Author Archives: Mary Reid

Mary Reid

Paddy Ashdown warned Thatcher about CIA’s activities

By Mary Reid | Fri 3rd January 2014 - 2:26 pm

Paddy AshdownEach New Year brings the unveiling of Government files from 30 years ago. This year’s revelations include some highly topical references to CIA approaches to British citizens.

In 1984 Margaret Thatcher ruled. Paddy Ashdown was one of 23  SDP/Liberal Alliance MPs – he did not become Leader of the Liberal Democrats until the merger of the Social Democrat and the Liberal parties in 1988. Before he entered Parliament he had been an MI6 officer, so he was well placed to observe the CIA’s activities.

According to today’s Guardian, this is what …

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Mary Reid

My grumpy Christmas

By Mary Reid | Tue 24th December 2013 - 8:54 am

Clegg family Xmas card 2013I really do not like the practice adopted by most party leaders of sending out Christmas cards adorned with portraits of themselves and their families.   Having caught a glimpse of the card sent by Charles and Camilla this year, it seems this is not limited to politicians, but it is certainly not widespread amongst the rest of us.

Most of us send cards that illustrate the significance of the season, drawing on religious or mid-winter symbolism.  So why do politicians usurp the underlying message of peace and hope with their blatant  acts of self-promotion? Even Nick Clegg’s ironic take this year, which was charming and playful – and yes, I did receive one of those through the post – was still saying ‘look at me’.

There are subtler ways of harnessing the power of the Christmas card. Many MPs invite children in local schools to submit Christmas card designs, and the winner has the pleasure of seeing their card in print and sent to hundreds, if not thousands, of local people.  This gives a great message to constituents – the self-effacing MP supports local schools, likes to encourage young people, and endorses the true meaning of Christmas.

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Mary Reid

LibLink: Vince Cable opposes Heathrow expansion

By Mary Reid | Tue 17th December 2013 - 3:17 pm

planeVince Cable’s constituency of Twickenham is already under the Heathrow flightpath, and he is strongly opposed to any further expansion of the airport.

He writes:

The Davies Commission interim report has put Heathrow at the front of its thinking which is questionable economically, damaging environmentally and probably undeliverable politically.

My strong view is that the Davies review should not decide to press ahead with Heathrow options and I will be making that view known in the strongest terms.

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Mary Reid

Nelson Mandela – the long walk is over

By Mary Reid | Fri 6th December 2013 - 7:18 am

nelson-mandelaBarack Obama described Nelson Mandela as ‘a hero for the world’ and it is difficult to think of another politician who was as admired globally as he was. Perhaps the only comparable figure is Mahatma Gandhi, who also began his public life as a lawyer working for the civil rights of South Africans.

However, while Gandhi practised non-violent civil disobediance throughout his life, Mandela moved towards militant opposition to apartheid. His transition in public perception from terrorist to saint has been unique.

In 1996 Mandela was granted the Freedom of the City of London. I was very privileged to be present at the event in London’s Guildhall.

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Mary Reid

Vince Cable justifies the payday loans cap – and the intervention by the Archbishop of Canterbury

By Mary Reid | Tue 26th November 2013 - 7:16 pm

vince-on-newsnightAccording to the Independent today, George Osborne’s surprise decision to impose a payday loans cap was precipitated by a threatened revolt by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Archbishop Justin Welby had been planning to speak in favour of an amendment to the Banking Reform Bill today, which would have imposed a 10% cap. The amendment was expected to attract support from cross-benchers and would probably have inflicted a defeat on the government.

The Independent claims:

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, and Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat minister responsible for consumer affairs, have both

…

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Mary Reid

Launch of Scottish Government’s white paper on Scottish independence

By Mary Reid | Tue 26th November 2013 - 10:50 am

scotlands-futureThis morning the SNP is launching the Scottish Government’s white paper on Scottish independence. It is 670 pages long and can be downloaded here.

Yesterday the Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury minister,Danny Alexander, who is, of course, a Scottish MP, has written to Alex Salmond, First Minister in the Scottish Parliament, to warn him of the consequences of independence. He wrote:

The White Paper published tomorrow must address the tax rises or spending cuts required to balance the books in an independent Scotland.

…

Even under the most optimistic scenario the

…

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Mary Reid

Ed Davey: Energy customers are not just cash cows

By Mary Reid | Tue 12th November 2013 - 12:39 pm

Ed Davey - Some rights reserved by Liberal DemocratsEd Davey’s speech to Energy UK today has been well trailed in the media. The headline features a much quoted soundbite: “Customers are not just cash cows to be squeezed in the pursuit of a higher return for shareholders”.

It was one of those occasions when the whole discussion took place ahead of the actual event, with Energy UK (which represents the energy industry) posting a ripost before the speech had been delivered.

Here is an extract from Ed’s speech:

We need our energy companies

…

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Mary Reid

Study shows that UK benefits from immigration from European countries

By Mary Reid | Tue 5th November 2013 - 4:25 pm

UK-BordersLiberal Democrats celebrate the fact that immigrants make a substantial social contribution to UK society, and they have long suspected that immigrants make a net financial contribution as well.  That claim is now backed up by a recent study undertaken by University College London, and reported by the BBC.

In a paper for the Centre of Research and Analysis of Migration, authors Christian Dustmann and Tommaso Frattini conclude that:

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Mary Reid

Nick Clegg’s speech at the PinkNews awards

By Mary Reid | Tue 29th October 2013 - 9:37 am

Last week Nick Clegg was a guest speaker at the inaugural PinkNews Awards, which were held in Parliament. In his speech he referred to the fact that the deputy editor of PinkNews had just proposed to his partner during the ceremony.

You can watch Nick here (if only to find out why Stephen Gilbert was so well placed to rescue a woman from the Thames):

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Mary Reid

‘Go Home’ vans to go home

By Mary Reid | Tue 22nd October 2013 - 5:00 pm

Liberal Democrats have expressed delight at the news that the notorious ‘Go Home’ vans are to be withdrawn. Home Secretary Theresa May admitted that they “not been a good idea” and were a “blunt instrument”.

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Mary Reid

‘Brent councillor moves his surgery underground’

By Mary Reid | Tue 15th October 2013 - 10:08 am

So the leader of the Lib Dems on Brent Council is planning to hold surgeries in a Tube Station. Cllr Paul Lorber will hold a monthly surgery for local residents in the volunteer library at Sudbury Town station on the Piccadilly Line.

I see a challenge coming on.

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Mary Reid

Fiona Hall MEP backs Nissan over jobs risk if UK leaves EU

By Mary Reid | Thu 10th October 2013 - 9:14 am

Nissan LeafThe Journal, which publishes in the North East, quotes Nissan’s chief operating officer, Toshiyuki Shiga, who says that, as a foreign investor, he hopes that the UK will remain as an EU member.  He claims that if the UK decided to leave the EU, the company could potentially experience two ‘obstacles’, namely, UK-specific regulations and standards, and EU imposed import duty.

Nissan’s UK manufacturing plant, which employs over 6000 people, is based in Sunderland.

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Mary Reid

Lib Dem victory on e-cigs

By Mary Reid | Tue 8th October 2013 - 5:13 pm

European Union flagIn the European Parliament earlier today, MEPs backed a Liberal Democrat amendment which will ensure that electronic cigarettes are available for sale on the same basis as tobacco.

The original proposal from the Commission was that e-cigs should be treated as medicines, which would have restricted sales. But the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe  (the Group to which our Liberal Democrat team belongs) argued that they had a major role to play in reducing tobacco-related deaths. The amendment did require e-cigs to meet safety standards and for …

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Mary Reid

LibLink: Miriam González Durántez – Why I’m calling on brilliant British women to go back to school

By Mary Reid | Tue 8th October 2013 - 3:45 pm

González_DurántezMiriam González Durántez has written for The Telegraph about how to provide good role models for girls.

She writes:

The UK, and Europe in general, is without any doubt one of the best places in the world to be a woman, if not the best. We can vote, we can work, we can travel, we have access to education, we can own and inherit property, we can speak freely, we are the masters of our own emotional lives. It is often easy to take all this for granted.

And yet while men are able to toy with unlimited options, we still face a series of stark choices. If we do not have children, people assume we are “frustrated”. If we stay at home taking care of our children, it is said we are “not working”. If we have a job, we are portrayed as just “part-time mums”, and sometimes even as bad parents. If we succeed in our professional lives, we’re branded “scary”; if we follow fashion, we’re “shallow”; if we like science, we’re “geeks”; if we read women’s magazines, we’re “fluffy”; and if we defend our rights, we’re “hard”.

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Mary Reid

Vince Cable defends Royal Mail pricing

By Mary Reid | Tue 8th October 2013 - 11:50 am

Royal Mail delivery trolleyVince Cable has written to his Labour shadow, Chuka Umunna, stating that the sale price for the Royal Mail “reflects the fact the business brings risks, as well as assets such as property”.

When interviewed by the BBC yesterday, Umunna had listed a number of objections to the Government’s valuation at £3.3billion, claiming that it could have been sold for £1billion more.

In his response, Vince Cable said:

It is irresponsible to imply that a share offering looks significantly undervalued.

I think you should consider the risk that you may

…

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Mary Reid

A novel solution for rural broadband

By Mary Reid | Tue 1st October 2013 - 3:39 pm

There was a delightful story in the Guardian yesterday about how a church bell tower was used by a village to set up their own broadband network.

It was 4am on Thursday when Paull Taylor turned on BBC News to be greeted with a BT spokesman making grand promises about superfastbroadband in rural areas. The telecoms man was insisting his firm had not “exploited” £1.2bn of public funds – an accusation made by the Public Accounts Committee this week – and promising that most country-dwelling Britons would receive 2MB broadband by 2015. Despite the early hour, the 20-year-old electrician was lucid enough to provide a pithy response:

“Bollocks.

…

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Mary Reid

Lib Dem activists on Newsnight

By Mary Reid | Tue 17th September 2013 - 10:36 am

newsnight2I was one of thirty or so party members invited to be the audience last night on Newsnight. We were encouraged to join in the discussion with Vince Cable and other guests, including Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Maajid Nawaz.

As usual the BBC does not allow us to embed their videos but you can view the programme on i-Player.

 

 

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Mary Reid

Race Equality motion passed unanimously

By Mary Reid | Mon 16th September 2013 - 3:12 pm

school childrenWhile all eyes were on the Economy debate today, in the hour before Conference debated another important motion. It was entitled ‘A new Liberal Democrat approach to Race Equality’, and can be found on page 36 of the Conference Agenda.  This motion was the outcome of the first report by the Liberal Democrat Race Equality Task Force: ‘Towards Race Equality: A Liberal Democrat Approach‘, which focused on education and employment.

This new approach sought to bring race equality back into focus in public debate. In recent years it has been …

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Mary Reid

Vince Cable’s speech to Conference

By Mary Reid | Mon 16th September 2013 - 1:53 pm

Vince Cable - Some rights reserved by Liberal DemocratsThe agenda for Tuesday morning was rounded off with a speech from Vince Cable, which we publish here in full:

Friends.

It is a special pleasure to speak to Conference in the city where I had my political baptism of fire.  Glasgow is a great city and Glaswegians are warm, hospitable and humorous.

But Glasgow has experienced one party, Labour, rule for decades. And I was part of the Labour political machine here in the 1970s.  On one level it worked.  Insanitary slums were razed to …

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Mary Reid

Some zero hours contracts are good for employees as well as employers

By Mary Reid | Tue 10th September 2013 - 9:01 am

Most zero hours contracts are exploitative and heavily weighted in favour of employers. The media are reporting that today Ed Miliband will use his speech to the TUC  to outline his proposals for cleaning up this murky practice.

Miliband wants to outlaw contracts which offer no guarantee of work, but which do not allow the employee to work for anyone else. He also believes that anyone who works regularly for one employer should be moved on to a proper contract, which will, of course, include holidays and other statutory benefits.

He is right, of course, and I am rather ashamed that Liberal …

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Mary Reid

No chemicals sent to Syria from the UK

By Mary Reid | Tue 3rd September 2013 - 12:22 pm

Syria mapAccording to the Independent, Vince Cable is under pressure over some export licenses that were issued by his department in January 2012.

The licenses were for potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride. both of which can be used to manufacture sarin gas, which we now know was used in the chemical attacks in Syria. But further down the article we can read that:

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills insisted that although the licences were granted to an unnamed UK chemical company in January 2012, the substances were not sent to Syria before the permits were eventually revoked last July in response to tightened European Union sanctions.

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Mary Reid

Book review: ‘People Power’ by Dan Jellinek

By Mary Reid | Tue 20th August 2013 - 4:53 pm

peoplepowerDan Jellinek’s book ‘People Power‘, which was published last month, is subtitled ‘A user’s guide to democracy’, and in it he comprehensively outlines the principles and practice of democracy in the UK.

This is not a book for political nerds, although even they may find some new nuggets of information within. Instead he is writing for members of the general public who may be curious to know how our political institutions work. Does that sound like someone you know?

The title, of course, encapsulates the power of the vote at election time, which he describes as ‘the heartbeat of democracy’, but Jellinek is also deeply interested in participatory democracy and explains how citizens can make their voices heard between elections.

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Mary Reid

Duwayne Brooks selected as candidate for Mayor of Lewisham

By Mary Reid | Tue 13th August 2013 - 9:06 am

duwayne brooksCongratulations to Cllr Duwayne Brooks who has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Mayor of Lewisham. He will be challenging Sir Steve Bullock who has held the post for 11 years. The election will take place in May 2014.

Last year Mark Pack identified him on Lib Dem Voice as a Local Liberal hero. He charted Duwayne’s political career so far, which includes being nominated as one of Brian Paddick’s Deputy Mayors in the London Mayoral contest in 2012.

Duwayne has posted an open letter to the …

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Mary Reid

LibLink: Jo Swinson on payday loans and meeting the Archbishop today

By Mary Reid | Wed 7th August 2013 - 4:40 pm

jo swinson by paul walterYesterday Jo Swinson spoke about payday loans on camera to The International Business Times. We cannot embed the video on Lib Dem Voice, but you can watch it here.

She said that she and Vince Cable would be meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rev Justin Welby, today to discuss  new  guidelines for credit unions. She stated:

My colleague and I, business secretary Vince Cable, are meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury on this issue. We are very keen that credit unions are expanded as they are important way of lending to a community that benefits local people.
…

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Mary Reid

Don Foster declares war on betting shops

By Mary Reid | Wed 7th August 2013 - 1:51 pm

don fosterOne of the lower profile motions on the agenda for Federal Conference in Glasgow is entitled ‘High Street Gambling’. It is relatively short and contains just two recommendations:

Conference therefore calls on Liberal Democrats in government to push for:
1. Betting shops to be put in a new separate planning use class, allowing local authority planning committees to control them
2. The Gambling Act to be amended to allow council licensing committees to take into account the cumulative impact of a proliferation of gambling activities when considering applications.

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Mary Reid

The Daily Mail gets it wrong again

By Mary Reid | Tue 6th August 2013 - 11:56 am

Parents and child - Some rights reserved by Ed YourtonThe Daily Mail still doesn’t ‘get’ the Liberal Democrats, although many of us take that as evidence that we must be doing something right.

According to the headline today Clegg tells new dads they must take a month off or get nothing: Deputy PM wants to follow Scandinavia’s lead to make sure fathers play a bigger role in childcare, Nick Clegg and the party have  apparently already adopted a policy that is to be debated in Glasgow next month.

So this presents us with another opportunity to explain how policy making works, or is supposed to work, in the Liberal Democrats.  A year or so ago the Federal Policy Committee set up a policy working group, chaired by the inestimable Claire Tyler, to look at work/life balance. They took evidence from a wide range of experts and organisations and have now published their policy paper entitled A Balanced Working Life: Policies for Low and Middle Income Households (pdf).

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Mary Reid

Conservatives block moves to outlaw caste discrimination

By Mary Reid | Tue 30th July 2013 - 4:58 pm

eric aveburyEric Avebury has written before about the need to outlaw caste discrimination, and about the legislative processes as proposals within the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill  went through the Lords. It is therefore disappointing to learn that the campaign has suffered a serious setback. 

In 2010 the Government commissioned independent research into caste discrimination and harassment in the UK.  The summary (pdf) of that research reported that between 50,000 and 200,000 people in the UK are culturally identified as low caste. It found evidence of caste discrimination in work …

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Mary Reid

No more leverage or transformation

By Mary Reid | Mon 29th July 2013 - 3:00 pm

Some years ago my portfolio as a Cabinet member in Kingston Council included Communications. My first act was to set about enforcing the use of Plain English in all communications between the Council and residents. Although leaflets had been subjected to scrutiny, and many had won the Crystal mark, hundreds of standard letters were still written in ‘councilese’. So with the officers I set up a Better Letters campaign, which named and shamed the worst, and awarded plaudits to the most improved letters, as well as providing advice.

One of my favourite sentences appeared in the standard letter telling residents about …

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Mary Reid

Vince Cable’s concerns about Help to Buy

By Mary Reid | Mon 29th July 2013 - 12:37 pm

Vince Cable - Some rights reserved by Liberal DemocratsOn the Andrew Marr Show yesterday Vince Cable expressed concerns about the Government’s Help to Buy scheme. He claims that the government’s mortgage guarantee scheme could inflate the market, leading to another housing bubble.

Under Help to Buy, launched earlier this year, anyone purchasing a newly built home costing less that £600,000 will be able to apply for a 20% government guaranteed loan with just a 5% deposit. This is clearly intended to boost the housing market and to create new jobs in the …

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Mary Reid

How Ed got down on one knee to propose to Russell

By Mary Reid | Mon 29th July 2013 - 10:52 am

fordham and eaglingLast week Lib Dem Voice reported the engagement of Ed Fordham and Russell Eagling, long time Lib Dem activists, which was the first same sex engagement to be announced in the Births, Marriages and Deaths column of The Times. This fact had been mentioned by Julian Huppert during the final Commons debate  on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, to an amusing put-down by the Speaker.

The Independent followed this up on Friday with a delightful full page article (with a beautiful photo) about the couple under the heading: Gay marriage …

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