Jack Fleming

April's manifesto page 1. Gives her email as april.preston@icloud.com, notes her background as a care leaver, working class feminist, and trans ally who's worked on gender based violence, charity project management, and changes to the Lib Dem disciplinary system.

April's manifesto page two. Gives her email address at april.preston@icloud.com, and endorsements from LD Women executive member Rebecca Jones on her tireless campaigning, Lord Mohammed on the need for working class representation in the party, and Radical Association founder James Baillie on her radicalism and the need to keep connected with lived liberal experiences. The manifesto finishes with a personal pledge to ensure Federal Council is a body where members feel their voice is heard, to ensure diversity is rooted in genuine representation not tokenism, and to bring lived experience into the Federal Council.

Another post for #LibDems federal elections: please give April Preston a top preference for Federal Council. We need folks who live their liberalism and better working-class representation at the top of our party: April's a great choice for that.

She's currently off BSky but here's her manifesto:

O.K. @stellacreasy.bsky.social and Michael Gove having a very robust, but seemingly amicable, debate in a Cuban bar was not on my #LabourConference bingo card.

Petition: Do not introduce Digital ID cards We demand that the UK Government immediately commits to not introducing a digital ID cards. There are reports that this is being looked at.

One of the unexpected things I've learned from my advocacy for trans people is how malignant parts of the State can be, how it can misuse data for positively evil purposes. It's taught me people can't be safe with a digital ID card and so I've signed this. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

Illegal immigration isn't that big a problem.

Even if it were, digital ID cards would not be an effective solution.

And even if they were, they give too much power to the state.

I am a liberal, and I am against this sort of thing.

(Also because id left my key card inside my hotel room, so had to be fairly compos mentis to sort that out, but that's a me problem)

See this is why I called it on Glee at midnight.

🎶I'm forever blowing bubbles...

Politico reports FCDO as recognising Palestine "based on 1967 lines with equal land swaps, to be finalised as part of future negotiations."

1967 borders and equal land swaps are mutually exclusive at this point...

I'd miss baked goods though

We think D is the way to go. A bit of Italy, middle east, India, China, bit of Japan, Korean.

This is what I spend the August bank holiday doing.

www.flickr.com/photos/green...

I'd treat it as mostly an office, with a fold out guest bed for occasional visitors

Three

And replaced it with *checks notes* somewhere in the lake district?...

They should do Labour's deputy leader nominations like the Iowa caucuses, with all the MPs in a big room standing next to their preferred candidate

This is great. Have you got something similar in train for juniors?

So what I really don't get about the #reshuffle is why the one Cabinet member with decent links to the Trump administration would be moved away from foreign sec...

There were questions about jobs, whether it would cut bills, how much oil is left down there and whether it's competitive - all important issues.

But unless I just blanked something, "should we be digging up more fossil fuels in an age of climate crisis?" didn't seem to feature.

YouTube video by Basil Fawlty Biggus Dickus - Monthy Python, Life of Brian Best Scenes

Disappointed that the @podsaveamerica.crooked.com boys don't appear to be aware of the seminal British comedy, Monty Python's Life of Brian.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=yzgS...

The problem isn’t refugees on boats. The problem is oligarchs hoarding obscene amounts of wealth while most people fight to stay afloat.

Wages aren't tied to inflation, so the working class keeps falling behind no matter how hard they work.

Goldeneye would have been the perfect film for the Timothy Dalton bond.

Why the United Kingdom government cannot leave the ECHR without either breaching or re-negotiating the Good Friday Agreement 1st July 2023 * The overlooked obstacle to the United Kingdom withdrawing from the ECHR * From time to time the demand comes from a government minister, or from one of their political and media sup…

Apparently “leading” lawyers and “experts” say that the Good Friday Agreement is no obstacle to UK leaving ECHR.

Me, being neither, merely sets out what the Good Friday Agreement expressly says.

davidallengreen.com/2023/07/why-...

Why are UK trans people upset? I want to explain a few things and then it might be clearer why UK trans people are upset. In 2001 I married my wife, Sylvia. In 2005 I started medical transition. For the state to recognise this I ha...

Why are UK trans people upset? www.libdemvoice.org/why-are-uk-t...

In case anyone was wondering, this from Sarah Brown lays it out...

This morning someone shared a link to the @electionmaps.uk post on the Other Place about the recent @libdems.org.uk by-election win in West Hampstead.

If I needed a reminder of why I no longer use the platform, the vitriol in the comments provided it...

Please can someone bring an electric Mini (but, you know, old Mini sized) to market?

ETSC: Mutual recognition deal with U.S. will cost lives on Europe’s roads By signing up to mutual recognition of vehicle standards with the United States, the European Union has waved the white flag on road safety. This is not a technical detail – it is a political choice…

This is an INSANE decision by the E.U.

“By signing up to mutual recognition of vehicle standards with the U.S., the E.U. has waved the white flag on road safety. This is not a technical detail – it is a political choice that puts trade convenience ahead of saving lives.”

This will kill people.

I saw today the dramatic effects of global heating up close. This is the Bonhus glacier in SW Norway, the photo on the left is from 1890. Like all glaciers in Norway it is shrinking rapidly.

It was Ayn Rand.

Still an improvement on the book I read on the recommendation of a girl I fancied...