Both schools and hospitals are under threat from cuts imposed by the Tory government. The current lack of movement at Stormont will ensure that nobody is politically able to oppose this new round of budget cuts.

THE NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY (NLP) is asking all Ulster-based readers to sign an on-line petition.

The petition calls upon the leaders of the four of the five main parties – Arlene Foster (Democratic Unionist Party), Michelle O’Neill (Sinn Féin Northern Leader), Robin Swann (Ulster Unionist Party) and Naomi Long (Alliance Party) – to ‘unite, fight’ and ‘resist cuts to health and education’.

The petition is organised by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Whilst the NLP has serious differences of opinion to the SDLP, we are ardent supporters of social justice. As the petition relates to the ‘bread and butter’ issue of health and education, we are happy to support it.

The petition notes that:

‘Health and Social Care Trusts across Northern Ireland have been tasked by the Department of Health to make £70m worth of cuts in the 2017/18 financial year.

Primary and Nursery schools are being forced to make cuts of £56 per pupil – meaning tens of thousands of pounds less for each school.

Our public services are on the brink of a severe financial crisis and those who will suffer most are the sick, the elderly and our children. That is unacceptable.

All political parties should commit to sitting around the same table to negotiate a resolution to health, education, budgetary and equality issues that will see the restoration of power sharing institutions capable of delivering on the potential and the promise of the Good Friday Agreement.

We, the undersigned, refuse to stand by as political paralysis threatens the lives of those around us. We call on the leaders of all the main political parties to unite, fight and resist the cuts being applied to public services. We call on the leaders of the political parties to commit to reaching a resolution in the best interests of everyone living here.’

Over 1600 people have signed already. Join them today! The petition can be found here: https://www.change.org/p/arlene-foster-unite-fight-resist-cuts-to-health-and-education/nftexp/ex5/control/212260656?recruiter=212260656&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_content=ex5%3Acontrol

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• MEMBERS and supporters of the National Liberal Party who are either sponsoring or supporting an on-line petition are ask to get in touch with the appropriate details. E-mail us at natliberal@aol.com

MEMBERS and supporters of the National Liberal Party – NLP – may recall that we’ve featured a couple of articles written by West-Midlands based, Simon Stevens. Simon describes himself as an ‘independent inclusion issues consultant, trainer and activist’. He is regarded as one of Britain’s foremost disability advocates.

You can check out the articles we’ve previously carried here http://nationalliberal.org/disability-a-voice-for-change and here http://nationalliberal.org/from-disability-to-politics-%e2%80%93-does-the-media-have-its-own-agenda

In the very near future we’ll carry some more of his articles – all aimed at sparking debate relating to disability issues. In the meantime, readers can check out his new web-site http://www.simonstevens.com/ You can also find him on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/simonstevens74 or join the 21.5 thousand follows of his Twitter feed @simonstevens74

Please note that there is no official link between the National Liberal Party and Simon Stevens. Thus, it should not be taken that Simon endorses the NLP or that we unconditionally support everything that he writes. As we noted earlier, we’re simply interested in stimulating any debate relating to disability issues.

‘SPEECH Is free with the NLP!’

MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS of the National Liberal Party – NLP – will be very familiar with the above slogan. We use it to underlne our absolute commitment to the idea of freedom of thought and speech. With this in mind, we’ve reproduced an article (which appeared towards the end of May) by Leapy Lee, said to be ‘possibly the most controversial columnist’ attached to Euro Weekly News. EWN is Spain’s largest group of free English language papers, with a circulation of 134,000 per week.

Whilst we don’t agree with everything that Lee says, we both defend his right to say it and admire his honest and forthright approach. This is particularly so of the article we’ve reproduced (below) concerning Tony Blair.

We were particularly taken by Lee’s assertion that ‘Millions of UK subjects hate and despise’ Blair. We feel that this accurately sums up the way ordinary working families view members of the establishment. Those who make up the establishment are so arrogant – so full of their own importance – that they can’t believe that the ‘plebs’ don’t fall over themselves to worship at their feet. This description is fairly accurate when it comes to Blair, given his narcissism and almost messianic complex. For its part, the NLP hopes that, one day, Blair’s arrogance will lead to his downfall.

It goes without saying that there are no official links between Leapy Lee, Euro Weekly News and the NLP.

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Tony Blair - former Labour Prime Minister, Remainer and War Criminal

AS sure as night prededes day and the Pope follows the teachings of Catholicism, the Blair person is now up and running.

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A YEAR has come and gone since the EU Referendum. As everyone should know by now, on 23^rd June 2016, a majority of the electorate took the brave and historic decision to get Britain out of the EU. On a national turnout of 72.2%, 17,410,742 (51.9%) people voted to free Britain from the shackles of the European Union. Indeed, as the Guardian at the time – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2016/jun/23/eu-referendum-live-results-and-analysis – noted, ‘Britain has voted by a substantial margin to leave the European Union.’

Despite this, members of the elite still don’t get it. One particular case which raised the hackles of many people involved the well-known evolutionary biologist and writer, Richard Dawkins. Here’s what he had to say: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39218108

Liberal Future are the first to concede that Dawkins raises many valid points. We feel that Cameron called the EU Referendum in an attempt to both shut up the Eurosceptic wing of the Tory party and kill off the threat of UKIP. (Ironically, the Eurosceptic wing of the Tory party walked all over Cameron and internal rumblings within UKIP seem to have killed it off. That’s politics, folks!)

Dawkins also notes that Cameron should have insisted on a 2/3 majority for the EU Referendum, held a ‘cooling off’ period and so on. Maybe he should of – but the fact is he didn’t and that the majority of the electorate opted for Brexit. We wonder if Dawkins would still be calling for a 2/3 majority and so on if the Remain camp had won the vote?