Author Archives: Dawn Barnes

Staying in Europe and building our teams

Haringey Lib Dems IN campaignUp until Thursday and the sad news of Jo Cox MP, the Lib Dem IN campaign in Haringey was full steam ahead.

Our London election campaign canvassing included the EU question and some EU activity to motivate those not entirely engaged in the London elections. As soon as the May election were over, we got on with a schedule of street stalls, doorknocking, delivery, fundraising and social events to stay in the EU.

It’s been great fun and helped get more people out to join us regularly. The …

Posted in Op-eds | 4 Comments

The Future of Lib Dem Thinking

I managed to get myself on the list for the Institute for Government’s (IfG) debate on the Future of Lib Dem Thinking and attended the discussion in the beautiful John Nash building that adjoins the official London residence of the Foreign Secretary.

So what is the future for us? The line up saw Lord Clement-Jones, Julian Astle of Centre Forum, Timothy Cox of Liberal Vision and Neil Sherlock, who has advised both Paddy Ashdown and Nick Clegg, discuss the coalition and where next.

Lord Clement-Jones kicked off with the admission that the coalition is hard to swallow and that we need …

Posted in News | 11 Comments

Opinion: Browne review is a perfect opportunity

At conference I spoke about the importance of retaining our character in coalition and the importance of having distinctive policies to ensure that, come the next election, people remain clear about the Liberal Democrats and what we stand for.

The Browne review on university funding and tuition fees gives us the perfect opportunity to differentiate ourselves from the other parties.

We have campaigned against tuition fees for years, while Labour introduced them and raised them and the Conservatives seek to create a free market model for our universities.

Part of the coalition agreement included allowing the Liberal Democrat MPs to abstain from …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 28 Comments
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