I am delighted, honoured, absolutely over the moon to stand before you as the leader of the Liberal Democrats.
And as the first woman to lead our party.
I am delighted, honoured, absolutely over the moon to stand before you as the leader of the Liberal Democrats.
I joined this party when I was 17. And over the last twenty-two years, through all the ups and downs, the Liberal Democrats have felt like a family to me.
Jo Swinson has been elected the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, winning a vote among party members to take over following Vince Cable's two-year tenure, with the party newly resurgent in the polls.
Jo won 47,997 votes against 28,021 for Ed Davey.
In recent weeks, the Lib Dems have also acquired a new MP - Chuka Umunna, and the party is hopeful of welcoming more defectors from the rump of post-Change UK independents or from among disaffected Conservative or Labour MPs.
A decade ago we all knew that there was an economic crisis. Banks were collapsing. Credit was drying up. Bankruptcies. Job losses. Escalating budget deficits. A big drop in the currency. You didn't need a Nobel Prize in economics to realise that something was terribly amiss. It was the biggest financial crisis in over a century, and the biggest drop in production and incomes since the interwar period.
Do you know someone special who deserves to be recognized for their service to the party? Yes, it's party awards time again!
Every year at Autumn Conference we hand out prestigious party awards to members who have done some of the most outstanding work in the party. Going above and beyond the call of duty time and time again.
It's been equal parts incredible, exhausting and humbling to be at the centre of a massive Lib Dem parliamentary by-election.
I'm honoured to join a select group of people who get the full national parliamentary by-election treatment, with the best of the best Lib Dem campaigners in the country fighting to get me elected.
From September 2020 it will be compulsory for the curriculum in primary schools in England and Wales to included relationships education, for secondary schools to included relationships and sex education and for all schools to included health education.
The new law retains the parental right of withdrawal from sex education, with new rights for children to 'opt-in' as they approach age 16 and there will be flexibility for schools in their approach, including for faith schools to teach within the tenets of their faith.
Once again Wolverhampton Lib Dems had stalls at the Wombourne Carnival and the Albrighton & Donington Fayre.
The good weather brought large crowds to the field behind Wombourne Parish Council offices which kept the stall busy all day. The Carnival Committee set up a row of stalls at the end of the site all of which are raising funds for local community organisations. On other parts of the site there's the usual ice cream and burger sellers, donkey rides and a variety of local companies wishing to promote their products or give you a chance to win a brand new Mini.
As I write this on Friday, I am about to set off for Brecon and Radnorshire, to help the brilliant Jane Dodds campaign in the by-election. It will be my third visit since the Recall petition first started. Make no bones about it, Jane is a brilliant candidate and our team there is outstanding, but we need more people to help over the next few weeks: we have a tough fight on our hands in a very rural seat. We need more people to help deliver leaflets, knock on doors and help with clerical work. Please, please, come and help. Postal votes land on doorsteps, and we need to call on postal voters this coming weekend, before many voters go on holiday.
After a time-warp 6 week campaign, an 18 hour polling day marathon and an incredible win on 26 May, the sixteen of us went to Brussels in June to take up our new positions as MEPs. You might have heard about the furore we caused!
The Liberal Democrat cohort are sworn in as MEPs. If you like our tshirts, you can get your own here
