Category Archives: Op-eds

Mark Valladares

If English Council meets and nobody knows, did it really meet?

By Mark Valladares | Mon 5th July 2010 - 2:20 pm

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny, but whilst most people heading for London were on their way to Pride, or Lords for the cricket, or Wimbledon for the tennis, a few dozen hardy Liberal Democrats were heading towards the St Alban’s Centre near Chancery Lane station for the first of 2010’s two meetings of English Council.

Unusually, the first item on the agenda was a speech by the Party President, Ros Scott, who talked about the challenges facing the Party in the weeks, months and years ahead, as well as some of the work being done at Federal level to address …

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Also posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , , , and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

The Freedom Bill: this time the consultation is for real, but is it better?

By Mark Pack | Mon 5th July 2010 - 10:20 am

The Freedom Bill (previously known as the Great Repeal Bill) has been a Liberal Democrat policy for some time and now that we’re in coalition government it’s become the Your Freedom initiative – an online consultation to identify laws to repeal.

In two respects this is good news – online consultation is becoming more of a habit for government and it’s also becoming a welcome pattern to see long-standing Liberal Democrat demands move towards actual implementation by government.

But in one respect I think the Your Freedom site does not address a key issue as well as the party did when …

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Also posted in Online politics | Tagged , and | 5 Comments
Iain Roberts

How many votes should earn a party power?

By Iain Roberts | Sun 4th July 2010 - 4:20 pm

“It’s outrageous that the Lib Dems wield any power and influence having secured just 23% of the popular vote”, goes the argument  – mostly heard from Labour activists at the moment.

I don’t recall them arguing that Labour shouldn’t have had power after 2005, when the party won 35% of the vote, so I wonder at what point a party switches from no power to total power?  Which vote swings it?  Perhaps we could identify the actual voter and let them know?

Hello Mrs Abercromby – we just wanted you to know that your vote will take your party over 33.84% which …

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22 Comments
Helen Duffett

The coalition “marriage” – should we keep our name?

By Helen Duffett | Sun 4th July 2010 - 9:50 am

In the Guardian last week, Timothy Garton-Ash argued that the Liberal Democrats’ distinctive identity is being lost both by coalition with the Conservatives and by other parties’ appropriation of the “liberal” label:

The Liberal Democrats should change their name to the Liberals. Here’s why. First of all, Liberal Democrats is a pretty meaningless name. That’s liberal democrats as opposed to illiberal democrats, is it? Or as opposed to liberal anti-democrats?

Lib Dems, to which they are usually abridged, is even emptier. The name sounds like the product of an awkward compromise, which is exactly what it is. When the Liberal party,

…

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Tagged , and | 78 Comments
Adam Bell

Opinion: Why Lib Dems should have no reservations about campaigning for AV

By Adam Bell | Sat 3rd July 2010 - 11:40 am

Lib Dems are necessarily an introspective bunch, given to minute analysis of the implications of our own policies in order to ensure they’re entirely fair & liberal. As a consequence, the compromises involved in the coalition agreement (and the practices thereof) have come as something of a brutal shock to many party members – most significantly over the VAT increase. I still find that unbelievable – why on earth would you raise a transaction tax when demand is weak? However, that’s not the issue at hand, which is the Alternative Vote.

The Alternative Vote works by enabling the voter to rank …

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Stephen Tall

The Saturday Debate: Time for British troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd July 2010 - 8:45 am

Here’s your starter for ten as we continue our Saturday slot posing a view for debate:

Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has recently written to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg renewing his call for British troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan:

It is very difficult to justify our continued engagement when the reasons for it so often appear contradictory and open to challenge. I suspect one reason why 77% of people in this country tell pollsters that they want our troops out of Afghanistan is because they either do not know what are the objectives for their presence or do not

…

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Tagged , , and | 23 Comments
Mark Pack

Why budget maths makes me thinks of Escher

By Mark Pack | Fri 2nd July 2010 - 12:50 pm

A small state is smaller than a big state, right?

But now bear with me.

Take a glance at the heated rhetoric coming from Labour ranks about how the coalition government is hell bent on a right wing crusade to slash the size of the state.

Then consider this. The coalition’s spending plans will see public spending in 2015-16 at a fraction under 40% of GDP.

And you know what? That’s higher than it was under Labour in 1997-98 and in all the intervening years through to, and including, 2003-04. (See the graph here from Peter Hoskin.)

So the horrible dreadful right-wing small state still …

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Tagged and | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

What Simon Hughes said about coalition politics in 2008

By Stephen Tall | Fri 2nd July 2010 - 10:50 am

In 2008 – when the general assumption was that the Tories would win an overall majority – the Hansard Society published a collection of essays on the impact of a balanced parliament on British politics, titled No Overall Control.

One of its contributors was Simon Hughes, then the Lib Dems’ shadow leader of the House, now our deputy leader. So how does what Simon said over two years ago about a hypothetical future measure up to what’s happening in the current reality?

Pretty well in most respects is the answer. While arguing that a balanced parliament was a less-than-likely eventuality, …

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Tagged , and | 12 Comments
Charlotte Henry

Opinion: General Election 1.5 – 2010, the almost Internet Election

By Charlotte Henry | Thu 1st July 2010 - 11:20 am

As a Lib Dem working in online and multimedia communications, the concept of an ‘Internet election’ is something I have thought quite a lot about. In the build up to the election I expressed my concerns about the Lib Dems use of online tools on my own blog.

I am pleased to say that on a national level my fears were misplaced. Our online campaign was excellent, and by far the best of the three major parties.  In particular the Labservative spoof campaign was innovative, eye catching, and added a new entry to the politco dictionary. It was exactly the …

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Also posted in Online politics | Tagged | 6 Comments
Don Foster MP

Opinion: Let live music flourish in small venues

By Don Foster MP | Wed 30th June 2010 - 5:10 pm

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to see the Brit Awards 2010 at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre. When people say that UK live music is doing well, this is what they mean – an enormous venue, world class talent, and an ecstatic crowd. I was particularly impressed with Florence Welch and Dizzee Rascal’s performance, which combined both of their distinct musical outlooks with great success.

Now that Labour has been booed offstage, the coalition partners have got up for a similarly ambitious duet. For such established solo performers, trying to make our different styles gel will be …

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5 Comments
Lester Holloway

Opinion: If we fail to address the image of an all-white party our reputation alone will put off future black and Asian people from joining

By Lester Holloway | Wed 30th June 2010 - 12:20 pm

The Liberal Democrats are showing signs of getting serious about tackling the chronic under-representation of black and Asian talent in elected positions – and about time too.

In a groundbreaking move that was sadly unreported, the London Region recently agreed to introduce positive action in a bid to get at least one BAME hopeful onto the London Assembly, a body that represents a city where over a third of the population is from an ethnic minority.

The decision to reserve places – quotas by another name – on the ‘top-up list’ means the Lib Dems have gone further than any other political …

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Also posted in London | Tagged , and | 131 Comments
Iain Roberts

Thanks Jack: Tory right finds a friend in Labour

By Iain Roberts | Wed 30th June 2010 - 8:20 am

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke is calling for cuts in Britain’s prison population, following the agenda set by the Lib Dems and previously opposed by both the Conservatives and Labour.

Those Labour activists still clinging desperately onto the idea that the Lib Dems are mere cheerleaders in the coalition are going to have to twist themselves into yet more contortions – or simply  ignore the facts – as they continue to push their line.

As Jack Straw writes in The Mail:

has allowed his government’s penal policy to be dictated not by his own common sense but by Justice Secretary Kenneth

…

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Tagged , and | 18 Comments
Ewan Hoyle

Opinion: drugs policy

By Ewan Hoyle | Tue 29th June 2010 - 11:16 pm

Saturday was World Drug Day, a day intended to serve as a reminder of the need to combat the problems illicit drugs pose to society. The problems are numerous, deadly serious, and close to overwhelming to many states around the globe but the current prohibitionist approach mandated by the UN drug conventions has failed to make any significant impact upon the profits of the criminal cartels, demand for their products, and the terrible consequences of the trade for communities in the UK and beyond.

The UK currently spends around £19 billion on the criminal justice system due to the criminalisation of …

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Tagged | 31 Comments
Iain Roberts

People in broad church parties should think twice before attacking coalitions

By Iain Roberts | Tue 29th June 2010 - 4:20 pm

There are plenty of political parties hanging on to their ideological purity, where all the members pretty much agree on all the key issues. They’re easy to spot: they’re the ones that always lose.

The big parties are compromises – broad churches – people who work together because they agree a bit more with each other than with the rest, or simply because it’s the tribe they’re in.

Broad church parties are necessary in our electoral system. Under First Past the Post, you need to get to a certain size to have any real chance of success, and there simply …

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Tagged | 20 Comments
Ed Long

Opinion: Hitting who the hardest?

By Ed Long | Tue 29th June 2010 - 2:20 pm

The contents of the emergency budget have been a bitter pill for many Lib Dem activists to swallow. I have to admit that my support for the Liberal Democrats has been mostly on the basis of their commitment to civil liberties, their scientific literacy (Evan Harris is greatly missed!) and their hard work in my local area. I can make no claims about being educated in economics but I like to think my Maths degree qualifies me as basically numerate.

Recently I read The Observer story on the briefing from Tim Horton (of Fabian Society, not doughnut, fame) and Howard …

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Tagged , , , and | 41 Comments
Ann Feltham

The Independent View: The first thing Vince should cut is funding for the arms trade

By Ann Feltham | Mon 28th June 2010 - 1:20 pm

Vince Cable’s new department, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, was saddled with the heaviest round of cuts in the first round of cuts announced by the coalition government. They will have to find £836m of savings in 2010. Meanwhile the rest of us have been asked to participate in a comprehensive spending review.

There is one candidate for cuts that many in the Liberal Democrats and the country at large would be pleased with – an end to government support for arms exports. One way the government helps arms companies sell their weapons to other countries is …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged , and | 13 Comments
Chris White

Opinion: Observer’s dishonesty doesn’t disguise party challenges

By Chris White | Mon 28th June 2010 - 11:20 am

I was out drinking with a couple of Tory councillors the other day. This is not a frequent occurrence and has become no more frequent since the Coalition.

I learned that one of their acquaintance had resigned her Conservative Party membership because of the Coalition. She is a Thatcherite.

The days and weeks after the toughest budget for several decades were bound to be uncomfortable. None of us expected to see our Party lauded by the press.

The Guardian lambasted the budget for its effect on the poor, the Mail for its effect on middle England. I gave up and bought …

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Tagged | 26 Comments
Mark Pack

Government moves right, political agenda moves elsewhere

By Mark Pack | Mon 28th June 2010 - 9:20 am

Whether driven by circumstance or long-term plan, the reaction of David Cameron to the general election result has been an attempt to realign British politics around the centre-right, using the need to strike – and then keep an agreement – with the Liberal Democrats as a way to drag his party away from its more right-wing elements. Doubtless future biographers will spill much ink over what might have been had he got closer to the winning post on his own, or even past it, just as the question of how pluralistic Tony Blair would have been had he not got …

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Tagged , , , and | 77 Comments
Iain Roberts

No return to two-party politics, but we need to trumpet our successes

By Iain Roberts | Sun 27th June 2010 - 1:20 pm

A couple of post-budget polls show post-budget combined support for the coalition parties remarkably steady – one at 59% and the other 56%, but with a move from the Lib Dems to the Tories, with Labour also picking up a bit of support  and “others” squeezed down.

Unsurprisingly, the budget is less popular with Lib Dem voters than Tory voters.  It’s less popular with our activists too.  Most Lib Dems recognise the need for tough action to sort out the mess the nation’s finances are in, and Nick and Vince have been talking about it for long enough.

But the measures in …

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Tagged , , and | 29 Comments
Malcolm Wood

Opinion: Making VAT fair

By Malcolm Wood | Sun 27th June 2010 - 12:20 pm

It has become fashionable in the last few days to describe VAT as a “regressive”, and by implication unfair, tax. This is usually followed by complaint about how hypocritical it is of the Liberal Democrats to agree to an increase in its rate.

But VAT is not, by the simplest definition, a regressive tax. A regressive tax is one where the rate of taxation decreases as the value of the thing being taxed increases. A progressive tax is the other way round. Income tax is progressive, because those on higher incomes pay a higher rate of tax on it. Council tax …

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George Gosling

Opinion: A European question for the coalition

By George Gosling | Sat 26th June 2010 - 9:20 am

Like many here, the idea of a coalition with the Tories goes rather against the grain for me. What convinced me to at least give the ‘new politics’ a chance was not the thought of David Cameron in Number 10 (and certainly not the idea of Boy George in Number 11), but the amount of positive inclusions in the coalition agreement.

Mark Pack has done a good job, here on LDV, of going through the agreement line by line. There is much for us to be happy about. What still causes me concern, however, is the amount that is not …

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Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Iain Roberts

Lines of attack against the Lib Dems becoming clearer

By Iain Roberts | Thu 24th June 2010 - 4:20 pm

The Labour Party and the media in general are still figuring our how best to attack the Lib Dems – a party which, they all believed not so long ago, could be ignored, safe in the knowledge that it would never get near power.

Back then the strategy was simple: ignore when possible and insult when not. Rarely would you hear a mention of the Lib Dems in the press. As far as the tabloids were concerned, the party hardly existed except when some scandal erupted. Labour and the Conservatives rarely felt the urge to address …

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146 Comments
George Kendall

Opinion: A budget to make us angry

By George Kendall | Thu 24th June 2010 - 2:50 pm

Frankly, this Budget is ghastly. There are some consolations such as progress towards the 10k tax allowance, but overall it’s awful.

I don’t blame Labour for everything. While they made mistakes, they were right to bail out the banks. And it is true that most of the pain is due to the international economic crisis.

But Labour did make this crisis worse. After a few years of financial restraint, they flooded public services with money. They should have increased the spending more gradually, and coupled it with reform to improve productivity. Instead, productivity fell. This isn’t hindsight, the point was made at …

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Tagged and | 63 Comments
Mark Pack

A quiet fair pay revolution

By Mark Pack | Thu 24th June 2010 - 12:50 pm

Largely overlooked in the Budget was the confirmation of plans to introduce across the state sector a new standard for fair pay. The intention is that the best paid will receive no more than 20 times the salary of the lowest paid.

There is a wealth of detail still to be worked out, though reassuringly much of that work lies in the hands of Will Hutton, who is heading up a commission on fair pay in the public sector. Particularly important are questions of how broadly the public sector is defined (similar to the questions raised by Freedom of Information legislation, whose remit …

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Tagged and | 20 Comments
Vince Cable

Vince Cable: Why the VAT rise had to happen

By Vince Cable | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 6:51 pm

With annual borrowing of £160bn and a massive blank where Labour’s plans for deficit reduction should have been, this was always going to be a tough Budget – arguably the toughest since the 1980s. Some extraordinarily difficult decisions have been made to avoid an even worse crisis. Foremost amongst these was the decision to raise VAT from 17.5 to 20 percent.

Through the election campaign, all three prospective Chancellors were asked about VAT, and we all answered in exactly the same way: we have no plans to raise it, but we cannot rule it out. In fact, that was my position …

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Tagged | 141 Comments
Elaine Bagshaw

Opinion: Budget Day, and the light at the end of tunnel

By Elaine Bagshaw | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 1:38 pm

It was never going to be an easy day. No-one enjoys having to make the kind of cuts the Coalition had to yesterday, but the consequences of doing nothing would have been far worse. I recall sitting in meetings of the Lib Dem Federal Policy Committee as we were costing the manifesto, and quickly realising that even on the generous economic forecasts of the Labour Government, it would be impossible to deliver every policy that we wanted, due to the incredible mess that the public finances had become.

There are a number of things we can take from the budget, Liberal …

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Tagged | 49 Comments
Chris White

Opinion: don’t hammer the little people

By Chris White | Tue 22nd June 2010 - 2:20 pm

There were two articles in The Sun the other day on public sector pay. One was headed ‘£240k boss search axed’ and was a reference to the fact that the Government has vetoed the proposed salary package for a new Chief Executive of the Audit Commission.

The other much more substantial article was over the LGA’s search for a Director of Communications on £124,000 a year.
(As someone who receives a shilling or two from both organisations I must declare an interest.)

Meanwhile Nick Clegg has been applauded by the Daily Mail for his comments on public sector pensions, calling them ‘gold-plated’ and …

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7 Comments
Mark Pack

30 things every would-be politician should do this summer

By Mark Pack | Tue 22nd June 2010 - 10:20 am

Inspired by Journalism Grads: 30 Things You Should Do This Summer and prompted by Stephen Tall, last summer I ran a list of 30 suggestions for would-be politicians, particularly those new to public office or seeking it in the next few years. As it went down well, here it is back for a new summer and a new Parliament, with a new lick of paint, a few updates along the way and my thanks to those who commented last year:

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Tagged | 10 Comments
Jonathan Ellis

The Independent View: A fair, humane and effective asylum system can quite literally be an issue of life or death

By Jonathan Ellis | Tue 22nd June 2010 - 9:20 am

Last week, people across the UK celebrated Refugee Week – a time to reflect on the contribution refugees make to their communities around the UK, and celebrating that refugees are welcomed and valued here.

As we approach the 60th anniversary of the UN Convention for Refugees next year, it is ever more important that the new government honour our proud tradition of offering shelter to those fleeing persecution in their own countries. It is clear that the main countries refugees have been fleeing from over the last ten years – Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Eritrea – are countries where …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged , , , and | Leave a comment
Iain Roberts

Councils and communities must rise to the Coalition challenge

By Iain Roberts | Sun 20th June 2010 - 4:24 pm

People rather like to be able to blame someone else for the hard choices.  Speaking to that angry customer at work, isn’t it so much easier to blame management or “the rules” for not giving her a refund.  Isn’t it so much harder – and less pleasant – to explain to her that you’ve made the decision to deny her request and you could have decided otherwise, even though you’d rather like having that power.

Politicians are no different.  We want to have the power, but it doesn’t hurt if someone else can take the blame for those unpopular choices.

Labour are …

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Also posted in Local government | 14 Comments
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