#Tim Farron MP

[insidecroydon]

LibDem power struggle after Dombey retires as Sutton leader

BELLE MONT on the end of an error at the south-west London council Dodgy: Ruth Dombey ruled Sutton with an iron fist for 12 years Ruth Dombey, the Liberal Democrat leader of Sutton Council, is standing down from the position in May. Dombey has been leader of the council since 2012, making her one of the longest-lasting council leaders in the country. Her announcement this morning attracted…

[disabled-dragoon]

[ID: A document. It is a list of British MPs, split into four columns and listed alphabetically in bulleted descending order.

The title "The 125 MPs who voted for a Ceasefire in Gaza, on Wednesday, 15th Nov. 2023" is at the top of the document in red writing.

The MPs listed in column 1 are:

Diane Abbott

Tahir Ali

Rosena Allin-Khan

Hannah Bardell

Paula Barker

Apsana Begum

Clive Betts

Mhairi Black

Paul Blomfield

Steven Bonnar

Deidre Brock

Alan Brown

Karen Buck

Richard Burgon

Dawn Butler

Ian Byrne

Liam Byrne

Amy Callaghan

Dan Carden

Alistair Carmichael

Wendy Chamberlain

Sarah Champion

Douglas Chapman

Joanna Cherry

Hywel Williams

Munira Wilson

Beth Winter

Pete Wishart

Mohammad Yasin

Daisy Cooper

Jeremy Corbyn

The MPs listed in column 2 are:

Ronnie Cowan

Angela Crawley

Stella Creasy

Jon Cruddas

Judith Cummins

Ed Davey

Martyn Day

Marsha De Cordova

Martin Docherty-Hughes

Allan Dorans

Peter Dowd

Sarah Dyke

Colum Eastwood

Jonathan Edwards

Julie Elliot

Tim Farron

Stephen Farry

Marion Fellows

Stephen Flynn

Richard Foord

Mary Kelly Foy

Barry Gardiner

Patricia Gibson

Patrick Grady

Peter Grant

Sarah Green

Margaret Greenwood

Fabian Hamilton

Claire Hanna

Neale Hanvey

Drew Hendry

The MPs listed in column 3 are:

Wera Hobhouse

Kate Hollern

Rachel Hopkins

Stewart Hosie

Rupa Huq

Imran Hussain

Christine Jardine

Afzal Khan

Ben Lake

Ian Lavery

Chris Law

Emma Lewell-Buck

Clive Lewis

David Linden

Rebecca Long Bailey

Caroline Lucas

Kenny MacAskill

Angus Brendan MacNeil

Khalid Mahmood

Rachael Maskell

Andy McDonald

Stewart Malcolm McDonald

Stuart C McDonald

John McDonnell

Conor McGinn

Anne McLaughlin

John McNally

Ian Mearns

Carol Monaghan

Layla Moran

Helen Morgan

Grahame Morris

The MPs in column 4 are:

John Nicolson

Brendan O'Hara

Sarah Olney

Kate Osamor

Kate Osborne

Sarah Owen

Jess Phillips

Anum Qaisar

Yasmin Qureshi

Bell Ribeiro-Addy

Lloyd Russell-Moyle

Liz Saville Roberts

Naz Shah

Andy Slaughter

Alyn Smith

Cat Smith

Alex Sobel

Chris Stephens

Jamie Stone

Zarah Sultana

Sam Tarry

Alison Thewliss

Owen Thompson

Richard Thomson

Stephen Timms

Jon Trickett

Valerie Vaz

Claudia Webbe

Philippa Whitford

Nadia Whittome

/end]

The mps the voted for a ceasefire

[christinamac1]

Mine Water Pollution in Whitehaven Harbour is Red Flag for New Coal Mine. — RADIATION FREE LAKELAND

Originally posted on Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole: Mine Water Pollution in Whitehaven Harbour is Red Flag for New Coal Mine. Campaigners have sent a letter (10.2.23) to the Coal Authority via Cumbrian MP Tim Farron urging the Coal Authority not to renew West Cumbria Mining’s conditional licence for onshore mining which expired in… Mine Water Pollution in Whitehaven Harbour is Red Flag for New…

[cumbriacrack]

Tim Farron to kick-start summer surgery tour next week Next week, South Lakes MP Tim Farron will be visiting 36 towns and villages stretching from Grasmere down to Burton and Torver across to Dent, as part of his annual summer surgery tour. Full story: https://www.cumbriacrack.com/2020/08/21/tim-farron-to-kick-start-summer-surgery-tour-next-week/

[politiciansandanimals]

Tim Farron with Jasper.

[lhs3020b]

Strategy

So, it’s Saturday the 13th of April, and Brexit is now running late - for the second time.

Also, there is now going to be a European Parliament election in the UK this year (unless something weird/bonkers happens, because it’s the late 2010s and weird/bonkers is the new normal, so who knows?).

 Here's an opportunity to poke the Conservative Party and the Brexit lobby in the eye. We need to think seriously about what we’re going to do in late May...

It's fair to say that Brexit hasn’t gone to plan. And in fairness, it hasn’t gone quite the way I expected either - I assumed that No Deal would have been and gone by now. However, as things stand, No Deal is just delayed until November. It’s important to note that a) Theresa May is still Prime Minister and b) the Tories are still the largest group of MPs in Parliament. The basic Brexit dynamics haven’t changed. And given that, we should be careful about assuming anything else changes.

So, how do we change the dynamics? Well, there’s two upcoming rounds of elections - the local elections in early May, and then the European Parliament elections later that month. The Tories tried to keep the UK out of the Euro elections, and managed to completely-fail - Brexit Brexiting itself, almost.

One thing Tories absolutely do care about is their careers (and their salaries). And the elections thus give us a chance to punch them in a place where it hurts.

In both cases, do not vote for the Tory Party. Being blunt, the Tory Party is the crisis. But for them, this probably could have been settled by now.

(I’m also assuming that all of you know better than UKIP/the new Farage vehicle. If you somehow don’t, then please re-consider your life and how you’re living it.)

The Euro elections use a somewhat-more proportional system than Westminster elections do, so the advice I’d give for these is a bit different from what I’d say for Westminster. For Westminster, the sensible voting strategy is “whoever can beat the Tory”. For the European Parliament, we can get away a bit more with actually voting-by-conscience.

Briefly, here is what we need to see: a very, very bad night for the Tory Party, and a good one for the soft(er) Brexit parties. (Aside from the SNP and the Greens, I don’t think we actually have any overtly-Remain parties.)

Basically we need to be in a situation where Theresa May has lost two national elections in a row. That will destabilise her, and by extension will destabilise the wider Conservative Party. We want them to spend June in a state of blind panic. Ideally we need the Tories into at least third place - if we could get them into fourth, that would be brilliant.

As a specific case in point of these things, look at what happened in 2014 - when UKIP came first in the UK’s European elections that year, that was when the narrative started to tilt toward Brexit. It was also when the BBC started giving UKIP preferential air-time, which helped them enormously. (The BBC seems to have got rather right-wing over the last five years - I’m led to understand that the moderates inside it have lost internal-politics ground to the recent Tory appointees - so it’s unlikely that the BBC would ever swing behind Remain. However, if we won a national election, the BBC wouldn’t be able to ignore us either, and anything helps when it comes to media exposure.)

As for specific thoughts on strategy for the Euro elections, it’s hard to say. I have some misgivings about Labour’s Brexit stance - they’re more Brexity than I’d like. On the other hand, they’re not Brexit accelerationists the way the Tories are, so Labour are a plausible choice in that sense. Plus, losing to Labour would add to the sense of decay and panic within the Tory ranks. (”The monster Corbyn - the monster! the monster! - who, uh, got more votes than we did. Fuck.”)

As for the minor parties, I’m past the point where I’d endorse the Lib Dems for anything. Vince Cable didn’t bother himself to turn up for a key Brexit vote, and that was quite telling about their real priorities. And given what we know now about Tim Farron’s actual views on homosexuality - well, fair to say that party is no friend of ours. The parliamentary portion of the LDs hasn’t acted like it strongly-cares about Remain, and in fact I strongly suspect they’re lining Remainers up for another reverse-ferret like they did with tuition fees. Plus they performed very poorly indeed in 2014 - only one MEP! - so it’s very questionable if they’re worth the bother of voting for.

ChangeUK/TIG or whatever it is called this week ... well, their sort of austerian centrism isn’t my thing. But on the other hand, if you’re a Right-leaning voter who struggles with the other choices, then perhaps they might be a reasonable home.

The SNP and Plaid Cymru I don’t really know enough about to comment on - and anyway, if you’re an English voter, they’re not directly-relevant. But on the other hand, if you live in Scotland or Wales, then the calculation may be different.

The Green Party tend not to win many elections, which is frustrating as they seem to be the most Remainy party in England, at least. However, in 2014 they did win seats in the South West, in London and in the South East - so if you live in those areas, they’re a plausible choice. (And it’s worth noting that 2014 was very much UKIP’s night - if the Greens did well then, then they might do better today, now that the UKIP boom has been and gone.)

But the key thing is to remember to turn up and vote at all. Only four million people voted UKIP in 2014, whereas six million people signed the Revoke petition. I genuinely suspect that we could have won in 2016, but a lot of us sat it out because “oh it’s Cameron scheming” or “they’re all the same” or “oh it’s not like it will matter”. We got lazy and complacent - yes, me as well! I cringe looking back at some of the ambivalent hand-wringing stuff I wrote back in early 2016! We mustn’t make that mistake again.

[pascalbeucler]

Tim Farron(LibDem MP): "Every one of those 2.6 million hours worth of sewage dumped into our lakes, rivers & onto our coastal areas was done with the permission of the govt.. water company profits need to be used for infrastructure, rather than lining the pockets of shareholders" https://twitter.com/haggis_uk/status/1561638155006115840?s=21&t=_9dsMoCgLI_GvQML0CEfOA #RawSewage #ToryScumOut The trending t-shirt in the UK 😌 https://www.instagram.com/p/ChmTXg7rJ1P/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[uk-news-talking-politics]

Brexit vote: May faces her day of judgement

By Ian Dunt

It was crushing. Never in our lifetime has a prime minister been humiliated like this. After the vote was over, the parliamentary nerds started trying to find another moment in British political history when the government had been defeated so comprehensively. It's possible they haven't been.

The MPs were crowded in the No lobby like sardines. Usual political enemies like Tim Farron and Iain Duncan Smith joked away, their animosity temporarily put to one side as they united to kill Theresa May's deal. More cautious commentators had been hedging their bets, suggesting many would abstain, but it wasn't to be. They delivered a body blow. The final result was 202 votes for and 432 against. A majority of 230. A biblical level of defeat. The kind of dafeat that puts you in the history books.

By any rights, that should have been it. No British prime minister before her would have stayed in place after that. But instead of resigning, May quickly darted for her sole remaining advantage: the DUP's continued loyalty to the concept that Jeremy Corbyn must be kept out of power at all costs. She encouraged the leader of the opposition to table a vote of no-confidence in the government. This would allow her to take the challenge to her position in a way where it was very likely she'd survive.

Corbyn took the bait. He had to. Anything else would have looked like rank cowardice. The vote takes place tomorrow. Probably, Corbyn will fail. And then, technically, he is in the next stage of the sequence he'd been forced to accept by members at the Labour conference. Renegotiations won't happen. A general election won't happen if he loses that vote. And then there's the 'all other options' stage.

Each step drives him remorselessly towards having to support a People's Vote. But he is going to fight it every step of the way. He is going to do everything in his power to prevent it. He will table confidence motion after confidence motion if he has to. Corbyn is desperate not to be the person to call that vote.

Then May, with the closest approximation of a humble tone she could muster, tried to present herself once again as a reasonable centrist. She was better at it this time. She insisted that she would not try to work down the clock. She sounded very much like she would never tolerate no-deal. On the other hand, Brexit had to go ahead. She would also continue to oppose a second referendum.

It's a wierd state of affairs. No-deal and People's Vote are the two obvious options which hang over everything, but neither the prime minister nor the leader of the opposition are prepared to countenance either of them.

Instead, May said she wanted to see if there was any view which could win a majority in the Commons. She was giving herself over to parliament. There'd be a statement on Monday - if indeed the government still existed on Monday - along with an amendable motion. But outside of no-deal and People's Vote, what options are there really available to her?

There are only two things that can be changed in order to get a deal: the withdrawal agreement and the future relationship document.

The only thing you can do to the former is to remove the backstop. This, and only this, would placate the hardcore Brexiters. But it would not bring Labour on board and more than enough Remain Tories would vote with the opposition to defeat it. It doesn't matter though. It's irrelevant. The EU will never take the backstop out.

Changing the future relationship document is much more tempting. It can be done easily on the EU side. And technically it could bring Labour on board. If she was to amend the wording so that it promised a permanent customs union and strong promises on workers and environmental rights it would almost directly replicate Labour's position. Could this bring the opposition on board?

On a moral and logical level the answer is surely yes. But on a political level, the answer is absolutely not. Labour does not want to touch Brexit. It wants the process to take place in such a way that it can blame everything on the government and keep its fragile coalition of mostly Remain voters and some Leave voters onside. Helping May pass a deal is suicide.

This means that no specific deal, no matter the content, is possible. So we come back to the same problem. The two options she and Corbyn have rejected are the only ones which are possible: no-deal and a People's Vote.

That brings parliament into play. If the leaders won't pick one of the two possible options, then MPs will have to mass behind one and force their hand. At the moment there is no majority for no-deal or a People's Vote. Many MPs have ruled out both. But soon they are going to have to decide which of the two they find most objectionable.

No-deal comes closer and closer. In the time remaining, May has promised amendable votes, MPs have shown every willingness to force her to hold them, and Bercow today reiterated that MPs will be able to debate and vote on whatever they want. So as the weeks pass, these options will be thrown forward as alternatives, as brake pads to prevent calamity. And eventually those options are likely to whittle down until only a People's Vote is left.

The question is whether enough MPs have the bravery and responsibility to prevent no-deal. We're about to find out.

[ianchisnall]

Sewage waste disposal as described by the Government

Sewage waste disposal as described by the Government

A few weeks ago Tim Farron asked this question which was answered by Steve Double who is the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Minister. Also a year ago in October 2021 according to the Guardian Maria Caulfield who is the Lewes MP stated “None of us voted to discharge sewage into the sea and those of who have spread lies and misinformation should hang their heads in shame. Don’t ask why MPs get…

[katiemcgrath]

tim farron out there still being a homophobic cunt. lib dems doing their standard weekly apology, this time for missing a key brexit vote. lib dems, the ultimate saviours from the brexit with their 12 mp’s, two of whom couldn’t be bothered to turn up to a key vote.

@ lib dems, IS THIS YOUR KING? 

[sachkiawaaj]

Jubilant Lib Dems claim they have ‘burst Boris’s bubble’ in North Shropshire

Jubilant Lib Dems claim they have ‘burst Boris’s bubble’ in North Shropshire

North Shropshire by-election victor Helen Morgan today declared that Liberal Democrats are literally “bursting Boris’s bubble” by popping a giant blue balloon at the scene of the dramatic Tory defeat. Hours after being confirmed as the first non-Conservative MP for the area for almost 200 years, Ms Morgan was joined by Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper and ex-leader Tim Farron to celebrate the…

[christinamac1]

UK's Nuclear Financing Bill - very strange logic - with £40 billion to £60 billion for a new nuclear power station seen as a good thing.

UK’s Nuclear Financing Bill – very strange logic – with £40 billion to £60 billion for a new nuclear power station seen as a good thing.

Last week Tim Farron MP sent the following reply to Radiation Free Lakeland when we urged him to vote NO to the public paying for new nuclear build in the Nuclear Financing Bill yesterday. Our MP’s opposition to new nuclear is heartening. But this opposition was not reflected in the vote of458 for to 53 against (how many others opposed did not vote?) the Bill at third reading. The Bill will now…

[politiciansandanimals]

Tim Farron with a dog.

[melissabowden1089]

Event Analysis: UK March for Europe

"March for Europe 3 Sept 2016 - 01" by garryknight is marked with CC0 1.0

Although 51.9% of United Kingdom voters chose to leave the European Union in 2016 in the historical event we now call Brexit, 48.1% of voters wanted to stay - and for good reasons. Many Remain supporters felt that staying in the European Union was beneficial and worthwhile to the UK and that leaving would diminish their status as one of the biggest financial centers in the world. In addition, leaving the EU would create immense job loss and immigrants would continue to face discrimination and xenophobia. For these reasons and more, Remainers took to the streets back in 2016 to protest the referendum results and voice their concerns.

Background

Organized on social media, the anti-Brexit protest known as March for Europe was held in London on July 3rd, 2016. Subsequent protests of its kind have continued to occur over the last couple of years as well, proving that the Remainers are still trying to fight for what they believe in. Thousands of protestors marched down the streets of London equipped with posters and flags. They began their journey in Hyde Park and moved to Whitehall all the way to the Houses of Parliament. One might be wondering what exactly Remainers were aiming to accomplish with this protest since the decision to leave the EU was already made on June 23rd. Well, I’ll tell you.

Reasons for Protest

According to one of the protests’ organizers, Kieran MacDermott, protesters were hoping to stop the government from triggering Article 50, which would begin the formal process of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU. Remainers were demanding more public consultation on every stage of Brexit negotiations despite official government responses that leaving the EU is the final decision. However, although that was the final decision, the entire Vote Leave campaign was filled with misinformation and the referendum wasn’t fought on a level playing field.

Protestors were passionate and vigilant. Prominent political leaders and musicians such as Jarvis Cocker of the band Pulp, Labour MP David Lammy, and Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron even joined the march to show their support. Cocker went on to make the point that “You cannot deny geography. The UK is in Europe.” Many UK citizens are proud to be from Europe and were disheartened when the referendum results came out. They reject the populist ideologies of those in power who seek to attack the established parties and have a strong dislike for pluralism and political tolerance.

The decision to leave the EU also unveiled a lot of racism and xenophobia in the UK government system and brought it to the forefront as well. This was another core reason why Remainers began protesting. Leave supporters were infamous for wanting to close the UK’s borders and were openly opposed to immigration as they believed that migrants were causing economic grievances. Although immigration had risen in the UK in recent years, it’s been proven that immigration isn’t the cause of economic struggles. March for Europe represents a counter-movement to the growing presence of right-wing, anti-immigrant, racist, nationalist, sexist, homophobic, anti-semitic and anti-Muslim movements throughout Europe. 

Outcome

Although Remainers fought hard to stop the UK government from triggering Article 50, they were unsuccessful in swaying the decision. Though disappointing for Remainers, they continue to fight for what they believe in to this day and have organized similar protests even after 2016, including this one in October 2019 to demand that voters be given the final say on Brexit. It’s clear that they won’t give up until their voices are heard and the UK government changes their ways.

[cumbriacrack]

Lakes Line heritage service gets glowing review from passengers Local MP Tim Farron has welcomed a passenger survey from the independent transport user watchdog, Transport Focus Full story: https://www.cumbriacrack.com/2018/06/29/lakes-line-heritage-service-gets-glowing-review-from-passengers/