Tag Archives: david boyle

Opinion: A new direction for choice

By David Boyle | Thu 24th January 2013 - 1:24 pm

“What’s a nice guy like you doing with a bunch of Tories?” one journalist asked me as I discussed the Barriers to Choice Review.

“You see, I’m a Liberal Democrat,” I explained…

The truth is that this was not a coalition problem. It was a problem about the word ‘choice’.

My task as an independent reviewer, appointed by the Cabinet Office and the Treasury, was to find out how people used the choices they have been given in schools, hospitals, social care and so on – especially disadvantaged people.

But the word ‘choice’ itself divides people, even those who might otherwise agree on pretty …

Posted in News | Also tagged barriers to choice review | 9 Comments

David Boyle’s appointment is excellent news

By Mark Pack | Mon 25th June 2012 - 9:53 am

Under Charles Kennedy’s leadership, the party had a simple and generally popular approach to public services: Kennedy consistently supported higher spending on favourite public services and appointed as party spokespeople those with experience of that service. So in education, for example, it was ex-headteacher Phil Willis leading for the party, promoting costed policies to put more cash into the party’s priorities.

Overall, the party’s plans involved raising at least as much in extra taxes or savings as it wanted to spend, so the net effect was fiscally respectable but for each individual public service the party’s answer was pretty much, “we’ll …

Posted in News | Also tagged ben brogan, charles kennedy, Danny Alexander, jonathan calder, nick clegg and public services | 6 Comments

Updating Community Politics: the role for social capital

By Mark Pack | Fri 30th September 2011 - 10:25 am

My short answer in response to David Boyle having only two cheers for Community Politics is: “I agree”.

The slightly longer response to David is: “I mostly agree, but “.

The nearly long enough to justify a blog post version is…

David Boyle is right to raise the concerns he did, and had he been in the hall he would have not only heard Gordon Lishman himself express similar concerns but also the excellent news that Gordon is intending to draw in a wide group of people to some of that thinking and updating that we all think is necessary.

For me at …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged community politics, gordon lishman and robert putnam | 4 Comments

Lib Dem MPs set to rebel over ‘back-door’ nuclear power subsidy

By Stephen Tall | Sat 2nd July 2011 - 4:15 pm

‘Liberal Democrats have long opposed any new nuclear construction. Conservatives, by contrast, are committed to allowing the replacement of existing nuclear power stations provided that they are subject to the normal planning process for major projects (under a new National Planning Statement), and also provided that they receive no public subsidy.’

So declares the Coalition Agreement. However, as the Guardian reports, the finance bill due to be debated this coming week introduces a form of subsidy, and it’s attracted opposition among the party:

A large group of Lib Dems are concerned about clause 78 of the bill, which MPs will consider

…

Posted in News | Also tagged chris huhne, Danny Alexander, energy, gareth epps, john leech, louise bloom, nuclear power and tim farron | 26 Comments

Meet the Lib Dem bloggers: David Boyle

By Mark Pack | Mon 31st January 2011 - 8:55 am

Welcome to the latest in our series giving the human face behind some of the blogs you can find on the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator.

Today it is David Boyle, who blogs at The Real Blog.

1. What’s your formative political memory?
I don’t know when I became a Liberal, but found myself cheering the party on during the Sutton & Cheam and Isle of Ely by-elections while I was studying for my O Levels. In 1979, I interviewed the local Liberal candidate (Dermot Roaf) for a student mag and went straight off and joined the party afterwards.

2. When did you start blogging?
2007 I think.

3. Why did you start blogging?
Partly because I seemed to be bursting with things to say; partly because, when I said them, people seemed to have a confused look on their faces. I also wanted to think out loud about the political implications of a book I wrote called Authenticity. (I also have an incredibly small publishing outfit called The Real Press.)

4. What five words would you use to describe your blog?
Liberal, human-scale and optimistic.

5. What five words would you use to describe your political views?
Radical, green, localist, humane, naive.

6. Which post have you most liked writing in the last year (and why)?
A post I wrote for Lib Dem Voice which, rather inadequately, tried to set out why I wasn’t as outraged as the Guardian thinks I should be about the spending review.

7. Which post have you most liked reading in the last year (and why)?
Neal Lawson’s Comment is Free blog about using ‘human’ as the yardstick for a new politics. I was fascinated to read it because I had been thinking along parallel lines myself.

8. What’s your favourite YouTube clip?
I think it has to be my wife Sarah’s film about our curtain pattern Kandahar.

Posted in Online politics | Also tagged blogging and lib dem bloggers | 1 Comment

The Saturday Debate: Local government is to the Lib Dems what the unions are to Labour and big business is to the Tories

By Stephen Tall | Sat 2nd October 2010 - 8:45 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

I was struck by this recent article by the Economist’s political columnist Bagehot, headlined When progressive actually means misanthropic, reflecting on the Lib Dem conference, and specifically the debate on free schools.

Highlighting that, while the party may have lacked power at Westminster, the Lib Dems have for decades now been a major player in local government, it observes that:

… local government occupies much of the mental space taken up by national politics in the Labour and Conservative parties. … more

…

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bagehot, featured, free schools, jonathan calder, richard flowers and weekend debate | 23 Comments

More on Richard Grayson, Liberal Democrats and ideology

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th July 2010 - 3:20 pm

A footnote to my piece earlier this week about Richard Grayson’s pamphlet. In it I commented:

What I think Richard under-plays is the way the party’s attitude towards the state has changed not in response to different internal ideological views gaining ascendancy but rather in response to changing external circumstances. Given the huge expansion in public spending in the middle years of the Labour government, and the big expansion of central control in the early, middle and late years of Labour government, it is hardly a surprise that many who previously instinctively reached for more public spending and new regulations

…

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged jonathan calder and richard grayson | 18 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 17 July 2009

By Stephen Tall | Fri 17th July 2009 - 9:15 am

2 Big Stories

Troops need more, says Dannett

The BBC has the interview and the story:

The head of the UK Army has said better equipment is needed to protect troops from roadside bombs in Afghanistan. General Sir Richard Dannatt told the BBC troops “needed more” and added that he would be compiling a shopping list of what was required. … The general’s comments will be seen as careful “parting shots”. …

In return for their service, he says more money needs to be spent on equipment for British forces in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, the general – on his last trip

…

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged armed forces, chamali fernando, chandila fernando, james graham, richard dannatt and simon hughes | 1 Comment

How to prove you’re qualified to be a British citizen

By Stephen Tall | Tue 17th March 2009 - 6:28 pm

David Boyle brings us news that one of the sample questions in the ‘Britishness test’, which immigrants must pass if they wish to become British citizens, is

to define a quango.

As David comments:

It really is extraordinary, though perhaps not very surprising, that Whitehall Man believes knowing the meaning of government acronyms is one of those pieces information which defines Britishness – alongside knowledge of Shakespeare and all the panoply of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish culture.

For those unsure of the answer (go on, admit it, it’s not like Jacqui Smith will have you forcibly repatriated or anything), the answer is:

An

…

Posted in News | Also tagged citizenship | 2 Comments

Nick: "Jobs are right at the heart of the Lib Dems’ agenda"

"Lib Dems set to name 7 new peers for House of Lords"

EU in/out referendum bill - will Lib Dem MPs abstain?

The Morrissey Report: "No excuses" says Caron Lindsay

Tag Archives: david boyle

Opinion: A new direction for choice

David Boyle’s appointment is excellent news

Updating Community Politics: the role for social capital

Lib Dem MPs set to rebel over ‘back-door’ nuclear power subsidy

Meet the Lib Dem bloggers: David Boyle

The Saturday Debate: Local government is to the Lib Dems what the unions are to Labour and big business is to the Tories

More on Richard Grayson, Liberal Democrats and ideology

Daily View 2×2: 17 July 2009

2 Big Stories

How to prove you’re qualified to be a British citizen

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Nick: "Jobs are right at the heart of the Lib Dems’ agenda"

"Lib Dems set to name 7 new peers for House of Lords"

EU in/out referendum bill - will Lib Dem MPs abstain?

The Morrissey Report: "No excuses" says Caron Lindsay

Tag Archives: david boyle

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