Josh

Normal people don't look at what politicians are saying on twitter. As a means to communicate our values with the public, it's terrible.

It's essentially a proxy to communicate with journalists, but we can see the harm that's doing. So change it!

We should be announcing the Party & its MPs are leaving the platform! Call on the government to do the same! Force journalists to look on other platforms if they want to hear what we say (they do)!

Be bold, be interesting. Have the courage of our convictions. Saying this and doing nothing is shit

I think there's an element of trying to convince his supporters there's an expectation an election should be called by then, so that when it (obviously) isn't called until 2029, they're convinced that Labour have done something outrageous by staying on rather than, you know, it being normal

Tax on shit Lettings Agencies just trebled in the next Budget

The lack of political leadership from the party on this has been shameful.

If this is the law as the party understands it, we should argue (loudly) to change the law.

Quite an unfortunate place to drift off into an ellipsis.

Good to see this is all going very well and isn't at all (inevitably) being reduced to political point-scoring...

READ MORE Fewer affordable homes is a price worth paying to get more built

This week’s NIMBY Watch is on the problems of brownfield development, despite everyone claiming it’s supposedly what they want – and a rare rebuke for a council blocking development. capx.co/nimby-watch-...

So glad you covered this. I live in Brighton (30s, decent job, cant afford to buy) and have spent *years* trying to explain to people even in my local party that a) this will obviously get approved & b) that's not a bad thing, to little avail

Good location, well connected, brownfield site. Build. 🤷‍♂️

womp womp

I can see a world where abolishing stamp duty is a vote winning policy.

I don't see that world being one where the person proposing it is also continually hammering the government for being fiscally irresponsible.

Genuinely fascinated at this mindset. If the Tory Party of the last few years has left you as it swung wildly right, but Reform is a more attractive proposition, what on earth sort of journey have you been on?

Yes - the impact of societal peer pressure is often underestimated I think

The worst biases some people have, if they vocalise them in person they'd be told to stop being a twat and they'd shut up. But online, they might see someone else say it too, so the confidence grows to say it themselves...

It’s happened again

(Alternatively it just leads to them retreating further back towards podcast-style environments, where they can control it all far more efficiently. But I hope not)

Obviously more recently that trend is changing on places like Twitter and Facebook, but politicians haven't really got their heads around how to cope with that yet

I wonder if we'll see more of a trend towards publicising in person engagement as politicians start to ignore toxic online environments

That's true - possible that the rise in online comms causing echo chambers over the past decade has increased the positive feedback loop; politicians feel they just need to say something & most of their followers will agree with them, which is far safer & means they feel less need to convince others

Brown lost that election for a whole host of other reasons, but it feels as if politicians took that as the defining moment and stopped actually trying to *lead* public opinion, rather than follow

I find it remarkable to look back at Blair's earlier Question Time performances especially, how directly he'd take on the audience

I wonder how much it changed on Brown's 'bigoted woman' incident. Ever since, there's been an approach of 'the voter is always right', even when they obviously aren't

I think this could be a key line moving forwards - people will notice it

People are clearly not abusing LinkedIn wankers anywhere near enough tbh

Peter Kyle does have a growing habit of saying some weird things...

Think this is absolutely true - so much is written about boys and Andrew Tate - Tate is more popular with grown men than boys!

Exactly. I'm fairly ambivalent on the 'liberal' case against them

If they said 'older people often dont have passports/photo ID, young people often dont get utility bills, lets make sure Windrush never happens again etc' I could get on board

But as a device to make people's lives harder? No thanks

A case for ID cards framed around clamping down on immigration is *insane*. Authoritarian nonsense, but also incoherent in its own right.

It would be so nice if Labour could be bothered to be better.

A case for ID cards framed around making access to services easier is viable.

Easier for older people who don't have passports/driving licenses, easier for young people who don't have utility bills as proof of address, ensuring another Windrush can never happen again etc

The Express asked us about awarding the Patsy Carlton Prize to Cllr Chris Northwood. We responded:

"This prize acknowledged an exceptional woman in Cllr Chris Northwood. The message it sends to women members and voters is that the Liberal Democrats honour and value all of our women members."

Proud of the way Lib Dems stood firm at Conference this year and made clear that bigots have no place in our party.

Whilst I've little doubt she's been frozen out, a defence that involves 'I used a mailing list I wasnt supposed to use to take money from people via an unauthorised portal' doesn't feel as though it's going to hold up particularly strongly...

Whilst I'm sure it's true that Corbyn & co have frozen her out (in no small part because Corbyn wants sole control), but if your defence is 'I used a mailing list I wasn't supposed to use to take money from people via an unauthorised portal', I would suggest lawyering up pretty sharpish...