Category Archives: Op-eds

Ouch. My first thoughts on the European election results for the four main parties

By Stephen Tall | Mon 26th May 2014 - 11:55 am

The results are all but in (Scotland will formal declare later today) and the scores on the doors make depressing reading for the Lib Dems – here’s the BBC’s breakdown:

Here are 5 quick points:

1) A good night for Ukip

Fair do’s to Farage: he inverted the usual expectations management game by vowing Ukip would top the poll, and they did. Their share of the vote, 27.5%, means they become the first party since 1906 to beat both the Conservatives and Labour. They’ve gained at least 10 MEPs, and may …

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62 Comments

The Independent View: Positively fighting back online

By Jonathan Russell | Mon 26th May 2014 - 11:07 am

With the seemingly endless news of global and domestic extremism – whether about the 250 girls kidnapped in Nigeria, the 500 Britons reportedly waging jihad in Syria, or the worrying allegations made against several Birmingham schools – it is rare that a report devoted to countering extremism should fill us with positivity. However, research released last week by Quilliam about the state of online extremism should encourage us all, not …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged censorship, civil liberties, extremism, internet and quilliam foundation | 3 Comments

Opinion: Let’s not throw away all we have worked for just as it’s starting to pay off

By Paul Scriven | Sun 25th May 2014 - 7:36 pm

As a working-class Northern lad it would be fair to say that in terms of personal background I don’t have much in common with Nick Clegg. And like Carl Minns and Richard Kemp I’ve been on the wrong end of some tough election results in recent years. But I totally disagree with George Potter – I passionately believe Nick should lead our party into the next General Election and beyond.

I’ve probably had more arguments with Nick than most commentators on

…

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Tagged featured, general election 2015, leadership and nick clegg | 49 Comments

Now THAT is how to write an email to supporters

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 25th May 2014 - 6:32 pm

On Friday night at 18:42, we sad Liberal Democrat election geeks were almost feeling punch drunk as the results came in from London. It was bad enough at a distance of 400 miles to hear of wipeout after wipeout, of decades of hard Liberal Democrat representation on councils coming to an end. Heaven knows what it must have been like to have been there. Actually I do know what that feels like, having gone through the Scottish elections in 2011.

Just as all that horror was unfolding, into my inbox came an …

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31 Comments

How did shuttleworths get their name?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 24th May 2014 - 8:00 pm

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you want to know anything about the olden days of liberalism, you ask The Lord (Tony) Greaves. A few days ago, somebody emailed a group of friends how shuttleworths got their name. For those of you who don’t know, these are the pads that used to have the names and addresses of supporters in a particular area for use on polling day. I knew I’d heard the story before and the various answers that were being told didn’t seem right but I couldn’t remember what it was and, frankly, I had lots of voters to talk to so I didn’t look any further.

Then, with extraordinary serendipity, a comment from Tony Greaves got caught in auto-moderation. I actually saw his slight grumble about it in the main thread before I saw the actual comment. Anyway, it was the first thing that made me smile all day yesterday, so I emailed him to tell him. I also too my chance to ask him. This is his reply, reproduced with his permission.

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Tagged campaigning and tony greaves | 26 Comments

Opinion: Prince Charles has gone too far this time

By Steve Coltman | Sat 24th May 2014 - 10:07 am

It was ironic to watch the news today. Two politicians who (I suspect) do not much care for Prince Charles’s views in general were speaking in his defence, whereas one who might be expected to be more sympathetic was being more critical. It was the latter, Nigel Farage, who was right. He said of Prince Charles’s comments, likening Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler, that there are some things the Prince should leave to the professional politicians.

Nick Clegg and Ed Milliband, on the other hand, were arguing that the Prince had a right to have his views and express them, or words to that effect. Prince Charles does indeed have a right to have his own private opinions, and he is not the first to have compared the actions of today’s Russia with yesterday’s Nazi Germany.

BUT, Prince Charles does not have the right to drop a bomb into the middle of British-Russian relations like this. It’s not just indiscreet, it is downright dangerous. There is no knowing what sort

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Tagged diplomacy, ed miliband, nick clegg, nigel farage and prince charles | 35 Comments

Opinion: Why I was persuaded to back LibDems4Change

By George Potter | Sat 24th May 2014 - 8:37 am

I’m no one special in the party. I’m Secretary of my local party, acting Chair of South East Liberal Youth and I once sat on a regional executive for a year.

And since 2010, despite the mistakes I think we’ve made in how we’ve handled being in coalition, until now I’ve always thought that getting rid of Nick Clegg as leader would be a very bad mistake. I thought that by doing so we’d be seen to be rejecting our achievements in coalition whilst failing to win back any of the people we’d already lost.

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335 Comments

Opinion: Public services need public involvement

By David Boyle | Fri 23rd May 2014 - 11:28 am

I must admit, I have become sceptical about the word ‘empowerment’. For two reasons. One is that it is a Blairite word, and based on a misunderstanding about where sovereignty lies. Power isn’t distributed by an all-powerful prime minister. People already have it – they give it to the governments – but sometimes they have to be encouraged, persuaded or cajoled to use it.

The other reason I have become sceptical is my experience of the word. I have sat in too many conferences where disabled people are encouraged to …

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Tagged centreforum and public services | 8 Comments

Wondering who to vote for today? #EP2014

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 22nd May 2014 - 12:30 pm

Only about a third of people normally vote in European and Council elections. If you are one of the two thirds who hasn’t made their way to the polling station yet, please read on. This stuff actually matters.

Your MEPs and Councillors make decisions that affect your daily life, be it mobile phone charges on your holiday, potentially your job if it’s funded by European money, or the care your parents receive or the quality of your local parks.

Clearly I’d love it if you voted Liberal Democrat for your benefit as much as mine as a party member. Here are some reasons why:

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Tagged european elections 2014 and local elections 2014 | 14 Comments

European elections: vote Conservative, get Liberal?

By Mark Valladares | Thu 22nd May 2014 - 10:58 am

It’s polling day here and, indeed, in the Netherlands, as four days of voting for the European Parliament kick off. And, just possibly, whilst the Liberal Democrats are predicted to suffer losses here in the United Kingdom, the groundwork for the appointment of a liberal as President of the European Commission might be being prepared.

Christopher Flores, writing in the EU Observer, explains how;

Should a left coalition be blocked, the left will likely rally around one candidate in hopes of salvaging the loss of the Parliament by being able

…

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged ALDE, european commission, european elections 2014 and guy verhofstadt | 5 Comments

The two Orange Bookers who’ve won over the Lib Dem membership

By Stephen Tall | Thu 22nd May 2014 - 10:00 am

It’s 10 years since The Orange Book was published. Edited by David Laws and Paul Marshall it was widely regarded as an attempt by economic liberals within the Lib Dems to wrest back control of the party from social liberals.

Both Laws and Marshall would argue their attempt at ‘reclaiming liberalism’ (the book’s sub-title) was more about re-balancing liberalism as practised by the Lib Dems — that the party had grown intellectually lazy, happiest with simply saying ‘tax more, spend more’ as the answer to every public policy problem without thinking …

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Tagged bedroom tax, chris huhne, david laws, orange book, paul marshall, pension reforms, royal mail, steve webb, tuition fees and vince cable | 70 Comments

Danny Alexander and Alison McInnes challenge SNP on armed police in Scotland

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 21st May 2014 - 10:27 am

I’ve written several times recently about how policing has changed in Scotland since Scotland’s eight police forces were merged into one. Concerns have been expressed on a number of issues:

The former Stratchclyde’s policies being rolled out nationwide with local decision making minimised
The heavy handed approach demolishing 30 years of successful policy on sex work in Edinburgh
Indiscriminate use of stop and search powers
Disproportionate use of mounted and armed police

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Tagged alison mcinnes, armed police, Danny Alexander, highlands, inverness, kenny macaskill and police scotland | 2 Comments

Not everything you read on the internet about UKIP and Nigel Farage is true

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 20th May 2014 - 3:29 pm

This morning, Facebook timelines were bombarded with an image of Nigel Farage next to a quote in which he is supposed to have said that UKIP wanted to ban beards of more than 2 inches. “The beard goes or you go” he is supposed to have said on Anglia Radio on Saturday. After a quick (and horrible) mental image of Prime Minister Farage banning Z Z Top from entering the country, I quickly realised that it didn’t sound right. And if it had been true, such a juicy quote as …

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Tagged eu, european elections 2014, liberal democrats and ukip | 30 Comments

Opinion: Miliband, Piketty and the Liberal response

By Toby Matthews | Tue 20th May 2014 - 10:15 am

Three weeks ago, Miliband crossed the Rubicon and entered the heartland of Tory ideology. His support for European-style longer and more secure tenancies — and by extension capping rent increases — runs roughshod over a hitherto post-Thatcherite consensus.

Grant Shapps led the Tory riposte with a quick and ludicrous barb: Labour were proposing “Venezuelan-style rent controls”. Most people won’t know the details of Venezuela’s housing policy, but will be sure it’s unlikely to be any worse than our own.

Times have changed. We can see this clearly in that most …

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Also posted in News | Tagged ALTER, capital, ed miliband, labour, land tax and thomas piketty | 45 Comments

Opinion: Immigration and unemployment – an idea

By Joe Bourke | Mon 19th May 2014 - 11:48 am

Two popular arguments deployed against immigration are that immigrant’s take jobs from British workers or that immigrants are a burden on the welfare state. Both arguments have been shown to be largely invalid: the Lump of Labour fallacy has long been dismissed as economic bunkum; and existing evidence suggests that the net contribution of recent migrants to Britain’s public finances is positive. However, according to this evidence from Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) at University College London not all groups of migrants make a positive fiscal contribution …

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Tagged immigration, language skills, TEFL and unemployment | 50 Comments

“Big job but low pay” moans Bristol’s Green Party Assistant Mayor about £32k salary

By The Voice | Mon 19th May 2014 - 10:25 am

£32,000 a year is well above the average wage. Many people earn significantly less. Yet Bristol’s Assistant Mayor Gus Hoyt has been moaning on Twitter about his low pay.

It all started when someone suggested on Twitter that he might like to go to New York. His reply was that he couldn’t afford it. When his correspondent suggested that was a shame, he replied:

Yeah, Big time. Am in big job but low pay…local government

When Liberal Democrat Councillor Alex Smethurst and his colleague Chris Martin questioned his view of low pay, and …

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Tagged Alex Smethurst, Bristol City Council and Gus Hoyt | 41 Comments

Libby Local Episode 19: I’ll plan your every move

By Libby Local | Sun 18th May 2014 - 3:15 pm

“As you all know,” Melissa said in a rather officious voice, “Maxwell Tarmac-Smyth has resigned with some haste and we have a by-election on our hands.”

We were clustered in the back room of the Market Tavern at a hastily convened meeting of our local campaign committee. Melissa had been my campaign manager for the 2013 election and had called the meeting as soon as the news of the by-election reached Demsbury.

Before she could continue with her introduction, …

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Tagged Libby Local | 4 Comments

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

By The Voice | Sun 18th May 2014 - 1:21 pm

Many thanks to the 17,300 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

New ICM Poll: Do you want the okayish news or the bad news? (48 comments) by Stephen Tall

WATCH: Nigel Farage come a cropper at the hands of LBC’s James O’Brien (37 comments) by Stephen Tall

Opinion: The Bedroom Tax: A great socialist policy (39 comments) by Patrick McAuley

“Label the behaviour not the person”: why we shouldn’t call Ukip a racist party (107 comments) by Stephen Tall

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Also posted in Site news | Leave a comment

From the reading pile: Alan Beith’s year of three elections

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 17th May 2014 - 9:34 am

I have this massive and growing pile of stuff I want to read but don’t have time for at the moment. I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

Yesterday, though, a spell in a hospital waiting room gave me the opportunity to catch up with this article from February’s Total Politics. Alan Beith was interviewed about first becoming MP for Berwick. He won the by-election in November 1973 and then had to defend the seat twice within the space of a year.

He described his disappointment at contesting …

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2 Comments

Opinion: The General Election is near – are we ready?

By John Coburn | Fri 16th May 2014 - 9:12 am

Having taken a break from frontline campaigning in recent months it’s given me time to observe the party as a voter, if not an impartial one. The European and local elections are undoubtedly important, but the big challenge is a year away and we still have time to make the Liberal Democrat case.

I’m instinctively pro-coalition and Nick Clegg and the leadership have to take great credit on what has been achieved on area such as tax, the pupil premium, pensions and gay marriage. Without our party in coalition, there would …

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27 Comments

Are the Liberal Democrats any closer to embracing all-women shortlists?

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 15th May 2014 - 3:50 pm

It’s nearly 31 years since I joined the SDP. When I was first involved, a hot topic of conversation was how to improve the representation of women in the House of Commons. At that point, there were just 23 female MPs, or 3.5% of the total. We are still having these discussions today. Now there are 22%, but the total has only risen by 4% in the last 3 elections. The biggest leap we have ever had came in 1997 when the numbers doubled from 60-120, with more than half …

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Tagged all-women shortlists, gender balance, lndsay northover, sarah brown and shirley williams | 132 Comments

The Independent View: The innovation revolution: How small banks and building societies are playing a significant part in creating competition through innovation.

By Adrian Kamellard | Thu 15th May 2014 - 12:30 pm

Up and down the country there are small but significant banks and building societies playing an important part in the day-to-day lives of customers and businesses. Yet they are not only helping customers locally, they are also changing the way we bank. The Cumberland Building Society will be familiar to Westmorland and Lonsdale’s Tim Farron MP, and despite a relatively small customer base compared to the traditional big banks, it is leading from the front when it comes to payments innovation and technology, offering …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged innovation, paym and payments council | 4 Comments

Lord Roger Roberts writes…We must unite against the scaremongering of the far right

By Lord Roger Roberts | Wed 14th May 2014 - 7:00 pm

This week the BNP released its party political broadcast in the run-up to May’s local council and European elections. The BNP youth has also made its own poisonous contribution to the debate. The BNP have released a hurriedly edited version following complaints from the BBC that the broadcast did not meet its editorial guidelines, which state that such broadcasts have:

An obligation to observe the law (for example on libel, copyright and incitement to racial hatred and violence) and the BBC Editorial Guidelines on harm and

…

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Tagged bnp and european elections 2014 | 12 Comments

New Liberal Democrat campaign video: Powerful stuff, but we need Part 2 – why you should vote Liberal Democrat

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 14th May 2014 - 3:58 pm

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Tagged campaign strategy, eu and european elections 2014 | 53 Comments

Revenge porn: A modern, legal form of abuse

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 14th May 2014 - 2:23 pm

Imagine you’re in a loving relationship with someone. In the context of that relationship, you allowed some personal, intimate photographs to be taken that were only for your private enjoyment. Then you split up and, to your horror, find that those private photographs have been put up on the internet for all to see as an act of revenge by your former lover.

That’s got to be illegal, right? Effectively, it’s a form of abuse perpetrated mainly but not exclusively) by men against women, after all. Actually, …

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Tagged pornography, revenge porn and sexual abuse | 17 Comments

Greg Mulholland MP writes…Support my gruelling 20,000 ft climb to raise £10k for Royal British Legion rehabilitation centre

By Greg Mulholland MP | Wed 14th May 2014 - 1:31 pm

At the end of May, I am joining serving and former soldiers and two other MPs in trying to tackle one of the world’s highest volcanoes, Cotopaxi in Ecuador at 19,347 feet. I am taking on this tough challenge to raise awareness of the Royal British Legion Battle Back Centre, the national rehabilitation centre which provides adaptive sports and adventurous training for injured servicemen and women.

The Battle Back Centre helps achieve the best possible recovery and either return to service duty or make a smooth transition to …

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Tagged greg mulholland and royal british legion | Leave a comment

The Independent View: Scotland, vote no and let’s all move towards a Federal UK

By Toby Fenwick | Wed 14th May 2014 - 11:50 am

As an outsider, analysis about September’s Scottish Independence Referendum is something of a minefield. There is space to constructively critique the SNP’s proposals, but needs to recognise that I don’t have a vote, and that Lord Robertson-style hyperbole about a Scottish “cataclysm” is not just offensive – and for unionists, counterproductive – it is inaccurate, too.

So let me begin by making clear that in my CentreForum paper analysing Scottish independence published today, I believe that Scotland is perfectly capable of becoming an …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged centreforum, federalism, menzies campbell, Scotland and Scottish independence referendum | 24 Comments

Michael Moore MP’s Road to Referendum: “A mutual meeting point between two nations, rather than an international border point separating two states”

By Michael Moore | Wed 14th May 2014 - 9:32 am

There was cross-party agreement last week in the House of Commons after I, alongside Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border Rory Stewart, made the case for United Kingdom cross-border unity at Scottish Questions. Alongside Mr Stewart, I asked specifically about what independence would mean for Border constituencies.

The future shape of Scotland, and the very existence of the United Kingdom, is at stake in the forthcoming referendum. If Scotland were to leave the United Kingdom, the Border constituencies would be the first to feel the effects of …

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Tagged road to referendum michael moore mp | 6 Comments

Opinion: Small plus small plus small equals BIG

By David Boyle | Tue 13th May 2014 - 5:22 pm

In the heady days of the Thatcher government, when the hideous mistakes of Big Bang were being forged and coming to fruition, I used to run an excellent magazine called Town & Country Planning. In those days, we were extremely exercised by the idea of the huge and mounting cost of rundown private sector homes. Who was going to repair them?

We don’t talk about that problem any more. This is not because it was ever exactly solved, but because of one of the more benevolent effect of rising house prices, before the oligarchs came in, was that it made a bit of DIY worthwhile. Instead of the government shelling out to repair all those privately-owned dwellings, the young owners went down to B&Q and bought a paintbrush.

It was a lesson to me that neither the conventional public sector nor the conventional private sector may be best placed to tackle the really intractable problems. And it makes me wonder whether the great unanswered questions about rebalancing the economy might eventually be answered – not by the long night of the soul as we wait for the Treasury, but by the places themselves.

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Tagged economics and ultra-micro economics | 5 Comments

Norman Lamb writes … we must fight for mental health to get the recognition it needs

By Norman Lamb MP | Tue 13th May 2014 - 12:52 pm

In my time as Mental Health minister, I have written here several times about the unacceptable disparity between mental health and physical health in our health system. For far too long, physical health has been prioritised over mental health.

Perhaps the most stark difference is in terms of what happens when you suffer a mental health crisis. If you break your arm or suffer a stroke, you know that you will be taken to A&E, where you will get access to the expertise you need.

It’s very different in mental health. You may end up in a police cell or you may get sent a long way away from home to get a bed in a mental health unit. This would never be tolerated in physical health so why should it be acceptable in mental health?

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Tagged Crisis Care Concordat, featured and mental health | 10 Comments