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

Opinion: for a market to be free you must have regulation

By David Thorpe | Fri 5th November 2010 - 1:32 pm

Whenever I utter the phrase ‘free trade’ within those Liberal Democrat circles in which I am permitted to mix, the reaction is akin to that which I might get if I suggested making it compulsory for all party members to worship statues of me.

And that’s a pity (the reaction to the free trade, not the statues) because most people when they meet an advocate of free trade, mutter darkly about the effects of ‘light touch regulation’. But free trade and light touch regulation are not the same, indeed in many ways they are inimical to each other.

The debate should not …

Continue reading »

Tagged adam smith, david cameron, free trade and protectionism | 17 Comments

Why a part of me is cheering on Rupert Murdoch

By Stephen Tall | Fri 5th November 2010 - 11:57 am

At face value, the figures released by News International this week showing that The Times and Sunday Times had registered some 105,000 customer sales since its paywall was erected in July sounded like good news. As analysts attempted to decipher the company’s ‘fuzzy numbers‘, doubts began to creep in.

Understanding those paywall figures

The reality appears to be that roughly 50,000 individual users have subscribed to gain access to the newspapers’ content, whether online or through the iPad app or the Kindle edition. The other c.50,000 customer sales are for single-use or pay-as-you-go access to the website, and will …

Continue reading »

Tagged featured, media, news international, paywall, rupert murdoch, the independent, the sunday times and the times | 8 Comments

How the legacy of hereditary political power still shapes our political systems

By Mark Pack | Fri 5th November 2010 - 8:55 am

The Australian Parliament building in Canberra is a gem of democratic political architecture. Australia’s capital city was facing the need to expand and replace its existing Parliament building. But where to put the new one? The old one had deliberately been placed at the foot of the hill in Canberra, so that politicians would not be looking down on the public. Now the only suitable free space left was on top of that hill. The solution was clever: chop the top off the hill, build the new Parliament and then stick the top of the hill back on top of …

Continue reading »

Also posted in Books and Parliament | Tagged 1832 great reform act, featured and philip manow | Leave a comment

The Independent View: the Liberal Democrats can deliver civil liberties

By Tim Gee | Thu 4th November 2010 - 4:25 pm

One of the lasting legacies of the Liberal Democrats in power will be the efforts to push through what has been named the ‘Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill’.

A somewhat younger looking Nick Clegg made this the subject of his party conference speech back in 2006 when he was shadow home secretary.

Returning to conference as Deputy Prime Minister in 2010, Clegg triumphantly declared that “In November, we will publish a Freedom Bill to roll back a generation of illiberal and intrusive legislation.”

The Liberal Democrat draft addresses some of the most obvious anti-campaigning laws. For example it proposes …

Continue reading »

Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged civil liberties and nick clegg | 4 Comments

Opinion: Martians report humans are mad (particularly Brits) – they are cutting their own economy

By Geoff Crocker | Thu 4th November 2010 - 10:55 am

Some time ago a TV ad reported the bemusement amongst Martians at human behaviour with mashed potato. They fell over themselves laughing at how we humans grow potatoes in the ground, collect them, peel them, boil them in water, cut them up and then smash them to pieces before eating them. Very bizarre behaviour! Martians began to worry whether humans were sane or not.

Now the Martian press is equally dumbfounded at reports coming from planet Earth that humans are cutting their own production economies because they say they don’t have enough money.

Martians always thought that humans made this …

Continue reading »

Tagged economy, gold standard, keynes, martians and nixon | 23 Comments

Wanted: a hyperactive online MP

By Mark Pack | Thu 4th November 2010 - 8:55 am

Last week I talked about the role reversal facing the Liberal Democrats, with the party’s traditional stronger record at political tactics than strategy having been flipped around. In that, and the subsequent post Part 2 of the Nick Clegg reshuffle, I highlighted some tactical communication needs the party must get better at. Given my own habit of pointing out that people should not just criticise but should also offer solutions, here are my own suggestions.

Middle-ranking ministers need to communicate more

The large majority of Liberal Democrat ministers are not in the Cabinet. However, the departmental communication structures are set-up to …

Continue reading »

Tagged nick clegg, susan kramer and tim farron | 4 Comments

Jo Swinson MP writes on tuition fees

By Jo Swinson MP | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 6:49 pm

Today the Government has outlined its response to the Browne review, and the future of higher education funding. This is arguably the most challenging issue for Liberal Democrats in the coalition so far.

Our party has long prided itself on its commitment to education as the great leveller; the best way to create social mobility and equality of opportunity in society. The flagship “penny on income tax for education” was one of the reasons I joined the party in 1997. My first conference speech was in a debate about student funding, as we passed our policy …

Continue reading »

140 Comments

The Independent View: Political Innovation events in Edinburgh and Belfast

By Paul Evans | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 4:58 pm

Mark has invited me to write (yet another!) guest-post on Lib-Dem Voice about the Political Innovation project. Specifically, this one is to promote the events that we’re doing in Edinburgh and Belfast over the next few weeks – details can be found here.

The agenda? Well, these are ‘unconference’ events – largely bereft of big-name speakers or tied-down timetables. It’s a good deal more democratic than that, and anyone who hasn’t been to one of these type of conferences is particularly welcome. It’s a very democratic way of organising a day, and one that, ironically, works very well in …

Continue reading »

Also posted in The Independent View | Leave a comment

Opinion: Why we should be trying to win the London Mayor contest

By Richard Morris | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 1:55 pm

Earlier this month, LDV published a piece of mine suggesting Vince Cable would make an excellent candidate for London Mayor, which I wrote because I happen to think that he can win.

Some people agreed with my supposition, others for various reasons disagreed. It was the third set of responses that surprised me. That it was the very fact that Vince could win that made him a poor choice – because the allegedly approved strategy in London was to find a candidate ‘who understands that their role is not to try and win the mayoral election but to help our …

Continue reading »

Also posted in London | Tagged vince cable | 9 Comments

Chris White writes: FPC, tuition fees and party policy – the inside story

By Chris White | Wed 3rd November 2010 - 11:15 am

No. I don’t like Vince Cable’s announcement today on higher education either.

Nevertheless, Party Policy is clear: we want fees to go. This means that we don’t need to spend a six figure sum on a special conference just to repeat ourselves. Or to say we’re cross with Vince. Nor is there any need of a grand public statement in the Guardian letters page. Or a row at Federal Policy Committee.

FPC is still asking itself what it is for. On the one hand, it must get on with developing new Party policy – but with sharply limited resources. On the …

Continue reading »

Tagged fpc, higher education, nick clegg, tuition fees, universities and vince cable | 7 Comments

Is yours a party of principles or scoundrels?

By Iain Roberts | Tue 2nd November 2010 - 2:56 pm

Party A is in politics to gain power so they can put their policies and principles into action. Without power, what they can achieve is limited so they – sensibly – are willing to compromise and indulge in some give-and-take.

Some policies are dropped or changed because to not do so would see less of the programme getting through over all. Deals have to be done, compromises made, unexpected situations dealt with – this is the real world, after all.

The party pushes through some policies it doesn’t really believe are in the the best interests of the country – because they’re …

Continue reading »

40 Comments

The Independent View: Liberal Democrats should back Browne

By Philip Jones | Mon 1st November 2010 - 2:27 pm

The Vice Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University writes…

I am opposed to what are commonly called ‘top up’ fees in higher education and would resist any move to impose upfront fees for higher education. But, this is not what the Browne recommendations propose.

The weekend before Browne reported I was in despair and angry. It was becoming increasingly apparent that the Coalition government was going to impose a 75-80% cut on the teaching budget for higher education and expect the shortfall to be recovered through an increase in fees.

I am the Vice-Chancellor of a large metropolitan university, with just under 35,000 students. …

Continue reading »

Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged browne report, higher education, tuition fees and universities | 23 Comments

The same policy can be good or evil – depends who thought of it

By Iain Roberts | Mon 1st November 2010 - 10:16 am

In May 2010, the Labour Party pledged to cap Housing Benefit. In their manifesto , they argued that the State shouldn’t be subsidising people to live in private rented properties that “ordinary working families” couldn’t afford.

Over 600 Labour parliamentary candidates happily stood on the pledge, not a whisper of opposition to the idea was heard from their ranks.

Fast forward to October 2010, five months later, and the Coalition Government come up with the same plan.

Not only was the Coalition scheme denounced by Labour in the strongest terms, with talk of “social cleansing” echoing the horrific Kosovan experiences, …

Continue reading »

Tagged housing benefit and psychology | 70 Comments

Opinion: We’ve stopped setting the agenda

By Richard Morris | Mon 1st November 2010 - 9:25 am

In Mark Pack’s generally excellent piece the other day entitled Role reversal for the Liberal Democrats he suggested that, love it or hate it, we have a long term positioning strategy in place at the moment but we’re missing out on tactical battles. On the long term strategy bit, I beg to differ.

I worry we’re being taken to the brand cleaners at the moment.

In the commercial world, brand owners try to turn their ordinary everyday brands into brand icons. They do so for three reasons:

Icon brands tend to have a huge range of appeal stretching far beyond their traditional

…

Continue reading »

16 Comments

Opinion: Coalition politics

By Colin Eldridge | Sat 30th October 2010 - 6:25 pm

Going into a coalition government with another party was always going to be hard, particularly with the Tories! It feels to me like a trip to the dentist. Something I know is the right thing to do for the long term, but very painful in the short term.

I supported the coalition. Given that I spent the last eight years as a relatively high profile Liberal Democrat in Liverpool, a city that judges it’s people and particularly it’s politicians by how much you hate the Tories, it was a brave thing to do!

I supported it for two reasons.

Firstly, my liberalism is …

Continue reading »

Tagged guest editor, higher education, tuition fees and universities | 24 Comments

Opinion: Not the whole truth

By David Rendel | Sat 30th October 2010 - 5:25 pm

On Monday, while in London for a meeting, I picked up a copy of the Evening Standard. (I can never resist a good freebie – I was once an MP after all – and besides it gave me three extra Sudokus to do on the train home).

Inside I found four vouchers (one for each of the remaining days of the week) for “i” – Britain’s first new quality newspaper for over two decades. The paper only costs 20p a day. But I am such a sucker for freebies that I just could not resist using the vouchers to try it …

Continue reading »

Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged guest editor, journalism and vince cable | 8 Comments

Duncan Hames writes… Time to value

By Duncan Hames MP | Sat 30th October 2010 - 2:25 pm

Almost every working person knows their salary or their hourly rate. Some can even express it as a fraction of the cost of hiring a plumber. Yet our time outside work lacks similar recognition in the choices we make: we should value our time for more than just the contribution it can make to our household budgets and material needs.

There is strong quantitative evidence that beyond a level of around £15,000 per year, extra income has little improving effect on a person’s well-being: put bluntly, the extra money doesn’t pay you back for your time. Despite this, British employees are …

Continue reading »

Tagged guest editor | 12 Comments

Opinion: Pulling the plug on swimming pools?

By Mary Reid | Sat 30th October 2010 - 12:55 pm

Over the last week, we’ve all focussed on welfare issues, tuition fees and housing. The impact of the 7% pa cut in local government funding has yet to register with most of us.

Each council will make its own decisions on how to deal with a total grant reduction of 28% over four years. Coverage will be local, so the public will inevitably blame councillors rather than ministers when popular services disappear.

The media have been, inaccurately, talking about a 28% cut in council budgets (rather than in funding) – it’s not quite as bad as that, although it will still be …

Continue reading »

Also posted in Local government | Tagged grant shapps and guest editor | 13 Comments

Opinion: Reflections on local and national power

By Gerald Vernon-Jackson | Sat 30th October 2010 - 11:25 am

Well, Autumn Conference in Liverpool was an interesting experience. Bumping into Ministers and asking them to sort out issues was strange. An odd aircraft carrier here, and regeneration scheme there. Who knows if these discussions had any effect, but at least we could ask the people who might make the decisions. Few of us now remember the last time this happened. The 1929 Liberal Assembly seems a long time ago now.

Being in coalition has this upside. To be able to influence decisions is what we stand for elections for. We think our ideas are better than those of the other …

Continue reading »

Tagged guest editor | 3 Comments

Opinion: Secret ingredients and the 2010 General Election

By Katy Riddle | Sat 30th October 2010 - 10:25 am

Over the past few months, many people within the Liberal Democrats have asked me for my views on the 2010 General Election campaign, and the lessons that we can learn from the experience ready for next time.

In the South Central region (where I worked as the Campaigns Officer) the results were mixed. We had substantial swings towards us in both Portsmouth South and Eastleigh, but failed to win Oxford East from Labour, and sadly lost our previously held seats of Oxford West and Abingdon, Winchester, and Romsey to the Conservatives.

Clearly any election result is the unique consequence of a combination …

Continue reading »

Tagged guest editor, jason zadrozny and tim farron | 17 Comments

Opinion: The Tea Party – lessons for the Liberal Democrats

By David Boyle | Sat 30th October 2010 - 9:25 am

The Tea Party movement is even now preparing for its first big electoral test. Banners are being printed, bumper stickers peeled, computerised push-pollers tested.

They are a frightening prospect for European liberals. Perhaps any foreign radical movement looks bizarre to outsiders, but the combination of Sarah Palin, red-neck fundamentalists and the shadowy Koch brothers with their billions is a fearsome prospect.

Yet the Tea Party has lessons for us, even if it doesn’t make its way over here – which in some form or another it seems likely to do.

Continue reading »

Also posted in LDVUSA | Tagged guest editor | 10 Comments

Chris Huhne writes… Myth-busting: what the Coalition’s plans for nuclear energy really mean

By Chris Huhne MP | Fri 29th October 2010 - 6:08 pm

Which of these headlines is right?

‘Lib Dem U-turn on nuclear energy sees Huhne announce eight new power stations‘ (Independent)

‘Taxpayer to underwrite expansion of nuclear power’ (The Times)

‘Subsidy for eight nuclear reactors rejected‘ (Financial Times)

All appeared in the papers on Tuesday 19 October, the day after I announced the latest steps in the government’s approach to nuclear energy. They’re a good example of how confused journalists can get – only the FT’s got it right. So let me make it plain: there has been no change whatsoever in the coalition’s policy of allowing new nuclear stations to go ahead as long as they can be built without public subsidy.

What we’ve done is to publish four key sets of documents:

Continue reading »

Tagged nuclear power | 25 Comments

Opinion: Condorcet 101, or We Can Do Better Than AV

By Fred Carver | Fri 29th October 2010 - 10:42 am

Attentive readers may have noticed I am not a fan of the alternative vote. I don’t think it is proportional – because it isn’t. However, it is not a bad system for selecting a candidate for a single vacancy. On this basis the Lib Dems use it extensively for internal elections when there is only one vacancy. However it is, to my mind, not the fairest such system.

No single vacancy system can be proportional. That is why the Lib Dems rightly push for Single Transferable Vote in every election they can. However, there will always be single vacancy elections: for …

Continue reading »

Tagged condorcet | 34 Comments

Dear John Gray…

By Mark Pack | Thu 28th October 2010 - 9:26 pm

Dear John Gray,

You have me baffled, I’ll confess.

Writing recently in the London Review of Books you talked about how in your view Vince Cable and others in the Orange Book a vision of a “small government”.

I’m confused because it’s true that Vince Cable’s chapter does call for a cap on the maximum that the state can raise in taxation. However, that maximum was set higher than the Labour government was taking in at the time in 2004, several years after they had ‘turned on the taps’ on public expenditure and left previous Conservative Party spending targets well behind.

Blair and …

Continue reading »

Tagged john gray and vince cable | 24 Comments

Opinion: Bob Russell’s advice over housing benefit should be heeded by the coalition

By Jonathan Featonby | Thu 28th October 2010 - 10:55 am

During yesterday’s PMQs, the most vocal Lib Dem rebel MP today made an exceptionally well-stated and compassionate plea for the coalition government to rethink their plans to cut housing benefit.

Bob Russell, who stood to cries of “hear, hear” from those on the benches opposite when John Bercow called his name, voiced his concerns that as a result of the changes, thousands of children could possibly become homeless.

It is certainly a consideration that has to be taken seriously by David Cameron, Nick Clegg and their cabinet colleagues.

They may well respond – as the Prime Minister did this afternoon – by saying …

Continue reading »

Tagged bob russell and housing | 103 Comments

Most Read

Op-eds

William Wallace writes: The case for higher taxes (Lord William Wallace)
“I’ve worked with Andy Burnham. There is much to look forward to” (NewsHound)
Mathew on Monday: Ann Widdecombe, robust debate and the need to disagree agreeably (Mathew Hulbert)
Tom Arms’ World Review (Tom Arms)
Observations of an Expat: Visions of America (Tom Arms)

Advert

Recent Comments

Mick Taylor
@Russell. The UK already has almost the worst state pensions in Europe even with the triple lock. We pay out millions in supplementary pensions, housing benefit...
William Wallace
Jana: Investing in strong research and development in key sectors (which is where China is soaring ahead), rebuilding training, apprenticeships and early edu...
Russell
By committing to not raising the 3 main taxes but then raising taxes by over £70bn on stupid taxes Labour have done a lot of unnecessary damage to the UK econo...
Jana
“ …the hard choices required to revive our economy and strengthen our security.” If by hard choices you mean increasing taxes, I agree that that may be...
Paul Walter
Peter, please see my ample answers above. I have made it perfectly clear what I believe. Best wishes, Paul...