Embed from Getty ImagesIt's easy for a Liberal Democrat with a good memory to find Zack Polanski irritating. His story that he stood for his local council as Lib Dem because he cared about proportional representation, but then joined the Greens because he found he agreed with them more, doesn't square with what we recall of him. He didn't just stand for his borough council, he also stood for the London Assembly and was dead keen to be our candidate in the 2016 Richmond Park by-election. His complaints when he wasn't selected filled Lib Dem social media for ages afterwards. ...
The argument for standing aside in Makerfield sounds "strategic", but from a Liberal Democrat perspective it is strategically short-sighted, democratically unhealthy, and misunderstands how Reform is defeated. Political parties exist to represent voters, not simply to game outcomes between larger parties. If Liberal Democrats believe in liberal values, civil liberties, internationalism and local democracy, then voters everywhere deserve the opportunity to vote for those values. Writing off entire areas risks accelerating decline, not preventing it. The claim that standing and polling poorly makes the party "look inept" ignores Liberal Democrat history. The party's biggest advances often began from tiny bases ...
For most of the modern political era, economic debate has revolved around one central question: how do we create more jobs? But what happens when technology begins reducing the need for human labour just as our population is ageing and demand for care, health and support is rising sharply? Artificial intelligence is already reshaping parts of the economy at extraordinary speed. Entry-level legal work, coding, administration, customer service and research are all changing before our eyes. At the same time, Britain is growing older. More people are living longer, often with complex health or care needs, while birth rates fall ...
It's time to catch up with the trip now that I'm back, so let's do just that... Early morning, Antwerp, and my first intention was to deal in a little nostalgia. But isn't Antwerpen Central just a little special? There's some outstanding architecture (and a very convenient zoo). And, as a place to start your journey in earnest, it's so much of an improvement on any of the Brussels stations. Sadly, it was early, and I had miles to go before I slept. The obvious route to my intended destination would be via Amsterdam and a series of German high ...
In an Essex district, three excellent candidates stood for election to the county council. Two were experienced councillors, one Labour, one Conservative, well-known, well-liked, well-dug-in to their communities and having done plenty for those communities. One was a Liberal Democrat challenger in a division where the sitting Conservative was standing down. This candidate too was highly popular, a district councillor who had accomplished much. All three lost to Reform. The Reform candidates were unknowns. Their party did not think fit to tell the voters anything about them. They did little locally. Whereas those three losing candidates all ran campaigns highlighting ...
The Manchester Evening News wins our Headline of the Day Award. "Ambition? I had ambition once," remarked one of the judges.
The Mirror reports that Dame Emily Thornberry, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, has voiced her frustration about the amount of information being redacted about Peter Mandelson's appointment, accusing Ministers of putting "obstacles" in the way of the truth over the former Ambassador's appointment. The paper says that one of Keir Starmer's top aides was confronted by senior MPs who accused the Government of changing the goalposts over which documents it plans to release. This is despite the fact that the PM has committed to releasing all relevant files and messages around the decision to name Mandelson as ambassador to ...
"Look at our responses to three of Labour's flag ship pieces of legislation: the Employment Rights Bill, Great British Energy and taking the railways into public ownership. On each of these pieces of legislation, the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons abstained on them. Why? I gather we attempted to amend each of them, but how? I could not tell any voter whether the Lib Dems supported or opposed Labour's landmark legislation on employment, energy or transport, because I genuinely have no idea."Paul Hindley convicts the Lib Dems of timidity. Sacha Hilhorst has interviewed Reform voters and she found ...
Occasionally a writer will still publish a novel in instalments as the Victorians did. In the preface to his 44 Scotland Street, Alexander McCall Smith describes the genesis of the book in his meeting Armistead Maupin at a party in California. Maupin had originally published the first five of his celebrated Tales from the City books in this manner. On his return to Scotland, McCall Smith wrote an article about this meeting in The Scotsman, saying it was a shame that newspapers no long published serialised novels. The newspaper's editorial staff took up the implicit challenge and, over an optimistic ...
By 1975 the Walker Brothers had got over the evening when they had their shirts ripped off in Market Harborough. You can tell this single is from that era because of the gratuitous guitar solo.
The public are very well acquainted with what the Liberal Democrats are against - Brexit, Donald Trump, the sewage scandal, and more. But in this new, fragmented and up-for-grabs political landscape, we must ask ourselves: what do we stand for? Last week's King's Speech outlined a raft of new Bills likely to be brought forward in this parliamentary session, and it presents us with the chance to show what bold, modern liberalism looks like in practice. Not 'eco-populism'. Not the politics of fear, hate or division. But a confident liberalism rooted in freedom, fairness, dignity, and the belief that people ...
As I noted a few months ago, 2026 is a bit of a transitional year for this bureaucrat. I'm gently stepping back from the world of Parish Councils and, on Monday, there was another key stage in that process as Creeting St Peter Parish Council held its Annual Meeting. I had been flagging up the need for Council to replace me as Chair for some months, although the impression given by my colleagues was of rather wanting the problem to go away. But, when at the meeting, I made it absolutely clear that I would not offer myself for re-election ...
The recent local elections should have been a moment for honest reflection within the Liberal Democrats. Instead, much of the response has felt overwhelmingly positive, almost detached from the frustrations expressed by many hardworking candidates and activists, particularly in urban areas where our results were deeply disappointing. Optimism has its place in politics, but if we continue to avoid difficult conversations, we risk ignoring the deeper issues steadily weakening our party from within. As Chair of Lib Dem Women, Vice Chair Campaign for Gender Balance, and former Council Group Leader and Leader of the Opposition in Lambeth, I believe one ...
What are we to make of the fact that more than 60 Labour MPs are now asking for the introduction of a proportional system of voting? Probably the fact fact that they are, as a Party facing electoral oblivion might have something to do with it!! Why have they not called for this before? Because it suited them because they had a huge imbalance in the votes cast to seats gained at the last General Election? Why did the Labour leadership ignore the votes of a Labour Conference twice to move to a proportional system? Because they thought that they ...
On Monday evening, a major evidence session of the House of Lords APPG on Artificial Intelligence — of which I am an associate — took place, where it became clear that the question of British and European AI sovereignty is no longer an abstract policy debate but is rapidly becoming a central political priority. The session, organised by the Big Innovation Centre under Professor Birgitte Andersen and chaired by Lord Tim Clement-Jones, brought together policymakers, academics and industry leaders to confront a stark reality: the UK is too dependent on foreign — particularly American — AI infrastructure, platforms and large ...
[IMG: Josh Babarinde presents award to former MP Elizabeth Shields] Photo credit Yorkshire Liberal Democrats Women became eligible to stand for election to Parliament in 1918 and the first woman Liberal MP was elected in 1921. Yet until 1986, only four women ever sat as Liberal MPs, half of whom were elected at by-elections. Between 1951 and 1986 there were no Liberal women MPs at all. Then came the Ryedale by-election and Elizabeth Shields. Elizabeth joined the Party in 1964 after being canvassed by what she describes as 'an enthusiastic young man' who talked about the Party's values and beliefs ...
Our Headline of the Day Award goes to BBC News. The judges tell me that a housemaid and a retired colonel have already been poisoned, and that Miss Marple fears there will be a third murder.
As if the controversies around HS2 weren't bad enough, the Guardian reports that the high-speed railway will now cost up to £102.7bn and trains will not start running between London and Birmingham until as late as 2039, £70bn more and 13 years later than originally promised. The paper adds that the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said the truncated railway would not be entirely completed until as late as 2043: The figure is the first official estimate of HS2's budget in 2026 prices. Alexander said the total cost would range between £87.7bn and £102.7bn, with only a third of the rise ...