Davey on tariffs: summon the US ambassador as Trump chaos "putting Liz Truss to shame" "Scandal" as 400 military families forced to face emergency housing repairs over VE day anniversary Greene comments on stalemate fears over Ardrossan harbour buyout plan Fiscal forecasts expose SNP financial mismanagement coming home to roost Lib Dems back Presiding Officer in Ross row Cole-Hamilton calls for national RAAC fund Davey on tariffs: summon the US ambassador as Trump chaos "putting Liz Truss to shame" Responding to the US Court of International Trade ruling that blocks many of Trump's tariffs, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said: ...
During the local election campaign I highlighted the extreme and unpleasant comments on social media by Mark Broadhurst, Reform candidate for Hatfield ward, Doncaster. Reform did not take any action back then and he was elected in the interim. But now the BBC reports: A city councillor in Doncaster has been expelled from Reform UK over historic social media posts deemed "unacceptable" by party leaders. Mark Broadhurst, who had been in post for just four weeks, will sit as an independent councillor after the party's decision to withdraw the whip on Thursday... A Facebook page belonging to Broadhurst shared a ...
OK, he's cheesy and the colours are very early-Seventies. But it seems to me that Graham Kerr is rarely given the place he deserves in histories of television cooking. Because he made it fun and he made it aspirational. Before Kerr, you'd watch the terrifying Fanny Craddock showing you how to prepare a dinner party for you husband's boss and his wife (with the unspoken implication that your husband might lose his job if you didn't get it right.) Kerr, by contrast, would show you film of an overseas restaurant he and his wife had visited, tell you what they ...
Market Harborough's new Friendship Park was opened today by Cllr Peter James, the chair of Harborough District Council. He cut a ribbon to declare the park open and celebrate the hard work of the community who have helped create it. He told the Harborough Mail: "I am thrilled we have been able to turn a space that was overgrown into a community park. It brings flowers, trees and wildlife into the heart of the town, which are so important for people's sense of wellbeing and is destined to become a much-loved place for everyone." The Mail has a video and ...
There is a substantial debate taking place within the Liberal Democrats at the moment, though you may have heard nothing about it: should the Party be a member-led, volunteer-based organisation or become professionalised, organised by a paid staff funded mainly through high-value-donor contributions? You may remember that at Spring Conference in Harrogate, the Federal Party adopted a constitutional amendment to take on the responsibility for candidate approval and selection (item F10 on the conference agenda), putting these into the hands of the paid campaigns team. In that way, F10 was a step towards the "professional" Party route. Whereas, the current ...
Today, a letter signed by 828 lawyers was sent to the British government. UK Judges' and Lawyers' Open Letter Concerning the Occupied Palestinian Territory – May 2025 – UK lawyers' open letter concerning Gaza As has been noted previously in Lib Dem Voice, and as the lawyers who signed the letter have now stated, the British government needs to take action, not merely voice concern, or issue threats of "concrete" action which so far have come to nothing. Keir Starmer and David Lammy both suddenly sounded statesman-like when they unveiled those threats, prompted, it appears, not by the nearly 20 ...
Light Up Whickham held a fundraising race night on Saturday 24th May which raised a good sum of money that will pay towards Whickham's Christmas tree. A good time was had by all.
A few days ago I finished delivering our latest Focus in my ward. It covered the villages of Sunniside Streetgate, Marley Hill and Byermoor and the private rural estate of Ravensworth. The delivery patch for the latter has only 15 houses in it but it takes quite some time to do given the rural nature. Back home and I'm already writing the next Focus, though it's not for my ward.
A comeback by Boris Johnson? Don't make me laugh! The suggestion that the disgraced former PM could come back as Conservative leader to save them from oblivion are doing the rounds at the moment. Such stories are a measure of how far the Conservatives have sunk but for Johnson to come back, he needs to overcome some very high hurdles.Firstly, he needs to get back into Parliament. A current
To paraphrase a famous election campaign, what do the Scottish Liberal Democrats do for a working-class boy from Greenock? Well, in my case they make him their Economy and Finance spokesperson in the Scottish Parliament. I'm delighted to be able to speak for us on this portfolio at Holyrood and honoured by the trust I've been shown as our newest Lib Dem MSP. I'm also aware there is a lot of hard work to do. In nearly two decades in power, the SNP have failed to deliver. They have preferred bureaucracy and constitutional bickering over supporting Scottish businesses, particularly Small ...
Earlier in May, the Lib Dem group decided to nominate me as deputy mayor for Gateshead. The council has been Labour run since its creation in 1974 and 100% of mayors and deputy mayors have been Labour despite their never having 100% of the vote or 100% of the seats. The days of Labour's one-party state in Gateshead may be numbered but they are fighting to the bitter end to prevent anyone other
The human rights lawyer Marina Wheeler KC, reports the Independent, has announced she is writing a book urging the prime minister to go much further in his Brexit reset mission and build closer relations with Brussels: Ms Wheeler's publisher, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, said her book would compare her ex-husband's Brexit deal to a divorce settlement. "Like a court order in a divorce, the Brexit deal contains our bare legal obligations", they said. "Yet as dangerous forces gather and global technologies stoke animosity, we have a wider duty. If Britain and Europe can't work together, what chance do democracy and the ...
When I'm not engaged in consulting work or nurturing my consulting community, you can probably find me in my garden. I don't have a huge garden, but it is a fairly productive one. I grow enough fruit and vegetables to keep my family fairly self-sufficient for much of the year. And I grow a wide range of flowers, too. I even have a few small fruit and nut trees. This all takes a fair amount of effort to maintain. Especially at this time of year, when there are seeds to sow, seedlings to nurture and various trees and shrubs to ...
In Parkinson's disease, dopaminergic neurons (primarily those in the substantia nigra pars compacta) undergo progressive dysfunction and death. In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS aka MND in the UK), both upper and lower motor neurons progressively degenerate. The cells deteriorate in different ways. However, the nub of both of theses diseases is the deterioration of a particular type of
Back in 2016 Lib Dem Voice published a unique post in which we announced that a former Lib Dem councillor had been enthroned as a prince in Ghana. Sadly we have recently heard that he died on 22nd April. His funeral will be held on Monday 2nd June at 11.30am at Perry Rise Baptist Church. We have received this tribute from some of his friends and colleagues. Prince and Chief Advisor in Ghana Former Lib Dem Councillor Ethnic Minority Lib Dems Treasurer We wish to pay tribute to the life and work of his HRH Nana Gyamera-Gyechie I, commonly known ...
We are holding a Thursday street surgery tonight to speak with residents on any local issues or concerns they may have. Should you have an issue you wish to discuss with us, e-mail us at westend@dundeelibdems.org.uk or call Dundee 459378 and we will be pleased to meet you - many thanks.
The Independent reports that Marina Wheeler, a human rights lawyer who surely deserves better than being forever branded as Boris Johnson's ex-wife, has urged Sir Keir Starmer to take a "more radical" approach to Brexit in order to correct the errors made in the EU deal struck by her former husband. The paper says that she is writing a new book urging the prime minister to go much further in his Brexit reset mission and build closer relations with Brussels, adding that the new book, titled A More Perfect Union, will call on political leaders to admit that "Europe is ...
