Six principal authority by-elections took place across England on Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th September. The Conservatives were defending two seats (in South Staffordshire and Berkshire), Labour defended two seats (in Milton Keynes and Brighton & Hove), localist party Tunbridge Wells Alliance defended one in Kent, and the Green Party defended one in Gloucestershire. The highlight of the week came from Kent, where the Liberal Democrats staged a sensational victory in Tunbridge Wells - surging from third place in May to win the ward with 37.4% of the vote. In Berkshire, we came within a whisper of another major gain ...
I'm hoping the judges will decide it's time for a holiday soon. But for now, Cambridgeshire Live wins our Headline of the Day Award.
Four conference ago, I walked into Liberal Democrat conference as a delegate. I arrived on my own, not knowing many people and not really knowing what to expect. This year's conference has now come to an end. It was my fourth conference overall and my third time stewarding, so I thought it was a good opportunity to reflect on what conference looks like from the other side of the barrier. When you attend as a delegate, you naturally see the debates, speeches, motions and fringe events. What you don't necessarily see is everything that happens behind the scenes to make ...
Following the Lib Dem gain on Wednesday we then also this week had a further five on a more traditional Thursday. There was very nearly another Lib Dem gain to add to that earlier one: Bray (Windsor & Maidenhead) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🌳] CON: 36.1% (+1.3) [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 34.9% (+20.1) [IMG: ➡] RFM: 17.8% (New) [IMG: 🏘] BFI: 9.4% (-32.9) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 1.8% (-6.3)Conservative HOLD.Changes w/ 2023. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2026-09-25T12:36:36.163Z Thank you to Martin Clarke for being the Lib Dem here. For what all this means for the running total of council by-election results ...
On Tuesday, 22 September, Tim Farron MP delivered a speech at our 2026 Autumn Conference during the F36 policy motion, "Restoring our waters: Britain's water company crisis", on the need for water mutualisation amid repetitive failures of privately owned water companies. During this speech, he said, "proper Grimond liberalism", referencing former Liberal Party leader Jo Grimond and his support for cooperatives and mutuals to manage public services over nationalisation and laissez-faire economics. For many people, this would have simply been just another niche reference, but for us at the Grimond Society, it meant a great deal. Since July 2026, the ...
Aspects of the recent Party conference in Brighton raise an important question in my mind: what has happened to democratic policy-making in the Liberal Democrats? When Nick Clegg was leader, he repeatedly distinguished us from Labour and the Conservatives by emphasising how we made policy. Conference, he reminded us, was supreme. I remember many conferences where that principle was visible in practice. There were robust debates, speakers for and against, amendments carried and defeated, and motions sometimes lost. Conference was not there simply to endorse a predetermined position. Its purpose was to debate and decide. The contrast with the conference ...
Everyone, please hope for a rain free day tomorrow in Whickham! I will be having my monthly advice surgery with my Lib Dem councillor colleagues at 10am outside Whickham Library. Note the word "outside". The Library is closed for refurbishment so the surgery will be in the great outdoors. The umbrella will possibly accompany me.
Today, Sunniside hosted 2 MacMillan coffee mornings - at the Pharmacy and at the Club. I felt it was very appropriate tht I visit both and buy lots of cakes and scones. That's my lunch sorted!
Caron threw down a gauntlet in her article on Ed's conference speech. Most of the comments seem to have been negative on two main grounds - that the radical proposals on taxation had been bounced on the party and that whatever gains are made from Europe should be spent by the state. While I agree with much of what is said about Ed - the failure to inspire, the lack of ability to clearly define what Liberalism is, the instinctive tendency to see every vote of protest and none of purpose, in this case I suspect that a very cautious ...
I've a habit of digging up forgotten disasters and scandals from old newspapers, but a couple of British caving disasters that I've come across have proved to horrible to write about. The BBC News Surrey page, however, has turned up a potential caving disaster from February 1954 that had a happy ending - the cutting is from the Bradford Observer for the 15th of that month: The Westhumble cave, located in the North Downs near Dorking, was once mined for its chalk. In February 1954, four adventurous youngsters - including Fred Topliffe - from London wanted to explore the site. ...
As far as I know, this foreword appeared in the new Liberator Songbook on sale at Brighton. It's not perhaps his lordship's most seminal work, but I'm posting it here for completeness and so I don't lose it. Besides, he's reminded me that my rent falls due on Lady Day. Talking of Liberator, you can download the latest issue for free from the magazine's website. And, while you're on there, why not sign up to be notified each time a new issue drops? Bonkers HallRutland Tel. Rutland 7 Don't get me wrong, I love the Home Counties. I'm never happier ...
The Guardian reports on the conclusion of the IPPR thinktank that the UK is losing out on annual exports to the EU that could be worth as much as £6.5bn without a deal with Brussels that allows manufacturers to jettison duplicate product testing. The paper says that in the latest attempt to calculate the loss of trade with the EU after Brexit, the thinktank said many companies have given up selling goods to the EU or set up subsidiaries inside the trade bloc after successive governments failed to secure a mutual recognition agreement that would avoid the extra administration costs: ...
Alan Garner talks about his life and writing career. This documentary was first shown by the BBC in June 1980, and first posted on this blog 10 years ago.
Here's something sad that I had missed: Jock Gallagher died in May of last year at the age of 87. I've not found an obituary for him, but there was a news report in the Daily Express. I knew Jock in the days when I helped with the production of the issue of Liberal Democrat News that was put together during the Liberal Democrat's autumn conference - one year I copped for all the desktop publishing work. My reward was that I got to chat to two other people who pitched in to help: Adrian Slade and Jock. I talked ...
Who can actually afford to take part in Liberal Democrat democracy? A conversation with Donna Harris about her campaigning on childcare got me thinking. Donna's work is fundamentally about removing barriers. Barriers that prevent women from participating fully in society, work and public life. It made me wonder whether we sometimes overlook the barriers within our own party. Because there is a slightly uncomfortable question we should be asking after Brighton 2026: Who actually gets to participate in Liberal Democrat democracy? The Liberal Democrats proudly say that conference is where the party makes its decisions. Every member has an equal ...
At conference this weekend, there was a rare - and welcome - moment of controversy in the hall. During Ed Davey's Q&A, journalist Carolyn Quinn asked for a show of hands. Should the Liberal Democrats continue supporting the triple lock pension? It was close. The triple lock survived the straw poll, but only narrowly. For a party which proudly introduced the triple lock, that tells us something. There is an appetite among Liberal Democrats for a serious conversation about intergenerational fairness. We should have it. The triple lock was the right policy for its time. When Liberal Democrats entered government ...
Whilst those in the media world and the Westminster bubble speculate about the future of our party leader, Ed Davey, Ed focused on what matters most – a plan to end the squeeze on middle-income earners, put hundreds of pounds back in the pocket of millions of people, and take ordinary workers out of paying the higher tax rate that was designed for stockbrokers. Ed announced that the Liberal Democrats would raise the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 and increase the higher rate threshold from £50,270 to £56,000. He said that would mean taking two million more people out of ...
There were many things to support in the party strategy motion. It includes confident liberalism, modern campaigning, and reaching new communities. However, there is one notable exclusion. In fact, around five million notable exclusions: citizens abroad. The strategy talks about reaching out to all communities in our country. These five million people are not in the UK, but they are served by our democracy. I live in Switzerland now, having moved for a job. Yet decisions made in Westminster continue to affect my life. The starkest of those in recent years was of course Brexit. Many of the million British ...
Two weeks ago, I was relaxing in Spain on what I consider to be a well-deserved holiday, and I started thinking about my life and how I shared that with my parents and sister, with my children, and now with my grandchildren. I quickly concluded the holidays had been important points in the whole of my family life. I can vividly remember holidays in the Isle of Wight, Tenby, and the Lake District with my mum, dad, and sister. I remember playing with my oldest grandchild in the warm sea pool on Crete as we tried to catch the little ...
Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, argues that we must stop avoiding the subject of student finance if we are to win back younger voters. Margaret Hartmann reports that Trump's interference in the plans for his White House ballroom has produced a design that is a menace to public safety: "McCrery informed the White House that Trump's ballroom design did not meet fire safety codes, which require the majority of guests to be able to quickly exit through the main entrance during an emergency ... The architect also pointed out that alternative emergency exit routes out of ...
Here's the tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held between the May 2026 and the May 2027 local elections: Con Lab Lib Dem Green Reform SNP Plaid Ind/ Other Net Con [13] +1 (+1/0) +1 (+3/-2) -1 (+2/-3) -6 (+3/-9) -1 (0/-1) – +2 (+3/-1) -4 Lab -1 (0/-1) [12] -1 (0/-1) -1 (+3/-4) -4 (+4/-8) +1 (+1/0) – 0 (+1/-1) -6 Lib Dem -1 (+2/-3) +1 (+1/0) [17] +1 (+1/0) +2 (+2/0) -1 (0/-1) – +2 (+2/0) +4 Grn +1 (+3/-2) +1 (+4/-3) -1 (0/-1) [7] – +1 (+1/0) – – +2 Ref +6 (+9/-3) ...
Some sheep yesterday. The Mirror wins our Headline of the Day Award. In an outbreak of judicial witticism, the judges suggested that Clarkson fell asleep before he had finished counting them.
We had a rare Wednesday council by-election this week, in the constituency of high-profile Conservative MP Katie Lam. It's a multi-member ward where the Conservatives have topped the poll twice in a row, but the seat up in the by-election had been held by the Tunbridge Wells Alliance. Not any more though: [IMG: 🔔] Cranbrook, Sissinghurst & Frittenden, Tunbridge Wells BCLiberal Democrat GAIN from Tunbridge Wells Alliance [IMG: 🔶] LDM – 697, 37.4% (+22.9) [IMG: 🔵] CON – 590, 31.6% (-14.6) [IMG: ➡] RFM – 392, 21.0% (-4.4) [IMG: 🟢] GRN – 188, 10.0% (-3.9)Congratulations to Cllr Harry Wormington and ...
Ed Davey and the Liberal Democrats calling on the UK to rejoin the European Single Market at their recent conference, now a former Labour heavyweight has joined in to put pressure on Andy Burnham to reverse the insidious impact of Brexit on the economy and social policy. The Mirror reports that former Foreign Secretary, David Miliband has said Brexit was a "unilateral declaration of political impotence" adding that he has called on Andy Burnham to reverse the decision to leave the EU. The paper adds that Miliband said that Brexit has reduced the UK to "a bobbing cork in the ...