Tag Archives: young people

Anthony Hawkes

Opinion: War on Weltschmerz

By Anthony Hawkes | Tue 29th January 2013 - 1:28 pm

A Liberal Youth training sessionWhen friends have lost their belief in religion, they usually describe not the freeing of bonds, but the emptiness left without a moral compass to guide them.

My youngest daughter popped in after work today looking rather sad. When I asked her the problem she described herself as feeling weltschmerz. Never having heard of this before, I got her to elaborate. She told me of the alienation, the resignation and the overwhelming sense of the cruelty of the world. This is not a woman prone to melancholy, …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 15 Comments
Hannah Bettsworth

Opinion: SNP’s ill thought out proposals discriminate against young people

By Hannah Bettsworth | Thu 10th January 2013 - 9:00 am

Drew's first driving lesson - Some rights reserved by akarmyMark McDonald, SNP MSP for North East Scotland, has recently proposed unjust new restrictions on young drivers. His proposals would mean that 17-25 year olds, regardless of driving experience, would be banned from driving between 11pm and 4am every day, as well as preventing them from carrying passengers in their vehicles.

This is based on a discriminatory assumption that young people are generally bad drivers. Even although there is a higher risk as

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 16 Comments
Joe Taylor

Opinion: Labour are to blame for the “lost generation”

By Joe Taylor | Fri 15th April 2011 - 11:08 am

Here’s a question for you. How have Labour got away with pretending that the crisis of a “lost generation” of young people has nothing to do with them? Listening to Ed Miliband pontificate about the plight of the young in Britain, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Government in which he served had nothing to do with the current crisis of devalued qualifications, lack of jobs, high house prices, crippling debts and a rising cost of living. Those young people who are thinking of joining Labour because they’re angry at the current situation should consider a few facts.

A …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 21 Comments
Paul Tidall

Youth Justice: the prison governor’s view

By Paul Tidall | Tue 8th March 2011 - 10:26 am

One of the most powerful pieces of learning for me during 34 years of being in and out of custodial establishments is the capacity of their residents to respond to opportunities; to being appreciated and congratulated for work well done; to being respected for doing something worthwhile. It is the realisation that this might have been their first experience of any of this that initially takes the breath away, and always disturbs. Although, therefore, Governors have to concern themselves with secure and safe custody and, yes, maximising resources to provide opportunities for offenders in their custody, and doing …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 1 Comment
NewsHound

LibLink: Chris Huhne – Tough on crime? Jail’s not the answer

By NewsHound | Sun 7th March 2010 - 4:05 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free website, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne argues tht locking up more people is a populist ploy that doesn’t cut crime. Instead, he says, we should focus on rigorous community sentences instead. Here’s an excerpt:

It should be a given that important matters of public policy are based on evidence and research, rather than political whim. Why, then, is the field of criminal justice uniquely and scandalously divorced from this obvious rule? … Both continue to try to frighten the public into the arms of their party. It is this politics of

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , and | 1 Comment

Opinion: A legacy of mediocrity

By Rich Wilson | Fri 11th September 2009 - 9:45 am

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has just published a report saying the way to combat recession is to up the number of university places. I disagree.

The problem is that while we have a culture where there’s a course for everyone, we have a degree for everyone – smart or stupid, talented or talentless. This has led to a system where only two grades matter – First or Fail. A First sets you out from the majority of candidates for employment, who leave with 2:1s, 2:2s or thirds; a fail means you’re back to square one. Anything in between is simply a blur of the average, and companies have no desire for the average.

But surely a degree should mean something? A degree should mean that someone is clever, whatever the grade. However, with degrees filled up with students who got EEE at A-level, it naturally devalues the system.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 22 Comments
Tim Connolly

Opinion: Youth justice – a golden opportunity for the Lib Dems

By Tim Connolly | Wed 9th September 2009 - 2:30 pm

Youth justice has risen, zombie-like, from the place unloved political issues go to die. In July, the Government published an interim report on The Youth Crime Action Plan, its “comprehensive, cross-government analysis of what the government is going to do to tackle youth crime.”

This prompted vigorous activity from the think-tanks and NGOs, and a predictable silence from the dead who may live again, aka the Conservative Party.

Last week, the Liberal Democrats published data showing that the number of 10 to 12 year olds convicted of a criminal offence rose by 87.2% between 1997 and 2007. Nick Clegg, remarking on the figures, argued that:

It is a disgrace the Government spends eleven times more locking up our young people than it does on backing projects to stop them getting involved in crime in the first place.”

Unless you happen to be keen on nineteenth century penal philosophy, Nick’s comment seems to make excellent sense. I would suggest, however, that it is, at best, carelessly imprecise. At worst, it indicates a refusal to challenge the prevailing conservative narrative on youth crime. Given recent reporting of events in Doncaster, a measured rebuttal is more critical than ever.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

Labour teaches kids the new 3 Rs: Remand, Raw, and Recession

By Stephen Tall | Thu 27th August 2009 - 6:45 pm

Three stories today – see if you can spot the blatant connection.

First up, the first R: Remand. Lib Dem research today revealed that over a million kids have been convicted of a criminal offence over the last decade, with a further million cautioned since Labour came to power in 1997. Here’s the breakdown of figures as revealed in an answer to a Lib Dem parliamentary question:

* 1,033,454 children aged between 10 and 17 have been convicted of a criminal offence since 1997. This includes almost 30,000 10 to 12 year olds.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 2 Comments



Recent Comments

  • User Avatarjedibeeftrix 20th May - 5:08pm
    a does of realism to head off the usual whimsical libdemmery on europe: http://lindleyfrench.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/hollandes-europe.html
  • User Avatarpaul barker 20th May - 3:45pm
    A further irony of the current Tory meltdown is that their main rivals face possible bankruptcy. I wouldnt expect Conservatives to be interested in the...
  • User AvatarGareth Aubrey 20th May - 3:33pm
    A fascinating "what if?" lobbed in there too; if Nick had had a manifesto veto, would he have used it for fees? And would he...
  • User AvatarPeter Davies 20th May - 3:23pm
    Right now, we cannot play our part at the heart of Europe because we are not at the heart of Europe. We cannot get to...
  • User AvatarSteve Griffiths 20th May - 2:50pm
    "Jo was unmistakably a politician of the left, writing this in 1958: “We carve out a niche for ourselves left of centre in the sense...