Lib Dems against the NHS Bill
Upcoming events- South Central Region Liberal Democrats AUTUMN CONFERENCE (Saturday, October 27th, 2012)
- Central Scotland Local Party (Saturday, March 24th, 2012)
- Winchester Constituency Executive (Tuesday, December 4th, 2012)
- Winchester Constituency Executive (Tuesday, September 18th, 2012)
- Winchester Constituency Executive (Tuesday, June 19th, 2012)
- Winchester Constituency Executive (Tuesday, March 20th, 2012)
- Federal Conference, Brighton (Saturday, September 22nd, 2012-Wednesday, September 26, 2012)
- Winchester Liberal Drinks (Thursday, December 6th, 2012)
- Winchester Liberal Drinks (Thursday, November 1st, 2012)
- Winchester Liberal Drinks (Thursday, October 4th, 2012)
John Arlott , a strong Liberal tradition in Alresford
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOjhdW_6df8
C. 1955
Winchester Lib Dems share public’s outrage at cuts to bus services
Winchester’s Liberal Democrats have condemned the cuts to the District’s bus service proposed by the Conservative-led County Council.
City Council group leader Kelsie Learney commented,
“With the last bus out of Winchester at 9.30pm and most services finishing much earlier it will be difficult for many of our residents and particularly the young and old to go out to a concert, a church service, see a film or just have a meal with friends in the evening. If we are to reduce the need for people to use cars we have to provide an alternative.
“The Conservative County Council have said they are protecting trips to work, but a Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 work pattern is no longer the norm. Young people in particular lose out if they cannot be flexible and work Sundays and evenings and it is those outside the City who will suffer the most.
“The County Council is imposing unnecessarily deep cuts on services while it builds up its financial reserves. The bus companies are making big profits and should be doing more to provide a comprehensive service even if some individual journeys are unprofitable.”
Posted in Better Bus Campaign, News, Winchester
Tagged Bus, Charlotte Bailey, Jackie Porter, Kelsie Learney, Phryn Dickens
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Excellent interview with Nick Clegg on phone-hacking
Excellent discussion between Nick Clegg MP and Julian Huppert MP on the subject of phone-hacking and the media.
Posted in Blog, National, Video
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Local Lib Dems win fight over NHS
Thanks to continuing Liberal Democrat pressure, Conservative Health Minister Andrew Lansley’s much criticised NHS reform bill is being delayed for substantial changes to be made. Winchester Lib Dems led the calls for major changes to the health reforms at the Liberal Democrat Spring conference and have been supported by professional health organisations such as the British Medical Association.
Veteran Liberal Democrat politician Shirley Williams also cautioned against changes which could allow private providers to cherry pick easy wins, threaten training and research, and lead to a US style ‘haves and have nots’ health service.
Surprisingly local Conservative Steve Brine spoke and voted again and again in favour of Andrew Lansley’s original plans. He used his position on the Health Bill Committee to give total support to the Bill even though it could have damaged local NHS services.
Winchester Liberal Democrats take leading role in ‘rebellion’ against coalition NHS policy
Winchester Liberal Democrats have joined the ‘rebellion’ against the coalition government’s NHS policies recently reported in the Guardian.
This sets them directly in opposition to their local coalition partner, Conservative MP for Winchester, Steve Brine MP, who is a member of the Public Bill Committee for the Health and Social Welfare Bill in the House of Commons – one of the small group of MPs responsible for line-by-line scrutiny of the bill – who has, so far, voiced no criticism of the Government’s plans.
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Brian Laming wins the Oliver’s Battery & Badger Farm by-election
Liberal Democrats have welcomed Brian Laming’s success in the Oliver’s Battery and Badger Farm by-election on January 27, 2011.
The final result was:
| Brian Laming – Liberal Democrats | 894 | 53.9% |
| Conservative | 604 | 36.4% |
| Labour | 161 | 9.8% |
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Continuing to work for a greener, fairer, safer Winchester
You may have seen reports on BBC South Today that two Winchester City Councillors have defected to the Conservatives. This is untrue and we don’t know where the BBC picked that up from.
What has happened is that Councillor Alexis Fall (Councillor for St Luke) has resigned from the party and declared her intention to sit as an independent. She has been unhappy for a long time for personal reasons and has nothing to do with the coalition and party policy. Discussions to bring her back into the fold are ongoing but it seems unlikely that she will return.
Councillor Adrian Hicks has indicated he is to resign from the party and may stand as an independent in May but remains a member of the Liberal Democrat group and supportive of the Liberal Democrat administration until then.
Since taking control of the City Council from the Conservatives in May, we’ve been working hard to make Winchester greener, fairer and safer – with initiatives like our plan to put solar panels on council houses and other buildings, the improvement of our recycling services and build more affordable homes – and this work is going to continue.
The Liberal Democrats remain the largest party on the Council but are now in minority rather than overall control of the Council.
Winchester Liberal Democrats call upon MPs to oppose rises in tuition fees
The Executive of Winchester Liberal Democrats passed the following resolution at its executive meeting on October 28, 2010:
“The Executive Committee of Winchester and Chandler’s Ford Liberal Democrats applauds the achievements of Liberal Democrat ministers in the coalition Government, and recognises that compromise is the essence of a coalition. However we believe that if we are to secure the trust of the electorate in Liberal Democrat policies and politicians, it is essential that promises made to the electorate are kept even when it becomes difficult to do so. We therefore call upon Liberal Democrat MPs who signed the NUS pledge, to oppose the rises in tuition fees as they promised to do before the election.”
2010 Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate, Martin Tod, commented:
“I am very pleased that the Executive have passed this resolution. I made a personal pledge to students in Winchester to oppose an increase in tuition fees – and, had I been elected, I would have kept it. I urge all Liberal Democrat MPs who signed the pledge to do the same.”
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Environmental campaigner selected to represent Lib Dems
Respected environmental campaigner, Robert Hutchison, will be the Lib Dem candidate in the St Paul by-election
Liberal Democrats in the St Paul ward of Winchester have selected local environmental campaigner Robert Hutchison as their candidate for the forthcoming city council by-election.
Robert is well known in Winchester as the founder and Chair of the influential environmental campaign group WINACC (Winchester Action on Climate Change). A former Chief Executive of Southern Arts (the regional arts board for central southern England) and County Councillor in Shropshire, Robert is an experienced local representative and is keen to speak out for the people of St Paul’s on Winchester City Council. His priorities are to serve the needs of local people, in particular to do everything possible to achieve the best possible value for money from City Council expenditure, and ensure that Winchester secures the benefits of being ‘ahead of the curve’ as we move to a low carbon society.
Robert will help the Liberal Democrat group on the council develop a clear plan for reducing Winchester’s carbon footprint by 20 per cent by 2012 and 40 per cent by 2020. This will be based on a strong low carbon local economy and exemplary developments in home insulation, urban design and affordable housing locally.
Karen Barrett, the former city councillor for St Paul who has resigned for family health reasons, has given her full backing to Robert’s candidacy. Lib Dem Group Leader Kelsie Learney commented, “Robert will bring an unparalleled level of experience and expertise in the environmental arena to the city council and will help us work towards our green goals for Winchester. He will be a very welcome addition to our team here on the City Council.”
The by-election is to be held on 14th October.
Give our Council homes back
Councillor Rose Prowse & Winchester campaigner Martin Tod welcome proposals to return Winchester’s Council homes to local control
Liberal Democrat Winchester City Council has told the Government it wants to take back control of our council homes and start building council houses again.
Under the current system of Council house management Councils are expected to give up a proportion of tenants rents to the government which then redistributes around the country to pay for maintenance.
Winchester gives £9m per year and gets just £3m back again to pay for repairs. Most money from the sale of Council houses also ends up in central government’s pocket.
The previous Labour government had told Councils that if they agreed to take on the national debt associated with housing they would free Council housing from central control. In Winchester’s case this would mean taking on a £30,000 ‘mortgage’ on each house.
Lucille Thompson, Cabinet member for communities said “This system is unfair and if it makes financial sense we want to get out of it.”
Following a Council meeting in June the City has told the new government it is willing to take back control but thinks we should get a better deal.