Speaking in Brighton on 12th June, 2012, Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander addressed the GMB trade union conference. The speech, his first to a trade union conference, highlighted the historic relationship between Liberals and trade unions and emphasised the common ground between the Liberal Democrats and the union movement.
Leading Liberal Democrat Councillors from all over England gathered on Saturday at the Universityof Bedford for a conference organised by the Local Government Association. The keynote speaker was the Deputy Prime Minister Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP who had recently acquitted himself so well at the Leverson Inquiry. Nick arrived fresh from NOT supporting our Conservative coalition partners in the Commons debate on the behaviour of the much-entangled (with the Murdoch Empire) Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt - who was "in it together" with David Cameron, who was "in it together" with Rebekah Wade...and so on.
NHS Hertfordshire has now approved the full business case for the replacement QEII Hospital in Welwyn Garden City. The planned 4-storey Local General Hospital will replace the existing buildings and is expected to be complete by August 2014.
The guest speaker at a dinner in the University of Bedford last Friday organised by the Local Government Organisation for leading Liberal Democrat councillors was Councillor the Lord Tope - an unusual title to put on any business card. But if a "polymath" is a person who has a grasp of many different academic subjects, the Baron Tope just has to be a "polypolitician"!
Even the Guardian, the paper that's been so critical of the Coalition in general and the Lib Dems in particular, these past two years, has had to run this story. This is the announcement that many of us have wanted to see for as long as we've been politically active. That women who take time out of the labour market to care for children or sick relatives will not be penalised in their old age.
Commenting on the Chancellor and the Governor of the Bank of England's plans to create more credit to boost the economy, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Treasury Committee, Stephen Williamssaid:
