Category Archives: Op-eds

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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Gillian Guy

The Independent View: Judicial review changes would advance state powers at expense of individual freedom

By Gillian Guy | Thu 14th November 2013 - 3:59 pm

In its 2010 Manifesto, the Liberal Democrats pledged to ‘restore and protect hard-won British liberties’.  The Government’s consultation on judicial review, which closed this week, could result in a radical shift of power from individuals to the state. If this happens, the legal system and the people who depend on it for fair treatment will be weaker for it.

Plans from the Ministry of Justice to introduce serious restrictions on access to judicial review will make it much harder for people to challenge the execution of public power on behalf of an individual citizen.

The Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has argued that …

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Eric Avebury

Lord (Eric) Avebury writes…Pakistan’s Army stands firm against the Taliban

By Eric Avebury | Thu 14th November 2013 - 10:28 am

The Pakistan Army’s Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) has condemned Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Chief Syed Munawar Hassan’s statement in which he called former Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Chief Hakimullah Mehsud a martyr.

In fact, Mehsud was a mass murderer, motivated by implacable religious hatred, and his killing by a US drone on November 1 was fully deserved. Under his leadership the TTP slaughtered Pakistani soldiers and civilians, men women and children indiscriminately. He targeted Shia Muslims, of whom 700 have been killed so far this year.

The objective of the TTP is to overthrow the state of Pakistan and to replace it with …

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Caron Lindsay

Carmichael: 3 questions the SNP must answer on currency, pensions and costs after independence

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 13th November 2013 - 3:35 pm

Carmichael Inverness speech

In the beautiful surroundings of Bishop’s House in Inverness, Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael gave his first keynote speech. The whole thing is published below the cut, but here are the highlights:

  • The Highlands and Islands have never been better represented in Government – a boy from Colonsay and a boy from Orkney in the Cabinet.
  • How you vote in the referendum does not determine how Scottish you are – once you start mixing patriotism and politics, you quickly get into dangerous territory.
  • The UK’s greatest hits. He said it wasn’t a list of them, but it so was. And pretty compelling, too.
  • 3 questions for the SNP:
  • What’s your Plan B if we can’t have a currency union between Scotland and the rest of the UK?
  • How much more will pensions cost us if we leave the UK?
  • How much will independence cost?

I get the feeling these 3 are the start of many. Overall, it’s a strong speech delivered with humour, passion and sharpness. He’s put the Nationalists on notice that he’s going to be very specific with them. They won’t get away with squealing about who they want to debate, or how Scottish anyone is,

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Opinion: Lib Dem Voice compromised its independent voice with Heathrow sponsored post

By Andy Boddington | Wed 13th November 2013 - 3:02 pm

LDV Heathrow advertLib Dem Voice got it wrong yesterday publishing a propaganda article on behalf of Heathrow Hub. It compromised its integrity. It undermined its independent voice.

In my view, it is wrong in principle and wrong in practice to take the corporate shilling for editorial content.

The post on Lib Dem Voice yesterday came just three days into Heathrow’s big money PR offensive on “the plan for a quieter Heathrow expansion that isn’t being heard”, which began with a full page advertisement in the Sunday Times. Advertising is fine. But advertorials in a political context are not. They distort the editorial process because “he who pays the piper, calls the tune.”

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Simon Calvert

The Independent View: Anti-Social Behaviour Bill – A new legal threat to public protest

By Simon Calvert | Wed 13th November 2013 - 12:24 pm

The Coalition Government is introducing a law which could seriously hit the right to protest. The Home Office wants to replace Labour’s ASBOs with something called an IPNA – Injunction Preventing Nuisance or Annoyance. But the threshold is so low and the safeguards are so weak that it could catch ordinary legitimate protest, charity collectors, or even street performers.

An IPNA could apply inside a private dwelling (ie your own house) as well as in a public place. It could apply to any activity which has merely the ‘potential’ to be annoying or a nuisance. Courts can grant an IPNA on …

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 13th November 2013 - 10:25 am

 Mike Moore rocket look of wonderment croppedLiberal Democrat MP Michael Moore writes a regular column for newspapers in his Borders Constituency. Here is the latest edition. 

Apprenticeships Campaign

Over the last few months, I have been campaigning to encourage local businesses to take on apprentices. I have visited many businesses across the constituency to see how they have managed to create very successful apprenticeship schemes.

As part of this ongoing campaign to increase apprenticeships in the Borders, last week I visited Hawick Cashmere to meet the apprentices there.

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Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow writes … we must pay greater attention to the mental health needs of children

By Paul Burstow | Tue 12th November 2013 - 5:40 pm

The recent report from the Chief Medical Officer, Prof Dame Sally Davies, on children’s health makes for sobering reading. Together with warnings about a lack of physical activity, and vitamin deficiencies, the need to pay greater attention to the mental health of our children and young people came out painfully clearly.

Current estimates put the annual costs of mental health problems among children aged 5-15 at around £2.35 billion across the UK. Yet only around one in four children are receiving help from specialist services within 3 years, and, as the report’s atlas of variation reveals, access may be most …

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Stephen Lloyd

Stephen Lloyd writes… It’s all about the jobs!

By Stephen Lloyd | Tue 12th November 2013 - 3:08 pm

Stephen Lloyd with Matt Hancock MP, the Minister for Skills & Unemployment Stephen Lloyd with Matt Hancock MP, the Minister for Skills & Unemployment

The “jobs agenda” is one of the top priorities for all Liberal Democrats; whether you’re an activist on the doorstep, someone who is concerned for the future of our young people – or indeed a parliamentarian. I happen to be all three!

In Government, our party has actively pursued policies that are enabling many people to benefit from work and to a greater extent, they are working! Almost one and a half million new private sector jobs have been created; a million new apprenticeships are getting our young people into work and Liberal Democrat policies are helping businesses grow with the £3.2 billion Regional Growth Fund.

We have seen real results from core Liberal Democrat policies. The achievement I am most proud of so far is a subject I am passionate about. In fact, it is one of the issues that drew me back to politics: the dignity afforded to us by being in a job. The scar of benefit dependence that has built up over generations, alongside the apparently intractable problem of high youth unemployment, is something I have been keen to tackle, and have worked furiously on both locally in Eastbourne and nationally in Parliament.

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Mark Pack

Opinion: Secrecy, federal committees and a lack of democracy

By Mark Pack | Tue 12th November 2013 - 8:47 am

meetingNearly all the debates about Liberal Democrat federal committees and democracy hinge on who the electorate for committee elections should be – conference reps or all party members?

However these debates miss a big problem, which is simply that the electorate, whoever it is, knows very little about the performance of incumbents. Democracy isn’t just about the right people having the vote, it’s about them being able to cast their votes in a meaningful way.

If you don’t know what people have done, it is hard to hold them to account.

Currently there …

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Caron Lindsay

Swinson argues against unpaid internships, Leech advertises for unpaid interns. Who’s right?

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 11th November 2013 - 5:20 pm

On the face of it, Liberal Democrats are sending out mixed messages on internships at the moment.

Jo Swinson, as employment minister, has been promoting the Government’s Pay and Rights helpline (0800 917 2368) and talking about it being appropriate to pay interns while John Leech’s office in Manchester is offering an unpaid internship proramme. This is in contrast to the party’s internship programme which is offering the National Minimum Wage.

Jo on Good Morning Scotland (from around 1:52 in) that she wanted to ensure that employers were not unwittingly or unintentionally doing the wrong thing and making sure that people …

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Joe Otten

John Major: Class warrior

By Joe Otten | Mon 11th November 2013 - 2:55 pm

Former Conservative Prime Minister John Major is back in the news today condemning the stranglehold on power and influence enjoyed by the elite:

In every single sphere of British influence, the upper echelons of power in 2013 are held overwhelmingly by the privately educated or the affluent middle class. To me from my background, I find that truly shocking.

This follows his unexpected intervention in the energy debate calling for a windfall tax on energy companies. In both cases Major seems to be taking on the role of Cameron’s One Nation conscience, speaking up for people in modest …

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Stuart Bonar

Opinion: Auditors refuse to sign off EU accounts – the latest untruth from the anti-Europeans

By Stuart Bonar | Mon 11th November 2013 - 8:55 am

I’ve just been accused of issuing the dullest tweet of the week. Admittedly, “This week, the European Court of Auditors signed off the #EU’s accounts, as it has done annually since the 2007 financial year” is hardly the most exciting 133 characters ever featured on twitter, but with half-a-billion tweets emerging from the twitter fire hose daily, it was quite a condemnation.

But the point I made in that tweet is important. Why? Because this week saw another raft of accusations that – yet again! – the European Court of Auditors has refused to sign off the EU’s accounts.

The

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Caron Lindsay

Has Stonewall snubbed the Liberal Democrats in their awards?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 9th November 2013 - 11:56 am

Every time I think kindly about Stonewall, they do something to annoy me. Way back in 2010, their opposition to equal marriage reached the fringes of our Liverpool Conference. That came just a few months after Ed Fordham wrote on here that he was no longer able to support Stonewall over its treatment of David Laws.

Happily, Stonewall did eventually come around to supporting equal marriage and attended the vigils outside Parliament which Ed organised when the Bill was being debated. They are also just about to start a brilliant campaign on homophobic bullying to run in anti-bullying …

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Caron Lindsay

MPs under attack again – for claiming mileage for doing their jobs

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 8th November 2013 - 4:02 pm

Having Nigel Farage on Question Time again was more than enough to make my blood boil last night. Sadly, even my Facebook timeline had little to soothe. I saw an 18 month old story being recycled again to give MPs another kicking.

In May last year the Telegraph had a go at some MPs who claimed mileage to attend Remembrance Day services, including a couple of Liberal Democrats. Why on earth should that particular engagement be any different than any other that they attend in the course of their official duties? How many people would meet work expenses out of …

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