William Lane invites you to an exciting online event being organised by the John Stuart Mill Institute and the Social Liberal Forum. As Liberals, it is easy to feel despondent in the current political moment. The last few decades have told a tale of retreat from Liberal values globally, with rising authoritarianism across the world and a growing cynicism gnawing at the heart of established liberal democracies. Our horizons are shrinking as the world grows ever smaller and more insular, riven with fear and mistrust, and it feels like many of our cherished values are facingpushback across the globe. The ...
I went back to Bishop's Castle last Friday, when all the shops were open. The most important recent addition to the town is the Poetry Pharmacy which sells books (not just poetry books) and does cake and good coffee. It's to be found towards the top of the High Street, where - as you can see - it gets really steep. Round the corner in Salop Street, you are met with the sad sight of a closed Three Tuns. I remember when it was boarded up in the early Nineties and then reopened by a consortium of friends led by ...
Sadiq Khan has said no – again. For the third time, the Mayor of London has refused Liberal Democrat calls to appoint a dedicated Disability Champion: someone with lived experience and the authority to represent Disabled Londoners at the highest levels of City Hall decision-making. Mayor Sadiq claims he's already got it covered - we don't need a dedicated role. He points to his Deputy Mayor for Communities and Social Justice, whose sprawling brief also includes race, gender, LGBTQ+ communities and faith. He also references a Deaf and Disabled People's Forum that meets briefly just four times a year. Let's ...
Wed 6th
10:25
Lib Link: Ed Davey - Brexit has been a resounding disaster. Starmer must find the courage to change ...
Many party members will be very happy to see Ed Davey say out loud that Brexit is not working in a piece for the Guardian. Our leader said: Brexit isn't working, and the British people know it. Poll after poll, including that unveiled this weekend by More In Common for the Sunday Times, shows that people are feeling the terrible damage caused by the deal forced upon us by Boris Johnson, Kemi Badenoch and the rest of the Conservative party, and want something different. The latest shows less than a third of Britons would vote to leave the EU if ...
Wed 6th
08:55A Defence of the Online Safety Act: Protecting children while ensuring effective implementation
Despite no doubt good intentions, Liberal Reform's recent piece on Lib Dem Voice seems to treat child protection online as an abstract policy preference. The evidence reveals something far more urgent. By age 11, 27% of children have already been exposed to pornography, with the average age of first exposure at just 13. Twitter (X) alone accounts for 41% of children's pornography exposure, followed by dedicated sites at 37%. The consequences are profound and measurable. Research shows that 79% of 18-21 year olds have seen content involving sexual violence before turning 18, and young people aged 16-21 are now more ...
Forfar Instrumental Band performs on the Magdalen Green bandstand this Sunday - 10th August - at 2pm. This is the first of the band's two concerts on the Green this month - the other will be on Sunday 24th August. Many thanks to the Friends of Magdalen Green for all it did to organise this and the other August band concerts.
UK Labour's obsession with controlling their Welsh branch has come back to hurt them before, not least when the decision to put Alun Michael in as First Minister led to them losing several so-called safe seats in the 1999 Welsh Assembly election, including Rhondda and Llanelli, and left them without a majority. Rhodri Morgan pushed back against this tendency to micro-manage the Welsh Government with his clear red water statement, but throughout his term and those of his successors, Labour Ministers in Westminster continued to put obstacles in the way of the Senedd securing more powers, something that continues to ...
