Local party chairman Gavin Cliffe (centre) congratulating Nick Radford (right) after the hustings. Also in the photo, from left: previous chaiman Greg Condliffe, Steve Radford (Nick's father), Su Thorpe, and Russell Morley

On the evening of March 5, in a very well-attended hustings held at Sarum College, local Lib-Dem party members chose Nick Radford as their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC). There will be more on this here, and on Nick's own website, soon.

After a very close-run race, Nick Clegg just edged the contest to succeed Ming Campbell as Leader of the Lib-Dems nationally, beating Chris Huhne by a mere 511 votes.

We don't normally carry national news on this website, and you can find out much more about the leadership contest, Lib-Dem policies, etc on the Lib-Dem national website. However, local party members had an excellent opportunity to make up their minds between the two candidates, because both Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg had attended Lib-Dem fund-raising events in Salisbury as guest speakers in the 12 months preceding the election. Not only that, but we had also recently hosted our interim leader Vince Cable as well. See further down the page for more on these visits and about our "political lunch" programme!

Around 90 members, supporters, and their guests gathered for their annual Christmas Dinner at Sarum College on the evening of 10th December to enjoy excellent food, a fundraising auction, a raffle and an after dinner speech by Dr. Vince Cable, interim leader of the party. He congratulated the local party on their successful election results in the May 2007 elections.

Ever modest, especially about his own surprise leadership of the party which he was enjoying, he went on to woo his audience with quiet confidence and humour as he discussed his own, and the party’s, important role in current parliamentary debate: he discussed his views on defence, tax, health, the Northern Rock Bank saga, the economy, education, racism and threats to civil liberties including lost data and ID cards. His concerns over the centralization of medical records drew unanimous approval from his audience.

For more about Vince Cable's speech, click here.

More than 70 members and supporters gathered for a Liberal Democrat Fundraising Supper on Friday 28th September in Hale Hall. Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield Hallam and Home Affairs Spokesman, spoke about the role of an MP in parliament today. His wide-ranging speech covered many aspects of his political work, but the audience were surprised and impressed to hear how much of his time was spent replying to his constituents’ letters and phone calls following his local MP surgery. He believed that he was giving a “voice to the voiceless” though this essential service.

He suggested that Liberal Democrats should aim to reconfigure the state so it was more in tune with, and closer to, the heartbeat of the people: there was a need to reconnect people to government. For more about Nick's speech, click here.

Our traditional Christmas Dinner was held at Old Sarum College on December 2nd, attended by some 90 members and guests. Featured guest of honour was Chris Huhne, MP for Eastleigh, shadow environment spokesman, and runner-up in the 2006 election for party leader (see photos at left and below). In a wide-ranging and amusing speech, Chris touched on many of the issues which are of concern both to our party and the public at large. For some of the main points that Chris made, click here.

The Salisbury LibDems Executive Committee were delighted to welcome Henry Curr as committee member with responsibility for youth and students. Henry is co-ordinating a drive to recruit more young LibDem members, and points out that LibDem policies have a lot to offer young people today. For more information, click here.

What are that excellent local Folk-Rock band Mary Jane doing here? They provided the entertainment at a very successful Social Evening held in Whiteparish recently, for members of the Salisbury and Romsey LibDem parties and their guests. For more info, and some photos, click here.

LibDem representation for the Salisbury area on the County Council is significantly stronger nowadays. The 2005 County Council Election saw Liberal Democrat successes in Salisbury East (John English), Salisbury South (Bobbie Chettleborough and Brian Dalton), and Wilton and Wylye (Ian West). And across Wiltshire, the Lib Dem vote was 36.5%, securing us 16 County Council seats.