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Category Archives: Op-eds

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

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

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

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

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

Following the introduction of a …

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

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

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

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

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Tagged bedroom tax, fairness and future strategy | 23 Comments

Queen’s Speech 2014: first thoughts

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

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

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

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Tagged featured and queen's speech 2014 | 26 Comments

Challenging the narrative: Employment

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

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

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

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Tagged featured and unemployment | 27 Comments

Opinion: Long term gains from short term arguments

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

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

Some key targets:

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

…

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Tagged future strategy and liberal democrats | 28 Comments

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

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

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

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

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Tagged europe and localism | 25 Comments

Brian Paddick writes…We must challenge UKIP on the facts

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

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

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Tagged immigration and ukip | 57 Comments

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

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

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

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

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Tagged care act and dementia | 6 Comments

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

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

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

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

Take Lord Oakeshott. While I can’t comment …

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Tagged matthew oakeshott and ukip | 23 Comments

Opinion: The aftermath – from a seaside cottage…

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

I may have been rash.

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

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

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

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17 Comments

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