Category Archives: Op-eds

Paul Walter

“Devonwall” seat proposal – the government ignore Cornish pride at their peril

By Paul Walter | Fri 16th September 2016 - 2:45 pm

The Strand, Bude by paul walterThe Strand, Bude, Cornwall

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to be in a choir leading the singing of “Trelawny” in an ancient Cornish church. “Trelawny” or “The Song of Western Men” is the “unofficial Cornish national anthem” written by Rev R.S. Hawker. The congregation joined in with the choruses – most enthusiastically – and rapturous applause from “one and all” followed the song. It was a magical moment and reinforced that great feeling of community which one feels amongst Cornish people. There’s a real passion and pride about the Cornish nation.

The Boundary Commissioners and Theresa May should have been present at that church. I have a hunch that witnessing such strength of feeling, they would think again about their proposals for a “Devonwall” seat. The church in question is just south of Bude and part of the proposed parliamentary constituency of Bideford, Bude and Launceston, straddling Devon and Cornwall – or, I should say, Cornwall and England.

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Joe Zammit-Lucia

How long will we continue to ignore the obvious?

By Joe Zammit-Lucia | Fri 16th September 2016 - 1:08 pm

The Brexit referendum was a perfect demonstration of what many of us have known for a long time: emotion trumps reason – every time. In the referendum campaign, the Remain campaign mounted a campaign focused on ‘rational’ arguments – largely about the economy. All the visceral emotion was with Leave. It is not surprising Leave prevailed. What is also clear is that anger trumps fear – every time. Angry people are fired up. They rise up to do things – often destructive things. Fear paralyses. People cower in a corner and hope it all goes away.

The prevailing political mood at the moment is one of widespread anger. How should one handle it?

Last night at a political dinner, the view was expressed that what was needed was to try to dampen that anger, show people that they were being unreasonable and irrational and win them over to the moderate, tolerant, open, reasonable and rational values of liberalism. I cannot think of an approach that is more likely to fail than that one. It’s the equivalent of being faced by a furious spouse and responding with “Calm down dear and let’s be reasonable about all this.” We all know how effective that is.

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George Kendall

The Iraq War must no longer poison our relations with Labour

By George Kendall | Fri 16th September 2016 - 11:48 am

What would we remember of the Labour government, if Al-Qaeda’s terrorist attack fifteen years ago had never happened? If Labour had listened to the advice of Robin Cook and John Denham, and not engaged in the catastrophe of the Iraq war?

Many of us will remember Robin Cook’s electrifying resignation speech. If only he were alive today. However, he was not the only Labour minister to step down from government office because of the Iraq war. In his prescient resignation speech, on the 18th March, 2003, John Denham said:

If we act in the wrong way, we will create more of the problems that we aim to tackle. For every cause of insecurity with which we try to deal, we shall create a new one.

This summer, I was an observer at the Fabian and Progress summer conferences. I didn’t hear anyone try to defend the Iraq war, and a number agreed it had been a terrible mistake. In fact, if you substituted the word Labour for Liberal Democrat, almost everything that was said could have been said at a Liberal Democrat conference, and probably will be in this coming week.

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Caron Lindsay

LDV Interview: Caroline Lucas talks about The Alternative – Part 1

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 16th September 2016 - 10:47 am

The AlternativeThis week I had the chance to talk to Caroline Lucas, newly elected co-Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, about the book “The Alternative.” She co-edited the book with Labour MP Lisa Nandy and her erstwhile 2015 Liberal Democrat opponent Chris Bowers. The three will be taking part in a fringe meeting at Conference on Sunday at 1pm in the Buckingham suite in the Hilton Metropole. The event is organised by the Social Liberal Forum.

The first part of the book explores all sorts of ideas, from foreign affairs to social security and public services, where there is significant common ground between those of a progressive nature.The second explores how progressives could work together to beat the Tories. It’s a progressive antidote to the Tory dystopia into which we are currently descending. Though the book sets a lot of hares running, it doesn’t seek to outline a way forward. So, I asked Caroline, what happens next?

In the book there are all kinds of options discussed and explored and absolutely no blueprint not least because what might work in one constituency might not work in another.

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George Potter

Why the social security policy paper should be rejected

By George Potter | Thu 15th September 2016 - 6:58 pm

On Monday at Liberal Democrat conference, party members will have the chance to debate policy motion F31 which endorses a new Liberal Democrat welfare policy paper, Mending the safety net.

However, as one of the members of the working group which wrote the paper, I strongly urge all members at conference to vote against the motion.

My reasons for saying this are simple: although the policy paper is called ‘Mending the Safety Net’, what it proposes is nothing of the sort. In fact, it actively endorses the current welfare system which is failing so badly that over a million people in the UK don’t just live in poverty but are actively destitute.

This is undoubtedly one of the greatest social challenges facing our country – even if you set aside the human suffering it creates, poverty costs the UK £78 billion a year, blighting our national prosperity.

When set against that backdrop, the welfare policy motion is a failure.

In my opinion it lets down some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in society by failing to offer real solutions to the problems they face, it spectacularly misses the opportunity to define a real and distinctive alternative approach to welfare for the Liberal Democrats, and, crucially, it cannot be made fit for purpose even if all the amendments to it on the agenda are passed.

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Jo Hayes

The ethics surrounding the nuclear weapons debate

By Jo Hayes | Thu 15th September 2016 - 5:23 pm

Members of the Nuclear Weapons Working Group are presenting their personal views as part of a wider consultation process into the party’s future policy on nuclear weapons. The full consultation paper can be found at www.libdems.org.uk/autumn-conference-16-policypapers and the consultation window runs until 28 October. Party members are invited to attend the consultation session at party conference in Brighton, to be held on Saturday 17 September at 1pm in the Balmoral Room of the Hilton.

The UK’s options for the successor to Trident are (boiled down to essentials):

  1. Same as now – nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines, only new.
  2. Keep most or all of the kit but stop continuous nuclear armed submarine patrols, unless circumstances change.
  3. Shift from missiles in submarines to bombs dropped from aircraft.
  4. Don’t keep nuclear weapons but do keep the expertise and the radioactive materials needed to make them, just in case.
  5. No nuclear weapons. Unilateral disarmament. The zero option.

I have been invited to write about these options in the light of ethical and humanitarian concerns.

Nuclear weapons are not really weapons of war. They are beyond war. They are means of annihilating life as we know it on this planet. There are about 15,000 nuclear warheads in the world today, which in a full nuclear conflict could comfortably exterminate us all.

They are so destructive that their use in pursuit of a traditional victory is impossible. They are not made to be used, but to make threats with. 

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Lord William Wallace

William Wallace writes…Taking on the anti-tax movement 

By Lord William Wallace | Thu 15th September 2016 - 8:42 am

If you read any other paper than the Guardian, you will have noted some days ago a generously-covered story about the enormous ‘lifetime tax bill’ faced by British families. The ‘average UK household’ in 2014-15 was estimated to pay £826,000 in direct and indirect taxes over their working life, while the top 20% ‘will pay £1,686,970’ – a curiously exact figure for an estimate, and a claimed rise of 4.3% over the previous year.

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Jonathan Fryer

We must fight Witney hard

By Jonathan Fryer | Wed 14th September 2016 - 4:30 pm

Invitations have gone out to approved parliamentary candidates to stand in the Witney constituency by-election, caused by David Cameron’s sudden resignation from Parliament. It’s important the selection goes ahead quickly and the very best person is appointed as this is a contest we should fight with maximum resources, energy and determination. There is no time to lose as rumour has it that the by-election may be called for 20 October.

Although the Liberal Democrat vote fell back sharply in 2015 (as in so much of the rest of the country), the party’s candidates (respectively Dawn Barnes and Liz Leffman) came second in both 2010 and 2005. Yes, a distant second, but just consider the extraordinary circumstances in which this by-election is being held. Cameron unintentionally landed Britain in its current Brexit mess and the terrible trio that Theresa May has put in charge of “delivering Brexit” haven’t a clue what it means in practice, how it will be done or when. The Conservatives like to say they are competent, but this is incompetence on a colossal scale.

As for Labour, next week Jeremy Corbyn will almost certainly be re-elected leader of the party, despite the fact that he does not enjoy the confidence of the vast majority of his MPs and Labour is riven by internecine warfare. Not exactly in a position to make a big leap forward in Witney. Indeed, if the recent Sheffield council by-election is anything to go by, quite the opposite.

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Caron Lindsay

Clegg interview-bombs as Farron parks tanks on Tory lawn

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 14th September 2016 - 1:57 pm

Back in the day, the run-up to Conference used to include Tim Farron grabbing some headlines with his pre-conference interview. Remember the cockroaches one? I’m not entirely sure that the Clegg press office was wildly chuffed with that one.

Thers a certain irony this week, as  the run-up to Conference is punctuated with numerous forays by Nick Clegg in the media as he publicises his book, published tomorrow. He’s doing the interview equivalent of a photobomb.

Yesterday, he clearly had a very good lunch with the press gallery. He said a lot of very pertinent things on Brexit including a prediction that Liam Fox will resign in a huff.  Perhaps it might have been wiser to laugh off questions about whether he would fight his Sheffield Hallam constituency again with something like: “Lib Dems are doing really well in Sheffield at the moment. Did you see that by-election we won from fourth last week?”

While he stated that he didn’t much like nationalism and wanted the UK to stay together, his remarks that a future referendum on Scottish independence would be difficult to fight given the strength of the Remain vote perhaps misunderstand the situation in Scotland. A poll just yesterday showed that little had changed in the two years since the Referendum and two weeks ago, half of Scots polled opposed a second referendum. And before anyone suggests that there is a contradiction between opposing an independence referendum and wanting a referendum on the Brexit deal, there isn’t. 

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Ed Long

Conference Countdown 2016: Tackling global corruption should be a core Liberal campaign

By Ed Long | Wed 14th September 2016 - 11:20 am

On April 3 2016, just under 12 million documents were leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca containing financial details on over 200,000 offshore companies. While the bulk of our nation’s media coverage was of David Cameron’s family investment fund – Blairmore Holdings – and the former Prime Minister of Iceland’s resignation, most news outlets underplayed the real significance of the investigation: the details of shell companies used to profit from criminal activity and how the lack of transparency in opaque jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles or Bahamas provides cover for organisations involved in people trafficking, narcotics, selling arms to despotic regimes and terrorism.

On Saturday, Tower Hamlets Liberal Democrats are moving a motion demanding that the UK calls time on the lack of progress in our overseas territories and sets a deadline for the implementation of centralised registers which make the beneficial ownership of companies available both to relevant authorities and to the public.

The UK has a strong record in this area: Vince Cable drove forward the development of legislation for Companies House to implement a register of Persons of Significant Control during the coalition and the register is now starting to be filled with statements of beneficial ownership. It is due for completion in June 2017.

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Caron Lindsay

Dick Newby is new Lib Dem Lords leader

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 13th September 2016 - 10:47 pm

Whoever runs the Lib Dem Lords’ Twitter account has a sense of humour:

Dick Newby beat Robin Teverson in the race to succeed Jim Wallace.

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Thibault Jamme

Brexit: A referendum on the destination may be too late.

By Thibault Jamme | Tue 13th September 2016 - 10:53 am

The following quote from Tim Farron’s recently published plan worried me slightly: “We demand that the British people should have their say on the final deal in a referendum.”, the idea being to have a referendum at the end of the 2 year negotiation period dictated by Article 50.

On paper, this sounds great.

I am however afraid this is not feasible because no-one actually knows for sure whether we can pull out of the Article 50 process once it is started, even if some reputable sources ‘think’ it is possible. The ‘think’ part must not be ignored. We …

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Chris Tanner

Towards a new, radical and distinctive LibDem platform

By Chris Tanner | Mon 12th September 2016 - 1:53 pm

wikimedia-org-flag-of-uk-home-nations-home_nations_flag-cc

I would like to contribute to the ‘radical and distinctive’ LibDem platform of the Radical Association.  We should be proud of our devolution process, freely achieved without unrest and violence.  But it has created inconsistencies underlined by the Scottish and EU referendums:

  • We are a Union of four countries, each theoretically equal within the Union…
  • Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have a Parliament and First Minster
  • England does not have a Parliament of its own, or a First Minister
  • England does ‘host’ the ‘national Parliament’ to which the others also send

…

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Dean Moore

Should we make it policy to apologise for historical UK atrocities?

By Dean Moore | Mon 12th September 2016 - 12:31 pm

 

The Transatlantic Slave Trade, famine in India, Social Darwinist programs across the globe (which included racial science influencing policy and creating what were effectively concentration camps for indigenous peoples in Australia and in South Africa during the second Boer War) and the destruction of the city of Benin – the United Kingdom is far from an innocent player on the international stage.

Even in the modern age, our hands are not exactly clean. Churchill openly endorsed eugenics and now-illegal warfare (saying in one letter that he saw no issues with “giving the natives a sniffle”, regarding biological weaponry). We engaged in the War on Terror and this year official government figures have shown that we are the second biggest arms dealer in the world, having sold two-thirds of our weaponry to the destabilised Middle East.

Our history, though sometimes a progressive one, is drenched in human rights abuses across the planet. Of the 196 countries in the world, only 22 have not experienced an invasion led by the British.

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Liberal Scotland in Europe team

Liberal Scotland in Europe

By Liberal Scotland in Europe team | Mon 12th September 2016 - 11:05 am

In the early hours of the morning of June 24th, everything we understood about the UK’s relationship with the rest of Europe changed.

The European Union and our belief in its goals of peace and economic prosperity is an enormous part of what it is to be a Liberal Democrat. We are internationalist, co-operative, tolerant. And as that reality sank in we realised there was another consequence: What did this mean for our relationship with the rest of the UK?

Scottish Liberal Democrats have spent years campaigning for a strong Scotland within the UK, for a federal UK that pools and shares resources.  And in two referendums in the past two years the people of Scotland have agreed with both of those precepts: Remain in the EU and be part of the UK.

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Caron Lindsay

Conference Countdown 2016: Caron’s guide to the craziness of Conference – updated for Brighton 2016

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 11th September 2016 - 8:00 pm

Credit: Freefoto.com Credit: Freefoto.com

Federal Conference is probably the best fun that you will ever have in your life. You will thoroughly enjoy every exhausting moment. If you’re new, it can be a bit overwhelming until you get used to the sensory overload. I had a long break from going to them and when I returned, in 2011, I spent the first day wandering round in a state of wide-eyed amazement,  like a child in a toy shop.

So, with that in mind, I thought I’d throw together a fairly random list of tips and hints for getting the best out of the annual cornucopia of Liberal Democracy. If you have any other Conference survival tips, let me know.

1. Plan your days

The Conference day starts with breakfast fringes as early as 7 and goes on until the small hours. There’s a comprehensive training programme alongside the debates in the hall. There are spokespeople Q & As. There are competing fringe choices to be made, even though the overall selection has reduced in recent years.  You can guarantee that you will never be bored and that several things you want to see will be on at the same time. If you want to go to the big events like the Matt Forde interview with Tim Farron or the fringe meeting on the book advocating a progressive alliance with Caroline Lucas and Lisa Nandy or the Guardian’s chat with Nick Clegg, you are best advised to get there early because they fill up quickly.

Be aware as well that you can eat quite well for free by choosing the right fringe meetings – look for the refreshments symbol in the directory.

Believe me, it’s much easier if you sort out your diary in advance. The best laid plans will always be subject to a better offer or meeting someone you haven’t seen for years randomly in a corridor, but it’s best to at least try to get some order into the proceedings. The Conference App is a real help for this. You can download it from whichever App store you use on your phone. It allows you to add events to your schedule and is pretty flexible. 

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Caron Lindsay

Does “Open, tolerant and united” fully project what the Liberal Democrats are about?

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 11th September 2016 - 5:50 pm

“Open, tolerant and united.” It’s the phrase you will hear in many Liberal Democrats speeches and press comments at the moment. It seems to be taking the place of “Stronger Economy, Fairer Society.” But is it what we should be saying right now?

It’s not a bad thing. You wouldn’t have found anyone saying that they actively wanted a weak economy and an unfair society, but here is evidence everywhere that some people  want us to be isolated, intolerant and divided. The referendum result gave a massive boost to those malevolent forces who thrive on fear and hatred and brought them from the fringes into the very heart of our political culture.  Being openly racist is becoming more acceptable and that’s something we need to be standing up against.

So, it’s ok to have those values at this time.  Openness – which to me encompasses co-operation, generosity of spirit, curiosity and willingness to listen. Tolerant means that we accept our differences and let everyone live life as they wish so long as it doesn’t infringe anyone else’s rights. United. Now, that’s a funny one. I don’t want a divided country like we quite obviously have at the moment. I don’t want my country to break up, either, however much I might have wanted to saw England off and cast it into the Atlantic on its own at around 5 in the morning of 24th June. But I’m not sure I absolutely want a united country. That’s a bit too conformist for a free spirit like me. I want a country where everyone lives together peaceably, with common values of freedom and generosity. I’m just not sure united is the right word when it’s our differences that help us learn and explore and succeed. 

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The Voice

In Full: Kirsty Williams’ challenge to Welsh universities over Brexit

By The Voice | Sun 11th September 2016 - 11:55 am

This week, Kirsty Williams, the Liberal Democrat Welsh Education Secretary, made a speech at Cardiff University about the challenges facing the sector caused by Brexit. She called on universities to strengthen their links to the community at this very difficult time. Here is her speech in full.

Prynhawn da pawb. Good afternoon everyone.

Thank you Colin, and many thanks to colleagues here at Cardiff University for hosting this event today.

It’s great to be here in the Postgraduate Teaching Centre, where professionals from industry and masters students mix and study in the same great location. It is a real state-of –the art facility, one which reflects ambitions to engage strongly with the local and global economy.

One of Cardiff University’s main purposes is to “contribute to the social, cultural and economic development of Wales”. It says so in the university charter (so it must be true…!)

Such civic ambition, in common with our other universities, was the product of a national, political and educational awakening.

As the Aberdare Committee of 1881 noted, there was a “widespread desire for a better education system in Wales” in the second half of the 19th century. The establishment of our own university colleges was central to the fulfilment of that desire.

I know that ambitions for an even better education system in Wales are shared, and demanded, across the country even now. Our national mission is to ensure that all citizens benefit from an equal opportunity to reach the highest standards. I am ambitious, and optimistic, about our collective ability to shape a system that is modern, excellent and innovative.

Universities are critical to that national mission. They should be open and outward-looking, connecting the civic, social and economic.

I want to take the opportunity today to share some thoughts on the role of universities as civic institutions.

  •   The challenge and necessity of civic engagement following the EU referendum;
  •   The role of universities as stewards of community, city and country;
  •   And the importance of innovation, a start-up culture and international links.

    Just before I move on, I’d like to congratulate the sector in Wales for achieving it’s highest-ever student satisfaction level in the National Student Survey last month – outperforming England in fact.

    Although we don’t take the narrow view of students as just a set of consumers, delivering the best possible student experience is a fundamental priority.

    BREXIT NEXT STEPS

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Mark Argent

Migrants: Welcome and fear

By Mark Argent | Sun 11th September 2016 - 10:25 am

Recently I was out with some Bishop’s Stortford Liberal Democrats, gathering signatures on a petition for citizens of other EU nations currently in the UK to be allowed to remain in the UK. In a few hours we gathered just over 250 signatures on a not-that-busy street. Some were delighted to sign. Some were relieved that we were not taking the opposite position. Some said their businesses would struggle without people from other parts of the EU.

More worrying was the small minority who disagreed, loudly wanting foreigners to “go home”. A prize for confusion goes to the person who said that, and then added that she wanted to retire to France.

Then came an apparently-xenophobic attack on two Poles in Harlow and Theresa May’s assertion that curbing immigration will take priority over access to the single market in Brexit talks. She must know this is unrealistic: freedom of movement is one of the pillars of the single market and Switzerland’s access to EU programmes was curtailed after they sought to restrict migration.

The sense of farce is heightened by a survey from British Future saying that only a third of people think the government will meet its immigration targets over the next five years and a claim from Boris Johnson that people didn’t vote Leave because of immigration.

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Caron Lindsay

How Mosborough’s mascot motivated an energetic campaign

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 10th September 2016 - 3:59 pm

Every time I hear the word Mosborough, it makes me smile. What a brilliant result. From 14% and 4th place just 4 months ago, the Liberal Democrats took a stunning victory in a local by-election on Thursday night. I’m told Mosborough is a bellweather ward in Sheffield so it may well reflect how voters across the city are feeling.

This takes me back to the 90s when we were routinely winning by-elections against Labour in Sheffield and Chesterfield. Let’s hope that Thursday’s victory is a big leap forward to getting that sort of success again.

The Sheffield Star has some great coverage, including one of returning Cllr Gail Smith and the Lib Dem Leader on Sheffield City Council.  Shaffaq Mohammed, looking very pleased. Shaffaq said of Gail’s victory:

In 2008, we actually took control of the council by winning Mosborough. “This is a huge victory, it shows the Lib Dems in Sheffield are back and actually, all those seats we lost during the coalition years are there up for grabs. “This arrogant Labour council has been sent a very strong message that they cannot take the people of Sheffield for granted. “Mosborough has spoken on behalf of Sheffield – well done to the people of Mosborough for electing Gail Smith who is going to be an outstanding councillor.

Elsewhere, just like the losing team on the Apprentice, Labour are sobbing into their tea and kicking lumps out of each other. I saw on social media yesterday that some of them were saying that the candidate wasn’t a Corbyn backer, which is why the local Corbynista were to be found phoning for Corbyn, not their candidate on polling day. The voters, of course, didn’t know the candidate wasn’t a Corbyn fan so she was, they said, caught between a rock and a hard place. The Sheffield Star reports on that angle and on Sheffield MP Angela Smith blaming Corbyn for the terrible result. Isn’t it funny how none of them blame their awful local council? 

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Caron Lindsay

Farron: Heathrow free vote would be farcical

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 10th September 2016 - 3:07 pm

Dearie me. Twice in a week, the government has been caught on the hop a top secret documents have been photographed and have appeared in the press. Unless, of course, it was planned that way. You never know, these days. Perhaps people think The Thick of It was a documentary or something. First it was grammar schools and now it’s the possibility of a free vote on Heathrow expansion  as Channel 4 news revealed:

In the second security breach of its kind in a week, a London Underground passenger filmed a very senior Cabinet Office civil servant holding a paper that discussed “potential waiving of collective responsibility” ahead of “the forthcoming decision around airport capacity”.

The document discusses the possibility of “allowing Ministers to speak against the government’s position in the House” as they did in the EU referendum campaign.

If the vote goes ahead it could end decades of bitter argument over the best way to increase capacity in southeast England.

Tim Farron was unimpressed at this development. He said:

The suggestion that there might be a free vote on Heathrow is farcical – this is a huge decision and the Conservative government has to make a collective decision and take full responsibility.   If people disagree they can resign.

Liberal Democrats are the only party consistently opposed to a third runway at Heathrow and we will fight any plans to allow it to be built.

Two questions arise. The first, of course, is how Zac Goldsmith feels about all of this. He has long opposed a third runway and threatened to resign as MP and cause a by-election if the Tories gave the third runway the go-ahead. He said he regrets this pledge but will honour it.

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Jamie Dalzell

Was Michael Gove right?

By Jamie Dalzell | Sat 10th September 2016 - 1:23 pm

On 3rd June 2016, Michael Gove drew ridicule when he stated “People in this country have had enough of experts”. However, Theresa May’s announcement that her government are now seeking to actively support1 the reintroduction of selective schools goes against all evidence-based expert opinion.

We mocked Mr Gove but the reintroduction of selective schools may well prove he was right. There appears to widespread support across the right-wing press and the Telegraph website is currently indicating 77% of their readership support the policy.

To make such an argument, I accept that I do need to present credible evidence undermining the case for selective schools. As noted by Branwen Jeffreys, the BBC Education Editor:

Many thought the debate about grammars had become almost irrelevant.

and it is therefore not surprising that recent academic research regarding the impact of selective school’s has been limited. Ironically, I suspect that this may have allowed such an antiquated policy to get its foot in the door.

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John Death

Party like it’s 1981

By John Death | Sat 10th September 2016 - 11:55 am

Imagine that, alongside Michael Foot as leader, Tony Benn had won the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in 1981; it almost happened. Would the creation of the SDP then seem wrong even to Labour loyalists and even today? There is certainly a view within the Labour Party, shared with The Guardian editorial writers, that a way must be found to keep the current party together rather than face the alternative: “No one who remembers or knows about past divisions, notably the breakaway of the Social Democratic party in 1981, should want a return to that.”

The argument runs that the SDP split the Left, enabling Thatcherism to run riot in the Eighties without a strong, electable opposition. With many moderates leaving Labour, the hard Left almost triumphed and Neil Kinnock needed a monumental effort of will to turn the party around into something more, though still not quite, electable.

This line of reasoning is obviously flawed. In the Eighties, Benn did not defeat either Denis Healey for the deputy leadership or Kinnock for the leadership. Jeremy Corbyn (Foot without the charisma) and the hard Left already control the Labour Party. Good luck to Owen Smith trying to do a Kinnock, but if, as seems likely, he fails, what then? The Guardian suggests that the answer is Shadow Cabinet elections.

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James Lindsay

Migration myths and unravelling of Brexit promises

By James Lindsay | Sat 10th September 2016 - 8:55 am

The recent increase in hate crimes against Eastern Europeans in the UK has rightly been met with condemnation from across the political spectrum. Some dismiss this is a post-referendum spasm which will quickly ebb away. I fear that may not be the case and the Brexit decision may cause long-term damage to community cohesion and open a Pandora’s box of nasty populist politics. Let me explain why.

Brexiteer leaders – Farage, Fox, Johnson – made promises which are already unravelling. They told voters that leaving the EU would lead to better NHS services, improved job prospects and smaller class sizes. Those promises were largely based on migration myths which, unfortunately, many people believed.

Voters were promised that leaving the EU would lead to an improved NHS. Migrants were (wrongly) blamed as a drain on scarce NHS resources and that the UK cash contribution to the EU would be redirected to the NHS.

The reality is that the NHS is struggling because people are living longer, but often with multiple medical conditions and there has been a huge increase in conditions resulting from lifestyle choices. Neither of these is related to migration – these are home-grown problems – so leaving the EU will not resolve them and may make matters worse as it could discourage medical professionals from coming to work in the UK. 

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Caron Lindsay

Conference Countdown 2016: Five things to do this weekend to prepare for Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 9th September 2016 - 3:21 pm

This time next week, many of us will be heading down to Conference in Brighton. I won’t be as I have the particular joy of the 6:25 am flight from Edinburgh to look forward to on Saturday morning.

Here are some top tips for pre-conference preparation which will help you get the best out of the event. Once you are in the fast moving frenzy of our four days in Brighton, it’s difficult to find the space to take stock and plan. Putting the time in now to work out what you want to do will pay dividends.

So, here are a few things you can do this weekend to make sure you are properly prepared. In no particular order…

Get your ticket for the Lib Dem Disco

Cambridge Lib Dems have captured the Saturday evening conference market with their annual disco. It is hilarious, with guest DJs competing against each other. Last year Jo Swinson triumphed in spectacular style. Buzzfeed were there to report it all and take video, so don’t be under any misapprehension that what happens at Lib Dem Disco stays at Lib Dem Disco.

I came second to Alistair Carmichael in the DJ competition 2 years ago. I went slightly off-message with the Disco theme as we were in Scotland. I thought it might be a really good idea to get lots of people who may have had the odd wee drink doing the Gay Gordons at 11 o’clock at night. When I suggested this to the organisers, they replied: “Your proposal for carnage is appealing.”

In the end it was pretty civilised and, thanks to Paul Walter, there is video.

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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Nick Clegg on the rise of populist parties and READ his paper on European trade

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 8th September 2016 - 9:25 pm

Nick Clegg is everywhere in the media at the moment as he publicises his book which is published next week.

Tonight he was on Channel 4 News talking about the challenge to reasonable, moderate politics posed by populists parties who use the politics of fear and blame.

Watch the interview below:


He linked this to the fact that Parliament may have to leave the Palace of Westminster while repairs are carried out to this. He reckons leaving the “rat-infested, asbestos ridden” place might help to drag our democracy into the 21st century.

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Elizabeth Adams

Why Liberals should be concerned about the closure of Fabric

By Elizabeth Adams | Thu 8th September 2016 - 11:14 am

The number one priority of the Liberal Democrats is currently trying to do all we can to keep the UK in the European Union. However, if there is one other campaign that Liberal Democrats across the UK should be rallying behind, it is the fight to try and keep the iconic London club Fabric from closing.

But why? Why is this of vital importance to all liberals across the nation?

The possible ‘targeting’ of Fabric and the disgusting treatment that the club’s owners have received by the authorities is something that every Liberal should be very worried about.

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Caron Lindsay

“We are not going to let them anywhere near power again” – a PM too comfortable with power

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 7th September 2016 - 7:11 pm

Theresa May has not even been Prime Minister for two months. However, she is already displaying a complacency in power that is quite chilling.

At only her second Prime Minister’s Questions, she had this to say to Jeremy Corbyn:

What we do know is that, whoever wins the Labour party leadership, we are not going to let them anywhere near power again.

These are not the words of a Prime Minister who believes that power comes from the people.

You could dismiss that as banter if the Tories were not trying to stitch up the entire political system in their favour. Lib Dem Peer Paul Tyler warned of a crisis of legitimacy in parliamentary democracy if the boundary changes were allowed to go through:

Reducing the number of MPs without also reducing the size of the Executive is a mistake. With the pay-roll vote approaching half the membership of the government side of the Commons, the power of government to control Parliament is increased. And with no prospect of democratic reform of the Lords, we are edging towards a dangerous lack of democratic legitimacy in parliament.

The Conservatives are blatantly attempting to fix the system to keep themselves in power.

Individual electoral registration means that young people who move around a lot are unlikely to be on the electoral register – and they would be more likely not to vote Conservative. In April this year, a report, Missing Millions, outlined why this matters:

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Federal Policy Committee Report – 6 September 2016

By Geoff Payne | Wed 7th September 2016 - 10:25 am

After a hiatus in meetings over the summer, the Federal Policy Committee met for the first time on 6th September 2016.

This was a very lengthy meeting.  It commenced at 14:30 and went on well into the evening.  There were only two items on the agenda.

Snap General Election Manifesto

The Federal Policy Committee is responsible for the preparation of the General Election manifestoes for the party.  Earlier in the year, following the turmoil surrounding the Brexit vote, the change in party leadership in the Tories and the extreme instability in Labour, it looked like there might be a snap General Election this Autumn.   Under those circumstances, the committee wanted to have a manifesto draft available in the event that one was called.  It would have taken far too long to prepare a document at that stage and we would have started on the back foot.

As regular readers of this report will know, a Working Group was set up to actually write the document.  That group was chaired by Dick Newby.  It worked very hard throughout the summer to prepare the first draft.  There was also a consultation exercise in which 8,000 members of the party responded.  Those responses were considered and many of them were incorporated.

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Catherine Bearder

Catherine Bearder MEP writes: Churchill and Mandela would have been with us on the March for Europe

By Catherine Bearder | Tue 6th September 2016 - 11:57 am

As thousands of Brits marched across the uk to show their support for our continued EU membership relationship I was with Liberal Democrat president Sal Brinton, past MEP Sarah Ludford and many other activists, PPCs, councillors, new and old members and others who wanted to be with the Liberal Democrats in our fight to get the best for our country post the referendum result.

The organisers were initially determined not to allow any elected political speakers on to the platform.  It seems the phrase ‘cross party’ had again been confused with ‘no party’, despite the speakers from the world of entertainment and media clearly having political affiliations.  However, sense and justice prevailed and I was allowed to speak to the assembled crowds.  It seemed only fair as the Liberal Democrats formed a major part of the March, and for that I must say thank you to Kelly-Marie Blundell and her team for organising us all and making sure our voice is heard across the country.

This then is the gist of what I said….

For every one who is marching to day, not just here in London, but right across the country, there are hundreds who are not on a march, but are with us in spirit.  They know as you do that this campaign was fought on lies and untruths and the question was simplistic.  The result cannot therefore be allowed to stand.  Reasons for voters supporting leave were varied, and we now know that what they were asked to vote on – Brexit – is a total unknown.  No one knows what it is.  Even the Brexiteers still don’t know what they want.

So many people and European flags flying is good to see, but there are two other people in this square with us who would be joining us if they could, one is Winston Churchill, the other is Nelson Mandela.  They both recognised that working together across borders is the best way to deliver peace and prosperity for all. They would be horrified to think there is a possibility of the UK leaving the best and biggest club on the planet.   We have to do all we can to stop that, and if we can’t we must make sure that we get the best deal possible – and then put that deal to the voters in the UK.

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