Category Archives: Op-eds

Chris Keating

Opinion: Do Labour pick Ken and their bedrock, or win back the centre ground?

By Chris Keating | Fri 4th June 2010 - 2:10 pm

There’s been some interesting discussion on LabourList about whether Labour should – yet again – pick Ken Livingstone as their candidate for London Mayor. Declan Gaffney has made use of some very interesting research into the demographics of London elections (published here).

That demographic analysis deserves a long second look; and once you do, the picture isn’t pretty for anyone who wants Ken Livingstone to be elected as Mayor of London.

The most striking feature in the demographic facts and figures is the polarisation of London politics between 2004 and 2008. The study looks at the election results, ward …

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Also posted in London | Tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Prisk MP

The Independent View: Red tape – action, not words

By Mark Prisk MP | Fri 4th June 2010 - 10:20 am

Mark Prisk is Minister of State for Business & Enterprise and is MP for Hertford & Stortford:

Cutting the burden of regulation is vital if we are to help the private sector grow. This is especially the case for small and medium sized enterprises that face disproportionate costs from unnecessary red tape.

Under Labour the burden of regulation grew inexorably, to the point that by the time of the May 2010 election it was implementing the equivalent of 14 new regulations every working day. The Federation of Small Businesses has worked out that this meant that the average small business is spending …

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Also posted in The Independent View | 7 Comments
Tim Starkey

Opinion: Stuffing the House of Lords or reforming it?

By Tim Starkey | Thu 3rd June 2010 - 10:20 am

Last week’s announcement of new peers didn’t seem much like a “new way of doing politics”. On the Tory side, wealthy party donors were rewarded for their largess. On our own side, just two of the nine appointments were of people directly elected to the interim peers list, three owed their place on that list to being ex-MPs and four had not come from the interim peers list at all – so much for party democracy!

The statement in the coalition deal that “Lords appointments will be made with the objective of creating a second chamber that is reflective of the …

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Also posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 13 Comments
Iain Roberts

Maybe Labour was right about Gene Hunt after all

By Iain Roberts | Wed 2nd June 2010 - 4:55 pm

Back near the beginning of the election campaign the parties had a bit of fun with a Gene Hunt election poster. Labour had Gene on his red Audi Quattro, warning us about a return to the ’80s. The Conservatives thought the reckless Hunt, who frequently bends and breaks the rules to get results and thumbs his nose at authority, was a rather positive model and put out their own version of the poster.

It seems Labour was nearer to the truth.

There are MPs – in all parties – who have exploited the expenses system to enrich themselves at the …

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Tagged and | 25 Comments
Stephen Tall

A curate’s egg of an article – The Guardian asks, “Will the Liberal Democrats survive the coalition?”

By Stephen Tall | Wed 2nd June 2010 - 2:30 pm

There’s an interesting in-depth feature in today’s Guardian, focusing on the future prospects for the Lib Dems now the party is in government: Will the Liberal Democrats survive the coalition? (It’s a question I think we’ve all been asking ourselves for the last three weeks).

It’s a generally fair and balanced take – highlighting the many acknowledged threats to the party, recognising there are opportunities, too – with interviewees including Lord (David) Steel, Simon Hughes and James Graham.

However, it’s a little marred by some rather strange omissions by its author, Andy Beckett. For example, it seems odd to talk …

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Tagged and | 19 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s Gaza ‘non-statement’ shows the need to keep the Lib Dem torch burning in the “new politics”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 1st June 2010 - 7:45 pm

Nick Clegg is not normally reticent about commenting on the Middle East – see, for example, his public call for the international community to stop arming Israel 18 months ago.

So why did it take more than a day for the Lib Dem leader to speak out against the “unjustifiable and untenable” blockade of the Gaza Strip? Why do his words appear only on the Press Association website, rather than the party’s? It was at least tweeted by the official Lib Dem account, but that was the only communication via official party channels.

The answer is clear …

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Tagged | 44 Comments
Duncan Brack

So, what does a Special Adviser do?

By Duncan Brack | Tue 1st June 2010 - 1:25 pm

Special advisers (or “spads” for short) tend to have a bad press. Alastair Campbell was a spad, as was Jo (“good day to bury bad news”) Moore; Andrew Blick’s book on the topic was called People Who Live in the Dark; and a contributor to a recent Lib Dem Voice exchange observed that “We made so many breaks with New Labour, why did we have to adopt their spad culture?”

Actually special advisers have a much longer history than that. One can trace their origins right back to Lloyd …

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Tagged , , , , , , and | 18 Comments
Edwin Loo

Opinion: Our approach to immigration must be grounded in fairness

By Edwin Loo | Tue 1st June 2010 - 10:20 am

Many months ago, I wrote a piece on immigration policy for Lib Dem Voice in light of the calls for a variety of illiberal measures from caps to quotas. It is with some regret that I return to this issue now to view what you could call a radically changed landscape. We are now in coalition with the Conservatives, in agreement with the need for a ‘cap’ on ‘non-EU migrants’ and in favour of harder, tougher and nastier barriers against ‘foreigners’. This rhetoric is both disappointing and damaging, not only for myself but also for the thousands of other …

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Tagged and | 4 Comments
Iain Roberts

Media attacks are in full flow – what do we do now?

By Iain Roberts | Mon 31st May 2010 - 4:20 pm

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Lib Dems should get used to constant attacks and scrutiny. Everyone used to it now?

Enoch Powell may not have said a great deal I agree with, but he certainly had a point with his oft-repeated quote that:

For a politician to complain about the press is like a ship’s captain complaining about the sea

This is what the press do. We can point out the errors when they’re particularly egregious or complain to the rather-toothless PCC.

Parliament might even want to take one of its occasional looks at changing the law.  …

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Tagged , and | 41 Comments
Alan Belmore

Opinion: The real issue in the Liberal Youth elections

By Alan Belmore | Mon 31st May 2010 - 12:40 pm

Liberal Youth action day

There have been many debates in these Liberal Youth elections, many of them, dare I say it, ill-informed. The situation Liberal Youth is in is an interesting one. The vast, vast, vast majority of our members never chose to join the organisation. Due to the very nature of the system where you are automatically a member if you are under the age of 26 or a student people don’t choose to be a member of Liberal Youth, they just are. There are around …

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Tagged | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Trying to find a bright spot among the depression of David Laws’ downfall

By Stephen Tall | Sun 30th May 2010 - 7:25 pm

Well that was a depressing 24 hours, depressing in so many different ways.

I don’t think I’d describe David Laws’s forced resignation as either right, or wrong: it was quite simply inevitable. There was no way he personally, nor the coalition politically, could withstand the clamour for his head. Eventually he would have been dragged down by the explosion of self-righteousness that the right-wing press and Labour tribalists have let rip over the past two days. I find that depressing.

It is one of the ironies of coalition government that, as it brings together two different, competing parties – two parties …

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Tagged , , and | 75 Comments
The Voice

Opinion: What about justice for women?

By The Voice | Sun 30th May 2010 - 1:50 pm

The following is a piece from a Liberal Democrat member in England:

I’ve lived with a rape victim.  I know about the nightmares, the sleepwalking, the self-harm, the blackouts, and other unpleasant things I won’t mention.  I’ve seen at first hand the damage rape can wreak upon a woman, and I can’t think of anything offhand that might be worse.

I mention this firstly to explain why this article is posted anonymously, and secondly in consideration of what difference it would have made to the woman I loved and lived with if her attacker had been brought to justice.

It would have made …

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31 Comments
Chris White

Opinion: we have our own red lines for schools

By Chris White | Sun 30th May 2010 - 11:10 am

I will try and write about the Coalition without any reference to ‘uncharted waters’ or ‘interesting times’. Someone has to.

To begin with I was pleasantly surprised when I read the Culture, Media and Sport sections of the full agreement: more or less what I had wanted but without some of the policies I had criticised in our own manifesto. I can live with the ‘reduction in red tape for live music’ although I still believe we need to concentrate on opportunities for new bands.

My worries are in fact in a different area: academies. I didn’t like this policy before the …

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Tagged | 9 Comments
Richard Wilson

Opinion: Let’s not ask why we need Liberal Youth, let’s ask why we don’t have Liberal “Youth” in the first place

By Richard Wilson | Sun 30th May 2010 - 9:15 am

Richard Wilson is a candidate for Chair of Liberal Youth.

Yes, I’m going to say it. We don’t need Liberal Youth in its current form. We really don’t. I’m not leading a call for dissolution. Just for it to be labelled what it currently is – Liberal Democrat Students. No more and no less.

Let’s look at the evidence – Of the candidates at this election, the vast majority are students. Of the campaigning Liberal Youth does, well, it’s mainly about student issues, and of the money Liberal Youth spends on campaigns…well, I’m sure you’ll be surprised to hear that it …

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Tagged | 7 Comments
Iain Roberts

Innocent or guilty, there is no case for Laws to resign

By Iain Roberts | Sat 29th May 2010 - 6:35 pm

I’ve read, and listened to, a great deal of comment about David Laws today. Rumours are currently circulating that Laws has resigned from the Government. If so, I think it’s a great shame, a great injustice and a great disservice that’s been done to the British people.

Let’s take the absolute worst case scenario: that Laws knowingly broke the rules, saw himself and James Lundie as partners, chose not to admit it and took the money.

If that were the case – and Laws says it isn’t – the public purse will have been no worse off as a result …

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Tagged and | 68 Comments
Damien Shannon

Opinion: We must not blame Party Leaders for acquiescing to the demands of Governance

By Damien Shannon | Sat 29th May 2010 - 3:50 pm

Damien Shannon is a candidate for Vice Chair (Finance) of Liberal Youth.

It is a dispiriting sight to see the swell of twenty Liberal Democrat Ministers of the Crown – five of whom have taken on Cabinet roles – abandon with gusto the free thinking policies that secured the popular approval of twenty three percentiles of the voting public just a few short weeks ago. Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, David Laws, Chris Huhne and Danny Alexander will all have had a stark realisation of the tremendously constrictive machinery of government awaiting them when acceding to their respective offices. They will all …

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Tagged | 3 Comments

Opinion: Why do we need Liberal Youth?

By Martin Crosby | Sat 29th May 2010 - 9:20 am

Since getting involved in the party almost nothing has disappointed me more than Liberal Youth. At times it appears remote, unaccountable and to have little to say on policy outside of the tuition fee debate. Given its elections are going on, I thought it was the right time to ask, why do we need Liberal Youth? Because working regularly with enthusiastic students (and being a young person myself) I’m not sure we do, for the following reasons…

1. As ‘young Lib Dems’ do we actually need a single voice?

I would argue no. Unlike a student body …

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Tagged | 27 Comments
Martin Hearson

The Independent View: Will Lib Dem proposals to tackle tax avoidance help save the world?

By Martin Hearson | Fri 28th May 2010 - 12:20 pm

What can we expect from the Government on tax avoidance and evasion?

Cast your mind back to the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto launch in April. A major theme was the plan to raise £4.6 billion by tackling tax avoidance.

This has been reduced to a single bullet point in the coalition’s Programme for Government, a promise to “make every effort to tackle tax avoidance, including detailed development of Liberal Democrat proposals.”

Vince Cable remains committed, telling the Telegraph soon after his appointment as Business Secretary that, “tackling tax avoidance by businesses is essential and this is an area that I …

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged , , and | 9 Comments
Martin Shapland

Opinion: the challenges facing Liberal Youth are not of policy, but of delivery

By Martin Shapland | Fri 28th May 2010 - 11:40 am

The following article is written by Martin Shapland who is a Candidate for Chair of Liberal Youth.

In an article on Wednesday, Richard Heinrich and Phil Jarvest – two of my competitors for the Chair of Liberal Youth – sought to open up a policy discussion about our Higher Education funding policy.

For the record I do fully support our current policy to abolish fees. I believe that education is the great driver of social change and individual liberty. I believe that widening access to quality education is fundamentally important, not just at higher education, but at Primary and …

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Tagged and | 15 Comments
Tim Farron MP

Opinion: Why I am standing to be Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats

By Tim Farron MP | Fri 28th May 2010 - 9:20 am

We  made the right choice to go into coalition – although I have to say that it took me a few days to come to terms with it!

Our choice to go in to coalition is in the national interests, I am standing for Deputy Leader because I’m determined that it should also be in the Lib Dems’ interests too.

The role of the Deputy Leader will be quite different now that we are sharing power. There will be a role in Parliament, but it will be all the more important out in the country and in the TV and radio studios. …

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Tagged | 17 Comments
Matt Folker

Opinion: Liberal Youth needs to remain the party’s conscience

By Matt Folker | Thu 27th May 2010 - 11:20 am

This article is written by Matt Folker, who is a candidate for the chair of Liberal Youth. It is a response to this article which appeared yesterday.

Lib Dem Voice welcomes articles from any candidates in the Liberal Youth elections.

One of the things which believe makes Liberal Youth and the Liberal Democrats so special is that the Chair or leader of the party does not determine the organisations policies, indeed no one member does. The policies of the organisation are and should always be determined by conference, the beating democrat heart of our organisation. Therefore I would welcome any motion …

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Tagged , , , , and | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

Why Liberal? Time to give the public a proper answer after 80 years

By Stephen Tall | Wed 26th May 2010 - 3:30 pm

In an effort to cure my election campaign withdrawal symptoms I’ve been reading a book published in 1964, Why Liberal?, a Penguin special which was one of a pre-election series covering the three major parties’ policies. This publishing tradition was revived most recently by imprint Biteback, with Why Vote Liberal Democrat?, edited by Danny Alexander, proving a surprise hit.

The 1964 version was written by Harry Cowie, then director of the Liberal party’s research department – probably in something of a hurry, as big topics such as the health service are apologetically omitted (“as they have in any case been …

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18 Comments
Richard Heinrich and Phil Jarvest

Opinion: Liberal Youth and the thorny question of higher education funding policy

By Richard Heinrich and Phil Jarvest | Wed 26th May 2010 - 11:13 am

The following article is by Richard Heinrich and Phil Jarvest, who are joint candidates for co-chair of Liberal Youth.

Lib Dem Voice welcomes articles from any candidates in the Liberal Youth elections.

The issue of higher education (HE) funding will very likely become a serious and highly contentious subject during the present Parliament.

We believe that for Liberal Youth – and indeed the Liberal Democrats – to play an active and useful role in this debate a full and wide-ranging internal discussion on the notion of a student contribution is needed. In our opinion Liberal Democrat policy has failed to adequately address …

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Tagged , , and | 31 Comments
Ian Butler

The General Election campaign in Mid-Ulster

By Ian Butler | Tue 25th May 2010 - 4:47 pm

To be honest I love going on the stump, all of it! Even though you know it is going to be a very hard campaign. There are none harder than campaigning for a liberal party in the deeply polarised area West of the Bann. The hardest bit is getting started – Knowing that whatever you do, however hard you fight, however good your arguments or your candidates, you are going to lose and lose very big.

The street pounding, the leafleting, the phone calls, the “grip and grin”, the talking, talking, talking, persuasion, persuasion, persuasion, cajoling, joling, joling, joling.

The campaign begins so long before the date that the election is called and yet, yet, yet…

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Also posted in General Election | Tagged , , , , and | 26 Comments
John Pugh

Opinion: Should liberals fear a review of Human Rights legislation?

By John Pugh | Tue 25th May 2010 - 2:30 pm

There is a strand in Liberalism stemming from the Utilitarians that is totally dismissive of the concept of human rights. Bentham called such rights ‘nonsense on stilts’. John Stuart Mill, often considered the founder of modern liberalism, viewed such rights as individuals were conceded to have as depending on what led to the greatest happiness of the greatest number at any one time. Rights could change as circumstances and individuals did.

Given that, it is perhaps surprising that Liberal Democrats seem to fear, almost as a knee-jerk reaction, any call for a review of Human Rights legislation. After all Schedule 1 …

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19 Comments
Iain Roberts

All our parties have more in common than we’d like to admit

By Iain Roberts | Tue 25th May 2010 - 11:19 am

Our politics emphasises the differences between parties.

Much as voters say they want parties to work together, to agree more, to be more constructive, those that do it are often punished in the polls and at the ballot box. If you want someone to vote for you and not the other guy, it’s more effective to say how you differ than how you’re alike.

“I agree with Nick” didn’t turn out to be the winning strategy for Gordon Brown – Labour did better when they were shouting about where they disagreed with Nick – and with Dave.

The result is …

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Tagged | 7 Comments
Iain Roberts

Cuts: Labour need to decide why they oppose them

By Iain Roberts | Mon 24th May 2010 - 4:50 pm

During the election campaign, all three parties were united in their agreement that big public sector cuts were needed to tackling our record deficit.  Figures of around £70 billion were spoken of, and commentators criticised the parties for only identfying a fraction of those.

There was one area of disagreement.  The Conservatives wanted to make £6 billion of cuts immediately, whilst the Lib Dems and Labour argued that would risk pushing the country back into a double-dip recession.

I’ll be honest – I’ve not got the faintest idea who’s right on that one.  I genuinely don’t have a clue whether a 1% …

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38 Comments
George Kendall

Opinion: Enter the storm with our eyes wide open

By George Kendall | Mon 24th May 2010 - 12:20 pm

I’m excited about the coalition. I think it’s necessary, and I think it’s what the voters want. But it’s going to hurt.

When the coalition was announced, my heart was in my mouth. I was mentally prepared for the defection of hundreds of councillors. So far, we’ve come through remarkably unscathed. But it’s only the first stage.

June will see £6 billion of cuts and an emergency budget. We’ll survive that, but a much bigger test comes this autumn: the announcement of a programme of cuts that’ll make six billion seem like pocket change.

David Laws …

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56 Comments
Chris Jones

Opinion: The Tories are coming towards us

By Chris Jones | Sun 23rd May 2010 - 10:20 am

Martin Kettle recently wrote in the Guardian today of David Cameron:

The Tory leader is exploiting every opportunity the political situation presents him to drag his party rapidly towards the liberal centre. I believe in leading from the front, he said, and he is telling the truth. The many policy concessions to the Lib Dems, especially those which cauterise the Tory right’s pet issues like Europe, the Human Rights Act and inheritance tax only make sense in that light. The right’s indignation is eloquent proof of what is happening. The control grab over the backbench 1922 committee is the work of a

…

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Tagged , and | 34 Comments

Opinion: From out of nowhere – rape anonymity extension

By Karen Kruzycka | Sat 22nd May 2010 - 4:12 pm

The full Coalition agreement, published this week, contained the following commitment:

We will extend anonymity in rape cases to defendants.

(Section 20 “Justice”, page 24)

This issue wasn’t mentioned in either party’s manifesto; nor, I believe, during the election campaign. Neither was it something to which the previous Government aspired. It had been voted through at the Liberal Democrat annual conference in 2006, but allowed to lie dormant since. The Lords approved it as an amendment in 2003 but it went no further. As such, it’s a rather a bolt out of the blue.

In the not-too-distant past, there was no anonymity …

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