The 2021summer solstice will occur on Monday 21st June at 4.32 am BST.
On the day of the summer solstice the number of hours of daylight are at their maximum while the number of hours of night are at their minimum.
Many people consider the summer solstice to be a day but in reality it is the exact moment when whichever hemisphere you're in is most tilted towards the Sun.
The government has plans for a new Elections Bill which will introduce mandatory voter ID for Westminster elections and all elections in England.
Mandatory ID presents a significant threat to democratic access and equality. Millions of people lack the forms of required documentation, such as a passport or driving licence and around 3.5 million citizens do not have any photo ID.
Chesham and Amersham constancy has never had anything but a Conservative MP. The council has been controlled by the Conservatives for over a century. The Conservatives have never dipped below 50% of the vote here.
Until now.
The Lib Dem team, and the people of Chesham and Amersham sent a shockwave through British politics by electing Liberal Democrat Sarah Green as the constituency's new MP.
The Tories thought they could take the Blue Wall for granted. They were wrong.
Liberal Democrats took on the Tories in their heartlands, and won. They showed that, no matter where you live, or how supposedly "safe" your seat is - if you want a Liberal Democrat MP, you can get one.
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.
Back in 1999 the House of Lords was reorganised but not to be an elected chamber. Instead there are 92 hereditary peers, a couple of dozen 'Lords Spiritual and Temporal' (mainly C of E bishops) and filled up with any number of political appointments. It's a ridiculous composition but the fact that in 2021, hereditary aristocrats still have a place in our parliament is beyond baffling.
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.
On 8th June the Boundary Commission England published its proposals for new boundaries for English constituencies. Scotland and Wales will follow later. Current constituencies have a huge variation in their electorates and the new electoral boundaries attempt to ensure that they all contain around 73,400 constituents each.
