Here’s my selection of articles to inform and infuriate from this week’s Sunday papers.
First of all, David Cameron tells the Sunday Times (£) he wants to lead a government “unencumbered by Liberal Democrats.” He can take it from here, he says. We all know what that means. Demolishing human and employment rights, more welfare cuts, a crazy EU renovation which probably won’t give us the right to vote on what we have already but on a package of opt-outs, if such a thing is achievable which sees us with fewer protections in law than we have already.
His plans on welfare for young people, which aren’t a million miles away from Labour, put the Liberal Democarats in an awkward position come any future coalition negotiations. We surely can’t ever agree to anything like this:
Our ambition is to abolish youth unemployment and make it the case that it’s simply not possible any more to finish school, leave home, sign on and get a flat through housing benefit. That should not be possible in the future.
The Observer has sobering news for the party leaders . Women find them spectacularly unimpressive. If none of them can get a positive rating in an opinion poll, it’s not looking great. One of the women quoted is Debbie, who voted Liberal Democrat in 2010 but is “ambivalent” now. She is exactly the sort of person we should be getting back. Her priorities are childcare and education, both of which we have delivered on. We see the Pupil Premium already having an effect on black attainment levels and we know that Clegg has made childcare a personal priority. We need to have a lot of conversations with the many women like Debbie over the next few months.
The Independent looks at misogyny through the ages, how women have been trolled long before the internet even existed.
While Scotland needs its political parties to get on with delivering the powers promised, Labour are having an internal scrap, according to the Herald. Actually, it seems to be having lots of internal scraps. This is not going to help them next May, especially as the referendum exposed their lack of organisation in their heartlands.
Rupert Cornwell writes in the Independent about the issues around the highly politicised US Supremc Court, which has led to one liberal voice saying she won’t retire because the Senate would block a liberal successor:
And so the current divide on the court will be perpetuated, as the very paralysis of Congress has made the two parties even more concerned with the balance of power within the judicial branch. Like their liberal counterparts, conservative justices will wait until a Republican is in the White House before they step down.
In practice, only an untimely appearance of the Grim Reaper can change things – and maybe not even that. It’s unlikely in the foreseeable future that either party will attain the 60 Senate votes need to override a filibuster. It is simply inconceivable that if a conservative justice died with Obama in the White House, Republicans would allow an appointment that would create a liberal majority.
Matthew D’Ancona has some very sensible advice for the Tories in the Telegraph. Will they listen:
Experience teaches a prime minister that the future does not simply morph into a benign shape through incantation and hope. It must be made good, often by tough action and resilience in the face of panic. That is a lesson a leader is taught by conflict, and one to which the more impatient Tories (“Ukip, Boris, cuts, Europe, now!”) should listen hard this week. In every sense, this is no week to be reckless.
The Indepednet claims that an increase in late diagnoses of HIV can be attribute dot the coalition’s health reforms in England. Norman Lamb refutes that argument.
Relationship breakdown adversely affects women and children according to a study reported in the Observer and elsewhere. Policy makers need to look at this.
What’s got your attention from today’s papers?
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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17 Comments
“Our ambition is to abolish youth unemployment and make it the case that it’s simply not possible any more to finish school, leave home, sign on and get a flat through housing benefit. That should not be possible in the future.”
It seems quite a sensible statement, surely our aim is also to deal with youth employment and avoid young people leaving school and going straight into a life dependent on the welfare state?
For me one of the most interesting comments is Ashcroft on his own Polling : “For most voters The Election might as well be 8 years away not 8 Months.” Uncommited Voters dont intend to make up their mind until “much closer to Polling Day.”
This is our doing with the introduction of Fixed-Term Parliaments, the usual shifts will still happen I believe, but much faster & at the last moment. That will demand fast responses & flexibility on our part.
The full Ashcroft results are at 2PM, Political Betting has some details & quotes now.
I should add to my comment above, I’m all for equality of the entitlement to welfare in that young people should have the same right to apply as anybody else in similar situations but surely we should be disappointed as a country that any young people go straight from education to welfare and that is what we should be dealing with.
Paul barker
So are you saying that it will be all right on the night, at the last moment?
And that there is some significance in the fix termed parliament when it comes to opinion polling?
Wharvarebthebusual shifts you mention?
Local council elections have been arranged on fixed terms over the last four years; I see no grounds for optimism.
Over on the member’s forums there is some discussion of another story – today’s yougov poll putting LD on 6% (or as one person notes actually 5.8%) and tied with the Greens. This caps a week in which all polls have converged on about 7% support.
So perhaps there’s something from the Sunday papers that is noticeable in a sort of “curious incident of the dog in the night time” kind of way – the Lib Dem dog appears to have gone quiet.
After 4 years of bumping along at sub 10% in the polls with a leadership that expected (why?) that support would tick back up as the election approached, it turns out that wasn’t correct. Just like their previous expectations of a new voter base and sunlit uplands of electoral support. Maybe the papers just aren’t interestingly in what the party is saying any more.
Meanwhile those of us who live in the real world need to be actively working now to minimise the damage that is going to be inflicted in 2015. Bill Le Breton’s excellent suggestions seem like a good starting point. Hello? HQ? Hello?
Local Government Elections arent really connected into Normal VI Polling & most Voters have no idea when they are due.
The connection between Fixed-Term Parliaments & The Polls is that we used to get media speculation from about 3 or 4 Years into a term as to when The Election would be called, everything Government or Opposition did was seen through that filter. By now, normally we would have had Months of speculation & rumours but this time : nothing. Essentially we have given the Voters an extra Lie-in, more time to ignore the Election & put off thinking about it. The old “Mid-Term” now lasts until The Election campaign starts; February perhaps, or March ?
I would expect big shifts in Polling when Voters see Election Day looming but its way too soon to predict what they will be, lets see if more Tory/Labour MPs defect first. The Labour/Tory Duopoly is clearly fraying at the edges, perhaps it may break down completely & that would change everything.
Paul barker
“The old “Mid-Term” now lasts until The Election campaign starts; February perhaps, or March ? ”
I guess that as we have never been in this situation before your assertion is based just wishful thinking ??
When you say that you would expect big shifts at the last moment — does that includes the possibility of a big shift DOWNWARDS for the Liberal Democrat vote?
Support for us in opinion polls has been consistently in single figures so that does ot leave much room for a downwards shift, unless you are predicting the probability of complete disaster.
The fact that the timing of the 2015 election is known in advance has simply allowed voters to make up their minds earlier. The polling figures for what used to be the three major parties have been pretty steady for a long time, and for the Liberal Democrats exceptionally steady. The real source of doubt regarding the outcome is the question of whether UKIP can maintain its support, or whether its supporters will go back to the Tories. As for the Lib Dems, they’ll be lucky to get 8%, Lib Dems representation at Westminster will be approximately halved, and there is a pretty good chance that Stephen Tall will have to streak Whitehall.
When it comes to spending priorities I think ring-fencing education spending is a bad policy. If we introduce tax cuts and ring-fence education spending then departments such as the welfare budget and defence are going to “get it in the neck”. I also see policies such as discounted bus fare for the youth and I wonder where the money is coming from.
I don’t want to be a testosterone fuelled man banging on about defence spending, but I’ve always felt soldiers aren’t paid well enough and we have a recruitment crisis. At a wedding last week one of my friends in the RAF said he used to like the Lib Dems, but couldn’t vote for them anymore out of “self-interest”. He said soldiers are getting “blown to bits” and the Lib Dems aren’t standing up for defence spending. I half defended the Lib Dems, but also agreed that if the Lib Dems ring-fence education, health and introduce tax cuts then it looks like defence is going to “get it in the neck”.
I said the Lib Dems have the best potential and my heart still points towards them, but there are material problems.
“At a wedding last week one of my friends in the RAF said he used to like the Lib Dems, but couldn’t vote for them anymore out of “self-interest”. He said soldiers are getting “blown to bits” and the Lib Dems aren’t standing up for defence spending.”
That would be the polite version of what my relative in the RAF might say.
Still, there’s always more room to expand some benefits payments…
Solidarity with Hong Kong! Clegg is good at criticising the Chinese government, we could rally around these pro-democracy protesters.
We shouldn’t be all pally with the Chinese Communist Party whilst they are chopping away at democracy.
The Telegraph… Ed and Justine: What on earth were they thinking? By Nigel Farndale. Amusing or we are not amused? I guess it depends whether you have had morning coffee or not!
I’m with Paul Howden. I worked with 16-18 year olds for decades and the more or less total fixation on getting the vast bulk of these into university was crazy. Many young people would do much better going into a mixture of workplace and classroom-based training/good apprenticeships while, in my view, many universities do a disastrous job at actually preparing young people for work (“we are academic, not vocational” (but we’ll still pocket the £6,000 or so for an allegedly ‘vocational’ post-grad course!)) As state provision across the entire Western world recedes for all age ranges, the entire focus of our education systems (at all levels) needs to be infinitely more on preparing young people/people of all ages for work which matches their skills, aspirations and attitudes (which also need to be much more entrepreneurial in very many cases). Parking young people of 18-21 on benefits in some inner-city estate surrounded by pensioners etc is definitely not the way to help achieve this.
Paul Barker – Due to Nick’s leadership, the Lib Dems have been fraying all the way from the edges to the centre left for the last 7 years with membership down by over a third. Any fraying of the Labour/Tory Duopoly is largely wishful thinking on your part I fear.
@jedibeeftrix :
““ one of my friends in the RAF said he used to like the Lib Dems, but couldn’t vote for them anymore out of “self-interest”. He said soldiers are getting “blown to bits”
Where exactly are British soldiers being blown to bits and at what rate? Are they where they are because of the Lib Dems?
“Our ambition is to abolish youth unemployment and make it the case that it’s simply not possible any more to finish school, leave home, sign on and get a flat through housing benefit.”
My God Caron, you are so right. I think the whole nation and not just the right on “radical chic” support you.
What a call to political arms you make, how we will all mount the barricades.
To argue for the right to people not to work, not to contribute to society in any way whatsoever, but to to get a house paid for by everyone else.
All together now: “We in the Westminster bubble are right. The voters are are wrong!”
@ Tony – “Where exactly are British soldiers being blown to bits and at what rate? Are they where they are because of the Lib Dems?”
They have a longer memory than the short-term political horizon you work with.
They believe their job is useful, and getting done what the gov’t says needs to be done, so they resent the complete disinterest the lib-dem’s have in defence and foreign policy.
Without putting words in their mouths; perhaps they feels the party’s attitude cheapens the value of what they achieve at the cost of blood and loss of friends.
Does that make it any clearer?