Tag Archives: shirley williams

LibLink | Shirley Williams: Lib Dems should take credit for thwarting Lansley

By Helen Duffett | Mon 13th June 2011 - 10:19 am

Shirley Williams, writing today in the Independent, says that the Liberal Democrats can be proud of their influence on NHS reforms:

Liberal Democrats, from our party’s grassroots to its leadership, can be proud of the influence we have exerted to change the Government’s NHS plans. It is clear now that the proposals that will be taken forward are dramatically different to those originally proposed.

The implications of Andrew Lansley’s massive health proposals, setting England’s health system on the path to a market in health care rather than a public service, were very slow to sink in. The complex, extensive and sometimes almost

…

Posted in News | Also tagged andrew lansley and NHS | 13 Comments

Tamed and reshaped – Clegg on the NHS White Paper

By Mark Pack | Sun 12th June 2011 - 10:11 am

Speaking last night at an excellent anniversary dinner to mark 25 years (yes, 25 years) of Liberal Democrat control on Sutton Council, Nick Clegg said the party has been successful in taming and reshaping the NHS reform plans.

The run of political and electoral success achieved by Liberal Democrats in Sutton is, as Clegg pointed out, a standing answer to anyone who doubts that you can achieve and then hold political power whilst continuing campaigning and staying true to your liberal roots. One of the key people in that success was Ruth Shaw, who Nick Clegg personally presented with the 2010 …

Posted in News | Also tagged graham tope, NHS, nick clegg, ruth shaw, sutton council and sutton liberal democrats | 8 Comments

It’s a busy Saturday for the spinners

By Mark Pack | Sat 11th June 2011 - 10:21 am

With the new version of the government’s health plans due out on Monday or Tuesday, expect tomorrow’s papers to be full of pre-briefing from the different camps – the pro-Lansley Tories, the rest of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

The first of that trio are likely to have by far the toughest, verging on implausible, task given the major changes coming to the original NHS plans. The bigger media battle is between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats (or Cameron and Clegg if you prefer your politics in distilled personalised format) over the relative credit for those changes.

The news from the Liberal …

Posted in News | Also tagged andrew lansley, david cameron, NHS and nick clegg | Leave a comment

Liberal Youth: appealing to Lib Dems everywhere

By Thomas Hemsley | Mon 30th May 2011 - 5:23 pm

Conferences are a foundation stone of being a Liberal Democrat. There have been some really huge and important ones – Brighton, 2002, where we laid out a principled position on Iraq; Llandudno, 1981, where Shirley Williams and David Steel spoke passionately in favour of an alliance; Sheffield, 2011, when we opposed the NHS reforms. Conference is the best way for the membership to exert their influence over the leadership. Past leaders, from Steel to Ashdown, from Kennedy to Clegg, have often feared Conference for the skill and passion with which it has put its arguments. And so the tradition of …

Posted in Conference and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged bonnie greer, charles kennedy, david steel, liberal youth, nick clegg, paddy ashdown and tessa munt | Leave a comment

NHS reforms will be altered significantly and in a Lib Dem direction – Paul Burstow

By Mark Pack | Sun 22nd May 2011 - 1:50 pm

The NHS Bill will be substantially changed – that was the message from Liberal Democrat MP and Health Minister Paul Burstow at Lewisham Liberal Democrats on Friday night. It won’t just be changed, he said, it will be changed in a distinctively Liberal Democrat direction.

At the heart of the likely changes is the role of Monitor, the proposals for which Paul bluntly said were got wrong first time round. Though he was careful not to directly criticise Andrew Lansley, he did say that the original proposals for Monitor were to adopt the model of regulator used with privatised utilities and …

Posted in News | Also tagged andrew lansley, evan harris, featured, lewisham liberal democrats, NHS and paul burstow | 17 Comments

LibLink: Shirley Williams – The line the Lib Dems won’t cross on the NHS

By Nick Thornsby | Wed 18th May 2011 - 10:27 am

Over at The Guardian, Baroness Shirley Williams has a piece setting out the problems she has with the government’s proposed NHS reforms, and four substantive changes that the Liberal Democrats would like to see made.

Here’s a sample:

First, the role of the secretary of state: as the excellent fifth report of the House of Commons health committee pointed out, the public, who pay for the NHS, look to the secretary of state to be responsible for the delivery of a comprehensive health service, one that is equitable, accessible to all, and free at the time of use. The National Commissioning Board will

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged NHS | 1 Comment

Who are the greatest Liberal Prime Ministers who never were?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 3rd April 2011 - 3:23 pm

Mark Pack reviewed Francis Beckett’s new counterfactual collection, The Prime Ministers Who Never Were, on the Voice earlier this week — 14 ‘Big Beasts’ who, had the chips fallen differently, might have become premiers.

The list is mostly inevitable with a couple of intriguing outsiders: Austen Chamberlain, J R Clynes, Lord Halifax, Oswald Mosley, Herbert Morrison, Hugh Gaitskell, Rab Butler, George Brown, Norman Tebbit, Michael Foot, Denis Healey, Neil Kinnock, John Smith and David Miliband.

Voice readers will notice one evident fact: there’s not a single Liberal (or SDP) name among them. In some ways it’s not that surprising. After …

Posted in Books | Also tagged david penhaligon, featured, herbert fisher, jo grimond, Mark Pack, nancy seear, paddy ashdown and roy jenkins | 16 Comments

Shirley Williams writes… Why Vote Yes – So that voters aren’t taken for granted

By Shirley Williams | Tue 22nd March 2011 - 11:55 am

Let me start by stating an undisputable truth; we live in a pluralistic society. Governments have recognised this in delivering our public services and in fostering multiculturalism. However, when it comes to how we vote for our politicians, we have been stuck with first past the post, and left with the patronisingly simple option of submitting a single cross.

Experts of voting behaviour in the past would have explained voting outcomes through ‘class’. Nearly everybody voted either Labour or Conservative. For example, during every election of the 1950s, at least 90% voted for the two main parties. Now barely two-thirds do. …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged #LibDemYES, av referendum and featured | 7 Comments

The party strategy debate: rolling highlights

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th March 2011 - 10:05 am

Note: If you’re catching up with this post after it was published, read it from the bottom up.

Final result – both amendment and motion passed overwhelmingly. The overall tenor of the debate was more good natured than might have been expected – people did not take the opportunity to express any unhappiness in strident tones, and the party being in coalition with the Tories until 2015 was accepted and expected, explicitly or implicitly, by all speakers. Tuition fees and NHS got mentions, but brief ones. Norman Lamb’s comments about the health debate (see below), however, were unexpected and welcome.

James Gurling, …

Posted in Conference and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged david abrahams, david matthewman, david rendel, evan harris, gordon lishman, higher education, james gurling, norman lamb, simon hughes, suzanne fletcher, tim farron, triple lock, tuition fees and universities | 1 Comment

Ten comments on Saturday at party conference

By Mark Pack | Sat 12th March 2011 - 7:00 pm

1. Being introduced at a meeting or in a debate as a “Minister” is still a plus point, often triggering a round of applause. People at conference like the fact that the party is in government.

2. The Social Liberal Forum (SLF) is growing quickly in influence in the party, partly thanks to a smartly organised set of fringe meetings, amendments and motions. However, the SLF is very keen to repeatedly stress that it is not anti-coalition.

3. The NHS debate was a decision delayed. All sides are happy with the idea that a conference debate is used to set out or …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged caron lindsay, evan harris, featured, lembit opik, nick clegg, paul burstow, social liberal forum, tim farron and vince cable | 14 Comments

Conference preview: two of the coalition’s most controversial policies

By Mark Pack | Wed 9th March 2011 - 8:55 am

Saturday morning in Sheffield this weekend sees the LibDem conference debating two of the areas of coalition which have generated the most controversy: the NHS and the future of the Disability Living Allowance.

The motion on the Disability Living Allowance (F4) has been slightly overtaken by events as the debate within government over the Welfare Reform Bill develops and in fact the plans in this area have in effect been sent back to the drawing board. That makes the motion all the more important, because rather than being simply a chance to cast a verdict on what the government has done, it is a chance to influence what is yet to be decided. The heart of the motion calls for “the Coalition Government to reinstate the Mobility Component or otherwise fund the mobility needs of those who cannot afford to do so themselves”.

Paul Burstow Straight after this debate comes one on the NHS (F5). The choice of Andrew Wiseman, Federal Conference Committee’s chair, to chair this debate is a good sign that this is expected to be one of the liveliest of conference as is the news that two Liberal Democrat MPs have signed an EDM expressing concerns over the policy.

Buried in the middle of the motion are lines 16-17 which says that “Conference welcomes the vision for the NHS set out in the Government’s White Paper”. That may be glossed over as a bit of padding between long lists of less controversial points or it may be the trigger for an all-out row, as also may be the amendment likely to be debated that is coming from ex-MP and doctor Evan Harris and Lib Dem peer Shirley Williams (who made her views clear in “I can’t support the coalition plan for the NHS“).

The gap between what the amendment calls for and what Liberal Democrats in government have been pressing for is not that large, however – and some have already expressed the view that the amendment may be a good route to getting more changes made to the health plans. That will provide a pointed choice for those promoting the amendment – whether to try to bring about change through aggressive antagonism or through emollient persuasion? And is modifying the government plans or setting out what a Liberal Democrat majority government would do their top priority?

The full text of both motions are in the Spring Conference Agenda and Directory embedded below.

Liberal Democrat Spring Conference Agenda and Directory 2011

Posted in Conference | Also tagged andrew wiseman, benefits, featured, NHS, paul burstow, welfare reform and welfare reform bill | 2 Comments

Opinion: Baroness Williams shows how to disagree with coalition policy with grace

By Lisa Harding | Tue 1st March 2011 - 4:49 pm

One of the very reasons I became a Liberal Democrat in the first place was be cause of strong women within the party who held similar beliefs to my own. Baroness Williams is one of those women, but she has something else which is equally important in these times of coalition government.

Shirley Williams has a wonderful way of saying that she disagrees with the coalition without it being dramatic or overly sentimental. In her opinion piece in The Times she lays out her thoughts as to why she cannot support the coalition and its proposals for the National …

Posted in News | Also tagged andrew lansley and NHS | 11 Comments

LibLink… Shirley Williams on the coalition: Not one bed – two beds

By Helen Duffett | Sat 14th August 2010 - 4:50 pm

The Guardian today has an interview with Shirley Williams, who at 80, continues to work full-time and is active in questioning the coalition government’s stance on academies, health and Trident:

If you give up what you most care about you start dying. It doesn’t matter what age.

Debate within the coalition on the key issues is a positive thing, insists Williams:

What we have to do is get as much as one possibly can of what Lib Dems believe into the coalition programme. It’s no good simply saying our role is to say no to everything.

Williams admits her surprise that the Liberal Democrats, of whom she was a founder, formed a coalition with the Conservative Party.

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged academies, coalition, ken clarke, NHS, nick clegg and trident | 8 Comments

LibLink: Shirley Williams – The new politics is pragmatic

By NewsHound | Fri 14th May 2010 - 8:45 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website, Lib Dem peer Baroness Shirley Williams offers a realistic lament-cum-appraisal of the opportunities and risks facing the coalition government:

So now we embark on a new politics. The generation I belong to, steeped in ideology and partisan commitment, is passing away. My own vision was one of equality and social justice advanced by state action. The new politics is pragmatic, innovative, suspicious of state power, and holds to values rather than dogmas. … out of the intense negotiations, brilliantly conducted by Nick Clegg and his team, has come a shared commitment: a new

…

Posted in LibLink | 5 Comments

Paddy Ashdown in existential shock at rally

By Iain Roberts | Sat 13th March 2010 - 10:47 am

A good conference rally is fun to attend and tricky to report on, simply because there should be nothing new. The audience ideally leaves reminded of the key messages and enthused to fight the good fight – there’s plenty of time for controversy over the rest of the weekend.

As in Bournemouth, the rally took on a glitzy feel: dry ice, bright lights, (relatively) slick presentation.

Lorely Burt opened procedings with a few jokes, and promise of holding her seat in Solihull, where the Lib Dems overturned a 9,400 Tory majority last time round.

Then a selection of …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged #ldconf, nick clegg, paddy ashdown and rally | 11 Comments

Opinion: But is it really time for a change?

By Bill le Breton | Thu 10th December 2009 - 3:53 pm

Party strategists have bet heavily on their assessment that voters think it is time for a change.

Perhaps simplistically, they hold to the notion that British political fortunes are governed by a pendulum. You often hear them criticise what they term the blue/red red/blue swings, but privately they accept it as a fundamental ‘law’ of political physics and have allowed themselves to be governed by this supposed law these last two years.

2010 will be one of those ‘Time for a Change’ elections, they have deduced.

From that deduction they moved on to suggest that the Conservatives (to whom in their estimate the pendulum has swung) have won the argument among the British public that they, the Conservatives, are the party of change.

The next step in the analysis was to presume that attacks on Conservatives or Conservative policies would thus position the Liberal Democrats as against change and therefore implicitly pro the status quo and, deep down in voter consciousness, pro-Labour.

Among leading Liberal Democrat MPs this conclusion may have been conveniently close to their political preferences, for others – and I think we may include Cable in this – it makes for an agonising and uncomfortable position.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged anthony wells, apple, david lloyd george, jo grimond, keynes, microsoft, neil kinnock, populus, tawney, uk polling report and vince cable | 21 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 27 November 2009

By Helen Duffett | Fri 27th November 2009 - 10:26 am

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Do fathers have to be at the birth to bond?

Sara Bedford underlines the importance of personal choice, especially for an event as personal as birth.

Deep breath… Tarquin Fintim-Limbim-Whimbim-Lim Bus Stop-F’Tang-F’Tang-Olé-Biscuit-Barrel – 238 votes, but Shirley Williams (SDP/Liberal Alliance) 28,118… John Ault remembers Shirley Williams’ victory for the SDP in the Crosby by-election, 28 years ago yesterday.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Hacker Gary McKinnon to appeal after extradition blow
The BBC reports that Gary McKinnon’s lawyers are to make a “last-ditch” attempt to prevent his extradition to the US. They are issuing judicial review proceedings next week after Home Secretary alan Johnson decided not to block his extradition on medical grounds.

Glasgow-born Mr McKinnon, 43, who has Asperger’s syndrome, is accused of breaking into US military computers. He says he was seeking UFO evidence.

Now of Wood Green, London, he faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted.

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged gary mckinnon, john ault, norman baker and sara bedford | 1 Comment

#ldconf podcast: IPPR fringe

By Alex Foster | Wed 23rd September 2009 - 8:01 pm

We were taping ippr‘s fringe with our own Editor at Large Stephen Tall along with some relative political unknowns – Shirley Williams, Menzies Campbell and Charles Clarke.

The ippr did say they were recording the event themselves, and their recording is probably better than ours, but I can’t immediately find it on their website.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05:06 — 59.6MB)

Posted in Conference and Podcasts | Also tagged bournemouth 2009 conference, charles clarke, fringe, ippr, Ming Campbell, mp3, recording and stephen tall | 1 Comment

The Shirley Williams story – Climbing the Bookshelves

By Stephen Tall | Sun 13th September 2009 - 2:00 pm

Shirley William’s memoirs, Climbing the Bookshelves, is published on 24th September, and you can order it from Amazon using this link (and earn the party some commission). Today’s Sunday Times serialises the book: “the rebel ‘Gang of Four’ politician, reveals her maverick streak was rooted in a free-spirited childhood”. Here’s an excerpt:

I was a competitive child. I liked risk, matching myself against challenges. Climbing my father’s bookshelves to the very top was one such challenge. So later was amateurishly climbing mountains, breaking fingernails as I clung on to wet rock. Risk was one of several things that attracted me to politics when I was young, though I was also drawn to some obvious causes — poverty and inequality, lives limited by the accident of birth. …

Posted in Books | 3 Comments

Our Shirl on how Ted Kennedy inspired the UK’s minimum wage

By The Voice | Fri 4th September 2009 - 11:15 am

Lib Dem peer Shirley Williams has a letter in today’s Times looking at the role of Democratic senator Edward Kennedy – and herself – in promoting a national minimum wage in the UK:

I knew Ted Kennedy well as the chairman of the Senior Advisory Committee of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government … In 1989 and 1990 I was acting director of the institute. … The Senator and his staff had done a good deal of research into the minimum wage, research that showed conclusively that in the US it had not damaged employment

…

Posted in News | Also tagged edward kennedy | 3 Comments

YouTube ‘cos we want to: an SDP special

By Stephen Tall | Sat 1st August 2009 - 8:00 am

If the SDP had lived on*, 2009 would have marked its ~~18th~~** 28th birthday – which spurious segue is all the excuse we need to dust off three video clips tracing its rise and fall.

Let’s begin at the beginning, with the explosion of the ‘Gang of Four’ – Roy, David, Shirley and Bill – onto the scene, here holding their first press conference in March 1981:

For a year or more it really did seem as if the SDP might truly break the mould of British politics. But the party was shattered by the results of the June 1983 general election, winning only six seats. Here’s the start of the BBC’s election night results programme.

Posted in YouTube | Also tagged bill rodgers, cheltenham, david owen, david steel, guildford, roy jenkins, SDP, spitting image and torbay | 4 Comments

Shirley’s six of the best

By Stephen Tall | Sat 18th July 2009 - 7:45 pm

Over at the Express, Lib Dem peer Baroness (Shirley) Williams lists her six favourite books. And in case you’re wondering what they are, here goes…

Perkin the Pedlar by Eleanor Farjeon (Out of Print)
I read this children’s book when I was seven, if not younger and it helped me learn the alphabet.

The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi (Out of print)
An absolutely brilliant history book which tells the story of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, covering among other events the Industrial Revolution, the creation of nations and the birth of empires.

Testament of Youth by

…

Posted in Books | 4 Comments

“What we have is lessons about sex, but nothing about the consequences of sex” – Shirley Williams

By Mark Pack | Thu 9th April 2009 - 9:50 am

The latest Journal of Liberal History (published by the Liberal Democrat History Group) is a special issue on liberalism and women, including an interview with Shirley Williams. One question looked at what changes in society she thought were still needed when it comes to issues of gender, and this part of her answer caught my eye:

Societal change has to be in two ways. One which has already happened is the move towards flexible working … The second big societal change is to teach children at school about parenthood, certainly in secondary schools. What we have is lessons about sex,

…

Posted in News | 9 Comments

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Shirley, Simon, Chris and David

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st April 2009 - 1:45 pm

The Times tells us that four senior Lib Dems will be on hand to inspect police treatment of protesters at today’s climate camp in London’s Square Mile:

Four Liberal Democrats – Baroness Williams of Crosby, Simon Hughes, Chris Huhne and David Howarth – will act as legal observers at the climate camp to prevent violence initiated by police, rather than protesters.

Mr Howarth, the MP for Cambridge, said that police and media were guilty of “talking up the violence”, adding: “The danger is that they are putting off peaceful protesters, and attracting the wrong sort.”

Over at the paper’s Comment Central …

Posted in News | Also tagged chris huhne, climate camp, danny finkelstein, david howarth, g20, kingsnorth, policing and simon hughes | 3 Comments

Thatcher more popular than Shirley Williams?

By the founding editor | Mon 18th December 2006 - 11:24 pm

It cannot be. Two words. Vote Williams.

Posted in Polls | Also tagged margaret thatcher | 2 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: shirley williams

LibLink | Shirley Williams: Lib Dems should take credit for thwarting Lansley

Tamed and reshaped – Clegg on the NHS White Paper

It’s a busy Saturday for the spinners

Liberal Youth: appealing to Lib Dems everywhere

NHS reforms will be altered significantly and in a Lib Dem direction – Paul Burstow

LibLink: Shirley Williams – The line the Lib Dems won’t cross on the NHS

Who are the greatest Liberal Prime Ministers who never were?

Shirley Williams writes… Why Vote Yes – So that voters aren’t taken for granted

The party strategy debate: rolling highlights

Conference preview: two of the coalition’s most controversial policies

Opinion: Baroness Williams shows how to disagree with coalition policy with grace

LibLink… Shirley Williams on the coalition: Not one bed – two beds

LibLink: Shirley Williams – The new politics is pragmatic

Paddy Ashdown in existential shock at rally

Opinion: But is it really time for a change?

Daily View 2×2: 27 November 2009

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

2 Big Stories

#ldconf podcast: IPPR fringe

The Shirley Williams story – Climbing the Bookshelves

Our Shirl on how Ted Kennedy inspired the UK’s minimum wage

YouTube ‘cos we want to: an SDP special

Shirley’s six of the best

“What we have is lessons about sex, but nothing about the consequences of sex” – Shirley Williams

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Shirley, Simon, Chris and David

Thatcher more popular than Shirley Williams?

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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

Tag Archives: shirley williams

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

2 Big Stories

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