Still no luck with HQ press releases, I'm afraid, but nonetheless... Scottish Liberal Democrats can win in every corner of Scotland Historic Anti-Corruption Law adopted: Liberals and Democrats increase protection for citizens and democracy Scottish Liberal Democrats can win in every corner of Scotland Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today continued his party's speedy start to the election campaign by speeding up the Clyde in a powerboat as he set out how his party can win seats on the peach regional ballot in every corner of Scotland and how more Liberal Democrat MSPs will get more done in ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on Liberal Democrat Voice

The list of Reform candidates for the Scottish Parliament who have now been dropped in one form or another is: Roland Jackson: resigned as a candidate saying the announcement had been an error. Linda Holt: quit as a candidate after a series of offensive messages. James Glenn: quit as a candidate, expressing support for Linda Holt. Jordan Brown: changed his mind about being a candidate. Stuart Niven: suspended after revelations about his business career. Meanwhile, Reform councillors keep on going too. Sign up to get the latest news and analysis

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

I gather you're allowed to like 10cc again. I loved them in the Seventies, though I'm Not in Love was played to death at the time and I much prefer I'm Mandy Fly Me.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

The BBC reports that Corey Edwards's time as a Reform election candidate is over only days after it started: A leading Reform candidate who appeared to perform a Nazi salute in a photo has quit ahead of the Welsh Parliament election. Corey Edwards, a former Conservative special adviser, was only announced as his party's lead candidate in the constituency of Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg on Wednesday... Nigel Farage told ITV News on Thursday: "It was a Fawlty Towers impression. Maybe we should ban the BBC, I don't know". Corey Edwards is the third Reform candidate to have gone in recent days, ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Here at Liberal Democrat Towers, we know that Party President, Josh Babarinde MP exists – we're on his constituency mailing list bringing us news of his campaigns in sunny Eastbourne – nice place, pity that Sussex County Cricket Club dropped Saffrons Week more than two decades ago... But, if you'd been wondering what he's been doing since he was passed a copy of "On Liberty" by his predecessor, Baron Pack of Crouch Hill (you did let him have it, didn't you, Mark?), we can report that he's allowed something to be placed on the Party website. And yes, it's a ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

There were four principal council by-elections this week, of which all had a Liberal Democrat candidate on the ballot. One council seat was being defended by us. Disappointingly, we lost this Oxfordshire seat to the Conservatives. It appeared to be down to a collapse in our own share of the vote, rather than any substantial uplift in the Conservative vote. The silver lining is that we managed to hold back Reform, who finished in third place, setting the Liberal Democrats up as the main challenger next time. Commiserations to Alan Bettridge and the local Liberal Democrat team. Vale of White ...

Posted by Joe Nutt on Liberal Democrat Voice

Stephen Fisher's latest annual predictions for how the parties will do in the May local elections are out, and they predict that the Liberal Democrats will overtake the Conservatives as the second party of local government. Stephen Fisher is an elections expert who is one of the brains behind the BBC exit poll and the annual projected national vote share calculations done for each set of local elections. Taking as a starting point the latest councillor number totals from Open Council Data (which will change slightly between now and the first Thursday in May), then the result after Stephen Fisher's ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

I don't know about you, but the news that the Government had announced four pilot schemes to make voting "easier and more convenient" during this year's local elections had rather passed me by. To quote the release from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government; In Milton Keynes, voters can have their say in the city's main shopping centre – Midsummer Place – rather than being restricted to a single designated polling station. This could eventually be rolled out across the country in future elections along high streets and in town centres. People in Cambridge, Tunbridge Wells and North ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on Liberal Democrat Voice

As it happens, I really did have tea at Betty's and then go to Evensong in the Minster when I arrived in York for the conference. I used to listen to Choral Evensong on Radio 3 while I was washing up after cooking for my mother on Sundays, and formed the opinion that no vicar ever got sacked for choosing something from Isaiah and Paul for the two readings. So I was pleased that the Old Testament reading I heard in the Minster came from Numbers, though it made no mention of badgers. Friday Much as I love York, the ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

I know that I'm not alone in contemplating what our next steps as a party are. We see the Greens and Reforms cut through on the media circuit and their memberships have seen stark rises as a result. Whilst each of these parties have almost diametrically opposed platforms, they do have one thing in common: having a vision for the country they want to see. Reform is selling a "return" to a rose-tinted view of the past, where Britain stood alone and strong and where their interpretation of traditional values made the world less confusing. As Liberals, we understand that ...

Posted by Kieron Franks on Liberal Democrat Voice
YouGov

Four principal authority council by-elections this week, all with a Lib Dem candidate. That full slate is up one on the last time these seats were up (and here is why that is good news). However, after a Lib Dem gain in the Vale of White Horse two weeks ago, this week brings: Stanford (Vale of White Horse) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🌳] CON: 45.9% (+2.5) [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 27.2% (-17.0) [IMG: ➡] RFM: 18.0% (New) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 7.9% (-4.5) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 1.0% (New)Conservative GAIN from Liberal Democrat.Changes w/ 2023. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2026-03-27T00:32:25.173Z The Lib ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Nation Cymru reports that members of Reform UK have warned of growing "chaos" behind the scenes in Wales as infighting erupts over candidate selections for the Senedd election. Farage's party has just announced all its candidates for the election on 7th May, but the process appears to have thrown up the usual problems of insufficient vetting and infighting, a problem that also haunted the UKIP group in the 2016-2021 Welsh Assembly: One senior Reform UK source said: "The selections have been disastrous from the moment they began - all of the promises Zia Yusuf made when Farage put him in ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black