Category Archives: Op-eds

Opinion: Making MORE in Britain with the Regional Growth Fund

By William Hobhouse | Mon 4th March 2013 - 11:23 am

The Spring Conference will debate the motion on creating a strong manufacturing sector in a strong economy. In Vince Cable, the coalition government has a powerful voice for manufacturing. Significant progress is being made in building a more resilient, diverse and balanced economy. Lib Dems are also becoming confident in charting an interventionist industrial strategy that avoids the twin failures of laissez faire and state support for ailing companies – the two positions characterised by historic Conservative and Labour thinking.

The Conference motion says that government funds made available through the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) has led to the creation and/or safeguarding of over 550,000 jobs

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Tagged manufacturing and regional growth fund | 9 Comments

Opinion: Part of the solution is that we need more male feminists

By Lee Dargue | Mon 4th March 2013 - 10:23 am

I’ve had enough.

I’ve had enough of women being seen by far too many people in society as second class citizens. I’ve had enough of working in the private sector and seeing women patronised for their ideas with a “oh that’s a good idea, love” attitude. I’ve had enough of women having to fight for the right to be heard and then being granted a voice, because it’s time to ‘let the woman talk’. I’ve had enough of a pervasive society, which for centuries has degraded women to being the pretty ones who are meant to serve men. I’ve had enough of women being pressurised

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Tagged role of women | 9 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes…..The Preamble, 25 years on

By Julian Huppert | Sun 3rd March 2013 - 3:30 pm

25 years ago, our party agreed its new constitution – and the preamble to that constitution, setting out our core values and vision.

Many of us will know some of it – ‘The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, … in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance, or conformity’.

This extract – the bit that appears on membership cards – is in my view truly poetic, and captures brilliantly what we are trying to do. We are concerned about people, and empowering them to do what they can and want to do. …

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Tagged conservative party, constitution, labour party and liberal democrats | 54 Comments

Eastleigh shows why the Tories and Labour should now support PR in local elections

By Stephen Tall | Sun 3rd March 2013 - 2:15 pm

If only, if only… Instead of holding out for a referendum on the Alternative Vote the Lib Dem negotiators had secured proportional representation for all local council elections instead.

Hindsight’s easy, I know. At the time of negotiating the Coalition Agreement, electoral reform at Westminster was the party’s deal-breaker. The Lib Dem vote had gone up by a million, our number of MPs down by five. The public were in favour, or so the polls said. It’s possible the party wouldn’t even have approved entering the Coalition if the Westminster voting system had been left untouched.

And yet, and yet… Proportional representation at a local council level would’ve been a far more transformational way of shifting the power dynamics in this country, of introducing genuine electoral competition into contests up and down the country. Eastleigh shows us how.

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Also posted in Local government | Tagged eastleigh by-election, electoral reform, featured and proportional representation | 27 Comments

The View from the Dutch Social Liberals: Lib Dem Phoenix rises above Tory Ashes!

By Bernard Aris | Sun 3rd March 2013 - 12:00 pm

“Men of Harleigh, ye whose action
Put to rout the Tory faction
In their ranks spread wild distraction
Vanquished all their bands.
(…)
Shoulder press to shoulder
Onwards march and bolder
Triumphs more we yet shall see
Before we get much older.
“Peace, Reform and Liberation”
Be our triune aspiration
Till we win them for the nation
And our land be free!”

That was the hymn I hummed all day on Friday when I heard the news from Eastleigh!

We, the Dutch Social-Liberals from D66, know that (in Dutch coalition government politics) “Regeren is halveren”: every time D66 joins a government coalition, we risk getting halved (or worse) in our proportional electoral system …

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged eastleigh by-election | 3 Comments

A response to Julian Huppert’s analysis on the Justice and Security Bill

By Jo Shaw | Sat 2nd March 2013 - 7:00 pm

A response to Julian Huppert’s analysis of the Justice and Security Bill

We learned on Wednesday this week that the Justice and Security Bill is being rushed into Report Stage in the Commons. The government has now published its latest proposed amendments to the Justice and Security Bill. Astonishingly I have been told that Conservatives are saying the Bill has been moved forward to conclude in the Commons on 7^th March to avoid a further motion at our Spring Conference.

Julian Huppert and Mike Crockart worked very hard during the Committee stage of the debate, and voted (supported by Labour) to defeat secret …

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Tagged featured, julian huppert, justice and security bill and secret courts | 66 Comments

Opinion: Dead parrot bites back – again

By Giles Goodall | Sat 2nd March 2013 - 5:20 pm

At the Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth in 1990, Margaret Thatcher famously used Monty Python’s ‘dead parrot’ sketch to mock the Liberal Democrats’ newly-designed bird of liberty. After a series of name changes and a derisory 6% of the vote at the European elections in 1989, the Lib Dems had been virtually written off. But the Eastbourne by-election gave the party the opportunity it needed to defy its media critics and get back into the game. This week, the dead parrot bit back – again.

Mike Thornton’s stunning …

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Tagged eastleigh by-election | 16 Comments

Saturday Forum: The bread-and-butter issue

By Joe Otten | Sat 2nd March 2013 - 1:53 pm

One line in David Cameron’s response to his party’s third place in the Eastleigh by-election caught my eye:

I would like us to do far more to focus on the bread-and-butter issue of cost of living. I think living standards are declining. We talk about only a protest vote. One of the reasons why people feel inclined to protest is because they are hurting in their pocket.

Yes, dead right. If you can keep prices down relative to wages, then people are better off. Spikes in food or energy prices can force some very tough decisions in the household budget.

I hope this …

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Tagged featured | 26 Comments

Three things the Liberal Democrats must learn from Eastleigh

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 1st March 2013 - 12:03 pm

Liberal Democrats are entitled to a weekend of being incredibly pleased with ourselves. I have never been as proud of this party as I am now. The way we calmly and professionally got on with delivering a brilliant campaign on the ground was astonishingly good. Activists put their lives on hold and dedicated themselves to Eastleigh for three weeks. My eternal regret will be that I never made it there, due to a horrendous Flu and its lingering aftermath. However, Team Scotland and many others across the country phonebanked their hearts out. Yesterday in Edinburgh, we even had to have …

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Tagged eastleigh by-election, featured and party organisation | 50 Comments

My Eastleigh experiences

By Paul Walter | Fri 1st March 2013 - 9:36 am

This month marked my twentieth year of helping the Lib Dems in by-elections.

My first by-election was at Newbury in 1993. My wife and I threw ourselves into the campaign on our home turf, after losing our son Toby to meningitis aged 16 months (he died just three days after Judith Chaplin, the former MP whose sad demise caused the by-election). It was a bitter sweet time, but we were truly delighted to host Paddy at our home three times during the campaign, once accompanied by Jane and their dog, Luke. Paddy was and is a shining inspiration in the Lib …

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Tagged eastleigh by-election | 15 Comments

How are you spending your lunch hour today?

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 28th February 2013 - 12:00 pm

This man has a suggestion…

Every call makes a difference. Hit those phones to send Mike Thornton to Westminster. Instructions on how to do it are here.

Tagged eastleigh by-election and mike thornton | 1 Comment

Julian Huppert MP writes…An update on the Justice and Security Bill

By Julian Huppert | Thu 28th February 2013 - 11:14 am

The Government has today published their amendments to the Justice and Security Bill for Report Stage, following the strenuous efforts Mike Crockart and I put in during the Committee. And they have clearly made significant concessions to us as a result of the things we demanded.

First, there is a provision to make sure that Public Interest Immunity is looked at before a judge is allowed to consider a Closed Material Procedure. This was taken out by the Government during Bill Committee. Mike and I tried to put it back in, and it looks like the Government has accepted our …

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Tagged justice and security bill and secret courts | 10 Comments

What are you doing to help Mike Thornton win today?

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 28th February 2013 - 9:00 am

Adrenaline is potent stuff. Your body produces it to help you through high-stress situations. When it’s coursing through your veins, you can keep going for days, weeks even, as anyone who’s ever fought an election campaign will know. I think I had 15 hours sleep in the 5 days before the 1997 election. Of course, the presence of such a powerful substance in your system doesn’t make sleep come easily. That’s why so many of our team on the ground in Eastleigh were still awake last night when they were going to have to get up well before the crack …

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Tagged eastleigh by-election | Leave a comment

Opinion: Reflections on sexual harassment

By Gillian Gloyer | Wed 27th February 2013 - 2:30 pm

It has been a week for thinking about sexual harassment, and for talking (in both its old-fashioned and its electronic variants) about it more than I usually do. During this thinking and talking, I have been struck by how similar the attitudes towards it among men (or at least some of them) are to the way I heard men talk thirty years ago about rape and domestic violence.

I bet most of the women reading this have been sexually harassed in some way or another during their professional (in which I include political) careers, even if they have been reluctant to …

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Tagged sexual harassment | 30 Comments

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 27th February 2013 - 8:55 am

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

Local television

Last week was an important one for local news coverage in the Borders as the broadcasting regulator OFCOM asked for views on its proposals to change the way local television news is provided here.

After years of shared news with Tyne Tees, they are now looking at options to return things close to the way they were in 2009. That would mean more coverage of the south of Scotland and particularly our part of it …

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Also posted in Parliament and Scotland | Tagged broadcasting, environment, Michael Moore, unemployment, Westminster Notes and wind farms | Leave a comment

Opinion: Five reasons to go to Eastleigh to help Mike Thornton’s campaign…

By Ruth Edmonds | Tue 26th February 2013 - 12:37 pm

It’s really, really close and this election looks like it could shape the general election. This is the time to take a stand and prove that Lib Dems can hold onto Lib Dem seats. We have good things to offer people, we have brought things to the coalition (think pupil premium and the £10,000 tax-threshold) and we have limited some of the more extreme conservative policies. But to get people to recognise this we have to get the word out and the way to do …

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Tagged eastleigh by-election and paddy ashdown | 6 Comments

Inquiries into Rennard allegations must be as public as possible

By Mark Pack | Tue 26th February 2013 - 10:55 am

The party’s investigations into allegations against its members are traditionally internal, confidential affairs. There are good reasons for this, particularly as confidentiality can be necessary for people to be willing to given evidence and as the simple existence of an allegation can kill someone’s political career, even if the allegations are subsequently found to be groundless.

They are often so confidential, in fact, that the last time I was asked to provide evidence for an inquiry, I did not know what the precise allegations were, who was investigating them, who the range of people being investigated were, whether or not the …

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Tagged lord rennard and party policy and internal matters | 8 Comments

Eric Avebury writes…We must heed the cries of the Hazaras

By Eric Avebury | Tue 26th February 2013 - 8:55 am

Just over a week ago a massive bomb was detonated in a packed bazaar on the outskirts of Quetta, killing at least 92 people and seriously injuring more than 200.

Last month a double suicide bombing on Alamdar Road, Quetta took the lives of 108 people

These were the latest in a crescendo of genocidal attacks on the Shia Hazara community in Pakistan since the turn of the century, which was considered in a packed meeting I chaired at the House of Lords yesterday, February 25.

According to published accounts, these atrocities have left over 1,100 dead and 1,300 injured. In fact the …

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Tagged blasphemy, genocide, hazara, human rights and pakistan | 7 Comments

CentreForum: Three tax changes to help rebalance the economy

By Adam Corlett | Mon 25th February 2013 - 11:23 am

Vince Cable this month launched our new publication on helping small and medium sized businesses access stock market finance. Here, I’d like to concentrate on three tax changes that could address the broader challenge of ‘rebalancing the economy’ away from an over-reliance on debt and unproductive investment.

I’m all for a highly progressive tax system that doesn’t privilege ‘capital income’, but that doesn’t mean the current system works in a fair or sensible way, as these three bizarre distortions show.

Corporation tax

As George Osborne said in opposition:

Our corporate sector’s

…

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Tagged tax | 36 Comments

Nick Clegg’s statement on Chris Rennard: 5 key points

By Stephen Tall | Sun 24th February 2013 - 8:55 pm

It’s just over an hour since we published Nick Clegg’s statement concerning the allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour levelled against Lord (Chris) Rennard. Here are some quick, initial thoughts:

1) Nick Clegg has stuck by his position, repeated earlier today by Vince Cable and Danny Alexander, that he “did not know about these allegations until Channel 4 informed the party of them shortly before they were broadcast.” However, he was aware of “indirect and non-specific concerns about Chris Rennard’s conduct” in 2008, his first year as party leader. He asked Danny Alexander to put these allegations to Chris Rennard, who …

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Tagged chris rennard, featured and nick clegg | 11 Comments

Libby Local, Episode 12: “Vox Pops”

By Libby Local | Sun 24th February 2013 - 2:30 pm

“No I won’t vote for you,” the man growled as he began to shut the door in my face.

“Why…” I began to say.

“In a word,” he snarled, “Jewellery Tax.”

And the door was slammed shut. I was rather glad.

It was the last doorstep of the day and overall it had been a good afternoon. I’d met a lot of retired people, mothers at home for half-term and home workers. And a good number had pledged their votes.

The evening was spent with Melissa putting my Focus newsletter together. It was rather fun. I’d gathered a fair few vox …

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Tagged featured and libby | 1 Comment

The Independent View: Why reforming football is a liberal agenda

By Sam Tomlin | Sat 23rd February 2013 - 9:55 am

Football is moving up the political agenda. In 2010 DCMS announced an inquiry into football governance which culminated in a report in 2011, criticising the football authorities for levels of debt and supporter engagement among other things. Meanwhile, Supporters Direct, the body responsible for promoting the values of supporter engagement in the UK, has been busy lobbying parliament for a new rule in club licensing (which allows clubs to compete in the leagues) that guarantees a structured relationship between supporters and their clubs; and secondly the establishment of a Government Expert Group to explore removing barriers to increase …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged centre forum and football | 9 Comments

Chris Rennard allegations – the party needs to do better than this

By Stephen Tall | Fri 22nd February 2013 - 6:00 pm

There’s a certain grim irony that the BBC’s mis-handling of the Jimmy Savile row should re-erupt at the same time as Lib Dems consider our own party’s alleged failings to take seriously enough claims of inappropriate sexual behaviour levelled against former chief executive, Lord (Chris) Rennard.

There is a gulf both in the severity and scale of the allegations. But there is also a potentially worrying similarity: that just as the BBC turned a blind eye to the alleged offences one of its stars, so too did the Lib Dems.

Like many in the party I’d heard rumours …

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Opinion: The case for NGDP targeting (1)

By Theo Clifford | Fri 22nd February 2013 - 1:59 pm

The Times is reporting that the Treasury is setting up an internal unit to look into the wisdom of revising the Bank of England’s ‘flexible’ 2% CPI inflation target. Mark Carney, the incoming Governor of the Bank who will replace Mervyn King in June, mentioned the merits of adopting NGDP (National Gross Domestic Product) level targeting in a speech last December, launching a frenzy of speculation.

Considering the enormous effect expectations of future monetary policy changes have had in places such as Japan, it may be that the talk of NGDP targeting is partly behind the …

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Tagged NGDP | 11 Comments

The Independent View: Clegg is right to worry about the North

By Graeme Henderson | Thu 21st February 2013 - 3:27 pm

The North once again compared fairly unfavourably to the south in yesterday’s unemployment figures. It’s safe to assume it will do so again in next month’s figures, and the month after that. While political commentators note the UK’s slide towards a triple dip, most people outside London don’t need clinical economic definitions to tell them that money is tight.

But let’s be clear, this disparity is not a consequence of idleness, nor has it happened by chance. Public policy and investment decisions have made it all but inevitable. London has vast infrastructure spending exemplified by Crossrail, a Government proactively …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged economy | 9 Comments

Lynne Featherstone MP writes…the Aid budget and the Ministry of Defence

By Lynne Featherstone | Thu 21st February 2013 - 2:55 pm

Despite extensive media coverage this morning, the aid budget is not about to be slashed to fund the Ministry of Defence.

All aid spending from the Department of International Development (DFID) is in line with internationally agreed guidelines. There is a strict definition of what can count as Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), which was established by the OECD. For example, aid cannot be spent on combat operations nor on military equipment.

It can be (and is) used to train another country’s security forces in human rights awareness, including gender-based violence issues – something I’m sure all …

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Tagged defence, dfid and overseas aid | 8 Comments

Opinion: Rational energy policy must be central to 2015 manifesto

By Alex Meredith | Thu 21st February 2013 - 2:25 pm

The alarm raised by the Chief Executive of Ofgem earlier this week over a looming energy ‘near crisis’ will not have come as a shock to most people. This is not the first time we have heard how our islands will struggle to support increasing energy demands in a carbon constrained world.

However, the major insight that Ofgem has provided relates to timing. Ofgem’s analysis points very clearly to 2015 as being the critical year when our reliance on imported gas could lead to a major spike in bills.

Lest we forget, 2015 is also the year of the next general election. …

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Tagged energy bill and green deal | 25 Comments

Don Foster MP writes… The Integration Strategy: one year on

By Don Foster MP | Thu 21st February 2013 - 10:25 am

The Government’s Integration Strategy, Creating the Conditions for Integration was published a year ago on 21 February 2012. Since becoming a minister a few months ago, this is one of the areas about which I’ve had some of the strongest feedback from party members.

The views I’ve heard range from “the strategy is welcome, but not enough” to “it isn’t a serious substitute for a strategy to tackle racism and racial injustice”. Some have said that the document skates over the fact that integration is a two way process of mutual accommodation. Those with this view argue that there’s …

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Tagged andrew stunell, fiyaz mughal, Jo Swinson, joseph rowntree foundation, mo farah, multiculturalism, nick clegg, racism and sayeeda warsi | 8 Comments

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 20th February 2013 - 1:55 pm

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

Scotland analysis

As the debate surrounding Scottish independence gets underway, the UK Government published its first in a series of ‘Scotland analysis’ papers last week to look at the legal implications of Scottish independence. The paper set out that, according to experts, a ‘Yes’ vote would make Scotland the ‘successor’ state and the rest of the UK the ‘continuing’ state. This rejects the First Minister’s idea that Scotland and the UK would both be regarded as …

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Also posted in Parliament and Scotland | Tagged Michael Moore and Westminster Notes | 3 Comments

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