Back in the day, Norman Baker was my favourite Liberal Democrat MP. So it's good to see he's alive and kicking, even if his lens could do with a clean. There's a lot to be said for a constitutional monarchy, but Norman makes a good case that there's a need for ours to be funded with less secrecy and a clearer sense of what belongs to the royal family and what belongs to the nation. The title of his new book - Royal Mint, National Debt -- is drawn from an observation of William Cobbett's: You can tell a lot ...
In my capacity as finance portfolio holder for my beloved Parish Council, over the years I've been preparing what I tend to think of as cautious budgets, designed to meet our ongoing spending needs and avoid drastic year on year increases in the precept. That hasn't always been easy. When our Clerk resigned a few years back, it proved necessary to employ both a Clerk and a Responsible Finance Officer, increasing our required spend quite significantly. Luckily, I was able to manage the situation thanks to a lengthy period without any professional staff at all - I was, for a ...
The arrest and removal of Nicolas Maduro by the United States is a moment that should chill anyone who believes in international law, the rules-based order, and liberal democracy. Let's be absolutely clear from the outset: no one is defending Maduro. He presided over a brutal, corrupt, authoritarian regime that crushed dissent, hollowed out democratic institutions, and inflicted immense suffering on the Venezuelan people. His removal from power will prompt relief in many quarters – understandably so. But relief cannot become amnesia. What matters here is how power is exercised, not simply who wields it. The unilateral seizure of a ...
According to "Labour List" (1st January) Sir Keir Starmer has appointed a new chair of the Labour Party. She is the former MP Anna Turley, who writes that she is so proud of "everything we are doing to change the lives of workingpeople across Britain." (my italics) Those words "working people" are the first reason why Labour is not liberal. Liberals exist to represent the needs of all people: children, students, carers, home makers, disabled people, the retired , criminals (yes indeed, no one should be held in inhumane conditions,) academics, innovators, migrants and asylum seekers, SME entrepreneurs, - what ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton today set out his party's plans to fix how the NHS trains and retains the doctors, nurses and other staff needed to end long waits for treatment and reinvigorate local health services, and urged voters to use their second, peach-coloured ballot paper to back them at May's election. The Scottish Liberal Democrats' strategy will: Launch a rolling 10-year NHS Workforce Plan. Create an early warning system by presenting a detailed annual workforce report for debate in the Scottish Parliament, identifying staffing issues and addressing past failings. Establish a Health and Social Care Staff Assembly, ...
"What the US needs to understand is that hybrid warfare isn't simply a weapon used between and against states. It's a strategy being deployed by your very own government. This is both kinetic warfare - bombs and missiles - and information warfare - false constructs, false narratives, false justifications." America is not our enemy, but it's a danger to itself and the world, says Carole Cadwalladr. Rowan Williams reminds us that migrants are at the heart of our culture: "Many of the most characteristic forms of western medieval architecture ... owe their development to the to-ing and fro-ing of engineers ...
Liverpool Lib Dems Spokesperson on Governance, Cllr Richard Kemp, has written to the Home and Community Cabinet Secretaries of State suggesting that when the position of Elected Police Commissioner is abolished in April 2028, they should be replaced with new Police Liaison Committees made up of representatives of the local upper tier or unitary councils in the areas that they cover. Lib Dems campaigned against their establishment and welcome their abolition for the same reasons. They are pointless, costly, confusing, are inadequately scrutinised and lack the gravitas to push innovative ideas forward. There are two ways forward, the attachment of ...
Does post-growth economics belong in the Liberal Democrats? Questioning the principle of eternal economic growth is such a heresy to the orthodox economic order, that by most it is rejected outright. We live in a world so addicted to growth that envisioning a world that exists outside this paradigm is seen as almost impossible. We are currently experiencing a social-ecological polycrisis: rising inequality, climate change, it is all driven by the economy transgressing several planetary boundaries. Green growthers respond to this by rightly identifying that green investment and a path to net zero is essential to tackling the climate crisis. ...
The Independent reports on a poll which finds that British voters want to be part of the European Union more than their French and Italian counterparts. The paper says that the YouGov survey, carried out in six European countries, shows 50 per cent of voters in the UK would vote to be an EU member if there was a referendum now, compared to 45 per cent and 46 per cent in France and Italy. The numbers were higher in Germany (62 per cent) Denmark (75 per cent) and Spain (66 per cent): It also found that in Britain, just 31 ...
