Tag Archives: centre forum

The Independent View: CentreForum’s three headliners for an alternative Queen’s Speech

By Tom Frostick | Wed 8th May 2013 - 10:45 am

The Queen’s Speech today looks set to be a relatively sedate affair. As Stephen Tall observes, “the Coalition is now pretty much intellectually dead” when it comes to its legislative agenda. Enthusiasm for pushing new ideas has been replaced with a business like determination to deliver what is already underway.

The content of the Queen’s Speech is nonetheless important. It will shape what happens over the course of the next parliamentary session, and will therefore influence the outcome of the General Election. If CentreForum had the privilege of writing the Speech, we would focus on three headline issues in particular: …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged higher education, immigration, planning and queen's speech | 13 Comments

The Independent View: Why reforming football is a liberal agenda

By Sam Tomlin | Sat 23rd February 2013 - 9:55 am

Football is moving up the political agenda. In 2010 DCMS announced an inquiry into football governance which culminated in a report in 2011, criticising the football authorities for levels of debt and supporter engagement among other things. Meanwhile, Supporters Direct, the body responsible for promoting the values of supporter engagement in the UK, has been busy lobbying parliament for a new rule in club licensing (which allows clubs to compete in the leagues) that guarantees a structured relationship between supporters and their clubs; and secondly the establishment of a Government Expert Group to explore removing barriers to increase …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged football | 9 Comments

LDVideo: Stephen Tall on the Coalition at the half-way point

By The Voice | Sun 18th November 2012 - 5:20 pm

LibDemVoice Co-Editor Stephen Tall reflected on the state of the Coalition at its mid-way point in an event jointly hosted by CentreForum and the Institute for Government, Half-Time Oranges (and Blues): How to renew the Coalition while Preparing for the Next Election. You can watch his 10-minute verdict on where the Lib Dems are at and where we should go next here:

Posted in YouTube | Also tagged institute for government and stephen tall | Leave a comment

LibLink: Stephen Tall – Lib Dem conference is this week’s liberal hero

By The Voice | Sun 30th September 2012 - 8:45 am

Over at CentreForum’s blog, Stephen Tall has proposed the Lib Dem conference as the think-tank’s latest ‘Liberal Hero of the Week’ for its stance in opposing the Coalition’s plans for secret courts. Here’s an excerpt:

It’s not the fact that David Cameron doesn’t know the translation of ‘Magna Carta’ that worries me. It’s that he doesn’t appear to understand its central tenet:

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned, or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled or in any way ruined, nor will we go or send against him except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged stephen tall | Leave a comment

Calling them granny taxes doesn’t mean they’re unfair

By Adam Corlett | Mon 17th September 2012 - 11:52 am

The phasing out of the additional personal allowance was decried as a ‘granny tax’ but that move did not go far enough. A new CentreForum report looks at two unjustified and deeply regressive age-related tax breaks: the tax-free lump sum and the exemption from National Insurance.

There are many lonely, vulnerable and poor pensioners who need support. But it’s insulting to suggest that everyone over 60 or 65 can be lumped into the category of frail granny (to say nothing of grandpas!). There is a huge range of incomes amongst pensioners. At the very top, the average annual pension …

Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged granny tax and pensions | 20 Comments

LibLink: Stephen Tall: Liberal Hero of the Week: Danny Boyle

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 1st August 2012 - 11:55 am

There were tears, laughter and wide-eyed wonderment at Liberal Democrat Voice Towers on Friday night as we marvelled at Danny Boyle’s innovative Olympic opening ceremony. While some of us will remember Boyle as the guy who persuaded the Queen to “jump” out of a helicopter, our own Stephen Tall has looked a little deeper.

Over at CentreForum’s blog, he’s awarded Danny Boyle the accolade of Liberal Hero of the Week. While Labour supporting Boyle may smart at this, Stephen talks about what the Ceremony conveyed to him:

First, the human potentiality which has formed Britain, made her what she is today: from music

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged danny boyle, olympics and stephen tall | 3 Comments

LibLink: Tim Leunig – David Cameron should know better than this Housing Benefit gimmick

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th June 2012 - 9:27 am

I wrote the other day that I wanted to see our party in general and Nick Clegg in particular come out and roundly condemn David Cameron’s ridiculous plan to stop under 25s from claiming Housing Benefit. Centre Forum director Tim Leunig did just that in an article for the Guardian on Monday.

His calm and forensic evisceration of Cameron’s argument put me in mind of the way Nick Clegg took apart the Tory Marriage Tax Break plan ahead of the 2010 election. This, of course, has been kicked into the long grass because of the Liberal Democrats. I’m also reminded of …

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged david cameron, guardian, housing benefit, tim leunig and under 25s | 13 Comments

LibLink: Stephen Tall names Matthew Parris ‘Liberal of the Week’ for calling for end to private schools’ charitable status

By NewsHound | Sat 16th June 2012 - 8:55 am

Over at CentreForum’s blog, LibDemVoice Co-Editor Stephen Tall has named columnist Matthew Parris the inaugural winner of the think-tank’s ‘Liberal of the Week’ for ‘his attack on the charitable status of private schools that are bastions of privilege.’ Here’s an excerpt from Stephen’s reasons:

The fact that private schools are directly equated with charities such as Cancer Research UK and Oxfam – and can therefore benefit from rates relief and exemption from tax on investment income – is breathtaking. It means that the low-paid in society – including those earning less than the minimum wage – are helping to subsidise through

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged charity, matthew parris, schools and stephen tall | 13 Comments

Opinion: A response to the Minister on Joint Strike Fighters

By Toby Fenwick | Thu 31st May 2012 - 5:24 pm

We can all welcome Nick Harvey’s work with Phillip Hammond in producing what appears to be the first balanced MoD budget since at least the 1997 Defence Review: time will tell if their projections hold water. However, Mr. Harvey’s article is redolent of MoD Press Office spin, and has several important elements that need debating. Moving back to the vertical take off and landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) – known as the F-35B – is hardly the panacea the Minister pretends: there were several reasons that the military warmly welcomed the switch to a conventional cats ‘n’ traps …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged joint strike fighter and nick harvey | 20 Comments

Nick Clegg on the double-dip recession: “our answers are the right ones to repair the damage done”

By Stephen Tall | Wed 25th April 2012 - 1:45 pm

Nick Clegg spoke this morning to the Institute of Directors, shortly after the announcement that the Office of National Statistics estimates that the economy contracted by 0.2% in the first three months of 2012 — a second quarter of shrinkage that officially means the UK is once again in recession. Here’s what he had to say:

As you may have heard, the first set of GDP figures for this year have just been released. And so, if I may, I would like to start by addressing what is disappointing news. The ONS’s preliminary estimate for Q1 GDP has

…

Posted in News | Also tagged economy, nick clegg, recession and tim leunig | 63 Comments

Opinion: Time for the Party to propose the Citizen’s Income

By Joe Bourke | Wed 11th April 2012 - 10:55 am

The Centre Forum paper Taxing Decisions discusses the pros and cons of tax credits and tax allowances. The report reviews tax options for tackling the income and wealth disparities which have become a feature of British society in recent decades.

Reducing the level of inequality benefits everyone in society, rich and poor alike. I would argue that in an inclusive and more equal society, all citizens should pay tax on their income. Means tested benefits have not delivered for us. Child poverty, and unemployment are entrenched with the resulting societal breakdown. The way out of poverty is work. The best …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged citizens income and tax | 20 Comments

Social mobility: is the Coalition doing enough to encourage it?

Stephen Tall asks: "Did Nate Silver write in vain?"

Nick Clegg: "Of course the EU has to change"

"Mad, swivel-eyed loons": a top Tory on the Tories

Tag Archives: centre forum

The Independent View: CentreForum’s three headliners for an alternative Queen’s Speech

The Independent View: Why reforming football is a liberal agenda

LDVideo: Stephen Tall on the Coalition at the half-way point

LibLink: Stephen Tall – Lib Dem conference is this week’s liberal hero

Calling them granny taxes doesn’t mean they’re unfair

LibLink: Stephen Tall: Liberal Hero of the Week: Danny Boyle

LibLink: Tim Leunig – David Cameron should know better than this Housing Benefit gimmick

LibLink: Stephen Tall names Matthew Parris ‘Liberal of the Week’ for calling for end to private schools’ charitable status

Opinion: A response to the Minister on Joint Strike Fighters

Nick Clegg on the double-dip recession: “our answers are the right ones to repair the damage done”

Opinion: Time for the Party to propose the Citizen’s Income

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Social mobility: is the Coalition doing enough to encourage it?

Stephen Tall asks: "Did Nate Silver write in vain?"

Nick Clegg: "Of course the EU has to change"

"Mad, swivel-eyed loons": a top Tory on the Tories

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