Liberal Democrats

Tory attempt to attack Swinson's Brexit stance backfires spectacularly

www.indy100.com/article/conservatives-campaign-video-jo-swinson-revoke-article-50-backdired-9101391

"One Nation" Tories are flocking to the LibDems.

www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1265041-Liberal-Democrats?pg=5

Liberal Democrat party members are in Bournemouth for their annual conference, with the party's leader hoping to convince them to back a new policy of scrapping Brexit without another referendum.

Jo Swinson says holding the referendum got the UK "into a mess". and she believes revoking Article 50 - the formal process to leave the EU - is the only satisfactory way out.

Deputy leader Ed Davey said Lib Dems could offer people finality on Brexit. Up until now, the party's policy on Brexit has been to campaign for another referendum - in which it would again campaign for the UK to stay in the EU. Mr Davey said a referendum would have been the best way to solve the problem. "We want a referendum now, but it does look like other parties won't give us that," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

With a general election expected soon, he said: "People want an end to this, and the only way you can stop Brexit in a democratic exercise like a general election is to say you would revoke. and if we had a mandate of becoming a majority Liberal Democrat government, we're saying that's what we'd do".

If Lib Dem members vote to back their leader's policy proposal on Sunday, revoking Article 50 would be written into the party's next election manifesto.

MPs in all parties are preparing for a Brexit-themed general election, and Ms Swinson wants her party to have the most unequivocally anti-Brexit message - that the Lib Dems would immediately scrap Brexit.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49698800

Great news varian- all we need now is for the Labour Party to make their plans clear so that people can vote accordingly in the next election.

Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson has just announced that Sam Gyimah MP has just joined the Liberal Democrats. She says-

"This evening, I had the pleasure of welcoming Sam Gyimah onto stage at Lib Dem conference, as our eighteenth member of Parliament. Sam Gyimah joins the Liberal Democrats. Sam Gyimah is a fantastic Remain campaigner. He was one of the 21 Conservative MPs that had the whip removed for helping us to stop no deal.

He is a man of principle, and I’m so glad he’s joined the Liberal Democrats this evening. Sam joins Chuka Umunna, Sarah Wollaston, Jane Dodds, Phillip Lee, Luciana Berger and Angela Smith in joining us in recent weeks.

And it’s not just MPs. We’ve been seeing the biggest and most sustained membership surge in our party’s history in recent months. We’ve had 40,000 new members join us, 20,000 more register as supporters, and we’re surging in the polls. There is something special happening in the Liberal Democrats.

Labour and the Conservatives are led by ineffective leaders and have been taken over by the extreme wings of their parties. It is clear that people are rallying around the Liberal Democrats as the strongest party to stop Brexit, fix our broken politics and build a fairer society. "

Boris Johnson has suffered a fresh blow as the former Tory universities minister Sam Gyimah dramatically defected to the Liberal Democrats, accusing the prime minister of “veering towards populism and English nationalism”.

Sam Gyimah: ‘I am an outcast in the Tory party’ In a major coup for the Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson at the start of her party’s annual conference, Gyimah said he had left the Conservatives to fight against the government’s “scorched earth approach” to delivering Brexit regardless of the cost to the country.

Announcing his defection exclusively to the Observer as his new party gathered in Bournemouth, Gyimah said centrists were being “cast out of both main parties”. The East Surrey MP called on them to unite and fight back against the drift to the extremes.

“I listen to ministers undermining the courts,” he said. “Ministers questioning experts because their views are inconvenient for what the government is saying about no deal. You have a government that says law enforcement is the centrepiece of its platform, and yet says in another breath that it will pick and choose what laws it chooses to respect.

“This is in many ways undermining key pillars of our constitution and the functioning of our democracy. The issue for me is not just Brexit. It is beyond Brexit – how you conduct politics and the veering towards populism and English nationalism.”

Gyimah is the first of the 21 Tory rebels who were stripped of the party whip for voting against the government for a bill to block no deal to join the Lib Dems. Swinson’s party hopes that support from liberal Tory voters can deliver them their best ever general election result should a poll take place in the next few months.

The former minister, regarded as a rising star in Theresa May’s administration, is the sixth MP to defect to the Lib Dems this year and follows former Labour MPs Luciana Berger and Angela Smith, and fellow former Tory MP Phillip Lee.

The latest defection will be a further boost to Lib Dem morale as the likelihood of a general election grows amid continuing Brexit turmoil. Gyimah’s switch of allegiance means the Lib Dems now have 18 MPs, up from 12 at the 2017 election. The party has recently updated its targets for a snap election and believes that there are now more than 10

Writing today in the Observer Swinson says: “The Liberal Democrats are the strongest Remain party in the UK, and we continue to grow, adding members, councillors and MPs. When a general election comes, we will be ready for it and ready to take our clear, pro-European message to the country.”

In an attempt to further sharpen the party’s pro-remain message, conference delegates will vote on Sunday on whether to reverse Brexit without a referendum by revoking article 50 if they form the next government. Ahead of that vote Swinson says: “We want to stop Brexit, and if the Liberal Democrats win the general election then we will revoke article 50. Our country deserves better than Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson. The Liberal Democrats are the positive, hopeful alternative that the country needs.”

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/14/sam-gyimah-former-tory-minister-slams-populist-johnson-as-he-joins-lib-dems

I'd be very interested to know how any
@LibDems
member or supporter who claims to be a Socialist and want a fairer world can accept all the
@Conservatives
and unsavoury people being welcomed into the party ? What about existing candidates being replaced by these defections ?
The Lib Dems have adopted Tory Phillip Lee - who opposes electoral reform and voted more than 50 times to attack benefit claimants.

A xenophobe and homophobe he is now joined by Sam Gyimah, who filibustered the 'Turing Bill' which would have pardoned a 20th century hero.

The Lib Dems are really hoovering up all the nasty dross from the other parties aren't they, considering the voting record of their new recruits shows what a selfish and nasty party the Lib Dems are!

#CrookedConservatism
#LibDemAreTories

Ppl act like Tories joining the Lib Dems is such a huge change. Chill, both parties worked together in the coalition to fuck students and poor people over. They have quite a bit in common!

Grany LibDems don't claim to be Socialists. In fact, I suspect that Marx wouldn't even consider Corbyn to be a Socialist.

How can you accuse Sam Gyimah of being homophobic, when he has consistently voted in favour of gay rights?

www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24789/sam_gyimah/east_surrey/divisions?policy=826

He contributed to the filibustering of the "Turing Bill" because he believed that it would mean that some men would be pardoned for having sex with and/or raping young men under the age of 16. He proposed an amendment.

Please don't smear people without knowing the full facts.

Sam Gyimah MP tells us what he has joined the Liberal Democrats

news.sky.com/story/former-tory-leadership-contender-sam-gyimah-defects-to-liberal-democrats-11809637

From Wiki:

Lee abstained over Same-sex marriage legislation, noting that Parliament's role should be limited to legislating for equal civil union while calling on the Church to find a way to recognise same-sex relationships.

There were many people who felt the same. They had nothing against same-sex relationships from a legal point of view, but felt that Parliament shouldn't try to force the Church do something against its beliefs.

That's not homophobic.

Hummm legislating for same sex marriage isn’t about forcing churches to perform marriage ceremonies but allowing churches to do so if they wish,surely? Why would an MP not want to allow that possibility?

looks very like a Tory /Lib Dem coalition ..oh wait they did that already and it didn't work out well did it?

I can't remember the exact details, but I do remember feeling somewhat ambivalent myself.

I'm an atheist, so I couldn't really care less what the churches allow. I also believe very strongly in LGBT rights, so I believe very much that same-sex marriages and relationships should be considered equal.

Nevertheless, I also respect people who believe in a religion and I feel their beliefs on gay marriage should be respected. Nobody is actually forcing anybody to believe in any particular God, so I'm a bit confused about why people should be so keen to marry in a church of a religion they don't 100% follow. It seems more that it's an issue for believers to sort out with their own church.

Does that make sense? I must admit I have very mixed feelings about gay marriage in church and I'm not convinced that the state should intervene. However, I don't think that makes me homophobic.

PS. I understand that churches can perform gay marriages if they want to, but the Catholic and CofE churches oppose it.

I'm watching and waiting paddyann. I'm a LibDem member, but very much on the left-wing of the party and I confess that I'm not 100% happy.

Whether or not it's homophobic it is certainly socially conservative rather than socially liberal. I see the Liberals as a socially liberal not socially conservative even if they still appear to be fiscally conservative so you wonder if it's a good fit.

Is it? I'm socially more liberal than most, which is why I also respect the views and beliefs of those in the established churches. I don't think Lee voted against same sex civil partnerships.

If you believe in equal rights for gay people, then clearly that must mean they can get married not just have a civil partnership which was a lesser option. No religion is forced to carry out a marriage ceremony but some churches/ denominations are now offering this because we legislated for same sex marriage

What would be wrong imo would be to say that all churches had to carry out same sex marriages - but that isn’t the case so I really don’t see your problem grow. Being socially liberal is about allowing people choice, not telling them they can’t get married/divorced/ have an abortion/ have a same sex relationship and so on.

So you can be socially liberal and at the same time respect the views of those who don’t believe in same sex marriage/abortion/divorce as long as those people don’t stop others from having the choice. That’s whats wrong.

I don't feel that I have any right whatsoever to tell any church how it should act. It would be different if the church wanted to do something which was harmful or even illegal, because there would then be a real clash between church and state, but nobody has to get married in church. The churches aren't stopping anybody from getting married in a registry office or wherever they want.

PS. I can't remember exactly what Lee objected to. Gay people can get married, just not in some churches.

suzie I'm a bit tired and I'd have to look it up, but I think Lee was arguing exactly the same point you're making ie. that churches shouldn't be forced to perform gay marriages.

Who doesn't believe in same sex marriage/divorce/abortion?

PS. Careful! I had a post deleted for accusing a certain political political party of being bigoted becaue they are against same sex marriage/divorce/abortion!!

I'm a bit confused here. Has Lee voted against allowing people to have same sex marriages, to divorce or have an abortion?