Category Archives: Op-eds

Andrew Emmerson

Opinion: Selling off the student loan book isn’t such a bad idea

By Andrew Emmerson | Thu 28th November 2013 - 8:55 am

Josh Dixon has written about why he feels selling off the student loan book from the 90’s is a worrying prospect for graduates. Whilst there are rightful concerns raised, the piece fails to clarify some important points about the working of debt and the economic sense behind the most recent sale

The article specifically alludes to the face value of the last student loan book which was around £900 million which was then sold off for £160 million. Whilst this may seem like a massive loss on the most superficial of levels, it is important to understand the other facts …

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Lord Roger Roberts

Lord Roger Roberts writes…Please try to prevent the imminent death of a seeker of sanctuary

By Lord Roger Roberts | Wed 27th November 2013 - 4:55 pm

Yesterday I met Mr Isa Muaza who, until last night, was due to be forced on to a plane to Nigeria this evening. Though his removal directions have been moved – and set – for 29 November he remains at death’s door.

Isa is a failed asylum seeker who has been held in detention at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre. The case is one of enforced removal, although very little real force will be necessary in his case. He has been on hunger strike and has lost 40% of his body mass. He is close to death.

Isa was not well when …

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Caron Lindsay

Clegg: Shoving new mums aside is unfair and bad for the economy

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th November 2013 - 2:34 pm

From Monday’s Scotsman:

MOTHERS often feel “shoved aside” in the workplace because they have had children, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has warned.

He said the problem was “far too common” and was not only unfair but also bad for the economy.

The Liberal Democrat leader said there was a need to dramatically change working practices to adapt to the realities of modern family life.

Mr Clegg’s comments came as a survey showed three quarters of women who returned to work after having a child thought it made it harder to progress in their career.

He went on to say:

It is sadly still far

…

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Andrew Stunell MP

Andrew Stunell MP writes…Keep free EU movement and end the dodges

By Andrew Stunell MP | Wed 27th November 2013 - 11:12 am

I signed up to the ‘European project’ a decade before I joined the Liberals. It was an instinctive reaction to working on refugee resettlement schemes in Germany and Austria. Even in the early ’60s there were still a million “displaced persons” living in camps in western Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War. That should remain a stark reminder to complacent euro-sceptics that spending time grizzling about straight bananas risks a lot more than a million or two British jobs and our country’s shrinkage to a world micro power. That’s what makes being the Party of “In” a …

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Joshua Dixon

Opinion: Why the student loan privatisation is a worrying prospect for graduates

By Joshua Dixon | Wed 27th November 2013 - 8:57 am

For the first time in five years, the UK has seen a 4% rise in unsecured borrowing – the figure now amasses to an eye-watering £216bn. A report by Price Waterhouse Coopers revealed that this £8.5bn rise was almost entirely due to the rise in student borrowing. Students starting University, on average, are set to be straddled with debt that of £40 – 50,000.

As a graduate, already worrying about clearing my debt, the Government has given me more cause for worry. This week, the sale of the mortgage-style student loans taken out between 1990 and 1998 took place. …

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David Gray

Opinion: Which side are we on?

By David Gray | Tue 26th November 2013 - 8:53 am

RBS logoAllegations have recently come to light that RBS engaged in a programme of ‘deliberately wrecking small businesses’ in order to seize their assets on the cheap and boost their own profits. The case is another story in which we, the public, are shocked but not surprised. The response of the government and, in particular, Vince Cable will be watched very closely indeed.

It is interesting to view this story in the light of other recent events.

Take the sale of a student loans book to an investment consortium at a price …

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore writes… Hullabaloo Tuesday

By Michael Moore | Mon 25th November 2013 - 2:24 pm

Heard much about the referendum lately?

I only ask because there is a curious phenomenon at play in Scotland at present.

Never mind “Will you be voting ‘Yes’ or No’ next year?”: the real divide in Scotland seems to be between those who think they have heard too much from politicians already and those who think they have heard nothing at all.

To campaigners on both sides of the ‘great debate’ this latter camp is intensely frustrating.

At my last count (I am in recovery now), the UK government had published over 600 pages of analysis and argument. The slackers at …

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Elizabeth Adams

Opinion: Remember, remember the 25th of November

By Elizabeth Adams | Mon 25th November 2013 - 11:26 am

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and is also White Ribbon Day.

It has been just over 2 months since we passed my motion at conference that called for further and stronger measures to tackle domestic violence. This set out our commitment to standing up for victims and making tackling domestic abuse a priority for Liberal Democrats for beyond 2015.

Today is a day to recognise the huge fight we still have ahead of us in stamping out, what is an abuse of human rights. Many local organisations will be carrying out days of activism and …

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Opinion: Let many flowers bloom (though not too many Flowers)

By Anonymous Liberal | Mon 25th November 2013 - 9:51 am

The Cooperative scandal, it’s got the lot.

Sex + drugs + religion + money = media feeding frenzy.

Liberals mustn’t join in too much. Especially where mutual ownership and public services are concerned.

Like the Cooperative Bank, most mutuals and co-ops operate in market conditions. Unlike it, most are small. In public service, as free collaborations, mutuals provide an alternative to collective state monoliths. In commerce, properly run, they avoid public companies’ shareholder short-termism. Indeed, in some ownership models, they confer real power on consumers. The Cooperative Party gives Labour significant reach across mutual enterprises. But it doesn’t control all …

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Richard Wingfield

Opinion: Why Liberal Democrats should support lowering the age of consent

By Richard Wingfield | Sat 23rd November 2013 - 2:30 pm

Liberal Democrats have long-championed the rights of young people. We were the first major party to call for the voting age to be lowered to 16. We were the only party in 2010 which committed to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into UK law. In government, we have ended the detention of children for immigration purposes. But in one area of personal freedom and development, we remain distinctly illiberal: the age of consent.

In response to the recent calls from Professor John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health, to lower the age of consent …

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Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb writes… How Liberal Democrats are promoting safety and openness in the NHS

By Norman Lamb MP | Sat 23rd November 2013 - 8:45 am

nhs sign lrgAs a Liberal Democrat, my priority for the NHS is simple. I want patients to have the best possible care. When people are ill and vulnerable, they deserve safe and compassionate care provided by doctors and nurses with the best possible training and medical expertise. And people need to know that, when mistakes are made, doctors will be open with them – and that lessons will be learnt.

What happened at Mid Staffs Hospital was a shocking scandal. The stories of neglect sent shock waves across the country. This Government …

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Julian Huppert

Julian Huppert MP writes… EU budget boost secures UK’s position as world leader in science

By Julian Huppert | Fri 22nd November 2013 - 3:35 pm

Europe Day - European Union - Some rights reserved by Niccolò CarantiI heard some good news this week. It may not have grabbed the headlines, but the UK economy was given a colossal shot in the arm thanks to the European Union.

Lib Dem MEPs on Tuesday voted for an EU budget, which was overall lower – a 6.5 per cent cut – but crucially included a 30 per cent increase in funding for research and innovation. This is important funding, and a clear sign of what can be achieved to help …

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Willie Rennie

Willie Rennie MSP writes…Equal marriage is an important step to a fairer society

By Willie Rennie | Fri 22nd November 2013 - 1:49 pm

Most people know that politicians can sometimes talk up goings on in Parliament in the hope of gaining a bit of newspaper coverage. Observers of Scottish politics will be familiar with claims that this or that debate marks a momentous change from what has gone before.

But this week at Holyrood we discussed legislation that can legitimately be described as historic. There is no need to exaggerate the impact it will have because it is plain to see that this Bill will change the lives of thousands of Scots around the country.an act that offers same-sex couples the same protections and …

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Phil Bennion

Phil Bennion MEP writes… Anti-Bullying Week: The EU has a duty to share best practice on Autism-related bullying

By Phil Bennion | Fri 22nd November 2013 - 10:26 am

This week is Anti-Bullying Week, now an annual UK event. It aims to raise awareness of bullying of children and young people and people with conditions such as autistic spectrum disorders which make them particularly vulnerable to abuse. Organised by the Anti Bullying Alliance (ABA) in England, which is made up of sixty member organisations, the week is an important opportunity for policy-makers to take stock of efforts to stamp out this social evil and evaluate new approaches.

As MEP for the West Midlands region, I have always believed that the European Union has an important role to play in …

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Nick T

JFK: educator of the nation or a presidential achiever?

By Nick T | Fri 22nd November 2013 - 8:52 am

John F KennedyOn Monday 7 August 1962, Arthur Schlesinger, liberal historian and adviser to President John F Kennedy, had lunch at the White House with a friend of his, Harvard historian Frank Freidel. Naturally enough, the pair stopped off in the Oval Office for Freidel to be introduced to the president.

Among the things discussed was an article written by Schlessinger’s father, also a very accomplished historian, and published the previous month in The New York Times Magazine. In the piece, Schlessinger Sr published the results of a poll of 75 leading …

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Roger Williams MP

Roger Williams MP writes…Protecting children from second-hand smoke

By Roger Williams MP | Thu 21st November 2013 - 12:59 pm

Too many children in the UK are still being regularly exposed to high concentrations of second-hand smoke in cars. This exposure can have detrimental effects on children’s health due to their smaller lungs and less developed immune systems. The Royal College of Physicians published a report collating all available evidence on second-hand smoke to show how it affects children’s health. They found that there were 300,000 GP visits by children every year, there were 165,000 new episodes of disease and 9,500 admissions to hospital every year in the UK because of passive smoke.

In 2007, legislation to ban smoking in public …

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Lynne Featherstone

Lynne Featherstone writes…Giving residents a say on High St redevelopment

By Lynne Featherstone | Thu 21st November 2013 - 10:43 am

International Development minister Lynne Featherstone writes a monthly column for one of her local newspapers. Here is the latest one…..

I declare an interest in Hornsey High Street. My constituency office is based there, above the Three Compasses pub! As such, I spend a lot of time on the High Street – popping into the shops and cafes and talking to local residents.

The old Depot site on the High Street (almost opposite the pub) has been a point of contention for many years. Parts of the site have been derelict since 1998 and the land is desperately underused, as Labour-run Haringey Council …

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William Hobhouse

Opinion: Time to rethink Co-operation

By William Hobhouse | Thu 21st November 2013 - 9:02 am

When we moved to Rochdale in 1999, we could hardly fail to take pride that the town was not only the birthplace of Gracie Fields, but of the Co-operative Movement. Moving our banking to the Co-op seemed the right thing to do, and national events a few years ago reaffirmed our commitment to being part of a movement that did things differently.

It is only in the last few years – well before the latest scandal – that I have become disillusioned with the business that purports to have inherited the values and practices of …

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Giles Goodall

Opinion: The Sun’s correction to “benefit tourists” claim goes viral

By Giles Goodall | Wed 20th November 2013 - 3:33 pm

sun benefit tourists correctionLast month, the Sunday Telegraph ran a scurrilous story claiming there were ‘600,000 unemployed EU migrants living in Britain’. On closer inspection, it turned out that the real number of (non-British) EU citizens claiming jobseeker’s allowance was just 38,000, according to DWP estimates. But the story had in the meantime been replicated by the usual suspects (the Sun, Mail and Express), leading me to write a piece to correct some of the most common myths about EU free movement.

I’m pleased to report that in a minor …

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Caron Lindsay

Nick, you’re right on UKIP’s ideas but please ditch the “unpatriotic”

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 20th November 2013 - 12:29 pm

London loves Business reports Nick Clegg’s recent comments on UKIP.

I think the view represented by UKIP, large parts of the Conservative Party and Paul Sykes is a betrayal of the national interest and an unpatriotic approach because it would leave many people poorer, it would leave us weaker as a country and it would throw many people out of work, and I can’t possibly see why anyone thinks that that is something that in any way represents the long-term national interest.

On the substantive point, he’s absolutely right. Leaving the EU would isolate us, cost jobs, lose us access to …

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Stephen Tall

Nick Boles calls for National Liberal revival AKA Nick Boles invents a safe space for nice people well away from the Tories

By Stephen Tall | Tue 19th November 2013 - 8:30 pm

nick bolesNick Boles is the Conservative planning minister, one of the few Tories to take the housing crisis seriously and to risk unpopularity within his own party by making clear we need to build more homes.

He has, for instance, said ‘The sum of human happiness that is created by the houses that are being built is vastly greater than the economic, social and environmental value of a field that was growing wheat or rape’ knowing this would be crudely characterised as wanting to ‘concrete the countryside’. He has developed …

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The Voice

Nick Clegg: “I’m extremely proud to be part of a government that looks to the future of LGBT rights.”

By The Voice | Tue 19th November 2013 - 9:08 am

nick clegg pointingIn an interview for Pink News, to mark yesterday’s 10th Anniversary of the repeal of Section 28, Nick Clegg said:

Section 28 was a divisive piece of legislation that should remain consigned to the constitutional graveyard forever. We have made tremendous strides as a country in securing greater LGBT rights since then – not least in securing the landmark legislation to secure equal marriage that I have supported for years.

There is of course further to go, particularly to help put a stop to homophobic bullying in schools. I’m extremely proud to be part of a government that looks to the future of LGBT rights.

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Caroline Pidgeon

Caroline Pidgeon writes: Making our roads safer for everyone

By Caroline Pidgeon | Mon 18th November 2013 - 7:32 pm

Yesterday was World Day of Remembrance of Road Traffic Victims.

After the events of recent weeks such a day has incredible significance this year. Just at the weekend a cyclist was killed in Bath in a hit and run accident. And now just minutes ago I have heard that yet another cyclist has died in a crash with a lorry in London.

In less than two weeks the capital has seen six cyclists killed – with today’s latest fatality the number of cyclists already killed matches the total figure for 2012. I …

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Iain Donaldson

Opinion: Help me deliver a workers’ bonus

By Iain Donaldson | Mon 18th November 2013 - 2:32 pm

Nick Clegg has this week called for a further increase in the basic tax threshold of £500, which would cost around £1bn and put an extra £10 a week into peoples pockets. It is a good call but it’s not the best call.

National Insurance is in theory is a tax that is hypothecated to pay for our pensions, our unemployment benefits and other aspects of social security, but in reality all of our social benefits are subsidised out of general taxation. What it does however do economically is constrain the poorest paid in our society in …

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Mark Pack

Opinion: California Governor’s success is a promising sign for Nick Clegg’s political approach

By Mark Pack | Mon 18th November 2013 - 12:42 pm

Jerry Brown, American pioneer of small-donor funded, technologically innovative, grassroots Presidential campaigns (see 1992 and his use of freephone numbers), three times failed Presidential candidate and former Governor of California, has had a remarkably successful last few years – thanks to be re-elected as Governor nearly thirty years after he last left the post.

On a range of progressive issues, such as climate change and immigration reform, Brown has been using his power as the Governor of a state whose economy would be the 12th largest in the world if it were an independent country. Progress on them may be stalled …

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Lizzy Roberts

Opinion: Jo Swinson’s latest campaign is certainly more than average

By Lizzy Roberts | Sun 17th November 2013 - 10:30 am

I love shopping. I’m not afraid to admit it and frankly if I had to say I were addicted to one thing, it would be buying dresses; daytime dresses, smart dresses, dresses I know I’ll never wear because they’re just plain weird but I justified them as ‘individual’ at the time. I reckon there are many women in Britain who could admit to the same sort of love for clothes shopping. What draws me in though isn’t the colour or the number of sequins (well sometimes it’s because of the sequins), but the whole shopping experience in general. A good …

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Gareth Wilson

Opinion: the Government’s obsession with London is holding back our creative industries – and the recovery

By Gareth Wilson | Fri 15th November 2013 - 4:21 pm

As a failed rock guitarist but still passionate consumer of music I always look forward to the Mercury Music awards at the end of October, and this year’s nominees were as interesting and eclectic as they usually are. What wasn’t as diverse was where these acts originated from. Over 60% were from the Greater London area and only four were from outside the south east of England, which is surprising when you consider the award covers the whole of the UK and Ireland. It seems the advice I heard fifteen years ago during my short and unsuccessful music career is …

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Ruth Bright

Opinion: Clegg’s big fat gypsy blunder

By Ruth Bright | Fri 15th November 2013 - 11:50 am

Once a week I stay with a relative in South London. I am not talking here about Nick Clegg’s South London (a Putney, Wimbledon or Clapham) but about a very different South London – the border between Camberwell and Peckham. The Guardian-reading euphemism would be that Camberwell and Peckham are “vibrant and diverse” places. The upshot of some of that diversity is that at all times of the night people hang around chatting in the street, especially in the summer. In a ground floor flat late at night it sometimes feels a bit intimidating. I have never talked about this …

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Stephen Tall

Nightmare scenarios: what are the 2015 election results the Lib Dems, Tories and Labour most dread?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 15th November 2013 - 10:05 am

clegg cameron milibandHere’s a cheerful topic for a Friday: what are the worst results you could imagine for each of the three main parties at the next general election?

Well, for the Lib Dems it’s obvious – we get mullered, reduced to 24 seats or fewer as predicted by Mori founder Bob Worcester. I don’t think things will be that bad, or anything like. For what it’s worth my current guesstimate would be in the range 35-45.

I don’t think that’s our nightmare scenario though. Don’t get me wrong, losing more …

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Mark Valladares

Opinion: how much is that MP really worth?

By Mark Valladares | Fri 15th November 2013 - 9:21 am

Isn’t the free market wonderful? It allows bankers to be paid vast sums of money, yet should never be applied to the public sector. After all, heaven forfend that such people should earn a salary that reflects their market value.

In the midst of the debate about MP’s and their energy bill claims, the general view appeared to be that they earn too much anyway, and that their relative wealth makes them incapable of understanding what real people go through.

But, where is the serious discussion about what represents a realistic salary for a Member of Parliament? The usual cry of, “A …

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