Category Archives: Op-eds

The Liberal Democrats have a diversity problem

By Jezz Palmer | Thu 10th March 2016 - 11:41 am

I will say it again: the Liberal Democrats have a diversity problem. We are “too male and too pale” – and too straight, and too able-bodied. But All-Women Shortlists are not the only solution to this, and this is why Liberal Youth Youth (backed by our own policy, as passed at our Youth Conference) are proposing an amendment against them. We are under no illusions about the state of our party. Like those that proposed the motion in the first place, we want to be better.

However, we believe that All-Women Shortlists do not tackle the root of our diversity problem. They throw all our energy at papering over the cracks, without pausing to wonder why women aren’t putting themselves forward. We, as a party, are full of absolutely incredible women. Are we seriously suggesting that the only reason we don’t have 650 female Parliamentary Candidates is because they won’t compete with men for a selection, or that our party is so unbearably sexist that they’ll only vote for a woman if they’re given no other choice?

Continue reading »

Tagged all-women shortlists and liberal democrat spring conference 2016 | 28 Comments

Equality motion 15 years on

By Elizabeth Jewkes | Thu 10th March 2016 - 9:15 am

Back in Autumn 2001, we in the Liberal Democrats had the opportunity to take action to improve the gender balance of our parliamentary party.

Among those who spoke out against was a young woman who declared that she did not need help to be elected as a female MP. She insisted she would manage it by herself. I spoke to her after the debate and pointed out to her that in 20 years time, when the gender balance of our parliamentary party has barely improved, and once again, a young woman, who today is not yet born, stands up she insists that she doesn’t need positive discrimination, she will get elected all by herself, I predict she will be as angry with that young woman as I am with her today.

Continue reading »

Tagged gender balance | 34 Comments

The Diversity Motion – a spring board to bring greater fairness, diversity and openness to our party

By Tom Brake | Wed 9th March 2016 - 7:36 pm

The Diversity Motion being put forward this weekend at the Spring Conference in York, is an important, necessary and long overdue motion, one that Liberal Democrats need to unanimously support. As a party we have always been committed to eliminating all types of prejudice, discrimination, inequality and privilege, and must continue to do so when it comes to the country’s elected bodies and party structures. For the myriad voices present in our society to be heard and valued, our political system must reflect the diversity that exists, not just a narrow section. This unfortunately is not case, and also is sadly not true of the Liberal Democrats.

There is wholly inadequate diversity among Lib Dem members of parliament and candidates. Despite efforts to increase diversity, in the form of the Campaign for Gender Balance and the Leadership Programme, there has only been a limited impact on the proportion of individuals elected from under-represented groups and low socio-economic backgrounds.

Continue reading »

Tagged diversity and liberal democrat spring conference 2016 | 44 Comments

Lord Jonny Oates at the Pudding Club at York

By Keith Aspden | Wed 9th March 2016 - 1:51 pm

I was delighted to welcome Lord Jonny Oates to York last month for a visit to our annual Pudding Club – one of the highlights of our local parties social calendar!

Lord Oates, who was recently made a life peer after serving as a councillor in Kingston Upon Thames and later as Chief of Staff to Nick Clegg, highlighted his concerns about proposed cuts to Universal Credit to local party members in York.

As readers will know, last year George Osborne was forced to re-think cuts to working tax credits after a local and national campaign by the Lib Dems. The changes were set to hit 8,000 families in York, but the Chancellor said households claiming the benefit would be helped by “transitional protection” as they moved to the new single Universal Credit.

Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, claimed that “nobody will lose any money on arrival on universal credit from tax credits”. Many residents in York were reassured and pleased that a U-Turn had been made.

Continue reading »

Tagged jonny oates, universal credit and york | 2 Comments

Time for some Liberal Herstory

By Ruth Bright | Wed 9th March 2016 - 12:35 pm

Traditional Mothers’ Day treats do not really appeal to me. My gift on Sunday was the new(ish) book British Liberal Leaders (Brack, Ingham, Little et al) and the free time to finish reading it. I love tales of Lloyd George’s derring-do and of Steel’s “going back to your constituencies” as much as the next Liberal. All human life is there in the chapters on each party leader: Asquith’s failings, Ashdown’s verve, Clegg’s self-pity.

Well I say all human life is there but is it? In many ways it is an admirable book, John Campbell’s chapter on Roy Jenkins is a particular treat. There is a catch though. Where on earth are the women?

There are 24 chapters on each of the 24 Liberal, SDP or Lib Dem leaders. All the leaders analysed are men of course. Fair enough. We cannot go back in time and insert Nancy Seear or Shirley Williams as party leaders in a retrospective All Women Shortlist!

Continue reading »

Tagged featured | 17 Comments

Is regulation becoming the new religion?

By Judy Abel | Wed 9th March 2016 - 9:27 am

Embed from Getty Images

In whatever field you care to mention – whether it is education, services or business – employers and organisations are checking up on us as never before.

Recently my car broke down in Glastonbury, so I called the AA. Out came the AA repair person, who did a great job, but he then asked me to rate the service he had provided on a tablet, by clicking on a happy face, sad face, or categories in between. Not only that, I got a follow up phone call asking me whether he had done a good job. Why couldn’t the AA just let me call to complain I there had been a problem? This all creates so much pressure on working people.

Last time I went to my GP surgery there was a plastic plinth asking me to rate my experience, with the happy and sad faces again. I tried to type in a message saying “Stop checking up on people, the pressure on staff must be intolerable”, but the message box vanished! On the back of many lorries there is a number to call, inviting us to rate the lorry driver’s performance – and on it goes. And, in my experience, when performance-related pay is introduced in a company the spirit of collegiality can quickly turn into one of competitiveness and dissatisfaction.

Continue reading »

Tagged ofsted and targets | 14 Comments

For International Women’s Day: These are not token women

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 8th March 2016 - 10:17 pm

One of the main factors in the defeat of a proposal for all-women shortlists in 2001 was a spirited campaign by the then youth organisation. Jo Swinson led the way wearing a pink t-shirt saying “I am not a token woman.” Jo has now, after many years of putting her heart and soul into improving the party’s diversity, come to the conclusion that all-women shortlists are a short term necessary part of the mix.

There are many myths about all-women shortlists, but one in particular is the refrain you often hear – that we need to have the best person for the job. People seem to think that positive action of this sort means that you are somehow settling for second best. When you think about it, that’s quite insulting. Do we really think that of the 111 MPs we have elected, that only 19 women were actually good enough to make the grade? Do we think that the one time we managed to send a gender-balanced team of MEPs that the women were not as good as the men? Women like Liz Lynne who had already been an MP and Sarah Ludford, who was a member of the House of Lords and went on to be a massive voice for human rights and civil liberties?

I thought it might be good to celebrate some women from around the world who have had the chance to excel nationally and internationally because of specific measures to improve gender balance. I’ve had a lot of help from Flo Clucas who is the President of ALDE’s Gender Equality Network in preparing this, so thanks to her.

Let’s start at home with Labour.They are doing best on gender balance with 43% women on their Westminster benches and have commonly used all-women shortlists since 1997.

Stella Creasy

Embed from Getty Images

Elected as MP for Walthamstow in 2010, Stella Creasy has shown herself to be a powerful parliamentary performer and scourge of payday lenders. She stood for Deputy Leader last year.

Continue reading »

Tagged electing diverse mps motion and international | 43 Comments

Alison McInnes’ speech in the Scottish diversity debate: Positive action is a realignment to break the mould that society has been using for too long

By The Voice | Tue 8th March 2016 - 4:45 pm

This is the speech that Alison McInnes gave to the Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference. It’s quite direct and points out our own failings, saying that we have to take action to resolve our lack of diversity.

I’ve been a member of our party for a quarter of a century. One disappointing constant has been the gender imbalance in our parliamentary groups.

I have had plenty of opportunity to observe the dynamics of our party, locally and nationally, and to identify through the party’s own myriad actions what it actually values and honours.

Despite being the party that claims it cherishes equality and women’s rights, its actions often reveal a clear preference for adherence to a single, male patent pattern. And that creates a feedback loop that means members when asked to choose are most likely to opt for what they know the party values above all, and so it goes on.

There is a societal, ingrained implicit bias that leads us all, women and men, to value a particular set of attributes above others. There is no need to be outraged or defensive – no one is saying it is deliberate or malicious, but it is real.

Continue reading »

Tagged diversity, electing diverse mps motion and liberal democrat spring conference 2016 | 9 Comments

National Liberal Club Drops Joining Fee for Lib Dems

By Janet Berridge | Tue 8th March 2016 - 2:45 pm

Embed from Getty Images

For 134 years, the National Liberal Club has supported the Liberal cause. It was founded by Gladstone in 1882 to act as a “home from home” for Liberal activists and supporters – and it still does so today.

Something we’re constantly trying to do – while preserving the Liberal heritage of an extraordinary building, steeped in colourful history – is to keep membership costs down. And while we’re aware that the up-front membership fee is necessarily quite hefty, it is less than half of that found in other comparable London clubs, which is something we manage to combine with offering some of the very best facilities.

Continue reading »

Tagged national liberal club | Leave a comment

Baroness Dee Doocey writes… Protecting tenants in estate regeneration schemes

By Dee Doocey | Tue 8th March 2016 - 1:45 pm

In January, the Prime Minister announced in The Sunday Times that he wanted to see 100 of Britain’s most run-down estates transformed. His ambition is apparently ‘nothing short of social turnaround…with massive estate regeneration, tenants protected and land unlocked for new housing all over Britain.’

‘Together,’ he said, ‘we can tear down anything that stands in our way.’ What fighting talk! Yet what stands in the way is usually the fact that people actually live on these estates. Several generations of the same family may have done so. People cannot and should not just be swept aside in these waves of prime ministerial purple prose.

Continue reading »

Tagged dee doocey, house of lords and housing | 1 Comment

Sad news: Former Glee Club host Ralph Bancroft has died

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 8th March 2016 - 1:28 pm

Last night, Ralph’s brother left a comment on our piece about former Glee Club pianist Liz Rorison’s death to say that her old friend and Glee Club host from the 90s had passed away on Saturday night.

Before we published this sad news, I wanted to make sure that his friends and colleagues in the party were all aware. Current Glee Club host Gareth Epps has written a tribute to him over on Liberator’s blog.

Based in Harrow for many years, Ralph was a Young Liberal and went to Sussex University before being employed in Parliament, in the heady days of there being 14 Liberal MPs. He rose to work in the Whips’ Office during the 1977-8 Lib-Lab Pact. He subsequently used his considerable political acumen to advise Liberals and Liberal Democrats in council administrations, and was particularly proud to become Head of Office of Andrew Wiseman’s administration in Harrow in the 1990s. Ralph was also a champion on online engagement and of the cix online conferencing system that was an integral part of party activity at that time

Together with his good friend the late Liz Rorison, Ralph and his ever-present pipe were also for many years the linchpin of the Glee Club as it transformed from an informal gathering around a hotel piano to the unique event it is today. He also appeared in many memorable sketches at the Liberal Revue.

Continue reading »

Also posted in News | Tagged liberator and ralph bancroft | 6 Comments

Tim Farron MP: We must show the world we mean business on diversity

By Tim Farron MP | Tue 8th March 2016 - 11:45 am

It’s International Women’s Day, when we celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. But, the IWD website reminds us, the latest estimate of the World Economic Forum is that, at the present rate of progress, full parity between genders will not be achieved till 2133. Our record in Britain, while improving, is doing so painfully slowly. The pay gap between genders has not closed in spite of legislation, and has remained relatively consistent for the past 20 years. Britain elected more female MPs than ever in May 2015, but still sits at 48^th in the world league table, behind many of our European neighbours, and behind some of the world’s poorest nations. Lindsay Northover is right to point out that had it been based on the Lib Dems, the UK would be bottom, grouped with Yemen and Qatar.

Why is that? Well, because we have no women MPs any more, just 26% of our approved parliamentary candidates are women, and women are under-represented on many of our internal party committees. We are in a similar situation where BAME, LGBT+ and disabled members are concerned. I don’t know about you, but I find that shaming for a party that holds equality as one of its fundamental commitments. In our constitution, we say that we “oppose all forms of entrenched privilege and inequality.” It’s time to show that we practice what we preach.

Continue reading »

Tagged electing diverse mps motion, featured, liberal democrat spring conference 2016 and tim farron | 57 Comments

All Women Shortlists – identify the problem before looking for the solution

By Steve Walpole | Tue 8th March 2016 - 7:30 am

There has been an increase in debate recently about the lack of diversity amongst some groups within the Liberal Democrat candidature, with the spectre of All Women Shortlists (AWS) once again rearing it’s head.

Whilst I am not at all in favour of AWS (or AWCS, ADS or ABAMES) I think we are getting ahead of ourselves and looking for a solution before we have identified the problem. Simply put, do we know the numbers of under-represented groups throughout the selection process? I suspect not, given that no-one has up to now used hard figures to point to the reasons behind our shortcomings. If we do – I’m sure I am about to be put right.

So I propose the party takes the time we have before the next general election to carry out a root and branch survey of the process, getting figures all the way: From the regional candidate recruitment team to the constituency committees in charge of selection. If we do not have the information then we need to start collating it in order to adequately change the process. Why should we do this? It would be rather silly bringing in an all-working class shortlist system if it turns out that only 1% of our candidate pool was from a working class background. It would be similarly silly if it turned out that we had a decent amount of working class candidates but we were failing to get them elected. So, in order to correctly identify where we are falling short Ipropose the following analysis (I will use women as an example only – I am not identifying them as more worthy than the working class or any other grouping).

Continue reading »

Tagged diversity and electing diverse mps motion | 18 Comments

Baroness Sally Hamwee writes..How Liberal Democrat Lords are trying to make the Immigration Bill less bad

By Sally Hamwee | Mon 7th March 2016 - 3:12 pm

The current Immigration Bill presents many challenges: one is its complexity, and another is sheer fury at the mind-set that it demonstrates on the part of the Government. But every time I get angry, I remind myself that we must, we really must, do all we can to make it even a little bit less bad.

That means more self-discipline than, for me, comes naturally. We will have far too little time for report stage in the Lords, which starts this week. So we will have to be very focused. It’s not just a matter of what we choose to discuss – we have to try to reach votes at times when we have the best chance of winning. To that end, Brian Paddick and I have had several discussions with the Labour front-bench to agree a strategy. Our irritation and sometimes sheer bemusement when Labour support us in debate but sit on their hands when it comes to a vote is well-known, but of course we are prepared to work with them if it means winning votes, and indeed make concessions as to how we approach issues if that means our opposition to the government is united. And we are united in wanting crossbench peers to lead on amendments where possible as they may gain more traction than those of us with a party badge.

Continue reading »

Tagged house of lords and immigration bill | Leave a comment

What’s your vision for a truly Liberal Britain?

By Jim Williams | Mon 7th March 2016 - 1:52 pm

What would a truly Liberal Britain look like, and what improvements would it bring to people’s lives? You can help shape the party’s vision by writing a post for Lib Dem Voice of around 500 words in response to that question.

We all know the Lib Dems exist to create a society based on liberalism and social democracy. We call it Liberal Britain for short. But what would it actually look like?

When I joined the Lib Dems last year, I knew that many of my friends didn’t know what the party stood for. Chatting with other newbies at Lib Dem Pint and at Conference in Bournemouth, we knew this was one of the reasons why last May was such a disaster. Talking together, we realised how hard it can be to explain liberalism: to really get it across to people. Liberalism and social democracy can seem abstract, philosophical.

Continue reading »

Tagged featured, future strategy, policy and your liberal britain | 13 Comments

‘Electing diverse MPs’ motion is comprehensive, balanced and sensible

By Paul Walter | Mon 7th March 2016 - 10:30 am

Embed from Getty Images

Reading through the “Electing diverse MPs” motion for the York conference, I was struck by how it comprehensively covers the necessary territory in a very measured and sensible way.

Continue reading »

Tagged diversity and liberal democrats spring conference 2016 | 34 Comments

Those anonymous Lib Dem sources are at it again

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 6th March 2016 - 7:12 pm

Embed from Getty Images

Since she became Party President 14 months ago, Sal Brinton has clocked up thousands of miles travelling around the country going to various Liberal Democrat events and helping our candidates in election. I’ve been amazed at the number of times she’s been in Scotland – at our conference, to our Executive twice, campaigning during the General Election. In fact, in the short campaign last Spring, she covered 4000 miles in just 6 weeks. In the aftermath, she had to comfort a shocked party and play a high profile role as de facto leader for two months.

She’s also been involved in two massive pieces of work – the General Election and Governance Reviews – which have taken up huge amounts of time. She’s doing her best to improve internal communications within the party, doing reports about what the Federal Executive’s work and blogging and setting up monthly webinars for party members.

She’s a great voice in the media for us. Last month she took apart UKIP’s Paul Nuttall on Question Time in great style. I look forward to her appearances on these things the same way I look forward to Shirley Williams’.

Continue reading »

Tagged featured and sal brinton | 56 Comments

Scottish Liberal Democrat fracking decision – setting the record straight

By Graeme Cowie | Sun 6th March 2016 - 11:50 am

Yesterday we published this post entitled: “Willie Rennie reaffirms Scottish Lib Dems’ opposition to fracking – despite Conference vote”. Beneath the article, Graeme Cowie posted a six part response. As per our comments policy, the length of comments is limited to encourage short and pithy debate. We do not allow multi-part comments. However, under the circumstances we decided to ask Graeme if he would like, instead, his comments to be published as a full article. Graeme assented, so here is his comment in full.

Correcting the Record

As the person who summated the amendment that received around 2/3 of the support of a very busy Conference Hall, I feel compelled to respond to the total double-speak over this issue. It is firstly misleading to imply that the debate was poorly attended; asides the Saturday debate on All Women Shortlists, it was the best attended debate of the entire Conference.

Continue reading »

Tagged fracking and scottish liberal democrat spring conference 2016 | 15 Comments

Caroline Pidgeon interview: The “ordinary Londoner” aspiring to be the city’s first female mayor.

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 6th March 2016 - 10:25 am

Caroline Pidgeon has been talking to the Ham and High about the qualities she would bring to the office of Mayor.

First and foremost, she uses local services so understands what they need:

Ms Pidgeon believes it is her “ordinary” quality which means she is ideally placed to become the city’s first female Mayor.

“I’m just an ordinary Londoner, I’m the one rushing to catch the tube in the morning and hoping it’s on time, and I’m the one taking my two-year-old to nursery,” she said.

She also highlights her long experience in London’s politics:

Continue reading »

Tagged Caroline Pidgeon and london | 3 Comments

Baroness Lindsay Northover writes…As time goes by

By Lindsay Northover | Sun 6th March 2016 - 8:55 am

At the Spring conference we will debate a topic which has spanned my whole political lifetime. We will be debating a motion on increasing the diversity among our future MPs.

In that election night in May 2015 we not only lost wonderful male MPs, we also lost all of our wonderful women MPs.

One of the things we must do as we rebuild our Party is to ensure that we have a more diverse group of MPs. Like the other major parties in Britain.

I joined the SDP, new to politics, back in 1981. I was excited by the new party, the realignment of politics – but especially its emphasis on women being as prominent in the party as men. How could it not do so, with one leader being my beloved Shirley Williams? Its equivalent of the Federal Executive was gender balanced – each region elected one man and one woman. We were the first political party in the UK to insist that women must be included on parliamentary shortlists. I was selected from such a shortlist to fight Welwyn Hatfield in 1983 and 1987. (The more winnable seats close by – Stevenage and St Albans – were of course fought by men.)

Continue reading »

Tagged diversity and liberal democrats spring conference 2016 | 48 Comments

Willie Rennie reaffirms Scottish Lib Dems’ opposition to fracking – despite Conference vote

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 5th March 2016 - 10:00 am

Last Friday, Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference passed this amendment to a motion on climate change.

After line 21 insert:
“The report of the Independent Expert Scientific Panel on Unconventional Oil and Gas published in July 2014 which states that “The technology exists to allow the safe extraction of such reserves, subject to robust regulation being in place” and “There could be minimal impact from unconventional hydrocarbons if they are used as a petrochemical feedstock.”

Delete lines 36 to 38 and replace with

“Lifting the moratorium on planning and licensing for unconventional oil and gas extraction, granting the potential for Scottish-sourced unconventional gas to supply our important petrochemical industry.”

The original lines 38 and 39 read:

maintaining a complete moratorium on planning permission and licensing for tracking and unconventional gas extraction in Scotland for the next parliamentary term to allow for a full assessment of the risks involved and the long term implications.

We all thought that was that until an email came to Scottish members last night entitled “We need to talk about fracking.”

Continue reading »

Tagged climate change, scottish liberal democrat spring conference 2016, tracking and willie rennie | 38 Comments

The Snoopers’ Charter: A government invasion?

By Elliott Motson | Sat 5th March 2016 - 8:55 am

Embed from Getty Images

During coalition we blocked the Snoopers Charter. The bill, resurrected under the name of the Investigatory Powers Bill, shows the intent of the Tory Government – to degrade all forms of privacy we once held dear.

Continue reading »

Tagged Investigatory Powers Bill and snoopers charter | 5 Comments

How could David Cameron keep a straight face?

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 4th March 2016 - 3:50 pm

So, David Cameron accuses the SNP of being a one-party state and says the Conservatives are the people to stop them. The BBC reports:

Only the Tories can challenge the SNP and prevent Scotland becoming a “one party state”, David Cameron has said.

In a speech to the Scottish Conservative conference, the prime minister insisted his party was the only one that could challenge the Nationalists.

How he said that with a straight face, I’ll never know. These comments come from the man who is doing his damnedest to stitch up the political system for himself. He blocks any attempts at electoral reform. He changes the rules the boundaries with the result that his party has an advantage. He does everything he can to avoid parliamentary scrutiny, limiting the power of the Lords and Scottish MPs. The changes he pushed for on electoral registration mean that a million fewer people can vote. Then there’s the denial of the vote to 16 year olds at every level and trying to limit opposition funds through the Trade Union Bill.

Continue reading »

Tagged conservatives, david cameron, snp and willie rennie | 5 Comments

The joys of being a leader’s tour organiser

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 4th March 2016 - 12:10 pm

I suppose I could just have put this one in the Golden Dozen on Sunday, but it is Friday, it’s the end of a very long week, and because the whole tale had made me howl with laughter, I thought it was only right to share it with you separately.

Some political advisers make a fortune from publishing books when they leave their jobs. Liberal Democrats, like Phil Reilly, and now Ben Rathe, just put their stories on blogs for free.

Ben’s debut post on his blog “The Gripes of Rathe” concerns an event he’d organised for Nick Clegg, but hadn’t realised that the location was a notorious local dogging site.

A dogging site. I’d arranged for the Deputy Prime Minister to visit a dogging site. Armando himself couldn’t have written this script.

Continue reading »

Tagged ben rathe and nick clegg | 3 Comments

One particular “fear” could decide the result of the EU Referendum

By John Marriott | Fri 4th March 2016 - 10:55 am

BMW writes to its UK employees highlighting the dangers of Brexit. A French minister threatens to wave through migrants at Calais en route to Dover and to roll out the red carpet to welcome financial services to his country if we leave. Boris and others say none of this will happen. Great Britain still is great. From his residence across the Channel Lord Nigel Lawson tells us not to worry. The EU needs us more than we need them. Confused? I bet many people are.

Like Lord William Hague, I’m an EU pragmatist. Better inside the tent etc. Unlike our former leader I don’t think that the EU will be ‘about the same’ in ten years’ time. The remarks from Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, following last week’s summit were very apposite. The ‘negotiations’ undertaken by David Cameron, while casually dismissed as ‘thin gruel’ by Eurosceptics like Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, have whetted the appetite of many recent, and not so recent arrivals in the EU for a fundamental change of direction for a project that started life in the aftermath of WW2 when many parts of the world were on their uppers and the numbers of nations actually making things was a shadow of what exists today.

Continue reading »

Tagged eu referendum and immigration | 14 Comments

Our failure to improve diversity has driven people away

By David Buxton | Fri 4th March 2016 - 9:26 am

Should I support the diversity motion at the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in York next week? My initial reaction is, yes, this is right, but it will be a hard decision to support something that will probably hurt many within the party.

I suspect some will argue the motion is not legal. I remember at conference many years ago when an all women shortlist motion was debated and lost. I saw highly respected women speaking against the motion because they believed local party members should choose the right candidate based on skills and experience. It seems things haven’t changed and we are still a long way from being a truly diverse party.

On a personal level, I had very high hopes for a good friend who is black, a very experienced community campaigner and politician and a strong supporter of diverse communities. However he was not selected in spite of having lived in the area for some time. It is people like him who have the potential to be a future leader who are not being given a chance. They selected a candidate who barely knew the area.

Continue reading »

Tagged diversity and liberal democrats spring conference 2016 | 22 Comments

We have a moral duty to welcome people fleeing to Europe

By Paul Walter | Thu 3rd March 2016 - 5:25 pm

Embed from Getty Images

I’m catching up on telly. Last night I watched the first episode of Simon Reeve’s Greece series. It was a corker. You can see it on BBC iPlayer for a further 6 days.

I’m quite a fan of Simon Reeve. He’s evolved from being a sort of back-packing TV reporter into an intelligent and compassionate observer of the world. His programmes are part-light travelogue, part-incisive documentary.

Continue reading »

Tagged migrants | 11 Comments

Belinda Brooks-Gordon on Today talking about making sex work safer

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 3rd March 2016 - 12:57 pm

Dr Belinda Brooks-Gordon, who led on the development of our policy on sex work, was on the Today programme this morning debating whether managed zones for sex workers are effective. She cited huge amounts of evidence which suggests that they are. The retired police officer was pretty aggressive in the way he made his points and was really patronising to Belinda who has done so much academic research in this field.

The police officer said that we should be looking to eliminate rather than enable sex work. Belinda cited how this makes life much more difficult and dangerous for sex workers with actual examples. The occupant of the blue Police Box would have given a much more sensible answer, I’m sure.

You can listen to the debate here at about 2:31 in.

Belinda referred to a paper she had given at the British Psychological Society about the effects of the then Government’s action to crack down on sex work. You can read that paper by clicking here

You can read a letter signed by Belinda and other academics,arguing against the so-called Nordic Model, which

Continue reading »

Tagged bbc, belinda brooks-gordon, radio 4, sex work and today programme | 7 Comments

SNP’s Council Tax reform: timid, unfair and ill-thought through

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 3rd March 2016 - 11:34 am

Back in December, the Local Tax Commission in Scotland published its report which looked at various ways of raising local taxes. Political parties were urged to bring forward their own proposals. Scottish Conference had a consultation on a well-researched and thorough document. An indicative vote at the end favoured a progressive, fair property and land based tax, which, if formally adopted, would replace our proposal for a local income tax.

The basic principles that you would expect from a local tax is that it’s fair, progressive and takes into account the ability to pay. I have to say I’m not entirely sold on the idea of a property tax, although I can see the arguments for taxing property as opposed to income. The proposals outlined in the Scottish Lib Dems’ policy document do mean that those in the least valuable properties paying significantly less.

The SNP announced their preferred solution yesterday. They have the choice of so many new powers and all they did was tinker at the edges, putting up the rate for the four highest bands. Is this really the best they can come up with, embedding the inherent unfairness of the Council Tax yet further?

Let’s look at my street as an example. Under the SNP’s plan, a professional couple in a band D house earning two substantial incomes would pay no more yet a family in a slightly larger property up the street with one worker on a much lower income would pay more. That doesn’t make sense. There has to be a way to deal with that sort of anomaly.

Secondly, the Council Tax is based on property values that, by 2021, will be 30 years old. This is not the fundamental reform that the SNP promised.

Continue reading »

Tagged council tax, local taxation, snp and willie rennie | 18 Comments

Joan Walmsley writes…Planning for a healthy future

By Joan Walmsley | Thu 3rd March 2016 - 9:16 am

Hooray for Sir Simon Stevens, Head of NHS England, for putting into practice what I was proposing at last year’s Party Conference! In my keynote speech I maintained that the NHS cannot tackle the country’s current and future health problems by itself and we need a “whole government” approach. The Department of Health must be supported by policies from the Department of Communities and Local Government, the Department of Education, the Department of Transport, The Department of Culture, Media and Sport and, of course, local authorities, since it will not be able to tackle the increasing demand for healthcare by itself. Prevention of avoidable illnesses should be the responsibility of every Government department.

Continue reading »

Tagged Joan Walmsley, NHS and sir simon stevens | 10 Comments