Author Archives: Mary Reid

Schools in well-off areas ‘are failing’ poorer pupils

By Mary Reid | Tue 23rd April 2013 - 7:13 pm

The Pupil Premium has had an impact on the educational achievements of many children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Indeed, the gap in attainment between them and the rest of the pupil population is the narrowest it has been for many years.

However, in an interview with the Independent, David Laws highlights the, perhaps surprising, differences between performance in deprived and in affluent areas of the country. It seems that disadvantaged children in well-off areas are not achieving as well as similar children in deprived areas.

David Laws, the Schools minister, described the

…

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Posted in News | Tagged david laws and pupil premium | 48 Comments

Large supermarkets are hoarding good housing land

By Mary Reid | Tue 16th April 2013 - 2:31 pm

A large site which has been earmarked by a council for residential housing, but owned by a major supermarket chain, has been lying derelict for 11 years. At a time of pressing housing need, this is a scandal.

Perhaps you know of similar cases to my story. If so, share them in the comments. Does anyone know how much land is being hoarded in this way?

In 2002 Tesco bought a redundant Ministry of Defence site in Tolworth, which lies within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, in the southwest corner of Greater …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured, housing and Supermarkets | 14 Comments

Caroline Pidgeon reveals £53 million unclaimed refunds on Oyster cards

By Mary Reid | Tue 16th April 2013 - 1:07 pm

I was getting on a London Tube train yesterday and was expecting the guard to tell us all to “Move down inside the train” and “Mind the doors”. Instead he announced “Have you read the Evening Standard? You lot are owed £53 million on your Oyster cards”.

He should have given credit to Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly and our spokesperson on the Transport Committee.

The problem lies with the 19,790,130 dormant Oyster cards, ie those that have not been used in the last 12 months. (For …

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Posted in News | 9 Comments

Join Team 2013

By Mary Reid | Wed 10th April 2013 - 2:54 pm

Team 2013 is the brand being used by the Lib Dem campaign for this year’s local elections. A bright new website has been launched to encourage you to help the campaign, even if you don’t have elections to fight in your own area.

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Posted in News | Tagged local elections 2013, nick clegg and team 2013 | Leave a comment

Bene habere bonum Aprilis Stulte Dies

By Mary Reid | Tue 2nd April 2013 - 9:00 am

I hope you all spotted that we had not one, but two, April Fool posts yesterday.

Simon McGrath announced a Special Lib Dem Conference to be held on April 1st 2016 when all former Lib Dem Ministers would don sackcloth and ashes and apologise for their actions in Government. I hear a song coming on …

That was followed by a post by our new co-editor, Caron Lindsay on how you can help Liberal Democrat Voice. Oh, sorry … that was deadly serious.

But later in the morning the Lib Dem Voice collective revealed that secret talks had been going on between the …

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Changing culture is a long term project – the future

By Mary Reid | Sun 31st March 2013 - 10:31 am

Last Tuesday I wrote a post in which I looked at some of the major changes for the better that had occurred in my lifetime. In many cases they were eventually consolidated in legislation, but cultural shifts had to happen over a long period of time before Parliament was willing to formalise them in law.

Before outlining some ideas for the future, I wanted to highlight a few more changes in my lifetime. Some of these required only minimal or no legislation but the changes in culture were nevertheless significant.

Mental illness was considered deeply shameful and patients were locked in

…

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Posted in News | 12 Comments

Changing culture is a long term project – the past

By Mary Reid | Tue 26th March 2013 - 12:15 pm

Over the years there have been many changes in legislation that have made the UK more liberal country and a safer place to be. Equal marriage is a recent example, a proposal that would have been inconceivable 50 years ago when homosexual acts between men were still a crime.

In my lifetime we have seen anti-discrimination policies enshrined in law in terms of race, gender, disability and sexuality; we have laws that protect children and that give women control over their own bodies. But all of these were only possible because of cultural shifts that had occurred in the decades that …

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Posted in Op-eds | 3 Comments

Liberal Democrat Lawyers’ Association speak out on secret courts

By Mary Reid | Tue 26th March 2013 - 11:05 am

The Liberal Democrat Lawyers’ Association held a special meeting on Monday to discuss the Justice and Security Bill. They have sent this message to Lib Dem peers:

It was the unanimous view of the meeting that the measures introduced by the Justice and Security Bill amount to an attack on the Rule of Law in the United Kingdom and that those present were opposed to the measures contained in Part II of the Bill. I was felt that arguably the measures are a greater attack on our traditions and

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Posted in News | Tagged house of lords, justice and security bill, liberal democrat lawyers association and secret courts | 36 Comments

Norman Baker launches his first single

By Mary Reid | Tue 19th March 2013 - 5:33 pm

It’s been a long political day, and we have the Budget to look forward to tomorrow. So sit back and enjoy Norman Baker’s first single ‘Piccadilly Circus’, with his band The Reform Club.

The Guardian provides these passnotes:

Baker fits the rockstar profile perfectly. He has been a troublemaker in the House of Commons, and campaigns for environmental and animal welfare causes.

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Posted in News | Tagged featured and norman baker | 5 Comments

After prison

By Mary Reid | Tue 12th March 2013 - 1:30 pm

A former journalist, who rose through the political ranks to become a cabinet minister, resigns in the midst of a scandal of his own making, strenuously denies the allegations but is convicted of perverting the course of justice and goes to prison, with his political career and reputation destroyed.

That was the tragedy of Jonathan Aitken, who has been doing the media rounds in the last 24 hours.

I want to tell his story – it happened some years ago so some readers may not remember – because it is a tale of redemption.

The incident that led to his downfall took place in when he was Minister of State for Defence Procurement, but it only came to light in 1995 after he had been promoted to Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He accepted hospitality, in the form of nights at the Ritz in Paris, from a Saudi businessman. The Guardian unearthed the story and Granada investigated it further in World in Action documentary.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged chris huhne, jonathan aitkin and prison reform | 8 Comments

LibLink: Vince Cable – budding Asian entrepreneurs help create thousands of UK jobs

By Mary Reid | Tue 5th March 2013 - 3:45 pm

The Telegraph has published a supportive report of a speech by Vince Cable at the launch of the National Asian Business Association yesterday. He referred to the 50,000 British Asian businesses in the UK which together generate more than £60bn nationwide, which in turn help to create thousands of jobs. He claimed that British Asians are probably “the most entrepreneurial section of the British public”

He said:

The stereotype of Asian businesses is changing rapidly; while that stereotype is still there – 30pc are in the retail sector – it’s rapidly diversifying. Their growth is essential to job creation and national economic recovery,

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged vince cable | 3 Comments

Why I didn’t go down to Eastleigh

By Mary Reid | Fri 1st March 2013 - 3:15 pm

As well as being one of the day editors on Lib Dem Voice, Mary Reid is chair of Kingston Liberal Democrats. The local party covers the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, which includes the whole of the Kingston & Surbiton constituency, plus a third of the Richmond Park constituency.

Actually I would have loved to have joined in the fun at Eastleigh. It is an easy journey down the M3 from where I live. But while all the national focus was on the south coast, here in Kingston we had our own needle match to fight.

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Posted in News | Tagged berrylands, kingston council, kingston liberal democrats, roisin miller and sushila abraham | 7 Comments

LibLink: Eastleigh by-election and mansion tax

By Mary Reid | Fri 22nd February 2013 - 12:09 pm

The Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast this week focused on the Eastleigh by-election and the mansion tax proposals. These topics were discussed by, amongst others, Lib Dem Voice’s Mark Pack.

You can listen to it here.

Posted in LibLink | Tagged eastleigh, mansion tax and Mark Pack | Leave a comment

By-election news

By Mary Reid | Fri 22nd February 2013 - 10:04 am

One of the pleasures of editing Lib Dem Voice on a Friday is the opportunity to cheer everyone up with news of by-election victories.

Today we can congratulate Lib Dem Andreas Yiasimi on gaining a council seat in Cromer from the Conservatives. He polled 558 votes, beating the Conservatives into fourth place. The local newspaper reports that Andreas is a local celebrity chef and owner of a Greek restaurant.

Let’s hope that next Friday brings more heartwarming results.

Posted in News | Tagged cromer | 4 Comments

A hole in his sock

By Mary Reid | Tue 19th February 2013 - 4:44 pm

The Telegraph has a lengthy profile of Rachel Smith, Vince Cable’s wife.

If cows can be considered to have a casting vote, then Hopeful and Caramel have done their bit to make sure Rachel Smith sees more of her husband in the future. The wife of the business secretary, Vince Cable, is a farmer with a dwindling beef herd in the middle of the New Forest. For months she has been trying to get these two Dexters in calf. The bull has visited; the artificial insemination man has

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Posted in News | Tagged rachel smith and vince cable | 4 Comments

Job shares for MPs?

By Mary Reid | Tue 19th February 2013 - 2:46 pm

It seems that journalists in the national media now make time to read Liberal Democrat policy consultation papers, even before they are discussed at Conference.

Following the Mail’s rant about the so-called ’jewelry tax‘ (from the Tax Policy consultation paper), we now have a more reasoned appraisal by the Guardian of one of the proposals in the consultation paper on Political and Constitutional Reform.

This major consultation is very wide ranging, and begins thus:

Our recent policy on constitutional and political reform has tended to focus on altering the democratic structures of the United Kingdom. We have sought pluralism in our electoral system, strength and legitimacy in our Parliament, and radical decentralisation of power to national, regional and local institutions.

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Posted in News | Tagged 2013 spring conference, dinti batstone and political and constitutional reform | 20 Comments

Caroline Pidgeon AM challenges London Mayor over unpaid congestion charges

By Mary Reid | Fri 15th February 2013 - 11:05 am

Caroline Pidgeon AM, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly, has challenged the London Mayor over congestion charges that have been evaded by embassies in the capital.

In answer to Caroline’s written question the Mayor admitted that embassies currently owe around £68 million. By the end of the year they will owe the equivalent to almost £10 to every Londoner.

The majority of embassies have some charges to pay. Two years ago the Liberal Democrat group studied the data gleaned through a Freedom of Information request and found that about a quarter of all embassies in London refuse to pay any charges at all. These persistent evaders include some of the richest countries in the world – US, Russia, Japan and Germany. To date the American Embassy owes over £7 million in unpaid charges

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Posted in News | Tagged Caroline Pidgeon, congestion charge and mayor of london | 7 Comments

Nigel Farage’s disappearing fish act

By Mary Reid | Tue 12th February 2013 - 4:55 pm

Last week I drew attention to the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, which amongst other improvements ends the practice of discards. Chris Davies MEP has been a leading advocate for reform, and had garnered cross-party support.

Even Nigel Farage had said:

First let me stress that the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has been a complete environmental, economic and social disaster and UKIP uses what say it has in the EU “Parliament” to vote against discards and protect British fishing.

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Posted in News | Tagged common fisheries policy and nigel farage | 3 Comments

LibLink: Vince Cable – Investors deserve red carpet, not red tape

By Mary Reid | Tue 12th February 2013 - 10:56 am

In the Telegraph, Vince Cable writes:

Britain is open for business. What we say to the emerging economies of the world is that, more than other Western countries, we welcome their investment, ideas, talent and visitors. We are not economic nationalists. We are not inward looking. That is a powerful message in São Paulo, Moscow, Mumbai and Shanghai.

In the article he concentrates on our trading relationship with China.

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged china, invest and vince cable | 2 Comments

MEPs to vote on crucial overhaul of Common Fisheries Policy

By Mary Reid | Tue 5th February 2013 - 3:54 pm

With all our attention today on Westminster (or Eastleigh) we can easily overlook important decisions being taken in Europe.

Tomorrow the European Parliament will be voting on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. Now fish do not quite carry the same emotional appeal as equal marriage, but the management of fisheries is of significant environmental as well as economic significance.

The reform, which will be led by scientists as well as fishermen, will set targets for the rebuilding of fish stocks, and to end the practice of discarding perfectly edible fish. Every …

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Posted in News | Tagged chris davies and common fisheries policy | 3 Comments

Eastleigh by-election

By Mary Reid | Tue 5th February 2013 - 12:29 pm

The party has moved swiftly to prepare for the by-election in Eastleigh, following Chris Huhne’s resignation.

Applications are being sought for potential candidates, with a closing date of 6pm on Wednesday 6th February. You are warned: “In order to be eligible to apply, applicants need to make sure they are on the Party’s list of Approved Candidates at the closing date for applications.”

Approved candidates will have already received the necessary documents and application form.

Posted in Selection news | Tagged eastleigh | 28 Comments

Osborne, Hague and May on equal marriage

By Mary Reid | Tue 5th February 2013 - 11:10 am

Following Stephen Tall’s analysis of the support for equal marriage among Liberal Democrat MPs, it is worth noting the views held by some senior Conservatives.

George Osborne, William Hague and Theresa May have jointly written a letter to the Telegraph:

SIR – Today the Commons will vote on the Bill to allow same-sex marriage.

Civil partnerships for gay couples were a great step forward, but the question now is whether it is any longer acceptable to exclude people from marriage simply because they love someone of the same sex.

Marriage has evolved over time. We believe that opening it up to same-sex

…

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Posted in News | 1 Comment

LibLink: Paul Tyler on target practice

By Mary Reid | Tue 29th January 2013 - 3:43 pm

In a recent post on Lord of the Blogs, Paul Tyler asks where the elusive Parliamentary rifle range is to be found.

For some years, while I was still an MP, there were regular requests for this apparently anachronistic facility, somewhere in the basement, to be replaced with a creche for the children of staff and members of both Houses. One Conservative MP naughtily suggested that the two roles could be combined.

Some years ago Nick Clegg said that it was absurd that parliament should have a shooting range and not a creche. …

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged house of lords, parliamentary rifle range and paul tyler | 4 Comments

LibDem International Office: Strengthening liberal democracies

By Mary Reid | Tue 29th January 2013 - 10:57 am

As an accredited party trainer I was intrigued to receive an email last week asking if I would like to provide some training for the Republican Party in Georgia next month.

It took a moment to register that it was talking about the Georgia to the north of Turkey on the Black Sea and their Liberal party, not the one to the north of Florida and the GOP.

Now I have acted for the party in a similar capacity before, when I met the youthful members of the Liberal Democrat party in Serbia and tried to convince them that an election cannot be won entirely on the Web. Sadly I have a by-election to attend to next month so I will not be offering my services this time.

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Posted in News | Tagged featured, international office, peter lesniak, training and westminster foundation for democracy | Leave a comment

LibLink: John Leech – Smoking ban working

By Mary Reid | Tue 22nd January 2013 - 3:48 pm

On his blog, John Leech MP, reminds us that there has been a 12% decrease in childhood asthma since the smoking ban was introduced in 2007 (with Scotland leading the way a year earlier).

Smoking is an issue I feel passionate about; I have long supported campaigns to ban smoking in public spaces. However, I believe we need to go further and that research finding such as these studies should give us that impetus. In February of last year I signed an Early Day Motion (EDM 2724) that noted “the

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged john leech and smoking ban | 9 Comments

Yes, Prime Minister returns

By Mary Reid | Tue 15th January 2013 - 3:39 pm

We know this is a blatant plug for the brand new series of ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ which will be showing on Gold at 9pm this evening – but we will all be watching it, won’t we?

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Posted in News and YouTube | Tagged featured and yes prime minister | 10 Comments

That ‘shirkers/scroungers versus strivers’ rhetoric

By Mary Reid | Tue 8th January 2013 - 3:54 pm

There can’t be a Lib Dem who doesn’t wince when the phrase ‘shirkers versus strivers’ is used. I don’t want to perpetuate this poisonous comparison, but hopefully my headline will draw in some of those taken in by the phrase and expose them to a different analysis.

While none of us would want to withhold support for ‘strivers’, aka ‘hard-working families’, we cannot allow the terms ‘shirkers’ or ‘scroungers’ to become the standard descriptions used for people who are unemployed (especially in a period of high unemployment brought about by dire economic circumstances), for people who are full-time carers, for people with mental health problems, or indeed people with other long-term health or disability conditions.

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Posted in News | Tagged nick clegg and sarah teather | 4 Comments

LibLink: From Baftas to building standards – why Don Foster isn’t looking back

By Mary Reid | Wed 2nd January 2013 - 5:00 pm

Don Foster begins his article in the Telegraph thus:

Having spent the first two years of the coalition government as a Lib Dem spokesman on culture, media and sport I knew what a gruelling schedule was, well before becoming Communities Minister.

Fitting in film premières, football and rugby matches, plays, and the BAFTAs was tough but somebody had to do it as the old joke goes. And I loved it. And now as the minister with responsibility for housing what have I swapped this for? Building regulations conferences.

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Posted in News | Tagged building regulations and don foster | 1 Comment

New Year’s Honours

By Mary Reid | Sat 29th December 2012 - 9:57 am

Congratulations to all these prominent Liberal Democrats who appear in the New Year’s Honours list:

Roger Williams, Liberal Democrat MP for Brecon and Radnorshire and founder member of the former Social Democratic Party: CBE
Rodney Berman, former Liberal Democrat leader of Cardiff council: OBE
Annette Brooke, Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole: OBE
Andrew Wiseman: OBE
Fiona Hall, Liberal Democrat MEP for the North East and leader of Liberal Democrat MEPs: MBE
Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat Leader on the London Assembly: MBE

Please use the comments below to tell us about other Lib Dems who have been honoured.

Posted in News | 5 Comments

My dozen best bits of 2012

By Mary Reid | Tue 18th December 2012 - 3:23 pm

Here is my personal list of the best bits in Lib Dem Voice in 2012. Please add your suggestions in the comments.

In no particular order:

Lynne Featherstone’s honeycomb surprise (Caron Lindsay) – any post about icecream will always catch my attention

Opinion: Mental health provision in the NHS – share your experiences (Tim Purkiss) – only last week, Tim’s brave post was a catalyst for some very moving comments

Introducing… Lib Dems Against …

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