Webchat with Tim Farron MP, leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tuesday 19 July at 12.30pm

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to announce that LibDem leader Tim Farron will be joining us for a webchat on Tuesday 19 July at 12.30pm.

MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005, Tim was national party president of the LibDems before being elected leader after Nick Clegg’s resignation in May 2015. One of eight LibDem MPs in the current Westminster Parliament, he says that his focal points since assuming the leadership have been ‘fighting for unaccompanied refugee children to be given sanctuary in Britain, securing much needed relief funding for communities devastated by last winter’s floods, and promoting investment in education as the cornerstone to a fair and equal society’. Along with the rest of the LibDems, he campaigned for ‘Remain’ in the recent referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU.

He is married with four children, and is a big Blackburn Rovers fan.

Please join us on Tuesday at 12.30 to put your questions to Tim, and as ever, if you can’t make it on the day please post up your questions in advance on this thread. And do bear in mind the webchat guidelines - one question each only (follow-ups allowed if there’s time) and please do be polite

Thanks
MNHQ

I notice that the LibDems have been winning some by-elections with large swings, post Referendum. This, however, seems to be concentrated in the South-East i.e. areas which never vote Labour. What have you to say to disaffected Labour voters in the north who find UKIP attractive?

Tim - do you think gay sex is a sin?

Hi Tim,
DH and I are both members of the Libdems and think that you are doing a great job.

We would like to know what opportunities do see for companies to attract the most talented people from around the world in the current political climate?

Thank you.

Hi Tim,
My two boys are aged 18 and 19 and were born here. They both ask me for guidance on who to vote for. Having predominantly voted labour which is now being destroyed, I'd like to know how the LDs would allay my biggest fear: the Etonians EU referendum has legitimised the British KKK, and therefore the safety of my children and all the people from different ethnic origins, is now compromised on a daily basis. What will you do about this?

I don't know why Im wasting time here as my questions NEVER get answered by any politician. but here goes:

How can you want to legalise drugs? there are enough dangerous drivers around now without zombies getting behind wheels?

(If you venture to answer One of these questions Id rather you answer the one below):

Why does NO party EVER care about the disabled, the carers (fulltime who have had to give up their careers to look fulltime 24/7 for disabled/elderly, and save the Government BILLIONS every year)including your lot?

and while its a noble gesture to house refugee children and families here, what about the millions of homeless people on our streets who have been there for years and are never helped or housed? why are there homes for immigrants and not people here already?

What is the Libdem position on the scrapping of the maintenance grant for the most disadvantaged students? Do you accept that since your u-turn on tuition fees, some children are leaving uni with a minimum of around 30,000 pounds odd debt, up to 60,000 if they take out a maintenance loan to help on top? With EU funding being withdrawn from universities, how do you expect them to continue offering assistance with burseries (for the few who are lucky enough to get them)?

In essence do the Liberal democrats care about the issues affecting younger voters? After brexit it truly feels like they are being shafted left right and centre by all the main parties, bar perhaps the SNP.

Australia, India, South Korea, Japan, Canada, New Zealand etc. have all expressed interest in trade deals with the UK.

What would Lib Dem priorities be in these trade deals?

Personally, I think it should be fairly easy to reach agreement on tariff reduction on agriculture, manufacturing, commodities, professional qualifications, skilled immigration, financial services, and some legal and other services. The main outstanding questions for me are about intellectual property (I strongly oppose calls for perpetual copyright and software patents etc) and also about dispute resolution; Parliament must remain sovereign.

Hello Tim. Very glad to see you speaking out against any return of secondary moderns/grammars. Will you make fighting this a priority for your party if concrete proposals emerge to re-introduce secondary moderns? Many thanks.

I'm in Bromley SE London - we voted to remain by the narrowest margin in the country (50.65%) - what can you say to the 49.35% in Bromley who voted to leave to win them over to the Lib Dems?

Hi Tim, thank you for coming to talk to us on Mumsnet.

What are your plans to ensure that the Liberal Democrats have a chance of elected some good BAME candidates in potentially winnable seats? All the 'snap general election' candidates selected so far seem to be white. It's great that some good women have been selected for good seats but diversity goes further than this.

Are you disappointed that yet another affable white man was selected for one of your key seats last night?

Hi Tim, thanks for coming to talk to us online.

I met you and your young daughter very briefly at last year's protest rally to preserve the Human Rights Act - post-Brexit, what do you think is the future for rights of the type protected by the Human Rights Act?

Hi Tim, just to say really pleased with your clear position on Europe and I've joined up to the LibDems. :-)

Hello all

Tim's just arrived at MNHQ and we'll be underway in a couple of minutes.

test

Hi everyone,

I'm here at Mumsnet in a busy well-aired office in the midst of sweltering London.

As the country, and world, lurches , disastrously to the right, please, please can you form a centre/left electoral pact to challenge them?

@TresDesolee

Hi Tim (have you considered 'Come on Tim!' as your campaign slogan by the way? )

Brexit: accept it, or fight it tooth and nail?

You should respect the result and accept defeat in the referendum. But I don't change my principles. I believe Britain's place is stronger, safer and more relevant in Europe than out and I'll continue to campaign for that.

@JamieVardysParty

Do you regret your party's decision to introduce the Fixed Term Parliaments Act now?

Also, if you are so insistent that there should be a General Election, to provide Theresa May with the all-important mandate, why don't you table a motion calling for it yourself?

Or would this purely be for your own political interests?

No I don't regret it, I thuink it is right to have fized term Parliaments so that you don't have the Prime Minister of the day able to call elections for short term personal benefits to suit them. But there is deliberately a clause within the Act to allow for an early election in extreme circumstances, if two thirds of MPs vote for one.

I think it's fair to say that this qualifies as extreme circumstances!

The are two reasons why I think Theresa May should trigger an earlier election. First is that her Government lacks a mandate and she rightly said of Gordon Brown in 2007 when he became PM in identical circumstances that he would lack legitimacy if he didn't have a mandate of his own.

Second the electorate have not given the government a mandate for what kind of deal they should pursue with the rest of Europe and an election is a way for them to secure a mandate.

@HPFA

Hello Tim. Very glad to see you speaking out against any return of secondary moderns/grammars. Will you make fighting this a priority for your party if concrete proposals emerge to re-introduce secondary moderns? Many thanks.

As a product of a comprehensive school myself and as someone who is sending his children to a comprehensive school also, I am committed to the comprehensive ideal and I don't believe in grammar schools. And still more I don't believe in relegating four-fifths of children in secondary moderns, which is hugely damaging to social mobility. So in short, yes!

Tim what are your personal views on gay sex? Is it a sin?

@MrsSchadenfreude

Hello Tim. I was a lifelong Lib Dem voter until you threw your hat in with the Tories. To me this smacked only of Nick Clegg's desire for power at any cost, although I think the coalition did have some moderating effect on the Tories. I've now switched my allegiance to Labour. What would your plan be for getting people like me back to voting Lib Dem? (I think there are quite a lot of us out here...)

The last 14 months have shown what the LibDems prevented the Tories from doing. Green energy cuts, excessive public sector spending cuts, and also the inhumane approach to the refugee crisis. All of these happened once we'd left Government and are a reminder of what we were preventing, as well as what we were achieving. But there's a huge space that's just opened up in British politics and we're determined to be the voice of serious opposition and we can legitimately oppose Conservative spending cuts because we've demonstrated an economic competence and I hope that we will be able to bring together a liberal opposition which is about what we are for and what we are against, which is a position around which people who are not currently Liberal Democrats can gather.

@EnidButton

Proud to have you as my MP. Thank you for all your hard work.

Have to keep up the Mumsnet tradition and ask, what is your favourite biscuit?

Am I allowed to have Kendal mint cake? (Some skepticism here at MNHQ.) If not, we'll have to have a custard cream biscuits.

I am a strong Lib Dem supporter living in a Conservative constituency.

1. If the seat goes anywhere, it will be to Labour. Should I feel guilty voting Labour in the hope of a larger left-wing majority? Do those tiny Lib Dem votes add up in any meaningful way?
2. Would joining the party actually help in an area so hard to win?

@CormoranStrike

I live in Scotlans, and am upset to be now be in SNP land, with no credible opposition. Can lib seems offer anything to tempt voters north of the border?

The Liberal Democrats made gains in May from the SNP in the Scottish Parliament. We are a party which is progressive, growing and thinks that Britain is better together. In other words, committed to both unions!

We've got a very strong offer on mental health, on using tax raising powers to invest more money in education. And under Willie Rennie who is our leader in Scotland we've provided the progressive effective opposition to an SNP government that really hasn't delivered.