Many of us continue to be appalled by the actions of the Labour government. Less than 2 years in power, and we’re now seeing open warfare in Labour’s ranks, whilst the electorate in Makerfield is being cynically manipulated, with the resignation of a sitting Labour MP to attempt to shoehorn in a chosen candidate and pander to the aspirations of Burnham and the left.
With all this going on, you might expect that the Lib Dems would be standing up for their electorate and holding Labour to account; nothing could be further from the truth.
Mirroring the cosy cooperation seen in Wokingham Borough between Labour and the Lib Dems, where they support each other’s nominations and proposals, Lib Dems in Westminster have been almost invisible, apart from attempting to pin any issue on the last Conservative Government.
Before people think the Lib Dems are a cosy centrist party, look at some of their policies and how they would impact residents in Wokingham Borough.
Official Lib Dem Policy is to introduce an annual property tax based on house prices. Homenicom 2026 shows that prices in our Borough are 81% higher than the national average. So, guess who would pay for this policy? Interestingly, the Lib Dems don’t seem to have realised that high house prices often leave people with less disposable income, rather than more! Furthermore, Lib Dems have supported the new property surcharge of Council tax, being introduced by Labour in April 2028. As with labour stealth taxes on Pensions and income, it’s likely more will be caught in this tax net over time.
Far from being the friend of hard-working taxpayers, Lib Dems in Wales have said that they would like to increase income tax, and the Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson proposed increasing taxes by £10bn. They also abstained from a vote to protect consumers from having to pay the cost if a water company goes bust.
On Law and Order, Lib Dems voted against a Conservative proposed amendment to abolish the unjust non-crime hate incidents. They also passed a policy at their conference to reduce the use of stop and search. In 2008/9, 1.52 million stop and searches were conducted, but by 2024/5 the number had dropped to 528k. During this same period, knife crime has exploded. The latest tragic homicide in this area, involving knives, happened in Earley, just yards from where I am sitting writing this.
Lib Dems also did not support national statutory enquiries into grooming gangs and supported votes for prisoners.
On immigration, they proposed an amendment to the Border Security bill calling for illegal immigrants to have access to British Citizenship. This created a further pull factor for illegal migration. They also proposed to lift the ban on employment for Asylum seekers, potentially attracting even more.
In the Lords, Lib Dems joined with Labour to support the Chagos bill, with 45 Lib Dem peers voting against a Conservative motion to tell the PM the Government should not ratify their deal, whilst with typical hypocrisy, Lib Dems in the Commons voted the opposite way.
Locally, Lib Dems continue to engage in a war on motorists, proliferating 20mph zones as they did recently in Woodley, despite strong local opposition and introducing Low Traffic neighbourhoods in other areas. In Oxfordshire, under the Lib Dems, the introduction from August 2026 of 15-minute cities will restrict Oxford city residents to 100 days driving in the city a year and Oxfordshire residents to just 25 days a year, with fines of £70 a time for exceeding that number levied by CCTV. This is just a glimpse of the dystopian future for residents in a country or Borough ruled by Lib Dems.
As with Labour the message is clear – be careful what you wish for.
By cllr Pauline Jorgensen
