Tag Archives: Local government

Opinion: Nick’s journey

By Nigel Lindsay | Wed 8th May 2013 - 1:29 pm

It’s natural for defeated political leaders to make up stories which absolve themselves from blame. After every by-election, those who have done less well offer unconvincing explanations. Nick Clegg is no exception, but his story last week that “the Liberal Democrats are on a journey from a party of protest to a party of government” is curious for two reasons. First, because no previous Liberal or Liberal Democrat leader has presented the party as one of protest and second because the party was very much a party of government before he became leader.

It is wrong and insulting to suggest that …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged liberal democrats achievements in government, Scotland and Wales | 31 Comments

Local government reform: a progress report from Spring Conference

By Penny Goodman | Fri 29th March 2013 - 12:52 pm

Between the AV referendum and the House of Lords, the cause of electoral reform has taken a few punches recently. But this year’s Spring Conference showed that Liberal Democrats have far from given up the fight.

Member contributions at consultative sessions on Political & Constitutional Reform and the next General Election manifesto revealed a strong appetite for reform to local government elections in England and Wales. And the same issue was addressed in detail at a packed Saturday evening fringe entitled ‘Worst Past the Post: why local government desperately needs electoral reform’.

The event, jointly sponsored by Liberal Democrats for Electoral Reform …

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged electoral reform | Leave a comment

6 out of 10 places with happiest residents have high Liberal Democrat inflluence

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th March 2013 - 4:15 pm

Something to cheer us on a cold, wintry Spring afternoon.

I’m rarely comfortable about linking to the Daily Mail, but for once it has some good news for Liberal Democrats, although, of course, it doesn’t realise it.

Today, it points to a survey which shows the 10 places in Britain with the happiest residents – and six of them are run, or have recently been run by Liberal Democrats.

Harrogate tops the poll with Stockport, St Albans, Kingston upon Thames, Bath and Truro also in the top ten.

Clearly, as Ben …

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Posted in News | Also tagged daily mail | 6 Comments

LibLink…Tavish Scott: Community councils empower the people

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 23rd February 2013 - 11:55 am

One of the big themes in Scottish politics in recent years has been the Labour and SNP impulse to centralise anything that stands still for long enough. The SNP Government, against all good advice and much opinion, recently merged Scotland’s 8 police forces into one.

In contrast, the Liberal Democrats under Willie Rennie’s leadership have been emphasising giving power to local communities. Tavish Scott, MSP for Shetland writes in the Scotsman about how giving more power to community councils could help deliver the sorts of services communities need, including schools.He cites the example of a plan to close a secondary school …

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged community councils, rural communities, Scotland, scotsman and tavish scott | 2 Comments

Good news from Chelmsford: Liberal Democrat Graham Pooley wins Council by-election

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 20th February 2013 - 12:30 pm

You would think Eastleigh was the only by-election in the world at the moment, but yesterday Liberal Democrats in Chelmsford saw the reward for their hard campaigning efforts when Graham Pooley saw off the Tories to win a Council by-election. He increased the Liberal Democrat share of the vote by 17.7%. TheConservatives saw their vote fall by 3.5%.

The result, from the Chelmsford Liberal Democrats website, was as follows:

Graham Pooley (Lib Dem) 543

Conservative …

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Posted in News | Also tagged by-elections, chelmsford, graham pooley, robert brown and rutherglen south | 1 Comment

New Labour group: Lib Dems might prove more tenacious than many people expect

By Paul Walter | Mon 28th January 2013 - 11:23 am

Progress is a New Labour pressure group. On their website, Mark Rusling argues that there are strong signs that the Lib Dems are “waving, not drowning”. He bases this on evidence from local government, particularly from Waltham Forest Council:

…I have a gnawing worry that, while the Liberals aren’t thriving, neither are they drowning. They might prove more tenacious than many people expect.

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Posted in News | Also tagged liberal democrats | 10 Comments

Opinion: You know what, equality impact assessments can be quite useful

By Alex Folkes | Wed 23rd January 2013 - 12:30 pm

Equality Impact Assessments are carried out by local councils to judge how their decisions will affect some of the most marginal communities in their area. But there are calls now to scrap the process as part of the Tory mantra on scrapping red tape.

I know that some authorities have turned EIAs into the worst extremes of political correctness gone mad.

But the truth is that councils (and the Government too please) should be

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged equality and equality impact assessments | 8 Comments

Scottish Liberal Democrats mourn ex Council Leader John Morrison

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 23rd December 2012 - 5:30 pm

Scottish Liberal Democrats were shocked to learn of the sudden death of former East Dunbartonshire Council Leader John Morrison at the age of just 50. The Sunday Herald reports that John was found unconscious as the result of an assault in a Glasgow Street early on Saturday morning and died later in hospital.

John was affectionately known as Hobbit throughout the Scottish party. He had acquired that nickname while at Glasgow University and bore it with his customary good humour. He’d been a leading …

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Posted in News | Also tagged Alistair Carmichael, Jo Swinson, john morrison and Scotland | 1 Comment

Opinion: public contracts should not go to companies linked to human rights abuses

By Antony Hook | Wed 17th October 2012 - 8:55 am

I recently spoke in Canterbury against the Conservative City Council’s decision to consider giving its waste handling contract to a company whose Israeli affiliate are alleged to be linked to human rights abuses in Palestine.

The Council is refusing to consider the ethical issues on the basis of an interpretation of European law that prohibits taking such matters into account. The correct interpretation of the law is disputed but members of the public formed the distinct impression that the Conservative Council …

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Posted in News | Also tagged european law and public sector contracts | 13 Comments

Opinion: What is keeping councils awake at night?

By Chris White | Wed 4th July 2012 - 12:27 pm

The Local Government Conference met in conference in Birmingham last week.

I am slightly (only very slightly) embarrassed to confess that I have attended every conference since the LGA was created in 1997. In that first year the conference (in Manchester) ran from Tuesday until Friday. There was a gala night on the set of Coronation Street (this is apparently a television soap opera for those of you too busy each evening with your politics).

John Prescott and Gordon Brown turned up to praise the new body’s birth and the role of local government (delicious irony in hindsight), John Bird and John …

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged #lgaconf, chris white, eric pickles, lga and michael gove | 5 Comments

LDVideo: From the archives – ‘The Work of Local Authorities (1943)’

By Stephen Tall | Sun 6th May 2012 - 11:40 am

There now follows a public information film… During the 1940s, the British Council produced more than 120 short films ‘designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played’. They’re now available online, and here’s the wonderfully of-its-time feature on local government — or, as it’s described in the British Council Film Department Catalogue:

‘A simple description of English Local Government, showing the areas into which England is divided, the system of election and finance, and the many services administered by the local authorities.’

Hark back to a time when local authorities had power over all manner of local services — from public health and education, to the fire authorities and water boards — when councillors were invited to stand for election from every walk of life (“for instance, this businessman or even his wife”), and a little boy would utter the deadpan phrase “I’m going to be a councillor when I grow up, daddy”.

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Posted in YouTube | Also tagged british council | 11 Comments

Kirsty Williams launches the 2012 Welsh Liberal Democrat campaign

By NewsHound | Tue 17th April 2012 - 2:52 pm

Under the slogan ‘Wales CAN do better’, Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, launched the campaign for the 2012 local government elections in Cardiff yesterday.

I am extremely proud of our record in local councils all across Wales. When you vote for a Welsh Liberal Democrat councillor on May 3rd, you will be voting for a councillor who will work hard for you and your community and a councillor that will go that extra mile.

When people in a local authority put their trust in Welsh Liberal Democrat councillors,

…

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Posted in Local government, News and Wales | Also tagged kirsty williams, rodney berman and Wales | 2 Comments

Opinon: Planning for a brighter future

By Tom Papworth | Thu 15th March 2012 - 3:56 pm

Yesterday, I set out the indictment of our current land-use planning system, which has created a housing crisis, is stifling our economy and leading to damaging environmental outcomes. That’s fairly widely acknowledged. It is far less simple to propose an alternative, but below I hope to outline some possible principles as mechanisms for a better planning system that empowers individuals and communities rather than bureaucrats and politicians.

The first thing we need to do is to restore the principle that those who suffer the secondary effects of development are compensated. The original Town and Country Planning Act (1947) did contain provision …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged planning | 13 Comments

Opinion: the ongoing disaster of British land-use planning

By Tom Papworth | Wed 14th March 2012 - 4:56 pm

Britain’s planning system is generally defended on environmental grounds. Yet far from keepingBritain“green and pleasant”, the Town and Country Planning Acts have led to the creation of dormitory towns, required the building of extensive infrastructure, and have increased urban density at the expense of urban green space.

In a new report released by the Adam Smith Institute, I argue that we need to do away with the old, top-down planning system. In this first article, I will lay out the indictment of the system. Tomorrow, I will make some proposals for how we can liberate the land and empower individuals …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged planning | 24 Comments

The Independent View: how Liberal Democrats can provide Clegg’s “gear shift” in infrastructure spending

By Richard Carr | Wed 7th March 2012 - 11:25 am

As Nick Clegg has recently noted, there needs to be a ‘gear shift’ in infrastructure spending. Whilst George Osborne dots the i’s and crosses the t’s on his third budget, it is worth considering how such a ‘gear shift’ may be enacted. Localis has undertaken just such an analysis, and this week launched Credit Where Credit’s Due – produced in partnership with Lloyds Banking Group – that illustrates how local government can help deliver a step-change of this type from the bottom-up. Though our report alights on many policy areas, from increasing the powers of LEPs to astute asset management …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged george osborne, green investment bank, infrastructure spending, localis and nick clegg | 3 Comments

The Independent View: Participatory democracy and the People’s Budget

By Phil Teece | Wed 29th February 2012 - 12:27 pm

It’s budget season and here’s a question ….

Is it an exaggeration to claim that there is a crisis in our system of democracy? When so many people don’t bother to vote and there are communities in the UK which no longer have any faith in the willingness of parliament and local government to address their needs and concerns, to actually represent their interests, then I think not. However, the direction of the coalition government’s policy is avowedly towards greater accountability and a stronger role for local people in decisions about local services.

The reality is that, despite the rhetoric about localism …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged budget, community and democracy | 3 Comments

A postcard from… Oulu

By Baroness Ros Scott | Tue 28th February 2012 - 5:22 pm

Oulu, Finland’s 7th largest city, lies on the same latitude as Iceland, the southern tip of Greenland and Fairbanks, Alaska. It is however in central Finland and there’s an awfully long way you can travel north.

Students across the country are celebrating penkkarit marking their graduation from school with processions through the towns involving music, playing tricks on your old school and the throwing of sweets to the watching crowds. This ceremony is about a hundred years old and goes back to the time when the few students who …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged a postcard from and ros scott | 1 Comment

Opinion: time to talk about things that don’t matter

By Chris White | Tue 14th February 2012 - 2:53 pm

Now, before I start, let me be clear: I am not an atheist and in fact find atheism’s certainties as puzzling as those of fundamentalists – the latter are certain that God exists and the former that he does not. Quite how, after centuries of Enlightenment philosophy, there are adherents to either point of view is beyond me.

Anyway: I go to Church, have doubts, fall far short of my ideals. Sorry.

Last week there was a High Court judgment against Bideford Town Council. In a nutshell it said that prayers should not form part of a council meeting.

I belong to two …

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged religion | 19 Comments

Chris White writes: Powerful stuff from Clegg at the LGA conference

By Chris White | Thu 30th June 2011 - 3:10 pm

One of the highlights of the political calendar is the annual Local Government Association (or more correctly ‘Group’) conference. It’s a bit like a party conference but people go to bed earlier. And there are other political parties here. And officers.

Its formal function is to be the sovereign body of the LGG. It also allows exhibitors to exhibit, group leaders to network and national politicians to showcase.

So we heard from David Cameron, the first serving prime minister to speak at an LGA/LGG conference. He told us sternly that pensions had to be reformed and that strikes would only hurt the …

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Posted in News | Also tagged caroline flint, david cameron, lga and nick clegg | 7 Comments

Nick Clegg’s speech in Sheffield on the difference that Liberal Democrat councils are making

By Nick Thornsby | Wed 20th April 2011 - 12:55 pm

On Saturday, Nick Clegg delivered a speech to local party activists in Sheffield on the difference that Liberal Democrat councils across Britain are making. It’s a good speech which expands on many of the examples that we started to hear at conference in Sheffield last month about how Liberal Democrat councils are using innovative techniques to keep service and job losses to a minimum in these difficult financial times.

Here’s the speech in full:

The Liberal Democrats have a long, proud and successful history in local government.

We run some of the nation’s biggest cities and some of the most effective councils across

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged local elections, nick clegg and sheffield | 9 Comments

Chris White writes: thoughts on the letter to the Times

By Chris White | Wed 16th February 2011 - 1:25 pm

Last week saw much excitement when 90 leading Liberal Democrat councillors wrote to the Times criticising the leadership of Eric Pickles. I was not one of them.

In 2009 I thought long and hard about the circumstances in which such letters are appropriate and as a result offer 6 tests:

Is the objective clear?
Is the objective likely to be more achievable as a result of the letter?
Does it avoid attacking our own side?
Is the timing appropriate?
Is the medium appropriate?
Does it avoid looking elitist and self-regarding?

The letter to the Guardian from members of the Federal Policy Committee during the Autumn Conference …

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged eric pickles, letter and the times | 4 Comments

Carlos Tevez and Local Government

By Martin Land | Sat 18th December 2010 - 11:34 am

So Carlos Tevez would like to leave Manchester City. He still has more than three years to run on his incredibly expensive contract, but has informed the press that he has played his last game for Man. City. Now, I’ve nothing against Man. City (other than them not being Liverpool) and my sympathy lies very much with their owners and management. No club should be bullied in this way, and I hope the rich Middle Eastern owners of Man. City will do football a real favour, by refusing to bow to this pressure and continuing to insist Tevez comes to …

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Posted in Humour, Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged carlos tevez | 3 Comments

Chris White writes: trust me – this really is going to hurt

By Chris White | Thu 11th November 2010 - 3:03 pm

We all knew there would be cuts and some have recently received rather a high profile (and yes – I do condemn the outcome of the tuition fees march).

Local government rarely gets sympathetic headlines at the best of times but it has done extraordinarily badly in the Comprehensive Spending Review – and without much media interest.

Local government will receive cuts in grant of 28%, compared with the 19% in other ‘unprotected’ departments (ie departments other than education and health). Local communities will also see 20% cuts in police funding and 25% cuts in fire and rescue.

On top of the simple …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged eric pickles | 30 Comments

Chris White reports: a radical approach to localism

By Chris White | Tue 19th October 2010 - 12:27 pm

I have long thought that Party policy making has tended to be elitist and untransparent. In my own little universe – FPC’s Localism working group – I am keen to change this.

So the papers of the group are now being shared with anyone who put a card in for the Localism debate in Liverpool.

And I will update party members and activists in places like Lib Dem Voice.

We met on 6 October and looked at a new draft of the paper. Our previous thinking is now deeply influenced by the change in the political landscape, not least the Localism Bill due …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged fpc | 3 Comments

John Pugh MP writes… What I have learned from ‘The Mafia’

By John Pugh MP | Sun 10th October 2010 - 3:15 pm

Stephen Tall on this site last week queried why it was that so many Liberal Democrats sounded ‘conservative’ on public sector reform. Supporting local democratic bodies (ie, councils) was likened to Conservative support of business and Labour support of unions— both sectional interests.

I think this is a flawed analysis. Liberal Democratic attitudes follow not from any sectional interest but a belief in democratic accountability. Opposition to many alleged reforms in public services hinge on a conviction that they are a poor substitute for it.

To understand what’s going on I have learned from Mafia films you must ‘follow the money.’

We …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged john pugh | 7 Comments

Coalition to rule out ‘pay as you throw’ waste charge – but why do they think it’s their job?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 7th June 2010 - 10:30 am

The Guardian reports:

Ministers are expected to announce that they are scrapping Labour plans to introduce “pay as you throw” rubbish schemes. Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, and Caroline Spelman, the environment secretary, will confirm that they will end schemes in which people are charged for household waste collections or for producing too much rubbish.

In one sense this is a bit of a non-story. Labour didn’t, despite the Guardian’s misleading report, plan to introduce ‘pay as you throw’ rubbish schemes – what they did was enable councils to pilot such schemes if they wished. Unsurprisingly, not least given the furore …

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Posted in News | Also tagged caroline spelman, eric pickles, recycling and windsor and maidenhead | 7 Comments

Opinion: Tory school plans will give parents nightmares

By Chris White | Tue 2nd March 2010 - 2:37 pm

Monday’s Today Programme on Radio 4 majored on local government.

It was the usual shambles. We were told that local authorities were expecting to make cuts in services – hardly news. One reporter told us that libraries were not used by many people – in fact had she spent ten minutes on research she would have discovered that libraries are visited by half the adult population each year. This makes libraries far more popular than any if not all of the sporting events on which the BBC lavishes time and our money each year.

Another reporter told us that local authorities …

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged academies, education, libraries, michael gove and schools | 3 Comments

NEW POLL: Is it time to end ‘politically restricted’ jobs?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 18th February 2010 - 7:15 pm

Blogging Labour MP Tom Harris has an interesting story today, revealing that Tina Stowell, the BBC’s head of corporate affairs “is not only a wannabe Tory candidate, but still has a live website proclaiming her love of all things Cameron.” But Tom doesn’t point this out in order to fulminate or demand her resignation:

And you know something? I don’t have a problem with this. I would much prefer to know the politics of someone I’m dealing with because at least you know where they’re coming from. She wants to become an MP? Good for her! I hope she

…

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Posted in Voice polls | Also tagged civil service, featured, politically restricted and tom harris | 16 Comments

Opinion: My first lap dance hate mail

By Chris White | Thu 18th February 2010 - 9:20 am

I got my first lap-dancing related hate mail the other day. The writer (who was not anonymous) suggested that I had nothing better to do with my time and argued that I belonged in the Stasi.

One of the hazards of politics is that you occasionally take a clear public view and someone doesn’t like it. My crime was to have issued a statement in support of the new rules on sexual encounter establishments.

Since the 2003 Licensing Act, lap-dancing clubs had been subject to the same licensing regime as pubs and restaurants – in particular, there was a presumption in …

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged lap dancing | 15 Comments

Iain Roberts 4MP

By Iain Roberts | Tue 24th November 2009 - 10:51 am

No, not my campaign to enter the hallowed halls of Westminster – much to the relief of my colleagues who undoubtably feel they get more than enough of me on the council. Besides, I’m lucky enough to already have an excellent Lib Dem MP.

This is a new feature on the ALDC MyCouncillor blog service.

ALDC, the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors, offers a handy blogging service for all members. It’s based on the popular WordPress platform and customised to help busy councillors and campaigners get blogging with the minimum of fuss. Over 500 people already have an ALDC MyCouncillor …

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Posted in Local government and Online politics | Also tagged aldc, blogging and mycouncillor | 4 Comments