Category Archives: Op-eds

The Independent View: why Lib Dems can’t let democracy fail

By Jacquie Reed | Wed 13th October 2010 - 2:53 pm

The exposure of the Coulson phone-hacking scandal has done all of us a favour. It has shaken off a complacency about the culture of our media and focussed the spotlight on its driving force, its ownership.

Scandal mongering and dirt digging has always been a preoccupation of the press, but its growth in Britain has been perpetuated by the two red-tops belonging to Rupert Murdoch’s News International. They are of course The Sun and The News of the World and they are respectively the top circulation daily and Sunday papers. And this same proprietor owns …

Continue reading »
3 Comments
John Roffey

Opinion: we won’t be able to please many of the people for much of the time

By John Roffey | Wed 13th October 2010 - 12:50 pm

Earlier this month Stephen Tall offered, in The Saturday Debate, ‘Local government is to the Lib Dems what the unions are to Labour and big business is to the Tories‘.

What Stephen’s view does underline is that, unless the Party achieves an unexpected breakthrough and wins a General Election outright, its place is more likely to be as a junior partner in a coalition government, which offers the choice between working with a group supported by the most ruthless of business leaders or by the, oft power crazed, union barons. This will, as demonstrated by the latest debate on …

Continue reading »
13 Comments
Elaine Bagshaw

Opinion: the Browne report should be voted down

By Elaine Bagshaw | Tue 12th October 2010 - 2:50 pm

The recommendations coming from Lord Browne are contrary not just to Liberal Democrat policy, but to our principles.

Education is vital to liberty and democracy. ‘Great improvements in education … are the only thing to which I should look for permanent good’ said John Stuart Mill and so highlights Nick Clegg’s special advisor, Richard Reeves. So how can we support Lord Browne’s report?

It is simply not possible to hide the shock that we feel, in response to Lord Browne’s proposals to saddle students in need to loans with absurd levels of debt by lifting the fee cap altogether.

We are both frequent …

Continue reading »
Tagged , , and | 82 Comments
Stephen Tall

Ed Miliband’s home affairs appointments: can we really take him seriously on civil liberties?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 11th October 2010 - 8:15 pm

One of the more cheering bits of Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour party conference was his pledge that the party under his leadership would once again take seriously the issue of civil liberties, of individual rights

My generation recognises too that government can itself become a vested interest when it comes to civil liberties. I believe in a society where individual freedom and liberty matter and should never be given away lightly. … we must always remember that British liberties were hard fought and hard won over hundreds of years. We should always take the greatest care in protecting them.

…

Continue reading »
Also posted in News | Tagged , , and | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

Andrew Marr: a little bit of a hypocrite

By Stephen Tall | Mon 11th October 2010 - 6:52 pm

I’m intrigued by Andrew Marr’s recent attack on blogging. For those who’ve missed his comments, here’s what he told an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, as reported in the Telegraph:

“Most citizen journalism strikes me as nothing to do with journalism at all. A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother’s basements and ranting. They are very angry people. … Most of the blogging is too angry and too abusive. It is vituperative. Terrible things are said on line because they are anonymous. People say things

…

Continue reading »
Tagged , , and | 18 Comments
Mark Pack

It’s not a science journalism problem, it’s a journalism problem

By Mark Pack | Mon 11th October 2010 - 10:25 am

Late last month, Martin Robbins wrote a fantastic spoof of science journalism for the Guardian’s website – This is a news website article about a scientific paper. In his subsequent commentary on the reaction to that spoof he wrote,

Science is all about process, context and community, but reporting concentrates on single people, projects and events … Hundreds of interesting things happen in science every week, and yet journalists from all over the media seem driven by a herd mentality that ensures only a handful of stories are covered. And they’re not even the most interesting stories in many

…

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

The unusual pattern of coalition splits and tensions

By Mark Pack | Sun 10th October 2010 - 5:05 pm

The Coalition Government has had its fair share of tensions over major policy areas, including most notably and most recently welfare reform and the future of Trident.

Despite being a coalition, the tensions have not been between the two parties in coalition; rather, they have been along shifting lines that cut-across parties. On welfare, for example, it was IDS, backed up by Nick Clegg and Oliver Letwin, arguing against George Osborne for sufficient funding to make radical welfare reform a genuine reform rather than a glorified word for cuts. On Trident, Osborne and Clegg have been on the same …

Continue reading »
Tagged | 9 Comments
John Pugh

John Pugh MP writes… What I have learned from ‘The Mafia’

By John Pugh | Sun 10th October 2010 - 3:15 pm

Stephen Tall on this site last week queried why it was that so many Liberal Democrats sounded ‘conservative’ on public sector reform. Supporting local democratic bodies (ie, councils) was likened to Conservative support of business and Labour support of unions— both sectional interests.

I think this is a flawed analysis. Liberal Democratic attitudes follow not from any sectional interest but a belief in democratic accountability. Opposition to many alleged reforms in public services hinge on a conviction that they are a poor substitute for it.

To understand what’s going on I have learned from Mafia films you must ‘follow the money.’

We …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | 7 Comments
David Boyle

Opinion: time to take on the Thing

By David Boyle | Sun 10th October 2010 - 9:54 am

The avalanche of cuts that are due to be announced later this month could decide the fate of the government, perhaps even of the country. Most Liberal Democrats I know are extremely nervous about, and they are right to be.

But beyond the arguments about the deficit and the national debt, there are other reasons why some cuts – the right cuts – might be a welcome opportunity. I believe this, I suppose, because of William Cobbett.

Cobbett was the great radical campaigner, as much of an influence on the future Liberal Party as Cobden or Bright, and he used …

Continue reading »
19 Comments
Mike Bell

Opinion: the Coalition’s £7 billion hit on families

By Mike Bell | Sat 9th October 2010 - 2:05 pm

The Government believes that strong and stable families of all kinds are the bedrock of a strong and stable society.

So says the Coalition Agreement, but has the Government’s approach to reducing the deficit actually demonstrated the opposite?

The furore over the proposed removal of Child Benefit from higher rate tax payers has raised hackles in the middle classes – and aspiring middle classes. But the cuts to Child Benefit are further evidence of a worrying trend since the election.

Whether there are arguments for the cuts or not, the list since May does not smack of a Government committed to “strong and …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | 36 Comments
David Thorpe

Opinion: Child Benefit policy is within the great Liberal tradition

By David Thorpe | Sat 9th October 2010 - 11:30 am

One of the most revered figures for British Liberal is Lord Beveridge, whose famous report laid the foundations for the welfare state as it was initially implemented by the 1945 Labour government. This report laid down the five “giant evils” which afflicted British society at that time, these were squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease.

As Lib Dems now contemplate the latest ream of announcements from George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith concerning reform of the welfare state, many of us, and particularly those who may identify with the ‘Beveridge’ Group within the party are concerned that the work of generations …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | 136 Comments
Mark Pack

The Saturday Debate: who is middle class?

By Mark Pack | Sat 9th October 2010 - 9:26 am

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

An easy question to ask, a rather harder one to answer. The news during the week about plans to change child benefit has seen many stories in the media about people on well above average income who are described as “middle class” rather than, say, “rich”.

Does this matter? Does “middle class” imply “not rich”? And is it not about money anyway (a point Millennium Elephant forcefully made earlier in the week)?

Tagged | 13 Comments
James Elsdon-Baker

The Independent View: surveillance lessons from Birmingham

By James Elsdon-Baker | Fri 8th October 2010 - 4:05 pm

Birmingham, the city that this week played host to the Conservative party conference, has also been hosting a grass roots battle for Liberty.

This battle takes the form of a campaign run by residents against Project Champion. This project involved the police installing automated number plate recognition cameras (ANPR) in a Muslim area of the city.

It has now been shown that the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) provided the project’s funding as part of an anti-terror grant. This raises the questions as to why people were mislead by senior officers into believing the cameras were installed for crime prevention …

Continue reading »
Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Simon McGrath

Opinion: what can Lord Ashcroft tell us about Lib Dem voters?

By Simon McGrath | Fri 8th October 2010 - 2:42 pm

Lord Ashcroft has spent some the money he acquired through not paying his taxes on a fascinating poll of former Labour voters.

The poll looks at 2091 people who voted Labour in 2005 but for other parties in 2010, 47% of them voted Lib Dem. It provides a wealth of information on the attitude of these voters who it is crucial we retain in 2015, and how they differ from ex Labour voters who choose to vote for other parties.

The first issue looked at is why did they leave Labour. They are asked to rate a number of reasons …

Continue reading »
Tagged | 15 Comments
Ed Long

Opinion: science should be protected from the cuts

By Ed Long | Fri 8th October 2010 - 1:05 pm

It’s been a heady week for British science in the wake of the Nobel prize announcements.

British reproductive biologist Robert Edwards was awarded the prize for medicine for his role in developing the in-vitro fertilisation techniques that led to the world’s first “test-tube baby”. In the same awards, the prize for physics was given to a pair of Russian-born scientists, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who we are lucky enough to have currently working at Manchester University. Incidentally, Geim is also an Ig Nobel laureate for developing an experiment in which he levitated a live frog using magnetic fields acting …

Continue reading »
Tagged , and | 22 Comments
Richard Morris

Opinion: Ed wants to steal our clothes

By Richard Morris | Fri 8th October 2010 - 11:20 am

Oh dear. Ed Miliband makes one speech in which he mentions Beveridge and doesn’t overtly attack us, and everyone thinks he’s making overtures to us and looking to form a Progressive Coalition after the next General Election.

Martin Kettle even wrote a short piece on this in The Guardian.

Wake up everyone. The complete opposite is true. When Ed Miliband said he wanted ‘to eliminate the Liberal Democrats from British Politics’, he meant it. And he’s going about it in an ingenious – and invidious – way.
Partly of course he’s playing the old card of the other two parties – …

Continue reading »
Tagged | 40 Comments
Simon de Deney

Opinion: it’s not the economy, stupid

By Simon de Deney | Thu 7th October 2010 - 5:04 pm

“Enough of the cuts already!”. We should be shouting. Not because of some ostrich-like desire to deny we’re part of a coalition that’s taking a scythe to public spending, but because the message is wrong. It’s not the cuts stupid, it’s not even the economy stupid. It’s the vision thing, clever.

Businesses are not in business to cut costs. Of course, they need to be efficient to compete (which includes not burdening themselves with debt that they can’t cope with). But their purpose, the reason someone set them up in the first place, is to make something or sell a service. …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | 32 Comments
Malcolm Wood

Opinion: Labour leadership voters may have favoured Balls over the Milibands

By Malcolm Wood | Thu 7th October 2010 - 3:22 pm

A low point in William Hague’s otherwise excellent conference speech on Sunday was his cheap shot at the Alternative Vote system and its role in the outcome of the Labour leadership election. The result, he implied, was some sort of mathematical anomaly; somehow unfair. But there’s nothing unfair about the election of Ed Miliband. If the election were repeated tomorrow using the first-past-the-post system, with only the two Milibands standing, the result would be the same. What the AV system showed was that a majority of the Labour party electorate preferred Ed over David. …

Continue reading »
Tagged | 4 Comments
William Cullerne Bown

The Independent View: Clegg must play his cards right on student fees

By William Cullerne Bown | Thu 7th October 2010 - 1:55 pm

Well here we are, in the cockpit of history. The Today programme yesterday reported that David Willetts had been yanked back from the Conservative Party conference to negotiate with Vince Cable over student fees, looking for a deal before the Browne Review delivers its report.

What kind of deal is possible? This is a crucial question not just for Liberal Democrats but for the whole country because Nick Clegg holds a powerful hand and the way he plays his cards may shape the future our universities and the role they play in this country for a generation.

The right of abstention …

Continue reading »
Tagged , , , , and | 38 Comments

The Independent View: Honouring our refugee protection commmitments

By Marilyn Croser | Thu 7th October 2010 - 11:27 am

Asylum is a human rights issue. Given the tone of public debate in the last few years, you could be forgiven for not realising that, or having forgotten it. Asylum policy is about ensuring that people who have suffered appalling persecution are given the protection they’re entitled to. That’s not mentioned very often either. So it was heartening to see a room full of people at the Lib Dem conference in Liverpool for a discussion organised by the Refugee Council and UNHCR on ‘Asylum Policy: Honouring Our Refugee Protection Commitments’.

The meeting brought together Tom Brake MP, Roland Schilling (UNHCR UK …

Continue reading »
Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged , , , , and | 3 Comments
Iain Roberts

How regressive is the VAT rise?

By Iain Roberts | Thu 7th October 2010 - 8:30 am

Labour had been considering it for months before the General Election. The Coalition decided it was necessary after they’d seen the books – much to the discomfort of many Lib Dems. It’s the VAT rise – to 20% on 1st January 2011.

Many people have said that it’s a regressive tax and we should have increased basic rate income tax instead, suggesting that would be fairer.

Is that really true? Partly, but in reality the case is less clear cut.

We don’t pay VAT on food, children’s clothes, books, newspapers, magazines or sporting activities nor will the VAT rise affect …

Continue reading »
Also posted in News | Tagged | 94 Comments
Matt Gallagher

Opinion: is a Labour-led coalition possible?

By Matt Gallagher | Wed 6th October 2010 - 3:29 pm

Now that Ed Miliband has apparently embraced the Liberal Democrat agenda (voting reform, civil liberties, fairer taxation, condemnation of the Iraq war, cleaning up ‘the city’, the need for ‘fiscal credibility’ etc.,) he raises an intriguing question. Could Labour form a coalition government before the term of the present one expires?

The maths is intriguing. Labour currently hold 258 seats. Since Sinn Fein refuse to take up their five seats in Parliament the ‘magic number’ for a majority is an attainable 323. Were Labour to win three by-elections by taking seats from the Scottish Nationalists or Plaid Cymru, and were …

Continue reading »
Tagged | 91 Comments
Iain Roberts

Were the Lib Dems the conference media winners?

By Iain Roberts | Wed 6th October 2010 - 1:44 pm

When it comes to party conferences, all parties complain that the media get it wrong.

If you’re in the Green Party, UKIP, Plaid, the SNP or another smaller party you’ll be frustrated about the way the national media ignore you.  All those great policies and speeches to the party faithful, but you end up with a small paragraph in the Times.  If you’re lucky.

The Lib Dems were finding out this year what it’s like not to be ignored. Tabloid hacks arriving for the first time from the Sun , Express, Mirror and Mail may have been as bemused by the disappointing …

Continue reading »
Also posted in Conference | 7 Comments
Andrew George

Opinion: Bovine TB eradication must be science-led

By Andrew George | Wed 6th October 2010 - 11:27 am

“As part of a package of measures, we will introduce a carefully managed and science-led policy of badger control in areas with high and persistent levels of Bovine Tuberculosis” – The Coalition: Our programme for Government (page 18)

The Government is now consulting on its proposal to introduce badger culling as part of its approach to tackle Bovine TB. This part of the Government’s policy is bound to generate both controversy and impassioned debate.

Last year the Government slaughtered over 25,000 cattle because of TB. The control programme costs £63 million. Yet the situation is getting worse.

There is little doubt – and the …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | 12 Comments
Lauren Keith

Opinion: the Tories should be supporting voting reform

By Lauren Keith | Tue 5th October 2010 - 4:50 pm

I am not a Liberal Democrat who is going to apologise on the doorstep for the Coalition. I think it was the best situation that could have transpired.

The Conservatives are not the party they were in the 1980s; they have a leader who is clearly much more in the centre-ground of politics, and his and Nick’s personal chemistry certainly attest to a political dovetailing as well. You need look no further than the disquiet about Cameron and the coalition coming from the traditional right-wing elements of the party, and the brewing arguments over defence spending to …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | 27 Comments
Phil Cowley

The Independent View: Conservatives admit their role in election attacks on Clegg

By Phil Cowley | Tue 5th October 2010 - 3:17 pm

Back in April, in those heady days after the first televised leaders debate, as news of the remarkable Liberal Democrat poll surge began to come through, Nick Clegg spoke to the members of his campaign team on the phone. None of them could quite believe what was happening, but they agreed on one thing: ‘They’re going to come for us.’

As everyone will recall, ‘they’ did – with a string of lurid newspaper stories, reaching a peak on 22 April, the morning of the second leaders’ debate.  Most Lib Dem Voice readers will remember: ‘Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem donors and payments into his private account’ (Daily Telegraph); ‘Clegg’s crazy immigration policies’ (Daily Express); ‘Wobble Democrat’ (Sun); and ‘Clegg in Nazi Slur on Britain’ (Daily Mail).

Continue reading »
Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged , and | 48 Comments
Ewan Hoyle

Opinion: my Guardian drugs surprise

By Ewan Hoyle | Tue 5th October 2010 - 1:28 pm

Cannabis stance is wrong, says Lib Dem drug campaigner

This was the surprising headline that greeted me on the guardian website just a few short hours after I’d made my maiden speech to conference.

I wasn’t planning to give a speech from the conference floor when I arrived in Liverpool. Having seen the latest motion I had drafted on drugs policy again be rejected by the Federal Conference Committee, I was instead concentrating on encouraging as many people as possible (without being too pushy) to attend the fringe event “It’s Time We Talked About Drug Policy” at which I was …

Continue reading »
Also posted in Conference | Tagged | 10 Comments
Iain Roberts

Capping total benefit entitlements – right or wrong?

By Iain Roberts | Tue 5th October 2010 - 12:40 pm

Alongside the widely publicised lopping of child benefits for higher-rate taxpayers, George Osborne has also announced plans for a cap on how much any one non-working family can get from the State.

The maximum will be set at £26,000 and starts in 2013. It’s likely to affect larger families, particularly those put into private rented accomodation by their local authority.

This capping seems to be pretty much impossible to do with the system as it is right now. There’s a host of different benefits and credits, all administered by different people and, in some cases, totally different tiers of government. …

Continue reading »
Also posted in News | Tagged , and | 142 Comments
Mark Pack

Choosing Parliamentary candidates isn’t just about the individual; it’s also about the team

By Mark Pack | Tue 5th October 2010 - 10:27 am

Spend time talking to Liberal Democrat members about how the party should or shouldn’t go about selecting its Westminster Parliamentary candidates and pretty soon you’ll hear someone say, usually in the context of whether or not we have too many male white candidates, “But it should be about selecting the best person for the job”. Even people who argue for either positive action or positive discrimination frequently accept the underlying assumption – but argue that to get the best person for the job requires a broader vision, taking into account wider discrimination in society and so on.

Yet selecting a candidate …

Continue reading »
7 Comments
Iain Roberts

Child benefit: the cutting debate

By Iain Roberts | Tue 5th October 2010 - 8:11 am

George Osborne has announced that the Coalition Government plans to scrap child benefit payments for families where one or both parents is a higher rate taxpayer.

Child benefit is currently paid to families (normally to the mother) where any children are under 18. It isn’t a means tested benefit: you have to apply and show you’ve got children, but there are no long, complicated forms to fill out where you give details of your financial situation.

So is the change a good idea? From my staw polling, most – but certainly not all – Lib Dems seem to think this …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | 127 Comments
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...
  • David Raw
    @ Russell "First, by dumping the triple lock". Are you sure you've posted this on the correct website, Russell ? In the meantime I sincerely hope you never ...
  • Laurence Cox
    Our motto should be "not just higher taxes but fairer taxes". Individuals should be taxed exactly the same on their income whether that comes from earned income...
  • 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...