Standing up for local government - why I'm backing JoshEditor's Note: This month party members will be voting to elect our next Party President. At Lib Dem Voice we welcome posts from each of the candidates - one to launch their candidature plus a maximum of one per week during the actual campaign. Local government is the bedrock of Liberal Democrat politics. It is the layer of politics that is closest to the everyday lives of people – from the mundane to the momentous. It is local government that controls everything from bin collections and fixing roads to adult social care and SEN provision. In fact, around 800 essential ... (more) |
Nice guys finish first in Dutch election'Het kan wel', a play on Barack Obama's 'Yes, we can' quip, was ringing out in the Netherlands as Rob Jetten and his liberal D66 party surprised the pundits by winning the Dutch General Election last week. It was a close-run thing though, and it was only after all the postal votes had been counted that he was declared victorious against Geert Wilders' nationalist PVV party, by a historically small margin of 28,000 votes. D66 will now be able to look to form a coalition government after increasing their seats from 9 in 2023 to 26 seats. Jetten's style in ... (more) |
Reclaiming radical hope: lessons from New YorkWhat can the Liberal Democrats learn from Zohran Mamdani's clean sweep victory of the NYC Mayoral Race? This week, American Democrat Zohran Mamdani ended a year-long campaign with a decisive victory in the New York mayoral race, winning over 50% of the vote on record turnout. For progressives across the Western world, it was a breath of fresh air: a politics of hope had won. That same evening, at my local party's AGM, we heard from Martin Tod, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the newly created Hampshire and the Solent Combined Authority. One line from his speech has stayed with ... (more) |
Taking the biscuitLast night I chaired the meeting of Sunniside History Society at Sunniside Social Club. The speaker was Dr Paul Stott who used to work as a naval architect in the shipbuilding industry in the North East before moving into the world of academia where he lectured on the industry of which he had lots of practical experience.Paul's presentation looked at the decline of UK shipbuilding from its (more) |
Poppies on displayLarge Remembrance poppies have started to appear in Sunniside. Thank you to the volunteers from Planting Up Sunniside who have been hard at work placing the poppies around the village. (more) |
Planting Up Sunniside meetingPlanting Up Sunniside held their monthly meeting on Tuesday and I was invited to come along and discuss a number of issues with them. Most of them was about the Christmas tree switch on event on Wednesday 26th November. Most of the details are now sorted. There will be live music and the mayor will do the switch on at 5.30pm. I've also arranged for three donkeys to be there (my links to farming (more) |
How can I stand in the rain leafleting for a party that does this?I canvassed seventy-five doors for the Liberal Democrats last Saturday. I know it's not a massive number by many politicos' standards — I mean, I did seven hundred and sixty-nine across the short campaign period last year — but it's still a decent amount to do on one casualish action day, I think. And yet, when I watch my partner (our local candidate) trawling through the local rag's website for things we can use as Focus stories, I can't help but wonder what I'm doing here. I am (as far as I'm aware) the only trans member of our local ... (more) |
Be careful who you vote forThe Guardian reports on one Reform voter in Lancashire, who is learning the price of supporting Nigel Farage's party. They tell us about Phil Price, whose mother is in Grove House in Adlington, one of the homes earmarked for closure by the Reform-run council: He said: "My mum is 93. If she finds out about this, it'll kill her." He said he was disgusted at what he fears is a conflict of interest involving Reform's cabinet member for adult social care, Graham Dalton, who owns a private care company in Lancashire. "I'm a paid-up member of Reform and I'm disgusted ... (more) |
Our West End street surgery tonight #dundeewestendWe are holding a Thursday street surgery tonight to speak with residents on any local issues or concerns they may have. Should you have an issue you wish to discuss with us, e-mail us at westend@dundeelibdems.org.uk or call Dundee 459378 and we will be pleased to meet you - many thanks. (more) |
One-Nation Conservatives Are Not Our Support BaseThe Liberal Democrats are not the Conservative Party. This statement may seem quite obvious to you or I, but it seems to elude our current leadership; in the Autumn 2025 Conference, Ed Davey would state in his closing speech, "Come, Conservative friends. Help us save our country." Now on the surface level, this makes sense to ask for, under the 2023 Seat Redistribution, we held only 8 Seats, and of the whopping 64 Seats we gained in 2024, 60 came from former Tory Constiuencies, and only 4 were from SNP Constituencies. Clearly, the disaffected moderate Tories had come to the ... (more) |