Category Archives: Op-eds

Opinion: Spectators are as important as athletes to develop a sporting nation

By Laura Willoughby | Mon 13th August 2012 - 3:55 pm

Only in Britain could we end up having a debate about success and its ongoing legacy that sounds both ambitious (let’s seize the moment) and a like a moan (well we won’t do as well again)! Of course it is right that we start the debate now and ride the momentum whilst sport is on the front pages and the nation is discussing more than football.

Of course, participation is the key goal but evidence shows that the presence of an Olympics alone does not create a huge change …

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Tagged olympics | 2 Comments

Opinion: Creating a legacy for UK sport from London 2012 – lessons from Jamaica

By Chris Richards | Mon 13th August 2012 - 10:50 am

Politicians of all colours are running around to claim credit for Team GBs success at London 2012. Similarly sporting figures are also running around to trying to gain funding for ‘their sports’ from the Government. How can we build on success in 2012 to gain even more medals in 2016?

I want to use the example of Jamaica, a country which has produced some of the best sprinters in the world. Since 1964 (way before Usain Bolt), Jamaica has won a medal in every summer Olympics – all of them but one in athletics.

As some of you know, I was born …

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Tagged jamaica, olympics and sport | 3 Comments

Opinion: Is this the start of Plan A+?

By Adam Corlett | Sun 12th August 2012 - 9:25 am

It looks like the coming months will see new initiatives to boost the economy, following the second quarter contraction (now revised up slightly to -0.5%) and a record trade deficit.

As The Spectator reports,

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Tagged david cameron, economy, ed miliband, eric pickles, george osborne, housing and nick clegg | 4 Comments

The Independent View: Could Europe be an unlikely area of consensus for the revamped Coalition 2.0?

By Pawel Swidlicki | Sat 11th August 2012 - 9:51 am

Following the bad blood within the coalition over the collapse of Lords reform and the constituency boundary review, there has been much speculation that the two parties will enact a policy ‘reset’ after conference season, with Oliver Letwin and Danny Alexander already reportedly working out the details. Most people looking for potential fresh common ground between Tories and Lib Dems would hardly place ‘Europe’ at the top of their list. However, while the parties are unlikely to ever see eye to eye on the EU, given political will, there are a number of areas of potential agreement.

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Also posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged common agricultural policy, Danny Alexander, eu budget, europe and oliver letwin | 21 Comments

Lords Reform – reflections from Alaska in the rain

By Mark Valladares | Fri 10th August 2012 - 12:35 pm

And so, what some, myself amongst them, feared as inevitable has come to pass, as serious Lords reform goes the same way as electoral reform, probably dead for a generation. Here, aboard the MV Columbia, shrouded in fog at the ferry terminal in Haines, it is hard, almost impossible, to tell what is ahead, a bit like the next few months of coalition. Better to look back, perhaps.

I’ve been something of a pessimist on the likely success of Lords reform from the early stages of the process. That could be because, whilst in retrospect the signs were always there, nobody much wanted to see them.

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Also posted in News | Tagged coalition agreement, david cameron, ed miliband, lords reform and nick clegg | 12 Comments

Opinion: Can Corby smelt a new Coalition?

By Toby Fenwick | Thu 9th August 2012 - 2:25 pm

Louise Mensch’s resignation on 6 August has triggered a by-election in Corby on 15 November. Initially treated as a silly-season oddity, the likely Labour victory exposes the Coalition’s fragility post Cameron’s dropping of Lords Reform.

A tight Tory-Labour marginal, Corby has been a reliable bell-weather constituency since its creation in 1983. Retaken for the Conservatives by A-lister Louise Mensch in 2010, it has a Conservative majority of 1,951 on a swing of 3.6% – less than the 5.6% swing from Labour to Conservative across England as a whole. Given current national opinion polls, and the fact that the seat will be …

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Also posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged corby and louise mensch | 64 Comments

Tom Brake MP writes… Politics is a profession of unrelenting pace

By Tom Brake | Thu 9th August 2012 - 11:58 am

In politics, no sooner have you seen off one challenge, than another appears on the horizon. At least the triathlon I completed had a clearly defined finish line. Yet, in politics, no sooner has one election ended, than you have to refocus on the next.

As a result, it’s hard to find time to sit down and take stock. But during this recess, I’ve set myself the challenge of putting some time aside to refocus on the last election and look at the detail behind the detail.

I’ve spent election after election trying to learn the lessons of what went wrong. I’ve …

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Tagged campaigning and tom brake | 4 Comments

Opinion: Why scrapping Lords Reform is ultimately a disaster for Cameron

By Nick Tyrone | Wed 8th August 2012 - 12:04 pm

Many of the more right-of-centre newspapers are declaring that the government calling time on Lords Reform is a victory for Cameron personally. Iain Martin’s piece summarises this thesis.

I would argue the precise opposite. I think the whole episode has been a disaster for Cameron and damaging to the Conservative party overall, albeit in a minor way, at least when you take the fact that their only even vaguely electable possible leader has been politically debased out of the equation.

A question that has hung around the neck of Cameron since the near miss of the 2010 election is this: would …

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Tagged david cameron, lords reform and Parliament | 15 Comments

Opinion: Unelected Lords are against the spirit of the European Convention on Human Rights

By Antony Hook | Wed 8th August 2012 - 9:22 am

For as long as philosophers and political campaigners have asserted that certain rights are basic, universal or inalienable, the right to elect one’s legislators has generally figured in those rights.

England’s 1689 Bill of Rights protected the right to elect Members of Parliament without interference from the Crown. In France the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man guaranteed the right to vote. In America, five separate Articles of the US Bill of Rights protect voting rights and both Houses are elected under the Constitution.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides:

Article 21

(1) Everyone has the right to take part

…

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Tagged civil liberties, human rights, lords reform and Parliament | 33 Comments

Paul Tyler writes… Conservative crisis, Labour leaderless

By Paul Tyler | Tue 7th August 2012 - 5:00 pm

It’s a good job I’m not a betting man, having said here in July “my bets are strongly against the Government giving up at this point”. But now we know: David Cameron’s authority within the Conservative Party is so weak that he cannot even persuade his MPs to support an agreed manifesto commitment, and a Bill unanimously supported by his Cabinet. Cameron and Osborne voted for the 80% elected component as long ago as 2003, yet this summer their right-wing backbenchers simply would not accept elections at all.

Unsurprisingly, concern for future of their own constituencies – as boundary changes …

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Tagged coalition, lords reform and Parliament | 42 Comments

Chris Davies writes: A view from the North (1/3)

By Chris Davies | Tue 7th August 2012 - 4:15 pm

From time to time I try to find out what my party members in the North West think about the issues that most concern me. We do our best to make sure that the questions are serious and that we do not try to ‘lead’ members into giving particular responses.

Of course I always hope that my own views will be generally reflected amongst the membership, and I also note that the answers we get do not always reflect preconceived views.

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Tagged north west region | 3 Comments

Opinion: What the Tory backbench rebellion means for parliament

By Tim Leunig | Tue 7th August 2012 - 1:35 pm

Failing to get reform of the House of Lords through the Commons shows a parliamentary asymmetry. There are enough Tory backbenchers to defeat the government, but not enough Liberal Democrat backbenchers to do so. One party’s backbenchers have de facto veto power, but the other’s do not.

There are three responses to this constitutional oddity.

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Tagged coalition agreement, lords reform, Parliament and parliamentary boundary review | 18 Comments

Opinion: With all constituencies declared, Labour has an overall majority

By Charles Beaumont | Tue 7th August 2012 - 12:01 pm

No, I didn’t just get in a muddle about what year we’re in. But the collapse of Lords Reform has brought us, inevitably, to this point. Labour will win the next election with an overall majority.

Three years may be long enough for anything to happen. But consider this: it is hard to see the Conservative vote in 2015 being an increase on their 2010 showing. Since 2010 we’ve had the Euro crisis, George Osborne’s U-turn fest, a healthy reminder of the symbiotic relationship between the Murdoch empire and the Tory party and the longest recession in more than 50 …

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Tagged general election 2015 | 46 Comments

The House of Lords just got even more dangerous for Cameron

By Mark Pack | Mon 6th August 2012 - 8:52 pm

Imagine the situation.

You are a Liberal Democrat peer.

You have voted for several measures you did not like because they were in the Coalition Agreement.

You have now seen the Conservative Party walk away from a major part of the agreement.

You now know your place in Parliament is secure for a good few more years without the party’s whips being able to hold over you anything about your fate when reforms kick in, even if they should wish.

How do you think you are going to vote on future issue after issue that is in the Coalition Agreement but not the LibDem manifesto?

The …

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Tagged house of lords | 17 Comments

Opinion: We are Liberal cherries in a very Conservative cake

By Kevin McNamara | Mon 6th August 2012 - 3:53 pm

Lords Reform might have only gone missing, but we should prepare for the idea that we might find a body.

We should first realise that we haven’t yet made a single, big achievement in this government. That is not to say that I do not think that the Pupil Premium is a bad thing – I am a passionate advocate. The same with the £10K tax threshold; I even believe we could move forward on that. These are good achievements, but not legacies.

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Tagged coalition | 29 Comments

Chris Rennard writes… Restoring balance to the Coalition

By Chris Rennard | Mon 6th August 2012 - 2:42 pm

Nick Clegg’s statement dropping Lords Reform in this Parliament should come as no surprise following David Cameron’s failure to persuade barely half of his backbench MPs to support the Government’s Bill on this.

Two years ago, Conservative MPs were supporting a Queen’s Speech that made explicit the Coalition agreement to elect members of the House of Lords through Proportional Representation.

The Coalition Agreement is the contract that underwrites this government. In its name many Liberal Democrats have voted for compromises in legislation that we would not on our own have put forward.

So, the question is what to do when one side fails to honour its side of the contract?

You act swiftly and decisively, even ruthlessly, as Nick Clegg has done, to redress the balance. Hence, the boundary changes are no more.

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Tagged boundary changes, coalition agreement, david cameron, john major, lords reform, nick clegg and stephen tall | 82 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Democrats should abandon support for the single currency

By David Thorpe | Mon 6th August 2012 - 2:23 pm

Despite the media perception of the Liberal Democrats as a party of Euro fanatics, there is arguably a wider divergence of opinion

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Tagged euro | 31 Comments

Opinion: Why we need to tackle homophobic bullying now

By Sarah Rose | Mon 6th August 2012 - 10:23 am

In recent years, Liberal Democrats have been political frontrunners in identifying ways to tackle the insidious issue of homophobic bullying in our schools. In a 2010 interview with Attitude, Nick Clegg called for all schools – including faith schools – to implement anti-homophobia bullying policies and teach that homosexuality is “normal and harmless”. Our 2010 manifesto said that we would “confront bullying, including homophobic bullying, and include bullying prevention in teacher training”,

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Tagged bullying and homophobia | 11 Comments

The Coalition Agreement does not commit Lib Dems to supporting boundary changes

By Stephen Tall | Sun 5th August 2012 - 8:45 am

Over the last couple of months, Conservative MPs and commentators have made great play of the fact that the Coalition Agreement does not explicitly commit the Tories to voting for House of Lords reform. Let’s remind ourselves of its words again:

We will establish a committee to bring forward proposals for a wholly or mainly elected upper chamber on the basis of proportional representation. The committee will come forward with a draft motion by December 2010. It is likely that this will advocate single long terms of office. It is also likely that there will be a grandfathering system for

…

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Tagged boundary changes, coalition agreement, david cameron, lords reform and nick clegg | 37 Comments

Boundary reforms must now be dropped, but Lib Dems should avoid petulance over Lords retreat

By Nick T | Sat 4th August 2012 - 2:24 pm

The news that David Cameron has been unable to persuade Conservative MPs to support the House of Lords Reform Bill is disappointing, but unsurprising given the scale of the threatened rebellion. Liberal Democrats must accept this situation – frustrating as it is – and concentrate on what is now important: the party’s response.

Anger will be the natural reaction of many in the party – and understandably so. Liberal Democrat MPs have walked through the Aye Lobby more times than they care to remember to support Conservative measures from the coalition agreement. Yet when it comes to doing their bit …

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Tagged lords reform | 31 Comments

Lords reform: what next?

By Mark Pack | Sat 4th August 2012 - 9:35 am

Four quick thoughts before I go off in search of chocolate, pizza and friends (in reverse order of priority, of course):

1. The last rites on Lords reform for this Parliament have not yet quite been uttered, though it’s striking how those in government I’ve spoken to are all now pretty much just talking about what the repercussions are rather than how it might yet go through. Will Ed Miliband be tempted to mix opportunism with principle and say, ‘No problem about those Tory backbenchers; we’ll support this measure?’.

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Tagged constitutional reform, house of lords and lords reform | 13 Comments

Some positive news on the Work Capability Assessment

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 2nd August 2012 - 6:56 pm

One of the most difficult aspects of the welfare reforms for many Liberal Democrat activists to bear was the removal of Employment and Support Allowance after a year from those placed in the Work Related Activity Group. Our anxiety is compounded by what we see as a deeply flawed assessment system which does not take fluctuating conditions seriously. I wrote a critique of the application form earlier this year which explains some of the problems.

The Work Capability Assessment was introduced by Labour in 2008. The Coalition has improved it under the guidance of Professor Malcolm Harrington, but not to …

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Tagged department of work and pensions, diary of a benefit scrounger, mind, sue marsh, tim pollard, welfare reform and work capability assessment | 20 Comments

Opinion: Lib Dems should say “No, Minister” to Tory plans to politicise the Civil Service

By Robin McGhee | Thu 2nd August 2012 - 9:24 am

An initiative by Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, should be a cause of considerable alarm for Liberal Democrats. According to the Independent, Maude has proposed a massive expansion of politically-appointed civil servants. The details are rather sketchy. But it seems obvious that if Francis Maude gets his way it will hugely reduce the effectiveness of government.

There are countless problems with an apolitical Civil Service. It is traditionally seen as a bastion of Establishment moderation and elitism. There is a good deal of evidence to suggest this has more than a grain of truth. The success of Yes, Minister …

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Tagged civil service, clement attlee and francis maude | 13 Comments

Rennie questions Salmond’s £400k on “London embassy” for the Olympics

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 1st August 2012 - 3:36 pm

The Scottish Government, understandably enough, has decided to showcase Scotland to the representatives of business and government from all over the world who are currently visiting London for the Olympics. Showing Scotland off is never a bad thing, especially when we are hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2 years’ time.

They have, bizarrely, blown £400,000 on hiring the Army and Navy Club in Pall Mall and renaming it Scotland House. There, according to First Minister Alex Salmond, visitors can see:

what a great place Scotland is to have a holiday or do business in, and what wonderful food and drink and

…

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Tagged alex salmond, heather stanning, helen glover, olympics, Scotland and willie rennie | 2 Comments

Opinion: Britain is more liberal than you think

By Simon Titley | Tue 31st July 2012 - 9:25 am

Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony for the London Olympics has deservedly won widespread praise. He managed the difficult trick of presenting a vision of a Britain in which the British can feel proud, without resorting to any of the tired old clichés. There was not a bowler hat or a red double-decker bus in sight, and nobody mentioned the war.

One measure of the ceremony’s success is that the only high-profile critics – apart from the Iranian state media – were Peter Hitchens, Toby Young and Tory MP Aidan Burley, who …

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39 Comments

Opinion: Disability Living Allowance replacement will cause economic and human cost

By George Potter | Mon 30th July 2012 - 3:53 pm

Under the Welfare Reform Act 2012, passed by the government earlier this year, Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for disabled people of working age is due to be replaced by Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) with a net result of a 20% reduction by 2015 in the DLA budget – it is worth pointing out at this point that the fraud rate for DLA is estimated by the Department of Works and Pensions to be less than 0.5%.

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Tagged personal independence payment | 38 Comments

Opinion: Stop the national carpathon – we should be proud to offer free seats to service personnel, local school children and Games Makers

By Paul Walter | Mon 30th July 2012 - 1:23 pm

“Locog calls in the army (again)” goes the headline of the Guardian report saying that Olympics seats left empty by the “Olympic family” are being offered to the military and, potentially, to local school children.

So yet another cock-up and we fall back on drafting in the army, goes the story.

I take the opposite view.

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Tagged olympics | 9 Comments

Opinion: Lib Dems should park Lords reform. For now.

By Mark Thompson | Mon 30th July 2012 - 10:23 am

I am an enthusiastic supporter of electoral and constitutional reform in this country. I have been arguing for years that the First Past the Post system for the Commons is hopelessly out of date and unfair and that there is no place in our constitution for an unelected second chamber. I was delighted when the coalition agreement included action on the latter and heartened by Nick Clegg’s various comments in the early days of this government that made it clear he was throwing his full weight as Deputy

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Tagged house of lords and Joint Committee of the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill | 38 Comments

Opinion: Brussels vs. the banksters

By Giles Goodall | Sat 28th July 2012 - 1:21 pm

European Parliament building

Almost no-one in the UK would these days dispute the fact that the country’s banking sector needs a serious overhaul to correct the runaway behaviour which helped nudge Britain (and others) into the financial crisis. The Liberal Democrats have rightly been most persistent in demanding reforms, in particular a break-up of retail and casino banking, as recommended by the independent Vickers Inquiry.

The latest scandal about fixing the benchmark Libor interest rate plumbs new depths – even by the standards of Britain’s banks. Here were …

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Tagged banking, europe and libor | 14 Comments

The Independent View: Will Osborne gas the Lib Dems’ green credentials?

By Craig Bennett | Fri 27th July 2012 - 9:05 am

Ed Davey’s announced this week that he’d secured an important concession from the Chancellor over wind farm subsidies – but at what cost?

Although there was understandable relief over the certainty this move gave to investors in clean British energy it seems the victory may have come with a hefty price tag: an agreement to burden our electricity system with dirty and increasingly expensive gas for decades to come – despite the enormous damage this could cause to both the economy and planet.

Ed Davey’s success in securing a 10 per cent cut in wind farm subsidies – to reflect the …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged climate change, ed davey, energy and friends of the earth | 21 Comments