"Look at our responses to three of Labour's flag ship pieces of legislation: the Employment Rights Bill, Great British Energy and taking the railways into public ownership. On each of these pieces of legislation, the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons abstained on them. Why? I gather we attempted to amend each of them, but how? I could not tell any voter whether the Lib Dems supported or opposed Labour's landmark legislation on employment, energy or transport, because I genuinely have no idea."Paul Hindley convicts the Lib Dems of timidity. Sacha Hilhorst has interviewed Reform voters and she found ...
Occasionally a writer will still publish a novel in instalments as the Victorians did. In the preface to his 44 Scotland Street, Alexander McCall Smith describes the genesis of the book in his meeting Armistead Maupin at a party in California. Maupin had originally published the first five of his celebrated Tales from the City books in this manner. On his return to Scotland, McCall Smith wrote an article about this meeting in The Scotsman, saying it was a shame that newspapers no long published serialised novels. The newspaper's editorial staff took up the implicit challenge and, over an optimistic ...
By 1975 the Walker Brothers had got over the evening when they had their shirts ripped off in Market Harborough. You can tell this single is from that era because of the gratuitous guitar solo.
The public are very well acquainted with what the Liberal Democrats are against - Brexit, Donald Trump, the sewage scandal, and more. But in this new, fragmented and up-for-grabs political landscape, we must ask ourselves: what do we stand for? Last week's King's Speech outlined a raft of new Bills likely to be brought forward in this parliamentary session, and it presents us with the chance to show what bold, modern liberalism looks like in practice. Not 'eco-populism'. Not the politics of fear, hate or division. But a confident liberalism rooted in freedom, fairness, dignity, and the belief that people ...
As I noted a few months ago, 2026 is a bit of a transitional year for this bureaucrat. I'm gently stepping back from the world of Parish Councils and, on Monday, there was another key stage in that process as Creeting St Peter Parish Council held its Annual Meeting. I had been flagging up the need for Council to replace me as Chair for some months, although the impression given by my colleagues was of rather wanting the problem to go away. But, when at the meeting, I made it absolutely clear that I would not offer myself for re-election ...
The recent local elections should have been a moment for honest reflection within the Liberal Democrats. Instead, much of the response has felt overwhelmingly positive, almost detached from the frustrations expressed by many hardworking candidates and activists, particularly in urban areas where our results were deeply disappointing. Optimism has its place in politics, but if we continue to avoid difficult conversations, we risk ignoring the deeper issues steadily weakening our party from within. As Chair of Lib Dem Women, Vice Chair Campaign for Gender Balance, and former Council Group Leader and Leader of the Opposition in Lambeth, I believe one ...
What are we to make of the fact that more than 60 Labour MPs are now asking for the introduction of a proportional system of voting? Probably the fact fact that they are, as a Party facing electoral oblivion might have something to do with it!! Why have they not called for this before? Because it suited them because they had a huge imbalance in the votes cast to seats gained at the last General Election? Why did the Labour leadership ignore the votes of a Labour Conference twice to move to a proportional system? Because they thought that they ...
On Monday evening, a major evidence session of the House of Lords APPG on Artificial Intelligence — of which I am an associate — took place, where it became clear that the question of British and European AI sovereignty is no longer an abstract policy debate but is rapidly becoming a central political priority. The session, organised by the Big Innovation Centre under Professor Birgitte Andersen and chaired by Lord Tim Clement-Jones, brought together policymakers, academics and industry leaders to confront a stark reality: the UK is too dependent on foreign — particularly American — AI infrastructure, platforms and large ...
[IMG: Josh Babarinde presents award to former MP Elizabeth Shields] Photo credit Yorkshire Liberal Democrats Women became eligible to stand for election to Parliament in 1918 and the first woman Liberal MP was elected in 1921. Yet until 1986, only four women ever sat as Liberal MPs, half of whom were elected at by-elections. Between 1951 and 1986 there were no Liberal women MPs at all. Then came the Ryedale by-election and Elizabeth Shields. Elizabeth joined the Party in 1964 after being canvassed by what she describes as 'an enthusiastic young man' who talked about the Party's values and beliefs ...
Our Headline of the Day Award goes to BBC News. The judges tell me that a housemaid and a retired colonel have already been poisoned, and that Miss Marple fears there will be a third murder.
As if the controversies around HS2 weren't bad enough, the Guardian reports that the high-speed railway will now cost up to £102.7bn and trains will not start running between London and Birmingham until as late as 2039, £70bn more and 13 years later than originally promised. The paper adds that the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said the truncated railway would not be entirely completed until as late as 2043: The figure is the first official estimate of HS2's budget in 2026 prices. Alexander said the total cost would range between £87.7bn and £102.7bn, with only a third of the rise ...