West Herts Liberal Democrats - Working for Hertfordshire, for Britain and for You!

The Local Elections for Dacorum Borough Council will be held on Thursday, 2nd May, 2019

In 2018 the Liberal Democrats enjoyed our best district council election results in 15 years. We took control of councils like South Cambridgeshire, Kingston-upon-Thames and Richmond-upon-Thames from the Conservatives. In Watford and in Three Rivers - Liberal Democrat controlled districts bordering onto Dacorum - they made further progress.

As we enter 2019, time is ticking down on Brexit, and with it the whole future of the country.

The history books will look back on these coming three months as critical.It is almost unbelievable that Parliament is waiting a further week to return!

After two long years of negotiation, the Prime Minister has brought back a Brexit deal that satisfies no-one. Her reaction is to try to scare people with the prospect of a 'No Deal' Brexit. In reality, that can't happen unless she decides it should.

So the only way forward - now - for the country and the Prime Minister is for the public to have the final say, and the option to Remain.

It's a campaign we Liberal Democrats started more than two years ago. Now millions of people have joined us in demanding a better future than Brexit Britain has to offer.

And the power of the millions who have signed petitions, lobbied their MP, or marched on Parliament - 700,000 of them just this year - is beginning to bear fruit. A People's Vote has moved from being a possibility to being a probability.

But only if we keep the pressure up. If we succeed, 2019 will be a year remembered not because we harmed our country with Brexit, but because we - the people - stood up and stopped it.

And if we do that, our Parliament and Government can once again deal with big issues like climate change, rising crime, the social care crisis, homelessness and housing supply, all of which have been neglected because of Brexit.

Enjoy your New Year celebrations and then let's get out there in 2019 and win the fight for a People's Vote and a brighter future for Britain.

"The Tory Government is favouring its chums in the electricity supply industry by pushing the costs of private market failure onto household's electricity bills" claims a local Lib Dem Councillor.

"The energy markets that underlie our household gas and electricity bills are inefficient, expensive and poorly regulated", claims the Liberal Democratic County Councillor for Tring & the Villages, Nick Hollinghurst.

On the third Tuesday of each month we have our Supper Club here in Berkhamsted.

We discuss politics and anything else we choose to talk about.

It gives us the chance to get to know each other and to put the world to rights.

We welcome all Lib Dem members - and anyone of a similar mindset - who would like to join us.

A reminiscence from Nick Hollinghurst,

"The Right Hon Captain Jeremy Ashdown, Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hampden, Privy Counsellor and much decorated, known as "Paddy", was courageous, principled, easy to talk to and charming company. On one rare, but well-remembered occasion, I had a chat with him. He was a Liberal observer at the first SDP conference where he was reconnoitring these newcomers to the political scene and I was a delegate he happened to find in a bar, when I was bunking off fom a particularly boring debatathon on the new party's constitution.

Over twenty minutes and half a pint of bitter, when his subtle MI6 information-gathering techniques were probably in full play, he learnt something about our fledgling party and I was completely enthralled by his wit, enthusiasm, eagerness, good will and his evident ability. We will all miss him very much.

He had many achievements but one near the top of the list must be his enlightened and effective administration as the High Representative of the UN's Peace Implementation Council as well as being the EU's Special Representative in Bosnia and Hercegovina (2002 - 2006) which embedded peace and stability after an appalling civil war based on nationalism and imagined ethnic differences. He succeeded in amalgamating the two "ethnically" based armies under one single civilian command and remodelled and strengthened a single police force under central government control. Half way through his term of office the NATO peacekeeping force SFOR was replaced by an EU force, SFOR Althea. Paddy's robustness in identifying and dismissing politicians and officials too closely linked with the preceding civil war were criticised in some quarters but his fairness and rigour did in fact lay firm foundations for peace and development which have stood the test of time."

Today saw the safe arrival and handling of a pallet from a printing firm.

The pallet arrived on time, the Office Manager was on hand to receive, open the rear doors and roll the pallet straight over to our office on the same level.

He was then able to remove the shrink wrap, handball the boxes inside ready for colleagues to sort the material ready for delivery in the New Year.

Herts County Council are giving notice of three stretches of Road Works that could be potentially quite disruptive.

All to be carried out in a period starting on 28th January 2019 and probably having to be completed (for financial reasons) before the end of March.

In a first class example of local initiative and community action, plus numerous residents investing in shares, the Wigginton Village Shop was successfully launched the week before last.

Apart from investment and donations from local people and well-wishers the team secured funding from the Leader Programme, the Shanly Foundation and the National Lottery

"The privatised electricity supply industry has been a rip-off from the word go!" claims Hertfordshire County Councillor for Tring & the Villages, Nick Hollinghurst "and Ofgem, the complacent so-called regulator is complicit in all this."

He continued "The electricity supply industry is nothing but a number of trading intermediaries who add little by way of value, but a lot of cost.