The Liberal Democrats have called for the Government to speed up the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines over half term after new Department for Education figures reveal over 216,000 pupils are absent from school for Covid-related reasons. The figures, released today (12:00pm), show infection rates in schools are rising at a concerning rate and this is […]
Covid-19
UPDATED: Commons committees’ report says government’s Covid response was “one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”
Embed from Getty Images The “Lessons learnt to date” report has been published by two key House of Commons committees. It says the government’s early planning was based on a risk assessment that a pandemic would result in 100 deaths and be like flu: “the likelihood of an emerging infectious disease spreading within the UK […]
Getting a story out – the Liberal Democrat press team in action over furlough extension
The Press Team at Lib Dem HQ don’t just write press releases and send them out, hoping that journalists will publish them. They actively go out and try and get them published. A great success story is a push on the end of furlough, highlighting a letter written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak by Lib Dem […]
COVID, holidays and vaccine hesitancy within Eastern European communities
If someone told me a few years ago that any other issue will divide our communities as much as Brexit did after the EU referendum, I would not have believed. This year, I was lucky enough to travel over the summer holidays. A lot of people like me, who live abroad, are often left with […]
Ed Davey: Johnson’s refusal to self isolate “Barnard Castle on steroids”
Boris Johnson’s blatant avoidance of self isolation as a staffer who tested positive for Covid further undermines confidence in this Government. I feel sorry for anyone who has to be around him over the next few days. He could pass a potentially deadly virus on to them or ultimately their vulnerable relatives. It is an […]
Layla slams Government for “opening floodgates to new variants” and failing to protect troops
Good work from Layla Moran in today’s press. First, the Guardian reports the Commons Library research commissioned by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, which Layla chairs, which shows that the number of positive cases tested for variants has fallen dramatically. The results suggest that in the three weeks to 17 March, there were […]
Pandemic restrictions are over… sort of… Where do we go from here?
You might find yourself wondering why, when the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Health are all self-isolating, and new cases have reached the peak levels seen last over the New Year, today is a good day to declare as “Freedom Day”. And yet, for all of the […]
Munira Wilson: Coercion is not the answer to vaccine hesitancy
Last night, Liberal Democrat MPs voted against the Government’s Statutory Instrument which made vaccinations compulsory for care home staff. Munira Wilson, our health spokesperson, had a right go at the Government for its approach, pointing out that the care sector had long been undervalued and the Government’s approach had let down so many staff and […]
We need to shout about …….. Community choirs
No sooner are we past the so-called freedom day than the Johnson government finally starts believing in the vaccine programme, having systematically undermined it for the last two months by pretending that vaccinated people pose a risk, should not socialise, travel and must be treated in the same way as those who have not been […]
Local lockdowns by stealth?
The Government has been having to deal rapidly with the cock-up over the restrictions in areas where the Indian variant is spreading. Munira Wilson was in the Guardian today, after confusion reigned in Westminster: An appearance in the House of Commons on Tuesday by the vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi, failed to clarify the matter. “What we’re […]