Tag Archives: centre forum

Opinion: 29 Days to save the UK

By Bill le Breton | Published 1st February 2012 - 6:55 pm

We are lucky it is a leap year. It gives us an extra day to save the country.

Here are two graphs, both from the Financial Times. This one shows the UK’s Nominal Gross Domestic Product. It shows the development of the double dip recession we are facing.

The figures are up to October 2011. The next will be published in February, but expect the trend lines to continue ‘south’.

Then, here’s a chart of a measure of the supply of money in the economy. It is a broad …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged economy, money supply | 19 Comments

LDVideo: Nick Clegg calls for ‘John Lewis economy’

By Stephen Tall | Published 17th January 2012 - 7:45 am

Nick Clegg yesterday called on more British companies to offer shares to their employees, arguing it will improve productivity and unlock growth: “We don’t believe our problem is too much capitalism – we think it’s that too few people have capital.”

(Also available on the BBC website here.)

* You can read Nick’s speech in full at the Deputy Prime Minister’s website here;
* Centre Forum’s Tom Frostick’s welcome of Nick’s approach here;
* And our original report with initial LibDemVoice readers’ comments …

Posted in YouTube | Also tagged nick clegg, tom frostick | 3 Comments

Opinion: Before the debate – What’s the evidence?

By Chris Nicholson | Published 16th January 2012 - 10:54 am

The relaunch of the Beveridge group featured in Lib Dem Voice on 10th January, said that it hoped to generate debate amongst Liberal Democrats about how public services are best delivered.

Liberals in general are clear that public services should be democratically accountable at the lowest possible level. Where there is far less agreement is the role of choice, competition and the private and voluntary sector in provision of these services – particularly in relation to health and education. Inevitably many people’s reactions are heavily influenced by their own personal experience as a service user, public service employee or indeed …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education, NHS, public services | 14 Comments

Tim Leunig writes: The problem with Labour’s proposed tuition fees cap

By Tim Leunig | Published 27th September 2011 - 7:40 am

Ed Miliband has seized the initiative at the start of his conference, announcing that Labour would cap student fees at £6,000 per year. This policy is superficially attractive, and is clearly designed to win over LibDem supporters who remain angry at the rise in tuition fees.

Today I have published an analysis of Labour’s proposal. It uses the Business Innovation and Skills graduate income “ready reckoner”, which is based on data from the ONS Labour Force Survey. The underlying data are as good as they can be, although of course predicting graduate incomes in 30 years time is a dangerous …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged higher education, labour party, tuition fees, universities | 15 Comments

Ed Balls has a new take on having your cake and eating it

By Mark Pack | Published 26th September 2011 - 9:19 pm

There are two problems with a Liberal Democrat like myself blogging about Labour Party conference. First, as I’ve so often seen from the other side of the fence, an outside blogging about another party’s conference frequently misreads what is really happening. And second, no blogger can compete with Hopi Sen and his cat.

So caveats deployed and on to the confusion that Ed Balls’s speech today left me in. For he had two messages: first, that Labour can’t promise to undo the government’s cuts and, second, that many of the cuts are wrong. Either on its own would be a …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged ed balls, ed miliband, higher education, hopi sen, tuition fees, universities | 2 Comments

The Independent View: Centre Forum is wrong about aid – UK aid makes a difference

By Lucia Fry | Published 14th September 2011 - 2:56 pm

At a time of economic difficulties, it is welcome that the Coalition Government is retaining its commitment to the UK overseas aid budget. Indeed, UK aid is demonstrating great value for money, and making a real difference in the lives of the poorest. Which is why CentreForum’s recent paper by Pauline Dixon and Paul Marshall ‘International aid and educating the poorest’ is so puzzling. The report paints an alarming – but highly partial – picture of aid doing little to help reduce poverty, promote growth or achieve progress in education, and everything to line the pockets of corrupt elites. …

Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged actionaid, foreign aid, paul marshall, pauline dixon | 3 Comments

Opinion: CentreForum’s parenting report is a step in the right direction

By Caron Lindsay | Published 7th August 2011 - 2:55 pm

Liberal think tank CentreForum has produced a report, Parenting Matters, which advises the Government to do more to promote better quality parenting, specifically targeted at those families who need it most.

Much of the publicity surrounding the report concentrated on its “5 a day” campaign which suggests that parents should:

1. Read to their child for 15 minutes

2. Play on the floor with their child for 10 minutes

3. Talk to their children for 20 minutes every day with the television off

4. Adopt positive attitudes to their child and praise them frequently

…

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged featured | 15 Comments

News in Brief: Ming savages Danny, ‘Parenting Matters’, and Don Foster on “rodents with wings”

By Stephen Tall | Published 6th August 2011 - 6:55 pm

Former party leader Ming Campbell is apparently furious with fellow Scottish Lib Dem, Danny Alexander, according to the Telegraph.

The two MPs are, it appears, at each others’ metaphorical throats over the handing over to the British army of RAF Leuchars in Fife (Ming’s patch), while RAF Lossiemouth in Moray (Danny’s neighbouring patch) — though it should be noted that RAF Kinloss, also close to Danny’s own consituency, will suffer the same fate as Leuchars.

The Telegraph quotes Ming implying with scarcely veiled fury that Danny’s intervention in the defence …

Posted in News | Also tagged danny alexander, don foster, ming campbell | 8 Comments

Stephen Williams MP writes: Backbench committees and the louder Lib Dem voice

By Stephen Williams MP | Published 23rd May 2011 - 2:53 pm

There has been much talk in recent weeks about how Liberal Democrats show our distinctiveness and make the party’s voice heard more loudly in government.

A key part of this is the role of the Lib Dem parliamentary committees, one of which I co-chair.

These committees are not simply talking shops. They perform two important functions: making our influence felt within government and preparing the ground for party policy in the future.

Increasingly, the fruits of these committees are being seen.

The Coalition Agreement is the contract that underwrites this government. It sets out the policy agenda agreed between ourselves and our Coalition …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged alan beith, Backbench committees, Centre for Policy Studies, coalition agreement, david cameron, jenny willott | 5 Comments

Changes at CentreForum

By Mark Pack | Published 25th February 2011 - 5:55 pm

Two significant changes of staff are happening at the CentreForum think tank, with current director Julian Astle leaving in April after three years as director and with Tim Leunig joining as Chief Economist. Tim will be familiar to many of our readers as a regular commenter and occasional contributor on this site.

Posted in News | Also tagged julian astle, tim leunig | 2 Comments

LibLink: David Laws and Julian Astle – Coalition must not waste the pupil premium

By NewsHound | Published 18th October 2010 - 6:58 pm

Over at the Financial Times today, former Lib Dem cabinet minister David Laws and CentreForum’s director Julian Astle write about the potential of the ‘pupil premium’ to transform the life chances of pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds — but argue that schools must be held accountable for using the money directly for this purpose. Here’s an excerpt:

The pupil premium, which for the first time will see a universal service underpinned by an explicitly pro-poor funding system, sits front-and-centre in this [social mobility] agenda.

At present there is additional school funding for young people from deprived backgrounds, but it is allocated

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged david laws, education, julian astle, pupil premium, schools, social mobility | 4 Comments

Opinion: The importance of ideas and policy

By Chris Nicholson | Published 18th July 2010 - 4:50 pm

It is only a few months ago that my whole life, as Lib Dem PPC for Streatham, revolved around knocking on doors, meeting with community and tenant groups, delivering leaflets and doing casework. Nothing could seem more distant from the world I now inhabit, as Director and Chief Executive of CentreForum, of think tanks and discussions on reforming welfare or what the Big Society means.

But one thing which was clear from the election result on May 6th was that knocking on doors and putting hundreds of thousands of leaflets through letterboxes is not enough to win. Yes, ‘where we …

Posted in Op-eds | 13 Comments

LibLink: Julian Astle – How Lib Dems are being defamed

By NewsHound | Published 13th July 2010 - 6:45 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website, the director of liberal think-tank Centre Forum, Julian Astle, gives a personal take on what it’s like as a Lib Dem to be taunted as a Tory by Labour’s “deficit deniers”, and parises the Coalition measures he believes should cheer all progressives. Here’s an excerpt:

Deficit denial may have its advantages if you are an opposition politician vying for the leadership of your party. Take that denial into government, however, and the consequences would be catastrophic. … The uncomfortable truth is that, to bring in a lot of money, governments have no

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged julian astle | 23 Comments

The Guardian asks, “What happens if Cameron loses?”

By Stephen Tall | Published 26th March 2010 - 9:55 am

Here’s a bit of fun speculation, at least if you’re not a Tory. Let’s suppose most of the last 10 days’ polls are right, and David Cameron’s Tories are destined to have fewer MPs than Labour in the House of Commons (even if they win more votes) – what would the Tories do?

That’s the question Andy Beckett ponders in today’s Guardian.

Would David Cameron resign or be forced to quit? According to Tim Bale, author of The Conservative Party: From Thatcher to Cameron, he’d be safe if he chooses to be:

“You’ll get lots of huffing and puffing on

…

Posted in News | Also tagged andy beckett, bryan gould, david cameron, julian astle, the guardian, tim bale | 4 Comments

The Independent View: A Lib-Con coalition? Don’t hold your breath

By Julian Astle | Published 19th March 2010 - 9:20 am

In the past week, the Conservatives have been talking up their chances of doing a deal with the Liberal Democrats if the forthcoming general election fails to deliver them a working majority. Conservative shadow business secretary Ken Clarke has even suggested that “Nick Clegg is a conservative”. David Cameron meanwhile regularly describes himself as a “liberal Conservative” and has claimed that on a range of policy issues, “there’s barely a cigarette paper between us”.

But in a new report from CentreForum, the liberal think tank, we argue that the two parties’ similarities …

Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Also tagged david cameron, ken clarke, nick clegg | 5 Comments

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