Author Archives: Callum Robertson

Callum Robertson

Fixing the long-term pensions crisis requires embracing flexibility

By Callum Robertson | Tue 19th May 2026 - 6:22 pm

When I began my working life, my parents gave me the sage words of advice “never opt out of your pension” and warned that I would be setting myself up to fail long term. They are of course, absolutely correct.

However, what my parents, and potentially millions of people may not realise is that whilst I have rigidly followed their advice, there will be innumerable people who either didn’t receive that advice or find themselves in a cost-of-living crisis facing the difficult choice between their bills and their long-term financial security.

Pension planning is admittedly not a subject that sets pulses racing, …

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Callum Robertson

Is it time to reinvent the Big Society?

By Callum Robertson | Thu 30th April 2026 - 9:48 am

At the heart of British liberalism lies a steadfast commitment to the individual their dignity, their rights, and their potential. We believe that by empowering individuals, we can enable people to lead richer lives while building a stronger, more cohesive society.

But liberalism is not simply about individual freedom. It is also about community – the relationships, institutions, and shared responsibilities that bind us together. Indeed, it is the politics of community that has underpinned Liberal Democrat success in places like Sutton, Three Rivers, and Watford, where local leadership has demonstrated the power of collective action electorally.

Yet when we look across our country today, it is clear there is much more to be done. Nearly one million young people are currently not in education, employment, or training (NEET), while many more face long-term unemployment or economic insecurity. These are not just statistics they are individuals and families in need of opportunity, support, and hope.

Despite this, there is a striking lack of urgency at the national level to embrace community-driven solutions. Too often, policy is designed centrally and delivered at scale, rather than rooted in the lived realities of local communities. One only needs to look at the gross incompetency of the DWP in administering welfare to know that centralised government lets down the individual and leaves them feeling lost in a system that is not built for the individual.

And yet, there are promising signs of what can be achieved when communities take the lead.

In Watford, for example, Liberal Democrat councillors in Meriden and Tudor wards are working with Bridge the Gap to deliver a targeted jobs programme, helping unemployed residents get back into work. Already, more than 30 people have signed up to receive support such as CV writing, mock interviews and more. While modest in scale, the impact is tangible. For those individuals, access to secure employment can be life changing.

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Callum Robertson

Labour running scared of local election challenge

By Callum Robertson | Mon 22nd December 2025 - 12:28 pm

Late last week, council leaders and directly elected mayors in 62 affected council areas received an unexpected letter from Local Government Minister Alison McGovern. The contents of that letter were nothing short of extraordinary: an offer to cancel the upcoming local elections in their areas — if they so choose.

This sudden and unprecedented proposal carries a very clear and troubling message. Labour and the Conservatives have suffered significant losses to Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats throughout this year. Both major parties are now deeply concerned about the prospect of further defeats in May. Let us not forget that in …

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Callum Robertson

Reform in local government guilty of attacks on those with the least

By Callum Robertson | Tue 16th December 2025 - 10:55 am

No one should be trapped in poverty. That’s a principle that is core to our identity as Liberal Democrats. Another is trust—trusting people to manage their own lives, with the government stepping in only when necessary to help. That’s why we champion universal credit for those who need support and an NHS free at the point of use.

These principles drove us in government: when we raised the personal tax threshold, taking millions out of paying income tax and enabling people to keep more of what they earned. We also did it when we introduced targeted help like the Pupil Premium to give disadvantaged children a fair start.

They guide us in local government too, where Liberal Democrat councils run some of the most progressive council tax reduction schemes in the country—Watford, Three Rivers, and Richmond among them.

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Callum Robertson

Wherever he goes, the whiff of corruption follows like an acrid cloud of cigarette smoke: five times Farage’s friends have been caught out.

By Callum Robertson | Mon 20th October 2025 - 1:15 pm

Picture the scene, your close political ally is arrested for taking bribes to shill on behalf of a terrorist state, then someone you describe as “like a son” to you has to do eight months in a US prison for wire fraud, then you have to hand back £200,000 in unlawful donations.

Then the icing on the cake hits as your partner is revealed to be at the centre of an EU fraud scandal.

You would rightly be thinking that person should be allowed nowhere near the leavers of government on the grounds that they clearly lack the judgement to lead our country without surrounding themselves with people who put personal gain above the national interest.

However, for Nigel Farage astonishingly it seems to have passed by unnoticed, unchallenged and therefore seemingly without the political consequence that would finish the political careers of most political leaders.

Let’s delve into some of the characters who Farage enjoys the company of:

1. Nathan Gill

As I wrote when the news first broke, Farage’s links to Nathan Gill suggest that Farage was willing to look away when Gill was taking bribes from the state of Russia in return for undermining both our country and the brave Ukrainian people whilst an MEP.

Farage, of course denies knowing anything about Gill’s behaviour however, two statements should give cause for concern. Firstly, both Farage and Rupert Lowe who served as Members of the European Parliament with Gill have admitted that he spoke with them about Russia.

That should have set alarm bells ringing for Farage, it definitely did for Rupert Lowe who wrote about the occasion on his substack. It is worth reading for the information that it spells out in plain language how close Gill and Farage were.

2. “Posh” George Cotterall

Cotterall was convicted of wire fraud, an offence that comes with up to 20 years in prison. Due to a plea deal, he only served 8 months.

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Callum Robertson

Reform are a threat to our national security: we have a moral duty to stop Farage becoming Prime Minister

By Callum Robertson | Mon 29th September 2025 - 8:15 am

Blink and you may have missed it, but one of Nigel Farage’s allies has plead guilty to taking bribes to ask questions on behalf of Russia in the European Parliament, a case according to the police that goes to the heart of our democracy.

Back in 2012, Nathan Gill, was a rising star in Nigel Farage’s former outfit, UKIP. He organised the party in Anglesey, North Wales and whilst they didn’t break through in the 2013 local elections, he clearly made a name for himself because later in the year he was selected as the UKIP candidate in the Ynys Môn …

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Callum Robertson

National debt: The (very expensive) elephant in the room

By Callum Robertson | Tue 16th September 2025 - 6:35 pm

Depending on your preference for maritime references or classical musings, the national debt is weighing our economy down like an anchor and hanging precariously above the head of our GDP like the sword of Damocles, ready and waiting to kill stone dead the already sluggish growth that is crippling the economy.

None of this is news to the politicians who look at the budget and to the economists and think tankers for whom it is prescient within their work. However, for one particular groupof people it sails past, untroubled to enter their psyche. That is of course, our political class.

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Callum Robertson

Three ways to highlight Lib Dem local government beyond Conference

By Callum Robertson | Wed 27th August 2025 - 8:55 am

Nick da Costa’s recent article on local government inclusion at conference made for pleasant reading. However, our work to champion our local government work, has to exist beyond conference.

It is important because winning a greater number of councillors in any given area is crucial to winning more parliamentary seats. Crucially it goes beyond that. Every single councillor elected means that a greater number of people across our country get a hard-working local councillor standing up for them and their community and when we win control of councils, we can deliver life changing opportunities to local areas.

Inclusion of local government work within our comms grid to members.

Our emails are good at explaining what we are doing in parliament. However, as the third party in parliament we can only have so much impact.

So where can we communicate that we have had a direct impact on people’s lives? 

Through highlighting our local government work and the impact it can have on people’s lives to members, we could both increase the respect that local government has in the party but also increase the number of people who actually want to be local councillors.

Promote the work of our councils in the media.

I am a great believer that you can learn from your opponents, and whilst we share basically nothing in common with Reform, they have managed to make their councils and councillors newsworthy. Albeit often for the wrong reasons.

We should be shouting about the achievements of our councils and councillors. Whilst our Liberal Democrat-led councils are delivering for residents every day, our opposition councillors are also punching above their weight.

For example, Cllr Tom Astell, who is an opposition councillor in Hull and East Yorkshire managed to win some fantastic coverage for his work holding the Reform Mayor to account for his flexible interpretation of public finance regulations. Another example is councillor Michael Mullaney in Leicestershire who has hit out over reform chaos.

Champion getting more metro-Mayors and London Assembly Members elected.

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Callum Robertson

This week is SEND week: we have an opportunity to get reform right

By Callum Robertson | Tue 8th July 2025 - 9:00 am

An overwhelming majority of those who interact with the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system are deeply concerned about the quality of provision that young people are getting relative to the ever-spiralling cost of the system.

In policy terms, we have the worst of both worlds, SEND is expensive and delivers inadequate outcomes for those the system is designed to help. Like current welfare reform, there is an implicit systematic failure that means the cost rises exponentially but we have no actual success for the children trapped in a system that spectacularly fails to deliver for the people who need it.

That dire state of existence is why I am cautiously optimistic that Labour have decided to bring reform forward for our young people. That being said, it would be remiss of me to not caution against falling into the same pitfalls that education policymakers have for years. -Namely putting emotion over well-evidenced interventions that raise outcomes for young people with SEND.

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Callum Robertson

Candidates – a route to fixing a recurring problem

By Callum Robertson | Mon 13th January 2025 - 4:42 pm

The Farron Review is an excellent piece of work, the east option as a party would have been to paint a glowing image of success following our General Election. Yet the review does not shy away from asking some difficult questions of our structures and what we can improve going forward.

The main area singled out for criticism is our candidates process. At the moment, our candidates process is that people who wish to stand for any office above that of a local councillor, must attend and pass, an approval day (think grad scheme assessment day). Once they have done so they are on the list of approved candidates and can put their name forward for any seat that advertises.

In addition to this, if someone wishes to stand for a body such as the London Assembly, or as a Police and Crime Commissioner, they must first pass the Westminster approval day, then take a conversion test to become an approved candidate for that body.

In England, this entire process is run by the English Party, leading to an extraordinary concentration of power in the hands of very few people. In Scotland and Wales, the state parties have control over their selection processes particularly for Holyrood and Cardiff Bay.

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Callum Robertson

Assisted Dying is emotive – remember the key liberal principle of choice

By Callum Robertson | Tue 26th November 2024 - 5:41 pm

Ultimately liberalism is about the individual and helping the individual empower themselves. To deny someone that empowerment strikes me as fundamentally wrong.

When it comes to formulating our own views on the thorny issue of assisted dying, all of us will have stories we can share of those who suffered, and each story will come with a distinct and unique perspective that the person writing or speaking about, knows on an all too personal level.

Equally, as human beings many of us will look at the same set of facts, apply our own moral codes and come to different conclusions. Assisted dying is an issue where your personal experiences will inform your view more than most issues and rightly, it is being treated as a free vote.

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Callum Robertson

Who are our representatives on Select Committees in the new Parliament?

By Callum Robertson | Thu 31st October 2024 - 5:01 pm

This post updates our earlier one here.

The wonderful aspect of being a parliamentary party that is substantial in size is that we have had to have a set of internal appointments that matter greatly in terms of parliament and what our parliament prioritises over the next 5 years.

These appointments fit into two categories; select committee appointments, and front bench (spokesperson) appointments.

Now completed, the two sets of appointments will make a crucial difference to how we form a constructive opposition to the new government. You can view our spokesperson team here.

What are parliamentary committees?

Parliamentary Committees are committees with specific remits, challenged with the task of holding the government to account.

So who is who on the committees?

Committee on Standards

Remit: oversee the role of the Parliamentary Commissioner on Standards

  1. Anna Sabine

Committee on Privileges

Remit: to oversee parliamentary privilege. An example of their work was their investigation into the conduct of Boris Johnson

  1. Anna Sabine

Administration  Committee

Remit: how services provided to MPs and their staff work and how they are offered.

  1. Tessa Munt
  2. Max Wilkinson

Backbench Business Committee

Remit: deciding the business of the commons for roughly a day a week.

No Lib Dem nominations

Business and Trade Select Committee

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Callum Robertson

We are a major force in British politics again – let’s update elements of our support processes to reflect this

By Callum Robertson | Wed 31st July 2024 - 10:25 am

We have 72 Members of Parliament, it would be the easiest thing in the world to sit back and be a bit smug for six months. However, that would be a mistake – with the Conservatives hell bent on internal warfare and Labour in a honeymoon period, we are the de facto opposition. Consequently we have to start acting like it. To my mind we succeed where there is local leadership and being blunt, our selection process is unnecessarily slow in getting candidates in place.

Parliamentary Selections – including seats where we are third, should take place in the next 18 months.

The most effective way of electing MPs remains selecting early and embedding those candidates in as genuine local champions, ready to hold their local Member of Parliament to account.

We are second in 27 seats, selecting these seats early will allow us to bed in candidates ahead of time and give us a more realistic chance of building on the incredible gains next time.

However, there are also a large number of seats where we are a good third (15-25% of the vote) and should be challenging for second place in 2029. We know that in these seats, credibility can be a challenge – so equally building our vote in these seats is important too.

Understandably there needs to be some time for reflection – however post 2019 we were far too slow in selecting candidates. We can grow on our success if we have all our target seat candidates and most of our moving forward seat candidates, selected by December 2025.

Large Seat Selections – these should be treated as advanced seats are, or we will not be able to prove what we would do differently.

We have built clusters of victories in seats around Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Gloucestershire and Surrey. This concentration of parliamentary seats should help us win some larger seats such as Mayoralties and Police (Fire) and Crime Commissioners at the next election for those seats.

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Callum Robertson

I’ve been elected to Federal Board – what do you want championed?

By Callum Robertson | Thu 22nd February 2024 - 10:41 am

In 2022, the Liberal Democrats passed a number of reforms championed by party president, Mark Pack, which included, but were not limited to, the reforming and slimming down of the Liberal Democrat Federal Board (similar to the board of directors for a company).

The reforms, which I supported at the time, have led to genuine change in how we function as a party, and I remain of the view that we made the right decision.

However, the slight pitfall in the reforms from a personal perspective was that in the subsequent board elections, I finished fifth, missing out on a place on the board. Such is life.

I was therefore surprised when David Crowther emailed me to let me know that I had been elected following a vacancy arising on the board.

Of course, I am delighted to have a seat on the Federal Board of the party. It would however, be remiss of me not to note the circumstances that led to the vacancy on the board. A member of the governing body of our party was suspended following grossly offensive posts about Jewish people and Ukrainians.

As a result, it is important that we fight to ensure that our party is a safe environment for Jewish people and anything below that bar is not good enough.

What next?

Leaving aside the fact that the circumstances have arisen. We must look to how we can move forward. To my mind, that involves listening to members.

I am also aware that some members may be interested in what I was originally planning were I to have been successful, this mainly focused around making us government ready.

How can you get in touch?

If you have any questions, please do drop me an email on [email protected], I am keen to hear and represent members.

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Callum Robertson

Rooted in pragmatism: a Liberal Democrat approach to school accountability

By Callum Robertson | Sun 7th January 2024 - 12:00 pm

At the 2023 Autumn Liberal Democrat conference, we changed our position on school accountability in England away from the “abolish OFSTED” line, to a more pragmatic viewpoint of reforming our system of school accountability. I have taken the time to set out what reform should actually look like.

2023 was, I think it is fair to say, a fairly tumultuous year for the schools inspectorate, OFSTED. From the tragic death of Ruth Perry to increasing disquiet about the blunt-tool of single gradings.

However, whilst disquiet has been on the rise, 2023 has also seen an increase in high-quality research about what the future of school inspection should look like. From the IPPR’s review led by Loic Menzies, to Sam Freedman and the Institute for Government’s report. Another notable report was that of Public First, the consultancy firm who undertook a highly rigorous consultation on the future of school accountability.

All of these reports chimed into what appears to be a general theme and feeling now, that more of the same is not an option. Nevertheless, where opponents of OFSTED have traditionally been limited in their success is that the phraseology of “abolish” leaves the receiver of the message of the opinion that school accountability and improvement is not a priority.

The same criticism cannot be levelled at the work undertaken by Menzies and Freedman which both provide comprehensive analysis of the problems with school inspection whilst crucially providing recommendations for reforms that are rooted in pragmatism. Whilst the phrasing “reforms rooted in pragmatism” may not set the world alight, they do understand what is, to most people’s minds what is needed.

We should start, by recognising the problems that do exist within the schools inspectorate at the moment. 

These chiefly fall around three categories, workload leading up to inspections, the manner of inspections (inclusive of outcome from) and the subsequent support needed by each school to improve. However, where these issues come together is the overarching question “what is the purpose of school accountability”?

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Callum Robertson

We are crying out for a fairer Pupil Premium deal

By Callum Robertson | Wed 23rd August 2023 - 6:55 am

On the Sunday morning of conference, the Liberal Democrats will present our plan for education, ahead of the next General Election, with an exciting array of new announcements, today, I want to focus on the most important one, reducing inequality of outcome in education, a policy problem that has only been exacerbated by covid.

Since the 1800’s, people have been tirelessly campaigning for a fair education settlement, for liberals this comes down to our core principles that no one should be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.

Nothing encapsulates this more than our very real change we achieved in government, the Pupil Premium, a system of targeted funding to disadvantaged pupils.

Alongside the expansion of Free School Meals, the introduction of Pupil Premium worked as an effective incubator for social mobility. When introduced by the Liberal Democrats in the 2010-15 government, figures showed that attainment between advantaged and disadvantaged students narrowed by 4%, with the Sutton Trust calling for Pupil Premium to be the key lever in narrowing the attainment gap.

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Callum Robertson

Do not walk away from accountability, reform OFSTED, do not abolish it.

By Callum Robertson | Sun 23rd April 2023 - 3:30 pm

OFSTED, the schools inspectorate has received flack for its inspection methods in the aftermath of the tragic death of Ruth Perry earlier this year. Following a period of silence, OFSTED Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman appeared on BBC Laura Kuenssberg this morning to face questions over the OFSTED’s approach to inspections.

The Liberal Democrat policy on OFSTED is to abolish it and replace it with a new body for school accountability. This is flawed for a number of reasons, not least because the hiatus period between abolition and refounding could lead to serious failures in uncovering failing establishments, hurting the life chances of the thousands of pupils in the communities that those schools serve. However, reform is a more appropriate method to secure the faith of the profession in their regulator.

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Callum Robertson

Maths reforms – the argument that the Conservatives (and we) should be making!

By Callum Robertson | Tue 18th April 2023 - 3:58 pm

£20 Billion per year or 1.3% of our GDP is nothing to be sniffed at. That means, in real terms, more jobs staying in the UK, a more competitive economy and a scenario where we aspire to more from our young people. This is something to be admired.

A two minute conversation with the standard Liberal Democrat campaigner will tell you that we are not exactly fond of the Conservatives, with their politicisation of human rights issues, woeful running of the economy and the lowering of our standards in public life, those are just some of the many reasons why.

However, where we should agree in principle, is with the Maths reforms. Our population is functionally innumerate and, large parts functionally illiterate, for one of the largest economies in the world, that is a damning indictment on the United Kingdom, it is also a legacy of low standards in education that existed under Major.

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Callum Robertson

Right diagnoses, wrong solution: why we should be a critical friend of maths until 18

By Callum Robertson | Thu 5th January 2023 - 10:31 am

On 4th January, Rishi Sunak announced plans to enforce the study of mathematics until students turned 18. This would be a major departure from current education policy of free subject choice for post-16 students in England.

This was immediately met with criticism from a range of groups, from education professionals who argue that the teacher shortage of maths professionals is just too great to cope with the additional demand, to people who had a bad experience in school with maths. The former problem is one I have substantial sympathy for, the latter is not a credible argument.

If we go beyond the headline and the immediate hyperbolic reaction, the proposal makes sense. Numeric illiteracy rates are costing the United Kingdom around £20 billion a year, or 1.3% of GDP according to research by the National Audit Office.

The Prime Minister’s proposal is an attempt to address the knowledge gap large parts of our population have. In this sense it is an exceptionally good idea. We must also combat the policy on what it is. Rishi Sunak has not proposed making students take an additional A Level in Mathematics. Nor has he proposed that it takes the same weighting as any other qualification 16-19 year olds are taking.

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Callum Robertson

Federal Board is the election, forward planning is the watchword

By Callum Robertson | Tue 23rd August 2022 - 8:56 am

Our party has elections to 67 positions on 6 different committees and two directly elected positions coming up. Conference will be awash with the people vying for our votes. But we can’t lose focus of the need for experience, good governance and forward planning.

The committees up for election are admittedly an odd mix, from the fairly obvious Federal Board (to provide strategic overview to our party), to the opaque Federal International Relations Committee.

However, a running theme throughout these elections must be a steadfast focus on what we want to achieve as a party and how we achieve it.

With that in mind, it is important to note that the opinion polls are increasingly pointing toward a hung parliament with us as potential kingmakers. Don’t just take my word for it, Ian King agreed in his recent Times writeup about our conference.

It goes without saying that this would be a fantastic position to be in. As a party we exist to win elections then use that power to improve people’s lives. Any opportunity we have to do so should be carefully planned for.

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Callum Robertson

Four ways you can help us win Tiverton & Honiton

By Callum Robertson | Mon 30th May 2022 - 3:22 pm

As you might be aware, there is a ridiculously important by-election going on in Tiverton and Honiton, in our former heartlands of the West Country.

More than that, we can win it and deliver the death knells to Boris Johnson’s premiership and get our country back from the quasi-mob outfit currently running the show.

However, to get a decent government of the United Kingdom back that doesn’t deport refugees to Rwanda, we badly need to get down and volunteer in Tiverton and Honiton.

Here are four ways you can help:

  1. Get down yourself, there are members willing to host volunteers, so your cost of

…

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Callum Robertson

Lib Dem governance reforms are vital

By Callum Robertson | Fri 21st January 2022 - 8:00 pm

As a collective groan not heard since I last set my students an essay rings out, I am afraid the subject of governance reforms, whilst unexciting, is far too important to leave undiscussed.

In Dorothy Thornhill’s recent article, she sets out the importance of having a more agile organisation and ensuring that our party is fit to fight elections.

Much of this work has been ably carried out by HQ under the new CEO, Mike Dixon. The results at the Chesham & Amersham, and North Shropshire by elections pay testament to the strategic sense of shifting resources to the campaigns department.

However, staffing restructures can only take us so far. In order to effectively elect outstanding candidates in our target seats at the next election, we need to ensure that we have the organisational nimbleness to effectively grow our Council and Parliamentary base.

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Callum Robertson

The Young Liberals needs to change

By Callum Robertson | Wed 14th October 2020 - 9:15 am

When deciding to run to be co-Chairs of the Young Liberals, Jack and I recognised that we needed to address what we call the three big challenges facing YL: the need to professionalise our operations, the need to organise ourselves more effectively and the need to inform members about what the executive are doing.

This article focuses on the need to professionalise our operations and more importantly, how we intend to do this.

Firstly, we need to work better with the wider Liberal Democrats; their success is our success and vice versa. There is much to be gained by our organisations working well together. This success means we must interact with the party at all levels.

Both Jack and I have seen the fruits of positive working relationships in our roles as chair of English Young Liberals and East of England Young Liberals, respectively. In his role as chair of EYL, Jack built relationships with the English Liberal Democrats and consequently, he was able to secure extra funding to the tune of £4000 for YL. This money is being used to increase branch developments by; assisting with the production of materials, more money into the branch development fund and increasing support for accredited branches.

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Callum Robertson

In the wake of the BLM movement, Police and Crime Commissioners need to be leaders in building the relationship with minority communities

By Callum Robertson | Thu 10th September 2020 - 5:18 pm

Embed from Getty Images

Here’s how they can do it:

On May 25th, George Floyd was brutally murdered by American Police Officers, sparking protests in the USA that then spread across the world, including to here in the United Kingdom where protesters highlighted racial disparities in stop and search statistics and UK complicity in the slave trade.

In 2012, the first Police and Crime Commissioners were elected across England and Wales with responsibility for producing a crime plan, managing the police budget and most importantly, bringing a directly accountable figurehead to policing here in England and Wales. It is the latter point which makes the 2021 set of Police and Crime Commissioner elections that are being held in the shadow of the Black Lives Matter movement, so important.

When the Black Lives Matter protests in the UK begun, they highlighted above all else, a deep-rooted anger about the very real inequality of treatment that minority communities have faced when it comes to criminal justice issues. It is because of this inequality of treatment, that minority communities rightly need to feel they can trust the police again.

This anger is exacerbated by stop and search statistics that show BAME communities being disproportionately targeted, undermining those communities’ trust in the police. Whilst at the same time, hate crimes are consistently rising. This has created a situation where a mutual trust between the Police and minority communities is vital part of the challenge of tackling the number of hate crimes.

As Police and Crime Commissioner have been since 2012, the publicly accountable faces of policing in England and Wales, the responsibility of building the trust between minority communities and the police falls to them to show leadership on.

As one of the candidates for Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner in Essex. I have set out a three-step plan to begin the work of tackling racial injustice in the criminal justice system. These steps are by no means the finished article, but they encompass the crucial first steps of listening, acting on concerns and being proactive on known inequalities.

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Callum Robertson

How liberals should be responding to the Uyghur Muslim genocide

By Callum Robertson | Wed 29th July 2020 - 9:00 am

The United Kingdom has, for years, taking a flexible approach to the importance of human rights. On the one hand, the UK has taken an impressive stance on the Magnitsky sanctions against human rights abusers, on the other, we often act far too slowly or not at all when it comes to our allies or powerful countries.

We as a party have always stood tall in our defence of human rights. The treatment of the Uyghur Muslim community has been no exception, and the work of Alistair Carmichael, Maajid Nawaz and the Young Liberals should be applauded.

The work, however, cannot stop with hunger strikes, words and motions at a conference. This is even more pertinent when the Chinese Ambassador has the nerve to go on the Andrew Marr show and lie about the situation in Xinjiang.

This comes to the point of this article, which is about what we as a party can and should be doing about this crisis.

Firstly, we have over 50 councils up and down the UK where the Liberal Democrats are in power or a power-sharing agreement. Our councils should be volunteering to house Uyghur refugees. South Cambridgeshire had a similar programme with Syrian refugees.

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Callum Robertson

The noble principle of policing by consent

By Callum Robertson | Tue 31st March 2020 - 12:00 pm

In the UK there exists a principle, harking back to the days of Sir Robert Peel. This long held tradition and principle is called policing by consent. This is essentially the idea that police legitimacy is based on the consent of those it polices. This vital bond, between citizen and state is one that should be held with the upmost regard. When our nation is in crisis, as it arguably is now, the rule of law becomes more, not less, important. This vital principle has almost passed unnoticed in recent weeks as the UK government has brought in strict legislation to help mitigate Covid-19.

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Callum Robertson

LASPO, the worst piece of legislation you’ve probably never heard of

By Callum Robertson | Mon 5th November 2018 - 11:22 am

LASPO, unless you have some sort of involvement with the law, probably comes across as some sort of quango that doesn’t have much meaning. However, it is probably the most crucial piece of justice related legislation since the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (which established the Supreme Court).

The Government’s consultation on the effects of LASPO has just concluded and every organisation who has submitted evidence to the Ministry of Justice consultation has broadly said the same thing. It has not worked.

What the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) did was bring about a wide range of …

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Callum Robertson

A sector on its knees, but no one seems to notice

By Callum Robertson | Wed 31st October 2018 - 3:35 pm

As a nation we are famous for a good number of things, fish and chips on a Friday, being a nation of dog lovers and a legal system that is the envy of civilised nations worldwide. So, the question is, when we talk about government cuts hurting poorest, why is justice never mentioned?

In the budget on Monday, there were new “efficiency savings” announced for government departments, including a further 300 million cut to the Ministry of Justice but people don’t seem to care that Conservative maladministration has brought an industry to its knees.

We can all find ourselves at the mercy of the English justice system, whether that be as a victim of a crime or being in rent arrears with your landlord and at risk of being evicted yet there is no help available because legal aid has disappeared.

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 13 Comments
Callum Robertson

The day the arts took a swipe at cuts…

By Callum Robertson | Thu 5th April 2018 - 8:11 am

On March 31st my colleague Alex and I went to see the play “The day the arts took a swipe at cuts”.

My friend Alex and I actually went to see the play “Victim” which is currently playing at the Kings Head Theatre in Islington. We did this after being contacted through our roles with Liberal Democrats for Prison Reform and a brilliantly hard-hitting show it was too.

“Victim” is a play that perfectly demonstrates how broken our prison system is. It tells the harrowing tale of the power struggle between the inmate and the guard, and the roles they play in a system that has been brutally hit by harsher-than-necessary cuts. This blog is not so much a review (such a phenomenal performance has no shortage of positive reviews) as it is a cry out for support and an end to cuts in this frankly broken prison system.

The Prison Reform organisation, Liberal Democrats for Prison Reform have, since our launch, been looking for a way to exemplify how much reform is needed to our prison system to make it fit for the 21st century. This play does this in a way no article or speech has managed to do yet. Fydor Dovtoyevsky once said, “the degree of civilisation in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” I must say that the fact that this theatre company wrote and performed this moving piece is testament to the scale of the challenge we as a country face.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
Callum Robertson

Introducing Liberal Democrats for Prison Reform

By Callum Robertson | Thu 4th January 2018 - 8:37 am

Prisoners get a bad rap. They get pushed around by politicians because it is politically popular to beat them with a rolled-up copy of the daily.

Just because this happens doesn’t mean it is okay. In fact, it is a fundamental abdication of our moral duty not to stand up for the human rights of our fellow human beings.

As such I been conducting some informal polling within the Young Liberals and by a landslide of 92% in favour, 8% opposing, they backed prisoner voting. Further questioning of the group indicated a 96% …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 26 Comments
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