Tag Archives: tom brake

Marginal gains

By Tom Brake MP | Fri 4th January 2013 - 9:21 am

Too often people come into political campaigning searching for a silver bullet which will revolutionise their candidacy and transform the electorate into ardent fans overnight. It’s the most common mistake of first time candidates. Those of us who have already spent decades stuffing letterboxes know that a quick fix doesn’t exist.

That isn’t to say there aren’t campaign game-changers – the advent of television or how some candidates have harnessed the internet, but in truth they are few and far between. Instead candidates and campaigns

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Posted in Campaign Corner | Also tagged campaigning and featured | 2 Comments

Conference calls for our parliamentarians to reject Secret Courts

By Mary Reid | Tue 25th September 2012 - 7:43 pm

At most conferences there is at least one debate which proves how different we are from the other main parties. Different because we entrust Conference to decide party policy, in open debate, even where that may be at odds with the views of our parliamentarians.

Today’s debate on the ‘Secret Courts’ motion was a good example. The full title was F41: No Government Above the Law – The Justice and Security Bill.

This motion, submitted by two local parties, called on the Coalition to withdraw Part II of the Justice and Security Bill, which would empower Ministers to allow civil hearings …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged 2012 Brighton Conference, Alistair Carmichael, jim wallace, jonathan marks, julian huppert, justice and security bill, paul strasburger, robin meltzer, sarah ludford and secret courts | 5 Comments

Transfer deadline day: Laws, Brake, Foster & Swinson in, Burstow, Teather, Harvey & Stunell out, Clarke loan finishes

By James Percival | Wed 5th September 2012 - 1:32 pm

I love reshuffle days, they’re just like transfer deadline day. You sit there at your office computer pretending to work while secretly updating the Guardian live blog to see who your side has brought in and let go.

So, have we strengthened the side for the second half of the season or left gaping holes in our defence?

Well, we have managed to hold on to all our big players – Cable, Alexander, Davey and Moore – and, despite losing his place to Alexander after his suspension early in the season, we now have a fighting fit Laws back and ready …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged andrew stunell, Danny Alexander, david heath, david laws, don foster, ed davey, jeremy browne, Jo Swinson, ken clarke, lynne featherstone, Michael Moore, nick clegg, nick harvey, norman lamb, paul burstow, sarah teather and vince cable | 3 Comments

Reshuffle thoughts: how does it score against my four criteria?

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th September 2012 - 9:31 pm

Ahead of the reshuffle, I posted four criteria against which the Liberal Democrat part of the shuffling should be judged. Now nearly all the details are in, how does it look?

Most importantly, have people been put in jobs they’ve got a decent chance of doing well? It’s hard enough being a minister in the smaller party in a coalition government without having lots of people thrown into policy areas they are completely new to.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged andrew stunell, david heath, david laws, don foster, featured, jeremy browne, Jo Swinson, julian huppert, nick clegg, nick harvey, paul burstow, reshuffle and sarah teather | 18 Comments

Tom Brake MP writes… Politics is a profession of unrelenting pace

By Tom Brake MP | Thu 9th August 2012 - 11:58 am

In politics, no sooner have you seen off one challenge, than another appears on the horizon. At least the triathlon I completed had a clearly defined finish line. Yet, in politics, no sooner has one election ended, than you have to refocus on the next.

As a result, it’s hard to find time to sit down and take stock. But during this recess, I’ve set myself the challenge of putting some time aside to refocus on the last election and look at the detail behind the detail.

I’ve spent election after election trying to learn the lessons of what went wrong. I’ve …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged campaigning | 4 Comments

The graph which shows how many Tory, Labour and LibDem voters support House of Lords reform

By Stephen Tall | Sat 21st July 2012 - 8:45 am

The London Evening Standard reported this week a new poll under the headline Even Lib-Dems say Lords reform is not a priority. Buried two-thirds of the way down, however, was this interesting data:

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Posted in News and Polls | Also tagged constitutional reform, featured and house of lords | 18 Comments

Opinion: Conference votes again on access to justice, Parliamentarians should follow

By James Sandbach | Thu 15th March 2012 - 2:53 pm

For the third Party conference in a row, Liberal Democrats voted for a policy motion covering legal aid and access to justice directly contrary to the Government’s legal aid reforms – in the Legal Aid, Sentencing Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO) – reaching their final stages in Parliament. Gateshead conference voted to ensure that “the scope of civil legal aid covers appropriate legal help and assistance in categories of law where the issues raised are of substantial importance.. and which cannot be settled by alternative dispute resolution” but night after night I see our Peers voting to remove category after …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged dee doocey, house of lords and legal aid | 4 Comments

In praise of… Tom Brake

By Mark Pack | Wed 29th February 2012 - 9:25 am

Before I was winning chocolate at the weekend, I was campaigning in Croydon and Sutton as part of the excellent Action Day organised by George Kendall and others. It is no secret that the reason Liberal Democrats from across London are now paying rather more attention to Croydon than before is because significant parts of it may be moved into Tom Brake’s constituency.

It is typical of Tom that in amongst all the heat and rhetoric of the Parliamentary boundary review process, he has been quietly getting on with thinking ahead and acting. Rather than just abstractly debating what his constituency boundaries might be, he and the Sutton team (including the excellent Ruth Dombey) have started working with colleagues in Croydon to build up the strength of the party there.

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Posted in News | Also tagged croydon liberal democrats, george kendall and sutton liberal democrats | 4 Comments

Tom Brake writes… Free food and invigorating campaigning in Carshalton and Wallington

By Tom Brake MP | Mon 20th February 2012 - 10:23 am

Following the boundary review, the current seat of Carshalton and Wallington will cease to exist, and will be replaced by two separate constituencies, Croydon Central & St Helier and Purley & Carshalton.

Last year we celebrated 25 years of political control of Sutton Council and these changes provide us with an opportunity to work with Croydon Lib Dems to spread the Lib Dem message into their borough. It is vital that we start to build up our presence and activity early in these new areas if we’re to win these seats in 2015. The run up to this year’s London elections …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 1 Comment

The Independent View: And then there was one… (Unmasked! The only backbench Lib Dem MP 100% loyal to the Coalition)

By Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart | Fri 18th November 2011 - 9:45 am

When a quarter of the parliamentary Conservative party rebels, everyone sits up and takes notice. On 24 October, 2011, 81 Conservative MPs defied a three-line whip to vote in favour of an EU referendum: cue a blaze of negative publicity for David Cameron and the Tory party whips.

But a week or so later one-quarter of Lib Dem MPs rebelled, and (almost) no one noticed. In nine separate votes on 1 and 2 November, a total of 14 Lib Dem MPs voted against various aspects of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. The largest …

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Posted in News, Parliament and The Independent View | Also tagged david laws, featured, legal aid, lorely burt, simon hughes, tuition fees and whip | 13 Comments

Opinion: Criminalising squatting

By Alex Marsh | Tue 1st November 2011 - 4:54 pm

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offender Bill has returned to the House of Commons this week. The problems with the Government’s proposed Legal Aid reforms have been apparent for a while. Some people will see their access to justice seriously curtailed, while the courts are likely to silt up with inexpert litigants-in-person. The chances of any money being saved – when considered in the round – are limited. In this context it is good to see reports that Liberal Democrat MPs Tom Brake and Mike Crockart are tabling amendments to seek to address some of the most …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged crispin blunt, housing, ken clarke, legal aid and mike crockart | 4 Comments

PMQs: Nadine Dorries asks question. No-one dies.

By Paul Walter | Wed 26th October 2011 - 6:54 pm

Today was the fiftieth anniversary of Prime Minister’s Questions. And it was a fairly typical session. As always, it was in two parts.

Part one: Lots of jeering, cheering, knockabout, winding-up and prepared lines exchanged between the PM and opposition leader.

Part Two: Generally hum-drum but important questions from various back-benchers, largely heard in earnest silence.

The bit that most people will see will be the short bit on the telly, which will be a few seconds of ya-boo politics. In itself, that is a good piece of democracy in that it highlights the weaknesses of the government and the opposition. The longer …

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Posted in Europe / International and PMQs | Also tagged david cameron, duncan hames, economy, ed miliband, european union and stephen lloyd | 5 Comments

Opinion: Lib Dems need to wake up to drastic implications of legal aid cuts

By Alex Paul | Wed 28th September 2011 - 2:55 pm

Lib Dem Voice last week featured a brief post on the Coalition’s plans for legal aid reform. But this is an important change that’s been passed with barely a murmur from any Lib Dem MPs, when in fact it strikes at a principle at the heart of the party – civil liberties.

The bill in which this change is contained, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, is currently making its way through the House of Commons. For something that will have fairly drastic effects on many people’s access to justice there has been relatively little talk …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged legal aid and liberty | 11 Comments

LibDem Conference passes drugs motion

By The Voice | Mon 19th September 2011 - 10:15 am

From a party press release:

Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference passed Protecting Individuals and Communities from Drug Harms, which calls for an independent panel to review current drug laws.

Commenting, Co-Chair of the Home Affairs Parliamentary Party Committee, Tom Brake MP said:

“Drugs can have a devastating impact on individuals and families and can fuel organised crime. Evidence shows that our current drug policy is costly, ineffective and it is the poor and marginalised who suffer most.

“Today, Liberal Democrats reaffirmed our support for an evidenced based drugs policy, calling for an independent panel to review current drug laws.

“We want to ensure the Government …

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Posted in Conference and News | Also tagged drugs | 6 Comments

A little problem with police procurement…

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th September 2011 - 8:25 am

From Tom Brake on Twitter:

Posted in News | 5 Comments

LibLink | Tom Brake MP: Yes, we are bringing an end to the detention of child refugees

By NewsHound | Thu 11th August 2011 - 1:30 pm

One of the Lib Dems’ key 2010 election manifesto pledges was that child detention in immigration centres would be ended. A year after Tom Brake MP welcomed this Lib Dem policy being adopted by the Coalition government, he has written for The Guardian to highlight how the policy is improving the lives of those young and innocent victims who were treated so disgracefully by the Labour government:

The current practices with regard to children awaiting deportation cannot be – and should not be – in any way compared to the shameful past. Children are no longer held for weeks,

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged child detention | 1 Comment

Opinion: Access to justice – why Liberal Democrats should not sit on the sidelines

By James Sandbach | Thu 9th June 2011 - 1:21 pm

Next week the Government will announce legislation to reform legal aid, following a Green Paper published last November to which the Ministry of Justice received an unprecedented 5,000 responses. Whilst “legal aid reform” was in the Coalition Agreement, the scale of proposed changes has taken many aback – in order to cut the legal aid budget by £350million, Justice Ministers propose taking whole categories of law related problems out legal aid entitlement – housing and debt problems, welfare benefit issues, employment law issues, immigration cases, consumer law problems, education cases and private family law issues (eg divorce and …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged alan beith, citizens advice bureau, julian huppert, legal aid and stephen lloyd | 3 Comments

Two wins for the Lib Dems in government: human trafficking and visas

By Mark Pack | Tue 22nd March 2011 - 9:43 pm

Two pieces of good news today where a combination of Liberal Democrat and some Conservatives in government have won out over the right of the Conservative Party.

First up, human trafficking – where the opposition of Conservative Euro-sceptics to Britain opting in to the new EU directive has been overcome. Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs, Justice and Equality, Tom Brake said:

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Posted in News | Also tagged immigration, nick clegg and vince cable | 5 Comments

Freedoms Bill published: now you can marry at 6:01pm

By Mark Pack | Fri 11th February 2011 - 10:25 pm

Earlier today, the Protection of Freedoms Bill was published which, in the words of Lib Dem MP Tom Brake, “brings to fruition proposals which were first drawn up by Nick Clegg four years ago, and demonstrates our commitment to rolling back unnecessary and intrusive laws introduced by Labour”.

Key provisions of the Bill include the enactment of some previously announced decisions alongside some new, additional proposals:

an end to the routine monitoring of 9.3 million people under the radically reformed vetting and barring scheme
millions of householders protected from town hall snoopers checking their bins or school catchment area
the scrapping of Section 44

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged civil liberties, freedom bill, lynne featherstone, nick clegg and vetting and barring scheme | 38 Comments

Liberal Democrat responses to anti-terrorism legislation review

By Mark Pack | Thu 27th January 2011 - 8:55 am

Here’s a round-up of responses from Liberal Democrat figures and blogs:

Tom Brake MP (Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs and Justice)

Sanity and justice have been restored to British life.

Today is a victory for those who have campaigned to restore the historic freedoms that Labour spent 13 years destroying.

Control orders are gone, 28 days detention without charge is gone, indiscriminate stop and search is gone and the abuse of anti-terror powers by councils to pursue petty offences is over.

There will always be a balance to be struck between freedom and security and these proposals

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged anti-terrorist legislation, caron lindsay, control orders, ken macdonald, paul crossley, richard baum and zoe o'connell | 10 Comments

ID cards to be scrapped at midnight tonight

By Helen Duffett | Fri 21st January 2011 - 10:31 am

From midnight tonight, ID cards may no longer be used to prove identity or to travel in Europe.

The documents are to be scrapped by the government under the Identity Documents Act 2010.

Tom Brake MP, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Policy Committee on Home Affairs, Justice and Equalities told Lib Dem Voice,

After yesterday’s annoucement of the cut from 28 to 14 days pre-charge detention, this is the second really big step in restoring the balance between civil liberties and security concerns.

This delivers yet another Lib Dem commitment in Government.

All personal information supplied during the process of applying for an …

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Posted in News | Also tagged id cards, identity documents act 2010 and lib dem achievements | 8 Comments

Detention without charge to be cut from 28-days to 14-days

By Mark Pack | Thu 20th January 2011 - 9:55 pm

It’s long been a Liberal Democrat demand, and it was in the party’s 2010 manifesto, so good news that detention without charge is set to fall back to 14-days. The current 28-days limit expires on Monday and today the government has confirmed that it will not be trying to renew the limit. The 28-day increase was brought in by the then Labour government in 2006.

The BBC adds:

Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake, who campaigned to reinstate the 14-day limit, said the move would speed up the justice system. “If the time frame is longer I’m afraid that there is less

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged anti-terrorist legislation, lib dem achievements and pre-charge detention | 17 Comments

The Royal Family, freedom of information and the rest of the story

By Mark Pack | Wed 12th January 2011 - 1:25 pm

At the weekend The Independent ran a piece very critical of the Liberal Democrats in government:

The Royal Family is to be granted absolute protection from public scrutiny in a controversial legal reform designed to draw a veil of secrecy over the affairs of the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William.

Letters, emails and documents relating to the monarch, her heir and the second in line to the throne will no longer be disclosed even if they are in the public interest…

The decision to push through the changes also raises questions about the sincerity of the Liberal Democrats’ commitment to government transparency.

And …

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Posted in News | Also tagged freedom of information, journalism, robert verkaik and the independent | 14 Comments

Ending detention of children for immigration purposes: details and dates published

By Mark Pack | Thu 16th December 2010 - 7:53 am

Today (as predicted) Nick Clegg is announcing the details of how the government will end detention of children for immigration purposes.

Since the government review started on 1 June, the number in detention has dropped sharply – 78 compared to 594 in the same period under Labour in 2009. Now the government is committed both to ensuring that no children are in detention over Christmas and that the policy is completely abolished by May. As previously announced, the family wing at Yarl’s Wood being shut. (More details here.)

Tom Brake (Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs …

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Posted in News | Also tagged child detention and yarl | 52 Comments

There’s only one poll that matters: vote for Tom Brake’s moustache

By Mark Pack | Sun 5th December 2010 - 10:27 am

As Tom Brake’s website says:

Tom Brake MP for Carshalton and Wallington is taking is commitment to the Movember Campaign a step further. Unsatisfied with the run of the mill style of his current moustache, Tom is asking his constituents for input on how he should style his moustache as Movember nears its end.

Tom said, “I’m partial to one of the styles, but I promise to sport whatever tache my constituents vote for. If I find that it compliments my face well, I may even continue the look into December or the new year.”

Go visit his site to see the …

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Posted in News | Also tagged movember | 3 Comments

PMQs: Moustaches, strawberries and anoraks

By Paul Walter | Thu 25th November 2010 - 10:49 pm

There were signs this week that Prime Minister’s Questions was getting serious and considered at long last.

Ed Miliband asked a very anorakky question about the government taking away “all the funding from the highly successful school sport partnerships”

There followed an almost scholarly exchange of statistics which left me none the wiser. Miliband’s stats said Labour improved school sports. Cameron’s said they ruined it. Was Miliband right? Was Cameron right? It was beyond me. Except I did notice that Cameron seemed to be almost exclusively quoting figures on “competitive sports”. Ah. The old Tory Daily Mail rant. “Schools don’t do races …

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Posted in PMQs | Also tagged david cameron, ed miliband, julian huppert and mike crockart | 23 Comments

Tom Brake writes to David Cameron on control orders‏

By Helen Duffett | Thu 28th October 2010 - 5:25 pm

Tom Brake MP wrote to the Prime Minister yesterday, to push for the scrapping of Control Orders, and for a reduction in the pre-charge detention period. The letter is co-signed by the other Liberal Democrat Co-Chairs of the Home Affairs, Justice and Equalities Parliamentary Party Committee: Baroness Sally Hamwee and Lord Martin Thomas.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

We believe we represent the broad view of the Liberal Democrat membership, both from past policy statements agreed at Conference and set out in the Lib Dem Manifesto, and from current soundings within the Party.

We have been delighted by the

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged control orders, martin thomas, pre-charge detention and sally hamwee | 3 Comments

The Independent View: Honouring our refugee protection commmitments

By Marilyn Croser | Thu 7th October 2010 - 11:27 am

Asylum is a human rights issue. Given the tone of public debate in the last few years, you could be forgiven for not realising that, or having forgotten it. Asylum policy is about ensuring that people who have suffered appalling persecution are given the protection they’re entitled to. That’s not mentioned very often either. So it was heartening to see a room full of people at the Lib Dem conference in Liverpool for a discussion organised by the Refugee Council and UNHCR on ‘Asylum Policy: Honouring Our Refugee Protection Commitments’.

The meeting brought together Tom Brake MP, Roland Schilling (UNHCR UK …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged abdul turay, asylum, donna covey, julian huppert and refugee council | 3 Comments

Tom Brake: ending of Yarl’s Wood child detention “a sign of Lib Dem influence in Government”

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st July 2010 - 7:30 pm

Tom Brake, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee for Home Affairs and Justice, has given a warm welcome to the announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today that the family unit at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre, where children are detained awaiting deportation, will be closed.

Tom commnets:

Locking up innocent children for months on end can lead to serious physical and psychological harm. It is a disgrace the Labour Government allowed this to take place in 21st century Britain. The Liberal Democrats have had a huge influence in Government and the closure of Yarl’s Wood family unit is a …

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Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg | 3 Comments

More details published of Government’s review of anti-terrorism powers

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th July 2010 - 9:20 am

A Home Office news release tells us:

The Home Secretary has announced today that a rapid review of key counter-terrorism and security powers is underway. The review will look at what counter-terrorism powers and measures could be rolled back in order to restore the balance of civil liberties and counter-terrorism powers…

The review will look at six areas:

• the use of control orders;

• stop and search powers in section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and the use of terrorism legislation in relation to photography;

• the detention of terrorist suspects before charge;

• extending the use of deportations with assurances to remove foreign

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged anti-terrorist legislation, civil liberties, ken macdonald and ripa | Leave a comment