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Category Archives: Op-eds

How Continental Europeans view proroguing Parliament and abandoning EU inhabitants of the UK

By Bernard Aris | Fri 30th August 2019 - 3:09 pm

In my earlier June 17^th LDV piece on the concept of proroguing Parliament I reminded readers that the last person on the continent trying to disband a sitting EU parliament was the fascist colonel Tejero who in February 1981 entered the plenary session of the Cortes to disband at gunpoint the Spanish parliament finishing Spain’s transition to a full constitutional democracy.

To give you a flavour of how proroguing is seen here, a small list of continental heads of government who disbanded parliament to get their way without hindrance:

Napoleon in 1799 fled Egypt to conduct a Paris military coup (with grenadiers intimidating parliamentarians in their session) on “18-19 Brumaire” (November) to make himself “First Consul” under a constitution without Civil Rights. Making his brother king of the Dutch vassal “Batavian Republic” in 1806, he eliminated the last vestiges of its parliament. And Napoleon’s nephew in 1851 did the same with the French parliament, eliciting the famous Karl Marx pamphlet.

Mussolini grabbed power from a string of Liberal governments in 1922, and in combination with conservative politicians had a law adopted in 1923 by a divided parliament giving him an absolute majority after the 1924 elections. The Socialist MP Mateotti protesting over electoral fraud was immediately killed.

These examples give you a picture of how “positive” prorogation is seen on the continent.

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Tagged proroguing parliament | 30 Comments

How British liberals should advocate for the human rights of the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir

By Imaduddin Ahmed | Fri 30th August 2019 - 12:59 pm

This past month, the Government of India has escalated military presence in Jammu and Kashmir, already perhaps the densest in the world, enforced curfews, a media blackout, blocked all communications and arrested Kashmiri politicians without issuing warrants under a draconian law. Reports of torture of civilians are now coming through the BBC.

This comes accompanying the Government of India’s attempt to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status per the conditions of it joining India after India became independent.

Civilian casualties over the past 12 months were already at a decade high, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as of April 2019 who found in his 2018 report the Indian state to be guilty of ‘excessive force that led to unlawful killings and a very high number of injuries’, and to be guilty of denying access to justice to Kashmiris. The report recommended measures to eliminate the impunity with which security forces were able to act and improve accountability for human rights violations of the state, as well as for the self-determination of Kashmiris in both Pakistan and Indian administered Kashmir. Instead of adopting its recommendations, the Government of India’s recent actions will worsen the situation.

Being committed to fair, free and open societies, British liberals will be itching to intervene. However, British involvement in the bilateral (but asymmetric) issue between Jammu and Kashmir and India could reek of colonialism.

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Tagged india and kashmir | 5 Comments

Observations of an ex pat: Intelligence insulted

By Tom Arms | Fri 30th August 2019 - 10:37 am

I hate it when politicians insult my intelligence. When they speak and act in a manner which implies that the voting public are no more than gullible poll fodder it undermines their credibility and damages the democratic process.

Not that the current prime minister had much credibility to start with. Boris Johnson is infamous for his deceits, distortions, half-truths, vacillations and outright lies in pursuit of political ends which are clearly designed to serve only the interests of Boris Johnson.

His latest porky is the claim that proroguing parliament has nothing to do with the Brexit debate. That is so obviously false. It is right up there with the NHS bus, floods of Turkish immigrants, dismissal of the Irish border as “not a problem”, having our cake and eating it too, and the assertion that the German car industry will be on its hands and knees grovelling for a deal.

The Johnson government claims that using the tactic of an early Queen’s Speech to prorogue parliament in the middle of the run-up to the No Deal deadline of 31 October is perfectly normal. It will, says Johnson, have no impact on parliament’s ability to debate Brexit. “Nothing to do with Brexit,” says Michael Gove. “A bit boring actually,” claims Jacob Rees-Mogg.

More accurate was the comment from Father of the House Ken Clark: “I don’t know how they keep a straight face.”

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Tagged boris johnson | 20 Comments

It’s 1914 again …

By John King | Thu 29th August 2019 - 6:33 pm

… and I think I’m a conchie.

Brexiteers are fond of invoking the spirit of the Second World War for their all consuming mission. They assemble a war cabinet, Boris Johnson dons the mantle of Winston Churchill and strikes a pose as heroic saviour of the nation. No doubt a spitfire flypast is planned for November 1^st.

Yet if we insist on military comparisons, in truth the atmosphere resembles more the run up to World War One. In the summer of 1914, as the Guardian columnist Rafael Behr puts it, “martial drums grew louder, pacifist voices grew fainter, a fog of fatalism descended. The nature of the question shifted from averting possible cataclysm to managing one that seemed inevitable”.

Although in theory our exit can be stopped, the armoured tank that is Brexit now has a lot of momentum and it is unclear how exactly to disable it. Though we assume all routes are still open, many may have already closed off. Historians, contemplating the build up to the Great War, are similarly uncertain when the point of no return occurred.

It was famously said that Europe was plunged into the First World War by the inexorable operation of train timetables. In other words, at a critical moment the carefully laid mobilisation plans could not be deactivated. Today, mobilisation is already proceeding apace and our diplomats in Europe have been ordered to take the train home. Parliament is set to be suspended, blue passports are being printed, celebratory coins are being struck, before long Brexit will be a fait accompli even before it has happened.

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Tagged brexit | 21 Comments

Men of honour

By David Warren | Thu 29th August 2019 - 4:24 pm

There comes a time when even the best of us decide in is time to exit stage left. We saw that this week with both Norman Lamb and Vince Cable announcing that they will be standing down from parliament at the next General Election. I am sure many will agree with me when I say they will be sorely missed.

It was my pleasure to meet Norman at a Lib Dem conference during his time as a Health Minister. In fact he might have thought I was stalking him given the fact that I attended and spoke at four fringe meetings dealing with the issue of social care! He has been a consistent voice for reform of that system at the same campaigning on issues including mental health and drugs reform. He is clearly hugely popular in North Norfolk evidenced by his surviving the electoral wipeout in 2015.

Vince is also saying goodbye to parliament and although I have never met him in person I feel I know him from reading his excellent autobiography Free Radical. Like me he came to this party from Labour and what an impact he has made. Everyone remembers his brilliant from ‘Stalin to Mr Bean’ remark in the commons during the Brown premiership but there is also his prediction of the financial crash, a successful period as Business Secretary and most recently taking on the leadership at a very tough time for us. He is departing on a high following excellent electoral successes. He even found time to champion the need for reform of the law on assisted dying.

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Tagged norman lamb and vince cable | 5 Comments

Let’s talk about something else … diversity in film and theatre

By Mary Reid | Thu 29th August 2019 - 12:16 pm

I did enjoy the film Yesterday, not least because the songs of the Beatles have threaded through my life.

But I was struck by one thing – the fact that the lead actor was BAME even though the part did not call for it. That is still quite rare in film these days. Danny Boyle has said that he chose Himesh Patel because he could both act and sing, and his voice had soul. “I wouldn’t have cast him if I had found someone better”.

I go to the theatre a lot and these days it is so refreshing to see colour blind casting, as well as casting that ignores gender, sexual orientation, age or disability. Of course, the key difference between film and stage is the latter’s appeal to the audience’s imagination.

In a theatre the actors invite the audience to conspire together to imagine that a minimal set is a desert, a country house, a ship at sea or a street in New York. The prologue to Henry V captures the essence of theatre: “And let us … on your imaginary forces work”. Similarly we all suspend our disbelief and go along with the idea that an actor is really a king, a social worker, a prostitute or a politician.

On the other hand, most movies aim for verisimilitude, so scenes are filmed in realistic settings and the actor is transformed with make-up, prosthetics or CGI to match the character’s appearance. It is noteworthy that, because Yesterday was a film and not a stage play, Boyle cast, as the parents, the wonderful Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal – two actors who look as though they could have produced Himesh Patel. In contrast, on the stage any ethnicity might have been encountered.

However, there is a dark history of institutional prejudice within the theatre.

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Tagged diversity and equalities | 9 Comments

We need a flexible Conference

By David Becket | Thu 29th August 2019 - 9:38 am

With the terrible twins Johnson and Cummings in charge, this country is in the most dangerous situation since the start of World War Two. They are planning a right wing coup, with neither of them elected by the British public. Johnson was elected by a handful of elderly right-wingers in the Tory Party and Johnson elected Cummings, who is contemptuous of our democratic process

The news changes every day, and the likelihood is that we are approaching a democratic and economic disaster.

Lib Dems now have a higher profile than for some years, and we can expect more interest in our Conference than in the past.

The public will want to know:

What are our solutions to the major issues this country faces?
What is our response if we are forced into a No Deal Brexit?

We need to achieve maximum publicity for our response to this crisis.

We therefore need to clear the decks at conference in order to address these issues in the light of the then current circumstances.

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Tagged boris johnson | 62 Comments

Please sign the petition against proroguing Parliament

By Paul Walter | Wed 28th August 2019 - 6:32 pm

Earlier today, I signed the petition against proroguing parliament and about 150,000 people had also signed it. I’ve just looked and now 604,612 people have signed – and it’s going up all the time! (P.S As I published this post it had gone up to 622,453)

Please do sign the petition here – it just takes a few seconds.

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Tagged brexit and proroguing parliament | 66 Comments

Members must decide!

By Simon McGrath | Wed 28th August 2019 - 12:00 pm

Election pacts and participation in an Emergency Government need to be agreed by members.

As a No Deal Brexit and a possible General Election get nearer there has been much talk of how we Remainers can stop it. The focus at the moment is on legislation to stop it but there are two other areas said to be under discussion:

An emergency government to hold a referendum followed by a General Election
A ‘Remain alliance‘ so that in key seats Remain parties don’t stand against each other (though Alastair Carmichael has been reported as saying we would not stand down for the SNP).

I believe that it is really important that we don’t abandon one of the fundamental principles of our Party – the primacy of members in taking key decisions

If we participate in an emergency Government then our Constitution is very clear about what needs to happen. Section 23 says that support for a government which contains other political parties applies

where the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons (‘the Commons Party’) enters into negotiations with one or more other political parties with a view to the formation of a government supported by the party and such party or parties;

There are various provisions about consultations etc but the key point is that any agreement would have to be approved by a 2/3rd vote at either a regular or special Conference.

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Tagged electoral pacts, emergency government, no deal brexit, party policy, remain alliance and snap general election | 11 Comments

Tackling the scourge of holiday hunger

By Munira Wilson | Tue 27th August 2019 - 12:40 pm

As we near the end of the school holidays, I have been thinking a lot this summer about holiday hunger – an estimated three million children in the United Kingdom are at risk of going hungry during the school holidays.

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Tagged child poverty, food banks, holiday hunger and schools | 6 Comments

Where will we get and use volunteers?

By Michael Taylor | Tue 27th August 2019 - 9:40 am

The next election, whenever it is, could see major gains by the party, or not.

What’s the difference between the two outcomes? In my view it is knocking on doors. In the Brecon and Radnor by-election, although we won, we did not knock on enough doors, but almost certainly delivered far too many leaflets. Yet every measure of how to win people over to our cause says that we will do it by talking person to person, either on the doorstep (best) or over the telephone.

In their book, Rules for Revolutionaries (recommended by Mark Pack), Becky Bond and Zack Exley talk about distributed organising, which explains how the Bernie Sanders Team used vast numbers of volunteers – 80% of whom had never been involved in politics – as the mainstay of their organisation, giving them equal roles with paid professionals, and built a volunteer organisation that could contact over 100,000 by email at one go and could run a voter registration operation in every state as well as GOTV.

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30 Comments

Surely there is a way that Johnson can give us a treat on Halloween, rather than a trick?

By Paul Walter | Mon 26th August 2019 - 3:07 pm

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WARNING: This article contains high amounts of hysterical optimism (or at least non-pessimism)

Here are, to my mind, three significant things about Boris Johnson in the context of the current Brexit dilemma:

1. It is conceivable that he harbours ideas of having statues of himself built in future. When grappling with the choice of being a politician or a journalist, he allegedly once said:

They don’t put up statues to journalists

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Tagged boris johnson and brexit | 27 Comments

Policy responses to the Amazon fires – a longer read for the weekend

By Rupinder Singh | Sat 24th August 2019 - 2:00 pm

President Macron, the UN Secretary General, London mayor Sadiq Khan and even Cristiano Renaldo have all chipped in over the last 24 hours with concern about the situation where 1/5th of the Earth’s oxygen source is located and Sao Paulo is covered in a blanket of smoke and across half of Brazil. How big is the problem, what are the implications and how do we incentivise and assist Brazil?

The figure above, from the BBC website, shows the increasing trend which feeds into the wider global concern about global warming and the resultant thawing of the Arctic, melting of glaciers such as that in the Hindu Khush that feeds 1 in 3 of the global population and the extreme weather events from heavy rains that cause flooding (from England to the current woes affecting the Indian sub-continent) and intense summer heat and often more intense winters. And witness the spate of Artic fires this year from Alaska to the Russian far north.

The immediate impact of climate change is evident across much of the world – even if not accepted by naysayers – and most pressingly by the developing world, countries without either the budgetary resources or the institutional structures in place to put together cohesive long-term stabilisation strategies in place to deal with the immediate emergency and humanitarian crises following fires and floods.

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Tagged amazon and brazil | 6 Comments

Say no to HS2

By Peter Wrigley | Sat 24th August 2019 - 11:43 am

I suspect a lot of leading Liberal Democrats have been railway buffs from childhood and will be appalled at the suggestion that the HS2 scheme might be scrapped. I am not a railway buff, though I confess to a brief period as an Iain Allen train spotter.

However, way back in 2014 a fellow Liberal Democrat, Quentin Macdonald, moved a resolution at our Yorkshire and Humberside Region annual conference which proposed what seemed to me a very convincing, and much less costly, alternative which he had developed with another railway expert, Colin Elliff. This they called High Speed UK. It had a much higher degree of connectivity with the existing network than HS2, hence being of much greater value to a whole series of northern towns and cities, rather than just Birmingham, and, if the links ever get built, Manchester, Liverpool, Wigan, Sheffield and Leeds and York.

Details of the scheme can be found here.

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Tagged HS2 | 44 Comments

It must be Revoke – it’s too late for anything else….

By Brian Edmonds | Fri 23rd August 2019 - 12:33 pm

When Jo Swinson meets Jeremy Corbyn next week there is only one message worth delivering: Article 50 must be revoked before the Brexit deadline. The time is long past for parliamentary jiggery-pokery and procedural sleight of hand, whether it be to bring about a further extension, a second referendum, a General Election, or all three. The country now needs a solution which is honourable, and removes the tyranny of an artificial deadline created only by the ineptitude of the May administration.

The overriding justification for revocation is that it is the only course of action which is neutral in its consequences. Legally we can revoke without any change in our relationship with the EU, and legally there is nothing to stop us restarting the Article 50 process in the future.

Its beauty is that it is blissfully simple, it requires no commitment to a leave or remain agenda, and if it is understood to be temporary, no one is bound or compromised. To be fair to the Leave factions, the Labour Party and others, it is likely to require a commitment by Parliament to a further referendum, and maybe also a General Election, but this would be for later, and with time to do it properly.

Of course, there will be the familiar outcry claiming betrayal of democracy, but such claims are tendentious and above all hypocritical. The leavers will have lost nothing, except the chance to squeeze through a flawed and massively unpopular decision by undemocratic means. There can be no honourable objection to restarting the process. Let the Leavers state their case again and demonstrate that they really do represent the will of the people.

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Tagged article 50 and brexit | 45 Comments

Observations of an Expat – the nuclear train

By Tom Arms | Fri 23rd August 2019 - 10:26 am

Remember decoupling? It was a common phrase during the Cold War (or should I say first Cold War?). The railway metaphor was used to describe Soviet efforts to exploit American isolationist tendencies to sever the defensive link between Europe and America, leaving Western Europe exposed to the Soviet nuclear arsenal.

The threat is back. It is back in Europe and has opened a new front in Asia. It is nuclear. It is political. It is economic and the current crop in Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang are much more adept at the task their predecessors.

The current debate centres on the latest generation of intermediate range (INF) nuclear-tipped missiles in Russia and North Korea. These missiles have a range of anywhere from 500 to 1500 miles which means that they are not a direct threat to the American mainland. They do, however, cast a huge nuclear shadow over America’s allies in Europe and Asia.

Why was the decoupling threat treated so seriously by both sides of the Atlantic back in the 1970s and 1980s? Because it was believed to be important that if the Soviets attacked Western Europe with nuclear weapons the United States would respond with equivalent force, and that the threat of such a response would deter the Soviets . But in order to insure an American response, it needed to accept that its interests were inextricably linked to the defence of Europe. If American isolationists successfully argued that a Soviet attack could be confined to Europe, than might also argue that the US should refrain a strategic counter attack in order to avoid a doomsday scenario on US soil.

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Tagged nuclear weapons | 3 Comments

Brexit: Do we follow Jeremy Corbyn or revert to Theresa May’s plan?

By Johnny McDermott | Thu 22nd August 2019 - 6:01 pm

With regard to Brexit, two options remain for the Liberal Democrats. They are unpalatable. Our very newfound strength represents unconverted electoral energy. We must not overplay our hand.

There is no legitimate option to Remain without attempting reform. We cannot just hope that the far-right does not swell and that our fulsome democracy is not irreparably damaged and left as an empty shell of majoritarian rule. The likes of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson know how to pipe the tune to destruction.

These are not hollow (Project) fears. We must guard against them as vigilantly as we try to prevent No Deal.

Our options:

Jeremy Corbyn. He offers us a government of national unity to stop No Deal. Then a General Election that we’ve been chomping at the bit to fight. Then – he assumes he’ll win, but we’ll see about that! – a referendum. For this we must accept Jeremy Corbyn as a neutered Prime Minister for a little while. And – I know my fellow Scottish LDs won’t want to hear it – IndyRef2 for the SNP’s support.

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Tagged brexit | 46 Comments

Jo Swinson and the art of disagreeing well

By Lorenzo Cherin | Thu 22nd August 2019 - 12:30 pm

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When I was at London University in the latter 1980’s studying History and Politics, a particular incident made an impact on me and I recall it clearly.

I was in a politics tutorial, one in which the very mild mannered, but enthusiastic, tutor, a delightful German of young middle age, had got the class to be a sort of forum for topical discussion. “What shall we discuss today, then?” He said, one day, as often he did. He was greeted by silence, as often he was!

“Any suggestions?” He said, again trying to enthuse. He was greeted by silence, again nobody very enthused. I was very enthusiastic, but said nothing, because I rarely did say anything, and was very political, elected during those university years as a President of the Student Union, and I did not want to be pushy or too showy.

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Tagged brexit and Jo Swinson | 41 Comments

Irish Travellers deserve our respect – just like any other ethnic group

By Paul Walter | Thu 22nd August 2019 - 9:30 am

(Above) #DontTeachHate short video from The Traveller Movement
I was very struck by this quote from Chris Baughurst of the Gypsy,Roma,Traveller Police Association (Thames Valley branch), speaking at the Green party Summer Gathering in Reading last Saturday:

We are the only ethnicity in this country where it is openly acceptable to denigrate us, people to say things, and no one bats an eyelid.

I recently dug through the Twitter archive relating to a recent event (which I will not specify, as it is now sub judice) and found over 100 separate incidents in the last week alone where Twitter users were (in arguable contravention of Twitter’s own rules) “abusive or harmful” in ‘directing hate towards a protected category’, in relation to Irish Travellers (a UK government registered ethnic group).

Most of the relevant tweets used a grossly derogatory word beginning with “p” or an abusive word beginning with “g” and ending in “o”. Some of the worst tweets combined those words with the word “scumbag”, the word “vermin” or a slang word for excrement. All made generalised remarks about the grouping and some expressed the view that drastic action should be taken against that group, in contravention of their basic human rights. (I have reported 90+ incidents to Twitter and I am now having to deal with a blizzard of emails from them asking for further information). The short video above gives even more graphic illustrations of such routine abuse, collated by the Traveller Movement.

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Tagged irish travellers and sal brinton | 4 Comments

The Lib Dems have become an establishment party

By David Warren | Wed 21st August 2019 - 5:32 pm

Liberalism has a rich history of radicalism from the People’s Budget, to Beveridge through to the more recent opposition to the Iraq war. The latter event had the effect of placing the Lib Dems to the left of Labour and resulting in some spectacular electoral successes at the expense of Blair’s discredited administration.

It was this progressive party of Liberals that attracted me in my home town where council seats were being won and where Gareth Epps pushed Labour into third place in the East constituency at the 2010 General Election.

Then came coalition with the old enemy the Conservatives, which looking back was inevitable given the route mapped out by Nick Clegg and his allies at the top of the party. I believe that their aim was a pact with the Tories from the time he assumed the leadership. Coalition damaged the party badly and, yes, there were some gains but overall the balance sheet was a negative one born out by the sight of both candidates in the recent leadership election falling over themselves to admit they got things wrong whilst serving in government.

During those years the party was very much part of the political establishment, and the electorate’s verdict was harsh. It is only with the situation created by the referendum on membership of the European Union that some electoral progress has been forthcoming but my concern about that is that once again the party is lining up with the establishment. In addition it gives the appearance of being a single issue party.

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168 Comments

We need to talk about Public Space Protection Orders

By David Gray | Tue 20th August 2019 - 2:30 pm

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Five years ago, a rather dull-sounding law was introduced by Theresa May’s Home Office called the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act. It passed relatively easily through parliament and was presented as a more effective way of taking enforcement against anti-social behaviour.

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8 Comments

Investment in transport in northern England is far behind London

By Richard Kemp | Tue 20th August 2019 - 11:55 am

Embed from Getty ImagesSo, what should we make of yesterday’s report from IPPR North about projected spending on transport in the North of England up to 2033?

Lets first look at those figures:

The north of England is set to receive £2,389 less per person than London on transport, according to a new study which has stoked concern that the north is “held back by government underinvestment”.

The study, by IPPR North, analysed the government’s planned infrastructure projects between now and 2033 and found that planned transport spending in the capital was set to be £3,636 per person, compared with £1,247 in the north.

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Tagged north of england, north west region and transport | 17 Comments

Vince Cable MP reflects on recent events and some holiday reading

By Vince Cable | Tue 20th August 2019 - 10:45 am

Jane Dodds applauds helpers at Brecon – Photo by Callum Littlemore
I heard the good news about Brecon and Radnorshire having disappeared for some R&R as soon as Parliament closed, and the new Lib Dem leadership was settled. I was delighted with the result not just for Jane Dodds and our campaigners – who fully deserved it – but for an excellent colleague, Roger Williams, who didn’t deserve to lose back in 2015. Our victory is testament also to Kirsty Williams, our AM, who kept the Lib Dem flame, and local party, alive through the years of exile.

I enjoyed my three visits to the constituency as party leader for more than the politics. I had memories of a mis-spent and romantic youth as a mountain guide in the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons; an idyllic second honeymoon in a hotel below Pen-y-Fan; and several literary fests at Hay. Jane helped Rachel and me to locate a stunning B&B in ‘the oldest house in Wales’, a farmhouse and restored annex reached through three farm gates high up a hillside on the banks of the Wye and serving food which would not have been out of place in a top restaurant. A great by-election in more ways than one.

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Tagged brecon and radnorshire by-election 2019, brexit, government of national unity, jane dodds, kirsty williams, Robert Harris, roger williams and sarah wollaston | 9 Comments

What the Yellowhammer assessment reveals

By Rupinder Singh | Tue 20th August 2019 - 9:30 am

The Sunday Times on August 18th led with this “leaked” Cabinet document, purportedly by a former Cabinet official and then downplayed by Mr Gove and others as a “worst case” scenario or a re-hash of “project fear”.

Even if the “revelations” are slightly dated (although it is said to have been an updated version) the base-case cannot have changed materially since March 2019 and if anything could arguably have worsened given the macro-fiscal setting the UK faces.

The National Audit Office produced a dry overview of Operation Yellowhammer in March 2019 which was setup under the aegis of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS) at the Cabinet Office. The CCS works alongside the Department of Exiting the EU (DExEU) to prepare for the UK’s exit from the EU across 12 areas.

The institutional mapping and framework to prepare for the operation is impressive and speaks volumes for the hard graft undertaken by our Civil Service and which would potentially involve over 30 central government bodies including all government departments or ministries, 42 local forums in England and Wales and equivalent bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland, governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as key sectors and industries.

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Tagged brexit, Brexit - No Deal and Yellowhammer | 22 Comments

Martin Horwood MEP writes… Gibraltar, Trump and Iran: the Brexit connection

By Martin Horwood | Tue 20th August 2019 - 8:30 am

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Gibraltar has just controversially released the Iranian oil tanker formerly known as the Grace 1 with a new name and a written assurance from Tehran that its shipment won’t be used to break EU sanctions on Syria.

As a member of the European Parliament’s Iran delegation and one of the LibDem MEPs for Gibraltar, as well as the South West of England, I have warmly welcomed this move. And I’m pleased to be in a position to strengthen our co-operation and influence with Europe on this critical issue. Its no exaggeration to say that peace in the Persian Gulf hangs in the balance. While the Conservative government flirts with Donald Trump, we’re working with our European allies to de-escalate crises like this.

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Tagged brexit, gibraltar, martin horwood and trump | 2 Comments

The case for changing our laws on revoking citizenship

By Imaduddin Ahmed | Mon 19th August 2019 - 4:15 pm

When as Home Secretary Sajid Javid attempted to strip British-born Shamima Begum of her citizenship, he highlighted how the Home Office has come to possess powers to revoke citizenship that did not exist a generation earlier. These new powers are nothing short of racist, allowing the Home Secretary to strip Brits of citizenship by dint of their ancestry. According to Javid’s interpretation of the new laws, so long as a person can claim citizenship elsewhere – such as by having foreign ancestry in Shamima Begum’s case, or by virtue of laws such as Israel’s and Ireland’s allowing Jewish and Northern Irish people, respectively, to claim citizenship – the Home Office has the power to take their citizenship. It would not, in Javid’s interpretation, have the ability to take the citizenship of ‘indigenous’ English, Scottish or Welsh people.

The racist implications of Javid’s actions are what prompted a group of diaspora South Asian Lib Dems (most notably Nasser Butt, Marisha Ray, Mohsin Khan, Hussain Khan, Maaria Siddiqi and me) to work in partnership with Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey and adviser Jonathan Jones to come up with Federal Conference Motion F34: Deprivation of Citizenship. At the very least, we aim to completely end the Home Office’s power to revoke the citizenship of anyone born British.

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Tagged citizenship, piri patel and sajid javid | 18 Comments

Andy Kelly writes: Help me spread my message of hope and radicalism to Greater Manchester

By Andy Kelly | Mon 19th August 2019 - 12:30 pm

I am over the moon to confirm that you the members have selected me to be your candidate for the Greater Manchester Metro Mayor elections in 2020.

As a Liberal Democrat council leader in the region I know what it takes to fight against the odds, but this time I really feel the tide has changed – This is now OUR time.

The Tories are playing parlour games with people’s lives and Labour are betraying those they profess to represent I felt the need to step up to the plate.

Greater Manchester voters deserve better representation, we need someone who is not afraid to be frank about our future. That person is me.

This year the Liberal Democrats made huge gains in the local elections, with 700+ gains nationally – the party’s best local election results. Many of these gains were in the Greater Manchester region. Three weeks later we gained two members of European parliament in the North West as voters turned away from both Labour and the Conservatives. The two parties don’t deserve to represent us, and the current polling and by-elections shows us that voters agree. They are demanding better.

I am keen to take Burnham on his three years of nothing. My pledges are

To stand up for Remainers:

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Tagged featured | 9 Comments

We need to show that we are not a one-trick Brexit pony

By Adam Jones | Mon 19th August 2019 - 11:10 am

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As a new member (I joined in June) Brexit, or rather stopping Brexit, was one of the reasons I joined. Yet this wasn’t the sole reason. Likewise my new colleagues have no doubt been pushed ‘over the line’ by our strong Anti-Brexit stance.

Yet, what happens post Brexit?

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Tagged brexit and liberal democrats | 88 Comments

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Nigel Jones
In North Staffordshire we have a proposed boundary between North and South which makes no community sense. It retains a dividing line in Newcastle-under-Lyme wh...
Andy Daer
I expect a more believable theory would suggest that modern Israeli Jews are trying to expunge the memory of apparently docile European Jews being annihilated b...
Mick Taylor
I think there is a real problem with NEETs. When I was young, and indeed when my children were, we were prepared to take any job that paid money whilst continui...
David Le Grice
I missed out that I'm referring to her statement in parliament about the postponement of the 2025 county elections....
David Le Grice
I'm not sure that the reappointment of Angela Rayner is necessarily cause for hope. It became clear during her statement and answers to MPs questions that she h...