Category Archives: Op-eds

The Interception of Communications Commissioner has failed

By Mark Pack | Fri 27th April 2012 - 10:25 am

I’ve been reading through all the annual reports issues by the Interception of Communications Commissioner since the passage of Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. He is meant to make sure that the powers granted to public bodies under RIPA to intercept our communications are being used correctly.

The annual reports are not a pretty read, especially when set against a modicum of knowledge about the outside world during the years the reports cover. Consider the following.

1. No scrutiny of the costs system

First, under RIPA there is provision for the government to pay communication service providers costs for meeting the …

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Tagged daily mail, featured, greg callus, Interception of Communications Commissioner, nick davies and ripa | 2 Comments

Catherine Bearder MEP writes… Lib Dem MEPs kill ACTA

By Catherine Bearder | Fri 27th April 2012 - 9:10 am

After careful consideration, Lib Dem MEPs have decided to reject the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in the European Parliament. There is now a majority in the Parliament that will reject the ratification of this plurilateral treaty originally designed to establish international standards for intellectual property rights.

So why do we reject ACTA?

In principle, Lib Dems support the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) and the fight against counterfeiting – in particular when it comes to dangerous counterfeit medicines, electronics and toys. But we are also champions of fundamental rights and freedoms and we must weigh up carefully between the need to …

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Also posted in News | Tagged counterfeiting, european parliament and intellectual property rights | 3 Comments

Opinion: Is it time to rescue education policy from the hands of MPs?

By Daniel Henry | Thu 26th April 2012 - 5:28 pm

When Labour’s shadow minister of education, Stephen Twigg, announced his “Office for Educational Improvement” idea, it was quite well received by many of us. It pushed a lot of our buttons, not least the welcome emphasis on evidence and the idea of protecting educational policy from the whims of politicians with “transient ambitions”.

The question that crossed my mind was how this might be combined with our liberal themes of localism and democracy to improve it further. So to start a debate, here’s a suggestion:

How we might “devolve” educational policy

We could create a council to deal with educational policy. …

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Tagged education, michael gove and stephen twigg | 15 Comments

Opinion: It is time to pick a fight and show we are serious about institutionalised faith based homophobia

By Paul Pettinger | Thu 26th April 2012 - 1:56 pm

At the next general election Liberal Democrats should look forward to being able to point to the introduction of same sex marriage as a Liberal Democrat achievement. Although the move is supported by some Conservatives, it has only happened because of Lib Dem pressure.

That the Party has made the issue such a high priority, especially when working with a conservative Party, helps to communicate to the public how much we care about equality for LGBT people, and is something that we should be able to draw collective pride. However, the Government is still failing in its commitment on page 29 of …

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Tagged LGBT rights, michael gove and schools | 54 Comments

Barry Norman on life as film critic and a liberal

By Mark Pack | Thu 26th April 2012 - 10:25 am

For many years Adrian Slade has interviewed prominent Liberal Democrats. To mark his recent decision to make his archive of the interview recordings available to researchers and other interested parties, Lib Dem Voice will be running a selection of his write-ups of interviews from over the years. The first is with broadcaster, writer and Liberal Democrat, Barry Norman from 2003.

For British cinemagoers Barry Norman is the personification of film. For twenty-six years, with only a brief break in ‘81/’82 when he fronted ‘Omnibus’ for the BBC, he was the authentic voice …

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Tagged adrian slade, barry norman, featured and history | 2 Comments

Lord Tyler and Baroness Scott write… We urgently need to reform our bloated second chamber

By Paul Tyler and Ros Scott | Wed 25th April 2012 - 12:53 pm

This week, after 30 interminable meetings and much going round the houses, the Joint Committee on David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s Draft House of Lords Reform Bill published its report.

Within minutes, a minority group from the Committee, having lost many votes on amendments to the official text, published an “alternative report”. It advocates, guess what: more meetings, more discussion, another Commission. You name the delaying tactic, they have thought of it.

The reform opponents are also much alive to the success of misleading figures in distorting the public debate on AV last year. …

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Tagged lords reform | 18 Comments

The Independent View: A blueprint for social media intelligence

By Carl Miller | Wed 25th April 2012 - 10:25 am

The controversy over the Government’s plans to legislate for Internet surveillance, the ‘Communications Capabilities Development Programme’, has exposed a deep division within the Coalition. Into the dispute that has simmered since some details were first leaked earlier this month, David Cameron himself has weighed in to say that the proposals are necessary to stop crime, whereas Tim Farron has threatened to kill it “if we think this is a threat to a free and liberal society”.

This rumbling outrage surrounding CCDP testifies to the importance of a principled, publicly argued grounding for any kind of intelligence. It is exactly …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged civil liberties, demos, independent view, intelligence, internet surveillance and social media | 1 Comment

Is it time to consider what the European Union is for?

By Mark Valladares | Tue 24th April 2012 - 1:22 pm

Liberal Democrats are an oddly reticent bunch when it comes to the European Union, defined more by our opponents than by our own words. We are, by the very nature of being internationalist, in favour of a European idea. But we appear increasingly unsure as to what that might be, so we tend not to talk about it much these days.

What that means is that when the question of Europe is raised, UKIP loudly distort the truth, joined by the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservatives, whilst everybody else talks about jobs, education and crime, perhaps mentioning Europe in passing. So, …

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged european union | 25 Comments

Opinion: are we participants in ‘elective dictatorship’ ?

By Paul Reynolds | Tue 24th April 2012 - 8:52 am

A formula. Politicians who are weak, plus ‘Sir Humphreys’ who are strong, equals elective dictatorship.

It was Tony Blair who introduced the idea to the British public of politicians who see themselves primarily as spokespeople for the decisions and interests of officials. With Blair and his New Labour concept, it became more obvious that there was a new class of ‘professional’ career politician – seeing their role primarily as spinning-for-the-state and controlling public opinion.

A little-noticed last phrase in a BBC news item last week may be another symptom of a weakening democratic system of elected politicians – those who used …

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Tagged civil service and democracy | 15 Comments

Opinion: Lib Dems should not fear a Lords reform referendum

By Mark Thompson | Mon 23rd April 2012 - 2:54 pm

We got battered last year. So it would only be natural if we were to be a little wary of plunging headlong into another referendum for changing our political system so soon after the public rejected our proposal for AV for the Commons by such a wide margin.

There are now rumblings from Conservative MPs and also the Labour leadership that any change to the Lords should be subject to a referendum. Nick Clegg has strongly argued that this is …

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Tagged constitutional reform, house of lords, House of Lords referendum, Joint Committee of the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill and lords reform | 19 Comments

Opinion: The pensions crisis

By Joe Bourke | Mon 23rd April 2012 - 11:55 am

The Department for Work and Pensions warns that many final salary schemes have already closed down and those that survive will be closed to new entrants within six years.

The average defined contribution pot – the pension now replacing the more generous final salary scheme – is £26,000. At current rates, this fund would buy a Joint life 50%, 3% escalation annuity of less than £1000 per year.

One in six people retiring this year have not saved into a private pension or accumulated other assets, so will see their salaries replaced with the state pension only.

To provide for a pension in …

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Tagged pensions | 32 Comments

Psst! Whatever you do, don’t tell the Tories democratic reform is in their own best interests

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd April 2012 - 10:45 am

A few weeks ago I wrote an article for Conservative Home offering some unsolicited advice to David Cameron’s party. I argued that a party that had achieved electoral success in the 1980s by appealing to the classless entrepreneurialism of aspirant ‘Middle England’ had once again become established in the electorate’s eyes as the party of established wealth and privilege. If the Tories want to regain the voters they have lost, they need to take drastic action to counter that view.

Reform of the House of Lords was one policy area I said the Tories should seek to make their …

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Tagged alternative vote, benjamin disraeli, conservative home, david cameron, electoral reform, featured and house of lords | 9 Comments

Opinion: The Presidential elections – a French farce?

By Andrew Wigley | Sun 22nd April 2012 - 3:15 pm

Today, France goes to the polls in the first of two ballots to select its next President; polls suggest that incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy and socialist Francois Hollande will go head to head in the run-off on Sunday 8 May.

The Presidental election and subsequent legislative elections are a real challenge for Liberals. Our sister party, the Mouvement Democrate (MoDem) led by Francois Bayrou has struggled during this campaign. Bayrou, a popular former Education Minister, has lost momentum in an environment where populism …

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Also posted in News | Tagged french presidential election | 8 Comments

The past month shows this Government urgently needs a Coalition 2.0 Agreement

By Stephen Tall | Sun 22nd April 2012 - 2:10 pm

We’re fast approaching the two-year mark of this first post-war Coalition Government, and I think it’s fair to say the strains are starting to show. It is inevitable there will be tensions when two parties — with different traditions, values, expectations — come together to try and govern a country at a time of economic torpor.

Until now, a lid has more or less been kept on the inter-party warfare, not least thanks to the determinedly tight-knit fastness of the dual leadership of Messrs Clegg and Cameron. But that lid is now starting to shake as the pressure builds within and between both parties.

Coalition: making friends of enemies, and enemies of friends

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Tagged coalition agreement, david cameron, featured and nick clegg | 30 Comments

Our broken electoral timetable – or why Andrew Neil is too late

By Mark Pack | Sun 22nd April 2012 - 8:50 am

Along with many activists from all political parties, yesterday I was out on the doorsteps campaigning for votes with a special emphasis on targeting postal voters. For me that involved trips to Streatham and Haringey, both places where – as is common across London – postal ballot papers have been hitting people’s doormats on Friday and Saturday.

Many postal voters fill in their ballot papers promptly, so by this evening a noticeable chunk of the London electorate will have cast their votes. The same is true in many other parts of …

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Also posted in Election law | Tagged andrew neil and postal voting | 13 Comments

The weekend debate: Formula 1 Grand Prix in Bahrain

By Mark Pack | Sat 21st April 2012 - 9:07 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

Two questions for you to ponder:

Should the Formula 1 Grand Prix go ahead?
Do you think the drivers should take personal responsibility for their decisions on whether to drive or not, or is that a decision for someone else and they should do whatever is decided?

Over to you…

Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged bahrain and weekend debate | 8 Comments

Opinion: Atlas Wussed

By Adam Bell | Fri 20th April 2012 - 2:34 pm

Capitalism is in crisis, or so the enthusiastic chaps of the Occupy movement would have us believe. I find doing so somewhat difficult, as I work in central London, and am positively surrounded by capitalists with flashy cars, sharp suits and a taste for champagne. If this is a crisis, it’s difficult to see how it differs from Capitalism Triumphant.

However, the truth is that the classic right-wing Atlas Shrugged mode of capitalism is in crisis. The Government has cut corporation tax, is cutting back regulation and has just lowered the 50p income tax rate. This is the …

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Tagged capitalism and green deal | 35 Comments

Opinion: How do we get home?

By Sarah Ismail | Fri 20th April 2012 - 11:10 am

I am a physically disabled Liberal Democrat member living in London and have held a Taxicard for about 5 years now. For those who don’t know this, a Taxicard allows Londoners with mobility problems subsidised trips in black taxis within London boroughs.

On Good Friday, I asked the London Taxicard service a simple question. It was a question I have asked them several times before: How many trips do I have left?

The answer? 52. The next question: When is that up to? Here comes the unpleasant surprise: That’s for the whole year.

Fifty-two trips a year? That’s one trip a week, I …

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Tagged disabilities and taxis | 22 Comments

Tom McNally writes: Why I support reform of the European Court of Human Rights

By Lord Tom McNally | Fri 20th April 2012 - 9:55 am

Liberal Democrats know more than anyone else how hard it is to get breathing space to be heard in the increasingly hostile debate about human rights.

As long-time defenders of the European Court of Human Rights and the Human Rights Act, we are constantly frustrated by misleading coverage that paints human rights law as on the wrong side of the public – as well as the populist politicians who seize upon it.

The previous Labour government have a lot to answer for. Despite passing the Human Rights Act themselves, they spent much of their time in government trashing it, and pandering to …

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged european court of human rights | 11 Comments

Ed Davey MP writes … There will be no public subsidy for nuclear

By Ed Davey | Fri 20th April 2012 - 8:47 am

Liberal Democrats were at pains in the negotiations for the coalition to insist that if nuclear power stations were to be built in the UK that there should be no public subsidy. This position was reiterated by Chris Huhne in a statement to the House of Commons on October 18^th 2010 as reported in his article on Lib Dem Voice. So I would like to allay Fiona Hall concerns expressed on Lib Dem Voice yesterday by clarifying that there has been absolutely no change in this position.

As Chris Huhne outlined in October 2010 this means that “there will …

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Tagged chris huhne, coalition agreement, department for energy and climate change, ed davey, fiona hall and nuclear power | 22 Comments

Local liberal heroes: Duwayne Brooks

By Mark Pack | Thu 19th April 2012 - 10:25 am

A while back, I penned a series of posts profiling forgotten liberal heroes (to which a couple of other people also kindly contributed), looking at some of those who achieved great things for liberalism in their time but have been unjustly forgotten – such as Margaret Wintringham, the very first female Liberal MP.

There is also another group of people who I think are often unjustly obscure – those local campaigners who are often at the heart of their local community and local party, delivering liberalism and helping others, but as their stage is a local one they are often unacknowledged …

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Also posted in London | Tagged chris maines, duwayne brooks, lewisham liberal democrats and local liberal heroes | Leave a comment

The Tories’ and Labour’s collective tax omnishambles

By Stephen Tall | Wed 18th April 2012 - 8:55 pm

Labour is against reducing the 50p top-rate tax to 45p for those earning more than £150,000. What could be clearer? As it happens, quite a lot could be clearer.

First, the omnishambles…

Given how widely predicted George Osborne’s decision to reduce the top-rate was you would have thought Labour would have anticipated it and worked out their line. They failed to — as Mark Pack noted here, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna contradicted himself within 24 hours, while Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls declined to declare his hand.

When Labour did …

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Tagged conservative party, featured, george osborne, labour party, nick clegg, tax cuts (Lib Dem) and taxes | 3 Comments

Fiona Hall MEP writes: Subsidies for nuclear energy go against Coalition agreement AND economic common sense

By Fiona Hall MEP | Wed 18th April 2012 - 4:51 pm

With the Government due to announce new measures to encourage investment in low carbon power generation as part of its Electricity Market Reform (EMR), it is time for Liberal Democrats to speak out against public subsidies for nuclear energy. Why? Because among the Government’s proposals is the so-called Feed-in Tariff with Contract for Difference (FiT CfD) which will offer a price guarantee and revenue certainty for investors in low-carbon electricity generation – including nuclear. Such a public subsidy to help build new nuclear power stations in the UK would go completely against the Coalition Government Agreement and prolong “the most expensive failure of post-war British policy-making” as

…

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Tagged coalition agreement, electricity market and nuclear power | 17 Comments

Opinion: we can not allow ourselves to be used as scapegoats by the Tories

By Issan Ghazni | Wed 18th April 2012 - 3:25 pm

It was an amazing coincidence that Lady Warsi’s interview on BBC2’s Newsnight spoke so lamentably about the state of the coalition the evening before YouGov put the Tories 11 points behind Labour. The Conservative Party chairman without hesitation accused us of being immature and failing to accept collective responsibility within the coalition.

Patrick Wintour’s article in yesterday’s Guardian highlights the despicable manner in which Lady Warsi, as a cabinet member showed no loyalty to her coalition partners by putting the boot in as soon as the going got tough and the Tories started struggling in the opinion polls.

The whole episode …

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Tagged conservative party, fraser nelson, guardian, human rights, nick clegg, patrick wintour, sayeeda warsi, tim farron and vince cable | 7 Comments

Dee Doocey writes: Vigilance over Olympic tickets

By Dee Doocey | Wed 18th April 2012 - 12:55 pm

With just 100 days to go to the London Olympics, you might be interested to read this quote about the interaction of sport and commercial interests:

“Of course sponsors have to receive value for money, but sport has to remain sport, a concept rooted on the track and not in the balance sheet. It must not become another consumer-entertainment package. In all sports we have to protect the fundamentals of sportsmanship, self-determination of the individual and the pursuit of excellence free of commercial expediency, and as Voltaire said ‘the price of freedom is eternal vigilance’.”

You might be surprised to discover that …

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Tagged dee doocey, lord coe and olympics | 1 Comment

Opinion: A Mansion Tax to replace higher rate tax?

By Joe Bourke | Wed 18th April 2012 - 10:55 am

Mansion tax is not Land Value Tax, but it is a place to start down the road to shifting a significant part of the tax base from income to wealth.

There seems little argument that mansion tax would be a more effective method of taxing non-resident Non-Doms who acquired over 60% of the properties valued at over £2m in recent times.

The inequalities in wealth in the UK far outstrip inequalities in income. The top 10% of households own more wealth than the rest put together: 0.3 per cent of Britain’s population owns 69 per cent of its land.

The HMRC report …

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Tagged hmrc, land tax, mansion tax and non-doms | 16 Comments

Conference accreditation: my submission

By Mark Pack | Wed 18th April 2012 - 9:25 am

Here is what I am emailing to [email protected] in response to the consultation about party conference (deadline Saturday 21st April):

Dear Andrew,

In itself, the idea that background checks might sometimes be a necessary part of extra security for events seems to me very plausible. So too does the possibility that the large number of journalists and TV cameras in attendance at the autumn round of party conferences make them a more attractive target for disruptive or violent action than other events at other times, even ones with similar prominent people from the party and government attending.

On the other hand, I know …

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Also posted in Conference | 7 Comments

Opinion: time to shift the public services debate?

By David Boyle | Tue 17th April 2012 - 1:21 pm

Every nation dates the beginning of its welfare system from a different date. In Britain, we usually date it to 1909 and also 1942 – because that was the date that Sir William Beveridge published his famous report.

It’s the only government report in history to have reached bestseller status. British soldiers went into action against the Nazis with it in their pocket.

It provided hope, but it also set out the blueprint for the future, caring world. But there was a problem there, in retrospect, that goes to the heart of why public services remain such …

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Tagged public services and william beveridge | 16 Comments

Opinion: Keep Free Schools, but make them better

By Tom Smith | Tue 17th April 2012 - 9:54 am

Mark Pack’s question on the future of Lib Dem education policy in light of Free Schools is very timely.

We should rightly be proud of the implementation of the pupil premium; a distinctively liberal policy that will go some way to correcting the inequities of the education system. Our education manifesto for 2015 can’t rely just on advocating a bigger and better pupil premium.

In the medium term it seems likely …

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Tagged free schools | 31 Comments