Former Lib Dem MP stranded in New Zealand

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The Eastbourne Herald reports:

Ex-Eastbourne MP Stephen Lloyd, who is stranded in New Zealand due to the coronavirus outbreak, is leading the call for all holidaymakers there to be repatriated. 

Mr Lloyd and his partner Cherine arrived in Auckland at the beginning of March on the first stop of a holiday in New Zealand and Australia. 

They toured the North Island and headed to the South Island staying with friends and family but were then told their route home via Sydney in Australia on April 2 would have to be brought forward. 

But then Australia closed its borders and when Singapore closed as a transfer airport, the couple said they realised they were stranded in New Zealand.

Lloyd tells the paper that he has discovered that hundreds of other UK residents are also stuck in New Zealand.

Spare a thought for Stephen Lloyd

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Last week Stephen Lloyd resigned the Liberal Democrat whip so he could vote in favour of Theresa May's Brexit deal.

Today she pulled the vote on the deal.

Getty Images and anonymous comments: Two bits of Liberal England housekeeping

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As soon as Getty Images allowed private users to embed their images free of charge, I have made free use of that facility. Sometimes I even based a post on one of their images.

For the past couple of days, Getty's images have not been displaying on this blog. All you can see is a notice saying the image is no longer available for use.

Except, when you go to the Getty site you find the image is still there and is still available for use.

I shall not embed any more Getty images until this glitch has been fixed. When it has been, a pig will appear above every time you read this post.

******

Having a comments policy for your blog has always seemed a bit pretentious to me, particularly now that most responses to my posts are to be found on Twitter - you follow me here.

I have always deleted spam comments, and have become increasingly likely to delete posts that are rude about me or accuse me of bad faith.

Now I am becoming irritated by 'drive-by' anonymous posts that attack my views. They are 'drive-by' because the commenter is clearly not familiar with this blog. Have a look at the comments on my Stephen Lloyd post and my response to them to see what I mean.

You can stop people leaving anonymous comments, but that seems too restrictive. It's not that all anonymous comments are worthless: it's just that most worthless comments are anonymous.

So I will continue to allow anonymous comments but may be a little more trigger happy aboyt deleting them in future.

When Simon Titley ran a blog for Liberator he insisted that people gave their real names when commenting.

This caused outrage in some quarters, and it is true that there are people who have good reasons for remaining anonymous. It can also be a liberation: I enjoyed the years when no one knew that it was me who wrote Lord Bonkers' Diary.

But, more and more, I see why Simon did it.

On not being impressed by Stephen Lloyd

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If Stephen Lloyd were determined to back Theresa May because he believed in Brexit, I would not be pleased, but I would understand him.

But he is determined to do so even though he believes Brexit is against the national interest.

That is because, at the last election, he promised voters in Eastbourne that he would support the result of the referendum and not campaign for a second one.

I presume he did this because he thought it was the only way he would get elected.

That is not an approach to politics I admire, but it is his third promise that really gets me.

It seems he promised to support the deal the prime minister reached with the European Union, whatever its content.

But if you are not willing to hold the executive to account then there is no point your being in parliament.

I also note the comment of Isabel Hardman that his resignation of the party whip has:

baffled Lib Dems, not so much because Lloyd is stepping back from the most avowedly anti-Brexit party in the Commons. It’s more that he’s doing so to support a vote that no one thinks the government has any chance of winning.

BuzzFeed News does its best to end the Liberal Democrat leadership election

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Vince Cable is standing for the Liberal Democrat leadership and, as far as we know, he is the only one of our MPs who is.

Jim Waterson from BuzzFeed News reckons there are still four Lib Dem MPs who have not formally ruled themselves out. So he set out to discover their intentions.

Stephen Lloyd was clear:

He immediately ruled himself out: "I'm for the wisdom and sagacity of Vince Cable."

So was Jamie Stone:

"Absolutely not. I'm lucky to here at all in the first place and I'm a strong support of Vince's."

And so was Christine Jardine:

"No," she explained. "It would have been good to have a contest but on the other hand I'm perfectly happy."

The only slight mystery surrounds Layla Moran's intentions:

Moran, the new MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, had written a piece offering to nominate any MP who wanted to prompt a leadership contest but had not formally ruled herself out. 

So is she running? "Not as far as I'm aware," said the person manning the phone in her office.

I'm with Christine Jardine. It would have been good to have a contest.

But what we really need is a frank debate about the recent past and the future of the Liberal Democrats, and it is quite possible to have a leadership contest without having that. Stephen Bush has discussed this in the New Statesman.

Besides, a leadership contest, by my calculation, requires a minimum of two candidates and we do not seem to have that luxury.

Layla Moran would make an attractive candidate, even if - inevitably - we do not know a great deal about her views. But I suspect she would be wise not to stand this time.

So we are left with Jim Waterson's conclusion that we should declare Vince Cable our leader and go on holiday.

Stephen Lloyd attacks Home Office "callousness"

BBC News reports that the grandparents and aunt of a five-year-old girl who died after being hit by a car in Eastbourne have been refused permission to enter the country to attend her funeral.

The case has been taken up by the town's MP, Liberal Democrat Stephen Lloyd.

He told the BBC:

"I am extremely angry at the callousness shown by the Home Office. 

"To me this is an immigration decision which lacks compassion and basic decency, attributes which I know are front and centre with the vast majority of British people."

Stephen has written to the immigration minister, James Brokenshire, asking him to intervene:

"I implore the minister to do the right thing; grant this grief-stricken family the temporary travel visas, and allow their kith and kin to pay their last respects to little Andrea."

Over to you, Jimbo.

House Points: Lib Dem MPs' maiden speeches

This week's House Points Liberal Democrat News was written in my hotel room in Church Stretton while I contemplated this view.

Thanks to Lib Dem Voice for assembling the materials for me.

The Maidens

There are three rules for maiden speeches. You have to say something nice about your predecessor – even if you have devoted 20 years of your life to getting rid of him. You have to describe your constituency in glowing terms – which can be more difficult in some seats than others. And you must not be controversial – though these days most new MPs mention that convention before going on to break it in an attempt to show what tough, uncompromising individuals they are.

With these rules in mind, let’s see how the new Liberal Democrat MPs are getting on.

First prize for praising your predecessor went to Duncan Hames (Chippenham). Because there have been substantial boundary changes in Wiltshire he had to praise no fewer than four of them. So he namechecked Sir Richard Needham from the old Chippenham seat, Dr Andrew Murrison from Westbury and Michael Ancram from Devizes.

But what really clinched it for him was that he found something nice to say about James Gray from North Wiltshire.

Gordon Birtwhistle took an early lead in the second contest by describing his new Burnley seat as “a special place at the heart of Pennine Lancashire, with lovely countryside and friendly people”. Stephen Lloyd hit back by describing Eastbourne as “a splendid town with a fine sea front, wonderful architecture and flanked by the stunning South Downs.” And David Ward (Bradford East) struck a rare note of honesty in this category: “I love my constituency, I really do, but it does have its problems.”

Controversial subject raised by new Lib Dem MPs included the loss of manufacturing jobs (Ian Swales, Redcar), high water bills and low incomes (Stephen Gilbert, St Austell & Newquay) and the travails of Scottish banking (Michael Crockart, Edinburgh West). Simon Wright (Norwich South) called for the dualling of the A11: “It has been estimated that for every pound required to complete the dualling, the local economy would benefit by £5.”

There is one final rule for maiden speeches: they must not be too long or you will be cut off in mid sentence by the speaker. Sadly, both Michael Crockart and Stephen Lloyd broke this one.

There is no excuse. A newspaper columnist cannot simply ignore the word length the editor has...

Lib Dems winning the poster war in Eastbourne

Daniel Neilson writes for Total Politics:

If the number of posters is anything to go by, a different political landscape belies the serene seafront. Although Nigel Waterson won his fourth term in 2005 with a majority of 1,124 against Lib Dem Stephen Lloyd, it is the words ‘Stephen Lloyd to Win’ on bright orange placards that dominate the streets. They undoubtedly outnumber Conservative posters, especially in the middle class areas of Hampden Park and Old Town. The notable exception is the resolutely Conservative area of Meads, at the foot of the newly founded South Downs National Park.