The former Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has said the Prime Minister "would have to go back and improve her negotiating stance" if she presented a vision of Brexit to the House of Commons that MPs did not agree with. Speaking to Andrew Marr, he said delaying triggering Article 50 would be a "very good thing" because Theresa May's negotiating timetable will overlap with the campaign period for the French and German elections.
Who Decides? is like an excellent after dinner speaker - not too long, with plenty of laughs and a bit of knowledge imparted. The book intertwines Lib Dem peer and former MP Lord Tyler's amusing recollections of collective decision making during his political career (including Parliamentary committees, candidate selection meetings and party management bodies) with extracts from the guide to understanding, managing and exploiting committees published in 1962 by the former government chief psychologist, Edgar Anstey.
Universities UK has published the results of a poll carried out by ICM which shows that only a quarter of people think of foreign students as immigrants and that the vast majority of people think that foreign students make a valuable contribution and should be allowed to stay on to work here after graduation. Two-thirds agreed that international students have a positive impact on the local economies of the towns and cities that they study in, and three in five (59%) agreed that their economic contribution helps create jobs.
A news release from the Liberal Democrats brings this excellent news about Daisy Cooper: Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron and President Sal Brinton have appointed Daisy Cooper as the party's Candidate Diversity Champion, to drive forward and coordinate the party's action plan to improve the diversity of its MPs.
A Lib Dem gain again from the Tories this week and great to see a full set of Liberal Democrat candidates in this week's set of nine principal local authority by-elections. Elsewhere, it was a case of a couple of solid Lib Dem holds up in the north west, but otherwise the sort of widespread low vote shares in many wards which show how much there is still to do for the Liberal Democrats to recover.
Liberal Youth are campaigning to save the Erasmus exchange programme in future Brexit negotiations. This week they are running a competition to send a group of campaigners to the European Parliament 7th-8th November. Former Erasmus exchange students and exchange programme hopefuls are invited to share their stories as part of a video montage. MEP Catherine Bearder will invite a group to present a Save Erasmus petition in Brussels. The deadline for entries is midnight 18th October. Find out more here.
The UK needs to strengthen both our Armed Forces and our soft power.
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day.
The UK must once again stand tall, leading on the world stage and working closely with those who share our interests – including, above all, our partners in Europe.
