Over at The Independent, there is an extract from former Lib Dem leader Lord (Paddy) Ashdown’s speech to the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House examining the situation in Afghanistan. Here’s an excerpt:

… the chief reason for the fact that we are losing lives is not in the ineffectiveness of the Afghan government, who we love to blame, but in our own complete failure to have any coordinated international plan; in our inability to work together between the nations of the coalition; in our determination to see Afghanistan solely through the prism of the place in which we

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Over at The Times, former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown has co-authored an article with former Labour defence secretary George Robertson – they were co-chairs of the IPPR’s Commission on National Security in the 21st Century, whose report was published today – arguing that old-fashioned thinking is hampering British security policy today. Here’s their all-encompassing introduction:

The global recession is likely to worsen the international security environment considerably. It is already making many weak and poor states weaker and, as both 9/11 and recent events in North Korea have shown, the consequences flowing from weak, fragile and pariah states are

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Over at the Daily Mail, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable argues that the vast scale of government debt means we must tackle public sector pensions. Here’s an excerpt:

Gordon Brown’s continual squirming and denials can’t conceal the truth: public finances are in a truly terrible mess. People know that nasty spending cuts and tax increases are on the way. They want political leaders to be frank and spell it out. What, when and how?

They will not be convinced by George Osborne’s alternative: to win an Election and then get Ministers round a table behind closed doors to decide what the

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Over at the Daily Mirror, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable writes about the “dangerous mood building up in the City. Bankers are straining at the leash. They sniff a chance to get back to business as usual.” Here’s an excerpt:

Last week the Governor of the Bank of England warned that banks which are “too big to fail” are simply too big. The UK taxpayer cannot stand behind global banks and the casinos, the big investment banks. These make their profits from speculative trades. Casinos are legal but are not banks. They have to be split off. …

Bankers think

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Over at The Independent, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable pours cold water on the idea the economy is bouncing back, arguing that we are seeing an economists’ and financiers’ recovery rather than a real one. Here’s an excerpt:

The mother of all economic crises seems mysteriously to have vanished in the face of a determined counter-offensive by the forces of optimism. There are daily accounts of returning confidence in financial and property markets and bodies like the National Institute of Economic and Social Research are forecasting an early return to growth. Perhaps those government ministers who spotted the “green

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Over at the Daily Mail, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable reflects on his recent brush with A&E after he had his appendix removed. Here’s an excerpt:

My short experience told me that there is now excellent quality care in the NHS provided by some first-class people. I also sensed that the services are potentially fragile if put under financial stress.

My own adventure began when I collapsed in a heap several times after dinner at a friend’s house. The initial theory was food poisoning – a House of Commons crayfish sandwich eaten earlier in the day was chief suspect. When

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Over at The Times, Nick Clegg argues that Labour has run out of steam and of ideas, and that its supporters are turning to the Liberal Democrats. Here’s an excerpt:

have heard people claim that the local and European elections were a missed opportunity for the Liberal Democrats. I disagree.

Of course, as in all elections, there were losses as well as gains. In a contest when the voters wanted to give the Establishment a kicking, it is hardly surprising that we suffered some losses in the South West, where we have been the governing party for 20 years.

And in a

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Over at BBC.co.uk, Lib Dem MSP Ross Finnie reflects on some of his personal highs and lows in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of Scottish devolution on 1st July. Here’s an excerpt:

For Liberal Democrats, the election itself was an achievement. Due to our advocacy of proportional representation, the political parties won the number of seats in the new parliament that reflected the number of votes cast by the people of Scotland.

The Liberal Democrats entered into coalition government for the first eight years of devolution and were pleased to introduce ground-breaking social health policies like free personal care for

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Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg’s speech to celebrate the 75th anniversay of Liberty is excerpted over at the Independent. Here’s his sombre conclusion:

for all the complaining Liberal Democrats and other liberty campaigners do about the misuse of power by government, the truth is, nowhere near all of the powers available to police and government are used – yet. Legal instruments with devastating potential are ready and waiting, all of which have been passed by a supine Parliament that misguidedly assumes government will always be benign. These powers are like the silent machines in a darkened factory, waiting for the

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Over at the Daily Mail, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable examines how to cope with another surge in oil prices, during a time of recession and rising unemployment. Here’s his conclusion:

It is more obvious than ever that the future lies with fuel-efficient and low-carbon cars. Those who are able to switch now will save a lot of money. The Government should therefore be more intelligent when it comes to helping the car industry.

Labour’s scrappage scheme for old bangers is largely a waste of taxpayers’ money. It would be more useful to concentrate on swaps for the new generation of

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Over at the Guardian’s CommentIsLinked blog, Lib Dem blogger James Graham analyses the current situation for the party, asking what the future holds for us, post-Rennard. Here’s an excerpt:

Now the elections are out of the way, Clegg and party president Ros Scott must turn their attention to finding a new chief executive for the party. … it is impossible to over-estimate how he has transformed the Lib Dems’ prospects. Indeed, he has changed our whole political culture by developing and perfecting a method of populist pavement politics that can be applied almost anywhere in the country. His method is so

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Yesterday’s Mail carried Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable’s clarion call for his opposite number at the Treasury, Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling, to resign. (He was later joined by Nick Clegg – you can hear the interview with him HERE – who is looking for another scalp after taking Speaker Michael Martin’s a fortnight ago). Here’s an excerpt from Vince’s article:

It’s time to get MPs off the front pages and the economy back on. This cannot happen when key figures in Government (and Opposition) are tainted by scandal themselves and lack moral authority.

There is a danger that the public’s

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The Guardian splashes with the story:

Britain’s politicians should be barred from taking their summer holidays until the constitutional crisis sparked by the expenses row is resolved and “every nook and cranny” of the political system is reformed, Nick Clegg declares today. …

Clegg, who regards the proposals floated by the two main parties as too timid, attempts to assume the mantle of Britain’s boldest reformer when he sets out a week-by-week, 100-day plan to achieve the “total reinvention of British politics”.

In the first two weeks parliament would agree to accept the recommendations of the review into MPs’ expenses and allowances

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Over at The Observer, Nick Clegg argues, after a tumultuous week in politics, that the public must be given more power than the politicians. Here’s an excerpt:

We are in the eye of the perfect storm: an economic crisis followed by a total collapse of public faith in politicians. One way or another, MPs’ self-serving expenses will now, thankfully, be changed for good. But this must be a moment for fundamental change, not just tinkering to eliminate the worst excesses of the past. The uncomfortable truth is that these revelations are merely the tip of an iceberg – our whole political

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Over at the Daily Mail, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable examines the disconnect between the have-nots and the ‘haves and have-yachts’ in the sporting world, and asks if ‘The Storm’ will close the gap:

First it was debt, then property. Now I sense another bubble waiting to burst. While some of Britain’s key wealth-generating activities – construction, manufacturing, finance – are in terrible shape, one industry sails serenely on apparently oblivious to the recession: football’s Premier League. Britain’s leading banks may have bitten the dust but our top clubs dominate Europe and, arguably, the world. …

I can’t see this party

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The Lib Dems’ very own sleazebusting terrier Norman Baker (who daylights as our shadow transport secretary) has three – count ‘em – articles on MPs’ expenses in the papers. Excerpts as follows:

Never in my 20 years in politics have I seen the public as angry as today (Daily Mail)

Little did I know, when I submitted a Freedom of Information request back in 2005, what a Pandora’s Box was opening up. That modest request, simply asking for a breakdown of MPs’ travel costs by mode of transport, was fought tooth and nail by the senior MPs who comprise the House

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Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat Transport spokesperson on the London Assembly, writes in today’s Guardian on Boris Johnson’s first year as Mayor of London.

She says that although Johnson has promised much, he has failed to deliver on most of it:

On transport alone there has been a long list of broken promises.

Johnson pledged to establish a new express bus service that would orbit outer London. A year after being elected, not one orbital bus route has even been planned.

The mayor promised to convene an “emergency summit” of the train operating companies to tackle overcrowding and exorbitant fares. A year on,

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