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Category Archives: Op-eds

Opinion: How do my election leaflets look now?

By Stuart Bonar | Tue 23rd November 2010 - 10:26 am

Rummaging through some papers at the weekend I came across my Election Address from May’s General Election. I was the Liberal Democrat candidate in Plymouth Moor View.

Conditioned after months of the media drip feed about how Lib Dems had stabbed every conceivable group in the back, I steeled myself to read the list of broken promises I had made to the good people of my home city.

Well, first of all, on the front of my Election Address, I promised fairer taxes that put money back in your pocket. I went into specifics, stating that “you will pay no tax …

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49 Comments

On the receiving end of a tuition fees protest

By Iain Roberts | Mon 22nd November 2010 - 2:21 pm

I recently spent the day at the office of a Lib Dem MP, who’s been targetted for a protest about the proposed increase in tuition fees. As a veteran of quite a few protests myself, especially back in my student days, it’s interesting and quite fun to be on the receiving end.

My personal view on the Lib Dem tuition fees position is one I’ve previously written about. With hindsight, the pledge was clearly a mistake and our MPs shouldn’t have made it. However, we are where we are and MPs have to consider not just the pledge but actually …

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Tagged higher education, tuition fees and universities | 26 Comments

Opinion: Ireland has many economic problems…..but it isn’t an argument against the Euro

By David Thorpe | Sun 21st November 2010 - 1:50 pm

As my native Ireland teeters on the edge of bankruptcy and bailout, sections of the British press have taken the opportunity to view Ireland’s difficulty as the Europsceptic’s opportunity.

Some of the comment has centred around the idea that British taxpayers will be asked to ‘bail out’ their feckless neighbours, as, apparently they were with Greece last year.

This article aims not to explore that argument further, as it is a debate too reliant on uncertain future events, and is framed within a Britsih nationalist context which it is not appropriate for me to explore.

Instead I want to focus on another aspect …

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged euro, european union, eurosceptic and republic of ireland | 55 Comments

Opinion: Control Orders – 14 words to mull over

By Jo Shaw | Sun 21st November 2010 - 12:26 pm

“The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society”. These are the first fourteen words of the Preamble to the Constitution of the Liberal Democrats. It was this statement that finally made me decide to join the Lib Dems nearly ten years ago, and has kept me campaigning, working and fighting for and on behalf of our party ever since.

The control order debate has been raging lately, within the party and in the press. I wanted to explain why I feel so strongly about the issue of control orders and why I set up the …

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Tagged anti-terrorist legislation and control orders | 13 Comments

Opinion: Lib Dems must change strategy if they are to regain electoral credibility

By Sean McHale | Sun 21st November 2010 - 9:56 am

Nobody likes an apologist. So why are the Liberal Democrats apologising for every decision the Coalition takes? Continue on this road and the party is heading toward electoral annihilation.

This apologist outlook has stemmed from the strategy the Lib Dems have operated with since 1997, namely, attacking the government from the left. The strategy must be broadly viewed as a success. Only a month prior to the election the party were ahead in the polls, and although they suffered a net loss in regard to seats, the party gained a notoriety amongst the public not witnessed for over 80 years.

But the …

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Tagged simon hughes | 32 Comments

David Howarth writes… The Public Bodies Bill is sloppy, lazily drafted and must be radically amended

By David Howarth | Sat 20th November 2010 - 4:02 pm

On Friday, Mark Pack wrote on Lib Dem Voice about Public Bodies Bill – Abolition of Parliament: it was wrong then and it’s wrong now – highlighting how some parts of the Public Bodies Bill echo the proposals previously made by Labour and against which David Howarth led the opposition. Now David Howarth gives his take on the Bill:

The Public Bodies Bill gives ministers powers to abolish, merge, reform or change the functions or financial arrangements of public bodies (i.e. quangos). Ministers will be able to use these powers by issuing unamendable statutory instruments that require a single vote …

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Tagged Mark Pack and public bodies bill | 19 Comments

Opinion: Let’s hear from Labour their tuition fees policy

By Shas Sheehan | Sat 20th November 2010 - 10:27 am

What a mess we seem to have got ourselves into over tuition fees. How on earth did we get here?

I can only speak for myself. I joined the party because of its policies on green issues, clarity of thought on civil liberties, regard for international law, opposition to nuclear energy and renewal of Trident, and tuition fees.

This latter policy was very important to me.

I don’t come from a privileged background. At school I was one of the kids on free school meals and to go to university I had a full grant.

I hated free school meals because everyone knew who …

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Tagged browne report, higher education, tuition fees, universities and vince cable | 59 Comments

Jeremy Browne writes… Human rights, six months in

By Jeremy Browne MP | Fri 19th November 2010 - 10:53 am

Last week at the UN, 107 countries voted for a worldwide moratorium on the use of the death penalty. The UK led the international lobbying effort and provided strong encouragement to countries such as Mongolia, who voted for the moratorium for the first time.

This was a very encouraging result and part of a wider international movement towards global abolition. It is clear in my mind that the death penalty is no deterrent to criminals, it can never be reversed and it is a denial of the liberal sanctity of the individual. It is the UK’s unwavering aim to try and …

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19 Comments

Abolition of Parliament: it was wrong then and it’s wrong now

By Mark Pack | Fri 19th November 2010 - 8:56 am

Back when Tony Blair was Prime Minister Labour tried to get through Parliament sweeping powers to change the law without requiring full Parliamentary scrutiny. Then Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth was one of those who led the charge against this, writing in The Times:

The Government proposed an extraordinary Bill that will drastically reduce parliamentary discussion of future laws, a Bill some constitutional experts are already calling “the Abolition of Parliament Bill”.

A couple of journalists noticed, including Daniel Finkelstein of The Times, and a couple more pricked up their ears last week when I highlighted some biting academic criticism of the

…

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Tagged david howarth, dizzy thinks, house of lords delegated powers and regulatory reform committee, LabourList, Liberal Conspiracy and public bodies bill | 7 Comments

Chris Rennard writes… The battle for electoral reform in the Lords

By Chris Rennard | Thu 18th November 2010 - 7:05 pm

Battle has been joined in the House of Lords over the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill (generally referred to as the PVSC Bill). Having passed all stages in the Commons, it came to the Lords this week. It needs to get to Royal Assent by the end of January for the referendum on using the Alternative Vote for future Westminster elections to be held on May 5th next year.

Two controversial measures have been put together in one Bill as part of the coalition agreement. The Government won every vote in the Commons on this Bill with comfortable majorities. But Labour’s …

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Tagged av referendum, electoral reform, Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill and paul tyler | 12 Comments

Opinion: Microfinance epitomises Liberal Democracy

By Shas Sheehan | Wed 17th November 2010 - 10:24 am

Microfinance epitomises Liberal Democracy and we must push the Department For International Development (DFID) to reverse the declining support the Labour years has visited on this decentralised, non-statist and very effective means of lending a hand up to the poorest people on the planet.

In the picture is the cooking stove I bought in Malawi from a gentleman called George (not his real name). George was loaned the money by a microfinance charity so that he could buy sheet metal rather than scavenge for the materials he needed.

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged malawi | 5 Comments

Not all your letters have to be the same: a European lesson

By Mark Pack | Wed 17th November 2010 - 8:55 am

The following piece by Dinti Batstone and myself appeared in the November edition of ALDC‘s Campaigner. It follows up on two common themes of ours – Dinti’s on targeting European voters and mine about direct mail:

It’s been a case of two steps forward, one step back in many local parties when it comes to getting more out of direct mail over the last few years. As covered previously in of Campaigner, the emphasis on doing direct mail more often and to more people has sometimes come at a cost in variation. Rather than, say, one batch of direct …

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Tagged dinti batstone and direct mail | 1 Comment

False claims of betrayal do the NUS no credit

By Iain Roberts | Tue 16th November 2010 - 5:29 pm

Have the Liberal Democrats betrayed students? The NUS certainly say so, and plenty of people agree.

They’re wrong.

The Liberal Democrats have made a u-turn on tuition fees – they haven’t denied it. As I argued a few days ago, the Lib Dems have no claim to be morally superior to any other party. We didn’t want to go back on commitments and promises but, like Labour and the Conservatives, we have done.

But is that u-turn a betrayal of students?

Or, to put it another way, is the result of that u-turn that students get a worse deal than they’d …

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Tagged higher education, nus, tuition fees and universities | 93 Comments

Opinion: Interpreting the internal election results

By David Hall-Matthews | Tue 16th November 2010 - 3:57 pm

The bare bones of the internal party election results were set out here on Saturday showing who had been elected by conference reps to the various committees.

The detailed results for the Federal Executive and the Federal Policy Committee, hosted by Colin Rosenstiel, show some revealing trends when compared with previous years’ election results.

This year, in the Federal Executive elections, Evan Harris came top on first preference by a long stretch with 263 votes. Following him was David Rendel (107) and Ramesh Dewan (77) with others on 55. Evan is clearly identified with the progressive, Social Liberal wing …

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Also posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged david rendel, duncan brack, evan harris, gareth epps, linda jack, ramesh dewan, sandra gidley, social liberal forum, susan gaszczak and tony greaves | 38 Comments

Steve Webb writes… Why Liberal Democrats should welcome the welfare reforms

By Steve Webb MP | Tue 16th November 2010 - 10:27 am

Many Liberal Democrats may be wondering what to make of last week’s announcement by Iain Duncan Smith to replace a whole raft of working-age welfare benefits with a Universal Credit. As a Lib Dem Minister at the DWP, I thought it would be helpful to offer my perspective.

As a party we have long talked about integrating the tax and benefits system. As a first step, we surely need to integrate the benefits system with itself. The Universal Credit approach sits comfortably with our own policy to introduce a single working-age benefit, and will provide a basic allowance topped up by additional elements …

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Tagged iain duncan smith and welfare reform | 64 Comments

Opinion: Clegg has not betrayed us!

By Mat Smith | Mon 15th November 2010 - 2:56 pm

Many left-leaning liberals in the media are outraged at what they consider to be broken pledges on the part of Nick Clegg.

Johann Hari writes in The Independent, “In just a few days after the election, he cleared a space in his swanky new ministerial offices and staged a bonfire of his principles”.

Aside from the fact this article is laced with hyperbole (look carefully – barely a paragraph without some emotive language!), I can’t help thinking this is exactly not what the country needs.

I don’t mean that in a patriotic sense; I believe this country will operate perfectly well …

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Tagged john hari and nick clegg | 148 Comments

Opinion: A good news story – and a clear justification for the Pupil Premium

By John Howson | Mon 15th November 2010 - 10:22 am

Why are ministers turning stories into bad news? Perhaps the ‘age of austerity’ has addled their brains or are they are still operating in ‘opposition mode’. Nick Gibbs’s announcement of the Key State 1 results is a case in point.

Now I know Nick Gibbs has an agenda to mandate synthetic phonics as the only way to teach reading – see the DfE Business Plan – and the contradiction between that level of prescription and ‘freeing up the curriculum’ is but one part of the muddle that is policy-making within Sanctuary Buildings at present.

But, that’s not the story here.

Rather there …

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Tagged nick gibbs and pupil premium | 14 Comments

Opinion: The Four Boxes – why the student occupation should be denounced

By Zoe O’Connell | Sun 14th November 2010 - 2:05 pm

There is a rather American saying which runs along the lines of “We have four boxes with which to defend our freedom: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury
box, and the ammo box. In that order”.

It becomes a good way of putting Wednesday’s violence in context, particularly for those that are trying to argue some similarity between the suffragette movement and student fees. That movement had no choice but to resort to violent occupation because the very thing its members were campaigning for was access to the ballot box.

But rather than the entire NUS executive distancing themselves …

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Tagged higher education, nus, tuition fees and universities | 120 Comments

The Saturday debate: how important should promoting military exports be for the MoD?

By Mark Pack | Sat 13th November 2010 - 8:57 am

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

The Ministry of Defence’s business plan lays down seven priorities for 2010-15, of which the fourth is:

To promote defence exports consistent with export control criteria; as part of a defence diplomacy programme to strengthen British influence and help support British industry and jobs.

Should the MoD have that as a goal? And if it does, should it fourth of the seven? Over to you…

Tagged ministry of defence and weekend debate | 10 Comments

Three simple ways to reform EDMs, without harming the fibreglass sheep

By Mark Pack | Fri 12th November 2010 - 5:53 pm

Dizzy Thinks has been on the case again about the costs run by Early Day Motions in Parliament. As he delicately puts it:

Yes, we really do have to spend £150K alone on the salary, pension and NI contributions for the poor sods that have to sort out the latest self-congratulatory bollocks that our MPs want to spout off fruitlessly about.

The combination of cost and triviality of many EDMs has caused some people to call for their abolition. I think this is going too far, as some EDMs do provide a useful mechanism, as a focus for external campaign groups, …

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Also posted in Parliament | Tagged dizzy thinks, edm and robert halfon | 1 Comment

Opinion: Are the poor going to be driven out of the south by the Coalition’s housing benefit reforms?

By Simon McGrath | Fri 12th November 2010 - 3:28 pm

A shocking story in the Guardian this week that, not content with driving the poor out of Kensington and Chelsea, the Coalition’s cap on housing benefit would force them out of southern England altogether. Worse, this came from the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), who sound like they ought to know what they are talking about.

I rang up the CIH and asked how I could get hold of a copy of the study and was surprised to hear that there has been not actually been one. They are apparently ‘doing some work for a Select Committee’ which …

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Tagged Chartered Institute of Housing, housing benefit and the guardian | 40 Comments

Lembit Öpik writes… Why I’m going on “I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!”

By Lembit Öpik | Fri 12th November 2010 - 11:18 am

As you may know, I’m hoping to be selected as the Lib Dem Mayoral candidate for London. For various reasons, the internal Party process has been postponed till around next summer, though I myself have been short-listed to be part of that selection process.

I’m concerned to ensure that, in the meantime, we don’t vanish off the face of the electoral earth as Boris and Ken forge ahead with their campaigns. For this reason, I’m doing my best to illustrate what “Lembit’s London” would look like, and the nature of the campaign itself.

Part of this will be sharing my policy positions. I’d summarise my campaign as “Freedom for the city, power to the people.” This motif centres on three key areas – Libertarianism, Localism and Labour (not the Party! I mean the workers who keep this city going).

But the best campaigning narrative in the world is pointless unless people are actually interested in it, and have some association with the people putting it forward. Being worthy is not empowering to the public if you’re anonymous and can’t generate the coverage to get the message across.

For this reason, I’ve decided to appear on the reality television show “I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out Of Here!” It’s a great opportunity to get direct to the viewing public, and show, in what I believe to be a generally fair programme, how I operate in a team, under pressure and in a competitive environment.

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Tagged london mayoral selection and reality tv | 48 Comments

An account of the demonstration against tuition fee increases

By George Potter | Thu 11th November 2010 - 9:33 pm

I was at the tuition fees protest as one of the Lib Dems who had agreed via Facebook to march together at the demonstration. Amongst the (inevitably violence dominated) coverage of the protests, I decided that I would like to give my impression of what occurred for the benefit of those who did not attend.

For me the protest began at 9.30am by boarding a Student Union organised coach to London from the University of Surrey. There were about 100 of us in total from Surrey and the general feeling on the coaches was upbeat as we gave our names and …

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Tagged higher education, martin shapland, tuition fees and universities | 41 Comments

John Hemming MP writes… The Rent’s too damn high

By John Hemming MP | Thu 11th November 2010 - 5:22 pm

Why the housing benefit changes are not about social cleansing, but instead about getting rents reduced for all tenants.

In New York there is a political party named “The Rent’s too damn high”, founded by Jimmy McMillan. What he argues is that life is difficult in New York because rents are too high. It is important to recognise that private sector rents are also an issue in the UK as well as those funded by the state.

Since November 2008 private rents have gone down by 5% and private rents funded by Local Housing Allowance (LHA) have gone up by 3%. The government changed the housing benefit system for private landlords a few years ago replacing Housing Benefit with a Local Housing Allowance. As LHA will be paid regardless of how high the rent actually is, this has driven up the rents paid in this sector. In comparison to the rents on the old Housing Benefit an additional 10% is being paid through LHA.

It is worth noting that the upward pressure on rents from LHA has also driven up rents paid by people who don’t get Housing Benefit. This is neither helpful to the country, where money is being borrowed to overpay landlords nor is it helpful to the lower paid who are renting privately.

The government, therefore, has a number of objectives in controlling housing benefit:

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Tagged housing benefit | 55 Comments

Chris White writes: trust me – this really is going to hurt

By Chris White | Thu 11th November 2010 - 3:03 pm

We all knew there would be cuts and some have recently received rather a high profile (and yes – I do condemn the outcome of the tuition fees march).

Local government rarely gets sympathetic headlines at the best of times but it has done extraordinarily badly in the Comprehensive Spending Review – and without much media interest.

Local government will receive cuts in grant of 28%, compared with the 19% in other ‘unprotected’ departments (ie departments other than education and health). Local communities will also see 20% cuts in police funding and 25% cuts in fire and rescue.

On top of the simple …

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Tagged eric pickles and Local government | 30 Comments

Baroness Liz Barker writes… Reasons to be cheerful

By Baroness Liz Barker | Thu 11th November 2010 - 10:23 am

As the nights draw one can become a bit miserable. So here is my list of reasons to be cheerful (Part V):

Tax: people earning less than £10,000 pay no income tax
Banking levy: the people responsible for the financial mess being made to help with the clear up
Social Care: £2 billion to fund long term care
Green Investment Bank: £1 billion in cash plus the proceeds of future asset sales to fund

…

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37 Comments

Opinion: Gentlemen! A little less bitching, please

By Sophie Bridger | Wed 10th November 2010 - 11:57 am

For a party that prides itself on its stance on gender equality, we still have a lot of work to do. Sure, we campaign for greater and more flexible parental leave, and an end to unacknowledged airbrushing. We rightly refuse to acknowledge patronising all women shortlists, both in the party as a whole, and within Liberal Youth. We’ve certainly got a lot better at representation – a third of our target seat candidates in the last election were women. But women make up more than 50% of our population, and around 45% of our membership. A third is simply not …

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Tagged equalities, harriet harman and liberal youth | 18 Comments

Paul Tyler writes… Party funding: dilemmas and delays

By Paul Tyler | Wed 10th November 2010 - 10:58 am

Since so many of us have fought elections against extremely well-funded opposition candidates, Liberal Democrats are naturally and rightly exercised by the matter of campaign finance. Though Labour made some modest progress with its Political Parties, Elections and Referendums (PPERA) Act, back in 2000, the Act’s focus was transparency, rather than regulation.

When I chaired the party’s policy group on Better Governance in 2007, we set out an objective that no donor should be able to buy influence in the political process, and no party should be able to buy elections. This was the approach we took in the cross-party talks …

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Also posted in Parliament | Tagged lord ashcroft, lord mcnally, party funding and political parties elections and referendums act 2000 | 4 Comments

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How Liberal Democrats can ride Britain’s youth wave on the pro-EU shift (Rupinder Singh)
Just growth by lowering deadweight losses through tax (Tony Vickers)
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The need for a nationally relevant message (Mark Corner)

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