Webchat with Dr Phillip Lee, LibDem candidate for Wokingham, on Tuesday 3 December at 2pm

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to announce a webchat with Dr Phillip Lee, Liberal Democrat General Election candidate for Wokingham. Phillip will be joining us on Tuesday 3 December at 2pm.

Phillip worked as a doctor at various hospitals in London and the South East before becoming a GP. He continues to practise in Berkshire on a part-time basis.

Elected as the Conservative MP for Bracknell in 2010, he joined Teresa May’s government in 2016 as the Minister for Youth Justice, Victims, Female Offenders and Offender Health. In June 2018 he was the first minister to resign from the government over the direction of Brexit and went on to campaign for a second referendum. In September 2019 Phillip left the Conservative Party and “crossed the floor” in the House of Commons. He now sits as a Liberal Democrat and has been appointed Justice spokesman. Phillip will contest the 2019 General Election as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Wokingham Constituency.

Please do join us on Tuesday at 2pm, but if you can’t make it on the day, leave your question for Phillip on this thread in advance.

As always, please remember our webchat guidelines - one question per user, follow-ups only if there’s time and most questions have been answered, and please keep it civil. Also if one topic is overwhelmingly dominating a discussion with a guest, mods might request that people don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point. (We will be taking action on this, including suspending the accounts of MNers who continue to heckle after we've posted to ask people to stop, so please take note.) Rest assured we will ALWAYS let the guest know that it's an area of concern to multiple users and will encourage them to engage with those questions.

Thanks

Which is the top priority health problem you think it is reasonable to screen immigrants to this country for as part of the process to deny them entry

Is it:

(a) Hepatitis B;
(b) HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus);
(c) such other pathogens as the Secretary of State may prescribe by order under this section

or have your views and position changed since 2014?

Evening, everyone.

As ever, we will flag up the strength of feeling about gender self-ID and ask Philip to address it in his answers, but we're going to ask that you stop posting questions on this topic now so that the webchat isn't dominated by this issue.

Thanks.

What do you feel the biggest challenges are in improving the social and educational outcomes for Britain's young people? In particular what can your party do to help families living in poverty?

Hi Philip

What is your view on the extensive amount of housing that is being built in Wokingham. Do you think there is an adequate level of infrastructure to support it and, if not, what are your plans?

Hi Phillip,

I live in a constituency similar to Wokingham in the South East. We have a lot of green belt land that has been built on, some of which is designated for 'affordable homes'. These 'affordable homes' are still unaffordable for most people, I have friends where the husband is a teacher who have moved to other areas of the country because they still can't afford them even on a shared ownership basis.

I'm not against all new builds on such land (I live in one!) but the extent of it is significant, with no investment in any infrastructure such as schools or GP surgeries that need to serve the significantly increased communities.

For these reasons (and others) it seems planning is a bit of a broken area at the moment.

My question is two parts:

A. How will we deal with the 'housing crisis' so that there is adequate social housing and (real) affordable housing?

B. How can/will the LDs work to re-look at planning and whether it is really working to balance new housing/green belt/ investment in community services in line with expansion?

PS: Avid listener to your podcast 'On the House' with Sam - it's great!

PPS...wishing you all the luck in de-throning Redwood...

Do you think that The LDs are a feminist party and because of Swinson and the good childcare things in the LD manifesto that Remainer women are helping to change the way the election is going?

The press has been full of news about Workington Man for the Tories are you leading Wokingham Women for the Lib Dems?

How would you go about improving mental health provision and care in the UK?

I know health is devolved, so answers will focus on England in terms of Westminster, but keen on your views of how it can approve across the UK as a whole too?

Hi Philip

How can a party that has consistently criticised the democratic shortcomings of the first-past-the-post system, seek with any integrity to exploit that system by pledging to revoke Article 50 if it formed a Government, knowing that this could be done with as little as 35% of the vote (as Labour did in 2005)?

How would such a move have helped bring a disunited country together? And doesn’t this show that the LDs are more of a Remainer pressure group rather than a serious party of Government?

(And I write as someone who voted Remain and would do so again.)

Hello and welcome to Mumsnet. This is very brave of you 😀

It is great to see that the Liberal Democrat manifesto includes for PrEP to be fully available to all who need it on the NHS. The current government has committed to ending new HIV transmission in England by 2030. What are your views on this and how do you think this can be effected if your party were to win the election?

Rather than building on greenbelt land, what will the lib dems do to tackle the problem of builders securing planning permission and then deciding not to build for years?

How do you plan to tackle land banking and the impact on local communities?

Hello and thanks for taking part!
One thing that's been bothering me is why willingly give up the only way to prevent the current government from doing whatever it likes and run the risk of gifting them the majority they need? Tactically I didn't understand the about turn regarding a GE before a referendum. In my view the opposition should have sorted itself out first, for however long that took. Why call for a GE when the polls consistently put the Tories in the lead? Now I worry about a Trumpian no deal at the end of next year should they get a 50+ majority.

I live in Wokingham BC and have previously always voted Labour. As a remainer I would like to vote LD but as a woman I can't as both Jo Swinson and Baroness Featherstone have told me that because I believe in sex rather than gender they do not want my vote.

However, as no more questions are to be allowed about Self-ID and the erosion of women's rights I would like to ask a more local question please:

WBC have one of the lowest amount of funding per pupil in the country which has resulted in many schools asking for annual parental contribution to buy basic school equipment. What would the LD's do to improve funding for schools like ours whilst also substantially improving the provision for schools in lower income areas?

Finally, please stop spamming me with leaflets. So far I have had 7 different leaflets which fundamentally say the same thing - what a waste of paper!

Dear Phillip
If elected , what do you propose to do about the taper tax allowance fiasco that is causing so many NHS consultants to leave or reduce their hours to escape 110% tax rate?

From Gransnet user oldgoat

Do you think, if the situation arose again of the Lib Dems going into coalition with the Tories, that they would renage on their manifesto commitments, just like they did last time and vote with the Tories against welfare benefits?

What are your views on academies and having unqualified teachers, oversized classes and schools being unable to open 5 days a week?

Is a vote for you a vote for the tories? Or will you do what you need too in order to keep them out?

From Gransnet user NanaMags

Hi Phillip,

Do you think tactical voting will be a key decider in this election? I feel like I've been hearing more about it than in previous votes.

From Gransnet user ellasgran54

Why did you party do a total U-turn on university fees? After that, how can anyone trust your stance on Brexit?

From Gransnet user chellory
I will vote LibDem for the first time because I cannot abstain and nor am I prepared to condone what the Tories have done to our country or their stance on Brexit, or the anti Semitism in the Labour party and Corbyn's leadership. But the polls are putting the two main parties closer and closer and it may well be that the Lib Dems will end up forming an alliance with one or other in the absence of a clear majority. Given your stand on Brexit (which I agree with by the way) and the fact that you have candidates such as Luciana Berger who left Labour over the anti Semitism etc, how could you make an alliance with either side work if their principles are so different to what you stand for?

From Gransnet user windowwood

My question is for you as a politician and as a GP. I don't know whether you have been following all the stuff on Gransnet (and Mumsnet) about the HRT shortage? I am a 52 year-old woman who has been taking HRT for two years so far to alleviate symptoms including severe depression brought on by the menopause. It has been life changing for me, but now I am struggling to get the medication I need (Evorel Sequi) and very worried about what will happen when the supply I have runs out. It took a lot of trial and error and patience from my GP to get a dosage and product which worked for me and so I know that the alternatives which are currently available will not work for my needs. How can we have reached a stage where this and other medications are in such short supply (or no supply at all)? What are you as a party doing about this? And if we do end up with another Tory government and a hard Brexit by the end of the year, how much worse will it get? I am so very worried about it

Your party is currently propagating "fake news" with regards to what is erroneously called the spousal "veto" in the Gender Recognition Act.

It is your party's policy to abolish the right of a woman whose husband is undergoing gender transition, to have her marriage annulled/ dissolved before her husband gets a Gender Recognition Certificate.

Bearing in mind not all women are able to get divorced, and if they can it might take five years, you are going to create a situation where women can be trapped in same sex relationships against their will.

How does this policy, which makes it more difficult for women to leave a broken relationship, fit with modern Liberalism?

Trans widows have asked questions about this policy to Layla Moran, Christine Jardine and Baroness Barker and received no answers. Where would you suggest we turn next?

What @Oakenbeach asked upthread: how do you justify unilaterally revoking article 50 rather than holding a second referendum, given that our FPTP system typically delivers majorities in the Commons on the basis of a minority of votes cast?

(Also can't vote for you because you've said you don't want the votes of women who recognise sex as a biological reality.)

Hi Philip, I wonder if you can tell us what steps you and the LD party are taking to ensure the conservatives release the report on Russian interference in British democracy, prior to the general election. What do you consider to be a bigger affront to democracy, Russian interference or complete reversal of the referendum result?

Can we have your reassurance that a vote for the lib dems isn't a vote for the Tories?

Will you sell everyone out and go into coalition with the Tories again if it's a hung Parliament?

Hi everyone, great to be here. I'm a Mumsnet virgin, so do be gentle with me...