Author Archives: Henry Vann

Question: Big or small government? Answer: effective

One prominent member of Liberal Youth hits the nail on the head when she says ‘ frankly sick of all this I’m a social liberal so I’m a better Lib Demno it’s Orange Bookers that are real Lib Dems… we’re in the same party ffs.’

And the contrasting Economist correspondent missed the target by a mile when he wrote – following our last conference – that ‘the Liberal Democrats are still in denial about their innate dividedness.’

You see according to this correspondent – quoted again in The Week – he has had a brilliant insight: ‘You cannot be both for, and against, the Big State.’ But whilst his truism is logically …

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

Opinion: a worse government

What would a minority Conservative government look like?

It is now widely accepted, by Jack Straw among many others, that a coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats would, sadly, have been unworkable.

The numbers didn’t add up, we suffered real difficulty – whichever account you believe – negotiating with Labour, and there was the ever-present threat of nationalist lobbying.

So the alternative was a Conservative minority government.

And what would this government have been able to pass through parliament with the support of the next biggest party Labour? What policies would be implemented by a minority Conservative government with Labour’s blessing?

Academies. This is …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 34 Comments
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  • Nonconformistradical
    I thought Ed’s point was that given the still ongoing cost of living crisis now was not the time to push for an income tax rise. Especially given the exte...
  • David Symonds
    Lib Dems may have made a tactical error in abandoning the 1p increase in income tax. Whilst no one wants to see taxation any higher than what it is, the state o...
  • Martin Gray
    Another we know best nanny state posts ... Online betting limits & now this ... "As Liberals we try to avoid banning things "... We've seemed to have ban...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Joe, Technically what you say about the taxation process is correct in an accounting sense. The state imposes a debt on us all in the first place by demand...
  • Andrew Tampion
    Thank you for the information Jennie. At the risk of going off topic. If the rare earth metals used in vapes are needed for other more important purposes why ar...