 2019, when I was but a stripling in the world of political campaigning, I was assigned to go door knocking with Jim and another gentleman whose name, face and history I have entirely forgotten. Despite ...
I'm enjoying Alwyn Turner's new book A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between the Wars, and not just because my name turns up in the acknowledgements at the back. As Andrew Marr says in his New Statesman review, Turner builds his account on newspapers and popular magazines. This produces a bottom-up, sharp and often surprising read. And Turner's research is commendably thorough. Here he is on L. du Garde Peach, sharing far more than I knew about the author of most of Ladybird Books' Adventures from History series: If the stage and screen were tightly censored The same was not quite true ...
Here is a list of the councillors which Reform has shed from the May 2025 local elections and from those elections in by-elections since. The latest update is the removal of the whip from Caroline Gladwin. Donna Edmunds (Shropshire, suspended by Reform UK and then quit the party) Luke Shingler (Warwickshire, now an independent) Desmond Clarke (Nottinghamshire, resigned as councillor) Andrew Kilburn (Durham, resigned as a councillor) Wayne Titley (Staffordshire, resigned as a councillor) Mark Broadhurst (Doncaster, expelled by Reform) Adam Smith (West Northamptonshire, suspended by Reform and then expelled) John Bailey (Durham, resigned as a councillor) Daniel Taylor (Kent, ...
When Jeff Buckley drowned at the age 30, he had released just one album but was an internationally celebrated artist. His name is often yoked with that of his father Tim Buckley, who died two years younger, but they only met once.
Today is going to be a bit of a Jim Wallace Day here. There have been so many wonderful tributes to him from people in and beyond the Liberal Democrats, a testament to how loved he was and how important he was a figure in Scottish life, not just politics. But we start with his own words, a speech he gave in 2025 to Scottish Conference, three days before the election was called, marking 25 yesrs of the Scottish Parliament: Grateful for the invitation to speak. Fascination with anniversaries which end in a 5 or a 0. I once heard ...
The Mirror reports that Nigel Farage has been accused of choosing to plunge half a million children into poverty after unveiling plans to slash a vital benefit to fund 5p off a pint. The paper says that the Reform UK leader has announced a £3 billion support package for pubs, funded by restoring the two-child benefit cap: The plans would see VAT reduced to 10% for the hospitality sector, the employer national insurance increase for hospitality businesses scrapped, beer duty cut by 10%, new staggered business rate abolition for pubs and fresh regulation to support landlords. It is estimated that ...