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Category Archives: Op-eds

Opinion: Sending more weapons to the Middle East is not the answer

By David Gray | Tue 17th June 2014 - 2:11 pm

It is truly saddening to read of recent events in Iraq. Seeing the horrific images that have been all over the media for the last few days, it is impossible for your heart not to go out to the millions of people in the region who have suffered for many years at the hands of oppressive governments, violent rebels and misguided Western intervention.

It is therefore maddening to see politicians in both the US and the UK suggesting that we should assist them with military aid including both troops on the …

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Tagged featured and iraq | 11 Comments

The Independent View: Smart policy is backing smart energy

By Sacha Deshmukh | Tue 17th June 2014 - 10:32 am

Energy policy continues to be central to the political agenda and on consumers’ minds, with the average energy bill now topping £1300 and more than 2 million homes living in fuel poverty.

Research published this week by the Smart Meter Central Delivery Body shows the extent of current dissatisfaction with the way we buy energy. More than half of the 10,000 respondents to our independent survey said they do not trust any energy supplier, while 41% think they are paying for more energy that they consume.

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged energy and smart meters | 6 Comments

Opinion: What do we get from the EU for £33 million a day?

By Richard Dean | Tue 17th June 2014 - 8:50 am

UKIP claim that we pay £55 million per day to be a member of the EU. My UKIP neighbours ask what we get back for that money. What should I tell them?

First off, it seems we get about £22 million a day back in cash, in the form of grants and subsidies. But even UKIP neighbours can do simple arithmetic. That leaves a net cost of about £33 million per day, or about 50p per day on average for every man, woman, and child in the UK. What do …

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Tagged eu and ukip | 117 Comments

Would you blow £10 million of public money on the basis of a wee chat?

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 16th June 2014 - 6:43 pm

I think sometimes we might make too much of our claims that we’ve been cleaning up Labour’s economic mess for the last four years. It’s true they didn’t fix the roof when the sun shone, but there was this global recession thingy that, frankly, I didn’t mind them spending a fortune to bail us out of.

But they don’t help their reputation for financial incompetence. We know that they left the City of Edinburgh Council brassic with not much in the reserves . Now, it transpires, Rhodri Morgan, when …

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Tagged eluned parrott, rhodri morgan and Wales | 11 Comments

Baroness Lindsay Northover writes…Global recognition of need to tackle sexual violence must lead to action

By Lindsay Northover | Mon 16th June 2014 - 11:59 am

If you had told me twenty or even ten years ago that there would be Global Summit on combatting sexual violence against women, attended by the majority of the world’s countries, as well numerous individuals and organisations, I would not have believed you.

For ever, it has seemed, sexual violence against (mainly) women and girls has been seen as simply inevitable. Especially in time of war. “War, rape and pillage” just went together.

But just as in the 20^th century, when genocide gave …

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Tagged featured, Lindsay Northover, lynne featherstone and sexual violence | 5 Comments

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

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 15th June 2014 - 10:44 am

Here’s today’s picks, guaranteed to inspire, infuriate and amuse you. The first one will make you cry, though.

The first puts all the others into perspective. The Independence Referendum is the only game in Scotland at the moment, with dedicated people working their socks off on both sides. One of the key players in the Better Together campaign, Gordon Aikman, has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. He writes in Scotland on Sunday about how he has coped with this shocking and terminal diagnosis. It’s a real, candid and moving piece.

…

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6 Comments

Opinion: Nick Clegg’s fiscal target – splitting the difference

By Adam Corlett | Sat 14th June 2014 - 10:15 am

Stephen Tall writes that “in terms of policies, there wasn’t much that was new” in Nick Clegg’s Bloomberg speech. Giles Wilkes and others have suggested that, on the contrary, Nick’s fiscal targets are a welcome change from the excessive deficit reduction the Coalition has pencilled in for the next parliament.

These commentators think that Nick’s deficit target (below) is a continuation of Labour and current Coalition policy – to balance the budget excluding capital spending. My understanding, however, is that what Nick said …

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Tagged economy, giles wlkes, infrastructure spending, nick clegg and stephen tall | 17 Comments

Maajid Nawaz writes… We, as Lib Dems, must seek to liberalise

By Maajid Nawaz | Sat 14th June 2014 - 8:30 am

There’s no question that my party – the Liberal Democrats – took a battering in last month’s local and EU elections. Even my own prospective constituency, London’s Hampstead and Kilburn, was left shaken.

The Liberals Democrats are currently fair game across all sectors of society. But it is important for the public, and for party members, to know that it will not always be like this. Liberalism not only can, but must survive this.

It must survive because nobody wants a return to the pendulum years of Thatcher for three terms …

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54 Comments

Opinion: Ontario Liberals show real Grit, win a fourth term and make history with the first elected LGBT Head of Government in the Commonwealth!

By Mathew Hulbert | Fri 13th June 2014 - 2:45 pm

Congratulations to our cousins in the Ontario Liberal Party in Canada who, overnight, have won a remarkable fourth term of provincial government and, at the same time, have made history with leader Kathleen Wynne becoming the first elected LGBT Head of Government in the Commonwealth!

Going into the election, the Liberals had been in a period of minority government and Wynne had taken over-a year ago from the by-then unpopular Premier Dalton McGuinty.

The party has been in Government in Ontario since 2003 and some pundits had predicted that the opposition Progressive Conservatives (I know, what an oxymoron, right?) would return to Government for the first time in over a decade…but Wynne and her team had other ideas!

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged canada, international, kathleen wynne and LGBT | 21 Comments

Opinion: Thoughts about Europe

By Steve Coltman | Fri 13th June 2014 - 11:42 am

All political parties have their blind spots. When policies are not particularly close to their hearts, parties can afford to be critical – examining, debating and ‘stress-testing’ those policies before approving them. But some policies are too close to the heart; they are ‘Articles of Faith’, not to be questioned or examined too closely. Articles of Faith sometimes do not get exposed to critical examination, and when contrary evidence is unearthed, it can be pushed aside. It is not surprising that when ‘Articles of Faith’ are put under the spotlight, …

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Tagged european union | 38 Comments

Nick and The Sun – a missed opportunity

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 12th June 2014 - 11:25 pm

I know I am coming late to this, having been out and about for most of the day. It’s only a few minutes since I logged on to Facebook and saw a picture of the leader of my party holding up The Sun. It was not a good idea for him to do this, especially given the renewed pain that relatives of those who died at Hillsborough are going through with the new inquests taking place at the moment. Nick’s picture can only be seen as a support for their unprecedented marketing initiative in delivering a free copy to every home in England at the start of the World Cup.

Now I don’t think for a moment that Nick Clegg has anything to prove when it comes to standing up to Rupert Murdoch. Let’s be clear about that. He instinctively did the right thing on press regulation. He has pandered to nobody unlike some others I could mention. Nothing can take away from that.

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Tagged england, nick clegg, the sun and world cup | 160 Comments

Opinion: Don’t Spy On Us — a Lib Dem call to action

By Ed Long | Thu 12th June 2014 - 9:45 am

Last weekend the Don’t Spy On Us coalition (a grouping comprising the Open Rights Group, Big Brother Watch, English PEN, Liberty, Article 19 and Privacy International) held a day of action seeking to lay practical groundwork for a stronger international movement to protect digital civil liberties. Jenny Woods, one of our party’s most active campaigners in this area, and I attended the afternoon, which had some important take-away messages for the Lib Dems.

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Tagged civil liberties, digital rights and don't spy on us | 8 Comments

Greg Mulholland MP writes…We made it! From the summit of Cotopaxi

By Greg Mulholland MP | Wed 11th June 2014 - 4:15 pm

There could hardly be a greater contrast than the one I experienced recently- from the hustle and bustle of the local and European election campaigns to scaling volcanoes in Ecuador to raise money for the Royal British Legion’s Battle Back Centre.

Our challenge to climb Cotopaxi, a 19,347ft active volcano, was almost derailed due to bad weather and the mountain being closed the days prior to our climb. However, our successful Cotopaxi summit attempt was carried out despite fresh snow and treacherous conditions; I knew this was the only chance to climb

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Tagged charity, cotopaxi, greg mulholland and royal british legion | 4 Comments

Opinion: Autism – challenges on entering the workplace

By Matthew Casey | Wed 11th June 2014 - 9:12 am

Being diagnosed as having High Functioning Autism can come across as a bolt from the blue. However, a few weeks ago I was told that I have the condition at the ripe old age of 24. I am not alone in the country facing this issue; across the country there has been an increase in the number of people diagnosed as being on the Autism Spectrum Disorder range.

Until around 18 months ago the Government provided funding to the National Autistic Society to allow them to assist people with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Tagged autism and national autistic society | 10 Comments

“What should the political parties promise on education in 2015?” – What I told Policy Exchange…

By Stephen Tall | Wed 11th June 2014 - 8:15 am

I was one of the speakers at this weekend’s Policy Exchange conference which posed the question, ‘What should the political parties promise on education in 2015?’

Though I work in the education sector, I was there in a personal capacity to offer a Lib Dem perspective; very kindly Policy Exchange had invited Michael Gove and Tristram Hunt as warm-up acts for my seven minutes. You can watch what I had to say in the video at the foot of this post, starting at 2 mins in, or just read on… (If you check against delivery you’ll see I’ve tidied up some of my sentences, such as self-censoring my request to the

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Tagged education, michael gove, policy exchange and tristram hunt | 12 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Democrat messages

By Mike Biden | Tue 10th June 2014 - 3:19 pm

Congratulations to Ryan Coetzee and his team for giving us the official new Government policy of a ‘Stronger Economy and a Fairer Society’.

The problem with a really good line like that and similar advertising slogans such as “It’s Good to Talk” is that they become not just commonly accepted and universally recognised but they also become generic. As such they completely lose their power to influence choice or differentiate one product from another. “It’s Good to Talk” ended up not only promoting BT but also selling a lot of mobile phones for their competitors. I know – it was my budget as the Sales & Marketing Director that paid for the campaign.

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Tagged ryan coetzee and Stronger Economy and a Fairer Society | 30 Comments

Opinion: Does our party’s structure and constitution need an overhaul?

By George Potter | Tue 10th June 2014 - 12:32 pm

There are many issues facing the Liberal Democrats at the moment and there has been much discussion about these issues. But one which has been overlooked, in my opinion, is the need to apply our traditional enthusiasm for constitutional reform to ourselves

At the moment the structure of the party is essentially a replica of a national political system. We have constituencies of local parties whose members (the voters) elect a local government in the form of a party executive and who also elect voting representatives (MPs) by proportional representation to send to conference (parliament) where they in turn elect the Federal Executive and the Federal Policy and Conference

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Also posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged internal party organisation | 35 Comments

Some questions on those Trojan Horse Ofsted inspections

By Mary Reid | Tue 10th June 2014 - 8:57 am

Yesterday a commenter on Lib Dem Voice asked why the party had not responded to the Trojan Horse allegations about schools in Birmingham. Now I make no claim to any knowledge about the affair, apart from what I read in a decidedly partisan press, but I can at least raise some questions.

I was struck this morning by an article in the Guardian by the assistant principal on one of the schools that has been downgraded from Outstanding to Inadequate.

Lee Donaghy writes under a headline ‘Ofsted’s slur on the Muslim community of Park View School‘:

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78 Comments

Opinion: We aimed high, we didn’t deliver, we got punished!

By Richard Rowles | Mon 9th June 2014 - 4:14 pm

For over one hundred years now Liberals have been striving to improve the standard of living for regular folk. Before the Labour movement even existed, we fought hard for workers’ rights and then free trade to keep food prices low.

Now, as a party of government, we can be proud about the positive effect we have had on pensions, taxation and apprenticeships. But in the modern world this simply isn’t enough. We are still not winning the public vote. As a party, we talk about needing better leadership – but is it as simple as that? Don’t we need to know where we’ve gone wrong?

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52 Comments

Setting up a Network of Experience

By Liz Lynne | Mon 9th June 2014 - 12:30 pm

We have so many people in the party that have held office of one sort or another over the years. We must make sure that we find a way of retaining their expertise and at the same time give them the support that they need.

I have been thinking about setting up this new network for sometime but I think now, more than ever, it is the right time to do it. For too long many elected members who have lost their seats feel that their contribution to the party hasn’t been properly appreciated.

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Tagged candidates, councillors and network of experience | 15 Comments

Opinion: The most positive change for private sector pensions in half a century

By Janice Turner | Mon 9th June 2014 - 11:10 am

The announcement in the Queen’s Speech of a new ‘Collective Defined Contribution’ pension is an historic achievement on the part of Lib Dem Pensions Minister Steve Webb, which shows that pensions are only safe in Liberal hands. It will bring about better quality pensions for millions in the private sector workforce. It’s taken him four years to arrive at this historic moment which starts to rectify the damage the Tories and Labour wrought on the retirement hopes of ordinary private sector workers.

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Tagged featured, pensions, queen's speech 2014 and steve webb | 5 Comments

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

Most Read

Op-eds

Politics at School (Geoff Reid)
Zack Polanski on the Fringe (Caron Lindsay)
Enough is enough: Women and girls deserve better (Lib Dem Women)
To paraphrase Shakespeare’ ‘something is rotten in the state of Britain’ (Judy Abel)
Born to be a Refugee… (Dalila Henniche Maali)

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Recent Comments

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@TristanWard. I have never been Mike my entire life. Please don’t take it upon yourself to unilaterally change my name...
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