Welcome to this May 2022 newsletter. In this, we have a brief round-up of what your local party branch is up to.

News

Many of us have been watching, with dismay, the increasing mess that is Partygate; if Boris Johnson is so sure of what he was doing, why doesn't he just put us all out of our misery and offer himself up for a confidence vote now? Meanwhile our two local MPs, the Tories Bill Cash and Theodora Clarke, get themselves into terrible twists trying to defend the indefensible.
At this rate, an autumn general election is a possibility - which is why this branch is gearing up already.

Incidentally, one article on our local website earlier this year, which you may have missed, is What Liberal Democrats Believe, which is worth a read.

Local news

We have had 15 new members sign up recently, which is quite special in these days when many branches (of all parties) find their numbers declining. This means that, locally, we have well over 100 full members, with supporters around the 500 mark.

Activity is now back to normal after Covid. Our chairperson Alec Sandiford has been reaching out to organisations within the two constituencies; he had a very constructive meeting with the farmers' union, the NFU. Alec was also interviewed by The Centrist (see https://centristpodcast.podbean.com/) where he was commenting on the dire situation in which Legal Aid finds itself in this country.
A residents' survey was also carried out in some of our northern wards.

We have at last appointed a Diversity Officer for our branch.

In order to be ready for a snap election, we have pressed ahead to ensure we have parliamentary candidates in place.
The Stone constituency selection process is already under way. Candidates have been drawn from HQ's 'Approved List' (which any member can apply to be on), but are then chosen by a ballot of local members. We will be having an online hustings toward the end of this month (to which all will be invited), and should have a candidate in place by mid-July.

Then we will start the Stafford constituency process. However, we could do with a few more local candidates in this instance. Do you think you'd like a crack at being an MP? Please let us know - as soon as possible.

Get Involved

Although Lib Dems had an amazing local-elections result across the country last month, there were depressing returns for the party in Staffordshire (in Newcastle under Lyme, Tamworth and Cannock Chase). This means we must double our efforts to be ready for the local elections next year in Stafford Borough Council's wards and in our parish councils.

To that end, we need to hear from you. If you are happy to deliver leaflets in your neighbourhood now and again, please contact the chairperson, alec@alecsandiford.org.uk / 07950513706. We really would be grateful.

We also need candidates for each ward and parish. Stafford is a hung council at the moment, so this is an opportunity to make a real difference. Talk to us if you think you would like to stand, or come along to the next exec meeting (on June 30^th).

Fund-raising

Funds are required; we need more with elections coming up!

Please join our lottery, the '49 Club', which is only open to members. It is only £1 a week, but there are cash prizes. If you already have a stake in it, please consider getting another!
See: https://stonelibdems.org.uk/en/page/join-the-49-club

You may remember that we are selling second-hand books through sites like Ziffit. Do you have boxes of books that you can contribute? Someone will pick them up from your house if you can't deliver them to us. Contact info@stonelibdems.org.uk for this project, and indeed about the local group in general.

Keep informed

By the way, you may have noticed that our Facebook and Twitter pages have started firing on all cylinders! Jon Taylor, who is with the West Midlands Lib Dems, is helping out by posting extra articles on it for us. Thanks to him.
For those who enjoy such aspects, you'll notice that our Facebook page has been updated. Page likes and the Like button have gone away - but Follows are still important.

However, still the easiest way to keep informed of our local Lib Dem news is to subscribe to our local website's regular email updates.
See https://stonelibdems.org.uk/en/subscribe-by-email. (Most members opt for the monthly update).

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