Category Archives: Op-eds

Sarah Harding

Sarah Harding writes… Fairer Votes: young people are leading from the front

By Sarah Harding | Sat 19th March 2011 - 11:55 am

On the 5th of May, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to effect a change 100 years in the making.

This is our chance to finally fix the broken system that has failed the people of Britain. And Liberal Youth will not waste it.

Young people are leading from the front in the fight for fairer votes. University and college campuses across the country are coming alive with a new wave of political participation. Young people from all political parties and none are uniting to fix our political system, and to give us a electoral system fit …

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Mark Pack

The weekend debate: Old versus young at work

By Mark Pack | Sat 19th March 2011 - 8:55 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

During the week Foreign Secretary William Hague talked of having a network of diplomats who are past their retirement age of 60 but can be called on to help out at times of international crisis. However Labour MP Frank Roy attacked the idea saying that the Foreign Office instead should be “nurturing young talent”.

What’s your view on this and more generally – should we do more to keep on the skills of people beyond 60, or should people be promptly moved out …

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Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron writes… Join the Lib Dems YES! to Fairer Votes campaign

By Tim Farron MP | Fri 18th March 2011 - 12:23 pm

Tim Farron launches the Lib Dem YES! campaign

This morning I launched the Liberal Democrats’ Yes! To Fairer Votes campaign in Manchester.

Over 100 local members and supporters came along to hear speeches from Simon Hughes, John Leech, Gordon Birtwistle and Floella Benjamin about how monumentally essential it is that we win this Fairer Votes referendum.

As Nick Clegg has already argued, this is “a battle between reformers and conservatives” and this is our chance, our one opportunity for genuine electoral reform.

By winning this referendum …

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Alex Paul Shantz

Opinion: our growing military impotency is restricting our foreign policy

By Alex Paul Shantz | Fri 18th March 2011 - 11:15 am

Recent events in the Middle East have demonstrated how the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) is cutting the British military back to the barest of bare bones. In doing so, we risk losing our position as a leading world player, as befits a nation with a veto on the UN Security Council. Instead we are becoming a two-bit regional player, all diplomatic swagger but militarily impotent.

Amidst the criticism of the Government’s evacuation of British citizens from Egypt and Libya, one success story was the deployment of HMS Cumberland, a Royal Navy frigate, to Benghazi in February. Whilst other countries were having …

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Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow writes… Labour shouldn’t play party politics with the NHS

By Paul Burstow | Wed 16th March 2011 - 9:50 pm

On Saturday I gave a guarantee to every party member that I, along with other Liberal Democrat members of the Government would listen to every word that you had to say. I completely stand by that. If there are ways in which we can amend the Health and Social Care Bill then we will work to do it. But what we won’t do is to allow our Spring Conference to be hijacked and used as a political tool by Labour. And that’s exactly what they tried to do today.

Today was one of Labour’s designated days in Parliament when they are …

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Evan Harris

Evan Harris writes… The Draft Libel Bill – A good start, but much still to play for

By Evan Harris | Wed 16th March 2011 - 8:12 pm

Yesterday the Government published its draft Defamation Bill. This consisted not only of draft clauses but also a formal consultation on some key issues not included (yet).

The Liberal Democrats have been at the forefront of the campaign to reform our libel laws as Nick Clegg points out in his Guardian piece yesterday. I convened the parliamentary wing of the Libel Reform Campaign in 2008/9, working with Sense About Science, Index on Censorship and English PEN. We achieved our aims of getting manifesto commitments from all three main parties before the 2010 Election. This campaign …

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Stephen Tall

Three cheers for Ed Miliband (shame about his party)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 16th March 2011 - 6:40 pm

This evening Labour leader Ed Miliband will urge his party and the public to say yes to fairer votes in this coming May’s referendum.

All of us in favour of electoral reform, and a voting system that puts more power back in the hands of the people, should welcome his personal backing for the alternative vote. Ed, at least, is staying true to what Labour’s 2010 general election manifesto pledged, specifically:

To ensure that every MP is supported by the majority of their constituents voting at each election, we will hold a referendum on introducing the Alternative Vote for elections

…

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Mark Pack

The four best books on the British general election of 2010

By Mark Pack | Wed 16th March 2011 - 10:25 am

Over the last few months, I’ve read (and mostly reviewed on this site) all the books I’ve found published so far about the 2010 general election and the subsequent coalition negotiations, not to mention a fair number about the political events leading up to the general election over the preceding years.

I’ve yet to read a book that is really bad, although many do have very similar content to each other. A few gems either have original content or present that common ground in particularly strong ways. So based on that here are my top four recommended books about the British …

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Rob Blackie

Opinion: It’s time for a no-fly zone

By Rob Blackie | Tue 15th March 2011 - 11:09 am

In 1984 a young aeronautical engineer called Al-Sadek Hamed Al-Shuwehdy,an opponent of Muammar Gaddafi, was hanged in a basketball stadium in Benghazi. As he hung from the rope dying, he was grabbed round his legs and dragged down until he stopped moving by a brutal young woman called Huda Ben Amer. Ben Amer was appointed Mayor of Benghazi, and went on to terrorise the people Benghazi for the decades since. She escaped the Benghazi uprising, and is waiting to return if the Libyan army retake control in the next few days.

Al-Sadek’s story matters, not just because of …

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Mark Pack

How leaflets used to look: Clapham 1955

By Mark Pack | Tue 15th March 2011 - 10:25 am

Continuing my occasional series on how election leaflets used to look, this one is a Labour freepost election address from the 1955 general election in Clapham constituency.

The front of the leaflet is a design unlikely to be used today:

Labour election leaflet, Clapham, 1955 (front)

Dated too is the right-hand side of the inside, with its appeal from the candidate’s wife to female voters – a common tactic at the time. Despite the old-fashioned typography, the layout is clear and easy to read …

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Tony Greaves

Tony Greaves writes… The health and social care bill. The party has spoken. What happens now?

By Tony Greaves | Mon 14th March 2011 - 3:10 pm

The next big event comes very soon and is nothing to do with the Liberal Democrats or the coalition per se – it’s the BMA’s Special Representative Meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) which they say “will form a key part of our activities to step up member engagement and lobbying”. I suspect it will also get a lot more publicity than the Liberal Democrat conference did.

There are some outrider motions of no confidence in Andrew Lansley and calls for “industrial action” which will result in a lot of press noise and no action, but there seems little doubt that the meeting …

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Chris Rennard

Chris Rennard writes… Why David Owen is wrong on the AV referendum

By Chris Rennard | Mon 14th March 2011 - 12:41 pm

David Owen chose the weekend of the Lib Dem Conference to offer his advice for the AV referendum. Having attacked the ‘First Past the Post’ voting system so vociferously for many years, it may seem odd to some people that he now urges support for this system on May 5th. He says that he hopes for a referendum with an option of a Proportional Representation system instead.

Almost all those people who have consistently supported the cause of electoral reform for much longer than he has take a different view. It is very clear that voting against change on May …

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Mark Pack

Animals explain the problem with first past the post

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th March 2011 - 5:54 pm

Wondering about the merits of first past the post? This video uses the animal kingdom to help explain the problems with it in public elections:

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Mark Pack

Disability Living Allowance and NHS motions: the aftermath

By Mark Pack | Sat 12th March 2011 - 12:13 pm

There’s a common theme to the party’s official reactions to both the Disability Living Allowance (Mobility Component) and health reform motions being passed at conference today. That is to welcome the party staking out its own views on the issues, even where they clearly contradict those of Conservative ministers, and for two reasons.

First, it more clearly sets out where the coalition partners disagree on policy. As having a relaxed, adult approach to admitting in public that people in government don’t always agree on everything is something I’ve talked about in the past, this is certainly good to see – and …

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Dee Doocey

Dee Doocey writes… Getting Olympic ticketing right

By Dee Doocey | Sat 12th March 2011 - 8:54 am

At one minute to midday on Tuesday 15 March, applications for tickets for the 2012 London Olympics will open.

Over the past twenty years, ticketing arrangements for every Games have created bad headlines. Controversy has ranged from empty seats to excessive prices, ticket touting and counterfeit tickets.

It’s a tough challenge to get the right balance between maximising income to cover the costs and ensuring that each event is accessible – especially as the actual running of the Games by the London Organising Committee for the Olympic & Paralympic Games (LOCOG) is paid for entirely by non-public money.

As ticketing is such a …

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Also posted in London | Tagged | 2 Comments
Toby Fenwick

The Independent View: How the Stephen Williams plans for the banks would work

By Toby Fenwick | Fri 11th March 2011 - 3:54 pm

Portman Capital, an independent corporate advisory firm, has been asked to comment upon the technical issues raised by Mark Pack’s column on Stephen Williams’ proposal to privatise RBS and Lloyds by distributing the shares to the public. Portman Capital is not politically aligned and its comments are intended to explain the technical feasibility of the proposal rather than its political aspects.

The proposal to distribute the shares to the UK people is innovative, and as the British people will participate without having to provide cash up front, it has fairness at its core. Over time, the scheme is likely to …

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Chris Huhne MP

Chris Huhne writes… The economics of low-carbon

By Chris Huhne MP | Fri 11th March 2011 - 11:51 am

We Liberal Democrats need no convincing of the urgent need to tackle climate change. Indeed, that’s why there’s a Liberal Democrat minister heading the Department of Energy and Climate Change – one of the most important contributions we bring to the coalition government.

Not everyone in the UK, however, is yet so persuaded, and we also face problems in pressing the case abroad. Last summer, together with my French and German counterparts, I opened a debate in the EU over adopting a more ambitious emissions reduction target for 2020 (of 30 per cent, instead of the current 20 per cent), but …

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Simon Wright MP

Simon Wright writes… Make the Green Investment Bank a real bank and transform the economy

By Simon Wright MP | Fri 11th March 2011 - 9:26 am

£500 billion is a lot of money. But that’s roughly how much the UK needs to invest in low carbon infrastructure over the next 10-20 years to have a chance of meeting our ambitious carbon reduction targets. Ernst and Young have estimated that the usual sources of capital can probably raise between £50-£80 billion. That leaves an enormous gap to fill.

One of the government’s top priorities is to put in place the mechanisms needed to unlock the massive investment needed. Given the need to tackle the deficit, the private sector will be needed to deliver this investment – but it …

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Jonathan Hunt

Opinion: Time to put party first

By Jonathan Hunt | Thu 10th March 2011 - 4:54 pm

Long before the Barnsley Chop was felt by the unfortunate Dominic Carman, an increasing number of Liberal Democrats have been murmuring about the longer-term effects of the coalition on our electoral chances in 2015.

That murmur is now a whisper among those who focus four years ahead and feel queasy about our longer-term survival. Putting the Party First does not mean opposing the coalition. Quite the contrary.

We should trust those in government to get on with it, while keeping to the agreement and other pledges. The 2013 Review will be the proper time to voice concerns and make corrections. In the …

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Laura Willoughby

Opinion: Are the Government in danger of recreating the GLC by the back-door?

By Laura Willoughby | Thu 10th March 2011 - 3:47 pm

When is localism not localism? When it comes to London apparently!

As the Localism Bill makes its way through its committee stages in the House of Commons the clauses that have an impact on London were rushed and hardly discussed on Tuesday afternoon.

This is unfortunate because this is the one part of the bill where the idea of localism is stopped dead in its tracks. In contrast to the localist approach applied across England in the rest of the bill, when it comes to London it seems that devolution stops at a regional level.

There are three specific proposals in the …

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Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow writes: I will be listening to members on NHS at #ldconf

By Paul Burstow | Thu 10th March 2011 - 2:00 pm

This is the first spring conference since we entered Government. In all the years I’ve been a Liberal Democrat I’ve never known of such a potentially explosive spring conference. Or at least that’s what the media would have you believe. Debating policy is part of our DNA. And it shouldn’t change now that we’re in Government. This spring conference we’ll be debating the coalition’s proposals to update the NHS. And unlike in the media, it won’t be a case of who shouts loudest wins.

I understand why people are so concerned. Every time I meet party members …

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Nigel Roberts

Opinion: a British Bill of Rights should include judicial review of legislation

By Nigel Roberts | Thu 10th March 2011 - 11:15 am

British people’s attitude to fundamental rights is deteriorating alarmingly. Liberal Democrats in government have a key opportunity to reverse the trend.

When the incoming Labour Government issued ‘Bringing Rights Home’, in the wake of the UK having the worst human rights record in terms of adverse judgments except Turkey, we all applauded.

But the weasel words of the Human Rights act, which explicitly ruled out judicial review of legislation (as happens in Canada under the Charter, and has happeed in the USA since Marbury -v- Madison) has created a climate where the majority of the British people now think that fundamental …

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Mark Pack

Putting community politics back into election campaigns

By Mark Pack | Thu 10th March 2011 - 10:25 am

This is the chapter I contributed during the last Parliament to ALDC’s Community Politics Today publication. The John Pardoe quote applies all the more now the party is in coalition government and the general advice to local campaigners is in my view even more important now than it was then:

It’s a common complaint – that modern Liberal Democrat election campaigns have lost the original campaigning and ideological spirit of community politics. Instead, so the critics say, campaigns have become a dumbed-down recitation of techniques, campaigning by numbers, where the only objective is votes and only the ballot box …

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Felix Greaves

Opinion: NHS reforms need careful examination

By Felix Greaves | Wed 9th March 2011 - 3:32 pm

I am a public health doctor and a member of the Liberal Democrats. I am also, in the words of Gordon Birtwistle, when he spoke in the debate on the new Health and Social Care Bill, one of the “faceless bureaucrats in palatial offices” that he blames for the failings of the NHS. I’d like to put a couple of arguments against the new health reforms, as I don’t believe that as a party we are very well informed about what these health reforms mean.

The reforms of the NHS are a substantial departure from what we had before. …

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Martin Shapland

Opinion: Its time for a well informed response on Diversity

By Martin Shapland | Wed 9th March 2011 - 11:41 am

Conference is almost upon us once again, and glancing my eye over the agenda I am pleased to see a motion based on Baroness Sal Brinton’s report on party diversity.

You may remember this came up at the last conference. The speech I made at Liverpool was my maiden at a federal conference; the amendment I co-sponsored helped pave the way for the motion on improving diversity we will debate this coming Saturday.

It was also one of the most depressing experiences I’ve witnessed as a party member. Friends who supported the amendment were treated appallingly by supporters of the motion. I …

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Chris White

Chris White writes: Liberty, Equality, Happiness – and most of all the Environment

By Chris White | Wed 9th March 2011 - 9:43 am

Less than one year since the Coalition was formed we aren’t doing so well in by-elections (with the notable exception of Oldham East and Saddleworth).

This was totally predictable.

We knew in May 2010 that those who backed us because we were a leftish alternative to Labour would walk away. So would those who liked us as a protest party, forever out of power. And those hacked off with Brown and Labour authoritarianism were likely to flirt with Miliband, even if he currently stands for nothing at all.

Our core support remains, and in addition there are still many who admire the fact …

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Linda Jack

Youth Justice day: thanks and farewell

By Linda Jack | Tue 8th March 2011 - 11:07 pm

A final thanks to all those who have contributed to today’s focus on Youth Justice. I trust, dear readers, you have found the debate enlightening and challenging and those of you heading for Sheffield will join us for the debate on Saturday afternoon. We have a fringe event on Friday evening at 8pm in Suite 5 in Jury’s Inn. Peter Oborne will be chairing a debate with Tom McNally, Simon Hughes and others on Youth Justice in an Age of Austerity.

In the midst of all that I personally find unpalatable about the Coalition this is one area where I have …

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Lord Tom McNally

Youth Justice: the minister’s view

By Lord Tom McNally | Tue 8th March 2011 - 11:01 pm

Since I became Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice last May I have been working with Ken Clarke and the other Ministers within the department to make radical changes to the criminal justice system. Our plans are about finding out what works – the methods of rehabilitation and punishment which actually reduce crime.

One of the key aspects of this vision is preventing and tackling offending by young people. In England and Wales the number of children aged 10 to 17 grew rapidly during the course of the 1990s and into the second term of the Labour government in …

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John Howson

Youth Justice: the magistrate’s view

By John Howson | Tue 8th March 2011 - 1:50 pm

just over 100 years ago a Liberal government decided that young people should no longer be routinely tried in the same courts as adults. Thus was born the juvenile, now youth, court system in England and Wales. During the last hundred years much has changed in penal policy, both corporal and capital punishment have been abolished, and the prevention of re-offending has taken on a greater importance over the punishment of offenders. There is also a live debate about the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

For some, magistrates, and especially lay magistrates, sometimes seem like the ogres in the system. They …

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Tim Bateman

Youth Justice: on raising the age of criminal responsibility

By Tim Bateman | Tue 8th March 2011 - 11:47 am

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires that states should set an age below which children cannot be held criminally liable – but does not specify a minimum age. A quick survey of other jurisdictions confirms that by comparison the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales – at ten years – is extremely low.  Indeed, it is the lowest in the European Union. In other member states it ranges from 13 to 18. A survey of 90 countries by found that the most common age of criminal responsibility was in fact 14 years

Taking into account …

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