Tag Archives: social liberal forum

Janice Turner

Race equality – a new Liberal Democrat approach: SLF/EMLD Conference takes place soon

By Janice Turner | Wed 1st May 2013 - 8:55 am

Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, is the keynote speaker at one of the most important race equality events this party has held in recent years. Organised jointly by the Social Liberal Forum and Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats, it takes place from noon on Saturday 1st June at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Action Centre, 25 New Inn Yard London EC2A 3EA. The conference will be of immense help to all those who realise that, particularly in London, the ethnic minority vote will be key to whether we sink or swim in the next elections.

Race equality is …

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Geoffrey Payne

Social Liberal Forum Conference. “Ownership and Democracy – where does Power lie?”

By Geoffrey Payne | Tue 30th April 2013 - 12:20 pm

slflogoOn July 13th at a rearranged venue in the Central Manchester Friends Meeting House, we are organising the third annual Social Liberal Forum conference, in addition to the one in London on 1st June.

The overall theme will be “Ownership and Democracy – where does power lie?”.  I came up with the idea for this theme after attending an excellent fringe meeting organised by CentreForum at the 2012 Federal conference on “What is Cleggism?”. The debate included David Howarth’s contribution which you can watch on this video.

David Howarth …

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Gareth Epps

Opinion: A letter to Nick Clegg on the General Equality Duty

By Gareth Epps | Tue 16th April 2013 - 4:08 pm

slflogo

Dear Nick,

I am writing on behalf of the Social Liberal Forum to urge that Lib Dem MPs vote tomorrow to uphold the decision of the Upper House to support the retention of Section 3 of the 2006 Equality Act.  Today the Equality and Human Rights Commission itself issued a statement supporting its retention. In making this request we are adding our voices to those of the Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats and the Lib Dem Disability Association, and several Lib Dem peers.

On 4th March several Lib Dem peers joined colleagues across the …

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Prateek Buch

Opinion: George Osborne doesn’t get it… again

By Prateek Buch | Fri 22nd March 2013 - 1:21 pm

This should have been a budget for growth, helping the UK economy to recover from the deepest and longest depression on record. George Osborne’s announcements on childcare, investment in industrial research and of course raising the personal income tax allowance to £10,000 are welcome steps in the right direction. They are all are clear examples of Liberal Democrat influence in the Coalition, not least the flagship move on the tax threshold. These measures, however, don’t go nearly far enough to support businesses starved of credit or households facing escalating living costs and squeezed incomes – where was …

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Nick Thornsby

Party groups respond to the Budget

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 21st March 2013 - 10:12 am

As one might expect, groups within the Lib Dems are united in welcoming George Osborne’s announcement that the coalition will deliver the Lib Dem policy of a £10,000 income tax personal allowance next year, earlier than previously expected. Both the Social Liberal Forum and Liberal Reform also agree that the chancellor needs to be more ambitious when it comes to stimulating economic growth, though the groups diverge somewhat on how to do so.

First up, here’s the SLF’s response:

The Budget contains some welcome measures, especially on childcare costs and raising the personal tax allowance to £10,000 next year. The

…

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Opinion: Liberals together?

By Bernard Gowers | Tue 19th March 2013 - 8:55 am

I’ve been a member of the Liberal Democrats (and sometime activist) since the mid-1990s.  So I don’t want to encourage anyone to leave the party, despite the frustrations we share.

Admittedly, when supporters (and a few members) dropped away in the immediate aftermath of the Coalition I wasn’t entirely unhappy.  Many seemed not really to have engaged with our political culture, even if they liked individual policies (and didn’t like Labour or the Tories).   But since then many good liberals have left, for reasons we all know.  The response of remaining members has been characterised by sadness, rather than rancorous …

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Prateek Buch

Opinion: The road to 2015 – it’s the economy, stupid!

By Prateek Buch | Thu 7th March 2013 - 2:37 pm

Liberal Democrats gather in Brighton this weekend, with Mike Thornton’s victory still fresh in our minds as evidence of our enduring tenacity as a campaigning force. But what will the people of Eastleigh, and places like it up and down the country, want to see a party of government discussing at this critical juncture? With the main conference agenda looking bland, the issues that matter most to voters are likely to feature on the fringe and in the guise of emergency motions – the state of the economy more so than any.

Figures published recently demonstrate that the health …

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Paul Pettinger

Opinion: It’s the economy stupid

By Paul Pettinger | Tue 29th January 2013 - 8:55 am

The announcement on Friday that the UK economy contracted again in the last quarter of 2012 offers a damaging blow to the Government, and our leadership in particular, who have rightly and continually reaffirmed during this parliament that generating economic growth is by far their greatest priority.

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Nick Thornsby

Autumn statement: Lib Dem party groups respond

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 6th December 2012 - 8:52 am

Both Liberal Reform and the Social Liberal Forum have commented on the measures contained in yesterday’s autumn (read winter) statement.

First up, Liberal Reform welcomed many of the measures – particularly the faster increase in the income tax personal allowance – but expressed concerns about the party’s approach to the negotiations on the statement:

Liberal Reform welcomes many of the individual measures outlined in the Autumn Statement. The faster-than-expected increase in the income tax personal allowance and the freeze in fuel duty are particularly welcome, and reflect the Liberal Democrat priority of reducing the tax burden on those on low and middle

…

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Luke Hildyard

The Independent View: Employee ownership makes economic sense

By Luke Hildyard | Fri 21st September 2012 - 4:19 pm

While Labour and the Tories debate how to reinvigorate their annual party conference programme, the Liberal Democrats democratic policymaking structure means that debates at their conference remain engaging and relevant. And with the party now in Government, the journey from the Conference floor to the statute book is rather more direct than has previously been the case.

This means that over the next few weeks, the Lib Dem gathering in Brighton is the most likely place for progressive yet plausible policy ideas to get a hearing. The Social Liberal Forum’s motion 106 on employee ownership, to be debated on Monday 24th September from 09:05-11:05, is a particularly good example. The motion calls for a number of radical measures relating to the stewardship of large companies (>250 employees) including:

• The right for employees of listed companies to request 5% of company shares
• A role for employee representatives in major corporate decisions, including conditions of employment; Director’s pay; and the strategic direction of the company
• The right for companies to implement German-style two-tier board structures, with a supervisory board (including a shareholder’s representative) and a management board (including a worker’s representative).

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Posted in Conference, Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Prateek Buch

Opinion: Economics will rightly dominate conference

By Prateek Buch | Thu 20th September 2012 - 12:26 pm

A fairer, more sustainable economy – that’s what Lib Dem conference will be about
I’d like propose a new hashtag – #IAgreeWithSimon. Hughes, that is, specifically I agree with this:

At the next election we will be judged by whether relative to the rest of the western developed world we have steered our way through these difficult waters.

The government’s record to date is not encouraging, and with Liberal Democrats gathering in Brighton on Saturday to debate how the to shape the nation’s political economy, conference fringe will once again be where it’s really at.

The Social Liberal Forum has an excellent …

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Mark Pack

Nick Clegg gives the William Beveridge lecture

By Mark Pack | Sat 14th July 2012 - 6:28 pm


Nick Clegg gives the William Beveridge lecture

Speaking at the at Social Liberal Forum Conference 2012 on Saturday morning, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg gave the William Beveridge memorial lecture. Here are my tweets of the event, interspersed with some links to older blog posts that expanded on some of the issues which came up.

Storified by Mark Pack · Sat, Jul 14 2012 10:25:17

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Kirsten de Keyser

Is education the key to social mobility?

By Kirsten de Keyser | Fri 6th July 2012 - 4:22 pm

We’ve all read the statistics: in the United Kingdom, 7% of the population who were educated in independent schools make up 95% of our politicians, judges, journalists and business bosses. And let’s not forget our actors and sports stars. You’re twenty times more likely to play cricket for England if your parents mortgaged themselves to send you to a private school.

But do we all want to be Yuppies? Not everyone wants to be a politician, judge or journalist, many are thankfully still in possession of their full set of faculties. Moreover, our average western society requires roughly 20% …

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Social liberal values and the tyranny of spin doctors – the Social Liberal Forum (Scotland) Conference

By Norman Fraser | Wed 27th June 2012 - 7:58 pm

Partick Burgh Halls in Glasgow was the venue for the Social Liberal Forum’s first Scottish Conference last weekend. Members came from as far away as England to participate in what turned out to be a lively and stimulating meeting.

The highlights of the event were:

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Prateek Buch

Clegg’s economic gear shift must be driven by Plan C

By Prateek Buch | Sun 27th May 2012 - 8:45 am

With the UK’s double-dip recession biting harder than previously thought, growing unease at the economy’s failure to recover appears to have elicited something of a change of emphasis at the heart of government. If Nick Clegg’s Financial Times interview (£) signifies a genuine change of direction in economic policy, and it would be welcome if so, we should ask in which direction we’re now facing. The Social Liberal Forum recently published Plan C, our approach to achieving a fair, sustainable economy, so it pays to benchmark Clegg’s call to “shift up a gear” against the values

…

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Mary Reid

Party groups unite against increased surveillance

By Mary Reid | Wed 4th April 2012 - 3:55 pm

Yesterday Mark Pack summarised the current state of play on the snooping row (“The wheels are coming off the online monitoring wagon”).

This topic has generated more emails, blogs and tweets from angry Lib Dems than anything I can remember. Party members seem to be united in their opposition to increased monitoring, so much so that statements from the so-called right and left of the party are virtually interchangeable.

From the Social Liberal Forum:

Any furthering of the already-extensive powers to interrogate peoples’ communication, especially in the absence of proper oversight, would constitute an ineffective and illiberal intrusion of our civil

…

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Geoffrey Payne

SLF conference on intergenerational justice

By Geoffrey Payne | Wed 4th April 2012 - 11:21 am

Nick Clegg, Ed Davey and Naomi Colvin of Occupy will be among the speakers at the Social Liberal Forum (SLF) conference on Saturday 14th July.

You can now register through the Social Liberal Forum website. Last year’s conference sold out so do book your place soon.

The theme for our conference is “Intergenerational Justice”. Since the economic crisis that began in 2007, we now have a young generation that will be poorer than its parents; this is unprecedented in British history since the last world war. At the same time the older generation will have to retire at  a later …

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Mark Pack

Plan C: The Social Liberal Forum’s economic prognosis

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th March 2012 - 10:50 am

There has been a very welcome recent revival of policy thinking in the Liberal Democrats, despite the large cuts to the party’s official policy research staff. This has included a new think tank (Liberal Insight) and good work by Richard Kemp and the local government sector in encouraging imaginative plans for making use of the new legal powers going to local government.

Added to this is the Social Liberal Forum’s further foray into economic policy-making, following up on some of their successful events with their first policy pamphlet. Prateek Buch’s “Plan C – social liberal approaches to a fair, …

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Mark Pack

Liberal Left: why I’m underwhelmed

By Mark Pack | Tue 14th February 2012 - 4:50 pm

In theory, the launch of Liberal Left is something I should welcome as I’ve always thought that more and stronger party bodies make for a healthy party. They help give more meaning to internal party democracy by making it easier for people to co-operate with others of a like mind.

So why am I underwhelmed by Liberal Left’s launch?

It’s not that it covers some of the same ground as the Social Liberal Forum (disclosure: I’m on the SLF’s Advisory Council). Liberal Left looks to have a distinctive message and approach which diverges from, rather than duplicates, that of the …

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Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , and | 59 Comments
Mathew Hulbert

Opinion: left-leaning Lib Dems should be united, pragmatic and positive

By Mathew Hulbert | Sun 12th February 2012 - 10:45 am

The launching of the ‘Liberal Left’ group this week has already led to lots of comment, especially on Twitter.

Those on the Right of our Party have, rather predictably, condemned it as divisive and self-interested. You might expect me, as someone on the Left, to disagree with them. But I don’t, I think they are largely correct in their analysis, and here’s the reason why.

I believe we need a united, pragmatic and positive Left in the Liberal Democrats; which, I believe, despite the protestations of some, remains a centre-left Party. As a member of the Social Liberal Forum, I’ve seen that any …

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Paul Ankers

Opinion: There is one coalition that needs to last

By Paul Ankers | Wed 8th February 2012 - 6:55 pm

I have been staring at the faces of Lib Dem councillors for days as part of a piece of work I have undertaken.  Although the highlight has been finding out Cllr Ken Ball has managed to wangle Deputy leader of Chorley Council despite leading a group of him and one other Councillor, my abiding thought is that I could have a stand up row with each and every one of you.  And I wouldn’t mind a bit of it.  That’s what being a LibDem is all about.

However, news of yet another splinter group from the left of the …

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George Potter

Opinion: getting the welfare reforms right

By George Potter | Fri 27th January 2012 - 9:00 am

Today an open letter, signed by well over forty of our parliamentary candidates from 2010, will be sent to Nick Clegg. And, on Monday, a meeting, organised by the Social Liberal Forum, will take place in the Palace of Westminster in Committee Room 18 (made infamous by the story about Sir Bob Russell MP allegedly pulling the door off of its hinges).

The subject of both the letter and the meeting will be the recent voting record of our peers on aspects of the Welfare Reform Bill ranging from sickness and disability benefits, to the household benefit cap and child benefits.

The …

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Social Liberal Forum (Scotland) plans busy year

By Norman Fraser | Wed 25th January 2012 - 5:55 pm

On Saturday 21 January,  a dozen or so members of the Scottish arm of the Social Liberal Forum, including former parliamentarians Robert Brown and Elspeth Attwooll,  braved a bright but raw Scottish morning to meet in Partick Burgh Hall in the heart of Glasgow’s West End.  This steering committee’s job was to plan the advance of the Forum’s work in Scotland in the coming year and beyond.

Two hours of lively discussion ensued.  Discontent with some aspects of coalition policy was taken as a given.  A number of speakers gave examples from across the country of the loss of members from …

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Prateek Buch

Vince Cable – “we’re reforming UK’s banks, and we’re getting on with it”

By Prateek Buch | Mon 19th December 2011 - 10:34 am

Liberal Democrat Business Secretary confirmed yesterday that the Government would accept, in full, the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) Chaired by Sir John Vickers (see this video to see for yourself).

Anticipating Chancellor George Osborne’s formal announcement today, Vince told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that the  separation of retail and investment banks –  ’something I and the Liberal Democrats have pushed on for a long time’ – will go ahead, indicating that the ‘angry heckling by banks’ (Marr’s words) had failed to blow the Government off-course.

Indeed Vince went as far as  to …

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Stephen Tall

LDV Caption Competition | Hugh Grant and Nick Clegg “one for the family album” edition

By Stephen Tall | Sun 18th September 2011 - 6:45 pm

So Hugh Grant dropped into the Lib Dem conference in Birmingham today.

He met with Nick Clegg and then addressed the Social Liberal Forum’s fringe event on the issue of phone-hacking, privacy and libel. He wasn’t there to endorse the party, but as the BBC reports here Hugh did give us credit for our long-standing opposition to the murky practices of the tabloids:

“You, more than any of the other parties, have a good bill of health. You have never been in bed with these scumbags.”

Here’s the moment Nick met Hugh (I think it’s that way round rather than Hugh met Nick, yes?)… and as it’s been a while since our last LDV caption competition, what better moment for a reprise? Here you go then…

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Prateek Buch

Opinion: This is the Social Liberal moment

By Prateek Buch | Tue 21st June 2011 - 4:25 pm

After months of planning, and not inconsiderate last-minute scrambling, the Social Liberal Forum’s first ever conference took place at City University on Saturday; envisioned by Hackney’s Geoff Payne and put into action by the outstanding team he led, the conference (#SLFconf on Twitter) was a massive success from so many perspectives.

Firstly, there was the interest generated by having two Cabinet Ministers and the Party’s Deputy Leader speaking – Vince Cable’s speech was carried live by the BBC and Sky news was also filming throughout the day. Of course the Ministers were a significant draw, but the packed-out audience was …

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Lee Dargue

Opinion: The Social Liberal Conference was a major success

By Lee Dargue | Mon 20th June 2011 - 9:41 am

The SLF conference was a major success. Yes, it was “full” – David Hall-Mathews careful not to refer to the event as “sold out”. Yes, lots of people debated and tweeted like crazy on subjects ranging from NHS reforms to the history of the American fridge. But it wasn’t the numbers or amount of talking we did which was the most important. It was the fact that there is still a groundswell of progressives alive and well in the Liberal Democrats. In fact, since entering government with the Conservative party, and with a recent “win” (yet to see how it …

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Mark Pack

Chris Huhne: we need smart regulation in the energy sector

By Mark Pack | Sun 19th June 2011 - 1:25 pm

Yesterday Chris Huhne spoke at the Social Liberal Forum‘s conference on smart regulation for the energy sector:

It’s a pleasure to speak at the first conference of the Social Liberal Forum.

We Liberal Democrats have always prided ourselves as a party of ideas – and they’re needed more than ever now that we’re in government. Whatever your view of The Orange Book back in 2004, it did at least trigger a debate about Liberal ideology, about what it means to be a Liberal Democrat in today’s Britain. I was pleased to contribute both to The Orange Book and to its

…

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Stephen Tall

‘Renegades with a mission’ – the Sindy’s verdict on the Social Liberal Forum

By Stephen Tall | Sun 19th June 2011 - 11:43 am

The Social Liberal Forum — a group of Liberal Democrat members who advocate ‘that a democratic and open state has a positive role to play in guaranteeing individual freedom’ — met yesterday for their first conference on a high note: their mobilising role at the party’s spring conference is widely credited with having strongly influenced the Coalition’s changes to the controversial NHS reforms.

Here’s how the Independent on Sunday, with an inevitable nod towards stereotypes, reports the gathering:

Welcome to the first annual conference of the Social Liberal Forum – the home of “proper” Liberal Democrats. Not the quasi-Tory,

…

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Mark Pack

The Guardian cottons on to rise and rise of the Social Liberal Forum

By Mark Pack | Fri 17th June 2011 - 1:53 pm

The Social Liberal Forum got a profile in The Guardian this week, rightly highlighting its growing influence in the party (something I particularly noted over the Sheffield health debate):

In a tribute to the forum’s growing influence, cabinet ministers Vince Cable and Chris Huhne will attend the SLF conference on Saturday, with party deputy leader Simon Hughes.

The group claims about 1,500 members, and has no full time staff. It has only just appointed a director – Mark Blackburn, a former Lib Dem candidate for Westminster.

The group was set up after the party leadership won a vote at the 2008

…

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