Author Archives: Chris Rennard

Chris Rennard writes… How to keep people with diabetes out of hospital

By Chris Rennard | Published 3rd November 2011 - 8:45 am

On Tuesday, I helped to launch a report ‘Keeping People with Diabetes out of Hospital‘. As a person with diabetes, I know only too well the pressure that our diabetes care services are under.

Whether I’m speaking to my Diabetes Specialist Nurse, to my consultant, or to my colleagues in Westminster, it is clear that the ‘diabetes epidemic’ is increasingly being recognised as of major concern. Of the 2.9 million people in the UK living with diabetes, a worrying proportion will suffer additional complications and will require hospital care. In the last year alone, another 130,000 people have been …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged diabetes, health | 12 Comments

Chris Rennard writes… Can we tell what will happen in four years?

By Chris Rennard | Published 21st August 2011 - 2:55 pm

Four years ago, David Cameron was on the run.

The Conservatives had ‘thrown the kitchen sink’ into winning the Ealing Southall by-election in the summer of 2007 and they had raised expectations of a Tory victory based on the appointment of a well known local Asian businessman as ‘David Cameron’s Conservative candidate’ in a seat with a lot of Conservative Councillors.

But on polling day, the Conservatives not only failed to win the by-election (or even overtake the Lib Dems), but they fell from second place to third in the parliamentary by-election in Sedgfield following Tony …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged chris rennard, david cameron, featured, gordon brown | 22 Comments

Chris Rennard writes… Why David Owen is wrong on the AV referendum

By Chris Rennard | Published 14th March 2011 - 12:41 pm

David Owen chose the weekend of the Lib Dem Conference to offer his advice for the AV referendum. Having attacked the ‘First Past the Post’ voting system so vociferously for many years, it may seem odd to some people that he now urges support for this system on May 5th. He says that he hopes for a referendum with an option of a Proportional Representation system instead.

Almost all those people who have consistently supported the cause of electoral reform for much longer than he has take a different view. It is very clear that voting against change on May …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged av referendum, david owen, electoral reform | 32 Comments

Chris Rennard writes… So what was all the fuss in Parliament about?

By Chris Rennard | Published 20th February 2011 - 9:25 am

Late on Wednesday night Nick Clegg was at the back of the House of Lords to see Royal Assent granted to the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill.

His presence there emphasised his achievement in getting this Bill through Parliament in time to enable the referendum on switching to the Alternative Vote to take place on May 5th.

Of course people may not vote to change from First Past the Post. But I have never thought that any measure of electoral reform for Westminster would come about without a referendum. The self-preservation instincts of many MPs means that they are never …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged av referendum, constitutional reform and governance bill, ed miliband, nick clegg, Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill | 10 Comments

Chris Rennard writes: The row over the AV referendum will bring forward major changes in the House of Lords

By Chris Rennard | Published 29th January 2011 - 11:30 pm

The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill has now had a longer Committee stage in the House of Lords than any legislation taken there since at least 1945. The Bill is not a particularly complicated Bill when compared with, say, the last Labour Government’s Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill. Labour’s last constitutional Bill covered thirteen different areas of constitutional reform (including an AV referendum) and was dealt with in the Commons in a few days by use of a ‘Programme Motion’ (guillotine).

The PVSC Bill has been subject to an extensive and well organised filibuster on Labour’s benches abusing …

Posted in Op-eds, Parliament | Tagged av referendum, electoral reform, house of lords, labour dinosaurs, Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, self regulation, Tommy McAvoy | 56 Comments

Lord Rennard writes… Lord Blackadder, Baldrick, by-elections and reform of the Lords

By Chris Rennard | Published 5th December 2010 - 6:55 pm

The House of Lords debated (again) this week the second reading of David Steel’s Bill to make some very modest and minor reforms to the House of Lords.

I compared the process of by-elections to elect hereditary peers to the campaign run by Lord Blackadder to elect Baldrick in the rotten borough of Dunny on the Wold. David Steel’s Bill would end these by-elections and allow peers to retire voluntarily. A much more fundamental draft Bill for Lords reform is expected early next year.

But this debate showed again how hard it will be to achieve fundamental reform of the House of Lords.

The …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged david steel, house of lords, parliamentary reform | 6 Comments

Chris Rennard writes… The battle for electoral reform in the Lords

By Chris Rennard | Published 18th November 2010 - 7:05 pm

Battle has been joined in the House of Lords over the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill (generally referred to as the PVSC Bill). Having passed all stages in the Commons, it came to the Lords this week. It needs to get to Royal Assent by the end of January for the referendum on using the Alternative Vote for future Westminster elections to be held on May 5th next year.

Two controversial measures have been put together in one Bill as part of the coalition agreement. The Government won every vote in the Commons on this Bill with comfortable majorities. But Labour’s …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged av referendum, electoral reform, Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, paul tyler | 12 Comments

Chris Rennard writes… Liu Xiaobo needs to know people in Britain are appalled

By Chris Rennard | Published 9th November 2010 - 7:19 pm

I have succeeded in tabling a topical question for the House of Lords tomorrow:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, and if so how, they will raise concerns about the imprisonment of the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo during the Prime-Minister’s visit to China.

This follows me raising the issue on the World at One and in the Guardian because my view is that doing good business in not incompatible with publicly calling for respect for human rights and freedom of speech.

Liu Xiaobo needs to know that people in Britain are appalled that he was sent …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged china, liu xiaobo | 6 Comments

The 12 Op-Eds of Xmas (Day 12)

By Chris Rennard | Published 5th January 2009 - 3:20 pm

Throughout the festive season, LDV has offered our readers ~~a load of repeats~~ another chance to read the 12 most popular opinion articles which have appeared on the blog during 2008. The accolade for most-read article on LDV goes to Lib Dem chief executive Lord (Chris) Rennard, and appeared on LDV on 27th June…

Chris Rennard writes about the Henley result…

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged chris rennard, xmas12 | 2 Comments

Chris Rennard writes about the Henley result…

By Chris Rennard | Published 27th June 2008 - 6:29 pm

I am enjoying this debate and for the record:

1) I don’t always comment in detail on things read by our opponents – but I do welcome any constructive debate within the party on these issues – especially contributions from those who also work hard in these campaigns.

2) I am not generally “hands on” in the organisation and management of our by-elections these days (unlike when I was Director of Campaigns & Elections 1989-2003 or a member of the team in various by-elections from Edge Hill in 1979 to Greenwich in 1987). But as Chief Executive (in the structure debated and …

Posted in News, Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged chris rennard, henley by-election | 110 Comments

Opinion: Happy birthday, 20 years on

By Chris Rennard | Published 3rd March 2008 - 7:45 am

It’s 20 years ago to the day since the Liberal Party and SDP formally became one party, the Social & Liberal Democrats. Liberal Democrat Voice invited Chris Rennard to take a trip down memory lane…

Twenty years ago the ‘merger’ of the Liberal Party and the SDP was generally seen by the media more as a ‘split’ than it was a bringing together of two parties.

Anthony King and Ivor Crewe, in their history of the SDP, have an absolutely damning section on the conduct of David Owen and his clutch of supporters over this period.

The acrimonious ballot of SDP …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged chris rennard | 8 Comments

Author Archives: Chris Rennard

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