Lib Dems at Manchester Pride

This Saturday the Liberal Democrats will be out in force showing our support for the LGBT+ community at Manchester Pride. The Lib Dems have a strong and extensive record of supporting LGBT+ equality and we’re looking forward to marching proudly in the parade at one of the UK’s biggest pride events.

You don’t need to be LGBT+ to join in and it’s free to take part – you don’t need a Pride ticket or wristband. Stickers, etc. will be provided for participants. If you’d like to come along to show your support in the parade please join us at 12pm at Castlefield Roman Fort, Duke Street M3 4RU. To RSVP please visit the facebook event page.

There will also be a Lib Dem stall in the Expo throughout the weekend, which will be a fantastic opportunity to engage with LGBT+ people from across the country! If you’d like to volunteer some time to help out on the stall please sign up here. We have three stall passes so you won’t need a Pride ticket/wristband.

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Pre-Pride with Lynne Featherstone

North West Lib Dems are delighted to welcome Baroness Lynne Featherstone to Manchester this Saturday for a pre-pride event at the Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount Street, M2 5NS.

Baroness Featherstone will be talking about her political career, particularly her role as equalities minister in the last government, and as the architect of the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) bill that brought same-sex marriage to England and Wales.

Lynne was a Member of the London Assembly from 2000 to 2005, a Member of Parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green between 2005 and 2015, and become a Baroness of Highgate in October last year.

Doors open at 10.30am for drinks and a chat before the Q&A session starts at 11.00am. After the event Lynne will be joining us to march in the Manchester Pride Parade – we hope to see lots of you there too!

For more information about the Pre-Pride event or to RSVP please click here.

Renters Rights Bill – Tell us Your Story

The Liberal Democrats in Parliament are pushing forward a ‘Renters Right Bill’. supported by tennants lobby groups such as Generation Rent and the Make Renting Fair Campaign.

We’re proposing to:
– Ban letting fees for renters
– Give renters access to an open register of rogue landlords
– Bring in compulsory electrical safety checks in rented homes
– Prevent rogue landlords from obtaining an HMO licence

Renters are hit with high costs every time they move. It is time to bring an end to rip-off letting fees which are already banned in Scotland and which allow letting agents to unfairly charge both the landlord and the tenant.

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But we need as much evidence as we can get to help make the case for the bill – and that’s where you come in!

Tell us how much you’ve paid in fees and share your story with us, so together we can make a difference.

Tim Farron: Brexit has increased cost of European holidays by £300

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Brexit has pushed up the cost of a typical family holiday in Europe by up to £300, the Liberal Democrats say.

Since the 23rd June the falling value of the pound has seen the Euro exchange rate jump from 70p to currently around 86p. This means that a typical 10 day family holiday to Europe will now cost £1,609 – up from £1,310 before the 23rd June.

“For some families, this will make a holiday abroad unaffordable this year,” Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said.

“This problem is not helped by the failure of Theresa May to say whether she wants Britain to remain in the single market or not.

“I call on her to make clear that she thinks Britain should remain part of the world’s most lucrative market and not tie British industry up in endless red tape when it tries to export.”

Local Lib Dem Barbeque – this Sunday

The local Lib Dems are hoding their annual summer BBQ this Sunday (21 August 2106), kindly hosted this year by Cllr Mary, and Vic D’Albert. 2.00pm onwards. 

The guest speaker is Baroness Pinnock of Cleckheaton, Lib Dem Lords Spokesperson on Children and Families. Friends, supporters, members all welcome to this informal and friendly event.

 

The BBQ is £10 per person (£4 children) which includes all food. Tickets available here.

Parliamentary Candidates Chosen for a ‘Snap’ General Election

The Liberal Democrats in Bury have chosen candidates in case Prime Minister Teresa May call’s an early general election.

Lib Dem Group Leader in Bury Cllr Tim Pickstone said:
“Under normal circumstances the next General Election will be in 2020, but given the very significant changes following the EU Referendum, and the chaos in some other political parties, there is always a chance that the PM will seek a fresh mandate.

Other parties like Labour and Ukip are distracted with their own leadership elections and providing no real opposition to the Government.  We are determined to be ready should an early General Election happen.”

In Bury North, former Councillor Richard Baum has been chosen as our candidate. Richard, who works for the NHS,  was a Councillor representing St Mary’s Ward from 2007 to 2011 and contested Bury North in 2015

In Bury South, our candidate will be Andrew Page, a photographer working across the North West who has previously worked in the NHS for 16 years and has been particularly involved in campaigning on health issues.

Candidates will remain in place until next spring. If the General Election is taking place as normal in 2020 then we will be selecting candidates again nearer the time.

 

 

 

Mental Health Funding A Disgrace – Tim Farron

Some of the most heartbreaking cases we’re supporting are children and their families facing terrible mental health provision.

Now, investigation by the Liberal Democrats finds young people facing mental health conditions are waiting months and as long as three years to receive treatment because of a disgraceful lack of funding from government.

In the North East 6-16 year olds are the hardest hit waiting on average 32 weeks for care, while in parts of London on average 21 weeks. Across Britain nearly 70% of councils have been pressured to cut funding.

LONDON - MARCH 05: Liberal Democrat MP for West Morland and Lonsdale, Tim Farron looks on whilst posing for media on March 5, 2008 in London, England. A number of Liberal Democrat Leaders are preparing to defy the order to abstain in the vote on whether there should be a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Battling depression, eating disorders, and other serious mental health conditions is incredibly hard and without support can ruin young people’s prospects for their future. Families can be devastated, and they need our support.

Share this, and demand our government step up and finally invest money in proper mental health care:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/children-mental-health-problems-forced-8535976

Massive Reduction in Plastic Bag Use

Plastic bag use has plummeted in England since the introduction of a 5p charge last year, under the previous coalition government.

The number of single-use plastic bags used by shoppers in England has fallen by more than 85%. More than 7bn bags were handed out by seven main supermarkets in the year before the charge but this has been reduced to just over 500m in the first six months after the charge has been introduced.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said:
We always said the test of this policy would be by the amounts of bags that are cut from public consumption and the funds raised for charities – on both these tests this policy has passed.

I want to pay tribute to (Baroness) Kate Parminter who fought tirelessly for this policy and today’s figures are a testament to her. It is down to Liberal Democrats in Government that this policy happened – we announced it at our 2013 conference and we are now seeing what a huge impact it has had.

The facts are simple; single use bags blight our towns and countryside, they trap and suffocate wildlife, and plastic bags take hundreds of years to degrade. These figures show that this policy is starting to stop that.

In Bury the Liberal Democrats worked hard to get the Council to be more proactive in ensuring that the money raised by the sales of 5p bags would end up in local charities such as this scheme which distributes the money raised at Tesco from bag sales.

Openreach Broadband Reforms

The Liberal Democrats believe that Ofcom Openreach “reforms” leave millions with poor or substandard broadband.

BT’s Openreach division, which runs the UK’s broadband infrastructure, should become a distinct company within the BT group, according to regulator Ofcom.

Campaigners said the changes could not come soon enough for the millions of people who have suffered “woeful levels of service from Openreach”.

The media watchdog has resisted calls to split Openreach off entirely.

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Tim Farron, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, has criticised the watchdog Ofcom for “failing to bark” in not forcing BT to sell the division.

Tim Farron said: “It provides a poor service to customers and has been starved of investment. Giving more powers and investment to Openreach is certainly better than nothing but the crucial thing is it will leave millions of customers with poor quality broadband. That is unacceptable in the modern age when the government claims to be creating a digital economy.

“If a watchdog yet again fails to bark, perhaps it is time to put it down.”

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Full Council: Reporting Back

Earlier in the month was the regular meeting of Bury’s ‘Full Council’. This is the full meeting of all 51 councillors which meets five or six times a year. The meeting was a very busy agenda with important debates on Fracking, the EU Referendum and on Hate Crime.

Fracking
The Government last year released ‘licenses’ to private shale gas companies for potential exploration for future fracking sites. These licenses cover much of Bury.

As a planning authority, Bury Council cannot ‘pre-judge’ any future planning applications for fracking, so it would be impossible for councillors to vote against any fracking in Bury. What we did do is take a firm stance on the issue by saying that the Council would not allow fracking on any Council owned land in the borough.

Liberal Democrats are opposed to fracking. We don’t believe its proven as safe, we don’t believe it is what we want to happen to our countryside and we don’t believe it is a sensible future source of energy needs (i.e. it is not renewable). We voted to support the proposal which was then agreed.

EU Referendum
The Council debated the outcome of the EU referendum, and its potential impact on Bury residents. Obviously at this stage it is not clear what the full impact of the referendum vote will be, but some very early impacts have been on the currency, on the job market and investment – all of which will have an impact on local people.

As Liberal Democrats we were very clear that our Party campaigned for a ‘Remain’ vote, and we haven’t changed our opinion since and continue to believe that the country would be better off in the EU.  We do obviously respect everyone’s vote in the referendum, whichever way they voted, and want to support local people through whatever changes happen now.

Hate Crime
The Liberal Democrat group’s motion at the Council was on hate crime. As a country we have seen a very worrying increase in the reports of hate crime – for example this terrible incident in Prestwich only a few weeks ago – since the EU referendum campaign. We are particularly concerned of some of the language and racism used in the campaign by some people and the impact this has clearly had.

Our view is that we must take a firm stand against all hate crime, and the Council must do all it can to ensure that this sort of activity is not acceptable. Our motion was supported by all parties and is now the Council’s policy.

If you really want to you can even watch the debates online here.
Our contribution on the EU is at 2 hours 53 minutes, and on hate crime at 3 hours 13 minutes.

Questions
The Lib Dem group always ask our full quote of questions (nine in total), some of which we will be reporting on separately.

Tim Pickstone asked about the impact on the Government’s proposal to encourage all schools to be academies, and what leadership role the Council was taking to keep Bury’s schools as a close knit ‘family of schools’.

Steve Wright asked about  whether there is going to be sufficient provision in the borough to deliver the Government’s commitment to 30 hours free childcare.

Mary D’Albert asked about the way that Metrolink communicates with passengers when there are significant delays on the network, particularly when the system is operating at maximum (or well over) capacity when there are major events on.

All the papers for the Council meeting are here. Any questions please let us know.

 

 

Lib Dems Slam NHS List Removals

Millions of patients face being dropped by their GP for being too healthy. They will be axed if they have not seen a doctor in five years and fail to respond to two written warnings.The measure is aimed at freeing up space on surgery lists as well as saving public money.

In some areas patients are being written off after just a year. ‘This is an outrageous practice which undermines the principle that people have a right to be registered with a GP,’ said Norman Lamb, the LibDem health spokesman.

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‘It will hit some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, including many who suffer from mental ill health. It should be abandoned forthwith.’