I'm the son of immigrants, one parent from Germany, the other from Poland. My family history is in miniature the troubled history of Europe, scarred by the horrors of extremism and war - and then my parents making a new home together in our country.

It's why for me our liberal democracy, despite all its flaws, is so precious. We need to step up to protect against the extremists and populists.

Waiting for the outcome of the nomination count for Party President felt a wee bit like that scene from The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon explains about Schrodinger's Cat.

You know, where as long as the box is closed the cat is both dead and alive?

The relief when they cat was actually alive, and I was nominated, was huge!

Download the manifestos

Voting for the federal board election will open at 9 a.m. on 29th October 2019. You can find out more about all the internal elections here: www.libdems.org.uk/internal-elections

A note on the manifestos: The order in which candidates' manifestos appear was generated at random using the =RAND() Excel function. The document contains all the manifestos that were correctly supplied by the deadline for candidates supplied by the Returning Officer.

Voting for the federal board election will open at 9 a.m. on 29th October 2019. You can find out more about all the internal elections here: www.libdems.org.uk/internal-elections

A note on the manifestos: The order in which candidates' manifestos appear was generated at random using the =RAND() Excel function. The document contains all the manifestos that were correctly supplied by the deadline for candidates supplied by the Returning Officer.

I am delighted to announce that Heidi Allen has joined the Liberal Democrats.

I'm delighted to welcome Heidi to the party. She has been a tireless campaigner for a people's vote and has time and time again put the country's interests ahead of her own.

I'm absolutely thrilled for Heidi to join our fantastic and ever-growing team and I know that her skills, experience and passion will be a real asset to our party.