Author Archives: Mark Valladares

I’m a veteran Party bureaucrat, having joined the old Liberal Party at university. And, perhaps not entirely surprisingly, I’ve held a range of positions since then - everything from Secretary-General of the Young Liberals to being a member of the ALDE Party‘s Financial Advisory Committee. Returning Officer, Presidential consort, committee secretary, you name it, I’ve probably done it. These days, I’m the Chair of the Parish Council for a (very) small rural village in Suffolk’s Gipping Valley, and a member of the East of England Regional Candidates Committee.
Mark Valladares

Next week in the Lords: 22-25 October

By Mark Valladares | Fri 19th October 2012 - 11:53 am

I thought that I’d try a different format for the preview this week, so let’s see how it goes…

Monday sees the Third Reading of the Local Government Finance Bill. After this week’s drama, when the Government suddenly came up with an additional £100 million to support local council tax support schemes during the transition phase, one might expect the Bill to be passed relatively comfortably. However, Labour will almost certainly endeavour to ambush this if they can.

Perhaps more interestingly, and certainly a more emotional moment than …

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Mark Valladares

Next week in the Lords: 15-18 October

By Mark Valladares | Fri 12th October 2012 - 10:52 am

It looks as though this column may be going down in flames, now that the Lords have appointed a new Media & PR Officer, but until we do…

Days 7 and 8 of the Committee Stage of the Financial Services Bill dominate the week. And, as I still don’t understand it, I’m going to see if I can get an explanation. Watch, hopefully, this space… However, Amendment 197, to be moved by Lord Flight, requires banks to transfer accounts to a new institution, if requested, within ten working …

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Mark Valladares

Lib Dems vote against 6.8% increase of EU 2013 budget

By Mark Valladares | Thu 11th October 2012 - 10:22 am

Liberal Democrats in the Budget Committee of the European Parliament voted against a proposed 6.85% increase in the EU 2013 budget yesterday. George Lyon, MEP for Scotland and Vice President of the Budget Committee, said:

There is still much uncertainty over the Commission’s estimates on what it needs in 2013 to pay the bills from Member States. The prudent approach at a time when there is huge

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Mark Valladares

Opinion: is the golden age of government largesse over?

By Mark Valladares | Fri 5th October 2012 - 2:26 pm

It is true that things were always better at sometime in the past. Or at least, it feels like that, especially as you get older. But perhaps it is. In the period since World War II, government, at national, state and local level, has provided more and more in the way of support to indivdiuals, organisations and communities, mostly for reasons widely supported to be of public good, sometimes for more cynical reasons, occasionally because it can. In a growing economy, such interventions are sustainable.

However, Robert Black, the former Auditor General for Scotland, in a lecture at the David …

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Posted in Op-eds | 32 Comments
Mark Valladares

Next week in the Lords: 8-11 October

By Mark Valladares | Fri 5th October 2012 - 8:52 am

Yes, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the House of Lords is back! And whilst I get to spend less time with my wife, legislation awaits. Will the death of Lords Reform change anything on the red benches? Just what are they going to discuss without it?

There are three Bills carried forward from before the summer recess;

As a gentle loosener after a summer of grouse shooting, light naps and memoir writing, Monday sees Day 6 of the Committee Stage of the Financial Services Bill, perhaps now …

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Mark Valladares

Another Liberal Democrat PCC candidate is announced

By Mark Valladares | Fri 28th September 2012 - 3:22 pm

Norfolk Liberal Democrats have announced that James Joyce will be their candidate for the election of the Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner on November 15th.

James Joyce is currently a district and county councillor. He represents the Eynesford Ward on Broadland Council and the Reepham Division on Norfolk County Council. Since 2005 he has represented the latter body as a member of the Norfolk Police Authority but he will be stepping down from this position in order to contest the election.

Commenting on his adoption, which follows a ballot of all Liberal Democrat members in Norfolk, Mr Joyce said:

“I am delighted …

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Mark Valladares

Lib Dem MEPs honoured in 2012 Parliament Magazine Awards

By Mark Valladares | Fri 28th September 2012 - 10:22 am

Lib Dem MEP for Yorkshire & The Humber, Edward McMillan-Scott MEP and a Vice-President of the European Parliament, was last week presented with the “Outstanding Achievement” award in the MEP 2012 awards by the Parliament magazine, primarily in recognition of in recognition of his achievements in highlighting the costs and difficulties of the European Parliament’s treaty obligation to travel from Brussels to Strasbourg for plenary sessions. He said:
 
“This is a great boost to the Single Seat campaign which has really taken off with a two-to-one majority of MEPs now voting that way. They are concerned about the extra costs of our monthly treks to Strasbourg, at least €180 …

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Mark Valladares

A life in the day of an ELDR Council Member…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 14th September 2012 - 2:52 pm

Welcome to the second of a series of pieces designed to inform members as to what happens to those people elected to various Party committees. This one won’t be like the others…

Whilst the other internal Party elections that take place in the Autumn are for places on committees that meet more, or less, frequently, this particular election is for the right to attend four two hour meetings, spaced over two years. Virtually all of the delegation’s activities are likely to go completely unnoticed by the average member and, if …

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Mark Valladares

This week in Europe… 11-14 September

By Mark Valladares | Fri 14th September 2012 - 10:22 am

Of course, it’s not just the Commons that is back this week, as the European Parliament has returned from its summer break. And, thanks to the ever helpful Angelika Schneider in the ALDE office, Liberal Democrat Voice is able to keep up to date with the efforts of Liberal Democrat MEPs.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament adopted the first European-wide law on the protection of crime victims, to improve support for them. The new EU law sets minimum standards for all 27 countries, such as free access to medical and specialist …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , , , and | 14 Comments
Mark Valladares

If you’re going to suggest that Nick Clegg isn’t the answer, you need a plan B ready…

By Mark Valladares | Sun 2nd September 2012 - 10:52 am

Lord Matthew OakeshottFollowing the interventions of Matthew Oakeshott and Trevor Smith, there will be those both inside and outside the Liberal Democrats, who will be looking forward to next month’s Federal Conference with an eye to a future. Not necessarily the future, but a future nonetheless.

But before anyone gets terribly carried away, there are two key questions that need to be asked and, ideally, answered.

What are you changing the Leader for?

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Mark Valladares

Tim Farron responds to justified criticism?

By Mark Valladares | Fri 31st August 2012 - 11:18 am

Tim FarronThere’s no doubt that one of the most controversial phrases in British politics is “hard working families”. Not because anyone has anything against hard working families, but because it excludes whole swathes of people who deserve the support of the state too.

So, when Party President Tim Farron used it recently, he really shouldn’t have been surprised to attract some criticism. As Jennie Rigg so forcefully put it;

The phrase Hard Working Families purposefully excludes and marginalises anyone who doesn’t have a job, and anyone who doesn’t have a

…

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Posted in News | 28 Comments
Mark Valladares

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown “Liberal Democrats must back Nick Clegg and let him finish the job”

By Mark Valladares | Fri 31st August 2012 - 8:52 am

Paddy AshdownIn today’s Guardian, Paddy Ashdown responds to Matthew Oakeshott’s call upon party members to consider replacing Nick Clegg as Leader in typically direct style;

All party dissidents, minor or not, suddenly find themselves welcome on every front page and in every news studio. Opinion pollsters, out of business during the dead days of summer, suddenly find themselves able to use a late August poll to predict the outcome of an election still three years away. I remember one in 1995, two years from the election in which

…

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Posted in News | 38 Comments
Mark Valladares

Lords Reform – reflection​s from Alaska in the rain

By Mark Valladares | Fri 10th August 2012 - 12:35 pm

And so, what some, myself amongst them, feared as inevitable has come to pass, as serious Lords reform goes the same way as electoral reform, probably dead for a generation. Here, aboard the MV Columbia, shrouded in fog at the ferry terminal in Haines, it is hard, almost impossible, to tell what is ahead, a bit like the next few months of coalition. Better to look back, perhaps.

I’ve been something of a pessimist on the likely success of Lords reform from the early stages of the process. That could be because, whilst in retrospect the signs were always there, nobody much wanted to see them.

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Mark Valladares

Join the Party Congress of the European Liberal Democrats!

By Mark Valladares | Fri 20th July 2012 - 3:21 pm

The Congress of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) is the number one event for Liberal Democrats who want to adopt policies, network and debate in the European context.
 
The 2012 Congress will take place in Dublin on 8-10 November. The main theme of this year will be a liberal roadmap for energy transition in Europe. In addition to debates on this issue, there will be a fringe programme to cater for a broad range of interests, as well as exclusive sessions for parliamentarians.
 
Join the 500 ministers, party leaders, European commissioners, national and European parliamentarians, local councillors and party …

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Mark Valladares

European Parliament selections: time is running out to get your application in

By Mark Valladares | Fri 20th July 2012 - 8:22 am

The Senior Returning Officer, Jonathan Davies, has asked us here at Liberal Democrat Voice Towers to pass on a message on behalf of Chairs of Shortlisting Committees in Scotland and the English Regions.

And I paraphrase just a bit…

If you want to be a contender, don’t forget that the deadline for applications is 6 p.m. on Friday 27 July

So don’t…

* Mark Valladares is Chair of the Shortlisting Committee for the East of England, and can assure you that he and his colleagues are gentle people who really like applicants, really we do…

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Mark Valladares

European Parliament overwhelmingly rejects ACTA

By Mark Valladares | Wed 4th July 2012 - 3:22 pm

The culmination of weeks of campaigning and lobbying against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) came this morning, as the European Parliament voted 478 to 39 to reject it, despite the fact that twenty-two member states, including the United Kingdom, had already signed it. As a result, the Agreement is now likely to become irrelevant without the support of European Union nations.

The Agreement had already been rejected by five Committees of the European Parliament, and despite attempts by Conservative MEPs to defer the vote, as urged by UNI MEI, a “global union for the Media, Entertainment and Art Industries”, …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , and | 9 Comments
Mark Valladares

Coming up in the Lords: 2 – 5 July

By Mark Valladares | Fri 29th June 2012 - 2:55 pm

It never ceases to amaze me how much members of the House of Lords get done in the ten minutes that Tim Farron suggests they put in each day, and next week is no exception. So, moving swiftly along…

The Crime and Courts Bill continues through its Committee stage, and Days 5 and 6 take place on Monday and Wednesday next week. Regulation of bailiffs, consideration of financial circumstances when levying fines, and the immigration appeals regime will all be debated, with Eric Avebury having indicated his intention …

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Mark Valladares

Stuff that you might find useful…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 22nd June 2012 - 3:51 pm

Here at Liberal Democrat Voice, we are always thinking of new things to bring to our readers. Opinion, news, ideas, our editorial team and volunteer authors bring all this to you and more. However, there is plenty of information out there that campaigners, and anyone who takes an interest, might find useful. So, here’s a miscellany of announcements you might have missed;

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have recently announced a new telephone helpline for the recently bereaved, 0845 300 0627, open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Friday, and 8 …

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Mark Valladares

Coming up in the Lords: 25-29 June

By Mark Valladares | Fri 22nd June 2012 - 7:53 am

It’s all gone a bit quiet at the more civilised end of the Palace of Westminster, after the mayhem that came at the end of the last Parliamentary session. That isn’t to say that it’s dull, but there is rather more debate and scrutiny than voting.

The Crime and Courts Bill has reached its Committee stage, and Days 3 and 4 take place on Monday and Wednesday next week. I have to admit that I understand precious little of this, even after reading the various (astonishingly lengthy) amendments, …

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Mark Valladares

Whether you regard Jeremy Hunt as guilty or innocent, an investigation is a must

By Mark Valladares | Wed 13th June 2012 - 7:51 am

The news that Liberal Democrat MPs are to abstain on a Labour motion calling upon David Cameron to refer Jeremy Hunt’s conduct to Sir Alex Allan is a disappointment. To be blunt, it is all very well letting it be known via ‘sources’ that we do not approve of the failure to refer the ‘Hunt Affair’, but then to stand aside when an opportunity to press the matter arises will not be understood by anyone outside the Westminster bubble.

Indeed, I would suggest that, if Jeremy Hunt wants to be anything other than a lame duck Secretary of State, he should …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Tagged and | 33 Comments
Mark Valladares

From the Lords: Dick Newby steps out…

By Mark Valladares | Wed 30th May 2012 - 5:22 pm

As a keen observer of life in the House of Lords, I feel it my duty to explore some of the less well-known aspects of life there. And, as a photograph has come into my hands that deserves a wider audience…

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Mark Valladares

Coming up in the Lords: 21- 30 May

By Mark Valladares | Tue 22nd May 2012 - 12:52 pm

Welcome back to a suddenly rather quieter set of benches, as the avalanche of key votes has settled, and a new Parliamentary session glides effortlessly away from the Gracious Speech. We’re still catching up after the recess, so bear with us…

Having debated the Speech itself, and given the Government several pieces of its mind over Lords Reform, the Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill has its Second Reading today. For more information, check out Norman Lamb’s piece, published in Liberal Democrat Voice last week.

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Mark Valladares

This week in Europe: 21-24 May

By Mark Valladares | Tue 22nd May 2012 - 7:52 am

Yes, we’re back in Strasbourg, apparently, for another week of drama and excitement. Alright, perhaps I exaggerate a bit… and apologise for being a little behind.

Yesterday saw the first debate on the new EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which will include a provision for visa-free travel to Canada for all EU citizens, something the Americans could perhaps learn from, as well as a series of short debates on, amongst other things, the EU’s internal security strategy and strengthening the rights of vulnerable consumers.

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Mark Valladares

ELDR Council: between a rock and some very hard places indeed…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 18th May 2012 - 2:52 pm

I’m not always the most prepared person in the world, especially when it comes to meetings. Usually, that doesn’t matter, because I’m surrounded by people who are prepared. But what happens if they don’t turn up on time?

The sun was shining in Armenia’s capital, in the shadow of Mount Ararat, and whilst one of the delegation’s Parliamentarians was meeting ‘Our Man in Yerevan’, I was off to attend the Resolution Working Group, where resolutions on a Common Consolidated Corporate tax base for Europe and on Cyprus were to be …

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Mark Valladares

A postcard from… Brussels

By Mark Valladares | Fri 18th May 2012 - 10:22 am

The capital of Europe is not exactly what a visitor from an alien civilisation would expect. There is little in the way of grand boulevards, monumental buildings, overblown statuary. Indeed, it all seems a little down at heel. I’ve always suspected that Belgians don’t waste money maintaining facades on the basis that, soon enough, someone will invade and do it for them.

In Howard Blake’s ‘New National Songbook’, he writes, “”Good heavens, look at that Empire!”, we thought. Most of us were thinking about trees and birds all the while.”. …

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Posted in Europe / International | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Mark Valladares

Yesterday in the Lords: Labour prepare the ground for rejection of Lords Reform

By Mark Valladares | Tue 1st May 2012 - 3:21 pm

We pick up from where we left off earlier…

Onwards into the night, the Lords raged in their own, uniquely genteel, way.

Whilst with his usual radical enthusiasm, Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, put his finger on the problem with the current composition of the House of Lords;

We are the creatures of patronage. There are only two ways to get into this place. One is because you are a friend of the Prime Minister, or at least he does not object to you, and the other is because your great-grandmother slept

…

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Mark Valladares

ELDR: a caucus in the Caucusus…

By Mark Valladares | Tue 1st May 2012 - 1:52 pm

When I was elected to the Liberal Democrat delegation to the Council of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR), adventure was not necessarily high amongst my expectations, and trips to Dresden and Palermo last year were, whilst very nice, not particularly off the beaten path. And so, when it was announced that the Spring Council meeting would take place in Yerevan, I have to admit to an awakening of my passion for obscure routes and means of transport. So, why Yerevan, and what will be happening at the end of next week?

Sunday sees Parliamentary elections in Armenia, and this, combined with …

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Mark Valladares

Yesterday in the Lords: flightless poultry call for a postponement of Christmas?

By Mark Valladares | Tue 1st May 2012 - 7:53 am

So, the Joint Select Committee on the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill has reported, and it would be fair to say that the ladies and gentlemen in ermine are, to put it mildly, perturbed. So perturbed that an extra two days were set aside for debate before the House prorogues prior to the Queen’s Speech.

With Lord Richard, the Chair of the Committee, focussing on the work of the Commiittee itself, it was left to Baroness Scott of Needham Market to make the opening speech for meaningful …

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Mark Valladares

Is it time to consider what the European Union is for?

By Mark Valladares | Tue 24th April 2012 - 1:22 pm

Liberal Democrats are an oddly reticent bunch when it comes to the European Union, defined more by our opponents than by our own words. We are, by the very nature of being internationalist, in favour of a European idea. But we appear increasingly unsure as to what that might be, so we tend not to talk about it much these days.

What that means is that when the question of Europe is raised, UKIP loudly distort the truth, joined by the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservatives, whilst everybody else talks about jobs, education and crime, perhaps mentioning Europe in passing. So, …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged | 25 Comments
Mark Valladares

European Parliament votes through new agreement on transfer of air passenger data to US authorities

By Mark Valladares | Fri 20th April 2012 - 3:45 pm

On Thursday, the Parliament voted on a new agreement on the transfer of EU air passengers’ personal data to the US authorities. The deal sets legal conditions and covers issues such as storage periods, use, data protection safeguards and administrative and judicial redress, and replaces a provisional deal in place since 2007.

The EU-US Passenger Name Record (PNR) agreement was adopted with 409 votes in favour, 226 against and 33 abstentions, with two-thirds of the ALDE MEPs taking part voting against due to concerns over data protection safeguards, including rapporteur Sophie in’T Veld (D’66, Netherlands, ALDE), who withdrew her name …

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