Happy Christmas!

Christmas is fast approaching, so it's time once again for one of my animated Christmas cards. This time I’ve roped in some European political leaders¹ and a very demanding cat…

New Year’s Eve sees my second and final term as Liberal Democrat President come to an end,² and party members have elected Josh Babarinde to succeed me.

So come January, I’ll be able to give my full attention to the amazing new opportunity I’ve had the chance to start this year: serving in the House of Lords.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised how much modern efficiency has sneaked into different corners of the place, such as the swiping of security passes not only to record your vote but also to send the data online for the public to see. But then there are also things like the ‘heating’ systems.

Earlier in the year I cast my 100th vote (alas, not on something excitingly symbolic), but come next year I should get the chance to try my first amendments to a piece of legislation.

There are bigger issues facing local government in England, but I wouldn’t be me without also taking the chance to try to prise away the controlling centralised hand of Whitehall over… permission to install cattle-grids. Yes, at the moment permission for a new cattle-grid on the public highway sits with the Secretary of State in London.

I think we can safely devolve that power a little… but let’s see what reasons the government comes up with for having backed away from doing this themselves. Perhaps they fear that if the controlling hand of Whitehall is relaxed at all, there will be an outbreak of Mad Cattle-Grid disease sweeping the nation, with Andy Burnham stick in new cattle-grids all across central Manchester?

More on all that next year, and it’s one reason why although my term as President is coming to an end, the email newsletters will continue. The plan is for there to be three main ones: Lib Dem Newswire for party news, The Week in Polls for political polling and the newest, A Lord’s Eye View, for my new work in Parliament.

During the year I completed another of my multi-year sagas, doing the last trip from the list of Britain’s best railway journeys that John Rentoul published many years ago. Thank you, John!

Also crossed off the list is a local broken pavement blackspot, where years of repeated churned up pavements have finally been brought to an end by the council. And that broken street light I mentioned last year? Yes, Transport for London has got it fixed.

Now for that perennial spot of flooding at a road junction that for many years has resulted in passing traffic soaking the pavement…

Whatever your own plans for the future, I hope 2026 sees them prosper and I hope you manage to get a good break over Christmas.

Very best wishes to you and your family,

Mark

P.S. Sending electronic cards is much cheaper than posting traditional cards, so I’m making a donation to the Book Trust and, if you are able, would encourage you to do so as well. They do great work helping children get reading.