This time next week, Vince Cable will be the former leader of the Liberal Democrats.
Ballots close at 1pm on Monday 22nd July. That means you have six days to have your say on where our party goes next.
Later that day, either Ed Davey or Jo Swinson will be announced as our party's new leader. They're both fantastic candidates and either would make a fine leader for the Lib Dems going forward. You can find out more about their plans for our party here:
It's been equal parts incredible, exhausting and humbling to be at the centre of a massive Lib Dem parliamentary by-election.
I'm honoured to join a select group of people who get the full national parliamentary by-election treatment, with the best of the best Lib Dem campaigners in the country fighting to get me elected.
As I write this on Friday, I am about to set off for Brecon and Radnorshire, to help the brilliant Jane Dodds campaign in the by-election. It will be my third visit since the Recall petition first started. Make no bones about it, Jane is a brilliant candidate and our team there is outstanding, but we need more people to help over the next few weeks: we have a tough fight on our hands in a very rural seat. We need more people to help deliver leaflets, knock on doors and help with clerical work. Please, please, come and help. Postal votes land on doorsteps, and we need to call on postal voters this coming weekend, before many voters go on holiday.
After a time-warp 6 week campaign, an 18 hour polling day marathon and an incredible win on 26 May, the sixteen of us went to Brussels in June to take up our new positions as MEPs. You might have heard about the furore we caused!
The Liberal Democrat cohort are sworn in as MEPs. If you like our tshirts, you can get your own here
World Population Day is an opportunity to put reproductive rights and issues of gender equality firmly on the global agenda. This year, period poverty must be front and centre of the conversation.
If the UK Conservative government are serious about eradicating period poverty by 2030 then they must use this opportunity to ensure ending period poverty is in the minds of every single world leader. The Conservative government have a duty to do all they can to end the injustice and stigma surrounding periods in the UK and across the globe.
When we think of great moments of political upheaval, social change and protests for justice, the images which often come to mind are marches. There is something acutely powerful about seeing so many come together to create, for one moment in time, a community of like-minded people. A crowd which passionately believes in a common cause will have its cause noticed. Marches become beacons of free speech and spawn mass movements which captivate people's attention.
I'm Benny, and I've been a Liberal Democrat since 2017 - but I never really had a chance to get particularly involved.
That changed last week when I headed up to Brecon.
I knew how important this by-election is going in - we can't afford to take it for granted. It's essential as many Liberal Democrats as possible head to Brecon and Radnorshire to support our candidate, Jane Dodds.
Open to anyone who would like more detailed information on the EU, its history, its institutions, agencies, treaties, single market and customs union, but pro-EU campaigners from any party or none are especially welcome.
Just how democratic is the EU? What are its benefits? What competencies are at a supranational level? How is legislation made? Will there be a more formal multi-tiered EU in the future? If so what should be the UK's position?
This is a strange way to start off this blog post, but please bear with me. In April 2016 I got my first telescope. I didn't spend a great deal, and it took me awhile to learn how to focus it, but eventually one night I caught Jupiter, its red spot and the bright twinkles of the four Galilean moons. It was at that moment I started to believe in Allah again. At around the same time I properly and very bluntly came out to my father - the end of a rather long journey in me accepting that I was a gay woman. Soon after, I popped down to the LGBT inclusive Christian church at the bottom of my road, in a bid to be able to reconcile faith in god with my sexuality. It was welcoming, but it did not feel like my spiritual home.
We have signed the Good Systems Agreement, alongside other parties, organisations and public figures.
Together we have achieved something that has never been done in the UK. We're securing broad consensus about the principles that define good voting systems. Most importantly, seats won in Parliament must closely reflect the votes cast. We have also agreed that the best voting system for the UK would ideally be determined by citizens. This could be done through an evidence-based, deliberative process, like a citizens' assembly.
Bill Newton-Dunn has been elected as an MEP in the European Elections on May 23rd.
In the East Midlands, the strongest Brexit leaving region in the Country, the Lib Dems leaped to second place overall with 203,989 votes.
In Newark and Sherwood, the Liberal Democrats and Green Party together polled more votes than the Conservatives and Labour combined!
Thanking voters for their support, Bill claimed the result was very significant saying "It's extraordinary. We are demonstrating that there has been a shift in public opinion since the Referendum. There is a real case that views have changed."
In May, the Government published a Climate Change Report which called for "a major ramp-up in effort" to tackle Climate Change. The Government is calling on Councils to review their policies.
Listening to residents during the Local Elections, we know that there is growing concern about the environment.
Lib Dem District Councillors Malcolm Brock and Peter Harris will be raising the matter at the District Council.
Ballots for our leadership election have now gone out. If you were a member by the 7th June, you get a say in deciding the next leader of our party.
It's a really exciting time to be a Liberal Democrat - and we're extraordinarily lucky to have 2 solid candidates in Sir Ed Davey and Jo Swinson. Either would be a fabulous leader for our party.
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