Welcome

At today's meeting of the Education, Libraries and Localism Cabinet Panel. The Liberal Democrat team voted against the County's plans to outsource their much loved and highly popular Library Service while the Labour Group leader abstained. In spite of this, the Conservative led Panel agreed to the County developing a detailed business case before finally deciding whether to go ahead with the scheme.

The Government has tonight been defeated in the House of Lords on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill.

An amendment on the customs union supported by the Liberal Democrats, Crossbenchers, Labour, and Conservative peers has passed by 348 votes to 225.

The defeat forces the government to lay a report before Parliament outlining the steps taken to negotiate a customs union as part of the framework for a future UK-EU relationship, and prevents the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972 until these steps have been taken.

This is a hugely significant moment, the House of Lords has come together to show the government that remaining in a customs union is key to the UK's future prosperity.

Securing this win on a cross-party basis rams home how out of touch the government have been on this issue and that they drastically need to change tack from the destructive hard Brexit they are pursuing.

Empowering and thought-provoking, this intensive training weekend for aspiring female MPs will provide you with the knowledge and skills required to run as a successful candidate.

Many current and former female Lib Dem MPs started their journeys at an FWMP event and you could be next!

The invaluable opportunities, skills and advice you will gain include:

10 FREE PLACES FOR YLDs !!!

YOU may have the opportunity to gain one of ten FREE places at the Green Liberal Democrat conference in May. And the good news is that we have extended the deadline for entry into the competition. The deadline for entering WAS going to be Noon on Friday 20^th April, but we have extended the deadline to Noon on Monday 30^th April - so you have ten extra days to get that short essay written.

Take advantage of this promotion

In order to reduce the stresses of making sure I am at the conference venue promptly on the morning of 19th May I just decided to book myself into the De Vere Hotel on the Jubilee Campus for the night of Friday 18th May. Early breakfast, two minute walk to the conference venue along the lakeside walkway, Hey Presto, I am onsite. I do not have to worry about last minute traffic jams in Nottingham, even though I only live near Newark, less than an hour away on a good day.

SAY 'NO' TO THE TORY GREEN BIN TAX

From July the Conservative-run Council will charge you £50 to have your Green Bin emptied.

The Liberal Democrats do not accept the Green bin tax. As the only Opposition Party at West Berkshire we have led the fight and voted against it being introduced.

Not only have the Conservative run council hit us with a near 6% percent rise in Council Tax, but now we are being charged another £50 on top to have our green bins emptied.

The Liberal Democrats in Newcastle have welcomed the announcement today on the extension of the garden waste contracts for 2017/18. Here's today's announcement from the City Council :

Garden Waste - Missed Collections

"Due to the recent extreme weather conditions, a number of households missed one or two of their planned garden waste collections. To put this right we are extending the 2017/18 garden waste year by 3 weeks, from 22^nd May to 8^th June so that valued customers receive all 20 collections. This means that the new 2018/19 garden waste service will commence on 12^thJune 2018. We will be sending information out about this soon. Thank you for your support."

In the years before the 2008 crash, Vince Cable built a reputation for seeing further ahead than most in politics and economics. Vince's essay in the new Social Liberal Forum book "Four Go in Search of Big Ideas" enhances this record.

Writing before recent revelations about Cambridge Analytica, he identified: "the heart of the worries growing deeper about the data giants: that by filtering the information we receive they can influence not just the goods and services we consume but how we vote and, indeed, what we think".

Participation

One of the key tenets of a real democracy, a LIBERAL democracy, is that people should always participate. This is certainly no less the case in a GREEN Liberal Democracy. For those of you who have seen the draft programme, you will already know that we have gained the participation of a number of excellent speakers who will, no doubt, raise interesting points we might not have thought about in depth before, or make us think about things from a different perspective than we might have done before.