Liberal news for a more liberal world
My focus is on persuading moderate Conservatives, building a broad base of support, and winning our marginals at the next general election. Winning again My primary objective as Leader of the Liberal Democrats is to get the party winning again, at every level and in every part of the country. Overwhelmingly, our marginal seats are Conservative-facing. That is why my plan is focused on persuading moderate Conservatives to support our…
Daniel Zeichner, the Labour MP for Cambridge, has been found to have breached rules surrounding MPs’ expenses by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, by misusing Parliamentary stationery as part of his party political campaigning. Zeichner, whose majority was shrunk by the second-placed Liberal Democrats in 2019, has been issued a rebuke by Parliament, and has had to pay back several hundred pounds. The Commissioner found that in 2019, Zeichner sent…
The Conservative Party in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) has tonight been accused of “disgusting moral failings” as it set in motion plans to exploit the tragic death of a beloved councillor in a cynical attempt to wrest control away from the present Liberal Democrat-led progressive coalition administration. BCP Council has been governed by an alliance of progressive parties since May 2019, but the death of independent councillor Colin Bungey…
All three candidates in the Lib Dem leadership race have come out in support of the toppling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol yesterday, lending their support to the Black Lives Matter movement. Layla Moran tweeted that statues of slave merchants shouldn’t still be standing, while also putting her words into action, sending a letter to the Government calling on them to expedite the process of…
After months of waiting, the Government finally launched its Test and Trace scheme this week to much fanfare. Since then there have been several well-publicised issues with the programme including IT problems, contact tracers not having any work and the delayed launch of the app it relies on. But aside from these serious teething problems, the scheme faces another fundamental issue that urgently needs to be addressed. Those being asked…
With the Liberal Democrats having announced that their leadership election will start next month, this article will detail what to look out for with some of the key debates currently going on in the party, and where the dividing lines could be drawn between members and candidates alike. Pro-Coalition vs anti-Coalition Attitudes towards the 2010-2015 Coalition with the Conservatives have remained one of the dominant discussion points within the Liberal…
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has today openly confirmed that he views care workers and other frontline heroes as mere cash cows. Answering a question about the Tory plans to charge migrant care workers and NHS staff over £600 just to be able to use the very same NHS they work for, Johnson admitted that he viewed them as simply a source of revenue, saying “those contributions help us raise £900million”…
The Conservative government and a senior member of the Labour Party have tonight voiced their support for moving the Immigration Bill onto its next stage in Parliament. The Bill, put forward by wildly unpopular Home Secretary Priti Patel, would effectively ban unskilled migrants earning less than £25,600 from coming to the UK – which could stop foreign care workers, refuse workers and vegetable pickers who have shown their heroics during…
The pinnacle of Liberal Democrat success was in 2005. Standing loudly in opposition to the Iraq War, and with Charles Kennedy leading us, we were a constant thorn in the side of an authoritarian Labour government, and reaped the electoral rewards. But while Iraq and our opposition to it is what most people remember of the Kennedy era, our success can be more broadly attributed to our anti-establishment attitude and…
Finnish authorities have today released the final report analysing Finland’s 2018 universal basic income experiment. The results show that those in receipt of the basic income payments experienced lower unemployment, lower stress and anxiety, and greater wellbeing than a control group who were not in receipt of UBI payments. According to Kela, the Finnish Department of Social Security, “The basic income recipients trusted other people and the institutions in society…