These are the freepost leaflets from the Blaydon candidates: 2 from me, 2 from Labour's Dave Anderson, an unaddressed leaflet from the Conservatives' Alison Griffiths and an addressed leaflet from UKIP. There was nothing from the Greens. The leaflet from UKIP meant that I got to see what their candidate Mark Bell looks like. He has attended none of the hustings and produced no other leaflets.
My answer to that and three questions behind it - what have we done so far? What do we want to do next? And, most importantly for me, what values inspire us to do it? Freedom and Opportunity for Everyone This is the sort of thing I do if it's the day before an election, I'm on my way home, my head is buzzing with politics and I come upon an unsuspecting park. I may be making it up on the spot this time, but you know it's in my heart too (and a quickie because I'm too knackered to ...
Which some of you will have seen here rather than on Mindless Ones a minute ago, as I pasted it in the wrong window. I've written a 10,000-ish word thing on Grant Morrison's Multiversity. It's going up a chapter at a time over the next ten days on Mindless Ones, starting here. Or you can [...]
Wed 6th
21:59
Jo Swinson's SNP rival has row with Lib Dem on Twitter - then complains to their employer
So, you have a row with someone on Twitter. Most of us would just shrug it off and get on with our lives. Not John Nicolson, the SNP candidate up against Jo Swinson. After a Twitter exchange with Federal Policy Committee member Belinda Brooks-Gordon, he blocked her and then took the unusual step of writing to her employer. The Daily Record has the story: East Dunbartonshire hopeful John Nicolson sent a bizarre email to the master of Birbeck College in London after the fiery Twitter exchange with Dr Belinda Brooks-Gordon. The lecturer in forensic psychology is standing for the Lib ...
[IMG: Polling_station_6_may_2010] It's almost four months since I nailed my colours to the mast and predicted a hung parliament, with the Tories as the single largest party — but with no two-party coalition possible. And I'm sticking by that. However, there are a couple of parts of my prediction I think need updating. First, my estimate of the number of SNP MPs. My January prediction of 22 (at the time reckoned by some to be quite high!) was made before any of the Ashcroft polls of Scottish seats had been published — and as the facts have changed, so I'm ...
Earlier tonight, I had the pleasure of attending the Community Spirit Action Group AGM. Community Spirit Action Group is the residents' group for the 'north' of the West End Ward, covering areas like Cleghorn, Pentland, Ancrum, Tullideph and Milnbank/Forest Park. It was a well-attended meeting tonight and good to see several Tullideph area residents attend for the first time. Community Spirit hopes to hold the occasional meeting at the Tullideph and Morven Terrace Sheltered Lounges from time to time to involve more local folk with the group's discussions. Community Spirit Action Group is an excellent community group and discussion covering ...
Like most people, the first time I marked my cross on a ballot paper I was not long out of school. I've never forgotten the hustings in Northampton Market Square in 1974. The Labour candidate stood the soap box to the left, handing out hymn sheets for the Red Flag. The Tory didn't even turn [...]
Why vote Liberal Democrat? My answer to that and three questions behind it - what have we done so far? What do we want to do next? And, most importantly for me, what values inspire us to do it? Freedom and Opportunity for Everyone. This is the sort of thing I do if it's the day before an election, I'm on my way home, my head is buzzing with politics and I come upon an unsuspecting park. I may be making it up on the spot this time, but you know it's in my heart too. Vote Liberal Democrat! Alex ...
Lib Dems Believe Wordle 48 Freedom - Liberty
Many people think that the obvious way to look at candidates is by their political label. Actually it's much more complicated than that. There are basically 4 types: • Candidates who want to win and will • Candidates who want ... Continue reading →
Utopianism is at all times a threat to freedom, and a party concerned with liberty must be concerned not to impose a single ideal but to hold the ring between different ideals. The only thing which checks a power is another power. We have no problem with the idea that some powers may be in one place and some in the other. Socialists want to change the holders of power - we want to change the character and relations of power itself. They want to 'put the boot on the other foot'. For someone with a hatred of jackboots, this ...
Light at the end of the tunnel. The piles of leaflets are now almost gone though I am about to go to the office to print another batch to replenish the diminished stock of literature. Yesterday I was delivering both in Dunston Hill and Whickham East (see above photo) and in Whickham North. Though my shoes were worn out over the weekend, I found an old pair in the wardrobe. The soles were split
[IMG: Election Polling Station SignA] ...it's make your mind up time. Polling stations open around 12 hours after I'm writing this, and close 15 hours after that. Then Britain gets to make its real decision: BBC, ITV or Channel 4 for the election night coverage. Or you could even go for Sky News, the informational equivalent of a spoiled ballot paper. But before then, there is another decision to be made, and here's my view of the candidates in Colchester: One can't really say much about Ken Scrimshaw of the Christian People's Alliance as he's been nowhere to be seen ...
I kicked off the campaign with this post and I thought I'd re-run it the night before we head to the polls. I wrote a book chapter about the coalition in the shadow of a rollercoaster. That's how the last five years have felt. There have been moments when I've winced and moments when I have been immensely proud of our ministers. All in all, though, Britain is in a much better place than it would have been without us. All that horrible stuff you see in the Tory manifesto about banning non-specified non violent extremism, all the stuff about ...
Consett Academy students voted their Lib Dem candidate, Jak, as winner in the school's mock election. [IMG: Lib Dem Logo CA reduced] Congratulations to class 12:1 on a great campaign. Now all Owen needs is to replicate their success.
Wed 6th
18:32The final Liberal Democrat party election broadcast - all 3 versions: It's decision time between sel...
Here's the party's final party election broadcast, It's decision time now for all the people we've met in the series. The film argues that Liberal Democrats have brought compassion and fairness, built on consensus and co-operation, to Britain. Your vote will be the difference between a government of self-interest and grievance or a coalition of tolerance and decency. Here's the Scottish version and listen to who is voicing it. There's more emphasis on what we stopped the Tories doing. And the Welsh version
Wed 6th
18:25
Why I won't be surprised if Nick Clegg starts singing Abba songs during the next long Lib Dem policy...
Here's the new film from the Liberal Democrats:
Controversial deals signed by Labour which allowed private companies to run hospitals, including those at Peterborough and Huntingdon, will cost taxpayers £11.7 billion in repayments over the next Parliament. Julian Huppert, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Cambridge has been fighting to try to make sure that Cambridgeshire will not be left picking up the costs of the failed Circle contract at Huntingdon's Hinchingbrooke Hospital. He successfully lobbied the government to take the hospital back "in house" to make sure it remains under NHS management but is worried that the cost of the failed Labour experiment at the hospital could affect ...
Wednesday: A British General election is NEVER an "edifying" process. The electoral system makes most voters irrelevant and the media craves the spectacle of a car crash not informed debate, so the voice of the people is most often lost under the slanging match. In my fluffy lifetime, I've seen one or two British General elections. (Well, four, ACTUALLY, but I don't remember 2001 when I was 1 [R: nothing] -shut up, daddy), and my Daddies have seen LOADS more, but even THEY don't remember one that's been as HOLLOW and EMPTY a CHARADE as the current Cavalcade of Whimsy™. ...
Look at this beautiful manatee! Isn't he adorable? In related news, Operation Manatee, cunningly named after one of the most charming sea creatures to maximize the output of dosh from your wallet, is needing your help. Even the smallest donation will help maximize Facebook adverts over the next 30 hours to remind people to vote Liberal Democrat. This method is proven to have a great impact in getting out our vote. Please donate here.
Here are the Liberal Democrat entries in the top 100 political blogs as ranked by Teads (previously Ebuzzing / Wikio). Last month I wrote, "Most unusually, no-one joins, no-one leaves. Doubt that will happen again anytime soon." So what happened this month? A gentle deflation amongst most Lib Dem standings but the same again. Silly me. 1 (5) Liberal Democrat Voice Down 1 2 (8) Mark Pack Down 1 3 (21) Nick Tyrone Up 10 4 (22) Stephen Tall Up 4 5 (33) Caron Lindsay (Caron's Musings) Up 5 6 (38) Alex Marsh Down 1 7 (48) Pink Dog Up ...
Hopefully coming out before the election, otherwise some of these may look quite dated... There's nothing new about nationalism – Naomi Lloyd-Jones in History Today on the parallels between this election and the political fighting over Irish nationalism in the 1880s. A Very British Coup – Dan Rebellato's take on the Tory narrative and its efforts to keep David Cameron in Downing Street. The Disappointing Election: Britain Votes – An interesting overview of party campaigning styles and practices from Seth Thevoz. Ciaran Toland on Naomi Long – A spirited defence and call to action for the Alliance Party's only MP, ...
All ALDC staff will be volunteering in election campaigns across the North West and Yorkshire on Thursday 7th May. ALDC members seeking advice, and Liberal Democrat candidates and agents seeking to use the 2015 Election Law Helpline, can still get in touch with a member of staff for urgent advice queries as follows: Phone: Contact [...]
Poor Newport East candidate Paul Halliday. Like many valiant activists before him, he found a dog on the other end of his finger when delivering leaflets and had to make an unscheduled dash to A & E. The South Wales Argus has the story: The Newport East candidate for Thursday's General Election was making his way down Trostrey Street just off Caerleon Road near Maindee when he met with the hostile reception. He tried to push some Lib Dem literature through a letterbox but said: "Unbeknown to me there was a dog on the other side which decided to chomp ...
[IMG: Deadline warning] 10pm Thursday is the big deadline for party activists, helpers and supporters. But there's also an important noon, Friday deadline for a smaller group of activists – those who update the party's membership records. That's because the Liberal Democrats have, quite rightly, an extensive set of plans ready for communicating with members in the event of a hung Parliament. Central to them is email – and therefore having email records for party members as complete and accurate as possible in time for that really matters. Party HQ tells me that noon, Friday is when updates need to ...
[IMG: image] Vote for Grace Weaver on May 7th VoteSmart has declared that Liberal Democrat candidate Grace Weaver is the only choice for change in South Suffolk. Liberal Democrats polled 31% in 2010, while Labour polled only 14% in the constituency. Grace, who grew up in East Bergholt is an Oxford graduate currently working as a consultant advising health and disability charities. She commented "Only the Liberal Democrats can deliver the focus on education, affordable housing and transport that South Suffolk desperately needs." More details on the South Suffolk Lib Dem website. [IMG: Grace leaflet] Have you had this leaflet? ...
A vote for Lib Dems this Thursday is a vote to: [IMG: "Liberal Democrats have been campaigning against climate change for longer than any other political party. In the next Parliament, we would ensure that Britain takes a lead role in the Paris 2015 climate negotiations to try and keep global temperature rises within two degrees of pre-industrial levels. http://www.libdems.org.uk/climate-change"] [IMG: "Liberal Democrats will put nature at the heart of government. We will pass a Nature Law to put the Natural Capital Committee on a permanent, legal footing. The NCC will set targets for cleaning up our air and water, ...
Tomorrow, your vote matters, everyone knows there will be no party with a majority. The next Government will be parties working together. This will be dependent on the total number of seats, as well as the total share of the national vote. The Liberal Democrats are standing for decency, stability and unity in this election. [...]
Stephen Tall has been writing for the Times' Red Box blog. He reckons that it's been clear all along that the Tories have known perfectly well they won't get a majority, for two reasons: The first piece of evidence is the Conservative manifesto itself, an unfunded wish-list which vows to turn the budget deficit into a surplus, while simultaneously promising tax-cuts for everyone, more money for the NHS, freezing rail fares — all to be paid for by unspecified welfare cuts and, fingers crossed, economic growth. How else to explain this unsquareable circle other than as a bartering tactic for ...
One of the policies that distinguishes the Liberal Democrats most from the other major parties is the Five Green Laws, aiming to put green commitments at the heart of the next Parliament's legislative programme. The five green laws will include regulations to cut household bills by increasing energy efficiency, legal targets for clean air and water, radical waste reduction plans, the introduction of a decarbonisation bill and reforms to planning law to encourage cycling. Lib Dem Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change Ed Davey said: "The Lib Dems are the only party to have nailed their green credentials ...
The latest edition of my email newsletter to residents has just been published and can be read on this link.
Wed 6th
13:55Election deadline coming up: 5pm polling day for replacement postal votes and emergency proxy votes
[IMG: Deadline warning] 5pm Thursday 7th May: that's the deadline for the reissuing of a postal vote in cases of postal votes having gone astray or the paperwork being messed up. The postal vote still needs returning by 10pm on polling day to the Returning Officer (not just posted – but got to the Returning Officer, such as by dropping it off on polling day at one of the polling stations in the constituency). 5pm on polling day is also the deadline for emergency proxy vote applications in cases of medical emergencies. Again, the proxy vote itself then has to ...
So what should you do if you take a break from the count and want a quick update on Lib Dem seats? Or if you want to get a Lib Dem perspective on the results as they come in through the night? Lib Dem Voice will be providing results and commentary from the time the poll closes right through until the final seats are declared on Friday lunchtime. There will be a live blog from contributors all over the country, plus summaries on the hour of the state of play. So now you know what to do. And don't forget ...
Final day of the campaignStronger Economy. Fairer Society. Opportunity for EveryoneVoters face the biggest political decision of their livesOn the penultimate day of the election campaign, Nick Clegg said "you face the biggest political decision of your life".With the polls neck-and-neck and no party likely to hold a majority in parliament, voters face the prospect of a new government lurching to the extreme left, the extreme right, or breaking up the country unless they vote Liberal Democrat to anchor Britain to the centre ground. Nick Clegg said only the Liberal Democrats will provide "stability, unity and decency" after Polling Day, ...
One thing that's interested me this election is that the Tories appear to not be bothering in the local election in my ward. We haven't received a single leaflet from them mentioning their local election candidate, but that's not too much of a surprise when the large majority of Tory propaganda we've received hasn't even bothered to name their Parliamentary candidate. However, after spending the weekend arsing around with a cardboard cutout of Nick Clegg, I finally spotted our local Tory candidate for Castle Ward on my street last night, and he was actually delivering something. Unfortunately, it yet again ...
Liberal Democrats have outlined the six red lines that must be agreed to as part of any coalition negotiations in the next government. The red lines cover education, the economy, tax, health, public sector pay and the environment: 1. Protecting education funding Liberal Democrats want to protect per pupil funding from nursery to 19, in real terms, by the end of the parliament. This would amount to £5.2bn more funding than is planned by the Conservatives and £2.5bn more than Labour. 2. Introduce a 'stability budget' in the first 50 days A stability budget would set out the next government's ...
Dear Friends, I wonder if you will heave a sigh of relief when the election is over?! Well, not long to go now... We have had a sea of red and blue leaflets through our letterboxes. Not yellow ones, because the Liberal Democrats aren't funded by the Unions or by big business. Mine is a [...]
A recent Guardian leader cited a claim made by Keynes in 1926 that: "The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty." Such clarity is a far cry from the silly squabbling and petty bribery of this election campaign. On Economic Efficiency: Thanks to an astonishingly successful PR campaign the media have accepted the Tories' bizarre claim to economic competence. In fact they have failed on both their stated main objectives (to retain our AAA rating and eliminate the internal deficit within the one parliament), and the economy has certainly not been ...
Wed 6th
11:55Opinion: What have the Liberal Democrats done for us and can we afford to put our trust in them agai...
Like so many past Liberal Democrat voters, I have found this election campaign frustrating and demoralising. At the last election our party managed to get into a seat of power but didn't they just throw it all away when they broke their pledge on tuition fees? What is the point in voting if our wishes are cast aside at the first hurdle? But the right to vote has been hard fought and is a fundamental responsibility for all citizens. I have been seriously contemplating writing 'none of the above' on my voting slip. But no, voting is such an important ...
Here's the new film from the Liberal Democrats:
2 - Churchtown Library Nigel Ashton led the campaign to save Churchtown Library Cllr Nigel Ashton led the campaign to save Churchtown Library and was the founding Chair of the North Meols Library Association, working to open a community-run library in Botanic Gardens. The Bootle-dominated Labour Party closed down three local libraries in Southport. They kept three libraries open in the Bootle constituency. 3 - Botanic Gardens When the Bootle Labour Party pushed through the latest round of cuts at the Botanic, John Pugh and the local Lib Dems collected a massive 5000 signature petition against this. Councillor Nigel Ashton ...
Congratulations to all my friends in Alberta on the NDP landslide. Wow!!!
This is a story that MyCllr users can add to their sites in two simple steps. Here is the story as it will appear on your site: Step One: Make sure that your New Post screen is in 'Text' editor mode: Step Two: Download this text file Step Three: Copy and paste the text into your New [...]
If the Liberal Democrats get about half UKIP's votes (8% against 14%) but about 10 times as many MPs 20 - 30 against 2 - 3), will the Liberal Democrats stand by their principals and demand electoral reform? In particular, will they insist on the Single Transferable Vote (STV), which they have always recognized as the best voting system for voters? The Liberal Democrats have had five years now to learn the hard way what some of us warned in 2010, based on our observations of continental Europe where coalitions are normal; the senior partner takes the credit for popular ...
I went to a school reunion last weekend. I'm not sure why these events are so nerve-wracking - perhaps we are afraid of encountering our own age and failures in the faces of our fellows. In the event, of course, everyone was exactly the same. Some of us meet up anyway every few months. We are middle-aged, middle class survivors, in a sense. Some of our fellow public schoolboys from the 1970s have died. One or two have even committed suicide, but we are still around, largely happy, not always thriving, but settled. What is most unexpected about the small ...
Media endorsements are building a narrative to keep Cameron in office, whatever the result (tags: ) Someone stole a 'Vote Labour' sign from Davros and he is NOT happy about it (tags: ) Mission accomplished: we've tracked down Salmond's Solero girl...in Australia (tags: ) Having read this Privacy with Manatee page, I'm not actually massively comforted. (tags: ) Leaked Email From Marvel CEO Is A Listicle About Why Women Can't Be Superheroes (tags: ) I guess this answers why I keep getting Plaid second on those vote-for-policies things. (tags: ) On Pledges Carved in Stone - a classicist examines Milliband's ...
This 1 minute video from Sky News encapsulates what we're proposing to do:
Verily, Ukip's ability to select deeply inappropriate candidates knows no bounds: Robert Blay, who is standing in North East Hampshire, made the shocking threat of violence against Conservative Ranil Jayawardena. Former bank accountant Blay, 55, who used to be a member of the Conservative Party, told our reporter that Jayawardena had been tipped to potentially be the country's first British Asian Prime Minister. And in a vile and shocking outburst, he raged: "If he is I will personally put a bullet between his eyes. "If this lad turns up to be our Prime Minister I will personally put a bullet ...
Wed 6th
09:25Labour minority government - or coalition with the Lib Dems - would not actually need the SNP's supp...
Professor Colin Talbot of Manchester University has written an interesting blog which reinforces many of the points made here by Tony Greaves. He mentions that much of the talk of "Confidence and supply" deals, Queens Speech votes and second 2015 elections ignores the reality of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011, which is kind to minority governments. There's been a lot of talk about Ed Miliband needing the SNP's support to get into Downing Street. There is one essential snag with that. He doesn't need their support to become and remain Prime Minister. Under the FTPA, if David Cameron tries to ...
My parents lives gave me a lot to think about. Profoundly glad that I have had nothing like this to contend with personally, but fears for my son's future as the voices of the 'Dungeon Dimension' become louder in Britain today.My mother was Lithuanian. She experienced life under both Stalin and Hitler. Active in the anti-Nazi resistance, then a refugee fleeing the Soviet advance. In the last years of WW2 she was a slave labourer on a German farm. When my dad met her she still had the marks of whippings visible on her back. My father was Welsh, trained ...
[IMG: Liberal Democrats Election Cabinet. Photo courtesy of Lib Dems CC BY-ND 2.0] If there's another hung Parliament elected on Thursday, I'll be covering what the Liberal Democrats do in my Liberal Democrat Newswire email newsletter (sign up here). For the moment, here are five pieces of key information that you'll need to understand events. 1. The "triple lock" The Liberal Democrats have a "triple lock" process, culminating in a vote at a special conference, to decide on any hung Parliament arrangements before the party signs up to them. The details of this process – including membership of the party's ...
Plaid Cymru's claim that Wales should have another £1.2 billion to achieve parity of funding with Scotland has always been absurd. Yes, we would like the additional money to spend on public services, but we know that we will not get it because the idea is a conceit buried in a fantasy. The comparison is at least useful in highlighting the inequity of the funding formula used to determine Wales' budget, but it is a cop-out because it avoids the key issue, which is that Scotland is over-funded and should be assessed on the basis of need, as do all ...
Wed 6th
08:49
Politics is Show Business For Ugly People; press & politicians both collude to keep it that way
I am writing this as I listen to John Humphries pretend to interrogate the prime minister. Humphries asks questions in an aggressive way, he talks over Cameron, he words things provocatively... but he still lets Cameron avoid giving a single proper answer. Cameron is at this very second saying how he needs to address the big questions and not duck them while ducking Humphries' questions. It's show business for Cameron, because he gets to tell everyone he's submitted himself to a grueling Humphries interrogation; but it's also show business for Humphries because he gets to appear to be the fearless ...
Good news for the Lib Dem's Layla Moran in Oxford West and Abingdon. The Green candidate from 2010 has endorsed her. The Cherwell has the story. Chris Goodall, who ran as the Green candidate for the area in the 2010 General Election, has written to residents urging them to vote for Layla Moran of the Liberal Democrats, rather than the Greens' Larry Sanders. In the letter, he explained, "If the UK had proportional representation, I'd have no hesitation giving Green candidate Larry Sanders my vote this time. But we don't." He went on to call the seat "ultra-marginal", saying that ...
People have asked me again and again this election campaign to make a prediction on the number of seats the Lib Dems will end up with on May 8th. I have resisted, because I just have no idea. I made a prediction a long time ago, but it no longer seems relevant. A lot of water has flown under the proverbial bridge since. Any sane prediction, so one from outside the Clegg haters or alternatively those Lib Dems completely divorced from reality, says the party will end up with anywhere between 20 and 40 seats. Anything less than this range ...
The exhibition of paintings by the late Harry McGregor is on until Saturday - don't miss it :
Wed 6th
08:26
Creeting St Peter: it's too late @jemnicole1, your predecessor sold the pass on the Business and Ent...
In her leaflet, two weeks ago, our Conservative candidate assured us that she wouldEnsure that our views regarding the proposed developments in Stowupland and Creeting St Peter are adequately represented.I should, therefore, not have been surprised when, last week, it was announced that outline planning permission had been given for a proposed Business and Enterprise Park on the edge of our Parish. I was even less surprised when, in the East Anglian Daily Times report, the current ward councillor, Caroline Byles, popped up to say;Initially I was very against this development. But after reading papers I have come to the ...
In a recent column for the Independent i, Archbishop of York John Sentamu addressed the importance of providing workers with the Living Wage. He says it is a social issue that will help move toward a fairer society. He notes that the Living Wage Commission he chaired found that five million people who earned at least the minimum wage may still require supplementary benefit or have to use food banks. [IMG: cropped-Lydiate-Parish-Council-Logo-e1372273297819] John Sentamu is right, that's why I was more than happy to vote on Lydiate Parish Council to adopt payment of the Living Wage.
[IMG: tim bale book] Five Year Mission: The Labour Party under Ed Miliband by Tim Bale You can see why this book was released ahead of 7th May, 2015. If Ed Miliband loses it will remain the first definitive account of his failed leadership. If he wins (or, at any rate, becomes Prime Minister: those two things might well not be the same) it will swiftly be re-issued with an updated foreword. This is an absorbing, narrative account of Miliband's ascent, related sympathetically but pretty unsparingly. The biggest surprise in it for me was that the Two Eds, Miliband and ...
Polling Day for the local and General elections is Thursday 7 May 2014. Polling stations are open 7am - 10pm on Thursday. At the polling station you will be given two ballot papers - a yellow ballot paper for the local elections and a white ballot paper for the General elections. You don't need your polling card to vote. If you need a lift to the polling station or any other information please call our Polling Day number which is 773 9905. [IMG: Screen Shot 2015-05-06 at 04.55.22] Polling stations are: Baguley Crescent and Heywood Old Road areas Mobile Unit ...
The Liberal Democrats have announced that proper pay increases for public sector workers is a 'Liberal Democrat Red Line' for any coalition talks after the General Election. The contribution of our public sector workers is the cornerstone of a fair and decent society. After five years of pay restraint, teachers, nurses, police officers and all those who work in the public sector should no longer face pay cuts. Public sector workers have played an important role in helping get the economy on track and Liberal Democrats want to give them the pay guarantee they need. We would introduce a minimum ...
Logically, the proposition is unanswerable. Liberal Democrats have cooperated in a government which has not only restored international credibility to the United Kingdom but also started the readjustment of the economy so that it is no longer totally dependent on the caprices of the money market. We have restored civil liberties. The sackings of the years following the credit failure of 2008 have been more than reversed, more jobs being created in the private sector than the public. We have lifted the tax threshold of millions of people while still narrowing the gap between government expenditure and income. People have ...
Newspapers from across the political divide are united in their belief Liberal Democrats have been a force for good in government. In their editorials, national titles recognise the Liberal Democrats achievements in government and the stability the party has brought to the country in the last five years. [IMG: independent-logo] The Independent: Many of the Government's achievements are owed to the Liberal Democrats. The party has been "a force for progress". The Coalition deserves another chance. We hope it is much less conservative, and much more liberal. [IMG: images] The FT: The country would benefit from Liberal Democrat "moderation" in ...
On my recent visit to Wales I highlighted the Liberal Democrats' six red lines that must be agreed to as part of any coalition negotiations in the next government. The red-lines are: • Protecting education funding - resulting in £150m additional funding for Wales • Introducing a 'stability budget' in the first 50 days - a commitment to balance the books in full, on time and fairly • Increasing the personal tax allowance to £12,500 - a further £400 tax cut for 1.4m people in Wales • Investing £8bn a year by 2020 in the NHS - resulting in £450m a year for Wales ...
Just to let people know that a second premises application has been received by the Council from Cafe 7-11, 470 Bury Old Road, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 1NL. The applicants state they intend to sell hot food until midnight Monday - Sunday. Please could you let me know if you would like us to raise objections on this, which need to be in this week (by Friday 9 May 2015) – apologies for the short notice on this one. Tim
This Thursday you have a choice of what sort of country you would like to live in. The Liberal Democrats offer a set of policies that enable Britain to maintain the strong economy that we have helped build in government over the last 5 years, delivered in a way that enables us all to live in a fairer society. You can find out me about me, Sebastian Kindersley, your local Liberal Democrat candidate on the Lib Dem website. Our manifesto commitment - Opportunity for Everyone.Liberal Democrat agenda for government of building a stronger economy and a fairer society, creating opportunity ...
