Baroness Joan Walmsley calls for Hemel Hempstead Lib Dems to return to "Angry Young Liberals"

On Wednesday 15th November 15th, the Hemel Hempstead Branch of the Liberal Democrats was delighted and privileged to host a talk delivered by Liberal Democrat Peer Baroness Joan Walmsley. Baroness Walmsley is deputy leader of the 100-strong Lib Dem Peers in the Lords.

Many councils, the Baroness pointed out, can no longer even provide their basic statutory duty; the result, amongst many others, is the glaring and calamitous growth in inequality. As a Liberal Democrat, Baroness Walmsley spoke passionately about the importance of empowering the individual and the local community to decide on many aspects of their local provision. In contrast to the Tories, who have been systematically disempowering local councils by centralizing powers and cutting budgets, Lib Dems want councils to have more authority over deciding what the local community needs.

Baroness Walmsley also spoke about Brexit. The sheer scale of the costs involved were highlighted, meaning that however much the public services are suffering from years of austerity, the public purse will have even less money to spend after devoting all their resources towards pushing through and paying for a damaging Brexit. This is not just because of the enormous "Divorce Bill", but also the need for thousands of extra civil servants and border guards, the loss of the EU funds to local areas throughout the UK, the loss of tax income from the damaged economy and the possibility of returning ex-pats who will no longer have access to reciprocal healthcare arrangements!

When asked how we as Liberal Democrats can fight back on all of this and get people to listen to what we have to say, her response was that we should return to basics and be "angry young liberals"!