From Gladstone and Home Rule, Grimond and Regionalism, Ashdown and Devolution and even Daisy’s plan to move the Treasury,decentralising the British state has always been a Liberal Democrat ambition.

Andy Burnham’s political appeal is easy to understand. At a time when Westminster appears remote, ineffective and disconnected from much of England, his call for devolution speaks directly to a ...

One of the first decisions taken by Southwark’s new Liberal Democrat-Green Joint Administration has been to back the legal challenge against the Mayor of London and MHCLG’s decision to reduce ...

Transport has become one of Andy Burnham’s defining issues as Mayor of Greater Manchester. He has championed the Bee Network, argued for London-style powers and made public transport central to his ...

Andy Burnham often describes health and social care devolution in Greater Manchester as one of the most important reforms of his political career. Few politicians have invested more effort in the idea ...

Last week Ed Davey gave a well received keynote speech advocating a new Growth and Defence Partnership (‘Partnership’) with the European Union (EU) at the European Movement UK’s event marking the ...

On Monday I had lunch with an American friend who was visiting London. I mentioned that later that day I was co-sponsoring an event in Parliament with Labour MP Clive Lewis on the subject of defending ...

The recent (and long overdue) release of the UK’s Defence Investment Plan (DIP) has only intensified the long-running debate about how to fund an increase in the UK Defence Budget, a debate that has ...

Thanks to a Brazilian friend, I had the opportunity to attend the International Seminar on Culture and Climate Change, which ...

The desire for a sense of control is a deeply futile effort, because despite being individuals, we find ourselves in a social paradigm, shaped by what is beyond our control – for example, where we are ...

Here we are again, with the body politic latching on to another -ism that lacks definition yet carries allure for those of us desperate to see devolution and real localism really spring into life. I ...

Andy Burnham’s launch speech in Manchester raised hopes of a sustained plan to devolve power away from Whitehall.  If the reality matches the rhetoric, that will be a massive achievement and will ...