Liberal Democrat Voice

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Mathew on Monday – Place must be at the heart of Britain’s renewal

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 29th June 2026 - 5:30 pm

Andy Burnham’s major speech today contained a message that deserves to resonate well beyond Labour politics. His call to put place at the heart of government, to deliver “good growth in every postcode” and to devolve power away from Westminster is one of the most compelling ideas to emerge from British politics in recent years… likely because it echoes much of what we Lib Dems have been saying/calling for for years now. For too long, Britain has been governed as though every problem can be solved from Whitehall. The result has been an increasingly centralised State that often fails to …

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Posted in News | Tagged devolution, faith and sport | 5 Comments

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Why Britain should be wary of Andy Burnham’s Devolution Revolution

By Iain Donaldson | Mon 29th June 2026 - 11:08 am

Andy Burnham’s political appeal is easy to understand. At a time when Westminster appears remote, ineffective and disconnected from much of England, his call for devolution speaks directly to a widespread belief that power is too concentrated in London.

Burnham’s argument addresses a genuine problem. Britain is one of the most centralised democracies in the developed world. Decisions affecting communities hundreds of miles from Westminster are routinely made by ministers and civil servants with little understanding of local circumstances. The frustration this creates is entirely justified.

Yet supporters of constitutional reform should be careful not to confuse devolution with democracy.

The question is not whether power should leave Westminster. It should. The question is what happens to that power once it arrives elsewhere.

In “Head North”, Burnham and Steve Rotherham set out a vision of stronger regions, more powerful metro mayors and greater local autonomy. It is an attractive idea because it promises to rebalance the country and revive local decision-making.

The danger is that it may simply replace one concentration of power with another.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged andy burnham and devolution | 21 Comments

Alistair Carmichael challenges “bizarre” Europcar policy on Shetland

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 28th June 2026 - 1:30 pm

A lionness defening her cubs would bave nothing on Alistair Carmichael in defence of the island communities he represents.

Alistair’s constituents from Shetland had booked a car hire in Glasgow. Europcar insisted they present their passports, which they hadn’t thought to bring given that they come from Shetland, clearly part of the UK. They were told that this was because they were from a “British island”. They were later told that this is defined as “one who, at the time of rental, is not resident in the United Kingdom or Northern Ireland. Included in this definition are residents of the Shetland, Orkneys, Hebrides, Isle of Man, Isle of Scilly, Channel Islands and the Isle of Wight.”

They therefore ended up stranded and out of pocket. After Alistair’s intervention, they got heir money back but have not changed their absolute nonsense of a policy.

Alistair explained in a video:

Alistair said:

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Posted in News | Tagged Alistair Carmichael, europcar and shetland | 5 Comments

“Build, baby, build” but don’t lower our ambitions on affordability

By Victor Chamberlain | Sun 28th June 2026 - 11:55 am

One of the first decisions taken by Southwark’s new Liberal Democrat-Green Joint Administration has been to back the legal challenge against the Mayor of London and MHCLG’s decision to reduce affordable housing requirements from 35% to 20%.

For me, as Southwark’s new Deputy Leader responsible for Strategic Planning, this was a straightforward decision.

Housing has always been one of the defining Liberal Democrat issues in our borough. For years we have challenged Labour’s failure to build enough genuinely affordable homes, called for stronger affordable housing requirements, and argued that local people deserve to be able to afford to live in the communities they grew up in.

Now that we have the opportunity to put those values into practice, we intend to do exactly that.

Southwark has 23,000 households on its housing waiting list and more than 4,300 households living in temporary accommodation, including more than 5,000 children. The shortage of genuinely affordable housing is the defining challenge facing our borough.

Affordable housing requirements are the benchmark against which councils work with and negotiate with developers. Lowering that benchmark makes it harder to secure genuinely affordable homes through the planning system and risks setting a weaker standard across London for years to come.

That is why Tower Hamlets, alongside Lewisham and Hackney, has launched a legal challenge. Southwark is proud to support it.

Some have suggested that councils should simply accept the Government and Mayor’s decision and get on with negotiating the best deal they can. I disagree. Liberal Democrats have never believed that local government should quietly accept decisions that make life worse for residents. If a decision from Whitehall and City Hall will leave London with fewer affordable homes, it is right to challenge it.

The decision also says something more fundamental about Labour’s approach to housing.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured, housing and london | 11 Comments

Twenty-six years of evidence on drugs. Twenty-six years of cowardice.

By Tanya Park | Sun 28th June 2026 - 10:25 am

This week, a cross-party committee of the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament, recommended that Ireland decriminalise the possession of all drugs for personal use, agreeing with a verdict Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use had reached two years earlier. It’s a recommendation, not yet a law, and the Irish government’s reaction was cautious rather than celebratory. Even so, it puts Ireland a step ahead of where Britain has managed to get on a question that, on the evidence, Britain’s own institutions settled a generation ago.

Twenty-six years ago, to be precise. In 2000, the Police Foundation’s independent inquiry into the Misuse of Drugs Act found that prosecuting people for cannabis possession caused more harm than it prevented and fell hardest on Black and minority communities, and recommended downgrading the drug to class C. The government’s first response was to rule out any change at all. Cannabis was eventually moved down a notch in 2004, only to be reclassified straight back up (to Class B) in 2009, against the explicit advice of the government’s own scientific advisers. When the chair of that advisory body, David Nutt, said publicly that alcohol causes more harm than cannabis or ecstasy, the Home Secretary sacked him. Asked about it, the Home Secretary told the Guardian the issue was “of course a political rather than a scientific point.”

A decade later, two parliamentary committees reached the same conclusion all over again: the Scottish Affairs Committee and the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, which recommended decriminalising personal possession and moving lead responsibility to the health department. The government’s written response ran to one line: it did not support decriminalisation. The Home Affairs Committee said much the same in 2022 and 2023. Last year, Sadiq Khan’s London Drugs Commission recommended decriminalising cannabis specifically, and was overruled within days by Angela Rayner. Keir Starmer has held that line since the last election, saying he had “no intention” of changing the law and didn’t think it needed much debate.

Six independent bodies, four governments, two parties, one answer, ignored every time. Nobody serious has argued the evidence points the other way. What’s been disputed, every time, is whether acting on it is worth the political risk. There’s a word for that, and it isn’t caution or prudence. It’s cowardice, and twenty-six years and several thousand preventable deaths is long enough to call it that plainly. In 2024, drug deaths in England and Wales hit a record high for the twelfth year running, with deaths linked to nitazenes, the synthetic opioids cut into the heroin supply, nearly quadrupling in a single year.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged drugs policy | 4 Comments

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Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 28th June 2026 - 8:55 am

Donald Trump

Trump is all about revenge. Just ask James Comey and others who failed to jump when the master called.

Secretary of Defence/War Pete Hegseth echoes the presidential instincts, and he has made it clear that the president is angry that Europeans did not fly to his aid in Iran when he wanted in the way that he wanted.

Hegseth added that if Europeans fail to support American operations, then they cannot assume that America will continue stationing tens of thousands of troops on their soil.

Hegseth’s threat follows the comment from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the forthcoming NATO heads of government summit in Ankara on July 6-7 could be the “most consequential” in the Alliance’s history.

Put together, it is easy to conclude that the president might be planning to use the summit to announce long-anticipated significant withdrawals of US troops in Europe.

There are more than 62,000 US troops based in Europe. They do more than provide a first line of defence against conventional attack from the East. They are 62,000 free-spending Yanks who support tens of thousands of jobs. Many local economies are dependent on American troops.

And that is how Hegseth and Trump view the presence of US forces in Europe. Primarily in transactional terms involving the expenditure of US dollars outside American borders.

There is, however, much, much more involved in their presence. US troops in Europe have enabled America to project military and political power on a global scale. That projection has in turned produced trillions of dollars for the American GDP.

The 10,000 American airmen in England’s East Anglia are the backbone of the unsinkable aircraft carrier off the coast of Europe. The US base at Naples is the command centre for its Mediterranean fleet. Ramstein Airbase in Germany is a major medical evacuation centre as well as the command headquarters for operations in Africa and the Middle East.

Trump’s instinct is for revenge. But like many instincts, it is self-defeating.

The atemoya

An obscure tropical fruit has become the latest proxy in the Cold War between Taiwan and China. The atemoya, a sweet hybrid of the sugar apple and cherimoya, is at the centre of an economic and political battle that has little to do with agriculture and everything to do with sovereignty.

The atemoya originated in Florida in 1908 as a cross between the sugar apple and the cherimoya. Heart-shaped it has a pale-green skin with knobbly segments and poisonous black seeds.

But it is the inside that counts. The meat of the fruit has been described as a mixture of pineapple, pear, strawberry, vanilla and coconut. One agronomist referred to it as “the pina colada of the fruit world.”

Even better than the fruit’s taste is the price that it commands. The average export price of the atemoya is $3.16 a kilo and a single fruit can weigh over a kilo.

Some of the world’s best growing conditions for the atemoya can be found in Taiwan’s Taitung County, a mountainous agricultural region. Before 2021, farmers made an exceptionally good living out of exporting 80-90 percent of their atemoya crop to mainland China. Then disaster struck.

Beijing suddenly banned all imports of the “green gold” of the fruit world, claiming that it had become infected with the Pacific mealybug. Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) denounced the claim as a politically motivated protest.

Taiwan’s atemoya growers faced financial ruin and just barely survived the crisis with a combination of government subsidies and a diversification into the Japanese and South Korean markets and processed foods.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged china, iran, taiwan and US troops | 1 Comment

Observations of an Expat: Gaza

By Tom Arms | Sat 27th June 2026 - 10:33 am

While the world’s attention has been fixed on Iran, Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz, Gaza has quietly slipped from the headlines. That is unfortunate, because the territory is settling into a dangerous and potentially permanent limbo.

Except for the occasional exchange of fire, fighting between Hamas and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has stopped. What has replaced conflict is an armed truce with a deep mutual distrust preventing any progress on last autumn’s peace plan.

The IDF still occupies more than 60 percent of Gaza with orders from Benjamin Netanyahu to increase that slice to 70 percent. The two million Gazans are crowded into a tent city on the beaches in the 30 percent which remains in Palestinian hands. There is chronic unemployment and the Gazans are totally dependent on aid for their survival.

The IDF occupation was—still is—billed as “temporary security buffers.” Nine months later, however, the ‘temporary’ zones contain fortified bases, permanent roads for armour, observation posts, logistics hubs and cleared fields of fire. They increasingly resemble the infrastructure of a long-term military occupation.

The IDF was meant to hand over control to a 20,000-strong International Stabilisation Force (ISF) which would oversee the final disarmament of Hamas and the training of a Palestinian Police. So far only 200 American soldiers have turned up, and they don’t appear to have a role. Several countries have been approached to contribute to the ISF, but all are frightened at being caught in the middle of an Israeli-Hamas crossfire.

The 15-member team of Palestinian technocrats who are supposed to run Gaza until elections can be organised has been appointed. It even has a chairman, former Palestinian Authority official Dr Ali Sha-ath. But the committee has yet to leave Cairo. They refuse to enter Gaza until the security situation improves. In their absence, Hamas continues to exercise political control.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged gaza | 2 Comments

The Lib Dem strategy review

By Rob Blackie | Fri 26th June 2026 - 7:34 pm

The party’s ongoing strategy review is welcome. But collecting feedback is only the beginning. Turning it into a successful long-term strategy requires us to answer four fundamental questions.

1. What’s the point of the Liberal Democrats?

I’ve been asked this question, sneeringly, more than once.

But, we do need to be clear what we want to achieve. More seats and votes are important, but they are not our ultimate aim.

This question might seem quite abstract today – but it will be critical in the years to come. We are going to have to make difficult decisions when we are fighting populist parties. For instance if the next election results in a hung Parliament, would we enter power with Labour to stop Reform? What if it meant we had to work with the Greens too?

Without a clear sense of purpose, it’s impossible to know which compromises are worth making and which are not.

I suggest that Lib Dem members would answer something like “building a freer and fairer Britain, both through exercising power and through influencing national debate”.

Our leadership needs to be clear on why we exist, because that purpose—not polling numbers or short-term tactical advantage—should guide the decisions we make when difficult choices arrive. And this answer needs to be public – because you can’t lead in secret.

2. How do we sustainably reach our objectives?

Too often we’ve focused on the next election at the expense of longer-term party-building. At best it’s been ‘strengthening our position’, and at worst it’s been ‘hail mary in hope of achieving electoral reform’. At times we’ve behaved as though electoral reform would solve our problems, rather than asking how to build a larger and more durable base of support. As we have seen in Scotland, Wales and the London Assembly, more proportional systems still leave us facing big challenges.

If we are going to make, and keep, Britain as a more liberal country, then we need a strategy that will succeed whatever happens, regardless of whether Reform, Labour or the Greens end up as the largest party after the next General Election.

Whatever happens politically, the one asset that benefits us in every scenario is a larger and more loyal base of voters who identify with the Liberal Democrats. This stronger Liberal Democrat brand* will mean more people voting for us in elections year in and year out.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged party strategy | 19 Comments

Author’s introduction to “Sliding Scales”

By John Elsom | Fri 26th June 2026 - 5:21 pm

Sliding Scales is a history of modern democracy from a liberal perspective. The dramatic transformation of the 19th century British Empire into a 20th century Commonwealth was a triumph of diplomacy. It had many setbacks and failures, but it did not lead to the havoc caused by the collapse of similar 19th century empires, which led to the wars in Algeria, the Congo, Vietnam and now Ukraine. It was not a sad down-sizing of power, but one which saved lives and civilizations.

Its strengths were to be found in ‘Free Trade’ (Imperial Preference). It encouraged mutual aid among its member governments, upon such matters as education, research and defence. It defended human rights above the claims of race, class and religion. Mahatma Ghandi, who studied law in London, set an example of civil disobedience against racial oppression. His battle against the Raj inspired the civil rights movements across three continents.

These were milestones in history, in which Liberal thinkers (Maynard Keynes, William Beveridge and Karl Popper) played key parts. With their European allies, they assisted the birth of an economic commonwealth (EEC) which grew into the European Union. When the Cold War came to an end, the Federation of Russian States under Mikhail Gorbachev was expected to follow a similar path, a commonwealth replacing a collapsed empire.

The invasion of Ukraine, under Vladmir Putin, was like a blast from the past. The ‘special operation’ in 2022 echoed Hitler’s Anschluss in 1938, but it ended differently. Ukraine was a tougher opposition than Austria. The rhetoric was that of old-fashioned imperialism. It claimed entitlement with a fake history, false patriotism and the hounding of minorities.

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Posted in Books | Tagged democracy | 1 Comment

Our voting system isn’t just unfair. It’s becoming dangerous.

By Roz Savage MP | Fri 26th June 2026 - 12:55 pm

Soon after I was elected in July 2024, I was approached by a man in Cirencester Market Place who congratulated me on my win. He’d voted in every general election since 1974, he said, and this was the first time he had ever voted for a winning candidate. For most of that time, he told me, he had barely bothered looking at the names on the ballot paper. He already knew who would win, but had voted out of habit – “or maybe just stubbornness” – but knew that it would, in effect, be a wasted vote.

South Cotswolds is a new constituency, created at the 2024 boundary changes, and covers areas that had consistently returned Conservative MPs for a hundred years or more. 2024 was the first election many residents could remember in which the outcome was genuinely uncertain. The response was striking. Engagement was different. Conversations on doorsteps were different. People who had stopped paying attention started paying attention again, and we had the 6th highest voter turnout in the country.

That should not be remarkable. The fact that it is tells you most of what you need to know about what first-past-the-post does to democracy between elections – not just on the night the results come in, but across decades of people quietly concluding that their participation is pointless.

I spoke in Westminster Hall this week in a debate on first-past-the-post. This is not the first time I’ve raised electoral reform in Parliament, and I want to use this piece to explain why I keep coming back to it – and why I believe the stakes are now higher than ever.

The numbers are worse than we think

We know the headline: Labour won 63% of the seats on 33% of the votes in 2024, giving them 100% of the power. The Gallagher Index – the standard academic measure of proportionality – gave that election a score of 23.67, making it the least proportional general election in modern British history, and the fifth least proportional result anywhere in the world.

But the detail is more striking than the headline. According to Make Votes Matter, it took on average 23,500 votes to elect a Labour MP in 2024, and over 820,000 to elect a Reform MP (silver linings). That is a 35-fold difference in the value of a vote, depending solely on which party you supported. The Green Party, Reform UK and the SNP between them received more than 6.7 million votes – over 23% of the total – and shared just 2.7% of seats.

Make Votes Matter also points out that for roughly 90% of the time since 1935, Britain has had single-party “majority” governments, and not one of them had the support of a majority of voters. Some may claim this is strong government, but it is minority rule, dressed up in emperor’s new clothes, and we need to call it out.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged electoral reform and first past the post | 12 Comments

Andy Burnham’s transport record: Who benefits and who gets left behind?

By Iain Donaldson | Fri 26th June 2026 - 10:25 am

Transport has become one of Andy Burnham’s defining issues as Mayor of Greater Manchester. He has championed the Bee Network, argued for London-style powers and made public transport central to his vision for the city region.

There have been real achievements. Greater Manchester has introduced bus franchising, giving local leaders more control over routes, fares and standards. The region is also moving towards a more integrated transport system.

However, the key question is not who controls the network. It is whether people can get where they need to go quickly, reliably and affordably.

For many residents, the answer is yes. For others, especially those living in Greater Manchester’s outer towns, the picture is very different.

Few places illustrate this better than Heywood.

With a population of around 30,000, Heywood is one of the largest towns in Greater Manchester without a station on the national rail network. It has no Metrolink connection and no direct bus service to Manchester city centre.

For many commuters, travelling into Manchester means changing buses along the way. During rush hour, the journey can take up to 90 minutes each way. For a town less than ten miles from the city centre, that is a serious barrier to jobs, education, healthcare and opportunity.

This is not simply an inconvenience. It is an issue of fairness.

While some communities enjoy direct rail services, fast tram connections and frequent routes into Manchester, others remain dependent on slow and indirect journeys. Access to opportunity should not depend on where someone happens to live.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged andy burnham, manchester and transport | 4 Comments

Farewell to the Fabulous Flick Rea, MBE

By Ed Fordham | Thu 25th June 2026 - 3:03 pm

At most funerals you go along with your slither of the story and learn so much more about the person, that you never previously knew. At most funerals the family have been busy organising and deciding readings and hymns. At most funerals…

Let’s be honest, the funeral of Flick Rea was never going to be like other funerals…

First, it was the hottest day of the year, decade… ever and heck did we sweat under the relentless sun.

Second, the funeral was planned in detail by Flick herself, the readings, who should read them, the hymns, even the photos for the order of service… each personally chosen by Flick.

And third, the number of people… I counted 162 give or take 10 and Golders Green Crematorium was literally bursting.

Oh and the vicar leading the service, Jonathan Kester of Emmanuel Parish, West Hampstead, was a personal friend and requested by Flick.

Copies of the local newspaper of record, the Camden New Journal were handed out at the end of the service as Flick’s passing was on the Front Page, page 4, 5 and 6, she led the editorial on page 16 and already a letter of tribute on page 18. And the very personal and touching letter from Party Leader Rt Hon Ed Davey MP to the family was read out in full by her son Robert, only to be followed by a letter of condolence from Prime Minister Keir Starmer KCB KC MP.

The gasps of admiration in the chapel were audible at these tributes – all much deserved for the “Queen of West Hampstead”.

Now, one of the best things about the many achievements of Flick was that we have all known her for so long, loved her, her stories, her style, her camaraderie that most of those present at the funeral knew the details of most of those achievements. We weren’t there to learn, we were there to say thank you, to share the loss of one so special and to support each other with a hug and a tot or whisky or two. In the end, the real legacy of Flick Rea was in the people who she loved, and who loved her in return. It is a living legacy.

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Posted in Obituaries | Tagged flick rea | Leave a comment

Liberals and the unions: time to talk again

By Jack Meredith | Thu 25th June 2026 - 12:31 pm

“But you’re a Lib Dem, I thought your party didn’t like unions.”

I’ve had that said to me more than once when I mentioned that I’m a member of both the Liberal Democrats and UNISON. I understand why people assume it: trade unions tend to get filed alongside Labour and the politics of the left. But it misses a long shared history between the unions, labour relations, and British liberalism.

The history is real, not a footnote. William Gladstone gave unions legal recognition and protected their funds in the Trade Union Act of 1871. Winston Churchill, as President of the Board of Trade, brought in the first enforceable minimum wages with the Trade Boards Act of 1909. And Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s Trade Disputes Act of 1906 stopped unions being sued for damages over strike action.

It wasn’t all to liberalism’s credit. The same Gladstone government that recognised the unions also criminalised peaceful picketing in 1871, and it took Disraeli’s Conservatives to undo that in 1875.

So why are we liberals so shy about saying that trade unionism is our kind of work? The case is strong. A union is just a group of free people who’ve decided they’re stronger together than alone, and the freedom to combine and bargain together is a liberal freedom before it’s anyone else’s.

We’ve never trusted power that answers to no one, whether it’s an overbearing state or an employer who can set the terms because the person across the table has nowhere else to go. Churchill saw it clearly in 1909, when he attacked the sweated trades for having “no parity of bargaining.” A union is one of the oldest fixes for that. And real freedom isn’t just being left alone; it’s having the means to live a decent life, and for most of us that’s won or lost at work.

None of this means copying Labour. Liberals, and the social democrats I count myself among, have always been wary of the union as a political machine: the block vote, the closed shop, the corporatism of the 1970s.

A liberal version would be friendly but kept at arm’s length, with no money changing hands for influence, and it would push hard for democracy inside the unions themselves; a union that won’t answer to its own members can’t lecture anyone else about accountability. Labour can’t make that offer, because it’s tied to the unions it speaks for. We can do both: back collective bargaining with no strings attached, and be the honest friend who defends the principle and still calls out the practice when it’s wrong.

We’ve done it before by building, not just fighting. The Liberal Yellow Book of 1928 called for works councils, profit-sharing, and a real stake for employees in the firms they worked for. Partnership and shared ownership have always been more our style than a permanent war between two sides.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged trade unions | 8 Comments

Huge victory for Campaign for Gigi

By Tom Morrison | Wed 24th June 2026 - 11:55 am

This week was a huge moment for the Campaign for Gigi.

After almost two years of campaigning for safer standards, inspections, and regulation of the nursery sector, the Government has announced a huge package of measures that would make nurseries safer and put child safeguarding at the forefront of the sector.

£8 million will be spent on strengthening safeguarding across early years, 3,000 more unannounced Ofsted visits will now take place to spot risks, and stronger checks on new nurseries before they open will happen.

As well as this, new legislation will be introduced in September which will set out specific and enforceable standards for how babies and young children must be placed and monitored during sleep in early years settings.

These changes are a testament to the tireless campaigning of Gigi’s parents, John and Katie Meehan.

Gigi was just nine months old when she died in a nursery in Cheadle Hulme. A nursery worker was later sentenced to 14 years for manslaughter after leaving Gigi tightly swaddled and face down on a bean bag for an hour and a half.

Gigi’s death was not an accident. It was a failure of a system that does not work and currently puts the lives of children at risk.

Last year the BBC reported there were on average 75 incident reports to Ofsted every week, a 40% rise in just five years. Horrendous cases in Twickenham, Camden and Dudley have also brought the safety of nurseries in this country to question.

Parallel to this, another BBC investigation highlighted the work of so-called ‘infant sleep experts’. These people, who often sell their advice on social media, would provide support and guidance to parents on getting babies to sleep better.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged Campaign for Gigi, childcare, infant sleep and safeguarding | 1 Comment

Andy Burnham’s record on policing: Success story or missed opportunity?

By Iain Donaldson | Wed 24th June 2026 - 10:25 am

Andy Burnham’s role as Mayor of Greater Manchester comes with a responsibility that is often overlooked. As well as leading the city region, he also holds the powers previously exercised by the Police and Crime Commissioner. That means he is ultimately responsible for overseeing Greater Manchester Police (GMP), setting priorities and holding the force to account.

As with housing, Burnham’s record on policing is more complex than either supporters or critics sometimes admit.

The strongest criticism of Burnham’s policing record is that one of the biggest scandals in the history of GMP happened on his watch.

In 2020, inspectors placed GMP into special measures after finding the force had failed to record more than 80,000 crimes in a single year. Around one in five reported crimes, and one in four violent crimes, were not being properly recorded. Inspectors described the service being provided to victims as poor, and the Chief Constable resigned shortly afterwards.

This was not a minor administrative failure. If crimes are not recorded, victims may not receive support, offenders may not be investigated and policymakers may not have an accurate picture of crime levels.

Critics argue that this raises questions about oversight. Burnham became responsible for policing in 2017. By the time inspectors intervened in 2020, the force had been under his supervision for more than three years. While he was not responsible for day-to-day management, accountability is a central part of the Police and Crime Commissioner role.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged andy burnham, manchester and policing | 12 Comments

Burnham: Strategic implications

By Paul Reynolds | Wed 24th June 2026 - 8:55 am

Much of the UK media coverage of an expected Burnham government later this year has focused on personalities and relatively trivial policy proposals.

Broader strategic issues have largely been absent.

However, Burnham’s local transport reforms and administrative refinements in Manchester have shown a desire to ‘make the state work’. Burnham has implied that a ‘privatisation mentality’ and an obsession with opaquely contracting everything out to the private sector, has led to the abandonment of attempts to make state institutions work properly. He’s out to challenge such assumptions, he implies.

This concept seems to lie behind Burnham’s ideas about the nationalisation of large monopolistic utility companies, which have become ‘financialised’ and thus even more abusive of power.

Burnham’s experience in Manchester seems to have convinced him that over-centralisation in government is inefficient; a departure from traditional socialist almost-religious belief in scale economies. His decentralisation verve includes fiscal decentralisation, envisaging local authorities, especially cities, raising more funds with their own taxes and levies; and switching to national taxes and hypothecated levies, which are easier to decentralise across the regions. (At present about 75%-85% of local authority income comes from Central Government, with micro-managing conditions attached).

Burnham’s attitude to economics seems superficial, but he appears to place emphasis on removing inhibitors to the growth of small businesses, in both taxes and regulation, and sees regional state authorities as having a major role in the promotion of private business activity, almost French-style. However, to help avoid a debt crisis the Burnham approach involves both tax reform and a broad rise in the tax burden.

Notwithstanding, there is no emphasis from Burnham on macroeconomic policy, but he does adhere to the concept of debt-financed Keynesian stimulae. However, in capital markets the link between higher borrowing and higher borrowing costs (even ‘borrowing to invest’) is based on the assumption that most of the consequent spending is inefficient and unproductive. Burnham implies that by making borrow-to-invest more efficient, he can break the link between higher borrowing and higher borrowing costs.

Where are the main challenges for Burnham, given such interpretations of the Burnham approach ?

The underlying problem is the Labour Party itself.

The Labour Party is no longer the party of ‘industrial labour’. It is the party of the bureaucracy and governmental institutions … and their contractors. As such they have more clout per capita than industrial labour; dual-hatted civil servants, local authority staffs, NHS, education, welfare-and-care, quangos, transport, et al.

This means Burham will face stiff resistance to a cull of governmental contractors, any increases in efficiency, or any real regulatory streamlining.

Any attempt to address the No 1 underlying problems of a sclerotic and impenetrable local and national UK state, will be vigorously opposed.

The UK state is so sclerotic that projects seem to take three times longer than comparable countries to complete, and cost three times as much. Does Burham know why ? It may even be a taboo topic within the ‘Party of the Bureaucracy’.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged andy burnham | 14 Comments

The Brexit Referendum – 10 years on

By Callum Robertson | Tue 23rd June 2026 - 3:00 pm

Today is the 10th anniversary of the EU Referendum

Ten years ago, many of our readers will have voted and would have been working hard for the previous few months to help make the argument for the United Kingdom’s place in the European Union.

Ultimately Britain Stronger In Europe didn’t win and like many people at the time, I remember being at a count, seeing the Sunderland result come in and the scale of the win for leave and thinking we’re f****d. This was not out of a sense of I told you so, more out of a growing realisation that the progressive, internationalist outlook that made me proud to be British had been largely shattered over the course of an evening.

In the decade since that day, things for our country have lurched from bad, to worse. We have missed out on roughly 6-8% of growth and have left ourselves exposed to the whims of an increasingly erratic USA. We also cut off our trading relationships with our friends and neighbours in the EU, causing both parties harm in a race to show some sort of Churchillian machismo. Needless to say the poorest in British society paid the price for this.

Over the next decade many of us fought hard for our place in Europe. for example I took on the mantle of standing for the Liberal Democrats in Clacton on Sea, many others laid the groundwork for future success, winning back councils and providing an alternative to the chaos of the Conservatives. The aim was that by showing them that Brexit could cost the conservatives seats and power, we could force them to rethink. Sadly, as the fact we left the EU tells us, we were wrong.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged brexit, european union and rejoin | 9 Comments

One year on, and I’m still finding it hard to feel pride

By Rebecca Jones | Tue 23rd June 2026 - 11:55 am

Content warning: This post contains material about rape and sexual assault.

Some of you may remember that roughly a year ago I wrote a piece titled ‘For a lot of trans people, it’s hard to feel pride right now’. A year is a long time in politics, and so you’d hope that over the last year the situation for trans people would be better. Well, in some ways it is, and in some ways it’s worse.

We’ll start with what really has got better since last year, the party’s position. I am genuinely so proud of how far we have come as a party in the last twelve months. Ed and Marie’s letter to the Minister on the EHRC code, the many MPs who spoke in parliament about how fundamentally unworkable and harmful the EHRC code of practice is, the over 50 Lib Dem signatories to EDM 240 and finally the brilliant Lib Dem showing at the Women and Equalities committee session with the EHRC have rejuvenated so many trans people’s faith in the party. Thanks to these efforts, the Lib Dems are once again recognised as a party at the forefront of the fight for trans+ rights. In fact, the past three months have seen us become the loudest and strongest voice on trans+ rights in the UK. That is something we should all be proud of.

But sadly, the Government and legal situation has not kept up with our progress.

The Government has continued its war on the rights of the trans+ community, all while repeating the words ‘Dignity and Respect’ at every opportunity. Just not the dignity to have spaces away from the opposite gender, and not the respect for recognition of who you are. They have continued their war on the healthcare of trans kids, with the delays on the PATHWAYS trial (although this is at least now going to go ahead), the stripping of care for 16 and 17 year olds and the heartbreaking treatment of kids under WellBN. Worrying there are reports the same could extend to adult care. The Government has also pressed ahead with laying the EHRC code of practice. This is despite the Chair and CEO of the EHRC, and the minister, all being unable to give good responses on its workability and its detrimental impact to trans people. Even the Government’s own impact assessment called out how negative this would be for trans people.

The legal situation is no better. Multiple conflicting employment tribunals, a loss for the Good Law Project in court, a horrifying ruling in For Women Scot (FWS) III, etc. FWS III really worries me, as it says that every trans person, no matter what stage in their transition, must be housed with their birth sex. No exceptions. I accept that a blanket self ID policy does not work in prisons, and a case by case basis is needed to prevent the very rare occasions when things go badly wrong. But housing trans women who have made serious steps in their transition, including those who have undergone Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS), with men leads to harrowing results. In Australia, a trans woman was raped 2000 times in a men’s prison, in the UK it led to sexual assaults and suicides before the policy changed. The only alternative is trans prisoners being locked in their cell for 23 hours a day in effective solitary isolation. This is not acceptable.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged LGBT rights and Trans Rights | 5 Comments

Andy Burnham’s housing challenge: Why his own arguments demand more than Labour’s current plans

By Iain Donaldson | Tue 23rd June 2026 - 10:25 am

Andy Burnham is one of Labour’s most popular politicians. As Mayor of Greater Manchester, he has made housing and homelessness central to his public image. Yet his record raises an important question. If Burnham were ever to become Prime Minister, would Labour’s current housing policies be enough to solve the problems he says have held Greater Manchester back?

The starting point is Burnham’s own record.

When he became Mayor in 2017, Burnham promised to end rough sleeping by 2020. That target was not met. To be fair, there was real progress. The official rough sleeping count across Greater Manchester fell from 268 people in 2017 to 89 in 2021, the lowest level recorded since 2013.

Programmes such as A Bed Every Night and Housing First clearly helped many vulnerable people. Burnham deserves credit for making homelessness a political priority at a time when too many leaders ignored the issue.

However, the improvement did not last. The official count rose to 149 people in 2023, and subsequent reporting suggests rough sleeping has increased for four consecutive years since the 2021 low point. While levels remain below the 2017 peak, rough sleeping has not been eliminated and homelessness services continue to face heavy pressure.

Supporters of Burnham argue, with some justification, that he inherited problems created by decades of national policy failures, welfare cuts and a shortage of affordable homes. Yet Burnham himself chose to make homelessness one of the defining tests of his mayoralty. Judged against the ambition he set out, the results are mixed.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged andy burnham, homelessness, housing and manchester | 5 Comments

ALDC’s by-election report – 18th June

By Joe Nutt | Tue 23rd June 2026 - 8:20 am

Our report on last week’s by-elections is a little later than usual. There were 15 principal authority by-elections with several counting on the Friday.

These 15 also included three countermanded elections, delayed from the local elections following the death of a candidate.

Because of the quantity of contests, we’re going to group several races together and provide an overall analysis.

By-elections in Wales

Half of the by-elections last week took place in Wales. This is because of rules in the Senedd which don’t allow representatives to be both an Assembly Member and a local councillor.

Importantly, local elections were last contested in Wales back in 2022 – at a time when Reform UK were only fielding candidates in 3% of races, and the Green Party in just over half.

Three races took place in Wrexham which were all Plaid Cymru defences. They held onto all three, despite collapsing vote shares in Grosvenor and Queensway as Reform UK swept into second in all three races. The Liberal Democrats stood paper candidates in two out of three races in Wrexham.

Wrexham CBC, Queensway

PC: 94 (41%, -34%)
RFM: 86 (37%, new)
LAB: 37 (16%, -6%)
GRN: 11 (5%, new)
CON: 2 (1%, -2%)

Plaid Cymru HOLD

Wrexham UA, Grosvenor

PC – 208, 43.5% (-19.8 )
RFM– 105, 22.0% (new)
LAB – 98, 20.5% (-5.5)
IND – 22, 4.6% (new)
YRP – 20, 4.2% (new)
CON – 12, 2.5% (-8.1)
GRN – 11, 2.3% (new)
LDM Gerald Craddock – 2, 0.4% (new)

Plaid Cymru HOLD

Wrexham UA, Acton & Maesydre

PC: 341, 38.8 % (+1.8 )
RFM: 300, 34.1% (new)
LAB: 98, 11.1% (-14.4)
IND: 72, 8.2% (new)
CON: 52, 5.9% (-6.4)
LDM: Beatrice Williams, 8 , 0.9% (new)
GRN: 8, 0.9% (-2.4)

Plaid Cymru HOLD

Two races took place in Conwy in the far north of Wales. The Conservatives were defending both seats. Reform UK stood for the first time and won both seats. The Liberal Democrats fell back in the Tudno division, but David Coffin in Gogarth Mostyn managed to take 12.1% of votes from a standing start. Interestingly, Plaid Cymru contested neither of these seats.

Conwy UA – Tudno

RFM – 357, 43.4% (new)
CON – 180, 21.9% (- 4.0)
LAB – 171, 20.8% (-15.3)
GRN – 71, 8.6% (new)
LDM James Pethica – 43, 5.2% (-13.8)

Reform UK GAIN from Conservative

Conwy UA – Gogarth Mostyn

RFM – 496, 33.8% (new)
CON – 406, 27.7% (-6.2)
LAB – 368, 26.3% (-9.7)
LDM David Coffin – 178, 12.1% (new)

Reform UK GAIN from Conservative

In Swansea, two by-elections took place: a Labour defence in Morriston and a Conservative defence in the division of Mumbles. In Morriston, Labour managed to hold on by 78 votes, despite a collapse in their vote share as Reform, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party all stood for the first time. This also contributed to a fall in the Lib Dem vote share. Despite a small decrease in vote share, the Conservatives won in Mumbles extremely comfortably.

By-elections in Essex

Two county level by-elections took place in Essex, while a third race happened in the Essex District Council of Rochford.

There was one Liberal Democrat defence in Chelmsford Springfield, a countermanded election triggered by the sad passing of the Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Michael Mackrory during the campaign period. A second Reform UK defence took place in Rayleigh West after the Reform UK councillor resigned following allegations of racist social media posts.

The broader context of the county-level elections was the landslide victory of Reform UK in the delayed county elections in Essex, which hadn’t taken place since 2021, when the Conservatives were at the peak of their popularity, and Reform contested just over 5% of seats nationally.

We held onto Chelmsford Springfield, increasing our vote share in the process to a huge 55%. Congratulations to Cllr Richard Lee, who swept up double the votes of second-placed Reform UK. The Conservatives, typically the opposition in this division slid back to less than a fifth of the vote.

In Rayleigh West, Reform UK lost the seat to the Conservative candidate. We held onto second place, slightly increasing the vote, positioning us well to challenge the Conservatives next time – sitting only 5% behind them.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged aldc and local government by-elections | 3 Comments

Mathew on Monday: Starmer’s resignation and an increasingly ungovernable country

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 22nd June 2026 - 5:03 pm

Keir Starmer’s resignation comes as little surprise. In truth, he always appeared ill-suited to the role of Prime Minister. He entered Downing Street with no clear governing project, no driving ideology and an over reliance on advisers and political management. He often seemed more comfortable responding to events than shaping them. Yet focusing solely on Starmer risks missing the bigger picture.

When (as now seems all but inevitable) Andy Burnham walks through the door of Number 10, Britain will have had seven Prime Ministers in just ten years: Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Starmer and now, likely, Burnham. This is an …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged keir starmer, leadership and transport policy | 25 Comments

Fairness First: Why Wealth Taxes Are a Natural Fit for the Liberal Democrats

By Tom Walker | Mon 22nd June 2026 - 2:10 pm

Why are wealth taxes relevant in 2026?

Billionaire wealth in the UK has skyrocketed since 1990. It represented 4% of GDP back then, growing to 22% of GDP in 2026. The trends of rising wealth accumulation for the super-rich and worsening living standards for working families is stark. Consecutive governments have pointed at GDP as proof of economic success and neglected the decline in living standards for the majority. Where families could once live off a single income, families can now struggle with two. Growing anger at the cost-of-living crisis is fuelled by the perception that government is not addressing the root cause – we are not seeing the action that we need. With no political consensus on the root cause and inequality continuing to grow, it is becoming increasingly evident that this Labour government are not equipped to manage this worsening trend.

Where wealth continues to ebb away from families and fall into the pockets of the super-rich, we are almost certainly going to see this inequality trend continue to worsen. The Green Party have gained popularity through the promotion of wealth taxes and we are now seeing Labour leadership hopefuls adopting similar policy ideas to gain support in preparation for their race to Number 10. Wes Streeting’s support for a “wealth tax that works” simply reforms capital gains tax rather than addressing the underlying wealth itself. Regardless of the merits of these specific policies, wealth taxes are now becoming part of the debate; the Liberal Democrats have an opportunity to start owning the narrative with thoughtful economic policy that better promotes fairness in our society.

What could be done?

Where the super-rich choose to accumulate assets over declaring a more realistic personal income, the tax system has become outdated, allowing them to avoid income taxes and benefit from low (or no) rates of tax on their wealth. As a result, they contribute a smaller percentage of their net worth than ordinary working people. A thoughtful wealth tax is an opportunity to close this loophole without ripping up established tax policies. By focusing on both wealth and income, we increase transparency in wealth reporting and reduce the incentives for the super-rich to report their income as wealth. Employed effectively, a wealth tax would share the burden of taxation more fairly across society. The critical message for the electorate is that a more transparent and fairer tax system can address worsening inequality. In the short term, this could provide cost-of-living improvements. In the longer term, it reverses the trend of worsening inequality in our communities that is degrading living standards for so many.

A wealth tax that is values led would close loopholes and would not tolerate the opt-out culture that we have today. The proposed Zucman Tax in France is a shining example whereby the super-rich must pay a minimum 2% rate on their stock of wealth. No ifs, no buts, that is the tax bill that they owe the government. It directly addresses the super-rich by only targeting those with net assets above €100 million. Attempts to move wealth overseas would meet a Wealth Exit Tax. Loopholes are closed with little option but to pay their fair share. Where Streeting can draw criticism from business owners and entrepreneurs who could face higher capital gains tax, the Zucman tax cannot. Positioned effectively, it generates tax revenue from the super wealthy with robust incentives to retain wealth in the UK. The proposition of taxing the super-rich to directly address the cost-of-living crisis is a coherent message that the electorate can throw their support behind.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged wealth taxes | 9 Comments

Starmer goes, and the uncertainty returns…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 22nd June 2026 - 11:06 am

And so, another Prime Minister is gone. Admittedly, it isn’t entirely clear yet in terms of what will change apart from the personnel, even if we can be pretty confident who will be in 10 Downing Street at the end of the transition.

The first question is, how long will this take? An effective coronation would allow the new Leader to take their place before the Summer Recess, whilst a contest might take us into, or close to, Conference season. But Government will falter whilst new ministers get a handle on their briefs …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged labour leadership | 28 Comments

Why did the Welsh Liberal Democrats underperform?

By Elsie Jones | Sun 21st June 2026 - 2:22 pm

It has been frustrating to me, as a politics student from Wales, to see that coverage of the Senedd elections has been nationally overlooked in favour of local elections in England and the Holyrood elections. This is especially true for the Welsh Liberal Democrats, whose modest outcome of holding our only seat has hardly been discussed at all, both by leadership and its members.

The poor performance is the latest stage in a two-decade pattern of contraction that the party has consistently failed to fix. At devolution in 1999, the Welsh Liberal Democrats won six seats and entered government as a coalition partner, with Mike German serving as Deputy First Minister. They held six seats across the next two elections, in 2003 and 2007. Post-coalition, Welsh Lib Dem presence collapsed to five seats in 2011, and a single seat in 2016 which they retained in 2021 only by switching from a constituency to a regional list-seat. In 2026, the party holds one seat in a chamber that has grown from 60 to 96 members, meaning their proportional presence is smaller now than at any point since devolution began.

Internal party messaging attributes our underperformance to the “tough new electoral system” under the new d’Hondt system; I believe that this is an unfair characterisation of Welsh voters. Voters in Wales were not attracted to the Liberal Democrats due to an underdeveloped strategy, and a failure to communicate their strong governing record within Wales. Both issues are symptomatic of what could happen to the Lib Dems at the next GE if they fail to create a national strategy to secure votes, as opposed to the targeted seat strategy that has allowed us to win FPTP seats in Westminster and local councils.

A major error of the Senedd campaign was their decision to place opposition to Welsh independence at the centre of the party’s manifesto – literally titled ‘A Stronger Wales in a Stronger UK’. Although this position is consistent with the Liberal Democrats’ longstanding commitment to federalism, its salience within the Welsh political context is comparatively low.

While it likely secured them some votes in Brecon and Radnor, where opposition to independence is markedly higher than in much of Wales, survey data consistently indicates that Welsh voters prioritise issues of health, poverty, and the cost of living over independence. We were also aligned with more right-wing parties on this issue, to some detriment; any voter for whom unionism is an absolute and non–negotiable priority was, in the current political landscape, more likely to vote for the Conservatives or Reform UK. In this context, our emphasis on unionism was unsuccessful as it had a low issue salience and was unlikely to mobilise new support for the party.

The party’s focus on this is particularly frustrating given that the Welsh Liberal Democrats had a demonstrable governing record that went mostly uncommunicated. As the sole opposition MS whose support was required to pass the Welsh Government’s budget, Jane Dodds had successfully extracted many policy concessions from Welsh Labour. In February 2025, a deal worth more than £100m secured £1 bus fares for all 16 to 21–year–olds across Wales – a genuinely progressive and visible intervention in the cost–of–living pressures facing young people. The success of the scheme is evidence that Welsh Liberal Democrats, even if small, had been making major impacts within Wales. In the same period, they also achieved a ban on greyhound racing, additional funding for universal childcare, and the protection of the Heart of Wales rail line.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged welsh elections 2026 | 20 Comments

The next General Election Manifesto should commit to joining the EU

By Nick Hopkinson | Sun 21st June 2026 - 12:14 pm

Last week Ed Davey gave a well received keynote speech advocating a new Growth and Defence Partnership (‘Partnership’) with the European Union (EU) at the European Movement UK’s event marking the tenth anniversary of the 2016 Brexit referendum. For many members, having and making a clear overarching national message to complement our local strengths is long overdue. This became apparent in the 7 May local elections. Although we gained more council seats for the eighth time in a row, our national vote share was 2% down on last year’s 16%. In my part of the world and elsewhere, it was concerning we lost votes, often because we did not have a clear national message, notably on joining the EU.

Ed’s speech lays the foundation for one. He rightly linked a bold commitment to a deep EU Partnership to alleviation of the urgent crises facing our country, notably cost of living and chronic underfunding of public services. Progressing the Partnership is urgent: many struggle to pay bills, hospital waiting lists remain long, social care is inadequate and the Russians regularly infringe our sovereignty on land, sea, air, and cyber.

The party, in particular the leadership, needs to keep outlining how the Partnership can help generate up to an extra £90bn a year for the Treasury’s coffers. That is roughly 10 times more than our EU membership fee at the time we left. I have heard few other policies which could contribute as meaningfully to the growth, well-being and defence of our country. Once secured, it is vital that the fruits of that growth are managed sustainably and equitably.

The considerable damage of Brexit is well documented and is increasingly understood, but understanding how we might join the EU is less so. A new vision setting out a roadmap for joining the EU therefore needs to complement the Growth and Economic Partnership.

We were the first party to affirm our commitment to the longer term goal of ‘rejoining’ the EU (at Autumn 2020 conference). Since then we have repeatedly reaffirmed our commitment to gradual steps including a working paper and Al Pinkerton’s Customs Union Bill. Incremental measures progressing closer relations with the EU were appropriate to immediate post-departure circumstances, but they no longer offer a bold message which will attract public attention and support. Ed’s speech last week implicitly recognises the gradual step by step approach to full EU membership has been overtaken by developments and the deteriorating geo-political context, not least the Trump Administration’s continuous undermining of the NATO alliance and its members, notably a more vulnerable UK outside the EU.

A bold national campaign centred around the Partnership, and ultimately joining the EU, is important not only to promote our peace and prosperity but also to face down Reform and distinguish ourselves from other progressive parties. The disjuncture between referendums and parliamentary democracy mean Farage and his successive parties have yet to be held to account for their Brexit fiasco. It is ironic, if not outrageous, that the main instigator of our current mess is the leader of the party leading in national opinion polls. The Conservatives and Labour in government decided to progress the unworkable Brexit proposition which has so badly damaged the UK’s economy, unity, governance and international standing. Not surprisingly their support has collapsed.

Our poll ratings have lagged behind too, in part because we have not been bold in our opposition to Brexit. Ed’s call for a meaningful Growth and Defence Partnership ends that. Ed has called time on Brexit, and in so doing, called on a future Labour leader to ditch its hitherto slavish adherence to red lines on not joining the Customs Union and Single Market.

Some argue that a Customs Union and Single Market means we would not have a say in the legislation which might bind us. Whilst that may be largely true (non-EU members in the European Economic Area (EEA) can be consulted), Ed clearly outlined the Partnership is not the end goal.

Should any new Labour leader drop the Government’s red lines, it will take time for the Government to negotiate new arrangements. A first step would likely have to be joining the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), a process which could take 2-3 years unwinding inconsequential post-Brexit trade agreements, and then joining the EEA. It is unlikely the EU would want to replicate its time-consuming bespoke series of bilateral agreements with Switzerland. By the time of the 2029 General Election, barring a surprise snap poll, any Government progress on the Partnership is likely to be either slow or non-existent. Therefore our next General Election manifesto should make a headline commitment to making an application to join the EU along with a call for fair votes (introduction of a proportional voting system). Both commitments should be red lines should there be an opportunity to a form a future coalition Government or conclude a supply and confidence arrangement.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged brexit, european union and manifesto | 12 Comments

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 21st June 2026 - 11:10 am

Iran

The Iran War has forced American motorists to reconsider long road trips. At the same time a farmer in Kenya is facing a drastic drop in his $2,200 income and a Sri Lankan construction worker in Dubai is worrying about how his wife and children would survive without his remittances. The Iran War has been little more than an inconvenience for most people in the West. For those in the developing world it was—still is – a matter of life and death.

The people in the developing world were already reeling from the effects of cuts in foreign aid, the covid pandemic and the Ukraine War before the Iran War closed the Strait of Hormuz.

Petrol prices rose by as much as 50 percent in the US. They rose by the same amount in Kenya. The difference is that the average household income in America is $80,000. In Kenya it is $2,200.

East Africa imports about 25 percent of its fertiliser supplies from the Gulf region. The start of the Iran War coincided with the start of the planting season. If a farmer is unable to afford fertiliser than he buys less. This means lower farm incomes, higher maize prices, higher prices for animal feed, higher meat and milk prices. Greater food insecurity.

In the United States, agriculture contributes approximately one percent to the country’s GDP. In East Africa it contributes about a quarter and employs half of the population. Roughly 70 percent of Africa’s 1.5 billion people are directly or indirectly employed in agriculture.

Remittances to developing countries are also suffering. The Gulf countries are not known for their enlightened labour practices. In fact, for many migrant workers, conditions have been described as akin to “modern slavery.”

Millions, however, leave their families in Africa and South Asia to live up to ten in a room while working on construction sites in the Gulf region. When the bombs started to fall many of those workers were laid off. For countries such as Nepal—where 25 percent of the economy is remittances—this meant financial ruin.

Families from Mombasa to Kathmandu suddenly faced the cruel arithmetic of paying more food and fuel with less money arriving from sons and daughters working in Dubai or Riyadh.

Americans and the rest of the world

Americans often struggle to understand the rest of the world. That is an over-generalisation. America has produced some of the world’s finest experts on China, Russia, Britain and the Middle East. But the average American has little need to look beyond his own borders.

Why should he? America spans a continent. It possesses almost every climate, every landscape and nearly every natural resource. Its entertainment industry dominates the globe. Most Americans spend their lives without needing another language and only about one in five owns a passport.

That self-sufficiency has bred a certain assumption: that what works in America should work everywhere. It is not unique. The British Empire convinced itself that imperial rule brought civilisation. Vladimir Putin appears to have believed that Ukrainians would greet Russian tanks with flowers. Great powers have always had a tendency to mistake their own preferences for universal truths.

The tragedy is that military and economic power can reinforce this misconception. If you are powerful enough, people often tell you what you want to hear. Success breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hubris.

Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Iran all share a common thread. Again and again, Washington has assumed that superior force could overcome history, culture and nationalism. Again and again, it has discovered that people usually prefer imperfect governments of their own choosing to enlightened rulers imposed from outside.

America’s problem is not that it is uniquely arrogant. It is that, like every great power before it, it has become convinced that its own experience is universal.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged iran and north korea | 3 Comments

Ministerial hand-wringing over Palestine continues

By John Kelly | Sun 21st June 2026 - 10:09 am

This week, Lib Dem MPs raised some very good questions in Parliament.

Andrew George: The Secretary of State says she is looking at options and that she wishes to work in partnership in the international sphere. She must accept that the UK has significant history and responsibility in this region. Does she not listen to the words of her Back Benchers? It is incumbent on her to take action now—not simply to look at things and to seek partnership—to have real effect on this appalling, continuing outrage.

Calum Miller: The prospect of a two-state solution rests on at least two essential conditions: the protection of Palestine’s territorial integrity, and political reform within the Palestinian state. This weekend in London, we saw the selling of properties in illegal settlements. The expansion of such settlements must instead be reversed by cutting off their finance at source. Will the Foreign Secretary commit to withdrawing the licence to operate of any UK financial institution facilitating credit or services for illegal settlement activity? Given that President Abbas has now announced that legislative and presidential elections will be held in early 2027, what measures are the Government taking to ensure that those elections will be free and fair?

Caroline Voaden: A UN report from March last year laid bare the evidence of Israel’s systematic use of rape and sexual violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Israeli settlers are committing sexual violence in sight of Israeli forces, according to a recent report by the West Bank Protection Consortium. Given the Government’s commitment to the safety of women and girls, will the Secretary of State commit to publishing a response to both of those reports?

Edward Morello: On 28 May, Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to seize control of 70% of the Gaza strip, in breach of the ceasefire agreement. Some 90% of the homes have now been destroyed, and an estimated $53 billion is required to rebuild the strip. Meanwhile, settlement expansion in the west bank has increased by 80%, with Israeli settlers now comprising one in six of the population. What is the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office doing with European allies to help the Palestinian people?

I won’t bore readers with the responses but as usual we had the usual hand-wringing from ministers which I fear will continue until Keir Starmer is replaced as PM. Just one example was the Foreign Secretary’s response to Caroline Voaden:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged andrew george, calum miller, caroline voaden, edward morello, lib dem mps and palestine | 1 Comment

At war with Chinese windmills

By Vince Cable | Sun 21st June 2026 - 8:55 am

Economics and ‘national security’ often pull in different directions. This is especially true when we look at relations with China.

Consider the strange case of the Scottish wind turbine project. At the end of March, the UK government blocked a planned Chinese investment in the Scottish Highlands to manufacture wind turbines on ‘national security’ grounds. The issue got lost in the fog around the Scottish parliamentary elections. But it hasn’t gone away. The Chinese have indicated that they will switch the plant from Scotland to Spain. The British partners who spent years negotiating the project, in good faith, are furious and are questioning the capricious nature of UK government decision making around ‘security.’

The planned Chinese investment, at Ardersier, to manufacture wind turbines was potentially the largest turbine factory in the world, employing 1,500 people with more in the supply chain. For British partners and the Scottish government, utilising China’s impressive ‘green’ technology was thought to be a safe and sensible form of collaboration. The project involved making the most technically sophisticated bit of the turbine – the nacelle – in Scotland.

I don’t normally warm to the Scottish National Party but I have some sympathy with the then Scottish Deputy Chief Minister and Economics Minister, Kate Forbes, who said the decision was: ‘simply, sabotage of Scotland’s industrial future’.

The £1.5 billion project involving the Chinese company Ming Yang was to be on a site on the Moray Firth once used to employ 4,500 people for oil and gas platform assembly. Ming Yang is recognised as one of, if not the, leading company in the world for wind technology where China is the dominant producer with 70% of global wind capacity. Ming Yang is already a trusted partner of Octopus Energy, a reputable and popular British energy supplier.

Political dinosaurs in Britain and the USA may regard wind power as a ‘woke’ response to the ‘climate hoax’. But the Chinese long understood and planned for its development as a source of cheap, secure and clean energy. They are now being vindicated, not least by the disruption to oil and gas supplies from the Gulf. So, why is it a problem to utilise Chinese investment and technology to develop our own wind-power sector?

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged china, energy, energy security and wind turbines | 14 Comments

Observations of an Expat: Surviving Iran

By Tom Arms | Sat 20th June 2026 - 9:23 am

America will survive the Iran War. It has survived worse. Israel may not be so fortunate. Superpowers can afford mistakes. Small countries living in dangerous neighbourhoods cannot.

People have been predicting the decline of American power since Vietnam. America lost in Vietnam, failed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and suffered humiliation in Somalia. Yet the United States remains the world’s dominant military and financial power. Superpowers can absorb defeats. They possess strategic depth.

Of course, the same may not be said about individual politicians. Donald Trump has been seriously weakened inside and outside MAGA world. So have the Republican politicians who have hitched themselves to the Trumpian star.

But in the case of Israel, there is more at stake than a few right-wing security-minded politician. Israel is a country of fewer than ten million in a hostile region. Its security rests on three pillars: military superiority, American support and deterrence—the belief among its enemies that resistance is futile.

If the Iran War has weakened any of those pillars, the consequences for Israel are potentially much greater than for the United States. America’s allies may doubt Washington’s judgment, but they are unlikely to abandon the dollar or NATO. Israel, by contrast faces increased diplomatic isolation; reduced confidence in US support; strengthened adversaries convinced that Israel’s power has limits; domestic political divisions and—most important of all—the end of the aura of invincibility that has been central to Israeli strategy since 1967.

In Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu thought he had found a kindred spirit who believed in solving problems through the barrel of a gun with a few dollars thrown in for good measure. In Gaza he humbled Hamas with American help. It cost 73,000 Palestinian lives and a great deal of international support. Americans, for the first time, began to question their unquestioning support for Israel.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged benjamin netanyahu, donald trump, iran and israel | 6 Comments

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