South Lincolnshire Liberal Democrats

Many congratulations to Nick da Costa who has been elected as the new chair of Federal Conference Committee (FCC), following Geoff Payne's decision to stand down earlier this year.

Nick is a councillor in Haringey as well as an experienced FCC member, bringing to the role a great understanding both of how conference works and of what we need to do as a party to win.

People looking after their loved ones too often feel forgotten.

Yesterday, I spent some time meeting with a wonderful group of unpaid carers.

We had been brought together by Carers UK and a number of other carers' organisations as part of Carers Week, so they could share their experiences directly with me and we could discuss what changes might make their lives better.

Unlike the Conservatives we do not receive donations from large business; neither do we get funding from the Unions like Labour. We don't even get much in the way of monies from the national party. We have to raise what we spend locally. The Lib Dem Summer Draw is a great way to boost our funds with the possibility that you might win a fabulous prize!

We want your views on how to improve the party's independent complaints process.

Any organisation with a hundred thousand members will have conflicts: what matters is how we deal with them. Wherever possible the process needs to be quick and effective - and it must always be transparent, fair and independent of political influence. It is key that if someone actions are damaging to other party members or members of the public, they can't expect to be protected by who they know or what role they hold in the party.

Today is the first day of Pride Month. While celebrating how far we've come, we need to keep making the case for the rights of all LGBT+ people. From homelesness to mental health to pay and trans rights, it's clear that we still have a lot of work to do to achieve justice and equality for all.

As just one recent example of how our progress is fragile, on Monday Liz Truss set about undermining Stonewall, the UK's leading LGBT+ charity, by calling for Government Departments to withdraw from its Diversity Champions Scheme. That's not something an LGBT+ friendly government would do. It really highlights how hard we need to fight.

Pride Month is a time of LGBTQ+ celebration, activism and commemoration.

Whilst pride marches across the world have been cancelled for a second year due to Coronavirus, Pride Month is an opportunity to take stock of the march towards LGBTQ+ equality in the UK, while acknowledging and continuing to fight for progress.

The campaign is growing rapidly and this is a seat with a lot of potential.

We came a strong second here in 2019. We have lots of local representation and a base of voters we can build on.

And the reception on the doors has been phenomenal.

We need you to play your part:

Come and help

The biggest way you can make a difference in this campaign is to come to Chesham and Amersham to help by knocking on doors and delivering leaflets.

The Liberal Democrats have challenged Downing Street to hold Viktor Orban to account during his visit to Downing Street. The Hungarian Prime Minister has been accused of antisemitism, islamophobia and making a sustained assault on democracy and the freedom of the press.

In a joint letter to Boris Johnson, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey MP and Lib Dem Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Layla Moran MP wrote:

The Conservatives' Environment Bill will fail to protect British nature and our beautiful landscapes.

We are already living in one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Our waterways are in a poor condition with just 14% in good condition. More than 40% of native species are in decline.

Federal Conference Committee met on 25th May 2021 to consider the feedback from Spring Conference. It was an overflow meeting to deal with the business that could not be considered at the last meeting, which was constricted to facilitate campaigning for the Local Elections.

We discussed the feedback that we received from Spring Conference. We were very happy with it overall. We had attendees from 26 countries. The average person spent 15 hours at conference. In total, there were over 13,000 votes cast and over 17,500 chat messages. We came within 3% of our record attendance for a Spring Conference.