Category Archives: Op-eds

Opinion: a broken pledge, but we knew how bad it was back in March

By Hywel Morgan | Sat 16th October 2010 - 3:00 pm

Sorry Nick. Sorry Vince, I can’t find the figures that back you up

Both Nick and Vince have claimed that there was no option but to reverse their pledges on tuition fees. The public sector finances were in a far worse state than they expected and they had no option.

That would be a justification that would be just about sellable to people. A promise made in good faith which became unsustainable due to information not known about at the time could be legitimately broken.

The problem is, I can’t really find much that backs that claim up.

My starting point …

Tagged alistair darling, george osborne, higher education, nick clegg, tuition fees, universities and vince cable | 54 Comments

Opinion: why we should support students from state schools going to university

By Alex White | Sat 16th October 2010 - 1:23 pm

Perhaps one of the biggest issues in Britain today is education and having heard various members of my family rant on about it, it’s one of the most emotive subjects I’ve come by. This week we have had all the talk of university tuition fees and I’ve been listening very carefully as it does affect me, but whatever level whether it be primary, secondary or further education, the Lib Dems are the people who usually stand up for our pupils and students.

In Dunfermline at the Scottish Liberal Democrat’s conference I (a very nervous young first timer) got up on the …

Tagged higher education, tuition fees and universities | 14 Comments

Opinion: educating Mr Cable

By Adam Bell | Sat 16th October 2010 - 11:28 am

Vince Cable is, if you’ll pardon the pun, deep in the Browne stuff. Lord Browne’s proposed reforms to higher education funding – and overall rise in tuition fees they represent – have quite understandably upset a significant portion of the party. Cable’s whole-hearted endorsement of them has led to the accusation that we’ve gone back on one of our core principles in the name of political expediency. This accusation is not without merit, but let’s map out the situation as best we can.

Significant cuts are in the pipeline for higher education. Already this year restrictions have been placed on the …

Tagged higher education, tuition fees, universities and vince cable | 8 Comments

Opinion: an open letter to MPs – say NO to Browne

By Sophie Bertrand | Fri 15th October 2010 - 4:56 pm

The publication of the Browne report earlier this week has received a lot of backlash from the public but what angered me and many other members the most was the positive response it got from Nick Clegg and Vince Cable.

Although the report does contain some positive points, there are a few dangerous suggestions which threaten the futures of thousands of prospective students. One such suggestion was to get rid of the cap on fees. This will inevitably lead to many courses costing around £7,000 per year with some so-called ‘elite courses’ possibly costing up to £36,000 for …

Tagged higher education, nick clegg, tuition fees, universities and vince cable | 35 Comments

Andrew Stunell writes…Open Government is Better Government

By Andrew Stunell MP | Fri 15th October 2010 - 3:21 pm

Earlier in the year, my colleague Eric Pickles announced that local authorities would be required to publish details of all of their spending above £500. This reform will go hand in hand with a requirement from November for central government departments to publish monthly details of all spending over £25,000. The Department for Communities and Local Government, however, have decided to go one better, and join our local government colleagues and publish everything over £500.

Why is this important, I hear you ask? Won’t it just provide the opposition, and for that matter, organisations like the Tax Payers Alliance with greater …

Tagged andrew stunell and open government | 17 Comments

Opinion: education is worth more than any price tag

By Sarah Harding | Fri 15th October 2010 - 2:21 pm

Labour failed a generation of young people and students in this country. They left them with debt, with unemployment, and with a deficit worth £25,000 to each person. But in their final months they did do something to help.

Commissioning the Browne Review in Higher Education Funding reopened the debate on education in this country; it allowed those interested to have their say, and more importantly be listened to. It gave the Coalition Government the chance to reform the education system.

For Liberal Youth, our primary aim is to represent our membership, to do our best for them, and as such we …

Tagged browne report, higher education, tuition fees and universities | 16 Comments

Opinion: Cable may do enough to deserve our support

By Ben Johnson | Fri 15th October 2010 - 12:31 pm

The coalition government is busy reading through Lord Browne’s report into higher education funding. He has recommended lifting the cap on fees, currently set at £3290 per year. All Liberal Democrat MPs were elected on the understanding that they opposed any rise in fees. But is the level of fee the critical issue here? And why is a graduate tax more popular?

I joined the Liberal Democrats back in 2001, whilst an undergraduate at the University of Warwick. I joined because of opposition to tuition fees. Back then, the tuition fees I opposed were set …

Tagged browne, higher education, tuition fees, universities and vince cable | 58 Comments

Clegg secures £7 billion extra to fund education for the most disadvantaged – from pre-school through to university

By Mark Pack | Fri 15th October 2010 - 6:25 am

Just as plays have a classic three-act structure, so too do tricky political decisions: first you rule out a potentially popular alternative, then you put out the bad news and finally you sweeten the pill as you try to avert people’s worst fears.

Last weekend saw act one on the tuition fees message, with Vince Cable taking to email to rule out a graduate tax – and trying to pre-empt Labour support for it by emphasising that party’s own previous opposition to the idea. (Given the subsequent news of now Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson’s continued opposition to a …

Also posted in News | Tagged featured, higher education, nick clegg, pupil premium, tuition fees, universities and vince cable | 32 Comments

Opinion: How we transformed council housing in Perth and Kinross

By Peter Barrett | Thu 14th October 2010 - 10:10 pm

Cllr Peter Barrett is Perth and Kinross Council’s Housing and Health Convenor. He was once described in the local newspaper as the “Saviour of Tay Street” after defeating a previous administration’s car parking plans. Here he describes how he has transformed the housing service for the better. I’ve always thought that housing is one of the most important issues to sort. In fact, I’d say that there’s little point in the Pupil Premium if the kids it’s there to support don’t have warm, dry, comfortable homes to live in and enough food to eat. It’s hard to learn if you’re …

Also posted in Scotland | Tagged guest editor, housing and perth and kinross council | 1 Comment

George Lyon: Our high hopes for the Scottish Parliament elections

By George Lyon MEP | Thu 14th October 2010 - 5:55 pm

George Lyon MEP is Chair of the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ Election Group. He was elected in 2009 and details of his campaigns on subjects such as fair deal for rural drivers, disabilities, food labelling and can be found on his website www.georgelyon.org.uk. Here he writes about the Party’s prospects and priorities in next year’s election.

What a year it has been for Liberal Democrats.

This time last year, I don’t think anyone in their heart of hearts believed that Liberals would form part of the government for the first time since 1945.

But this time last year we did have the right …

Also posted in Scotland | Tagged guest editor | 3 Comments

Opinion: We should be ambitious in our campaigning

By Katy Gordon | Thu 14th October 2010 - 4:55 pm

Katy Gordon fought Glasgow North in the General Election in May and is now the top candidate on the Glasgow Regional list for the Holyrood elections in May. In this inspiring article, she shows how her team’s “yes we can” attitude paid dividends, increasing membership by 150%.

When I started campaigning in June 2007 as PPC for the target seat of Glasgow North, I had very little idea of how to go about it. All I knew was I was fed up with Labour taking the people of Glasgow for granted, that the Lib Dems had real potential to grow in …

Also posted in Scotland | Tagged guest editor, hugh waterfield, jamie mchale and vince cable | 16 Comments

Opinion: The day the Northern Irish came to Scottish Conference

By Stephen Glenn | Thu 14th October 2010 - 4:25 pm

For many years now I have attended Scottish Liberal Democrat conference as a Northern Irish person. I’m not alone as there are many familiar accents scattered across the Scottish parties of other Northern Irish born members.

However, last weekend was the first time I attended as a Northern Irish local party member, but again I was not alone. I’d travelled over with the local party chair Michael Carchrie Campbell and one of our youth members Stephen McFarland had travelled down with the rest of the Aberdeen University crew.

It was a good conference for us all to get to, even though Michael …

Also posted in Scotland | Tagged guest editor, michael carchrie campbell and stephen mcfarland | Leave a comment

A snapshot of a first class debate – a Scottish persepective on higher education

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 14th October 2010 - 3:24 pm

This week has seen Vince Cable and Nick Clegg adopt a position on tuition fees which is at odds with long held and much loved Party Policy. It remains to be seen how many of our MPs will go along with any recommendations to increase tuition fees. Already, MPs like Greg Mulholland, Julian Huppert, Tim Farron, Ming Campbell and Charles Kennedy have already stated that they will honour the pledge they signed during the Election campaign to oppose any increase.

In Scotland last weekend the positions were almost reversed, with the Holyrood Front Bench anxious to support our policy of free …

Also posted in Scotland | Tagged guest editor, higher education, tuition fees and universities | 7 Comments

Opinion: Delivering a bright new future for Edinburgh

By Jenny Dawe | Thu 14th October 2010 - 12:55 pm

“I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left”, wrote the outgoing Labour Chief Secretary to the Treasury in May this year.

Reel back three years to the May 2007 Scottish local elections. The Liberal Democrats had become the largest party in the City of Edinburgh Council after 23 years of Labour control. A new Lib Dem led coalition with the SNP was beginning to look eagerly at how to change the city. We didn’t get a note. Instead, we got a stark warning from the Director of Finance that reserves were perilously low and the Council was heading for a …

Also posted in Local government and Scotland | Tagged edinburgh and guest editor | 8 Comments

Opinion: We are a party founded on the principle of free education

By Callum Leslie | Thu 14th October 2010 - 10:55 am

Liberal Youth Scotland has made a huge impact in the last few years. They have fought for equalities, demonstrated against the homophobic Westboro Baptist Church when they threatened to come to Edinburgh, produced many excellent motions to our Conference where their Quiz/Debate evenings have become the place to be. Their VP-Communications tells us what LYS has been up to and how it feels about the Browne Report.

Liberal Youth Scotland is one of the fastest growing movements in the Liberal Democrats today. Since April, our membership has gone up by over 60%. Over the past two years, we have succeeded in …

Also posted in Scotland | Tagged browne report, guest editor, higher education, kristian chapman, tuition fees and universities | 8 Comments

Opinion: A first timer’s guide to Scottish Lib Dem Conference 2010

By Paul Freeman | Thu 14th October 2010 - 9:55 am

Saturday’s Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference was the first conference I’d been to, and aside from a local hustings at the general election, the very first political event I’d ever been to. I was very much a newbie and a little bit nervous and uncertain about what to expect from the day. I even had to ask what it was best to wear, although that was really to stop my wife insisting I go in a suit. I wouldn’t have looked out of place in a suit, but if I’d turned up in a pair of green wellies I wouldn’t have been the only one …

Also posted in Scotland | Tagged alexandra white, guest editor and tim farron | Leave a comment

Opinion: Higher Education should be like the NHS, free at the point of use

By Richard Davis | Wed 13th October 2010 - 4:53 pm

Higher Education should be freely available to all, however in its current state it is not. Only those who are academically able can enter the current system of HE. We need more technical colleges and alternative further education institutions.

Tony Blair aimed to get 50% of people into university, by the end of Labour’s term they had achieved 45%, Lord Browne wants to go another 10% further. These are admirable aims. Admirable, but in my opinion wrong. We should aim to have much more of the population complete some type of higher education, but it should not necessarily …

Tagged browne report, higher education, tuition fees and universities | 24 Comments

The Independent View: Political Innovation No.6 – Citizen control of personal data

By The Voice | Wed 13th October 2010 - 3:43 pm

This is a cross-post by William Heath – originally posted on the Political Innovation site here.

If the big political innovation of the moment is to give power back to people, then a good place to do it is with personal data.

Whose data is it anyway? Whose health, whose education, whose identity, whose shopping history, bank details, travel plans, creditworthiness? Yet all these personal details, which affect us, are stored on hundreds of state and private-sector databases.

If I said there were 50bn personal records for …

Also posted in The Independent View | 2 Comments

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 …

3 Comments

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 …

13 Comments

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 …

Tagged higher education, tuition fees, universities and vince cable | 82 Comments

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.

…

Also posted in News | Tagged ed balls, ed miliband, oldham east and saddleworth and phil woolas | 14 Comments

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

…

Tagged andrew marr, blogging, gordon brown and media | 18 Comments

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

…

Tagged afghanistan, journalism, martin robbins and science | 2 Comments

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 …

Tagged coalition | 9 Comments

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 …

Tagged john pugh and Local government | 7 Comments

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 …

19 Comments

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 …

Tagged families and spending cuts | 36 Comments

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 …

Tagged child benefit and william beveridge | 136 Comments

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 weekend debate | 13 Comments

Op-eds

Observations of an Expat: Post Election Worries (Tom Arms)
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)
Local democracy should not be an excuse to stop building homes (Massimo Ricciuti)
The need for a nationally relevant message (Mark Corner)

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Chris Coghlan: put children with complex needs at centre of SEND reforms

SNP Govt defeated on Lib Dem motion

Vince Cable writes: A budget of small things

Chadwick launches leadership bid

Category Archives: Op-eds

Opinion: a broken pledge, but we knew how bad it was back in March

Opinion: why we should support students from state schools going to university

Opinion: educating Mr Cable

Opinion: an open letter to MPs – say NO to Browne

Andrew Stunell writes…Open Government is Better Government

Opinion: education is worth more than any price tag

Opinion: Cable may do enough to deserve our support

Clegg secures £7 billion extra to fund education for the most disadvantaged – from pre-school through to university

Opinion: How we transformed council housing in Perth and Kinross

George Lyon: Our high hopes for the Scottish Parliament elections

Opinion: We should be ambitious in our campaigning

Opinion: The day the Northern Irish came to Scottish Conference

A snapshot of a first class debate – a Scottish persepective on higher education

Opinion: Delivering a bright new future for Edinburgh

Opinion: We are a party founded on the principle of free education

Opinion: A first timer’s guide to Scottish Lib Dem Conference 2010

Opinion: Higher Education should be like the NHS, free at the point of use

The Independent View: Political Innovation No.6 – Citizen control of personal data

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

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

Opinion: the Browne report should be voted down

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

Andrew Marr: a little bit of a hypocrite

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

The unusual pattern of coalition splits and tensions

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

Opinion: time to take on the Thing

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

Opinion: Child Benefit policy is within the great Liberal tradition

The Saturday Debate: who is middle class?

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Chris Coghlan: put children with complex needs at centre of SEND reforms

SNP Govt defeated on Lib Dem motion

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Chadwick launches leadership bid

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