Today our MPs had an opposition debate in the House of Commons.
We asked members and supporters of the Liberal Democrats to vote to decide what our opposition debate would be about: a final say on the Brexit deal, how we will fund the NHS into the future, and Trump's visit to the UK.
Theresa May tried to portray strength as her Cabinet decamped to Chequers to review her Brexit plans. Rebels ministers were warned they would lose their official cars if they resigned, with taxis on standby to shuttle the disloyal back to London.
This was May's moment to bring her Cabinet in line.
For a moment, it appeared that May had managed to quietly stifle dissent. Then the dam broke.
"They said it had to be done to balance the books. You might remember that local schools had their budgets cut by £33 per child by the Conservatives at Devon County Council" reports Devon Lib Dem County Councillor Alan Connett.
"Well, today at County Hall those same Tory councillors will be voting to put £20 MILLION, yes £20 million, of savings into the council's reserves at the bank and so the savings increase from £51 million to £71 million!"
Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate Alex White is already out working with Lib Dem Councillors and supporters collecting signatures for a petition opposing cuts in funding to Devon schools. "Devon schools have always suffered from a funding shortfall" said Alex whilst campaigning in Bow with County Councillor Nick Way "But the new Tory formula is just making things worse and some schools might e ven have to reduce numbers of teaching staff. A serious re-think of the funding formula is needed to prevent this happening."
You may have seen in the news that a huge £24,000 pay rise (that's 26%) was handed to the boss of the Devon and Somerset Local Enterprise Partnership. His pay is now £115,000 a year!
Devon County Council sits on the board of the Partnership, which is meant to encourage jobs and industry into the area. We are astonished that such a massive pay hike could be approved especially when so many local people have had very modest increases or none at all.
Local Lib Dems are delighted that Alex White will be contesting the Central Devon constituency in the 'snap' General Election on June 8th.
Alex is already out and about meeting voters and working with the County Election Candidates in Central Devon and is looking forward to making it a close result this time round.
At the moment the Government pays schools in Devon £290 a year LESS for each child than the national average. The Government have announced a new 'Fairer Funding' plan that means that around 200 schools in Devon will actually have their budget cut, while other schools will get a bit more. On top of that, the Conservatives running Devon County Council plan their own extra cut to schools, taking away £2.2 million. That is a £33 cut for every child.
Lib Dems in Central Devon and Teignbridge are celebrasting two by-election victories in Bovey and Chudleigh.
The winning candidates Sally Morgan (Bovey) and Richard Keeling (Chudleigh) took the seats from the Conservatives with 43.9% and 51.5% of the votes cast.
Over the last 6 months, the Lib Dems have been winning Council Seats again. We have had 3 gains in Teignmouth and 8 gains in Cornwall plus a gain in Totnes and another in Exmouth. On December 15th we have a chance to keep that momentum going and possible get the Devon haul up to 7, just one behind Cornwall.
