Category Archives: Op-eds

Caron Lindsay

Farron: David Cameron “heartless and stupid” to ignore plight of child refugees in Europe

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 28th January 2016 - 9:12 am

Tim Farron has been doing the rounds on the media this morning to talk about the Government’s announcement that it will allow some child refugees into the UK. However, there are no plans to take unaccompanied children who are already in Europe. Tim has been arguing since the Summer for the Government to do more to help these children and was the first party leader to back Save the Children’s campaign for 3000 refugee children to be given sanctuary in this country so that they didn’t have to spend their lives in refugee camps, or vulnerable to exploitation. He has questioned the Prime Minister on this at every opportunity and before Christmas presented a Bill to enshrine that commitment into law. Laura Kuenssberg’s assertion in the BBC report that the announcement comes after pressure in “recent days” does not recognise Tim’s long-standing efforts.

Tim’s initial reaction to the announcement was that it didn’t go far enough as it didn’t do enough for those children who had already made it to Europe.

This is an important step, but it is far from the guarantee these desperate children need, and action must follow immediately.

Thousands of children are travelling across Europe. They are cold, alone and scared. They deserve a safe, welcoming home and I won’t stop until that’s what we’ve given them.

As a country we must pull together and offer them a home, while encouraging our European neighbours to do the same.

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Guy Russo

The war we should be fighting

By Guy Russo | Wed 27th January 2016 - 2:48 pm

We are, on account of abiding by certain inadequacies of the global community, fighting an ill-defined war, at home and abroad, which is tearing nation-states apart and dividing our own communities in abhorrent ways, and which without further strategic solutions beyond conflict, we will continue to fight perpetually and fail miserably. No, not the War on Terror, but a similar conflict against a poorly defined enemy: the War on Drugs.

British involvement with the conflict abroad has always been subtle and at points, secretive. The Foreign Office has often refused to comment on Britain’s involvement, and in that vacuum a great number of allegations have arisen. A Guardian investigation in 2003 suggests that in Colombia, the SAS trained anti-narcotics police and provided aid, equipment and advice for military units in the drug fields. There are numerous accounts of atrocities on all sides of the Colombian conflict, including by government sponsored paramilitaries. Worse still is the situation in Mexico, where the cartel versus government conflict claimed 6,000 lives last year, and in 2012 it was 18,000. With a cumulative death toll since 2006 of at least 60,000, the Mexican Drug War is the 8th largest conflict by death toll in the world, and the largest not associated with the War on Terror.

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Caron Lindsay

Ensuring that committees can be elected by One Member One Vote

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th January 2016 - 1:45 pm

I know this is a very “party report” heavy couple of days on LDV with Zoe’s and Sal’s excellent reports on the Federal Conference Committee and the Federal Executive respectively, but there is yet more.

Last September, Conference approved Constitutional Amendments bringing in One Member One Vote for Conference.

However, the Federal Executive subsequently received advice from the Chair of the Federal Appeals Panel that the Committee Election Regulations would need to be changed in order for the next set of Committee elections to be conducted by One Member One Vote. That’s why local parties were advised to elect Federal and Regional Conference representatives for this year.

I’m part of a small group of Federal Executive members who are looking at the regulations or the Leadership, Presidential and Committee elections. The first stage of our work is to change the Committee Election Regulations to permit elections by One Member One Vote. You can see the draft changes here. The current version is here

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Caron Lindsay

No, really, it’s not the same as being on an all-inclusive holiday

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th January 2016 - 1:15 pm

There have been a couple of shocking stories this week about how asylum seekers have been, however, inadvertently, stigmatised which can lead to them being attacked and intimidated. First we had the Middlesborough “red doors” controversy and then, this week, the appalling news that asylum seekers in a hostel in Caefiff were forced to wear wristbands to access their food.

Newly arrived asylum seekers in the Welsh capital who are housed by Clearsprings Ready Homes, a private firm contracted by the Home Office, are being told that they must wear the wristbands all the time otherwise they will not be fed. The wristbands entitle the asylum seekers, who cannot work and are not given money, to three meals a day.

That practice was quickly stopped when the company was shamed in the press, but I have been concerned to see that some people have been saying that it’s ok to do this to people, because if you’re on an all-inclusive holiday, you have to wear a wristband. Really, it’s so not.

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Stephen Howse

Tim talks to a room of students – and energises the #LibDemFightback in Newcastle


By Stephen Howse | Wed 27th January 2016 - 10:25 am

Students at NUSU Tim Talks

Of all the drops in the Liberal Democrat vote in May, the drop in the 18-24 vote was harshest. From 30% of the total vote of this age group in 2010, our vote collapsed to just 5% in May. Hope springs eternal in Newcastle, though – and we were delighted to welcome our leader, Tim Farron, in hosting a ‘Talk to Tim’ event at the Newcastle University Students’ Union on Monday night.

Tim was in fine form, answering questions from the packed room of well over 100 students on issues ranging from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership to fracking and from the government’s proposed Teaching Excellence Framework for Higher Education to just what, exactly, is the point of the Liberal Democrats.

The questions were reasoned, varied and detailed. If this event was any indication, if we listen to young people and show that we genuinely care about what they have to say, we will win their respect and, in time, win back their support.

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Paul Walter

Does a perceived distrust of politicians justify redistributing an image meme that was discredited 14 months ago?

By Paul Walter | Tue 26th January 2016 - 4:40 pm

Meme debatesThe image meme above went the rounds of social media in November 2014. It was roundly and conclusively fisked by Isabel Hardman on the Spectator Coffee House blog. I noticed that the meme was getting re-distributed a week ago. I pointed out to the people sharing this meme that it had been thoroughly discredited well over a year ago. Interestingly, several replied saying that “most people” think that’s how parliament behaves so it’s not a problem distributing it.

My indignation hit about twelve on the Richter scale.

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Sal Brinton

Sal Brinton’s Federal Executive report

By Sal Brinton | Tue 26th January 2016 - 1:45 pm

Sal Brinton Sal @ Crohns & Colitis Rec _2 CROPPED Nov 13Just before Christmas the Federal Executive (FE) met for an awayday to receive and consider your responses to the governance review consultation.

Two of the concerns that you told us about were the lack of diversity of our MPs, and how you felt that all the party committees and structures were hard to understand, and often out of touch.

We will be bringing back the next stage of the governance consultation to you in February, and will run a consultation session at the York Federal Conference in March, with some draft proposals and seeking your views on some of the key issues. Following your comments over the summer we will develop proposals, a new constitution and structures, which will then come back to the Autumn Conference in Brighton for your debate and voting. This would mean that the next round of Federal Elections (which will take place after Conference, ready to start at the beginning of 2017) would be run under the new arrangements.

In the meantime, FE wants to report back regularly to members: in addition to the report on the members’ part of the party website, we will let you know as soon as we can after a meeting what is discussed at our meetings. We will ensure that there is a report on Lib Dem Voice and in addition we want to encourage the cascading down through representatives on FE of important information. Clearly, some matters are (and must be) confidential, and others are seriously uninteresting, but we will do our best to let you know what is happening.

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David Boyle

The terrifying consequences of witch-hunts

By David Boyle | Mon 25th January 2016 - 6:00 pm

ScandalNow that, one by one, European countries are shifting the law for allow for same-sex marriage – the spotlight now turns on Italy where mass demonstrations have taken place in support of the idea – it is  worth thinking about why homosexuality was criminalised in the first place.

We have spent so much time celebrating the decision in 1967 to repeal laws which did so, that we have perhaps forgotten to look a little further back to see how they came onto the statute book in the first place (sodomy had been a crime for some centuries before).

The story goes back to the Phoenix Park murders of 1882, when republican terrorists stabbed the Irish Secretary to death – accidentally, as it turned out: he happened to be walking with the intended victim.

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Katharine Pindar

It’s our legacy – let’s proclaim it

By Katharine Pindar | Mon 25th January 2016 - 4:19 pm

290715 1

We must not let the Tories define our legacy, as they did for Labour when that government fell. We were a force for good in the Coalition government, ensuring fairer and better policies for all. But we are not being given the credit for it by the public. Our standing in the polls is still less than 10%, and in Oldham West we didn’t save our deposit. Despite the valiant efforts of Tim and his team, eight months after the General Election we are not getting heard. Political discussion and comment in the media mostly ignores us. What to do?

Let’s look at how we got to this position. ‘There is a tide in the affairs of men…’ and so there is. We swept into Coalition as a tide of discontent, and alarm at the economic situation swept Labour away. Action followed by reaction is the general rule of political history. Last year we were left like so much flotsam and jetsam on the beach.

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Peter Martin

“How to Pay for the War,” or, Just about Anything! – Keynes 1940

By Peter Martin | Mon 25th January 2016 - 1:22 pm

Whenever a progressive party proposes a better education system, a better NHS,  better public transport or whatever,  the killer question is always “How are you going to pay for it?” The implication is that someone will have to pay by way of an increased tax bill or the money will have to be withheld from some other worthy project to compensate.

Our parents’ and grandparents’ generation had a similar, but much harder, problem to solve when it came to the question of how to pay for the war against Nazi Germany in 1939. If the principles of ‘sound finance’ which held that government budgets must at all times be balanced had been rigidly applied then surrender would have been the only option. Fortunately, the Liberal Party, and the country, had at their disposal the best economic mind of the 20th century in John Maynard Keynes who explained, in his 1940 book “How to Pay for the War” how an inadequately armed country of 40 million people, with an economy which had been performing poorly in the inter war years, could at least start to function well enough to take on a much better performing country, at least economically, of twice its population.

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Dick Newby

Dick Newby writes….Limehouse at 35

By Dick Newby | Mon 25th January 2016 - 11:55 am

2016-01-20 13.51.09

35 years on from the Limehouse Declaration and the launch of the SDP it’s easy to see the similarities. We have a Labour Party with a very left wing leader pushing ideologically driven policies and zero prospect of winning the next election. And we have a Conservative Party which is pursuing harsh economic policies at home and is split down the middle over the UK’s relationship with the EU.

But if there are similarities with 1981 there are even more differences. Britain is now a very different place socially and economically. It is much more ethnically diverse, particularly in the large cities. It is far less deferential and far fewer people have a strong party loyalty. It is also much more affluent – the average household is now earns twice as much as it did in 1981 – and unemployment and inflation are both much lower.

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Caron Lindsay

Willie Rennie takes on Sturgeon and Amazon over low wages and poor working conditions

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 24th January 2016 - 4:20 pm

Willie Rennie has gained the backing of the Scottish Trades Union Congress for is stance on low wages and poor working conditions at Amazon’s depot in his Fife constituency. He’s also challenged Nicola Sturgeon over massive grants paid to the giant company when they treat their employees so badly.

From the Sunday Mail:

But Rennie said Amazon shouldn’t receive any more money until they increases employees’ pay to the “living wage” of £8.25 an hour – deemed to be the minimum income necessary for workers to meet their basic needs.

The Scottish Lib Dems leader said: “The slipshod manner in which the Government have handled Amazon is embarrassing.

“The SNP have paid them millions of pounds in grants, even though they have been avoiding tax and paying workers low wages.

There is little point in Roseanna Cunningham visiting Amazon now unless she gets them to pay more tax and pay higher wages.

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The Voice

Lib Dem Job watch – lots of campaigning jobs going across the country

By The Voice | Sun 24th January 2016 - 12:10 pm

There are some excellent jobs going in the Liberal Democrats at the moment. The most prestigious is the Head of Press. The party is seeking someone to:

lead a small but effective media team to promote the Liberal Democrats and the party Leader Tim Farron in regional and national media. You will be expected to lead the party’s mission to secure daily coverage in national and regional print, broadcast and online news media.

As a key player in the wider Liberal Democrat team, the Head of Press will take a significant role in the rebuilding and fightback of Liberal Democrats, offering creative and engaging ideas, and take a leading role in interacting with journalists and key influencers on social media.

This role will be focused on delivering positive coverage for the party and for candidates of all levels across the United Kingdom, as well as be able to inspire best practice to help volunteers support the party’s media operation.

The Head of Press will also take a lead in managing crisis communications, and have a clear ability to work well under pressure.

The master of understatement, don’t you think?

If you are good at design and political messaging, you might be interested in the content designer post based at LDHQ in London:

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Caron Lindsay

Embrace feminism, says Justin Trudeau. Lib Dems could learn from that.

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 23rd January 2016 - 5:55 pm

It seems that every day there’s a new reason to admire Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Guardian has a report of a panel session in Davos where he said that everyone should embrace feminism. He said that a more diverse team makes better decisions in both politics and business.

I particularly liked the clip in the video in which he said that his wife had reminded him that he not only had to encourage his daughter into taking leadership roles, but also to talk to his sons about treating women properly.

He also said that he thinks there will be as big changes in attitudes to equality in the next 20 years as there has been in the last 40.

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Will Wilshere

Be careful with home education registration

By Will Wilshere | Sat 23rd January 2016 - 1:55 pm

The media reporting of the tragic death of Dylan Seabridge, blaming the fact that he was home educated, is bringing back bad memories of 2009. Then Ed Balls commissioned the “Badman Review” into whether Home Education could be used to hide child abuse. Whilst the review found no evidence to link the two, it felt very much like Labour was out to get us, like the government was looking for a reason to attack home education in an illiberal way as only Labour could. More often than not, home education is seen as the problem, not the local authority’s failure to act with the powers they already had, or the parents’ failure to seek help. These cases, whilst tragic, are very much the exception and do not reflect the reality of home education.

I was home educated between the ages of 11 – 17 and remember this being discussed by both students and parents. The approach felt like a witch hunt, with the government demanding access to your homes to privately question children. People were worried that the questions would be leading, and due to the number of children who were young or special needs the gut feeling was they wouldn’t realise the severity of the questions being asked.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m in favour of registration, but it would need to be done in a way that didn’t feel like an attack on home education.

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The Voice

Farron: Don’t train people from countries with bad human rights records at Sandhurst

By The Voice | Sat 23rd January 2016 - 12:30 pm

Tim Farron has called on the Government to stop taking money from states with poor human rights records to train their military officers at the elite Sandhurst training college. He said to the Guardian:

These Sandhurst sheikhs are sitting in our military academies, learning from our best and then taking these things back to regimes that repress their population and trample all over human rights. People will look at this and think why are we selling weapons to Saudi, training Bahrainis and then sitting there while they oppress their population.

Shared military training with our allies is a fantastic resource, but it is time to stand up for the values we talk about so much – democracy and human rights. British forces provide some of the best military training in the world, but the privilege to train with our top class troops should be reserved to those foreign armed forces who share our values and our strict adherence to humanitarian law in combat. I believe we need to end to the training of overseas royals from regimes with terrible human rights records at Sandhurst.

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NewsHound

Photo of the week: Alex Cole-Hamilton in a gas mask to highlight air pollution

By NewsHound | Thu 21st January 2016 - 3:45 pm

ACH gas mask

Edinburgh Western and Lothian List candidate Alex Cole-Hamilton took to the most polluted street in Edinburgh this week. St John’s Road in Corstorphine, where he has his campaign office, is the most polluted road in Scotland. It’s one of the main routes from the west into Edinburgh.

Pollution levels in Corstorphine and Queensferry Road are a national disgrace. They represent a clear and present threat to public health, yet the SNP, who have been in charge of this City and this country for nearly a decade, continue to drag their heels.

Almost 2,000 Scots die prematurely each year as a result of vehicle emissions and nowhere is this risk more present than in communities that span the arterial routes into Edinburgh. Investment in my 5 point action plan will actually save our country money in the future in terms of reduced demand on health services and days lost to work through illness.

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Steve Coltman

Labour and Trident

By Steve Coltman | Thu 21st January 2016 - 9:58 am

I would have thought it almost impossible to come up with a Trident policy dafter than the one the Liberal Democrats were saddled with at the last general election, but Jeremy Corbyn and his trade union colleagues seem to have done just that. They are seriously proposing buying the submarines but no warheads. The submarines are to be a job-creation scheme to satisfy unions who care more about their members’ jobs than about the overall national interest. These giant submarines are the main cost of the Trident renewal program, £16bn for the four of them? Who knows exactly?

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Alistair Carmichael MP

Alistair Carmichael MP writes…Suzanne Fletcher reminds us how one person can make a difference for vulnerable people

By Alistair Carmichael MP | Wed 20th January 2016 - 5:55 pm

Today in Parliament the Minister for Immigration was forced to explain why G4S were housing asylum seekers behind red doors, leaving them open to targeted attacks. The Minister, who said he was “deeply concerned”, in response sprang into action announcing an audit of asylum seeker accommodation in the North East. Good to see the Minister reacting so quickly to something that was only in the papers that morning you might think. Not so.

Suzanne Fletcher, former Liberal Democrat Councillor and now Chair for Liberal Democrats for Seekers of Sanctuary, has been campaigning on this issue doggedly for years. In fact, it is predominantly down to her campaign work that this became a news story today.

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Caron Lindsay

SNP “talk left but act right” says Willie Rennie in first leaders’ debate

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 20th January 2016 - 1:32 pm

The first leaders’ debate of the Scottish election campaign took place in Dundee this week. Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie faced SNP First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Labour’s Kezia Dugdale, Conservative Alex Johnstone (standing in for leader Ruth Davidson) and Patrick Harvie.

He strongly attacked the SNP’s record, saying, according to the Evening Telegraph:

Nicola presents herself as an anti-austerity party but look at her record in comparison with George Osborne.

She wants to match him on the income tax, she wants to undercut him on air passenger duty and she is undercutting him on the council tax.

This is not an anti-austerity party, they talk left but act right. They need to match up their record with their rhetoric.

This is consistent with what he’s been saying for some time. In December, the SNP Government were forced into yet another humiliating freedom of information climbdown as they had to release a memo from Nicola Sturgeon’s poverty advisor which highlighted that the SNP’s universal benefits disproportionately helped the better off. At that time, Willie said:

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Caron Lindsay

Do you know your other half’s National Insurance Number?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 20th January 2016 - 10:15 am

I am a bit of a swot, but I do actually know my husband’s NiNo, but that’s because, for many years, the form-filling in our house has been my job, not least because his writing would make most doctors look like great calligraphers. Similarly, I am fairly well acquainted with his clothing and its size because I do most of the washing.

Why, I can hear you asking, is this even relevant? Well, the Daily Mirror covered Alistair Carmichael’s reaction to a particular paragraph in Stephen Shaw’s review into the treatment of vulnerable people in immigration detention.

Shaw visited Dungavel House, in Scotland, where he was told by detainees of some of the ridiculous questions they were asked (page 52, paragraph 3.71) in order to prove that their marriages were genuine:

The questions they said they had been asked by caseworkers to ascertain whether their marriage was a sham included their knowledge of their wife’s National Insurance number, the colour of her underwear, and her bra size. If this was indeed the case, it is questionable whether such questions were either appropriate or useful.

Of course, the Mirror used this as an excuse to print a photo of women in underwear. That’s so 20th century.

Our Home Affairs spokesperson’s response was vintage Alistair:

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Global thinking, Local vision – What the Liberal Democrats can learn from how Coca-Cola operates in Africa

By Ian Thomas | Wed 20th January 2016 - 8:55 am

With the exception of Cuba and North Korea Coca-Cola is sold in every country on earth. Altogether, 1.7 billion servings of their products (the group has a portfolio of around 500) are sold every day, and that number is increasing year on year. While Africa produces around 10% of the company’s total revenue and volume the group expects this to double in less than six years, meaning that by 2020 the continent will boast more Coca-Cola consumers than the US and Europe combined.

While the comparison of a political party and the sales strategy of a multi-national corporation on another continent may seem poles apart, Coca-Cola’s success story provides some valuable lessons for an organisation needing to re-launch its brand to overcome a number of barriers to reconnect with a disillusioned electorate. 

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Caron Lindsay

What do you do when you see a disastrous exit poll? Eat your hat, of course

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 19th January 2016 - 9:00 pm

Paddy Ashdown has been talking to the Guardian about that moment when he first saw the exit poll on Election Night.

rally paddy 01

To be honest I saw the poll at the bottom of the screen about 10 seconds before Andrew Neil turned to me and I thought to myself ‘oh shit’,” he said.

“Then I had an option. I could either say ‘that’s very interesting and wouldn’t it be troublesome for us’, in which case the entire Liberal Democrat night would fall apart from thereon … or I could brave it out and say ‘I’ll eat my hat’.

“I have in fact eaten five hats altogether , including one that was a proper hat, although pretty miniature, the rest made of more edible substances, which people keep presenting me with.

He discussed the impact of the polls and suggested that they had a big impact on the result of the election.

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Joe Otten

Margaret Beckett reports on reasons for Labour’s defeat

By Joe Otten | Tue 19th January 2016 - 4:39 pm

Dame Margaret Beckett a former deputy and acting leader of the Labour Party has reported her findings on the reasons behind Labour’s loss of the election in 2015. We need to understand this dispassionately, alongside the reasons for our great losses, some of which will overlap.

Firstly, five reasons that Beckett doubts.

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Tod Sullivan

A long slow goodbye… a warm hello

By Tod Sullivan | Tue 19th January 2016 - 12:01 pm

I have a simple approach to politics, at heart I am pragmatic and try not to place ideology in the way of the best possible outcome.

New Labour in the late 1990’s was perfect for me and so I joined the party and I became a local councillor the day after Labour lost the 2010 election, became a Labour Group leader, and remained a councillor until the 2015 election. By then, I was feeling less connected to the party politically and I stood down.

The Ed Miliband era was tortuous for me. I found pockets of policy I agreed with, but I never believed that he would become Prime Minister. I found the sycophancy permeating from his inner circle, especially on social media, nauseating.

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George Kendall

When is the right time to reduce the deficit?

By George Kendall | Tue 19th January 2016 - 10:48 am

Liberal Democrats and Social Democrats have a very wide range of opinions, including economics. However, despite our differences, it’s possible to discuss them in a good-natured, honest way, without polemic.

The time to reduce the deficit has been a matter of huge controversy over the last six years. Paul Krugman is, perhaps, the best known advocate of continuing stimulus. In 2012, he attacked the UK deficit reduction programme as ‘deeply destructive’. He said, “Give me a stronger economy and I’ll turn into a fiscal hawk. But not now”.

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Joe Zammit-Lucia

Liberals Must Have A Comprehensive Policy On Immigration

By Joe Zammit-Lucia | Tue 19th January 2016 - 8:34 am

They say that there is no war that is more difficult and emotionally draining than a civil war. So it is with ideas. When liberals and progressives fight conservatives, the battles are easy. Each is convinced of their own righteousness and, when they run out of arguments, can simply dismiss the other side as being either Neanderthal or degenerate and therefore not worthy of much consideration. Everyone can go to bed enveloped in their own warm glow of self-belief.

Much more difficult are conflicting ideas that spring from the same ideology. Because resolution is difficult, these issues tend to get quietly …

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The Greatest Show On Earth

By Ian Thomas | Mon 18th January 2016 - 6:25 pm

 

From the great theatrical showman in Las Vegas to the street-hustlers on trestle tables asking tourists to watch the cups; misdirection, the foremost requirement of magic, is a deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another.

No matter in what forum they perform, from street magicians to TV illusionists, magicians have the ability to use their skills to create something out of nothing, of reordering the universe to defy the rules of logic before our very eyes – and who knew that the Conservative government was creating the greatest show on earth.

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Kevin Mahoney

Time is ripe for Church of England disestablishment

By Kevin Mahoney | Mon 18th January 2016 - 12:35 pm

 

Now that the Anglican Communion has ruled that the US Episcopalian Church will not be able to take part in its decision making for three years’ following their support for same sex marriage and their appointment of a gay bishop in 2003, it is time for us to put Church of England disestablishment back on the agenda.

Like many in the party, I had misgivings about Tim Farron’s Christian faith when he was elected leader. As a liberal Christian who campaigns for same sex marriage within church, I perceived Tim to be a conservative Christian that would be opposed to this. However, the controversy about Tim’s interview with Cathy Newman last year has rather changed my mind on this, especially when I read his May 2015 interview in Pink News. Tim called for the disestablishment of the CofE in this interview, and I think that we should make this official policy to finally dispel the view that his Christianity is a problem for his leadership. Having had a closer look at Tim Farron’s reasons for his voting record on same sex marriage, I think the problem is not that he’s a fundamentalist Christian, but that he’s a fundamentalist Liberal.

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George Potter

Farron’s strategy to tackle Corbyn is all wrong

By George Potter | Mon 18th January 2016 - 10:10 am

 

Recently Tim Farron responded to Jeremy Corbyn’s economic strategy by saying “Unfortunately Corbyn’s anti-business policies will ensure that no company has the budget to pay the wages their employees deserve”.

Now this is absolutely true and it’s very much Tim Farron’s approach to Corbyn and Labour at the moment. But it’s also absolutely the wrong approach to take.

The thing is, the public already thinks Labour aren’t economically competent and the Tories keep on ramming home that message. But since the public think that the Tories are economically competent then any attacks we make on Labour’s economic competence will just drive voters to the Tories.

In a nutshell, attacking Labour on the economy does nothing more than to annoy Labour voters who we want to win over while helping to turn undecided voters to the Tories.

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