Category Archives: Op-eds

Opinion: Vince Cable right to abandon penalties on early student loan repayments

By Tim Leunig | Fri 17th February 2012 - 10:20 am

Vince Cable has done the right thing, for the right reasons.

The new student loan system requires well off graduates to pay a higher rate of interest on their loans – up to three percent above inflation. This helps to cover the government losses on loans to graduates who end up on low incomes – overwhelmingly women working part time after having children – as well as making the system more progressive.

Cable was worried that well off graduates would pay off their loan early, to avoid paying the interest charges. He commissioned his department to look into creating early repayment …

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Tagged centreforum, tuition fees and vince cable | 14 Comments

Opinion: AAA to GGG?

By Mia Hadfield-Spoor | Fri 17th February 2012 - 9:03 am

Britain’s triple ‘A’ credit rating is now in doubt. This, if nothing else so far has, should raise concern in the mind of George Osborne that a new approach to Britain’s economy, and future, is needed.

The Green Liberal Democrats are wondering whether he can be persuaded to take a new approach that aims for a triple G rated economy? An economy triple rated as Great Going on Green Issues?

Fears around the severe weakness of Britain’s economy are due to the reality of the unsustainable nature of many of our business practices. An economy that is dependent …

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10 Comments

Opinion: Pick your horse in the grand recovery stakes

By Bill le Breton | Thu 16th February 2012 - 4:28 pm

Moody’s, the US credit ratings agency, has put the UK on negative outlook, threatening the country’s triple A status. This came the day after three other organizations had also made their views known.

The CBI predicted that the UK would avoid a double-dip recession, the services firm BDO published the results of a survey suggesting turnovers were continuing to fall and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development reported that employers were more likely to lay off staff.

It is now four and a half years since the uncertainty of the credit worthiness of banks and hedge funds that were …

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Tagged economy, recession and spending cuts | 6 Comments

Opinion: Politics in paradise – why the Maldives matters

By Andrew Wigley | Thu 16th February 2012 - 12:53 pm

As coup d’états go, the toppling last week of the Maldives’ first elected President, Mohamed Nasheed, appears an undramatic affair. Nasheed, a former political prisoner, announced suddenly he was standing down; his deputy would be taking over. This involved no tanks, few casualties and little shock and awe.

Should we care about politics in paradise? The answer is a resounding yes.

Politics in the Maldives has been a rough game over the past four years. In an article in the New York Times last week, Nasheed wrote of the corrupt legacy that 30 years of dictatorship had left the small Indian Ocean …

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Tagged arab spring and maldives | Leave a comment

Introducing… Lib Dems Against Factionalism

By Adam Bell | Thu 16th February 2012 - 8:27 am

Today marks the foundation of Lib Dems Against Factionalism, a place for all Liberal Democrats who believe that the current upswing in sub-party organisations that purportedly represent ‘differences of opinion’ is a menace to all right- thinking undifferentiated Lib Dems everywhere.

We have formed this new group because we believe the following to be true:

That the public have a clear and coherent understanding of what the Lib Dems stand for and will in no way be confused by a new group putting clear tangerine water between itself and the rest of the party, and besides, the public loves internecine conflict;
That our

…

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Also posted in Humour | 33 Comments

Zen and the art of the crunching rugby tackle

By Ed Maxfield | Wed 15th February 2012 - 6:05 pm

Why on earth would a political website carry a review of a book about amateur rugby?

Well, in pitching my review of ‘My Life as a Hooker’ to the editors I make two points. The first is that the author – Steven Gauge – is a seasoned Liberal Democrat campaigner. The second is that the book itself contains lessons that reach far beyond the gates of Warlingham Rugby Club car park. I doubt the book will ever replace Milton’s Areopagitica as the enduring symbol of Liberal values. But its underlying philosophy of self-help, communal activity, tolerance, respect and beer …

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Tagged book review, brian paddick and steven guage | 5 Comments

Time Banking: A simple route to community spirit?

By Ewan Hoyle | Wed 15th February 2012 - 3:56 pm

Ever since my unsuccessful council by-election campaign in November I’ve had a burning desire to ask more positive questions of the electorate in the run-up to my next council election in May. What kind of volunteering might you be interested in getting involved in? What kind of skills do you have that you might like to pass on to others in the community? What interests and hobbies might you like to share with your neighbours? I had notions of gathering this data together and then signposting voters to voluntary groups or suggesting they get together with others who share their …

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Tagged community, rehabilitation, time banking and volunteering | 6 Comments

Why Liberal Left?

By Linda Jack | Wed 15th February 2012 - 12:56 pm

My good pal Gareth Epps asked the question last week………..so I thought I would answer it for him. We are at a hugely important juncture as a party – nearly two years in – with little prospect of the Coalition not continuing until 2015 and what appears to be the start of the leadership’s “differentiation” campaign. Nick Clegg and his aides are spinning the line more and more that we are a “centrist” party – a clear desire to move us from the centre left position we have erstwhile held and which has served us well

…

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Tagged gareth epps and Liberal Left | 88 Comments

Opinion: time to talk about things that don’t matter

By Chris White | Tue 14th February 2012 - 2:53 pm

Now, before I start, let me be clear: I am not an atheist and in fact find atheism’s certainties as puzzling as those of fundamentalists – the latter are certain that God exists and the former that he does not. Quite how, after centuries of Enlightenment philosophy, there are adherents to either point of view is beyond me.

Anyway: I go to Church, have doubts, fall far short of my ideals. Sorry.

Last week there was a High Court judgment against Bideford Town Council. In a nutshell it said that prayers should not form part of a council meeting.

I belong to two …

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Also posted in Local government | Tagged Local government and religion | 19 Comments

A postcard from… Valladolid

By Ruben Arbaizar | Tue 14th February 2012 - 1:22 pm

It seems that this idea is catching on, as Liberal Democrat Voice has received its first unsolicited postcard. So, without further ado…

It is generally assumed that the Mediterranean countries do not have a strong liberal, democratic strand to their politics. Indeed, the two members of the ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) Group in the European Parliament are the nationalist parties of two Regions, Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (Catalonia) and Partido Nacionalista Vasco (the Basque Country).

However, there are liberal democrats in Spanish politics, awaiting discovery by …

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged a postcard from, europe and spain | 12 Comments

Opinion: Crime, transport and the battle for London Mayor

By Paul Haydon | Fri 10th February 2012 - 11:30 am

Just six months ago today London was emerging from its third night of rioting, with a semblance of order only just beginning to take hold as a massive police presence descended on the city. The fear in the streets was palpable. We had been given a brief and terrifying glimpse of what sheer anarchy looked like, the rage and shameless opportunism of London’s marginalised youth provoking deep existential questions about what was wrong with our society.

Yet, as the contest for London Mayor begins to build up momentum, Ken and Boris’ campaigns continue to revolve around the same old topic …

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Tagged brian paddick, crime, london mayoral election and riots | 4 Comments

Political clichés I dislike #2: ideological

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

I’ve previously written about my dislike of that venerable clichéd demand for “government to send a strong signal”. Government isn’t a bloody semaphore team, thank you very much.

Not even I’m willing to believe it was the power of that blog post alone (plus natty diagram) which cowed the political classes into giving up semaphoring addiction. Yet the phrase does seem to crop up rather less often now, perhaps because of a change from the Labour government’s love of telling people what to do?

But we have not arrived in a happy new post-Brown cliché free world.

Instead, the one that now has …

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35 Comments

Opinion: The good, the bad and the ugly of the Lib Dems

By Scott Hill | Fri 10th February 2012 - 9:41 am

This week has been something of a mixed bag for the Liberal Democrats. Aside from getting over the fact we have lost one of our most respected and feared heavyweights in Chris Huhne, we have been forced to accept that a serious reassessment of our position within government is required and necessary.

Needless to say, the ceaseless commentariat and Westminster gossips are not helping matters. There have been three stories – all different in topic and angle – that have focused attention on the junior coalition partner in recent …

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Tagged chris huhne, Liberal Left and parliamentary boundary review | 41 Comments

Ed Davey MP writes… Solar power for the many, not the few

By Ed Davey | Thu 9th February 2012 - 4:27 pm

Some things in politics are symbolic. For dyed-in-the-wool environmentalists like the Liberal Democrats, solar power is one of these things – indisputably clean, green and cutting edge technology. The sort of thing Liberal Democrats in a government that aims to be the greenest ever should be unequivocally behind.

Our commitment to the environment was why I joined the party in the first place.

So I understand why many of you were confused and disappointed when the Government appeared to scale back the Feed in Tariffs that allow people to install solar panels in their homes and businesses, not least when our decision …

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Tagged department of energy and climate change, feed-in tariffs, renewable energy and solar power | 28 Comments

Opinion – Twitter: powerful campaign tool or waste of effort?

By Alan Muhammed | Thu 9th February 2012 - 2:55 pm

The simple tweet “F*ck” at 10am with the reply “Agreed” last Friday was the only source and all the evidence I required to know that Chris Huhne had been charged. Two words tied emotion with cognition. I followed Nick Clegg’s tax cut speech live through the medium of 140 character paraphrase: a sort of Focus-speak reduction I can only imagine would have the speech-writers crying. The utterance “Borgen – Danish West Wing” was all the persuasion necessary to watch it religiously.

Twitter is free, fast and tragic. And if it wasn’t powerful in facilitating the fall of …

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Also posted in Online politics | Tagged connect, jamie matthews, julian huppert, tim farron, twitter and victor chamberlain | 3 Comments

Opinion: Labour’s embracing of economic liberalism is to be welcomed

By David Thorpe | Thu 9th February 2012 - 9:28 am

The first sign that man is moving from the reckless abandon of late youth to the windswept comfort of early maturity can be found in his reaction to the sight of falling snow. Where once it would have been an excuse to declare the days schedule defunct, this year it signalled only the onset of boredom.

Consequently I dusted down my new year’s resolution to ‘laugh a lot more’ and began thinking about Labour’s attitude to economics. I propose to look at the Labour leadership’s deeper economic instincts to provide a guide as to how they might actually run the economy.

Ed Balls

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Tagged economic liberalism, economy, ed balls, ed miliband, orange book and vince cable | 21 Comments

Opinion: Jenny Willott is wrong on the Welfare Reform Bill

By George Potter | Tue 7th February 2012 - 7:03 pm

On Sunday Jenny Willott wrote an article on LDV explaining the reasons behing Lib Dem MPs voting to reject the Lords amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill. However, I’m afraid that, as someone who has been campaigning on this for several months, I am not satisfied with her explanation and think that there are several flaws in her justifications.

For example, to put what Jenny said another way, 4 in 10 people affected by the time limit will lose ESA completely. That’ll be 280,000 people with long term illness or disability that prevents them from working. Those who lose it …

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Tagged welfare reform | 36 Comments

Opinion: Calm Down, Dears!

By Zadok Day | Tue 7th February 2012 - 4:57 pm

It’s a great shame that so many Liberal Democrats have reacted to the political downfall of Chris Huhne by bashing his successor. Ed Davey is an immensely capable minister and will do a wonderful job in his new position. Sadly, some have chosen this news to complain because a woman wasn’t promoted instead of a man. Gender balance is an issue that seems to divide opinion a great deal in the online world, for some reason, despite being hardly as controversial in the real world, where the principle is generally accepted that talent should be rewarded rather than the accident …

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Tagged chris huhne, david cameron, edward davey and gender | 47 Comments

Opinion: Federal Policy Committee to the left of me, Tories to the right, where are the Parliamentary Parties? Stuck in the Middle with whom?

By Mark Valladares | Tue 7th February 2012 - 11:18 am

Perhaps Stealers Wheel had it right… so it’s time to speak my mind, isn’t it?

I have been following the debate on internal party democracy with first interest, then frustration, and now a degree of numbing disbelief, as the Parliamentary Parties have taken significant flak from a cross-section of Party members and activists.

And yet, from my perspective of a reporter on events in the Lords, a very different story emerges to the increasingly popular one of rogue Parliamentary Parties trashing Liberal Democrat policy in an entirely unaccountable way. But let me tell you a story…

Once upon a time, a small, …

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Tagged fpc | 59 Comments

Opinion: Gove’s message – “vocational” = “worthless”

By Lucy Care | Tue 7th February 2012 - 9:09 am

Secretary of State for Education, Conservative Michael Gove, has downgraded the value of nearly all 14-16 vocational qualifications at a stroke. I felt angry when I heard this. However, it did little to reduce my respect for Mr Gove; I had very little anyway after ‘free’ schools, and his arrogant disregard of the role of Local Authorities to support ‘failing’ schools.

But having thought about this a little more, I am left perplexed by Gove’s decision. The impact goes against so much I thought was accepted wisdom.

Industry has for many years had a

…

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Tagged academies, michael gove and vocational | 23 Comments

Opinion: Tories’ onshore wind farm opposition is based on a fallacy

By Terence Darby | Mon 6th February 2012 - 3:24 pm

Only three days into the job and Ed Davey’s first political challenge has arisen – a demand from the unreconstructed Tory back benches for a halt to onshore wind farm development. The Tories are taking aim at the subsidies onshore wind farm receive to enable them to compete with fossil fuel, claiming that they’re unaffordable in a time of austerity – and in this, I’m sorry to say, they’ve been joined by two of our Welsh MPs, Roger Williams and Mark Williams.

While one expects the Tories to be at their most equivocal on green issues, it’s a bit worrying …

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Tagged wind turbines | 24 Comments

Opinion: LibDems are the natural home for Blairites

By Luke Tyson | Mon 6th February 2012 - 12:24 pm

There have been some high profile (if not high level) Blairite defections to the Tories. While there are some similarities between the Blair legacy and our coalition partners, the defectees seem to have overlooked or discarded one idea – joining the Liberal Democrats.

As Jonathan Powell says in his book, The New Machiavelli, and as was evident during his time in office, Tony Blair was strongly pro-Europe. He understood, as we do, that a) the largest common market in the world is something that we should be actively engaging with and leading, and b) there are threats and issues …

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Tagged liberal democrats and tony blair | 30 Comments

Opinion: 2012 – Time for an Arms Trade treaty that will really save lives

By Issan Ghazni | Mon 6th February 2012 - 10:54 am

This February marks the final United Nations (UN) Preparatory Committee session before the deciding negotiations in July 2012 for a legally binding Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). As this critical moment approaches, we need to call on our Party Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to support the strongest possible Treaty.

The historic decision made in 2009 to negotiate a legally binding Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) by the UN was predicated on calls from more than a million people across the world. They argued for the arms trade to be brought under control and for governments to take their responsibility …

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Tagged arms trade | 3 Comments

Opinion: Chris Huhne – innocent or guilty doesn’t seem to matter

By Rebecca Taylor | Mon 6th February 2012 - 9:54 am

Chris Huhne’s resignation last week not only deprives the Government of a strong voice for Liberalism, but also this country and the international community of a voice for the common good, in the fight against climate change. We are treading the weary road of a political resignation got over ahead of time, to save even more trouble later.

Such ‘pre-emptive resignations’ are a slur on the legal system. They render its actions useless, by defying the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’. This principle can be abused by criminals anxious to escape justice, but it is a cornerstone of the law …

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Tagged chris huhne | 19 Comments

Jenny Willott MP writes… The Welfare Reform Bill – What’s happened on ESA?

By Jenny Willott | Sun 5th February 2012 - 8:06 pm

Benefits are not an easy subject to get your head around: we have a benefits system with enough acronyms, assessments, taper rates and tax credits to make your head spin. That’s why this Government is finally undertaking a hugely important and long-overdue reform of benefits.

Universal Credit will replace the complicated mix of tax credits, JSA, ESA, Housing Benefit and so on with one simple benefit. And the Universal Credit is why the Welfare Reform Bill is so crucial. It will revolutionise the way we support those who are unemployed, disabled, sick or caring for a loved …

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Tagged universal credit and welfare reform bill | 53 Comments