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Category Archives: Op-eds

Opinion: What’s going on in Brussels? Political groupings in the European Parliament

By Matt McLaren | Mon 23rd June 2014 - 2:12 pm

Following on from my post last week on post-election developments in Brussels, here’s the first of two updates. Today’s will focus on developments concerning the formation of political groups in the Parliament itself whilst tomorrow’s will address issues regarding nominations to the European Commission.

Political parties have until tomorrow, June 24^th to form their European Parliamentary groups. In order to qualify as a group, you not only need at least 25 MEPs but these must be drawn from at least 7 EU countries represented in the Parliament.

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged ALDE and european parliament | 24 Comments

Adrian Sanders MP writes…New global parliamentary Diabetes network will ensure vital action is taken across the world

By Adrian Sanders | Mon 23rd June 2014 - 12:59 pm

On 2nd December 2013 at the first Parliamentary Diabetes Global Network (PDGN) meeting in Melbourne, Australia, attended by invited parliamentarians representing 50 countries, a declaration on Diabetes was agreed and signed.

Meeting in the Victoria State Parliament building MPs from across the globe reported on the state of Diabetes care in their countries, discussed how to raise the profile of the condition and agreed a declaration calling for urgent action to address the diabetes pandemic, committing the signatories to work across parliaments to help prevent the incidence of diabetes, ensure …

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Tagged diabetes, featured and Melbourne Declaration | Leave a comment

Fairer Society Part 2: Goodbye Mr Beveridge

By George Potter | Mon 23rd June 2014 - 11:12 am

In my article on Saturday, I talked about how Ed Miliband’s ‘youth tax’ shows that Labour have abandoned any claim they ever had to be a party that cared about social justice or a fairer society. And the Conservatives have never even cared about a fairer society as they are ably demonstrating with their plan to cut £20 billion from the £79 billion (e.g. not including pensions) welfare budget if they are in government in the next parliament.

Therefore the Liberal Democrats, the party of Beveridge, are now the only …

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Tagged fairer society and welfare reform | 55 Comments

What’s on in our Parliaments this week?

By The Voice | Mon 23rd June 2014 - 9:15 am

What are our MPs, MSPs and AM’s going to be talking about this coming week?

Holyrood

It’s the last week of term for the Scottish Parliament this week until an earlier than usual return, on 3 August. MSPs will sit for 3 weeks before taking a further 4 week break for the Referendum.

One of the last items to be discussed in the Chamber this session will be a motion from Liberal Democrat MSP Alison McInnes, not on her usual justice portfolio, but on the BMA’s Your GP cares campaign. Her motion …

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Also posted in Parliament | Leave a comment

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

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 22nd June 2014 - 9:22 am

Here is my selection of articles to inform, inspire and infuriate from this week’s Sunday newspapers.

First of all, the Observer reports on a Mumsnet survey which finds that most women who responded think that Parliament is sexist, out of date and masculine. 97% think the political culture is sexist. The site’s founder, Justine Roberts, said:

People are so fed up. We know that the reason there is a lack of female representation in parliament isn’t just down to sexism at the point of selection; there just aren’t enough women prepared to put themselves forward. This is confirmation of how they feel and how strongly they feel. Things like the long hours and being ‘on show’ is rolled into the idea that it’s all a bit male and shouty, but even male MPs have complained about the hours. The hours seem to revolve more around 50-year-old men who want to socialise than even among thirtysomething men who are dads and might like to have a family life.

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4 Comments

Book Review: The Cruel Victory: The French Resistance, D-Day and the Battle for the Vercors 1944 by Paddy Ashdown

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 21st June 2014 - 1:20 pm

It is not like me to read books about wars and battles, but after being so moved and angered by Paddy Ashdown’s excellent portrayal of the inaugural mission of the Special Boat Service, A Brilliant Little Operation, I knew that I had to buy his next book.

The Cruel Victory tells the story of the brave Resistance fighters who briefly controlled the Vercors plateau in south-east France in the Summer of 1944. The original plan was for the Vercors to be secured to help an Allied invasion from the south, but for various reasons, the support that the fighters on the ground needed was not forthcoming. If people had been smarter in their decision making, at least some of it could have been and lives could have been saved.

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Tagged book reviews, featured, paddy ashdown and The Cruel Victory | 7 Comments

Fairer Society Part 1: Only the Liberal Democrats are left to stand up for fairness

By George Potter | Sat 21st June 2014 - 9:55 am

On Thursday we saw Ed Miliband deliver his big policy speech on welfare, introducing his ‘youth tax’ in an attempt to be tougher on the Tories than welfare. In the process he proved that Labour, not content with failing to manage the economy properly in their last time in government, have given up on any idea of fairness or social justice for their next time in government.

Interestingly, the policy he announced had been reported on twice already by newspapers, the Sun and the Telegraph, over the course of the past year …

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Tagged Fairer Society series and welfare | 28 Comments

Opinion: We need unqualified teachers and assistants to become qualified

By Barry Holliday | Fri 20th June 2014 - 3:33 pm

We’ve just launched our parent guarantee about ensuring that all state funded schools should only use qualified teaching staff. A great idea, of course we want all teachers to hold a subject related degree and their post-grad certificate in education (PGCE) and their QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). But what about those unqualified teachers already in a teaching role? What about the other staff which support and help educate our children?

I personally work in a secondary Academy (years 7-11) which has some non-QTS staff. Most are excellent educators of children …

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Tagged teaching | 15 Comments

Yes Scotland is a bit late to realise that Wings over Scotland is bad news.

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 20th June 2014 - 2:56 pm

About two years too late, the Yes Scotland campaign has started to distance itself from controversial pro-independence blog Wings over Scotland, run by a Bath based individual who describes himself as “Rev” Stuart Campbell.

The Courier reports that Yes Scotland has asked its Edinburgh Group to stop distributing leaflet that invites people to look at Wings.

This is not just an Edinburgh thing though. I don’t live in Edinburgh and I had a Yes newspaper delivered with this leaflet

…

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Tagged Scotland, Scottish independence referendum and wings over scotland | 28 Comments

Opinion: Was there ever a child who started a war?

By Maelo Manning | Fri 20th June 2014 - 1:38 pm

I attended the conference to ‘End Sexual Violence in Conflict’ (ESVC) and I was horrified by the true life testimonies of how babies as young as 8 months are raped. I approached the War Child staff at the conference and asked about getting involved in their work. Today is National Refugee Day 2014. The purpose of this post is to raise awareness among Lib Dems and to urge you to factor the unspeakable horrors that children suffer into any part of your work or volunteering or fund raising opportunities. It could be that you come into contact with refugee children even in the UK.

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Tagged featured | 1 Comment

Why we need Liberal Democrats: Consensual Stop and search of under 12s in Scotland halted

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 20th June 2014 - 10:30 am

The Scottish Liberal Democrats aren’t in Government at the moment. Despite that, the small Parliamentary group has had quite an impact in the past 3 years. Willie Rennie has had Salmond squirming at First Minister’s Questions over his associations with Rupert Murdoch and has been pivotal in securing extra funds for colleges, childcare and free school meals.

Back in January, it came to light that 500 children under 10 had been stopped and searched by Police in 2010. That’s bad enough. Last year that figure was just 88 …

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Tagged alison mcinnes, justice, kenny macaskill, police scotland, Scotland and stop and search | 6 Comments

Tim Farron disagrees with Nick on minority Government

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 19th June 2014 - 3:04 pm

Nick Clegg has been saying a lot recently that it’s coalition or nothing – the Liberal Democrats aren’t interested in propping up a minority Government because we’d get all the blame and none of the chance to do any actual good.

I can see the logic to that point of view, certainly. However, Tim Farron, in an interview with the New Statesman has directly contradicted Nick, saying that we shouldn’t rule anything out:

When you go into negotiations with another party you have to believe,

…

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Tagged matthew oakeshott, new statesman and tim farron | 32 Comments

Principle and Realpolitik: why the Lib Dems should back an EU in/out referendum

By Stephen Tall | Wed 18th June 2014 - 4:30 pm

My co-editor Caron Lindsay has asked the following question, amid reports senior Lib Dems want the party to commit to an in/out EU referendum in the next parliament: “What do you think? Stay as we are or shift our position?”

My own view is the party has nothing to lose by offering a referendum in the 2015 manifesto. As I’ve pointed out before, the Lib Dem line on an EU referendum has been remarkably consistent over the last few years – far more so than the Tories (remember David Cameron’s cast-iron guarantee?) or Labour (remember 2004 EU referendum U-turn prior to their 2008 U-turn?).

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged caron lindsay and eu referendum | 42 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Democrats’ principled decision gives civil servants continued workplace protection they need

By Janice Turner | Wed 18th June 2014 - 3:43 pm

One of the announcements at Nick Clegg’s press conference on Monday was his categorical rejection of Tory ministers’ attempts to abolish check-off across government.

What’s check-off? This isn’t a Michael Gove attempt to ban a celebrated Russian playwright, it’s a mundane administrative convenience which allows members of trade unions to pay their union subscription by getting their employer to deduct it from their wage packet and send it on for them.

Union members like check-off because it’s the easiest way to keep their subs up to date. Trade unions like it because …

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Tagged check-off, Danny Alexander, nick clegg, simon hughes, trade unions and vince cable | 6 Comments

Is Nick Clegg about to change position on an EU Referendum?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 18th June 2014 - 1:37 pm

Today’s Times reports that Nick Clegg may be about to change his position on the circumstances on which a referendum on EU membership could be held. The Coalition has legislated for a referendum if there is any further Treaty change. The Times (£) suggests that this could be altered to a “material change”:

Liberal Democrat MPs were due to meet last night to discuss whether to shift their position of holding a vote only if there is a “material change”

…

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Tagged eu referendum | 33 Comments

Opinion: A radical, liberal vision

By Michael Berwick-Gooding | Wed 18th June 2014 - 11:59 am

Nick Clegg has set out his Liberal vision and I think it is inadequate as I see his vision as mainly about pursuing less pure liberal economic policies and education. Education policy has been a big part of our appeal. A penny on income tax for improvements to education was a good policy. It resulted in the Labour government putting a penny on National Insurance to pay for improvements to education. The pupil premium in 2010 has been implemented by the Coalition government. However we shouldn’t reply on education policy …

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Tagged citizens income and future strategy | 20 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes: We need effective action on knife crime

By Julian Huppert | Wed 18th June 2014 - 10:30 am

There is a problem with knife crime. Too many of our fellow citizens suffer from knife attacks, and even more live in fear of being attacked with a knife. Even though fewer people are carrying knives, too many still are.

The Tory response to this, backed by Labour, has been to rush into legislation forcing judges to impose a mandatory jail sentence for anyone who is found in possession of a knife twice.

To deal effectively with the problem we should try to understand why people are carrying them.

Most of …

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Tagged knife crime | 7 Comments

Opinion: Cabinet Collective Responsibility and why we need to reform it

By Daniel Henry | Tue 17th June 2014 - 5:05 pm

A lot has been written over the last few weeks about the coalition, how it has damaged our poll ratings and what we need to do to turn things around. I’d like to put the spotlight on Cabinet Collective Responsibility and how it’s not only damaged our party’s identity but has also helped damage the public’s view of coalitions in general.

Cabinet Collective Responsibility is the convention that members of the government, i.e. ministers, all have to suspend their own opinions and collectively hold the government line. If they want to publicly disagree with the government then they’re expected to resign. This may have made sense when one party ran the government but with a government formed from two different parties, with very differing views and identities, this has predictably caused a number of problems.

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Tagged collective cabinet responsibility and nick clegg | 14 Comments

Mike Storey writes: Qualified teachers and a national curriculum

By Mike Storey | Tue 17th June 2014 - 3:08 pm

“We are, and always will, be the party of education”. So Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said in his speech at Bloomberg last Monday. This is indeed what the Liberal Democrats stand for, and it’s not just an empty sound bite. The policies we pledge to adopt will be to ensure that school pupils will have the right to be taught by qualified teachers and taught a core curriculum – a truly national curriculum.

The recent ‘Trojan Horse’ controversy has shocked the national conscience. It highlighted that some schools ran a risk of depriving children of an all-rounded and fair education. Academies and free schools are based on the concept of autonomy, but this should not mean that children should suffer because of particular interests. Some schools that did have discretion over their curriculum were abusing that by stripping back the curriculum and narrowing the experience of schooling for every young child. Action needs to be taken to ensure children’s futures are not put at risk.

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Tagged education, national curriculum, parental guarantee, schools and teachers | 48 Comments

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

Most Read

Op-eds

Scottish Lib Dems defeat SNP on Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill (Caron Lindsay)
How housebuilding can tackle the cost of living crisis and boost growth (Rob Blackie)
The Independent View: Nobody falls in love with a manifesto (James Bradford)
Bridges Matter (Francis Chubb)
For disabled people, a simple game of football comes with a terrifying price tag: their benefits (Jean-François Burford)

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Recent Comments

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