Our place to talk – an independent website for supporters of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK.

The most-read independent website by and for Lib Dem supporters. Not paid for by trade unions or millionaires.

Advert

Category Archives: Op-eds

A challenge to Community Politics

By Iain Roberts | Mon 13th June 2011 - 2:21 pm

Community Politics is an ideology beloved of many Liberal Democrats, even if not all are quite sure what it is. As Mark Pack points out, “Community Politics” is distinctively Lib Dem, and Mark contrasts it to Labour “localism” and the Conservative “Big Society”.

But is it right?

No ideology is completely correct – all have faults where they fail to capture certain facets and nuances of our complex human behaviour. Few are complete nonsense either – most ideologies have elements that capture something important, and it’s a foolish person indeed who dismisses any ideology completely.

Some are better than others, …

Continue reading »

Tagged bernard greaves, community politics and gordon lishman | 4 Comments

Our lost phrase: community politics

By Mark Pack | Sat 11th June 2011 - 12:28 pm

On a hunch, earlier this year I did a little research ahead of writing a blog post for Liberal Democrat Voice: how often is the phrase “community politics” used by the party’s national spokespeople since the May 2010 election?

The answer was far worse than I’d feared. Looking through all of Nick Clegg’s major speeches, all the news release from him and also all those from others issued via the Liberal Democrat press team, I could only find one use of “community politics” – by Paul Burstow. Andrew Stunell deserves an honourable mention for using it in an LGA pamphlet …

Continue reading »

Tagged andrew stunell, bernard greaves, big society, community politics, featured, gordon lishman, nick clegg, paul burstow and tim farron | 8 Comments

Opinion: A guide to fighting list seats

By Peter Black | Sat 11th June 2011 - 8:54 am

In writing this article I do not claim any great wisdom in how to fight list elections. In fact the fact I survived the latest Welsh Assembly poll has more to do with the decline in the Plaid Cymru vote than anything I did, though the amount of effort and targeted work we put in must have had some significance in securing a 54 vote majority.

This is what I did. It may not be appropriate in other areas and it may be fairly obvious to any experienced campaigner. Inevitably there were things I could have done better or did not …

Continue reading »

Also posted in Wales | Tagged featured | 4 Comments

Opinion: Time for that Lib Dem tax cut in full?

By Nick T | Fri 10th June 2011 - 10:55 am

“Under a Liberal Democrat government, you will not have to pay any income tax on the first £10,000 you earn.”

So said the manifesto on which we fought last year’s election. And while we didn’t get a Liberal Democrat government, we did get the policy.

The coalition agreement commits the government to making real terms steps each year towards the target of £10,000, kicked off by an initial increase of £1000, benefiting the low paid by £200 this year.

But should we be moving faster?

Recent economic growth has, of course, been weaker than expected – no surprise given the circumstances. The events of …

Continue reading »

Tagged imf, income tax and nick thornsby | 45 Comments

Sarah Teather MP writes: Share your views on the Bailey Report

By Sarah Teather | Thu 9th June 2011 - 4:24 pm

You may well have seen the press coverage of Reg Bailey’s report on the commercialisation and sexualisation of children, published earlier this week. While some of the coverage was the sort you’d expect from the conservative-leaning press, most of it was more balanced and thoughtful.

As Minister for Children and Families, I’ve been closely involved in this work and I’m really pleased with what he’s come up with. It demonstrates Liberal Democrat values and approaches, and has already started to make a difference in practice – which is what matters.

As we all do when we are out campaigning, he …

Continue reading »

Tagged bailey report, children and reg bailey | 47 Comments

Opinion: Access to justice – why Liberal Democrats should not sit on the sidelines

By James Sandbach | Thu 9th June 2011 - 1:21 pm

Next week the Government will announce legislation to reform legal aid, following a Green Paper published last November to which the Ministry of Justice received an unprecedented 5,000 responses. Whilst “legal aid reform” was in the Coalition Agreement, the scale of proposed changes has taken many aback – in order to cut the legal aid budget by £350million, Justice Ministers propose taking whole categories of law related problems out legal aid entitlement – housing and debt problems, welfare benefit issues, employment law issues, immigration cases, consumer law problems, education cases and private family law issues (eg divorce and …

Continue reading »

Tagged alan beith, citizens advice bureau, julian huppert, legal aid, stephen lloyd and tom brake | 3 Comments

Opinion: The environment starts at home

By Dave Raval | Thu 9th June 2011 - 10:53 am

When I was selected as PPC for Hackney South and Shoreditch ahead of the last General Election, I promised to move into the constituency. Since I believe passionately in the environment, I chose to buy a Victorian solid-brick house in Hackney and with the aim of making it into an ecohouse. Solid brick properties are the so-called “Hard to treat houses”, and exactly the focus of the Coalition Government’s Green Deal.

Prior to the renovation, my house was an environmental disaster zone. In the winter it was cold no matter how high the heating was set, as all the heat …

Continue reading »

Tagged chris huhne, green deal and hackney | 4 Comments

Please send the deregulation hit squad: all I want is some double-glazing

By Mark Pack | Thu 9th June 2011 - 6:44 am

Getting double-glazing fitted at home seemed such a good idea to begin with.

It then got better when I had the fun of watching of Ricky Gervais type character doing acrobatics on the hinge of a sample double-glazing unit to demonstrate its strength. I may now know that the hinge can take the full weight of a fully grown man, though I must admit I’m still not quite sure why I’d want to know thiat.

But then came sorting out the administration.

Five different pieces of legal authorisation are required. Plus two maps. With all the charges put together adding an extra 25% …

Continue reading »

Tagged featured | 19 Comments

Opinion: How can we build a liberal movement?

By Rob Blackie | Wed 8th June 2011 - 5:27 pm

Like a lot of Liberal Democrat friends, I was inspired by Barack Obama’s determination to build a long term movement for change across America. And for a couple of years I’ve been trying to copy his volunteer led approach to political organising, with some success.*

One element that is crucial to motivating volunteers is to have superb candidates, who are themselves heroes to their communities. This, of course, is a large element of good traditional community campaigning.

So I was delighted to see that in Peckham we are using our candidate’s amazing life story as the main motivator of volunteers on …

Continue reading »

Tagged community politics, jennifer blake and peckham | 10 Comments

Forgotten Liberal heroes: Richard Lillicrap

By Dan Falchikov | Wed 8th June 2011 - 4:23 pm

Richard Lillicrap was probably too little known in Lib Dem circles in the first place to be forgotten, but for hundreds (if not thousands) of committed football fans who are closely involved in running supporters’ trusts or indeed football clubs themselves – like AFC Wimbledon – he was an inspiration.

Richard was a key player in the supporters’ movement, helping dozens of football (and other sports) supporters to organise themselves and take action in their communities to protect their teams from avaricious and uninterested owners.

Richard was also a committed Liberal and saw fan and community ownership of football as the obvious expression of liberalism and community politics in the sporting sphere. He was also a Liberal Democrat councillor for Canbury Ward in Kingston from 1994-98 and a key part of the first ever majority Lib Dem administration that devolved its decisions to seven neighbourhood committees – even thought it meant giving up control in four of these to opposition parties.

Continue reading »

Tagged football, forgotten liberal heroes, history and richard lillicrap | 1 Comment

How do you pick an expert? The flawed argument against Lords reform

By Mark Pack | Wed 8th June 2011 - 8:43 am

You need an expert. What do you do? There are plenty of different ways of going about finding one, I’m sure.

But I bet you don’t dig out the books from 20 years ago, look who was an expert back then, place the names in the hat and then pick out a name or two at random.

That, however, is how the House of Lords works – and that’s why I am unconvinced by those who argue that democracy has no place in one half of Parliament because ‘we need experts’.

Certainly there are some experts in the Lords. Just as there are …

Continue reading »

Tagged constitutional reform, featured, house of lords, lords reform and rory stewart | 9 Comments

Chris White writes: What do you want for your birthday?

By Chris White | Tue 7th June 2011 - 2:12 pm

I am fifty tomorrow. Relatives sometimes ask me what I would like for my birthday and I reply with things like ‘ties, jacket, Ipad, North American art…’. The usual.

This year, though, a real treat: a meeting with Eric Pickles. I have already given the standard response to the organisers: ‘You shouldn’t have….It’s what I’ve always wanted…’

They have even arranged for a large posse of other Lib Dem group leaders to join me to make the hour go swimmingly.
Apparently there is no agenda as such. Just an opportunity to put across some messages.

But what, in a single hour?

Clearly we …

Continue reading »

Tagged audit commission, eric pickles and localism bill | 7 Comments

Trial and error is the most successful problem solving technique

By Mark Pack | Tue 7th June 2011 - 6:54 am

So said Tim Harford (known to many as the presenter of Radio 4’s More or Less as well as a distinguished economics writer) last night at the Royal Society of Arts. Harford was kicking-off a week long series of talks to promote his new book, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure and was making the point that the modern world is too complex for us to hope to solve many problems by simply getting the best brains to think up the one answer. A far better route to take is to experiment with many different solutions and see …

Continue reading »

Tagged postcode lottery, public services and tim harford | 8 Comments

Opinion: Talking about my generation

By Anonymous Lib Dem | Mon 6th June 2011 - 2:48 pm

Today something a little bit interesting will happen to me. I will become a member of a new generation of Liberal Democrats. Because from today, I will have spent longer as a member of the Liberal Democrats while they have been in Government than when they were simply the ignored party in opposition. When I first became involved in April 2009, a Liberal Democrat Government was unthinkable. Today it is reality. And it is a reality that some of us are now getting used to.

Many of the older members of the Liberal Democrats will have spent decades being ignored and …

Continue reading »

Tagged liberal youth | 29 Comments

Willie Rennie MSP writes: Time for radical action on alcohol misuse in Scotland

By Willie Rennie | Mon 6th June 2011 - 1:57 pm

Alcohol misuse continues to blight the whole of Scottish society, wrecking individual lives and harming families and communities. I have seen and heard the impact when I am talking to people on doorsteps. From damaging public health, through crime in local neighbourhoods, to dependence pulling families apart, we all suffer. I believe that radical action is needed and will therefore support moves to introduce a minimum unit pricing mechanism in Scotland.

There is no quick fix to Scotland’s alcohol problem. The scale and complexity of the challenge requires a fundamental change to our culture of drinking to excess. Over the last few years we have seen significant changes to licensing law and many positive new powers have been put in place. A Licensing Act came into force in 2009, banning happy hours and irresponsible promotions in pubs and clubs. More recently the 2010 Alcohol Act bans multi-buy promotions in shops and supermarkets, restricts promotional material on display in shops and requires all retailers to operate the ‘Challenge 25’ scheme to tackle underage sales.

Continue reading »

12 Comments

Opinion: Why you should be taking Lembit Opik seriously

By Richard Clare | Sun 5th June 2011 - 3:15 pm

It’s hard to raise the subject of Lembit Opik without somebody cracking a joke. He’s certainly not loved by our own party’s leadership and many see him as more of a celebrity than a politician. I can, however, name two other people who are hated by their party’s leadership and seem to be two parts celebrity, one part politician, and they’ve both held the position of Mayor of London.

Lembit has great recognition among people. My own unscientific polling leads me to believe that he isn’t far behind Ken and Boris in who knows who he is, which is quite a …

Continue reading »

Also posted in London | Tagged boris johnson, ken livingstone, lembit opik and london mayoral selection | 63 Comments

Merlene Emerson writes: Reflections on Media Freedom in China

By Merlene Emerson | Sat 4th June 2011 - 1:23 pm

I am writing this on the 22nd anniversary of ‘Six Four’ (the codename for the Tian An Men incident that occurred on 4th of June 1989). Perhaps no better day to reflect on the subject of media censorship in China and to question the role of international broadcasters?

Only yesterday I was with some 200 people at a talk organised by BBC Chinese Service at Chatham House. To my amazement even the English panel speakers such as Dr Kerry Brown (Head of the Asia Programme at Chatham House), Madeline Earp (Research Associate at the Committee to Protect Journalists) and Prof Hugo de Burgh (Director, China Media Centre) all managed to deliver their speeches in Mandarin. Sadly no interpretations were provided at this over-subscribed event.

I attempt here to disseminate some of the content (Chatham House rules have officially been suspended).

Continue reading »

Tagged chatham house, china, chinese liberal democrats and tiananmen square | 4 Comments

Headline tax rates: down and down

By Mark Pack | Sat 4th June 2011 - 9:54 am

Two graphs for your Saturday enlightenment:

20 Comments

Response: Chair of Federal Conference Committee on increased security measures

By Andrew Wiseman | Fri 3rd June 2011 - 12:53 pm

We have just announced arrangements for registering for our autumn conference, including some new security arrangements which will apply for the first time this year. Some concerns have been raised about them so I wanted to set out what exactly the new arrangements are, and why the Federal Conference Committee has decided that it is necessary this year to increase security – something that we have been very reluctant to do.

Continue reading »

Also posted in Conference and Party policy and internal matters | 153 Comments

Opinion: Pay, pensions and pupils

By George Potter | Fri 3rd June 2011 - 10:23 am

At the moment we have a communication problem. Every one of us knows that we’ve done brilliant things in government and have had a positive influence in almost every area. But tell people that and they don’t believe you.

The problem is that, whilst we’re getting stuff done in government, we’ve generally been pretty poor at letting the public know that. Our 2010 manifesto was put across to people rather effectively, and I’m fairly sure that we’ll be able to do the same in our 2015 manifesto – but that doesn’t help us in the meantime.

In the past, we’ve always …

Continue reading »

15 Comments

Opinion: The problem with Lib Dem conference security arrangements

By Dave Page | Fri 3rd June 2011 - 9:35 am

With the opening of registration for the Autumn Liberal Democrat conference this week, the first details have emerged of registrants needing to provide information to the police for “security checks”.

Looking at the Lib Dem blogosphere this morning, it’s clear that people are deeply unhappy with the requirements. I’m going to try to explain what the problem is, how it’s come about and what we might do about it.

What Information Is Required?

The pass application guidelines make it clear what is needed. First off, an up-to-date photo compliant with the new passport guidelines (which exist to make automated facial biometric recognition easier) for your conference pass.

Secondly, either your passport number, driving licence number or National Insurance number. If you don’t have any of the latter, it seems to be possible to come to some kind of arrangement with Greater Manchester Police (who are doing the checks on behalf of Birmingham’s West Midlands Police).

Continue reading »

Also posted in Conference | Tagged policing | 28 Comments

Chris Fox writes – Internships: a small step in the right direction

By Chris Fox | Thu 2nd June 2011 - 5:27 pm

The Liberal Democrats’ Chief Executive, Chris Fox, has written this post in reply to yesterday’s piece by Gus Baker from the Intern Aware campaign.

At a recent meeting of all party staff, the majority of people said they had begun their career as an intern. It was testament to dedication and commitment, but also proved that internships give people unrivalled access and experience of one of the country’s most highly competitive careers.

There is no denying that internships in both business and politics have for a long time hindered social mobility, promoting the culture of contacts over ability and often only benefiting those people wealthy enough to live without a wage. The use of interns, which on occasion, quite frankly borders on exploitation, has given rise to a culture that Westminster is only open to the rich and well-connected.

The Liberal Democrats do not have clean hands. As a party with very limited resources, but very dedicated supporters, we have too often taken advantage of ever-willing interns. We know this is not sustainable.

Continue reading »

Tagged internships | 12 Comments

Opinion: How can the community politics approach reform the Coalition?

By Bill le Breton | Thu 2nd June 2011 - 10:25 am

“All change, all change here!” That was the shout of the bus-conductor as we reached the terminus. If only we had realised what a profound philosopher he was. For he is no more, nor is his role, nor the structure of society he inhabited.

Change and how to cope with it is at the heart of every human decision. The conservative wishes to take a measured step based on hard facts taken from experience. The progressive predicts the shape of the future and confidently proposes a radical leap.

By contrast, the community politician, the ideas behind whose activism we have begun …

Continue reading »

Tagged bernard greaves, community politics and gordon lishman | 8 Comments

Opinion: Anti-reform peers shame our party

By Stuart Bonar | Wed 1st June 2011 - 1:51 pm

I confess. I am usually a bit of a loyalist. I believe the time I invest campaigning for the Liberal Democrats is best spent publicising our good ideas and our opponents’ bad ideas, rather than picking fights with fellow party members. On Lords reform however I feel forced to engage in an internecine war of words with some of our peers.

The Times newspaper recently commissioned a poll of members of the upper house to gauge their views on reform. It’s no surprise of course that our coalition colleagues, the Tories, are dead set against anything as vulgar as democracy creeping ...

Continue reading »

Tagged constitutional reform, house of lords, john lee and lords reform | 26 Comments

Opinion: So what is this Community Politics all about then?

By Bill le Breton | Wed 1st June 2011 - 10:25 am

Party President, Tim Farron recently published on this site a very well received piece reminding us that we have, close to hand, the greatest opportunity in the history of our party.

He also observed that, “our biggest collective failure recently – from the grassroots to the cabinet – has been that too many Lib Dems have drifted from the sort of community politics that we have prided ourselves on in the past, or else been too busy to practice”.

Community politics is a much misunderstood concept practiced by many as an electoral technique and belittled by others as ‘pavement politics’.

I hope the …

Continue reading »

Tagged bernard greaves, big society, community politics, gordon lishman and tim farron | 3 Comments

Opinion: Themes for a radical manifesto

By George Potter | Tue 31st May 2011 - 11:52 am

Yesterday, George Potter blogged about the need for the Liberal Democrats to have a radical manifesto for the 2015 General Election. Today he sets out his suggested themes:

I suggest that we limit our 2015 manifesto to two main themes. The first should be the proper implementation of community politics – and we need to emphasise what this means. Community politics is not just a strategy for winning elections; it is a philosophy for empowering communities and giving people control over their lives. It is about giving people freedom from dependence on the council, and the government and the rest. And it doesn’t just apply to geographical communities, it applies to other communities as well, such as workplaces. We need to develop the ideas of community politics and emphasise how they can be implemented. This policy, as it happens, isn’t too hard to develop. There is a wealth of thought and writing about community politics in the party’s collective memory so we need merely look around us for ways in which community politics can be translated into a manifesto.

The second theme, however, should be something far more radical.

Continue reading »

Tagged general election manifesto | 22 Comments

Opinion: The need for a radical manifesto

By George Potter | Mon 30th May 2011 - 11:52 am

In 2015, as we approach the general election, it will be exactly 70 years since the 1945 general election. When we draw up our 2015 manifesto, we need to remember the lessons of 1945.

That election saw the Labour party, after several years in a coalition government for reasons of the national interest, cast aside the memories of the wartime government to win a landslide majority based on a radical, optimistic manifesto that laid out a glowing vision of the future. Say what you like about the Labour party of old, at least they could not be accused of lack of …

Continue reading »

Tagged general election manifesto | 50 Comments

Opinion: Constitutional reform? Time to look at it another way

By Ed Maxfield | Sun 29th May 2011 - 3:17 pm

I have read a great deal of liberal-left angst about the AV referendum in the last few days.

Everyone concludes that the Yes campaign was poorly led. Beyond that you pays your money and you takes your pick as to what the key factor was in the massive defeat. You might share the view that insider networks undermined the campaign (although to me this mainly seems to be about saying the wrong sort of insider networks were in control, an argument that factions on the left have relied upon since Trotsky). You might even indulge the conspiracy fantasists and …

Continue reading »

Tagged av referendum, constitutional reform and house of lords | 41 Comments

Most Read

Op-eds

Somerset’s farmers are on the front line of climate change (Sarah Dyke)
Mathew on Monday: Local Government Reorganisation review welcome (Mathew Hulbert)
Reform is winning because liberal Britain is not listening to its own society (Michal Simon)
Tom Arms’ World Review (Tom Arms)
Why Holborn and St Pancras deserves our all (Rosemary Runswick)

Advert

Recent Comments

David Evans
Mick, While acknowledging that you successfully retrained as a primary school teacher and that on another occasion you taught, probably very successfully in...
Mick Taylor
I requalified as a primary school teacher from being a secondary teacher. There were, and may still be, one year courses for this purpose and I imagine that cou...
Jana
“ One practical solution would be to make it much easier for primary school teachers to requalify and go to work in our secondary schools” Really? Most p...
Michael BG
Peter Davies, In the report the IPPR suggest that the 2% could start being paid by pensioners from the personal allowance (£12,570) level. From this income ...
Michal Simon
@Sarah Dyke You have highlighted an important problem. Climate change is already hitting farmers in practical ways: wetter winters, flooded fields, longer drou...