Chesham and Amersham

I'm writing this month's report before we know the result. But we do already know that we've had the best candidate in Sarah Green, run the best campaign and had an awesome amount of help from people all around the country.

That would all be impressive even in normal times, but coming off the back of the huge May elections and while we're all still dealing with coronavirus and lockdowns, that's been an amazing achievement.

Chesham and Amersham

I'm writing this month's report before we know the result. But we do already know that we've had the best candidate in Sarah Green, run the best campaign and had an awesome amount of help from people all around the country.

That would all be impressive even in normal times, but coming off the back of the huge May elections and while we're all still dealing with coronavirus and lockdowns, that's been an amazing achievement.

At the weekend we met with old friends and new from our European sister parties for ALDE Congress, albeit via a Zoom link, as the Congress was online for the first time. It was my privilege to lead a diverse Lib Dem delegation of around 40, which in addition to the official categories for diversity, included several UK nationals resident in the EU and a few EU citizens resident in the UK.

Priti Patel says refugees should come to the UK through safe and legal routes, and is threatening to punish any who don't.

The Conservative Government is failing to provide any safe and legal routes for refugees to take.

But at the same time, the Conservative Government is failing to provide any safe and legal routes for refugees to take.

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.

A LibDem Perspective
Remember that Big Red Boris Brexit Bus promising 'savings' of £350m per week if we left the EU?
Well, it would take just 11 weeks of that 'saving' to cover the nearly £4bn proposed cuts in overseas
aid which Mr Johnson had promised to maintain when he wanted your votes. Alternatively you could
look at it as one tenth of the (current) cost of HS2, or about 1% of the cost of Covid to our economy
so far.

It's undoubtedly a lot of money, and the £10bn we will apparently continue to give is better than
many countries. But those same people who promised £350m weekly savings are the same people
who promised to maintain overseas aid at 0.7% of our GDP; they are the same people that talk
grandiosely about 'Global Britain'; they are the same people who talked about 'taking back our
sovereignty'- but are not prepared to allow our representatives at Westminster a meaningful vote
on the cuts; they are the same people who boast of our 5 th placed ranking in the size of our
economy. My strictly non-scientific impression is that there is an enormous overlap between those
who supported Brexit and those who support these cuts.

My 29 years' experience in Local Government has shown time and time again that money spent on
pre-empting problems is vastly more effective than money spent clearing them up afterwards. That
applies whether you look at people with social, mental or learning needs, health interventions, crime
prevention, accident black spots- pretty well anything you look at.

Overseas aid is no different. These cuts will directly affect some of the most devastated populations
in the world, including Yemen, Syria, and Rohingya refugees. It will mean cancellations and set-backs
for programmes working on Aids, polio and malaria, FGM, clean water, and indeed, roll-out of Covid
vaccinations. Quite part from helping with the immense humanitarian needs, money spent
improving living conditions encourages a reduction in 'illegal immigration', reduces the scope for
terrorism to flourish, and helps to build the positive international reputation that 'Global Britain' will
need.

In many cases the benefits of aid are completely disproportionate to the costs. Around the world,
1,000 children each and every day die of diarrhoea from poor water sanitation. I am quite frankly
ashamed of a government that can proudly announce spending £200m on a new 'royal yacht' while
consigning hundreds of thousands to death, or to diseases that we could help alleviate. Yes, of
course we have many of our own citizens who need more help but this does not need to be 'either-
or'. We remain a wealthy country and it is just a matter of priorities. Shaving a few minutes off a rail
journey is not a price I believe is worth paying while our Foodbanks see their queues growing and
while children around the world die from drinking dirty water.

Mr Johnson would do well to remember that in the UK, sovereignty rests with Parliament, not him. If
he is going to tear up the manifesto on which his party was elected, he should at least have the
decency to allow a meaningful vote. It is a sad reflection when not even his own back benchers
appear to believe his assurances that these cuts will be 'temporary'.

Cllr Kathryn Field

In glorious sunshine on Saturday 29^th May our many members, election supporters and volunteers, gathered at our two Thank You party venues, Battle and Normans Bay. Enjoying the hospitality provided by Kathryn Field, our successful election winner on 6th May, and Wendy Dash. A special thank you and flowers were presented to Jennifer Als, by Stephen Hardy MBE on behalf of the Local Party and Candidates for her dedication and hard work as our Election Agent.

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.

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.