Lanark Liberal

Local election results (England only)

2006-05-05T17:04:00.000Z

Party/Councils(+/-)/Councillors(+/-)

Conservative/68(+11)/1783(+299)
Labour/28(-18)/1347(-306)
Liberal Democrat/13(+1)/906(+3)
British National Party/0(0)/31(+26)
Green/0(0)/29(+20)
Residents Association/0(0)/22(-9)
Respect-Unity Coalition/0(0)/13(+12)
Liberal/0(0)/8(-2)
Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern/0(0)/5(+1)
Socialist Alternative/0(0)/3(0)
UK Independence Party/0(0)/1(0)
Others/0(0)/105(-47)
No overall control/66(+6)

Liberal Democrat controlled councils:

Cambridge (hold)
Eastleigh (hold)
Kingston-upon-Thames (hold)
Liverpool (hold)
Newcastle-upon-Tyne (hold)
Pendle (hold)
Richmond-upon-Thames (gain from Con)
South Lakeland (gain from NOC)
St. Albans (gain from NOC)
Stockport (hold)
Sutton (hold)
Three Rivers (hold)
Watford (hold)

Liberal Democrat council losses:

Islington (NOC)
Milton Keynes (NOC)

Results still to be confirmed:

Newham (Defending party: Labour)

Moray by-election

2006-04-28T19:03:00.000Z

The fairly safe Holyrood seat of Moray was retained by the SNP in a by-election caused by the death of Margaret Ewing. Richard Lochhead managed to increase the Nationalists' share of the vote to 12,653, with the Conservatives in second place. It was a decent result however for Liberal Democrat candidate Linda Gorn, who managed to win an additional 2,000 votes and leap-frog Labour into third place. Another sign that the public is becoming increasingly fed up with Labour, this was the second by-election disaster in just a few months following the spectacular Lib Dem win in Dunfermline. The Lib Dems were also just 1,000 votes behind the Tories.

Scottish Parliamentary by-election, Moray, 27th April 2006

Richard Lochead (Scottish National Party) 12,653
Mary Scanlon (Scottish Conservatives) 6,268
Linda Gorn (Scottish Liberal Democrats) 5,310
Sandy Keith (Scottish Labour) 2,696
Meliville Brown (NHS First) 493

Scottish Parliament

2006-03-17T18:48:00.000Z

Three years late, £389 million over budjet, and already the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood is dropping to pieces. All jokes about the loose beam swinging precariously over the Tories, it is scandalous that a building which cost so mush of the taxpayes money has hardly lasted two years. It has been a farce since the very beginning. The construction of this hideous building took far longer than it should have, and since opening it has been plagued by problem after problem. Now MSPs are running about like headless chickens trying to find alternative accomodation, with Holyrood unlikely to re-open for another couple of months. Those in charge of the construction should be held accountable for their shoddy building work, and should be ashamed that they have let the people of Scotland down.

Bus Subisidies

2006-03-15T17:39:00.000Z

Since the deregulation of bus services, many vital routes rely on public subsidy to operate. In my area, First Glasgow has recently emabrked on a series of cutbaks due to lack of subsidy from the Strathclyde Passenger Transport. In my home town of Cumbernauld, half of it's 60,000 residents have had their bus service almost completely withdrawn as it is not subsidised. Meanwhile, SPT intends to invest millions in new electronic timetables at bus stops. I don't see the point in investing such money in these high-tech bus stops which will undoubtedly be destroyed by vandals within half an hour of their being erected while thousands of people are left with little or no bus service because their is no subsidy. If the government is serious about getting people out of their cars and onto public transport, and thus reducing carbon emissions, they must ensure that they provide the appropriate authorities with sufficient funding to subsidise vital bus services. The problem with the privitisation of buses is that companies are free to cut bus services at will even if they leave people stranded. Buses are essential in the battle to reduce polution, and the government must encourage their use by providing sufficient subsidies.

Council Tax Increases

2006-03-15T17:28:00.000Z

Local authoritites across Scotland have recently announced their increases in council tax for the coming year, and it remains blatantly obvious that this is a totally unfair system which must be replaced. As it happens, my own local authority, North Lanarkshire Council, will increase tax by 3.5%. This is clearly unacceptable, and will result in yet more crippling council tax bills landing on doormats. However, it is even more outrageous when you consider that NLC (and undoubtedly others) have failed to adjust the council tax bands in line with increases in property value, elevating many households into higher bands. In a recent publication, NLC published blatant lies regarding house prices in the region, claiming that the vast majority of households are in band A, and thus most houses in North Lanarkshire are worth below £27,000. Now I don't claim to be any expert on the issue, but I know enough about it to realise that you would struggle to acquire a rabbit hutch for £27,000 these days. Band A tax is now £694 p.a. going up to an astonishing £2,802 in band H. As if the sheer amount of it is not enough, many residents of North Lanarkshire would agree that they do not see the benefits of their tax once it has passed into the greedy hands of the fumbling council. And then there is, of course, the fact that the method of derermining the amount paid in tax is completely unfair. The value of a persons house does not necessarily refletct their income. Local authorities should set tax levels on ability to pay, and not property value.

Lib Dems win Dunfermline!

2006-02-10T11:16:00.000Z

In the first real test of our party since the recent controversies, the Liberal Democrats have achieved an astonishing result in the Dunfermline & West Fife by-election. Labour were defending a majority of 11,000 but Willie Rennie managed to overturn this to bring the number of Liberal Democrat MPs at Westminster to 63.

Willie Rennie (Liberal Democrats) 12,391
Catherine Stihler (Labour) 10,591
Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party) 7,261
Carrie Ruxton (Conservative) 2,702
John McAllion (Scottish Socialist Party) 537
James Hargreaves (Scottish Christian Party) 411
Thomas Minogue (Abolish Forth Bridge Tolls Party) 374
Ian Borland (UK Independence Party) 208
Dick Rogers (The Common Good) 103

This outstanding victory is proof that, despite recent controversy, the British public recognise the Liberal Democrats as the only REAL ALTERNATIVE to the increasingly irritating Blair government. We will continue to win more votes, we will continue to take more seats, and we will achieve our aims at all levels of government.

Leadership Election

2006-02-15T18:42:00.000Z

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

All ballot papers for the leadership election must be posted to the returning officer by 1st. March

If you are still undecided on who should lead our party, check out the campaign material of the 3 candidates:

Simon Hughes http://www.simonhughesforleader.com/
Sir Menzies Campbell http://www.campbellcampaign.org/
Chris Huhne http://www.chris2win.org/

This election is of vital importance for the future of our party - make sure you have your say on who will be the Liberal Democract prime minister in 5 years!

Looking to the future

2006-01-29T11:38:00.000Z

The past few months have brought turbulent times for the Liberal Democrats. We may have lost the confidence of many voters, and now is the time to start putting things right again. First we must concentrate on electing a new leader, and, despite Mark Oaten pulling out, we still have strong candidates in Sir Menzies Campbell, Simon Hughes and Chris Huhne. Despite revelations about Simon Hughes earlier this week, I hope that his sexuality will not deter members from considering him as our future leader. There is no doubting that he is a talented politician, and I believe he would prove to be a successful leader. Then there is Sir Menzies Campbell - talented, popular, and a man who holds a natural ability to lead. Chris Huhne, the youngest of the candidates, could very well cause some surprises and take a significantly higher proportion of the vote than is predicted. Whoever we elect as our new leader, I am confident that he will lead the way in rebuilding our party as an effective opposition and attract even higher levels of support in elections - starting with Dunfermline in a few weeks time, where we have a good chance of pulling off a victory. We may have had our problems over the past few months, but the reasons people voted for us in the last election are still there. The new Conservative leader David Cameron will not take the Tories back into power, as they remain the same old Conservative party that are fast losing support. New Labour under Gordon Brown should be nothing to worry about, pushing forward plans for ID cards, and who knows, even a few more illegal wars? So we have to look to the future, look at ways of rebuilding and recovering from these blows, and come the next General Election we will go on gaining more votes, electing more MPs and continuing as the only Real Alternative to the Labour government.

The saga contniues

2006-01-23T19:52:00.000Z

So it seems that the turbulent times we LibDems live in are not yet at an end. First Charles Kennedy quits after admitting to a drink problem, and then leadership candidate Mark Oaten pulls out of the contest, and his private life is brougth into the public domain. The News of the World revealed that Mr Oaten had been having an affair, and made a huge deal of the fact that it was with a rent boy. Now I don't care who he chooses to sleep with, but I strongly believe that the private lives of MPs shpuld be kepy exaclty that, private. What Mr Oaten has done is wrong, however it is a problem for him and his family to deal with. This has clearly not affected his ability to do his job, and therefore I see no reason why the public should have to know. Yet somehow this does not surprise me, yet another cheap story which we have come to expect from the News of the World.

A Very Angry Member

2006-01-08T11:36:00.000Z

Yesterday was a sad day for the Liberal Democrats. Having shown great courage in admitting to having a drink problem, the greatest leader we have ever had was forced to resign by 25 MPs who were not willing to give him a chance. In May 2005, Charles Kennedy took the Liberal Democrats to our greatest General Election result for 80 years, despite battling a serious medical condition at the time. Now, our party is left without a leader and with the prospect of having to choose a new one, who will never match up to the charisma and poularity of Charles Kennedy. Without even consulting the party memebership on whether or not we wanted Charles to remain as leader, these 25 MPs gave him no choice but to quit, despite being willing to continue the great work he carried out as leader. Those 25 MPs have taken a serious drop in my, and I'm sure many other Liberal Democrat's, opinion, and I honestly believe this whole sorry episode will inflict lasting damage on a party which was previously on the up. Charles Kennedy was regarded by many people, not only within the party but also the electorate, as the most popular and trustworthy of the main party leaders, and I honestly do not believe there is anyone in the party who can live up to his popularity as leader. Charles was not given a chance to prove himself, and the MPs who forced him to quit will be responsible when we suffer a decline in support in upcoming elections. It would seem taht our party now stands for back-stabbing and disloyalty, and I for one am not sure whether I want to sontinue to be a part of that.

MPs Wages

2005-12-05T20:20:00.000Z

So we hear that MPs have been discussing a possible 22% increase in wages. Now, I believe that MPs should receive a decent salary for the difficult job they do, however I can't help but think that tax-payers money would be better spent elsewhere. Reading Sunday's Mail, I came across something which I was shocked by. This from Tory MP Anthony Steen: "One of the reasons the Commons lacks quality MPs is because the pay isn't enough to attract the best people". Well I fot one believe that anyone who wishes to become an MP purely because of the wages and not on their beliefs has no place whatsoever in Parliament. The people who we elect as MPs should be concerned with doing what they, and their voters, believe to be correct, and should be people of strong beliefs. They should not be there for financial gain. And with the Tories set to elect yet another upper class, public school boy as their leader, it is now clear that they are still as money-obsessed as they always have been. Appealing to every area of society? I don't think so.

Extended licensing

2005-11-23T18:49:00.000Z

Since Tony Blair became Prime Minister in 1997, the Labour government has made some very poor decisions, but the latest one tops them all. With Britain's towns and cities plagued by the effects of binge drinking, the government has decided the best solution is, yes you guessedn it, to allow pubs to open 24 hours a day, for more drink to be consumed, for more and more incidents of violent crime as a result. They claim that this legislation will encourage a more 'mature' attitude among drinkers. Rubbish. The only thing that extended drinking hours will do is create further nuisance for those who live near such establishments, for the police, and for the medical staff who already have to deal with thousands of people staggering from the pub and into the emergency department. Yet again, the Labour government has used extremely poor judgement in making crucial decisions, and it is the public who will suffer the consequences. Yet again, they have ignored the views of the public. While the vast majority of the British public is opposed to extended licensing, the government has ploughed through misguided, and quite frankly stupid, legislation. This Labour government really has lost the plot, that is of course presuming they ever had it in the first place.

Remembering the fallen

2005-11-12T12:56:00.000Z

Yesterday, at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, Britain fell silent. It is important that we remember, and pay our respects to, the brave men and women who have been killed in battle fighting for their country, not just in the two World War's, but in all the conflicts which have followed. Although I was not around at the time of either World Wars (and was a mere 2 years old at the 1st Gulf War), I have great admiration for those who are prepared to go into such dangerous situations in order to protect us, and I am without doubt that this is a feeling held by the vast majority of British people. Once again, the country is united in tribute to our fallen soldiers. We will never forget.

Blair under fire again

2005-11-10T19:03:00.000Z

Yesterday saw the government's controversial proposals on holding terror suspects for 90 days without charge were sensationally rejected by MPs. Not only did Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs vote no on this unneccessary and totally illiberal proposal, but many Labour MPs decided to go against Tony Blair on this crucial vote, a further example of Blair's dwindling authority over not only Parliament but his own Party. It is clear that Tony Blair's reign is now fast approaching it's end. Ever since the goverment brought forward it's plans to toughen laws on terrorism (heckling at Labour conferences and such very serious offences!), the Liberal Democrats have been firm in their opposition to the total disregard for civil liberties in this country. Now it has emerged that we are not the only ones who see 90 day detention periods as totally exaggerated and unnecessary. The fact that Tony Blair's very own MPs disagree fundamentally with his proposals goes some way to revealing the true extent of his ever decreasing support among his own Party.

The Tory leadership contest

2005-10-31T03:40:00.000Z

And still it drags on. Anyone else getting fed up of it? Anyone else wish they had one simple vote to decide the leader instead of round after round of tedious bickering and accusations? It seems very silly to make such a fuss over the leadership of a party which has next to no chance of regaining power in the next general election. Whether it be Cameron or Davis, the Conservatives will continue to loose support, after all they are still clinging to the same old principles which simply do not suit modern day life in Britain. Never before have the Liberal Democrats been in such a good position to seize the opportunity to become the only credible opposition to Labour, and everything is there to suggest we can do exactly that, on our route to a free and fair society. Never before have the Tories been so weak, with their constant leadership changes and decreasing popularity among the British electorate. Please, just get this contest over and go back to scraping out narrow margins in elections, because at the end of the day, that is all they are going to achieve.

No to ID Cards

2005-10-12T17:56:00.000Z

Having succeeded in winning a third term in office (although with a significantly slashed majority), it seems that Tony Blair's government plan to push ahead with their ridiculous ID cards proposal. Have we had any solid evidence that ID cards will succeed in their aims (i.e. reduce terorism etc.)? No. Will these ID cards come at great cost to the public, who don't want them in the first place? Yes. Are the Liberal Democrats the only major party to have a sensible view point on yet another stupid Labour idea? Yes. Will Britain reject ID cards? I certainly hope so!

Excuses, excuses...

2005-10-07T18:29:00.000Z

So now we have the true inspiration for George W. Bush's attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. Yes, the Good Lord Himself told George to do it. Sure, and I'm Brad Pitt. Having used just about every excuse in the book, the fumbling US President has resorted to God in order to shift the blame from his own shoulders. Some Americans may be fooled by his pathetic excuses (probably the same Americans who think people make good politicians because they've been in a movie or two), but I for one have had enough! It is time that George Bush held up his hands and admitted that he has made a mistake (and then resign with any luck). Meanwhile, back on this side of the pond, our very own Tony Bliar told the press that "...Iran, or any other country, has no right to interfere in Iraq". I'm sorry, what?! These words from the very man behind the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq, the very man who refuses to admit that he was wrong to go in when he did. A bit of advice Mr Bliar: it is not one rule for Britain and the US, another for the rest of the world. Get a grip Tony.

The youth of today...

2005-10-06T18:03:00.000Z

...ARE interested in politics. You go into any High School in the country and mention the big political issues of today (the war in Iraq, university tuition fees, tony blair's lies etc.) and you will find that young people do have an opinion! As someone who is still at school (leaving soon, thank god), I know that you can often find yourself in the middle of a political debate, although many people may not think of it as that. So we must ask ourselves, why is the 18-25 age group the most reluctant to vote? It is our job to try and make young people realise that they can relate their opinions on big issues to voting, but it is also our job to make sure that WE are the party to do that. Surveys have shown that the Liberal Democrats are the most popular party among young people, and we have to seize that opportunity and get young people into polling stations, and hopefully voting for us! The LDYS have a huge part to play in this, and I sincerely hope that we succeed in engaging with young voters before the next General Election.

The time for Liberalism is now!

2005-10-06T17:50:00.000Z

We may have had a general election just a few months back, but it is NOW that we have to start preparing for the future. As Liberal Democrats, we believe that our party is going places. We believe that a Liberal government after the next general election IS achievable, and the man to lead us is, of course, Charles Kennedy. The press may have given him a hard time lately, but I, and no doubt the vast majority of Liberal Democrats, believe that he is the man for the job, and he is certainly capapble of making a fine Prime Minister. If we work hard, we can elect more Liberal Democrats to all levels of government, with the ultimate aim of winning a majority in the next general election. In coalition government here in Scotland, the Liberal Democrats have proven that we are a significant force in British politics, and that we are capable of being in control of Parliament. Next stop Westminster.