"Liberal Democrat Watch"...

The site is  absolutely nothing to do with the Liberal Party but you may find "LIBERAL DEMOCRAT WATCH" of interest. It picks up on some of the stranger comments and activities of the Lib-Dems.

Not Bad...

Wyre Forest Liberals Weblog did not make it into the final 12 nominees for The Guardian Political Weblog of the Year.

They did, however, make it into the next fourteen runners up!

Not bad for a Constituency party in the West Midlands!

Wrong to sack Tonge...

Liverpool Liberal Councillor Chris Lenton in The Spectator...

The sacking of Dr Jenny Tonge shows that Charles Kennedy has no understanding of the concept of free speech, surely a central tenet of liberalism. Dr Tonge has been demonised for expressing the view that Israel is complicit in the poverty and suffering in which many young Palestinians live. Why is it a heresy for a rational person to believe that desperate circumstances lead to the evil of suicide bombing? The Israeli lobby should understand this idea, since it justifies Israeli acts of terrorism during
the independence struggle of the late 1940s in similar terms.

The pressure to remove Dr Tonge plays into the hands of anti-Semites because it appears to show that on the subject of Israel, liberal tolerance and free speech are jettisoned in favour of deference to an intolerant and dogmatic vision of Zionism.

Chris Lenton
Liverpool

Demoted? She should be promoted

From the Manchester Evening News (30.1.03)...

I READ the comments by Jenny Tonge MP several times to try to comprehend why
she was so hastily jettisoned from the LibDem front bench. I am still at a
loss.

As a supporter of the State of Israel, I cannot comprehend why her
statements about suicide bombers were met in such a venomous fashion.

Surely, any rational person recognises that terrorism is bred out of
political and economic desperation. The United States and other great powers
have done nothing to modify the effective partition of the West Bank and
Gaza, and turned a blind eye to a policy of mass containment. These are the
very conditions to breed terrorism, not democratic settlement.

Even worse, the wall being built across the West Bank is being paid for out
of United States subsidies to the State of Israel.

Jenny Tonge has been ejected because of powerful interest groups, who do not
want to deal with the Palestinian problem as it is today.

She has wide international experience and told us all how the vast majority
of the global community see the facts.

She should be promoted, not demoted. It is refreshing to have a political
leader tell the uncomfortable truth.

Steve Radford, Chairman, The Liberal Party

Liberals at Stop The War Demo...

The Liberal Party National Executive meeting in London on Saturday 31st January broke off to join the STOP THE WAR demo outside Downing Street where Liberal Party Chair Cllr Steve Radford addressed the rally. Cllr. Radford said...

" I had the privilege of supporting your rally in Liverpool last year, I am deeply ashamed I was the only councillor out of 99 in the city to have joined you.

Today the National Executive of The Liberal Party have suspended our meeting for 45 minutes each minute to nail the coffin of the lie that weapons of mass destruction would and could be launched.

The weapons of mass destruction that could not be launched because they did not exist.

The dishonest claims were manufactured to justify an illegal and immoral invasion.

May I read you a statement made today by our NEC.

"We are appalled that the most important issue has not been subject to a public enquiry, namely why the UK was led into an illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

We note that the alleged weapons of mass destruction have not been found and that there was no prospect of them existing at the time parliament was misled.

Furthermore we read with alarm spurious suggestions that such illusionary weapons have been removed to Syria, which may in turn be used for a further illegal invasion and occupation of that country"

As Liberals we do believe in overthrowing dictators, so why are British Troops not dispatched to overthrow Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Britain has more historical, legal and constitutional reasons to be there than in Iraq

The only reason is Iraq has oil that the USA wishes to control, Zimbabwe does not !

Secondly I would wish to read a special message of support from our National Executive to Jenny Tonge MP.

Jenny Tonge has committed the crime of telling the truth, her analysis of the desperation of the Palestinian people and the appalling way their country is being divided by a berlin wall, is a statement any reasonable person would know is true.

The continuation of USA subsidies to The State of Israel, which are used to build illegal settlements and partition walls is a root cause of political instability in the Middle East.

We in the Liberal Party are proud of our anti-militarist tradition

I am proud to stand with you today demanding a public enquiry as to the phony intelligence used to deceive Parliament

Thanks and God Bless you all... "

Cllr Radford was joined at the demonstration by fellow National Exercutive Committee Members John Hein of The Scots Liberal Party, Cllr Paul Holmes Leader of The Liberal party in Cornwall and Colin Hallmark of the West Midlands Liberal Party.

Support for Jenny Tonge...

On Saturday 31st January the National Executive Committee of the Liberal Party adopted the following Motion:-

The National Executive of The Liberal Party wishes to express its support to Jenny Tonge MP, concerning her clear and honest analysis of the political alienation and economic depravation of the Palestinian People.

We also believe that the continued subsidies by the USA to the State of Israel, who in turn use this finance to build partition walls and illegal settlements as a means of continuing the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, directly contributes to the destabilisation of politics in the Middle East.