Tag Archives: james graham

What’s the most effective way of ensuring fair wages for low earners?

By Prateek Buch | Published 20th January 2012 - 3:27 pm

The question arises from James Graham’s excellent blog on how raising the personal income tax allowance, a central plank of Liberal Democrat influence in the Coalition, makes it more likely that large companies will pay fairer wages.

James was responding to Zoe Williams in the Guardian (well worth a read), who rightly highlights the negative societal impact of companies paying their employees wildly differing amounts – sky-high executive salaries at one end of the spectrum, and sub-living wages at the other that  have to be topped up by complex and costly welfare spending.

Of late there has been …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , | 16 Comments

LibLink: James Graham – Liberal – but not so democratic in the Lords

By Nick Thornsby | Published 2nd June 2011 - 3:25 pm

Over on the Guardian’s Comment Is Free site, Lib Dem blogger James Graham has a piece arguing that if the party wants to demonstrate its commitment to reforming the House of Lords, we should start by stopping the appointment of additional peers.

Here’s a sample:

Nowhere are the flaws of political appointment more apparent than in the Liberal Democrat party in the House of Lords. Not only are Lib Dem peers handpicked by their leader (in theory, the leader is restricted in his choice; the reality is somewhat different), they are self-selecting. You are either

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , | 3 Comments

Katie Ghose appointed new Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society

By Mark Pack | Published 26th August 2010 - 9:19 pm

The press notice from the Electoral Reform Society says:

Katie Ghose has served for 5 years as Director of the British Institute of Human Rights, a national charity with a mission to bring rights to life for everyone in the UK. A public affairs specialist and barrister with a background in human rights law and immigration, she served as a Commissioner on the Independent Asylum Commission from 2006-2008, where she helped to conduct the biggest ever indepedent review of the UK asylum system. She has worked in campaigns for several third sector organisations including Age UK (then Age Concern England

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , | 3 Comments

LibLink: James Graham – Lib Dems must agree to publicly disagree

By NewsHound | Published 24th August 2010 - 4:29 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website, Lib Dem blogger James Graham argues that Nick Clegg needs to admit the party’s economic differences with the Tories in public – the alternative, he warns, is that the Coalition will become rudderless. Here’s an excerpt:

That the government is embarking on a programme of deep cuts is not in question; but nobody seems to be able to explain what it is all for. The coalition can’t explain because, frankly, the coalition can’t agree. That’s why the government’s “vision” has been dominated by empty flannel such as the “big society”, which can

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 46 Comments

“The Liberal Democrats aren’t a sort of glorified form of the Electoral Reform Society”

By Mark Pack | Published 20th August 2010 - 3:21 pm

So says Nick Clegg in an interview for Radio 4′s Westminster Hour.

His underlying point is a good one – the coalition isn’t a single-issue coalition which is about AV and nothing else. And, as James Graham points out, the Electoral Reform Society isn’t a sort of glorified from of the Liberal Democrats either.

However, Nick Clegg does make the point at some length in the interview – “The Liberal Democrats aren’t a sort of glorified form of the Electoral Reform Society”, “I wouldn’t have stood for the leadership of the Lib Dems if I thought the only sole purpose in …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , | 36 Comments

James Graham on the dangers of Labour’s oppositionalism

By Stephen Tall | Published 19th August 2010 - 12:45 pm

James Graham, Lib Dem blogger and frequent contributor to the Guardian’s Comment is Free website, has a must-read piece today, titled ‘Not dead but…’.

James co-founded the Lib Dems’ Social Liberal Forum, and has in the past advocated closer relations between the party and Labour as a progressive force to take on the Conservatives, so he is by no means a natural cheerleader for the Lib/Con Coalition, as his blog-post makes clear.

It’s his take on Labour’s misfiring oppositional tactics, though, which I think are well worth highlighting here:

My fears that Labour would end up getting

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Posted in LibLink, Opposition watch | Also tagged | 20 Comments

LibLink: James Graham – Labour’s accusations of gerrymandering are self-defeating

By NewsHound | Published 31st July 2010 - 6:20 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website earlier this week, Lib Dem blogger James Graham dismissed Jack Straw’s overblown accusations that the Coalition is ‘gerrymandering’, and urged the voting reform bill to receive the more serious scrutiny it deserves. Here’s an excerpt:

Every time a Labour politician uses the word “gerrymandering” a puppy dies. … Gerrymandering is the act of deliberately fixing a boundary in order to give a political party an unfair advantage. Yet the proposed changes will not to lead to any more political interference in the boundary review process. …

One of the main effects of the

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 50 Comments

LibLink: James Graham – A cruel result for the Lib Dems

By NewsHound | Published 7th May 2010 - 4:05 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website, Lib Dem blogger James Graham looks at what the results mean for the party:

What can I say about this result? I’m bereft. It isn’t even a result so awful that the Lib Dems could sit by the sidelines and let everyone else sort out the mess the country is in. That, at least, would be easy. In fact, just to make things even more galling, we seem to have actually increased our share of the vote to a level that we would have been delighted with a month ago. What a cruel

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Posted in LibLink | 6 Comments

LibLink: James Graham – Lib Dems will make Labour sweat

By NewsHound | Published 26th April 2010 - 9:50 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website, Lib Dem blogger James Graham pours a bucket of swill over Labour’s panicked suggestions that Nick Clegg’s about to jump into bed with the Tories. And another equal bucket of swill over the idea that Labour can take Nick Clegg for a patsy. Here’s an excerpt:

There are only two things I am certain of in this election. First, every vote for the Liberal Democrats is not just a vote for more Lib Dem MPs, but will strengthen Nick Clegg’s negotiating position. The time for tactical voting has passed: it is time

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Posted in General Election, LibLink | 2 Comments

Can the surge last? Lib Dem bloggers give their views …

By The Voice | Published 20th April 2010 - 2:35 pm

Lib Dems leading the election race, and polling above 30% – that’s not a line (m)any of us expected to be able to type with a straight face. But it’s the present reality. The questions is: can the Lib Dem surge last? Here’s what a handful of Lib Dem bloggers think …

James Graham

Anyone who claims to know what will happen electorally next month simply doesn’t know what they are talking about. But there are a number of reasons to suggest that the Liberal Democrats’ poll leap over the weekend might last.

Firstly, polls tend to be mutually reinforcing. This is why some countries ban them during election time. The same factor which has reinforced the Lib Dems’ image as no-hopers in the past might well work in our favour now, especially since it is such a dramatic development.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , | 49 Comments

LibLink: James Graham – A new politics is up for grabs

By NewsHound | Published 18th April 2010 - 7:45 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free website, Lib Dem blogger James Graham makes the argument that anyone wanting to transform politics in the UK at this election has the obvious solution in their hands: a vote for the Lib Dems: “Voting Lib Dem this time is the equivalent of pressing a bloody great reset button”.

But what if the result is that a high Lib Dem vote isn’t reflected in the number of Lib Dem MPs elected? Here’s James’s answer:

What we’ve seen over the past 48 hours is the possibility of a genuinely new approach. Instead of playing

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Posted in General Election, LibLink | 1 Comment

Jo Swinson target of anonymous smear campaign

By Stephen Tall | Published 12th April 2010 - 6:50 pm

This how today’s Sun reports the story:

A LIB-DEM MP has called in cops after an anonymous smear campaign was launched against her. Trouble-makers claiming to represent the East Dunbartonshire Taxpayers’ Alliance have sent letters to hundreds of voters across the region blackening the name of Jo Swinson, who is standing again on May 6. …

Ms Swinson said: “I’ve reported it to the police and they are investigating because the anonymous nature of this makes it illegal. It is clearly designed to damage my chances but I think a lot of people have seen through it.”

She saddedd [sic]: “This is

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LibLink: James Graham – Digital economy bill exposes broken system #DEbill

By NewsHound | Published 8th April 2010 - 7:50 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free website, Lib Dem blogger James Graham argues that it was the UK’s broken Parliament – an antiquated Lords, a whipped Commons – which got us into the legislative mess of Labour’s Digital Economy Bill. The only way to fix it, says James, is to vote for a new politics. Here’s an excerpt:

The real lesson from this experience is that we need a more representative and responsive political system. Digital rights will always be one of those Cinderella issues while the voting system focuses politicians’ attention solely on a handful of swing voters in

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 1 Comment

Evidence based, Left Foot Forward? Not if you’re ignoring the actual evidence

By Stephen Tall | Published 15th March 2010 - 5:55 pm

The Labour-supporting Left Foot Forward blog prides itself on being evidence-based. But not, it seems, when the evidence doesn’t support the conclusion they’ve already written.

That seems to be the only explanation for their slanted weekend posting that Lib Dem tax policy “fails the fairness test”, which appears to rest on two points: 1) that people who don’t pay tax won’t benefit from tax-cuts, and 2) ignoring completely the redistributive wealth tax rises that Vince Cable and the Lib Dems are proposing.

Perhaps the authors, Tim Horton and Howard Reed, hoped nobody would notice the sleight-of-hand; or at least that it …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Parliamentary Parties report back to conference

By Mark Pack | Published 13th March 2010 - 2:47 pm

Party business sessions are usually fairly thinly attended at party conference, except back in the days of disaster and near bankrupcy immiediately after the merger which formed the Liberal Democrats.

They can however play an important role, particularly where well chosen questions tease out information or get commitments on the record. James Graham’s question this morning about the Digital Economy Bill was a good example of this (and would have been even more cruicial has the emergency motions ballot not decided to debate the topic on Sunday morning).

And so, here I am back in the conference hall for part two of …

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