Mathew Hulbert

Mathew on Monday: “We need to be bold”

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 8th June 2026 - 4:30 pm

EXCLUSIVE: “We need to be bold, we need to be relevant, and we need to show people that we’re serious” – party figures react to news of strategy review

This weekend news broke, via PoliticsHome, that the Lib Dems are conducting an internal review of policy after concerns that had previously been kept mostly behind closed doors became public, with figures including former leadership candidate and current Chair of the Commons Health Select Committee Layla Moran speaking to the outlet about a “frustration” that the party’s been talking about the same things and that we “weren’t really moving forward.”

Despite achieving the party’s best result in a century in 2024, 72 seats in the House of Commons, it’s widely felt that since then we’ve been lost in the shuffle and all too easy to ignore.

Since the news of the review became public I’ve been speaking to people throughout the party, from parliamentarians to grassroots members for this column, about their reaction and what they want to see from the review.

Lib Dem MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough Tom Gordon, who was also quoted in the PoliticsHome piece, told me:

The political landscape is shifting fast, and voters who are frustrated with the status quo are actively looking for somewhere to go. The Lib Dems have a real opportunity here, but we have to be willing to step up with a distinctive, ambitious offer that speaks to the whole country.

He added,

We need to be bold, we need to be relevant, and we need to show people that we’re serious. Our members will not forgive us if we miss the boat.

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Chris Bowers

As a party we must be better defined for the 2029 general election

By Chris Bowers | Mon 8th June 2026 - 1:35 pm

There’s a fear emerging in the so-called realignment of British politics. All the talk is of Reform UK and the Greens being the insurgent parties that are taking over from the traditional main forces of the Conservatives and Labour. If that’s the current media and social media narrative, where do the Lib Dems fit in?

The harsh truth is that, unless we have a message that gives us an identity among those who don’t take a massive interest in politics but do at least vote, we are heading for irrelevance. That’s not true in terms of our electoral performance in …

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Tom Walker

From national averages to local realities: inequality in our communities

By Tom Walker | Mon 8th June 2026 - 10:17 am

Economic decline, Conservative austerity and misguided government policy have all been blamed for worsening inequality in the UK, however, this fails to take a rounded view of inequality and leads to debate over economic solutions that neglect local challenges. By defining inequality solely as an economic problem, we enter further debate about inequality as an economic indicator. Critics can readily underplay the impact of inequality in our society by pointing out that relative poverty has remained constant. Inequality must be viewed through the lenses of income, wealth, health and education, all of which are rooted our local communities.

Unaffordable housing, exorbitant early-years education, a lack of GP appointments and job losses reflect a perception of overall decline in the local area. This affects local people and the opportunities they are given. Two-thirds of working-age adults in poverty live in a household where someone works, this undermines the notion that “work pays” and is just cause for the anger felt by so many. Those same communities are experiencing UK firms offshoring to cheaper labour markets and criminal gangs operating with impunity. These are local issues for local people. This perception that life is getting worse and not better has been exploited by populists across Europe and the Americas. All too often, we link this phenomenon to polarisation and a changing media landscape, this isn’t the full story. Populists in the UK are campaigning on those local issues: “Make Work Pay”, “Revitalise British Manufacturing” and “Make Law-Abiding Citizens Feel Safe”. The electorate don’t need to support the extreme policies of these parties to vote for them, they simply need to see a party that is representing solutions to their local problems.

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Caron Lindsay

David Green pledges to fight for Caithness maternity care

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 7th June 2026 - 3:30 pm

David Green has delivered  his first speech at Holyrood.

All our seven newbies have now done so. Every single one of them made me cry, David more than any of them.

Not just because he is the best of people and I’ve known him for pretty much half his life (which is a tiny proportion of mine), but because he represents where I spent my teenage years and, much further south, where my husband’s family comes from. His constituency is massive, stretching from John O’Groats in the north, almost to Skye in the west.

I’ve driven the long, long road from Wick to Inverness many, many times. It’s a good bit shorter, with the Dornoch Bridge, than it used to be, but it is still a very, very long way. Even in the Summer when it’s pretty much light till well gone 11pm, it’s long. In the Winter when it’s dark at the back of 3 and the wind and the ice and the snow are doing their thing, it’s terrifying. Also, there’s a lot of rural Caithness and northern Sutherland that is very much further away than that.

I say this because a succession of SNP health ministers have done nothing to reverse the downgrading of maternity services which means that mums have to traverse that road to give birth. Now when I was in labour, I had to drive 15 or so miles on a relatively straightforward road to have my baby. And that was not a fun experience, I can assure you. So David’s commitment to fight for a full maternity unit in Caithness means something to me.

Watch his speech here.

The text is below:

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We do have a two tier system, Part 2

By Neil Hickman | Sun 7th June 2026 - 1:55 pm

One of the changes to civil court procedure which was made following Lord Woolf’s report in 1996 was to require a party’s statement of case to be verified by a statement of truth.

To put forward a case which you know to be a pack of lies, in other words, became a contempt of court and punishable by imprisonment.

There have been any number of cases in the last few years where people have put forward lying and fraudulent personal injury claims, and the courts have taken a pretty stern line. Thus the Court of Appeal in Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company Ltd v Zafar  (2019) “We say at once, however, that the deliberate or reckless making of a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth will usually be so inherently serious that nothing other than an order for committal to prison will be sufficient”. 

Similarly Lord Justice Moses in  South Wales Fire and Rescue Service v Smith  (2011): “Those who make such false claims if caught should expect to go to prison. There is no other way to underline the gravity of the conduct. There is no other way to deter those who may be tempted to make such claims, and there is no other way to improve the administration of justice”.

Now, those with long memories may recall the case of Mr Afzal, the defeated Labour candidate in Aston, Birmingham, in 2022. He had the brass neck to bring an election petition complaining that the Lib Dems had made false allegations against him during the campaign. He withdrew the petition after video footage emerged showing that the Lib Dem allegations had been absolutely true. The judge angrily commented that Mr Afzal “… had the audacity to issue these proceedings in the knowledge that the allegations quite properly made by the Respondents in the course of the election campaign were truthful. He persisted with the Petition and served evidence from himself and others which was and he must have known to be false”.

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Iain Donaldson

A Federal Britain: 3. Fiscal Federalism and a complete constitutional settlement

By Iain Donaldson | Sun 7th June 2026 - 11:55 am

Fair representation is the first pillar of constitutional renewal. Federalism is the second. The third and final pillar is fiscal federalism.

Without financial autonomy, political devolution is incomplete. Without it, devolution is symbolic. With it, it becomes real.

The United Kingdom remains highly centralised not only politically but financially. Most revenue is collected by Westminster and redistributed through complex grant systems. This creates dependency, weakens accountability, and encourages short-term decision-making. Governments often spend money they do not raise and raise money they do not directly spend.

A durable federal settlement requires power, responsibility, and funding to be aligned.

Under fiscal federalism, state governments in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, London, and the English regions would control meaningful portions of major tax bases, including elements of income taxation, business taxation, and consumption taxes. They would gain genuine responsibility for shaping economic development and funding public services.

In return, they would assume responsibility for major domestic functions including health, education, housing, transport, infrastructure, and regional economic development.

This alignment is crucial. Those who make decisions should manage the consequences. Citizens should be able to see clearly who raises revenue, who spends it, and who is accountable for outcomes.

Local government would also gain stronger fiscal powers. Councils could make greater use of land value taxation, tourism levies, congestion charging, and other locally appropriate revenue sources. This would reduce dependency on central grants and improve responsiveness to local priorities.

National solidarity would remain essential. Fiscal federalism is not a race between regions. A federal equalisation system would ensure that wealthier areas contribute more to support less prosperous parts of the country. This preserves cohesion while allowing genuine autonomy.

Such arrangements are common in successful federations because they balance fairness with decentralisation. Regions gain freedom to innovate and tailor policies to local conditions, while citizens retain the benefits of belonging to a wider national community.

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 7th June 2026 - 10:04 am

AI

Sitting next to Pope Leo XIV when he launched his controversial encyclical on AI was Chris Olah—co-founder of the AI company Anthropic.

His presence was no accident. The Pope’s 235 page “Magnifica Humanitas”  calls for regulation of technology to protect the dignity of humankind.

Olah’s position is the same and he has made a name for himself by refusing to allow the Trump Administration to use Anthropic for military and intelligence purposes.

Olah is on one side of a technologically-driven political divide in Silicon Valley. On the other side are figures such as Marc Andreesen, who has been involved with many of the tech industry’s leading brands and Peter Thiel, CEO of the AI company Palantir.

Thiel and Andreesen far-right libertarians who want to avoid regulation. They see technological development as essential and that the controllers of technology should also control the politics for the benefit of all. Both men are big contributors to Donald Trump and conservative causes.

The debate goes beyond Silicon Valley to the international political stage. The Trump Administration big concern is winning the AI race with China. Donald Trump recently signed an Executive Order allow government oversight to prevent cyber-attacks. But he did so reluctantly.  He wants to keep regulation to a minimum; encourage private investment in AI and then use the product as an instrument of national power.

The EU wants AI to grow. It wants investment in European AI companies but they view government’s role as a partner and referee rather than spectator.

To put it simply: Trump wants to win the race. Brussels—and the pope-want to control AI. Britain wants to win the race safely.

The difficulty for Britain is that middle positions become harder to maintain as technologies mature. During the early nuclear age, Britain initially tried to bridge Washington and continental Europe. Eventually it had to choose where to place its strategic weight.

AI may force a similar decision. If the next decade brings increasingly powerful AI systems, the central geopolitical question may not be US versus China but whether the Western world adopts the American model of strategic competition or the European model of precautionary governance

Donald Trump and the liberal consensus

The Trump administration has always been an alliance of groups and people that oppose the so-called liberal consensus: the idea that the U.S. government should regulate business, provide social welfare programs, promote infrastructure projects, protect civil rights, and support a rules-based international order.

Since the 1980s Republicans accepted many of the institutional pillars of the post-war order—especially free trade, alliances and global leadership—even while seeking to reduce regulation and constrain the growth of government.

Trump upended that system, promising to dismantle the federal government built around the liberal consensus, the government his voters thought they hated because they thought its protection of equality before the law gave Black Americans, Brown Americans, women, and gender or religious minorities a leg up on white Christian men.

This racist lobby combined with a growing number concerned about immigration, cultural change, distrust of elites, de-industrialisation and globalisation.  Or they thought funding for science wasted their money on the research that right-wing influencers mocked for wasting their money and intruding on their freedom. Or they thought the U.S. contribution to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and U.S. participation in alliances did not put “America First.”

In 2024, Trump cobbled together enough groups who thought that way to win the White House, and as soon as he took power, he set out to destroy the liberal consensus government with the help of loyalists he installed in key positions.

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Tanya Park

Liberal Voice for Women poll doesn’t say what they say it says

By Tanya Park | Sun 7th June 2026 - 9:39 am

Yesterday I posted about a YouGov poll commissioned by Liberal Voice for Women. At the time I hadn’t had a chance to see the full dataset, and from comments by LVfW members in other threads I’d got the impression it hadn’t been published. It apparently had. Here’s my assessment now I’ve seen it in full.

The claims being made about this poll include that it shows “the majority of the party agree with us on single-sex spaces” and that “most actual party members are sex realists.” Neither holds up.

On single-sex spaces: every result LVfW are citing comes from questions specifically about trans women who have not had gender reassignment surgery. They present these as findings about trans women in general. They are not. For trans women who have had surgery the results are substantially different: hospital wards splits 43% allowed versus 37% not, toilets 51% allowed versus 32% not, changing rooms essentially even at 40/41. The only result showing a clear majority is the no-surgery changing rooms scenario at 53%. For no-surgery toilets it is 46%, not a majority. For no-surgery refuges it is 49%, also not a majority.

On sex realism: the poll asks whether people who believe biological sex cannot be changed are “bigoted.” 44% say they are not. LVfW infer from that result that 44% of respondents are themselves sex realists. The question does not ask whether respondents hold that belief. It asks whether holding it makes you bigoted. Those are completely different things. And 44% is not most.

The intimate care question asks whether a trans woman should provide care without the patient’s specific consent. 79% say no. That is a result about consent process, not categorical exclusion.

There are also real questions about the sample itself. This is not a poll of Lib Dem members. It is a poll of people who self-identify as current or past members within YouGov’s opt-in panel. Nearly half the sample is over 65, which is not representative of the active membership. Those are not minor caveats when the claim is that most party members believe X.
And here is what does not appear anywhere in LVfW’s materials: 84% of respondents think conversion therapy away from a person’s birth sex should not be allowed. When asked what should happen if women’s and trans people’s rights conflict, 59% say find a compromise, 12% say they don’t conflict at all, and only 22% say women’s rights should take priority.

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Alison Suttie

Alison Suttie writes: Thank you to our volunteers

By Alison Suttie | Sun 7th June 2026 - 7:55 am

Headshot of Baroness Alison SuttieThank you.

As we mark Volunteers’ Week, that’s the message I most want to share with the hundreds of Liberal Democrat members who give their time to support our candidate approval and selection processes.

As Chair of the Joint Candidates Sub-Committee, I see first-hand every week the extraordinary contribution our volunteers make. Whether you sit on approval panels, help organise assessments, support candidate development, serve on selection committees, provide mentoring, stand as a candidate or any of the other ways volunteers keep the whole process running behind the scenes, you are helping to build the future of our party. 

Every approval conducted and every selection completed is only possible because volunteers step forward to make it happen. Your efforts ensure that local parties across the country can put forward strong Liberal Democrat voices in their communities. 

So, to everyone who has played a part – thank you. Thank you for the evenings spent on Zoom, the weekends given up for assessments, the paperwork, the interviews, the mentoring conversations and all the countless hours that most members never see. 

As we look ahead to the next General Election, our work is far from finished. We will need more approved candidates, more selections completed and more support for those stepping forward to represent our party. That means we will once again be asking members to volunteer their time and expertise. 

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Caron Lindsay

Andrew Baxter: I want to be a voice for the Highlands

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 6th June 2026 - 3:07 pm

New Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Andrew Baxter made his first speech in Holyrood this week. He looked very happy about it, as well he should given that he represents what I think are some of the most beautiful places in the world, especially my happy place, Rosemarkie Beach.

He paid tribute to the “resilient” communities of his constituency and set out his desire to be a voice for the Highlands on issues like building public services that are accessible, reliable and closer to home.

I was in tears when he talked about the lady whose husband had been put in a care home 2 hours away – the unnecessary reality of life in the Highlands.

I am also ashamed to say that I didn’t know about Nessie’s sister Morag, who apparently lives in Loch Morar, though Loch Ness is plenty big enough for two monsters, to be honest.

Watch here:

The text is below:

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Caron Lindsay

What’s going on with party strategy?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 6th June 2026 - 12:19 pm

Once per Parliament, the Federal Board is obliged to put before Conference a party strategy. Article 5.1 of the Federal Constitution states:

The Federal Board shall have the responsibility periodically, and at least onceper Parliament, for preparing a document outlining the Party’s strategy, inconjunction with the Leader’s political strategy, for submission for debate and
agreement by Conference.

The Board’s plan is to bring a strategy to Autumn Conference. If the anger following the local elections is anything to go by, members will be looking for a commitment to developing a nationally relevant message to re-establish us as a viable national alternative. Ed Davey’s comments about wanting us to be “the party of Middle England” have sparked huge concern in the party. There is a feeling that we are being too timid for fear of upsetting the Daily Mail at a time when the country is screaming out for a liberal alternative to the populist parties of right and left. Imagine that, a party that fixes stuff, stands up for liberal values and really resonates with people who are, to use a good Scottish word, scunnered with politics.

PoliticsHome has an article this weekend titled “Inside the Lib Dem strategy rethink.” Several MPs are quoted, including Tom Gordon, Layla Moran, Daisy Cooper along with some who are un-named.

Politics Home says the party is looking at changing direction:

To that end, the party is undergoing a strategy and policy overhaul, with key areas of discussion including the economy, welfare, and, as the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum approaches, a bolder stance on the European Union.

Tom Gordon confirmed the rethink:

I don’t think it was necessarily the wrong approach, but just given the nature and the timeline of where we’re at in this parliament and the political events and that fragmentation, I think there is now a rethinking of what we do, what we offer, how we’re more punchy, how we’re bolder, and what the offer from us is.

A senior MP hinted at an approach that to me sounds too managerial:

The MP said the party is “starting to think about the economy in a much more structural manner”, and the frontbench team had been “set a task of properly scrutinising departmental budgets, where money is being spent”.

They added that the party needs to “make sure we are economically credible”, with there being more appetite from figures at the top of the party towards thinking about what the Lib Dem offering would be in a potential future coalition.

Layla Moran sounded optimistic about what was coming:

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We do have a two-tier system

By Neil Hickman | Sat 6th June 2026 - 10:55 am

I think Nigel Farage is right. We do have two-tier policing.

No, let me finish, as the man himself is fond of saying.

A couple of years ago, Lucy Connolly, a troubled and not especially clever individual, posted an unpleasant and inflammatory tweet in the aftermath of the Southport murders. She thought better of it and deleted it after a few hours. And it is difficult to believe that anybody sought to set fire to anything simply because of what an obscure woman from Northampton posted on Twitter.

What Connolly wrote was deeply unpleasant, but I can’t help feeling that the most appropriate thing to do with her would have been to tear her off a strip and tell her not to be such a fool in future. Given the very prescriptive approach to sentencing which now applies, of course, the judge’s hands were tied and she was jailed for two and a half years.

A few days ago, Nigel Farage ignored the request of Henry Nowak’s family not to make his murder the cause of division. With all the authority of the leader of a party that polled 17% at the last election, he made an Emergency Address To The Nation, which, because it was Good Old Nige, didn’t provoke gales of laughter. And he called for people to display “pure cold rage”. Unlike Ms Connolly, Farage is a highly intelligent wordsmith, who chooses his words with care. And he did not invite people to be angry. He invited them to display rage.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an Expat: NATO Irony

By Tom Arms | Sat 6th June 2026 - 8:58 am

Marco Rubio says the next month’s NATO summit will be one of the most consequential in history. He is right—but not for the reasons he imagines.

President Trump has spent years demanding that Europe take responsibility for its own defence. The Europeans have finally agreed. The problem is that they have also concluded that they cannot rely entirely on Washington.

That realisation is likely to dominate the summit. The immediate result will be more defence spending. The long-term result may be the emergence of a European military-industrial complex capable of challenging America’s dominance of the global arms market.

If so, future historians may conclude that Donald Trump did more than persuade Europe to rearm. He persuaded it to compete.

It will not be a happy group when the 32 NATO leaders gather in Ankara on 7-8 July. The 30 European members are still angry about Donald Trump’s designs on Greenland; statements about “European civilisational decline” and his failure to consult allies before starting a war with Iran. Trump is angry that Denmark won’t handover Greenland; NATO restrictions on US airbases during the Iran War and the Alliance’s failure to join the Israeli-American war on Iran.

But at the top of the agenda will be the Ukraine War and European re-armament. The Trump Administration has successfully shifted the cost of arming Ukraine from American to European shoulders with the PURL (Prioritised Ukrainian Requirements List) programme. Trump plus the Ukraine War and the growing Russian threat has prompted Europe that it needs more weapons now. It takes time to build the factories and shipyards to make them so they are by buying more from America.

The Russian threat is bonanza for the US defence industry. Between 2021 and 2015 European arms imports increased 217 percent over the previous five-year period. The estimated amount is $220 billion. European NATO is rushing to fill its defence gaps with off-the-shelf F-35s, Patriot Missile Systems, HIMARS, Apache helicopters and munitions.

But while shelling out billions to America, Europeans are also building the factories and shipyards that will build the weapons that will in the long-term replace American imports.

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Simon Banks

What really happened?

By Simon Banks | Fri 5th June 2026 - 7:27 pm

Soon after the Second World War ended, a German Jewish survivor, a brilliant philosophy student, sat down to explain to herself and the world how Hitler and Stalin had turned organised madness into an engine of government and destruction. Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism came out in 1951.

Much of her analysis is dated or specific to the German or Russian peoples. But some is chillingly relevant.

How relevant is this to Trump’s MAGA movement, to Farage and Reform?

  • “Denial of the very possibility of a common mankind…total denial of the whole concept of human rights – stigmatised as weak, feeble-minded and hypocritical.”
  • Particular appeal to people who had not taken part in political life – non-voters etc – and such people could be kept loyal without much argument or influence of reason. “Politically indifferent masses could easily be a majority in a democratically ruled country…a democracy could function according to rules which are actively recognised by only a minority.”

Reform’s success has been to combine the intolerant hard right, which always existed, with voters who previously had not voted in local elections, and maybe not in any elections – people who neither understood not trusted the system.

Why is such a large pool of such voters available? The internet, the right-wing media and immigration are obvious and real reasons – but there are others.

There were always many people beyond social or work organisation, beyond strong and stable communities. In 18th century Europe they were numerous in cities, fuelling the Porteous Riots in Edinburgh and the Gordon Riots in London. In the 19th century, they declined despite urbanisation, because of the rise of an urbanised working class – possessing regular jobs, working en masse and unionised. Moreover, Methodists, Baptists and Catholics recruited and organised among urban workers. The Nonconformist churches and the unions had a participative ethos, promoting active mutual support. Both unions and chapels were strongly linked to the Liberals while the Conservative Party relied on traditional ties: rural land-based hierarchy, Church of England, military.

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Joe Nutt

ALDC by-election report, 4th June

By Joe Nutt | Fri 5th June 2026 - 5:14 pm

One principal authority by-election took place this week in Westmorland & Furness – a Conservatives defence in Hawcoat and Newbarns.

Westmorland & Furness Council, Hawcoat & Newbarns

This week’s by-election was triggered by the resignation of the former Conservative councillor. In 2022, at the inaugural election of the new Westmorland and Furness Council, the Liberal Democrats took control of the unitary thanks to sweeping gains wins several wards in Tim Farron’s constituency. However, this ward is in the industrial seaport town of Barrow-in-Furness – an electorally challenging area for us. At the last election, all three of our candidates finished last behind the Conservatives, Labour and Independents.

This is crucial context for understanding our last placed finish in the by-election last night. Reform easily beat the Conservatives, who dropped over 20 points into third place. It should be noted that the winning Reform candidate, Hazel Edwards, was formerly a Conservative councillor and mayor.

Turnout was very low, falling by around 14 points to 27%.

A big thank you to Stephen Pickthall for making sure a Liberal Democrat was on the ballot!

Reform: 1139, 48.4% (NEW)
Labour: 576, 24.5% (-9.8%)
Conservative: 447, 19.0% (-21.5%)
Green: 121, 5.1% (NEW)
Liberal Democrats: 69, 2.9% (-2.7%)

Reform GAIN from Conservative

Turnout: 27%

Thank you to all of our candidates, agents, and campaign teams. A full summary of these results, and all other principal council by-elections, can be found on the ALDC by-elections page here.

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Iain Donaldson

A Federal Britain: 2. Devolving power and redesigning the Constitution

By Iain Donaldson | Fri 5th June 2026 - 8:57 am

Fair votes are essential, but they are only the first pillar of constitutional renewal. The second pillar is federalism: the redistribution of power away from Westminster and towards the nations and regions where people actually experience the consequences of government decisions.

The United Kingdom is one of the most centralised democracies in the developed world. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and London possess varying degrees of devolution, yet most of England remains governed through Westminster departments, Whitehall ministries, arm’s-length agencies, and overlapping administrative bodies. Decisions affecting transport, housing, infrastructure, skills, economic development, and public services are often taken hundreds of miles away from the communities they affect.

The result is confusion, duplication, and weak accountability. When services fail, it is frequently unclear whether responsibility lies with ministers, local authorities, regulators, agencies, or quasi-independent bodies. Democracy becomes less meaningful when citizens cannot identify who is responsible.

Federalism addresses this by clearly defining where power sits.

Westminster would become a genuine federal parliament responsible for defence, foreign affairs, national security, macroeconomic stability, currency, and constitutional matters. Rather than simultaneously acting as both a UK parliament and, in practice, England’s legislature, it would focus on genuinely federal responsibilities.

Below it would sit state-level governments: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, London, and a series of English regional states.

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Mark Valladares

4 June 2026 – today’s press release

By Mark Valladares | Thu 4th June 2026 - 11:55 pm

Cole-Hamilton presses Swinney to clean up Scottish politics

At First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today called for an inquiry into the actions of former SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell and urged John Swinney to adopt key measures to clean up Scottish politics.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

The most regrettable aspect of this whole sorry saga around the SNP’s finances is the erosion of public trust and faith in politics it creates. There are still big unanswered questions around all of this. This is why we need a parliamentary inquiry but the government are blocking it.

Just like they’ve blocked other

…

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Mark Corner

Why community politics matters

By Mark Corner | Thu 4th June 2026 - 2:54 pm

There have been a number of articles in Lib Dem Voice about what the Lib Dems stand for. Tom Gordon MP asked this in what was partly a reflection on the recent local elections in the UK, and others like Peter Black have followed it up. But such discussions too often turn into a wish list of policies people would like the Lib Dems to support or perhaps campaign on harder. What the Lib Dems stand for is best seen in terms of a more general approach to politics, though it does have implications for policies.

In an earlier piece for Lib Dem Voice I referred to Ed Davey’s speech to the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in March 2023, when he declared that ‘community politics is something our party is built on. It is what sets us apart from other parties.’ The leader talked of candidates being ‘connected to the communities they represent’, ‘hearing their concerns on the doorstep’ (as opposed to making cold calls on a phone) and of ‘first winning their trust – and then ultimately their votes.’

This way of identifying a distinctive Lib Dem approach to politics is often misrepresented as a mere fixation with ‘trivial’ local issues, rather than facing the ‘important’ issues that matter at national level. Hence the Tory leader Keni Badenoch waded in with her own definition of a Lib Dem as ‘somebody who is good at fixing their church roof.’ A pretty positive thing to do, one might think, but Badenoch was again trying to hint at a fixation with trivia – at least when viewed in national terms. ‘They don’t have much of an ideology other than being nice’, she went on. ‘They are like “Fix the church roof, you should be a Member of Parliament”’.

Right. We get the picture. ‘Community politics’ is all about mobilising people to deal with the little things that bother us at local level – holes in the road, bins that aren’t properly emptied, and of course those leaking roofs, while doubtless neglecting the things that matter – like the billions that need to be spent on urgent new military equipment. Tanks, battleships, submarines – these are the important things. At the very least, they’re a bigger priority than getting a team together to mend a leaking roof.

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Gordon Lishman

Michael Meadowcroft, 1942 – 2026

By Gordon Lishman | Thu 4th June 2026 - 12:30 pm

Michael Meadowcroft has died at the age of 84. He had been suffering from a brain tumour in recent months and died peacefully with family present in Adel, Leeds. He continued to engage with friends throughout his last months.

Michael and his wife Liz Bee will be remembered for many reasons by many people. They have had rich and full lives. Michael’s political and philosophical contributions will be remembered and valued by most commentators, but we also celebrate the person who was happy, kind, supportive, thoughtful, incisive, inclusive, passionate about the many things he believed and engaged with, and widely-read.

Their wonderful home in Leeds welcomed many visitors and guests – Liberals, musicians, opera-singers, and a wide variety of people associated with the political and cultural life of their city.

Michael and Liz were Francophiles, particularly from their home in France and committed to the promotion of the local wines of Faugères. Their musical interests ranged from Michael’s clarinet playing in Granny Lee’s All-Stars to Opera North and the wider music scene in Leeds. I remember when Michael played to a Conference Glee Club of 8 people in a hotel room and later more than 1000 people.

Much of Michael’s life was in the Liberal Party, the continuing Liberal Party, the Liberal Democrats and the cause of Liberalism. From Chair of Merseyside Young Liberals to Liberal Party Local Government Officer to Leeds City Councillor and MP to observer and adviser on elections and democracies in many parts of the world, Michael defined and was defined by his philosophy of life and Liberalism.

Crucially, and in common with the late Tony Greaves, Michael saw no distinction between local politics, national politics and philosophical belief. They were all part of the same package: a single, coherent whole in which all the elements interact.  Philosophy underpins action; it’s not separate from everyday hard political choices. Both philosophy and action are founded in the everyday life and language of real folk.

In the late 60s when we were developing the ideas of community politics, Michael referred to “the councillor as the political arm of his people” in the same way that a butcher or a policeman had a role in a community where they were an organic part. The idea of the “community champion”, a hero or heroine who helped the little people, was anathema. Power should flow upwards, defined and limited by engaged and informed communities.

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Iain Donaldson

A Federal Britain: 1. Renewing democracy through fair representation

By Iain Donaldson | Thu 4th June 2026 - 10:25 am

The United Kingdom is undergoing a quiet constitutional breakdown. Not in the dramatic sense of institutional collapse, but in a slower and more corrosive way: voters increasingly feel unrepresented, power remains concentrated in Westminster to a degree unusual among modern democracies, and the link between democratic choice and real-world decision-making has weakened.

These are not separate problems. They form a single constitutional question: how can a modern, diverse, multi-national state remain democratic, fair, and stable when many of its institutions were designed for a different era?

The answer lies in three connected pillars: fair representation, decentralised power, and fiscal accountability. Each alone is insufficient. Together, they form a democratic redesign of the United Kingdom. The first pillar is electoral reform.

A functioning democracy depends on a simple principle: votes should translate into representation. In the United Kingdom, that principle is routinely broken by First Past the Post.

The 2024 General Election once again demonstrated the scale of the distortion. Parties receiving millions of votes secured only minimal representation, while others translated relatively modest vote shares into overwhelming parliamentary majorities. This is not merely a technical flaw. It is a structural weakness that undermines confidence in democratic legitimacy.

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Caron Lindsay

Morven-May MacCallum MSP: No-one in Scotland should have to fight harder to be believed than to get well

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 4th June 2026 - 8:51 am

When she was 14, new Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for the Highlands and Islands Morven May-MacCallum contracted Lyme Disease after being bitten by a tick.

Yesterday made her first speech in the Scottish Parliament in which she spoke of her experience and committed to campaign on behalf of people living with ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, POTS, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and other chronic illnesses.

It’s an incredible speech which will resonate with anyone who suffers from these and other conditions and who has had to fight to be believed.

Watch here:

The text is below.

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Mark Valladares

3 June 2026 – today’s press release

By Mark Valladares | Wed 3rd June 2026 - 10:45 pm

Carmichael demands meeting with Coastguard boss after cuts to volunteer remuneration

Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has today written to the Chief Executive of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Virginia McVea, to demand a meeting over cuts to Coastguard volunteer remuneration.

Currently Coastguard Rescue Officers (CROs), which make up the bulk of the Coastguard Rescue Service, are given hourly remuneration for attending incidents and training exercises – approximately £11 per hour. The MCA plans to change these rules following a Court of Appeal judgement earlier this year, which classed responders as “workers” while they were carrying out their duties.

Mr Carmichael said:

The

…

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Caron Lindsay

Adam Harley’s first speech

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 3rd June 2026 - 5:30 pm

New Strathkelvin and Bearsden MSP Adam Harley made his first speech in Holyrood yesterday, highlighting the importance of providing young people with opportunities, protecting important community facilities and restoring trust in politics.

Adam originally worked in theatre and the arts before moving over to the charity sector, fighting for the rights of people with cystic fibrosis to access life-saving medicines.

He has also volunteered for organisations educating children from disadvantaged backgrounds and has worked with community groups supporting young people in danger of becoming involved in the criminal justice system, helping them turn their lives around.

The text is below

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Tara Foster

A roadmap to Queer Equality

By Tara Foster | Wed 3rd June 2026 - 3:22 pm

Rebuilding the trust of the Queer Community will be a long road. Yet, it is one we have now begun.

I have written before about how the Party’s reluctance to meaningfully challenge the regressive trend of queer rights in the UK has resulted in a loss of trust from the trans community, pushing many dedicated and experienced activists to join the Green Party. But, as the response from the Party to the EHRC Code of Practice has shown, there is potential to turn around this regressive trend. The Party likes to talk about our outstanding record on standing up for queer rights – from abolishing Section 28 to being the architects of the legalisation of gay marriage – and whilst our momentum has slumped recently, the leadership’s response to the EHRC code shows a welcome turn in the right direction.

With this in mind, I have some suggestions for the Parliamentary Party on how we can play out part in resetting to the pre-2025 status on queer rights, and how we can go further. Britain was once the best in Europe for LGBTQ+ rights, and we can take that place again.

  • Our MPs have 4 slots available to them from this Sessions private members bill ballot. One of these must be allocated to a bill that changes the law to make the Equality Act’s definition of sex trans inclusive, as well as removing transphobia (gender critical beliefs) as a protected belief. The UK’s system of gender recognition must also be repaired, de-medicalised, and further empowered to ensure a genuine legal threat exists against those who would endanger trans people by outing them.
  • Consensus must be reached on the approach to protecting and supporting transgender children. We know that the suicide rate is rising and is under-reported. We know that the puberty blocker ban is wrong, having been widely discredited by global medical bodies. It’s time for our MPs to take the evidence-based approach, to dismiss the Cass Review for the unscientific shambles which it is, and advocate for a return to affirmative and clinician-led healthcare.
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Jack Meredith

Britain has privatised care into the family

By Jack Meredith | Wed 3rd June 2026 - 12:15 pm

At the heart of Britain’s care settlement lies a contradiction: unpaid carers are thanked for their work, while the growing responsibilities and stresses they face are ignored, with little to no reprieve.

Unpaid carers across the UK provide care worth approximately £184 billion a year, with more and more responsibilities absorbed by households, which increased by 29.3% between 2011 and 2022. Those same care responsibilities usually fall on one family member, with women aged 55-59 years old and living in the highest levels of poverty being most likely to provide unpaid care in Wales alone.

Public Health Wales …

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Jennie Rigg

A strange but welcome feeling

By Jennie Rigg | Wed 3rd June 2026 - 10:10 am

I write this as a serial and vocal complainer about much of what the Parliamentary Party does. I have been such for many years. Way back in the neolithic era I won awards for blogging my complaints. So it’s only fair that when the Parliamentary Party knocks something out of the park I be equally vocal with my praise.

Firstly, on Sunday, Ed Davey, our leader and Marie Goldman, our Equalities Spokes, sent this letter to Bridget Phillipson. The consensus among the exec of LGBT+LDs was “well, we might have worded a couple of things differently, but mostly, it’s really good”. We weren’t really surprised at Marie’s name being on it, because she’s been consistently great in the equalities role from day one, but Ed putting his name to it was a very welcome surprise.

Then yesterday’s debate on the EHRC New Section 28, I’m sorry, services guidance happened in parliament. And our MPs were MAGNIFICENT.

It’s worth reading the whole thing in Hansard, for exactly how great they all were (and how awful the non-responses from the Labour minister were), but I want to do a roll call. First up was Marvellous Marie, who pointed out how unworkable the guidance was, and asked the minister to consider new legislation.

Then came my fellow Yorkshirer Tom Gordon, who was appalled by the Tory response.

Then, Honorary President of LGBT+ LDs Queen CJ admonished the minister for her non-adherence to the spirit of the Equality Act.

Then, Layla Moran asked the minister to consider what would be the consequences if her assertions that this document provides protections for trans and non-binary folks were wrong.

Then, Josh Babarinde, our Party President, not only made the point that this code does nothing to protect women and girls, but also gave a shout out to LGBT+LDs and Lib Dem Women.

Then, Vikki Slade pointed out the lack of respect for human rights of trans and non-binary people.

Then, Charlotte Cane asked “Will the Minister consider changing the law so that the Equality Act lives up to its name?”.

And then Mike Martin asked for a vote on the code itself.

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Caron Lindsay

Fifteen years ago today……

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 3rd June 2026 - 9:37 am

Headshot of Andrew Reeves

Fifteen years ago this morning, I was woken up by an unusually early phone call from a friend telling me the devastating news that Andrew Reeves, our campaigns director in Scotland, had died suddenly at the heartbreakingly young age of 43.

Andrew was hilarious, incredibly hard working and very good at getting you to do very much more than you had ever planned to do for a particular campaign. We had known each other for years online before he moved to Scotland in 2008, but I first worked closely …

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Mark Valladares

2 June 2026 – today’s press releases (part 2)

By Mark Valladares | Tue 2nd June 2026 - 11:00 pm
  • Cole-Hamilton calls for SNP inquiry and Sturgeon to assist cops
  • Transport Sec pushed on A9 dualling committee

Cole-Hamilton calls for SNP inquiry and Sturgeon to assist cops

Responding to Peter Murrell’s hearing today and confirmation that the majority of items bought with stolen funds have not been located, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

While there is a comical note to Peter Murrell purchasing shampoo and conditioner for his ill-gotten campervan, it is extremely serious that the SNP Chief Executive was routinely producing fraudulent invoices, especially when the party had received considerable sums of public money over the years.

This is just one reason

…

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Mark Valladares

2 June 2026 – today’s press releases (part 1)

By Mark Valladares | Tue 2nd June 2026 - 10:30 pm
  • Rennie puts questions to minister over Lower Melville Wood fire
  • Cole-Hamilton slams SNP for more miserable health figures
  • Youth unemployment in Wales soars nine times faster than Scotland as Welsh Lib Dems warn of “Lost Generation”

Rennie puts questions to minister over Lower Melville Wood fire

North East Fife MSP Willie Rennie has today written to the new community safety minister, Kirsten Oswald MSP, to raise more than a dozen questions about the Lower Melville Wood fire and how the incident was handled. He has also called for a public meeting to discuss the future of the site.

Following the major fire which broke out at the Lower Melville Wood waste processing and transfer facility three weeks ago, Willie Rennie has written to the Scottish Government’s new community safety minister to raise a number of questions which have been raised with him by people in the area around the fire who have been worst affected, and which he wants to be addressed by an investigation into the fire.

These questions include:

  • What was the initial cause of the fire?
  • Why was the fire able to spread across the compartments to the neighbouring waste when those compartments were designed to stop spread?
  • Did other fires on the site in recent months trigger an upgrade to fire prevention measures?
  • Why was there so much waste stored on the site?
  • Why was the fire judged to be level one?
  • Why was it not felt necessary to have local, mobile air quality monitors?

He has also questioned the communications to local people throughout the incident, which he described as ‘poor’.

Willie Rennie said:

The fire was a major incident and I am grateful to the emergency services and other staff who have been involved in dealing with it. It has been difficult, methodical work to contain the fire and dowse a large volume of smouldering material. While I have tried to get answers for local people, I believed that the focus should be on dealing with the incident.

However, now that the emergency services have returned the site to Cireco, I want to turn to an investigation into this incident. This needs to be carried out thoroughly and robustly but also as quickly as possible. Local people also believe that it should be carried out independently.

Throughout the fire many of the people living closest to it – the people who were hit hardest by smoke, exacerbated medical conditions, and road closures – felt that they were left in the dark, without clear communications from the authorities dealing with this incident. They are looking for explanations and assurances, and they deserve to get them.

That is why I have written to the Scottish Government to set out what I believe needs to be included in the investigation. I have also made clear that there needs to be a public meeting to address these issue directly with the local communities.

Cole-Hamilton slams SNP for more miserable health figures

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has criticised the SNP for presiding over thousands of people waiting hours at A&E, huge numbers of patients marooned in hospital, long waits for mental health care and worrying vacancies amid nursing and midwifery staff.

New figures published today reveal:

On A&E waiting times, Alex said:

The fact that there were virtually no 12 hour waits when the SNP first took power shows just how much they have failed.

To cut these horrific waits, we need to fix the broken care system. The gaps in community care are a bottleneck that’s causing 2,000 people a night to be marooned in hospital when they don’t need or want to be there.

You simply cannot fix the NHS without fixing social care.

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The Voice

Michael Meadowcroft

By The Voice | Tue 2nd June 2026 - 9:08 am

Embed from Getty Images

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Michael Meadowcroft.

The West Leeds Dispatch reports:

“Former Liberal MP for Leeds West, alderman, journalist and political affairs consultant, Michael Meadowcroft, has died at the age of 84 after a short illness, his family have announced.”

We will, of course, carry a full obituary for Michael in due course.

For now, we link to a 2020 piece Michael wrote for Liberal Democrat Voice which politely gave the party a kick up the proverbial, ending with these words:

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