Burnham's PR pledge: Should Lib Dems be optimistic?Andy Burnham (Photo: politics.co.uk) For Liberal Democrats, Andy Burnham's announcement of a National Commission on Electoral Reform deserves a welcome that is both enthusiastic and demanding. Enthusiastic because a sitting Labour prime minister has publicly challenged the electoral system that delivered his party its parliamentary majority. Demanding because we know how easily promises of reform can become commissions, reports and eventual silence. Burnham's warning about a divisive government entering Downing Street on less than 30% of the vote identifies a fundamental democratic danger. We know exactly what he is referring to and that risk is real. His proposed commission, invitation ... (more) |
A Liberal View on Burnham's SpeechIf Andy Burnham really has no intention to call a General Election as he says, then this Conference speech has not made a very convincing show of it, there were a lot of policy announcements for, "The next Manifesto." or 2030. (A year past the next scheduled election.) If he really is going to sit the full mandate Labour were elected on in 2024 then these policy announcements for what will be almost three years in the future ring like hollow attempts to keep his polling in place while in reality continuing the path of not doing nearly enough to ... (more) |
Russia opens criminal case against Lib Dem councillorEmbed from Getty ImagesRussia's spy agency has opened a criminal case against a Liberal Democrat councillor, accusing her of being part of a terrorist organisation. Ksenia Maximova, who was born in Russia, is a Lib Dem member of Ealing Borough Council. She is also the founder of the Russian Democratic Society, an organisation that works to counter authoritarianism and war by empowering democratic voices from Russia. It is designated "undesirable" under Russian law. She told Sky News that being put on Russia's list of terrorists comes as no surprise: "For years everyone was saying it's a bit random that I ... (more) |
How will Burnham "fix social care"?Photo: Institute for Government Andy Burnham's promise to "fix social care" is welcome. His ambition for a system built on NHS principles, in which "everyone contributes, everyone is covered", speaks to a failure that successive governments have acknowledged and then left unresolved. At last, a Prime Minister appears willing to say that England's arrangements are unfair and that a lasting solution will require difficult choices. That is a significant step, but a promise is easier to make than a service is to build. Social care is often discussed as though it were chiefly a question of protecting older people from ... (more) |
Sir Ranulph Fiennes admits he narrowly avoided prison after blowing up Dr Doolittle movie damThis headline dates from 2018, so I'm not putting it to the judges, but the story below it is worth repeating because Sir Ranulph is in the news. SomersetLive reported on the address he gave when he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Law at University of Bristol that year:The explorer said: "Unfortunately, while on leave back in the UK in the mid-1960s, I got phoned up by an old Eton friend. "He had moved to a place called Castle Combe in Wiltshire, which had just been voted Britain's prettiest village. "And this beautiful village was being attacked by 20th ... (more) |
Britain should be proud, but never afraid of the strangerBritain should be proud, but never afraid of the stranger More than 50 years ago, my grandparents, mother and aunts came to Britain as refugees from Cyprus. They arrived in London with just £20. My grandfather took whatever job he could find. My grandmother spent long days in front of a sewing machine. They worked, saved, bought a home and raised their daughters. Britain gave my family something they could not take for granted: the chance to be safe and build a future. That history is personal to me. It also shapes how I think about the debate around refugees ... (more) |
Write a guest post for Liberal EnglandI love publishing guest posts here on Liberal England. Have you thought of writing one yourself? It could be on where the Liberal Democrats should go from here, on politics more generally or... anything really. Why not an article about a local campaign or quirky piece of history? Please drop me an email if you'd like to discuss your idea first. I'd hate you to spend time on a piece I really wouldn't want to publish. Here are the last 10 guest posts on this blog:Political lessons from science fiction- Peter ChambersCouncillor defection scores on the eve of polling day- ... (more) |
Where is that 'Yesss' moment going to come from?The past week has been marked by plenty of people asking what I made of Conference. My general answer has been that it was OK, but we still need to feel from our most prominent representatives that Liberalism is inspiring. I don't want to hark back to a golden era that may never have existed, but a feature of the Paddy Ashdown years - and to a large extent the Steel and Kennedy leaderships - was that, whatever our electoral fortunes happened to be, you tended to leave conference feeling "Yesss, I will go out and deliver some more leaflets!" ... (more) |
Is Labour's success in curbing immigration harming the economy?As we move closer to John Healey and Andy Burnham's first budget, it is worth revisiting this article in Prospect magazine from December last year. The article refers to home secretary, Shabana Mahmood's immigration strategy which has restricted the rights of asylum seekers to stay in the UK and extended the time that legal migrants would have to wait for permanent residency. It argues that this policy is undermining the drive for economic growth, in this case for Rachel Reeves, but now Healey: Here is the unpalatable truth for Labour strategists. In 2024, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which ... (more) |
Should the Grimond Society Become an Associated Organisation?Yesterday I received an email in my inbox asking whether the Grimond Society, a pressure group supporting cooperatives within the Liberal Democrats, should become an Associated Organisation to the Party. I had presumed this had been a long-term goal anyway based on meetings held, but I appreciate it has been put to vote to let us have our say, which feels very much in the spirit of co-operative organisation, and as such I felt it would only be fair to make clear my own thoughts on the matter. The benefits of becoming an Associated Organisation are perhaps somewhat obvious; the ... (more) |