Category Archives: Op-eds

Paul Burstow MP writes: Lifting of lifetime gay blood donation ban – progress, but not the final word

By Paul Burstow | Fri 9th September 2011 - 2:16 pm

The lifetime ban on men who have had sex with men (MSM) is an issue that our party has always felt uncomfortable with. Superficially it looks little more than a discriminatory throwback to the 1980s stereotypes associated with gay men and increased risk of sexual disease.

Yesterday the Government took a significant step in changing their position by announcing the lifting of the lifetime ban on MSM from giving blood. So let me give you the detail about how that decision was reached, and what it means for men wanting to donate blood.

The previous Government had also questioned the …

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Tagged gay blood ban, gay men fighting aids, national aids trust, sickle cell society, stonewall, terence higgins trust and uk thalassaemia society | 7 Comments

Opinion: Now is NOT the time to abolish 50p tax rate

By Richard Davis | Thu 8th September 2011 - 1:48 pm

A letter appeared in the FT today from a deficit* of economists which suggested that the 50p tax rate be dropped. Their reasoning, as was stated on yesterday morning’s Radio4 Today programme is that hedge funds are relocating to Switzerland in favour of the cheaper tax. While I assume if the tax was dropped the 0.5% of the population in the UK who actually pay that level wouldn’t contemplate leaving?

Having worked with hedge funds I recognised a few of the names, such as Sushil Wadhwani, listed in the BBC article as former Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member. In other …

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Tagged hedge funds and income tax | 34 Comments

Paul Tyler writes… A manual for Coalition?

By Paul Tyler | Wed 7th September 2011 - 2:25 pm

Dr Andrew Blick, a Senior Research Fellow at Democratic Audit, and Lord (Peter) Hennessy have co-authored a new report called The Hidden Wiring Emerges. (It provides the best and most comprehensive analysis yet of the Coalition’s draft Cabinet Manual, published in December 2010.

The whole document – and the whole report on it – should attract anyone concerned with the health of our democracy. However, one point of dispute may interest Liberal Democrats in particular.

The authors highlight an idea described in the Manual that, following the resignation of a Prime Minister after a General Election, the person ‘seemingly most likely …

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Tagged andrew blick, constitutional reform and lord peter hennessy | 3 Comments

Opinion: Give Gove the shove

By Chris White | Tue 6th September 2011 - 12:21 pm

I was asked yesterday what I thought would be the key issues for the Coalition over the next 12 months. Political predictions are always dangerous (what did you predict would be the main stories in August?) but I plunged in and said that education was emerging as a clear division between the Coalition partners.

There has been a great deal over the past few days over the creation of the first free schools. The BBC tells us hourly that they are free from local government control: quite where they (and some politicians in our own Party who should know better) get …

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Tagged free schools, michael gove and nick clegg | 18 Comments

Opinion: Should I stay or should I go?

By Nick Tyrone | Mon 5th September 2011 - 5:16 pm

For those of you who don’t read the Daily Mail every day, there was a lead article last week all about how awful the Liberal Democrats are. No great surprise there, I hear you say. The reasons given this time were that the Lib Dems are looking to keep the 50p tax rate in place, uphold the Human Rights Act, and “frustrate every effort to cut immigration”. The party is also trying to promote too many green policies as well, ones that “threaten to cripple business”. Apparently, we are “reverting to type as the fringe party mouthpiece of Left-wing causes”.

Yet …

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Tagged daily mail | 43 Comments

Interview with Mike Moore MP – Action in Government, ideas for the future

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 5th September 2011 - 1:51 pm

Interview: Mike Moore MP – Action in Government, ideas for the future

It can’t be much fun being Alex Salmond these days. The euphoria of May has subsided, and he’s realised that there’s nobody else to blame for his majority Government’s actions. On top of that, wherever he looks, he sees the grin of Wilie Rennie, ready to highlight any example of anglophobia, of dodging , delaying, ducking and diving. The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader has had accolade after accolade in the press for providing such high quality opposition to the SNP …

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Also posted in Scotland | Tagged alex salmond, iain duncan smith, Michael Moore, steve webb and willie rennie | 5 Comments

Opinion: We need a general right of information

By Adam Bell | Mon 5th September 2011 - 10:53 am

The call made by Mark Pack, amongst others, for suggestions for media reform is both timely and important. For the majority of the country, the media represents the most important source of information we access on a daily basis. As a result, it cannot help but shape our opinions and inform our democratic decision-making; it is a key part of our national discourse and must be seen as such.

And yet the phone hacking scandal has demonstrated that we cannot rely wholly on journalists to hold themselves and their colleagues to account for their own ethical transgressions. A press …

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Tagged media and Phone hacking | 10 Comments

Opinion: How not to further the Palestinian cause

By Matthew Harris | Fri 2nd September 2011 - 2:55 pm

The other day at a London Underground station, I saw a man who was visibly distressed. A 50-something Asian gentleman in a suit, he’d been waiting for his wife when a man asked him to move out of the way on a narrow path. Except he hadn’t just asked him to move – he’d abused him racially and pushed against him.

I could see that he was upset, so I stopped and he told me what had happened. Imagine, however, if, instead of expressing sympathy, I had told him that he was in the wrong for having been in someone’s way …

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Tagged andrew donnachie, chanan reitblat, israel and palestine | 21 Comments

Opinion: Whisper it, but the press are starting to get it

By James Percival | Fri 2nd September 2011 - 8:53 am

Whisper it, but it seems they might be starting to get it. It’s only taken them a year and a half.

‘They’ of course are the assorted numpties of the British press and ‘it’ is how coalition government works and just how important and influential Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats are within it.

For most of the time since May 2010 a crude and simplistic caricature of our government and the Lib Dems’ role in it has taken hold – that this is really a Tory government and the Lib Dems are either naive puppets being taken for a ride by …

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Tagged daily express, daily telegraph, new statesman, nick clegg and the guardian | 24 Comments

Chris White writes: It’s nice to be hated again

By Chris White | Wed 31st August 2011 - 11:53 am

I don’t suppose many readers spend much time on the Daily Express. Most people don’t. But a quick glance at yesterday’s editorial rant finds that they have it in for the Lib Dems.

At a time when the tax burden and cost of living are rising and families are being squeezed ever more with each passing day the Lib Dems are fighting the Conservatives not for a tax cut but a tax rise.

This is a reference to the re-emergence of the mansion tax.

Not many Express readers live in £1 million homes. But they aspire to. And just to raise their fears …

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Tagged Angela knight, daily express and vince cable | 24 Comments

Opinion: Free our children to play tipcat

By Stuart Bonar | Tue 30th August 2011 - 12:24 pm

Laws are infringements of an individual’s liberty. Where they exist, they must be justified (and plenty of laws are perfectly justifiable), but those that cannot be justified should be ditched.

We have seen some of this work being done by the Coalition – through the Protection of Freedoms Bill and Vince Cable’s Red Tape Challenge (which is set to repeal the wartime Trading with the Enemy Act) – but there is a hidden layer of rules and regulations, much of it petty, obsolete or needless: council bye-laws.

Let me justify each of those criticisms with examples from the bye-laws currently in …

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Tagged byelaws, protection of freedoms bill, tipcat and vince cable | 18 Comments

Opinion: Why millionaire graduates should stop whingeing about fees

By Jonathan Hunt | Sat 27th August 2011 - 1:18 pm

According to new figures published this week by the Office for National Statistics, graduates earn 85 per cent more than people with only GCSE qualifications over their working lives. Extrapolated over a 40-year career lifetime, graduates are likely to earn almost £1 million more than those on current average pay of some £25,000 pa.

The latest statistics show that the differential has fallen from 95 per cent in 1993, though the level of earnings has increased substantially over those 18 years. Their publication may reopen the debate on student fees – and incite some resentment among non-graduate taxpayers …

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Tagged higher education, office for national statistics, tuition fees and universities | 85 Comments

Opinion: Tracey Emin – a litmus test of individualism

By Ed Long | Sat 27th August 2011 - 11:47 am

Last week I spent a drizzly London afternoon wandering around Tracey Emin’s retrospective show at the Hayward Gallery. Having seen several of her pieces individually before and otherwise mostly being exposed to her through (often outraged) media coverage I was sceptical of her practice and had filed her as someone who aimed for controversy and provocation over profundity and human experience. I came away from the exhibition impressed, deeply affected and entirely transformed in my opinion. Now with Emin again in the headlines after donating her neon piece ‘More Passion’ to the government art collection, a variety of commentators are …

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Tagged hayward gallery, jake and dinos chapman and tracy emin | 13 Comments

Alex Wilcock writes… Tory boy throws toys out of pram: not exactly Man Bites Dog

By Alex Wilcock | Fri 26th August 2011 - 3:27 pm

British politics is known for its name-calling and point-scoring rather than adult debate, and few sane voters find the bearpit of Prime Minister’s Question Time very edifying. But since no party won the election, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have tried to do the mature thing, with neither getting all of what they want because the voters didn’t give either party absolute power. The voters don’t matter, though, to Tory Boy Tim Montgomerie, who today screams and screams until he’s sick that With every passing day the Liberal Democrats are dragging the Coalition further away from the …

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Tagged ConservativeHome and tim montgomerie | 19 Comments

Opinion: #HandsOffTwitter

By Richard Morris | Thu 25th August 2011 - 7:54 pm

So, good news everyone – according to reports in the Guardian and others, the Home Office have decided that introducing legislation to allow the police to turn off access to Social Networks would be, ahem, inappropriate, and will instead work in cooperation with the networks going forward. To quote the Home Office after talks today

“The discussions looked at how law enforcement and the networks can build on the existing relationships and co-operation to prevent the networks being used for criminal behaviour”.

Good.

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Tagged david cameron, louise mensch and twitter | 3 Comments

Brian Paddick writes: Building a better future for Londoners

By Brian Paddick | Thu 25th August 2011 - 11:54 am

Since I retired from the police I have not had a car. Since then ‘the world is my Oyster card.’ I rely on trains, tubes and buses to get around London and I’m appalled by what I see.

Vanity projects and electoral gimmicks like the new Routemaster and replacing bendy buses are soaking up millions of pounds of the transport budget. The new Routemaster will cost nine times as much as a conventional bus – never mind the millions spent on development! On the right routes and properly regulated so they don’t end up stuck together, bendies do a perfectly adequate …

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Also posted in London | Tagged bendy buses, london mayoral selection, oyster card and transport | 3 Comments

Opinion: Rebalancing taxes – eliminating the carbon externality

By Simon Oliver | Wed 24th August 2011 - 2:53 pm

What I term “The Carbon Externality” is that cost being borne by current and future society as a result of greenhouse gas emissions, being produced over the past century or so at a rate that exceeds the capacity of the planet to absorb them without perceptible harm.

Externality is an accounting/economics term for any cost that is borne by an external party, and therefore not part of the internal cost analysis. It is the fundamental flaw in Friedman economics and why those calling for small government are missing the point.

Government exists to account for and address externalities. Effective regulation of the market reduces or eliminates externalities so that the costs of doing business are increasingly borne by those who benefit from the business, in the form of reduced profits and higher end-user costs. Taxes are the principle mechanism for this.

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Tagged environment and tax | 20 Comments

Opinion: Time to give inheritance tax the chop

By Former Organiser | Tue 23rd August 2011 - 1:53 pm

Whilst on my weekly perusal of Lib Dem Voice I spotted an interesting article by my lovely colleague Stuart Bonar. He was discussing inheritance tax; an issue that I hope will not affect me for a while, but nonetheless, an important one to many of us. I was initially inclined to agree with Stuart’s view that individuals should be taxed on these ‘wind-falls’ but then I got thinking…

Inheritance tax used to be a tax on the rich, something not relevant to most of us. But it’s now a tax paid by many, as house and asset prices have risen to extraordinary levels; many being valued at over £325 000, which is the threshold for this tax. However, I do wonder whether many of the rich, the original subjects of this tax, pay it, as they can afford expensive and skilled accountants or leave the country to escape this payment, something that I and many others cannot do.

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Tagged inheritance tax and stuart bonar | 105 Comments

Local liberal heroes: Monroe Palmer

By Mark Pack | Tue 23rd August 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 barnet council, local liberal heroes and monroe palmer | 3 Comments

Mike Tuffrey writes… Policing: not just a numbers game

By Mike Tuffrey | Tue 23rd August 2011 - 9:25 am

On the streets of Tottenham, Croydon, Clapham, Hackney and Ealing, we saw what happens when adequate numbers of trained police are not deployed at the right time and in the right way.

And we heard how numbers on the streets were subsequently boosted from 3,000 to 16,000 only by drafting in back-up from neighbouring forces. In fairness, it must be said that riot control is very hazardous and officers must have the right training before they are deployed.

Yet Londoners can still be forgiven for wondering where all the police are, that they’ve been persuaded to pay for in higher council taxes.

Go …

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Also posted in London | Tagged boris johnson and policing | 7 Comments

Dee Doocey writes: Riots – a case for reason and not posturing

By Dee Doocey | Mon 22nd August 2011 - 11:53 am

The TV comedy The Thick of It brilliantly satirised the tendency of New Labour to govern by ‘initiative’. Politics was reduced to public relations. Policies were created on the hoof with an eye to the next morning’s headlines.

If you thought those days ended at the last general election, think again. The recent riots should have given everyone pause for thought. Instead, many politicians and commentators were shooting from the hip or trotting out predictable responses.

Playing to the gallery pays only short-term dividends. Yes, “something must be done”. But politicians of all parties have a duty to think before they open their mouths, and not try to cash in on gut reactions or tabloid hysteria – despite the media’s hunger for sensational news and tendency to incite sensational comment.

Despite the pressure to meet emotionally-driven imperatives, only an intelligent, long-term, considered response will prevent a recurrence of these riots. What needs to be done?

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Tagged adidas, camila batmanghelidjh, david cameron, gang culture, olympics, policing, richard nixon and riots | 14 Comments

Chris Rennard writes… Can we tell what will happen in four years?

By Chris Rennard | Sun 21st August 2011 - 2:55 pm

Four years ago, David Cameron was on the run.

The Conservatives had ‘thrown the kitchen sink’ into winning the Ealing Southall by-election in the summer of 2007 and they had raised expectations of a Tory victory based on the appointment of a well known local Asian businessman as ‘David Cameron’s Conservative candidate’ in a seat with a lot of Conservative Councillors.

But on polling day, the Conservatives not only failed to win the by-election (or even overtake the Lib Dems), but they fell from second place to third in the parliamentary by-election in Sedgfield following Tony …

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Tagged chris rennard, david cameron, featured and gordon brown | 22 Comments

Opinion: Privacy and investigative journalism – a balancing act

By Prateek Buch | Sun 21st August 2011 - 11:57 am

The recent phone hacking scandal has thrown into sharp relief a corrupt nexus: between media organisations (I use the plural advisedly) that consider themselves above the law; a craven police culture that makes it effectively so; and a body politic so in thrall to that same media power it’s unable to distance itself from those responsible for illegal activity, much less hold the press to account. As enquiry after enquiry ensues, we seek the reform of the press, of the police and of politics, the need for which has rarely been clearer; we must also seek to strike a balance …

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Tagged journalism, libel, nick clegg and Phone hacking | 1 Comment

At his best and his worst: 5 thoughts on Tony Blair’s analysis of the UK riots

By Stephen Tall | Sun 21st August 2011 - 10:23 am

It’s only been four years since Tony Blair resigned as Prime Minister (somehow it seems longer) — and he’s back today with an opinion piece for The Observer on the underlying causes of the riots, ‘Blaming a moral decline for the riots makes good headlines but bad policy’. Here are 5 thoughts on his article:

1) Mr Blair remains the ultimate triangularist

Witness the oxymoronic opening line: ‘Both David Cameron and Ed Miliband made excellent speeches last week and there was much to agree with in what they said.’ First, no they didn’t; neither speech rose to the occasion. Nick Clegg’s under-reported speech was a much weightier contribution than either the Tory or Labour leaders mustered. Secondly, to agree simultaneously with directly opposing arguments suggest that Mr Blair retains his crown as the past-master of intellectual flexibility.

2) Mr Blair remains at heart an authoritarian

As evidenced by his line, ‘my experience with the police is they need 100% backing’. Like all other professionals the police deserve respect and understanding for the immensely difficult job that they do.

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Tagged featured, nick clegg, peter oborne and tony blair | 15 Comments

Brian Paddick writes: What we need to do in the wake of the riots

By Brian Paddick | Thu 18th August 2011 - 12:53 pm

There are serious social issues that need to be addressed in the wake of the riots. The problem for politicians faced with situations like those we have seen over the past 10 days is the need to be seen to be doing something positive about it. Talk about long-term problems requiring long terms solutions just doesn’t cut it with the voters, even if that is the answer. Yet it is the responsibility of the Mayor to show political leadership, to inform, persuade and facilitate these long terms solutions, even if he has not direct power to do so.

Young people are …

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Tagged camila batmanghelidjh and riots | 10 Comments

Opinion: Filling the political vacuum

By Peter Lesniak | Thu 18th August 2011 - 11:54 am

Young people’s attitude towards political and public affairs has recently been less than promising, to say the least. The majority of six-form students do not know how the political system in this country works, and seem to have no willingness to engage and vote for their future. Luckily, not all hope has been lost. A new initiative has been launched which aims to narrow the gap between young people and their involvement in politics.

Bite the Ballot is a grassroots campaign created by and for young people with the aim to inspire and encourage others to engage and be part …

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Tagged roger roberts and tanni grey-thompson | 3 Comments

Opinion: Riots, prisons and us

By Sam Phripp | Wed 17th August 2011 - 2:32 pm

The speeches this week by David Cameron and Ed Milliband made for a very interesting bit of bed-time reading. For me, both the Prime Minister and the Labour leader were pretty wide of the mark. Ed, as he often does came across as being reactionary. Too scared to be seen to defend looters and join the dots toward massive social injustice but too hidebound by his party to talk about throwing away the key, he was left very much floundering somewhere in the ether; neither talking about the roots of the problem (possibly because they lie a little close to …

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Tagged #ukriots, restorative justice and riots | 40 Comments

Opinion: the battle for the Electoral Reform Society

By Simon McGrath | Wed 17th August 2011 - 10:05 am

One of the consequences of the failure of the AV campaign may be radical change at the venerable Electoral Reform Society. The ERS is conducting the biennial election for its Council at the moment with no less than 53 candidates standing for election to fill 15 places. There is also a range of motions at the AGM on 3 September, some of which would make fundamental changes to the ERS.

The main prize for anyone who controls the ERS is financial – they have by pressure group standards a huge income through their ownership of Electoral …

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Tagged andrew burns, chris carrigan, electoral reform services ltd, electoral reform society, enid lakeman, ers, ERS Reform, katie ghose, keith sharp and michael meadowcroft | 41 Comments

Opinion: UK riots – the mystery of the David Willetts’ rule of post-war baby boom peaks

By Stuart Bonar | Tue 16th August 2011 - 11:55 am

We’ve seen and heard from dozens of pundits wheeled out over the last week to explain the riots we saw on the streets of some of England’s cities last week. But here’s an unasked question: did a Coalition minister unwittingly predict these riots with amazing precision, and in doing so offer up an explanation that has not as yet been suggested by any of the experts on our TV screens?

I am currently reading The Pinch, a book by universities minister and Conservative MP for Havant, David Willetts. It was published in hardback last year, and in paperback this …

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Tagged #ukriots and david willetts | 25 Comments

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