Author Archives: Peter Jones

The EU consultation: all right as far as it goes…

By Peter Jones | Thu 6th August 2015 - 10:25 am

Have you gone through the EU consultation sent out from Liberal Democrat HQ by Austin Rathe? I did, answering all the questions or clicking the right options just like a good Lib Dem should – I declared myself committed to staying in the EU, and chose all the suggested benefits of being in the EU: freedom of movement, greater prosperity, no war in Europe thanks to the EU, and so on.

Yet I found the whole exercise unsatisfactory and lacking in nuance. The consultation is full of leading questions. One can only answer as I did (with just a little scope for variation) because to do otherwise would be to take the stance of the Conservatives or UKIP – but this hardly offers a truly rounded assessment of the EU as it exists today.

I expressed my views as I did because, being a liberal, I do accept that the propositions in the consultation are more true than not true. That is why I expect to vote to stay in the EU regardless of what David Cameron manages to renegotiate. On balance, I think the EU is still a good thing and therefore I feel the UK should be in it, both as a matter of playing our part in the world and because it’s in our interest to be there. But do I think the EU is pretty much fine as it is? No I certainly do not – I think it badly needs a major overhaul.

Posted in News | Tagged austin rathe, eu and internal communications | 21 Comments

Opinion: Five suggestions for our new leader

By Peter Jones | Tue 7th July 2015 - 8:49 am

As one of the newly-joined members of the party it might be presumptuous of me to offer advice to our new leader, whoever he turns out to be. Then again one of the great attractions of the Lib Dems is that each member is invited to contribute to policy making. So, here are a few ideas for Tim Farron or Norman Lamb to consider.