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Category Archives: Op-eds

Carmichael on Ukraine refugees and Russian oil tankers in Orkney

By Andy Boddington | Sun 27th February 2022 - 2:29 pm

A steady stream of media releases is emerging from the Lib Dems as the Ukraine crisis deepens. As Newshound reports two of the most recent statements, Reuters reports that Vladimir Putin has ordered his military command “to put nuclear deterrence forces on high alert after aggressive statements by NATO countries”. While we nervously wait for confirmation of that, Alistair Carmichael has written to Boris Johnson urging him to deny Russian-owned vessels access to UK ports and attacked Kevin Foster’s comments on Ukrainian refugees saying: “We should stand with all Ukrainians, not only those prepared to pick kale and cabbage.”

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Tagged featured, nuclear weapons and ukraine | 2 Comments

Tom Arms World Review: The global impact of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine

By Tom Arms | Sun 27th February 2022 - 11:55 am

Russia’s attack has started a worldwide rearrangement of the political order. Old alliances need to be reinforced. Some will be reconsidered. New Alliances, treaties and trade deals will be made as governments decide where their vital interests lie—with the autocratic but advancing Russia or the the democratic but defensive America and Europe or in the narrowing neutral land somewhere in between. Washington and Moscow will declare: You are with us or against us. We are not entering Cold War Two. We are entering a significantly new warmed up war.

The World Economy

One of the first causes of concern is the economy. Governments cannot fight cold or hot wars without cash. The world economy as a whole has already been severely weakened by the pandemic. World stock markets—the source of equity finance– dislike instability and uncertainty. Ukraine has created both, and the markets around the world have plummeted. Energy prices have also climbed as Russia is the world’s largest supplier of natural gas and second largest producer of oil. Nearly half of continental Europe’s energy originates in Russia. Germany—the EU’s economic engine—is especially dependent on Russian fossil fuels. But Russia is also a large exporter of gold, nickel, and the other rare but important mineral element palladium. The black earth of Ukraine is Europe’s bread basket. World bread prices will rise. Governments will need to borrow more money which will drive up interest rates and inflation. There will be more investment by Russia, NATO and others in troop numbers, missile deployments, cyber warfare, space, and intelligence gathering. This means there will be less money for social welfare, civilian infrastructure projects and any other vote-winning projects. More resources to defend Europe means less to protect other regions from Jihadism or to fund foreign aid programmes. These are the sacrifices of which politicians speak.

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Tagged featured, tom arms world review and ukraine | 5 Comments

Tom Brake writes: The route to Proportional Representation

By Tom Brake | Sun 27th February 2022 - 9:55 am

Proportional Representation is in the Liberal Democrats’ DNA.

It might not always, or indeed ever (the party’s historians will correct me if I am wrong) have featured on the front page of the Lib Dem manifesto. But it has always been a main plank of the party’s package of modernising democratic reforms.

If this were ever in doubt, Alistair Carmichael MP, the party’s Spokesperson for Home Affairs, Political & Constitutional Reform nailed the party’s colours to the PR mast by adding a new clause to the Elections Bill on the 17th January. He was supported by MPs from 3 other political parties.

Its purpose: to abolish First Past The Post for UK general elections and require the Government to take all reasonable steps to introduce proportional representation. In his speech, Alistair made the case for PR declaring, ‘we must have a system that gets rid of safe seats so that everybody’s vote, no matter where they live, is of equal value.’

Unfortunately, House of Commons’ support for PR wasn’t tested. The FPTP system guarantees that voters who support parties like the Lib Dems never secure fair representation in Parliament. This in turn deprives Lib Dem MPs of the parliamentary numbers that would require the Speaker to grant them frequent voting opportunities. So, no vote was granted or held on the PR amendment.

In contrast, at the last Labour conference, a vote was held on the subject of PR.

This followed a concerted and well-organised campaign by Labour for a New Democracy (L4ND) with around 150 constituency labour parties submitting PR motions.

The PR motion debated at their conference had the overwhelming support of local party delegates. 80% supported the call for reform. However, the motion was narrowly defeated after block votes cast by a number of the trade unions.

The campaign continues, with a renewed focus on the trade union movement. L4ND is confident of securing sufficient union support to win any future vote at the Labour conference on PR.

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Tagged electoral reform, featured, proportional representation, tom brake and unlock democracy | 7 Comments

Lib Dems Abroad about to join the party’s campaigning mainstream

By George Cunningham | Sun 27th February 2022 - 7:55 am

This week, I was pleased to join forces with our Lib Dem Peers at the second reading of the Elections Bill at the House of Lords.

For us at Lib Dems Abroad, the Elections Bill is a gamechanger that will bring us into the campaigning mainstream of the party.

A huge 8% of all Brits are living outside the UK. The likely abolition of the 15-year rule will allow all Brits abroad of voting age the right to register and vote at the next UK General Election.

Our members, led by the three “local” party chairs – Lib Dems in Europe (Tom McAdam), France (Jenny Shorten) and Overseas (Mark Iliffe) – and myself, will fly the flag for the party by organising an extensive voter registration campaign for British citizens across the world once the law is implemented and the government’s own campaign has started.

Brits living abroad will need to be included in the party’s manifesto for the first time (previous Lib Dem manifestos had already supported the abolition of the 15-year rule and overseas constituencies).

Then, of course, Lib Dems Abroad will work in partnership with UK local parties to coordinate the party’s campaign for the overseas vote at the next UK General Election in 2-3 years’ time, groundwork for which will start shortly.

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Tagged elections bill, featured and lib dems abroad | 23 Comments

Observations of an expat: Putin’s disastrous time machine

By Tom Arms | Sat 26th February 2022 - 10:13 am

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown the world back in time to a world order based on the dangerous dictum: might is right.

We have been pushed through the looking glass into a new world where laws and treaties are irrelevant and life and death decisions are made on the basis of blatant lies and where the morally bankrupt prevail.

Overshadowing this frightening reality is that Vladimir Putin has his finger on the button that controls the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.

Facing this disaster scenario is an unprepared West. For years it has over-focused on the economic challenge of China while downplaying the more immediate threat of an increasingly bitter, autocratic, militaristic, nationalistic, messianic and possibly unhinged Vladimir Putin.

War with Russia was unthinkable. It defied common sense as the rest of the world understood it. Surely the threat of massive sanctions would force Russian business to control Putin. No, the Russian president sits at the apex of an unprincipled kleptocracy and has skilfully tied Russian business interests to his own extreme views.

Successive US administrations have not helped. George W. Bush unilaterally scrapped the ABM Treaty and turned a blind eye when Putin attacked Georgia. Obama over-pivoted towards Asia while his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed reset buttons with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

But worst of all was Donald Trump a self-confessed admirer of strongmen in general and Putin in particular. He pushed recognition of the Russian annexation of Crimea. As Russian tanks rolled across the Ukrainian border this week Trump and his ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised Putin as a “genius.”

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Tagged featured, ukraine and vladimir putin | 25 Comments

Lord Newby on the Ukraine crisis

By Dick Newby | Fri 25th February 2022 - 2:48 pm

Speaking in the House of Lords this morning, Lib Dem peer Lord Newby said the invasion is a failure of the West to recognise that Putin was pursuing an aggressive forward foreign policy which was aimed not just at those territories which he wishes to control but also at the values of democracy and rule of law which the territories embodied.

He said we must recognise we are not a global military power. That our most important security and economic relationships are with Europe and that we need to strengthen global structures and programmes which promote our values. We should set an example in the way our leaders conduct themselves. What part will the government play in the resettlement of refugees? What protection will we offer to the Baltic States? We must also make sure that Ukraine does not become the model for future tragedies in the future.

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Tagged featured and ukraine | 5 Comments

In solidarity with Ukraine

By Michal Siewniak | Thu 24th February 2022 - 5:32 pm

Sometimes, particularly if you live far away from the country of your origins, it might seem that there is very little that we can practically do to support those in need.

However, sometimes it is equally important to:

* Simply be

* Show solidarity with our fellow human beings

* Demonstrate that local and global unity might bring some hope

* Support members of our community; often our friends, neighbours or work colleagues, who feel angry, confused or devastated

Join me in solidarity with Ukraine on Saturday (26th February) at 4pm. We are meeting around the fountain in Welwyn Garden City town centre.

Do come along, if you can.

I am not Ukrainian but I stand with Ukraine today.

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Tagged ukraine | 1 Comment

Lib Dems Abroad about to join the party’s campaigning mainstream

By George Cunningham | Thu 24th February 2022 - 4:18 pm

Yesterday, I was pleased to join forces with our Lib Dem Peers at the second reading of the Elections Bill at the House of Lords.

For us at Lib Dems Abroad, the Elections Bill is a gamechanger that will bring us into the campaigning mainstream of the party.

A huge 8% of all Brits are living outside the UK. The likely abolition of the 15-year rule will allow all Brits abroad of voting age the right to register and vote at the next UK General Election.

Our members, led by the three “local” party chairs – Lib Dems in Europe (Tom McAdam), France (Jenny Shorten) and Overseas (Mark Iliffe) – and myself, will fly the flag for the party by organising an extensive voter registration campaign for British citizens across the world once the law is implemented and the government’s own campaign has started.

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Tagged elections bill and lib dems abroad | 5 Comments

Ukraine: Live thread on the political reaction

By The Voice | Thu 24th February 2022 - 5:19 am

You know things are bad when you wake in the early hours and hear the announcement on the BBC World Service that it is to broadcast rolling news from 4am. There is almost no space for other news items other than the situation in Ukraine.

As in the early days of any war, reports are partial, sometimes confused, sometimes contradictory and sometimes downright lies. This is war in Europe and the full impact of the conflict cannot yet be predicted.

We will be adding reactions from Lib Dems to the conflict throughout the day.

This is the darkest day for our continent since 1945. The blood of every innocent Ukrainian who perishes in this illegal invasion is on Putin’s hands.

We must stand with Ukraine. It is time to let rip on the most severe of punitive sanctions.

— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) February 24, 2022

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Tagged featured, russia and ukraine | 16 Comments

Are policy motions at Conference too long?

By Lord William Wallace | Wed 23rd February 2022 - 3:05 pm

All active Liberal Democrats know that the messages you write on a leaflet have to be clear and short. So why when we come to party conferences do we insist on debating motions which are astonishingly long and complex? I challenge most attendees at party conferences on whether they have read through the full texts of all the motions.

I have just ploughed through 1,000 words of a motion for Spring Conference on an issue I care strongly about – having already read the much longer and more detailed policy paper to which it relates. What we want from conference motions is the equivalent of an executive summary – the headlines of our detailed policies, brief and clear enough to be put on the back of our leaflets, ideally: 3-400 words at most. But the established style of LibDem policy motions is far longer and more intricate.

The crush of business in the Lords has made me acutely aware of the need for brevity and focus in making speeches. A generation ago peers (and MPs) were permitted to luxuriate through lengthy speeches of 20-30 minutes; in Victorian times Parliament would listen to speeches of an hour or more. Now we have ‘advisory timings’ of 3-6 minutes in many debates, with 10-12 minutes for front-bench speeches. I’ve therefore had to learn to count the number of words in a draft carefully, to prioritise points and to cut out things I would like to add but are only of secondary importance. At around 130 words spoken a minute, 1,000 words takes between seven and eight minutes to deliver in a speech – twice as long as the conference chairs are likely to offer someone from the floor.

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Tagged conference, featured and policy motions | 10 Comments

Something is wrong

By Peter Wrigley | Wed 23rd February 2022 - 10:53 am

I was born in 1937 so lived through the War, though I don’t remember much about it. I suppose I had a deprived childhood in material terms (sweet ration only 2oz a week; second-hand toys, if any; Fair-isle pullover darned at the elbows, short pants patched): but so did everybody else so it didn’t really matter. I had a loving family and I was never really hungry.

In my post-war formative years my generation was proud of the leading role our country and armed forces had played in defeating fascism, and continued to play as one the “top nations” in founding the UN and establishing an international economic system designed to create a more peaceful and prosperous new world.

We believed our country had, through adventurous exploration and deeds of derring-do, built a worldwide empire which we were now preparing for self-government and independence based on the admired Westminster system as established by the Mother of Parliaments. Justice, based on Magna Carta, was dispensed with the scales tipped in favour of the defendant. Our universities were internationally admired and, having given the indusial revolution and railways to the world, we continued to be at the forefront of innovation, having discovered penicillin and invented both television and the jet engine. The BBC was a source of impartial information and a vehicle for both light and serious culture and entertainment which was admired throughout the world.

What was not to like?

Yes, I know, that summary contains a lot of rose-coloured simplifications, not least the importance of the part we had played in the defeat of fascism compared with that of others, especially the USSR. But that was the over-all story as we understood it.

Half a century later the story is different.

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18 Comments

Rebuilding trade and cooperation with Europe

By Duncan Brack Layla Moran | Tue 22nd February 2022 - 10:21 am

Hardly a week goes by without some new evidence of the damage done by Brexit to the British economy. From rising food prices, to empty supermarket shelves, to shortages of HGV drivers and of staff in the healthcare, farming and hospitality sectors, to musicians being unable to perform abroad, to British firms, farmers and fishers facing such higher charges and bureaucracy that they give up exporting their products altogether, to scientists losing chances of collaborative projects, Brexit is affecting more and more parts of everyday life. The coronavirus pandemic has caused the biggest shock to the British economy since the war, but, as the independent Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted, the impact of Brexit will be twice as large – and, unlike the pandemic, it will not stop.

The damage is not only to the economy. Brexit has removed British citizens’ opportunities to work, to be together with their loved ones, to study and retire anywhere in the EU. Britain now has less clout in international negotiations, whether on climate change or biodiversity or trade. The existence of the UK itself is now under threat, as Brexit has weakened the arguments for Scotland and Northern Ireland – which both voted to Remain – to stay part of the union. The slogan ‘take back control’ was a lie; in reality Britain now exercises less control over the forces that determine its future than it did inside the EU.

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Tagged 2022 spring conference, brexit and european union | 28 Comments

ALDC by-election report 17 February 2021 – Win in Oundle

By Paul Heilbron | Sun 20th February 2022 - 2:33 pm

A very mixed picture this week for the Lib Dems in the realm of local council by-elections. Ballots were cast across all corners of the kingdom most of which saw a Lib Dem candidate getting their teeth stuck into the contest. Concisely then, nine vacancies to fight, we stood in seven, succeeding in one. The results weren’t as good as we predicted but we can take solace in good campaigns being fought and celebrate the hard work put in by our local teams, knocking on doors, delivering leaflets, posting out focus leaflets and focusing on that squeeze vote.

The headline result of the week is undoubtedly Oundle where we secured our first councillor on the North Northamptonshire UA, what a fantastic night’s work. Only the best campaign from Charlie Best could have got the Lib Dems over the line. A 13% swing and a gain from the Conservatives rounded off a perfect night for the Oundle Lib Dem team.

After last Thursday's STONKING victory, Charlie Best is now the first Lib Dem Councillor on North Northamptonshire Council! pic.twitter.com/Lia2kegQLj

— ALDC (@ALDC) February 20, 2022

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Tagged aldc and by-election reports | 6 Comments

What are the UK’s Armed Forces for?

By Nick Baird | Sun 20th February 2022 - 10:30 am

It may seem an obvious question, but I have never heard a frank and honest public discussion that fully defines the purpose of our Armed Forces. The current crisis in Ukraine has highlighted the stark contrast between our elected politicians wanting to talk tough and appear as a big player on the world stage versus the reality of what we have equipped and resourced our Armed Forces to actually do.

It would be easy to find a broad consensus that they should defend the UK, and it’s Overseas Territories and Dependencies. Most would agree that we have treaty obligations under NATO that we are obliged to meet, and few would argue against using their equipment and expertise to support disaster relief and respond to emergencies.

Beyond that however, should the UK maintain an expeditionary capability, able to conduct operations far away and intervene in conflicts that don’t directly affect UK territory or NATO allies?

It’s an important question in many ways, not least because the Armed Forces needed to do that look quite different to what is needed just to conduct defensive operations close to home. As a nation, we need to collectively decide what is our place in the world, then we have a duty and obligation to resource and equip our Forces accordingly. I suggest that we are currently failing. Numbers of troops, tanks, warships and combat aircraft are at historic lows, having been cut again recently by the Conservative Government (while boasting of increased defence spending).

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Tagged armed forces, defence and international | 26 Comments

World Review by Tom Arms

By Tom Arms | Sun 20th February 2022 - 8:37 am

In this weekend’s World Review, LDV foreign correspondent Tom Arms looks at the forthcoming elections in Hungary and the ongoing elections in India. France is quitting Mali. Trump is not the only American politician being threatened by legal action. The Trump campaign has Hilary Clinton in her sights again.

Hungary’s beleaguered far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban looks to have a secret weapon up his sleeve for the Hungarian general election scheduled for 3 April—Donald Trump. Orban’s ruling Fidesz Party enjoys a two-thirds majority In the Hungarian Parliament and appeared set to win another sweeping victory in April. But then in October the country’s feuding opposition parties decided to unite under the leader of provincial mayor Peter Marki-Zay. To make matters worse, Mayor Marki-Zay is a conservative. That is, he is cut from the same right-wing cloth as Orban—just not as extreme.

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Tagged france, hungary, india, mali and usa | 5 Comments

Problem of Russia and Ukraine or anywhere inextricably linked to China

By Tom Arms | Sat 19th February 2022 - 8:21 am

Vladimir Putin would not be poised to crush Ukraine without the tacit support of President Xi Jinping. He received it when he was one of a handful of heads of state who graced the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics with their presence.

The statement that followed their meeting pledged mutual protection and stressed their common interests (Taiwan and Ukraine). But it fell short of a blanket approval for a Russian invasion.

China has too much to lose if Russia invades Ukraine and destabilises Europe and the US. It has spent many billions on its Belt/Road initiative linking Chinese factories to European markets. It wants those pesky Europeans to be able to buy Chinese goods. Beijing also holds over a trillion dollars in American debt. Full-throated support for a Russian invasion of Ukraine would hit the value of the dollar and devalue that debt.

The Chinese are an autocracy. They don’t like democracies. They see them as a threat to their interests, values and the all-embracing Chinese Communist Party. But at the same time their growing stake in the success of the economies of the democratic West dictates caution and a long-term approach.

China is a challenge to the West. It is not an immediate threat.

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Tagged featured, russia and ukraine | 8 Comments

The power of words

By Michal Siewniak | Fri 18th February 2022 - 6:01 pm

I was probably 12 or 13 when my whole class was asked by our teacher to choose and then present a topic on our “future occupation”. At such an early age, it was a pretty hard task, however I already knew that I would be happy if my job had something to do with football. I decided to become a sports commentator. During my lesson, I passionately tried to cover a match between my beloved Motor Lublin and possibly the most famous club in Poland, Legia Warsaw. I loved the whole experience!

5 to 6 years later, as a History student, I had to read and write a lot. Interestingly, I didn’t always enjoy it. Looking back, I think that one of the reasons why I found it occasionally boring was the fact that reading and writing was “imposed” on us. I couldn’t choose what I wanted to read and therefore my options were quite limited.

Since coming to Britain, and in particular since I started working in the Community and Voluntary Sector in Hertfordshire, I had to quickly learn how to write reports, evaluate projects and often present a wide range of initiatives, which I was leading or supporting.

I wonder how many of us, during the last 20-24 months, took a bit of time to explore our new talents or re-evaluate our life priorities. For me, the greatest discovery in the last 2 years was that I enjoy writing and that writing or reading can make a positive impact on us, our lives and our communities. I would actually argue that both can also help to transform lives.

In the last year or so, I came across a lot of people, who, by writing, inspire others to stop, reflect on our lives, our daily routines and who very often, in spite of their own struggles, never gave up trying to create “bridges of dialogue and understanding”. I was truly inspired by a story of a still relatively young boy from Northern Ireland, Dara McAnulty. He has autism, he had a difficult school experience. However he found that writing helps him to express himself. His book, Diary of a Young Naturalist, is already a bestseller. In one of his interviews, Dara talks about “layers of activism”. Each type of activism can play a part in improving the way in which we perceive and understand the world.

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5 Comments

Why I’m sick of being the invisible minority and why we need to change!

By Sarah Cheung Johnson | Thu 17th February 2022 - 3:56 pm

Chinese families live in every community in the UK. Some of the smallest, remotest villages in the UK will still have one Chinese takeaway. And yet we and other East and Southeast Asian minorities are consistently under-represented in the media and in positions of power – in businesses, in the judiciary, the legislature and most other institutions of note.

Hey, have you seen the Chinese family in Eastenders? No? That’s cos they don’t exist – it only started in 1985, maybe they just didn’t get around to it yet. Oh wait, how about the East or Southeast Asian celebrity that’s taken part on Strictly Come Dancing, the biggest show on TV? No? Having just completed its 19th season maybe they couldn’t find anyone…

And on and on it goes. I have young, mixed-race children and their own experience with a lack of representation moved me to start a petition to ask CBeebies to feature a storyteller who was from an East or South East Asian background on their flagship CBeebies Bedtimes stories. They’ve filmed over 800 episodes featuring many diverse guests, Marvel superhero actors, Hollywood stars, Olympic champions and many more. But in the 4 years my kids have been watching them at bedtime, not one has been someone who looks like them.

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Tagged Chinese Lib Dems and ethnic minorities liberal democrat | 24 Comments

The Progressive Alliance isn’t progressing…

By Nick Baird | Thu 17th February 2022 - 11:05 am

I’ll be honest – Compass and the whole “Progressive Alliance” debate frustrates me. Yes, I fully understand the principle of opposition parties working together in some as yet undefined way, but in my opinion the advocates of a Progressive Alliance are failing. Leaving aside what “Progressive” means (if anything), I’m still not clear what the “Alliance” bit means. Compass say they want to “stimulate the debate” but what are we even debating?

Cooperation could mean anything within a wide spectrum – from one party’s activists campaigning for another, through one party simply standing down, to standing but campaigning selectively, or passively standing and not campaigning at all.

The debate doesn’t seem to be moving forward, and it can’t until there are concrete proposals on fundamentals such as what cooperation looks like and, importantly, how target seats are apportioned.

Why do I care so much?

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Tagged featured and progressive alliance | 15 Comments

Ordinary families are paying more so banks’ owners can pay less

By Antony Hook | Thu 17th February 2022 - 9:05 am

It is budget setting time for councils across the country.

Local councils of all types have to decide what rate of Council Tax to set and budget how they will spend their revenue and capital over the coming year.

Everyone in local government knows how tough things are. Local services are under resourced, struggling and sometimes failing. At the same time, ordinary families face a huge cost of living crisis from rising bills that many in Westminster do not seem to understand.

In Kent County Council, where I lead the Liberal Democrat group, the ruling-Conservatives are raising Council Tax by 3% and cutting services by £28 million. Inflation, such as rising energy bills and increasing need to help a growing but ageing population take their toll and leave gaps in the budget.

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Tagged banks, council tax and taxation | 3 Comments

Party reforms are crucial for our fightback

By Hannah Kitching | Tue 15th February 2022 - 10:52 am

Embed from Getty Images
Our party has come a long way since the devastating general election defeat of 2019, when we lost many people including our then leader, Jo Swinson.

As someone standing in a Northern Leave-voting seat, I saw firsthand the effect of the mistakes that cost us so dearly in that campaign and which Dorothy Thornhill’s post-election review documented so clearly.

We must not make the same mistakes again – and that means fixing the party systems and structures that let us down in 2019.

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Tagged Dorothy Thornhill review, featured, party reforms, spring conference 2022 and Thornhill report | 29 Comments

Saving our Natural Environment

By Richard Benwell | Tue 15th February 2022 - 9:25 am

Embed from Getty Images

The climate and ecological emergencies are among the greatest challenges of our time.

The Federal Policy Committee’s Natural Environment Working Group is developing new policy proposals to help make sure that the Liberal Democrat plan for protecting and restoring nature is agenda-setting and ambitious. We would love to hear your ideas.

First of all, we want to hear what our long term vision for nature should be. We have a policy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, but what is the equivalent for nature? What is the most ambitious pathway possible for reducing our impact on nature internationally, restoring the natural environment in England, and ensuring that individuals and communities can benefit from a healthy environment?

Farming and land management will be key to delivery. Now that we have left the EU, we will need to develop a nature-friendly replacement for the Common Agricultural Policy that recognises the huge changes and challenges that farmers are facing, and genuinely supports a fast and effective transition to sustainable farming. We want a scheme that gives our hard-pressed farmers and rural communities the support and prosperity they deserve, whilst also making farming work for nature.

We also want to put our fishing communities on a sustainable financial and environmental footing. Like farming, we have the opportunity to replace the Common Fisheries Policy with a new approach which benefits coastal communities and our seas, not just the big trawlers with the deepest pockets.

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Tagged federal policy committee and natural environment | 7 Comments

A Liberal Democrat Case for Universal Civic Duty Voting

By Samuel Jackson | Mon 14th February 2022 - 11:29 am

Liberal Democrats are staunchly opposed to the Conservative government’s Elections Bill currently moving through Parliament. Its provisions of mandating photo ID at polling stations and imposing the use of First Past the Post for mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections are actively harmful to democracy and solely for the benefit of the incumbent government.

It should go without saying that this bill is diametrically opposed to our own party’s constitutional and electoral reform policies including the adoption of single transferable vote and removing barriers to exercising the right to vote. However, in the face of undemocratic legislation, we as a party should contemplate advocating for stronger protective measures, namely universal civic duty voting, otherwise known as compulsory voting.

Turnout for British general elections during the twenty-first century has never surpassed 70%. This contrasts sharply with the 90%+ turnout rates in Australia and Belgium, with the former having adopted UCDV in response to low turnout of under 60% at its 1922 federal election. With FPTP skewing results and breeding voter dissatisfaction, no party in the UK having won more than 50% of votes cast since the Conservative did in 1935, governments are formed or decisions made via referenda that reflect the will of only a plurality of the electorate. For government to be more reflective of the will of the people, greater turnout should be encouraged, with UCDV probably being the most effective method of achieving it.

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Tagged democracy and voting reform | 19 Comments

A whole systems approach to solving the health and social care crisis

By Chris Perry | Mon 14th February 2022 - 9:23 am

The Health and Social Care Bill currently in the House of Lords is intended to:

sort out the under-funding of social care;
remove the need for people to sell their houses to pay for their care;
promote joined-up service delivery;
replace the competitive model with a collaborative one.

Sadly, as I wrote here, it appears to be a quick fix component level response to a whole systems problem which will simply “kick the problem on for a few more years”. There is little point putting more and more money into the first aid camp at the bottom of the cliff without building a fence at the top.

The cap on the amount which can be spent on care home fees will favour the rich in that people who do not have sufficient savings will still have to sell their house to pay for their care.

The “Integrated Care Systems” and “Integrated Care Partnerships” will be very costly and appear more concerned with preserving:

the current configuration of local authorities and NHS Trusts, and;
the purchaser / provider split and commissioning;

than they do the provision of integrated care.

Successive Governments have tried to get health, social services, police, education and housing to work together, but none has grasped the nettle of different geographical areas, different funding streams and different lines of accountability, which have been the main impediments.

Since the 1990 National Health Service and Community Care Act the “contract culture” has led to:

a “minding” rather than a “mending” service with social workers increasingly used to assess the eligibility to specific services rather than using relationship and therapeutic counselling to resolve problems;
further fragmentation with different components of a “package of care” bought from different providers, and;
“self-funders” (a dreadful term) being waived away denying them an “independent verification of their wishes” and their families the help and support they need.

There is a wealth of empirical evidence on the “social determinates of health” which have demonstrated the correlation between income and demand upon the NHS.

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Tagged health and social care | 13 Comments

President’s Update, February 2022, Europe, Party reform, supporting candidates, new Vice President

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th February 2022 - 2:47 pm

The next steps in our European policy

There’s a lesson we should learn from Brexiters. It’s that for most of the road to the tragedy of the 2016 referendum they weren’t Brexiters but Euro-sceptics. For most of that time, they weren’t campaigning for Brexit to happen tomorrow, but against a particular aspect of the EU. That is how they built up a broad coalition of support to get Brexit through.

In turn, we need to do the same in reverse – to recognise that even many Remainers are put off by ‘let’s rejoin the EU now!’, but that even those who voted Leave can be won over by campaigning issue by issue on the merits of cooperation with our neighbours.

It’s an approach that party members overwhelmingly supported in our recent (with a record-breaking response!) consultation.

At our spring federal conference, we’ll be fleshing out the details of what this means when we debate a motion which sets out our comprehensive plan to reconnect our political and trading relationship with Europe.

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Tagged federal board, Mark Pack, party organisation and party president | 4 Comments

Yet more chaos in Downing Street

By Ellen Nicholson | Sun 13th February 2022 - 12:39 pm

Yet another week where the Prime Minister has floundered, and the country has struggled.

The week started with a Tory former chief whip urging Boris Johnson to withdraw an insinuation about the Labour leader Starmer refusing to prosecute the serial sex offender Jimmy Savile and which saw scenes where Starmer was accosted outside Parliament.

The UK Statistics Authority last week officially rebuked Boris Johnson and Priti Patel for misleadingly claiming that crime had fallen, following a letter of complaint by Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng then claimed this weekend that fraud isn’t something people experience in their day-to-day lives.

Analysis by the Liberal Democrats show there were 100,393 fraud offences referred to the police in London last year, 8,957 fraud offences in Surrey which is home to Kwasi Kwarteng’s constituency of Spelthorne, and 11,829 fraud offences in Essex which includes Priti Patel’s seat of Witham.

Boris Johnson refused to agree to correct the record, after being challenged to by Ed Davey at PMQs on Wednesday.

Sir John Major’s keynote speech at the Institute for Government on Thursday was damning, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

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Tagged Alistair Carmichael, boris johnson, ed davey and uk government | 4 Comments

Getting our technology and tools right: get in the know.

By Greg Foster | Sat 12th February 2022 - 2:45 pm

Campaign Technology is one of the most important things for the Liberal Democrats to get right.

Whether it’s canvassing apps, websites or even data entry, we can’t campaign effectively without the right tools and the right data.

Over the last 18 months, the LDHQ technology team has been reviewing our data, technology and tools. We’ve also been gathering feedback from the people who use them to help us understand where the problems are at the moment.

That process has identified a number of problems with our current setup, including:

We aren’t getting value for money from our campaigning technology
Our data quality is low and it is scattered across multiple systems
Our websites are expensive, hard to maintain and out of date
We can’t give volunteers easy and high-quality information on how their teams are doing and their campaigns are going
Our tools aren’t easy for activists to use

I think there’d be few Liberal Democrat activists out there who disagreed with that list of big picture issues – so hopefully we’ve got the measure of the problems we need to solve.

Of course, solving those problems will take time and patience: there are no overnight magic wand fixes that will solve everything (sorry!).

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Tagged featured, party organisation and technology | 13 Comments

Observations of an ex pat: A bad special relationship

By Tom Arms | Sat 12th February 2022 - 10:43 am

The Anglo-American special relationship is growing closer—but not for the right reasons.

It has been founded on shared values, history, legal structures, trade, military and intelligence links and an unwavering belief in the democratic institutions which underwrite all of the above.

Today the democratic cornerstone is being undermined by the actions of conservative-minded political parties in both countries– America’s Republican Party and Britain’s Conservative and Unionist Party.

They have veered away from the responsibilities of political stewardship to the naked pursuit of power at all costs and tied their fortunes to personalities rather than policies. Both parties have adopted standard bearers (Donald Trump in America and Boris Johnson in the UK) who have become inveterate liars and slanderers.

Of course, in America, everything is bigger and better. And in the case of Donald Trump and his falsehoods, the former president is definitely in the world beater category. According to analysts at the Washington Post, he issued more than 30,000 lies during his presidency. And, of course, there is the “Big Election Lie” with which he is attempting to undermine the electoral system.

Boris Johnson is no slouch in the falsification stakes. But he goes more for quality than quantity. His Brexit lies were notorious. And as Prime Minister he regularly stands before the dispatch box of the House of Commons and rolls out statistics which Britain’s own Office of National Statistics immediately denies. But, of course, his most recent big lie was that there were no parties at 10 Downing Street during covid lockdowns. The police are currently investigating 12 such incidents.

The problem is that under parliamentary rules, MPs cannot call another member of parliament a liar; at least not in the precincts of the Palace of Westminster. To do so is a grave offence and results in temporary expulsion of parliament. Ian Blackford, leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party in the House of Commons, found this out to his cost.

Slander is also now a common tool of both party leaders. Boris Johnson recently stood in Parliament and accused Keir Starmer, Leader of the Opposition, of refusing to prosecute notorious celebrity paedophile Jimmy Saville. In both Parliament and Congress speakers are protected by absolute privilege which means that they can say whatever they want without fear of prosecution for libel or slander. The result was that Keir Starmer was cornered by an angry mob shouting “paedophile protector.”

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Tagged featured and observations of an ex pat | 20 Comments