Category Archives: Op-eds

Mark Pack

Frankly, dog whistle politics would be preferable to this

By Mark Pack | Fri 22nd April 2011 - 10:57 am

Yesterday, David Cameron took up the issue of people on incapacity benefits, claiming that “We are finding a large number of people who are on incapacity benefit because of drink problems, alcohol problems or problems with weight and diet” (see footage here).

There’s only one problem with the claim.

He said “a large number”. Yet the Department for Work and Pension’s own figures show that it’s less than one in twenty of people who are on incapacity benefit for those reasons (3.9%).

So if 3.9% is “a large number”, what does that make the 96.1%? A huge, enormous, gigantic, big, …

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore writes… An ambitious liberal agenda

By Michael Moore | Fri 22nd April 2011 - 10:27 am

A year ago I thought I travelled a lot on the campaign trail in the general election. With a constituency of about 1,500 square miles it was of course a necessity.

But this year I really know how long that trail can be.

Supporting colleagues across Scotland in the build up to the Parliamentary election on 5th May, I have covered over 1,500 miles in ten days. Many others have done the same, or indeed more, but I doubt many have seen the spectacular contrasts in scenery and political geography that I have enjoyed in that time.

Scottish Liberal Democrats are fighting hard …

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Julian Huppert

Julian Huppert writes… Digital Policy in a Coalition Government

By Julian Huppert | Thu 21st April 2011 - 2:54 pm

Here’s a $64,000 question: how can we possibly expect decent digital policy to be made when too many of our politicians are technologically illiterate, and when our main political institution itself refuses to change with the times? I do not mean, of course, that most MPs are incapable of using a computer or sending an email. In fact, a survey in 2009 found, perhaps surprisingly, that 92% of MPs use email, while 83% have a personal website of some kind. (Perhaps we should be wary of how much even that means, given what some of these sites look like!)

However, in …

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Jim Killock

The Independent View: How to legislate for the digital economy

By Jim Killock | Thu 21st April 2011 - 11:56 am

“What to do about copyright?” In many ways this is a tired, fraught, complex and frustrating debate. It involves lawyers, economists, policy makers, campaigners of varying stripes, international legislation and huge corporate interests. It has been raging for hundreds of years. Change can be painfully slow. That means every so often it is important to revisit your principles.

Organisations such as Open Rights Group believe in the astonishing potential of the internet to expand our creative, economic and democratic horizons. And we believe that this potential is partly dependent on a flexible system of copyright that facilitates the reuse of the …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

What can we learn from Michael Ashcroft?

By Mark Pack | Wed 20th April 2011 - 10:27 am

Controversial Conservative peer Michael Ashcroft has done campaigners in all parties a service with the frankness of his book on the 2010 general election, Minority Verdict.

Though a short book, it contains some details of how the Conservative Party went about targeting swing voters in swing seats for last year’s contest. Aside from the subject’s inherent interest, this particularly caught my eye because part of what he recounts is the Conservative equivalent of what I was doing when working for the Liberal Democrats for much of the last Parliament.

The Conservatives took Mosaic data and then ran a detailed and expensive polling …

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Mark Pack

Forgotten Liberal heroes: Herbert Fisher

By Mark Pack | Tue 19th April 2011 - 10:25 am

Listen to Liberal Democrats make speeches and there are frequent references to historical figures, but drawn from a small cast. Just the quartet of John Stuart Mill, William Gladstone, David Lloyd George, David Penhaligon corner almost all of the market, especially since Bob Maclennan stopped making speeches to party conference. Some of the forgotten figures deserve their obscurity but others do not. Charles James Fox’s defence of civil liberties against a dominating government during wartime or Earl Grey’s leading of the party back into power and major constitutional reform are good examples of mostly forgotten figures who could …

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The Voice

Opinion: Vickers report on banking does not go far enough

By The Voice | Mon 18th April 2011 - 2:25 pm

Naomi Smith and Prateek Buch of the Social Liberal Forum write about the Vickers Commission on Banking…

At Lib Dem Spring conference in Sheffield last month, delegates overwhelmingly supported the Social Liberal Forum (SLF) motion Tougher Action on Banks and Bonuses. The interim report published recently by the Vickers Commission on Banking went some way to addressing the problems within the industry , but as we predicted in our speeches to the SLF motion, falls far short of Liberal Democrat policy which calls for:

  • A break up of banks deemed ‘too big to fail’ into smaller, safer

…

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Jeremy Browne MP

Jeremy Browne writes: the Lib Dems are implementing our core agenda in Government

By Jeremy Browne MP | Mon 18th April 2011 - 10:30 am

A common misconception is that the Liberal Democrats are in the government solely to make the case for constitutional reform and civil liberties, while everything else comes from the Conservatives. This
analysis is deeply flawed, but it helps to explain why some political observers, who know little about the Lib Dems beyond the most lazy caricature, fail to understand what actually drives the government forward. Yes, constitutional reform and civil liberties are important to the Lib Dems, but so are many other areas of policy. The Lib Dems are certainly not trading off the whole of the rest of government policy …

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Also posted in Parliament | 22 Comments
Mark Pack

The use of class over the years: a graph

By Mark Pack | Sun 17th April 2011 - 4:54 pm

Whilst pondering the phrase I love to hate, social mobility (see here for the explanation, featuring benches and broken paving stones), I wondered how its usage how fared over the years in books. Courtesy of Google’s rather nifty book search tool, I’ve produced this graph of how frequently the phrase and several others have been used in the very large number of books in English that have been scanned by Google:

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Paul Walter

A final word from Paul Walter

By Paul Walter | Sat 16th April 2011 - 6:22 pm

Thanks very much to the LDV editorial team for letting me guest edit the website again today. This time I decided to randomly approach keen LibDem bloggers to ask them to write posts on any subject. I was very pleasantly surprised by the very enthusiastic response I received.

Thanks very much indeed to Charlotte, Lorna, Dazmando, Andrew, Spidey, Emma, Maureen and Daniel for taking time out from their campaigns to write such splendid posts.

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Andrew Reeves

Opinion: the biggest news story in Scotland

By Andrew Reeves | Sat 16th April 2011 - 5:14 pm

When Paul asked me to write this blog post I was so chuffed to be asked, but, given we are in the middle of the Scottish Parliamentary elections, I was also really worried about being able to find the time to write it.

However, I have found the time and here it is. It may not be what you are expecting.

There is a massive story doing the rounds in Scotland and it is not about the election but about the tragic death of Mercedes the polar …

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Charlotte Henry

Opinion: this time last year…

By Charlotte Henry | Sat 16th April 2011 - 4:11 pm

This time last year…

…the Liberal Democrats were storming up the polls.

Nick Clegg was more popular than Churchill, and Gordon and Dave were regretting ever agreeing to those pesky TV debates.

Our party leader could describe the Iraq war as ‘illegal’ without causing mass panic amongst Downing Street lawyers.

This time last year we were asking people to put us into government.

This year?

This year the Lib Dems jumped into bed with Conservatives.

This year the Lib Dems sold out on tuition fees.

This year the party become ‘just like the others’.

Really? It’s always worth …

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Lorna Dupré

Opinion: A visit to the library

By Lorna Dupré | Sat 16th April 2011 - 3:05 pm

Every Christmas Eve throughout my childhood, a mystery visitor came to the doorstep of our council flat and deposited a bag of children’s books before disappearing into the darkness. S/he never stopped to be recognised or thanked, and we never found out who s/he was, but I still remember the thrill of opening up another consignment of new reading every Christmas.

Even without our mystery benefactor, however, I and my three siblings would have been brought up with books. My father left school at 14 to be …

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Lisa Harding

Opinion: A day in the life of a first time candidate

By Lisa Harding | Sat 16th April 2011 - 2:07 pm

Friday – 4 weeks before Election Day. Mood: Dazed and confused, tired but determined

7am: Woke with a horrible sensation in my gut that I had forgotten to do something. This is happening way too often now.

7.30am: At the laptop in pyjamas, armed with max strength coffee. Writing Focus articles. Spent 3 hours on the doorstep yesterday, so have catching up to do. Whole Focus needs to be rewritten by the end of today. Big story broke in the press. Changing lead story to reflect residents’ anger on …

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Maureen Rigg

Opinion: So what’s it really like on the doorsteps?

By Maureen Rigg | Sat 16th April 2011 - 1:03 pm

A week after nominations closed for the Borough council elections, what’s the reception like on the doorsteps here in Stockton?

To be honest, it’s a bit mixed. In wards where we have Liberal Democrat councillors, the reception is generally good. There are always some people who “don’t do politics”, and that hasn’t changed. There are some who were always going to vote for one of the other parties, and that hasn’t changed. There are many who support us, either because they’re committed Lib Dems (not …

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Emma Bagley

Opinion: Big society or big community?

By Emma Bagley | Sat 16th April 2011 - 12:07 pm

We seem to be stuck in a warp of niceties at the moment. In the bad old days the Tory party was the nasty party. Thatcher flexed her muscles and in a previous downturn we all had to get on our bikes. Yet today we seem to get a different flavour of conservatism. It’s all big society, low interest rates and a penny off fuel duty. What is going on?

I’ll let you into a secret. The Lib Dems may have a little something to do with this. We seem …

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Daniel Furr

Opinion: We must become the party of liberty

By Daniel Furr | Sat 16th April 2011 - 9:15 am

When William III arrived on these shores in November 1688, the new King proclaimed to maintain the liberties of England and vigorously defend the liberty of his subjects. In the subsequent months, Parliament adopted the Declaration of Rights – The English Bill of Rights 1689. The corner stone of our constitution, which is still in force to this day but sadly has become a forgotten relic of antiquity.

It seems that we in Britain have forgotten about our hard struggles to gain our liberty. When it comes to foreign …

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Sarah Mulley

The Independent View: Rifts on immigration demonstrate real challenges for the Government

By Sarah Mulley | Fri 15th April 2011 - 5:42 pm

David Cameron’s speech on immigration has unleashed a wave of criticism and debate, both inside and outside the coalition government.  Although some of the fallout tells us more about the political dilemmas facing coalition partners who must now fight an election campaign against each other than it does about immigration, today’s discussions have neatly illustrated some of the challenges facing the Government on this issue.

The first is how to best engage in the public debate.  David Cameron is right to say that “the role of politicians is to cut through the extremes of this debate & approach the subject sensibly …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron writes… Fairer Votes: so close we can almost touch it

By Tim Farron MP | Fri 15th April 2011 - 3:21 pm

With just three weeks to go until the Scottish, Welsh and local elections as well as a little thing we like to call the most important referendum of our lives so far, this really is the final push to the finish line.

Let’s not pretend that our national poll ratings are going to give us a boost on the ground because they are not. Normally at this time of year we are preparing to buck national trends and create our own local success stories. Back in 1989, when the Lib Dems were on a poll rating of 0%, we’d just had …

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Roger Crouch

Opinion: Vote for Fairer Votes to End Safe Seats

By Roger Crouch | Fri 15th April 2011 - 2:14 pm

I grew up in Bournemouth, a bucolic place beside the sea where very little disturbs the peace. For over a century, Bournemouth’s politics at parliamentary level have been as sedate. In every election since Queen Victoria was on the throne, the same party has won. A candidate dons a blue rosette, shows up and becomes the MP. Whilst the Liberal Democrats have valiantly tried their best in recent elections, the two Bournemouth constituencies are like many places across the country where General elections do not really matter, where elections are a foregone conclusion, places where real power lies in the …

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Chris White

Chris White writes: “We can be like Belgium!”

By Chris White | Fri 15th April 2011 - 12:06 pm

‘Will you be supporting the Liberal Democrat Candidate?’ I asked.

‘No.’

‘Any particular reason?’ I continued, hoping to get a clue as to his particular allegiance.

‘You sold out. I despise the Conservatives.’

‘What choice did we have? We had to have a Government.’

‘Why?’ he retorted. ‘Belgium doesn’t and they do all right.’

Belgium? Is this the best Labour can come up with?

I could have given him a tedious lecture about a country which has no fewer than seven parliaments (not including the European Parliament) and the nuances between the parliament of Wallonia and the parliament dealing with the francophone linguistic community. But I was …

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Also posted in Local government | Tagged and | 15 Comments
Joe Taylor

Opinion: Labour are to blame for the “lost generation”

By Joe Taylor | Fri 15th April 2011 - 11:08 am

Here’s a question for you. How have Labour got away with pretending that the crisis of a “lost generation” of young people has nothing to do with them? Listening to Ed Miliband pontificate about the plight of the young in Britain, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Government in which he served had nothing to do with the current crisis of devalued qualifications, lack of jobs, high house prices, crippling debts and a rising cost of living. Those young people who are thinking of joining Labour because they’re angry at the current situation should consider a few facts.

A …

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Opinion: we’ll have our street parties when Whitehall lets go

By Mike Dean | Thu 14th April 2011 - 3:34 pm

Today, the Prime Minister took on the “pen-pushers and busybodies” whose red tape is threatening hundreds of Royal Wedding street parties up and down the country. In language rather untypical of a Prime Minister, particularly in recent years, he said:

“I hope people are able to join in and celebrate and I am very much saying today that if people want to have a street party, don’t listen to people who say “it is all bureaucracy and health and safety and you cant do it.” It is very important to understand if anyone wants to have a street party you don’t need a food license, you don’t need an entertainment license, you don’t need to have written documents about closing your street, you don’t have to pay for street closures, you don’t have to have special health and safety permission because there are councils out there telling you you do need these things – you don’t.”

Very nice of the Prime Minister to step in. But somehow I imagine few sighs of relief being breathed across the country, people giving up their fights with local councils and digging out their bunting.

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Evan Harris

Dr Evan Harris fisks: What is really at stake on the health reforms

By Evan Harris | Thu 14th April 2011 - 11:27 am

On 8th April Norman wrote an interesting article here entitled “The NHS: safe in our hands”. That article is a good basis on which to discuss a few of the problems with the bill and the Government’s approach so far.

We should be clear that Norman Lamb is one of the good guys, who spotted earlier than most the problems with the White Paper and the Bill, and has been very clear that it requires radical surgery. He has also been particularly concerned, and this week expressed this publicly, that the pace of change is financially (and …

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George Kendall

Opinion: Why Labour members should defect to the Liberal Democrats

By George Kendall | Thu 14th April 2011 - 10:27 am

If you’re Labour, and want to be an MP in a safe seat, switching to the Lib Dems would be a bad move. Perhaps you like authoritarian policies on law and order, and prefer to avoid difficult decisions on the deficit. If so, the Lib Dems isn’t the party for you.

But maybe you think politics isn’t black and white, that there is good and bad in all the parties, and so working together is a good thing. Perhaps you think that the government should do what will work on law and order, rather than pander to the tabloid press, and …

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Matt McLaren

Opinion: Debating AV with the Evening Standard

By Matt McLaren | Wed 13th April 2011 - 4:41 pm

Last Wednesday saw one of the few debates on the issue of AV that are taking place in the run-up to the referendum. Vince Cable paired up with Ken Livingstone to speak for the Yes side, and for the No position Lord Michael Howard teamed up with Olympic Gold Medallist and prominent Labour supporter Martin Cross (with a very humorous Clive Anderson in the Chair).

After Vince opened the debate with a brief overview of the issue, Lord Howard made a good and impassioned speech. However, there seemed to be a contradiction in what he said which thankfully Clive Anderson picked …

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Maureen Rigg

Opinion: campaigning for a better rail service

By Maureen Rigg | Wed 13th April 2011 - 3:30 pm

Here at Eaglescliffe we have a great airport on our doorsteps – still known as Teesside Airport to most of us despite the best efforts of the owners to change it to Durham Tees Valley. From my house I can take a 10 minute walk in the other direction to a railway station with a reasonably frequent service going past the airport on its way to Darlington.

The airport has a railway station too – ideal you might think. Think again. Trains stop there once in each direction on Saturdays and now on Sundays too. …

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Mark Pack

Ivory Coast: three reasons for optimism

By Mark Pack | Wed 13th April 2011 - 2:25 pm

In both Rwanda and then, initially, in the former Yugoslavia, international peacekeeping troops were dispatched and then largely stood by as widespread, murderous violence took place around them. A mixture of weak mandates, limited military deployments and prioritising the safety of peacekeepers over those they were meant to be protecting meant little was achieved until – in the case of Yugoslavia – greater military force was deployed by the international community.

That lesson has strongly influenced many international interventions since – don’t intervene unless you are willing to do so with significant military firepower. The desire to minimise loss of lives …

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Mark Pack

Using community politics to build a liberal society

By Mark Pack | Wed 13th April 2011 - 10:25 am

This is the chapter I contributed to Reinventing the State, edited by Duncan Brack, Richard Grayson and David Howarth whose themes are still very relevant:

I have a secret to admit. I quite like big organisations.

Of course – as you would expect of a liberal – I think power should be kept at as local a level as possible, that organisations should be responsive to individuals, and so that smaller is frequently better – and that individuals’ freedom and rights get trampled on when Big Brother gets free rein.

But faced with the reality of actually trying to change the world, …

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Mark Pack

Forgotten Liberal heroes: Pratap Chitnis

By Mark Pack | Tue 12th April 2011 - 10:25 am

Listen to Liberal Democrats make speeches and there are frequent references to historical figures, but drawn from a small cast. Just the quartet of John Stuart Mill, William Gladstone, David Lloyd George, David Penhaligon corner almost all of the market, especially since Bob Maclennan stopped making speeches to party conference. Some of the forgotten figures deserve their obscurity but others do not. Charles James Fox’s defence of civil liberties against a dominating government during wartime or Earl Grey’s leading of the party back into power and major constitutional reform are good examples of mostly forgotten figures who could …

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