The dates and locations for Spring and Autumn conference 2019 have been announced.

Last year I attended ALDC (the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigns) Kickstart weekend as part of their Future Leaders scheme.

15 or so young people in the party are offered individual mentorship to help them get to where they want to be in the party – whether that is an MP, a Councillor, or something else.

Today the Government reported that patients in need of cannabis-based medicines will be allowed access to them in ‘exceptional circumstances’.

This is very welcome and long overdue change, which will be a relief for many patients and their families. It is disgraceful that people have been left to suffer for so long, because the Conservative Government have refused to accept evidence of the benefits of cannabis based medicines. 

It’s wise to choose for a private member’s bill a discrete topic to address a problem which has been identified and can be relatively easily solved – and which the Government might be prepared to see implemented.  But sometimes the concern to take forward a cause overtakes wisdom – thus my Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill which finished making its way through the Lords on 3rd July and has been taken up in the Commons by Tim Farron.

I want to tell you why I joined the Liberal Democrats and to encourage you to make the same journey.

As first-generation immigrants, my parents could have barely imagined the journey they or their children would make in the mother country. As an immigrant from South Asia, barely able to communicate in English, my mother built up a real estate business in London, in a country which has increasingly diversified in the intervening years.