Tring & Berkhamsted Liberal Democrats - Working Locally, for Britain and for You!

The Liberal Democrats are calling for Boris Johnson to be barred from standing in the Conservative Leadership election and returning to Number 10.

Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper MP said:

"The fact that Conservative MPs are even considering putting Boris Johnson back in Number 10 shows how out of touch they really are. They think there's one rule for them and another for everyone else."

Liberal Democrats select local businesswoman and environmental campaigner as parliamentary candidate for South West Hertfordshire

• Victoria Collins has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate in the Blue Wall constituency of South West Hertfordshire
• Victoria is a business leader and lifelong environmental campaigner
  
  

  The Liberal Democrats have selected local entrepreneur and environmental campaigner, Victoria Collins, to be the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for South West Hertfordshire.

  The Liberal Democrats are the main opposition to the Conservatives in the blue wall seat of South West Hertfordshire. The Liberal Democrats have led Three Rivers Council since 2017 and in 2019 made large gains against the Conservatives in Dacorum. The historic Liberal Democrat victory in Chesham and Amersham, with a 25% swing from the Conservatives, and the Parliamentary win in St Albans in 2019 both on the constituency borders put the Liberal Democrats in the strongest position to challenge the Conservatives for South West Herts.

  Victoria brings her economic experience from the European Parliament and award-winning entrepreneurial experience in tech and sustainable business. Victoria was inspired to get involved with politics by seeing first-hand the impact of inequality and has long campaigned for environmental and social issues. She is driven by a passion to make politics and our economy work for all of us not just the elite.
  
  

  As a businesswoman, Victoria has real-life experience of the challenges faced by SMEs in South West Hertfordshire, and sees first-hand the negative consequences of Brexit, as well as the struggles caused by the pandemic and now the cost-of-living crisis. She will be a strong champion for business and work to ensure our local economy thrives.

  Her top campaign priorities include:

  • Tackling the cost-of-living crisis to help struggling families and businesses
  • Urgent action to protect local rivers from sewage
  • Strong action to support our struggling NHS

  The Liberal Democrats are taking on Blue Wall constituencies like South West Hertfordshire after making gains in Chesham and Amersham and the then biggest by-election swing of 29.9%, in Tiverton and Honiton. Voters are clearly fed up with the Conservatives and turning to the Liberal Democrats.
  
  

  Victoria Collins, Liberal Democrat candidate for South West Hertfordshire, said:
  
  

  "I am honoured to have been selected to be your candidate at the next General Election. I'm ready to do all I can to hold Liz Truss and the Conservatives to account and will fight tirelessly to give the people of South West Hertfordshire a strong and passionate voice.

  "Talking to voters across this constituency, I know how angry so many of you are about this destructive Tory government and the direction Liz Truss is taking this country. This KamiKwazi approach is having a devastating impact on the cost of living for families and businesses across our constituency. What's more, residents are frustrated that our current Conservative MP, Gagan Mohindra, does not stand up for the people of South West Hertfordshire and is taking local people for granted.

  "We owe it to the people of South West Herts to offer a credible alternative to Liz Truss and the Conservative Party. With your help, we can take on the Conservatives in South West Hertfordshire, and make sure our shared values are represented in Parliament."
  
  

  About Victoria Collins

  • Victoria lives in South West Hertfordshire and is an active campaigner across the constituency volunteering with local organisations.

  • From the European Parliament to tech entrepreneurship Victoria now advises international firms on sustainable change.

  • Victoria aims to be the first Liberal Democrat MP of East and South East Asian descent.

  • Victoria grew up helping her mother on the shop floor and following her father's work on sustainable social housing projects. Together, they taught Victoria the value of hard work and supporting your local community.

  Join the team here.

While welcoming the two-year flurry of announcements from Transport Minister Grant Shapps for rail rebuild proposals, local Liberal Democrat Councillor for the Tring West & Rural Ward on Dacorum Borough Council, Nick Hollinghurst has sounded a note of caution.

"When looking right across the UK - which is really the only way to view proposals affecting a national rail network - there are lessons to be learned. HS2, or "Cameron's Concorde" as some call it was an ambitious, but clearly needed, major capacity enhancement for our national rail network. But HS2 was spoiled completely by a gold-plated over-specification that now looks like coming in well over three times the original budget. Why? Simply because of a political red line that the London - Birmingham journey time had to be less than two hours."

Liberal Democrats and Labour have always valued public education to a greater degree than Conservatives, if only because the generally more wealthy Conservative mostly have access to an alternative system.

This system has greater resources per pupil, ready access to the professions and is over-represented in the intake to our better and more prestigious universities. Whilst not necessarily equiping the young people with the modern knowledge or with the practical or professional skills that the country needs to weather the present difficulties, it is rather more successful in endowing what it blatantly regards as the next generation of the ruling class, with immense confidence untroubled by conscience or sound judgement, and a strong sense of entitlement.

Thus it has been and thus they strive to ensure it will continue to be. Just look at the present cabinet!

And so when the remarkable spectacle of a protest by 7,000 headteachers arose in March 2019, two Liberal Democrat County Councillors made a public demonstration of their party's support.

Wishing everyone as good a Christmas as present circumstances permit!

And a happy New Year!

The place to be this weekend - and a test drive with a difference!

Rosemarie and Nick Hollinghurst from Tring answered the call - and went up to help in the Shropshire North By-Election, just "a little further" up the A41 from Tring. It turned out to be over 125 miles further up and more than a few more miles off the A4, but well worth the journey.

Being retired, and so with greater flexibility, they decided to go up towards the end of the week to help get material ready for the big rush of volunteers on the final weekend of campaigning. They also decided to test the capability and practicability of their new EV on its first long run.

They had a slow journey north, but, despite a long diversion for repairs to a railway bridge, they checked into the Old Rectory, a nice old hotel in Wem, at ¼ past 3 on Thursday - and immediately retraced their steps to arrive at the Liberal Democrat Campaign HQ in the grounds of nearby Soulton Hall. They worked counting out and making up leaflet rounds till gone 7 pm. then returned to the hotel in Wem.

Then, meeting Jane and Nigel Quinton from Welwyn - also trying out a new EV - they joined them for a pleasant dinner at the Fox in Wem just down the road from the Old Rectory.

Up in the morning at 7 on Friday, and fortified by the usual "English Breakfast" then packed and headed back to the HQ. There they found two more Hertfordshire Lib Dems, Malcolm Appleford and Robin Bromyard from Hemel Hempstead who were putting up poster boards. Nick and Rosemarie put in a solid 4½ hour session of clerical work Friday by a better and uneventful journey home. The EV performed splendidly.

Organisation in the HQ was very good, with an air of quiet confidence and everyone we met was friendly and good company - most importantly there was coffee ad libitum.

Anyone with time should please go and help out if they can. It's a widely dispersed area and needs lots of deliverers and canvassers, but based on Nick's experience back in Brecon and Radnor canvassing in rural areas is always appreciated by the electors - he found that talking to people in their own farmyard can be very rewarding. One tip though - don't stand too close behind a cow in a milking shed!

Well, it IS different from Chesham & Amersham, but I'm making no other comment at all. If you want to get a feel for the situation, then go up and find out at first hand. The result will be known on Friday, but whatever that it is, your journey will not be wasted. At the very least we can feel we Did Our Bit! The people in Shropshire North deserve better than either corrupt Tories or disappointing Labour, and it would not be surpising if enough of them come see that over the next few days!

A local campaigner like Helen Morgan is just what this area needs as its MP!

Several European energy companies are currently exploring the feasibility of producing hydrogen out at sea. Although not particularly efficient, electroysis of water to produce hydrogen is a useful way to capture wind energy that might otherwise be in surplus. Batteries could of course be used shorterm energy storage and release, but future projections indicate hydrogen could handle greater quantities of energy over greater timescales and could also be an efficient way to transfer it to the mainland - with one hydrogen pipeline handling the same energy transmission as 5 DC interconnector cables.

Germany has an advantage here with its own off-shore island of Helgoland, a one time WWII fortress in the North Sea but now a rather limited and lonely summer holiday destination and opportunity to buy tax free alcohol and cigarettes. The island could act as a collection base for platform-based hydrogen electrolysis and a distribution centre for hydrogen to be routed to neighbouring industrial centres in Germany, Holland and Scandinavia. Of course, this might well spell the end of both alcohol and smoking on the island!

Die Presse reports that prominent among the companies is the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk, better known as RWE, once the owner of Thames Water and 10 power stations in the UK. As the company remodels itself around the newer energy sources, Thames Water and 5 of the power stations (one of which was Didcot) have been closed and sold.

Other companies involved are the Norwegian energie giant Equinor and the Dutch pipeline specialist Gasunie.

At first an electrolysis capacity of 300 MW is planned by 2028, producing 20,000 tonnes of hydrogen a year. By 2035 this is expected to rise to 10 GW of electrolysis capacity for a variety of industrial uses and making it feasible to economically produce of 'green fertilisers', reducing the use of methane, and even 'green steel', replacing coking coal with hydrogen. UK Government please note!

Meanwhile Reuters reports that, with other partners, RWE is investing in the Triton Knoll (near Grimsby) and the Sofia (Central Dogger) offshore wind farms, and is the preferred bidder for two other nearby sites on the Dogger Bank (thank you, Ed Davey!).