Category Archives: Op-eds

Take part in #timetotalk day on Lib Dem Voice

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th January 2016 - 8:30 pm

Every year, the first Thursday in February sees Time to Talk Day, run by Time to Change. The idea is to get people talking about mental health and share their experiences with the aim of ending the stigma that people face.

For the last two years, we at LDV have taken part in the event and our readers have produced some outstanding pieces. You can read them all here.

Two years ago, Eleanor Draycott wrote about her experience of living with BiPolar:

Many people don’t understand what being Bi-polar actually means, I guess this is why I’m putting this down on paper. The most basic knowledge the population has is that someone with this illness “suffers from” extreme highs and lows and this is certainly true. One day I can be the life and soul of the party, extremely talkative, wanting to go out and embrace the world with open arms. But the next I can be so down that getting out of bed seems like an insurmountable task. There has never been any pattern to my highs and lows, either can last for days, weeks or months. Before I was on the right combination of medication, in my manic stages I wouldn’t sleep for as long as they lasted. I was always out partying, dancing, drinking, behaving recklessly, spending money I didn’t have on ridiculous items I would never need if I lived to be one hundred. I would sit up for hours writing pages and pages of rambling thoughts in notebooks, that made no sense when I came down and my mind wasn’t racing, but which at the time of writing I was convinced contained the answer to world peace.

Tagged #timetotalk and time to talk day 2016 | 5 Comments

Amendment written by Paul Tyler may defeat Government on Trade Union Bill

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th January 2016 - 5:58 pm

The Independent has an interesting story about the Liberal Democrats and Labour working together to defeat the Government on the party funding aspect of the Trade Union Bill. When you read the story, it’s a real collaboration, with Paul Tyler drafting the amendment now in the name of the Labour leader in the Lords, but the headline makes it look like we are simply supporting the Labour effort.

Liberal Democrat peers are to help Labour water down the Trade Union Bill, which will dramatically reduce the party’s funding, in an amendment on Wednesday.

The support should give Labour enough votes to pass an amendment that would mean parts of the Bill that relate to political funding will be separated out and examined by a cross-party committee of peers. This was originally drafted by Lord Tyler, the Liberal Democrat constitutional reform spokesman, who wants the committee to examine broader political funding…

Tagged party funding, paul tyler and trade union bill | 1 Comment

Baroness Lindsay Northover writes…Our MPs must include women as well as men

By Lindsay Northover | Sun 17th January 2016 - 8:57 am

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We are an internationalist party. We believe in human rights. Our constitution commits us to equality, as well as liberty and community.

So how can it be that we, the Lib Dems of all parties, have absolutely no women MPs? Zero. 0.0%.

Round the world, countries and parties have addressed the paucity of women in elected positions. Our sister parties have done so. We have a history of trying to do so – but trying is not the same as succeeding. That must change now. I am extremely glad that our Party President, Sal Brinton, and our party leader, Tim Farron, are making clear that change must happen.

The SDP and then the Lib Dems led with affirmative action until the late 1990s. Then Labour sailed past us with women-only shortlists. They transformed their party – and the UK Parliament. Now their Commons party is 44% women. Even the Conservatives are almost 21%.

Tagged diversity and gender balance | 54 Comments

Nice work if you can get it, Nick

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 16th January 2016 - 8:41 pm

The papers have been full of Nick Clegg, recently. Various papers, including the Guardian, got pretty exercised about him receiving £22,500 for a speech and 2 hours’ work at an event for Goldman Sachs:

The former deputy prime minister, who condemned the global investment bank in 2010 for alleged “recklessness and greed”, listed the payment in the latest entry for the Commons register of members’ interests.

The entry said that his agent, News Presenters Ltd, arranged for him to be paid £22,500 for delivering a keynote speech and moderating a question and answer session over dinner for Goldman Sachs in London on 2 December 2015. The speech examined Britain’s place in the EU.

Sure, it’s a massive amount of money, even if you factor in the time it takes to actually write the speech. It’s eye-watering, even, that someone can get not far off the national average wage for a couple of hours’ work.

Tagged nick clegg | 21 Comments

The Lib Dem week in Scotland

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 16th January 2016 - 10:27 am

Welcome to our weekly roundup of what the Scottish Liberal Democrats, led by Willie Rennie, have been getting up to. They’ve covered a pretty extensive array of issues from health to housing to police spying to local services to cuts to college places.

McInnes says there are still questions to answer on police spying

After a senior Police Officer gave evidence on the police spying scandal to a Holyrood Committee, Alison McInnes says that his answers were not satisfactory:

The guidance on accessing communications data is very straightforward. Police Scotland’s account of how this came about is nowhere near as clear. We were told this morning that senior officers had raised concerns over applications to access communications data but they seem to have gone through regardless.

These were serious breaches and we need understand what went wrong here. Months after the first reports that Police Scotland had hacked communications data unlawfully, we are still no closer to a full account of how we got here.

NHS in crisis

Jim Hume has been highlighting many issues where the NHS in Scotland is falling short. First, his research showed that Scotland was facing an acute GP shortage as GP training places were not being taken up:

The fear must be that the extra training places announced by the First Minister last year will not help encourage more students to enter primary care or relieve the huge pressure on local GP practices. With dozens of training posts left vacant this year, SNP ministers must explain how they will ensure uptake of these and the 100 extra places they have announced. Welcome though they are, more training places will do no good at all unless there are doctors to fill them.

The SNP Government have not published a key review of mental health services. Jim said:

First we were told that the report would be published in the summer. Then that it would be published before Christmas but still we have seen nothing. What on earth is going on?

Also posted in A weekly catchup and Scotland | Tagged Scotland | 1 Comment

Postcard from Tblisi: Visiting our liberal colleagues in Georgia

By Robbie Simpson | Fri 15th January 2016 - 3:44 pm

Last month I travelled with the Liberal Democrat International Office to visit our liberal colleagues, the Republican Party of Georgia (RPG), in Tbilisi – nestled between Russia and Turkey. The occasion was the Republican Party’s bi-annual Party Congress, and the Liberal Democrats had been invited to send a speaker for their discussions on the economy.

Politics in Georgia is a difficult to sum up in a few words. It is East meets West both politically and geographically; a country with a strong European identity but with Soviet overhangs. The Patriarch can condemn homosexuality and hold an open-air mass for the EU in the same week.

The RPG are a junior party in the Georgian Dream coalition government, with relatively few seats but a good chunk of influence. The rest of Georgian Dream leans a bit more populist and at times socially conservative. Fellow liberals the Free Democrats fell out of the coalition in 2014 in a bitter and personal dispute that ended in dubious corruption charges, while former governing party the UNM remain tainted by their corruption and abuses of power during their final term. And in the wings perhaps lies the spectre of pro-Russian political elements – often feared, but rarely seen.

Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged georgia and international office | 3 Comments

Let’s talk about peace

By Mike Biden | Fri 15th January 2016 - 1:25 pm

Almost all Liberal Democrats agree on the EU. A remarkably high number give the same reason for their support – Peace. Securing peace was the primary goal of the Founding Fathers of the European Union. Making war unthinkable and impossible through economic integration and prosperity were the means to the end. Peace and Prosperity.

The debate so far has focused on the economic arguments. After years of political debate and endless studies it’s no surprise that the impact on the economy and our jobs is the top concern of most voters.

But polling shows peace is a decisive argument in favour of remaining in the EU.

It does not rate as highly and is mentioned only by those who are already supporters and some therefore draw the conclusion it is not useful to talk about it. I disagree.

Tagged eu referendum | 15 Comments

Failed flooding policy finds a scapegoat

By Phil Aisthorpe | Fri 15th January 2016 - 11:55 am

Whenever a government loses control of the situation there has to be a scapegoat, and on the issue of flooding it’s not Sir Philip Dilley the Environment Agency chairman who resigned on Monday. After his PR blunder of refusing to interrupt his holiday to visit the flooded areas he gave up his £100k position on the grounds that what had started out as a part-time non-executive post was now looking suspiciously like actual work. No, this winter’s devastating floods we are asked to believe, weren’t so much the result of government failings, but of an over concern for the protection of wildlife! “If we have to choose between people and wildlife, we will always, of course, choose people,” Sir James Bevan Chief Exec of the Environment Agency told the BBC at the turn of the year.

Like me, you may have been puzzled by this message and couldn’t quite see its relevance to what was happening across the North on that day, and the plot thickened to Bisto consistency a few days later when Liz Truss announced in a speech at the Oxford Farming Conference that Defra will be allowing farmers to dredge ‘ditches’ without seeking permission from the Environment Agency because they ‘know their land best’. Her own experts say that dredging is useful for improving navigation and land drainage, but has little value in flood prevention. So again, what was going on?

Tagged conservation, environment and flooding | 14 Comments

George Osborne’s austerity policies put economic growth under threat.

By Lucy Nethsingha | Fri 15th January 2016 - 10:25 am

On 6th January George Osborne made a speech emphasising the threats to the UK economy in the coming year. His emphasis on the weakness of the economic situation might have come as a surprise to anyone who had listened to his autumn statement, where he was keen to trumpet how well the economy is doing, but Mr Osborne is a spin master above all else, and he clearly feels that the time has come for a different spin on our economy. The spin yesterday was all about the impact of the global economy on the UK.

The UK and US economies are growing at the moment, but growth in the rest of the world is looking very shaky. A down-turn in the global economy is bound to have an impact at home, and George Osborne’s austerity policies are not helping the UK to weather any potential global economic storm.

The biggest threat to the UK economy at the moment is not inflation, but deflation. Deflation means that any debt held by individuals or companies increases in value rather than decreasing over time. As a result deflation discourages spending and investment by individuals and companies, particularly the type of long term investment our country desperately needs.

Tagged economy | 4 Comments

Oates and Scriven show why Britain needs the Liberal Democrats

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 14th January 2016 - 10:15 pm

The Palace of Westminster is quite disorientating. There’s an escalator that goes from the bright modern Portcullis House into Westminster that I always call the Time Machine because it really feels like you go back 300 years in 30 feet. This afternoon, if you’d wandered into the House of Lords, you might be forgiven for thinking you’d gone to sleep and woken up in 2005, because here were Labour and Tory peers trying to bring back ID cards. And just like 2005 (who remembers Police, not Plastic), it was Liberal Democrat peers cutting their way throughout the authoritarian smog like Mr Muscle on a greasy kitchen worktop.

Also posted in Parliament | Tagged civil liberties, house of lords, id cards, jonny oates and paul scriven | 15 Comments

Liberal Democrats react to Transgender Equality Report

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 14th January 2016 - 9:23 pm

Today’s publication of the Transgender Equality Report by the Commons Women and Equality Committee should lead to some big improvements to services and better rights for transgender people. It has some useful recommendations around health services – ensuring, for example, that GPs have sufficient training in how they should treat transgender people. The Committee certainly seems to have listened to many of the concerns put to them.

Their approach to the spousal veto question was more cautious than I would have liked. They basically said that it needed more consideration but didn’t recommend doing away with it, even though they accepted that a spouse could stand in the way of a transgender person getting their legal recognition. However, if the law is changed to abolish that cumbersome process, as the Committee. This is a big step forward:

In place of the present medicalised, quasi-judicial application process, an administrative process must be developed, centred on the wishes of the individual applicant, rather than on intensive analysis by doctors and lawyers.

Tagged LGBT, lgbt+ lib dems, meral hussein ece, tim farron and transgender | 3 Comments

Carmichael calls for time limit on immigration detention

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 14th January 2016 - 4:52 pm

The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto last year called for an end to indefinite detention for immigration purposes, building on the end to child detention that Nick Clegg insisted upon as part of the coalition agreement. Today, a review of welfare in detention of vulnerable people conducted for the Home Office by Stephen Shaw has been published. In it he makes 64 recommendations, including that alternatives to detention be sought. Some of the changes he wants to see are so basic that you are shocked that they are not done already – the provision of even basic mental health treatment, for a start.

This one is quite chilling:

Recommendation 33: I recommend that the Home Office review detainees’ access to natural light and to the open air, and invite contractors to bring forward proposals to increase the time that detainees can spend outside.

And as for this one, you mean we don’t already?

Recommendation 35: I recommend that the service provider at Yarl’s Wood should only conduct searches of women and of women’s rooms in the presence of men in the most extreme and pressing circumstances, and that there should be monitoring and reporting of these cases.

Tagged home office, immigration and shaw review | 2 Comments

Welcoming former Labour supporters to the Liberal Democrats

By Rob Jackson | Thu 14th January 2016 - 3:00 pm

I joined the Liberal Democrats in July 2015 after many years as a Labour supporter and member. There were a number of reasons for this, including Labour’s inability to offer a realistic alternative to the austerity agenda, and the issue of union influence, which Ed Miliband attempted to address, largely unsuccessfully in my opinion. I feel that the Labour Party as it is now is no longer a home for centre-left people like me, even more so now Jeremy Corbyn is leader. The country needs an opposition (any opposition) to the Tories, and the Labour Party are currently too busy with internal arguments to form an effective one.

I am delighted at the way Liberal Democrats have welcomed me. I have already joined the executive committee of my local party as social media and web officer, where I will help with the Lib Dem fightback, both locally and nationally. I have encountered nothing but kindness and support since joining, for which I am grateful.

76 Comments

The junior doctors’ strike is about the existence and future of the NHS

By Catherine Royce | Thu 14th January 2016 - 1:30 pm

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I’d like to clarify a few points raised in the LDV comments thread related to the Doctors strike and Tim Farron’s remarks about it. First, I will state my potential conflict of interest: I’m a doctor (retired) a life-long member of the BMA (yes, I do still pay my union subscription) and my daughter is also a junior doctor.

The strike is happening because Jeremy Hunt has stated that he will impose a new contract on juniors against their will in August 2016. Negotiations, which have been conducted over the last three years with the BMA, have broken without any agreement and, thus, junior doctors are withdrawing their labour, as a last resort.

Tagged junior doctors and NHS | 36 Comments

Let’s give everyone a passport for free at 16

By David Faggiani | Thu 14th January 2016 - 10:12 am

British citizens at present have visa-free access to 173 countries and territories around the World. But that comes at a cost – currently £72.50 for a new passport, or £82.25 if you use the checking service. But what if your passport came in the post, free of charge, on your 16th birthday, like your National Insurance card? This is my suggestion for a new, distinctive Liberal Democrat policy.

Unimpeded travel around the world is something we should encourage, as part of a holistic, internationalist education. I don’t doubt that the admin fee is a barrier for less well-off young people, or those less-supported by family members. British people are relatively well travelled, with only 8% of British adults, roughly, having never been abroad. However, I expect a disproportionate amount of those less-travelled individuals are from lower income groups. Like votes at 16, I believe a free passport would be a great message for young people. Be a part of British society, and the whole world is at your fingertips.

24 Comments

Do you agree with Floella Benjamin on mandatory sugar reduction targets?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 13th January 2016 - 9:39 pm

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Here’s a bit of controversy to liven up a Wednesday evening.

Floella Benjamin has written for Politics Home’s Central Lobby arguing in favour of mandatory sugar reduction targets. It’s another of these issues that you can use liberal principles to argue both for and against:

Many overweight children grow up to be obese adults and there are often serious health consequences for those affected, leading to tremendous pressures on the NHS, through the dramatic rise in type 2 diabetes, heart problems, some cancers and a wide variety of other conditions that require treatment. High sugar consumption is resulting in early tooth decay and is by far the highest cause of hospital admissions amongst 5-to 9-year-olds.

Tagged floella benjamin, Food, health, obesity and sugar | 45 Comments

Tim’s pick a ward and win it – how that’s part of the Isle of Wight’s #libdemfightback

By Nicholas Belfitt | Wed 13th January 2016 - 3:59 pm

In June last year I attended a small event in Guildford in the run-up to the leadership election where I was lucky to meet Tim Farron. He made a great speech which, as always was both thorough and entertaining. But it was in the end what he said that began to push me to believe in the Lib Dems. Pick a ward and win it.

No words have been so strong for me. After the event it was all I could think about for weeks and weeks during which time I returned home to the Isle of Wight. I had always dreamed of being able to be involved, but like many young liberals I thought that caution and moving through groups such as the Liberal Youth were the formats in which make progress. But I could not get that line out of my head.

I began to be involved in my local party and before I knew it I was swiftly elected Vice-Chair. ME? At 22? The only experience I had of campaigning was under Kelly-Marie Blundell in her Guildford campaign, but I had no training or preparation.

Tagged #libdemfightback, campaigning and isle of wight | 14 Comments

William Wallace writes…Liberalism in an illiberal world

By Lord William Wallace | Wed 13th January 2016 - 8:28 am

The twenty-five years since the end of the cold war have been a good time for liberals, both at home and abroad. In Britain the moves towards a more open and tolerant society that had begun in the 1960s continued. Legal and social prejudices have been pushed further back; same-sex relationships, equal opportunities for women, ethnic diversity, have all been accepted as basic values, even – reluctantly and partially – by the right-wing press. There have of course been negative developments in parallel – widening economic inequality, the contraction of social services, the marginalization of the long-term unemployed – but the overall picture has nevertheless been one of progress.

29 Comments

Put a Dutchman in the Environment Agency

By Bernard Aris | Tue 12th January 2016 - 4:57 pm

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The Dutch people has been commiserating with the British people being flooded, yet again, this past year.

Apart from the many times the North Sea inundated the Netherlands (the last time, 1953, inspired the Delta Works – a massive reconstruction and improvement program of our coastal defences, completed in the 1980s), we suffered massive river floodings in the 1990s from the Rhine (and its branch the Waal past the big city of Nijmegen) and Meuse rivers after heavy rainfall in the Ardennes, Alps and other highlands. In 1995 these forced a big evacuation in the heart of the Netherlands. These floodings were the reason for another massive, nationwide programme of restructuring and improving works, including taking account of Climate Change, under the Second Delta Plan commission and a national Delta Commissioner, who is an influential government advisor.

But being a Dutchman who pays attention to floodings elsewhere, I was struck in the past ten years by the frequency that people in Britain involved in, and victims of, those floods complained about two things:

Tagged environment agency and flooding | 8 Comments

Want to go to Spring conference and can’t afford it? Apply to Conference Access Fund by Friday

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 12th January 2016 - 2:40 pm

Our Spring Conference in York between 11-13 March is the first to be held under the new One Member One Vote rules. That means that every single party member could have a say as we make our policies.

I say COULD, because not every member can afford to go. Travel, accommodation and childcare costs put going to conference beyond the reach of many members.

This time, however, people can apply for a grant from the Conference Access Fund:

We have established a Conference Access Fund to improve accessibility for members attending conference. The fund consists of a contribution from the core Conference budget as well as donations from party members. Any contributions made by party members are ring-fenced for this purpose only and where applicable, any unused donations will be carried over to the next conference.

All applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. If there is high demand, priority will be given to members who are attending Conference for the first time and members from underrepresented sections of society.

To do so for this Conference, you have to apply by this Friday. The online form is here.

Also posted in Conference | Tagged conference, conference access fund and featured | Leave a comment

#GetInvolved2016 with Caroline Pidgeon

By Claire Eadington | Mon 11th January 2016 - 4:08 pm

Arriving at Lib Dem HQ for the Patchwork Foundation’s #GetInvolved2016 campaigning session for Caroline Pidgeon, it was difficult to say who was bravest. Was it the young people who had signed up for a Wednesday of practical campaign training, many of whom would be heading out, leaflet in hand, to face the doorstep for the first time; or was it Caroline and Lauren Pemberton-Nelson, the Lib Dem candidate for the Faraday ward by-election on 21 January? For us Patchworkers one of the biggest boosts at #GetInvolved2016 events is the trust placed in us by the people we are campaigning …

Tagged Caroline Pidgeon | 2 Comments

Adrian Sanders writes… the South West is missing a voice

By Adrian Sanders | Mon 11th January 2016 - 1:10 pm

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Where is the South West’s voice at Westminster? In fact, where is there any opposition voice speaking up for the region, scrutinising and where necessary opposing policies not in our best interests.

In the South West region at the last election the Conservatives gained every seat held by the Liberal Democrats. Fourteen gains that gifted the Conservative Party its overall majority of twelve in the House of Commons.

There was no great swing to the Conservatives in May to give them this position of absolute power. Instead, a number of people who had previously voted Liberal Democrat to prevent a majority Tory Government cast their votes for the Greens, Labour and Ukip, or not at all.

Tagged fracking, south west region and torbay | 16 Comments

Words I can’t mention

By Phil Aisthorpe | Mon 11th January 2016 - 11:49 am

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I learned a valuable lesson on LDV last week and that is that there are some words so emotionally charged that their mere mention provokes a pre-programmed response more incendiary than the sight of a cat to a Staffy. So while I wanted to talk about the Lib Dem take on populist green causes I naively opened my piece with a discussion of the F-word and at that point lost my audience. I won’t make the mistake of stepping on that particular land mine again, you know the one I mean, the issue of vulpine persecution, Basil Brush meets the Hound of the Baskervilles?

Another topical tantrum trigger, one that is splitting Corbyn’s Labour party this week is the T-word – Neptune’s toasting fork (7 letters). No, I can’t say it for fear of unleashing a figurative Armageddon on the terrors of the real thing and blowing any chance of getting to the punch line.

Tagged eu, europe and trident | 26 Comments

Newbury by-pass – memories 20 years on

By Paul Walter | Mon 11th January 2016 - 9:54 am

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In January 1996, protestors took to trees and tunnels just outside my home town of Newbury, trying to stop the building of the by-pass.

It was a bit of surprise to be at the centre of such national furore over our by-pass.

Tagged newbury, roads and transport | 9 Comments

Tim Farron calls on universities to provide better support for victims of rape and sexual assault

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 10th January 2016 - 1:53 pm

If you suffer some severe personal trauma which affects your academic performance, you can ask the university to take those “extenuating circumstances” into account. This publication from the Univesrity of Bristol explains more about what that means:

Generally, extenuating circumstances are circumstances which are unforeseen, unpreventable, and have a serious impact on a students’ academic performance. It is not possible to compile a complete list of circumstances, as each case will be considered on its own merit, but two common examples that can be regarded as extenuating circumstances are:

• Serious personal illness: For example, an illness requiring hospitalisation, such as appendicitis.

• Bereavement: For example, the death of a close family member.

According to the Sunday Mirror, Tim Farron has written to all university vice -chancellors to ask them to ensure that victims of rape and sexual assault are able to ask for these extenuating circumstances to be taken into account.

Mr Farron said: “The trauma of sexual violence is immeasurable and I worry that universities are not being clear in the extenuating circumstances for students.

“There should not be any shade or loopholes in this. Universities should have a consistent approach.

“I have written to all vice-chancellors to ask them to be ensure that their university offers clear guidance and extenuating circumstances to any student who is a victim in such horrific cases, and to the National Union of Students who have done much to raise awareness in this area to ask for their support in pushing for these changes.”

5 Comments

Is David Cameron mixing up cause and effect?

By Paul Walter | Sun 10th January 2016 - 10:30 am

David Cameron “Parents should take lessons in how to control children – PM” – runs the main headline in the Observer this morning.

Expansion of parenting classes is certainly something to be welcomed. When I was first a parent, I thought it was very strange that parents were offered classes on breathing techniques during pregnancy and pelvic floor exercises, plus inspection of changing areas and bottle procedures after birth, but not a word of guidance after that, until primary school “parent/school agreements”.

Tagged david cameron, families and parenting | 19 Comments

So why exactly did Alex Salmond miss Any Questions?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 9th January 2016 - 3:44 pm

A bit of intrigue never goes amiss on a Saturday afternoon.

Last night, Alex Salmond missed Any Questions because, according to Jonathan Dimbleby at 1 minute 50 in: “apparently been held up in Scotland by the floods.” Certainly his Gordon constituency has been badly affected by some awful flooding in the north east of Scotland. In fact, Lib Dem MSP for North East Scotland Alison McInnes has been scathing about the SNP Government’s slow response, saying:

Here in the north-east local agencies have faced a prolonged battle against the rising water and staff and residents are exhausted. I do worry we haven’t seen the last of the bad weather but everyone has rallied together to support one another and the examples of community spirit have been heartening to see at such a difficult time.

Lessons need to be learnt on what’s happened in Scotland since the start of 2016 because I still think this response took place at a snail’s pace. The Scottish Government cannot keep forgetting that its responsibility is to the whole of Scotland, not just the central belt.

Tagged alex salmond, any questions and sal brinton | 6 Comments

Lessons from history: What Bush and Reagan could teach some UK politicians about their attitude towards economic migration

By The Voice | Sat 9th January 2016 - 11:55 am

Way back in 1980, as Ronald Reagan and George Bush were battling it out for the Republican nomination, they were asked whether the children of Mexicans working illegally in the US should be able to get educated. Their answer, posted on the Houston Chronicle’s Facebook page, might surprise you. Today’s politicians and tabloid editors might learn something.

Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush debate Mexican border security…

What would Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush say about immigration and securing the Mexican border today?Well, here's what they said about it in 1980 during a GOP debate in Houston.(Archival video from Getty Images)

Posted by Houston Chronicle on Tuesday, 5 January 2016

Tagged george bush, ronald reagan and US politics | 7 Comments

Saturday humour: Who is best at reading mean tweets about themselves?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 9th January 2016 - 10:25 am

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Tagged alex salmond, barack obama and nick clegg | 3 Comments

Welsh Liberal Democrats slam Cardiff Central Labour MP’s hypocrisy over new front bench role

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 7th January 2016 - 6:00 pm

The farce surrounding Jeremy Corbyn’s reshuffle continues. It’s not just that it took him 34 hours to shift 3 ministers, or that there have been as many resignations in protest as there were front bench displacements, or that even after four days (after two weeks of press briefings) it’s still not over, or that the people who were sacked have led the story. Truly, it is the reshuffle that ate itself.

A few of us were joking on Twitter this morning about when we were going to get offered jobs. There are still several hundred thousand Labour members to get through, of course.

The whole thing has created as many problems as it’s solved. Corbyn’s team look like they couldn’t run a bath let alone a country. Hilary Benn’s resignation at a time of his choosing, on principle, seems like a headline waiting to happen. Even Armando Iannucci probably couldn’t make it up.

Tagged eluned parrott, jenny willow and Wales | 12 Comments

Op-eds

Welcome to Lib Dem Friends of Gaelic Language and Culture (Caron Lindsay)
Going for four in a row in Scotland (Grant Toghill)
Lib Dems call for action on smart spectacles – some constructive feedback (Caron Lindsay)
AI has moved from future threat to present reality (Sean Worrell)
Where next for the Lib Dems in London? (Josh Lucas Mitte)

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Going for four in a row in Scotland

Observations of an Expat: Canada

Happy Birthday to us!

Roz Savage MP writes: Liberalism is having a Moment. But does it have…

Category Archives: Op-eds

Take part in #timetotalk day on Lib Dem Voice

Amendment written by Paul Tyler may defeat Government on Trade Union Bill

Baroness Lindsay Northover writes…Our MPs must include women as well as men

Nice work if you can get it, Nick

The Lib Dem week in Scotland

McInnes says there are still questions to answer on police spying

NHS in crisis

Postcard from Tblisi: Visiting our liberal colleagues in Georgia

Let’s talk about peace

Failed flooding policy finds a scapegoat

George Osborne’s austerity policies put economic growth under threat.

Oates and Scriven show why Britain needs the Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats react to Transgender Equality Report

Carmichael calls for time limit on immigration detention

Welcoming former Labour supporters to the Liberal Democrats

The junior doctors’ strike is about the existence and future of the NHS

Let’s give everyone a passport for free at 16

Do you agree with Floella Benjamin on mandatory sugar reduction targets?

Tim’s pick a ward and win it – how that’s part of the Isle of Wight’s #libdemfightback

William Wallace writes…Liberalism in an illiberal world

Put a Dutchman in the Environment Agency

Want to go to Spring conference and can’t afford it? Apply to Conference Access Fund by Friday

#GetInvolved2016 with Caroline Pidgeon

Adrian Sanders writes… the South West is missing a voice

Words I can’t mention

Newbury by-pass – memories 20 years on

Tim Farron calls on universities to provide better support for victims of rape and sexual assault

Is David Cameron mixing up cause and effect?

So why exactly did Alex Salmond miss Any Questions?

Lessons from history: What Bush and Reagan could teach some UK politicians about their attitude towards economic migration

Saturday humour: Who is best at reading mean tweets about themselves?

Welsh Liberal Democrats slam Cardiff Central Labour MP’s hypocrisy over new front bench role

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Going for four in a row in Scotland

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NHS in crisis

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