Category Archives: Op-eds

Ed Fordham

London’s LGBT Vigil to be sung and sung loudly

By Ed Fordham | Tue 14th June 2016 - 9:07 am

If it didn’t exist would you create it? Well based on last night, the answer for the London Gay Men’s Chorus was a resounding Yes.

As thousands of members of the LGBT community poured into Soho, supported by friends, family and a host of straight allies – everyone was very uncertain. The nervousness was palpable with no-one clear what was going to happen. There were a few attempts to get a political chant going, but the crowd was more contemplative. As the hour of 7pm approached there was a hanging sense of expectation.

And sure enough as 7pm there was a raft of whistle blowing then then the cloak of silence fell over everyone – Soho is said to be the only identifiable district in London which has no buses through it and when the silence fell you could hear a pin drop.

The silence was held for what seemed to be an age and the tension was real and then slowly, quietly and determinedly the joyous noise gathered pace and rose up. Here was London Gay Men’s Chorus singing ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’. Conducted by the deeply impressive Simon Sharp the Chorus absolutely delivered. Clad in their distinctive blue t-shirts this community chorus – which operates an open access policy – totally filled the yawning void of emotion, anger and optimism. The men next to me were openly crying, holding each other tight. It was a wave of song, of love and of gratitude: a surge of shared affinity for the heartache being witnessed in Orlando.

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Coalition 2.0: The EU Referendum

By Lib Dem Member | Mon 13th June 2016 - 3:32 pm

celebrities

Coalition: painful for us Lib Dems at times, but this isn’t about the last parliament, it’s about the referendum. Over the last few weeks’ economists, historians, scientists and celebrities have emerged, arguing the benefits of our membership of the EU. However, recent polls indicate increased support for Brexit; prompting calls for all campaigns to up their game.

But something else is happening; Brexit campaigners are making more extreme claims as the debate goes on. Farage telling his supporters to ‘go out and bully them’, Boris Johnson accusing the EU of excessive banana regulation, Diane James’ claim of ‘we just don’t know’ when asked about border controls and, of course, the £350 million bus – to name a few. This isn’t surprising, the UKIP machine has driven this referendum from day one and they will throw everything, including the kitchen sink, at it. For Boris Johnson, this campaign is a career test; as a serial risk taker he too, will throw everything at it.

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Lynne Featherstone

Our green economy can only be protected from full Tory demolition by staying in the EU

By Lynne Featherstone | Mon 13th June 2016 - 12:34 pm

Lynne-Featherstone---Stroud

Lynne Featherstone has joined forces with Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity  to talk about how the EU helps the renewable sector.

Just one year of a Tory-only Government we have seen a dangerous unravelling of the green actions of the Coalition. Our investment in the renewable sector made Britain the fastest growing green economy in Europe, created jobs and set solar and wind power on a path to becoming subsidy-free. This progress has been flung into jeopardy by a Government that has not made much effort to hide what it thinks of this “green crap”.

The renewable sector should be seen as an exciting area of innovation and growth, at a time when countries around the world are increasing their investment in green technology in response to global pressure to tackle climate change and domestic pressure to improve air quality. The UK is already a world leader in offshore wind and has the potential to establish this status in other areas such as tidal.

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Bernard Aris

Official, authoritative Dutch government calculations: “Every Dutch citizen stand to lose 1000 euros through a Brexit”

By Bernard Aris | Mon 13th June 2016 - 10:52 am

 

The morning papers in the Netherlands and NOS (our BBC)  all reported last week on a report of the government’s Centraal Plan Bureau (CPB = Central Planning Office, authoritative since its start in the late 1940’s like your IFS; they seldom are far off the mark in their predictions). I base this piece on articles in De Volkskrant (our Guardian) and Financiele Dagblad (equivalent of the Financial Times) and the NOS news website. It makes for worrisome reading.

The immediate effect of a Brexit is, according to the report, that it will cost 1.2% of GDP by 2030, that is, 575 euro per Dutch citizen. Indirect consequences like loss of innovation because of lower trade can increase that by 65%, to 1000 euro each. The damage will be sector specific; the most seriously affected (around 5% loss) will be

  • the chemical sector (that is for example DSM, and our petrochemical sector near Rotterdam);
  • electronics (Philips, just now specializing in expensive medical technologies);
  • food processing (our emblematic dairy industry: Friesland Foods and our extensive chicken and pork breeding industry; in Brabant province there are more pigs than humans).
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Mark Argent

Understanding the fears of those leaning towards Brexit

By Mark Argent | Mon 13th June 2016 - 8:55 am

 

The snag is that the fears are real. An article on research by Demos which highlights a perception that ethnic minorities are more able to influence things. That fits with a sense of alienation and fear I have been encountering on the doorsteps among the less wealthy and predominantly white people who have been talking of voting for “Out”.

In many of my doorstep conversations with people who say they want to vote out of the EU, I have been left with a sense that it is those who stand to lose most from leaving the EU who are actually being tempted to do this. It’s as if their fears are being played on for the benefit of politicians whose careers would gain from Brexit.

If people are afraid of losing their job, or struggling to afford somewhere to live, and the blame can be pinned on “immigrants” coming “because of the EU”, then the government is neatly absolved of responsibility. The EU becomes the scapegoat, so voting for Brexit makes sense. Except that scapegoats are always symbols for the problem, not the actual problem of government failures.

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Euan Davidson

Horror in Orlando

By Euan Davidson | Sun 12th June 2016 - 8:31 pm

Today I’m struggling to find the words to come to terms with what has happened in Orlando. Fifty people have been slaughtered solely for being who they are. Every terrorist attack is both an outrage and a multitude of personal tragedies but for all LGBTQ people this attack at the heart of our  community is particularly terrifying.

Throughout our history as a community LGBTQ people have faced violence and terror but there was a prevailing attitude that to be LGBTQ in Western Europe or North America was becoming safer, more accepted. This horrendous attack is a reminder that for some people, …

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Caron Lindsay

It’s time to drop everything and concentrate on the EU Referendum

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 12th June 2016 - 10:25 am

That poll in the Independent which showed Leave with a 10 point lead should concentrate our minds.  We have a lot of work to do over the next 11 days and, frankly, it’s time to drop everything that isn’t absolutely vital and get ourselves out there making the case for Remain, even more than we have done already. I know Liberal Democrats probably more than any other group of people have thrown their backs into it, particularly south of the border, but whatever we are doing, we need to do more and ask very unreasonable things of ourselves over the next few days. It’s not exaggerating to say that the future not just of this country, but the whole European continent, is in jeopardy.

The poll in question comes with a caveat because it didn’t have a “don’t know” option so it’s indicative really of people’s gut reactions at this time not, perhaps, of what they will actually do a week on Thursday. However, the overall state of the polling leads us right into the middle of squeaky bum territory.

It’s too close for comfort and Leave only need a one vote margin.

I’ve been here before, though. At the same stage before the Scottish Referendum, a poll put Yes slightly ahead, leading to a frenzy of activity. While No won out in the end, it was a very scary time. I was shocked by quite how emotional I felt about it. The atmosphere on the “front line” was pretty awful, with those of us who were campaigning for a no vote being told, variously, that we were stupid or treacherous. That came as a shock at the time, as it is now to some Remain campaigners who are experiencing the same thing from Brexiteers. Young Remain campaigners in the West Country were told yesterday, for example, that they were traitors and should be executed. That’s a glimpse into the minds of some of the people we are dealing with and it’s not an attractive one. If anything, this campaign is even worse.

Part of the reason I was so against Scottish independence was the uncertainty around our future membership of the EU. Being a citizen of the EU is an important part of my identity. I really don’t want to lose it. I definitely don’t want to lose it because people believe the lies that the Leave campaign are telling. So, this campaign is quite emotional too. There is a huge amount at stake and I really, really don’t like the thought of the country we would become if we succumbed to the narrow-minded isolationism of the Leave campaign. Brittie No Mates trying to forge her way in an increasingly complex world is not an appealing thought.

When we got to this stage in the Scottish Referendum, I wrote a piece saying what we needed to do in the last few days. Many of these principles apply now.

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Daniel Henry

We need a positive EU campaign and we need it now

By Daniel Henry | Sat 11th June 2016 - 12:25 pm

We’re in danger of losing the EU campaign. We’re making the same mistakes we made in the AV and Scottish Independence referenda and if we don’t turn things around we could find ourselves losing Europe.

The Remain campaign seems to have worked with the assumption that if we present the facts then people will believe and make their decision based on their facts, but unfortunately it just isn’t so simple.

For one, people have no idea of what the facts actually are. The Leave campaign have been extremely effective at casting doubt on any facts they disagree with. The conspiracy theories they come up with may sometimes sound daft, but they resonate with anyone who has come to distrust the political ‘establishment’.

Furthermore, emotion plays a big part in how we decide things. The Leave side have run a very emotive campaign, making effective use of fear (immigrants!!) and hope (unshackled we can do anything!!)

The Remain campaign, in comparison, have only really played to fears (economic ruin!!) and has assumed that because their scare stories are more factual that that will win it. (I saw more factual but even our side has exaggerated and twisting things)

The Remain campaign has lacked a positive message to go alongside the negative message and it desperately needs one!

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Belinda Brooks Gordon

For peace, healthcare, medical research, animal welfare, workers’ rights and equality: why I’m voting Remain

By Belinda Brooks Gordon | Fri 10th June 2016 - 2:55 pm

This is a speech I gave recently at a debate on the European Union at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

I want to tell you why Europe matters. Why it matters to me, to all of us, and our families.

I was born in the Caribbean after Hurricane Hattie, with the windows still broken in the hospital. We know extreme weather events are now more common elsewhere too.

But for our planet, and a greener future, Europe is taking the lead in the global effort to halt climate change. To prevent rising sea levels, and cut greenhouse gases. Our fragile, flood-ridden region, here in Cambridgeshire, needs that protection and forward thinking.

I grew up in Nigeria under a dictatorship. I saw division and bloodshed following the Biafran war. Burnt-out cars lay by the roadside. Roadblocks where soldiers had guns as likely to go off in their own face as mine.

THAT’S WHY I VALUE THE EUROPEAN PROJECT OF PEACE AND I WANT IT TO BE THERE FOR OTHERS TOO.

My work is on civil liberties and protection of the vulnerable. Especially migrant populations, trafficked women, and abused children. It’s why I feel that the EU, which funds programmes and refuges that protect women and young people from violence, is necessary.

It’s why I am grateful for the European Arrest Warrant. It means that thousands of criminals are no longer on our streets because our police can share information.

Now, I live with a vet and I’ve seen the impact of disease through intensive farming. Not only is animal welfare very important to us as a family. But as a mother, the safety of the food I feed my family matters.

So I am glad that EU food safety watches over all stages of food production. From animal feed, plants and crops, to the movement of animals. To ensure food across Europe is safe for us to eat.

And safer goods too. Because Europe gives us better consumer protection. Take standardization – people often laugh at Brussels for it. But it means that manufacture costs are lower and it ensures safer, better quality goods.

More than two thousand faulty items are banned each year – from Chinese rubber ducks to suspect tattoo chemicals from the USA. It means we can make informed choices.

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Martin Thomas

Lord Martin Thomas writes…“We beat them, why should we join them?”

By Martin Thomas | Fri 10th June 2016 - 1:25 pm

In the late forties and fifties, when men and women had returned from war, babies boomed. The boomers were born in free NHS hospitals. Secondary education had been improved for them. Fees in the grammar schools had been abolished. There were jobs and apprenticeships for school-leavers. A few went to college free of tuition fees and with a healthy maintenance grant. The austerity of the post-war years slowly passed and rationing was abolished. Peace was maintained by a nuclear standoff between Soviet Russia and the Western powers. The boomers were lucky. Now they are retired, many on index linked pensions.

I was born in the thirties. I lived through the War. As a child, I vividly remember sheltering under the staircase at my home in Llangollen, listening to the rhythmic growl of German bombers passing overhead towards Liverpool. I heard bombs falling on a decoy airstrip in the mountains nearby. Britain standing alone meant dangerous isolation.

Later, there were Americans camped in the town. Free French forces were stationed near my school. Polish airmen were training on Spitfires at Borras nearby. There were detachments of Indian troops. Planes of many countries marked with the three white stripes for D Day, flew overhead. A huge combined effort of free peoples won the war.

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Stuart Bonar

Muscly Putin stickman – my part in the #EUref

By Stuart Bonar | Fri 10th June 2016 - 11:55 am

Whenever I’ve tired during this long referendum campaign I’ve thought about how I will feel as I watch the results come in during the small hours of 24th June. Fear of losing, especially if not by much, has driven me to throw myself into the campaign.

And one of the benefits of a truly national election is that there are no safe seats or swing seats. Every vote genuinely counts as much as any other. It’s given me the freedom to get out and about as I campaign. It means that last weekend I was in Bournemouth, the week before in Liskeard, and this Saturday I’ll be at home in Plymouth (feel free to come along).

I wanted to do even more though, so my partner and I set up a Facebook group as somewhere to try out ideas and see if anyone thought they were any good. We called it Campaign to Remain – keep Britain in Europe.

We didn’t expect much. At first we thought it would be a niche little thing where we’d be breaking open the champagne if a post ever got over 10 likes. But we’ve been really lucky.

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The EU referendum is stuck on repeat, it’s time to change track

By Sarah Dickson | Fri 10th June 2016 - 10:25 am

Julie Smith LDCFSo far in the main referendum campaigns we have heard the same arguments on repeat from the same people. Economics has dominated discussions, trade is becoming the nation’s most used word and pound signs are flying all over billboards, news sites and buses.

Out on the campaign trail, voters seem to be getting increasingly confused, tired and frustrated with the campaigns. They’re after something different.

A couple of weeks ago, David Cameron tried bringing morality into the debate by describing a vote for Brexit as ‘immoral’. He was quickly shot down by his Eurosceptic colleagues, Iain Duncan Smith describing it as “not an honest assessment but a deeply biased view of the future”.

Have morals really got anything to do with it?

Through my work with the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum (LDCF), I’ve been talking to hundreds of Christians up and down the country about the referendum. I’ve noticed a yearning amongst the Christian community for a bigger picture debate about what this referendum will mean for the kind of world we want to live in and what impact the vote will have on others; a moral case for Brexit and remain.

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Alistair Carmichael MP

Alistair Carmichael MP writes: Snoopers’ Charter debate was a circle of Hell even Dante could not have imagined

By Alistair Carmichael MP | Thu 9th June 2016 - 6:56 pm

This week in Parliament we debated the Investigatory Powers Bill or, as some would have it, the Snooper’s Charter take 2. It was two days of my life that I will never have back and, after fifteen years as an MP, it was two of the most depressing days I have known. Being an MP is a great job and when parliament works as it is supposed to it can be exhilarating. When it fails to do what it is elected to do, namely to hold the government of the day to account, then it is hell. The debate on this bill took us to a new circle of hell that even Dante could not have imagined.

The Bill is rotten to its core and I wish we could have blocked it as we did in Coalition when faced with the Communications Data Bill. Dealing with Tories in government was difficult. Dealing with Tories in government and Labour in opposition is impossible.
We had two days to debate hundreds of amendments in the House of Commons. The government alone brought forward one hundred and four amendments on the first day and a further twenty on the second. After all the amendments the provisions on bulk data collection and the retention of “internet connection records” are not even half-baked. They are raw.

You would have thought that this would be grist to the mill of any decent opposition. You would be right in that. Unfortunately we don’t have a decent opposition, we have the Labour Party. There was not a single amendment in the whole two day debate on which Labour considered worthy of voting. For two days they were absent from the voting lobbies. We did get a little excited on day two when we heard through the usual channels that they were “going to vote on something”. We need not have got our hopes up – it turned out that “something” was a third reading of the bill (ie on the bill as a whole) and the vote they cast was to support it.

For our part, despite our overarching opposition to the Bill we had tabled a raft of amendments in an attempt to make the Bill a little less awful. The SNP took the same approach. I will not bore you with them all but give you a flavour below.

First, I proposed – and pushed to a vote, an amendment which would have deleted provisions in the Bill for the introduction of the collection and storage of Internet Connection Records (ICRs). Now, I’m not yet 100% clear what an internet connection record is. Nobody is – even the Home Secretary. I surmise that it will probably be your web history. This will then be stored for 12 months just in case you ever come under suspicion. Meanwhile, that information can be hacked and stolen revealing an enormous amount of detail about your life, activity and even your state of mind. I knew that when I pushed the amendment it would not pass. Andy Burnham the shadow Home Secretary had already said that whilst he accepted that ICRs were incredibly intrusive and might not even be helpful in solving crime he supported their collection in principle (God alone knows what the principle was but by this time I had given up on trying to understand the Labour Party’s position).

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Tatyan Cheung

Message to the Chinese community on how to vote in the EU Referendum

By Tatyan Cheung | Thu 9th June 2016 - 4:17 pm

 

The Conservative government (which includes the REMAIN and LEAVE camps) together with the British media have created a lot of fog, untruths and statistics (read ‘lies’) about the EU and Britain’s membership. It does not seem meaningful to discuss IF we don’t do this we can do that, when there are countless probabilities of an IF outcome, especially outcomes that occur in the future.

My message to the Chinese community in Britain to support the REMAIN campaign is, firstly, to consider the historical context and the pursuit of peace, and secondly, the origins of the Chinese community in Britain and the values we bring to British society.

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Dick Newby

Lord Dick Newby writes: A simple solution to an otherwise blurred vision

By Dick Newby | Thu 9th June 2016 - 1:25 pm

adjustable spectacles

Yesterday, I introduced a Bill in the Lords to permit over-the-counter sale of adjustable focus spectacles. At present only reading glasses can be sold in this way, with all other types of eyewear requiring a visit to a qualified optician or optometrist.

The spectacles in question achieve the required focus for each eye by turning a dial found at the side of each lens. They are produced to a very high quality and are useful for both to deal with some medical issues – eg types of diabetes where sight varies from day to day – and more generally as a spare or temporary pair of glasses. They are manufactured by an Oxford-based company, Adlens. They are sold in 57 countries worldwide including Japan and the US, where 500,000 units have already been sold, many without prescription.

However, in the UK, the only glasses which can be sold without a prescription are reading glasses. Although technically the Department of Health could just amend the legislation, it relies on advice from the General Optical Council (GOC) – the opticians’ regulatory body. Despite supportive expert opinion, the GOC has come up with a raft of issues – some of which are entirely spurious and none of which are decisive – to prevent the Adlens glasses being readily available.

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Jonathan Fryer

Europe’s Liberal family grows

By Jonathan Fryer | Thu 9th June 2016 - 11:55 am

aldeLiberal Democrats campaigning hard to keep the United Kingdom in the European Union can perhaps take heart from the fact that the European Liberal family, as represented by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE Party), continues to attract new member parties, showing that European and Liberal Democrat messages still resonate on the Continent.

At the ALDE Council meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, the other day, hosted by the city’s Liberal Mayor,Remigijus Šimašius, no fewer than four newbies were welcomed into the fold: three as full members and one as an associate member (a stepping stone to full membership).

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Keith Legg

Are you prepared to take the risk of leaving the EU?

By Keith Legg | Thu 9th June 2016 - 10:25 am

To be honest, I hadn’t really given a lot of thought to the EU referendum until after the Scottish elections had passed. Being an expat – or migrant, if you want to put it another way – in a country outside of the EU, it seemed, from a distance at least, that while the rest of the UK would support remaining, England might have a temporary moment of madness during the campaign but would come to its senses in time for the actual vote.

But it was a Facebook post from Scottish Lib Dem stalwart Sheila Richie which really jolted me. She described herself as being “scared” about the potential outcome in a way which she didn’t feel scared about the Scottish independence referendum. I know what she means.

I have a daughter. I’m scared what a vote to pull out of the EU means for her and for her ability to find jobs or higher education in a country which suits her. If she returned to the UK, she wouldn’t automatically have the right to go and work in France, Spain, Germany or wherever (and yes, I know that the UK could stay in the EEA and have the same right of movement as we currently do, but the main aim of most of the Brexiters seems to be to stop immigration so realistically that’s not going to happen.) It would also mean her opportunities for spending time on programmes such as ERASMUS, or even having the opportunity to study for her degree in an EU country, would be at best made difficult by visa regulations, and at worst virtually impossible.

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Joe Otten

Proof that vote leave is wrong on ‘taking control’

By Joe Otten | Wed 8th June 2016 - 3:55 pm

Vote Leave’s central message is one of taking back control from the EU, and returning it to the UK government. They may choose to talk about immigration as the answer to everything and to the exclusion of all else but here too, it is about control and rests on a perception that the EU, rather than national governments, is generally in control.

Now those of us who understand how the EU works, know that the EU does what the national governments tell it to do, and not the other way round, and that the EU cannot do anything that national governments haven’t agreed, unanimously, that it should be able to do. The leave argument relies on this not being understood.

And it only takes a moment’s reflection to realise that the levying of taxes and running of public services is entirely down to our own government; that the passing of laws – at least when it comes to our conduct as human beings as opposed to the construction of our toothbrushes – is down to national parliaments.

But let us ask ourselves, if the Leave picture were correct, who is it that would be most frustrated by this hypothetical bullying EU? Not the man or woman in the street – let’s face it we’re all governed by somebody. No, it would be the Prime Minister.

So how frustrated have our prime ministers been at not really being in control?

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Dipa Vaya

How I am trying to improve diversity in the Liberal Democrats

By Dipa Vaya | Wed 8th June 2016 - 2:55 pm

In December 2015 the ‘Diversity Monitoring Group’ was created which consisted of five people passionate about ensuring progressive change is made to address diversity. Most people are aware that diversity needs to be addressed in the Liberal Democrats. Everyone has heard Tim Farron say ‘we are a male and pale party’. Instead of waiting to see what the Party will do next we’ve decided to create a member-led diversity survey.

The results of the survey have been shared with  Liberal Democrat Headquarters,  chairs of SAOs and AOs and some Federal Executive members.

How it happened

We created a set of questions, set up a Google form, and started publicising the survey, mostly across social media. The survey was shared on social media from December 2015 to February 2016.

The results show that we had 132 responses from Liberal Democrat members, all of who are anonymous. The main issues raised were: communication, party culture, gender equality and unconscious bias.

Questions include:

  • Are there specific areas in the party which you feel men and women are not treated equally?
  • Do you feel better guidance on equality and diversity (via training) could come from diversity team HQ and ALDC?
  • Do you have any more comments regarding the party’s understanding of equality and diversity?

Conclusions from the survey include:

  • The need to take into account accessibility when communicating with members.
  • Party culture  – the “misogyny and sexism” in the Party and the “need to be educated about gender issues eg unconscious bias”.
  • We have passed on specific feedback to diversity SAOs and AOs
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Fionna Tod

Time for tougher regulation of the Arms industry

By Fionna Tod | Wed 8th June 2016 - 11:55 am

The UK’s arms industry is one of the most prolific and lucrative in the world. From fighter jets to armoured vehicles to small arms, our arms dealers have a lot to offer the world by way of military equipment.

No one will deny the power this industry wields in Britain. Until as recently as 2002, UK citizens and companies could arrange the transfer of arms between any other countries in the world (apart from those under a binding UN arms embargo) with complete impunity and no oversight. It took decades of campaigning and the undeniable involvement of UK dealers in bloody conflicts in Rwanda and Liberia to change that, but we still have a long way to go to open ensure full oversight of this still very shady industry. You only need to look at the UK’s supply of military equipment to Saudi Arabia now being used indiscriminately on civilians in Yemen to understand how far.

That’s why I have been working with our Defence Spokesperson Judith Jolly on her Private Member’s Bill to introduce a UK Register of Arms Brokers. Despite progress made on licensing individual arms deals, there is ongoing risk that unscrupulous arms brokers operating under the radar may engage in unlicensed arms brokering beyond the knowledge and reach of UK export control enforcement. Such is the risk that it has prompted a significant number of countries, including Australia, South Africa, the United States and 18 EU Member States, to introduce a requirement that arms brokers first register with national authorities before applying for a transaction licence.

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EU Referendum: Brexit-proof facts

By Stevan Rose | Wed 8th June 2016 - 10:35 am

I have been a committed European Unionist for over 35 years and could once quote the Treaty of Rome as a party piece until the invitations dried up. This referendum is critical to all of us and I have been robust in criticising those aspects of the Remain campaign that I feel undermine the credibility of the real arguments. It was Brexit that kicked off with misleading numbers and daft claims. They were ridiculed quite rightly and we should not follow their lead. The referendum will be won on the credibility of our arguments, which must be Brexit-proof. I accept it is tedious to see someone like me criticising those who have tried to put forward constructive points. So I’m setting out my own view of the major Brexit-proof points I believe we should be promoting on the doorstep, with friends, family and colleagues.

According to the CBI, the economic benefits of EU membership amount to £4,000 net per family.

According to the CBI our net contribution is £116 per person: we get £8 back for every £1 we put in.

Migration from outside the EU is higher than from inside. We can control non-EU migration but are not doing so. That’s our fault, not the EU’s. Under the deal struck by Cameron EU migrants do not get benefits until they have contributed. 

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Caron Lindsay

Cameron should make way for people capable of making a positive case for Remain

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 8th June 2016 - 9:12 am

Last night I spent an hour of my life I won’t get back listening to two men who, respectively, don’t much like and loathe the EU, take questions separately from an ITV audience.

It was every bit as dire as you would expect and then some. Watching Cameron head up the case for Remain is a bit like watching that kid (who would have been me at my school) with no hand-eye co-ordination being forced to captain the netball team. Except, of course, that nobody forced Cameron into that position. He chose to pander to the right wing of his party and UKIP.

What was worrying is that the worm thing on the Times Red Box website was mainly pro Farage, but I did wonder if that was because the sort of demographic who would be using it would be more predisposed to Leave. Matt Chorley’s email this morning confirms that, saying that 80% of those using it were pro Brexit to start with.

The problem is that he sounds half-hearted in his arguments for the EU. There is no positivity, nothing in his demeanour or his words to inspire people to vote his way.

During the Scottish referendum, for all he increased the Yes vote every time he opened his mouth, he did at least appear sincere about wanting the UK to stay together. Don’t, he said, vote Yes to hammer the f-ing Tories. He seemed genuinely worried, at least until the result was declared and then he was quick to put party before country and pointscore on English Votes for English Laws.

Last night, Cameron did a lot of Leave’s job for them, legitimising their anti-immigration lines rather than spelling out the many positives of immigration. The whole programme centred round the economy and immigration. That was it. Nothing on human rights, nothing on workers’ rights. The latter is the one argument that I’ve found can switch people. Very few people actually think that the Tories would preserve their hard-won employment rights, particularly if they move substantially to the right post Brexit.

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Pete Shallcross

The inconsistencies and risk inherent in Vote Leave’s economic arguments must be exposed.

By Pete Shallcross | Tue 7th June 2016 - 1:41 pm

Yesterday we had a brief glimpse into a post Brexit future as sterling fell sharply on polls putting Leave ahead. Any shock to an economic system will hit growth and investment at least in the short term, as has been grudgingly conceded by Leavers. Voters must confront the reality that in a Brexit scenario swathes of the population may have to change their jobs, whether they like it or not, and face a period of unemployment whilst the economy is reconfigured.

Vote Leave discretely and disingenuously propose two mutually exclusive models for the nation post-Brexit, one outside the Single Market, one in. Acting like snake oil salesmen they offer a generally risk-averse British electorate (with much to lose) the possibility of having its cake and eating it, at the same time cynically denying the fact that is increasingly clear; Brexit is a gamble with uncertain odds.

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27 Comments

Supporting the sugar tax was a mistake

By Eddie from Edinburgh | Tue 7th June 2016 - 11:59 am

In a new report the Taxpayer’s Alliance (TPA) described the Government’s planned sugar tax as “regressive”, saying it will “hit the poorest families hardest”. The new tax, announced by the Chancellor in his 2016 budget, will be levied on the soft drinks industry with the intention of reducing obesity.

Liberal Democrat support for a sugar tax began in 2012 when Autumn conference recommended consulting on “taxation of heavily sugared drinks”. Tom Brake MP wrote in the IB Times this year commending George Osborne’s “bravery” in introducing the levy. The Scottish Liberal Democrats’ 2016 manifesto committed to use funds raised by the sugar tax to encourage sports participation.

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Jane Dodds

My highlights of the Hay Festival

By Jane Dodds | Mon 6th June 2016 - 1:30 pm

Living in mid Wales, we are able to pop along to the Hay Festival, and take in a day of culture, politics and new ways of thinking.

On Saturday June 4th, I did 4 contrasting bite size chunks of life – past and present. The day started with Erwin James, a convicted double murderer, sentenced to life imprisonment 32 years ago, and former Guardian columnist. He started his session by saying that for the first 12 months of his sentence, he was locked up for 23 hours a day, which forced him to think about whether he was made to be a criminal or life had made him that way.  He produced no conclusions, save that he had a good childhood to 7 years old, and after his mother was killed, his life careered down the path of criminality, culminating in his conviction. He has chosen never to speak about his crimes in detail,  respecting the families of the victims, and a constant theme in his talk was that he will never be able to make up for taking the lives of two people.  He has a book out (as do most authors at the festival) called Redeemable, a title chosen because he feels all prisoners are redeemable. He even had a good word to say about Michael Gove, a Justice Minister who has commented on how society needs to value prisoners more and see them as assets to society.

Moving on to the next session and definitely not a good word to say about the Conservatives, nor any government of the past 20 years; Refugee Tales told the stories of refugees in the UK, experiencing multiple dawn raids, a dispassionate asylum system, and shocking treatment of children detained ( and we still do lock up child asylum seekers with their families in a place called Cedars – please don’t think that as Liberal democrats we have stopped this practice as this report explains.) A comment from a Welsh GP in the audience produced many nods when she stated that successive UK governments have aimed to have an asylum system that is as difficult and as incomprehensible as possible to deter people from seeking sanctuary.  The aim of this session was to raise the profile of a campaign to limit the detention period of asylum seekers – currently indefinite – to 28 days – just as it is for any other UK citizen.

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Hannah Bettsworth

Season 2: The state of play in Spain ahead of the election on 26 June

By Hannah Bettsworth | Mon 6th June 2016 - 9:32 am

It’s often said that we no longer have The Thick of It because politics can no longer be effectively satirised in Britain. You could say the same about Spain (although there is a Catalan programme that makes a valiant effort.)

After the last round of post-election negotiations failed, it sometimes seems like you’re watching a particularly dramatic TV show. The polls have remained fairly static, and where there are variations in the number of seats in the new election on  26th June they will be reasonably small.

However, there has been one large development – Podemos and Izquierda Unida (IU) have formed an electoral pact (the Pact of the Beer Bottles) for this round. Iglesias has made no secret of the fact that his goal is to overtake the PSOE (Socialists) in seats, but his party was starting to drop in the polls. Alberto Garzón’s IU was benefiting from that, so those two will likely make some form of gain there.

In Britain, we know all too well that when the election results are uncertain and the system very polarised, more moderate parties lose out. In the same way that the Tories and the SNP fed off each other, the PP and this new Unidos Podemos (Together We Can) formation happily do the same. The PP paint themselves as the sole force that can stop the Unidos Podemos (UP) threat, which plays into UP’s hands in the same way that Cameron’s fearmongering played into Sturgeon’s.

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Mark Argent

It’s time to come clean about immigration

By Mark Argent | Sun 5th June 2016 - 9:19 am

It is time to come clean about immigration. It is a good thing. It is a good thing culturally and economically.

My life is vastly enriched by friendships with people who have come to the UK as immigrants and others who are the children of immigrants. They include people who came seeking asylum and people who came seeking a better life. My life is enriched by other friends who have emigrated, through whom I have valued networks of friends in many other parts of the world.

Economically too, migration matters. People sometimes talk as if there are a finite number of jobs and immigrants increase the competition. This is nonsense. Immigrants come, they work, they buy things, their presence boosts the economy. They create more work and more possibility.

A study published in 2014 showed that European migrants pay substantially more in taxes than they take in benefits. They arrive having finished schooling, and all the costs to the state of bringing people to adulthood.

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The Voice

Farron: Britain’s position in the world is in the hands of its youngest voters

By The Voice | Sat 4th June 2016 - 2:05 pm

Tim Farron has launched a campaign to persuade young people to register to vote in the EU referendum, saying that this country’s position in the world is in the hands of these young voters. He also called on the Electoral Commission to do more to encourage young people to register before Monday’s deadline. He said:

In these next few short weeks, the post-war European project of peace, co-operation and prosperity lies in Britain’s hands. This vote will hinge on young people and them getting out and making their voice heard.

The Electoral Commission have a responsibility to help people vote, at the moment they are in dereliction of that duty when it comes to students and younger people.

I am today launching a campaign to urge young people to register to vote in the last 96 hours. Britain’s position in the world is in the hands of the youngest voters, I am urging them to take 10 minutes, sign up and make their voices heard, loudly and clearly.

But should it be this way? Why should it be up to people to register for what is effectively their right as a citizen of the country?

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The Voice

Vince Cable: European single market represents a British vision of an open Europe

By The Voice | Fri 3rd June 2016 - 5:30 pm

Britain has attracted the world’s top companies to invest here, creating jobs, on the basis of access to the European single market. That’s what Vince Cable told an audience in Bristol earlier this week. Far from being an invention of straight-banana obsessed bureaucrats, the EU represents a British vision of an open Europe, he added. Here is his speech in full.

It is great to be here in Bristol celebrating the best in British manufacturing with the leaders of our top manufacturing companies.

Manufacturing still provides half of our exports, three quarters of scientific innovation and two and a half million relatively

…

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Judith Jolly

Baroness Judith Jolly writes…Why we need a UK register of arms brokers

By Judith Jolly | Fri 3rd June 2016 - 11:59 am

I never expected to come anywhere near the top of the ballot for private members bills. My record for the Lib Dem raffle over thirty odd years is less than five or six wins. And I came third! That means I have second reading next Friday (10th June).

My bill calls for arms brokers to be registered and a fit and proper test applied to would be brokers. At present there are few restrictions so you or I could set up as a broker. In the US they are regulated.

Save the Children and Amnesty International are supporting us. Save the Children said:

Our Yemen work in Parliament has mainly focused on humanitarian access and the credible reports of breaches of international and human rights law. Whilst we recognise the positive impact that the Government’s humanitarian response and interventions have made, we remain concerned that the Government’s current support for Saudi Arabia-led military action is undermining the protection of civilians and is inconsistent with its support to the humanitarian response. We believe more robust action is needed to ensure that existing standards and norms are upheld by all parties to the conflict, in line with Government commitments under the new National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review, and to ensure full compliance by the UK with legal obligations under national and international law relating to the sale of arms.

Amnesty International added:

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