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Category Archives: Op-eds

Opinion: Tuition fees and inconvenient truths

By Mo Saqib | Mon 26th November 2012 - 11:23 am

Wednesday, 21st November 2012 is, to use Mr Roosevelt’s words, “a date that will live in infamy”. Indeed, it was a day that finally brought the government to its knees. The coalition had well and truly been smashed to pieces.

Well, that’s what you’d believe if you were a member of the Socialist Workers’ Party.

What really happened? A student protest that was never aimed at achieving anything (and indeed it didn’t). The protest of November 2010 aimed to lobby MPs in the run-up to the vote on raising tuition fees. For all the cost and effort put into organising it, this week’s

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Tagged featured and tuition fees | 64 Comments

Opinion: Amnesty for 120,000 illegal migrants

By Joe Bourke | Mon 26th November 2012 - 9:54 am

During the 2010 general elections, I campaigned in Barking and Dagenham, where the BNP concentrated much of their electoral effort on the back of council seats they held there.

Our policy of offering families, who have been here for years and want to pay taxes a route to citizenship (provided they want to work, speak English and want to commit to the UK in the long term) came under attack not just from the BNP, but Labour and Tories as well.

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Tagged immigration | 10 Comments

Duff arguments to ignore over Leveson

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th November 2012 - 4:57 pm

Here is a safe prediction: whatever the Leveson report recommends for British journalism, there will be an awful lot of duff arguments rolled out. Despite much of the debate being couched in how important it is for the press to tell the truth and how many difficult judgements there are to make, we’ll hear plenty of simplistic rhetoric based on shonky factual foundations.

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Tagged featured, journalism and leveson inquiry | 5 Comments

As Leveson reports… Why I’m sticking up for ‘Press freedom with no buts’

By Stephen Tall | Sun 25th November 2012 - 8:30 am

Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal will report this week. His recommendations on the future of press regulation are the subject of intense speculation, with essentially three positions being staked-out:

What’s being proposed

‘Independent regulation backed up by statute’
Advocates, who include Evan Harris and the Hacked Off campaign group, argue that the only way to ensure the press does not abuse its position in the future is for it to be regulated. But, they insist, this should be independent both of government and the press, the two main …

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Tagged evan harris, featured, free speech network, hacked off, index on censorship, john kampfner, leveson inquiry, lord black, media, nick clegg, nick cohen and press complaints commission | 38 Comments

Scaling-up the UK’s creative business

By Geof Todd | Fri 23rd November 2012 - 4:21 pm

Danny Boyle’s fantastic opening ceremony for the Olympics highlighted that Great Britain has a great heritage and we can really put on a show – given the right investment! The ‘Big Society’ fails to provide a suitable framework to rebuild and refocus our future, to re-launch UK plc on the global stage. In short, how are we going to make Britain ‘Great’ again?

We have the opportunity to build the world centre of excellence around a major ‘Creative Business’ initiative in which we must

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Tagged creative industries and featured | 5 Comments

Votes for Prisoners? Cameron says no! What would Borgen do?

By Kirsten de Keyser | Fri 23rd November 2012 - 12:51 pm

David Cameron reputedly vowed that prisoners “will be allowed to vote over my dead body”. Don’t give us any ideas Dave… We know that the current blanket ban has been judged unlawful by The European Court of Human Rights, and we presumably don’t want to break the law. I mean, that could land us all in the collective slammer, without the right to vote. Not a clever idea, given that the current UK voter turnout is already among the lowest in Western Europe.

So what would Borgen do? Well, nothing actually, as Danish prisoners have enjoyed the unfettered right to vote since the 1930s. And that’s despite the fact that our Danish cousins

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Tagged denmark and votes for prisoners | 14 Comments

“Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!”*

By Bill le Breton | Fri 23rd November 2012 - 11:21 am

Enough is enough. In the face of soaring national debt, the Liberal Democrat leader has this week called for the Central Bank to be made less independent to pave the way for more aggressive and unlimited monetary easing, a dramatic relaxation of the inflation target accompanied by a major public works programme and a supplementary budget.

Great news! The tragedy is that the Liberal Democrat leader in question is not Nick Clegg speaking on the eve of the Autumn Spending statement, but Shinzo Abe, Leader of the Japanese Liberal Democrats, launching his general election campaign which he is tipped to win. And the reaction of those dreaded markets? Positive – rising 4-5% as other world

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Tagged economic growth, featured and japan | 15 Comments

The Independent View: Liberal Democrats must not be complicit in Osborne’s dash for gas

By Craig Bennett | Thu 22nd November 2012 - 6:50 pm

Friends of the Earth and the Liberal Democrats have long had similar visions for our energy future: more renewables; phasing out fossil fuels; ramping up energy efficiency. In short, getting pollution and consumer bills down, while increasing energy self-sufficiency.

Everything about this vision is now at stake.

The ‘quad’ – the coalition’s decision-making grouping of Cameron, Clegg, Osborne and Alexander – are locked in negotiations with Lib Dem Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey over a 2030 ‘decarbonisation’ target in the Government’s Energy Bill legislation.

Such a target …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged climate change, energy and gas | 22 Comments

Opinion: Could Garden Cities be Nick Clegg’s legacy?

By Andy Boddington | Thu 22nd November 2012 - 3:57 pm

It is May 2032 and I am cycling through the green leafy lanes of Coalition Garden City.

There is something remarkable about this new town that sets it apart from Cumbernauld and Cwmbran, even from fabled Letchworth and iconic Milton Keynes. I am on my way to interview the Mayor of Coalition Garden City to find out how this town of 60,000 people achieved the highest happiness ratings in Britain.

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Tagged garden cities and nick clegg | 10 Comments

Opinion: Renationalising the railways is not the solution – devolution is

By Richard Shaw | Thu 22nd November 2012 - 11:23 am

David Thorpe recently wrote a Liberal Democrat Voice piece advocating the (piecemeal) renationalisation of the railways and the latest LDV survey found more than 40% of members want the railways fully nationalised. I wish to provide some historical context and offer an alternative solution.

Nationalisation in1948 was the culmination of a process started by the First World War. During the war, the railways were taken over by the government, run-down and eventually consolidated

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Tagged railways | 20 Comments

The Independent View: What do we do when children are taught racism at home?

By Chris Meredith | Thu 22nd November 2012 - 8:45 am

Racism is an uncomfortable and emotive subject to discuss. To its victims it is absolutely devastating and can affect entire communities. In Britain it is considered socially unacceptable but despite this, and the numerous laws designed to prevent discrimination, racism is still worryingly commonplace. I’ve witnessed it myself on duty more times than I can count; the culprits are usually adults, which is shocking and unpleasant enough, but for me, the truly worrying cases are those involving children.

Last month I spoke to an officer who specialises in groups with extremist views. He told me about a child living in the …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged education, police and racism | 7 Comments

Opinion: We need all parties to work together to solve London’s housing crisis

By Joe Bourke | Wed 21st November 2012 - 1:36 pm

Sarah Teather’s recent interview in the Observer graphically reminded us of the social impact of the housing crisis on large numbers low and moderate earners in London.

Vince Cable, on the Andrew Marr show, emphasised both the need to counter the tabloid rhetoric of benefit scroungers and restrain the growth in the welfare budget. Vince pointed to the urgent need to expand the provision of affordable housing in the …

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Tagged darren johnson, housing and london | 19 Comments

Michael Moore’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 21st November 2012 - 12:30 pm

Every week, Michael Moore MP, Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland, writes a column for newspapers in his Borders constituency. Here’s the latest edition in which he is too modest, however, to draw attention to the fact that he won Best Scot at Westminster in the Herald’s Scottish Politician of the Year awards,

Post Offices

In recent months a number of my constituents have written to me

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Tagged featured, Jo Swinson, Michael Moore, parental leave, post offices and Westminster Notes | 1 Comment

Opinion: Can Labour be trusted on mental health?

By Tim Purkiss | Wed 21st November 2012 - 8:55 am

In my last two articles for Liberal Democrat Voice I wrote about the current under provision in mental health treatment in the country and why it is important that properly addressing mental health is brought into the political mainstream.

Thankfully in recent weeks this has started to happen. Of course there was Ed Miliband’s speech to the Royal College of Psychiatrists in which he spoke of the need for improved provision in mental health treatments across the country. Many people will of course welcome this state of affairs and it is encouraging if Miliband is intending to put improved …

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Tagged ed miliband, labour, mental health, NHS and paul burstow | 4 Comments

George Bridges: my part in the Tories’ downfall. As a Lib Dem, I approve this message

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st November 2012 - 8:25 am

There’s a fascinating article today in the Telegraph by George Bridges: The Tories have gone astray – and I helped. Who’s George Bridges, you ask? Here’s his summary of his political career to date:

First a researcher for the Conservative Party machine, then a tour of duty in the bunker of No 10 for the last three Major years, followed by a few years advising Michael Howard and David Cameron.

It’s a hefty 1,000-word ‘Consevatism: my part in its downfall’ mea culpa, and it’s fascinating in two ways.

First, for its call to arms for Conservatives to ignore the polling …

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Tagged conservative party and george bridges | 8 Comments

Opinion: Are Nick Clegg’s emails to members too little, too late?

By Former Organiser | Tue 20th November 2012 - 2:26 pm

Nick Clegg has started sending weekly emails to my inbox. As I research political communication, I was interested to see that Clegg and his team had taken a new approach to the mass membership email.

I recently carried out a large survey of Liberal Democrat members. Oddly, a large proportion of respondents commented that they weren’t too keen on the emails from Party HQ. I was initially puzzled as much of the research in this area suggests that emails are an effective way of building up a relationship, and encouraging activists to do more. The common view suggested that they were

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Tagged emails, internal communications and nick clegg | 27 Comments

Opinion: Prisoner voting and the rule of law

By Richard Wingfield | Tue 20th November 2012 - 11:25 am

Liberal Democrats have always been proud defenders of the rule of law. As our manifesto stated in 2010, the values of ‘fairness and the rule of law’ lie at the heart of our foreign policy. However, just as we call on other states such as Burma, Belarus and Zimbabwe to respect the rule of law, so we must be ever vigilant that there is no weakening of this fundamental principle at home. The Liberal Democrat policy on the Justice and Security Bill at conference in September was a powerful reminder to the leadership on how seriously we, as a party, take this issue.

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Tagged human rights and prisoner voting | 14 Comments

Opinion: We must dismantle BBC to reform it

By David Thorpe | Tue 20th November 2012 - 10:14 am

If the BBC has been feeling a little cursed of late it can at least feel blessed in having Rupert Murdoch as an enemy. For the truth is that the BBC and Murdoch need to each other to justify their own world view and block any threat to seriously reform either of their vast empires.

In much the same way as the Labour and Tory parties use each other’s existence to drown the genuinely radical voices out of British public life whilst they tinker at their edge of whichever of

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Tagged bbc, broadcasting and channel 4 | 39 Comments

Opinion: we must campaign to win in every election

By Chris White | Tue 20th November 2012 - 8:57 am

Those of us who have been around a while will remember fighting nationwide elections we knew we couldn’t win. European elections were always like this until the nineties, when we suddenly made a (minor) breakthrough even before PR voting was introduced.

So in the scheme of things Thursday’s PCC elections were nothing new.

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Tagged party strategy and police and crime commissioner elections | 29 Comments

CentreForum’s proposals for the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement

By Adam Corlett | Mon 19th November 2012 - 3:20 pm

Ahead of December 5th’s Autumn Statement, we have suggested £17 billion of revenue-raising measures for the coalition parties to consider. Our proposals offer ways to narrow the deficit with as little pain as possible, and further measures to unlock growth.

These include what might be called “wealth taxes” – those on property, inheritance, and financial assets. One of our key themes is that substantial revenue can be raised simply by ending wealth and income tax breaks. Spending cuts should therefore include cuts to ‘tax expenditures’. Many of the measures below would make the tax system simpler, fairer and more efficient …

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6 Comments

Eliminating the structural deficit is aiming for the wrong target

By Mark Pack | Mon 19th November 2012 - 10:53 am

There is an appealing simplicity behind the idea of having a zero structural deficit. It is the policy the government is committed to, with its plans to eliminate the structural deficit. And it’s also wrong.

For all the problems in measuring the structural deficit accurately, the concept is a useful one – to measure what the deficit is, once you have allowed for where we are in the economic cycle. Or, as the FT puts it, “A budget deficit that results from a fundamental imbalance in government receipts and expenditures, as opposed to one based on one-off or short-term factors”.

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Tagged deficit, deficit reduction, economy and featured | 19 Comments

The Independent View: A reply to Mark Pack from Obama’s Director of Data

By Ethan Roeder | Mon 19th November 2012 - 8:53 am

The Crystal Ball chart blogged by Mark Pack highlights the interesting cases of Alaska and Utah. These outliers make sense given the dynamics of the race (the large Mormon population in UT provided a boost to Romney while the absence of Sarah Palin from the ballot hurt Republican performance in AK relative to 2008). But why do we not see more turbulence in the battleground states? Surely the gobs of money spent in these states along with the monumental ground efforts of the Obama campaign would push these states away from the crowd? The answer to this apparent disconnect …

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Also posted in LDVUSA and The Independent View | Tagged barack obama, Mitt Romney and sarah palin | 5 Comments

Lord Avebury writes… World Toilet Day and sanitation: an unspoken problem

By Eric Avebury | Mon 19th November 2012 - 7:33 am

Today is World Toilet Day and it is important to remember that 2.5 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation. One in three women across the world risks shame, disease, harassment and even attack because they do not have a safe place to go to the toilet. This is unthinkable in the UK, but a reality in the developing world and the impact is devastating. Absence of clean toilets and inadequate sanitation facilities are key causes of diarrhoeal disease, the second largest killer of children worldwide, causing around 760,000 child deaths every year. Diarrhoeal disease is also a contributing factor to malnutrition, which in turn can lead to stunted growth and impede cognitive development.

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Tagged dfid, featured, lynne featherstone, PATH, tearfund, water aid and world toilet day | Leave a comment

4-in-10 Lib Dem voters inclined to leave EU, says poll – a reminder why our pitch should be ‘In Europe to reform the EU’

By Stephen Tall | Sun 18th November 2012 - 4:20 pm

‘If a referendum were held on the UK’s membership of the European Union, how do you think you would vote?’ That’s the question posed by polling company Opinium and published today in The Observer — with the following result reported by the paper:

Almost four out of 10 Liberal Democrat voters support leaving the EU, according to a new poll which shows that hardline euroscepticism has taken hold in Britain’s most pro-European party. An Opinium/Observer survey has found that 39% of Lib Dem supporters

…

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Also posted in Europe / International and Polls | Tagged european union and nick clegg | 23 Comments

Libby Local, Episode 4: “The Canvass”

By Libby Local | Sun 18th November 2012 - 2:30 pm

It was late on a Tuesday night and I was parked up in the Market Tavern with Melissa having a good moan over a Pinot Grigio. I’d just finished a particularly scrappy and argumentative rehearsal with the Demsbury Orchestra. Susan, the new clarinet player, had caused us all grief.

“I’ve had enough of it,” I sounded off. “The Orchestra is not well-run anyway, and now we get this bloody new clarinet player who will not listen and does her own thing.” Melissa didn’t look the least bit interested, so I tried to bait her. “I bet she’s a Tory as …

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Tagged featured | 7 Comments

Opinion: Time to give voters the chance to register their abstention, or wish to abolish a post #WeDoRONRON

By Andrew Tennant | Sat 17th November 2012 - 4:55 pm

We’d all like to believe that the 80+% of voters who stayed at home for last week’s PCC elections would have voted for a Lib Dem candidate had one stood in their area. But the result can probably more accurately be seen as mass public apathy, or even hostility to the Police and Crime Commissioners policy.

A major problem with our electoral system, then, is that there is no effective way to capture and represent ‘none of the above’ or ‘no-one under any circumstances’ viewpoints that so many potentially hold.

As a democrat, I want to fix that. That’s why I hope …

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18 Comments

My ‘Super Thursday’ Lib Dem post mortem

By Stephen Tall | Fri 16th November 2012 - 8:20 pm

A bad day for the Lib Dems, but not unexpectedly so. Call it sanguine, call it resigned…

Lib Dems Corby pressed

The party expected to get squeezed in Corby, and we were. I suspect we lost some ‘none of the above’ voters to Ukip and some left-leaning liberals to Labour (and many others who just didn’t vote). To forfeit our deposit by barely more than a dozen votes added an extra ignominy (although revived an old Liberal tradition). Though there is something practical we can do to lend a hand there…

Anyone else want to help the #BetterDeadThanRed

…

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Tagged corby, featured and police commissioner elections | 60 Comments

Wakey, wakey! It’s PCC election day in England and Wales. You hadn’t forgotten, had you?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 15th November 2012 - 10:40 am

Election day is usually a day when, if you’re at all interested/involved in politics, the pulse quickens, the blood pumps faster, the adrenaline kicks in. With all due respect to the sane candidates standing for the post of Police and Crime Commissioner (and naturally with very best wishes to those Lib Dems flying the party’s flag in England) today just doesn’t feel right.* In fact, it feels like a damp squib.

I think that’s a shame for two reasons.

First, voting matters. It’s perhaps the purest, most powerful way …

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Tagged elected police commissioners | 16 Comments

Nick Clegg: Parents can share the joys and responsibilities of bringing children into the world

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 14th November 2012 - 4:33 pm

Nick Clegg went on Woman’s Hour yesterday after announcing the Coalition’s plans to allow parents to choose which of them takes leave when they have a new baby.

He talked to Jane Garvey about the plans for around 20 minutes, fielding some pretty robust questions, including whether men or women actually wanted this change. He was quite firm that it wasn’t for the government to say that women should take time off and men should work when a baby was born.

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Tagged featured, flexible working, jane garvey, nick clegg, parental leave and woman's hour | 2 Comments