Category Archives: Op-eds

Ben Andrew

Why criminal records have to go

By Ben Andrew | Fri 9th December 2016 - 8:55 am

If you ask Lib Dems whether they suppport prison reform, they will say yes. A general chat about rehabilitation, drug laws, mental health funding and Scandenavia usually ensues – all of which I wholly endorse. But if we are really going to address our prison crisis, then criminal records are the elephant in the room.

Rehabilitation is about allowing people to become productive parts of society after they leave prison, and discouraging reoffending. One of the best ways to do this is to help people find employment (as page 8 of the Ministry of Justice’s Transforming Rehabilitation document confirms). If someone lands a stable job after leaving prison, then of course they’re less likely to reoffend. Employment gives people structure, income and purpose. It’s common sense that it helps them reintegrate into society.

But if ex-prisoners have to disclose their criminal records as soon as they apply for a job, why are we surprised that so many of them remain unemployed? What incentive do employers have to take a chance on them, when the job market is so tough as it is? We seem to paradoxically believe that it’s important for ex-offenders to find work, but that no employer should have to risk hiring them. Employers might feel safer being able to sivve former criminals out without hesitation, but it’s agonizingly counter-productive for society. Poor rehabilitation leads to an increase in crime, and puts all of us in danger. Freezing ex-offenders out of the job market makes everyone less safe.

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Caron Lindsay

Another late night waiting a by-election result: Lib Dems doing “better than expected”

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 9th December 2016 - 1:04 am

So who’s still up waiting for the Sleaford result then?

This would be the sort of seat where, in recent years, we’d have without question lost our deposit.

We just managed to retain it last year in the General Election, polling 5.7%.

So what would be a good result for us?

Well, anything above that would be good.

Very good would be double figures.

Absolutely miraculously excellent would be exceeding the results we had in 2010 and 2005 – 18.2%.

What does the party do when they are already focused on a highly winnable by-election in a held seat and another one happens? During the coalition years, we might have just ignored it, but this was an opportunity to try out new things in an area which had voted to Leave. So we sent a couple of our acest campaigners up there – Lincolnshire lad Ed Fordham who has form for inspiring the troops and pulling off unexpected results, and Yorkshire’s Ian Horner. They led a fantastic team of East Midlands activists who delivered an incredible campaign.

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Caron Lindsay

Trump and Johnson on the world stage. What could possibly go wrong?

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 8th December 2016 - 9:18 pm

Sometimes I feel like I just want to get a big, soft cushion with Obama’s face on it to hide behind every time the news comes on after 20th January next year.

The US electorate has put a Twitter troll in charge. You would think that the person in the most powerful job in the world would have better things to do than take to social media to respond to every tiny criticism of him. The other day, for example, he said this of his call with Taiwan’s leader:

…

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NewsHound

Paddick: Police conduct in exploiting victims “totally unacceptable”

By NewsHound | Thu 8th December 2016 - 9:23 am

Responding to a report which found hundreds of police officers have been accused of abusing their position to sexually exploit people, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary and former senior police chief Brian Paddick said:

It is totally unacceptable that anyone in a position of power should abuse their position.

When those people are police officers exploiting people when they are at their most vulnerable, particularly women who are the victims of domestic violence and sexual offences, it is despicable.

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Edwin Moriarty

Banning the burqa is not the answer

By Edwin Moriarty | Thu 8th December 2016 - 8:14 am

Angela Merkel has this week called for a ban of the full-face veil (burqa) “wherever legally possible”. While many of us in the UK may be uncomfortable with the cultural assumptions behind the wearing of the burqa, it’s important for us to remember that, as liberals, we should enshrine wherever possible the right to decide how you live your life and practice your faith, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else. A ban of the burqa is an illiberal assault on religious and cultural freedoms.

Unfortunately, there is another side to this issue – there is great concern, both from moderate muslims in the UK, and from wider observers, that some number of women are forced to wear the burqa or otherwise endure cultural or religious burdens that they do not want. Stripping away the rights of another, and forcing them to act as you will with threats of violence, exclusion, monetary penalties and more is abuse, and we need to tackle that with all seriousness.

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Sam Webber

Why we need to help in Sleaford and North Hykeham

By Sam Webber | Wed 7th December 2016 - 3:30 pm

Sleaford campaigning Okay,  it’s true I enjoy elections! I get a buzz, enjoy the friendships made and love the campaign. Every election has a different vibe, atmosphere – much set by the tone and timing of the campaign and much set by the candidate & campaign manager. I started with Brent East and have a string of by-elections under my activist belt – Leicester South, Bromley and Chislehurst, Ealing Southall, Henley, Norwich North, Oldham East and Saddleworth, Croydon North, Eastleigh, Rochester and Strood, Witney, Richmond Park and now I will be helping Sleaford and North Hykeham.

I don’t pick and choose my elections – in many respects none of us do. They occur and time and travel permitting we go. But there is a small outstanding issue it seems to me. People make a judgement based on their perceptions. They sit and home and become a specialist results predictor – who will win and who will lose.

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Scott Craig

Parliament needs to stand up to the Government on Article 50

By Scott Craig | Wed 7th December 2016 - 2:30 pm

Are there any Parliamentarians left in Parliament?  That was the question that kept occurring to me as I watched the submissions to the Supreme Court in the Article 50 case this week.

Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy an interesting court case as much as the next person. The Supreme Court will do an excellent job determining the law, and it has every right to do so. The problem is that it should not have been necessary for the court to consider the matter in the first place.

Parliament alone has the right to determine what the division of power between itself and the executive should be. As it has not acted to overrule the government’s claim that triggering Article 50 is an executive power, Parliament has implicitly accepted that the power is a prerogative. 

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems to vote against Article 50 “stitch up”

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 7th December 2016 - 1:30 pm

Unsurprisingly, the Liberal Democrats have confirmed that the party’s MPs will vote against any motion which backs the unconditional invocation of Article 50. Tonight’s vote will be a test for the SNP, too. Will they back the Liberal Democrat amendment calling for:

 the Prime Minister commit to a referendum on the final deal following the negotiations and prior to the UK departing the EU.

Tim Farron said:

We cannot support a parliamentary stitch up that would deny the people a vote on the final deal.

An amended motion would fail to include any meaningful commitment from the Conservative Brexit government to produce the equivalent of a White or Green Paper setting out its position on such fundamental questions as to whether it wants Britain to remain in the Single Market.

I call on the Labour Party to remember it calls itself the Official Opposition. It should not cave in to Conservative attempts to deny the public a final say on the most important question facing the country in a generation. It is appalling that a so-called opposition could allow itself to be muzzled by the Government on an issue that will face this country for years to come.

It is now clear that the Liberal Democrats are the real opposition to the Conservative Brexit government, striving to keep Britain open, tolerant and united.

At the moment, the SNP seems to be revelling in the constitutional mayhem. Willie Rennie called on them to back a referendum on the deal:

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Ashley Cartman

There are issues more important than Europe

By Ashley Cartman | Wed 7th December 2016 - 10:25 am

David Cameron famously told his party to ‘stop banging on about Europe’, are we in the Liberal Democrats in danger of doing the same? I fear we are.

With our seemingly exclusive focus on Europe we are missing a more fundamental concern for British voters, to paraphrase Bill Clinton’s campaign message ‘it’s the economy stupid!’

An Ashcroft poll conducted in September this year showed that although most voters agreed that negotiating the best Brexit deal possible was the top priority for the country as a whole when it came to issues facing themselves and their families it came fourth behind tackling the cost of living, improving the NHS and getting the economy moving. This doesn’t surprise me.

Like many I was dumbfounded by the result in June. For the first time I felt there were huge sections of our society that I neither knew nor understood. It would be easy to write off the 17,410,742 who voted to leave as xenophobic, racist, ignorant or just conned by an anti EU media establishment. That would be a mistake.

I have spent the last few months thinking about why, when to me the arguments for remain were clear, we as a nation voted to leave.  My belief is that confused by a torrent of dubious facts from both sides a significant proportion of the electorate assessed the ‘state of nation’ and concluded that it simply wasn’t good enough. With nothing to lose they voted accordingly.

Should we really be so surprised by this? Faced with falling real wages, declining social mobility, greater financial insecurity and government policy that rescued the banks but let the steel industry wither it really isn’t that shocking that so many voted as they did.

As Liberal Democrats we are certainly doing a great job articulating the publics concerns about Brexit. Since June we have become the rallying point for those deeply worried about the implications of a hard Brexit and a recent YouGov poll  showed that we could gain significant electoral advantage in the event of a snap general election. 

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Ed Fordham

Emotion, mischief, hard work and an absent friend: inside the Sleaford & North Hykeham campaign

By Ed Fordham | Wed 7th December 2016 - 8:55 am

Yesterday, sitting at my desk here in Sleaford and North Hykeham two of the best activists I have had the pleasure of working with over my 28 years in the party, were somewhat surprised to see me holding my head in my hands and crying.

The morning had been busy, too busy, the press have just noticed that this by-election is happening, and I have lots to do. Too much to do. In fact we are doing massive amounts and it’s going well. But I had a wobble and so went out delivering a round of leaflets or two. It’s cold here in Lincolnshire on these December mornings and it’s clears your head a little. But nonetheless I was thinking too much and making little progress. As I got back in the car and went to come back to the HQ we put the radio on and out came Snow Patrol’s Run.

Let me explain – my best mate Cllr Neil Trafford was killed in a car crash 8 years ago and at his memorial service – 8 years ago on 6 December 2008 (!) we played a recording of his sister Hannah singing Run.

Now this by-election in deepest Lincolnshire is going on and Neil is one of the people I would have turned to for help, advice and assistance. He would have loved it and been here and amusing us all, and he would have been causing mischief. As it is, I am causing enough mischief.

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Lord Roger Roberts

Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister 6th December 1916

By Lord Roger Roberts | Tue 6th December 2016 - 1:29 pm

“There are certain indispensable qualities essential to the Chief Minister of the Crown in a great war. . . . Such a minister must have courage, composure, and judgment. All this Mr. Asquith possessed in a superlative degree. . . . But a war minister must also have vision, imagination and initiative—he must show untiring assiduity, must exercise constant oversight and supervision of every sphere of war activity, must possess driving force to energize this activity, must be in continuous consultation with experts, official and unofficial, as to the best means of utilising the resources of the country in conjunction with the Allies for the achievement of victory. If to this can be added a flair for conducting a great fight, then you have an ideal War Minister”.

These words of Lloyd George summarise the weaknesses of Asquith as a Prime Minister in times of War and the picture Lloyd George had of himself as the “ideal War Minister” .Already Minister of Munitions he was facing the massive challenge of ensuring that the British Army had the ammunition necessary to fight the Great War.

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Tom Arms

Stick to the values to win the war

By Tom Arms | Tue 6th December 2016 - 11:01 am

We have won the battle of Richmond Park. No, let’s be honest, we routed the opposition, beat them into the ground and then stomped on them. Quite a feat for the nice people’s party. Richmond Park was an upset of historic proportions of which every Lib Dem can be justifiably proud.

BUT, it is still only the first battle in what will be a long, hard and bloody war. Just how difficult it will be was demonstrated during the BBC’s by-election night coverage when plucky Baroness Susan Kramer skilfully parried vicious attacks from every other person in the room, including chairman Andrew Neil.

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Paul Sagar

Brexit and the denial of democracy

By Paul Sagar | Mon 5th December 2016 - 7:01 pm

 

No sooner had Sarah Olney swept to her dramatic victory in Richmond Park, than some panicking Brexiteers began peddling a ‘clever’ rhetorical question on social media. It went roughly like this:  “With a candidate that didn’t win the popular vote on only a 53% turnout, shouldn’t Tim Farron be calling for a second by-election?!” The ‘joke’, of course, is an attempt to claim that Lib Dem attitudes towards the referendum are hypocritical, or self-undermining.

A moment’s thought, however, brings home that any alleged comparison between Richmond Park and the Brexit result is really rather silly. More interestingly, however, seeing why it is silly points us towards a striking fact about a now prominent wing of the Brexit position: how deeply undemocratic it has become.

We can see this by first stating a blindingly obvious truth: that there will be a second vote in the Richmond Park constituency. It will happen when the next general election is called. (And then after that, and after that, and after that again, whenever there is a parliamentary poll.) The Liberal Democrats are entirely prepared to have their victory contested, and potentially overturned. That’s just in the DNA of parliamentary democracy. No Lib Dem thinks of denying it.

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Bernard Aris

Dutch “Liberal” VVD cosying up to the Tories and distancing itself from “European” Liberals

By Bernard Aris | Mon 5th December 2016 - 4:56 pm

vvdIn the past week, attentive British citizens could see a clear divide opening up between the two Dutch ALDE member parties, the EU-enthusiasts and Social Liberals (in Beveridge’s tradition) D66, and the populist (see the enduring stature of prominent ex-leaders like Hans Wiegel) VVD.

On Monday, a short furore erupted in the British tabloid media over conversation notes gleaned from the writing pad of a Tory political assistant coming out of Downing Street 10 (or 9: the Brexit Department). She was the assistant of Tory party vice-chairman (International) Mark Field, and she and Field were accompanying foreign visitors who obviously had had a meeting about Brexit. The notes appeared to suggest that the Tory Brexit strategy is as Boris Johnson sometime brags: “have your cake and eat it”. Nobody asked or mentioned who those foreigners were: the leader, Mr. Halbe Zijlstra, and Foreign Affairs spokesman, Mr. Han ten Broeke, of the VVD parliamentary party.

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Arnold Kiel

How the UK economy’s key sectors link into the EU’s single market

By Arnold Kiel | Mon 5th December 2016 - 3:15 pm

A report with this title was released last week by the Centre for Economics and Business Research for Open Britain.

This report was somewhat shyly presented by cautious Remainers as a case against sectoral EU-negotiations. More importantly, however, it makes a compelling case for continued full membership in the European single market.

It should be mandatory reading for everyone who still believes that:

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Katharine Pindar

Goodwill towards us is growing, and so it should

By Katharine Pindar | Mon 5th December 2016 - 1:11 pm

 

More than 2000 years ago, so the story goes, angels sang ‘Goodwill towards all mankind.’ It’s a sentiment that Liberal Democrats can generally support. The point I want to suggest, however, is that the British people feel an increasing goodwill towards us, which seems likely to grow and enhance our electoral chances.

The first essential was that we should be seen and heard. Now Sarah Olney’s magnificent victory has given us the media coverage that dispels the 18-month myth of our irrelevance.

The next essential was that the image projected should be an attractive one. For the voters of Richmond Park and Kingston it obviously was, and for us Lib Dems the sight of the beaming faces of victor and Leader together in front of the cameras was a delight.

Image is vital for success in politics, but what did that image amount to for the public? What, for a start, was the new MP saying? “I knew I was a Liberal – I believe in openness, fairness, compassion, working with our neighbours at home and around the world”, Sarah said in her acceptance speech. She spoke of the rise of anger and bitterness in politics, and pledged that “We will stand up for the open, tolerant, united Britain that we believe in.”

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William Hobhouse

Next priority – elect a second Green MP

By William Hobhouse | Mon 5th December 2016 - 9:32 am

caroline-lucas-600

I hope it hasn’t been forgotten that the Green Party didn’t stand a candidate in Richmond Park, and expressly backed Sarah Olney. Labour did stand a candidate, but it was widely reported that some Labour members didn’t think they should have.

On the other side of course, neither the Conservatives nor UKIP stood, therefore leaving the centre-right vote clear for Zac Goldsmith. It was an unusual by-election, 95% of the vote went to two people. There may not be another by-election like this in this parliament.

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Caron Lindsay

Sleaford & North Hykeham: Steeped in Lib Dem history and an important part of the Lib Dem revival

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 4th December 2016 - 10:23 pm

Every time I hear more about what’s going on in the Liberal Democrat campaign in Sleaford and North Hykeham, it just makes me smile.

My 11 years in the East Midlands has left me with a huge affection for the area and I’m just thrilled that an initially small band of Lib Dems with a mission are delivering an energetic and positive campaign in a part of the world that has been relatively unblessed with regular Focus delivery. Until now.

Candidate Ross Pepper and ace campaigner and regular LDV contributor Ed Fordham have put together a campaign that has reached all those communities the Tories have been taking for granted for years. They even have a minibus!

Ross has the advantage of being the only candidate who voted for Remain in the referendum so he alone is in tune with 40% of the electorate. But it’s not just about Remain and Leave. Many people are alarmed by what has happened since the Referendum, how the Tories are pushing us towards a hard Brexit and how Labour don’t really seem interested in doing even the most basic job of an opposition. They like what we have to say about putting the power in their hands by giving them a vote on the final deal.

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Paul Walter

Don’t pass by homeless/needy people on the street

By Paul Walter | Sat 3rd December 2016 - 6:31 pm

Often we get into a habit of walking past homeless/needy people sitting on the side of the street. We are told that it is wrong to give them money, so we just pass awkwardly by.

It takes a lot of courage, but with temperatures dropping, I would suggest just stopping and chatting to the next person you see in such a situation. They may ask for money – and I would suggest declining that request. But what you can do is offer to go and buy them a drink of coffee/tea/soup or a sandwich or some chocolate.

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Natalie Chindipha

January Training for Trainers – book your place now!

By Natalie Chindipha | Sat 3rd December 2016 - 11:55 am

The Diversity Team is delighted to announce that it will be organising a two-day Training for Trainers Course, from Saturday 7 – Sunday 8 January 2017 in London at Lib Dem HQ.  The course is designed to accredit new trainers who can deliver training courses on behalf of the party.

This course is part of our ongoing effort to increase the amount of diversity training (ethnic minority, gender balance and unconscious bias) available within the party, therefore priority will be given to those we who can demonstrate a commitment to diversity training.

The course will cover a range of essential skills including:

  • How to develop your presentation skills
  • How to deliver effective presentations
  • How to design engaging training material
  • How to give and receive feedback
  • Understanding how different people learn and absorb new information
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Jon Taylor

1250 days to save the NHS: A new approach

By Jon Taylor | Sat 3rd December 2016 - 9:55 am

First a little about myself. I am 53 years old and have worked in health care for over 22 years. I have voted Liberal, latterly Liberal Democrat, for nearly 40 years now. I, like others, have been frustrated by the ongoing swing politics that has affected the United Kingdom since the last war. Whilst like many others I am saddened by the outcome of the referendum I know as a party we are committed to be outward looking and pro-European. This will mean maintaining and fostering close links our European neighbours. However we need to plan now as to how we can win the next General Election in 2020, and in doing so protect to NHS as a public service.

The voting public must be made aware what is at stake and we must put forward a radical but costed vision for the health service. In 1997 New Labour came to power and pumped money into the NHS whilst establishing targets for waiting times. This was a sensible approach, but in recent years this has evolved into ever-increasing ‘fines’ for failing to meet those targets. Therefore, despite the Conservative government’s much lauded promise ‘to increase funding’ for the NHS, the reality is that year on year hospital trusts fall ever further into debt, leading to cuts in staff & frontline services in real terms. This is neither a responsible or sustainable approach to meeting the needs of the public or the NHS.

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Mary Reid

What a campaign!

By Mary Reid | Fri 2nd December 2016 - 5:38 pm

sarah-olney-2

The Richmond Park campaign was the biggest the party has ever done. Phew!

In writing this post I don’t want to give away too many campaigning strategies, although the media have been pretty quick to spot our ways of working. They know that we are good at ‘deploying’ volunteers, but they don’t really understand how we do it. How, they wonder, do we manage to recruit 1000 people in one weekend, from all over the country? How do we get them to travel and stay at their own expense and then embark on some punishing walking, talking and delivering in the cold and dark for hours on end?

However, I know that many of our readers do understand what that is all about. We all care passionately about our values and the vision we have for our society, and we enjoy putting them into action in the company of like-minded people, who quickly become our friends.

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Kirsten Johnson

The Green Agenda: Lib Dems in Business dinner

By Kirsten Johnson | Fri 2nd December 2016 - 3:45 pm

The environment was our theme at the Liberal Democrats in Business dinner in Oxford last night (after a session of polling-day phone banking for Sarah Olney!).

We were pleased to welcome as speakers Baroness Kate Parminter, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader in the Lords and Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Dr Imad Ahmed of the Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University.

Dr Ahmed spoke of recent research into nano-particles in air pollution and how they affect our brains. The study, and how air pollution is a possible cause of Alzheimer’s, has been reported here in the UK and around the world.

Just in the news today is reporting of a move by major cities to ban diesel vehicles. This is due to their production of particulate matter (PM) and nitrous oxide (NOx). Dr Ahmed, in his talk, showed pictures of the effect of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on the brain.

The link between our health and the air we breathe was also made by Kate Parminter. Baroness Parminter spoke to us on environmental policy and what we should be doing now.

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The Voice

WATCH: Nick Clegg: Voters don’t like being told by Brexiteers that they have no right to a say

By The Voice | Fri 2nd December 2016 - 2:13 pm

Classy stuff from Nick Clegg on the BBC News Channel. It was put to him that we couldn’t extrapolate a wider Liberal Democrat resurgence from the Richmond Park result. That’s perfectly right, he said, and then came out with a whole stream of stats showing how well we are doing in local government by-elections and everywhere where people get a chance to hear what we have to say.

He also said that Brexiteers are rubbing voters up the wrong way by dismissing their concerns and right to be heard. Watch the interview here.

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Caron Lindsay

Richmond Park: what happens next for Sarah Olney and her team?

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 2nd December 2016 - 12:23 pm

10 years ago, I was part of the team in the last by-electon we gained, when Willie Rennie spectacularly won Dunfermline and West Fife in then Chancellor Gordon Brown’s backyard. At that time it was a political earthquake. It was also a huge victory at a time of crisis for our party. Only weeks before, Charles Kennedy had resigned as leader. During the by-election campaign there seemed to be a tabloid scandal about our leadership candidates around every half hour. We still came through and elected Willie as our 63rd MP.

A decade on, we only have a 7th of that number and the Richmond Park by-election win comes at a time when our party has stared down extinction. It confirms what we have come to realise over the past few months – that the old adage that where we have a presence, and are willing to put the effort in, we can have some spectacular results. That should also impress anyone who might be thinking about backing us financially. That backing in turn gives us the capacity to expand our operations, creating a virtuous cycle. We have to make sure that we seize this moment.

Sarah Olney enters the Commons as part of a band of 9 and as the only woman. The 8 men will need to make extra effort to make sure that they welcome her and listen to her.  One of the things we found really useful was the advice and support from colleagues and I’m sure that they will have lots of helpful advice for her and her team.  Susan Kramer as the previous MP for the constituency will no doubt be a marvellous help too.

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Caron Lindsay

Richmond Park is an important milestone – but it’s only the start

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 2nd December 2016 - 9:58 am

Well, we’re winning parliamentary by-elections again. Who’d have thought it possible on that awful night almost 19 months ago?

Liberal Democrats everywhere are grinning this morning. We’ve seen the brilliant local government results over the past few months. We saw the amazing Liz Leffman surge forward in the Tory heartland of Witney in October. Now, we have actually won another MP.

We shouldn’t under-estimate how massive a task winning Richmond Park was. It’s only been 37 days since Zac resigned. We had just over 5 weeks to change the agenda from Heathrow to Brexit and win the argument. A combination of clever literature, a fantastic candidate and an army of activists prepared to drop everything did it. Way back in the 90s when we were winning by-elections all the time, we had at least 3 times as long to make our case.

We also shouldn’t under-estimate how important it was that we won this. It was a seat we used to hold with a whacking great Remain vote. If we hadn’t, even if we had had a Witney type surge, people would have doubted our ability to change the political weather.

Sarah Olney’s victory has shown that we have still got what it takes to win the big moments. That is incredibly important for the outside world to see. Theresa May will be hoping that her MPs in similar seats to Richmond, where there is Liberal Democrat history, don’t cause any further by-elections.

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David Thorpe

What if productivity statistics are not truly telling the tale?

By David Thorpe | Wed 30th November 2016 - 4:06 pm

In the Autumn Statement, Philip Hammond spoke at length about the productivity crisis in the UK, and how he intends to address it.

And doubtless, the creation of higher skilled jobs, of better broadband, of better trains, will all make it easier for UK workers to do more, benefitting the workers and the economy alike.

But what if the productivity statistics are wrong?

Although they hardly belong to the same generation as me, I have three friends or acquaintances who have yet to reach retirement age, but have pension provisions sufficiently large that they are not seeking employment, nor do they claim unemployment benefit.

The government has such folk as a zero in the productivity number, they don’t appear in the unemployment data, nor in the wage data.

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Caron Lindsay

Maria Munir chosen as Girls’ Champion for BBC’s 100 Women

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 30th November 2016 - 2:40 pm

Lib Dem member Maria Munir, from Watford, won widespread global respect and admiration when they came out as non binary to President Obama at a town hall meeting in April this year. Let’s remind ourselves of that moment:

They spoke to the BBC here about their experience:

I just felt this moment of euphoria that finally I would be able to raise and highlight the issue that non-binary transgender people face.

If anyone has the power to change things for people like myself across the world, it is President Obama.”

Maria said their family history made the situation even more poignant.

“I started to feel the tears well up. My parents are immigrants. My granddad did manual labour in Pakistan. My dad worked as a manual labourer in Saudi Arabia before coming here to start a business with literally nothing.
“For me, aged 20, to be sat in front of the President of the United States, leader of the free world, to be able to pitch to him social action…

Maria has now been named as one of eight Girls’ Champion as part of the BBC’s 100 Women series. They will be able to use their voice to highlight issues that affect girls and non binary and transgender people.

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Tony Lloyd

But we are the party of freedom

By Tony Lloyd | Wed 30th November 2016 - 8:55 am

Martin Roche wrote an eloquent piece, with a follow up,  calling for Liberal Democrats to brand themselves:

The Party of Freedom

Though generally well received some thought the branding conflicted with other values; fairness, equality, and community. Many thought the slogan linked us to the excesses of market ideologues and libertarians.

Are fairness and equality such rivals of freedom? Is someone’s freedom not limited if they lack decent housing or other basic needs? Is their freedom not limited if they cannot access information or lack the education needed to make use of it? Is someone’s freedom not limited if they suffer from discrimination or if they are sufficiently impoverished that they are excluded participating in society?

Of course that person’s freedom is limited. Others do not understand that. We do. That is why we are The Party of Freedom.

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Scott Craig

A great compromise is needed to reunite the United Kingdom

By Scott Craig | Tue 29th November 2016 - 1:58 pm

When the American constitutional convention assembled in Philidelphia in 1787 to revise the articles of confederation and create the present US Constitution, it had to find a way of balancing the interests of large states with those of smaller ones.

The problem was that some states wanted the number of congressional representatives to be proportional to the population of a state, while others wanted the number of representatives to be the same for all states. Naturally, each state preferred the plan which would give them a larger say in how the government was run.

After much debate, the impasse was solved by …

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    @Peter Martin "Works reasonably well for most people." Maybe so. It works for people who stay employed, healthy, and un-sanctioned. It works considerably less w...
  • David Evans
    Thank you Jack for exposing in your very first paragraph the inanity of another part of Andy Burnham's short lived and not thought out slogan/strategy of "Manch...