Category Archives: Op-eds

Caron Lindsay

Reprise: For Remembrance Sunday, some reflections on my visit to the Tower of London poppies

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 8th November 2015 - 10:45 am

It’s a year since I wrote the post below, but I wanted to repeat it this year partly because that brief hour at the Tower of London has stayed with me. The symbolism was compelling and should make us all think about the reality of war and what everyone affected by it goes through.

Poppies through BridgeLast Monday I was down in London for a meeting and had an hour spare to nip down to the Tower of London to see the poppy installation where 888,246 ceramic poppies have been laid out in an act of remembrance for all those who died in the First World War.

I found it incredibly moving. The atmosphere was one of humble quiet reflection. You know when you normally go to things, people can be pushing and shoving and trying to get the best view. Actually, here, everyone was respectful, giving each other space, despite the massive crowds.

I think what got me more than anything was seeing that this huge sea of red, made up of individual stems, symbolised one part of one side who lost their lives in the First World War.

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Dick Newby

Lord Dick Newby writes…How to get a Lib Dem peer to visit your local party

By Dick Newby | Sun 8th November 2015 - 8:55 am

Earlier this week, Liberal Democrat Peers completed 100 constituency visits undertaken since the General Election. Visits have included AGMs, new member meetings, Lib Dem Pints, and discussions on specific subject areas. Their aim has been to explain to members what we’re doing in Parliament and, more generally, how the Party can play a crucial role in shaping politics between now and 2020. For the Peers involved it’s an invaluable way of finding out what’s going on in the Party outside the confines of Westminster and we find it invigorating.

Between the summer and Christmas, we’ve set ourselves the tasks of attending all AGMs where we’re invited, to attend new member meetings and to participate, either via visits or telephone canvassing, in key local by-elections. In a few days’ time, I will be leading a team of Peers to Oldham West and Royton, and between now and 3 December several groups of my colleagues will also be visiting the seat.

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Caron Lindsay

Three reasons why you should go to Oldham West for your own good

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 7th November 2015 - 9:33 pm

Tim Farron went and opened Jane Brophy’s campaign HQ in Oldham West and Royton today and, as is the way with these things, was surrounded by lots of colourful diamonds:

I would strongly recommend that if you can get over to Oldham between now and the by-election on 3rd December, you do – for your own benefit as much as any help to the campaign. Yes, Jane Brophy is a fantastic candidate, a brilliant social liberal who really knows how to serve her community, and of course we want to support Tim Farron in the first by-election of his leadership, but there is a veritable cornucopia of good things that we can get for ourselves too. Here are just three.

Feel the Lib Dem Buzz

Once you’ve felt the vibe of a Lib Dem by-election hq, you will never want to miss another one. It’s great fun, you meet people from all over the country whom you wouldn’t necessarily meet at Conference and it’s actually good for the soul. My first by-election was Littleborough and Saddleworth (which is the neighbouring seat to what is now Oldham West) back in 1995. I met people there who are friends to this day. We only went to help for a day and then go on to have a bit of a touring holiday but we ended up staying for the whole week and went back for several weekends and the last week because we were having such a good time.

People have even met their partners at by-elections. I was particularly proud at playing “Cilla” during the Livingston by-election to a couple who celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary last week.

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Caron Lindsay

LDVideo: The first day in office of a Liberal Prime Minister

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 7th November 2015 - 1:51 pm

This is not the stuff of far flung fantasy. This actually happened, this week, in Canada, to a Liberal Party that’s fought its way back from devastating election defeats.

Here are two things that you should watch and take heart from.

First of all, a 24 minute behind the scenes video filmed by CBC of Justin Trudeau’s first day in office. In parts it has the feel of an episode of The West Wing, but our absolute favourite moment is when he puts down the reporter for being disparaging about the Cabinet travelling on a bus, reminding him that this is how many Canadians get to work. Enjoy.

Secondly, his great response when asked why he’d produced a gender balanced Cabinet. “Because it’s 2015.” By half way through the second decade of the 21st century, you would expect equality and it’s great that he (and Nicola Sturgeon) have set such good examples while remembering that Nick Clegg couldn’t even put one woman in the UK Cabinet when he had the chance.

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Jennie Rigg

Making Liberal Democrat Policy – the Calderdale Solution

By Jennie Rigg | Sat 7th November 2015 - 12:22 pm

Flick through a Federal or Yorkshire Regional conference agenda these days and it’s likely that you’ll see Calderdale as the sponsor of several motions or amendments. This article shows how we’ve made that happen:

The short version for those who just want the how and not the why

  1. keep policy and admin totally separate,
  2. always involve people at every step of the way,
  3. have a definite aim to a definite deadline,
  4. have visible outcomes so people can see they are making a difference, and
  5. always make sure there is food/drink at every event.

The longer version: when I took over as chair of Calderdale one of my main frustrations was that most exec meetings went on for hours and hours and would get bogged down in policy arguments (as well as other off topic rambling discussions). It’s not that I don’t like policy arguments and rambling off topic discussions – I love them – it’s just that an exec meeting is not the time or place to be having them. Exec meetings should be about getting the boring admin stuff done and out of the way as quickly as possible.

When I mentioned this to him, Alisdair Calder McGregor recalled a solution that had been used in a couple of other local parties he’d been involved with, to greater or lesser effect: if you hive off policy to a policy working group then exec meetings go much better. So Calderdale’s policy working group was originally formed purely as a device to speed up exec meetingsWhat makes it so successful is a different story.

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Paul Walter

Gallipoli – bloody, pivotal point in history

By Paul Walter | Sat 7th November 2015 - 10:50 am

The photo montage above, from Getty Images, shows Suvla Bay during the campaigning in the First World War, alongside the present-day scene there

As we approach Remembrance Sunday, my thoughts this year are particularly focussed on the Gallipoli campaign. We’re at the one hundredth anniversary of that invasion attempt, which took place from April 25th 1915 to January 9th 1916.

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Anthony Durham

Latest Tory folly

By Anthony Durham | Fri 6th November 2015 - 8:04 pm

 

As a scientist and computer entrepreneur, I am constantly appalled by the blindness to evidence and logic displayed by right-wing politicians.  So I heartily endorse New Scientist’s editorial lamenting absurdities in the proposed Snooper’s Charter following hard on the heels of the Psychoactive Substances Bill:

This pattern of ill-conceived pledges followed by impractical legislation looks ominously as though it will be repeated in energy and education.  That suggests the government is either scientifically illiterate or can get its way by assuming its citizens are.

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Better the Centre-Right than the Hard-Left

By Michael Cooke | Fri 6th November 2015 - 10:33 am

 

Liberal Democrats, Conservative backbenchers and moderate Labour MPs are honourable Parliamentarians trying to resolve the Syrian situation. They understand that they cannot solve the situation overnight and with easy solutions. Contrast this fair-minded and well-intentioned approach with the black and white binary through which the hard-left narrates all foreign affairs.

American, Britain and Israel are the problem; all other states and non-state actors are either lesser evils or even victims, so their narrative goes. The anti-colonial hard left blame the west for every problem in present day Syria.

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Alistair Carmichael MP

Alistair Carmichael MP writes…Britain should not be rolling out the red carpet to President al-Sisi

By Alistair Carmichael MP | Thu 5th November 2015 - 5:48 pm

Today, in the House of Commons our Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Tom Brake, asked an Urgent Question highlighting the appalling human rights record of the Egyptian Government – led by President al-Sisi, who has arrived in the UK for a state visit. While David Cameron was rolling out the red carpet for a human rights abuser in Downing Street, in parliament it was yet again Liberal Democrats who stood up for his victims.

The Egyptian President heads a government with a poor and deteriorating human rights record. The imprisonment and torture of political prisoners and an increasing use of the death penalty are at the heart of its suppression of dissent. Since January 2014 438 people have been sentenced to death – shooting up a league table on which no civilised government should want to feature. 63% of these sentences were handed down for involvement in political protests.

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Antony Hook

Speaking for England – a reply to Chris White

By Antony Hook | Thu 5th November 2015 - 1:57 pm

Chris White’s article “Speaking for England” rightly invited people to share their views with the Federal Executive’s review of party governance but wrongly made a number of express or implied criticisms of the English Liberal Democrats that are incorrect and unjust.

Chris writes “most members think they… can vote for the committees which look after campaigning”. Indeed, they can. Local parties are chiefly responsible for local campaigning. National party strategy is constitutionally the responsibility of the Federal Executive, of which both Chris and I are members.

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Edis Bevan

Agenda 2020 Essay #20: What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today

By Edis Bevan | Thu 5th November 2015 - 12:37 pm

Wars, family experience and deafness helped me be a Liberal.

For me, to be a Liberal Democrat today means making sure we don’t go back to the world that scarred my parents generation. We do have reasons for hope. We need to gather all our strengths to give life to that hope.

My parents lives gave me a lot to think about. They had to deal with terrible events, as best they could. To make a positive difference however small and futile it may seem.

My mother was Lithuanian. She experienced life under both Stalin and Hitler. Active in the anti-Nazi resistance, then a refugee fleeing the Soviet advance. In the last months of WW2 she was a slave labourer on a German farm. When my dad met her she still had the marks of whippings visible on her back.

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Mathew Hulbert

It’s high time this government acted to save vitally-needed youth services

By Mathew Hulbert | Thu 5th November 2015 - 9:59 am

I was very proud, at our party’s Autumn Conference in Bournemouth, to move a motion calling for revitalised and refunded youth services (things such as youth clubs, outdoor education, youth advice/information and so on) and supported the amendment to the motion which called for the funding of these services to be placed onto a statutory footing.

I was very proud of our party when the motion (as amended) was given unanimous support by Conference.
This helped to reinforce previous party youth policy which, in large part, is thanks to the work of my friend and colleague Linda Jack who has many, many years of experience in the youth and youth work sector.

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Marianne Magnin and Nick Pannell

Agenda 2020 Essay #19: What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today

By Marianne Magnin and Nick Pannell | Wed 4th November 2015 - 3:20 pm

Editor’s Note: The party has been running an essay competition for members of the Liberal Democrats, to submit 1000 words on the theme “What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today.” The deadline for contributions was last Monday. If you would like us to publish your submission, send it to [email protected].

My name is Frieda. Today, Friday 16th September 2016, I took the plunge and joined the Liberal Democrats. I want to explain why.

My name may sound a little unusual. My mother is Danish, that’s why. She met my stepfather while he was working in Aarhus, my mother’s home town, for an energy consulting firm involved in wind turbine projects. It wasn’t long before they moved back together to Fleetwood – on the Lancashire coast – with me in tow! That’s where I spent my teenage years. Dad kept visiting Denmark for some time, until his firm finally went out of business last year (more of that later). I went up to Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Arts just last year.

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Ryan Lailvaux

Agenda 2020 Essay #18: What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today

By Ryan Lailvaux | Wed 4th November 2015 - 10:30 am

Editor’s Note: The party has been running an essay competition for members of the Liberal Democrats, to submit 1000 words on the theme “What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today.” The deadline for contributions was last Monday. If you would like us to publish your submission, send it to [email protected].

As one of the post-May 7th new members you keep hearing about, being a Liberal Democrat today may have different connotations to me when compared to others in my adopted family. For me it is to be involved in a movement that is far greater than myself. One that celebrates individuality and stands up for the minority. The tagline of “Opportunity for Everyone” resonates in me as it is how I picture how I would want a Government to serve its people.

When one compares all of the main parties of British politics you are met with extremes of the political spectrum. There are some arrogant parties on one side wanting isolation from the rest of the world while only focusing on how they can increase monetary gain. On the other end you have the socialist parties pushing for an unambitious society that does not reward ambition or innovation.

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The argument isn’t about if we are European; it’s about what it means to be British

By Ian Thomas | Tue 3rd November 2015 - 7:45 pm

European Union flags - Some rights reserved by tristam sparksWithout knowing where the finish line will be, the race to the EU referendum has already begun. Despite the fracturing of the Leave campaign and the lack-lustre beginning from the Stay In groups, the pop-up Facebook pages have begun to appear and Twitter users are attempting to condense a range of complex social, political and economic arguments into 140 character barrages. Along with the social-media frenzy both sides have produced posters to be included as arguments to back their cause and throw scorn on the other, readily prepared for users to post online and help spread the message. Between the lists of economic data, Schengen Agreement maps, pictures of refugee camps and European Union flags (either proudly displayed or on fire) a common theme crops up again and again: Is being European compatible with being British?

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The Voice

A bumper Lib Dem Job Watch

By The Voice | Tue 3rd November 2015 - 4:03 pm

If you want to work for the Liberal Democrats, there are plenty opportunities at the moment. Let’s start with opportunities outside the party which may interest Liberal Democrats, though. Are you a campaigner with a passion for Europe? Then Britain Stronger in Europe needs you. They have no fewer than 13 jobs going at the moment:

Field Operations Executive

This is a hands-on position with the Field Operations Executive providing support to staff and volunteer teams throughout the UK.

Essential Experience
• Supporting the delivery of plans designed to identify, recruit and activate volunteers in a campaigning environment, especially young people
• Supporting senior staff in the implementation of campaign activities across the UK

Desirable experience
• Experience of a variety of modern on-the-ground campaign techniques
• Experience of integrating online and offline volunteer and voter contact
• Managing relationships with external suppliers or agencies
• Working in a political or campaign environment and exercising political judgement
• Working in a fast-paced environment and to tight deadlines

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John Lubbock

Agenda 2020 Essay #17: What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today

By John Lubbock | Tue 3rd November 2015 - 3:03 pm

Editor’s Note: The party is currently running an essay competition for members of the Liberal Democrats, to submit 1000 words on the theme “What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today.” The deadline for contributions was yesterday. If you would like us to publish your submission, send it to [email protected].

I’m not going to tell you what it means to be a Liberal Democrat. I’m going to tell you what it means to be a Liberal.

Party fortunes come and go, but the Liberal Project is proud list of social achievements which have improved the lives of of millions of people across the world since the time of the Enlightenment. It’s a tradition of thought that aspires to create a world that is always better than the one in which we live, and for that reason it is fundamentally optimistic and looks to empower the best of human nature. Our capacity for compassion and empathy, generosity, rationality, forgiveness and the knowledge that while any person is still oppressed by injustice of any kind, I myself cannot be truly free.

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Joe Otten

Tim Farron speaks on Housing and Planning Bill

By Joe Otten | Tue 3rd November 2015 - 1:16 pm

Tim Farron condemned the Conservative government’s Housing and Planning Bill yesterday for an all-out assault on social and affordable housing, at a time when they are most needed.

Access to housing is fundamental to our liberties, our opportunities, and our hopes for the future; that applies to every person here. We therefore need a positive vision for housing that meets existing needs and gives security to the most vulnerable. We need more homes of all tenures—affordable homes that must live up to their name and be genuinely affordable. We need an ambitious plan that increases home-building to 300,000 properties a year,

…

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Dawud Islam

Agenda 2020 Essay #16: What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today

By Dawud Islam | Tue 3rd November 2015 - 12:03 pm

Editor’s Note: The party is currently running an essay competition for members of the Liberal Democrats, to submit 1000 words on the theme “What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today.” The deadline for contributions was yesterday. If you would like us to publish your submission, send it to [email protected].

We live in exciting times. After years of apparent inertia a new wave of interest in and engagement with politics is sweeping across Europe. Movements like Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain have shown that the people are tired of the old neoliberal consensus and are searching for Progressive alternatives. However the far right movements have also seen some traction and for every positive surge in a good direction there is also a counter surge towards the extremes.

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Agenda 2020 Essay #15: What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today

By Agenda 2020 shortlisted entry | Tue 3rd November 2015 - 8:47 am

Editor’s Note: The party is currently running an essay competition for members of the Liberal Democrats, to submit 1000 words on the theme “What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today.” The deadline for contributions was yesterday. If you would like us to publish your submission, send it to [email protected].

To be a Liberal Democrat is to believe in freedom.

Freedom grounded in real life, starting with people as they are. Not ‘The People’. Not ‘Our People’. Freedom based on the unique worth and potential of every individual person, and the understanding that the person who knows best how to live their life is themselves.

Liberal Democrats feel in our guts that everyone should be free to live their own life, that pushing people about and telling them what to do or who to be is wrong. We feel in our guts that everyone should have a fair chance, that prejudice and lack of opportunity are wrong. We feel in our guts the need for a better future, that piling up today’s problems for our kids to deal with tomorrow is wrong. But politics isn’t just about gut feelings and protesting when things aren’t right. We must look at how things really are to work out how to change them, and change our own methods if experience shows us better ways to achieve our ideals. So Liberal Democrats are principle-led, but evidence-based.

Liberal Democrats believe freedom needs both positive help to make it real for everyone, and action to break down barriers to freedom such as poverty, ignorance and conformity. Education is the single most crucial way to combine both. A great education ensures everyone has the opportunity to realise their potential, whatever their background, whatever their choices. Every child getting the best education is central to them growing up with the freedom to live their own lives. If you’re for every person, and you want every person to have the ability to ask the important questions and make their own informed decisions in realising their own dreams, education is where it starts. If you want an economy growing and succeeding with innovation and creativity and where the most talented get ahead instead of just the most wealthy, education, training and apprenticeships are where it starts.

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Agenda 2020 Essay #14: What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today

By Agenda 2020 shortlisted entry | Mon 2nd November 2015 - 7:09 pm

Editor’s Note: The party is currently running an essay competition for members of the Liberal Democrats, to submit 1000 words on the theme “What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today.” The deadline for contributions is TODAY. If you would like us to publish your submission, send it to [email protected].

Or tomorrow, for this must be about lasting values.

Above all, to be a Liberal Democrat is to serve liberty. Some are satisfied liberty is won if the state does not interfere in their lives, no matter how much overmighty corporations or bullying conformity may direct them. For some liberty is an absence of rules, so everyone is free to sail around the world, though many are sunk in poverty and illness. For some liberty is enjoyed by nations or corporate bodies collectively. For us a nation may be independent, but if its people are individually unfree, there is no freedom.

To us freedom is individual freedom. It does not matter who or what prevents you realising your potential: whatever it is, it makes you unfree. Ultimately, it’s pointless to categorise freedoms – economic freedom, social freedom, intellectual freedom. It all comes down to what you can do and what you’re prevented from doing for any reason. The measure is personal liberation.

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Ed Fordham

Proud of Pride in Belgrade

By Ed Fordham | Mon 2nd November 2015 - 2:11 pm

Belgrade-Pride-1

International Office_with textI have been working with the LDP (Liberal Democrat Party of Serbia) for a few years now through the International Office and we have been concentrating on human rights and LGBT issues for the last 18 months. The first stage of the work the International Office and I have been doing, focusing on building LGBT competency within the wider LDP and supporting them to create their own LGBT specific committee in the Human Rights Council, culminated last month when I joined the Human Rights Council and LDP leadership at Belgrade Pride.

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Tobie Abel

Agenda 2020 Essay #13: What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today

By Tobie Abel | Mon 2nd November 2015 - 12:53 pm

Editor’s Note: The party is currently running an essay competition for members of the Liberal Democrats, to submit 1000 words on the theme “What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today.” The deadline for contributions is TODAY. If you would like us to publish your submission, send it to [email protected].

To be a Liberal Democrat today is to feel a little lonely!

But whilst the British people may have temporarily forgotten it, our values are still the basis of the British way of life.  Tolerance, meaning live and let live, because without tolerance I am not free to live how I want to live.  Liberty, meaning personal freedom, because being free to strive for a better life is the best guarantee of progress.  Democracy, because it remains the best guarantee of liberty.

Add to this the lessons of Liberal Democracy as lived in Britain since the end of empire.  Live within your means, as anything else destroys your future.   Place pragmatism before ideology, because the British are a wonderfully pragmatic people who care not about left or right, only about the most successful way of getting things done.  Equality before the law is your birth right, but never try to engineer equality in society,  you’ll fail because people are infinitely more complex than the lives you see them live.  Instead devolve power and decisions as low as you can afford, tempered only by the security and liberty of your neighbours.

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Points and crossings

By George Stephenson Junior | Mon 2nd November 2015 - 11:14 am

 

Pretty much everyone seems to have an opinion about the railways, even those who don’t travel by train.  I’ve worked in the railway for quite a long time now, spanning the nationalised British Rail and the current privatised structure.  The current structure often frustrates me, but there have been some good things in recent years as well.  The growth in passenger numbers over the last 15 years couldn’t have been dreamed of when I started work, for example.

However, what frustrates me most is that no-one, as far as I know, has ever evaluated whether the benefits of the current structure are outweighed by the disadvantages (I realise that this is a more general fault in public policy making).

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Andrew Brown

Agenda 2020 Essay #12: What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today

By Andrew Brown | Mon 2nd November 2015 - 8:50 am

Editor’s Note: The party is currently running an essay competition for members of the Liberal Democrats, to submit 1000 words on the theme “What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today.” The deadline for contributions is TODAY. If you would like us to publish your submission, send it to [email protected].

For me, it means what it meant in 1986/87 when, in the early years of Secondary School, I was taught about different electoral systems. The Modern Studies teacher explained the ins and outs of First Past the Post and alternative forms of Proportional Representation.

I pointed at PR: “I support that, and the people who support that.” I said.

It means what it meant in 1992 when I cast my first General Election vote. Still  politically naive (despite many hours of listening to Radio 4 over the years prior: the demise of Thatcher, the election of Major, through the first Gulf War and the scrapping of the poll tax…) but knowing that I wasn’t Tory (I had seen how Tory policies has decimated large parts of Fife, with pit-town upon pit-town in ruins) but also that I wasn’t Labour – even though, in those days, Labour votes in Dunfermline West were weighed not counted.

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Caron Lindsay

An idea that is worth shamelessly copying from the Tories

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 1st November 2015 - 11:44 am

Well, not the actual Tories, but their representatives in the blogosphere. Conservative Home runs a regular feature where they highlight public appointments being made and invites their appropriately qualified readers to apply.

ConHome uses the Cabinet Office’s Public Appointments page as a reference point. It’s currently advertising 48 vacancies from members of independent monitoring boards in prisons, to Cotswolds and Chilterns members of the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty conservation boards, members of the Commission on Human Medicine (with backgrounds in geriatric medicine, toxicology and nursing), gambling commissioners and a non executive director of the Health and Safety …

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Peter Wrigley

Agenda 2020 Essay #11: What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today

By Peter Wrigley | Sun 1st November 2015 - 10:25 am

Editor’s Note: The party is currently running an essay competition for members of the Liberal Democrats, to submit 1000 words on the theme “What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today.” The deadline for contributions is 2nd November. If you would like us to publish your submission, send it to [email protected].

For me, being a Liberal Democrat today implies sympathy with and a willingness to work for the following beliefs.

LIBERTY comes at the top of the list, with the John Stuart Mill constraint that we are free only to do what doesn’t harm others. This means that we value variety, welcome people with different cultures and religions and believe that diversity enriches society.  We resist unjustified and indiscriminate state surveillance into our private lives.  Where the preservation of liberty clashes with our other beliefs, such as equality, then we try to put liberty first.

In the fields of EQUALITY AND WELFARE, we believe that all individuals should be equally valued as human beings.   Hence we believe that the state has the dual function of both preventing some people becoming too rich (by progressive taxation) and providing a generous safety-net for the poor, so that all have the ability to reach their potential and participate fully in the norms of  the one society.    We believe access to a social security safety-net sufficient to secure a decent standard of living is a right.  In the past we have favoured a citizen’s income and may well do so again.

Faith in DEMOCRACY is at the root of our values. Liberals Democrats believe that people can be trusted. (Both Conservatives and Socialists alike believe at heart that we need to be coerced).  We want to see parliamentary reform, so that the people’s representatives have genuine control over the executive; reform of the electoral system by the introduction of proportional representation by single transferable vote in multi-member constituencies; an elected second chamber representative of the nations and regions, to which power will have been devolved; and vital local government.  All political power should be exercised at the lowest possible level.  We are devolvers, not centralisers.

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The Voice

Farron: Lib Dems will resist Snoopers’ Charter

By The Voice | Sat 31st October 2015 - 10:27 am

GCHQ Bude by Paul WalterIt looks like the Tories’ Snoopers’ Charter to be unveiled this week will be the blinged-up version, with even more sweeping powers than they tried to introduce before. Tim Farron told the Independent that the Liberal Democrats would oppose it just like we did in Government:

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, signalled that he would be prepared to muster his 112-strong bloc of peers to oppose measures which undermined individual liberty. “We would use all parliamentary tools available to us to ensure any proposed legislation is properly scrutinised,” he told The Independent.

“Liberal Democrats will always support proportionate measures to increase our security, but we must not allow cornerstone civil liberties to be swept away. We will wait with interest to see the detail of the draft Bill, as the Tories have long argued for powers that are not targeted and not proportionate. We blocked the ‘snooper’s charter’ in government and would strongly resist any attempt to bring it back.

“It would be a dramatic shift in the relationship between the state and the individual and fundamentally strikes the wrong balance between liberty and security.”

Back in 2012, Nick Clegg almost agreed to this but after interventions, one by angry bloggers who understood the technicalities in a Conference call with a special adviser, he pulled back. Instead, a draft bill was tabled and subjected to scrutiny by a committee made-up of representatives from both Houses of Parliament, including our Julian Huppert. They rejected the plan and you can read their report here. They determined:

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Stephen Ruffian

How does Tim’s poll rating compare with previous leaders?

By Stephen Ruffian | Fri 30th October 2015 - 2:30 pm

With Tim’s Liberal Democrats being such a reduced force since the election, one might have expected such reductions – and proportional reductions in media coverage – to have affected his ability to make himself known in the one steady, solid indicator of such measures – the monthly Ipsos MORI leadership poll.

Ipsos MORI’s coverage of the question “Is X doing a good job of leader of Y” stretches right back to the second year of David Steel and thus covers the first months of Tim’s immediate predecessors – Paddy, Charles, Ming and Nick.

In his first month, with 22% of the public seeing Tim as doing a ‘good job’ he will be pleased to note that this placed him level pegging with Ming’s first month – and slightly higher than that of Charles, and a whole 7% ahead of either Paddy or Nick. The downside for Tim is that he has a much higher ‘disapproval rate’ (29%) than any of his predecessors, with Paddy being the closest at 19%. The overall score for Tim’s first month was a -7%, which was slightly lower than Paddy’s -4% and Nick’s -3%, but far lower than Ming’s +5% and Charles’ +11%.

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Agenda 2020 Essay #8 What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today

By Agenda 2020 shortlisted entry | Fri 30th October 2015 - 1:22 pm

Editor’s Note: The party is currently running an essay competition for members of the Liberal Democrats, to submit 1000 words on the theme “What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today.” The deadline for contributions is 2nd November. If you would like us to publish your submission, send it to [email protected].

It starts with you.

It starts with you and your family.

It starts with you and your family and your friends.

It starts with you and your family and your friends and your community.

It starts with you and your family and your friends and your community and your society.

It starts with you and your family and your friends and your community and your society and your world.

It starts with you and your family and your friends and your community and your society and your world and your future.

It starts with you.

It’s not about doing it for you. It’s certainly not about doing it to you. It’s about giving you the power to do what you want for yourself.

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  • sean
    @Peter Davies Agreed, and that's arguably the strongest argument for the UK acting through coalitions (G7, EU adequacy frameworks, UN processes) rather than wai...
  • sean worrell
    @paul barker The grid strain is real and measurable, and it's a fair reason to demand efficiency standards and clean-power conditions on new data centre approva...
  • Matt Wardman
    @Nonconformistradical . i do not think that would work. Consider how many times Doctors, when asked to consider reporting eyesight defects wrt driving lic...
  • Matt Wardman
    This is a good call for consideration, rather than kneejerk reactions, from Karen. But I think it is massively too narrow trying to focus the question on one va...
  • Tristan Ward
    I certainly support a hard Lib Dem campaign I Holborn & St Pancras arguing for closer relationships with European states and the EU, strong defence and urg...