Author Archives: Iain Roberts

Binge-drinking England? We’re just playing catch-up

By Iain Roberts | Sun 7th February 2010 - 11:37 am

Whilst crime in London fell between 1870 and 1910, the story north of the border wasn’t quite as rosy.

As the Daily Express reported at the turn of the century:

“The most notable fact of the statistics for 1899 is the immense increase of the criminal work of the country”. Thus opened the report on Scotland’s prisons and court for the past year, which was an unenviable record.

No fewer than 176,524 persons were apprehended or cited, a figure which has never before been reached by 10,000. Drunks and disorderlies alone totalled 112,033.

South Queensferry holds the proud position for 1899 of

…

Posted in News | Tagged history and The way we were | 1 Comment

Daily View: Electoral Reform Reader

By Iain Roberts | Wed 3rd February 2010 - 7:27 am

It’s not very often electoral reform tops the news headlines – which is probably no bad thing.

As yesterday was one of those rare occasions, let’s see what was being said – Lib Dem bloggers had some differences of opinion:

The Futility Monster took the subtle, understated approach with the headline “Stick Your AV Up Your Arse”

The problem is that this is purely a gimmick, done purely to ask questions of the Lib Dems. Brown has no history of interest in electoral reform,

LibCync, on the other hand, was more positive:

I can’t believe anyone can seriously suggest that we shouldn’t support

…

Posted in Daily View | Tagged alternative vote, gordon brown and proportional representation | Leave a comment

Life expectancy of 13? That’s Victorian values for you.

By Iain Roberts | Sun 31st January 2010 - 11:14 am

Several hundred people in the UK have died from swine flu since May 2009. As a historical note, this text from 1942 puts our modern health problems in some perspective.

In the England of 1840 the average age of death was twenty-nine, today it is fifty-eight. …the babies of 1840 suffered an appalling mortality. To-day one child in seventeen dies before it is a year old, but in 1840 the figure was about one in six, and about a third of the children born died before the age of five….Infants died of convulsions, diarroea, and atrophy, the latter

…

Posted in News | Tagged history and The way we were | 9 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 29 January 2010

By Iain Roberts | Fri 29th January 2010 - 7:21 am

Ninety-seven days to the likely General Election. Happy birthday to Germaine Greer and Tom Selleck (both keen readers of Lib Dem Voice, I’m certain). In his State of the Union Address on this day in 2002, George W Bush first introduced us to the Axis of Evil.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Norfolk Blogger asks the pertinent question about Andrew Wakefield and his MMR scam (perpetuated and multiplied a hundred-fold by the media , let’s not forget).
Stephen Glenn celebrates his well-deserved success. Recognise his genius, damn you!

Posted in Daily View | 2 Comments

Tip: if you want to be credible, avoid claiming the NHS is a Nazi/Communist plot

By Iain Roberts | Tue 26th January 2010 - 11:40 am

There are times when it’s difficult to get a handle on where a pressure group is coming from. Do they have sensible ideas (even if you disagree with them)? Are they based on good evidence and research? Is there an intelligent debate to be had?

On other occasions it’s just that little bit simpler.

Say you wanted to reform British healthcare. Fair enough – you’d be hard-put to find anyone who thought it was perfect.

So you and your colleagues, full of reforming zeal, get together for a bit of brainstorming.

“How shall we get our message across, and persuade …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged NHS and nurses for reform | 4 Comments

100 days to work, 100 days to win

By Iain Roberts | Tue 26th January 2010 - 9:05 am

One hundred days until the local elections and the most likely date for the General Election: May 6th.

And, whilst blogs, websites, Facebook and the rest of it will play a supporting role, our real battles will be fought on the ground in Liberal Democrat held and target seats up and down the country. It will be fought with leaflets, target mailings, canvassing, posters, phone calls and getting the vote out on polling day. Even email – extremely effective at reaching local audiences in marginal seats – needs that ground work to build up the list of addresses in the first …

Posted in General Election and Op-eds | Tagged featured | 5 Comments

Lucky Preston North End didn’t lose, really

By Iain Roberts | Sun 24th January 2010 - 11:09 am

Football Hooliganism Old School as reported by the Daily Express on 29th January 1909, 101 years ago.

The Preston North End team, which played a drawn game with Sheffield Wednesday at Owlerton on Saturday were violently treated at the conclusion of the match by a crowd of spectators who were dissatisfied with the result.

Councillor Houghton, who was in charge of the Preston team gave an Express representative the following account of what took place:

“We delayed our departure from Owlerton on account of the hostile attitude of the crowd which gathered around the dressing-tents.

“Immediately we left in a char-a-abanc we were

…

Posted in News | Tagged history and The way we were | 4 Comments

Was Britain more broken under the Tories?

By Iain Roberts | Sat 23rd January 2010 - 8:05 am

Britain is broken, David Cameron tells us, and of course he claims a Conservative government will mend it.

How can we tell if he’s right?

Crime is still a problem, certain crimes in particular. But – like pretty much every western nation – the UK has seen a big fall in crime since the ’90s.

Having grown sharply through the Thatcher years, crime peaked in the UK in 1995 and has been falling since – quickly at first and more slowly in recent years, but still falling.

So not crime in general.

Cameron raised the horrific case of two young …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged broken britain, conservative party and david cameron | 9 Comments

Writing to an MP? Best enclose an SAE

By Iain Roberts | Fri 22nd January 2010 - 10:30 am

We have a decent amount of debate about the role of MPs – in particular whether they should be spending less time sorting out their constituents’ problems and more in Westminster holding the Government to account and taking part in the law-making process.

So it may be instructive to see how W.J. Brown MP saw the role back in 1945.

In addition to debating in the chamber, Brown described the role of an MP (and I’m not sure if he intended these to be in order of importance) as:

1. Representing the local interests of his constituency and see that they get …

Posted in Parliament | 3 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 20 January 2010

By Iain Roberts | Wed 20th January 2010 - 7:27 am

A poem to start the day, this time from John Hegley, who’s even better seen in the flesh.

I said Pat
you are fat
and you are cataclysmically desirable
and to think I used to think
that slim was where it’s at
well not any more Pat
you’ve changed all that
you love yourself
you flatter yourself
you shatter their narrow image of the erotic
and Pat said
what do you mean FAT?

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

Posted in Daily View | Leave a comment

Fifty years and still the same problem

By Iain Roberts | Mon 18th January 2010 - 10:45 am

A genuinely hard problem, or one the large parties have an interest in not solving?

Whichever the truth is, political activists might find these comments have a ring of familiarity.

A far more serious problem, however, is the lack of any limitation on amounts which can be spent nationally and in the period between elections.

These amounts have now begun to dwarf the total sums spent on behalf of all candidates. In the period leading up to the 1959 election it has been estimated that the Conservative Party spent £468,000 on advertising alone, while over three times that amount was spent by business

…

Posted in General Election | 2 Comments

A remarkable prediction – can you do better?

By Iain Roberts | Sun 17th January 2010 - 12:10 pm

We’re used to self-styled futurologists getting their predictions hopelessly wrong, so it’s impressive to come across this, from architect Sir Aston Webb. Made in 1914, Sir Aston imagined taking a journey a century into the future, to 2014.

I asked why everything looked so bright and clean, and my companion said that was because they had done away with the smoke and only used smokeless fuel materials now.

In a bird’s-eye view I obtained of London, I noticed that, besides the railway tracks out of London, there were great arterial roads stretching out in all ways. They were 120 feet

…

Posted in News | Tagged history and The way we were | Leave a comment

Labour minister in Lib Dem electoral fraud smear

By Iain Roberts | Wed 13th January 2010 - 10:17 am

There’s been a lot of debate over the last few months about the merits, or otherwise, of holding General Election counts on the Friday instead of counting through the night on polling day.

But no-one has seriously suggested it might be an opportunity for politicians of any party to break into ballot boxes and fix the election. After all, such a claim would be the cheapest of smears, based on zero evidence.

Step forward Labour Minister and MP for Newcastle East and Wallsend, Nick Brown.

Criticising Newcastle’s plans for a Friday count, Brown said

The reason the votes are counted immediately after

…

Posted in News | 14 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 13 January 2010

By Iain Roberts | Wed 13th January 2010 - 7:56 am

As if to prove there’s little new in the world, the recent spat between Nick Clegg and childcare expert Gina Ford reminds me of this 1899 poem by Harry Graham.

Father heard the children scream,
So he threw them in the stream,
Saying, as he drowned the third,
“Children should be seen, not heard!

Firm but fair.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

Posted in Daily View | Tagged nick clegg | 4 Comments

Mrs Robinson – an Internet campaign too far?

By Iain Roberts | Mon 11th January 2010 - 6:20 pm

There was no little schadenfreude, especially amongst LGBT folks, when news of Iris Robinson’s indiscretions broke last week.

Back in June 2008, in the same week as a particularly nasty homophobic attack, she declared that homosexuality was an abomination, and that homosexuals could – with help – be turned around. Stonewall voted her the UK Bigot of the Year 2008.

So the reaction to her fall from grace is hardly surprising – a woman who was only too happy to attack what she saw as the moral lapses of others turned out to have sizeable feet of clay herself – in …

Posted in Online politics and Op-eds | Tagged iris robinson | 27 Comments

Indy bigs up Mark Pack but exposes Twitter’s weakness

By Iain Roberts | Mon 11th January 2010 - 1:30 pm

The Independent today asks “Could the next election finally provide a reason for the microblogging service?”

There are many reasons for Twitter, some better than others, but if today’s Independent article is anything to go by, the General Election won’t be one of them.

“It’s Twitter that will make this election unique.”, the Indy proclaims, before going on to show why that claim is almost certainly not true.

The paper lists the political twitterati, a mixture – it turns out – of established figures doing a bit of tweeting and political bloggers.

Most excitingly for us at Lib Dem Voice, our …

Posted in Online politics and Op-eds | Tagged alastair campbell, john prescott, lynne featherstone, Mark Pack, tim montgomerie and vince cable | 10 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 6th January 2010

By Iain Roberts | Wed 6th January 2010 - 7:10 am

My first Daily View of the new decade so a pledge up front: none of these stories will be about the weather.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

Two posts from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Which top Tory has U-turned on Married Couple’s Allowance?
Ewan Hoyle has a plan to reduce drug-related deaths and wants your help

2 Interesting Stories

Yes please, Richard

Posted in Daily View | Leave a comment

20,000 road signs in kilometers – an evil EU plot?

By Iain Roberts | Sun 3rd January 2010 - 4:31 pm

This is the first Christmas that anyone travelling on our motorways really couldn’t avoid signs measuring distance in – whisper it – kilometers.

Every 500 meters or so along just about every motorway – and some trunk roads – in Britain, one of these blue signs helpfully tells the the stranded, mobile-phone wielding, motorist not only which road and carriageway she’s on but how many kilometers she is along it. Not miles. Not even good old British furlongs or barleycorns (which is a shame). But evil revolutionary French kilometers.

Some EU plot force …

Posted in Europe / International | 67 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 30 December 2009

By Iain Roberts | Wed 30th December 2009 - 7:04 am

The countdown to the New Year festivities begins, and with that in mind let me remind you of Lib Dem Voice’s search for the Liberal Voice of 2009 – get your nominations in now, before it’s too late.

2 Interesting Stories

Scrapping Gatsos saves lives

Posted in Daily View | Leave a comment

Will going commando get me through airport security faster?

By Iain Roberts | Sun 27th December 2009 - 9:56 am

If the media reports are accurate, another attempted terrorist attack on an aeroplane failed when the would-be mass-murderer managed nothing more lethal than setting fire to himself, leaving the 289 passengers and crew on flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit unharmed.

The world breaths a sigh of relief and anyone flying in the next few weeks looks forward to more security checks and delays.

As the only person injured in this attack would seem to be the attacker, 23 year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, what lessons can we draw?

Carrying out a successful terrorist attack, especially on an aeroplane, would seem to be …

Posted in Op-eds | 5 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 23 December 2009

By Iain Roberts | Wed 23rd December 2009 - 10:52 am

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Yesterday was a busy one on Lib Dem Blogs, though a lot quieter if you take out the posts from Lib Dem councillors and campaigners giving people information on snow, gritting and road conditions.

John Ault on the perils of paper underpants
Darrell Goodliffe picks out some interesting points from the latest ComRes poll (and it’s not the headline figures, which are all over the shop in recent polls).

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

I’m going to work on the assumption that you’ve noticed the spot of bad weather we’re having and don’t need me to point it out to you.

More poor people should marry, say Tories

Posted in Daily View | Tagged david willetts and taxpayers alliance | 2 Comments

Opinion on Nick’s second anniversary: Iain Roberts – Nick finds his voice

By Iain Roberts | Fri 18th December 2009 - 2:18 pm

Writing this piece, I started by looking back at what was written on Nick’s first anniversary a year ago.

Over 2008 the party was averaging around 16% in the polls and whilst showing a great deal of promise, the consensus was that Clegg still had some way to go to fulfil his potential, with the Lisbon Treaty confusion and that Piers Morgan interview being two of the more memorable moments.

2009 has been a very different story. It’s still been a struggle to get our voice heard in the national media – that’s not going to change anytime soon outside …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged clegg+2 and nick clegg | 2 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 16 December 2009

By Iain Roberts | Wed 16th December 2009 - 7:55 am

2 Big Stories

More 20mph zones on the way

As reported by the BBC, new advice to Councils will recommend 20mph zones around schools and in all residential areas, plus a reduction of the speed limit from 60mph to 50mph on rural main roads with a history of accidents.

The BBC have also produced a road traffic deaths map: find all the deaths in 2008 and see how many were near you (in my case, fewer than I’d expected).

One question local authorities may ask about having more 20mph zones is whether they need to have traffic calming measures too. Until now, the zones have normally involved speed humps, chicanes and similar but putting in hundreds more speed humps around our residential streets may be neither popular nor affordable.

Update: I’ve been told that, following a successful trial in Portsmouth, these new zones will not require traffic calming.

Battle commences for Christmas no. 1

Posted in Daily View | 4 Comments

Government backs down on vetting rules

By Iain Roberts | Sun 13th December 2009 - 9:45 am

The Government has backed down over its controversial Vetting and Barring scheme.

Designed to protect children, many were concerned it would have the opposite effect. It widened the net on which adults needed to be vetted, extending in some cases to authors visiting schools and adults giving kids a lift to clubs and activities.

Might this have resulted in more harm to children through lost opportunities as perfectly safe adults became unable or unwilling to help children?

I think it may have. A friend of mine was asked to help at our local Scouts. She …

Posted in Op-eds | 9 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 9 December 2009

By Iain Roberts | Wed 9th December 2009 - 2:30 pm

A late Daily View today as I try to get out all my Christmas cards (37,000 of the blighters).

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Paul at Liberal Burblings is unimpressed that Blair took us to war on the word of a cabbie.
Jennie has some constructive criticism for the House of Comments podcast.

A notable shortage of female Lib Dem bloggers posting yesterday – and the blogosphere is poorer for it.

2 Stories

What are the odds?

Posted in Daily View | Leave a comment

OnePlace to rate them – shame it’s down

By Iain Roberts | Wed 9th December 2009 - 9:58 am

The Government’s new OnePlace site, where you can find out all about the performance of your local authority and its partners, had gone down within minutes of being plugged on Radio 4’s Today programme and, if the Conservatives win the next election, may be down permanently.

The rating system marks a significant break with the previous star ratings awarded to local authorities.

One outcome is that old and new ratings can’t be compared – they measure different things about different organisations. The new assessments are largely in the form of a narrative. Instead of long tables …

Posted in Local government and News | 3 Comments

NHS IT – has Labour wasted £12 billion?

By Iain Roberts | Mon 7th December 2009 - 11:45 am

The NHS is part way through one of the world’s biggest IT projects, a colossal £6.2bn programme which won’t be completed until the end of the decade.

So said Business IT website Silicon.com back in January 2006 – nearly four years ago when it reviewed the nine projects making up the Government’s NHS IT revolution, from Choose and Book to the NHS Spine.

As the end of the decade approaches, not only are the NHS IT projects far from completion, but the cost has more than doubled to over £12 billion.

We now hear that the project is to be scaled back, …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged NHS and norman lamb | 4 Comments

Time running out to save the cheque

By Iain Roberts | Sat 5th December 2009 - 11:17 am

I’ve had internet banking for the majority of my adult life, but I still write and receive a surprising number of cheques. I may not be able to use them to buy petrol, but they pay for the kids’ school dinners and activities, cover the milk bill, pay tradesmen and allow relatives to safely send financial gifts in a way that “I’ve transferred £30 to your bank account” just doesn’t match.

As a nation, we write nearly four million cheques every day. They might be expensive and annoying for the banks to deal with, but they’re still useful for us, and …

Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged mark hunter | 15 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 2 December 2009

By Iain Roberts | Wed 2nd December 2009 - 6:56 am

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

The whole Isle of Dogs appears to have an opinion on Zac Goldsmith, at least if this entirely random and representative sample of two is to be believed. I wonder whether they’re for or against?
Lynne Featherstone reminds us just why World AIDS Day is still so important.

UPDATE: Another must-read blog post: who wears the (frilly) knickers at Cowley Street?

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Ever wondered how Cheryl Cole gets her big hair?

Posted in Daily View | Tagged lynne featherstone | 3 Comments

Cameron’s totally, completely new idea

By Iain Roberts | Wed 25th November 2009 - 5:52 pm

David Cameron has had a new idea – a real original. As the Guardian reports:

A new Conservative government may keep parliament sitting through next August in an attempt to show its determination to implement its manifesto commitments, a source has disclosed. The move would send a message of a symbolic break with the current parliament’s self-serving practices, the source said.

Clearly, this is in no way related to Nick Clegg’s 100 days campaign earlier this year in which Clegg said:

Together, over the next 100 days, we could achieve nothing less than the total reinvention of British politics, underpinned

…

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged david cameron and nick clegg | 2 Comments

Op-eds

Mathew on Monday: “We need to be bold” (Mathew Hulbert)
As a party we must be better defined for the 2029 general election (Chris Bowers)
From national averages to local realities: inequality in our communities (Tom Walker)
We do have a two tier system, Part 2 (Neil Hickman)
A Federal Britain: 3. Fiscal Federalism and a complete constitutional settlement (Iain Donaldson)

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Battle commences for Christmas no. 1

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