When tactics become strategyThe great strategist B H Lidell Hart wrote: "The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out." We can take from this many of the problems facing our party today. Following a decade of relative failure, we face an existential crisis and are in dire need of a rethink. Many, including me, have written here in recent months about specific failings we've made, things we've overlooked or miscalculations that have occurred. But I think that much about how we operate as a party is fundamentally flawed – because we ... (more) |
Feisty Women Conference is on Saturday - all welcome!(more) |
The Establishment prevented investigation into paedophiliaA report of the long-running investigation into child sexual abuse (IICSA) finds that there is no evidence of a paedophile ring operating in Westminster in the last quarter of the last century. However, there was a resistance to investigation of accusations of illegal sexual behaviour on the part of MPs. Both fellow MPs and senior police officers were part of this implicit conspiracy. Media interest centres on Cyril Smith and the failure of David Steel and other senior party people to resist his rise within the party. However, the report is equally damning of those who could have reported the ... (more) |
Lib Dems take action to guarantee EU citizens' rightsIn the House of Commons tomorrow [Wednesday 26th February], Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Christine Jardine will present a Private Members' Bill to guarantee the rights of EU citizens to stay in the UK. The European Citizens' Rights Bill would give all EU citizens living in the UK before Brexit the automatic right to stay, without having to apply to the Home Office's Settled Status scheme. The Liberal Democrats pointed out that Boris Johnson has repeatedly promised that EU citizens would automatically be granted the right to stay, but failed to deliver on that promise. Instead, EU citizens have to ... (more) |
The cricket ground at CromfordYou'll find Cromford's cricket ground in the meadows beside the Derwent with views of the hills beyond. (more) |
Steel resignation raises difficult questions[IMG: Cyril Smith and David Steel at the 1973 Liberal Party conference] Cyril Smith/David Steel (Photo: Getty/BBC) David Steel, the former leader of the Liberal Party, has today resigned from the Liberal Democrats following publication of a report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). The inquiry found that Steel had "turned a blind eye" to claims of child abuse and had abdicated responsibility in relation to accusations relating to Cyril Smith, the MP for Rochdale between 1972 and 1992. Steel opted to resign in order to prevent his family having to suffer "distress", and also to avoid ... (more) |
Lord Steel resigns from the Lib Dems and the LordsEmbed from Getty Images (more) |
Too few new homes: where does the blame lie?Not with councils, and not with the planning system, as an article on Liberal Democrat Voice shows. Planning is a devolved matter, but Ruth Dombey's evidence is as applicable to Wales as it is to England. Admittedly, the Conservative government in Westminster is keen to divert attention from the failings of the private sector, but centralising Labour in Cardiff has questions to answer, too. Ms Dombey sums up: The Local Government Association is calling on the Government to use its forthcoming planning white paper to give councils powers to take action on unbuilt land which has planning permission.This includes making ... (more) |
Flooding - Environment Agency says don't build on the floodplain in a climate emergency but we still doThe head of the Environment Agency today made a barnstorming speech on flooding. He is making the right noises about tackling the climate emergency. That's welcome. But he still thinks housing can be built in high risk flood areas. Sir James Bevan didn't speak about his own agency applying the lax national planning rules in a lax manner. According to a joint investigation by the Guardian and Greenpeace's Unearthed news unit, 764 homes in our county have been built in Flood Zone 3 - which has the highest risk of flooding - between 2015 and 2018. That's one in twenty ... (more) |
Isabelle Parasram re-elected as Vice President of the Liberal DemocratsIn addition to Lisa Smart's election as the new chair of the Federal Communications and Elections Committee (FCEC), Isabelle Parasram has been re-elected to the role of Vice President of the Liberal Democrats. (The party has four Vice Presidents, the chairs of the English, Welsh and Scottish Party along with this fourth role, which has special responsibility for working with BaME communities.) A former Parliamentary and GLA candidate, she was born in East London to Indo-Caribbean parents of the Windrush generation. A successful barrister by profession, Isabelle Parasram has played a key role in improving the party's disciplinary and complaints ... (more) |