The centre-left pressure-group Compass has recently published an essay called "Liberalism Alive" by Dr Roz Savage, the Liberal Democrat MP for the South Cotswolds. Here is a brief extract: We do not all need enormous private gardens if every child can walk to a beautiful park. We do not all need several cars if public transport is genuinely reliable. We do not all need to purchase individually what we could enjoy together. The entire essay is worth reading, though it is rather long (32 pages - an hour well spent perhaps.) You can find it here: Of course, Dr ...
Transport for London says: We're making plans for a new rail service on existing, underused rail lines in west London - this would become part of the London Overground network. The West London Orbital rail service would run between Hendon in north London towards Hounslow in southwest London. And Jago Hazzard shows us the lines that would be combined to provide this new service. One of the attractions of the scheme is that the track is already in place. You can support Jago Hazzard's videos via his Patreon page. Local Liberal Democrats, says the Richmond & Twickenham Times, are pressing ...
Five principal authority by-elections took place across England and Wales this week - one on Tuesday 13th October and four on Thursday 15th October. The Liberal Democrats were defending two seats (in Wiltshire and Mid Devon), Labour defended one in Gloucestershire, Reform UK defended one in Leicestershire, and an Independent defence in North Wales. It was an exceptional week of defensive strength for the Liberal Democrats, holding both of our contested seats with authority. In Mid Devon, we swept nearly three-quarters of the vote in Bradninch, while in Wiltshire, we halted a Conservative comeback in Salisbury Milford. Elsewhere, Reform UK's ...
The latest edition of my email newsletter about work in Parliament, A Lord's Eye View, is out and you can also read it in full below. But if you'd like to get future editions emailed direct to you as soon as they are published, sign up now: Welcome to my latest update on work in the House of Lords. This time long-term readers will be glad to know, cattle-grids get a mention again. Much more importantly, so does the maiden speech of new Liberal Democrat peer, Dave McCobb and the valedictory speech of soon to depart Liberal Democrat peer, John ...
This is a question that can be asked of anyone, and will allow any person to receive a variant of the answer every time. Yet one idea remains clear, and that is the government operates under the consent of the governed. As Liberal Democrats, we need to understand our namesake. We are democratic, we are a group that promotes liberalism and equality and importantly in relation to this, we promote a fairer system of voting; proportional representation. Everyone should have the right to feel as though their vote counts, everyone should feel valued as a participant in a democratic society. ...
Thom Hartmann says Trump is teaching America what every dictator knows: "When we think of strongman dictatorships we often imagine tanks in the streets, but those usually come in the later stages of repression (think Tienanmen Square) and often are never even needed (think today;s Russia). Instead, as every dictator on Earth can tell you, you don't have to silence the entire country; all you have to do is shut up a few strategically selected people visibly and publicly enough and the rest of the country will get the message and back away." Zack Polanski did not handle the Green ...
We had another unusual non-Thursday principal authority council by-election this week, on Tuesday in Stroud: Rodborough (Stroud) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 47.0% (+13.2) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 31.7% (+1.5) [IMG: ➡] RFM: 12.9% (New) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 6.9% (-3.9) [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 1.5% (New)No Ind (-25.2) as previous.Labour HOLD.Changes w/ 2024. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2026-10-13T22:27:05.861Z (For my statistics, this counts as an Independent/Other hold.) For what all this means for the running total of council by-election results since the last May elections, see my council by-elections scorecard here. These by-election results round-ups cover principal authority by-elections as ...
The Independent reports that Labour has told all of its local councils that share power with the Green Party that they must terminate their pacts if local Greens do not condemn its motion declaring 'Zionism is racism'. The paper says that although Andy Burnham has ruled out a future power-sharing deal with the Green Party, it was unclear whether this would extend to local councils. However, the party has now asked its councils in joint administrations with Zack Polanski's party to "review" its arrangements, saying if Green groups did not issue a "clear and unambiguous statement" condemning the motion within ...
Here's the tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held between the May 2026 and the May 2027 local elections: Con Lab Lib Dem Green Reform SNP Plaid Ind/ Other Net Con [15] +1 (+1/0) +1 (+3/-2) -2 (+2/-4) -6 (+3/-9) -1 (0/-1) – +2 (+3/-1) -5 Lab -1 (0/-1) [15] -1 (0/-1) -1 (+3/-4) 0 (+8/-8) +1 (+1/0) – 0 (+1/-1) -2 Lib Dem -1 (+2/-3) +1 (+1/0) [19] +1 (+1/0) +2 (+2/0) -1 (0/-1) – +3 (+3/0) +5 Grn +2 (+4/-2) +1 (+4/-3) -1 (0/-1) [7] – +1 (+1/0) – – +3 Ref +6 (+9/-3) ...
Given how popular (and lengthy!) my list of Reform councillor departures after the May 2025 elections turned out to be, here is a new list, this time for councillors on principal authorities elected under the Reform banner on 7 May 2026, or in by-elections after that date, who have already departed the party for one reason or another. Jay Cooper, Sefton: declared "not welcome" by Nigel Farage following reports of him calling the Holocaust a hoax and then resigned from the party (May 2026). Stuart Prior, Essex: expelled by Reform and resigned as a councillor after "he was accused the ...
Thu 15th
19:51
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a man falling off a paddleboard - for ever
Embed from Getty ImagesSo what went on in that meeting of Liberal Democrat MPs on Tuesday evening? The fury with critics of Ed Davey we were told about beforehand seems to have evaporated overnight, as everyone has told us how positive it was. Zoe Crowther and Harriet Symonds say on PoliticsHome: Supportive MPs described Davey as having been "in listening mode" at the meeting, with most MPs keen to join in a discussion on how the party can grow ahead of the next general election and build on its record number of MPs. PoliticsHome understands that only three MPs spoke ...
It's high time (it says here) we saw again what Lord Bonkers was up to 30 years ago. So here's an extract from the diary he contributed to Liberator 239, which was dated September 1996 and available from our stall at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton. The late David Chidgey, I should explain, as well as being MP for Eastleigh from 1994 to 2005, was in 1996 the pilot of the Liberal Democrats' own spacecraft Bird of Liberty. He was eventually rescued from a tropical island paradise after being downed in a collision with a Russian (or Commonwealth of ...
As I have long been convinced that I am the only person who remembers Gophers!, a bizarre comedy series screened by Channel 4 in 1990, I'm pleased to see that some of it has reappeared on YouTube recently. You can see the whole of the second episode above. Wikipedia does its best to explain what the series was about: Gophers! is a Channel 4 children's programme about a family of American gophers who move into a new neighbourhood, called Sycamore Heights, living next door to a family of uptight but well-intentioned rabbits, The Burrows. There were many recurring jokes within ...
We couldn't let a few days go by without delivering some more surveys. So this morning I had a couple of patches to deliver across two patches in Whickham. I was slowed up by conversations with residents and then,five minutes before I finished, it started raining. I'm not complaining. We need the rain!
I am a pensioner and a Liberal Democrat. I believe in freedom, fairness and the responsibility we share to ensure that everyone can live with dignity. Those convictions are why I want our party to speak more clearly about pensions and social care. My concern is not with Ed Davey's commitment or compassion. It is with whether our leadership is giving people enough substance to understand the choices ahead. As someone who served as a Southwark councillor for twelve years, including working on health and social care scrutiny, I know how closely these issues are connected. A pension provides an ...
A month ago, members of some Federal Committees were sent an email telling them that Ed Davey and Josh Babarinde were setting up an "Inclusion and Faith Review". The text is below: Dear all, The preamble to our Federal party Constitution makes clear that, as a party, we reject all discrimination and prejudice based on religion or belief and that we respect the right to freedom of conscience. As your Party leader and President we are determined to ensure that our party always lives up to these ideals – and all of those set out in our Constitution. Our rules ...
The Bolton News reports on Samantha Williamson's decision to join the Liberal Democrats: Cllr Samantha Williamson, of Horwich South and Blackrod, who had previously sat as an independent and part of the Communities First alliance, has joined the Liberal Democrats. She says she aims to continue advocating for the concerns of residents and in particular for the wellbeing of children and young people across the borough... Cllr Williamson said: "I am happy to be joining the Liberal Democrats because I can see they are the party that cares about honesty, integrity, and respect, and also they are committed to putting ...
I some history with controversial poems, having once invited the Welsh poet, Patrick Jones to read at the Welsh Assembly following the cancellation of his book launch in the Cardiff Waterstones, while 250 Christians sang and prayed outside. So I was interested in a story in Will Hayward's latest newsletter, one that does not reflect well on the Senedd Commission, who are responsible for running the parliament and arranging the official opening. He tells us that the National Poet of Wales has been barred from reading a poem in front of the King at the opening of the Senedd today ...
Plaid Cymru have finally done a deal with Labour to get their supplementary budget through the Senedd. As Nation Cymru report, all it took was for them to allocate an extra £60 million for additional learning needs. However, Cardiff University academics Ed Gareth Poole and Owain Cynfab believe that the deal is just a stopgap that leaves wider pressures on Welsh public services unresolved. Nobody expected Welsh finances to be sorted by a supplementary budget of course. Its purpose is to just move money around in year, pulling some from reserves, from additional Barnett allocations and reprioritising spending to meet ...