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Category Archives: Op-eds

Opinion: Changes for the Better – LibDem wins on the new National Curriculum

By Denys Robinson | Tue 16th July 2013 - 2:30 pm

“I still have serious reservations about it, but it’s a whole lot better than when Gove originally launched the consultation” – a headteacher friend summing up his feelings about the newly announced National Curriculum for schools. We know, behind the scenes, just how the Liberal Democrats in the Coalition have influenced some of the most significant changes. It’s time to let your teacher and parent friends know the difference the LibDems have made.

One big win is that this new curriculum is so much shorter than Labour’s (468 to 224 pages). The history curriculum has been rewritten to include local and world history, and to recognise diversity. Speaking and Listening are back in the English curriculum. Creativity is stressed in Art, Music and Drama, and Design has been rewritten to include a broader range of industrial applications.

Primary schools can now choose the foreign language they wish to teach – or even look at several languages. Climate change has been returned to the Geography curriculum. Biodiversity and seasonality of food and produce are added to the curriculum for the first time.

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Tagged michael gove, national curriculum and schools | 12 Comments

Baroness Liz Barker writes… A big step for a fairer society

By Baroness Liz Barker | Mon 15th July 2013 - 3:41 pm

Today, the House of Lords should be voting ‘that this Bill do now pass’ to take the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill through one of its final steps to becoming law. Liberal Democrats can be very proud of the fact that it is only because of us that this is happening.

In the Lords, I have been proud to lead from the Lib Dem benches whilst Lib Dem Ministers, including Jim Wallace and Lindsay Northover, have been speaking from the Government frontbench. You can read and watch my opening contribution to the Second Reading …

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Tagged equal marriage, jim wallace, Lindsay Northover and Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill 2012-13 | 2 Comments

Liblink… Greg Mulholland calls for referendum on EU membership

By Joe Otten | Mon 15th July 2013 - 11:20 am

The Daily Mail is reporting Greg Mulholland’s call for a vote on EU membership without waiting for a treaty change.

Even the huge changes that have taken place in Europe over the years – we’ve moved from EEC to EC to EU – have not led to a public vote. And it is not a little ironic that at the times there was a significant and constitutional change – in 1984, 1986 and 1992 – the then Conservative governments did not give the British people a say. The same happened under

…

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Tagged European referendum, european union and in/out referendum | 5 Comments

Opinion: Raise your hand on Malala Day

By Sophie Bridger | Fri 12th July 2013 - 11:59 am

Just under a year ago, I wrote a piece about the shooting of a girl who dared to demand her right an education. Today, that girl will address the UN and meet Ban Ki Moon to discuss access to education worldwide. Today is Malala Yousafzai’s 16^th birthday.

Education is a right that we often take for granted in the UK. But millions of children worldwide miss out on an education. Where parents cannot afford to send their children to school, cannot afford for their children not to work, or even when places are provided but they cannot provide the uniform or materials, those children will never have the opportunity to change their lives. They will live and die in poverty.

Girls are more likely to miss out on education than boys. When finances are tight, many families will choose to educate sons but not daughters; sons will go on to work, but if daughters are expected to raise a family and stay at home then educating them is seen as pointless. Often, raising children is something done at school age– in sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 5 girls is married before the age of 18. Once they are married, they will not return to school as this video shows.

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Tagged #malaladay, education, malala yousafzai, un and women and girls | Leave a comment

Opinion: Against Liberal fundamentalism

By David Allen | Fri 12th July 2013 - 10:41 am

Centre Forum recently chose the “Naked Rambler” as “Liberal Hero of the Week”. The Naked Rambler is a man who fights for his freedom to walk naked in public wherever he chooses. Lib Dem Voice also carried an article robustly asserting that liberals should oppose interference with that freedom.

Many fundamentalist liberals wrote in to applaud. More moderate respondents pointed out that young children might well be upset or even traumatised, while their parents could reasonably fear that a naked stranger might be a paedophile.

Steve Way explained that the police offered the Naked Rambler three options – change direction …

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Tagged edward snowden and naked rambler | 65 Comments

The Tories’ 35% strategy shows they know they cannot win outright in 2015

By Stephen Tall | Fri 12th July 2013 - 9:45 am

“The 35% Strategy”. The phrase was initially coined by Dan Hodges to decry the Labour leader’s soft-left leadership:

Forget the One Nation strategy, Ed Miliband is pursuing what is known within his inner circle as the 35 Per Cent Strategy. Come 2015, he thinks he can stagger over the line with 35 per cent of the vote.

Less commented on is that the Tories have also been adopting their own 35% strategy under the tutelage of strategist Lynton Crosby. Today’s news that George Osborne has ruled …

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Tagged child benefit, dan hodges, featured, george osborne, housing benefit, Lynton Crosby and welfare cuts | 14 Comments

End of Term Report: Michael Moore

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 12th July 2013 - 8:55 am

As we near the end of the Parliamentary term and MPs get their buckets and spades together and head off for the sun (or, more likely, pack up their cars and head off on their constituency Summer tours), I thought it might be interesting to have a look back at some of the things key party figures have done this year. We’ll take a meander through the highlights and lowlights and make suggestions, not all of them entirely serious, for the year ahead.

First up is Secretary of State for Scotland Michael …

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Also posted in News | Tagged end of term report 2013, Michael Moore, Scotland and Scottish independence referendum | 1 Comment

I’m sorry to see Richard Grayson resign, but I’m sticking with the party of liberalism thanks

By Stephen Tall | Thu 11th July 2013 - 9:59 pm

I was sorry to see Richard Grayson has resigned from the Lib Dems. We’ve met only once. It was at the 2010 Brighton party conference when we were interviewed together for Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour. As I noted at the time:

I felt almost sorry for Richard as we chatted beforehand, a loyal liberal and Lib Dem who finds it baffling to be almost a lone voice making the case against Coalition within the party. … the Coalition — if not always the Coalition policies — is broadly popular across the membership, and across the different sections of

…

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Tagged david boyle and richard grayson | 31 Comments

No, Nicola, a vote against independence is not a vote for Trident

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 11th July 2013 - 11:51 am

Writing blog posts based on the tail end of a radio interview you have caught is fraught with danger. However, I want to take issue with something Scottish Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said.

She had been asked about today’s Guardian story which suggests that the Trident base at Faslane could be designated UK territory in a way similar to the sovereign military bases in Cyprus for a temporary period post independence.

She said that if the UK Government wanted to keep weapons of mass destruction, it could do so, but Scotland would just have voted against Trident, for independence.

On the ballot …

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Tagged menzies campbell, nick harvey, nicola sturgeon, nuclear weapons, Scotland, Scottish independence referendum and trident | 3 Comments

Income inequality at its lowest since 1986 – a good result for the Liberal Democrats in Government?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 10th July 2013 - 7:00 pm

The Office of National Statistics has released information showing that income inequality is at its lowest rate since 1986.

The largest fall during this period was a 6.8% drop for the richest fifth of households. They still had an average income, before tax and benefits, of £78,000 in 2011-12.

This was 14 times greater than the poorest fifth of households, who had an average income of £5,400. However, this group has seen their average income rise by 6.9% since the economic downturn.

After all taxes and benefits were taken into account, the top fifth of households had an income of

…

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Also posted in News | Tagged income inequality and office of national statistics | 44 Comments

Opinion: Ed’s made a bold move, but he absolutely needs to see it through to the end

By Nick Tyrone | Wed 10th July 2013 - 2:59 pm

As a Lib Dem, I obviously write as neither a Labour party member nor supporter, but I was genuinely stirred by Ed Miliband’s speech at the St Bride Foundation yesterday. It was bold, gutsy and liberal minded – qualities the Labour leader’s critics often accuse him of lacking. The announcement that Ed will push forward plans to change the current arrangements in which all union members across the country are automatically affiliated with the Labour party, to one in which union members will have to voluntarily opt in to Labour affiliation, was brave to say the least. It potentially …

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Tagged ed miliband, labour, party funding and trade unions | 15 Comments

Opinion: 20 years of going nowhere, Liberal Democrat gender balance in council elections

By Mark Pack | Wed 10th July 2013 - 11:55 am

Twenty years of progress, followed by twenty years of stalling. That’s the overall picture of Liberal Democrat (and before that Alliance / Liberal Party) progress towards gender equality at local government elections, whether measured in terms of candidates or people elected.

Looking at local elections in England, a mere 20% of the Liberal Party’s candidates were female in 1973 and the figure was even lower, 18%, amongst those elected. By 1991 both figures had risen to 34%. Since then, however, the figures have bounced up and down around a long-term flat trend, with both hitting 30% in the latest figures for …

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Tagged colin rallings, gender balance, local government elections and michael thrasher | 18 Comments

Opinion: Statistics don’t vote. Should we care if they are abused?

By Andy Boddington | Wed 10th July 2013 - 10:25 am

Statistics don’t vote – should we care if they are abused?

Statistics are essential to our wellbeing and the bane of our future. We need numbers to understand what is happening in our world. Yet day after day, they end up abused in our media, distorted by our political leaders and muddled in our heads

Yesterday the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) published a cute survey that looks at the difference between statistical perceptions and reality.

Let’s look first at those people who are satisfied with their experience of local council services. That’s 38% of us. This is not great applause, but when …

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Tagged royal statistical society | 6 Comments

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 10th July 2013 - 8:55 am

Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Moore MP, writes a regular column for newspapers in his Borders Constituency. Here is the latest edition.

Wimbledon

First of all I want to say a huge congratulations to Andy Murray for winning Wimbledon last weekend – the first British man to do so since 1936. It was a fantastic match and as Scots and Brits we can be extremely proud of his achievement.

Queen’s visit to Abbotsford

It was a great honour to attend the official re-opening of Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott, by Her Majesty the Queen last week after its multi-million …

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Also posted in Parliament and Scotland | Tagged Michael Moore and Westminster Notes | Leave a comment

Opinion: Tories soft on crime, Lib Dems tough on Tories

By Giles Goodall | Tue 9th July 2013 - 6:08 pm

If ever there was a fault line in the Coalition, it has been over the two parties’ attitudes to Europe. The possibility for a mass opt-out by Britain from a raft of EU measures in justice and home affairs opened up a rift between the Tories and Lib Dems which has rumbled on for more than a year.

Liberal Democrats insisted that the government heed the overwhelming advice of the police and security services to maintain effective crime-fighting measures which help keep Britain safe. Time after time, law enforcers lined up to ask the government not to jettison the EU …

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Tagged european arrest warrant and theresa may | 9 Comments

Opinion: “Sit down, shut up” now acceptable in Scotland’s political arena

By David Evans | Tue 9th July 2013 - 2:13 pm

I’m no football expert, but the chant “Sit down, Shut up” seems to be popular as a chant to silence a loosing team. In a similar fashion the cry ‘no mandate’ has taken a similar position in Scotland’s political arena. This was most recently seen in the Edinburgh instalment of Question Time, when both Angus McNeil MP and Lesley Riddoch argued that if a party has no elected officials in the country then its members have no right to express their opinions.

Regardless of your stance in the independence debate (though I …

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Tagged european convention on human rights, freedom of speech and question time | 6 Comments

Opinion: What is the cumulative impact of cuts on disabled people?

By George Potter | Tue 9th July 2013 - 8:57 am

With the Conservative ring-fencing of 40% plus of the welfare budget because it goes to a section of society which disproportionately votes Conservative (e.g. pensioners), it should come as no surprise to anyone that the forcing of all welfare cuts onto the remainder of recipients has hurt a lot of people.

Amongst those most badly effected are disabled people. Contributory Employment and Support Allowance (formerly known as incapacity benefit) has been time limited to one year. Disability Living Allowance is being replaced by Personal Independence Payments and will have been cut by 20% by 2015. Social care services are being cut …

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Tagged disability benefits and disabled people | 9 Comments

Opinion: Increasing Spending on British Stuff

By Bill le Breton | Mon 8th July 2013 - 4:42 pm

The Federal Conference Committee this week selected for debate this autumn a motion on Strengthening the UK Economy ghost written for the leader by his special advisers.

It calls on the Coalition to do seven things. The first six are laudable but the seventh: “(to) monitor closely the progress of the Bank of England against its refocused mandate in order to ensure that monetary policy is focussed on aiding growth” is a missed opportunity.

This is a time when Liberal Democrats could and should express an alternative to the Conservative/Treasury policy referred to above which Osborne announced in the Budget.

The …

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Tagged monetary policy | 19 Comments

Baroness Liz Barker writes: Liberal Democrat peers will support equality as Same Sex Marriage Bill returns to Lords

By Baroness Liz Barker | Mon 8th July 2013 - 3:00 pm

The Same Sex Marriage Bill is back in the Lords today for Report Stage.

The Government has responded positively to a number of issues raised during Committee Stage, such as the need to review legislation which prohibits Humanist marriages in England and Wales.

The opposition have tabled amendments on all the issues which they had already raised at Committee Stage. You can follow them on Twitter today under the hashtag #hearditallbeforeDear (Lord Dear was, of course, the crossbench peer who attempted to wreck the legislation from the off).

First up is an attempt to create two definitions of marriage – one for straight …

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Also posted in Parliament | Tagged house of lords. same sex marriage bill | 3 Comments

Miliband vs McCluskey: 2 points that strike me about the Labour/Unite row over alleged candidate selection rigging

By Stephen Tall | Sun 7th July 2013 - 8:45 am

Looking in from the outside, albeit as a former Labour member myself, two points strike me about the Labour/Unite row over the alleged attempt by the union to rig the selection of the party’s general election candidate in Falkirk.

What's the opposite of nominative determinism? Asking on behalf of Unite.

— Stephen Tall (@stephentall) July 5, 2013

The first is this:

How lucky is Ed Miliband in his opponent, Len McCluskey?

Yes, you read that right. Ed is lucky in Len. The reason why is simple: Len McCluskey has gone about his attempted putsch of Labour in an extraordinarily cack-handed manner.

If you wanted to set up a comedy caricature trade union boss, you’d make sure he had a salary of £122,000, had called for a general strike, have him make threats against prominent Labour ‘Blairites’, and then protest against the lefty New Statesman when it reports accurately what you’ve said.

If you wanted to be a smart trade union leader, however, you’d operate below-the-radar. You’d do things just the same: ensure your chosen candidate was elected Labour leader (however dubiously), line up your mate to head up the party’s election campaigns, and guarantee loyal union members are installed in as many key seats as possible.

But you’d do so sotto voce.

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Also posted in News | Tagged andrew rawnsley, ed miliband, featured, labour party, len mccluskey, tom watson, trade unions and UNITE | 8 Comments

Norman Baker MP writes…Peter Mandelson is wrong: HS2 is vital

By Norman Baker MP | Fri 5th July 2013 - 12:00 pm

You may have seen earlier this week that Peter Mandelson (the man who gave us the fiasco of the Millennium Dome) came out and questioned the cost of High Speed Rail. I found this particularly rich coming from a key member of the Government which crashed the British economy.

The Government’s plans for High Speed Rail (HS2) come on top of the significant package of investment in our railways that we have already announced which alone represent the biggest investment by any government in the United Kingdom’s rail infrastructure since the 1840s.

HS2 is an absolutely essential investment, not simply because it …

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Tagged HS2 and peter mandelson | 46 Comments

Opinion: Europe is good for business

By Richard Davis | Thu 4th July 2013 - 3:24 pm

On Monday a group of business leaders from across the country gathered to launch a manifesto for Europe the main thrust of which said that Europe was good for UK businesses. It was a great experience to be with a group of people who were all describing unique personal reasons related to their own companies as to why Britain should remain in the EU.

It is often thought that it is just large businesses trading across borders that do well out of EU membership. But at the launch event I met with many small business leaders who have the EU somewhere …

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Tagged business for new europe and europe | 13 Comments

Opinion: Where is the Liberal Democrat influence over drugs policy?

By Adam Corlett | Thu 4th July 2013 - 10:02 am

Yesterday we learnt that the Home Secretary has decided to ban the drug ‘khat’, against the recommendation of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). The Lib Dems were reportedly against this move, and the decision lay with Theresa May. This and other decisions suggest that drugs minister Jeremy Browne has been given a script but no power.

The disappointing decision to make khat a Class C drug follows the view of the ACMD in January that it should remain legal (having said the same thing …

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Tagged drugs policy, jeremy browne and khat | 13 Comments

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 3rd July 2013 - 9:20 am

Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Moore MP, writes a regular column for newspapers in his Borders Constituency. Here is the latest edition.

Royal Highland Show

In the Borders we have a strong and successful farming industry with local farmers trading their products throughout the UK and abroad and constantly innovating and developing their businesses. Every summer I always attend local rural shows and events in the Borders which are an opportunity to meet with local farm businesses and discuss the work they are …

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Also posted in Parliament and Scotland | Tagged Michael Moore and Westminster Notes | Leave a comment

Boris shows himself to be more liberal than Nick on immigration

By Stephen Tall | Tue 2nd July 2013 - 9:10 pm

Typing that headline pained me. But it’s true, at least on the issue of an amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Compare and contrast…

Here’s what London Mayor Boris Johnson said today on his LBC call-in show today:

“We should have an amnesty. We’ve got people who’ve got in here illegally. They are not engaged with the economy and being honest with the system.”

And here’s how Nick casually dumped the party’s policy three months ago:

… it was seen by many people as a reward for those who have broken the law. And so it risked undermining public confidence in the immigration system.

…

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27 Comments

Vince Cable: UK single market is good for business

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 2nd July 2013 - 3:58 pm

Vince Cable has been in Edinburgh today to launch the fourth in the series of “Scotland Analysis” papers produced by the UK Government about the effect of independence for Scotland on a variety of issues. Today, the spotlight is on business regulation and the changes that independence would force on businesses both in Scotland and the rest of the UK with two separate regulatory systems to get round. The example Vince cited on a Radio Scotland interview this morning (which you can listen to here) was a simple one of buying petrol on either side of the border, …

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Also posted in News | Tagged business, Scotland, scotland analysis, Scottish independence referendum and vince cable | 4 Comments

A free-for-all on school term dates?

By Mary Reid | Tue 2nd July 2013 - 2:58 pm

Michael Gove has had another ‘good idea’, produced without any reference to the professionals who will have to implement it, nor to the general public who will have to work around it. This time he is keen to allow all schools to set their own term dates, in line with the freedom already granted to academies and free schools.

It sounds like a superficial change, but those of us who have examined the issue in depth know that the implications could be far greater than you might imagine.

Some eight years ago I attended a series of meetings of councillors who, like me, held education portfolios in London boroughs. Our aim was to co-ordinate school term dates across the whole of London, and, wherever possible, with the surrounding counties, and we did achieve that. At the same time we looked at patterns of terms, considering some quite radical alternatives, such as six or seven equal length terms, with a shorter break in the summer.

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Tagged michael gove and schools | 30 Comments

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