Pawel Urbanski

If you happen to be visiting Edinburgh in the next few days, you’ll find that choosing the Fringe show you want to go to is even more challenging than working out your Conference diary. Over the four weeks, 3649 shows take place over 268 venues, for a total of 53000 performances in the biggest cultural festival in the World. And that’s before you start on the Book Festival. Two Scottish Lib Dems are performing in shows this week and beyond.

What just happened The new Prime Minister has put business rates at the heart of his first Budget on 28 October: 20 per cent relief for pubs and clubs, and a promise to “look at business rates more broadly for high street businesses“. An uncomfortable truth first: ask on any high street who stands up for the shopkeeper, and few will say the Liberal Democrats. Yet on business rates we have carried the best answer for eight years.

There were two principal authority by-elections across England, Wales and Scotland this week, both held on Thursday 13 August. The Liberal Democrats were not defending either seat, with Reform UK defending Almondbury on Kirklees MBC and Labour defending Honiton St Michael’s on East Devon DC. It was an excellent night for the Liberal Democrats, with gains in both wards.