Category Archives: Op-eds

The perils of political canvassing

By Mark Pack | Tue 3rd January 2012 - 10:25 am

May your new year on the doorsteps go better than this pair of all too true scenes from Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton:

Tagged featured | 4 Comments

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: The Budget

By Mark Pack | Tue 3rd 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.

Political pundits rarely get their predictions right. It isn’t that they are particularly bad at punditry, it is just that – as research has shown across several fields – experts generally have a pretty poor predictive record. One prediction, however, that is rather safer than leaving your chocolate in my safe-keeping is that the economy will continue to be the dominant political issue.

Opinion: the problem of Welfare Reform

By Iain Roberts | Sun 1st January 2012 - 5:41 pm

Ed Miliband has stirred up some New Year’s controversy, not least amongst his own supporters, with the news that Labour is to speak out more strongly against the perils of so-called “benefit scroungers”. Labour are no doubt concerned at consistent polling evidence suggesting that opposition to benefit cuts are out of step with the views of the public.

In reality, there’s little difference between the positions of the different parties, nor much change in the position of any individual party over the last couple of decades.

Across the mainstream political spectrum, few disagree that handing out state benefits too freely causes …

Tagged benefits, ed miliband and universal benefits | 44 Comments

The four things the new party Chief Executive must prioritise

By Mark Pack | Sun 1st January 2012 - 11:50 am

Dear Tim,

Congratulations on your appointment as Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats. You take up the post in tough but exciting times.

Even if you were not one person but a superhuman army of fifty you would not be able to do all the things party members and staff are saying they want from the new Chief Executive. As you are but one person (I hold out hope on the superhuman front) you will inevitably have to pass up on many of these demands.

Picking the right priorities will be central to being a successful Chief Executive and so here are the four priorities I think you should pick.

Also posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged chris rennard, featured, stephen tall, tim gordon and willie rennie | 14 Comments

Opinion: Ever greater centralisation is not the answer for failing schools

By Chris White | Sun 1st January 2012 - 9:50 am

“Troubleshooters are needed to spot failing academy schools around the country and sack incompetent headteachers, the new chief education inspector has said.” So reported the Daily Telegraph on 28 December. The article continued:

Sir Michael Wilshaw said ministers must set up regional early warning systems because by the time his Ofsted inspectors discover an institution is in trouble, it is too late.

As more and more secondary schools gain independence from town halls and become academies, it will also be difficult for the Department of Education to focus on improving individual schools.

Sir Michael said that to maintain standards, dozens of local commissioners

…

Also posted in Local government | Tagged education, Michael Wilshaw and ofsted | 13 Comments

The weekend debate: Should we end the bargain booze bonanza?

By Carl Quilliam | Sat 31st December 2011 - 9:25 am

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

Just in time to kill everyone’s new year buzz David Cameron has announced government plans to introduce minimum alcohol pricing in England, similar to recent proposals by the Scottish government.

The details are still to be confirmed but the proposed system could stop the sale of alcohol at below 40p to 50p a unit in shops and supermarkets and cost drinkers up to £700 million a year.

Tagged alcohol, david cameron and weekend debate | 17 Comments

Alcohol minimum pricing should be this government’s first bold evidence-based drug policy

By Ewan Hoyle | Fri 30th December 2011 - 2:08 pm

One of the most common arguments I read against the government control and regulation of the currently illegal drug markets is that we have so many problems with alcohol. Were cannabis for instance to be “legalised”, authors presume its use will increase and create new social problems to rival those that alcohol inflicts.The simple counter-argument employed by myself and other drug policy reformers is that alcohol is a very poorly regulated drug. Were any of the other currently illegal drugs to become regulated by the state, the alcohol model is one model it would be extremely unwise to replicate. Alcohol …

Tagged alcohol, drugs and evidence-based policy | 61 Comments

Ian Swales MP writes: 12 CUTS Labour don’t talk about

By Ian Swales | Fri 30th December 2011 - 12:30 pm

The Labour party think they can win the economic argument by just wailing about cuts on behalf of their public sector union paymasters. They give no credible alternatives for what they would do about Britain’s economic crisis.

What they also like to ignore is some of the changes that are being made towards making this country fairer. Here is a list of cuts WE should be talking about because they are mostly happening through Lib Dem action and pressure.

The CUT from £250,000 to £50,000 in the maximum annual pension contribution to receive tax relief – clawing back a staggering £4,000,000,000 (£4bn) that Labour was giving to the rich.
The

…

Tagged labour party, pupil premium, regional growth fund, spending cuts, tax cuts (Lib Dem) and triple lock | 55 Comments

Kirtsy Williams writes… Looking back at 2011 and looking forward to 2012

By Kirsty Williams AM | Thu 29th December 2011 - 1:51 pm

2011 has most certainly been a year that has kept all of us busy – elections to the Assembly, referenda, journalists following us around making sense of it all and the people of Wales playing an active part in Welsh political life. As the Arab spring was sweeping through the Arab world bringing with it elections and democratic accountability, Wales was also playing its part in making its voice heard.

This time last year, I was a few months away from leading my party into my first Assembly elections as leader. The media was predicting a wipe out for the Welsh …

Also posted in Wales | 3 Comments

Opinion: The opportunity for Lords Reform must be taken

By Joshua Dixon | Wed 28th December 2011 - 2:57 pm

In 1997 the Labour Party manifesto outlined that under a Labour government the House of Lords would be reformed so that “the right of hereditary Peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords will be ended by statute…“. It was clear that change appeared to be on the agenda and the House of Lords Act 1999 provided changes to the rights of Hereditary Peers, removing the right for members to inherit their seats. This was achieved via a compromise which ensured 92 hereditary peers would remain in the House on an interim basis.

Although these were necessary …

Tagged house of lords and lords reform | 8 Comments

Opinion: We need better housing options for the elderly at Christmas

By Ewan Hoyle | Wed 28th December 2011 - 1:55 pm

Those elderly and alone at this time of year need attractive alternative housing options.

It is greatly to the BBC news team’s credit that they continue to highlight the plight of those less fortunate as the majority of us look forward excitedly to Christmas. Following on from their piece on homelessness on Wednesday, on Thursday they highlighted the issue of loneliness and isolation among the elderly at this traditionally sociable time of the year.

Homelessness and isolation in old age are two of the most pressing issues resulting from our growing and ageing population. The fantastic work of caring charities helps …

Tagged bbc, elderly, housing and intergenerational foundation | 6 Comments

Opinion: Why is Nick Clegg being quite so wrong on Lords reform?

By Robin McGhee | Tue 27th December 2011 - 2:50 pm

If there is one thing taken for granted amongst Lib Dems it is that the House of Lords needs radical reform. In fact, most Lib Dems would go further than that. Like Cromwell, they would abolish the Lords outright, to be replaced with a Senate or not at all. But there are a substantial minority who, like me, think this is the wrong approach.

In an otherwise excellent speech before Christmas Nick Clegg set out his stall as a fervent abolitionist. He used the rhetoric of Lloyd George to express his purported frustration with the, er, hereditary system which was …

Tagged constitutional reform, house of lords, lords reform and nick clegg | 44 Comments

Get your skates on and submit a motion to Liberal Democrat conference about wealth taxes

By Mark Pack | Tue 27th December 2011 - 9:25 am

Nick Clegg’s recent ‘open society’ speech confirmed that increases taxes on wealth in some form is very much on the political agenda. However, the default party policy option – a mansion tax – was highly controversial in the party when it was introduced (which is rather a polite term for the rolling lesson in how to bungle a policy launch, annoy MPs, irritate party members and feed negative stories to the media all in one fell swoop).

In other words – now is a very good time for the party to be debating what form of wealth taxes it favours, especially after the opportunity was missed at the party’s autumn conference. As I wrote at the time in Tax: The missing ingredient from the Liberal Democrat conference agenda,

Also posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged david laws, featured, land value tax, nick clegg, tax, tim montgomerie and vince cable | 35 Comments

Tim Farron’s Christmas message

By Tim Farron MP | Fri 23rd December 2011 - 12:57 pm

Well that was quite a year, wasn’t it? It was a good one too!

I know, I know, after the referendum and the horrible results in May you’d be forgiven for believing we were sinking faster than Blackburn Rovers (how it pains me to write that), but you know what, it’s not true.

This year we did some amazing things, things you and I have wanted to do for years but never had the power to actually get done.

For one, we put an end to the horrific practice of locking up innocent kids behind bars for months on end in immigration …

Tagged Alex Cole-Hamilton, blackburn rovers, NHS, pensions, pupil premium and tax | 10 Comments

Opinion: which twin is the Tory?

By Simon Titley | Fri 23rd December 2011 - 9:00 am

Earlier this month, my home town of Lincoln hosted its annual Christmas market. Lincoln was the first city in the UK to host a German-style Christmas market. Since the first market in 1982, it has grown from just 11 stalls to more than 250. This year’s was the most successful yet, attracting a record 335,000 visitors to the city and contributing millions of pounds to the local economy.

The Christmas market is the most visible product of Lincoln’s twinning arrangement with the German wine-producing town of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. Besides the market, the twin-town relationship has …

Tagged coalition, europhobia, eurosceptic, liberator magazine and twin towns | 29 Comments

Opinion: The Euro chain gang

By David Allen | Thu 22nd December 2011 - 5:57 pm

Woody Allen once made a film about a prison chain gang, shackled together at the legs to work in the fields, who decide to make a run for it. At first the going is easy and the gang make good progress. Then hard times strike. Somebody raises the alarm and gives chase. A panicking gang member (let’s call him Prisoner Farage) yells “Split up!” In seconds, they are all flat on their faces.

EU finance is generally considered complex and difficult to understand. Fundamentally, it isn’t. Quite simply, in the globalised economic race between sovereign

…

Tagged europe | 16 Comments

Opinion: Foreign policy lessons for the Lib Dem approach to Iran

By Joe Bourke | Thu 22nd December 2011 - 4:26 pm

The Green movement in Iran after the presidential elections in 2009 was the first of the recent popular backlashes against entrenched corruption in authoritarian regimes. That was followed by the Arab spring, continuing upheaval in Egypt and now a similar movement in Russia and elsewhere.

At the time of the electoral protests in Tehran, Iranian staff at the British embassy were being accused by the Iranian authorities of treason and fomenting unrest. There was only muted support for the reform movement in Iran from the international community.

Last month we saw the British Embassy in Tehran ransacked and vandalised

…

Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged arab spring, foreign policy, iran and iraq | 20 Comments

Opinion: Lib Dems Must oppose Labour’s ideological cuts in 2012

By David Thorpe | Thu 22nd December 2011 - 2:56 pm

If I were a cleverer person than I am, I would try to create a joke with a punch line to fit the following set-up: What’s the difference between a cut in government spending and an ideological cut in government spending?

That I’m not clever enough to create a pithy punch line is of no consequence, as it is no laughing matter.

Labour have sometimes tried to trail the line that the coalition’s cuts are avoidable, that there are the product of ideology rather than necessity.

This line lacked some credence because even as they …

Tagged alistair darling, deficit, ed balls, ed miliband, george osborne, haringey council and vince cable | 22 Comments

Opinion: How much does geographical accident influence politics?

By Mark Thompson | Tue 20th December 2011 - 4:23 pm

I have been wondering for a while how much of a role geographical accident plays in politics.

When I first decided to get involved with politics a few years back I chose the Liberal Democrats because they were the party that most closely matched my views. In my local area, the party did not have any council seats but there are a small group of very dedicated and experienced local members and campaigners who have fought a number of local and national elections with alacrity since I joined.

The situation, though, has got me thinking about how political careers are nurtured and …

Tagged local elections | 6 Comments

Opinion: Council dilemma – to raise or not to raise?

By Maureen Rigg | Tue 20th December 2011 - 2:53 pm

As councils across the country wrestle with this year’s Council Tax dilemma, here’s just one example of the dynamics involved.

To Raise or not to Raise? That’s the burning question to be answered early in 2012. Should Stockton Council accept the bribe on offer from the government to keep the Council Tax at the same level as last year, or ignore the offer and raise the tax?

On the surface it sounds like a no-brainer. Why wouldn’t we vote to keep the tax at the same level as last year when all around us residents are having to find more …

Tagged council tax | 12 Comments

Opinion: The Tory Party has mutated. It is for us to say Europe is our hope for the future

By Antony Hook | Tue 20th December 2011 - 12:53 pm

David Cameron’s renunciation of a Treaty not even yet fully negotiated was the culmination of a process that began around 1992.

In 1992 a small group of Tory ultras, “the Maastricht Rebels”, began fighting their party’s traditional pro-Europeanism. It has taken 19 years to make their fringe views a normal Conservative Party and conservative press position. 1992 has led to 2011 like a river flows to the sea.

Anti-Europeanism’s hold on a major political movement has caused a poorly informed anti-Europeanism to take hold among many of our fellow citizens in the UK, as it has among some of …

Tagged conservative party and european union | 25 Comments

Opinion: MeRRRy Christmas!

By Lorna Dupré | Tue 20th December 2011 - 12:53 pm

Like many of us, I’ll be braving the supermarket aisles over the next few days, ready to feed visiting family. This year, however, in more straitened financial circumstances (aren’t we all?), I’m very aware of how much food I’ve wasted over Christmases past, and determined not to make that mistake again.

Research by environmental organisation WRAP shows that each year we throw away one third (6.7 million tonnes) of the food we buy, over a quarter of that still in its packaging. The average person will have thrown away their own weight in food between January and December. And …

Tagged recycling | 7 Comments

The Independent View: The banking sector needs radical reform but too many cures will kill the patient

By Ben Norman | Mon 19th December 2011 - 6:58 pm

For seven days before Christmas it has been an incredibly busy day for the financial services sector. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Draft Financial Services Bill has produced its wide-ranging report into regulatory reform; the FSA has published its Mortgage Market Review consultation; and, last but not least, the Treasury has published the Government’s response to the Independent Commission on Banking.

At least the latter was well leaked – what isn’t these days? – and gave me time to think about the ICB.

The ICB is actually something quite amazing, not to mention something entirely Lib Dem.

Sir John Vickers was given …

Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged banking, independent commission on banking and john vickers | 2 Comments

The weekend debate: Should former MPs get to keep their parliamentary passes?

By Carl Quilliam | Sat 17th December 2011 - 8:55 am

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

This week saw the revelation in the Independent that there are now 326 former MPs who hold Former Members’ Passes.

The passes allow them access to bring guests into the House of Commons and book restaurants with family in the Palace of Westminster. The Independent raises worries that former MPs may be using these passes to further there lobbying careers.

Former speaker Michael Martin introduced the scheme to allow former MPs to keep up with friends in Parliament but should former MPs have …

Also posted in Parliament | Tagged lobbying, michael martin and weekend debate | 16 Comments

Opinion: What do the Lib Dems and the Big Society have in common?

By Joe Jordan | Fri 16th December 2011 - 4:00 pm

Being a student, I am lucky enough to have very flexible working hours, and I’ve put these to good use this autumn helping with Brian Paddick’s campaign to become the first Lib Dem Mayor of London.

Something I’ve noticed with creeping inevitability about the campaign is the similarities between myself and the other people turning up on Fridays – the vast majority of whom are male and pale like me.

This is symptomatic of a wider problem with volunteer organisations in general, and cuts to the heart of a political philosophical gulf between us and the tories: volunteers are people in a position to volunteer.

While conservatives were perfectly at …

Tagged big society, community politics, free schools, internships, public services and volunteering | 28 Comments

Opinion: The Liberal Democrats must lead re-engagement with Europe

By Ben Jones | Fri 16th December 2011 - 2:28 pm

Who killed the EU treaty? Was it pre-meditated murder or manslaughter? Some say David Cameron wielded the knife. It is suggested that he went to Brussels with every intention of wrecking the treaty. It was politically impossible for him to deliver his party, regardless of concessions. On this charge, the Prime Minister is either hero or villain, depending on which side you are on.

For others, the crime is one of gross negligence. The list of failings is long and painful; the side-lining of diplomats in the Foreign Office in favour of Treasury officials, a 4am “take it or leave it”

…

Tagged david cameron, europe and nick clegg | 8 Comments

Tim Farron MP writes: Sorry Dave, but you’re no Mrs. T…

By Tim Farron MP | Fri 16th December 2011 - 2:00 pm

I have yet to watch Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Margaret Thatcher. I’m sure it will be fascinating, but I just fear that it might also be a bit too painful – I find it hard to divorce my views on the politics of that era from my memories of avoidable hardship experienced by the community I grew up in. Then again, perhaps I should try and get over my Thatcherphobia and view her record a bit more dispassionately. Where better to start than Mrs T’s record on Europe?

Sat behind me in Parliament, amongst the ranks of my valued coalition colleagues, …

Tagged david cameron, european union, margaret thatcher and tim farron | 22 Comments

Opinion: troubling times in the jobs market

By Prateek Buch | Fri 16th December 2011 - 8:30 am

Despite uncertainty over the statistics (don’t worry, this isn’t a post about p-values and standard deviations), we can say with some confidence (say, 95%) that the UK jobs market remains in a volatile state with many people out of work or underemployed. With public sector jobs being shed rapidly as a result of austerity measures, and the private sector unable or unwilling to create more jobs than it sheds due to falling demand (going against Chancellor George Osborne’s expectations), the net result is a devastating lack of work for millions of people, …

Tagged co-ops, regional growth fund, trade unions, unemployment and youth unemployment | 3 Comments

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Category Archives: Op-eds

The perils of political canvassing

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2012: The Budget

Opinion: the problem of Welfare Reform

The four things the new party Chief Executive must prioritise

Opinion: Ever greater centralisation is not the answer for failing schools

The weekend debate: Should we end the bargain booze bonanza?

Alcohol minimum pricing should be this government’s first bold evidence-based drug policy

Ian Swales MP writes: 12 CUTS Labour don’t talk about

Kirtsy Williams writes… Looking back at 2011 and looking forward to 2012

Opinion: The opportunity for Lords Reform must be taken

Opinion: We need better housing options for the elderly at Christmas

Opinion: Why is Nick Clegg being quite so wrong on Lords reform?

Get your skates on and submit a motion to Liberal Democrat conference about wealth taxes

Tim Farron’s Christmas message

Opinion: which twin is the Tory?

Opinion: The Euro chain gang

Opinion: Foreign policy lessons for the Lib Dem approach to Iran

Opinion: Lib Dems Must oppose Labour’s ideological cuts in 2012

Opinion: How much does geographical accident influence politics?

Opinion: Council dilemma – to raise or not to raise?

Opinion: The Tory Party has mutated. It is for us to say Europe is our hope for the future

Opinion: MeRRRy Christmas!

The Independent View: The banking sector needs radical reform but too many cures will kill the patient

The weekend debate: Should former MPs get to keep their parliamentary passes?

Opinion: What do the Lib Dems and the Big Society have in common?

Opinion: The Liberal Democrats must lead re-engagement with Europe

Tim Farron MP writes: Sorry Dave, but you’re no Mrs. T…

Opinion: troubling times in the jobs market

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