Category Archives: Op-eds

Bridget Fox

Opinion: Vive la difference!

By Bridget Fox | Sat 28th April 2007 - 8:42 pm

It’s not just the UK that goes to the polls next week. France will elect its first truly post-war President on 6th May.

“I’m not issuing any voting instructions. The French citizens who voted for me are free to follow their conscience and make their choice”. So says Francois Bayrou, the ALDE-backed candidate, contemplating the Sego vs Sarko run-off.

But how should a conscientious liberal vote? Bayrou famously joked that the others offer a choice between the woman who wants France to be like Scandinavia and the man who wants France to be like the USA.

Either …

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GLA candidates websites reviewed and rated

By the founding editor | Sun 22nd April 2007 - 10:00 pm

GLA site

Soon, members across London will select their candidates to run for election to the Greater London Assembly. Most of the selection campaign e-mails from candidates have included a link to a standalone selection website, which has been approved in advance for publication by the Returning Officer.

As a London-based member who will have a vote, but hasn’t yet decided whether to exercise it, let alone whom to excercise it for, I decided to put the candidate’s websites head to head. At the end of the post, in the interests of fairness, a full list of candidates appears. If I’ve missed off a candidate’s website, please let me know.

What criteria did you use to assess the sites?

Candidates scored big points for:

  • Having a manifesto that was easy to find and digest
  • A website that was well structured and easy to navigate
  • Meeting disabled accessibility and good coding standards (don’t worry if you don’t understand these tests in the review – failed is bad, passed is good).

Bonus points were received for e-campaigning wizardry such as blogs, online video etc. It’s important to note that candidates did not score points for having a website that was bigger than their rivals. In my estimation quality is more important than quantity – the goal of these sites is to win votes, not rival War & Peace.

The majority of sites were reviewed on 17 April. Ajmal Masroor and James Allie were reviewed on 21 April. By this point the selection campaign was well underway, and in my judgement, the sites should have been fully ready to be public. The sites are listed in descending order, the joint ‘winners’ first. Where two sites have a joint score, or no score, the sites are listed in alphabetical order by candidate surname.

Note: this review is a review of the candidate’s ability to put a website together. It’s up to you to decide how important that skill is when you come to cast your vote, so I wouldn’t obsess too much about ‘your candidate’ coming top or bottom of this review.

I’m a candidate, or I built a candidate’s website, and I think you’ve been unfair, what can I do?

I suggest you leave a comment underneath the post, and I’ll reply there too – so if your site is marked up or down for any reason, the rationale for doing so is immediately made public.

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Laurence Boyce

Book review: The Great City Academy Fraud

By Laurence Boyce | Sat 21st April 2007 - 9:23 pm

Book coverA dismal tale of betrayal and failure in our education system has been penned by Francis Beckett in recent times. In The Great City Academy Fraud, Beckett exposes the con which lies at the heart of what is nothing more than the Conservative’s old City Technology Colleges scheme, rehashed and reheated by New Labour. The present facts are these: that that a sponsor willing to put up £2 million may effectively control and run a City Academy, towards which the taxpayer will have paid a vastly greater sum, not to mention running costs and salaries in perpetuity.

In fact Beckett shows that even the £2 million is not all that it appears, frequently comprising “payment in kind” – pretend money in the form of consultancy services and the like – as the government has been forced to water down its funding requirements in a desperate bid to attract new sponsors. And yet for the sake of this moth-eaten contribution from the private sector, unenthusiastic parents and local authorities are encumbered with a school which need form no part of a local education strategy, and which is entirely exempt from the body of education law built up since 1944.

While Academies were supposed to replace failing schools, Beckett reports how they have all too often disrupted the life of well loved schools against local wishes, with the aid of bullying tactics which emanate straight from the top. Of course parents may object to a proposed Academy, and sometimes they even get their way, but they are then made to feel as though they have deprived their patch of millions in education investment, which in a sense they have. The deal is that they can either have the school which the government and sponsor wish to impose on them, or they can go to hell.

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Richard Huzzey

Ming to Dave: Get Lost

By Richard Huzzey | Wed 18th April 2007 - 4:05 pm

Benedict Brogan reports that Sir Menzies Campbell told Cameron to get lost over any Lib-Tory pact dreampt up by Tory Central Office. Quite right too. It’ll be interesting to see how much Greg Dyke was involved in the Tories’ idea; you would have hoped he would have had better judgement than to be seduced by the idea.

 

—-

 Editor’s note:

This has been a fast moving story this afternoon.  It’s worth noting in full the party’s press release on the subject:

LONDON DESERVES A LIBERAL CHOICE FOR MAYOR – DAVEY

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Menzies Campbell today rejected a Conservative approach for the …

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Richard Huzzey

Greg Dyke as Lib/Tory candidate: April Fool?

By Richard Huzzey | Wed 18th April 2007 - 2:53 pm

As bizarre as it may sound, Iain Dale is reporting that Greg Dyke is being approached by the Tories to stand as a joint Liberal Democrat – Conservative candidate in the London Mayoral elections. It seems incredible that anyone would seriously expect such an arrangement to be met, and I can only treat the news with a large pinch of salt.

Clearly, many, many Lib Dems – me amongst them – would be appalled at the idea of sharing a ticket with the Tories. Dale implies that our party has yet to be approached over this madcap scheme. We can …

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Time to disenfranchise Commonwealth citizens living in the UK?

By the founding editor | Tue 17th April 2007 - 11:30 am

Lib Dem Anders Hanson has a thought-provoking blog piece.

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James Graham

Should we become a nation of contented losers?

By James Graham | Thu 12th April 2007 - 3:51 pm

Direct democracy could not merely complement representative democracy, but could save it from its worst excesses. Claims that it leads to ill-considered, rightwing populism are just plain wrong.

The great thing about being a Liberal Democrat is that the party practices what it preaches about democracy. While the Conservative Party made a big deal out of the fact that at its last conference it encouraged people to cast non-binding votes on topical issues and even hosted a version of Dragon’s Den with Ann Widdecombe in the chair, the Lib Dems had a passionate, principled debate on tax (which the Tories rubbished, and then quietly stole a number of key policies from). Labour has debates at its conferences, but they are held in such disdain that the results of them are dismissed even before the votes have been cast.

I would contend that it is this internal democracy that has kept British liberalism alive over the past few decades. It gives us all a stake in the party which in turn buys the party enormous reservoirs of loyalty and goodwill. Even when we as individuals disagree with the direction the party is going down, we are comforted by the fact that it was as a result of a democratic process, and subsequently that it is possible to change.

At a wider level, we are deeply committed to establishing a similar model of participation and democracy in the British political system. The current system is deeply flawed, and the party has done much to highlight the evidence: we are one of the most centralised countries in the world and have an electoral system that ensures that a party with just a third of the vote can secure 60% of the seats in our primary legislative chamber.

Party policy has always been very robust in its approach to constitutional reform. However, if there is a criticism to be made, it is that we tend to instinctively reach for a solution that involves directly elected politicians and lawyers, rather than give the people themselves more of a direct say in government. Too often, our rhetoric about Community Politics has not been matched by our actions. To be fair have existing policy in favour of mild forms of participation such as increased use of citizens’ juries and increased use of (non-binding) referendums, but we have been wary of purer forms of direct democracy.

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Opinion – better to get the mayoral selection right than rush it

By the founding editor | Wed 11th April 2007 - 10:00 am

Three men and one woman applied to be the party’s choice to take on Ken Livingstone – none were sitting MPs, MEPs, or Peers.  It seems that after consideration, the regional volunteers involved in shortlisting and running the process have decided not to announce a shortlist, and possibly to run a new round of applications.  The most plausible explanation I’ve heard for this is that those regional volunteers felt they couldn’t put a long enough shortlist (are you with me still?) to the selectorate, in this case every Lib Dem member in London.

As the Conservatives know only too well, it’s better to

…

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The Voice

Opinion: Owen is the only credible candidate for Mayor

By The Voice | Sun 1st April 2007 - 1:12 am

Specualtion has been to rife as to all the opposition parties will nominate as their candidate for Mayor of London and take on Red Ken. The Tories are having a primary to consider the huge range heavy-hitters being touted, such as Nick Boles, Steve Morris and Iain Dale, while the Greens have just plumped for Sian Berry over veteran Green candidate David Icke.

But who will we Lib Dems field? One candidate mentioned in the Tory race as an outside possibility is none other than John Major. Oh yes. The former PM is enjoying a resurgance in popular support, as the …

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Guido dents his reputation on Newsnight

By the founding editor | Wed 28th March 2007 - 10:17 pm

Sitting in darkness in the BBC’s Millbank studio, he looked ridiculous. Hesitant and lacking a point – Michael White quite simply wiped the floor with him. You bit off more than you could chew there, Mr Fawkes – and damaged your reputation in the process.

Watch out Paxman and White though, I’m sure hell hath no fury like a Guido scorned.

Still – braver than me. In the unlikely event that I’m ever asked on Newsnight I shall whimper “mummy!” and flee to safety.

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Bridget Fox

Opinion: Tories show their true colours [hint – not green]

By Bridget Fox | Tue 20th March 2007 - 10:44 pm

Islington’s Lib Dem council has broken new ground by setting up a £3M climate change fund to take local action on climate change, through promoting renewable energy, energy conservation and sustainable transport (walking & cycling). This is despite Islington’s council tax rise being around 1.5% (continuing to deliver a longstanding pledge to keep Islington’s tax below the London average) and giving residents like me who pay by direct debit a £20 discount. In a neat twist, there’s an invitation to give the £20 to the climate change fund – a free ‘I feel good’ moment with every tax bill…. what’s …

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Opinion: The ‘five tests’ raise deeply worrying questions about strategy

By Charles Anglin | Sun 11th March 2007 - 12:18 pm

Menzies Campbell with Charles Kennedy behind himI didn’t vote for Ming Campbell to be party leader, but I’ve never been one of those who have criticised his leadership, I have had no time for those who listened to the media fluff about dissent in the party over his style & age. In fact his first year has been better than I expected or even hoped for. He has imposed a degree of organisational rigour on the party that was sadly lacking previously, he has set a clear policy lead challenging much of the party´s soggy corporatist hobby horses and he has generally repaired and steadied a ship that was badly holed below the water line by Charles Kennedy’s messy departure.

So far, so good or at least until last weekend it was. 

Ming’s speech to the party’s Spring Conference has left me deeply worried about the strategic direction of the party and the advice that he is getting. In his speech he laid out Five Tests for a Gordon Brown government. This was at best a very peculiar thing to do. Don’t get me wrong the tests themselves were perfectly sound in as far as they went, though they were a little vague and with one or two glaring omissions. However, publicly declaring them was I believe a serious tactical error.

One of Charles Kennedy’s significant achievements as Party Leader was to reach a point where the Lib Dems were being judged, for better or for worse, on our own agenda and our own terms. He did this by resolutely refusing to discuss the idea of pacts, deals or coalitions, until journalists finally became bored of receiving the same non-answer, something he even managed to maintain under the intense pressure of two General Elections.

That achievement is now being undermined. Although the 5 Tests were presented to the party as criteria for judging a pre-election Brown Government it is clear from the media reaction that virtually no-one has taken them at face value. They are widely seen as the opening gambit for coalition talks should Labour be the largest party in a hung Parliament after the next general election. Even if they genuinely are not, that is how they are perceived, perceived by the public, the media and by the Labour party. 

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Opinion: There will be no dancing in the streets of Crystal Palace over Lords reform

By the founding editor | Wed 7th March 2007 - 9:45 pm

I don’t believe in a 100% elected House of Lords.

There you go, I’ve said it – there’s no point reading any further, the comment boxes are below and you can start calling me an undemocratic monster…. now.

I won’t be joining Paul Walter who is, as you read, dancing through the streets of Newbury. As I type this at home in Crystal Palace I even find myself in that rarest of positions – less than entirely in agreement with Alex Wilcock.

But then, I’m a monarchist too. There you go, I’ve said that as well. Mainly …

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Opinion: Questions should be asked about how the Trident vote was won

By the founding editor | Mon 5th March 2007 - 7:00 am

A majority of voting representatives backed the official Trident motion at conference, and it has also received some positive reception in the Lib Dem blogosphere.

However, while the media have been busying themselves with their made-up story about future coalitions, some questions are also being asked about the mechanics of how the Trident motion was won.

Writing on his blog, Alex Foster says:

I’m not sure, however, I buy the theory that it was Ming that swung it. No, that was shadowy strong-arm tactics. Key PPCs got phonecalls from high-ups. Local party chairs (like me) got a lobbying pack we were supposed to give to our conference reps posted out to us, but those on the other side of the argument were denied first the opportunity, then the data list to send the mailing themselves. Lots of the parliamentary party were brought to wave their voting cards. All of that adds up to more than the 40 votes that swung the argument.

Commenting on this blog, Lord Greaves said:

Whatver the rights adn wrongs of the issue, the way it was done is a disgrace to a supposedly democratic party.

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Opinion: Coalition questions are premature

By the founding editor | Sun 4th March 2007 - 9:58 pm

Have the media gone collectively insane?

Take this, from the BBC:

A keynote speech by Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell has been overshadowed by speculation over his strategy in the event of a future hung Parliament.
In his speech to the party’s spring conference he set out “five tests” for a Gordon Brown-led government.

A party official suggested it was the first indication Sir Menzies would be interested in forming a coalition if the Lib Dems held the balance of power.

Ed Davey, Sir Menzies’ chief of staff, said the briefing was “unauthorised”.

“The tests Ming set for Brown were about his likely government in

…

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Opinion: Menzies Campbell’s year as leader has been one of consolidation and caution.

By the founding editor | Thu 1st March 2007 - 7:41 pm

To comment on the performance of the leader of a political party – a person at the top of their game – requires gravitas, oodles of political knowledge and skill, and a good few decades experience of politics under your belt.

I have none of these things, so as I look back on Menzies Campbell’s first year as Liberal Democrat leader I can write only from the perspective of a party foot-soldier.  What follows are my personal reflections on the leadership, and what it means to me – I don’t expect or consider it to have any particular weight.

First, to put this whole thing in context – how important is the leader to me personally, as a party supporter? Day to day – not very. Our paths aren’t likely to cross any time soon, and the only time I much care what he says or does is when I’m watching the TV news, or when there’s a major debate in Parliament.

Standing at the side of a conference room in Local Government House a year ago, it all seemed much more important – and personal. I’d supported one of Menzies Campbell’s rivals. A party activist sidled up to me. “Do you know who’s won?” he asked “Yep”, “And?”, “No great surprise” …… “Oh no, not MING?”.

And so it went throughout the day – ‘Ming? Really?’ Privately, never said aloud, I was expecting Chris Huhne to squeak through. On the day the result was declared I was disheartened, but I set about doing my volunteer duty on the party’s website – scrubbing out pictures of Charles Kennedy, airbrushing in Menzies Campbell. It took months for Menzies Campbell to win me, a pretty regular joe-soap supporter, around. There was no road to Damascus moment – what won it for me was the delivery of much needed stability to the party. For a short while I was grateful to him for bringing an end to a turbulent period. Now a year has passed since he was elected, and my less grateful mind is preoccupied with a different thought – “is that everything you’ve got?”

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John Stevens comments on the amendments submitted by the Liberal Democrat Peace and Security Group to the main motion on Trident at the Spring Conference

By John Stevens | Wed 28th February 2007 - 10:04 am

There is much that pro Europeans can support in this. I believe that the inserts in para v,vi and vii  are correct. Above all, the statement against our dependence on the United States is more forthright (and right) than my colleagues and I finally settled upon, in order to encourage some realism from our defence team. Having seen the company they seem prepared to keep in the columns of The Independent the other day, I rather wonder whether such deference is deserved.  

However, I do not agree that we would be better spending money on conventional forces. What history since the mid eighties has demonstrated, I would submit, is the efficacy of nuclear deterrence, and the inefficacy of conventional war making. With the possible exception of our assault on Serbia over Kosovo (the last Act of which, of course, has yet to be played out) it is difficult to point to a single instance where the possession of a greater conventional capability would have served the national interest. Intelligence, both electronic and human, yes, paramilitary police style capability yes, humanitarian and emergency aid capability yes, but not more tanks, aircraft carriers, strike fighters or whatever which cost the real money. Indeed it has been the illusions such capabilities have fostered that have contributed greatly to the crass policy errors that have been made in the Middle East. 

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Nick Harvey

Opinion: Nick Harvey MP makes the case for an unamended Trident motion

By Nick Harvey | Mon 26th February 2007 - 7:00 am

All rational people must be sincerely and passionately committed to ridding the world of nuclear weapons, so destructive is their potential. The age-old debate is about how best to do this. The FPC motion for Harrogate is a combination of the best traditions of unilateralism and multilateralism.

For the first time in a decade the Party is proposing a radical reduction in the size of the British nuclear deterrent. By unilaterally cutting Britain’s nuclear weapons by 50% yet keeping our seat at the table, we have the best chance of driving forward a multilateral disarmament agenda.

Cutting our nuclear stockpile in half now would send a positive message to non-nuclear or aspirant-nuclear states that Britain will live up to its obligations under the NPT. It puts nuclear disarmament back on the international agenda, and commits Britain to leading preparations for the 2010 NPT review conference – as Robin Cook did running up to the productive 2000 conference. Labour failed to capitalise on that momentum – not least by supporting Bush in Iraq and tarnishing our reputation as an honest broker.

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Might 18 Doughty Street end up poisoning the well of British Politics?

By the founding editor | Tue 20th February 2007 - 11:24 pm

Recently the people of Peckham chose their Conservative candidate to fight the next general election in an open primary and hustings. The man the Conservative party chose to preside over the evening was the flamboyant Stephan Shakespeare – former educationalist, campaign manager for Lord Archer’s London mayoral bid, co-founder of Yougov, and now Internet television pioneer.

As he did with YouGov, Stephan Shakespeare is harnessing the power of the Internet to break new ground – this time as the financial backer …

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Opinion: The Guardian poll – should we be worried?

By the founding editor | Tue 20th February 2007 - 11:00 am

Yes and no. The last six months have admirably demonstrated why I don’t “do” polls. We’ve been down four here, down three there, up seven here, down two there – a veritable roller coaster ride, all on the back of… very little. It’s been a remarkably stable six months in the life of the party.  Our seven-point rise (which is an extraordinary movement) on January 31st came on the back of… nothing much. No major positive press, no triumphs, no… nothing. That’s one of the many reasons I didn’t trumpet it on the day it happened.

So we shouldn’t be worried,

…

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Colin Ross

Opinion: Conference delegates should vote for ‘No new Trident’

By Colin Ross | Thu 15th February 2007 - 8:15 am

Colin and Sean ring the peace bellTo me the answer is simple – the answer is no. No to Trident, No to son of Trident and No to any so called Independent Nuclear Deterrent.

Last year I went on behalf of the party to Pakistan and tried to engage with politicians there as to why it was wrong for Iran or any other nation to develop nuclear weapons and why Pakistan should pull back from developing more nuclear weapons. What message does our policy send to them – that it is okay for the UK to have nuclear weapons but you can’t?

Last year I also went to Hiroshima. I challenge anyone who is in favour of the UK, or anywhere, having nuclear weapons to go there for a day. See what destruction they caused and come back and tell me it is a good idea. The Mayor of Hiroshima – Tadatoshi Akiba has written to Ming Campbell, he said “In the name of Hiroshima, in the name of the human race, I call on the British government to immediately terminate all new development of nuclear weapons and begin destroying all existing nuclear weapons. I ask that the United Kingdom adhere conscientiously to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice declaring that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is illegal under international law, and live up to the promise clearly stated in the NPT of an unequivocal undertaking to eliminate its nuclear arsenal. I fervently hope that Great Britain will take the lead in making the 21st a genuinely peaceful century free from nuclear weapons.” The full text of the letter is at http://www.colin-ross.org.uk/news/001093.html

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How not to get impaled on Trident

By John Thomson | Mon 12th February 2007 - 7:57 am

Trident missile launchA trident has three prongs. In political terms there are three ‘prongs’ on offer now in the Trident nuclear debate.

One prong says do away with Trident altogether, and with it Britain’s allegedly ‘independent’ nuclear deterrent. Another says keep it, but offer a 20% reduction in the number of missiles (this is the option favoured by the Blair/Brown/Cameron ‘BBC’ consensus). The third prong also says keep Trident, but suggests a 50% reduction in the system’s capability.

All three options have their problems. The straightforward elimination of Trident has the advantage of being in a principled unilateralist tradition, but is not really practical politics. It is unlikely to be adopted by any of the three major parties. It would, if adopted as Government policy, leave Britain without any cards to play in subsequent nuclear disarmament talks.

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The danger of a return to heavy drinking in Westminster

By the founding editor | Sat 10th February 2007 - 5:44 pm

Shaun Ley has written a good piece in the latest BBC World at One newsletter, which I think deserves wider circulation:

The image has stayed with me ever since the evening when I sat in the Strangers Bar in the House of Commons. It’s small and undistinguished, with a narrow bar and pretty unimaginative décor. The grander spaces are saved for Members of Parliament, not least the terrace, overlooking the Thames, which is just next door to this bar. Strangers is one of the few places where non-MPs can go for a drink, provided of course that an MP is buying.

On this particular evening, whilst MPs hung around waiting to vote, I’d squeezed in to the crowded bar to share a pint with a minister, the sort of routine exchange between journalist and politician which is the currency of Westminster life (and incidentally the source of many of the stories you’ll read in your newspaper the following morning).

It must be around ten years ago now, but the memory is still vivid. A cry erupted from the bar, where an MP was sitting drinking with her colleagues. She rose unsteadily to her feet, shouted for her handbag,  then,  spotting it at the other end of the room, proceeded to stagger towards it via a route which was a long way from being a straight line. Indeed, she was unable to stand upright, instead veering in crab-like movements towards her goal.

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Opinion: Do we need Special Prosecutors in the UK?

By Hywel Morgan | Wed 24th January 2007 - 10:55 pm

The fuss that has been generated following the arrest and questioning of Ruth Turner does pose some questions about how there can be investigations into political figures.

There may well be legitimate questions about why it was necessary to mount a dawn raid. A Prime Ministerial aide is hardly likely to be a serious flight risk, but to see Ministers questioning police operational decisions regarding investigations into their own government creates conflicts of interest left, right and centre.

The “cash for honours” inquiry is of course the most prominent police inquiry into the activity of politicians but it isn’t the only one. There have of course been a number of investigations into ballot fraud involving elected councillors. Sometimes those can be people with direct involvement in the democratic accountability of the Police, for example Colin Inglis was the Chair of the Humberside Police Authority when investigated (and subsequently acquitted) of child abuse charges.

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Opinion: Don’t panic, Ming, don’t panic (updated)

By the founding editor | Wed 3rd January 2007 - 12:42 pm

I was surprised this morning to find the lead story on BBC News online politics to be Sir Menzies warns off his critics.

The leader appeared on the Today programme this morning to defend himself against a silly quote from a single, anonymous, “Lib Dem MP” quoted in a paper whose readers probably don’t vote, and also against the defection of three Lib Dem PPCs to the Conservatives – a story that didn’t rise higher than about page 10 in the papers, and hasn’t ruffled any feathers in the party. A bit soon to go on the airwaves and …

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Adrian Sanders

Adrian Sanders MP calls for new focus on Community Politics

By Adrian Sanders | Tue 2nd January 2007 - 9:50 pm

Adrian SandersIf 2006 was the year of the renaissance of 007, 2007 could be the renaissance of the Lib Dems.

Despite taking a seat from Labour in a great Parliamentary by-election victory, launching the most radical green tax switch policy to reward work and punish pollution, and remaining the only force in Parliament around which opponents of the war in Iraq could unite, it was something of an Annus Horribilis.

The New Year offers us new opportunities to carve out distinctive positions on foreign affairs, domestic reform and where we stand in relation to the Government and Conservative opposition.

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Opinion: The Separation of Powers

By Gavin Whenman | Mon 1st January 2007 - 5:00 pm

The French writer Montesquieu came to Britain in the 18th century and studied our political system. His observations became the basis of his seminal work, The Spirit of the Laws, and, misunderstanding the British system of the time, he formed the theory of the “separation of powers”, between the legislative (Parliament), executive (the king) and the judiciary. He wrote of the necessity to separate these branches of the government as:

“When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.”

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Richard Huzzey

Calling time on Nazi laws

By Richard Huzzey | Sat 23rd December 2006 - 10:45 am

It’s interesting to see that David Irving, the holocaust-denying Briton, has now been released by the Austrian authorities. It raises some challenging questions about other European countries’ attitude to freedom of speech, and the use of Nazi symbols and texts.

Irving describes himself as a historian, which he’s free to do, but he of course has no credentials in academia or peer respect. It’s a bit like me saying I’m a literary critic because I’ve written a review of a book. And his ideas are, of course, foolish, and would be laughable if they weren’t so offensive.

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Opinion: Federal election rules could be in danger of making a mockery of our party’s democratic processes

By the founding editor | Fri 22nd December 2006 - 11:56 pm

Ballot paperNick Clegg, speaking on Internet TV station 18 Doughty Street recently described our party as “painfully democratic” – he meant no malice or mischief by the claim, but it was a pithy, and accurate, summary of a key point about Liberal Democrat decision making. Every so often we keep the party’s democracy alive by distributing ballot papers to an electoral college of thousands of voting representatives (who are in turn elected by their local parties) at great expense. When it comes to being democratic, despite the cost, we practice what we preach.

During the latest round of elections to national party committees such as the Federal Policy Committee and the Federal Conference Committee, Liberal Democrat Voice received helpful assistance from election officials Lord Rennard and David Allworthy – their help enabled us to publish a full list of candidates as soon as it became available. This was, so far as I know, the first time a full list of federal election candidates was published online, free to access, allowing non-voting representatives (who do not receive copies of ballot papers and manifestos) to see who was standing for positions of influence in the Liberal Democrats. Alas, having seen that information, they then had no place to comment – in fact, the election rules forbade it.

All being well there are now two years until the next set of elections, and while the last lot is still fresh in our memories we should have a rational debate about the conditions under which the next is fought.

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Steve Cooke

Opinion: Immigration brings more than economic benefits

By Steve Cooke | Mon 18th December 2006 - 7:11 pm

Earth

A report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has provided an interesting slant on population movements in Britain. The report’s full of interesting stats, which, if I could be bothered to quote them, would probably bury the point of this post in numbers. The thing that really struck me was there are 5.5 million Brits living abroad. That’s 9.2% of the population and means there are more Britains living abroad than foreigners living in the UK.

Related to those figures is the finding that: “a small but significant minority are finding the settlement experience much more challenging. Often these Britons come up against linguistic and cultural barriers that they have not prepared for, and have, in response, clustered together away from the host society.”

Could it be that many Britains fail to integrate with their host communities? Surely not!

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  • John C
    I've always felt we should have a None Of The Above option on ballot papers. If it gets the most votes, it forces a fresh election where none of the original ca...