Category Archives: Op-eds

Caron Lindsay

It’s Equal Pay Day – the financial double whammy facing women

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 20th November 2022 - 2:30 pm

Today is the year when, because of the gender pay gap, women are effectively working for free for the rest of the year. Data from the Fawcett Society shows that the gender pay gap this year is 11.3%, slightly down on last year.

This arises for several reasons. Despite legislation outlawing this being passed more than half a century ago. women are often paid less than men for work of equal value.

Women also suffer from unfair barriers to career advancement because they are more likely to have caring responsibilities. This could be addressed by requiring employers to allow more flexible ways of working.

The Fawcett Society has produced a briefing which outlines the extent of the gender pay gap and makes recommendations to reduce it. They call for:

Improve pay gap reporting by:
Introducing mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting for employers
Requiring employers to publish action plans to tackle their pay gaps, so that
real action is taken toreduce pay inequality with accountability and
transparency built in

Lowering the threshold for pay gap reporting to 100 employees, bringing the UK closer to the standards set by other countries

Require employers to offer flexible work arrangements as default and advertise jobs with flexibility built-in

Reform the childcare system to increase affordability whilst ensuring our children get the best start in life

Ban questions about salary history during recruitment and require salary bands to be displayed on job advertisements

Introduce a free standing and legally enforceable ‘Right to Know’ what a male colleague is paid for equal work

Not only are women at the sharp end of the Gender Pay Gap, but they are also being disproportionately affected by the cost of living crisis. Scottish feminist organisation Engender has produced a report on this, calling for targeted support for women on low incomes, particularly those with caring responsibilities who are likely to have higher energy needs. They explain why this contributes to greater inequality between men and women:

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Loss and damage deal agreed at COP27 in glass half empty conclusion

By Andy Boddington | Sun 20th November 2022 - 12:31 pm

It was always expected that a deal on tackling climate change and compensating for its consequences would go to the wire. And indeed, beyond the wire with the Conference of the Parties overrunning from Friday until an agreement early this morning.

There is still unpacking to do on what was achieved. But the glass is perhaps half full as the developed world has agreed to the principle of reparation for loss and damage for extreme climate events, such as the extraordinary flooding we have seen in Pakistan recently and the extreme drought in Africa and elsewhere. But the glass is at least half empty because there is no money on offer. That will have to decided at a future COP or decided on an ad hoc basis (which is what is done with overseas and emergency aid anyway).

The glass is very much half empty because there seems to have been no commitment to an ending of fossil fuel use, even among rich nations such as ours and the USA. The agreement today is for phasing down fossil fuel use, not phasing out. It is not clear that limiting global warming to 1.5° is now achievable. That of course will lead to more reparation payments, providing those countries responsible for most historical emissions pay up.

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Chris Bowers

Qatar world cup: a dilemma that ought to be easy to resolve

By Chris Bowers | Sun 20th November 2022 - 10:30 am

A lot has been talked about the football world cup that starts today in Qatar. Questions like ‘Should it have been awarded to Qatar?’, ‘How many construction workers have really been killed and injured?’ and ‘Where does having a global sporting event in a state where same-sex relationships are illegal leave the fight for sexual equality?’ are all reasonable, but they don’t address the fundamental question of what sports fans should do over the next month: to watch, or not to watch?

I was in Qatar in December 2006 for the Asian Games, a continent-wide mini-Olympics with a range of sports open to Asian athletes only. I covered the tennis, and it was a fascinating experience in which Asian tennis players were allowed to shine the way they normally don’t on the global men’s and women’s tours. But it was also a troubling one.

Near our hotel was a building site, where Tamil construction workers from Sri Lanka were ferried in every day in a decrepit yellow American school bus. Because I much prefer walking when working at events where I’m sedentary for much of the day, I shunned the official transport and walked to the Games’ hub from where I entered the credential zone and made my way to the tennis.

On that daily walk I saw a number of things that make it very easy to believe that the number of construction workers killed in building the eight stadiums that make up the 2022 world cup venues is way above the already horrendous estimates of 6000-7000 that international human rights groups are giving. These are migrant workers, brought in reportedly for very low wages, who never make it home. Others do make it home, but with injuries sustained in building ‘accidents’ that they may never recover from, and with little or no financial support in many eastern Asian countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Last week, German television broadcast a documentary in which the former German international Thomas Hitzlsperger went to Nepal to speak with families who have lost relatives on the Qatari building sites, or are now looking after family members with horrific injuries. One of his motives in making the documentary was to drum up some money to pay for the support such people need to live out the rest of their days (in many cases another five decades) in some comfort and dignity.

Hitzlsperger is one of the few top-level footballers to come out as gay, and the only former Premier League footballer to have done so to date. That adds piquancy to the documentary, and emphasises that the common thread running through the various criticisms of the Qatar world cup (abuse of migrant workers, LGBT+, questionable aspects of the bidding process, and more) are all to do with human dignity, or the lack of it.

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review: COP 27, Poland, China, Trump, Population, UK Budget

By Tom Arms | Sun 20th November 2022 - 8:30 am

The message from COP 27

I am writing this on Friday afternoon, a few hours before the COP 27 in Sharm el-Sheikh is due to produce its final communique. The outlook is bad.

Yesterday the EU Climate Policy Chief, Frans Timmerman, said the first draft “left a lot to be desired.” The same day a joint delegation from Canada, the EU and UK went to see COP president Sameh Shankry to tell him to “fill the gaps.”

The two main sticking points are a renewed commitment to the 1.5 degree rise in global temperature which was agreed at Glasgow, and the establishment of a “Loss and Damage Fund”.

The former looks achievable but without any serious teeth. The latter is more problematic.

The fund would be financed by the wealthy countries to compensate developing countries for climate change damage caused by historic emissions and to help pay for a switch to renewable sources. The US, in particular is concerned that the current proposed structure would expose America to limitless liability. One bit of good news is that the world’s top two polluters—China and America—are talking to each other again. US climate tsar John Kerry met with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zenhua, and at the G20 summit in Bali Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agreed to liase more on the issue of global warming.

Accidental war is a real danger

A missile killed two people this week in the Polish village of Przewdow and the world held its breath. Had a NATO country been attacked by Russia? Was this the start of World War Three?

The Polish military was put on high alert. President Biden was roused from his bed in Bali and a hurried meeting was held of first NATO heads of government at the G20 and then the G20 leaders themselves (minus Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov).

Then everyone exhaled.

The missile was “most likely” a Ukrainian S-300 surface-to-air missile that had gone astray. The Ukrainians denied responsibility (they, of course, have a vested interest in blaming Russia). The Russian Ministry of Defence said that none of its missiles had gone further than 20 miles from the Polish-Ukrainian border. Whomever was responsible, it was clear that the attack was unintentional. But accidents have caused wars in the past. In 1925 Greece and Bulgaria went to war after a Greek soldier inadvertently chased a runaway dog across the border into Bulgaria. Accidental war is a real danger.

Who holds the power in China?

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Caron Lindsay

Gavin Esler and Dominic Grieve at Unlock Democracy AGM

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 19th November 2022 - 2:30 pm

Unlock Democracy is an organisation which has many of the same aims on reforming our political system as we do. In fact there are some familiar faces in high positions in the organisation. Tom Brake, former Lib Dem MP for Carshalton and Wallington, is their Chief Executive and our former Director of Campaigns Shaun Roberts, is their Head of Campaigns and Digital.

Today they held their AGM which was opened with a session on the dire state of our democracy and the future of Britain with former Conservative MP Dominic Grieve and former BBC journalist Gavin Esler. IF you take nothing else away from this article, remember this from Dominic Grieve:

Lib Dems were an important moderating factor during the coalition. Civil servants were saying that this was the first time in years there had been evidence based decision making.

In his opening remarks, Dominic Grieve concentrated on how we had got to the mess we are in, saying that the fundamental irrationality of current state of politics is depressing.

In his day, he said, the Conservatives used to anchor on principles of rationality but have abandoned that over the past 6 years, leading to Liz Truss fantasy economics.

He looked back over the past three decades and argued that when things have gone wrong it’s when politicians have done things which in hindsight look irrational

Thatcher started to undermine our role in EU and opened door to brexiteers to persuade us to vote to leave – a massively irrational decision.

He said that the SNP’s commitment to independence is similarly irrational and will not deliver what they aim for.

Politicians, society, media engage in displacement activity rather than tackle the real issues. Neither Government nor opposition can properly articulate the underlying problems that need to be fixed, crucially around the mess of Brexit.

He now favours PR, but says that electoral reform needs a culture change. People accept that politics is about compromise and adjustment rather than delivering set out programmes

He concluded that the current situation is making us poorer, threatening our future and our ability to influence the world in a positive way

Gavin Esler broadly agreed with this analysis. He compared UK failure to face up to Brexit by using distraction to Trumpism.

He looked at how clearly incapable people thrived in our system How do you get to be Gavin Williamson, forced to resign by 3 Prime ministers in 4 years.

He quoted our Layla Moran, saying that Williamson was the 80th minister to resign or be sacked in 2022 and if this was a school it would be in special measures.

He argued for systemic change to stop the situation where in his home county of Kent it takes 33,000 votes to get a Conservative MP, and 250,000 to get a Labour one.

They were asked how to bring about change.

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Has Elon Musk broken Twitter?

By Andy Boddington | Sat 19th November 2022 - 10:31 am

When I want to know what politicians are saying, including Lib Dem MPs and peers, I turn to Twitter. When I want to get a message out to a broader community than my town (for which I use Facebook), I use Twitter.

But Twitter is in trouble. Serious trouble. That trouble goes by the name of Elon Musk.

True, Twitter was languishing. Failing to effectively monetise its product. Too many staff. Not enough innovation.

But Elon Musk’s shock and awe approach to managing a company he wasn’t that interested in running is weakening the Twitter brand and weakening its credibility. Mass sackings. Mass resignations. Mass closure of accounts. Defections to Mastodon. Record Twitter use but much of that criticising Musk and bemoaning what Twitter is becoming.

Will I join the mass movement and leave Twitter? Not yet. But I don’t rule it out.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an ex pat: Putin has rewritten the nuclear playbook

By Tom Arms | Sat 19th November 2022 - 8:30 am

Putin has rewritten the nuclear playbook and the world is a more dangerous place for it.

The reason? Because if one nuclear power changes their rules then the others have to reconsider theirs, and Putin has changed the rule book to make the use of nukes more likely.

Nuclear weapons in the past have been classified as a defensive weapon. Their purpose was to deter an enemy attack rather than to launch one.

Some countries—mainly China and India—have adopted a “No First Use” policy which means they will only use their nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear attack from another power. Beijing has a proposed a No First Use agreement with the US and been rejected.

The US, UK and France (the three nuclear NATO countries) have gone for the “Flexible Response” doctrine which means they will fire their missiles if faced with losing in the face of an overwhelming conventional weapons attack. This is more or less the policy of Pakistan, Israel (which refuses to admit to ownership of a nuclear arsenal) and even North Korea.

Barack Obama considered switching to a No First Use policy but was talked out of it by European allies who feared that it left them vulnerable to a conventional weapons attack from the large Russian army.

Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1982 pledged No First Use. The sincerity of the promise was questioned at the time and it was dropped in 1993 by the Russian successor state. Boris Yeltsin felt at the time that the deterioration of conventional weapons dictated greater reliance on the nuclear arsenal.

Then in 2020 came the Russian Presidential Executive Order on Nuclear Deterrence which made it clear that Russia reserved the right to use nuclear weapons to protect what it decided was its territory. This obviously includes the bits of Ukraine which it has annexed since 2014.

Putin has turned his nuclear arsenal from a purely defensive weapon into an offensive weapon by threatening to use them as part of a conventional weapons war for territorial gain.

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Luke Allan

The Lib Dems’ Role in the repeal of Section 28 – 19 years on

By Luke Allan | Fri 18th November 2022 - 8:51 pm

This week marks 19 years since the repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act in England and Wales, a landmark date for LGBTQ+ equality ensured by the Liberal Democrats.

Introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government in 1988, Section 28 (or Clause 2a in Scotland) was a controversial and dangerous legislative amendment to the Local Government Act, which sought to ‘prohibit the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities.’

The introduction of Section 28 was of little surprise to many campaigners following Thatcher’s address at the 1987 Conservative party Conference where she stated:

Too often, our children don’t get the education they need—the education they deserve. Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay. And children who need encouragement—and children do so much need encouragement—so many children—they are being taught that our society offers them no future. All of those children are being cheated of a sound start in life—yes cheated.

Once enacted, Section 28 prevented any form of positive depiction of LGBTQ+ life in schools. Teachers were banned from teaching or discussing LGBTQ+-related items, LGBTQ+ literature, or books containing a depiction of positive LGBTQ+ relationships, and additional resources were removed by schools. This was in addition to the disbandment of LGBTQ+ groups and clubs both within schools and those facilitated by local authority services in the community.

Upon its introduction, the Liberal Democrats were the first party to openly oppose the legislation. As a party, we were clear that teachers must be allowed to support pupils who come out to them, and schools must be allowed to provide information that presents LGBTQ+ attraction and relationships as valid and normal.

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The Voice

Our editorial policy

By The Voice | Fri 18th November 2022 - 2:15 pm

Every so often, the LDV team looks at how we do things. We think about how we want to run the site in a way that we can all be comfortable with.

We’ve had a look at our editorial policy and we have agreed to make some changes which reflect our current practice.

We have never aligned ourselves with any supposed wing or faction of the party, which is a good thing as they change all the time. We’ve published a wide range of articles and viewpoints, many of which we personally disagree with, because we want to facilitate debate within the party and with others outside it. That will continue to be the case..

Much is said about free speech. It’s something that we very much value. It also includes our freedom as editors to run the site in a way that fits with our ethos.

Nobody has the right to have anything they want published on LDV or anywhere else. We will judge articles on their merit and decide whether they will be a good fit for us.

There are some issues, though, which go way beyond the normal rough and tumble of political debate.

We’ve always felt a sense of responsibility that our site should stand up for vulnerable people.  We don’t want to contribute to the often toxic atmosphere that is present in much of the media where groups of people, whether they be, for example, social security claimants, immigrants, disabled people, LGBT people, or followers of one religion or another are demonised.

The way those marginalised groups are treated is not consequence free. Whipping up a storm against vulnerable people on the basis of who they are makes it more difficult for them to live their lives freely without fear and damages their life chances. We want no part in that.

So that means that sometimes we either have to pick a side or be part of the problem.  We will do so when we think it necessary to make our site a kinder, progressive place.

Our revised policy reads (with changes in bold):

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The Autumn Statement big lie – no more taxes

By Andy Boddington | Thu 17th November 2022 - 4:50 pm

Well, who would have expected it? Hunt blamed the country’s current financial problems on Putin. Nothing to do with more than a decade of Tory mismanagement of the economy. Nothing to do with the disastrous Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss budget which he has now all but reversed. Our low growth rate and our troubles are caused by anything other than the Tories. Of course, we have are weathering bitter storms but the Tories left us unprepared for those storms. Now we must all pay the price.

The big lie of this budget is that there have been no tax rises. Tax rates haven’t gone up but people will pay more tax.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast makes grim reading. The UK’s inflation rate to be 9.1% this year and 7.4% next year, contributing to the squeeze on living standards. The UK is in recession and growth will slow.

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Mary Reid

An “existential crisis” for English Councils

By Mary Reid | Wed 16th November 2022 - 3:45 pm

It has been many years since Councils have felt they had enough funding to provide the services that their residents need. For most of this century they have been cutting many non-essential and non-statutory services, such as youth clubs, and they have been outsourcing some essential services to cheaper and, in some cases, inexperienced and inadequate providers. And the cuts have happened year on year, so what seems unthinkable one year becomes a reality the next.

The core Council services are around housing and social care, for adults and children, plus a number of environmental services such as recycling and waste collection. Social care supports the most vulnerable, from essential care for the elderly and those with disabilities, to support for families in crisis and providing for looked after children. Most Councils also support an active volunteer sector with its increasing provision of food banks, as sure indicator that all is not well with society.

Throughout all this the Westminster government has been adding extra responsibilities to local government, but not the funding needed to meet them, all the while passing the blame onto Councils.

Councils get the bulk of their income from Council tax, business rates and central Government grants. The latter consists of the main revenue support grant, plus ring-fenced grants which simply pass through the Councils accounts and directly out to recipients, such as housing benefits and school funding. The formula for allocating the revenue support grant is shrouded in mystery, but seems to be based on historical assessments of need rather than current need.  It has also reduced on average by 50% in recent years, and some Councils get precisely zero in revenue support.

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Massimo Ricciuti

A new way: USA, UK and Italy

By Massimo Ricciuti | Wed 16th November 2022 - 10:06 am

I’m afraid bipolarism is currently emphasizing the extremes in politics. A healthy bipolar system should instead make coalitions compete to conquer the “centre”, thus pushing the political forces towards more moderate and reformist positions. But something is changing.

The “third pole” (Azione/ItaliaViva in Italy and the Liberal Democrats in UK) should be the reformist alternative to a right which, at present, is still stuck in ancient positions, especially in terms of human rights and concessions to people who don’t believe in science and in the Covid vaccination.

Fortunately in Italy the move of Moratti’s candidacy (at the Regional election in Lombardia, Italy) goes in the correct direction, splitting the right and exposing the contradictions. In the meantime, it is building a new political project that should also serve to speed up the evolution of the historical left wing Italian party PD (Partito Democratico).

The US Midterm elections showed that Trumpian extremism does not pay. But it also scares the Republicans. Some people really think the USA needs a new party! In the UK  the Tories are in crisis like the old Labour. There are excellent scenarios for Lib Dems who have always been anti-Brexit … we will watch the developments.

In the meantime, it is necessary, in Italy, to stop this attack on science by the new Minister of Health and his Undersecretary, Marcello Gemmato, who says he does not believe in vaccination and would like to stop the Covid vaccination campaign.

The way in which Covid is dealt with is the litmus test of a government’s concern about the most fragile members of society. To protect the most vulnerable, we need to protect everyone and everyone needs to continue to behave responsibly.

In the UK people suffer and the Tories are making such a mess. In Italy the extreme right wing populist parties in the government should think about that. In the UK, Italy and EU we all need a strong Liberal Democrat party!

In Italy and EU there is the #RenewEurope project. The Azione/Italia Viva  parties are moving as a single group in Parliament. The Radicali and +Europa parties are in the Renew Europe Group too … so, here, liberal groups are moving together.

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Lord William Wallace

Should we take a risk and be honest about taxation?

By Lord William Wallace | Tue 15th November 2022 - 10:55 am

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Liberal Democrats, we have a problem. As Max Wilkinson has commented in a recent posting, soft Conservatives are turning to us partly because the government has broken its promises not to raise taxes. But we are committed to decent public services, staffed by people who are decently paid; and after 20 years of cuts in services and real reductions in public service pay, quality can only be regained by substantial and sustained increases in spending. Furthermore, public service workers – people who believe that life is not only about money but also about what you put back into society and community – are among our natural supporters.

So what, under the current fiscal and economic crisis, do we say to potential LibDem voters about tax?

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Wera Hobhouse MP

Wera Hobhouse MP writes: The Conservatives are taking a major risk with people’s lives

By Wera Hobhouse MP | Tue 15th November 2022 - 8:55 am

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The UK’s presidency of COP26 should have been a turning point for Government action. Instead there are targets, with no sufficient plans in place to actually meet them. Therese Coffey noted that “the big COPs tend to be every five years,” which aligns well with her colleague Sunak’s lacklustre attitude toward this year’s conference.

The day after leaving COP27, where he said we need to ‘move further and faster’ toward Net Zero, the Prime Minister is set to announce that he has secured a major deal with the US to import 10 billion cubic metres of fracked shale gas.

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BBC Radio is 100 – but what is the future of world and local radio?

By Andy Boddington | Mon 14th November 2022 - 7:03 pm

One hundred years ago today, the now British Broadcasting Company started broadcasting radio.

But what is the future of public service radio in and from the UK? The world is going digital but at a very unequal pace. Not everywhere can access digital services at an affordable price, if at all.

The BBC has announced major changes to its local radio service. Local broadcasting will be restricted to eight hours during weekdays – 6am to 2pm. After that, stations will switch to sharing programmes across a wider area. News will be gathered over larger areas. Along with the loss of local voices, there is likely to be a reduced focus on the very local news that BBC local radio excels in.

The World Service is reducing its commissioned and syndicated programming content in favour of more news, which is already becoming like a tape on an endless loop. I fear that, driven by budget cuts, we will become a less effective nation in communicating with the world, reducing our influence and our status as a mature democracy and a world leader.

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The Voice

Floella Benjamin joins the Order of Merit

By The Voice | Sun 13th November 2022 - 1:30 pm

Many congratulations to Liberal Democrat peer Floella Benjamin on being appointed to the prestigious Order of Merit, one of the country’s highest honours which is in the personal gift of the sovereign. It is particularly poignant that she and the other five people appointed this weekend were chosen by the late Queen in early September just before she died.

The Royal Family’s website gives the history of the Order of Merit:

The Order of Merit, founded in 1902 by King Edward VII, is a special mark of honour conferred by the Sovereign on individuals of exceptional distinction in the armed forces, science, arts, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Appointments to the Order are in the Sovereign’s personal gift. The Order is restricted to 24 members.

Floella responded on Twitter to the many messages of congratulation she received:

One such message was from Joan Armatrading:

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Ed Fordham

Armistice and remembrance

By Ed Fordham | Sun 13th November 2022 - 11:30 am

I’m a huge advocate of recalling the lessons of the past, learning the stories, and putting faces to the names.

Over 30 years ago I was one of the few students who went to the war memorial in Nottingham – and as student President I was one of the first in recent times to lay a formal wreath at the Cenotaph there.

Come forwards and I lay a wreath as Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Derbyshire County Council.

In addition, I am the Lay Worship Leader for Great Hucklow Unitarian Chapel in Derbyshire Dales.

My view of armistice and remembrance has become more rounded and more informed and I now understand the role of all nations, the global effect of conflict and the consequences – in matters of hate, few are left out.

Accordingly when I lay a wreath at Matlock as Group Leader, I lay a wreath of red poppies but also a hand made wreath of purple poppies to represent the animals who served and died. Further this year, I tied a yellow and blue ribbon around my red wreath to reflect the Ukrainian conflict.

At my Chapel we have made remembrance a key cornerstone of our year and have adults and indeed the local school in attendance. As a Unitarian Chapel we are very inclusive and with our unique status as a national spiritual home for Unitarians we are able to call on a wider base of support. We have a poppy fall, we have a poppy heart, we do a service inside and outside the Chapel and it is – as is the Unitarian tradition – the most inclusive poppy fall in Derbyshire. Red poppies for uniformed service, purple for animals, black for all nations and races, pink for those arrested for their sexuality and white for peace.

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Simon McGrath

Labour show their true colours

By Simon McGrath | Sat 12th November 2022 - 2:30 pm

It has not been a great  week for those who think Liberal Democrats will find it easy to work with a minority Labour Government  or that Labour are our natural partners.

First we had Keir Starmer’s very odd comments on  people working in the NHS – where he said 

What I would like to see is the numbers go down in some areas. I think we’re recruiting too many people from overseas into, for example, the health service.

 

I have recently  spent time visiting someone in hospital and was struck by what a high % of the nursing and auxiliary staff were from overseas : what a message to send to them !  

Of course Starmer knows perfectly we need people from overseas to staff the NHS – this is pure dog whistle stuff designed to get a headline. 

Then we have that old  Labour favourite, identity cards. Labour’s last, fabulously expensive plan, for these was  rightly scuppered as one of the first  (and widely acclaimed ) actions of the Coalition but now  revived by Stephen Kinnock who says Labour is thinking : 

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Tom Arms

Observations of an expat – Mid-term winner

By Tom Arms | Sat 12th November 2022 - 8:30 am

Trump lost. Biden did not win. Democracy did. But Slow Joe may have damaged his 2024 options by securing democracy a place on the mid-term ballot.

At the same time, if President Biden takes the statesmanlike position and declares that he not a candidate for the 2024 election, then he is more likely to have a working relationship with a Republican-controlled Congress for his final two years.

He also ensures his place in history as the man who saw off the threat to American democracy as opposed to the 80-plus-year-old who clung to power past his sell by date.

But back to the loser. Donald Trump was not officially on the ballot. But he did everything possible to make the 2022 mid-term elections about him and his lies that the 2020 presidential elections were stolen from him in a massive fraud.

He refused to concede defeat and denied the validity of the American electoral process which is the foundation stone of the country’s democratic system.

He enthusiastically endorsed hundreds of candidates. Many were underqualified but they all shared the common platform of accepting his big election lie.

These candidates were overwhelmingly supported by Republicans in state primaries. Then they were either rejected, or barely scraped home, when their names were put to the public at large.

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Michal Siewniak

Brexit, economy and the UK workforce shortage

By Michal Siewniak | Fri 11th November 2022 - 11:36 am

Some of us saw this coming, didn’t we? We’ve spent years, literally, talking about it. However, the topic of labour shortages and the impact (negative) of Brexit is coming back to us like a boomerang. It was absolutely fascinating to see an intervention from Lord Wolfson, the Boss of retailer Next, who said that Britain needs a different approach to migration. Wow, quite a “discovery”! And yet, there are still plenty of people who want us to “move on” and look ahead for a brighter and more prosperous future.

I am absolutely convinced that we have lost several years to come up with a good, sustainable and meaningful economical model to address some of these issues and the last few Conservative governments have failed to deliver on its “fantastic” Brexit promises.  A famous slogan “Take back control” is simply not working. It never meant to work! I understand – we might have voted against a greater political integration, however some people couldn’t foresee or didn’t want to admit that leaving the European Union, purely in business and financial terms, might cause a lot of damage to the UK economy.

A prominent Brexiteer, Lord Wolfson is currently struggling to recruit staff in his shops and retail units across the country, even though Britain’s unemployment is at record low levels. It wasn’t that difficult to predict, was it? However, Lord Wolfson is right; we need to find a different approach to economically productive migration and stop building “fortress Britain”. I would go further than that and I would argue that the government must stop its obsession with immigration and ill-driven ideology to reduce the number of people coming to Britain to do essential jobs in agriculture, social care sector or hospitality industry. Example? There are plenty! Only a few months ago, the government’s “creative approach” to workforce shortages meant a refusal of the aviation industry’s request to issue special immigration for foreign workers. Due to understaffing issues, many summer holidays had to be cancelled.

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Leon Duveen

Palestine and Israel face a dark future

By Leon Duveen | Thu 10th November 2022 - 7:17 pm

It has taken me a few days to deal with the results of the latest elections to the Israeli Knesset.

To say they were disappointing is a massive understatement. Even though the popular, the Nationalist parties led by Netanyahu only gained a small majority in the popular vote: 2,397,624 who voted for parties that will support Netanyahu and 2,334, 239 who voted for parties opposed to Netanyahu). But the way the proportional representation system works in Israel, it will has gained a majority of 6 to 10 seats in the new Knesset.

For now, Yair Lapid remains the Israeli …

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Max Wilkinson

“We voted Tory and we got chaos anyway” – a report from the streets of Cheltenham

By Max Wilkinson | Thu 10th November 2022 - 5:04 pm

Not long ago a constituency poll put the Liberal Democrats on 58 per cent in Cheltenham, ahead of the Conservatives by a clear 28 per cent. That Blue Wall poll was published not long after the local elections, in which we defeated the Conservatives by 29 per cent in the Cheltenham constituency council wards.

Many people are assuming that this means we are strolling to victory next time. However, as one of the 2019 general election candidates, I remember all too well receiving similar MRP polling figures suggesting a comfortable victory. Those leads disappeared and many of us suffered heart-breaking narrow losses on the night after a campaign many will want to forget. That feeling in Cheltenham was compounded by the fact I received 27,505 votes – enough to have won every election as far back as 1997.

That’s why, since my reselection in early 2022, we have been speeding up the pace of our campaign. In Cheltenham, that means knocking more doors than ever. After the local elections in May, where we came within a whisker of a Conservative wipeout with our positive message on housing investment, addressing the climate crisis and looking after struggling families. I promised local activists we’d be back on the doorstep within a month. We were.

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Hina Bokhari

Muslims need allies

By Hina Bokhari | Thu 10th November 2022 - 9:45 am

It’s Islamophobia Awareness Month. Which to be frank is not great. Sadly things have not got better since I was elected as the first female Muslim councillor in Merton in 2018. During my first term, I pushed Merton Council to accept the APPG definition of Islamophobia, but they didn’t. And there is still denial that it even needs to be defined. This is a problem if we are to truly tackle this type of racism.

Only a couple a weeks ago our candidate in the by-election in Kingston, who is a Muslim, was attacked viciously by the opposing Independent party in literature that marked him out as being unsuitable because of his faith. That night, I walked by his side as we refused to be cowed and continue campaigning. He was nervous and shaken by it all, but was also in disbelief. As we knocked on doors he remarked, “I remember that racism was quite common when I was kid but I didn’t think it was still this bad”. Sadly, I was not surprised. I have seen this type of behaviour on social media but what was shocking that this racist attack was on a leaflet. What got us through that night was the reception we had at the doors, nearly everyone we talked to who had seen the leaflet were shocked. Appalled that anyone would be attacked for simply having a religious faith.

Islamophobia, as defined by the APPG on Islamophobia, is “rooted in racism, and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” The Liberal Democrats were the first political party to accept the definition. (Proud of this!)

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Steve Trevethan

Do deficiently informed citizens live in a deficient democracy?

By Steve Trevethan | Tue 8th November 2022 - 11:39 am

Are voting and other democratic functions corrupted and/or negated when significant news is denied, distorted, diverted and/or dissipated?

Some information is, wrongly and rightly, kept secret for strategic reasons. However, when we are confronted with the results of past policies and actions there are no strategic reasons for secrecy. The obscuration of history to protect the reputations of politicians, officials, civil and military comes behind the need for the citizenry to be well informed so that their inputs to the democratic processes may be better in the present and the future.

As is currently the case with the “West’s” leaving of Afghanistan, such information is available if energetically sought and/or stumbled across, but it is sufficiently backgrounded or submerged so that it does not reach the general or national consciousness. It is restricted to a minority who can be disregarded by those who seek to engineer undemocratic secrecy. When the national consciousness is insufficiently unaware, then there is minimal effect on our “democratic” government.

Currently, we have lots of news about the Taliban take over, the horrors they bring and will bring and the huge harm and deprivation that has and will be done to female Afghans. We are not being told about the Afghan government which preceded the first Taliban takeover.

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Paul Walter

The chilling parallels between the 1962 Cuban crisis and today in Ukraine

By Paul Walter | Tue 8th November 2022 - 9:55 am

Embed from Getty Images

Historian Max Hastings’ latest book is “Abyss: The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962” (William Collins, £30 557pp).

I was fortunate to attend a talk by Hastings on the book, at the recent Wantage Literary Festival. To a packed house, he gave a compelling narrative about the events.

His conclusion was that we (the world) were very lucky to John F Kennedy as President during the Cuban crisis. He brought a high intelligence to bear on the issue, and, in particular, faced down his military advisers who were “gung ho” for war. This is summed up by this excerpt from the book’s description on Max Hastings’ website:

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Paul Walter

US Midterms – the ones to watch (if you can stand it)

By Paul Walter | Tue 8th November 2022 - 8:33 am

Bracing yourself for disappointment seems to be a good approach to the US Midterms.

With the Democrats panicking about the New York state governorship (previously thought safe for their Kathy Hochul), it could be a very bad night for the Democrats.

Public focus has turned increasingly to the economy and crime in recent weeks. That’s not good for the Democrats, although there is still a hope that abortion will help them as an issue.

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Richard Kemp

What should the Lib Dems make of Elon Musk and Twitter?

By Richard Kemp | Mon 7th November 2022 - 1:50 pm

Like many Liberal Democrats I have been viewing with concern the developments at Twitter where it appears that a right-wing takeover of the Company could damage its reasonably justifiable claim that it is a platform for free speech but where extremes are moderated.

That raises to my mind questions about how we should consider the developments both as a Party and as individual Lib Dems. I have already registered on Mastodon which is a sort of Twitter although I have neither done much on it nor got many followers on my account. I have noticed though that a few people on …

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Tom Arms

Tom Arms’ World Review

By Tom Arms | Sun 6th November 2022 - 10:13 am

COP27

Egypt’s Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh is busily preparing for an invasion of Earth’s political leaders, their extensive entourages and the world’s media. They are not descending on the tourist spot for its sun and sand but for yet another climate change conference.

It will be a difficult one. Last year’s Glasgow get-together committed the developed to providing $1 trillion to wean the developing world off fossil fuels. That was before the Ukraine War and its accompanying energy and cost of living crisis. The money that was earmarked for solar and wind farms in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia is now being spent on higher oil prices and state of the art weaponry for Ukraine. Even more money will be required to rebuild Ukraine.

On top of that, the preachy developed world is shelving many of its green projects in favour of quick fix fossil fuels to replace Russian natural gas. All of which means that it will become increasingly difficult and expensive to stick to the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees centigrade. This is a difficult to swallow reality, but world leaders may have to switch the climate change emphasis from prevention to adaptability while at the same time trying to limit temperature rises as much as possible.

Putin

Putin is retreating. And it is a big retreat.

Crucial to his war aims is the strategic city of Kherson. It controls access to Russian-held Crimea by land and by the Dnieper River. The river is also a main source of irrigation and drinking water for the province that Russia annexed in 2014. This week the Russian President publicly announced the evacuation of civilians from Kherson. “It is too dangerous for them to remain,” he said. Military medical units have also evacuated and some fighting units have abandoned their foothold on the river’s west bank. Ukrainian victory in Kherson is not yet a foregone conclusion and some defense experts are predicting fierce house to house fighting in the near future.  But the prospects look good for a successful Ukrainian offensive.

Putin’s Kherson problems top another bad week for him in Ukraine. It started with him pulling out of the deal to allow much-needed grain-laden Ukrainian ships out of their ports. The pull-out was in response to an alleged British-organised attack on Russian ships in the Black Sea. Within days he was forced to reverse his position under international pressure and the refusal of Turkey and the UN deal brokers to support him.

Meanwhile, the Russians continue to bomb electricity and water supplies. Ukrainian teams are working around the clock to keep the country’s electricity grid running, but despite their efforts, 4.5 million Ukrainians are said to be without power as winter approaches. An increasing number of the artillery shells are coming from fellow rogue state North Korea which this week raised tensions by despatching 180 warplanes to buzz the border area with South Korea.

China

China is, of course, crucial to international efforts to apply pressure on Russia and North Korea to behave. This week German Chancellor Olof Scholz secured a diplomatic coup in persuading Chinese President Xi Jinping to publicly condemn “the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons.” The condemnation came in the joint communique at the end of Scholz’s one-day visit to Beijing. Xi refused to allow the communique to mention either Vladimir Putin or Russia by name, but, as Scholz said in the follow-up press conference, the inference was clear.

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Tom Arms

Observations of an expat: Unlikely hero

By Tom Arms | Sat 5th November 2022 - 10:10 am

Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro is on the cusp of being an unexpected champion of democracy – albeit an extremely reluctant one.

As of this writing he is yet to utter that nasty four letter word preceded by the first person pronoun – “I lost”.

Nor has he graciously offered best wishes to his opponent. But, most important of all, he has not claimed – as expected – a false victory, branded the results “fake” or called on his military friends to stage a coup.

He has privately told leading politicians that he accepts that he lost; ordered his staff to work with Lula’s transition team for a peaceful and efficient handover of power and asked his supporters who have been blocking roads to go home.

The Trump of the Tropics has done a thousand times more than his North American political namesake to protect the sanctity of the ballot box which is the foundation stone of any democratic system of government.

Meanwhile, in the United States, some 400 election deniers for state or federal office are on the ballot in the mid-term 8 November elections. Many of these Republicans (yes, they are all Republicans) follow the example set  by their leader Donald Trump and say that if they personally lose it will be because of a fraudulent voting system.

Let’s make it clear. Reports of fake American elections are fake news designed to undermine the democratic process so that a group of politicians can illegally grab power.

Furthermore, that the forthcoming mid-term elections are one of the most important in American history. Many of the 400-plus election deniers are standing for state offices which control the electoral machinery. They have made it clear that if elected they see their job as ensuring the election of like-minded candidates.

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Have the Tories broken Britain?

By Andy Boddington | Thu 3rd November 2022 - 5:48 pm

To answer my own question. Probably. At least for the next several years. We have dispirited political party in charge. It seems to change its mind on policies as often as it changes ministers, while claiming it is in control and leading us forward. All the Conservative Party has done with its constant internal chaos is lead our country to the precipice.

A huge economy likes ours is not going to fall overnight. Or even fall. But there are many striving and burgeoning economies across the world that want a share of our cake.

The pain of Tory incompetence is soaring interest rates. Tax rises are promised. Public spending cuts are high on the agenda.

The Tory pain will be felt by those who owe money, in mortgages and other loans. Saving rates will increase but will be overwhelmed by inflation. People will lose their homes. Businesses will go under. The poor will inevitably remain poor, even poorer.

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