Category Archives: Op-eds

The Independent View: Final Demand – it’s time to end the power of the Big Six

By Andy Atkins | Mon 17th October 2011 - 1:50 pm

News last week that the Big Six energy firms are raking in bumper profits while the nation struggles with soaring fuel bills was just the latest electric shock to hit cash-strapped families.

Ofgem’s revelation that energy firm profit margins have risen to £125 per customer per year, from £15 in June, will crank up pressure on the Government to act – and rightly so.

But if Ministers really want to get to grips with soaring fuel bills we must also tackle the root cause – our nation’s reliance on increasingly expensive gas, coal and oil and the failure of the Big Six

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged chris huhne, energy and george osborne | 3 Comments

Opinion: Why is the BBC so bad at putting links in science stories?

By Prateek Buch | Mon 17th October 2011 - 11:25 am

The BBC’s failure to link properly to the original sources of its stories, especially those relating to developments in science and healthcare, may be just be a personal bugbear, and you may well be blissfully unaware of or affected by it, but do indulge me as I think this matters!

For some time now the likes of medic and writer Ben Goldacre have expressed real concern at the underwhelming way the BBC uses hyperlinks on its website. Specifically, when the BBC website carries a story based on papers published in academic journals, clicking their ‘related internet links’ sends the …

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Tagged bbc, ben goldacre, james gallagher and journalism | 10 Comments

The Independent View: World Arthritis Day

By Jamie Hewitt | Sun 16th October 2011 - 11:50 am

I suspect few of you know this, but Wednesday was actually World Arthritis Day. For charities in the musculoskeletal sector this can be a pretty big deal, as we jostle to publish new research and try and ensnare policy makers in dialogue.

And so it proved to be when NRAS participated in a live webchat with the Health Minister, Paul Burstow MP, the man with responsibility for long-term conditions, like Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).

Needless to say we were cock-a-hoop that the Minister agreed to participate. He could have quite easily cancelled on us due to all the palaver surrounding the passage of

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged Ailsa Bosworth, paul burstow and World Arthritis Day | 3 Comments

Opinion: Why conference season is showing us up

By Sean Davey | Sat 15th October 2011 - 10:45 am

“Tory bashing” has been a key phrase this autumn as the Liberal Democrat rank and file use conference to let off some steam. The Daily Politics’ Andrew Neil notably dropped his warm, fuzzy style when grilling Tim Farron over his premonitions of ‘divorce’ – but we seem to be retreating back to ours. “Cuddly Liberal Democrats,” as the Prime Minister put it to his own party conference.

And David Cameron may be outlining the message of the Conservative party for 2015 – with a theme of “Leadership for a better future,” his party are opening up a dialogue between the …

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21 Comments

Opinion: Why the Lib Dems need all-women shortlists

By Nat Jester | Fri 14th October 2011 - 2:48 pm

In his Lib Dem Voice piece “Too male and too pale” – Why shortlists and the Leadership Programme are not the answer, Paul Head states that he is totally opposed to all-women shortlists (AWS) because they ‘ignore the real problem’ that this reflects in the party as a whole; and that we need to engage more with women and BAME people on a grassroots level and change from below.

This is a sensible argument, and is something that we should strive for. However, I believe that there is a place for AWS in the Liberal Democrats, despite the fact that …

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Tagged all-women shortlists, diversity, equalities, gender balance and paul head | 48 Comments

Opinion: Youth unemployment – something must be done

By Elizabeth Parr | Fri 14th October 2011 - 12:15 pm

When I began university in September 2007 I was, like everybody else, full of aspirations. I believed I would do well in my degree, have a wonderful time, graduate and find a job. Unfortunately things didn’t go to plan, and when my boyfriend graduated a year ahead of me, and spent a year unemployed, I knew I was in for a bumpy ride.

When we graduated we were each in £18,000 worth of debt (excluding interest) from student loans, and had no job prospects on the horizon. We sat down and worked out that my boyfriend had applied for over 400 …

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15 Comments

Opinion: Labour’s problem

By George Kendall | Thu 13th October 2011 - 2:25 pm

There’s been nothing dramatic about this conference season apart from a few gaffes, but under the surface, I think the Labour conference was significant.

While I enjoyed the Lib Dem conference, I don’t think the journalists did. Whenever I passed a well-known TV presenter, they had a face like thunder. They were looking for factionalism and controversy, but all they found was Lib Dems facing up to a difficult situation with determination and loyalty. That makes dull TV, so they must have been tearing their hair out.

The Tory conference was more entertaining.

Theresa May’s remark about cats, and the more recent

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Also posted in Conference | Tagged ed balls, ed miliband, gordon brown, ken clarke, liam fox, theresa may and tony blair | 35 Comments

Jenny Willott MP writes: 18 months and over a Billion pounds – Lib Dem victory on Women’s State Pension Age

By Jenny Willott | Thu 13th October 2011 - 12:53 pm

The UK is getting older. In 1970 a person reaching 60 could expect to live a further 18 years. Last year, this had become 28 years. Advances in healthcare, living standards and technology mean that people are living longer and life expectancy is rapidly increasing.

That is why the Government took the decision to bring forward planned increases in the State Pension Age. As I’ve said on Lib Dem Voice before, it is absolutely right for the Government to do this. It’s not a nice decision but doing nothing would risk plunging future pensioners into poverty with less and less …

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Tagged pensions bill, state pension age and steve webb | 12 Comments

Opinion: Ever wanted to be a European Liberal Democrat, if only for forty-eight hours…?

By Mark Valladares | Thu 13th October 2011 - 12:15 pm

In my capacity as one of Liberal Democrat Voice’s foreign correspondents, I’ve been covering ELDR events for a few years now. So, why might you be interested, and how do you get to go to an ELDR Congress?

The annual Congress of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR) is an opportunity for liberals from across Europe, including beyond the European Union, to discuss the issues of the day, and to get a sense of how liberals in the European Parliament are responding to them. Delegates get to debate with parliamentarians, take part in sessions with Commissioners and leading academics and, perhaps of …

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged eldr | 1 Comment

Opinion: Summer schools? Little more than a sticking plaster

By Alex Feakes | Thu 13th October 2011 - 9:25 am

Nick Clegg’s conference announcement of £50m to fund summer schools for the disadvantaged caught the headlines (even in the Daily Mail!), and received some support in editorials and from some Lib Dem bloggers. However, though it might be a crowd pleaser and a nice idea, in truth it’s little more than a sticking plaster for deeper problems.

Would I have them rather than nothing at all? Possibly, but I’d rather the money stayed in the Pupil Premium where it is at least targeted through mechanisms (schools) that are already set up to identify and address students needs. Perhaps even

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Tagged education, nick clegg, pupil premium and riots | 2 Comments

Opinion: None shall be enslaved by….maternity?

By Ruth Bright | Wed 12th October 2011 - 3:54 pm

Nick Clegg bemoans the maleness and paleness of the Lib Dems and his sense of shame that our parliamentary party is 88% male seems genuine enough.

What is it about the culture of Lib Dems that has brought about this striking gender imbalance?

My own experience as a councillor and candidate is that being a (young, childless, solvent) woman is a huge advantage. When I was approved and selected in 2001 you could almost smell the desperation of the party to promote women. The glass ceiling – what was that?

But then I did what women do and I had children and …

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Tagged equalities, gender balance and nick clegg | 29 Comments

The Independent View: Lib Dems need to champion new ideas for tackling child poverty

By Laura Bradley | Wed 12th October 2011 - 12:25 pm

Figures released this week by the IFS show that the UK will witness a severe and sustained increase in child poverty over the coming decade, with almost a quarter of British children set to be living in relative poverty by 2020, compared to one fifth in 2009/10. This is despite a projected 7 per cent reduction in real terms median income over the next three years, reducing the amount of income it takes to cross the poverty line.

These figures highlight the growing gulf between the targets set out under the Child Poverty Act, which require the government to reduce …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged child poverty, institute for fiscal studies, sarah teather and universal credit | 3 Comments

Sarah Teather MP writes: Pupil Premium – coming to a school near you

By Sarah Teather | Wed 12th October 2011 - 9:47 am

Usually it’s quite hard explaining how being a Liberal Democrat Minister in government makes a difference to the people in my constituency. But the Pupil Premium is an exception to that rule. It is a policy with two key characteristics – it has an identifiable impact in every local area, and it’s distinctively Liberal Democrat.

Today the Government released the final Pupil Premium figures for English schools. In the financial year 2011-12 schools are receiving £488 for each child on free school meals they have on their roll.

Anyone can visit the DfE website and search for their local …

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Tagged department for education and pupil premium | 9 Comments

Opinion: Tackling violence against women

By Paul Rowen | Tue 11th October 2011 - 2:54 pm

The conference motion “Tackling Violence Against Women” rightly highlighted the fact that only 10% of local authorities offer dedicated services for Black and Ethnic Minority Women many of whom are subjected to specific forms of violence such as female mutilation and forced marriage.

In areas like Rochdale with a large Pakistani/Kashmiri and Bangladeshi community, the need for such services and support is very real. This is particularly the case when the arranged marriage involves someone from the Indian sub-continent and the marriage breaks down within two years.

Under our current immigration system these women (and some men) are subject to the NRPF …

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Tagged policing | 11 Comments

Jeremy Browne writes: World Day Against the Death Penalty

By Jeremy Browne MP | Mon 10th October 2011 - 6:53 pm

Today I met with a group of students, activists and academics to mark the eighth anniversary of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, and the fourth anniversary of the European Day Against the Death Penalty.

It has been a longstanding policy for the UK to oppose the death penalty in any and all circumstances as a matter of principle. As an individual, as a Liberal Democrat and as a Minister, I have always worked hard …

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Tagged capital punishment, death penalty and united nations | Leave a comment

Opinion: Who will sort out our colossal National Debt?

By Stuart Bonar | Sun 9th October 2011 - 9:56 am

The one group I’d most expect to be drawing up a roadmap to a debt-free Britain would be true-blue Tories. Some of them at least understand the problem. In a new book by five Conservative MPs – After the Coalition: a Conservative Agenda for Britain, dubbed by the Independent as the Bible of the new Tory right wing, there is an entire chapter on the National Debt and the risk it presents.

As I have argued elsewhere, it is wrong to think that debt doesn’t matter… that so long as you can keep getting enough out of Peter to pay Paul then …

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Tagged charles kennedy, gordon brown and national debt | 19 Comments

Opinion: Theresa May’s cat – why we should be proud of our conference

By Nick Tyrone | Sat 8th October 2011 - 2:50 pm

The vast majority of Lib Dems who attended autumn conference would agree with me in saying that it was a success. The mood surrounding the ICC Birmingham was unmistakably positive. The feared factionalism that had been predicted by some never materialised. But what really makes our conference seem amazing, in retrospect, is just how badly the respective Labour and Conservative gatherings have played out.

Labour conference was up first. As the only major party of opposition this should have been a conference to remember for them. A year of riots, phone hacking and a poor economy gave them more ammunition than …

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Also posted in Conference | Tagged andrew neil, ed miliband, polly toynbee and theresa may | 11 Comments

Opinion: Intelligent quantitative easing is best hope to stop the bleeding and begin reviving the patient

By Ed Randall | Fri 7th October 2011 - 1:50 pm

At our party Conference in Birmingham I described accelerated fiscal consolidation as pure poison: “Poison for the party, poison for the Coalition and, most important, poison for the country.”

I know that Liberal Democrats in ministerial office cannot be heard to say such things in public. But Liberal Democrats who do not have to labour under the restraints of office should be making it plain how oxymoronic ‘expansionary accelerated fiscal consolidation’ really is.

They will be in good and growing company.

The announcement of a further round of Quantitative Easing (QE) – much larger than the financial press had anticipated and a month …

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Tagged david kern, ed balls, quantitative easing and rahm emmanuel | 15 Comments

Opinion: A real opportunity to Make Justice Work

By Linda Jack | Fri 7th October 2011 - 11:53 am

One of the highlights of conference for me was the breakfast roundtable organised by Make Justice Work. As conference goers and fringe organisers will know, getting one MP along is a challenge, managing to attract three must be close to a record! So it was a demonstration of the commitment our party has to reforming the criminal justice system that Justice minister Tom McNally, chair of the Justice Select Committee Alan Beith and member of the Home Affairs Select Committee Julian Huppert, all attended.

For those of you who don’t know the organisation, it was founded by Roma Hooper to …

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Tagged alan beith, julian huppert, justice, lord mcnally, make justice work, peter oborne and roma hooper | 1 Comment

Opinion: Gove’s history – Whiggish, patriotic and wrong, part 2

By Anonymous Lib Dem | Fri 7th October 2011 - 10:25 am

Britain’s history curriculum is about to return to the past. Michael Gove’s plan to change the way this important subject is taught in our schools “smells of Whiggery; of history as chauvinism”, according to Professor Tom Devine. In the second of a series of two articles (part one here), I look at the dangers of Gove’s desire to make history a patriotic subject.

History should be beyond ideology. History should be about the truth. It should be about looking at past societies, not judging them, and not attempting to own them. A patriotic view of history is equally as dangerous as …

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Tagged education, history, michael gove, simon schama and tom devine | 12 Comments

Opinion: Gove’s history – Whiggish, patriotic and wrong, part 1

By Anonymous Lib Dem | Thu 6th October 2011 - 10:25 am

Britain’s history curriculum is about to return to the past. Michael Gove’s plan to change the way this important subject is taught in our schools “smells of Whiggery; of history as chauvinism”, according to Professor Tom Devine. In the first of a series of two articles, I will look at the Whiggish side to Gove’s vision of history.

The Liberal Democrats are the political grandchildren of the Whigs, but we don’t need to share their interpretation of history. At the heart of Whig history is a sort of teleological view of the past, imagining that the ‘story’ of Britain is about …

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Tagged education, history, michael gove and tom devine | 12 Comments

Opinion: Boosting housing supply

By Alex Marsh | Wed 5th October 2011 - 11:50 am

The Conservatives’ proposal to resuscitate the Right to Buy through increasing discounts appears to be an attempt to bask in some of Mrs Thatcher’s reflected glory. Unlike the 1980s version, though, Mr Cameron and Mr Shapps are emphasizing that each property sold will be matched with a newly built property at “affordable” rent. This is an attempt to head off criticisms that the Right to Buy reduces the supply of “social” housing. So, it would appear, this initiative could lead to a net increase in the housing stock.

Of course, things are never as they first appear. It is not yet …

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Tagged david cameron, grant shapps, housing, mike slade, national planning policy framework, right to buy and social housing | 7 Comments

The Independent View: Why it’s time for Nick Clegg to really end child detention

By Simon Parker | Tue 4th October 2011 - 3:50 pm

Among the Liberal Democrat policy gains that Nick Clegg attributed to the coalition government in his party conference speech last month was the ending of child detention. The same claim was made in the Liberal Democrat ‘List of Achievements’ and in a speech at the National Liberal Club summing up the party’s record one year into the coalition government.

The only problem with this claim is that it is not true. Child detention has not ended in the United Kingdom.

According to the Migration Observatory, more than 400 children were detained by the UK Border Agency in 2010. Certainly …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged child detention and nick clegg | 11 Comments

Opinion: Accessing the Leader’s speech – incomprehensible and exclusive

By Greg Judge | Tue 4th October 2011 - 2:56 pm

What do the Fukushima Earthquake, Christchurch Earthquake, Queensland Floods, Libyan Revolution, Egyptian Jasmine Revolution and the ongoing struggle in Syria all have in common? If your answer was death then unfortunately you would be correct, however, a more inspirational and uplifting answer would be Sign Language!

In all of these cases, the elected officials of Public Office have been broadcasted with a Sign Language Interpreter at the side of them as they make statements on life and death events. This breakthrough in accessible information is crucial for Deaf people who need to know what to do in an emergency and how …

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Tagged bsl, ed miliband and nick clegg | 5 Comments

Local liberal heroes: Ruth Dombey

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th October 2011 - 10:25 am

Earlier in the year, 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 …

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Tagged featured, local liberal heroes, ruth dombey and sutton liberal democrats | 3 Comments

Opinion: Rediscovering our lost sense of liberty

By Daniel Furr | Mon 3rd October 2011 - 3:50 pm

We are very fortunate to be apart of this nation. It’s traditions and values are, to an extent, admired across the world. From the birth of the Magna Carta 1215, De Montfort’s Parliament of 1265 and the Bill of Rights 1689, the concept of freedom and individual liberty has been a source of inspiration. As Prime Minister Lloyd George once said, “Liberty is not merely a privilege to be conferred; it is a habit to be acquired”.

But that liberty has been forsaken, forgotten, to a previous age. There is a reluctance to even consider the prospect of a government ever …

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18 Comments

The Independent View: The Coalition’s approach to the UK’s asylum system

By Maurice Wren | Mon 3rd October 2011 - 10:45 am

A new Chief Executive at the UK Border Agency takes office this week. The fairness and effectiveness of our asylum system will fall squarely within Rob Whiteman’s responsibility. It seems an appropriate moment, then, to look at the way the Coalition has approached this dysfunctional area of public policy.

When politicians talk about asylum, they invariably remind their audience that the UK has a proud historical record protecting people who have fled chilling human rights abuses abroad. Polls consistently show substantial public support for ensuring protection for those who need it. And these were the opening notes …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged asylum | 2 Comments

Opinion: Making it easier to follow conference

By Alex Wilcock | Sun 2nd October 2011 - 12:25 pm

Liberal Democrats returned home last week from another Conference: holding government ministers to account; debating policy (even nearly managing the rare feat of throwing out a policy paper); catching up with friends. But while it’s fresh in Conference Committee’s minds, I have some small suggestions for next time. Talking to Lib Dems who may not have read every word of the Agenda or Conference Daily updates, and to people who were watching at home on BBC2 or BBC Parliament in their vast ratings of one or two, just a few simple changes could make Conference a lot easier …

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Also posted in Conference | 6 Comments

Opinion: Floccinaucinihilipilification

By Amanda J Taylor | Sat 1st October 2011 - 5:25 pm

“For most people, the only visible service that they get from the council is the removal of refuse” – Eric Pickles, Daily Mail, 30th September

Floccinaucinihilipilification – the action or habit of estimating something as worthless, Oxford English Dictionary

This may or not be the longest word in the English language, but today is a rare chance to use it. It sums up Eric Pickles after his eccentric comment today about council services .

The honourable people who empty our bins every week or every fortnight have hundreds of thousands of colleagues working alongside them in their councils: 1.7 million according to the LGA – …

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Tagged eric pickles | 8 Comments

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