I'm excited to announce our summer campaign pack is coming off the printer and I wanted to share this news with you now so you can begin planning how you are going to use yours.
Our efforts to stop Brexit are beginning to make waves but, as Parliament readies itself for the summer break, we must redouble our efforts on the ground and make this the biggest summer of action - but in order to do this, we need your help.
The odds on a second Brexit referendum before 2020 have shortened to 2.48 after polls showed that, for the first time, a majority of Britons want to vote again on their country's future relationship with the European Union. It is becoming clear that the Government's Chequers 'deal' is not going to work and increasingly the choice is a "hard Brexit" or stay in the EU.
The dates and locations for Spring and Autumn conference 2019 have been announced.
Spring conference - York Barbican - 16-17th March 2019
Autumn Conference - Bournemouth International Centre - 15-18th September 2019
Conference is where our party makes decisions on our future direction.
You can participate in thought-provoking debates, meet like-minded people, make party policy, hear from experts on a range of topics at our fringe events and learn new skills at our training sessions.
Following the news that local authorities will be able to substantially increase council tax on empty homes, local MP Tim Farron has written to the Government asking for the same powers to be available for second homes.
This week, the Government announced that they are introducing provisions for local authorities to be able to triple the council tax on homes left empty for five to 10 years and quadruple it on those empty for more than a decade.
Federal Conference Committee met this weekend - unusually at Amnesty HQ in London rather than LDHQ - to set the Agenda for Autumn conference in Brighton.
Trans Pride is a mixture of celebration and campaigning for change until trans rights are fully recognised. We stand in solidarity in calling for these rights, including legal gender recognition for non-binary people, a respectful self-declaration process and an end to the spousal veto.
On the celebration side, be prepared for a complete outpouring of creativity and community spirit. Take a look at the events below and please give them your support.
Today the Electoral Commission ruled on what we all knew - Leave cheated.
Vote Leave have been fined £60,000 for incomplete and inaccurate expenses and for working jointly with pro-Brexit group BeLeave - and using this to get around their spending ceiling of £7 million.
And, lest we forget, the referendum result was just 51.9% for Leave and 48.1% for Remain.
Two weeks ago, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. His name is Gabriel and we adore him.
My situation isn't typical - I'm an MP. I'm not only an MP, I'm the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats.
And our party's goal right now - above all else - is to stop Brexit. We want to give the people the final say on the Brexit deal, including the option to remain in the EU.
I'm excited to announce our summer campaign pack is coming off the printer and I wanted to share this news with you now so you can begin planning how you are going to use yours.
Our efforts to stop Brexit are beginning to make waves but, as Parliament readies itself for the summer break, we must redouble our efforts on the ground and make this the biggest summer of action - but in order to do this, we need your help.
Brexit is the most important issue in a generation. And as Liberal Democrats we have taken on the responsibility of stopping it. We're the only Party united in this aim.
Last night I messed up. The government squeaked home by just 3 votes in a key amendment. It should have been 1.
I was not expecting a close vote - up until 8pm, Labour were planning to abstain which would have meant the vote would be lost by hundreds. In fact several Labour MPs voted with the govenment- which is why they won. By the time it became apparent that the vote was going to be close - it was too late to get two of our MPs back in time to vote.
I'm taking responsibility and redoubling my efforts to stop Brexit.
In the next few days, MPs will vote on the Customs (Taxation) and Trade Bills. These bills will be both pivotal to our future relationship with the EU and a battleground for parliamentary democracy itself.
The Chequers deal is a total fudge. The plan requires the UK to be the EU's policeman and follow its rules on goods and state aid. Meanwhile, the services sector would be left to flounder. We have absolutely no guarantee that the EU would accept such a deal.
Some of you may have seen links to my recent Blog posts in the GLD Facebook page, but when we discussed this recently at the GLD exec, it was suggested it may be appropriate to briefly make the link here in a short signpost article in case others may wish to access them. There are three linked posts looking at Climate change and environmental issues and relating them to our current (and possible new?!) relationship with the EU. They have all been in July, so here is the link to all three. Enjoy...
This Saturday, LGBT+ activists from the Liberal Democrats will be getting together in Manchester for the annual Summer Conference. The organisation's twice-yearly conferences set the campaigning and policy agenda for the organisation, and form an important part of its governence along with the Annual General Meeting.
"At the centre of the last budget was a pledge to build 300,000 UK houses a year to address the 'housing crisis'.
We were taken back to the days when a post-war Conservative Government, under Churchill, was elected with this level of ambition, and more than succeeded.
Or to the interwar National Government when, under the much-maligned Neville Chamberlain, when there was a similar level of ambition and achievement in the aftermath of, and as an antidote to, the Great Crash.
Thank you to everyone who supported the People's Vote march in London on Saturday!
A crowd of pro-EU residents from all parties and none met at Brighton station to travel together to the march, including Labour MP Peter Kyle and Green MP Caroline Lucas, reflecting the emerging cross-party consensus of the need for a vote on the final Brexit deal.
The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to detail exactly how they plan on funding the £20 billion NHS cash injection. Responding to May's speech, former Liberal Democrat Health Minister Norman Lamb said:
"The Government has missed a golden opportunity to work with other parties to come up with a transparent and properly-funded plan for the NHS and social care. Instead, they have shamelessly misled the public with the myth of a 'Brexit Dividend', which simply doesn't exist.
"The Tories' promise of a £20 billion cash injection rings hollow with no clarity as to where the money will come from. The IFS and the King's Fund have also said that it won't be enough to deliver a modern NHS that treats people with mental and physical ill health equally.
"In her speech May called for a more efficient NHS, but this will be impossible to achieve when none of the new funding is going towards social care, public health or prevention.
"This is not the long-term plan that the NHS and social care need. To achieve this, the Government must accept the need to work with others to find a solution which offers sustainable funding.
The Lib Dems are the only party putting forward an immediate 1p increase in income tax - which would raise an additional £6bn a year."
The Duke of York's Picturehouse is screening "Postcards from the 48%" at 8.30 pm on Monday 9th July. This is a film putting forward the facts and points of view of those who voted Remain in the EU referendum, and we really want to support it being shown in Brighton!
David Nicholas Wilkinson, the director, will be doing a Q&A session afterwards. As you can see from the photo, he has previously shown support for our local Vote on the Facts campaign. We will ask permission from the cinema to hold up our banner and hand out leaflets ahead of the screening, so please come along from 7.30pm if you're available to help.
On Saturday 23rd June, Brighton & Hove Liberal Democrats will join Brighton & Hove for EU, the Green Party and pro-EU Sussex groups in front of Brighton railway station at 9.20 am for a photo opportunity before joining the biggest demonstration that there has been for years. The March for a People's Vote starts at 12 noon in Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5ER. See our EU Campaign page for full details.
Time is getting very tight, but it is still possible to stop Brexit. As Europe waits for real answers on the hundreds of issues to be sorted, Mrs May is wasting time trying unite her quarrelsome cabinet, not putting the fate of our country first.
To make matters worse Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party is still cowering behind the sofa rather than being a real opposition.
JO SWINSON guides you through seven steps you can take to help fight Brexit.
It's easy to wax lyrical about everything that is going wrong with Brexit. The Conservatives are stumbling their way through the negotiations and the Labour leadership is standing idly by.
In the meantime, the rest of us are left to ponder doomsday scenarios where we run out of food, medicine and petrol.
Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake has tabled an amendment - 19a - to the EU Withdrawal Bill that to ensure that the people, not politicians, get the final say on the Brexit deal and the opportunity to exit from Brexit.
Labour MP Owen Smith, Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards and Green MP Caroline Lucas are among the MPs backing the Lib Dems' amendment.
You can tell things must be getting really bad when even the Conservatives are concerned about the shortfall of affordable houses. Survation recently polled 121 senior Conservative councillors, on behalf of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation ahead of the government's publication of its social housing green paper, expected in the next few months.The poll found 71% were concerned that the £2bn Government set aside for affordable housing in the Autumn Budget will be insufficient to meet the needs of their constituents.
In politics, if you want to understand your enemies listen hard to their tone. The tone of your opponents normally tells you a lot more about what they're really thinking than what they say. And the tone of the Brexiteers is increasingly brittle, angry and panicky.
It isn't just the - now frequent - demented headlines on the front page of Paul Dacre's Daily Mail ("traitors", "saboteurs", "enemies of the people"). It isn't just the - now frequent - self-absorbed rants from Dominic Cummings, the political apparatchik who helped to run the Brexit campaign.
Peering into the details and the patterns behind the Liberal Democrat performance in this May's local elections, one intriguing political opportunity presents itself. The party did best in shire district elections up against the Conservatives. There appear to be rich pickings for the party from Remain voters in such areas who are unimpressed by Brexit and unimpressed by the government's wider record.
If you are renting in Brighton & Hove (or anywhere else) and you want to know more about what rights and obligations you have as a tenant, visit our new Housing Rights page. Local member Beatrice Bass summarised the basic framework of the landlord and tenant law in England and Wales for you. You will find information on what kind of tenancy agreement you have, what repairs your landlord is obliged to do, how to get your deposit back and other useful tips and links. Visit the page here.
