Category Archives: Op-eds

Lynne Featherstone

Don’t moan about the media – make-up for it instead!

By Lynne Featherstone | Mon 17th November 2008 - 1:20 pm

Stephen Tall’s post last week– Lib Dem tax policy: the media’s starting to listen, so now will the public get to hear about it? – highlighted how the media are increasingly rating our approach – and Vince Cable’s in particular – to economic issues.

As ever with Stephen, the post was full of good points and insight, but I think a key point was missed when he said that the reason for this not translating yet into higher support for the party is in part due to “anti-Lib Dem media bias and external factors beyond our control.”

Well yes – both …

Continue reading »
3 Comments
Darrell Goodliffe

Opinion: Restating the case against capital punishment

By Darrell Goodliffe | Sun 16th November 2008 - 4:45 pm

Whenever a particularly horrific criminal case is in the media spotlight there are inevitably calls for the reintroduction of capital punishment. Either for the ‘specific case in question’ or, more generally, for the specific type of crime committed. It’s to be expected from ‘foaming at the mouth’ right-wingers, but such views are also shared by many members of the general public.

We have seen that this week on Lib Dem Voice and the comments on Baby P. Nobody is under any illusions about the horrific nature of this case and the deplorable nature of the crimes committed. I think …

Continue reading »
22 Comments
Jon Hunt

The Gladstone Lecture: what Alan Beith said…

By Jon Hunt | Sun 16th November 2008 - 12:40 pm

Alan Beith’s Gladstone Lecture – and specifically his comments that church disestablishment is “not necessary” – attracted much comment earlier this week on LDV. Here Jon Hunt reflects on this and much else…

The grand old man of Liberalism was given his due respect last month.

The phrase is generally applied to Gladstone but could almost be applied to Sir Alan Beith, the former deputy leader of the party, who was chosen to give the first annual Gladstone lecture.

Sir Alan, who is only 65, has just published his autobiography, marking 35 years as serving Liberal MP for Berwick. But if …

Continue reading »
Tagged | 39 Comments
Fiyaz Mughal

Opinion: The Horn of Africa and Radicalisation

By Fiyaz Mughal | Fri 14th November 2008 - 6:46 pm

In the run up to the next election, Labour are going to lay a number of charges against the Liberal Democrats, some of which will attempt to paint our Party as being ‘soft’ on issues of safety and security. Labour has consistently tried to push this, and at the forefront of their strategy will be the charge that the Lib Dems have no coherent strategy to tackle radicalisation and extremism.

Over the last the years, the Government’s PREVENT strategy has been based on five key strands. These have included: challenging the violent extremist ideology; disrupting those who promote violent extremism; supporting individuals who are being targeted and recruited to the cause of violent extremism; increasing the resilience of communities; and addressing the grievances that ideologues are exploiting.

Having had the opportunity to work on PREVENT programmes with various government departments, I know the vast amount of work that is being undertaken on this agenda, with new and innovative thinking playing a role in ensuring safety and security. Yet for me, there is always a fear that communities may be labelled and marginalised, although the Government’s language has become much more sensitive recently. The more important fear is not that certain faith communities will be labelled, it is about the potential impacts on the civil liberties of Muslim and other Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities.

Things have moved on significantly since the initial Pathfinder PREVENT programmes were implemented in certain local authorities in 2007/08. Local authorities are starting clearly to differentiate between PREVENT work and community cohesion, though there are common strands. The language of PREVENT is more sensitive, yet preventing violent extremism is clearly stated as being part of the programme of work, even though projects may be labelled in softer ways. Also, many more Muslim civil society groups are applying for funding compared to the few that applied in the initial Pathfinder programmes. So, things are moving on, and the PREVENT work is bedding down in communities.

I am concerned that we do not get caught out by Labour’s charges, and think a detailed analysis of what is taking place on the ground needs to be disseminated to key stakeholders so that we can understand the complexity of the issues around violent extremism. The Government and security agencies have, for example, developed threat assessment frameworks that are related to certain towns and cities in the UK; suffice to say that, even if suspected individuals who can and will carry our violent actions leave the city, it may still be regarded as being an area at risk.

More importantly, the horn of Africa and in particular, the continuing civil war in Somalia, may lead to real problems here in the UK.

Continue reading »
Also posted in Europe / International | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem tax policy: the media’s starting to listen, so now will the public get to hear about it?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th November 2008 - 3:20 pm

Earlier today, Lib Dem Voice published this extract from Nick Clegg’s speech to the Royal Commonwealth Society summarising the Lib Dems’ policy of tax cuts for low- and middle-income households:

Real tax cuts – big, permanent and fair – for the people who need them. Funded by making the wealthy pay their fair share, ending the special exemptions and loopholes they’ve profited from for so long. Liberal Democrats would reduce basic rate income tax by 4p in the pound. That would give nearly £1000 back to a worker on £30,000 a year. Funded by four changes.

One: ending upper rate pensions

…

Continue reading »
Also posted in Polls | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Alex Foster

What nutter writes Tory tax policy?

By Alex Foster | Wed 12th November 2008 - 9:24 am

So, now the Tories have three distinctive tax promise, all of which are batty.

Their longest standing policy is their dog whistle tax incentives for marriage, proving their commitment to 19th century values when marriage was all about money and women were chattel.  And, incidentally, neglecting their focus on the whole “two unmarried spinsters who live together” demographic that was so totemic for Lady Young during the parliamentary debates on civil partnerships.  Moreover, giving a tax break to the vast majority of the population means it will either be expensive, or so small as to be meaningless.  Do we really need a

…

Continue reading »
Also posted in News | 11 Comments
Darrell Goodliffe

Opinion: Time to end the ‘war on terror’ and bring all our troops home

By Darrell Goodliffe | Tue 11th November 2008 - 3:20 pm

Nick Clegg, writing in The Independent on Sunday, made many worthy suggestions as to how British foreign policy may now proceed, especially in light of the election of Barack Obama as US President.

He is right to argue that now is the time for a “regional agreement, similar to the Dayton Peace Agreement, involving all countries in the region, especially Iran.” He is right about the centrality of involving both Iran and Pakistan in negotiations and also splitting the Taliban.

However, all the things that make him right about these issues make his call for Britain to support “a …

Continue reading »
Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged | 9 Comments
Steven Gauge

LDVUSA: How Obama made it happen

By Steven Gauge | Tue 11th November 2008 - 11:44 am

A week ago, the USA was going to the polls, and Lib Dem Steven Gauge was on-the-spot in Ohio. Here’s what he saw…

As Churchill said, “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” On November the 4th 2008 they finally got it absolutely right.

As the Presidential election results began coming in, I was in the ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel, Columbus, after two weeks of working as a volunteer on the Obama Campaign in the crucial swing state of Ohio. When CNN called the result and the crowd erupted, I …

Continue reading »
Also posted in LDVUSA | Tagged | Leave a comment
Jonathan Fryer

Jonathan Fryer’s Diary of a Euro-candidate

By Jonathan Fryer | Mon 10th November 2008 - 2:50 pm

Monday
Each autumn, I’m invited by Public Affairs International to give a briefing in London to foreign civil servants about relations between British political parties, the public and the media. A majority of the participants this afternoon are from Qatar and the UAE, which is an interesting reflection of current global realities. As their government ministers are almost all members of the ruling family, the Westminster system must seem very strange. I am left pondering what things would be like if Prince Andrew were our Minister of Defence. In the evening, I am the guest speaker at the AGM of Ealing …

Continue reading »
Also posted in Europe / International | Tagged | Leave a comment
Stephen Tall

Never mind about Parliament, Hazel: what about actually giving real power to real people?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 9th November 2008 - 12:20 pm

Forget Hazel Blears’ ill-considered assault on ‘nihilistic’ blogging, in her speech to the Hansard Society this week: let’s consider instead her attack on politicians who live on ‘Planet Politics’:

… there is a trend towards politics being seen as a career move rather than call to public service. Increasingly we have seen a ‘transmission belt’ from university activist, MPs’ researcher, think-tank staffer, Special Adviser, to Member of Parliament, and ultimately to the front bench. Now, there’s nothing wrong with any of those jobs, but it is deeply unhealthy for our political class to be drawn from narrowing social base and

…

Continue reading »
6 Comments
Stephen Tall

What does Glenrothes mean for the Lib Dems?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 7th November 2008 - 10:05 am

In the scheme of things, it seems unlikely that this week will be best remembered by history for a by-election in Scotland; but, still, the Glenrothes was (as politicians under the kosh of bad polls are prone to note) about real votes in a real election.

And the Lib Dems tanked. The party’s vote dropped by 10%, our meagre 947 votes failing to save our deposit, with the added ignominy of finishing behind the Tories. None of which can be any reflection on our candidate, Harry Wills. But it must cause the rest of us to reflect. In a

Continue reading »
Also posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged | 29 Comments
Paul Elgood

Our Man In Chicago: Paul Elgood reports back on that election night

By Paul Elgood | Thu 6th November 2008 - 8:22 pm

Lib Dem councillor Paul Elgood was one of the 125,000 people celebrating Barack Obama’s election victory in Grant Park, Chicago, on the night of 4th November. Here’s his eyewitness report…

Chicago: Nov 4th 2008

It seems as if the whole world has come to Chicago. Planes full of the world’s press have descended on the city and were met by perhaps half a million party-goers hoping to celebrate the election results.

Barack Obama voted first thing this morning, having finished a final whirlwind tour of key states. He voted at dawn to make the point to his supporters to vote as early …

Continue reading »
Also posted in LDVUSA | Tagged | Leave a comment
Darrell Goodliffe

Opinion: Forging ahead

By Darrell Goodliffe | Sun 2nd November 2008 - 7:46 pm

Something of a debate has been captivating the Liberal Democrat blogosphere recently. I don’t think this is something unique to the Liberal Democrats as a party; each party and movement is going through something of a process of struggle and redefinition due to the new financial climate in which we find ourselves.

Whatever your general view of capitalism as a social system, it is absolutely true in my eyes that the limitations of the markets have been cruelly exposed in the past weeks. Of course, this is not true if you are a die-hard libertarian; what has been exposed for them is the problems with fettering their beloved market. However, the consensus of opinion, even in such ‘loyalist’ tomes like The Economist and Financial Times, weighs heavily against the libertarian view of the correct lessons that should be drawn from the current crisis.

What has been teased out is that there is a need for a new consensus; maybe even A New Start, as posited by David Allen on these very pages. Of course, your view of how we got here will necessarily determine your view of which way forward is right.

However, what is abundantly clear is that the nature of the Liberal Democrats as a political party mitigates against the adoption of anybody’s ‘maximum program’. I would no more want to be a member of a party that abandons concepts such as social justice and the welfare of the people that the state is supposed to serve, as any libertarian would want to be of a party committed to the nationalisation of the ‘commanding heights’, or even more extreme democratisation of capital.

So, middle ground has to be found. How can we go about this?

Continue reading »
Tagged | 15 Comments
Stephen Tall

A look back at the polls: October

By Stephen Tall | Sat 1st November 2008 - 9:20 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 ten polls* published in October:

Tories 42%, Labour 30%, Lib Dems 17% – ICM/Guardian (3 Oct)
Tories 45%, Labour 31%, Lib Dems 15% – YouGov/Telegraph (4 Oct)
Tories 45%, Labour 30%, Lib Dems 15% – Populus/Times

…

Continue reading »
Also posted in Polls | Tagged | 45 Comments
David Allen

Opinion: Time for a New Start

By David Allen | Thu 30th October 2008 - 12:20 pm

The key policy declared at the Lib Dems’ Bournemouth conference last month was not the famous ‘Tax Cuts’. It was that the State should shrink. In the run-up to conference, argument raged as to how big the tax cuts might be, and who should receive them. Only one decision appeared to be cast in stone: State spending should shrink, by a hefty £20 billion.

This stance was bolstered by bold new policy declarations on education and health. Our ‘free schools’ policy would put large sums of public money into support for privately-run schools. Meanwhile, the National Health Service should be reformed to require ordinary NHS patients to pay for some of the most expensive drug treatments – or else go without. This last step outflanked the Tories’ Andrew Lansley, whose perceptive comment was, “If the NHS could simply exclude treatments and expect patients to pay up, the values of the NHS could be progressively undermined.”

Today, these policies lie in ruins. Not – or at least not yet – because Lib Dem members across the country have woken up, recognised a betrayal of the Party’s long-held principles, and rebelled en masse. Instead, events have taken charge.

We have seen a massive growth in State power – as the only effective means of preventing financial meltdown. Bemused neo-con Bushites, so long accustomed to treating government as the humble servant of global business enterprise, found themselves forced to let government take control. In the UK, Treasury civil servants became the new masters of the financial universe. Tony Blair, who so fretted that Brown might spoil his precious legacy, had probably not actually feared the return of Clause Four socialism. But that is effectively what has happened.

Continue reading »
Also posted in Party policy and internal matters | 82 Comments

Opinion: Why Lib Dems should go on the National Climate March (6th Dec)

By Daniel Jones | Tue 28th October 2008 - 11:20 am

What happens to the fight against global warming in a time of economic crisis? Lib Dems know that it must be fought as strongly as ever. However, there are those who will say that economic recovery must be the top priority and that other causes, however worthy, must take a backseat – for example, some politicians and representatives of companies whose interests are threatened by the battle against global warming who will be only too happy to encourage that type of thinking. They should not be allowed to succeed.

We should not let the need to tackle economic troubles take away …

Continue reading »
1 Comment
Richard Huzzey

Opinion: First they came for the Icelanders

By Richard Huzzey | Sat 25th October 2008 - 10:12 pm

Gordon Brown, earlier this month, used anti-terrorism legislation to freeze Icelandic assets in Britain, in response to their government failing to guarantee British deposits in their faltering banks. My links with Iceland begin and end with the purchase of frozen foods from that nation’s commercial namesake. But it still troubles me deeply. We should be profoundly concerned at the use of anti-terrorist legislation for political and economic ends. This is at the heart of fears about the extent of the powers the state has claimed since the attacks of 11 September 2001.

The British government has demonstrated precisely why civil liberties campaigners have been so concerned at the demands of Labour to trade our liberties for the promise of greater security. New terrorist legislation has – rightly – been considered in the post-9/11 world. Yet anxieties that counter-terrorist legislation should be given checks-and-balances, and justified as a necessary trade of liberty for security, are dismissed in a cavalier fashion by New Labour. A casual use of anti-terrorism powers for completely different ends is the most obvious symptom of that attitude.

A minister, Geoff Hoon, recently told Lib Dem MP Julia Goldsworthy that “the biggest civil liberty of all is not to be killed by a terrorist”, when she spoke out against a new database of all British citizens’ communications records. He is, of course, right in suggesting that we should contemplate and weigh up any options that would significantly reduce the chance of a terrorist attrocity. However, deciding where the balance lies between the likelihood of thwarting a terrorist, and surrendering the very way of life those terrorists seek to undermine, is a question he should treat with greater respect.

The rights and wrongs of Icelandic financial institutions are irrelevant to the fact that Brown abused legislation intended for very different purposes. This should profoundly worry anybody who cares about good governance. By using anti-terrorist legislation as a convenient way to respond to the global banking crisis, the British government have demonstrated why we should fear their cowboy attitude to checks-and-balances, and to the careful drafting of specific powers for specific purposes.

Anti-terrorist legislation should be used against terrorists. This seems a pretty reasonable assertion. Iain Dale has highlighted an Icelandic petition against this perverted contortion of the Terrorism Act, which spurred me to write on the topic. What worries me the most is that this ‘thin end of the wedge’ can be (and is being) replicated in the state’s use of other terrorist legislation. For example, new terrorist laws provide police with the powers to stop and search individuals, even if they actually do so for reasons unrelated to suspicion of terrorist offenses. Local councils have also been exposed using counter-terrorist powers to intrude into Britons’ privacy, to investigate matters wholly unrelated to acts of terror.

If we want to give our government the power to freeze Icelandic assets, or to give our police officers those powers in other criminal matters that they have been given in terrorist matters, then let’s debate and consider laws in parliament that openly permit those ends.

Continue reading »
Also posted in Big mad database | Tagged and | 6 Comments

The Independent View: Broke Britain, not Broken Britain – have banks and the Government swindled the next generation?

By Dale Bassett | Wed 22nd October 2008 - 12:20 pm

Banks are jeopardising the prospects of the next generation, discouraging financial responsibility and leaving young people facing the sharp end of the credit crunch. With the Government, they have created a “gilded generation” of pampered and over-protected young people, mired in debt and unable to understand their finances.

The liberal free-market think-tank Reform’s new report, written in conjunction with the Chartered Insurance Institute and published this week, finds that the “IPOD generation” of 18-34 year olds – whom we have described as Insecure, Pressurised, Over-taxed and Debt-ridden – have been failed by the “financial establishment”.

Young people have grown up in …

Continue reading »
Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

This is what happens when you forget that private means private, George

By Stephen Tall | Tue 21st October 2008 - 8:16 pm

When the story of Peter Mandelson and George Osborne’s meeting was leaked to the press by the Tory shadow chancellor three weeks ago, I argued on Lib Dem Voice that Mr Osborne had behaved pretty shabbily:

There’s a principle at stake here, even if it’s one increasingly regarded as old-fashioned: that private conversations held in good faith should be respected.

At the time, Iain Dale (every Lib Dem’s favourite Tory blogger) accused me of being “pious”. But, in fact, there’s more to not leaking private conversations than good manners: it’s also good sense. Who knows exactly why Mr Rothshild decided …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | 3 Comments
Mark Littlewood

Opinion: A Truly Liberal Vision for the Liberal Democrats

By Mark Littlewood | Tue 21st October 2008 - 3:08 pm

Can the Lib Dems put forward radical, exciting, truly liberal policies and still attract substantial and growing levels of electoral support? According to Liberal Vision, which I helped set up last month, the answer is a definitive “yes”. In fact, adopting the former could well be the best way of achieving the latter.

Liberal Vision wants to see the party adopt a consistent approach to lowering taxes, reducing the size of government and extending personal freedom. At present, the party’s approach in these areas is patchy.

Whilst, the new tax package adopted at Bournemouth represents a dramatic step in the right direction, there is still a long way to go. I would like to see tax cuts even for those on relatively sizeable incomes, but am delighted that the party now at least believes the total tax burden should be cut, rather than increased.

Continue reading »
Tagged | 148 Comments
Phil Booth

The Independent View: Keep your good name safe – lock the fraudsters out

By Phil Booth | Tue 21st October 2008 - 11:30 am

In this time of great financial uncertainty, Nick Clegg’s endorsement of ‘credit freezes’ for all – the ability for individuals to lock and unlock their own credit records – last week in Cambridge may not have received much media coverage. It should have.

NO2ID believes that giving people meaningful control over their own personal information is a truly radical and significant policy. It could, if broadly and properly applied, begin to carve out a genuine alternative to the database state. And in the immediate future it could also prevent a great deal of fraud at zero cost to the …

Continue reading »
Also posted in The Independent View | 7 Comments
Darrell Goodliffe

Opinion: Smoking and Liberty

By Darrell Goodliffe | Mon 20th October 2008 - 6:20 pm

Stephen Tall, starting a debate last week on the Lib Dems’ position in the polls, unintentionally started a quite different debate regarding the specific issue of smoking and liberty.

Laying my cards on the table from the start; I am a smoker and have been for over a year although I am in the throes of trying to cut back. Despite this, when it was introduced I just about came out in favour of the ban because I think there was enough evidence that the public health concerns are genuine, and, ultimately, I was prepared to trade a little of my individual liberty in this instance. You can debate the scientific evidence for and against this point ad infinitum, but there is also the issue that smoking smells pretty terrible etc, etc.

In these circumstances I found it possible to support the restriction on my liberty because I was imposing on others. Could you possibly extend that logic to support a ban in all public places? Yes, I guess you possibly could, but this would be a point where a line is crossed because the effects of second-hand smoking were exacerbated by being in a confined space. Ultimately smokers are usually aware of the risks and it is their decision whether to take that risk or not. It is a question of whether people have the right to control and govern what they do with their own bodies. Smoking in a confined space took that right away from other people, but smoking in an open space where air can circulate does not.

The Guardian reported recently that the latest smoking figures show nine million people still smoke – which is a minority but nonetheless a sizeable one. Disproportionately it is people on lower incomes who smoke the most (although income is not a sole determinant):

According to Professor Martin Jarvis, a psychologist at University College London and a leading specialist in the field of smoking and health inequality, this is not a question solely of income: every main indicator of a lower socio-economic status is likely, independent of each of the others, to predict a higher rate of smoking. If your educational level is below the average, you are more likely to smoke. If you live in rented or overcrowded accommodation, you are more likely to smoke. Ditto if you do not have access to a car, are unemployed, or on state income benefit.”

So, people who think higher taxation is the answer should consider this; that you are already hitting people hard who are at the bottom of the pile.

Continue reading »
95 Comments
Ann Furedi

The Independent View: New clauses on abortion – a once-in-a generation opportunity for MPs

By Ann Furedi | Mon 20th October 2008 - 3:35 pm

Speaking at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority conference on 13th October, Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo MP spoke of her enthusiasm for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which reaches third reading and report stage in the Commons on 22nd October. The Minister stressed to the IVF and embryo research regulatory body that the law must keep pace with scientific and medical developments, and that services need ‘proportionate’ regulation. She rightly called for a law that is both ‘right for science and right for society’.

As a former Director of Policy and Communications at the HFEA, I remember the frustration of scientists and clinicians who were unable to pursue rational and ethical lines of work because of the prohibitions of an overly prescriptive and out-of-date law. This HFE Bill is necessary, if not overdue, to set the legislative framework necessary for fertility research and treatment in the twenty-first century.

The same frustrations are shared by the doctors and nurses striving to provide a modern, evidence-based abortion service as part of family planning care in the UK. The 1990 HFE Act amended the 1967 Abortion Act, shaping the manner in which abortion services are currently provided. Ungainly as it may seem to yoke these two areas of legislation together, new clauses to the HFE Bill on abortion are appropriate and necessary to make sure that abortion services, too, can keep pace with scientific and medical developments and are regulated proportionately. The proposed new clauses to the HFE Bill affecting abortion care are primarily:

▪ Removal of the need for two doctors’ signatures to give permission before an abortion can be carried out- instead abortion would be provided on the basis of informed patient consent and in their best interests, as with all other medical procedures. (Evan Harris MP et al, New Clauses 1 & 13)
▪ Allowing nurses and midwives to carry out abortions where appropriate (Frank Dobson MP et al, New Clause 2 & 14)
▪ Allowing abortions to be carried out in GPs surgeries and Family Planning Clinics where appropriate (Jacqui Lait MP et al, New Clauses 7 & 10)
▪ Home administration of misoprostol (the second dose of medication when undergoing early medical abortion (Christine McCafferty MP et al, New Clause 9)
▪ Preventing misleading advertising by pregnancy counselling services to require clarity in advertising where they won’t refer for abortion and don’t provide treatment (John Bercow MP et al, New Clause 11)
▪ Clarifying that the legal right of conscientious objection does not also extend to the non-provision of contraception on this ground (Evan Harris MP et al, New Clause 12)
▪ Extending the Abortion Act 1967 to Northern Ireland (Diane Abbott MP et al, New Clause 30)

Abortion, as a solution to the serious public health problem of unintended pregnancy, is very much a part of modern society. No woman ever wants, or sets out to have an abortion, but women want, and need abortion to be there as an option for them when our contraception fails, or we fail to use it effectively.

Continue reading »
Also posted in The Independent View | Tagged | 7 Comments
James Graham

Why don’t liberals talk about morality?

By James Graham | Fri 17th October 2008 - 1:18 pm

First a confession: I understand what is going on with the global wunch crunch far less than I’m comfortable with. The world’s leaders seem to be making up as they go along, adopting a throw everything at the market until something sticks approach. Gordon Brown’s plan looked like it was going to pay off at the beginning of the week; now it looks like we are rapidly heading back to square one. None of it makes sense to me; I find it highly ironic having people complain about the “complexity” of Georgism earlier this week when it is kindergarten …

Continue reading »
38 Comments
Stephen Tall

Are the Tories playing the expectations game?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 14th October 2008 - 5:44 pm

There’s been a fair amount of publicity today generated by ConservativeHome’s ‘scoop’, a briefing they’ve been fed received on the party’s analysis of the political impact of the current economic crisis, and in particular:

Team Cameron readily concede that Brown has enjoyed a good few days. They expect the Conservatives’ poll lead to drop into single figures in the next month or so. They expect to lose the Conservative lead on economic competence but expect it to be restored by the new year.

Now, forgive me for lapsing into cynicism, but this strikes me as a rather easy way …

Continue reading »
Tagged | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

The financial crisis: what will be the impact on Labour?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 13th October 2008 - 7:26 pm

Yesterday I looked at the impact of the current financial crisis on the Lib Dems, the one party which correctly anticipated the credit crunch and its impact. Inevitably (if frustratingly) much of this will depend on the extent to which the public blames Labour for the mess the UK currently finds itself in, or the extent to which they credit Labour if the Government’s bail-out package helps rescue the UK from amidst the debris of the current global crisis.

In short, what the Lib Dems have to say is unlikely to have any immediate positive or negative impact on …

Continue reading »
Tagged and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Mandelson and Osborne: private should mean private

By Stephen Tall | Mon 6th October 2008 - 3:15 pm

The man-they-love-to-hate is back. Peter Mandelson may be unpopular with his Labour colleagues; but it is the Tories and right-wing press which truly despise him. His crime? Being part of the New Labour team which got Tony Blair elected and consigned the Tories to the footnotes of history for a decade. And now they are, to coin a phrase, ‘dripping pure poison’ on his return to the cabinet.

I hold no brief for Peter Mandelson: I met him once (when I served him a cup of hot water, his favoured tipple, back in my student waitering-to-pay-the-bills days). He strikes me …

Continue reading »
Tagged | 10 Comments

An ambitious aquatic analogy of British politics from 2008 onwards

By Stephen Gillan | Sun 5th October 2008 - 4:22 pm

The British political scene in 2008 can be compared to three vessels on the sea.

Currently the Titanic is the ship in the spotlight. Many passengers got on board, but the only place it’s going fast, is down. Passengers are panicking, looking for a rescue ship, and the only thing they can see is the lovely looking Marie Celeste. From distant observation it seems perfectly seaworthy, it’s got some damn fine sails. So, naturally, people jump overboard and swim towards it.

Just one problem.

As soon as people climb aboard the Marie Celeste, they will realise that there isn’t a …

Continue reading »
Also posted in Humour | 5 Comments
Alex Foster

Opinion: time to stop taking money from Councils

By Alex Foster | Sat 4th October 2008 - 11:05 am

Now both Tories and Labour want to take more money away from local government.

The only tax cut the Tories are putting firmly on the table is a complex 2.5% sweetener for local authorities which manage to freeze their expenditure – worth, they say £200 per year for the average band D property. It’s wrong in so many ways, not least because of how little that really is for the average householder. It translates to a whopping £5 per person per month in my Band A, two people, two cats household.  And yet it’s still more generous to the wealthiest in …

Continue reading »
Also posted in Local government | 4 Comments
Charlotte Gore

Opinion: The Granny State

By Charlotte Gore | Fri 3rd October 2008 - 6:15 pm

The Nanny State: what a slogan that’s been. No three words have done more to undermine the basic thought processes behind Labour governments.

The role of government is to make people fitter, happier and more productive, they say. Leave us alone, we reply. Wherever ‘The Greater Good’ and ‘For Your Own Good’ come together, Labour’s on the case with awareness campaigns, initiatives, Quangos and, if you’re unfortunate enough to be a smoker, some pretty degrading laws too.

The Liberal Democrats haven’t been blameless in this game, but slowly the instinct we share for liberty, for adults to be regarded as… …

Continue reading »
34 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Chris Cory
    While I agree with every word, I am at the same time, more than a little discombobulated. If we believe all this fine "power to the people" stuff, then isn't...
  • Ian
    The way the party runs itself is hardly an exemplar for putting our values into practice, is it? Nor evidence that senior people in the party have much interes...
  • David Allen
    British politics since the 2008 crash has been a contest between establishment Governments and insurgent opponents. The Tory and Labour establishment parties h...
  • Kevin Hawkins
    I have frequently commented on Lib Dem Voice that we should not take one week’s by-election results (or even several week’s results) seriously. We have goo...
  • Dan Falchikov
    Well said: "David Howarth’s Being Liberal explores the Liberal disposition: open-minded, suspicious of abuses of power, uncomfortable with hierarchy, treatin...