Liberal International's 59th congress suffered perhaps from a rather odd choice of timing - a congress in Europe held only weeks before most of the continent would be caught up in European Parliament elections.
The inaugural meeting of LIBG's north west England branch took place in Preston on 22 April.
Liberal International executive meeting Tblisi, Georgia, May 2016
LIBG executive member Rebecca Tinsley has written a piece on the Open Democracy website in her own capacity on whether the UK's business links with dictatorships really open channels to raise human rights issues, as the Government claims.
Yesterday I attended a packed Global Strategy Forum event at the National Liberal Club, on the UK's future post-Brexit foreign policy. Malcolm Rifkind spoke for the Conservatives, Jack Straw for the Labour Party and Menzies Campbell for the Liberal Democrats. It is the largest lunchtime event I have ever attended at the NLC, over 40 years, and it was standing room only.
We are living in dangerous times.