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Category Archives: Op-eds

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

The Independent View: Harnessing the “BuzzFeed” effect to boost turnout in the Euro elections

By Pete Mills | Tue 13th May 2014 - 11:50 am

Only 26% are certain to vote in the European elections, and 77% say they know less about the issues in a European election than a general election, according to the Hansard Society. At Unlock Democracy, we’ve been looking at new techniques to combat low turnout and the worrying lack of political knowledge about European institutions.

For the European elections, we worked with organisations from 14 countries across the EU to produce Vote Match Europe, an online quiz app which matches user to the parties that best represent their views in the European elections, based on the issues which they select as …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged european elections 2014 and votematch | 13 Comments

Opinion: Get your voters out electronically

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th May 2014 - 10:25 am

It’s not a surprise to say far more people use social media now than when I first learnt political campaigning because Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the whole lot didn’t even exist back then. Nor even did (glory be, you might think) Internet Explorer. Back when a beta version of Netscape was cutting edge, the scope for successful online political campaigning was tiny compared to now, when there are more people on the electoral register who use social media than will vote next week.

But the story of the last few decades isn’t just about the rise of the online world. It’s also about the increasing problems with traditional ways of communicating with voters on the ground. Fewer phone numbers are in the phone book; fewer households have someone in when you call round; and fewer properties have accessible individual letterboxes.

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Tagged campaigning, elections, gotv, graphics and Mark Pack | 2 Comments

Devo 15: Lord Jim Wallace writes.. Next 15 years represents inspiring opportunity to build on devolution success

By Jim Wallace | Tue 13th May 2014 - 8:29 am

Before going in to address a class of first year law students at Aberdeen University, last November, the head of the Law School took me aside and said, “Just to be aware. Most of your audience can’t remember a Scotland without a Scottish Parliament.” And, of course, these students were only about four years old, when the first elections to that Parliament were held fifteen years ago last week.

To those of us who campaigned so long and hard to create the Parliament, it doesn’t seem so long ago.

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Tagged devo 15, devolution, jim wallace and Scotland | 4 Comments

Danny Alexander speaks out against use of armed and mounted Police in the Highlands

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 12th May 2014 - 3:45 pm

In February, I reported that Danny Alexander had spoken out about the use of Police horses in his Highland constituency. As a native of Inverness I shared his sense of horror that anti-riot policing techniques were being used in the peaceable and safe Highland capital.

Danny had written to the Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to express his concern about such unprecedented, heavy-handed policing, to to mention the cost of bringing the horses up from Ayrshire at a time when the service is closing local control rooms. He’s …

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Tagged armed police, Danny Alexander, inverness, mounted police, police scotland and Scotland | 4 Comments

Opinion: Hamas and the collapse of Palestine/Israel Peace Negotiations

By John Kelly | Mon 12th May 2014 - 1:00 pm

Two weeks ago the Israeli Cabinet declared that the peace negotiations over Palestine were halted in view of the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. The fact that the Cabinet Meeting took six hours perhaps suggests that this was not a unanimous decision. Was it a reasonable decision?

Background on Hamas can be found here. The essentials are that it was founded with the aim of liberating Palestine from Israel and had an armed wing that has indulged in terrorism. (Sound like Sinn Fein and the IRA?) Nonetheless it won Parliamentary elections …

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Tagged eu, israel and palestine | 32 Comments

Opinion: All Europe liked Conchita: what Eurovision tells us

By Stuart Bonar | Mon 12th May 2014 - 10:20 am

Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst’s smiling face beamed out from my TV late on Saturday, and like so many people I thought her victory was great. As Lib Dem Voice’s own Caron Lindsay put it shortly after the show had ended, the Austrian’s song

might not have been the best on offer tonight, but her personality, her embodiment of liberalism and authenticity, combined with a pan-European desire to stick two fingers up to the illiberal east triumphed in Copenhagen…

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Tagged conchita wurst, eu and eurovision | 5 Comments

Opinion: A European manifesto of hope

By Antony Hook | Mon 12th May 2014 - 8:55 am

For me and many other people, being a Liberal is about politics based on hope.

One of my favourite definition of hope is that it stands for “Helping Other People Evolve”.

Helping, not forcing.

Evolving, because almost everyone can see some scope for change for the better in their life.

We are not talking about forcing people to change their lives against their will.

Nor do we say, “each to their own, I’ll sort out my life and if you have no chance of a better future that is not my problem.”

Liberal leadership, based on hope, is about giving people a chance to fulfil their potential.

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Tagged eu and european elections 2014 | 2 Comments

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Politics at School (Geoff Reid)
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Enough is enough: Women and girls deserve better (Lib Dem Women)
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