Category Archives: Op-eds

Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism #8

By Ruaraidh Dobson | Tue 15th September 2009 - 3:50 pm

It seems impossible to believe, but once again Freshers’ Week is upon us. That most exciting time of year, when fresh-faced school pupils transform overnight into bleary-eyed students – all while scrupulously obeying government guidelines on alcohol use, of course.

It’s a great opportunity to try new things, or at the very least join new clubs and promptly forget about them. It’s also the most important time of year for youth politics.

The vast majority of student activists and party members are recruited at Freshers’ Fayres, so it’s important to have a decent operation to bring people in. That’s harder than it appears – aside from the cost in money and time, you need a strong team of young activists willing to give up their Freshers’ Week to stand at a stall. Fortunately, this year we do.

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Opinion: Democracy, the Rule of Law and New Labour

By Martin Land | Mon 14th September 2009 - 6:32 pm

Back in the 1980s my employer, encouraged by some important orders I’d picked up in what we then called Eastern Europe, asked me to try to build up a distribution network in as many countries as I could. In creating this customer base, I made a number of good friends in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia. It was good business, though never easy, and my sympathy with the many friends I made there led me to take more time over it than perhaps I should have.

I’m pleased to say that after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was personally able to help a number of my old contacts with the small amounts of capital needed to start up their own businesses and keep up contact with many of them even now. Sad to say some of my Yugoslav friends disappeared into the tragedy of the Civil War, though I still keep in touch with Slovenes who escaped the worst of it.

In those dark days in the 1980s conversations often turned to politics. Once we had carefully sounded each other out, it was a topic that could not be easily avoided. It was obvious that the system had failed, though no one I ever spoke to thought it would go and certainly not in the manner it did. I felt it had 10 years; they were generally far less sanguine.

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Gareth Aubrey

Y Barcud Oren #11

By Gareth Aubrey | Mon 14th September 2009 - 3:40 pm

Can it really be party conference season already? In Wales it can, as Plaid pop off to Llandudno this weekend where no-one will notice them (so what’s new…) In any case, what self-respecting journalist is going to waste their time on things that are actually happening when there’s good speculatin’ to be had?

Leaving On A Rhoose Plane

The target of said speculation is of course Rhodri Morgan, whose stated retirement date (his 70th birthday) is now just over two weeks away. With departure supposedly imminent, the pretenders to the throne have crept back into the shadows to avoid the appearance of giving an extra shove on the way off the precipice (Jon Cruddas’ trip to Wales to essentially endorse Huw Lewis as the “properly lefty” candidate notwithstanding.)

Mind you, Rhodri couldn’t have done a better job fuelling the speculation if he’d tried.

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Carey Oppenheim

The Independent View: the ippr on ‘The future of politics itself’ #ldconf

By Carey Oppenheim | Mon 14th September 2009 - 10:55 am

I’m Carey Oppenheim and I’m Co-Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), the UK’s leading progressive think tank. If you have been to the Liberal Democrat conference before you may have been to one of our events.

The debate dominating the conferences this year is the future of politics itself – ippr is hosting a key event at each of the three main conferences where leading figures will discuss how to renew trust in politics and the crucial issues facing us in the coming general election.

To open up the debate, ippr and Lib Dem Voice are asking party …

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Also posted in LDV Members poll and The Independent View | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

It’s not Britain that’s illiberal, Martin – it’s our political culture

By Stephen Tall | Sat 12th September 2009 - 1:55 pm

Was The Guardian’s Martin Kettle right yesterday to argue, as per his article’s headline, The biggest problem for the Liberal Democrats is illiberal Britain. It was a long, thoughtful piece – and, hey, it’s much better to be talked about than not, especially if you’re a Lib Dem – but, still, it was at best a partial explanation.

Let’s start with the positive stuff. First of all, Mr Kettle acknowledges the various ways in which the party has “been right on so many issues”:

By so many yardsticks, the Lib Dems deserve to be higher in the polls than they are. Michael Meadowcroft, intermittent party loyalist and former MP for Leeds West, listed several of them in a typically forceful Guardian letter today: the economy, Europe, ID cards, Iraq and localism. On all of them, as he says, the Lib Dems have been consistently right. One can add others to the list that Meadowcroft omitted: climate change, police powers, tax, electoral reform. All big subjects on which the Lib Dems have been right most of the time in ways that put the other parties to shame.

Couldn’t have put it better myself. But then there’s the problem of the current opinion polls: the Lib Dems have been tracking in the high-teens, occasionally breaking the 20% barrier.

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Mark Pack

Why I’m not celebrating over Brian Coleman

By Mark Pack | Fri 11th September 2009 - 10:19 pm

Highly controversial Conservative London Assembly Member Brian Coleman is in the news again, though this time it’s not for an outrageous expense claim or the like.

The Barnet Standards Board has ruled that he broke the rulesfor sending an email that called the blogger Roger Tichbourne “an obsessive, poisonous individual”.

I’m not exactly over-joyed at the outcome. Yes, Brian Coleman has once again behaved stupidly. Yes, he deserves criticism. But should such matters really be up for standards boards to rule on? I don’t think so. Let the actions of politicians be public and then let the voters or (if it’s …

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Millennium Elephant

Millennium’s Credit Crunch Diary… August: It’ll All Be Over By Christmas?

By Millennium Elephant | Fri 11th September 2009 - 4:10 pm

Before we start, a word about bankers’ bonuses.

With the head of the Financial Services Watchdog, Mr Airhead Turner, placing bankers on a scale between Socially Awkward and Totally Useless, people have been coming up with plans to curb excessive bonuses. Mr Airhead himself floated the idea of a transaction tax or Tobin tax, where you charge the bankers for passing money across the border.

Captain Clegg and the Liberal Democrats don’t think this would work, because the bankers would just pass their money over everyone’s border but ours!

We’d rather see bonuses cut down to size by cutting the BANKS down to size, breaking them up so they are no longer too big to save when it turns out that they are too big to let fail.

For the Conservatories, Master Gideon Oboe said that if banks didn’t stop awarding big bonuses he would have the regulator write them a VERY STERN letter, warning them that he would not sign off on their pay package. And if they persisted in paying out, well, he’d write them ANOTHER very stern letter! That would sort them out.

And Mr Frown, the Prime Monster himself, promised to try very hard to put a STOP to that sort of thing, and then tried very hard to scupper Monsieur Sarcastic and Ms Angular Meercat’s plan to ACTUALLY stop that sort of thing!

I think it is time to put a fresh proposal on the table.

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Opinion: A legacy of mediocrity

By Rich Wilson | Fri 11th September 2009 - 9:45 am

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has just published a report saying the way to combat recession is to up the number of university places. I disagree.

The problem is that while we have a culture where there’s a course for everyone, we have a degree for everyone – smart or stupid, talented or talentless. This has led to a system where only two grades matter – First or Fail. A First sets you out from the majority of candidates for employment, who leave with 2:1s, 2:2s or thirds; a fail means you’re back to square one. Anything in between is simply a blur of the average, and companies have no desire for the average.

But surely a degree should mean something? A degree should mean that someone is clever, whatever the grade. However, with degrees filled up with students who got EEE at A-level, it naturally devalues the system.

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Anthony Tuffin

STV: System for The Voter

By Anthony Tuffin | Thu 10th September 2009 - 12:50 pm

Only STV can make MPs really accountable to voters on their expenses claims and local issues, or major decisions on war and peace, the environment and the economy – indeed all issues. Only STV offers voters a genuine choice of candidates from the same and different parties, which must be essential for anyone who believes in freedom, choice and freedom of choice.

The current scandal of MPs’ expenses and allowances has triggered a popular demand for reform and some people think that proportional representation (PR) should be an important part of a reform package. PR has many advantages; it would for example:

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Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged | 9 Comments
Mark Pack

Will there be a cull of ministers after the next general election?

By Mark Pack | Thu 10th September 2009 - 8:55 am

Whoever wins the next general election, they will have to make some tough choices about public  spending. Will they dare look very close to home though?

In late 1914 when Britain ruled much of the world and was fighting a world war, there were a total of 49 ministers. Gordon Brown’s government currently has 119 ministers – an increase of 143%.

Some of the growth is for reasons most people across most parties would support, such as the creation of the National Health Service resulting in the creation of some new roles. But those areas of ‘consensus growth’ are relatively small, and …

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Tim Connolly

Opinion: Youth justice – a golden opportunity for the Lib Dems

By Tim Connolly | Wed 9th September 2009 - 2:30 pm

Youth justice has risen, zombie-like, from the place unloved political issues go to die. In July, the Government published an interim report on The Youth Crime Action Plan, its “comprehensive, cross-government analysis of what the government is going to do to tackle youth crime.”

This prompted vigorous activity from the think-tanks and NGOs, and a predictable silence from the dead who may live again, aka the Conservative Party.

Last week, the Liberal Democrats published data showing that the number of 10 to 12 year olds convicted of a criminal offence rose by 87.2% between 1997 and 2007. Nick Clegg, remarking on the figures, argued that:

It is a disgrace the Government spends eleven times more locking up our young people than it does on backing projects to stop them getting involved in crime in the first place.”

Unless you happen to be keen on nineteenth century penal philosophy, Nick’s comment seems to make excellent sense. I would suggest, however, that it is, at best, carelessly imprecise. At worst, it indicates a refusal to challenge the prevailing conservative narrative on youth crime. Given recent reporting of events in Doncaster, a measured rebuttal is more critical than ever.

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Simon Titley

Opinion: Stone Age communication not as cheap as you think

By Simon Titley | Sun 6th September 2009 - 11:00 am

There is a report in the E-Government Bulletin about the campaign organisation WebThrift’s claim that councils are wasting money on web services.

Peter Barton at Lincolnshire County Council turns WebThrift’s claim on its head. He estimates the cost impact of turning the web OFF at the council: click here for details.

What is WebThrift’s real agenda? Who could possibly benefit by the isolation of people from local government?

* Simon Titley is a Liberal Democrat activist who helps to write and produce Liberator magazine.

Also posted in Local government | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Standing against the Speaker: never mind the politics, what about the voters?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 5th September 2009 - 2:15 pm

There’s been plenty of interesting Lib Dem internet chatter asking whether – now Ukip’s soon-to-be-ex-leader Nigel Farage is breaching normal convention and standing against the incumbent Speaker, Tory MP John Bercow, in Buckingham – the Lib Dems should follow suit.

Opinion is divided. Some say we absolutely shouldn’t – here, for instance, is Stephen Glenn:

… while the ‘convention’ for not standing against a sitting speaker is not as set in stone as some people may have you believe, it is none the less a precedent symbolising the apolitical nature of the role. Indeed it seems to be one, that even if contested, the constituents seem to back up as not one speaker seeking election since 1969 has polled less than 50% of the vote.

And here’s the Wit and Wisdom blog:

Liberal Democrats wanting to be taken seriously should give the Speaker a clear run at the next election as is the convention.

Meanwhile Mark Littlewood at Liberal Vision is more open to the idea that the Lib Dems should stand a candidate to oppose Speaker Bercow and Mr Farage:

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Alex Foster

“Taxpayers don’t want Web 2.0!”

By Alex Foster | Thu 3rd September 2009 - 5:03 pm

So runs the rather foolish quote from the Taxpayers’ Alliance in a story from the Daily Express expressing outrage at a job ad for a Director of Digital Engagement.

The Government should have better things to spend money on than a pointless deputy Twittercrat. The public sector as a whole should be tightening its belt during times of economic hardship, and this job would be a scandalous waste even during good economic times.

Taxpayers don’t want more Web2.0. They want an end to wasteful spending.

Neither the TPA nor the Conservative Party can see the point, instead frothing at the mouth …

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Opinion: Once again, the French show a little bit more imagination…

By Martin Land | Wed 2nd September 2009 - 6:45 pm

The reduction in VAT from 17.5% to 15% quickly condemned and rightly so, by Vince Cable, as expensive and ineffective is one of this government’s more costly errors. The one year only cut will cost us the incredible sum of £12.5 billion pounds and has done little to stimulate consumer spending, simply because despite the enormous cost it still seems so meaningless at the till.

Indeed, it may will come with a sting in the tail, as when it comes to an end and VAT goes back to 17.5% it will come with a sharp inflationary jolt which may well trim back some of those ‘green shoots’ that Labour will being telling us about this winter.

The French, as usual, have shown a little bit more imagination.

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Stephen Glenn

Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism #7: The Megrahi Documents

By Stephen Glenn | Wed 2nd September 2009 - 12:45 pm

The Megrahi case has ripped apart the peace of the Scottish Parliamentary recess, with even some former Lib Dem leaders taking a differing view to our leader in Holyrood. Today the UK Government and Scottish Parliament have released papers relating to the discussions that have gone one over the last two years. It ranges from correspondence between Westminster and Holyrood, to memos of meetings with Libyan officials, to the compassionate release request listing medical conditions.

These start chronologically with the first letter from then-Lord Chnacellor Lord (Charles) Falconer to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond outlining the Memorandum of Understanding that Westminster had set up with Libya regarding a number of judicial issues. The Memorandum was drawn up to look at increasing bilateral co-operation covering, amongst other things, commercial and criminal issues. The legal issues were not exclusively about Mr Al Megrahi, but looking at the bigger picture of co-operation between the two nations at large. However, Lord Falconer did say that nothing could be ruled in or out, but that co-operation and consultation between Westminster and Holyrood would be carried forward.

However, it the path of the UK’s justice secretary Jack Straw’s correspondence that sheds a lot of light on the situation, especially considering the Labour response in Holyrood.

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Stephen Tall

A look back at the polls: August ’09

By Stephen Tall | Tue 1st September 2009 - 7:30 pm

We tend not to be too poll-obsessed here at LDV – of course we look at them, as do all other politico-geeks, but viewed in isolation no one poll will tell you very much beyond what you want to read into it. Looked at over a reasonable time-span and, if there are enough polls, you can see some trends.

Here, in chronological order, are the results of the six polls published in August:

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Also posted in Polls | Tagged | 5 Comments

If used properly and proportionately, CCTV can be a vital deterrent to criminals

By Chris Ward | Tue 1st September 2009 - 6:28 pm

I did intend to write a less controversial article after my previous contribution attracted far more attention and comments than I expected it to. Knowing that what I’m writing about now falls onto a similar strand of sensitivity, I expect I’ll fail miserably.

When I arrived at Surrey in 2002 to study, we were told it was the safest county in the country. Indeed, this was one of the attractions of studying there, as well as the very beautiful and leafy campus in one of the most unspoilt but bustling southern towns in the country. However, …

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Li-Teck Lau

Opinion: Freedom of speech should not be filled with wrong-speech

By Li-Teck Lau | Mon 31st August 2009 - 4:00 pm

OK, so basically, I will confess to enjoy reading the Daily Mail because it’s full of hate, and hate can be fun to read. Third world (or however you may wish to call it) debt, access to clean water and human rights abuses etc, are all very noble issues, but, at the same time, can get rather boring. Once you’ve read about one genocide, you’ll soon discover they’re all really quite similar.

I got to reading a wonderful Saturday commentary page by a certain Amanda Platell (I understand that she also writes for the Guardian giving a ‘right wing perspective’ on Wednesdays, but I have yet to waste time on it) titled ‘This baby boom will make us all go bust’, referring to the recent publication of birth and death rates . She starts off her piece stating,

Soaring immigration – and a migrant baby boom – has sent Britain’s population rocketing over the 61 million mark. We are now the second most densely populated country in the world, something that will be all too apparent on the roads and trains this bank holiday weekend’.

Ignoring the flame-stoking use of language for the moment, the second sentence claim that Britain has filled up to the point that it is now the second most densely populated country in the world, apparently in an attempt to shock the average housewife sitting in her flower-embroidered sofa into believing she will imminently be accommodating this influx in her garden, is only outdone in its disgracefulness by its shear wrongness.

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Stephen Tall

Should parish councils be “completely apolitical”?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 29th August 2009 - 11:40 am

An intriguing row has broken out in Shoreham, West Sussex, in the lead-up to a by-election to fill a vacancy on the parish council. The local paper tells all:

CONTROVERSY is stirring in grassroots politics, with the nomination of a Liberal Democrat to stand in a Rustington Parish Council by-election. Jamie Bennett’s punt at parish politics has rippled the normally tranquil waters of the council, on which all 15 current members sit as independents.

Lib-Dem Jamie will contest the West ward seat vacated by former parish council chairman Mike Warrington, who has moved away from the area, in a two-horse race with Andy Cooper, described as the “Keep Rustington Council Independent” candidate. The by-election is on Thursday, September 17.

This kind of debate isn’t unusual at parish council level – the size of most parishes, and their limited budget powers, tend to mean the decisions they can make are small-scale: what place does party politics have in such circumstances?, goes the argument.

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Paul Harrod

Opinion: A more compassionate welfare policy

By Paul Harrod | Sun 23rd August 2009 - 1:45 pm

Channel 4’s new series Benefit Busters has reopened the debate on how (depending on your point of view) we best support the most vulnerable people find work, or stop wasting billions on a welfare system that has engendered a culture of dependency.

Last week the Telegraph and Express revealed that the UK Exchequer will pay out more in benefits this year than it receives in Income Tax. As the recession continues it is inevitable that this huge area of public spending will come under further scrutiny and is likely to be a major battleground in next year’s General Election.

This is a great opportunity for our party, because we have a package of policies that would make the greatest difference.

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Gareth Aubrey

Y Barcud Oren #10

By Gareth Aubrey | Sat 22nd August 2009 - 4:17 pm

Ah, the summer, that mystical time when politicians stop being lazy in their grand offices and spread their laziness across the land (or not, of course, though I suppose you can judge for yourself using the Western Mail’s list…) The summer was never going to be politics-free, however, particularly in Wales where everyone has to factor in their annual visit to Senedd-on-Sea.

Considerably Welsher than yow

Or to be more accurate, Senedd-by-the-Lakeside, as this year’s National Eisteddfod was held in Bala. With Rhodri’s 70th birthday (his promised retirement date) little more than a month away, it was time for Bridgend …

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Seth Thevoz

Setting the Record Straight: Labour and the NHS

By Seth Thevoz | Fri 21st August 2009 - 9:20 am

So, it’s the silly season again, and politicians are once more gripped by an irrational argument. No change there.

But for those of us who study history, the latest furore over the NHS is positively nauseating, with people apparently split into the camps of those who decry its very right to exist, and those who suddenly pretend they haven’t spent the last few years grumbling about how it’s in dire need of reform.

Part of this division is built upon a myth – a boil that needs to be lanced. We’re so used to Labour politicians churning out the line that Labour gave us the NHS, that we’ve begun to unthinkingly accept it. When Ian McCartney MP celebrated Labour’s centenary in 2006, he actually shed a tear for the NHS as Labour’s greatest triumph. Anyone familiar with 1940s history will tell you that this version of events is a cruel lie.

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Opinion: Misinformed populists spoil the exam results debate

By Chris Ward | Thu 20th August 2009 - 9:50 am

It’s that time of year again. (Former) sixth form students walk up to the school gates together for the last time to find out exactly how well they have done in the tedium that is the AS/A-Level examination system, prefaced by the usual yearly whinges from armchair-idiots rubbishing the entire system and associating any positive correlation with “exams getting easier” and any negative correlations with “young people getting thicker”.

I was the first year to take the AS level. “Ah, that system seems so much easier!”, the armchair-idiots chirped. This assumption was based on the one pro the …

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Richard Parsons

The Independent View: Making your voice heard on the file-sharing law

By Richard Parsons | Tue 18th August 2009 - 9:20 am

The government has plans for a Digital Economy Bill, which, if you took it at face value, sounds like exactly the kind of thing the government should be focusing on to help keep Britain at the cutting edge of the ‘new economy’.

As usual, however, the details tend to be slightly more complicated. The legislation will, instead, be used to introduce a new system for targeting pretty much everyone who shares files on the internet.

The government wants Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to monitor your broadband connection and send you ‘warning letters’ if you are sharing files improperly. Details of who has been sent a letter will be made available to big corporations, which can then use them in court to sue you.

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Also posted in The Independent View | 13 Comments
James Graham

Looking beyond the Lib Dem ghetto

By James Graham | Sun 16th August 2009 - 10:20 am

The Lib Dems have always selected their candidates by “one member one vote” (OMOV). It has always seemed the most logical and transparently fair system, and it is certainly better than having candidates hand-picked by an inner cabal. It still does a fairly good job at selecting candidates for the House of Commons, although as membership levels drop that is becoming less true. But it has been quite inadequate for selecting candidates for larger constituencies, particularly for the European Parliament and London Assembly.

Here’s the fundamental problem: a significant proportion of our members are concentrated in our held and target constituencies. Target seats become target seats because they have a larger pool of activists from which to draw. In turn, in order to become winning seats they have to recruit more activists. The more tightly we focus on target seats, as the Lib Dems certainly have for the past two decades, the more the gap between target seat and what we sometimes euphemistically call “development seats” widens.

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Mark Pack

Whether you are left or right handed shapes our judgments of good and bad, smart and stupid

By Mark Pack | Fri 14th August 2009 - 8:50 am

This from Newsweek:

Memo to restaurant owners: if there are particular dishes you want more customers to order, list them on the right side of the menu…

Simply put, we associate the side of space where we’re clumsier with bad, stupid, dishonest, unhappy and other negative qualities, finds Daniel Casasanto of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands.

In a series of five clever studies, reported Aug. 1 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, he had university students take tests probing their unconscious attitudes toward the left and right side of the world. In one, 219 students from Stanford University and the University of California, Riverside, were told that a cartoon character loves zebras but hates pandas (or vice versa).

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Jo Swinson MP

Perez Hilton has blogged about a Lib Dem policy paper

By Jo Swinson MP | Wed 12th August 2009 - 9:20 am

Last Wednesday I tweeted the unlikely words: “Never thought I’d say this, but Perez Hilton has blogged about a Lib Dem policy paper http://bit.ly/Dkfe5”.

It’s fair to say that the Real Women policy paper proposals on body image have stirred up quite a bit of debate: in the press, on TV & radio, in the blogosphere and, I also hope, in the pub, around the dinner table and over a cup of coffee.

Lots of women (and a few men) have got in touch to say they’re glad someone is finally trying to tackle the huge pressure on women to look slim, smooth and perfect.

Some have blogged their concerns about the policy, and I hope to answer some of the questions that have been raised.

Is there really a body image problem?

Yes, and it starts young.

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Also posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 32 Comments
Andrew Reeves

Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism #6

By Andrew Reeves | Mon 10th August 2009 - 12:50 pm

It has been a busy time in Scotland over recent weeks and what with Holyrood in recess for a month before Westminster broke up, there have been holidays to work around, babies being born, MPs standing down and candidates being selected all over as well as an away day for all parliamentarians and campaign staff.

Archie Scott was born earlier this week, weighing 8.5lbs to the delight of Kirsten and Tavish, our sincere congratulations to them both.

Alison and Mike Moore also have recently had a baby, Ella Louise. Now, Ella Louise was born prematurely so Mike …

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Prateek Buch

A tale of two recessions

By Prateek Buch | Mon 10th August 2009 - 10:20 am

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

Dickens may well have been writing about 18th century France, but it’s likely that historians looking back at 2009 would conclude something similar about our current economic predicament.

In the midst of a recession triggered by a financial crisis, the economy at large has been in decline in the UK for five quarters. The knock-on effects of the credit crunch, brought on largely by unsustainable and deregulated banking speculation, have been dire; bail-outs in the billions which, according to Vince Cable’s sage analysis, “privatise profits and nationalise losses“; job …

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