The bigger your car, the bigger your fuel duty cutAhead of Ed Davey's conference speech, the Liberal Democrats launched their cost-of-transport campaign. With households facing higher costs from the conflict in Iran, the party wants an emergency three-month package: a 10p cut in fuel duty, cheaper rail and bus fares, and lower EV charging costs. The bill is around £2 billion, funded from the extra revenue higher fuel prices generate. There is a clear case for helping people through a sudden shock. But a party that has long argued for tackling climate change should ask a bigger question: are fuel-duty cuts really the best way to help people in ... (more) |
A call for reform with a small "r"Suella Braverman's recent statement on making hymn singing mandatory in English schools shows just how out of touch Reform is with modern British society. Reform UK's proposed "patriotic curriculum," explicitly rooted in Christianity, raises a basic question: what does it mean to be British today? Christianity is central to Britain's history and cultural inheritance, shaping its institutions, architecture, literature, music and traditions. Children should learn about that heritage. But teaching Christianity's role in national life is different from requiring children to take part in Christian practice. That is what the proposal would do: every school would have to make pupils ... (more) |
The Hecklers: a great documentary about the 1966 electionThis letter from me appears in the latest Journal of Liberal History. Oscar-winning American director Joseph Strick also made his mark on British politics with a film for the BBC about the 1966 general election, focusing just on the heckling of politicians. An American unused to culture of heckling at public election meetings, he toured the country with his own film crew to capture what was a major part of election campaigning in a political era that had only started adjusting to the impact of TV. Mass public meetings were still a central part of a politician's campaign diary – ... (more) |
Plaid Cymru take another step into the twilight zoneI have already commented here on the summit of nationalist leaders nine days ago in Cardiff and the mixed messages it sent about Plaid Cymru's prioritites in government. In doing so, I quoted Wales-on-Line's political editor, Ruth Mosalski, who said that throughout the Senedd campaign the First Minister claimed that his first goal was to show people what a Plaid government can do but, she continued, with the jury still out on what his government has actually achieved on the key issues of health, education, and the cost of living, he was now putting the divisive topic of independence front ... (more) |
Liberals debateOn Monday, Conference debated our motion "Restoring Trans Rights", and the motion passed overwhelmingly. As Chair of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats, I'm proud of that – proud of everyone who put the work in, proud of the people who got up and spoke, and proud that our party said clearly, again, that it stands with trans people. But there is one thing I want us to carry forward from that debate. We win the argument by making it. We win the vote by voting for it. We do not need to win it by shouting anyone down. There will always be ... (more) |
Lord Bonkers Diary: "Burnham is hiding In The North"I am surprised to see Lord B. inviting a Labour peer to lunch at the Hall. Time was, he would have hunted him with hounds over the hills of High Leicestershire. With this entry, our week at Bonkers Hall comes to a close. Don't forget to download the latest issue of Liberator from the magazine's website. Sunday Cook is pleased I am being "economical - like they are in the church sometimes" by inviting a Labour peer over for lunch. "You must be worried about that Burnham fellow," I remark to him as he fields the gravy boat. "Starmer always ... (more) |
What do we think of Ed Davey's tax cut announcement?I always find it odd that, when we have had hundreds of Lib Dems discussing policy for days, we then have the leader announcing a major new policy in his speech, just as everyone's about to go out the door. In Spring it was a new British nuke, which we've mercifully not heard much about since. However the tax cut policy announced yesterday might have more longevity. Basically we are going back to one of the really popular ideas from the coalition years, and raising the threshold at which you pay tax to £15,000. This is the idea initially brought ... (more) |
A podcast on Christopher Hill's The World Turned Upside DownLet's travel far from Brighton and the Liberal Democrats's autumn conference to an hour-long discussion of Christopher Hill's The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution, a book published in 1972. I read it just after I had taken A-level History and found it more interesting than anything I had read about the 17th century while studying for that. Somehow it fitted together with Jethro Tull's album Songs From the Wood to form a ruralist, traditionalist strand in my politics that I have never quite been able to expunge. If Hill was a revisionist historian then Ann ... (more) |
We are in the fight of our lives: Ed DaveyHere is the full text of Ed Davey's closing speech at the 2026 Liberal Democrat autumn conference in Brighton: Something big and dangerous is happening in our country. Hundreds of thugs, in black shirts and balaclavas, are marching on our streets. First Dover. Then Portsmouth. Their aim? To intimidate. To spread fear. To stoke racism. They may call themselves patriots, but they would tear our country apart. We must not let them. Conference, we have seen this before. Racism on Britain's streets is sadly nothing new. Even though the vast majority of our fellow citizens share our values of decency, ... (more) |
Councillor defies council to install hedgehog signBBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award. The councillor is Christian Vassie, a Liberal Democrat member of City of York Council, and the sign has gone up in the village of Wheldrake. Britain's hedgehogs salute him. (more) |