Author Archives: David Lawson

Opinion: So that’s all settled, then. Now what about the policies?

By David Lawson | Mon 17th May 2010 - 7:30 pm

So: it’s settled. We may not have planned the route together, but if this train crashes we got on it together. Some people asked about the route and some people wondered about the destination but no one suggested that we may as well stay where we were.

By my reckoning well over 1,500 people attended Sunday’s Special Conference. Some dozen or more voted against the motion adopting the coalition agreement. So that’s a 99% vote in favour.

(In fact the coalition agreement seemed to be as popular as proportional representation. A few lost souls voted …

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Posted in Op-eds | 13 Comments

Opinion: Why a nationalist should vote Lib Dem

By David Lawson | Thu 29th April 2010 - 6:18 pm

So much of the attack on the Lib Dems is based on the idea that we are a “sell out” to Europe. That we won’t stand up for Britain – though it often really means England. This attack has – to us at least – the slight feel of the American survivalist right criticising the US Democrats for selling out to a UN-based “world government”. In other words: it’s nonsense.

But that is an argument to be settled by details. We should also make a positive case. Of course we could have said patriot but let’s go the whole way: why should a nationalist vote Lib Dem? This has been especially relevant following the foreign policy debate which the other parties have seen as the best attack on the Lib Dems.

The two-party system sets up a contest of opposites and then lets one of them win.

For decades those opposites were based on class interests with a sharp north-south regional divide and a simple conflict between capitalism and socialism. What nationalists want is a nation divided – by class or by region or by any other sectarianism.

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Posted in General Election and Op-eds | 8 Comments

Can we keep things Clegg-tastic for 2 more weeks?

By David Lawson | Wed 21st April 2010 - 9:50 am

We have basked in a warm glow of new glory for a few days now. Or at least if you get your news from TV and radio we have. The newspaper review has been a bit less enthusiastic – or downright hostile and biased, depending on your point of view.

The weekend papers showed the problem we face in the next two-and-a-bit weeks. The Mail on Sunday gave us a double spread. Headlines included “Is there ANYTHING British about Lib Dem leader?”. “Most would vote Orange … but they will get Brown” and “Billionaire convicted of fraud …

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Posted in General Election and Op-eds | 10 Comments

Opinion: The Best Policy in the World … Probably

By David Lawson | Fri 4th December 2009 - 10:05 am

There is a set of well known slights aimed at the Liberal Democrats. First, no one knows what they stand for. Or maybe they stand for lots of things but too complex and subtle for anyone to bother with. Secondly, they are just somewhere in between Tories and Labour. And that means you don’t need to listen to what they say because you can just take a bit off the edges of Tory and Labour.

Sell it right and this week’s tax policy is the sort of thing that will at least chip away at those preconceptions. Conveniently it may also be right.

The key part is – or should be – the abolition of income tax on the first £10k of earnings. That is a policy which can be sold from the left or the right. And we should do it openly and hard from both angles.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 9 Comments

Opinion: Après les conférences

By David Lawson | Fri 16th October 2009 - 10:55 am

I doubt if the conference season has changed the political landscape. The Liberal Democrats were ill-disciplined; Labour was defiant in face of expectations of defeat; and the Conservatives were trying not to be overconfident — with only partial success.

Peter Riddell, The Times, 9 October 2009

It is easier to write from a position of ignorance rather than knowledge. Unlike Riddell this was the first time I have been to a party conference but that may leave the view clearer. The general opinion is that Lib Dems and Tories missed a chance and Labour avoided disaster by ignoring reality.

The Liberal Democrat and Conservative leadership made the same strategic judgment to tackle head-on the problems raised by the blooming budget deficit and both offered at least some practical indications of where the pain might be felt.

Why was the Liberal Democrat conference perceived to be worse? Partly, because the Lib Dems do not have the same practical need to face up to the budget crisis, but was it “ill-discipline”?

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Tagged | 6 Comments
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