Author Archives: William Summers

William Summers

Opinion: The party needs a better nomination system for the Lords

By William Summers | Fri 2nd August 2013 - 10:05 am

Like many others, I let out a sigh of resignation when I saw that yet more appointments are being made to the unelected and unaccountable House of Lords. Nothing against the individuals receiving a peerage this week (some of whom I have known personally and all of whom I’m sure will be excellent representatives), but yet again it’s a fairly predictable mix of ex-MPs and party insiders.

Liberal Democrats are right to nominate their own choices for these positions – better off having an influence over a broken system than being excluded from it altogether – but it got me …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 15 Comments
William Summers

Opinion: Liberal Democrats should make the case for an elected head of state

By William Summers | Fri 1st June 2012 - 9:05 am

I’m proud to be in a party that values freedom and democracy above all else. We passionately campaign for equality of opportunity, and a world in which success is based on a person’s own merits rather than privilege and nepotism. We want to reform the outdated electoral system, and object to an unelected House of Lords, described by Nick Clegg as “an affront to the principles of openness which underpin a modern democracy”.

That is why I, like many other Liberal Democrats, cannot support a system of monarchy whereby power is inherited and all but one family is excluded from …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 94 Comments
William Summers

Opinion: What the hell have the Lib Dems done?

By William Summers | Mon 4th April 2011 - 11:27 am

I wasn’t the first in the party, and I doubt I’ll be the last, to say the Liberal Democrats need to make more of our achievements in government. There’s little doubt the balance of power in the Coalition lies with the Tories, but with five members of the Cabinet and sixteen further Government Ministers, we must have some kind of influence, right?

Well we certainly seem to. I recently came across a document outlining how the Liberal Democrats have been meeting their various manifesto commitments in government. It included some of our key pledges, such as raising the basic …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 63 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • John B Grout
    Excellent piece, Josh. As for seeking others' thoughts on the pitch, here are mine: Labour and the Greens want to do things for you, the Conservatives and R...
  • David Evans
    It's an interesting article, which gives us more to think about, but when it ends with "Government and politics can strive toward this platform ... giving ind...
  • Neil Sandison
    This one of a series of articles recently published in the Liberal Democrat Voice that defines our social liberal values . Frequently the hot house of Westminst...
  • Pawel Urbanski
    This is the right problem to be working on, and I think the answer may be less about the words than about the moments. In my experience people learn what we sta...
  • Simon Robinson
    It's good to have an MP putting herself forward for this. The manifesto seems a bit vague though. All good thoughts and nothing you can really disagree with, b...