clear facts
Dear Sir,
DPH
2 Mar 2017
National News
Street Light Update
Students at the Royal Holloway have been expressing their concerns about the Tory plan to turn off streets lights overnight in many of our local roads. LibDem candidate, Will Coles, said: "The potential safety risk when walking home late at night and the general feeling of insecurity is very worrying."
2 Mar 2017
Winning in Stoke-on-Trent: The foundations that YOU laid
On Tuesday, Ian Horner and I as Agent and Campaign Co-ordinator respectively cleared the by-election HQ for Stoke-on-Trent Central. Unlike many such events from former by-elections, this was no sad or weary wake. As we loaded up the bags and boxes, sorted out what could caravan into the next election portal we laughed, smiled and exchanged anecdotes of a campaign well fought.
2 Mar 2017
32 - Lib Dem Lords vs the Article 50 Bill: Sarah Ludford: Brexiteers fear the people realising the disastrous truth
After two days of debate, it fell to Sarah Ludford to sum up for the Liberal Democrats. She brought together all the strands of the debate. She took on the two days of vitriol that had been directed at the party from the Brexiteers. What were they frightened of, she wondered. They were, she said, so keen to stamp on dissent for fear of the disaster of Brexit being realised by the people. She summarised the massive negatives to business, to jobs, to prosperity, to EU nationals and their British families and made the case for a referendum on the deal. There were times during this mammoth task of putting all the speeches up that we wondered what on earth had possessed us to think that it was a good idea, but we now have in one place a comprehensive rebuttal to everything the Government says on Brexit. Our lot did us proud as they drove a coach and horses through the Government's arguments. The sheer vitriol they took from the Brexiteer zealots shows that their arguments were very effective. My Lords, I draw the
2 Mar 2017
31 - Lib Dem Lords vs the Article 50 Bill: Andrew Stunell: Hard Brexit will cripple the construction industry
Andrew Stunell started by pointing out one irony. The Lords making the most noise about democracy and how the Lords had to do what the Government had said because it was the will of the people were the very ones who argued against the Lords being reformed and elected. His main point was about the effect on the construction industry of Brexit. Government plans require it to grow by 35%, yet the many combined effects of Brexit would cause it to shrink. My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Davies, has given me a wonderful introduction to what I was going to say in any case. Leaving the European Union is strongly against the long-term interests of the United Kingdom and it will hit hardest those citizens who rely most heavily on public services for the well-being of themselves and their families, and for whom economic prosperity is crucial for their job, the roof over their head and the money to pay for the services on which they depend. Several noble Lords have urged us to surrender the best interests of those hard-pr
2 Mar 2017
30 - Lib Dem Lords vs the Article 50 Bill: Paul Strasburger: PM chooses to destroy, for ever, Tory reputation for economic prudence
Paul Strasburger did not mince his words. He came up with a very good analogy from business - what would you do if your chief executive decided to remove the company from its biggest market and concentrate on customers that you didn't know so well. My Lords, we find ourselves in a situation that most of us would not have thought possible a year ago. Our Prime Minister seeks not only to invoke Article 50 but also to needlessly destroy our country's tariff-free and frictionless access to the largest market in the world, thereby doing serious damage to our economy. Stranger still, this is not some dystopian, Corbynista nightmare-it is a Conservative Prime Minister choosing, at a stroke, to destroy for ever her party's reputation for economic prudence. She is putting at risk the prosperity that our country has enjoyed since we joined what was then the Common Market. She will also be undoing the success of the coalition in pulling our economy back from the brink after the 2008 crash. She and her party will not be
2 Mar 2017