Category Archives: Op-eds

Greg Judge

Opinion: What the US debt ceiling crisis can teach Britain on coalition and compromise

By Greg Judge | Thu 4th August 2011 - 1:51 pm

The crisis in the US Congress has finally come to an end and President Obama was able to raise the country’s debt ceiling without invoking the 14th Amendment. It has been a weekend of worry and apprehension as to how far extremist factions such as the Republican Tea Party were willing to go and whether they were prepared to bring the country to the lowly depths of economic default.

Neither major party had seemed prepared to give up what means most to them; the preservation of continued support for Medicare and Social Security (Democrats) or the need for heavy fiscal cuts …

Continue reading »
Tagged , and | 14 Comments
David Hennigan

Opinion: Why Sir Cyril was wrong

By David Hennigan | Thu 4th August 2011 - 11:49 am

Now, it’s easy to pretend that your political hero is perfect. It’s easy to write hagiographical accounts of a life without mistakes.

I felt that about the late Sir Cyril Smith MBE, formerly MP for Rochdale. I shall forever feel proud about how Cyril took me under his wing. I will be forever proud now that Sir Cyril called me his friend and gave me so many tips, so many words of advice about how to do my job. (I was Lib Dem Agent in Rochdale from 2004 – 2009) I wrote about ‘our Cyril’ for his 80th …

Continue reading »
Tagged , , , and | 3 Comments
Duncan Stott

Opinion: Digital Economy Act – The fight isn’t over

By Duncan Stott | Thu 4th August 2011 - 9:23 am

It’s difficult to quantify the mess the Labour government left us in. Sure, the £158,000,000,000 annual deficit they left behind was one big quantity. But there were also the thousands of children being held in detention, our civil liberties in tatters, university finances out of control, record low levels of house building… the list seems endless.

But seemingly this wasn’t enough for Labour. In their dying breath they created yet another mess for the next government to sort. The Digital Economy Bill was forced through Parliament in its last week before recessing for the General Election campaign.

Grassroots Lib Dems made their …

Continue reading »
Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Nick Harvey

Nick Harvey MP writes: A hard look at defence spending

By Nick Harvey | Wed 3rd August 2011 - 6:53 pm

Today the Commons defence committee published a report criticising the MOD for decisions taken in last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR).  The report claims that recent defence budget reductions will leave our Armed Forces unable to execute the operations the Government sets for them post-2015.  
 
I disagree.
 
It is true that the MOD is reducing numbers of service personnel across the Army, Navy and Air Force and indeed the MOD has altered the equipment programme, which led to the deletion of Nimrod and Harrier.  But these tough decisions were necessary in order to address the black hole in the …

Continue reading »
Tagged , , , and | 17 Comments

The Independent View: What is Big Society Capital – big, new or just Big Society nonsense?

By Tim Groves | Wed 3rd August 2011 - 4:23 pm

In its first transaction, the £600m fund has invested £1m in Private Equity Foundation, an organisation helping disadvantaged teenagers find jobs when they leave school; £400m of the fund will be unclaimed assets left dormant in bank accounts for more than 15 years, with the rest coming from HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland.

– The Independent, 29/07/2011.

The Indie report then goes on to tell about the first “social impact bond” project, which is an “investment” in measures to reduce re-offending in Peterborough.

So The much vaunted “Big Society Bank” – sorry – …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | Leave a comment
Chris White

Chris White writes: We are not ‘customers’ on the railways

By Chris White | Tue 2nd August 2011 - 10:18 am

On 26 May this year a First Capital Connect train on the Thameslink route caught a branch in its pantograph. When the pantograph was raised at Farringdon it shorted the power supply. The train managed to get to St Pancras but the passengers were not told to alight.

As it proceeded towards Kentish Town it shorted again and the passengers were stuck in a tunnel. No information was provided and no serious rescue was mounted for a period of hours. The air-conditioning also failed.

This is not unique. Indeed, on more than one occasion on the network, passengers have decided to abandon …

Continue reading »
Tagged | 22 Comments
Greg Judge

Opinion: London 2012 Paralympics – A real legacy for people with disabilities?

By Greg Judge | Mon 1st August 2011 - 7:42 pm

I was watching Newsnight last week and saw a discussion on the diversity and legacy potential of London 2012 with respect to the UK’s disabled population. Some of the remarks made by Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson I was in complete agreement with, whilst others left me perplexed and feeling somewhat cut off from whatever the organisers are trying to achieve.

She is right to say that legislation alone will do nothing to change the mindsets of the majority in our society who see disability as something to be scared of. The reason for this, as with many people’s fears, is because …

Continue reading »
Tagged , and | 12 Comments
Simon McGrath

Opinion: London Mayoral hustings, Round 2

By Simon McGrath | Sun 31st July 2011 - 4:27 pm

Having been to the London Mayoral hustings last week in Wimbledon (and written about it for LDV) I thought it would be interesting to go to the official hustings last night in central London to see how (or if) the candidates had changed. I don’t know if it was the different audience or the extra week and taking on board the various comment people made but all four candidates made better speeches and all seemed more confident of why they wanted to represent us.

By far the most improved was Lembit Opik. I could see why he has had …

Continue reading »
Also posted in London | Tagged , , , and | 11 Comments
Richard Clare

Opinion: Mayoral Hustings – Twists and turns and four good horses

By Richard Clare | Sat 30th July 2011 - 3:54 pm

I’ve never been to such an event before so I didn’t know what to expect. Regardless, I made it to the Hustings in Kings Cross, the first ‘proper’ Hustings as I think the Chair described it.

Mike Tuffrey gave the first speech. It was fairly standard: he outlined his experience on the GLA and said that if he won the nomination, it would be his 14th election. “My 13th election wasn’t unlucky for me, in fact it was my best to date.” he said, naming a few impressive percentages the Lib Dems had got in the last London Assembly elections …

Continue reading »
Also posted in London | Tagged , , , and | 12 Comments
John Roffey

Opinion: Do we really want to risk another media mogul running the country?

By John Roffey | Sat 30th July 2011 - 1:21 pm

If there is one thing that the Murdoch affair has confirmed it is that politician’s lust for power knows no bounds. The acquisition of power has been likened to a heroin rush and judging by the extent that Blair, Brown and Cameron, particularly, have been prepared to jump to Murdoch’s commands – we must believe this to be true.

Although it is likely that an attempt to clean up politics will take place over the next few years, now that it has been made so clear that a media giant can have such an impact on the government of a nation …

Continue reading »
Tagged , , and | 27 Comments
Paul Walter

Telegraph: “The nation’s babies have begun to abandon the Prime Minister”

By Paul Walter | Sat 30th July 2011 - 11:52 am

You have to hand it to Telegraph journalists. It’s approaching August. Stories are thin on the ground. But trees must be killed. So stories must be concocted. And what a concoction this one was!:

New parents shun ‘Cameron’ and ‘Nick’ for baby names
David Cameron may feel he needs his Tuscan holiday at the end of a bruising first year in power.

There followed suitable snaps of Cameron and Clegg looking knackered, and this text:

After facing battles over spending cuts, a gloomy economy, and the phone hacking scandal, now it seems that even the nation’s babies have begun to abandon the Prime

…

Continue reading »
Tagged , and | 5 Comments
Lee Chalmers

Opinion: Why we should praise Louise Mensch

By Lee Chalmers | Fri 29th July 2011 - 6:49 pm

So the press have dug around into Louise Mensch MP’s past and discovered, shock horror, that she ‘probably’ took some drugs at a nightclub when she was in her twenties. Why this is news is frankly beyond me but why this has come out now, is not. The press are doing their thing, taking on someone that has taken them on. The ‘probably’ is a bit of a give away. There are lots of ‘probablys’ floating around the News of the World scandal. True or not, a ‘probably’ can hurt.

In the case of Louise Mensch I doubt it will …

Continue reading »
Tagged , and | 37 Comments
Charlotte Henry

Opinion: Nick Clegg and the next parliamentary term

By Charlotte Henry | Fri 29th July 2011 - 11:54 am

It’s summer holiday time at the moment for MPs, a time to reflect on what has been achieved this parliamentary term, and what can be achieved in the next parliamentary term. For Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats, the answer to these questions could have a profound effect on the future of our party.

Clegg showed strong, considered leadership over phonehacking, and must use this position of strength (and David Cameron’s relative weakness,) to influence even more policy than is currently happening. Key to this of course will be the economy. Slow, steady, growth figures will not be enough for us …

Continue reading »
Tagged , , , and | 34 Comments
Mark Pack

Tony Benn: A Biography

By Mark Pack | Fri 29th July 2011 - 10:25 am

Weighing in at 550 pages, including a long and detailed index, Jad Adams’s biography of Tony Benn is just the sort of traditional and detailed work of biography that befits a politician who was an MP for half a century and who became a government minister, won promotion to the Cabinet and served his last day as a minister all before most of the current generation of ministers were even in Parliament.

Tony Benn’s career was not only lengthy, it was high profile and – at least before the twilight years as ‘the nation’s favourite retired politician’ – deeply controversial. …

Continue reading »
Also posted in Books | Tagged , and | 11 Comments
Chris White

Chris White writes: Police Commissioners – the descent into low farce

By Chris White | Thu 28th July 2011 - 1:23 pm

News today that the Tories may not even field candidates for their cherished police commissioner posts, but instead are ‘considering instead whether to put … support behind other contenders, such as prominent and distinguished local individuals’ shows that this awesomely bad policy is starting to founder.

Meanwhile Labour are having similar doubts and, as discussed elsewhere on Lib Dem Voice, our own Party is hardly racing towards a sensible selection process.

The problem, of course, is not just that the legislation is not finalised but that the elections will be hideously expensive, covering in some cases several county areas: …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | 16 Comments
George Potter

Opinion: Political reasons for people to back the ESA motion‏

By George Potter | Thu 28th July 2011 - 11:57 am

If any of you are wondering how we can improve our situation in the polls then I’ve got a suggestion for you: back the Liberal Youth sponsored ESA Motion.

Now there are all sorts of compassionate, liberal and financial reasons to back this motion. The current system is unfair, inhumane, inaccurate and expensive. But, putting all that to one side for a moment, there are sound political reasons to back it.

At the moment the treatment of people with long term illnesses and disabilities is appalling. The media are starting to wake up to the issue, the government is facing a …

Continue reading »
Tagged , , and | 27 Comments
David Boyle

Opinion: What we should do if the USA defaults

By David Boyle | Wed 27th July 2011 - 2:24 pm

You can’t use the phrase ‘perfect storm’ these days.  It is a cliché. But how do you express, with sufficient clarity, the phenomenon of a financial tsunami and a financial hurricane happening at the same time?
 
Because we need to start asking how we might cope if the very worst happens – as well it might – and both the US government and key European nations default on their burgeoning debts at the same time?
 
The euro has been rescued by the latest bail-out, but an American default would unravel that and cause a second banking crisis, far more …

Continue reading »
32 Comments
Sophie Bridger

Opinion: Must do better – Why benefit reforms are in need of reform

By Sophie Bridger | Wed 27th July 2011 - 10:18 am

Over the last week, more and more articles have emerged regarding disability benefit (Employment Support Allowance) and Work Capability Assessments. I say articles – they read like horror stories. People with degenerative conditions being told to get themselves to the Jobcentre. People being asked to come to assessments in rooms that aren’t accessible to the disabled. It makes the blood run cold.

We have failed to show the public that this is not a cost-cutting exercise. They feel that this is purely a convenient way to squeeze a little more out of those already worst affected. Claimants are terrified that …

Continue reading »
Tagged , and | 73 Comments
Iain Roberts

How do we build the Lib Dems’ core vote?

By Iain Roberts | Tue 26th July 2011 - 1:34 pm

Can the problems the Liberal Democrats are currently experiencing be put down not to the Coalition but, in the long view, to a failure of the party to promote a strong, distinctive liberal philosophy and agenda to the public?

That’s the argument put forward by Simon Titley in the latest Liberator magazine and I have to confess that he says a great deal that I agree with.

He’s right say that the party has a smaller core vote than the other two big parties (ours is around 10%, Labour and the Conservatives around 25%, Simon suggests – and I’m sure those …

Continue reading »
Tagged , , and | 74 Comments
Richard Flowers

Opinion: Nick Clegg in the Guardian Media 100

By Richard Flowers | Mon 25th July 2011 - 6:53 pm

Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has been named number 20 in the Guardian “Media 100” list of the most powerful figures in the media, making him the second highest ranking politician (coming in below only the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who was at 13).

In a list that is clearly overshadowed by the News of the World phone hacking (note Lord Justice Leveson‘s abrupt promotion to the top ten, and Tom Watson‘s appearance on the list at 45, apparently the highest placed Labour politician, for his dogged work pursuing the scandal) this …

Continue reading »
8 Comments
The Liberator Collective

New edition of Liberator

By The Liberator Collective | Mon 25th July 2011 - 4:57 pm

Liberator subscribers have just received the latest edition of Liberator magazine (issue no.347 – August 2011). For those of you who are not yet subscribers, here’s a summary of the contents:

  • The editorial column Commentary looks at the implications of phone-hacking scandal. There is also a call to withdraw the whip from Liberal Democrat peers who oppose reform of the House of Lords.
  • The insider gossip column Radical Bulletin begins with revelations of what went on at a recent ‘awayday’ for Liberal Democrat MPs.
  • ‘Lansley undone’ – John Pugh (Liberal Democrat MP for Southport) says the party has finally found

…

Continue reading »
Tagged and | Leave a comment
Mike Tuffrey

Mike Tuffrey writes… The Big Switch: turning London’s buses and taxis electric

By Mike Tuffrey | Mon 25th July 2011 - 12:53 pm

Rudolf Diesel has a lot to answer for. The compression engine he invented has become the great workhorse of heavy duty vehicles like the buses, taxis and vans which fill our streets. But the nasty side effect of diesel fuel is fine particulate exhaust emissions that are creating a major health crisis. Tiny particles get deep into the lungs, causing thousands of premature deaths and a big increase in ill health.

The biggest culprit in central London, where the health problems are most acute? Yes, buses, taxis …

Continue reading »
Also posted in London | Tagged , and | 12 Comments
David Thorpe

Opinion: Why cutting later would increase the chances of a double-dip recession

By David Thorpe | Sat 23rd July 2011 - 2:52 pm

About the only thing to emerge during Ed Miliband’s time as Labour Leader so far, which could be called a policy, is the belief that the cuts the coalition are implementing are being delivered “too fast and too deep.”

Essentially Labour are saying they would cut by less and later. The purpose of this article is to discuss the “too fast” part of this argument.

The first six months of the coalition’s time in office saw higher than expected growth and higher than expected inflation. Neither of these were really caused by anything the coalition did in those six months, rather …

Continue reading »
Tagged , and | 41 Comments
Paul Walter

Opinion: Why David Cameron will not be Prime Minister in a year’s time

By Paul Walter | Sat 23rd July 2011 - 12:33 pm

Bizarrely, I was watching dancing coal miners dressed in tutus when I heard the news of Sir Paul Stephenson’s resignation last Sunday evening. A little trigger went off in my mind. Suddenly, the unthinkable had become thinkable. “Cameron will be next” I thought.

OK. We’re now in the “long grass” of the parliamentary recess. Cameron put in a “Tory Trebles all round”, barn-storming performance at the dispatch box on Wednesday. He must have been thankful it was jet-lag proof Johannesburg he had come from (where he met a different type of Tutu) and not New York, with its jet-lag on the …

Continue reading »
Tagged , , , , , , and | 21 Comments

Opinion: Academies overspend revealed!

By Peter Downes | Fri 22nd July 2011 - 3:51 pm

Figures in a Government consultation paper on the funding of academies have revealed that Michael Gove’s policy of getting schools to convert to academies is expected to cost nearly £600 million more than planned over the two year period 2011 – 2013.
 
This confirms what Lib Dem activists have been saying for some time i.e. that the programme for converting schools to academies is costly and unsustainable, as well as being divisive and unfair.
 
When a school decides to leave its Local Authority (LA)  and become ‘independent’ (i.e. dependent on central government!), in addition to its standard funding it gets an …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | 18 Comments
Chris White

Chris White writes: Is it possible to change Coalition policy?

By Chris White | Fri 22nd July 2011 - 2:53 pm

Is it possible to change Coalition policy? Council leaders certainly hope so if the letter to today’s Times is to be believed. Over a hundred have supported – and no doubt many more councillors, deputies, backbenchers and the like might have done so had there been more time to hone the message and gather support.

The issue should be core to the localist agenda – although we need to be rather clearer about what we really want.

Not so long ago the police were governed (at least in non-operational terms) by the police committees of county councils. There was not much …

Continue reading »
Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Who is Ed Miliband?

By Mark Pack | Thu 21st July 2011 - 12:26 pm

Authors of the best accounts of the New Labour years delved deeply into the rival Brownite and Blairite versions of events before coming to their own conclusions. Those who did not frequently ended up with embarrassingly lopsided and inaccurate accounts.

Mehdi Hasan and James Macintyre, the authors of Ed: The Milibands and the making of a Labour leader, have avoided making the next generation’s version of the same mistake by talking to both sides of the Miliband family, even returning more than once to the conundrum of when Ed told David he was going to run against him for leader. …

Continue reading »
Also posted in Books | Tagged , , , and | 16 Comments
Paul Walter

Opinion: Hackgate – Who do you trust?

By Paul Walter | Thu 21st July 2011 - 10:53 am

5 Live Drive had a poll yesterday on “Who do you trust?”, particularly with Hackgate in mind.

Emerging, blinking, from two weeks of saturation “Breaking News”, answering that question is a good way to take stock of where we are.

Who do I trust?

Vince Cable is the first person who springs to mind. He (inadvertently publicly) “declared war on Mr Murdoch”. He was then forced to be “hors de combat”. He said “I think we are going to win” and we did. Murdoch is in retreat. Well done, Vince.

Tom Watson is the second person I trust as a result of this …

Continue reading »
Tagged , , , , , and | 7 Comments
Jo Swinson MP

Jo Swinson MP writes: Making inroads into our looks-obsessed culture

By Jo Swinson MP | Thu 21st July 2011 - 9:16 am

Last year, Lynne Featherstone MP and I launched the Campaign for Body Confidence. Since then, we have been raising the profile of the urgent need to address increasing body dissatisfaction in the UK. Everyone should be able, whatever their size, shape, age or skin colour, to feel good about their body.

The bombardment of super-skinny flawless models advertising everything from face cream to cars is puts an overwhelming pressure on women, men and children to conform to impossible and unrealistic beauty ‘ideals’. This is damaging our sense of wellbeing and leading to increasing unhappiness, anxiety, low self-esteem, depression and eating …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | 13 Comments
Chris Huhne MP

Chris Huhne MP writes: Electricity market reform: keeping the lights on in the cheapest, cleanest way

By Chris Huhne MP | Wed 20th July 2011 - 10:42 am

Last week I unveiled the coalition government’s proposals for the most radical reform of the electricity market since privatisation in the 1980s. The plans set out in the White Paper aim to keep the UK’s lights on and consumer bills down and shift the economy away from a high-risk, high-carbon future.

With a quarter of the UK’s generating capacity shutting down over the next ten years, as old coal and nuclear power stations close, it’s clear that we have a Herculean task ahead of us. Over the next ten years, more than £110bn in investment is needed to build the …

Continue reading »
Tagged | 13 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • David Wright
    While Trump's "gift of the license to manufacture Patriot air defence missiles" is welcome, it won't stop a single Russian missile aimed at Ukraine this year or...
  • Matt Wardman
    Thanks for the piece, Tom. I tend to disagree on the NATO summit. Listening to serious reports (my goto since February 2022 has been the Telegraph's Ukraine ...
  • theakes
    Considerable concern in Democratic circles that Trump will call the coming election rigged, cancel the States results won by the opposition and then impose mart...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Roland, I'm not sure I understand your comment. Every company which is registered for VAT can reclaim VAT on purchased items. The question is whether VAT s...
  • David Raw
    @ Tom Arms, Well said, Tom....