Category Archives: Op-eds

Simon Shaw

Opinion: is the infant class size limit of thirty too inflexible?

By Simon Shaw | Tue 10th January 2012 - 1:20 pm

The Chief Executive of the Lib Dem-controlled London Borough of Sutton, Mr Niall Bolger, has been in the news recently, flying a kite on the possible relaxation in the current statutory limit of 30 on class size for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, i.e. Key Stage 1 within primary schools.

Mr Bolger has subsequently clarified the situation by saying: “Increasing class sizes is not a Sutton Council policy or something that has been discussed at a political level.”. However, this recent report has reinforced my own personal doubts about the unintended consequences of the limit of thirty in infant …

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David Boyle

Opinion: Why competition is the key issue

By David Boyle | Tue 10th January 2012 - 11:22 am

One of the many frustrations with our dysfunctional banking system is that we have nowhere else to go unless we want to keep our money under our mattresses.

Yes, there are the ethical alternatives, like Co-op or Triodos. Yes, there are a handful of surviving building societies. But we don’t have what other countries have: an effective banking and lending infrastructure at local level.

So when World Development Movement nominates Barclays for the Public Eye awards for the worst corporation for speculating in basic food commodities – artificially pushing the price beyond what the world’s poor can afford – what …

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Julian Huppert

Julian Huppert MP writes… Liberal Democrats have convinced other parties about High Speed Rail

By Julian Huppert | Tue 10th January 2012 - 10:23 am

Today’s announcement that the Government will go ahead with HS2 is a huge win for the Liberal Democrats, the first UK party to commit itself to a national high speed railway.

Back in 2004 we announced ambitious plans for the UK’s first high speed network. We argued that faster train lines would reduce carbon emissions in the long-term and ensure a reliable train service available to all.

In contrast it took Labour 13 years of Government to announce their commitment to a high speed network, conveniently not in time to actually start doing anything about it. And while the …

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Jeremy Browne MP

Jeremy Browne MP writes… The Olympic Games are just 200 days away.

By Jeremy Browne MP | Mon 9th January 2012 - 6:50 pm

In London and across the country, preparations are reaching fever pitch. As Minister for the Olympics in the Foreign Office, I have been involved in the planning and preparation since May 2010. While many people are excited about the torch relay across the country and the huge variety of sporting events, the Olympics also offer a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase our country.

It has been 64 years since the Games was last held in the UK. In 1948, fifty-nine nations attended. This year, over two hundred teams will be representing their countries. This is an opportunity for Britain to …

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Lee Dargue

Opinion: Our party is a choir of many voices – Let’s not single out the sopranos

By Lee Dargue | Mon 9th January 2012 - 4:54 pm

Our party is becoming one of a few, select voices.

Many members, which I include myself alongside, are quickly cementing our position as liberal radicals – those that choose not to define ourselves in the centre, nor on the left, but merely as those who wish to seek to form policies that will aid many in society. We will let history decide which end of the political spectrum we allegedly sit on.

Along the way, we may be asked for more radio or TV appearances, or be asked to write articles for certain websites or newspapers. This is good for …

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George Potter

Opinion: Welfare reform – LibDems must stand up for the vulnerable

By George Potter | Mon 9th January 2012 - 2:54 pm

The Commons have already passed, and the Lords are currently voting on, the Welfare Reform Bill. It contains provisions which will scrap the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and replace it with the Personal Independence Payment (PIP). It also contains changes to time limit receipt of contributory Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) (a sickness and disability benefit) to a maximum of 12 months.

As has been pointed out by Lib Dem blogger Caron Lindsay, the change to ESA is utterly destructive and senseless.

The arbitrary time limiting of ESA is, incidentally, also directly against official party policy as set out in

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David Franklin

Opinion: Scottish independence – bleak consequences for LibDem and Labour Westminster representation

By David Franklin | Mon 9th January 2012 - 1:53 pm

It seems to me that murmurs in political circles regarding the Scottish desire for independence are on the increase. It’s a very tangible situation. – Not least with the SNP as a single-party government in Holyrood and some polls showing a strong desire to break away from the UK. (I should point out, that many polls show that the English are more in favour of Scottish independence than the Scots).

What, then, are the consequences for Liberal Democrats and the composition of Westminster, should Scotland secede from the Union?

On first investigation, I’d say ‘bleak’ at best. Scotland has provided many of …

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Sam Cannicott

Opinion: LibDems should run a big-spending department

By Sam Cannicott | Mon 9th January 2012 - 12:53 pm

Writing in The Times, Danny Finkelstein (here for subscribers) predicts that the Coalition Government will stick together in 2012 and that those who think there will be a general election this year are wrong.

I agree. The coalition will survive and there will not be a general election. But I hope that the coalition will look rather different. The Liberal Democrats need to be running a big spending department responsible for a key public service. A problem that the party faces is that it struggles to explain to non-politicos what the Liberal Democrats actually do. …

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Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: recap

By Mark Pack | Mon 9th January 2012 - 11:55 am

To mark the start of 2012, last week we ran a series of posts on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. Here in one handy recap is the full list:

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Richard Morris

Why Mohamed Al Bouazizi should be the Liberal Voice of 2011

By Richard Morris | Mon 9th January 2012 - 10:53 am

The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.

So speaks the first few lines of our constitution. They should be enshrined in everything we do – for if we’re not fighting for this, then, as Liberals, what are we fighting for at all?

So when I think about who should be the Liberal Voice of the Year, I think about who has done most to make those values real. …

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Paul Tyler

Paul Tyler writes… Second chamber must have more members than the government proposes

By Paul Tyler | Mon 9th January 2012 - 9:53 am

Happy New Year. As all the political ‘look back at 2011’ newspaper supplements make their way to the recycling bin, I am risking a bold prediction that their ‘look back at 2012’ successors will report the first serious attempt by any Government to introduce elections to the House of Lords.

When David Cameron and Nick Clegg published their draft Bill back in May last year, the reaction was predictable. Snorts of derision from the refuseniks, cavilling about detail, accusations of plain stupidity. You know when people are losing an argument if they claim that those who disagree simply …

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Ashley Day

Opinion: Race issue must not be trivialised

By Ashley Day | Mon 9th January 2012 - 7:54 am

It’s been a busy week for “race” and ethnicity in the media. We’ve had the Stephen Lawrence verdict as well as Diane Abbott’s wayward tweet. The latter of these was analysed in a frustratingly blasé manner by the press, trivialising the issue of racism after it had been covered so thoroughly in the wake of the Lawrence trial verdict.

Gary Dobson and David Norris had finally been put behind bars for the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, bringing a degree of closure on what has become a dark stain on the conscience of both the Metropolitan Police and the country …

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Iain Donaldson

Opinion: Tackling Labour’s Pensions Deficit

By Iain Donaldson | Sun 8th January 2012 - 2:15 pm

The Coalition Government is currently coming under fire for cutting public sector pensions, but the truth is that pensions funding was cut 13 years ago by Gordon Brown when he launched his raid on pension schemes.

Until the last Labour Government came into office the accrual of interest on pension funds was not taxed — pension schemes could build up funds more quickly than other modes of investment in order to pay out benefits when members retired. Labour changed that and taxed interest on pension investments as it accrued; pension schemes which had aimed at paying out a …

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Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: A coherent narrative

By Mark Pack | Sun 8th January 2012 - 9:25 am

To mark the start of 2012, we’re running a series of posts over consecutive days on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. I’ve already written about the four priorities for the party’s new Chief Executive, Tim Gordon, but as the Liberal Democrats are more than just the one man whilst he has four, this series sets out six for the party.

Yes, the party still needs a narrative.

No, a shopping list isn’t one as Neil Stockley explains.

Yes, it needs to be consistent.

No, it shouldn’t major on the bad news.

Yes, it should feature fairness.

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Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: Communicative ministers

By Mark Pack | Sat 7th January 2012 - 9:25 am

To mark the start of 2012, we’re running a series of posts over consecutive days on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. I’ve already written about the four priorities for the party’s new Chief Executive, Tim Gordon, but as the Liberal Democrats are more than just the one man whilst he has four, this series sets out six for the party.

Quite simply, too many Liberal Democrat ministers have too low a profile. If low profiles came despite working hard to get coverage and to communicate, that might be excusable. After all, that was the fate of some very hard working shadow ministers before 2010.

That excuse does not apply – for those with low profiles not only do not secure media coverage, they do not make use of the channels of communication open to them, such as emails to party members of guest posts on Lib Dem Voice. If you are not getting much coverage and not even taking the easiest steps, there is no-one to blame but yourself.

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Sid Cumberland

Has our police force been ‘completely transformed’ by the Lawrence case?

By Sid Cumberland | Fri 6th January 2012 - 1:15 pm
Like the summer riots, the Stephen Lawrence case provides us with yet another attitudinal Rorschach test; we screw our eyes up, peer closely, and conclude that what we have seen is just what we expected. At least, that’s my view, after hearing Paul Dacre’s astonishing self-congratulation on Tuesday.

For him, the verdict was ‘a glorious day’ for the Lawrences, the police, British justice, politicians, British newspapers (especially, of course, the Daily Mail, without whose ‘relentless campaigning’ none of this would have happened).

For me, it was a good day; but it was also a reminder of

…

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Mike German

Lord German writes… A benefits system that works: the Welfare Reform Bill in the House of Lords

By Mike German | Fri 6th January 2012 - 11:53 am

As Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Party Committee on Work and Pensions the Welfare Reform Bill has absorbed most of the past year. It is now in the final stages of passage through the House of Lords. There has been some negative press surrounding the Bill, which is clouding aspects that have been long term goals of the Liberal Democrats.

A big first step is being taken towards our long term ambition of merging tax and benefits. Our benefit system is the most complex and cumbersome system in the developed world. It requires an annual book to be published which explains …

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Prateek Buch

Nick Clegg’s priorities for 2012

By Prateek Buch | Fri 6th January 2012 - 9:30 am

The Voice’s Mark Pack has been writing about the Party’s challenges in 2012 – as if on cue, leader Nick Clegg set out his priorities for Lib Dems in Government in a Radio 4 Today interview which you can hear in full here.

As reported in The Guardian, these priorities include tackling tax avoidance by both corporations and wealthy individuals, clamping down on excessive and undeserved top pay, and re-engaging with governments and business in Europe following the Prime Minister’s unhelpful showing in Brussels at the end of last year.

Pressed on how that re-engagement would materialise, Nick …

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Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: Wealth taxation

By Mark Pack | Fri 6th January 2012 - 8:50 am

To mark the start of 2012, we’re running a series of posts over consecutive days on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. I’ve already written about the four priorities for the party’s new Chief Executive, Tim Gordon, but as the Liberal Democrats are more than just the one man whilst he has four, this series sets out six for the party.

To re-cap:

As with many other liberals, Nick Clegg is strongly  motivated by the issue of fair taxation of wealth. In addition, pursuing the issue provides three neat political benefits. First, it offers a clear distinction

…

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Daniel Furr

Opinion: Why I’m backing the Occupy Movement as my Liberal Voice of the Year

By Daniel Furr | Thu 5th January 2012 - 6:27 pm

Yes, it is true. I, of all people, did indeed recommend The Occupy Movement as the Liberal Voice of the Year. My health is perfectly fine and operating at sufficient capacity; but regular readers of my blog are fully aware of my support for these protesters. Overt Marxist language and anti-capitalists rhetoric is, of course, not very liberal but the ability to comprehend the true nature of corporate welfare and its relationship with government is something liberals should be aligning with.

Free markets and capitalism are not the problem – corporatism is. Corporate monopolies deny competition and prevent new competitors …

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Chris Davies

Chris Davies MEP writes… Assisted dying is a liberal issue

By Chris Davies | Thu 5th January 2012 - 12:27 pm

It was a Liberal Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt (now the leader of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament) who ensured that legislation to permit medically assisted dying was brought forward in Belgium a decade ago.  Publication of the report by the independent commission on assisted dying, chaired by Lord Falconer, should be a reminder to our Liberal Democrat leadership of our own very similar party policy on the subject.

Medically assisted dying (the patient self-administering) or euthanasia (the doctor providing direct assistance) are very definitely liberal matters.  They are about respect for individual wishes when the frailty or immobility of the individual …

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Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: Treating supporters as active participants

By Mark Pack | Thu 5th January 2012 - 8:50 am

To mark the start of 2012, we’re running a series of posts over consecutive days on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. I’ve already written about the four priorities for the party’s new Chief Executive, Tim Gordon, but as the Liberal Democrats are more than just the one man whilst he has four, this series sets out six for the party.

Despite my comments about how risky the predictions business is, regular readers would hardly have been taking much of a gamble expecting me to return to the issue of treating people as active participants rather than passive spectators in this series.

Embracing the campaigning power of members and supporters (as Willie Rennie has done) would not only boost the party’s impact on government, it would also give members and supporters ways of feeling involved, committed and motivated – and to see how Liberal Democrat presence and pressure can make a difference:

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William Jones

Opinion: Let’s get case for Alan Turing pardon debated in Parliament

By William Jones | Wed 4th January 2012 - 6:59 pm

Today, I ask you as fellow Liberal Democrats to sign the Grant Alan Turing a Pardon petition on the number 10 website.

The petition reads:

“We ask the HM Government to grant a pardon to Alan Turing for the conviction of ‘gross indecency’. In 1952, he was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ with another man and was forced to undergo so-called ‘organo-therapy’ – chemical castration. Two years later, he killed himself with cyanide, aged just 41. Alan Turing was driven to a terrible despair and early death by the nation he’d done so much to save. This remains a shame on the

…

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Graham Winyard

Opinion: Parliament needs our help on the NHS Bill

By Graham Winyard | Wed 4th January 2012 - 4:48 pm

We are in real difficulty over the NHS Bill.  Spring conference showed the party at its best.  The membership expressed concerns and the leadership responded deftly with the “listening exercise”.  This aimed to reassure NHS and public opinion by securing substantial changes to Andrew Lansley’s proposals, without too much loss of face within the coalition.

We have not succeeded.  The changes to the Bill have failed to quell fears that the NHS is being fragmented in pursuit of market dogma.  There is no serious support or enthusiasm for the Bill within the NHS; indeed opposition among the health professions is hardening.  …

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Sam Barnett

Opinion: In the name of the Olympics

By Sam Barnett | Wed 4th January 2012 - 3:28 pm

With the summer 2012 drawing ever closer, it is no surprise that the amount of column inches devoted to the London Olympics is increasing. What has surprised me, though, has been how much of this coverage has been of the controversies that seem to be multiplying around the Games, and just what may be done in the name of the Olympics next year.

Flatly, I am worried that the Government is importing dodgy methods of event management to Stratford and the rest of London. The security measures recently announced are especially concerning. I hope no Liberal in Britain is reassured by …

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Linda Jack

Opinion: A bright new year?

By Linda Jack | Wed 4th January 2012 - 11:25 am

For me, this year is starting as it is for millions of our fellow citizens – dealing with a complete change, having found myself redundant.

I am though, one of the lucky ones. I don’t need to worry about getting a new job for a while. I have the luxury of taking my time and hopefully finding something that suits me rather than being forced to take something, anything, to keep the wolf from the door.

But most don’t have that luxury, for our young people coming out of school or university with all the enthusiasm and aspiration of youth finding themselves …

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Zadok Day

Opinion: Minimum alcohol pricing – an attack on the poor

By Zadok Day | Wed 4th January 2012 - 10:25 am

News that David Cameron is planning on imposing minimum alcohol pricing has not produced anything near the level of disgust that it should have.

This policy has the fatal flaw of expecting alcoholics and binge drinkers to behave in a rational and financially prudent manner. It’s self-evident that both groups will continue to purchase alcohol at a higher price, sacrificing other parts of their budget to make up the difference – perhaps clothing, perhaps food, perhaps their children. And let’s not forget, this policy will penalise all drinkers, not just the minority who commit crimes whilst under alcoholic …

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Mark Pack

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: May’s elections

By Mark Pack | Wed 4th January 2012 - 8:50 am

To mark the start of 2012, we’re running a series of posts over consecutive days on the main challenges for the Liberal Democrats in 2012. I’ve already written about the four priorities for the party’s new Chief Executive, Tim Gordon, but as the Liberal Democrats are more than just the one man whilst he has four, this series sets out six for the party.

When the May 2012 set of seats were previously contested in May 2008 the party made net gains – up 33 seats overall – despite a 4% fall in the party’s notional national vote share* – …

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Jock Coats

Opinion: Liberating the land – prosperity through Rigorous Liberalism

By Jock Coats | Tue 3rd January 2012 - 4:35 pm

The central tenet of what I call “Rigorous Liberalism” is that a truly liberal state would seek to eradicate economic, social and class barriers to equal opportunity before creating more government programs to subsidise people at a disadvantage in markets distorted by decades or centuries of privilege and rent-seeking.

Nowhere is this need more obvious than in land, planning and housing policy. Artificially restricting land supply drives up land prices and drives down housing quality. If customers can only afford so much and most is sunk into land costs there’s not a lot left for competition to drive up …

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Michael Carchrie Campbell

Opinion: The forgotten family member and what Nick said…

By Michael Carchrie Campbell | Tue 3rd January 2012 - 11:53 am

Many people think of the Liberal Democrats as a family. I know that I have often felt part of a huge family when I have been across on ‘the other off-shore island’ whether it’s at conferences – Federal Party, Scottish Party, or LDYS (oops: I’m showing my age) – or helping with elections be they local elections in Manchester with Cllr Paul Shannon and our dear friend the late Neil Trafford, or when I helped in Ipswich with all the camaraderie that …

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