Category Archives: Op-eds

Kirsty Williams AM

Kirsty Williams AM writes: Why Welsh Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru have joined forces

By Kirsty Williams AM | Fri 28th June 2013 - 8:05 am

welsh-liberal-democratsThis week, and much to the surprise of many political commentators in Wales, Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood and I held a joint press conference announcing that we are to join forces to negotiate with the Welsh Labour Government on next year’s budget settlement.

In the National Assembly, the Welsh Government has exactly half of the Assembly Members. Therefore, each year the Welsh Government needs the support of at least one of the opposition parties to pass their annual budget. In the past, this has given the …

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Also posted in News and Wales | Tagged , , and | 15 Comments
Richard Davis

Opinion: Spend on innovation to drive economic growth

By Richard Davis | Thu 27th June 2013 - 4:23 pm

At a time when we are seeing some of the biggest government cuts in a generation it may seem to belittle the suffering people are facing to complain about the effect of the spending review on the science budget. As the government is trying to reduce our debt to income ratio, they have cut the deficit but we also need to create long-term sustainable economic growth. For this to happen investment in science and innovation is key. Our spending on research and development is vital to drive forward economic growth and reverse the current stagnation we see in our economy.

In …

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Danny Alexander MP

Danny Alexander MP writes… Investing in Britain’s future

By Danny Alexander MP | Thu 27th June 2013 - 1:08 pm


Video by hmtreasuryuk on YouTube.

Yesterday, we set out a Spending Round that delivers Liberal Democrat priorities on investment and improving our public services while making responsible choices to deal with the financial problems Labour left us. It demonstrated that the Liberal Democrats will remain firm in our commitment to tackling the deficit, but fair in the way we go about it. Our number one priority in Government has been to fix the economic mess we inherited from Labour.

Today I have set out how we will invest in our country’s economic future by creating balanced growth and delivering lasting prosperity. I have announced the most comprehensive, ambitious and long-lasting capital investment plans this country has ever known.
In doing so we are putting long term priorities before short term political pressures and we are ending the culture of short-termism that plagued so many of our predecessors.

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Ed Davey

Ed Davey MP writes… Keeping the lights on with greener energy

By Ed Davey | Thu 27th June 2013 - 11:57 am

Hopefully by the time you’ve read this you’ll be aware of the details I announced this morning to secure the future of energy supply for the UK – if not, and excuse the pun –  let me enlighten you.

As you know already, we have a plan in the form of the Energy Bill that is progressing well through Parliament.  The plan essentially addresses a major issue – we need to attract £110 billion of private sector investment to replace the supply we lose as a result of 20% of our power stations closing by the end of this

…

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Danny Alexander MP

Danny Alexander MP writes… Spending where it matters

By Danny Alexander MP | Wed 26th June 2013 - 1:25 pm

Our number one priority in Government has been to fix the economic mess we inherited from Labour. Today, we set out a Spending Round that delivers Liberal Democrat priorities on investment and improving our public services while making responsible choices to deal with the financial problems Labour left us. It demonstrates that the Liberal Democrats will remain firm in our commitment to tackling the deficit, but fair in the way we go about it.

When we entered Government in May 2010, we inherited from Labour an economy that was on the brink. We set out a plan to get our economy …

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Mark Valladares

Opinion: if you pay peanuts, you risk bad governance

By Mark Valladares | Wed 26th June 2013 - 12:20 pm

PeanutsIt is reported today that, in a further attempt to control spending, George Osborne is proposing further changes to public sector pay and conditions. Before he does though, perhaps he ought to make time for a little light reading…

Last week, the National Audit Office (NAO) published the extravagantly titled “Building capability in the Senior Civil Service to meet today’s challenges”, which sounds, on the face of it, to be a white knuckle, edge of your seat kind of read. And yet, if you’re keen to change the way that we are governed, …

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David Allen

Opinion: What if?

By David Allen | Tue 25th June 2013 - 2:07 pm

The Coalition has hurt us.  We can surely agree that now.  It has left us no clear public image, other than supporting the EU and electoral change, in our own favour.  Breaking up Coalition will be so very hard to do, whether now or later.  If we leave it until 2014-15, we will have no time to establish a credible separate identity.  Clegg, if still leading, will defend the Coalition’s record.  It is only a small step on from there to promoting Tory-led Coalition out to 2020.

“Centrist” (i.e. pro-Tory) Lib Dem loyalists usually dismiss strategic

…

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William Hobhouse

Opinion: Liberal Democrats must stay firm on deficit reduction

By William Hobhouse | Tue 25th June 2013 - 8:59 am

Osborne - Some rights reserved by altogetherfoolGeorge Osborne will stand up in the House of Commons on Thursday to announce the government’s intentions for public spending for the 2015-16 financial year in circumstances he neither anticipated nor wished for.

As a result of weaker economic growth and a revision to the estimates of the capacity of the British economy, the structural deficit that the coalition had hoped to eliminate by the time of the next election will exist well beyond it, meaning further spending cuts and tax rises.

Liberal Democrats must spell …

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Joe Bourke

Opinion: A Peace Plan for Syria

By Joe Bourke | Mon 24th June 2013 - 4:54 pm

Nick Clegg has said about Syria “I am very proud that, as a country, our reaction isn’t just: ‘Oh this is happening, it’s got nothing to do with us. We want to wash our hands of it.’ We struggle with what can we do. It is the wonderful thing about Britain. We don’t stand by. We don’t walk the other side of the street. We want to get stuck in and sort stuff out.”

I think there may be a way to bring about a ceasefire and political negotiations that avoids the obvious dangers of arming rebel groups.

Turkey has called for …

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Eric Avebury

Eric Avebury writes… Light on the horizon for some gay asylum seekers

By Eric Avebury | Mon 24th June 2013 - 11:03 am

In 1995 our immigration law was amended so that asylum applicants from countries that were designated as ‘safe’ no longer had a right to appeal against refusal unless their case was ‘certified’ by the Secretary of State. With a Border Agency prone to error, a risk arose that people with good cases might be unjustly be detained, speeded through a truncated process and deported.

Even the Home Office recognised that in some designated countries, there was endemic persecution of women. In 2005 an Order was made adding some countries to the list of those deemed safe, but for men only. …

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Douglas Nicol

Opinion: Should we offer to pay university fees for doctors who commit to NHS?

By Douglas Nicol | Sat 22nd June 2013 - 12:25 pm

The dire need in the NHS for qualified high level medical staff could be given a much needed boost by offering medical students free university fees if they commit themselves to working solely for the NHS for a number of years after qualifying as a junior doctor.

Even as they progress through the NHS as junior doctors they are still being taught and trained in NHS hospitals by senior doctors, surgeons, anaesthetists and registrars. Some then go on to be the elite in the world of medicine, being in demand to do heart and liver transplants, neuro-surgery, plastic surgery etc – …

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Paul Tyler

Lord Paul Tyler writes…Never on a Sunday?

By Paul Tyler | Fri 21st June 2013 - 12:59 pm

Some little Englander MPs, as we know, are incredibly jumpy about anything they think might have come from Europe.  The latest in the line of Brussels bogeymen is the worrying advent of public activity at the weekend, which could – they say – cause all kinds of terrible problems.

The British Social Attitudes survey (not the dangerous ‘Eurobarometer’) has found that 45.7% of the public regard themselves as belonging to ‘no religion’.  Of those who do profess some faith, 57.5% say they ‘never or practically never’ attend meetings or services connected to their religion.  A further 20% say they do …

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Nick T

The Syrian civil war is a humanitarian disaster: the time has come to intervene

By Nick T | Thu 20th June 2013 - 2:57 pm

There are few things about which we can be certain in the Syrian crisis, but there are some. We can be sure that brutal, unspeakable and unimaginable things are happening on a daily basis, particularly and most distressingly of all to the country’s children. We can also be sure that somehow, someday the war will end.

When it will end is anybody’s guess. How it will do so is a slightly easier to guess at. We know that Bashar al-Assad is militarily strong, thanks to the supply of weapons from Iran and Russia, and soldiers from Lebanon’s Hezbollah. We know that …

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Nick T

“I refute these allegations” – no, you don’t

By Nick T | Thu 20th June 2013 - 10:03 am

I blame the lawyers. It seems to be standard practice for those in the public eye accused of wrongdoing, or their lawyers, to make public statements asserting that they “refute” whatever allegations are being made.

But while they might deny them, or reject them, or dispute them, they do not “refute” them.

Here is the definition of that word:

Verb

  1. Prove (a statement or theory) to be wrong or false; disprove.
  2. Prove that (someone) is wrong.

As the lawyers that make these statements know, denying something is not the same as proving it to be wrong. So I urge my fellow lawyers: stop this assault …

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Mark Pack

Opinion: The best government team you’ve not heard of

By Mark Pack | Tue 18th June 2013 - 11:58 am

Switch_off_internet_in_case_of_political_dissentThe best performing team in government is also one you’ve probably not heard of. It’s the Government Digital Service, who have been revolutionising central government’s use of the internet – providing the sort of excellent and reliable new systems that have countries round the world scrambling to copy them, whilst managing to hit timescales, keep to budgets and avoid bugs in a way that puts most government IT projects to shame. Better services and lower costs – it’s a winning combination that whoever is in power after 2015 will need to …

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Simon Hebditch

Opinion: Creating a new Alliance

By Simon Hebditch | Tue 18th June 2013 - 9:02 am

There has always been a need to blend parliamentary, representative politics with the social activism of extra parliamentary movements. Recent examples of informal action outside the confines of the parliamentary system include UK Uncut on companies avoiding corporation tax and the Occupy movement. Liberal Democrats and their antecedents have an honourable history of involvement in single issue campaigns and community movements.

Indeed, it can be argued that “community politics” grew out of the widespread social campaigning movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Given this history you would expect Liberal Democrats to be at the forefront of such campaigning today but we …

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore MP writes…Scotland has a role in overseas aid

By Michael Moore | Mon 17th June 2013 - 11:58 am
photoAmidst the fever of the independence referendum debate in Scotland on issues such as currency, financial services and pensions, Lynne Featherstone and I took part in a series of engagements in Glasgow recently which reinforced with me what would be lost in terms of international development if Scotland voted to leave the Union.
 
As a former International Development spokesperson for the Party I am still passionate about this issue. I’m proud that the issues we as Lib Dems have long campaigned for have become a reality

…

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Sam Lawes

A picture postcard from a Liberal Democrat in Gezi Park

By Sam Lawes | Sat 15th June 2013 - 11:58 am

I’m leafing through the 2,077 photos I’ve taken so far of Turkey’s protests. Having sat down to shed a ‘liberal’ light on what’s happening here, I realize I may make a further claim to your attention: I am seeing, as it were, both sides of the coin.

Watching protests in Beşiktaş, Taksim & Gezi Park, marching to the outskirts of Istanbul & being pepper-sprayed is one side. Working in a conservative, pro-government school where colleagues refer to protestors as “terrorists” and tut gruffly every time Taksim gets mentioned is the other.

A Tale of Two Turkeys 

This is a tale of two Turkeys. …

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged | 3 Comments
Jemima Bland

The Morrissey Report: We must take chance to be a more effective, respectful team

By Jemima Bland | Fri 14th June 2013 - 2:00 pm

Helena Morrissey is a businesswoman, not a lawyer.  She brings to our party her experience of functional and dysfunctional organisational practices, and a sympathetic, listening ear.

After a long, hard look at our organisation, our internal party culture, and our values, she finds us broadly well intentioned, but structurally deficient. Chiefly, we fail to have widely advertised, open and transparent procedures in place to deal with a clear organisational risk: abuse of power.

As a member of the parliamentary staff of the Lib Dems and a PPC, I applaud Helena Morrissey. When you read the report you will see that she has …

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Stephen Tall

Helena Morrissey’s Report: some praise is also due

By Stephen Tall | Thu 13th June 2013 - 5:55 pm

helena morrissey reportI offered my first impressions of Helena Morrissey’s independent report into the Lib Dems’ culture and practices here yesterday, based on a skim-read and hearing Helena’s presentation of it at a media briefing.

I read the report in full (available online here) on the train home last night. I recommend it to all Lib Dems, and indeed anyone interested in how organisations can totally mess up when dealing with delicate internal issues.

It’s an excellently written, fair-minded, balanced and practical report which understands the idiosyncratic nature of …

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Bill Newton Dunn

Bill Newton Dunn MEP writes…European cooperation is indispensable in the fight against organised crime

By Bill Newton Dunn | Thu 13th June 2013 - 4:11 pm

On Tuesday the European Parliament voted through an interim report calling for greater European cooperation to tackle organised crime, corruption and money laundering in the EU.

Hundreds of billions of pounds worth of taxes are lost every year across Europe due to organised crime, as well as millions of legitimate jobs which have been taken from hard-working citizens. Fraud, counterfeiting, smuggling and cyber-crime all have a drastic impact on the economy and are undermining efforts to promote jobs and growth. Britain is particularly affected, with half of Europol’s investigations into organised crime having links to the UK.

Organised criminals conduct …

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Also posted in Europe / International | 2 Comments
David Boyle

David Boyle writes… Choice works – so why not in legal aid?

By David Boyle | Thu 13th June 2013 - 1:24 pm

Barristers wigChoice is a funny thing.  I spent seven months studying how it worked in practice when I was running the Barriers to Choice Review for the Cabinet Office.

Despite the rhetoric from parts of the left, I believe that people can improve public services by being able to choose between different providers.

I’m also only too aware how many people are excluded from that – by a lack of information or advice, by a lack of transport and any number of other factors.

I am also aware of the

…

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Adam Corlett

Opinion: Are current state pension arrangements fair?

By Adam Corlett | Thu 13th June 2013 - 8:44 am

Two stories jumped out at me this week as being deeply connected. Stephen Tall praised Ed Balls for not ignoring the huge chunk of welfare spending that goes to pensioners. Then, a new website from Public Health England reminded us of the country’s large health inequalities. These inequalities should give us extra cause to question the fairness of current spending on pensioners.

As Stephen wrote “Spending on the state pension will increase by nearly 20% in real terms between 2010–11 and 2017–18.” The challenge of an ageing population was present even before the financial crisis. It’s now …

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Stephen Tall

Helena Morrissey’s report: my first impressions

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th June 2013 - 7:10 pm

helena morrissey reportI attended Helena Morrissey’s media briefing this afternoon, marking the publication of her independent inquiry report into the ‘culture and processes’ of the Lib Dems following the allegations of sexual impropriety levelled against the party’s former chief executive, Lord (Chris) Rennard.

I’ve not yet had chance to read the full report, so this post is based on a skim read only, together with Helena’s own summary of it to the assembled journalists.

First, Helena set the context: not simply of the specific allegations, but more widely of what she termed …

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Maelo Manning

Facing the world

By Maelo Manning | Wed 12th June 2013 - 12:12 pm

Cissy 009Cissy Nasande is facing a potentially life changing operation on 15 June but is most concerned to stress how nice the British medical and charity staff are who tend to her. It is at moments like this in our friendship that I am reminded about how life can be just about compassion and kindness and is not always about politics.

Cissy has a severe facial disfigurement. A growing bone tumour is pushing her right eye forward. ‘Facing the World’, a wonderful charity for children with severe facial disfigurement, has brought Cissy …

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Prateek Buch

Opinion: Let’s rid our political economy of inequalities of power

By Prateek Buch | Wed 12th June 2013 - 10:41 am

LIBOR-fixing, ineffective banks, corrupt Parliamentarians and the Murdoch press may not appear to have much in common with the fact that median earnings have become decoupled from growth in economic productivity – signifying rewards accumulating to a few at the very top. To my eyes, however, they are all symptoms of the same phenomenon: that the concentration of economic and political power in the hands of a few, hidden from adequate scrutiny and the power to affect change, impinges on our freedom to live lives free from poverty, ignorance and conformity.

To any liberal with a …

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Stephen Tall

The Lib Dem narrative dilemma: forget about 2010, start looking forward to 2015

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th June 2013 - 9:50 am

your vote matters lib dem leafletWe Lib Dems are past masters of the squeeze message. “The Tories can’t win here: vote Lib Dem to keep Labour out”; “Labour can’t win here: vote Lib Dem to keep the Tories out”.

But since 2010 we have become the victims of a just-as-vicious squeeze message. Labour says: “Lib Dems are propping up a toxic right-wing Tory government pushing through disgraceful policies (which we will quietly sign up to later — viz cutting child benefit for wealthier parents — once we’ve capitalised on public anger).” …

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 12th June 2013 - 8:53 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. 

The Queen

Last week, the Queen celebrated 60 years on the throne since her coronation in 1953. She has been a dedicated servant of the nation throughout these years and I am sure everyone in the Borders will want to join me in congratulating her on reaching this milestone. It was a real pleasure to meet representatives from my constituency in Dover House who had travelled to London for the thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey.

Referendum

As the debate surrounding …

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Also posted in Parliament and Scotland | Tagged and | Leave a comment
Flo Clucas

Opinion: Gender quotas are the sensible way forward

By Flo Clucas | Tue 11th June 2013 - 5:01 pm

laura-willoughby-encurages-women-to-become-council-candidates‘In every aspect of life in which women are undervalued, under-represented or exploited we are dedicated to achieving equality.’ (from the Preamble of the Constitution of Liberal Democrat Women)

John Stuart Mill would have been outraged that, in the second decade of the 21st century, women are still under-valued, exploited and under-represented, for it was he, speaking in the House of Commons in May 1867, who advocated votes for women.

Yet, here we are 150 years later, still trying to have equality in our society. Yes, we have women’s suffrage, but at the present rate of change, we will not have a gender balanced Parliament until 2050.

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Joe Bourke

Opinion: Decriminalising drugs

By Joe Bourke | Tue 11th June 2013 - 2:15 pm

drugsThe 2011 Liberal Democrat conference passed a motion calling for all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs to be scrapped, the introduction of a regulated market in cannabis, and the expansion of heroin maintenance clinics for the most fervent users.

The UK Drugs Policy Commission (UKDPC), published its final report in 2012. According to UKDPC, the cost of implementing current policy on illicit drugs is at least £3bn a year, but a lack of evidence for what works and provides value for money, and politicians’ unwillingness to act on available …

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