Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 30 April 2018 – all for you, Sofia…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 30th April 2018 - 7:45 am

Good morning, once again, and welcome to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. You might never guess that I’m a member of the Federal International Relations Committee…

I’ve been here to attend the ALDE Party Council meeting that took place on Saturday, and I’ll be reporting on the mood at that meeting later in the day. Also, I’ll be covering progress towards a European Liberal manifesto for the 2019 European Parliamentary elections, and the selection of a Spitzenkandidat for the Presidency of the European Commission.

It was another punishing week for the Government in the …

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Caron Lindsay

Amber Rudd resigns – what does this mean for the Home Office, Brexit…and the PM?

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 29th April 2018 - 11:21 pm

So Amber Rudd resigns tonight.

In some ways it’s remarkable that she didn’t go sooner. I mean, I’ve seen ministers resign because of a snow storm or be sacked for eating a pie. Here was a Minster staying in office when her department had ruined the lives of British citizens.

She couldn’t survive the leak of a letter from her to the Prime Minister outlining an “aim” of increasing the number of enforced removals by 10%. An aim is sufficiently within the ball park of a target to constitute the most serious offence a minister can commit – misleading Parliament so she’s gone before she had to face the opposition tomorrow.

However, unless the immigration system is going to be completely dismantled and rebuilt from scratch to make it treat people with dignity and respect, it doesn’t really matter who the Home Secretary is.

If I were Theresa May, I’d split the Home Office up into one department that deals with nationality, citizenship, asylum and immigration and another that deals with crime and security. The culture of those two parts needs to be very different.

I thought much better of Amber Rudd before she made that awful Conference speech in which she talked about companies having to report how many immigrants they employed. I had hoped that she would quietly roll back some of the hostile environment nonsense that has been so damaging. I’d like to think that she is a better person than her inability to sort out the mess she inherited at the Home Office would suggest.

I am slightly worried about the balance in the Cabinet. Rudd was the strongest pro-Remain voice in the high level Committee that deals with Brexit and would no doubt have been sticking up for staying in the Customs Union. Whether she will take up that cause on the back benches remains to be seen.

I just about choked on my hot chocolate when the BBC’s Clive Myrie referred to her resignation as a “devastating personal tragedy.” I rather think that the lives of the Windrush generation British Citizens and others that have been ruined by the “hostile environment” policy more closely fit that description. That said, this presumably takes Rudd out of the running to replace Theresa May when the time comes.

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Caron Lindsay

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #515

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 29th April 2018 - 9:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 515th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the five most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (22-28 April, 2018), together with a hand-picked seven you might otherwise have missed. There was no Golden Dozen last week due to Scottish Conference so a few may slip in from the last two weeks.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

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The Voice

Jo Swinson: I’ll take my baby in a sling to protest Trump

By The Voice | Sun 29th April 2018 - 2:40 pm

When Donald Trump visits the UK on Friday 13th July, many Liberal Democrats will take to the streets to protest against the racist, misogynist, transphobic, views he holds and the actions he has taken in Government to undermine human rights.

On today’s Peston on Sunday, Lib Dem Deputy Leader Jo Swinson said that, if she’s able, she’ll be among them, just as she was on the Women’s March last year the day after the inauguration.

Her baby will be just weeks old at that time and she says that she’ll take the wee one to the march in a sling because he is anathema to British values of respect for others.

She also talked about our prospects in the local elections. Vince had been quite modest about it on Marr and Jo continued in the same vein. She said that we were looking to get a foothold back in areas where we had been wiped out four years ago. She added what we are all experiencing – that our reception on the doorsteps is much friendlier and enthusiastic than it was then.

On Amber Rudd, she was clear that if the Home Secretary had misled Parliament, then she would need to go. She also said that Cabinet Ministers don’t see every memo and what we really needed to do was to have a positive debate on the benefits of immigration.

She was on Sunday Politics later on with Brexiteer Bernard Jenkin talking about the customs union.

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Caron Lindsay

History made as the Scottish Parliament passes landmark Social Security Bill, improved by cross-party co-operation

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 29th April 2018 - 12:38 pm

Last Wednesday the Scottish Parliament passed the Social Security Bill which gives power over many disability and carers benefits as well as some aspects of Universal Credit. It was a marathon debate with over 120 amendments. One of the really good things about the Scottish Parliament’s modern systems is that you can have many more votes. Unlike the House of Commons where each vote means 15 minutes of queuing, at Holyrood, it’s a second of button pushing. This has meant a much more wide-ranging debate. To the SNP Government’s credit, Social Security Minister Jeane Freeman engaged with the opposition parties and not only listened to what they had to say but took it on board as well.

One particular issue was the issue of terminal illness. At the moment, to access benefits if you are terminally ill, you have to have six months or less to live. In a move even supported by the Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament, there will be no limit.

The Liberal Democrats have no representation on the Social Security Committee, but worked with Green and Labour MSPs to ensure that there will be no unnecessary disability benefit assessments, and for those that have to take place, the person involved will have a say in when and where they should take place.

Unlike south of the border, the Bill provides for the housing element of Universal Credit to be paid directly to the landlord and, as the result of an amendment, to be split between joint claimants in a household. The latter is an important point. If there is domestic abuse in a relationship, there will likely be financial abuse as well, so it is important that everyone has some level of financial independence. That is going to be a difficult one to implement because the DWP will drag its heels. I hope, though, that they will find a way to do this for the whole of the UK.

The DWP also needs to address issues with the direct payment to landlords. At the moment, payments are being delayed. They are aware of the fault but not seeing a sense of urgency about fixing it.

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Caron Lindsay

Vince on Marr – Rudd, race and the need for a People’s vote on Brexit

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 29th April 2018 - 10:38 am

There must be an election happening or something. We have had Vince on Marr this morning and Jo Swinson is on Peston as I write.

He was quite measured on Amber Rudd. Rather than call outright for her resignation, he said we needed to hear what she had to say to Parliament tomorrow. One of two things is true:

Either she misled Parliament or she was the last person in the Home Office to know about removal targets.

A later comment by Brandon Lewis on the same programme intensifies the case against Amber Rudd.

Lewis bullishly defended the removal targets, saying that we had to get rid of those bad criminals and illegal immigrants, didn’t we? It is very easy to become an illegal immigrant. A tiny error on a complicated Home Office form can mean that you lose your status. You are given no chance to rectify it. Yet the people responsible for an almighty scandal such as Windrush get off with a few critical newspaper headlines.

I actually hope that Amber Rudd didn’t deliberately mislead Parliament because I don’t want her replaced by some extreme Brexiteer like Gove or Grayling. There is nobody in the Conservative Party who is going to give the Home Office and immigration system the treatment it deserves: dismantling completely and being rebuilt in a fair and compassionate manner which inspires the confidence of those who use it and those who advocate on their behalf.

Back to Vince. He said that most people who voted for Brexit did so for legitimate reasons, but that racism was a factor.

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The Voice

Vince: Supermarket mega-merger must be referred to competition watchdog.

By The Voice | Sun 29th April 2018 - 9:32 am

The news that two of the big four supermarkets in this country were in merger talks was greeted with concern with many people.

If this goes ahead, the new company would control 30% of the market which is in few enough hands as it is.

Vince Cable basically said that it was a no-brainer that this should be fully investigated before it was allowed. He said:

The grocery market – and the British shopper – already suffers from the mid-market being dominated by just a handful of big players. What the merger of the second and third biggest supermarkets threatens is the creation of

…

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Param Barodia

How should Liberals respond to Trump’s visit?

By Param Barodia | Sat 28th April 2018 - 11:30 am

I don’t agree with a lot of what Donald Trump says. That’s shocking, I know. Additionally, I must admit that my gut reaction to the news that good old Donald was coming to visit was a negative one. However, after giving a little more thought and discussing it with people who follow other political ideals, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a little more nuanced.

Trump may be controversial, but he is still the leader of one of the world’s most powerful countries, and one of the UK’s best allies, and in the current international climate, we most definitely need allies, and being allied to the world’s largest military would be useful.

Another argument is that he wouldn’t nearly be the worst world leader to be hosted by the UK government, with the Queen having hosted dubious figures such as Bashar al-Assad and Robert Mugabe in the past. Personally, I don’t give this idea much credence, as using the mistakes of the past to justify what could be a mistake of the future doesn’t make much sense at all. It is accepted that the UK has played host to some controversial figures, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Trump is on the same level as the man who was recently alleged to have used chemical weapons on his own citizens.

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Caron Lindsay

Candidate selections: How are we doing on diversity?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 28th April 2018 - 8:55 am

Not that brilliantly, to be honest. Of the fifteen seats we’ve selected so far, just 6 have selected women and 9 have selected men. When you add in the 4 women and 8 men who will be defending their seats, you get 10 women and 17 men. That’s not an impressive record.

More worryingly, there is only one non-white face in there.

Vince talked the other day of the importance of getting more BAME candidates not just selected but elected as MPs. He told The Muslim News:

Sir Vince Cable acknowledged that his party was not “yet fully representative of modern Britain.

…

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Caron Lindsay

The Friday the Thirteenth horror franchise continues

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 27th April 2018 - 11:55 am

To be fair, I don’t watch horror films. In fact I rarely watch anything more upsetting than Fraulein Maria going back to the abbey in The Sound of Music. However, Donald Trump’s visit to the UK on July 13th is pretty horrific, more because it seems like a rather desperate attempt to pretend that we are going to be relevant as a country once we’re in not very splendid post Brexit isolation.

We should not be pandering to someone who uses his keyboard to lambast people from marginalised groups on Twitter and, worse, his pen to sign executive orders which make …

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Caron Lindsay

Alfie Evans’ parents deserve our sympathy for an outcome that has always been inevitable

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 27th April 2018 - 10:25 am

I have nothing but sympathy for Alfie Evans’ parents. For the last 18 months, they have been going through the worst kind of trauma. Before Alfie was born, they would have had ideas of the sorts of things they would have done as a family, none of which have come to pass. None of them ever had any hope of coming to pass.

It’s even more difficult when nobody can actually tell you what is wrong. Whatever happened to Alfie’s brain is unique. It doesn’t have a name. The doctors couldn’t say “He has this disease and in all these other cases of that disease this is how it’s happened.”

Some friends of mine had a baby who would be 9 this year. He had a very rare condition and he died when he was 14 weeks old. His short life had a huge impact on them and his wider family and he is remembered every day. They will never fully recover from the trauma they went through. They dealt with it with more grace and love than I could ever have found in that situation.

It is completely understandable for any parent in that position to fight as hard as they can for their child. They don’t want to look in any mirrors and think “I wish I had done more.”

In these circumstances, where parents can’t accept what the doctors say about future courses of action, it is right that should be a legal process to decide. Having read the court judgment, I am confident the the doctors were right. Their conclusions were independently reviewed and enough people came to the same, sad, conclusion for the outcome to be credible. It’s the last thing anyone wanted. Doctors don’t want to have to deliver this sort of news. They want to save people. There are times when they can’t and this is one of them.

I found this Twitter thread written by a junior doctor useful in explaining the background:

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Tom Arms

Observations of an ex pat: Fettered press

By Tom Arms | Fri 27th April 2018 - 8:55 am

It is enshrined in the First Amendment of the US constitution. It has been British Common law since 1688. It is a key element in the 1953 European Convention of Human Rights and the 2009 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. It is Article Two of France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and Part of the UN Charter.

Freedom of the press and freedom of speech is—allegedly—chiselled in stone in almost every constitution in the world with the exceptions of self-recognised authoritarian states such as China, North Korea, Cuba and Saudi Arabia.

But according to the 2018 Press Freedom Index,released this week, this near universal commitment is observed more in the breach than the observance, and the breaches are occurring more often and—increasingly—in countries  regarded as members of the democratic club.

Let’s start with the leader of the“The Free World”—the United States.  America has fallen two places to 45th in the press freedom index. Reporters Without Borders, who produce the index, places the blame firmly at the door of the White House.  What do you expect when the president emulates Stalin by referring to reporters as “enemies of the people?”

The EU—bastion of liberal democracy– is meant to be a democratic club. Support for democracy and a commitment to principles such as a free press are pre-conditions for membership. If a government backslides it faces fines, suspension of voting rights and—in extremis—expulsion from club membership.

But these deterrents have failed to stop  an increasing number of EU governments. In Hungary (down two places to 73), Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused Hungarian-born  billionaire philanthropist George Soros of supporting independent media outlets in order to “discredit” Hungary in the international public’s eyes. Orban has branded him public enemy Number One.

In Austria, the leader of the far-right populist FPO party accused the public radio and TV broadcaster ÖRF of spreading lies. In Spain (down two at 31), the October independence referendum in Catalonia has resulted in government-fuelled harassment of pro-independence journalists.

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Kirsten Johnson

Rise of Foodbank Use Linked to Universal Credit

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 26th April 2018 - 4:00 pm

I’ve just spent some time reading Early Warnings, Universal Credit and Foodbanks. In it, the Trussell Trust reveals the rise of foodbanks linked to the roll-out of Universal Credit.

The statistics are sobering. From April 2017 to March 2018, the Trussell Trust’s foodbank network supplied 1,332,952 three-day emergency food supplies. This was a 13% increase from the year before. Of these, 484,026 supplies went to children.

I will pause and let you process that.

Our families are so hard up, not being given enough money to live on, that almost half a million children have been found in need of emergency food supplies.

The main reasons for being referred to a food bank were:

  1. low income (on benefits, not earning)
  2. benefit delay
  3. benefit change
  4. debt

I have argued before that a universal basic income would remove the first three reasons – if everyone in the country gets enough to live on, you eradicate the lowest level of poverty instantly. UBI does not need to be high – £4500 has been shown to be a workable figure which keeps food on the table for families, removing children from extreme poverty.

The Trussell Trust shows the figures going back to 2012-13, when the number of 3-day emergency supply packs given out was 346,992. Almost four times as many packs are being given out now.

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What you need to know about GDPR

By Sanjay Samani and Richard Kember | Thu 26th April 2018 - 12:30 pm

With one month to go until the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) the focus for many is rightly the local elections. The team at LDHQ is still working hard and we recognize the importance of breaking down the legislation into smaller chunks. So we have developed a short, three-step process for handling data:

Download, Use, Delete.

We have been mentioning our new mantra recently in training and comms, but it would probably help if we took some time to explain in a bit more detail.

In short, we are trying to describe the ideal journey of data through your computer or personal files. To clarify, below we are talking about Lib Dem data exported from systems on the soon to be released Approved Supplier list.

Download

All information we use should be coming from a limited number of sources. For example: Salesforce for members, Connect for canvassing and Nationbuilder, Prater Raines or other approved platforms for online email sign-ups.

All of the above provide safe storage for data at rest, which from a data security standpoint is important.

Before downloading anything make sure that you have identified opt-outs and unsubscribes. It may sound a bit simplistic but it’s hugely important to do so.

Use

When using information, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. Firstly, where did it come from and why was it collected. Data should only be used in accordance with the reason specified when first collected. We must respect where we have only gained consent to contact a person about a named campaign.

Secondly, think about who will be seeing the raw data, and whether you absolutely need to share it. For example, a printer obviously needs to see a list of names and addresses to produce a targeted mailing. However, the supporter delivering the same mailing not so much.

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Kirsten Johnson

We need to ban upskirting

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 26th April 2018 - 10:16 am

Lib Dem members yesterday would have received an email from our Bath MP Wera Hobhouse asking for support in her campaign to get upskirting banned.

If you want to sign the petition, the link is here.

What is upskirting? The OED defines it as “the action or practice of surreptitiously taking photos or videos at an angle so as to see up a woman’s skirt or dress.”

It is sickening and appalling that people even think they have the right to do this!

Wera is calling for upskirting to be made a criminal …

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Kirsten Johnson

New report out shows more paediatric consultants needed

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 26th April 2018 - 8:15 am

As a mother of three, we have been to A & E more times than I would have liked and have had help from paediatricians and other consultants. The NHS is wonderful!

But sorely understaffed.

A report out today by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, “Facing the Future Audit 2017”, has recommended drastic increases in staff to meet need. Up to 752 more paediatric consultants are required across the UK: 520-554 in England; 84-110 in Scotland; 84–91 in Wales; and 30-31 in Northern Ireland.

There are clearly not enough paediatric consultants …

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Tahir Maher

Will Brexit Affect the NHS

By Tahir Maher | Wed 25th April 2018 - 4:30 pm

We all remember Boris’s epitaph on the side of the Out-campaign bus saying “Let’s fund our NHS instead”. This related to the £350 million a week that we supposedly pay to the Europe Union (the net figure was of course significantly less). The question is, is the NHS going to be worse off because of Brexit?

Currently, we don’t know how the negotiations are going to end. The government talks about leaving without a deal suggests that they can start trading with the EU on World Trade Organisation tariffs or the complicated agreement implied by May’s Florence speech. With no overall …

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The Voice

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By The Voice | Wed 25th April 2018 - 2:55 pm

Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email?

Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

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The Voice

Mick Clark selected for Yeovil

By The Voice | Wed 25th April 2018 - 1:33 pm

Another former Lib Dem seat has selected a candidate for the next General Election. Getting a candidate in place early on to lead campaigning boosts our chances.

Members in Yeovil, formerly held by Paddy Ashdown and David Laws between 1983 and 2015, have selected Mick Clark to fight the seat. Like Paddy, he has a record in the forces:

From the Chard and Ilminster Times:

Born and bred in Yeovil, Mick served in the Royal Air Force and NHS.

He said: “I cannot wait to get started.

“I’m looking forward to meeting local residents across the constituency in the coming weeks and months to

…

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NewsHound

LibLink: Ed Davey: New Data Law could lead to more Windrush scandals

By NewsHound | Wed 25th April 2018 - 11:55 am

There’s a nasty little clause in the Data Protection Bill soon to be finalised by Parliament which means that the Home Office is under no obligation to tell people why they’ve made their decisions.

The Home Office has a fairly consistent record of showing that it needs much more accountability rather than less.

In an article for Politics Home, Ed Davey sets out the issues:

This “immigration exemption” clause would allow the Home Office to cover up its mistakes – indeed, not even find out when it had made a mistake. Because the applicant to the Home Office – or more likely their lawyer – wouldn’t be able to get access to their file, the very information used to make a decision on their future.

So, if the Home Office acts incorrectly, as they have done with Windrush documents, an individual wouldn’t be able to challenge the decision – because they won’t be allowed to know the reasons why they are being thrown out of the country. By using the new law to block the “Subject Access Requests” lawyers use to check the Home Office has got the right information on their client – and even the right person – the Home Office will become party to huge injustices. This could lead to hundreds of deportations of people who have the right to be here – people who are British citizens.

MPs who work week in, week out, know the sheer scale of the mistakes the Home Office make, every day. Latest figures from the Law Society revealed how the Home Office lose 50% of cases on appeal. And specialist lawyers have provided MPs with plenty of examples of gross Home Office errors, where the Home Office gets the wrong identity, reads their own files incorrectly and doesn’t even acknowledge the decisions it previously made about an individual.

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The Voice

Layla Moran: Public Accounts Committee report shows Government in Brexit chaos

By The Voice | Wed 25th April 2018 - 10:25 am

In a report published today, the influential Commons Public Accounts Committee slams the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s approach to Brexit. The Chair, Meg Hillier, had this to say.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy appears to be operating in a parallel universe where urgency is an abstract concept with no bearing on the Brexit process.

The Department is responsible for around a fifth of the work streams the Government must complete as the UK leaves the EU. It is an extremely important, challenging and time-sensitive workload.

Yet the Department told us it had not re-prioritised its overall programme of work, had not begun procurement for around a dozen essential digital systems and could not provide vital information about its workforce.

We have grave concerns about this apparent complacency, compounded by the lack of transparency on the Department’s progress with what in some cases will be critical projects.

Our Layla Moran is a member of the Committee, said that all that BEIS had done was add to the sense of chaos surrounding Brexit:

A functioning business and energy department is crucial to the future success of our economy, the fact that there is no confidence about its preparedness for Brexit is deeply concerning.

The Liberal Democrats have asked BEIS on several occasions how it will spend allocated funds on Brexit but so far we have not been given any substantive information.

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The Voice

What the Lib Dems offer Manchester

By The Voice | Wed 25th April 2018 - 8:58 am

Manchester Liberal Democrats have launched their local elections manifesto. Details of their policies on subjects like homelessness,housiing,  refugees and schools follow.

The Liberal Democrats hope to make gains on the Labour-suffocated Council. Labour currently has 95/96 seats. The 96th is held by our own indefatigable John Leech, who was MP for Manchester Withington until 2015. There are all-up elections next Thursday.

John said of the manifesto:

Our campaign is about everyone and everything that makes Manchester the great city it is today; a strong local community, a celebration of diversity and non-conformity.

Liberal Democrats care passionately about our local communities because it’s where we live and it’s what we believe in. We will always put local people first and it’s about time our council did too.

On the 3rd May, we have a chance to elect a council that leads from the front; that cities around the world look up to; where we celebrate diversity, house the homeless, welcome the desperate and build a future for our children. But only a vote for the Liberal Democrats can break this one-party state and build that vision.

Key Pledges:
ON REFUGEES AND OUR MORAL DUTY:

  • Immediately develop plans to house 50 at-risk families from refugee camps. In the long-term, we will also investigate how best to house as many orphaned child refugees as possible.

ON EU CITIZENS:

  • Demand the Brexit secretary guarantee the rights of EU citizens and maintain our stance on a referendum on the Brexit deal.

ON TRANSPORT AND ROADS:

  • Use some of the estimated £50million Manchester Airport dividend to establish a SmartTransport Development Fund dedicated to offsetting heavy carbon transport.
  • Introduce for a young commuter’s price cap, so they never pay more than half the hourly living wage rate to commute to work.
  • Crackdown on lazy road re-surfacing.

ON HOUSING:

  • Demand all developments over 15 dwellings meet the 20% affordable quota, and where not economically viable, force the developer to contribute financially to the benefit of the local community.
  • Guarantee safe, affordable housing for young people transitioning from foster care to adulthood.

ON HOMELESSNESS:

  • Launch an investigation into all emergency housing applications to make sure that no one slips through the net.
  • Use council-owned premises to house every rough sleeper in Manchester before approving any further city centre developments.
  • Provide an administration address to every homeless person so that they can take the first step in getting their life back on track – this means they can begin applying for jobs.
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Update on the party’s immigration policy consultation

By Adam Pritchard | Tue 24th April 2018 - 5:36 pm

Regular readers of this site will probably be aware that the Party has been consulting members about the development of new policy on immigration, refugees and identity.

As the chair of the working group, I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to respond to the consultation: we received around 100,000 words in written submissions and over 900 members responded to our online survey. The working group has been working through your responses and last Wednesday we met to discuss what you have told us and how it will inform the development of our policy paper on immigration.

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 22 Comments
Khalil Yousuf

OFSTED should not ostracise children who choose to practise faith

By Khalil Yousuf | Tue 24th April 2018 - 11:02 am

Amanda Spielman the Head of Ofsted is right to promote social cohesion, but wrong to achieve that by ostracizing children who choose to wear a headscarf.  Demonising Islamic teachings about modest dress is not becoming of a regulator whose task is to broaden minds, not close them.

Ofsted is properly troubled that contrary to Islam and the best interests of children, some very young girls could be being forced to wear a hijab or fast during Ramadhan. The right way to deal with that is to challenge false notions about religion. The wrong way is to penalise innocent children’s right to free choice.

Islam does not require very young or primary aged girls to wear headscarves. If women choose Islam as their faith, the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad said that such coverings are only required in teenage years when full physical maturity is reached. Head scarves are not unique to Islam either; they are also found among orthodox Christians and Jews.

If a young Muslim girl freely chooses to wear a headscarf because she is inspired by her mother as a positive role model, she should be allowed that choice.  When a Muslim girl speaks with other children about her headscarf and the inspiration she gets from her mother, children develop social skills, empathy, vocabulary, cognitive skills and learn about decision making. These are core to educational development; skills that Ofsted should encourage.

Inappropriate questioning of young children about their religious beliefs by Ofsted Inspectors can be a source of confusion, stress and future mental health issues.  The Mental Health Foundation reports that having a sense of belonging in their family, school and community keeps young people mentally well.  It also reports that experiencing discrimination because of race or religion is a specific mental health risk factor.  Ofsted do engage with children on a one to one basis. When they do, it cannot be right for Ofsted Inspectors to challenge very young girls about why they wear a headscarf.  Questions directed at secondary school girls should be sensitive and should not make them feel isolated or discriminated against. Nothing should serve to make any Muslim child, or a child of any other belief or ethnicity, feel as though there is something wrong with their religion or culture.

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Posted in Op-eds | 14 Comments
The Voice

Manchester Together – Liberal Democrats launch powerful campaign video

By The Voice | Tue 24th April 2018 - 8:55 am

Manchester Liberal Democrats produced a campaign video for their Council election campaign. In 2016, former Lib Dem MP John Leech was elected as the only opposition councillor to Labour. That’s right, it was just him and 95 Labour councillors. He punched well above his weight, though, frequently exasperating the Council leadership by subjecting them to some serious scrutiny.

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James Calder

How an opposition Councillor can make a difference: My School Uniform Grant Story

By James Calder | Mon 23rd April 2018 - 6:34 pm

Last May I was delighted to be elected to represent Dunfermline South in Fife Council after many years hard work. Of course, after the campaign, the important work of representing my constituents began, and I joined an excellent team of councillors holding the SNP/Labour coalition to account. With great enthusiasm, I was given the role of our education spokesperson in the Council.

A few months into the job, I noticed something in a national news report that concerned me. The Scottish Government had a recommended School Uniform Grant for all children from the least well off families, but that different …

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Posted in Campaign Corner | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Isabelle Parasram

Publication of Report on Sexual Impropriety Complaints Handling – an update from Special Investigation Counsel, Isabelle Parasram

By Isabelle Parasram | Mon 23rd April 2018 - 5:09 pm

In November 2017, I was appointed by the Federal Board of the Liberal Democrats as Special Investigation Counsel to conduct an investigation and produce a Report on the handling of sexual impropriety complaints within the Party.

I am pleased that, after a period of being embargoed, the report has now been published and you can access it here.

My appointment was one of a number of steps taken by the Federal Board in response to concerns expressed by members of the party towards the end of last year. These concerns related to allegations of sexual impropriety that were, at that time, …

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Mark Valladares

LibLink: Derek Laud on the Windrush debacle

By Mark Valladares | Mon 23rd April 2018 - 10:41 am

The investigative work of Amelia Gentleman in the Guardian has uncovered the implications of Theresa May’s ‘hostile environment’, and let us not kid ourselves with talk of Amber Rudd’s resignation, responsibility for this falls squarely upon the head of our Prime Minister.

Former Conservative speechwriter, and now a member of the Liberal Democrats, Derek Laud wrote for the Guardian over the weekend. In his powerful piece, he highlights that the impact of Government policy on Windrush pensioners is not an isolated error;

It cannot be incidental that some of the most important issues facing us today are about matters of freedom,

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 16 Comments
Mark Valladares

So, what does being an English Liberal mean?

By Mark Valladares | Mon 23rd April 2018 - 8:43 am

One of the things about being an Englishman by birth, but not by parentage, is that your perspective of what it means to be English can be slightly different from that of those whose English heritage can be traced back through generations.

For me, at least, with an Indian father and a Scots mother, there is a desire to fit in to some extent, and that manifests itself in a generalised belief that people are broadly reasonable, given the opportunity to be so, and that the eccentricities of life here – queuing, cricket, …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 22 Comments
Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 23 April 2018 – there’s never a dragon around when you want one…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 23rd April 2018 - 8:06 am

It’s St George’s Day today, the anniversary of Queen Anne being crowned at Westminster Abbey (1702), and of the chartering of Connecticut as an English colony in 1662. And, coincidentally, on this day in 1516, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria endorsed “The German Beer Purity Law”, which I think we could all support.

I’ve been spending the weekend celebrating a significant anniversary, and clearly you’ve all been outside enjoying the fine weather (except our Scottish colleagues, who’ve been at their Conference), or campaigning for elections, as we’ve got precious little in the kitty …

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Posted in News | 2 Comments
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