Dundee Liberal Democrats - www.dundeelibdems.scot

In my 27 years as a type 1 diabetic, I've been asked so many questions. But mostly:

"Does it hurt?"

"How do you stab yourself so many times a day?"

"How do you survive without chocolate?!"

"It's fine" you repeat, like a diabetic parrot caught on a loop. Desperate for a seed or a square of dairy milk.

But as with most things, people only ask about what they can see. Your colleagues will see you test your blood and take your insulin throughout the day, before catching you staring longingly at the biscuits someone very kindly brought in. Blood, insulin and sugar. That's it.

This month is Pride month. This year, June is also 50 years on from the pivotal Stonewall riots. We've come a long way, yet still couples in Northern Ireland are still denied the right to marry the person that they love.

Internationally, huge progress has been made when it comes to the rights and freedoms of LGBT+ people. Just this summer, Taiwan became the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage while Botswana decriminalised homosexuality in a landmark ruling. But we still have so far to go. In the UK many LGBT+ people still face a grim reality in which discrimination, both socially and in the eyes of the law, blights their everyday reality. The shocking image of a young lesbian couple covered in blood having been subjected to violence on a bus in London this month was a stark reminder that bigotry and prejudice persist.

I went into politics to put something back into the community I am from and to take our country in a progressive direction. My progressive values lead me to strive to work for a fair and open Britain, which has a strong, mixed market economy, in which everyone can achieve their dreams regardless of their background.

In the UK currently seven million people are carers. That is one in ten people and the figure is only rising as demographics change and people live longer with more disabilities and illnesses.

Three in five of us will be carers at one point or another in our lives.

That is why it is so important this week, Carers Week, that we understand and recognise the contribution carers make to society.

We've had an exception two months, winning elections, breaking records and growing our movement. Get the low down here:

Local Elections

We saw our party's best ever local election results, taking control of twelve councils and winning 706 council seats across England.

We took control of Vale of the White Horse, Hinckley & Bosworth, North Norfolk, Winchester, Bath and North East Somerset, Cotswolds, Chelmsford North Devon, Mole Valley, North Devon, Somerset West & Taunton and Teignbridge Councils.

I went into politics to put something back into the community I am from and to take our country in a progressive direction. My progressive values lead me to strive to work for a fair and open Britain, which has a strong, mixed market economy, in which everyone can achieve their dreams regardless of their background.

Leaving a political party is never an easy decision - nor one that one makes lightly. I know that from my own experience nearly 40 years ago!

Tonight, Chuka Umunna announced that he has joined the Liberal Democrats.

And I am delighted to welcome him to our party, as the Liberal Democrat MP for Streatham.

Responding to the ministerial statement on the Disclosure (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"Through casework or work experience, politicians and their staff have regular, unsupervised contact with young people or people from vulnerable groups,.

"I would like to see the Government use the new Disclosure Bill to extend the disclosure scheme to cover both parliamentarians and key member of their staff. Just because someone is a public figure does not mean they should be above the need to comply with adequate safeguarding measures.