Category Archives: Op-eds

Jemima Bland

Opinion: Immigration – the shades of grey

By Jemima Bland | Wed 18th December 2013 - 9:51 am

Immigration remains a toxic topic for politicians in Britain – but those of us in the political centre cannot afford to dodge this debate, or we risk standing by while Britain becomes a country known for xenophobia, not tolerance.

Across the UK, people are facing a tough Christmas this year. If you can pay your electricity bill without too much trouble this winter, you’re one of the lucky ones. Many argue that immigration, or immigrants, are somehow to blame for this hardship. After all – ‘they’ are taking our jobs, using up our welfare budget, and filling up our local A&E …

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Alisdair Calder McGregor

Opinion: Teresa May’s Right Hand doesn’t know what her Hard Right hand is doing

By Alisdair Calder McGregor | Tue 17th December 2013 - 5:16 pm

teresamayThe leaks from the Home Office of Tory plans over immigration, rightly shot down as illegal by Nick , are the mark of a Tory Party abandoning moderate politics to placate its increasingly vocal right wing.

But the juxtaposition of Tory isolationist leanings with yesterday’s official announcement from the home secretary on modern slavery exposes the total lack of joined up thinking within the Tories on trafficking & immigration.

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James Shaddock

Opinion: As Liberals, we must stand up For sex workers

By James Shaddock | Tue 17th December 2013 - 4:38 pm

Today, 17th December, is the 10th International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. It seeks to raise awareness of the violence and hate experienced by sex workers around the world and help fight the stigma, discrimination and persecution brought on by society’s attitudes towards sex work and dangerous prohibitionist laws.

It’s is all the more poignant this year following the anti-sex work actions that have occurred throughout 2013. From Rhoda Grant’s attempt to criminalise the purchase of sex in Scotland, to the condom ban in Edinburgh saunas, through to the recent raids in Soho only two weeks ago, the …

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Steve Webb MP

Steve Webb writes… 2 Millionth Person auto enrolled into a workplace pension

By Steve Webb MP | Mon 16th December 2013 - 5:24 pm

Today, the latest figures for the number of people placed into a workplace pension have been announced, and I am delighted to say that the 2 millionth person has now been auto enrolled into a pension.

It is essential that workers are encouraged to save towards their retirement, if they wish to maintain a standard of living comparable to what they have grown accustomed to whilst earning a wage. In the year leading up to the start of the scheme, across the private sector, only one worker out of three had any pension at all from their job – and …

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Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb writes… A once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix our health and care system

By Norman Lamb MP | Mon 16th December 2013 - 12:58 pm

In 1997 Tony Blair told the Labour Party conference “I don’t want brought up in a country where the only way pensioners can get long-term care is by selling their home.” And yet speaking to the Health Select Committee in 2010, in Labour’s final months in office, Andy Burnham said, “every member of the Cabinet believed social care to be an area that had not been properly reformed and was one of great unfairness”. In thirteen years of talk, and promises, Labour did nothing to fix our dysfunctional, and profoundly unfair, system of funding social care.

In …

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David Boyle

Opinion: This could be the historic moment the banks shift

By David Boyle | Mon 16th December 2013 - 8:34 am

Tuesday will see one of those moments which may prove a turning point in the development of an effective UK banking system.

That is the day that the banks will reveal the geographical spread of their lending, down to 9,000 different postcode levels.

It is the culmination of a major effort by Lib Dems in the House of Lords earlier in the last two years, with a great deal of help from elsewhere, to make sure that this happened.

It is also a creative moment of possibility – not to criticise the banks, because they need to be given the credit for this …

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Sarah Yong

Postcard from China: Reflections from a visit to Guangdong province (Part 1)

By Sarah Yong | Sun 15th December 2013 - 9:07 am

After returning from my first ever trip to China, I felt a ‘postcard’ was in order to summarise this wonderful experience. It was a huge honour to be asked to represent our Party along with fellow Chinese Lib Dems Merlene Emmerson, Alex Payton and Steven Cheung on this visit by official invitation of the Chinese Government in the Guandong province in Southern China. The trip was organised by the British Chinese Project, a not for profit organisation that works to increase awareness and greater engagement in politics by the British Chinese population. Our sixteen strong delegation included representatives from all …

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Paul Reynolds

Opinion: Political deference to today’s orthodoxy is the UK’s economic problem

By Paul Reynolds | Fri 13th December 2013 - 10:54 am

All three main political parties in the UK today broadly accept the Bank of England’s (BoE’s) programme of buying the paper ‘assets’ of banks with printed money – worthless and valuable alike (quantitative easing – QE). There are few dissenters, but I am one of them.

My dissenting post-2008 remedy was a managed partial default/bankruptcy of the UK’s insolvent banks with a quick operational reboot, on the grounds that it would be cheaper than a printed-money ‘bankers subsidy’. The quantity of intricately interwoven bad assets was unknown, and thus the UK government was subsidising a pig-in-a-poke, I believed.

But hey ho we …

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Nick T

Lib Dems should aim for a budget surplus not because the Tories want to, but because it is right

By Nick T | Thu 12th December 2013 - 1:54 pm

All parties have a mixture of deficit hawks and doves – those who believe in balanced budgets and those who aren’t too bothered. The Lib Dems are no exception, but I think we are different in the motivations underlying these positions.

Many Tories often seem to see deficit reduction as an end in and of itself, not even necessarily because they want to see a smaller state and lower taxes, but simply because their ideology teaches that budget deficits are Bad Things.

And in recent years, some Labour figures have begun to sound like their ideology teaches that budget deficits are inherently …

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Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb MP writes…Have your say on dementia care

By Norman Lamb MP | Thu 12th December 2013 - 12:36 pm

Back in 2008, when I was Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, I spoke out about poor diagnosis rates for dementia sufferers, saying that “the NHS must do more to ensure people are encouraged to seek early help and that they have access to care from their GP, specialist assessment and accurate diagnosis.” Dementia diagnosis rates across the country vary significantly – and although they are improving, they are still not good enough. And, while there is some excellent dementia care – there has also been much that is inadequate.

I could never have imagined then that – 5 years on – …

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Paul Stocker

Opinion: Ukip’s not-so-respectable European allies

By Paul Stocker | Thu 12th December 2013 - 11:27 am

Recently, Nigel Farage rejected the overtures and offer of alliance from the French Far Right party, Front Nationale, led by Marine Le Pen, stating “Whatever Marine Le Penn is trying to do with Le Front National, anti-Semitism, is still deeply embedded in that party, and for that principle political reason, we are not going to work with them now, or at any point in the future”. The alliance also included the Dutch Freedom Party, led by blonde bombshell, Geert Wilders – famous for his anti-Islam tirades.

This attempt by Farage to place Ukip in the ‘respectable’ wing of European politics …

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Stephen Tall

‘Good’ gender segregation and ‘bad’ gender segregation?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 12th December 2013 - 9:08 am

universities_uk logoI’ve just heard the Chief Executive of Universities UK be put through the mill on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme following its decision to publish advice that gender segregation might not necessarily be discriminatory as long as “both men and women are being treated equally, as they are both being segregated in the same way”. The guidance – which you can read here – is specific to invited external speakers at meetings on university premises.

I do not like gender segregation. At all. Maybe it’s the result of having …

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Caron Lindsay

Better in Cameron’s Black Book than on the Statute Book

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 11th December 2013 - 11:55 am

“The Lib Dems have held us back, says Cameron” screams today’s Daily Mail headline. Yes, it’s the Prime Minister showing that he can play the differentiation game too.

If there’s one thing that David Cameron and Nick Clegg can agree on, it’s that the Liberal Democrats and the Tories have divergent views on many issues. Both will take every opportunity to point that out to anyone who will listen.

The Daily Mail quotes Cameron’s interview with the Spectator in which he says that Nick Clegg has stopped him doing all sorts of things he would love to do. None of this is …

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Steve Bradley

Opinion: Our liberal identity crisis

By Steve Bradley | Mon 9th December 2013 - 3:34 pm

Does anyone know why the Liberal Democrats exist ? It’s an important question.

IPSOS/Mori research in 2012 into voter perceptions found that 64% “don’t know what the Liberal Democrats stand for these days” (57% for Labour, 44% the Tories). This was echoed even amongst party supporters, with 41% of Lib Dem voters unclear (42% for Labour voters, 37% Conservatives). “Our polling now shows that the Liberal Democrats have the toughest task telling voters what they stand for”, the report concluded.

We need to acknowledge that our party has an identity challenge nationally, and blaming the coalition would be too convenient. …

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Joe Otten

Poverty at its lowest since 2004/5?

By Joe Otten | Mon 9th December 2013 - 10:55 am

A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (pdf) shows that 13 million people in the UK were in poverty in 2011/12, a poverty rate of 21% which, while still too high, is the lowest it has been since 2004/5.

There is a mixed picture behind this: improvements for pensioners and children, and declines for adults in work, the latter being the angle picked up by the BBC.

The data predates some of the more recent benefit changes, which are not likely to help, although even a 1% uprating of benefits will be faster than many people’s wages, which …

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The Voice

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By The Voice | Sun 8th December 2013 - 2:00 pm

Many thanks to the 16,600  visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Opinion: Child taken from the womb by social services.  Really?( 137 comments) by Evan Harris

Jo Swinson takes on Daily Mail’s Liz Jones, who thinks she shouldn’t be “procreating” (11 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Hemming helps woman in forced caesarean and adoption case (28 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Times: “The increasingly confident and powerful Mr Clegg” (28 comments) by Newshound

Opinion: Women must stop stepping into the political shoes of men (45 comments) by Andy Boddington

Nelson Mandela: the long walk is …

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Also posted in Best of the blogs and Site news | Tagged | Leave a comment
Parmjit Singh Gill

Opinion: Nelson Mandela: A personal tribute

By Parmjit Singh Gill | Fri 6th December 2013 - 5:15 pm

Nelson Mandela commanded an enormous degree of respect from leaders across the world and will be a great loss to us all. He truly was one of the great souls of the last century along with Mahatma Gandhi who he credited with being a major source of inspiration in his life, especially with his philosophy of non-violence. Both Gandhi and Mandela were leaders who were imprisoned for years by oppressive regimes and now their statues share a place on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg, South Africa.

While Gandhi influenced Mandela, a young Gandhi himself was mentored by Dadabhai Naoroji who was the …

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Issan Ghazni

Opinion: The inspiration of Nelson Mandela

By Issan Ghazni | Fri 6th December 2013 - 3:56 pm

The passing of Nelson Mandela is a moment in history which has touched almost everyone as we reflect on the momentous achievements of the great man and compare them to his engagingly humble personality.

His belief in peace, non-violence and reconciliation mark him out in the same bracket as Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jnr and Mahatma Gandhi. His role as a freedom fighter and international symbol of resistance of Apartheid show an uncompromising spirit.

Mandela was a hero to most and his fight inspired many to get involved in the political process, perhaps more in the Liberals than any other British …

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David Gray

Opinion: Do you love this country?

By David Gray | Fri 6th December 2013 - 12:14 pm

One question asked by the Home Affairs Select Committee to Alan Rusbridger over the Snowden leaks should be of great concern to us all. During the often heated exchanges, Keith Vaz asked:

Do you love this country?

If we were told that in, for example, Russia, a committee of MPs were grilling a newspaper editor over his patriotic credentials, we would rightly condemn it as a worrying level of state pressure on the press. Just what were Vaz’s intentions behind that question? Would it have been held against Rusbridger if he had said ‘no’? We can only speculate. But, whether or …

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Opinion: Cash in your pocket or green fields on your doorstep?

By Andy Boddington | Fri 6th December 2013 - 10:48 am

Cash in your pocket or green fields on your doorstep?

Does anyone think the planning system is working? I don’t and neither do many communities and local councils. Ministers certainly don’t think so. Buried in the National Infrastructure Plan published on Tuesday are proposals for more planning reform (pdf). They are bad proposals.

One plan is to set up a specialist court to deal with planning disputes. That’s a good idea, but as with so much legislation under this government, the detail undermines the principle (for example, the Lobbying and Antisocial Behaviour bills). What the government is really aiming for here …

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Mary Reid

Nelson Mandela – the long walk is over

By Mary Reid | Fri 6th December 2013 - 7:18 am

nelson-mandelaBarack Obama described Nelson Mandela as ‘a hero for the world’ and it is difficult to think of another politician who was as admired globally as he was. Perhaps the only comparable figure is Mahatma Gandhi, who also began his public life as a lawyer working for the civil rights of South Africans.

However, while Gandhi practised non-violent civil disobediance throughout his life, Mandela moved towards militant opposition to apartheid. His transition in public perception from terrorist to saint has been unique.

In 1996 Mandela was granted the Freedom of the City of London. I was very privileged to be present at the event in London’s Guildhall.

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Also posted in Obituaries | Tagged and | 15 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Autumn statement – 5 quick thoughts from me

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 5th December 2013 - 2:54 pm

I don’t pretend to be an economist so don’t expect any commentary on debts or deficits from me. I want to take a very quick look at some of the practical aspects of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. You can read Stephen Tall’s take on it here.

I’m not taking any marriage tax break

If Liberal Democrats hadn’t allowed the Tories their awful marriage tax break, we’d have been breaking the Coalition Agreement in the same way as the Tories did over Lords Reform. I would have preferred we hadn’t agreed to it in the first place. We won’t be voting for …

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Stephen Tall

Autumn statement: George is jubilant, Ed blusters and Danny breathes a sigh of relief

By Stephen Tall | Thu 5th December 2013 - 1:50 pm

“A lot done, a lot left to do.” It’s the slogan that adorns many re-election campaigns and it’s the one George Osborne adopted in his autumn statement today. He was cautiously jubilant. Growth has returned with the OBR seemingly struggling to get its forecasts to keep up. Borrowing will fall – slower than the Chancellor forecast, true, but a cash surplus is expected within five years.

This gave the Coalition the wriggle room it needed for an assortment of giveaways… Free school meals for 5-7 year-olds, the personal income tax allowance to rise to £10k then be pegged to inflation, …

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Also posted in News | Tagged and | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Autumn Statement and the unreal economic debate in which everyone pretends the Coalition stuck to ‘Plan A’

By Stephen Tall | Thu 5th December 2013 - 10:15 am

It’s autumn statement day. George Osborne will stand at the despatch box of the House of Commons this afternoon and present his pre-budget report. The Guardian’s Martin Kettle sums up what it’s all about:

For the Conservatives, today is about redefining themselves – in the face of a run of seriously disappointing polls – as the party that feels the voters’ pain over energy prices, house price inflation, wind farms or payday loans – while still, boosted by yesterday’s strong economic surveys and the possible return of the UK’s AAA rating, managing a recovering economy more soundly than Labour. For

…

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Gordon Birtwistle MP

Gordon Birtwistle MP writes… Careers advice should reflect the value of apprenticeships

By Gordon Birtwistle MP | Wed 4th December 2013 - 3:17 pm

Apprenticeships are just a valuable as degrees – careers advice is vital to ensure this message is heard.

As Government Apprenticeship Ambassador to Business, my job is to advocate and promote apprenticeships to businesses, young people and schools across the country; working closely with the National Apprenticeship Service and BIS.

Over the next two years (and in the upcoming months) I will be visiting more schools, training providers, businesses including small and medium enterprises and apprentices to hear from a range of people and to establish how the Government can improve on apprenticeships.

So far we have been up and down the country …

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Opinion: Parental equality: a step, and only a step in the right direction

By Name Withheld | Wed 4th December 2013 - 2:30 pm

I heard the announcement by Nick Clegg regarding shared parental leave and I am pleased that the party is moving the arrangements into the 21st century and away from the 1950’s. I do though still have an internal sigh when I hear the debate only being framed as a “mummy and daddy” debate, when it is reported in the media.

Hearing this language personally annoys me, as it reinforces the view that a family is only correct if it is for one mother and one father. This is patent nonsense in the 21st century and causes subconscious bias towards parenting …

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Jenny Allen

The Independent View: Help, don’t judge – better uses for the £700 million marriage tax break cash

By Jenny Allen | Wed 4th December 2013 - 11:58 am

Don't judge advent calendarAnother Westminster set piece, another piece of the jigsaw for David Cameron’s marriage tax allowance. This Thursday the Chancellor gives his Autumn Statement. With the economic upturn shaky at best we can expect little in the way of good news and plenty more squeezing of budgets. Except, that is, for the little matter of the £700m the Conservatives are gearing up to spend on giving tax breaks for married couples. The Chancellor is expected to give more detail on this policy, which even its supporters believe is only of symbolic value.

With …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Will Crowne

The Independent View: Shareholder democracy should be for the many, not the few

By Will Crowne | Tue 3rd December 2013 - 3:28 pm

Whether it’s payday lenders or rising energy bills we’ve never been more interested in corporate behaviour. But despite the fact that through our pensions we own billions of pounds of holdings in British businesses, pension savers are shut out of the investment system and denied the opportunity to have their voices heard.

Legal & General’s decision to set up a pension fund AGM (PAGM) represents an important first step in spreading ‘shareholder democracy’ to the millions whose savings are managed through a pension fund.

Shareholder democracy means giving shareholders the rights and means to hold companies to account – making …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
The Voice

Christmas present ideas from the LDV team and friends – Day 3

By The Voice | Tue 3rd December 2013 - 2:45 pm

Welcome to Day 3 of our  series of Christmas present ideas. Today it’s the turn of Mary Reid.

Sweet-ToothSweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan has written another masterful novel, set in the murky world of MI5 in the 1970s. The outcome is actually given away in the first paragraph, but the final chapter is still surprising and revelatory. In between, we follow a young and seemingly ill-prepared recruit to the service as she is given the task of subverting a novelist. She had herself been introduced to MI5 by an older …

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Julian Huppert

Julian Huppert MP writes…Tackling child abuse online: Doing what works

By Julian Huppert | Tue 3rd December 2013 - 1:10 pm

Thanks to a number of national police forces, led by the Canadians, working together 341 child abusers have been arrested and almost 400 children being held as sex slaves have been freed in recent months. That is fantastic news.

However, not one of those was in Britain.

2,345 British suspects had been identified by the authorities in Toronto, some of whom are feared to have regular contact with children, and these were passed to CEOP, the specialist police centre, but astonishingly, no action was taken on our side for 18 months.

It appears that whilst the Prime Minister has a number of great …

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