Category Archives: Op-eds

Kirsten Johnson

The State of Children’s Rights

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 14th March 2019 - 8:33 am

The Children’s Rights Alliance for England just published their 2018 report into the State of Children’s Rights. Their report outlines “systemic failures to protect children in England”. They write:

National and local government is failing to protect children in England whilst policymakers focus on Brexit, leaving children traumatised, powerless and vulnerable to abuse in many areas of their lives.

CRAE have used new data, gathered through Freedom of Information requests, in writing this report. It has been thirty years since the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was adopted by the United Nations, yet the UNCRC has still not been enshrined in British law. I wrote about that four years ago here.

Areas of concern, amongst many, are child homelessness; how children are treated by the police; rising school exclusions; and the increased number of children living in poverty. It is an extensive report, so I can only give a brief overview of each section. Needless to say, I welcome these proposals.

The paper calls for children’s rights impact assessments to be part of any changes to the law in relation to Brexit, including statutory instruments. It also proposes a cabinet minister with responsibility for children’s rights be appointed and that there should be a

statutory obligation on public authorities to conduct child rights impact assessments in all decision-making affecting children, including in budgetary decision-making.

The fullsome section on Poverty and Homelessness has many good suggestions to take children out of poverty, including excluding children’s benefits from the benefit cap and getting rid of the two-child limit on child tax credit and UC. It calls for an abolition of the practice of housing children in B&Bs, hotels or caravan parks.

FOIs carried out by CRAE reveal that 1,173 looked after children were housed in independent accommodation for longer than 6 months.

There were serious issues raised in the Safeguarding section around the rising number of children in care and provision for them; the staggering rise of children suffering abuse and neglect; and the rising number of sexual offences against children. The report calls for children involved in county lines to be treated as victims of trafficking and modern slavery, not criminals.

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Caron Lindsay

Don’t get too excited about tonight’s votes…

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 13th March 2019 - 10:23 pm

So, it was quite surprising that MPs backed the stronger No Deal amendment, especially after one of its Tory proposers bowed to the pressure of the whips and tried to pull it.

But John Bercow, who gives zero hoots when it comes to preserving the rights of the House against the Executive, refused to allow her to withdraw it.

The rebel majority was just 4.

It was certainly a dramatic moment and yet another key defeat for Theresa May.

But I wouldn’t get too excited about it.

In fact, while we may be closer than ever to a People’s Vote, the balance might tip in …

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Michael Berwick-Gooding

A fairer share for all – ending poverty in the UK Part Two

By Michael Berwick-Gooding | Wed 13th March 2019 - 5:30 pm

In part one I set out some of the things missing from our consultation paper https://www.libdems.org.uk/sconf19-consultation-paper-137. In this part, I will set out what we could do mostly for children and adults to remove them from poverty.

Returning to Local Housing Allowance, when introduced the rate was supposed to be the 30th percentile of the local market rates for private rented accommodation. This means that only the 30% cheapest properties in the area are affordable to those claiming housing benefit. Therefore only increasing LHAs in line with local rents does not restore it to the 30th percentile. Restoring it to the 30th percentile is a start, but I think the rates should be increased to the 50th percentile so all properties below the average would be available for people to live in when they receive housing benefit without forcing them into poverty.

Another problem with LHA is the rule which states that single people under 35 are expected to live in shared accommodation as a first step we should reduce this age down to 25.

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Michael Berwick-Gooding

A fairer share for all – Ending Poverty in the UK – Part One

By Michael Berwick-Gooding | Wed 13th March 2019 - 4:30 pm

A fairer share for all – ending poverty in the UK Part One

In our consultation paper https://www.libdems.org.uk/sconf19-consultation-paper-137  A Fairer Share for all, we have a section on “reducing poverty and increasing opportunity” which mentions the UN Special Rapporteur “damning statement on the level of poverty in the UK today”.

It doesn’t mention the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s latest report, “UK Poverty 2018” (https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2018” which states the following as the poverty line for different household types in 2016/17 (amounts per week):

Single person no children £148
A single person with two children £306
Couple with no children £255
Couple with two children £413.

These are from April 2016. The CPI rates which benefits should have been increased by were 1% for April 2017, 3% for April 2018 and 2.4% for April 2019 cumulatively making 6.5% https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-8458  House of Commons Briefing Paper CBP.

Therefore the rates after being increased by inflation (CPI) for April 2019 are:

Single person no children £157.62
A single person with two children £325.88
Couple with no children £271.58
Couple with two children £439.84.

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Tahir Maher

Daily Press Releases – 13th March 2019

By Tahir Maher | Wed 13th March 2019 - 3:35 pm

Cable: Spring Statement a predictable ‘non-event’

Responding to the Chancellor’s Spring Statement in the House of Commons this afternoon, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable said: 

 

“Brexit has crowded the usually significant Spring Statement out on to the margins of relevance, and the Chancellor has managed to make it even more of a non-event.

“Despite continuing austerity for most government departments and a violence epidemic on our streets, the Chancellor announced no meaningful new funding and failed to even confirm a date for the crucial upcoming Spending Review.

“There is little good news in Brexit Britain’s growth record either. While the Coalition Government left the UK one of the best performers among the world’s advanced economies, the OBR’s growth downgrade for this year confirms we are now one of the weakest.

“With interest rates already at rock-bottom, these will not be available to fight any future Brexit recession. The Chancellor is right to warn about the economic damage a no-deal Brexit would cause, but wrong to present his government’s deal as the only alternative.

“In truth the only real “dividend” on offer is that from remaining in the EU, by giving the public a People’s Vote on Brexit.”

ENDS

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Charlie Murphy

We must claim back Europe’s role in the world from populist Eurosceptics

By Charlie Murphy | Wed 13th March 2019 - 1:00 pm

Type 45 Destroyer, HMS Dauntless in the Mediterranean Type 45 Destroyer, HMS Dauntless in the Mediterranean

We must claim back Europe’s role in the world from populist Eurosceptics

Image: Type 45 Destroyer, HMS Dauntless in the Mediterranean (Royal Navy, used under the Open Government License)
When campaigning for Europe, we must be unapologetic, and we must be frank with our stance. Europe as an idea and the EU as an organisation are both under enormous pressure from within and without. To recognise Europe’s value, we must avowedly call for reform, and we must be the dynamism needed for change.

One of those changes must be the capacity to defend itself and its neighbourhood.

This week, Chancellor Angela Merkel endorsed her successor’s plans for Europe, including a seat at the UN’s top table and a European aircraft carrier. The carrier plans are a following from France and Germany’s program to procure a new European fighter jet.

In 2016, Jean-Claude Juncker told MEPs that soft power is not enough. He told us all that analysis shows up to €100bn in savings are possible via closer cooperation. Americans operate one variant of Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV), we Europeans operate a staggering 19 – the inefficiency is widespread, and it’s understandable for all to see. European defence is too fragmented, and it’s costing us all money and international clout.

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Erin Yarrow

Young Liberals need reform – and we need your help!

By Erin Yarrow | Wed 13th March 2019 - 11:30 am

Young people play a vital role in the party. Beyond our ability to deliver vast sums of leaflets, or to liven up that local party picture, we shape the Liberal Democrats. We stand for public office; we lobby for youth issues and representation, we ensure that as society changes the party changes with it. However, lately the boundaries of who is young have changed, and the Young Liberals need to change too. That is why we are looking at possible structural reforms, including raising the automatic membership age cut off from 26 to 30.

No longer can even the luckiest of us expect a job straight out of education; more and older graduates have to turn to internships for work. As house prices skyrocket, moving out of the parental home is taking longer. Moreover, with the tendency to remain in education, even the culture and lifestyle associated with youth has come to be applied to a broader age range. With these changes in society, the political landscape has changed too. The needs of those preparing to leave school and the needs of those in their late twenties are more closely aligned than ever before. Ending long-term unpaid work, tackling the housing crisis, improving representation in education, and increasing funding for mental health care are just some examples of policies that would have a disproportionate impact on all of us under 30.

However, the Young Liberals as an organisation has been struggling to represent these needs. It is no secret that we have suffered deepening institutional memory problems as a result of these societal changes. Students now make up such a large part of our constituent members that it’s hard for us to develop a network capable of serving our school leavers and young professions. Our lives have also become more defined by instability – such as moves abroad or in and out of education. These sudden radical changes in circumstances can render members unable to contribute in the way they have done before, and so the consistency in the quality of our work has taken a hit. By virtue of our membership and structure it is getting pretty tough to run ourselves well, and if Young Liberals as an organisation cannot run well then all our members whether in their twenties or still in their teens lose out.

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Tahir Maher

Tory Confidence or Arrogance

By Tahir Maher | Wed 13th March 2019 - 7:35 am

One thing I have always noted is that some of the Tories are arrogant. This is not just their politicians in parliament but at the local level and some of their members. I don’t feel that is the case with members of other parties, but I have often thought that some of the Tories tend towards being guilty of their own inflated self-importance. I came across a small piece that dealt with this issue about the Tories.

For the Tories apparently, it isn’t about going to the right school or even education it’s about confidence. Confidence is perceived to come from a good education and success in a chosen profession. A confident person is what impresses them. A case in point is David Davies who didn’t go to a private school (or rather not a school like Eton) but was picked out for possibly high office, by his colleagues, because he was considered to be so confident. The article goes on to discuss that the one thing boarding schools embed in their pupils (It may not necessarily be good education) but it is confidence, and this is what they admire.

How does this Tory mentality reflect in their approach to negotiations with the EU?

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Miranda Roberts

Trust our voters to choose our leader

By Miranda Roberts | Tue 12th March 2019 - 11:53 am

I chair the Federal Committee that designed the structures for the Supporter Scheme. My committee members worked incredibly hard on these discussions, reading long reports and complex spreadsheets and interpreting data to come to the best decisions for this new project. On almost everything we reached consensus views. The one area where there was no consensus was the most controversial question – whether these new supporters should be allowed to vote in Party Leadership elections.

I absolutely understand why this is a difficult issue. There are good, sensible reasons to pause and worry. I was very against the idea at first but, after a lot of thought, I changed my mind. I now, personally, think we should feel the fear and do it anyway.

At a General Election, many voters are temporarily hypnotised by the media into thinking they are voting for the next Prime Minister. They forget that they are a voter of Anytown, and are voting for Anytown’s MP. Instead, they get caught up in ‘who do I prefer as Prime Minister’? They vote for the Party they want to see in Government. 

This narrative often causes a big squeeze on our Party’s vote. That’s why we need all our leaflets, to remind people that their vote decides who represents their area in Parliament. But it’s impossible to stop people from looking at Party Leaders as the people they are voting for. 

This is the heart of why I think supporters voting for Leader is sensible. We need a Leader who inspires our members, who understands our Party and has good internal leadership. But we also need our Leader to appeal to our voters. To be someone who they are inspired by and with whom they feel a sense of connection. It’s not enough to be a Lib Dem Leader who inspires internally. They must inspire our voters too.

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Caron Lindsay

Our future should be in the hands of the people, not right wing Tories and the DUP

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 12th March 2019 - 8:04 am

Our country’s fate will tonight be decided by the right wing of the Conservative Party and the Democratic Unionist Party. That, really, is not a good place for us to be in. And let’s not forget those Labour MPs who will choose to back the deal to get us out of the EU. They are unlikely to face any consequences from their leadership for doing so.

They may take whatever fig leaf Theresa May has begged from EU leaders as the only way to keep Brexit alive. If the deal goes down tonight, the momentum is with those of us calling from a People’s Vote.

Let’s not forget that the deal itself is terrible. So much that has been kicked down the road. We have no idea what our future trading relationship would be like. It’s likely that that will be decided not by Theresa May, but by a future ERG backed Tory leader who wants to turn us into a regulation-light Singapore.

As I wrote in January:

For me, the worst thing is that it kicks so much down the road. We haven’t got a clue about what our future trading relationships with the EU and everyone else would look like.

Failure to reach a trade agreement before the end of the transition period could put us on a dash off the cliff edge at the end of next year. Except at that point we would be out of the EU with nothing we can do about it.

Don’t think the extreme No Dealers in the Conservative Party are going to give up fighting for that calamitous option if May manages to get her deal through. The moment of danger will not pass if we get a deal. That’s one of the many reasons why we need a People’s Vote.

Tom Brake said similar on Twitter

MPs will be expected to vote with just a few hours’ debate on an agreement that was reached late last night. That’s not what you could call acceptable democratic scrutiny. The only fair way is to put it to the people.

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Caron Lindsay

Conference Extra published – see all the amendments and awkward questions

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 11th March 2019 - 9:55 pm

The Conference Extra, containing details of all the amendments selected by Federal Conference Committee, the motion on Europe which will no doubt be hopelessly out of date by the time it’s debated on Saturday and all the questions put to Federal Committees, has been published.

The Europe motion is amendable – you need to get your changes in before Friday at 1 pm. Even though the website at the time of writing says Thursday.  I know conference motions are supposed to be a bit circumspect and detached but I am left cold by it. Not that it necessarily says anything wrong, but, really, at this point, I want it to saying that “Conference is bloody livid that the country has been lied to, cheated, sold a pig in a poke and has a Government that has turned can-kicking into its only competence. Conference resolves to put a stop to this farce as soon as possible.”

The process for the votes on the Supporters’ scheme constitutional amendment and business motion reminds me of the song “The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede” from The Singing Kettle. If you try to consciously re-enact it, you’ll do yourself an injury, but if you do it instinctively and just listen to the session chair, you’ll be fine.

There are some well and truly awkward questions to Federal Committees, too.

So now you have everything you need to plan your speeches.

What are you waiting for? And here’s the thing. You can submit your speaker’s card online. 

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Mark Valladares

Time to drag party policy making into the 21st century?

By Mark Valladares | Mon 11th March 2019 - 5:32 pm

Before we start, let me make something clear. I’m not a policy wonk. It’s not that I’m disinterested in policy, far from it. It’s just that, as a bureaucracy geek, I’m interested in how things work.

When the recent governance review took place, I found myself wondering if it was going to look at how we could engage more members in what interests many of them – policy. And, in truth, I was disappointed. It was mostly about reordering the committee structures and, whilst I have my views on that, it didn’t really do anything that would engage ordinary members.

Our policy …

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Patrick Maxwell

Whatever happened to the ‘burning injustices?’

By Patrick Maxwell | Mon 11th March 2019 - 3:02 pm

In her speech on the steps on Downing Street in July 2016, Theresa May said that her new administration would be committed to battling the ‘burning injustices’ that faced many in modern Britain. The promises to curb racial inequality among some of the most vital organs of law and state resonated well with the public and the new Prime Minister’s initial poll ratings were high. Over the course of her mainly disastrous premiership, May has decided to ignore most of her promises to the country in the face of the ongoing decline of any Tory Party unity, instructing …

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Lord William Wallace

Time for higher taxes!

By Lord William Wallace | Mon 11th March 2019 - 8:15 am

Calling for higher taxation used to be one of the deepest taboos in British politics. When I was drafting the 1997 Liberal Democrat manifesto, under Paddy Ashdown’s firm direction, I can recall a Labour acquaintance (we were actively talking to Labour then, since they were not sure they would win an outright majority when the election came) telling me that ‘you must be mad; no-one will ever vote to pay more’. The promise of a penny on income tax to increase funding for education turned out to be a vote-winner for us; but New Labour never dared to commit to …

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A No Deal Brexit will not just impact finance and manufacturing – it will be a disaster for cereal producers too

By Ian Thomas | Sun 10th March 2019 - 8:55 am

With so much emphasis being placed on how a No Deal Brexit will affect banking and car production, little thought has been given to the potentially devastating impact crashing out of the EU would have on Britain’s agricultural sector.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has produced a series of briefings to try and raise awareness amongst MPs in a hope of avoiding disaster – most recently on cereals. The UK produces nearly 25 million tonnes (Mt) of arable crops, collectively worth over £3 Billion at the farm gate – driving significant economic activity in rural economies.

As part of the EU, the UK arable sector has been able to export circa 85% of its grain surplus to other member states and, whilst the UK does export grains to the wider global market, these markets are fiercely price competitive with emerging producers such as Russia able to dominate due to a lower cost base relative to developed economies.

In a No Deal scenario, the UK would have to pay tariffs on grain entering the EU market place, meaning would have to compete with other third countries in hope of securing generic quota which enables access at a tariff level of €12 (c£10) per tonne for wheat and €16 (c£14) per tonne for barley. There is far from any guarantee that the UK would be able to secure quota and without it tariffs would shoot up to €95 and €93 per tonne respectively for wheat and barley. The reality is that trade would not occur at these higher tariff levels, forcing UK grain to compete on the world market in direct competition with low cost, lower regulation producers.

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Caron Lindsay

Jo Swinson’s challenge for International Women’s Day

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 8th March 2019 - 9:38 pm

It wouldn’t be Jo if she wasn’t giving us a job to do.

My pledge will be to comfort and encourage others and give them sustenance on their journeys to their dreams.

What will you do to help achieve gender equality?

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Tom Arms

Observations of an ex pat: The heartland

By Tom Arms | Fri 8th March 2019 - 8:55 am

The Heartland Theory and its corollary discipline of geopolitics was all the rage in the twentieth century.

It emerged from the morass of nationalism to dominate diplomatic thinking right through the Cold War. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union it sunk slowly over the political horizon as nationalism was gradually replaced by globalism governed by an internationally agreed set of laws enforced by a largely – but not completely– altruistic United States.

A Victorian geographer called Halford Mackinder was responsible for the Heartland Theory. He unveiled it in 1904 at a packed meeting of the Royal Geographical Society. He argued that advances in railways in other land transport meant that British-dominated sea power would be replaced by land power.  And that whomever controlled the territory from Eastern Europe to China would control the “heartland” of Eurasia. Furthermore that whomever controlled the heartland controlled what Mackinder called “the world island”which encompassed all of Europe, Asia and Africa; and whomever controlled the world island controlled the world.

In the 1920s’s Mackinder’s ideas were picked up by the German geopolitical academic Karl Haushofer who became an adviser to Adolf Hitler. Hitler and Haushofer fell out over Hitler’s racial policies, but the heartland theory became the blueprint for German expansion. During the Cold War the Americans adopted it to justify the policy of containing the Soviet Union which it thought was pursuing the Heartland dream in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and China.

The collapse of the Soviet Union rendered the Heartland Theory redundant—for a time. It has been revived again by developments in the two Eurasian giants China and Russia.   China’s Belt/Road initiative could have been taken straight out of Mackinder’s book. Its railway links from Shanghai to London and its heavy investment in Africa can easily be viewed as a pre-emptive bid to gain control of the “world island” of Europe, Asia and Africa.

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Stephen Richmond

Part 2: If we want to win elections we have to denounce austerity

By Stephen Richmond | Thu 7th March 2019 - 5:11 pm

So I was hesitant to get into ideological discussions but the argument often gets made that even if austerity is unpopular we must defend the small government “Classical Liberal” tradition. That argument needs to be answered- yes there has always been a laissez-faire strand of Liberalism, however, the idea that Liberalism only means small government and free markets is an idea that dates from around 1980.

Liberalism has a quite complicated and wide-ranging history from being initially associated with generosity (as in the word Liberality, a liberal act meant a generous one), to the alternative association of the French revolution (describing someone as a “Liberal” was an insult intended to suggest they were radical revolutionaries, there was no suggestion that Liberals were aiming for small government as such, just that they were anti-monarchist.). Liberalism went on to include large sections of the early Socialist movement, including such hailed Classical Liberals as John Stuart Mill. Early Liberalism was actually not very much to do with economics at all and was more part of the Whig and Republican movements that were about moving from a feudal system to the beginnings of democracy. (I heartily recommend Helena Rosenblatt’s ‘A forgotten history of Liberalism” for more of that story.)

It’s because of these political instincts and aims that when it became clear that unregulated markets were hurting people in the late 19th century Liberals changed policy rather than changing ideology. That’s where the social reforms of Asquith and Lloyd-George came from, leading into the Social Insurance systems of Beverage and the economic theories of Keynes. That’s how the Liberal party ended up to the left of the pre-merger SDP and how the Liberal Democrats ended up to the left of New Labour. It’s not an aberration, it’s just the natural place that Liberalism ended up.

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Stephen Richmond

If we want to win elections we have to denounce austerity

By Stephen Richmond | Thu 7th March 2019 - 12:19 pm

Part 1

“Never point out your own mistakes” seems like a good political maxim, so why should we ignore it on this occasion?

Of course, not everyone agrees that austerity was a mistake at all, and some say we should embrace our coalition record. That would be a monumental mistake. Trying to embrace austerity would be like Labour trying to embrace the Iraq war, it would be untenable.

Many people point out that all the major political parties were pushing austerity at the time: during the coalition Labour boasted that the government had, more or less, kept austerity to the levels Labour suggested. Clearly this wasn’t something the Liberal Democrats were solely responsible for. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a mistake though or that no one knew it was a mistake at the time. While it’s true that many economists working for large banks were very clear that government debt was definitely the problem (and noticeably not the banks themselves!) academic economists took a rather different tack- their warnings were clear and broadly, as it turned out, correct. Even the IMF famously chided the coalition for being too reckless with austerity.

Estimates of GDP per household lost due to austerity in the UK vary with from some at £4000 per household and the Oxford economist Simon Wren-Lewis’ guess being more like £10,000 per household. There is no suggestion it did anything positive. (Simon Wren-Lewis’ book ‘The Lies We Were Told’ chronicles this beautifully. Also worth seeing is the recent report from the NEF featured in Bloomberg estimating the cost at £100 billion.) The famous academic paper (by Reinhart and Rogoff) that was used as political cover for austerity in 2010 turned out to be based on a simple maths error and was ultimately disgraced. Traditional macroeconomics won out- if interest rates go to zero, which they did, governments must either increase spending or hold back their own economies- we chose to hold back our economy.

It’s estimated that around 50,000 UK citizens died unnecessarily due to austerity during the coalition with more afterwards. Which is why it sticks in the throat a little when we’re told, and I’ve heard this a few times from more coalition supporting Lib Dems, that the coalition was “the best government since 1945!” I would gently point out that that the post-1945 era includes the Attlee government, which took on the ideas of Keynes and Beverage, both Liberal party members.

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Harry Samuels

Friends of Young Liberals: Launch

By Harry Samuels | Wed 6th March 2019 - 1:30 pm

For many of us, the Lib Dems aren’t just a political party, but a political family too. We don’t just campaign together, but we socialise together, chat together, make friends, and in some cases, meet future partners, husbands, wives. Moreover, for many Lib Dems that I have spoken to, the Young Liberals (under any of its many former names) have played an integral part in that, providing a way for liberal-minded young people to get stuck in and meet others like them.

Moreover, the Young Liberals of today carry on as the legendary “golden generation” of the past did: we work up and down the country, flooding into campaigns in by-elections, distributing Focus leaflets to students, holding social events and conferences throughout the UK, and contributing to the party at all levels.

We try to shout about our work as much as possible, but I often hear people say that they wish they could keep in touch with Young Liberals and hear about our successes as well as our views and opinions more often.

That’s why, with the help of the current Young Liberals Executive, I am today launching a scheme called Friends of Young Liberals, which aims to help people do exactly that.

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Steve Trevethan

Some More Detailed Questions on the Border in Ireland

By Steve Trevethan | Wed 6th March 2019 - 7:30 am

With the persistent possibility of a “No Deal Brexit” and a ”Hard Border” the following questions might be of relevance.

As most of the border runs through a country where Catholics greatly outnumber Protestants, how can a hard border be created and maintained without the agreement of its population?

Is it securely likely that Catholics will accept such a border?

How could an international border be created and maintained in the face of sustained protests?

If a “Hard Border” is put in place, will it have to be defended permanently by British troops?

If the “Hard Border” is in a hostile environment, how will the equipment required for a “Smart Border” be kept safe and maintained?

If customs personnel are involved in running this border, how will they be confident enough of their safety unless there are police and British Army protection?

Such protection is highly likely to result in an international border incident involving injury and even death. How will this be dealt with in the immediate and the long term?

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Visit My Mosque Day – a fantastic initiative that we can all engage with

By Siobhan Benita and Cllr Hina Bokhari | Tue 5th March 2019 - 11:55 am

It is easy to see our country as divided, especially when we watch the news about Brexit or, most recently, the public reaction to Shamima Begum’s situation. There is no denying that hate crime has risen and that extremists on either side of the political spectrum are increasingly exhibiting intolerance and prejudice.    

Sunday’s “Visit My Mosque Day” initiative was, therefore, a very welcome and timely reminder that, for the most part, people from different faiths and communities rub along nicely and are very happy  to celebrate the tremendous diversity and multiculturalism that make our capital and county so great. 

Joined by other GLA candidates and London members, we embraced the initiative with a tour of three Mosques in the capital.  We started with the Suleymaniye Cultural Centre – a beautiful Ottoman style mosque with a Turkish focus.  From there we went to the East London Mosque, which is one of the largest mosques in Europe with a largely Bangladeshi congregation.  Our final visit of the day was to the regal Central Mosque in Regents Park, a mosque that was officially opened by King George VI in 1944 and which serves a very diverse and international community of worshipers.

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Paul Reynolds

Should vagrants be flogged in the street?

By Paul Reynolds | Tue 5th March 2019 - 8:20 am

From the 14th century it was customary to administer punishment to vagrants in the street in Britain. Some were flogged, some clapped in irons, others dragged around on wooden frames.

At the end of the Middle Ages, society was highly stratified, and most people were not permitted to travel freely. The word vagrant means ‘wanderer’ and to an extent the wanderer was being punished for ‘not being in his or her place’. Many were escapees from rural servitude.

So the fact that the transgression of vagrancy is still on the statute books, might suggest we have not progressed sufficiently …

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Bernard Aris

May should follow her kindergarten logic

By Bernard Aris | Mon 4th March 2019 - 10:25 am

For the past half year (if not longer), Prime Minister Theresa May has, everytime she appeared at the Despatch Box to talk about Brexit (often postponing votes and talking platitudes), told the broad mass of MP’s anxious about getting a No Deal Brexit cliff-jump: “The best way of avoiding a No Deal situation is voting for the deal I’m putting on the table; there is no alternative”.

For the past weeks, she’s been forced by her own party to see if, in the case of the Backstop (which became necessary because of May’s own “red lines”), there could be a slight …

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Caron Lindsay

Happy Birthday to the Liberal Democrats – let’s be bold, confident and radical

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 3rd March 2019 - 7:33 pm

The Liberal Democrats are 31 years old today.

Courtesy of my Facebook memories, here is what I wrote on our 30th birthday last year.

30 years of the Lib Dems today! 30 years of having the courage to stand up for what we believe in.

I think what I like best about us is that we have such an optimistic view of people – our citizens are not to be contained and restrained but given power to run their lives and communities as they see fit with a state ensuring that everyone gets a fair chance in life.

I am proud to be part of this movement. You don’t get to 30 without screwing some stuff up, but we have made sure that we have an international aid target enshrined in law, we put mental health on the political map – easy to forget that nobody except us was tailing about it 10 years ago – and we achieved same sex marriage.

I’ve met some of the people who mean the most to me in the whole world through this party. I love all my passionate, curmudgeonly, stubborn, creative, awkward, kind, curious and loving Lib Dem friends.

And I said on here that we needed to spend our next decade being bold, confident and radical.

Our task for the next 10 years is to continue to be right, to be audacious in getting our message across, to be bold, radical and insurgent. We have fought our way back before. We need to be confident that we will do so again.

We are at heart generous-spirited and optimistic. We see the best in people, we want them to have the opportunities to be the best that they can be. That is a joyful and positive message and it even has substance behind it. All the things we want to achieve have their roots in our belief that “no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.”

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Seth Thevoz

Am I a Liberal?

By Seth Thevoz | Sun 3rd March 2019 - 10:49 am

On Monday 4th March at 7.30pm if you are in or around London the NLC is the place to be. The Social Liberal Forum is launching its new publication and Ian Kearns will be speaking. Admission is free. Full details are on the SLF website. Dr Seth Thevoz reviews the publication for Lib Dem Voice. The SLF will also be holding a fringe meeting with Ian Kearns about the book at the Spring Conference inYork.

The Social Liberal Forum has given us a very welcome republication of John Maynard Keynes’s Am I a Liberal?, alongside a new essay by Ian Kearns, asking that same question. Indeed, it’s doubly timely, as the piece by Labour defector-turned-Lib Dem Kearns asks some particularly topical questions, at a time when we are still trying to make sense of what the new Labour breakaway Independent Group stands for, or even seeks to do.

Keynes’s original essay prompted a serious assessment as to what liberalism means in the modern world – he argued that remaining Gladstonian shibboleths such as Free Trade and Temperance were not, in themselves, enough to sustain a mass ideology. Instead, he proposed five new dimensions that any Liberal should apply themselves to:

  • Peace Questions
  • Questions of Government
  • Sex Questions
  • Drug Questions
  • Economic Questions

The essay remains ahead of its time in many of its conclusions, and its vindication can be found in the number of ardent Liberal converts over the years, recruited on these very issues – although parts of the essay are also dated. The sections on women’s rights, for instance, are reminiscent of Bertram Russell’s Marriage and Morals (1929), in essentially being a feminist text, written by a man who does not reference any women or early feminist writers. Despite these serious setbacks, the essay is original, and buzzing with ideas; and it is well worth a read, 96 years on, for the sometimes-uncomfortable questions it raises.

Kearns’s essay is a more personal one, following on from some of Keynes’s themes – especially the passages excised from the original version of Keynes’s paper, as delivered at the 1925 Liberal Summer School. Kearns looks at much at other ideologies, and while he has nothing positive to say about conservatism, he focuses his real fire on the modern Labour Party, and its shortcomings as a vehicle for Liberal thought or action. 

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Jenny Randerson

Jenny Randerson writes…Now is the time to reform our fares system for the future

By Jenny Randerson | Sun 3rd March 2019 - 8:45 am

t is no secret that our rail fares system is broken. With customers having to choose between over 55 million fare combinations, it is understandable that they would have no confidence in getting the best value fare for their journey. 

That’s why I welcomed the largest ever public consultation on fares reform which took place last summer, and saw responses from almost 20,000 passengers, business groups, local authorities and accessibility groups from across the country. 

The public has spoken – over 80% of respondents want to see fundamental reform within our fares system and they now cannot be ignored. 

The rail industry has been at the heart of this initiative for reform alongside Transport Focus, and I am encouraged by their proposals which set out a two-stage process to deliver meaningful reform. 

The first stage would see the outdated Ticketing and Settlement Agreement (TSA) replaced by a new set of regulations underpinning the fares system. Then, the necessary commercial changes could be rolled out as part of refreshed government contracts with train operating companies. But, of course, these stages rely on the Government. 

That’s why I am today calling on them to act on the industry’s proposals and implement these recommendations. 

But this cannot be the only change. As Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesperson, I am in regular contact with commuters, accessibility groups and businesses – they tell me that they want value for money, fair pricing, simplicity, flexibility and assurances that they are getting the best value fare for their journey.

With a reformed system, this could all be within reach and I am encouraged to see that the industry’s proposals seek to address these understandable concerns of passengers. 

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Katharine Pindar

Our party’s not for merging

By Katharine Pindar | Sat 2nd March 2019 - 11:55 am

It has been possible to welcome The Independent Group’s eruption onto the British political stage without thinking of throwing in the towel and leaving the ring to them.

They seem to have helped stir up both the Government and the Shadow ministers to move   from the entrenched positions which had been vainly criticised by so many.  If so they have done some service to the country, even though their voting power in the Commons is as limited as is our own party’s.

Nonetheless, seeing the immediate popularity of this novel group while our own national poll ratings fell below 10% was hard to take. Even though the new group is tiny and not yet a party, some Liberal Democrats then decided that this is not like the other mini centrist parties we have seen briefly rise and as quickly disappear, but a genuine rival to us. The game is up at last, some seem to have sadly concluded, perhaps worn down by the continuing failure of the voters to appreciate us.

 Many other Liberal Democrats look with astonishment at that idea. We are a party of substance, with history and credibility, with 100,000 or so members and maybe 2000 councillors, a party with a credo and policies to match our beliefs, with structures and a programme of well-attended open meetings. What is The Independent Group compared with all that? What could it offer even if it becomes a proper party? Can the founder members even agree on a programme?

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David Warren

Some thoughts on education

By David Warren | Fri 1st March 2019 - 11:55 am

I  left school nearly forty years ago in 1980 aged 16 since then I have come across countless numbers of people who express surprise that I didn’t go into further education and obtain a degree.

My response is usually that I have been to the ‘University of Life.’

I am of course far from alone, sent to a poor quality comprehensive in an area where my contemporaries with parents who had the necessary means went to the private school nearby. I was put through a ‘sausage machine’ designed to push me out at the end fit only for low paid work.

I received no individual attention, nothing unusual there nor did any of my fellow students. At 13 I was required to choose 8 subjects, only half which really interested me. When it came time to leave any careers advice or guidance was non existent.

I have never gone back to that school and have no desire to.

Wind forward to the present day and we have an Education set up that is still failing millions. A system where overwhelmingly those from a higher social strata get to go to the top universities and then onto the top jobs.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an ex pat: Tunnel lights

By Tom Arms | Fri 1st March 2019 - 8:55 am

ou can just make it out. It is still dim and indistinct in the swirling political mists. But there appears to be a light at the end of the long Brexit tunnel.

Hopefully, it is not the oncoming No-deal train, but rather a Remain engine pulling a long line of carriages waiting to be boarded.

If it is the latter than a great deal more work still needs to be done before a People’s Vote is agreed. Then more work to secure a Remain result  and then, finally, an ongoing effort—to win  continued support in Britain—and other countries—for the European Union.

So first of all, how to reach the initial goal of the People’s Vote and what to put on the ballot paper. Rule number one: Don’t trust Corbyn. He is still fighting the class wars of the seventies and is hoping for a chaotic political vacuum which he can fill with his Marxist-Leninist platform.  Brexit train crash spells opportunity for the Labour leader.

The ballot paper should duplicate the binary choice of the 2016 referendum. Voters should be given a choice to revoke Article 50 and remain in the European Union or to accept whatever deal the government has negotiated at the time of the People’s Vote. A third option with an alternative vote system would take too long to negotiate and confuse the voters.

The campaign will be tough—for both camps. Over the past two and a half years positions have become increasingly entrenched. The pool of floating voters that canvassers normally target has shrunk as voters have fallen off the fence into one camp or the other.  A person’s stand on Brexit has become an identity badge and to swap it for another involves huge loss of face.

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