Category Archives: Op-eds

Opinion: Lib-Lab Pact

By Joe Bourke | Mon 9th June 2014 - 9:35 am

The Lib Dem campaigning message is encapsulated in Stronger Economy, Fairer Society, with Conservative messaging focusing on ‘the long term plan for economic recovery’, and Labour’s focusing on the decline in living standards of the poor and the squeezed middle.

Nick Clegg’s response that, were Labour in the future to ask Libdems to form a coalition with them the first demand would be ‘Don’t break the bank’, seeks to emphasise Lib Dem economic competence.

It should come as no surprise then that the voting public should surmise that coalition economic policy is just what we say it is – a joint Conservative and Liberal Democrat long-term plan for economic recovery with “not a cigarette paper between us”

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Tagged coalition | 50 Comments

What were we talking about…in June 2007?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 7th June 2014 - 10:59 am

I thought it might be interesting to take a wee look at what we were talking about at various points in the history of Liberal Democrat Voice. Today the spotlight shines on the first couple of weeks of June in 2007. Here are half a dozen posts from Tony Blair’s last few weeks in office. It’s interesting to note that in the first 15 days of the month, not one single woman wrote for the site.

First up, Jeremy Hargreaves assesses the Blair years:

A more equal society? Well

…

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Tagged nostalgia | 5 Comments

Assisted dying in the news both north and south of the border – last day for action in Scotland

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 6th June 2014 - 2:50 pm

The issue of assisted dying is in the news on both sides of the border this week. Yesterday, Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill received its first reading in the House of Lords. This is a formality and the date for a full debate on the issue has not yet been set.

To mark the occasion, the Dignity in Dying campaign has released a very powerful video which highlights the choices we are free to make in life, but we can’t choose the manner of our death.

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Tagged assisted dying bill, assisted suicide bill, dignity in dying, lord falconer, margo macdonald, my life my death my choice and patrick harvie | 14 Comments

In praise of 5-year fixed-term parliaments

By Stephen Tall | Thu 5th June 2014 - 4:00 pm

Conventional wisdom is that one area where the Lib Dem influence in Coalition has been weakest is political reform. The party’s “four step” manifesto plan to “hardwire fairness into British society” included the pledge “to clean up politics”. Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister famously promised the “biggest shake-up of our democracy” since 1832. That claim has come to seem hollow since first electoral reform, then later an elected House of Lords and the constituency boundary review, all went down in flames.

Yet one …

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32 Comments

The Independent View: We need to talk about peace building

By Shaughan Dolan | Thu 5th June 2014 - 1:20 pm

Prevention is better than cure has been the guiding principle of modern medicine. This simple mantra has for some become a philosophy of how to live better – we deal with problems before they develop, avoid potential issues through careful management and plan cautiously for an uncertain future.

Government policy has never been a big fan of prevention – there aren’t always votes in solving a problem before it escalates. A bigger problem is how you measure prevention – if the problem happens anyway you will be blamed for wasting money. If you avert the problem entirely you will blamed for wasting money. In the prevention game it can often be a no-win scenario.

Conflict prevention has proven itself to have real value time and time again.

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged conscience and peace building | 8 Comments

Opinion: Queen’s Speech – the success and failures of coalition in a nutshell

By Mark Pack | Thu 5th June 2014 - 11:59 am

One part of the Queen’s Speech – or rather one absence from it – neatly encapsulates the Liberal Democrat experience in coalition government, both good and bad. It is the absence from it of an immigration (dislike thereof) bill.

A solo Tory government would have introduced one and – thanks to Labour’s attitudes towards immigration – even a minority Tory government might well have got an anti-immigration bill through Parliament. It’s the Liberal Democrat presence in government which has stopped it.

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Tagged campaigning, immigration and queen's speech | 23 Comments

Lord Mike Storey writes… It’s time to protect children from emotional abuse

By Mike Storey | Wed 4th June 2014 - 7:59 pm

Earlier today, in a Speech from the Throne, the Queen announced that the Government will take forward measures to tackle child neglect. Quite simply, this is a momentous achievement.

I am proud to have supported Action for Children’s campaign to update the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, alongside other Liberal Democrat colleagues including Mark Williams MP and Annette Brooke MP.

The criminal law should be able to protect children from all forms of abuse. For too long we have viewed non-physical harm of children as …

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Tagged child neglect, featured and queen's speech 2014 | 12 Comments

Baroness Kate Parminter writes….5p charge on “icons of throwaway society is a victory for the environment”

By Kate Parminter | Wed 4th June 2014 - 4:28 pm

It’s great to see the Queens Speech include a commitment to reduce the use of plastic bag carriers to help protect the environment. It’s an issue I’ve campaigned on since I came to the Lords in 2010.

We used 7 billion single use carrier bags in UK supermarkets in 2012. Plastic bags are highly visible litter on our streets and in our countryside; pose a threat to wildlife and their disposal contributes to our green house gas (GHG) emissions, taking 500 to 1,000 years to degrade.

Following the introduction of a …

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Tagged climate change, environment and queen's speech 2014 | 35 Comments

Opinion: It’s time to concentrate on the “Fairer Society”

By David Pollard | Wed 4th June 2014 - 3:30 pm

The main criticism of the party leadership after the terrible European election results has come from those who see themselves on the ‘Fairer Society’ wing of the party. Over the last 4 years the Conservatives in the Coalition have swung more and more to the right on the NHS, welfare and immigration, making the decision to enter the coalition more and more untenable. Liberal Democrats in Government have continued to feel themselves constrained by ‘cabinet collective responsibility’ (CCR) even as the rightward shift has undermined the Liberal Democrat position on a ‘Fairer Society’

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Tagged bedroom tax, fairness and future strategy | 23 Comments

Queen’s Speech 2014: first thoughts

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 4th June 2014 - 1:30 pm

Well, the Imperial State Crown is on its way back to the Tower of London and the Queen is having a well earned rest after her annual trip to Parliament to unveil the Government’s Legislative Programme.

There’s something in me that thinks all the pomp is a bit strange and anachronistic but also weirdly comforting at the same time. I guess it’s like whenever I go to a Church and hear the familiar rites that I knew off by heart as a young child even though religion has no …

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Tagged featured and queen's speech 2014 | 26 Comments

Challenging the narrative: Employment

By Joe Otten | Wed 4th June 2014 - 10:30 am

I was engaged in a twitter argument yesterday with someone who was disputing the progress we have seen in employment, putting the improved figures down to a million people enslaved on zero hours contracts.

The Office for National Statistics have provisionally estimated the number of zero hours contracts to be between 583,000 and 1.4 million. There isn’t an established data series for this that would enable historical comparisons, but there are such statistics for full time and part time workers. According to these the number of part time workers is up 356,000 since May 2010, and the number of full time workers is up 1,114,000.

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Tagged featured and unemployment | 27 Comments

Opinion: Long term gains from short term arguments

By Gordon Lishman | Wed 4th June 2014 - 8:57 am

Most participants in the post-election debate have concentrated on specific changes they want now: the Leader, his advisers, the communications team, the detail of policy issues etc. I firmly believe that the underlying issues are systemic rather than one-off and that we should use the opportunity to establish structures for the future which minimise the likelihood of problems arising and improve our capacity as a democratic Party for dealing with them.

Some key targets:

Agreement by the Party in advance on the elements which underpin construction

…

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Tagged future strategy and liberal democrats | 28 Comments

Opinion: Lib Dems and the EU. Should we assert our Radical Localist side?

By Colin Green | Tue 3rd June 2014 - 3:45 pm

At the beginning of the year, the European elections were looking touch and go for the Lib Dems. Our poll ratings were on the borderline of losing our MEPs, so we took a risk. We gambled on a strategy that, if it paid off, would win us the few percent of extra votes needed to hold most of our MEPs. The tactic was to highlight that we are the only truly pro-Europe party, which would attract swing voters from more lukewarm parties. So we went all in with ‘The Party of In’. It was a gamble we lost.

Public opinion of the EU is mixed. People acknowledge the benefits of membership but many think the costs are too high. Polls suggest similar numbers of people want to leave the EU as want to stay in. But if the terms of membership are renegotiated, the majority of people support staying in.

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Tagged europe and localism | 25 Comments

Brian Paddick writes…We must challenge UKIP on the facts

By Brian Paddick | Tue 3rd June 2014 - 2:13 pm

So where are we? The UK and the rest of Europe have lurched to the right. People and countries are becoming more insular and less internationalist, less tolerant of difference and are looking for “others” to blame. Almost inevitably during times of austerity, people do not like those inflicting the pain, however necessary. Of course, some will argue that the cuts in public spending are not necessary, are not fair, are not reasonable, do not need to be so severe or all of the above. The fact is, for years the UK has been spending more than it earns in taxation

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Tagged immigration and ukip | 57 Comments

Norman Lamb writes … Dementia: the biggest challenge of our time

By Norman Lamb MP | Tue 3rd June 2014 - 12:24 pm

There are currently 800,000 people living with dementia in the UK. By 2021, that figure is expected to rise to over a million. The disease costs the economy £23 billion a year, and that figure is expected to treble by 2040.

But as anyone who has come into contact with dementia will know, no statistics can convey the loneliness, isolation, and acute emotional distress that all too often comes with it – not just for those with the condition, but for their carers and family too.

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Tagged care act and dementia | 6 Comments

Opinion: We won in 2010 with compassion, is it the key to victory in 2015?

By Patrick McAuley | Tue 3rd June 2014 - 11:31 am

According to the media Liberal Democrats are behaving like rats in a sack with each member trying to eat (and in some cases spit out the other). Of course the media are less accommodating when it comes to highlighting the review that Nick commissioned with James Gurling, Cllr Abi Bell, Cllr Ruth Dombey and George Lyon.

While a review is welcome it is not the whole answer. What will help us in 2015 is engaging with some of those traditional Liberal Democrat liabilities, namely our compassion.

Take Lord Oakeshott. While I can’t comment …

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Tagged matthew oakeshott and ukip | 23 Comments

Opinion: The aftermath – from a seaside cottage…

By Matthew Campbell | Tue 3rd June 2014 - 10:37 am

I may have been rash.

The Friday of the Council elections results saw me make a decision. Finally – after wrestling with mixed feelings whilst rejecting the electoral blandishments of other parties – I would join the LibDems. So I did. Then I went on a family holiday (it was half term).

Why did I join the party at what many have proclaimed was its lowest ebb?

For me, it’s about a longterm aim to reshape the governmental structures of our country where power is held nearer to the individual citizen, where political and commercial interests are held to account by the communities they impact upon. I don’t see another party which can bring this about. The Conservatives have never been serious about it; Labour won’t do it without pressure; it’s certainly not central to UKIP’s project; the Greens have limited power to act effectively.

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17 Comments

Opinion: Time to renounce the Tories’ War on the Poor

By Jonathan Hunt | Tue 3rd June 2014 - 8:50 am

Lib Dems don’t need a change of leader. What we need now is a radical change of policies and direction. This starts with a total repudiation of the War on the Poor, waged by Tories through austerity and so-called “welfare reform”. Waged, it must be said, by stealth.

But waged in a manner that should have been more obvious to Lib Dems in Parliament and in government. The cause of this myopia can be debated. What is clear is what occurred while we were looking the other way.

First they came for tenants on benefits living in central London. It destroyed the lives of people who rented homes in boroughs where covetous Conservatives thought they should live

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Tagged poverty | 78 Comments

Opinion: The First Rule of Campaigning

By Bill le Breton | Mon 2nd June 2014 - 3:57 pm

We wake today to news that the Government is planning Dutch-style collective pension schemes which the minister of state for pensions,the Liberal Democrat Steve Webb, says are “some of the best in the world”. The proposed legislation will include the previously announced removal of tax rules that have prevented pensioners taking more than a quarter of their savings in a cash lump sum.

OK, there is no need for switch off. This piece is not going to be about pensions. It is about campaigning and in particular about integrated campaigning. The subject has been chosen purely at random. It is Monday. What has a Liberal Democrat minister announced today? Ah! Pensions.

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Tagged collective pension scheme, pensions and steve webb | 31 Comments

Opinion: The manifesto and our target demographic

By Iain Donaldson | Mon 2nd June 2014 - 2:31 pm

I have just registered for conference, and that got me thinking about our 2015 Manifesto.

When he first became leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg defined our target audience as being ‘alarm clock Britain’, a demographic that was derided at the time as being undefined and totally incomprehensible.

Had he defined our target demographic as being ‘people aspiring to improve their situation who are in work on low to middle incomes’ would he have meant the same target group, and what have the Liberal Democrats in Government achieved that is of benefit to that demographic?

The first thing that the Liberal Democrats in Government have achieved for that target group is the ring-fencing of the education budget, the introduction of the pupil premium, and the extension of pre-school education to 3 year olds.

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Tagged manifesto 2015 | 6 Comments

Dick Newby writes … revisiting the Limehouse Declaration

By Dick Newby | Mon 2nd June 2014 - 12:47 pm

On the wall of our downstairs loo is a framed copy of the Limehouse Declaration, issued at the inception of the SDP on 21 January 1981.

In the light of Matthew Oakeshott’s parting contention that Nick has led us as a party without roots, principles or values, I have re-read it to test his contention.

On international affairs the post-2010 Lib Dems have followed Limehouse to the letter – not just by being rooted and principled over Europe, but by our record on international development – underpinned by giving 0.7% of GDP in aid for the first time ever.

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Tagged featured, limehouse declaration and matthew oakeshott | 17 Comments

Opinion: Back in the front line – both of them

By Energlyn Churchill | Mon 2nd June 2014 - 11:15 am

This week, I applied to re-join the Liberal Democrats after a two and a half year absence.

Back then, I’d felt deep shame at what the party was (and wasn’t) doing in government: austerity, welfare reform, tuition fees, ham fisted attempts at both electoral and Lords reform, to name a few.

I’m still angry, and still ashamed, about much that Coalition has done. I’m a fierce critic of Nick Clegg, and I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the Orange Book. So why, you may ask, have I rejoined now?

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Tagged liberal democrats | 62 Comments

Opinion: We can revolutionise the UK pub industry

By Nick Love | Mon 2nd June 2014 - 9:05 am

If the Lib Dems are sincere about the “fairer society” as part of our slogan or elevator pitch or whatever you want to call it, then there is something tangible we can deliver in this current parliament that would have a direct and profound effect on many people’s lives.

We are in the midst of a major offensive against the insidious practices of the large national pub companies (pubcos), with CAMRA, politicians and other consumer groups petitioning the government for wide reaching legislation that would revolutionise the pub industry in the UK for the first time for decades.

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Tagged pubcos | 14 Comments

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By The Voice | Sun 1st June 2014 - 3:03 pm

Many thanks to the 30,400 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

European Election Results open thread (290 comments) by The Voice

Some quick questions for LibDems4Change (151 comments) by Caron Lindsay

EXCLUSIVE POLL: 54% of party members want Nick Clegg to stay as leader (125 comments) by Stephen Tall

Why I was persuaded to back Lib Dems 4 Change (335 comments) by George Potter

Breaking: Lord Oakeshott resigns from the Liberal Democrats (95 comments) by The Voice

Research on impact …

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Opinion: We need to get better at talking up our achievements and rebutting the lies

By John Grout | Sun 1st June 2014 - 1:17 pm

I joined the party in the autumn of 2012; I did so more out of interest than any burning zeal, on the basis that the Liberal Democrats were the party I disagreed with the least profoundly, on the smallest number of issues. In that time I’ve met wonderful, inspiring people, and come to feel increasingly that joining this party was one of my better ideas.

We are at a time of profound reflection in the Party; with that in mind, in the …

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Tagged campaigning, messaging, rebuttal, strategy and themes | 38 Comments

Opinion: We must ask the right questions

By Chris Bowers | Sun 1st June 2014 - 11:59 am

In an era of increasingly presidential-style politics, it’s very tempting to fire the party leader when things go wrong – but would this actually help us for next year’s general and local elections?

To answer this, I feel we need to ask what made us successful pre-2010, what is actually going to work for us next year, will doing this be enhanced by having a different leader, and is there a better leader than the one we’ve got?

There are two obvious reasons for our pre-2010 rise. One was that we were …

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Tagged future strategy, general election 2014, leadership and nick clegg | 21 Comments

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

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 1st June 2014 - 11:25 am

Much food for thought this week.

There is a great deal about our party, but I want to start with a piece in the Observer by Barbara Frost, Chief Executive of Water Aid, and others, who point out that the two teenage girls in India might be alive today if they had access to a toilet in their own homes. They are far from alone in facing that daily risk.

A report in the Times of India in February this year quoted the police

…

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18 Comments

Opinion: View from the doorsteps of Eastleigh

By Keith House | Sun 1st June 2014 - 10:30 am

It was a warm, sunny spring with just odd showers in May in Eastleigh. We had unbelievably good local election results. Twelve months on from the County elections, that in turn had followed on from the Eastleigh by-election, when UKIP gained 50% of the County seats in the Parliamentary seat, we expected to lose seats. The odds were that at least five and potentially seven seats could go out of the thirteen we were defending. In the end, we won all thirteen.

This …

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Tagged eastleigh, european elections 2014, keith house and local elections 2014 | 50 Comments

Opinion: An anti-Liberal Democrat press isn’t going to go any easier on any Liberal Democrat leader

By Nicholas Pentney | Sat 31st May 2014 - 4:39 pm

Liberal Democrats 4 Change have a point about one thing. They are right to say that the Liberal Democrats do not get a fair hearing. However, they are mistaken to think that a leadership change would alter anything in this regard.

It is instructive to recall the moment Clegg began to get a bad rap from voters. At what point was this? The answer is not as obvious as you may think, It didn’t start with Secret Courts, Bedroom Tax or Tuition …

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Tagged leadership, liberal democrats and media | 103 Comments