Category Archives: Op-eds

Anuja Prashar

Opinion: Why I choose to stand in a seat I cannot win, this time

By Anuja Prashar | Mon 19th January 2015 - 3:34 pm

Beckenham_Junction_stn_main_entrance

There are two key reasons I have chosen to stand for a seat in my home constituency of Beckenham.  One reason focuses on achievements of Lib Dems in government and the second focuses on meeting the challenge of extreme voices in UK society today.

As a liberal and democratic thinker I believe that people should always be given a choice. It is ‘choice’ that symbolises freedom, which is at the heart of all free societies and civilizations. During this General Election it is vital for a Lib Dem voice that is unafraid to shout about what we have achieved within the coalition, because there are so many voices raised to suggest that Lib Dems have failed to be effective in government. The Lib Dem policies, listed by Mark Pack in a very clear infographic, would never have seen the light of day in a Tory majority government.

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Simon Oliver

Opinion: Britain’s Greenest Party, the Green Party and Environmentalism

By Simon Oliver | Mon 19th January 2015 - 12:58 pm

Green Lib DemsThe Green Party, which I was a member of briefly in the late 80s, has hard left socialist roots and is widely considered both anti-capitalist and paradoxically authoritarian and localist. It has a wide range of policies, all of which take note of environmental concerns (which do not begin and end with climate change, any more than ours do) but only reference those concerns where necessary. Lately it has been adopting a less hard line approach and on many matters, such as human rights, is decidedly liberal.

However in many cases their authoritarian command economy habit overrides any nascent liberal instinct, and their antipathy to technological and/or market solutions means that they throw away over half the toolbox before they even start. Dogma comes before evidence, and articles of faith remain unchallenged and therefore unproven.

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Caron Lindsay

Willie Rennie makes fair student finance a Scottish budget priority

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 18th January 2015 - 4:56 pm

There is no doubt that Willie Rennie is being brave in his choice of priorities for this year’s Scottish budget. In truth, the SNP have an overall majority at Holyrood so they don’t need to give any sort of ground.They have done the last few years, though. Last year, they gave extra money for childcare and free school meals in response to Willie Rennie’s persistent pestering. The year before it was college places.

This year, he’s taking a bigger risk. There’s an issue which in the context of the Holyrood parliament represents one of our finest hours and in the context of Westminster our worst. It’s tuition fees. Way back in 1999, Liberal Democrats fought an election saying tuition fees would be dead if they were in government and they kept that promise. We know what happened in 2010. We shouldn’t have done what we did, but, as I wrote at the time, Vince had actually managed to create a system that was fairer than the one it replaced:

However, if there were a way to get it wrong well, he’s probably done that.

Imagine for a moment if the Tories had been in power alone. I very much doubt that their Business Secretary would have tracked down Lord Browne and bent his ear about the importance of the recommendations being fair and progressive. And they are to a point. To play Devil’s Advocate a bit here, if we can’t have no tuition fees (and I’m not conceding that we can’t), then isn’t this a better option than anything else? Nobody has to pay out anything to actually go to university so access isn’t denied to those from less affluent backgrounds in the way it would be today.

And Labour? Would they, still in Government, be talking about a Graduate Tax? Of course they wouldn’t. They’d bung on the fees – although I’m not so convinced that they would have necessarily covered all the angles.  I mean, it’s coming to something when it takes a Tory to bring up the issue I blogged about earlier about interest accruing if someone takes time out to look after children. He confirmed in the House today that interest would not accrue under these circumstances.

Annoyed though I might be with him, I have to at least give some credit to Vince for taking an hour’s worth of utter tripe from the Labour benches with patience and humour. I’d rate him above just about any Labour minister you might care to mention and definitely any Tory. I loved his line about the road to Westminster having the skid marks of unenacted pledges all over it.

Y

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Kirsten Johnson

Opinion: We need to enshrine children’s rights in law

By Kirsten Johnson | Sun 18th January 2015 - 9:32 am

Our pre-manifesto calls for lowering the voting age to 16, increasing provision for children’s mental health, ring-fencing education budgets from pre-school through to college and committing to end child poverty.  What I’d also like to see is a vision to incorporate the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child into U.K. law.

Why?  We need to empower and enable children.  We need to enshrine their rights in our law.   The Human Rights Act does not mention child-specific rights as set out in the UNCRC: the right to education, the right to protection from violence and abuse, the right to play (wouldn’t it be nice if we all had the right to play?).

I remember being a 9-year old, expressing my point of view and not being taken seriously.  I was furious.  I felt I had a better answer than the adult engaging with me, but I was not listened to because I was a child.

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Caron Lindsay

What do you listen to while leafletting?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 17th January 2015 - 4:03 pm

Today Liberal Democrat campaigners will have been out doing what they do most weeks – getting out and about on the doorsteps or with the leaflets. By now, I expect they’ll be thawing out with a nice cup of tea.

Make sure, by the way, that you send us your pictures from the campaign trail as many of you trudge out in snowy conditions. Tweet them to @libdemvoice or email to [email protected].

Smartphone or iPod and headphones are as common a part of  leafletters’ attire these days as the cloth bag with the bird on it and the spatula to help negotiate stubborn letterboxes with dogs on the other side of them.

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Caron Lindsay

Asylum system continues to fail LGBT people

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 17th January 2015 - 11:26 am
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Caron Lindsay

The Greens: the Lib Dem fightback begins

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 16th January 2015 - 7:35 pm

Yesterday’s news that the Greens had overtaken the Liberal Democrats in terms of membership – their 44713, compared to our 44680 – has, from what I’ve seen on my social media, galvanised our activists rather than demoralised them. And so we should be proud of ourselves. For a party in government in the most trying economic circumstances since the 30s to have grown for 6 quarters in a row is nothing short of miraculous. The Labour party couldn’t manage that and they had the most benign economic circumstances in years.

The Green’s figures include Northern Ireland which ours don’t so like for like it’s more neck and neck.  (Update: Adam Ramsay on Twitter assures me that the Greens figures do not include Northern Ireland).  I’ve also seen some people say that it’s not fair because the Scottish Greens and the Green Party of England and Wales are two separate organisations. There’s no point in splitting hairs, though.

The Party has been making a bit of a concerted effort to make sure that the Greens don’t have the stage for themselves. Tim Farron has written an article of the New Statesman in which he emphasises what the Liberal Democrats have done in government to protect the environment:

The Conservatives’ approach to the environment in Europe shows what sort of approach they would take if they are allowed to govern alone. In coalition, Liberal Democrats have fought to make sure that the environment has stayed at the top of the agenda. We’ve doubled the amount of energy generated from offshore wind and stopped the Tories from slashing support for renewable energy. And while senior Conservative politicians voice their doubts about man-made climate change, Energy Secretary Ed Davey has been busy paving the way for a global deal to cut carbon emissions. Without the Lib Dems, there would be nothing to stop the Tories from lurching to the right on the environment. The truth is, the only way to make blue go green is by adding yellow.

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Jim Hume MSP

Jim Hume MSP writes…No room for complacency on mental health

By Jim Hume MSP | Fri 16th January 2015 - 11:45 am

With 2015 seeing the end of the current Mental Health Strategy we have a real opportunity to look at the successes and failure of the approach we take to tackling mental ill health in Scotland.

Our health professionals do fantastic work to help people suffering from mental ill health. But a lack of resources means that we are often asking medical staff to work with one hand tied behind their back.

Liberal Democrats in government have helped ensure that the NHS in other parts of the UK prioritise mental and physical ill health equally. But this is not yet the case in Scotland.

The Royal College of Nursing and other groups have been clear that mental health is often the poor relation to physical health when it comes to funding within the Scottish NHS. The impact of underinvestment in these crucial services is damaging for patients and medical professionals alike.

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Caron Lindsay

Friday fun: what’s your pet hate?

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 16th January 2015 - 10:18 am

I woke up this morning to see two grown men griping and groaning about, wait for it, Comic Sans, on social media. Really, font geekery before breakfast is going too far. If that makes me not a proper Lib Dem for saying that, then so be it. I will not be enslaved by this conformity.

I have to say I don’t really get the problem with Comic Sans, particularly as it’s supposed to be good for people with Dyslexia to read. Clearly I am not the cool kid on the block as my Teenager also has severe issues with that font.

Getting wound up about fonts when there are misplaced apostrophes and your/you’re and its/it’s mix-ups in the world is just silly.

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The Voice

Should the SNP and Greens be included in leaders’ debates?

By The Voice | Thu 15th January 2015 - 1:15 pm

Welcome to another of our occasional series of posts where two writers offer an alternative view to one of the issues of the day. Today, it’s whether the SNP, Plaid and Greens should be invited to take part in leaders’  debates. 

Jonathan Waddell says there is a case for the Greens to be included on a UK basis but not the SNP and Plaid:

Earlier this week, Wings Over Scotland claimed that to exclude the SNP from UK-wide election debates would be to subjugate Scots to second-class citizens. Website owner and frequent contributor, Stuart Campbell, argued:

the only reason to bar them is that they’re Scottish. In other words, Scotland’s MPs are worth less than MPs from other parts of the UK, and therefore by extension Scottish votes are worth less than other people’s votes.

Speaking as a Scot who believes in giving a platform to a plurality of parties at any given election to encourage a representative debate of the issues and views affecting the country, surely the more obvious reason is that over 90% of the electorate can’t vote for them; or at least a question of electoral logistics rather than anti-Scottish sentiment?

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Iain Roberts

Opinion: The case for a mayor for Greater Manchester  

By Iain Roberts | Thu 15th January 2015 - 11:42 am

In this article I’m going to make the case for a Mayor for Greater Manchester. I realise this isn’t going to be a popular position, particularly in Lib Dem circles. Our mayors – Dorothy in Watford and Dave in Bedford – are great of course. But what about Boris in London or that monkey in Hartlepool (twice re-elected) and don’t even get me started on Tower Hamlets. In the conversations I’ve had with Lib Dems, the word “mayor” is generally met with a look of horror.

But here’s the thing. About all those mayors have in common with what’s proposed for Greater Manchester is the name “mayor”. London, along with those councils who have opted for mayors, have “strong mayor” models. In these, the mayor is able to act alone. Typically they appoint their own cabinets with councillors or assembly members having little power to stop the mayor doing what he or she wants.

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Caron Lindsay

Playground, panto and poultry – a day in the life of a debate about a debate

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 14th January 2015 - 9:34 pm

I have to say I’m completely over this debate talk. I’m starting to think that we should just lock every party leader in the country in the Big Brother house after the current occupants have departed and leave them there till they start behaving like adults rather than 9 year olds in the playground.

We have Dave who doesn’t want to take on Nige who’s wooing his more prejudiced voters. And wasn’t he talking about “green crap” not so long ago. More opportunistic posturing than repenting sinner, though.

We have Nige who thinks he can come across as the man of the people and wipe the floor with everyone, except his stats are dodgy and his views based on misinformation and prejudice.

We have Ed who must know he’s more cut out for writing worthy books in a dusty attic than slugging it out in a tv studio where he’s going to look as uncomfortable as hell. He has something to fear from everyone. Nige and Nicola are after his vote, Dave can give him a pasting on the economy, Nick has done more for disadvantaged kids in 5 years than his party did in 13 and he knows his vote is vulnerable to the Greens on the left. He must be very grateful to Dave for giving him a get out of jail free card. All he needs to do is utter the magic words “let the Greens in” and Dave will have no choice but to find another excuse to avoid debating.

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Nick Perry

Opinion: A south coast main line railway

By Nick Perry | Wed 14th January 2015 - 1:35 pm

The deadline for policy motions to the party’s Spring Conference in Liverpool has now passed.

As always, it will be up to the Federal Conference Committee (newly elected at the end of last year), to select the motions to be debated on the Conference floor, and no doubt the imperative of the General Election will focus minds as to which motions to pick; and there may even be a little direction from HQ as to which motions best suit the messaging!

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Matthew Campbell

Opinion: Election debates must be based on clear criteria

By Matthew Campbell | Wed 14th January 2015 - 10:52 am

In among much more important events this past week, David Cameron’s statement that the Conservative Party will not participate in UK-wide election TV debates without a Green presence is … interesting. Also stirring the pot are Ofcom, who have announced they do not consider the Greens a ‘major’ party in UK terms.

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Caron Lindsay

Some personal perspectives on non binary gender identity

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 13th January 2015 - 7:00 pm

I’ve read a couple of really interesting and illuminating articles recently in which people who don’t identify as either male or female talk about what that means for them. In yesterday’s Daily Record, there was an interview with NUS Scotland’s transgender representative Drew O’Donnell.

And while Drew says they know many people may find their ever-changing gender difficult to understand, they say people need to learn to be more understanding.

Drew, 23, of Paisley, said: “I’ve been told there are 37 different types of gender – a lot more than simply male and female.

“Even I can’t remember them all but when people ask me about it, I try to explain to them that sex and gender are two different things.

“The singer Cher has a transgender son who said, ‘Gender is between your ears, not between your legs’ and for me that describes it well. Gender is what you feel – and sometimes I might feel two thirds male and only one third female while the next day, I might feel two thirds female and only one third male.

“Some days I feel absolutely gender neutral – neither more male nor more female and that is totally fine too. I have three genders – the more feminine me, the more masculine me and the gender neutral me – but I am still the same one person.

“When I am feeling more feminine I will wear more feminine clothes – not skirts or dresses but clothes that have a more feminine than masculine look to them.

“I will wear make-up – I like eye shadow, eye liner and nail polish. And I have even coached my voice to sound more feminine.

“On days where I feel more masculine, my clothes are much more boyish and I won’t wear make-up. On gender neutral days, I’m somewhere in the middle.”

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Caron Lindsay

Simon Hughes and Nick Clegg oppose Cameron’s Snoopers’ Charter plans – or do they?

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 13th January 2015 - 12:08 pm

Last night, Liberal Democrat Justice Minister Simon Hughes expressed his opposition to David Cameron’s plans to legislate to give security services the right to intercept the internet communications of suspected terrorists.

He said:

It is vital that the police and intelligence agencies are able to investigate and prosecute terrorists, including surveillance of communications. The Liberal Democrats have moved quickly in Government to plug the gaps in existing legislation to bolster these abilities.

Future security measures must be proportionate, justified and necessary – and not trample on our civil liberties. The so-called Snoopers’ Charter, which would see the internet browsing of every single citizen stored for a year, fails these very reasonable precautions.

The idea that you protect free speech by spying on every law-abiding person in this country is a contradiction in terms. You can’t have an open society if you are constantly worried that the state is prying into your daily life.

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Stephen Phillips

Opinion: could we have a better leader?

By Stephen Phillips | Tue 13th January 2015 - 10:25 am

Some people will take this question to mean that we really should find a better leader, others that we have a good one already.

Perhaps unlike some of those who contribute to this website, I do not know Nick Clegg personally and can therefore only judge him from his television appearances, writings and what is written about him in the press.

He appears to come in for considerable criticism largely, as far as I can see, for being in coalition with the Conservatives, although some threads on this website also seem to have other reservations about his leadership.

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Fadel Galal

Opinion: A personal view of the Paris tragedy

By Fadel Galal | Tue 13th January 2015 - 8:55 am

With the recent tragic developments in France I urge the government and political leaders to re-think our approach in facing fundamentalism and terrorism. The concept of security and defence alone is the traditional tested & failed approach. So is our approach in seeking alliance with suppressive regimes in the Middle East that prevent decent or religious movements that would allow their ideology to evolve in a non-violent manner. The end result is Middle East instability spilled onto our streets and politicians starting to take sides. This is the wrong approach and does nothing to help keep such conflicts away from our shores. We need to urgently and seriously consider the following key policy changes;

We need to help develop a more tolerant version of Islam within Europe which respects our values and principles. We should do this with the help of moderate religious leaders and scholars. We should help drive this approach throughout Europe.

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Iain Roberts

Opinion: Make your City a Global success in six easy steps – part 2

By Iain Roberts | Mon 12th January 2015 - 4:00 pm

The UK has a problem: outside London our cities underperform. They fail to generate as much wealth as they should and many are net drains on the public purse. That’s not the case in every country – the UK is unusual in its concentration of wealth and power in one big city.

In part 1 of my article I set out the first three of the six steps cities need to take to turn that situation around. In this concluding part I identify the final three steps.

Step four: create more employment

The study “Investing in City regions” (2014) by Volterra Partners identifies a correlation between employment density and earnings. Where employees are packed in more closely together, they tend to earn more and work in more knowledge-intensive industries. Employment areas are ten times denser in parts of London than in Manchester. Of course, denser employment makes transportation even more important and reduces the role of the car.

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Rob Blackie

Opinion: How to interrogate a terrorist using diabetic biscuits

By Rob Blackie | Mon 12th January 2015 - 12:32 pm

Is it more effective to force people to do things, or to charm them?

The surprising answer that’s tucked into the US Senate’s recent investigation into terrorist interrogation, is that, even with hardened Al-Qaeda terrorists, charm is usually more effective.

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David Warren

Opinion: The Trade Union and Workplace Reforms Debate

By David Warren | Mon 12th January 2015 - 10:56 am

The issue of the unions and strikes is back in the political arena.

I have lost count of the number of times in recent years that the Tories have called for participation thresholds in industrial action ballots before they can be considered legal. Indeed I commented on similar Tory proposals for Lib Dem Voice back in 2011. This time the figure they are proposing is 40%.

Once again they are focusing on the public sector; this is clearly an attempt to throw some red meat to their supporters.

It is too early to say if this going to be a big issue in the coming General Election. The winter of discontent is a distant memory, and union membership has fallen dramatically since its height in the late 1970s. However all democrats should be opposed to measures that restrict the rights of working people to withdraw their labour.

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Caron Lindsay

Caron’s Sunday Selection: Must-read articles from the Sunday papers

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 11th January 2015 - 7:35 pm

sundaypapsA bit later today, but here’s my pick of the best of the Sunday papers.

First up, in the Sunday Times (£), we have a story on Osborne’s plan to cut taxes for rich dead people (shelved from 2010 when Nick Clegg ensured that taxes were cut for low and middle income earners instead) while also cutting public spending for those people who rely on public services.  Their priorities are clear, I guess.

In the same paper, an article looks at the likelihood of terrorist attacks in this country and moves afoot to prevent them. It highlights differences of opinion between Nick Clegg, who has put his foot down on increased surveillance powers and Ming Campbell who sits on the Intelligence and Security Committee.

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Paul Walter

Je suis encore Charlie

By Paul Walter | Sun 11th January 2015 - 12:54 pm

It was a “you’ll remember where you were when you heard the news” moment.

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Lee Dargue

Opinion: Why we can all be Charlie

By Lee Dargue | Sun 11th January 2015 - 8:55 am

I’ve often been moved to offer a rebuttal to comments made in the public sphere. Indeed, I’m known for taking a sharp intake of breath and squeezing my eyes shut in an anxious state when Michael Gove went to make a comment on education, before taking my big letter writing pen to an article asking what planet he inhabits.

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The Voice

Êtes-vous Charlie?

By The Voice | Fri 9th January 2015 - 11:31 am

There was a bit of a discussion on Twitter yesterday about the use of the hashtag “Je suis Charlie.” Some people are uncomfortable about being seen to endorse a publication whose views they did not agree with. Here are two opposing views from George Potter and Caron Lindsay:

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Mark Wright

Opinion: Deliberately offending people might be necessary

By Mark Wright | Fri 9th January 2015 - 8:36 am

I’ve been pretty disappointed in the reaction of progressives to the aftermath of the Paris massacre, in particular the debate over satirical imagery of Mohammed. A fair few progressives are saying that it’s wrong to publish such satire, because it’s known that it will offend people, and deliberately offending people is wrong. This initially sounds like a reasonable position, but as a progressive it disappoints me for two reasons.

The first reason is that just a few weeks ago, many of these same people were arguing in exactly the opposite direction:

a) a mother was breastfeeding in public and was given a …

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Vince Cable

Vince Cable writes… Osborne’s deep cuts are damaging and ideological

By Vince Cable | Thu 8th January 2015 - 6:31 pm

It is encouraging to be part of a Lib Dem chorus from across the party denouncing Osborne’s damaging, ideologically inspired, proposals for further deep cuts in spending on public services throughout the next Parliament.

Being in coalition means that we have to go out of our way to differentiate ourselves clearly from the Tories on the central issue of economic policy. The Tories want to create an election narrative of Tory competence versus Labour incompetence (with the LibDems portrayed either as marginal to the story or cheering the Tories on). Next week’s parliamentary debate on a fiscal charter makes the issue of differentiation particularly topical.

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Caron Lindsay

Ming Campbell’s response to the Charlie Hebdo shootings worries me

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 8th January 2015 - 4:40 pm

I was more than a little perturbed when I saw Ming Campbell on the BBC News Channel this morning. He was talking about yesterday’s atrocity at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

He started well enough, saying that this was not just an attack on France but on our values, Then he worried me by asking that we now need to ask ourselves how much we need to curb freedom in order to protect it, adding that the bigger the threat, the greater the precautions you need to take.

He brought it back a little by saying that you can’t protect everyone from everything, but there are things you can do to minimise the risk. Then came the killer punch: he said that we may have to consider things that would be unacceptable at other times in order to deal with the extremists.

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Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron writes… Never has the political market been so crowded in the UK. Never has there been more space for a Liberal Party.

By Tim Farron MP | Thu 8th January 2015 - 12:30 pm

I cannot start this article without expressing my deep shock and concern for the families affected by the attack on Charlie Hebdo. It is stark warning that we can no longer take for granted the liberal order which our predecessors fought for.

It is a great honour to be appointed Foreign Affairs spokesperson and I want to thank Nick for giving me this opportunity. I am very aware that it is rare for foreign affairs to be the defining issue for most voters. But this election, as in so many other ways, is not running the usual course.

UKIP has brought …

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Nick T

TTIP and the NHS: Separating fact from fiction

By Nick T | Thu 8th January 2015 - 11:01 am

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a proposed agreement currently being negotiated between the European Union and United States. If agreed it will make it easier for companies and individuals across all EU member states and America to trade with one another, as well as encouraging greater bilateral investment.

I wrote generally about TTIP on LDV back in July, given that it is party policy to support the agreement. However, even at that point a concerted campaign had begun linking TTIP to the supposed privatisation of the National Health Service, with union leaders, campaigning websites and politicians calling either for TTIP to be abandoned or for special safeguards to be included.

This piece, therefore, addresses that issue in some detail.

Investor State Dispute Settlement

The “investment” part of TTIP seeks to increase the amount of foreign direct investment that flows between EU member states and the US. In other words, the amount of money that is spent establishing or expanding businesses or on other projects on which a monetary return is expected.

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