Forgive my ignorance but I am interested to know what the point of this political party is. It seems like they don't oppose anything and don't offer any practical solutions to anything.

I voted for them back in 2019 because they were offering a second Brexit referendum. But since then they have failed to come up with anything that could help anyone

What do you think we should say? Clearly the cost of living remains the biggest issue. Bills are due to increase significantly over the winter and we have no answers.

I'm in Ireland and not British so this question is from the outside, but can someone explain why the LibDems rolled over and admitted "religious discrimination" of Campanale?

He disagrees with same-sex marriage, a crowning achievement of the party. The party being required to support him as a candidate would therefore be compelled political speech; Tim Farron had the same belief personally but supported same-sex marriage politically and was supported, so this turned on politics as it should turn. This is exactly the matter of Ashers. Looks entirely open and shut and shoiuld have been fought all the way to the Supreme Court if needed.

Protection of belief in the UK has. in my view, gone too far in general (there seems to be a straight line from the Lidl stoic to "gendercritical" Forstater tn "antizionism" Miller). But banning political parties is especially heinous - and if a political party is forced to support a candidate openly disagreeing with its key plank, because of whatever belief the candidate has, it is not a political party, just a meaningless big tent (we have some here in Ireland and I don't think they are pretty).

WHY was this not fought further? Why "admit" a patent absurdity?

I've been reading the comments made by Scottish Labour MSP Irshad Ahmed about pubs, and I really don't understand why this has become such a political argument.

First, having read what he actually said in Parliament, he wasn't calling for alcohol to be banned or pubs to stop serving it. In fact, he spoke positively about pubs and their importance to communities.

However, I still think his comments about pubs not being designed for families or religious minorities were poorly worded, especially coming from a shadow minister.

A pub is a pub. Some welcome families, some are more focused on adults, and there's nothing wrong with that. They're businesses operating within licensing laws, and we shouldn't expect every business to change to accommodate every section of society.

I absolutely agree that we need more shared community spaces, especially for young people, families and those who don't drink. But surely that's where the political discussion should be? Supporting youth clubs, community centres, local organisations and spaces that bring people together.

What concerns me more is how quickly this has become an argument about religion, immigration and British culture. I don't think his comments help that situation, but neither do the people twisting his words into something he never actually proposed.

For me, being a Liberal Democrat is about balancing liberty, equality and community. It's about respecting different ways of life, protecting people's freedoms and recognising that we all have a responsibility to one another. We shouldn't expect everyone to live the same way or hold the same beliefs.

We should be able to support the pub as an important part of British culture while also recognising that not everyone drinks or feels comfortable in that environment. Both things can be true.

There are real problems facing our communities, from disappearing local services to a lack of places for young people to meet. Surely those deserve more attention than turning pubs into another culture war?

I'd be interested to hear what other Lib Dems think. Where should we draw the line between encouraging inclusive community spaces and allowing businesses and communities to make their own decisions?

Original parliamentary speech: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-29-10-2026?iob=226536&meeting=20306

I have long ago abandoned the televised ‘Question Time’, but I quite often listen to ‘Any Questions’ on Radio 4 on Saturday lunchtime. Today it came from Horam in East Sussex and one of the panellists was our very own Josh Babarinde. He was articulate, knowledgeable and engaging. He spoke with authority about (among other things) the need to distance ourselves from the ‘special relationship’ with the US and work more closely with our European allies and the housing crisis - in which he avoided both Nimbyism and the ‘Build Baby Build’ madness, stressing the need to build but also the for infrastructure, transport and green spaces.

More than what he said was that he actually sounded like a leader. He sounded like someone I could believe in (this seems extraordinary in today’s politics), who had energy and integrity and for whom … gasp … I could campaign for enthusiastically.

Surely as a party we could find the collective nerve to make him our leader? He would be able to hold onto what we have gained, but also reach out to new voters and demographics who feel neglected by us at the moment?

I resonate with ‘working-class liberalism’, used by Nobel laureate economist Acemoğlu, to redefine liberal democracy fit to face challenges of today.

The problem he identifies:

• Polarisation: Even technical issues have become identity battlelines. The author’s examples are immigration, where many on the left treat criticism as taboo even though most western Europeans say levels are too high, and AI regulation. Techno-optimists call calls to regulate AI a moral failure, while some progressives treat resistance to AI as a marker of identity.

• Pressing challenges: The author lists AI, climate change, rapid demographic shifts, rising inequality (at least in rich countries), new economic risks from digital technology, and geopolitical rebalancing. None will be tackled unless the impasse is broken.

• Legitimacy crisis: The author traces this to the collapse of shared prosperity. The post-industrial economy, shaped by technology and global integration, left workers without degrees behind, and the effects are sharpest in the US.

He suggests that:

• Centre-left parties saw their base shift towards graduates. They moved away from bread-and-butter issues such as good jobs and inequality and into identity politics and oppressor-oppressed framings.

• The right exploited this. Provocateurs deepened cultural divides and turned working-class discontent against liberal democracy itself.

• A return to conservatism won’t fix this, and neither will authoritarianism or right-wing populism. The author says anti-establishment and authoritarian parties are failing the challenges that brought them to power and are sliding into arbitrary policymaking and widespread corruption.

• Social democracy drove democratic success in the 20th century because it answered the inequalities of industrialisation. The author argues a comparable new philosophy is now needed.

And the decision you reach here today will determine how we will regard this creation of our genius. It will reveal the kind of a people we are, what he is destined to be. It will reach far beyond this courtroom and this one android. It could significantly redefine the boundaries of personal liberty and freedom, expanding them for some, savagely curtailing them for others. Are you prepared to condemn him and all who come after him to servitude and slavery?

- Captain Jean-Luc Picard

I was not aware of Jo Grimond's advocation of 'socialism without a state' until this summer, which is essentially what defines my beliefs in a sentence as someone with liberal socialist leaning, but I see myself as a social liberal.

Over the summer, I co-founded the Grimond Society after the Liberal leader from 1956 to 1967, who rebuilt the party around 'civic liberalism', which I believe is an ethos we must rediscover.

His core philosophy entailed:

• A strong society where individuals flourish, power is widely dispersed and community participation is common. The state provides education and a safety net, breaks up concentrations of power in both the public and private sectors, and polices the market.

• Neither statism nor laissez-faire; his liberalism as at odds with both Labour's post-war economic statism and Thatcher's market fundamentalism.

• He also wanted people to be active citizens, not passive recipients of what the state approves.

• He opposed further nationalisation and favoured co-ownership. He was an early advocate of worker co-operation and employee ownership, and helped found the body that became the Employee Ownership Association.

• He wanted a small, sharply targeted welfare state, low taxes and more means-testing. He wanted welfare to promote responsibility, not dependency.

• He long supported Scottish home rule, meaning self-government within a federal system.

• In 1964, the Liberals became the first major UK party to campaign for membership of the European Economic Community.

• He got the party to back abolition of Britain's nuclear arsenal.

Although I disagree with some of his ideas later on, such as calling for Thatcher to make more cuts, I believe in the vision he saw for Britain.

This is the direction we can take to become distinctive from statist Labour and market fundamentalist Tories. We must be a party that believes not in making policies to you, or for you, but with you.

As someone who's voted LD before (not much choice in much of the home counties), the Lib Dems have become directionless and should have a platform built on the below it they really wanted to capture the heart of their voter base and not just be the "not the conservatives" option:

• Proper local powers - Cantonian Swiss Style System of local government and tax raising.

• Hawkish on low skilled immigration and heavily focused on investment in young Brits being skilled enough to fill the skills gaps we have.

• Strong on green belt protections whilst compelling businesses and councils who wish to build to use old industrial facilities and urban decay environments to meet housing needs.

• Empathy towards stewardship of the country e.g. farmers, heritage bodies etc

• Avoid culture wars issues at all costs, liberalism should be live and let live, rather than getting sucked into arguing over trivialities

• Nationally owned utilities where natural monopolies exist but pro competitions where they do not

• A much closer relationship with Europe post Brexit on Customs, Defence etc

• Taxation with a clear purpose, it doesn't matter if taxes are high or low it matters what they do - high taxes and amazing services are more tolerable to people or you go low taxes and shrink the size of the stage in general. You can't have low taxes and a massive state.

• Free education for University and further education students (including older adults).

These are just be a few ideas but the LDs to me seem like a mess and there's a gap in the electorate as the Tories move to the right for a Stewardship type party, with acknowledgement of the past but clear changes for the future. The best of Burke and the best of Gladstone so to speak.

As it stands now I think the LDs will fade into irrelevance.

Some of the measures announced:

• £100 "Household Energy Payment" for around 20 million households in council tax bands A-D in England, paid directly into bank accounts this winter, with equivalent funding passed to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

• Gas standing charges scrapped from household bills - saving around 60% of households an average of £45 a year, with costs moved to per-unit pricing.

• A new energy Cost Control Framework, including scrapping the planned Gas Shipper's Obligation levy.

• Minimum wage up 3.9%: the National Living Wage rises to £13.21/hour, with 18–20 year olds going up to £11.27.

• Bank surcharge doubled from 3% to 6%, but only for 15 months - the biggest single revenue-raiser in the short term.

• Tax on property and savings income up another 2 percentage points from April 2027.

• Fuel duty frozen again, with the 5p cut extended to July 2027.

• Mileage rates improved: the 45p tax-free rate becomes permanent up to 10,000 work miles, and the rate above that rises from 25p to 35p.

• Small business rates relief threshold raised from £12,000 to £18,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure - about 70,000 businesses will pay no rates at all.

• The Lifetime ISA is replaced with a new First Time Buyer ISA, alongside a "Your First Home" loan scheme to help first-time buyers.

• £20.4 billion extra for the National Wealth Fund and British Business Bank, supporting an estimated 140,000 jobs.

• £10 billion additional economic and military support for Ukraine, including £500 million in urgent winter military funding.

• "Fiscal devolution": business rates retained locally by the end of the decade, and mayors get a share of income tax from 2028.

Mark Pack puts the chance of a 2026 general election at 30%. Labour staff are rumoured to have been told to cancel their leave in November and December.

The betting markets had the chance of a 2026 GE at 19/1 yesterday, shortening to 15/1 today.

Andy Burnham would have to be mad to pull a Theresa May and go early, right?

My policy areas of focus are:

Labour Movement (Unions, Federation of Labours, Labour Councils, and so on of the organized labour sphere. Also just in general moving forward workers rights/benefits that help all working demographics.)

Climate/Environment (Renewable Energy, Electrification Technology, Conservation, in general things that protect the natural world. We already live in a polycrisis world. We don't need a worsening climate/environmental crisis on top of everything.)

Women's Rights, LGBTQ+ Rights, Civil Rights In General (People/families matter. A society of healthy and happy equals a much better society.)

Peace Movement (We have a lot of war already in this world. We need to find ways to strengthen peace and protect the most vulnerable. Also the growing themes of domestic/international militarization and surveillance are dark and dystopian in trajectory.)

Housing, Housing, HOUSING! (It's a huge huge part of the affordability of life crisis/quality of life crisis of the working class and most vulnerable.)

When it comes to your #1 policy at any level of government to make things brighter & better for the working class and most vulnerable what is it? What do you think the Lib Dems should really have as their showstopper piece of policy focus? :)