The Liberal Democrats have released a set of demands for tomorrow's Autumn Statement, including an urgeng £4bn injection of funding into the NHS, to avert a winter crisis and prevent declining performance and longer waiting lists next year.
It's now five months since the EU referendum on June 23rd: plenty of time, you might have thought, for a government which appointed ministers committed to Brexit to key posts to have developed a strategy. Yet confusion reigns in Whitehall and Westminster. The clock is ticking towards Theresa's pledged date of invoking Article 50 by the end of March. Yet the government seems more focused on fighting a court case to limit the involvement of Parliament than in setting out its preferred future relationship with our neighbours on the European continent. This is a degree of incompetence about which we should be angry, on top of our anger at the false promises and illusions of the Leave campaign. Some, at least, of the leaders of the Leave campaign should have had a strategy for negotiating a new relationship with the EU. But the coalition of ideologues and opportunists who led the Leave campaign only agreed on what they did not want. Economists for Britain wanted unilateral free trade; Professor Tim Congdon is stil
One of the pairs of themes running through my Targeting Plus pamphlet about the Liberal Democrats is the intertwined argument that: 1 the Lib Dems need to take data seriously, which means working in ways to collect, correct and expand data into all the party's activities, and 2 shared platforms which are usable from national HQ through to local ward are best as that way the investment in time and money to keep them running maximises the knock-on benefit for everyone else in the party too That's why the innovative approach being used for the one-member one-vote elections for the party's federal committees and associated bodies is so good. (Side-note: I'm standing. Votes, however innovative or traditional, most welcome.)
On Wednesday I took our petition to 10 Downing Street, to show Theresa May how we feel about the cuts to our Hospital. The more than 6,000 signatures(931 from High Peak) have been handed to the Government for consideration before the Autumn Statement this week.
Two weeks to go in the Richmond Park Parliamentary by-election, but four council by-elections around the country this week. .
The noises from Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell are increasingly pro-Brexit. The Liberal Democrats, by contrast, are taking a hard line over what any legislation authorising the Article 50 process must say - including giving the British people a vote on the outcome of Brexit negotiations. Which makes this new poll from YouGov particularly interesting
Liberal Democrats have passed new policy to stand up for bereaved families and kinship carers, so more young people can grow up in a loving, stable home.
We are committed to tackling the challenges facing our music industry head-on. By doing so, we can maintain the UK’s reputation as a global leader in music, while giving future generations the chance to share in its success.
The Liberal Democrats are committed to rebuilding the trust and compassion that the UK was once known for. We believe that our country has a responsibility to support those in need, no matter where they are in the world.
