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Category Archives: Op-eds

Norman Lamb MP writes… Improving patient safety in the NHS

By Norman Lamb MP | Thu 27th March 2014 - 11:55 am

Back in 2012, an independent study of NHS case notes from hospitals concluded that in about 2.3% of hospital deaths there was strong evidence that death could have been prevented. In practice, this equates to around 6,300 preventable deaths in hospitals every year.

This is a shocking statistic. As Liberal Democrats, we should never fall into the trap of talking down the NHS – our health and care services do fantastic work day after day savings lives and providing excellent care. But we must also be willing to confront …

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Tagged featured and NHS | 4 Comments

Eric Avebury writes…Society cannot afford to scrap the alcohol duty escalator

By Eric Avebury | Wed 26th March 2014 - 9:01 am

Last week’s Budget saw the Chancellor renege on the Government’s commitment to tackle the problem of cheap alcohol by scrapping the alcohol duty escalator. This move is a step that society simply cannot afford; not only will these duty cuts result in a shortfall of £290 million to the Exchequer when Osborne admits we are still going to be in deficit until 2018, but with the cost of alcohol harm in the UK exceeding £25 billion each year, our public services – particularly the NHS – can’t cope …

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Tagged alcohol, alcohol duty, budget 2014 and minimum alcohol pricing | 11 Comments

Fewer workless households

By Mary Reid | Tue 25th March 2014 - 3:59 pm

Lib Dem HQ tells us that the number of workless households is falling.

Over the last four years, under the Coalition, the number of households in which no-one works has dropped by 450,000, with a substantial drop of 137,000 in the last year alone.

This outcome appears to validate the campaign to make work pay, so that people will always be better off in work than on benefits.

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Tagged employment | 10 Comments

Most of the benefits of an annuity at a fraction of the cost?

By Joe Otten | Tue 25th March 2014 - 12:20 pm

An annuity is a reasonable solution to an obvious problem. You don’t know how long you will live in retirement, but an annuity provider can estimate this, take a risk, and sell you an income that lasts the rest of your life. In practise this hasn’t represented good value for money, so I welcomed the budget announcement to give retirees more choice in investing or disposing of their own money. Yesterday Janice Turner argued for the Continue reading »

Tagged annuities and penisons | 30 Comments

Opinion: In every conflict, there is always more than one side to the story

By David Gray | Tue 25th March 2014 - 9:24 am

It is always tempting to view the world in black and white. When Good is pitted against Evil, who in their right minds would want Evil to succeed? We can all happily unite behind Good and therefore feel Good about that ourselves.

Sadly, the world isn’t like this. This may seem like an outrageously obvious statement, but it is not intended to be patronising. Reactions from various politicians to recent events have given the impression that many political conflicts are indeed black and white.

When the Arab Spring began over 3 …

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Tagged arab spring, egypt, syria, ukraine and world war 1 | 6 Comments

Should prisoners have unlimited access to books?

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 24th March 2014 - 8:55 pm

The bees are buzzing around my bonnet today. Earlier I had a bit of a go at Danny Alexander for falling in with the Better Together dourness in the Scottish Referendum campaign. Now, I have Chris Grayling in my sights. The Justice Secretary, under the guise of making the prisoners’ incentive scheme more “effective” has banned a number of things. The issue being given most prominence is that prisoners can no longer be sent books. The Howard League for Penal Reform’s Chief Executive Frances Crook condemned the …

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Tagged featured, frances crook, howard league for penal reform and ministry of justice | 32 Comments

Opinion: Pensions move could negate the whole point of pensions saving

By Janice Turner | Mon 24th March 2014 - 4:26 pm

George Osborne’s announcement that people with defined contribution (money purchase) pensions could take the lot as a lump sum on retirement kills several birds with one stone. First, it most definitely attracts the grey vote because the idea of getting your hands on your whole pension pot on retirement is very appealing.

But this also looks like a reaction to mounting evidence, including from the Financial Conduct Authority no less, that annuities are not good value for money. Defined Contribution schemes allow retirees to buy an annuity (your pension) on the open market, but the schemes provide a default annuity which …

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Tagged budget 2014 and pensions | 29 Comments

Danny, please listen to Charles Kennedy before you write about the Independence Referendum again

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 24th March 2014 - 1:16 pm

Danny Alexander’s article on the Independence Referendum in yesterday’s Sunday Times (£) was, for me, a frustrating read. If I’m honest, it was actually like nails being dragged down a blackboard. Full of language like damaging, devastating and divorce, t is absolutely not what we need at this stage of the campaign. He even brought in the spectre of not being able to sustain the NHS in an independent Scotland.

A poll published in yesterday’s Scotland on Sunday …

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Tagged charles kennedy, Danny Alexander, Scotland and Scottish independence referendum | 15 Comments

Five stories from five years – March 24th

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 24th March 2014 - 9:17 am

Time, I think, to revive that part of the old Friday Five where we looked at what we were writing about on this day in previous years. Here are five posts from March 24th.

First up, a little Boris related schadenfreude from 2013: Boris has a right Mair in live BBC interview.

For most of the 10 minutes — and perhaps for the first time ever — Boris looked as if he would rather be anywhere else than beneath the glare of the TV lights. This was his reckoning, and he looked winded, lumbering like a past-his-prime former heavyweight champion. Only

…

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Tagged five stories from five years and history | 1 Comment

Opinion: European Commission is right to demand Ed Davey and the Coalition re-thinks on nuclear power

By Andrew Warren | Sun 23rd March 2014 - 2:30 pm

In October 2013, Lib Dem energy secretary Ed Davey set out his arguments for reversing his long-held antipathy to nuclear power. On behalf of the Coalition, he is applying to the European Commission to ensure that the measures he is promoting – to ensure construction of the first new nuclear power station in the UK for a generation – are compatible with the Single Market.

But now the Competition Directorate of the European Commission has sent a 70-page rebuttal to the UK Government, completely rejecting its arguments for subsidising the building of the Hinckley B nuclear power station in Somerset.

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Tagged ed davey, european commission, hinckley point and nuclear power | 41 Comments

Opinion: The new tuition fees argument – having your cake and eating it

By Maria Pretzler | Sun 23rd March 2014 - 8:50 am

On Friday, the Guardian published an article pointing out that a lot more public money than expected will have to be contributed to tuition fees loans.

This has been greeted with a certain amount of glee by the usual suspects. On some level, I can understand the excitement, but nevertheless, it looks like a case of trying hard to have this particular cake and keep eating it.

People who used to shout about fees are now upset that after all, the state is putting more money into the system than …

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Tagged featured, higher education and tuition fees | 117 Comments

Liberals need to stand up against hate speech and prejudice. If we don’t, we condone it.

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 22nd March 2014 - 11:06 am

Over the last couple of weeks, several events have proved, as if we needed it to be proved, that hate speech and prejudice is alive and well in 21st century Britain.

Last week, Pink News reported a disturbing, angry and hate-filled transphobic rant by Julie Burchill which appeared as a comment on an article by Paris Lees. Paris had written of her delight in being catcalled and wolf-whistled while on holiday in Ibiza and asked if that made her a bad feminist. Burchill’s reply seemed to be trying to make out that she was a bad human being.

I don’t …

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Tagged julie burchill, lgbt equality, lynne featherstone and transphobia | 23 Comments

Opinion: The key economic shift we need next time

By David Boyle | Fri 21st March 2014 - 5:04 pm

It is a lovely spring morning in 2015 and you are on someone’s doorstep. There is a delightful breeze and you clutch your canvas cards to make sure they don’t blow away.

The lady on the other side of the front door gives you a big smile and asks you about jobs – she recognises that the coalition has made important strides towards making us all a little less reliant on the City of London.

“But how are you going …

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8 Comments

Opinion: The hole in the “35 percent strategy” – the Lib Dem vote

By Nick Tyrone | Fri 21st March 2014 - 3:22 pm

It was Lib Dem spring conference, 2012. Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. The crucial vote that weekend was on the NHS Bill. The pause was set to un-pause once more – if, that is, the Lib Dem membership voted it through. The mood was tense on both sides of the debate within the party. Just outside the secure zone, there was a gaggle of Labour supporters trying to convince Lib Dem members to vote the Bill down. Doing a very, very, very bad job of this, I hasten to add. Actually, if their aim was to get the members to vote for the Bill, they could not have done a more cracking job.

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27 Comments

Opinion: The East Midlands would suffer without Europe

By Issan Ghazni | Fri 21st March 2014 - 1:45 pm

If we needed reminding how vital Europe is to British jobs in regions like the East Midlands, the bosses of car giants Hyundai and Toyota spelt it out.

As a European candidate in May’s elections I was alarmed to read that Hyundai, who have a base in Corby, warned against leaving the EU saying that if the UK were no longer in the single market it would throw up ‘barriers’ to doing business. There was a similar message from …

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Tagged europe and jobs | 5 Comments

Opinion: Not a budget for green policy

By Duncan Brack | Fri 21st March 2014 - 12:02 pm

David Cameron may now view climate change as a serious threat, thanks to the winter floods, but you wouldn’t know it from his Chancellor’s Budget statement on Wednesday. What did the Budget do for green growth and the low-carbon agenda? –

Froze the carbon price floor (paid by large emitters) until the end of the decade. Introduced just last year at £16/tonne carbon dioxide, it was supposed to increase steadily to reach £30 in 2020 and £70 in 2030; now it’ll stick at £18. This makes coal more attractive and low-carbon energy less.
Ended Enterprise Investment Scheme tax breaks for investments in renewable electricity and heat (while retaining them for everything else).
Extended compensation for energy-intensive industries from the electricity bill levies funding renewable energy.

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Tagged green taxes and renewable energy | 13 Comments

Opinion: Let’s have real “power to the people” for those of us outside the UK

By George Cunningham | Fri 21st March 2014 - 10:40 am

There is a lot wrong or out-of-date with our current political system. The Lib Dem policy paper “Power to the People” passed at the spring conference in York, addresses those issues in a typically liberal, radical way. It is worthy of our support, as a step forward, even if some find parts of it imperfect.

“Power to the People” aims to explore the viability of overseas constituencies. This would be quite radical for the UK but would – I believe – benefit it a …

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Tagged europe, liberal democrats spring conference 2014 and power to the people | 5 Comments

A look ahead to Scottish Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 21st March 2014 - 8:34 am

This time next week, I’ll be on a train on my way to Aberdeen along with lots of other Scottish Liberal Democrats for our Spring Conference. This is the party’s main Conference, held over 3 days. Here’s my pick of the agenda.

The debates

Part of the reason I’m getting up at such an ungodly hour on Friday is to get up there for the first two debates. Alison McInnes, our justice spokesperson, has done much to highlight the many iniquities of our Justice system under the illiberal regime of Kenny MacAskill.

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Tagged Alistair Carmichael, chris huhne and scottish lberal democrat conference | 1 Comment

The price of trusting people with their own money

By Joe Otten | Thu 20th March 2014 - 4:29 pm

The world of the private “Defined Contribution” pension is one that sees so many hidden fees it has been described as generating a greater return for the financial services industry than it does the saver. A large bite of this comes with the annuity purchase, where the pension pot, built up over the years, is spent on an annuity, converting a cash sum into a fixed (or index-linked) income for life.

Annuity purchase represents a kind of insurance against getting too old and running out of money.

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Tagged annuities, featured, pension reforms and pensions | 52 Comments

Opinion: Some facts about Ukraine and Crimea

By George Potter | Thu 20th March 2014 - 3:00 pm

Given some of the comments being widely made about the crisis in Ukraine, particularly those defending or minimising the actions of Russia, I thought it would be worthwhile to point out some facts about the situation and counter some of the popular myths. They doesn’t necessarily establish that one side is completely right or wrong but they are worth bearing in mind.

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Tagged crimea and ukraine | 57 Comments

David Laws says Councils should charge for bin collections. Or does he?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th March 2014 - 10:54 am

Today’s Telegraph says “David Laws: Councils should charge for bin collections”

It’s a headline designed to get you imagining piles of uncollected rubbish on the streets when people don’t pay. It’s designed to invoke all of your senses. The smell of waste left to putrify in the noonday sun, that tell-tale sound of scurrying little rodent feet, and then the sight of pink-eyed, hungry rats. Everywhere.

That unmistakeable smell of decay is already in your nostrils, isn’t it?

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Tagged bin collections, david laws and public administration committee | 16 Comments

Opinion: Ukraine is a crisis which we cannot back off from

By George Cunningham | Tue 18th March 2014 - 10:50 am

The insertion of Russian troops into the Crimea has profound implications for the security of Europe. It is like Europe has been awoken from a deep, snug slumber.

At I said in the emergency debate on Ukraine at the Spring Conference in York last weekend, events in Crimea have shown Russia breaking every principle in the international law rule book. The fact that it has intervened covertly, supposedly to protect Ukrainians of Russian origin, has profound security implications for the European Union’s Eastern borders – and in particular in the Baltic States …

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Tagged ukraine | 54 Comments

Opinion: We need a Cornish Assembly

By Simon Rix | Tue 18th March 2014 - 9:22 am

You won’t be surprised to learn that I am working day and night to win back Truro and Falmouth for the Lib Dems. You may also know that this year marks the 40^th anniversary of the first time David Penhaligon was elected as the MP for Truro.

Yes, he was a liberal hero to many people across the Country, but if ever there was someone who stood up for Cornwall and the Cornish people it was David Penhaligon.

He knew that Cornwall has its own language and its own vibrant culture but he …

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Tagged cornish assembly and cornwall | 29 Comments

Opinion: A fair tax revolution: Our most important manifesto commitment

By Gareth Wilson | Mon 17th March 2014 - 10:28 am

A highlight of last week’s Spring Conference for me was Friday’s consultative Q&A session on the next manifesto. Lots of great ideas were suggested, ranging from river based power generators in flood prone areas to encouraging home work to reduce traffic congestion and CO2 emissions.

What stuck with me was David Law’s appeal for ‘manifesto themes’. There were lots of good suggestions but the majority were small scale – great ideas but difficult to tie into a strong simple theme we can get across to voters.

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Tagged liberal democrat manifesto and tax | 12 Comments

Jenny Willott writes… How Lib Dems are giving families choice through shared parental leave and flexible working

By Jenny Willott | Sun 16th March 2014 - 8:55 am

As a mother with two small children myself, I know how hard it can be to balance work and family life. And as a Lib Dem, I firmly believe in equal opportunities for all and tackling discrimination, whatever form it takes.

So I am really excited that with Lib Dems in Government, we are shaking up the status quo to make it easier for parents with young children to arrange their work/life balance however best suits them.

We need to challenge the old-fashioned …

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Tagged childcare, children, flexible working, jenny willott, parenting and shared parental leave | 2 Comments

Suspicions of Lib-Labbery

By Joe Otten | Fri 14th March 2014 - 12:39 pm

14 Areas that they now agree on screams the headline. The Daily Mail and (behind the paywall) The Times are reporting on the degree of policy convergence appearing between the Liberal Democrats and Labour.

While Tory strategists admit they struggle to envisage reaching agreement on plans for another five years of power-sharing with the Lib Dems, Labour now agrees with Nick Clegg’s party on a broad range of issues.

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45 Comments

Paul Burstow writes… Realising the potential of an ageing society

By Paul Burstow | Thu 13th March 2014 - 4:14 pm

Last summer, Nick Clegg asked me to chair a working group looking at the issues of an ageing society and how Government should respond.

The UK population is living longer and today there are more people over the age of 65 in the UK than there are children under 15. This change is a direct consequence of public policy, of bearing down on preventable deaths. But an unsophisticated debate about the impact of ageing has portrayed this as a disaster. Our everyday language tends to stigmatise, portraying ageing as a threat and older people as burdens hogging resources and hoarding assets.

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11 Comments

Opinion: Knock on doors in diverse communities with confidence

By Issan Ghazni | Thu 13th March 2014 - 10:46 am

Later this month Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats will be holding the first of several action days in Brent Central to help the excellent Ibrahim Taguri get elected.

We will also be doing everything we can to encourage party members to get out and secure a victory for Ibrahim in 2015.

On paper this may look like an uphill task – defending a wafer-thin majority against Labour in a highly multicultural seat. But it really isn’t, and here’s why…

Let’s tear up any assumptions that Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities are wedded to Labour.

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4 Comments

Paul Burstow MP writes…Government makes concessions on Care Bill

By Paul Burstow | Wed 12th March 2014 - 6:16 pm

Over the last week I have been working with 38 degrees who ran a strong campaign raising concerns about a key clause in the Care Bill that made changes to the way in which a hospital in serious financial or clinical trouble would be handled in the NHS.

Trust special administration (TSA) as it is known, was introduced by Labour in 2009. It is a blunt process that should only ever be used in exceptional circumstances of financial or clinical failure.

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Tagged care bill and NHS | 15 Comments

Opinion: York conference debates tough UK approach to Ukraine crisis

By Paul Reynolds | Wed 12th March 2014 - 3:45 pm

At our spring conference in York, there was an emergency ‘Topical Debate’ on the Ukraine crisis.

The debate reflected United Kingdom attitudes to the Ukraine crisis, but there were some far-reaching implications for some of the views expressed. Importantly, the UK was a signatory to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, whereby Ukraine gave up its massive nuclear weapons stockpile in return for full guarantees of its territorial integrity – an agreement now clearly breached by one of its other signatories, the Russian Federation.

Today, the UK has military surveillance aircraft flying along the Polish and Romanian borders with Ukraine, monitoring Russian military activity, and military assets also monitoring Southern Ukraine including Crimea, and its Russian borders. If diplomacy fails, the UK would almost certainly be involved in any military measures that follow.

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Tagged liberal democrat spring conference 2014 and ukraine | 25 Comments