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Category Archives: The Independent View

The Independent View: Removing the ‘right to have rights’

By Shami Chakrabarti | Tue 15th April 2014 - 12:33 pm

While the Commons grappled with the latest wave of backbench Euroscepticism, quietly and without fanfare the Home Secretary introduced an amendment to the Immigration Bill which strikes at the heart of our national conscience.

The impetus for this power came not from the urgent necessity of fighting terrorism, but is rather the result of a six year legal battle. In October last year, the Supreme Court held that the executive could not remove British nationality from an individual where to do so would render him stateless. A frustrated Home Secretary now seeks a broad, discretionary power to remove what Hannah Arendt so memorably described as “the right to have rights”.

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Tagged british nationality, featured, immigration bill, liberty and stateless | 13 Comments

The Independent View: The case for ‘bedroom tax’ reform is clear – the test is for Lib Dems to take it up

By Frank Soodeen | Thu 10th April 2014 - 3:27 pm

In physics the conservation principle dictates that in closed systems, energy can neither be created or destroyed, but only turned from one form to another. New research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation examining recent welfare reforms suggest that a similar law applies to housing support costs.

Applying size limits to social tenants – better known as the spare room subsidy or ‘bedroom tax’ – aimed to do three things. Reduce costs; ease overcrowding and introduce greater fairness into the system. Specifically, if you were a social tenant with extra space that you didn’t strictly need you should pay for the advantage like all other people with housing costs.

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged bedroom tax and joseph rowntree foundation | 44 Comments

The Independent View: Without thriving city economies, there can be no sustained national recovery

By Alexandra Jones | Mon 7th April 2014 - 8:00 am

This year, George Osborne delivered his Budget against a backdrop of better than expected growth, higher than expected employment, and a deficit reduction plan that exceeded previous OBR forecasts.

His speech, unsurprisingly, made much of the success of the “long-term economic plan delivered by a coalition Government and a Conservative Chancellor”. Yet the fact that our cities still lack the powers they need to fulfil their economic potential, and drive growth locally, will constrain future growth for large parts of the UK economy.

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Tagged cites, city deal, featured, greater manchester, leeds, local growth deals and Wales | 7 Comments

The Independent View: Improving the lives of disabled people is essential for a stronger economy and fairer society

By Ben Parker | Tue 1st April 2014 - 2:31 pm

The role that Liberal Democrats play in drafting their party’s manifesto is unique in British politics. So is the party’s approach to disability.

At the 2010 General Election the Liberal Democrats were the only party to produce a manifesto for disabled people. This pledged better employment support and improved recording of disability hate crime.

And in Government, the two Coalition Ministers responsible for social care reform are from Lib Dem benches – Paul Burstow and Norman Lamb. Their commitment to improving social care support for disabled people has been clear.

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Tagged disability and scope | 3 Comments

The Independent View: Pensions reform – the right to advice is right

By Gillian Guy | Sun 30th March 2014 - 8:45 am

During the Budget last week George Osborne announced the right to free and impartial face-to-face advice in the context of pension reforms. On a day where we saw other good news — such as encouraging growth forecasts and falling unemployment figures — it was a poignant reminder of how vital advice is for anyone facing major life decisions at any time in their life.

We know more than most how invaluable quality advice is. This year is our 75th anniversary and, over the past 12 months, Citizens Advice helped more than …

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Tagged budget 2014, citizens advice, pension reforms and pensions | 6 Comments

The Independent View: Clegg can’t just take on Farage – he also needs to spell out his own vision for EU reform

By Pawel Swidlicki | Tue 25th March 2014 - 10:52 am

Like all political obsessives up and down the country I’ve stocked up on popcorn ahead of Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage’s upcoming duels over Europe in anticipation of some captivating political theatre. However, from my more sober perspective as a political analyst, such a binary, ‘all-or-nothing’ debate over Europe is fundamentally flawed as it does not speak to where the majority of the British public are at. Polls have consistently shown that when respondents are offered options beyond staying in on the current terms or leaving altogether, the option of staying in a reformed/slimmed down EU proves the most popular across the political spectrum.

People hold different views about how they would like to see the European Union develop. Which of these statements comes closest to your view?

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Tagged nick clegg and nigel farage | 25 Comments

The Independent View: Rooting out criminal landlords

By Alan Ward | Thu 20th March 2014 - 9:00 am

In his recent article, Julian Huppert MP declared that “landlords should have to compete on quality not just on price.” The Residential Landlords Association agrees. The question is how to achieve this.

Many councils have chosen some form of licensing to identify the ‘rogues’ who over-crowd homes and rent sub-standard properties.

The problem with licensing schemes is they identify the good landlords who sign up but fail to find the crooks. Even Newham, the most pro-active borough in this respect, has failed to reach the hardcore of 20% of rogue landlords after a year’s intensive enforcement.

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Tagged landlords, letting agencies and private rented sector | 7 Comments

The Independent View: Keep academy freedoms – and extend them to all schools

By Amy Finch | Tue 18th March 2014 - 3:31 pm

The question whether to curtail or extend academy freedoms to state-funded schools was resurrected last October in a speech by Nick Clegg. The answer he put forward was to extend academy freedoms to all schools, albeit in a limited form. Clegg would like to claw-back the freedoms academies have over unqualified teachers and the curriculum, but to extend the remaining freedoms to all state-funded schools.

Clegg’s new-found middle way is based on a belief that guaranteeing high standards in education is best achieved by curtailing autonomy. In October 2013, he said: “There is nothing…inconsistent in believing that greater school autonomy can be married to certain core standards for all.”

Yet high levels of autonomy and accountability are conducive to high pupil attainment. The Deputy Director for Education and Skills at the OECD, Andreas Schleicher, has said that England’s multiple measures of accountability, along with a “high level of autonomy and discretion at the front line”, are key to success in education.

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Tagged academies, reform and schools | 20 Comments

The Independent View: Censorship is not the way forward in countering online extremism

By Erin Marie Saltman | Sun 16th February 2014 - 9:00 am

Earlier this month, the Government reiterated its intent to censor online extremist content through ISP filtering systems. This has largely been in reaction to fears over radical jihadi videos coming from Syria and has been heightened due to recent estimates of 2,000 European fighters travelling to Syria. There is particular concern over the influence foreign fighters may have on the young and impressionable upon their return to their countries of origin.

Though well-intentioned, government-controlled filtering is problematic for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it raises big questions about what can be deemed ‘extremist’ in theory. Secondly, current filtering technology …

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Tagged censorship, online and syria | 1 Comment

The Independent View: London – a magnet for talent

By Alexandra Jones | Mon 3rd February 2014 - 9:55 am

Vince Cable recently accused London of acting like a giant machine that sucks in all of the talent from the rest of the country. Our new report, Cities Outlook 2014, shows that London is indeed a magnet for young people from across the country. But the big question is: why does this happen, and what does it mean for policy?

First, let’s look at the key stats. Somewhat counterintuitively, overall London loses population to the rest of the country. But this is overwhelmingly to the Greater South …

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Tagged centre for cities, featured, london and vince cable | 11 Comments

The Independent View: The crisis in Egypt is not in anyone’s interest

By Tarek Abdel Hakim | Tue 28th January 2014 - 3:05 pm

The reaction of the US and EU governments to the crackdown on protestors in Ukraine has been swift. EU governments seem to be considering possible sanctions on Ukrainian officials, the US warned the Ukrainian Government of “consequences” on relations, and the Prime Minister of Ukraine was not allowed to speak at the World Economic Forum at Davos. This stern reaction comes as up to five protestors have been killed in clashes with the police in Kiev over the past week.

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Tagged egypt and human rights watch | Leave a comment

The Independent View: Vince Cable should make sure all companies are bound by new transparency law

By Richard Dyer | Fri 24th January 2014 - 10:45 am

Consider this question – what is the difference between a T-shirt from Tesco and one from TopShop? Lib Dems will undoubtedly have their own style preferences.

But for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Minister Vince Cable there’s an important distinction. Cable is seeking to weaken proposed EU rules that would require companies to report annually on risks their operations pose to communities and the natural world, such as accidents, pollution and human rights. The new non-financial reporting directive could be a game-changer on a path towards more sustainable production.

It should ensure that a firm like Tesco, as a large …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged company transparency, eu and friends of the earth | 2 Comments

The Independent View: Transparency in Government

By Alexandra Runswick | Tue 14th January 2014 - 9:00 am

This week the Liberal Democrats face a test of their commitment to transparency in government when the House of Lords considers Part 1 of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill. Bizarrely for a Bill with transparency in the title, it will provide the public with less information than we already have under the discredited system of self-regulation.

Last week the BMJ published details of the way the drinks industry had lobbied government to drop the commitment to minimum alcohol pricing including 130 meetings, few of which were in the public domain. This is not about …

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Tagged lobbying and transparency bill and unlock democracy | 9 Comments

The Independent View: Lobbying Bill protects multinational corporate interests at expense of charity campaigns

By Richard Carr | Fri 10th January 2014 - 8:55 am

The Robin Hood Tax campaign is facing a tough opponent – not just from the usual source of the financial sector and their allies, but from legislation currently going through the House of Lords.

The Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill is due to go to its report stage next week. The Robin Hood Tax campaign cannot support it for a number of reasons, and we urge peers of all political colours not to rush the bill through just to get it passed in time for the 2015 election. The legislation would hamper our campaigning abilities whilst empowering …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged house of lords and lobbying bill | 16 Comments

The Independent View: Non-gender-specific passports – why the EDM matters

By Jennie Kermode | Thu 9th January 2014 - 5:59 pm

This week has seen the submission, by Julian Huppert, of EDM 907, LEGAL RECOGNITION FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT ASSOCIATE WITH A PARTICULAR GENDER. If it sounds familiar, that’s because a similar EDM was introduced by Simon Hughes last month but had to be withdrawn when he became a minister. The subject, of course, will be unfamiliar to most of those who come across it, and that’s why it’s so important to explain how deeply it impacts those affected.

I work for a charity called Trans Media Watch which aims to improve media understanding, and thereby social understanding, or transgender and intersex people. As it happens, I’m currently processing results from a survey about people who don’t identify as male or female (generally described as non-binary people, though personal definitions vary). The survey relates to perceptions of the media, but two things come through clearly in it that seem relevant to this situation too. The first is that this is a group of people who feel very poorly understood. The second is that they experience a great deal of distress because of that lack of understanding.

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Tagged julian huppert, trans media watch and transgender | 4 Comments

The Independent View: The Public Service Users Bill is an opportunity for Lib Dems to show whose side they’re on

By Cat Hobbs | Tue 7th January 2014 - 10:46 am

In 2011, Nick Clegg strongly backed the government’s ‘open public services’ agenda. In practice, this was used as a figleaf for outsourcing everything from prisons, probation and the NHS to council services. Corporations like G4S, Serco, Atos and Capita have won billions of pounds in contracts yet they are hugely unpopular with the public and the scandals keep coming.

Clegg also promised to ‘take a hard line against the kind of blanket privatisation which was pursued by governments in the past’. Yet the coalition has sold off the Royal Mail, …

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Tagged public services and we own it | 10 Comments

The Independent View: Could Ireland’s emerging healthcare reforms test David Laws’ NHIS vision?

By Elliot Bidgood | Tue 17th December 2013 - 9:16 am

Nearly a decade ago now, David Laws MP raised the idea of evolving the NHS into a continental-style universal ‘National Health Insurance Scheme’ (NHIS), where healthcare would be progressively funded from dedicated income contributions, individuals could choose insurers and everyone would be entitled to a comprehensive package of set treatments within a decentralised but heavily regulated system. It was a bold and interesting proposal, which for better or worse helped define the 2004 Orange Book in eyes of many, though it has perhaps also been misunderstood and straw-manned to a degree.

However, besides substantive criticisms and the understandable sensitivities that talk …

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Tagged civitas, david laws and NHS | 19 Comments

The Independent View: Help, don’t judge – better uses for the £700 million marriage tax break cash

By Jenny Allen | Wed 4th December 2013 - 11:58 am

Another Westminster set piece, another piece of the jigsaw for David Cameron’s marriage tax allowance. This Thursday the Chancellor gives his Autumn Statement. With the economic upturn shaky at best we can expect little in the way of good news and plenty more squeezing of budgets. Except, that is, for the little matter of the £700m the Conservatives are gearing up to spend on giving tax breaks for married couples. The Chancellor is expected to give more detail on this policy, which even its supporters believe is only of symbolic value.

With …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged don't judge my family, featured and marriage tax break | 7 Comments

The Independent View: Legal aid cuts – a compromise too far

By Millie Graham Wood | Mon 25th November 2013 - 1:30 pm

In the week of the JCHR evidence session with Chris Grayling, the Justice Alliance has provided Simon Hughes MP with testimonials from over 100 organisations under the banner ‘Justice Deserves Lib Dems Stay Legal Aid Proposals’. The Testimonials represent a cross-section of society from The Howard League for Penal Reform, Liberty, Reprieve, Justice, to the British Tamil Forum, Kurdish Community Centre, René Cassin, Unite the Union, The Children’s Society and Women Against Rape.

As Liberty say in their testimonial:

UK justice should be open to all, with everyone having the opportunity to refute an accusation of criminal

…

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14 Comments

The Independent View: Help stop legal aid becoming the new secret courts

By Nick Armstrong | Tue 19th November 2013 - 10:47 am

Liberal Democrat members know that cuts to civil legal aid are illiberal. And they know the leadership is not facing a dilemma between protecting liberal values and cutting the deficit because these cuts will cost, not save, money.

It was why the Emergency Motion to oppose cuts to legal aid (until it can be proved there will be “no adverse effect upon access to justice”) came out top of the ballot at conference this year and was then overwhelmingly passed. I had previously asked Lib Dem Voice readers to support this motion in the ballot so I want to say …

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Tagged legal aid | 12 Comments

The Independent View: Judicial review changes would advance state powers at expense of individual freedom

By Gillian Guy | Thu 14th November 2013 - 3:59 pm

In its 2010 Manifesto, the Liberal Democrats pledged to ‘restore and protect hard-won British liberties’. The Government’s consultation on judicial review, which closed this week, could result in a radical shift of power from individuals to the state. If this happens, the legal system and the people who depend on it for fair treatment will be weaker for it.

Plans from the Ministry of Justice to introduce serious restrictions on access to judicial review will make it much harder for people to challenge the execution of public power on behalf of an individual citizen.

The Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has argued that …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged access to justice, citizens advice, judicial review and legal | 7 Comments

The Independent View: Is the Coalition is doing enough to help Britain’s couple families?

By Kayte Lawton | Thu 14th November 2013 - 8:54 am

The Chancellor looks set to announce a new tax break for married couples in next month’s Autumn Statement, while universal credit continues its slow and increasingly painful roll out. Both are heralded by the Coalition as flagship policies to support families by raising incomes, helping more parents into work and promoting stable family life. In practice, neither will provide the help that Britain’s couple families need to cope with the growing pressures of time and money that push too many into poverty and put enormous strain on relationships.

A tax break for married couples has long been a core demand of …

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Tagged family and ippr | 7 Comments

The Independent View: Democracy for Toddlers

By Ellie Levenson | Thu 7th November 2013 - 12:00 pm

One of the things I love most about being a parent is being asked questions that make me think about the world in a new way. Why, my toddler daughter wants to know, don’t we have dessert after breakfast? And why there is a moon? And where the people we can see from the bus window are going? In my household we call in ‘Whying’. I am quite convincing on the first of these questions, and can make a stab at the second. And for the third, about the people on the bus, I make up answers and that does …

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged children's books and democracy for toddlers | 7 Comments

The Independent View: What’s wrong with HS2?

By Penny Gaines | Fri 1st November 2013 - 4:14 pm

High speed 2 easily cleared its first parliamentary hurdle yesterday, with just 34 MPs voting against the High Speed Rail (Preparation) Bill – 350 voted in favour. Here Penny Gaines argues the case against HS2 is still strong.

High Speed 2 will cost £50bn, including the trains. But it is an environmentally damaging vanity project, with a constantly shifting rationale for building it.

The current argument is that speed is irrelevant for the case for HS2, but that our existing railways are nearly full and the only option is to build a new high speed railway. This argument does not stand up to scrutiny.

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged high speed 2 | 46 Comments

The Independent View: Want an extra £140,000 in your pension without paying a penny?

By Imogen Parker | Fri 1st November 2013 - 11:02 am

This week brought welcome news for millions: Lib Dem minister Steve Webb wants to introduce a cap on pension fees.

Who cares? With 12 million people not saving enough for an adequate income in retirement, forcing charges to be capped could substantially improve the standard of living for pensioners without requiring an extra penny of their income.

The government is consulting on three different caps for workplace pensions: a 0.75 per cent cap, a 1 per cent cap, or a “comply or explain” cap, which would allow providers to charge between 0.75 and 1 per cent if they could justify doing so.

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Tagged pensions | 20 Comments

The Independent View: Planning out Poverty

By Kate Henderson | Fri 25th October 2013 - 10:03 am

Planning has become increasingly disconnected from peoples’ lives because it no longer deals with many of the issues people care about. At the same time much of the political and media debate about the future of planning has become a largely sterile discussion of the merits of continued deregulation. Everyone should have a right, irrespective of earnings, to a decent home

Planning has played a transformational role in improving the quality of life of all of our communities. It has a critical responsibility, along with wider public interventions, to tackle entrenched poverty. Planning has the potential to enhance our wellbeing by ensuring access to high quality environments and economic opportunities and to give communities a voice in their future.

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Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged planning | 2 Comments

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