Penrith and the Border need local money in order to make a decent attempt at running local campaigns. Hence we have set up a Gold Club, a sort of mini lottery! In return for a monthly ticket payment the members get the exciting chance of scooping 25%, 15% or 10% of the money collected for that month. And at much better odds than the National Lottery, even if for a 'slightly' smaller amount!

LIB DEMISTRY: The Lib Dem leadership race is finally out the blocks after voting opened this week, giving members until August 26 to cast their ballots. Playbook asked the two candidates to make their pitch to the Lib Dem faithful in a quick-fire Q&A. They appear in alphabetical order to avoid squabbles.

Westminster's broken political system is shutting out people who need their voices heard now more than ever during the coronavirus pandemic.

Our democracy doesn't need piecemeal change, it needs a radical overhaul.

On 8th June our Constitutional Affairs spokesperson Wendy Chamberlain led a debate in the House of Commons calling for a radical overhaul of Westminster politics.

"At the core of our being, we at Gladstone's Library believe that Black Lives Matter. We also believe that if it is the democratic will, after due process, to remove statues of William Gladstone, our founder, we would not stand in the way. Nor, we think, would Gladstone himself - who worked tirelessly on behalf of democratic change. This is why we believe that what matters is how we live today, our values, our democratic process and political involvement. William Gladstone whose politics were strikingly different to his Tory father's politics and values, was the first British politician to lead a left-leaning government and to institute dramatic democratic changes when he introduced the secret ballot, universal education and a foreign policy based on freedom and liberty and not the aggrandisement of Empire."

We are all aware of the importance of bus services to rural communities including those in the Eden Valley. The news that Labour/LibDem coalition run Cumbria County Council has been awarded £380,000 under the government's scheme for funding Supported Bus Services during 2020/21 is therefore to be welcomed; as is the proposal by the County Council to use part of the money to support new bus services between Appleby and Kirkby Stephen and to connect Kirkby Stephen town centre with the railway station and surrounding villages. We should be grateful to officers in the County Council's transport service for their work in securing this funding.