Joe Bourke

It’s time for an All Party Parliamentary Group on Land Value Taxation

By Joe Bourke | Wed 12th July 2017 - 10:55 am

The rioting in Hamburg on the occasion of the meeting of the G20 this month highlights the oftentimes violent confrontation that exists between alternative theories of capitalism and socialism, as represented by the established orthodoxy and those that would seek to tear it down.

 At the heart of this conflict lies differing interpretations of economic theory, often depicted simplistically as left v right; Keynes v Hayek; socialism v capitalism; social liberalism v economic liberalism; or progressives v conservatives.

Henry George’s Progress and Poverty envisioned a capitalism that would allow all people to own the product of their labour, but that things found in nature, particularly land, belongs equally to all humanity. 

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Caron Lindsay

It’s Swinson vs Lamb today

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 12th July 2017 - 8:55 am

Today, MPs elect their Select Committee chairs. The Liberal Democrats are to chair the Science and Technology Committee. The House will have the chance to choose between two of our MPs, Norman Lamb and Jo Swinson.

Each has produced a statement in support of their candidacy:

Jo Swinson

Statement

“more collegiate than tribal” – Telegraph

Collegiate

Even the Telegraph said I’m collegiate, and they’re not known for their love of Lib Dems.  If you’ve been in Parliament for many years, I hope you agree that I engaged constructively with MPs regardless of party when I was a Minister: from pubs to payday lending, employment rights to equalities.  If you’re newer, you don’t need to take my word for it, do ask your colleagues.  And feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or ideas.

Fair

Select Committees are about the art of asking good questions to get to the heart of an issue.  It’s a wonderful privilege – and fascinating – to be able to quiz experts on any given subject, and I hugely enjoyed my time on the Environmental Audit Committee from 2007-2010.  Every member of a Select Committee has an important role to play.  In creating reports and recommendations for Government, Select Committees should be both challenging and constructive: giving credit where it’s due, and being bold about where change is needed.

Enthused by science and technology

Science and technology offer hope for the advancement of society, as an engine of growth for the economy, and to solve the big problems we face as humanity, from climate change to disease.  The UK has a pivotal role to play, with a well-respected scientific community that should be supported and celebrated.  I’m enthused by these opportunities, as an early adopter of technology for democratic engagement, a former Vice-Chair of the Prime Minister’s Digital Taskforce, and having served as a Non-Executive Director of a data science start-up.  My constituency is home to the Beatson Institute, a world-class science facility focused on cancer research.

Can v Should

Science rightly pushes the frontiers of knowledge, and asks “Can we?”.  In public policy terms, we must also ask “Should we?”  Ethical questions range from balancing online privacy with security to preventing artificial intelligence entrenching current inequalities, from how to assess the benefit of new pharmaceuticals to understanding fully the impact of drones and driverless cars on employment.  The Select Committee should play a crucial role in exploring these dilemmas and finding a path forward.

Norman Lamb

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Ken Munn

What can we learn from the ages?

By Ken Munn | Tue 11th July 2017 - 11:16 am

With party leadership currently in play, and in an effort to acquaint myself with our history, I took a look at Liberal/Alliance/LibDem results of general elections since 1950. Here’s what I found.

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The Voice

This lady is for turning

By The Voice | Tue 11th July 2017 - 9:22 am

Our lovely friends in the Lib Dem Press Office have been keeping tally. They have found twenty policies that the Government has U-turned on in the last year.  And here they are:

  1. Northern Powerhouse: It was reported last August that Theresa May had decided to ditch the Northern Powerhouse from her plans for an industrial strategy, she later back-tracked and made clear she was fully behind it. 
  2. EU nationals: Theresa May reversed her stance towards EU citizens living in Britain (£), after her rivals accused her of treating them as “bargaining chips” in exit negotiations.
  3. Hinkley Point: The PM

…

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Caron Lindsay

Rennie calls on Justice Secretary to end “chilling” Police whistleblower policy

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 10th July 2017 - 8:14 pm

Scotland’s Police force has been beset with difficulties since its 8 Police forces were merged into a single entity five years ago. Some of these difficulties have come to light because police officers have reported their concerns to politicians and the media. So what is the Police management plan to deal with this? Simples. Just make police officers register every single contact with politicians or journalists. If they don’t they could find themselves in big trouble.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has called for the intervention of the Justice Secretary and Scottish Police Authority to ensure that the police hierarchy are not free to silence internal critics after it was revealed that new guidance has been issued within Police Scotland that will crack down on whistle-blowers.

From STV News:

Scotland’s justice secretary has been urged to ensure new Police Scotland guidelines do not have a “chilling effect” on internal critics within the force.

The new rules require officers to declare any associations they have with journalists and politicians, raising concerns they will be used to quash whistleblowing.

The guidance is compulsory for all police officers and special constables, with the prospect of misconduct proceedings for anyone who breaches it.

It is part of the force’s latest anti-corruption strategy and aims to “protect the information, assets and reputation of Police Scotland”.

The General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation likened it to the sort of policy you would find in a banana republic.

Any policy that equates contact with elected parliamentarians and journalists with contact with criminals is deeply worrying.

It risks being seen as an attempt to silence dissent that would not be out of place in a banana republic.

Willie said:

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M P Hoskins

Brexit: yes, it’s personal

By M P Hoskins | Mon 10th July 2017 - 5:08 pm

 

One of the things that most struck me about the arguments made by the supporters of Brexit during the EU referendum was that they seemed, in their essence, to be based on emotion. There were many arguments put forward for Brexit that presented it as a rational economic choice, but these arguments were clearly secondary, almost an afterthought, to the ones based on British exceptionalism and distrust of anything foreign.

And yet when you pressed Brexit supporters, as I quite often did, on these points and suggested that perhaps those of us supporting the EU both in the UK and in other Member States also had an emotional attachment to the project, this was pooh-poohed out of hand.  It was implied that, whereas the UK was entitled to indulge its childish Anglo-centric sentiments, foreigners would bow to practicality and Brexit would prevail. This is the basic construct behind the “German carmakers, prosecco” argument, essentially that neither German nor Italian exporters would want to lose the trade with the UK and therefore they would put pressure on their governments to come to an agreement. Likewise, I often heard it said that Spain depended on what was called “British expats” for so much of its income that it would do nothing to upset the Brexit applecart.

Time has proven that these arguments are not only irrational and patronising but actually wrong. It is childish and limiting to recognise your own emotions without recognising them in others too.

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Mary Reid

Leadership hustings – a chance to discuss the future of the party with Vince Cable

By Mary Reid | Mon 10th July 2017 - 11:51 am

The first Leadership hustings will take place this Saturday in London.

Why a hustings, I hear you ask, given that there is only one candidate? Technically nominations close next Monday, so until then the advice is that we cannot assume that there will not be a contest (although, of course, the chances of a challenge are minimal).

The Social Liberal Forum Conference is holding the hustings at 1.30pm at Resource for London, 356 Holloway Road, London, N7 6PA. Vince Cable has agreed to take part. If any other candidates do come forward before Saturday then they will, of course, be invited.

Whilst any party member is welcome to attend the hustings for free, we would love it if you could sign up for the whole day’s conference. In the morning the theme will be ‘The Retreat from Globalisation’ with some eminent speakers, while the afternoon will be devoted to more local issues including the Leadership election and a review of the General Election. You can register here: www.socialliberal.net/slfconf2017.

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Ruth Bright

Dementia Tax – Project Fear

By Ruth Bright | Mon 10th July 2017 - 8:55 am

Dementia has been a big part of my life. Over the years I have worked with people with dementia in some of our most deprived communities in south London – Brixton, Elephant and Castle, Peckham, Old Kent Road and the surrounding (often high-rise) estates.

I have therefore felt very torn by the party’s recent headlong charge for the populist line on the “dementia tax”. As a (naturally pretty tribal) Lib Dem of three decades standing I recognised a fantastic campaigning issue that might help claw back a few coastal “retirement” seats. However, I also knew that the inaccurate use of the term dementia tax (it is neither a tax nor is it about dementia) causes pain to many for whom this is not just a line in a press release but something real and near at hand.  People with dementia have a cognitive impairment but they are not stupid; they can and do take in political messages. Politicians need to think of the deep distress their negative campaigning can cause to many of our 850,000 fellow citizens who are living with this disease.

During the election the party launched a “Theresa May Estate Agent” website that quoted the  example of a “lady from Runcorn” who at the first symptoms of dementia had her home whipped away by the government. This achieves the triple whammy of being misleading about dementia, misleading about the current system and misleading about the (then) prospective system. If only we had moderated our language on this. For a start the dichotomy between “free” coronary care and “paid for” dementia care is false. Thanks to the voluntary sector (usually funded by health services or councils) many people with dementia get significant help and advice for free. If you are diagnosed with dementia early the stereotype of a tragic husk of a dementia victim slumped in a chair is completely untrue. There is no cure for or reversal of dementia but the NHS funds drugs which can have a plateauing effect on the symptoms of Alzheimer’s for many years. Lots of dementia care from MRI scans to memory clinics is completely free of charge.

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Caron Lindsay

Vince: I won’t be winning the Bad Sex Award

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 9th July 2017 - 9:28 pm

Vince went from Marr to Pienaar’s Politics this morning..

It started seriously enough and he delivered The Message that there is a great opportunity for us as the other parties are divided. The Brexit train is not unstoppable, he said, and there are significant risks to a disorderly Brexit.

He says there is a sense that people do want to work together to stop things like leaving Euratom. The key is what happens in the Labour Party. The contradiction between him being the hero of young people while working with the Tories to bring about hard Brexit will be exposed.

He says that we may be faced with a completely unacceptable Brexit outcome and people will want the opportunity to vote. With extra young people on the register, the balance of public opinion may be shifting.

He said that all of this could mean an upheaval of the political system and we might just be at the centre of major political transformation like Macron did in France.

He dealt with the age question then. Thankfully, there was no sign of the “culture of youth” stuff he was coning out with last week. He returned to talking about Gladstone who was 82 when he last became PM. Vince said he feels young and has a good team around him. He’s just been through an arduous election and he feels great.

Talk turned to realignment of politics. We aren’t expecting defections but the tensions between the moderates and the revolutionary socialists were, he said, profound.

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Paul Walter

Who to trust on the economy? The CBI or Dr Fox with his kamikazee Brexit?

By Paul Walter | Sun 9th July 2017 - 1:51 pm

This week, it was very welcome to hear the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) calling for the UK to remain in the Single Market and Customs Union once it leaves the EU, until a full trade deal is in place.

This seems to be simple common sense to me.

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Caron Lindsay

Vince Cable on Marr: I can see a scenario where Brexit doesn’t happen

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 9th July 2017 - 12:18 pm

Almost-leader Vince Cable was on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show this morning.

Here are some clips:

I like the way that he casually pointed out  that the last Liberal leader to have a coronation was the mighty Jo Grimond.

He said he was optimistic about the party’s future.

Our position on Brexit is “a longstanding principled position which will become increasingly in line with the mood of the country.

Even though he is the only candidate, he said that we will see the Vince Cable manifesto. He was also keen to talk up the strong team behind him, which was another good sign. There have been criticisms before that he’s not a team player – although, to be fair,  he has tended to be right when he deviated from the message during the Coalition years.

Asked if he would take the party in a different direction from Tim Farron, he said that Tim did a very good job, built up our membership but he situation has moved on from where we were two years ago. Brexit dominates the national agenda and he would  have to approach that consistently but in a different Parliament with different dynamics.

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Paul Walter

Is this why there is no rush to make Boris Johnson Prime Minister?

By Paul Walter | Sun 9th July 2017 - 11:02 am

Theresa v Boris: How May became PM is highly recommended viewing. It’s available for the next ten days on BBC iPlayer. Made for BBC2, it is an attractive mix of key player interviews, contemporaneous news footage and dramatised scenes.

Theresa May is played very well indeed by Jacqueline King (who I might gratuitously point out is well known to the legions of Lib Dem Doctor Who fans!) and Boris is captured brilliantly by Will Barton, even though his hair and nose make him look more like Michael Fabricant.

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Joe Bourke

Adult education and skills training

By Joe Bourke | Sun 9th July 2017 - 8:58 am

Since the election there has been much angst among Liberal Democrats over the party’s position on University tuition fees.

Martin Lewis is said to be among the most trusted source on personal finance with the general public. He has recently posted a detailed review of tuition fees arguing:

The student loan isn’t a debt; if we changed its name to the more accurate ‘graduate contribution’ this myth busting guide would be less needed.

What is missing, however,  from much of the debate over tuition fees has been the ongoing training needs of the 60%+ of school leavers who are unable or choose not to take a degree course.

Skill shortages are having a detrimental effect on the UK’s productivity and this needs to be addressed urgently in order to meet immediate economic and workforce challenges, including those arising from Brexit. The UK faces a particularly acute issue in the thousands of adults who lack English, maths and digital skills, creating a serious barrier to their progression in employment, training or education. This is compounded by the diminishing availability of adult education opportunities and the inequality of access to provision where it does exist. The current level of provision does not support the needs of our economy or our society. Add to this the pace of technological and demographic change and the need for a fresh new approach to adult skills and learning becomes crucially apparent.

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Caron Lindsay

Interesting use of language, Vince

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 8th July 2017 - 4:29 pm

Our “almost leader”, Vince Cable is certainly getting himself noticed this week.

He had the right wing press spluttering with outrage with this comparison in a New Statesman interview:

So how did he react to his former cabinet colleague Theresa May condemning “citizens of nowhere” in her Conservative conference speech last year?

“I thought that particular phrase was quite evil. It could’ve been taken out of Mein Kampf,” he replies. “I think that’s where it came from, wasn’t it? ‘Rootless cosmopolitans’? It was out of character for her.”

It’s not Godwin’s Law if it’s true, now, is it?

He’s been talking to Business Insider too. I was particularly interested in this turn of phrase when discussing potential coalitions. He’s holding to the line we fought the election on – no coalitions. But look at this:

“We are not remotely contemplating coalition with the current Labour Party or with the Conservatives,” he told BI.

“We’re in a fundamentally different place on the biggest issues of the day of which Brexit is the most important.  When you’re in fundamental disagreement you can’t meaningfully talk about coalition.”

Note that he said “the current Labour Party” with no such qualification for the Conservatives.

It sounds like it might be different if the Labour Party were to rediscover its sense of internationalism and pro-Europeanism. It seems like he’s slamming the door in the Tories’ faces and throwing away the key but where Labour are concerned, he’s shoving the key at the bottom of his sock drawer just in case we should need it one day.

Those of us for whom the words “centre ground”cause our hearts to sink will also be pleased with this:

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The Voice

Jo Swinson’s message for Pride 2017: Love Happens here

By The Voice | Sat 8th July 2017 - 3:15 pm

Here is Deputy Leader Jo Swinson’s message for Pride 2017. The text is below:

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Katharine Pindar

Open a golden gate to grow power

By Katharine Pindar | Sat 8th July 2017 - 10:21 am

We Liberal Democrats want power. Leader Tim Farron has stated that we want to be in government again, to have power to enact our policies, and we also seek power in local government through our elected councillors.

At present though we seem all too far away from having power. The ’fightback’ after the grim 2015 General Election results seems to have petered out. Yes, numbers of council seats have been won back, and yes, we now have 12 MPs instead of 8. But highly valued MPs have lost, scores of deposits have been forfeited, and we reach only 7% in the polls. We hoped to have massive support from Remainers, now that the country’s economy is faltering and the promises of the Brexiteers being shown up, but in the highlighted clash of May’s Tories and Corbyn’s Labour, pro-EU voters found other priorities.

Then the vote on the amendment to the Queen’s Speech to stay in the EU single market and the customs union gained only 101 ‘ayes’, as the Government and the Labour Party maintained their extraordinary negative alliance. What we Lib Dems actually want is for the British people to realise that Brexit is not only harmful but need not be carried through. But it hasn’t happened yet.

So we are as powerless as before. Or are we? It’s interesting that a Corbyn ally, Ian Lavery, says that the Labour Party is now ‘too broad a church’, and that Momentum voices are suggesting that 50 moderate Labour MPs might like to join us. Previously, Tory commentator and former MP Matthew Parris had similarly said in a Times column that his party may be too broad a church, though he didn’t go so far as to advise a breakaway movement, remarking that ‘Liberal Democrats aren’t serious about government.’

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The Voice

What have our lot been up to in the Commons this week?

By The Voice | Fri 7th July 2017 - 10:46 am

We’ve had Jamie Stone’s maiden speech, but what else have our MPs been up to in Parliament this week?

Jo Swinson  intervened on Emily Thornberry to make a point about the recognition of Palestine.

I am interested in and listening with great care to what the right hon. Lady is saying about recognition of Palestine, and particularly about what the Government’s position was some years ago. Does she share my concern that, given the Minister’s comments today, it seems that that position has moved and that recognition is being ruled out until the end of talks on a peace process rather than

…

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Tom Arms

Observations of an ex pat: Minced meat in Hamburg

By Tom Arms | Fri 7th July 2017 - 8:55 am

Stability. Order. Security. That is what these big multinational summits are meant to project.  They are designed to reassure the lower orders (that’s you, me and a few billion others), that Planet Earth is in safe hands as it hurtles around the sun at 66,000 miles per hour.

I am not reassured. In fact, a look at the G20 Hamburg line-up has left me seriously worried.

North Korea now has an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, nuclear weapons and a juvenile dictator with a bad haircut. But Russia, China and America cannot agree on how to deal with him.

Russia, the United States and its allies are on the cusp of coming to blows over Syria and Ukraine. India and China are the same over their border at the rooftop of the world.

Then there is China against everyone over the South and East China seas. Saudi Arabia is trying to squeeze Qatar into submission and under attack for human rights abuses in Yemen and support for Islamic extremism. Russia has a corruption problem, gay problem and human rights problem.

Italy has a potential bankruptcy problem. The UK has a Brexit problem compounded by a leadership vacuum.

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NewsHound

“Very good” Lib Dem statement on EU-Japan trade deal

By NewsHound | Thu 6th July 2017 - 11:41 pm

The Lib Dems were praised today by Politics.co.uk editor Ian Dunt over shadow Brexit Secretary Tom Brake’s comments on the Brexit Bill.

Tom said:

Last year the Government estimated that an EU-Japan Free Trade Deal  could be worth £5 billion annually to the UK economy – roughly £200 per household. Sadly, by the time the agreement with Japan gets fully ratified, it is very likely the UK will be out of the EU.

Despite a change in public opinion,

…

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Caron Lindsay

Carmichael on “dangerous and misplaced” Fox BBC comments

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 6th July 2017 - 10:23 pm

There is something really unpleasant about this Government’s relationship with the media. A few weeks ago, we had Andrea Leadsom suggesting that the broadcast media should be more “patriotic.” It’s almost as if the right wing print press being almost completely on their side isn’t enough for this Government.

Unfortunately, this mindset seems to be prevalent amongst ministers. Liam Fox took a swipe at the BBC today.

In the Commons, responding to a question from Nigel Evans, the Trade Secretary claimed in the House of Commons that the BBC would “rather see Britain fail than Brexit succeed”.

Alistair Carmichael said:

A Government minister

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Caron Lindsay

WATCH: Jamie Stone’s maiden speech

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 6th July 2017 - 9:09 pm

Jamie Stone completed the quartet of Liberal Democrat Commons maiden speeches today. Watch it here:

Note the tribute to Charles Kennedy and the illustrious people who contested the seat in centuries gone by.

Thank you for calling me to speak, Madam Deputy Speaker, and may I congratulate you on your appointment?

It is a great honour to speak in this House. I am the first member of my Stone family ever to be elected as an MP, and standing here I like to think of my mother and father looking down on me with pride. I also owe sincere thanks to my wife Flora and my three children. Without their support and great help, the likelihood of my being elected to this place would have been rather smaller.

It is customary for new Members to mention their predecessors. Dr Paul Monaghan is a passionate nationalist and while here he took a close interest in middle east matters, the welfare of former inhabitants of the Chagos islands and, in particular, animal welfare. That is his record. I acknowledge it and thank him for it.

In addition, I really must mention my great friend who once represented part of my constituency, the late Charles Kennedy. He is much missed and will never be forgotten, by me in particular. I was for a time his constituency chairman.

Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross is the second largest and most remote constituency on the UK mainland. For that reason it presents special challenges to the Scottish and UK Governments. Sparsity of population, distance and severe winter weather all necessitate taking a different approach to the delivery of vital services. What works in Surrey or Glasgow is not necessarily going to work at all where I come from.

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The Voice

James Davidson, former Liberal MP for West Aberdeenshire, dies at 90

By The Voice | Thu 6th July 2017 - 7:54 pm

The Liberal MP who tried to introduce a bill which would have given referenda to Scotland and Wales on devolution back in the early 70s has died at the age of 90 at his home in Newtonmore.

James Davidson represented the constituency of Aberdeenshire West  from 1966-70 when he stood down for family health reasons.

His funeral will take place at St Bride’s Church, Newtonmore at 12 noon on Friday 14 July.

From Wikipedia:

Davidson was selected to fight Aberdeenshire West for the Liberals. During the 1966 general election campaign one of Davidson’s main policy points was the establishment of a development authority for the

…

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Andy Cooke

The stitch-up – our dodgy electoral system

By Andy Cooke | Thu 6th July 2017 - 9:57 am

We have to plan for success. We can’t sow our crops the day before harvest. In 2010, our demand for PR was dropped because it would appear to the general public to be a quixotic ditch in which to die – simultaneously esoteric and self-serving.

So we have to prepare the ground well in advance. To take every opportunity to discredit the stitch-up that passes for an electoral system in this country. Make no mistake about it – it is a deliberate stitch up; that’s what we’ve got to ram home. It is literally a stitch-up designed to entrench establishment parties (specifically the Conservatives), conceded in exchange for allowing poorer people to vote. That’s not spin or distortion, but historical fact.

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Alistair Carmichael MP

Alistair Carmichael MP writes…The truth about those “secret Tory talks”

By Alistair Carmichael MP | Wed 5th July 2017 - 1:15 pm

A couple of weeks ago I was due to meet with one of my counterparts in the Conservative whips office. These meetings are routine and are not normally the subject of comment.  This particular meeting was intended to deal with allocation of offices between the parties for MPs to use. In fact the meeting did not go ahead although I DID meet the Government Chief Whip’s Private Secretary (known inside the bubble as the usual channels).

The meeting that did not happen (mundane though it was) somehow found its way into the Daily Mail who proceeded to speculate wildly about whether the meeting was indeed a sign that the Lib Dems were now cosying up to the Tories to stitch up a secret coalition deal.

Of course at that time the Conservatives were trying to negotiate a deal with the DUP, negotiations were going badly (due mostly to their own mismanagement).  Briefing the press in this way was a mark of the desperation with which they were seized.

So when I read in the Times yesterday that Tim Farron’s chief of staff Ben Williams had met with his No 10 counterpart Gavin Barwell last Thursday I took it with a pinch of salt. Not least because I knew that Ben was in Leeds on Thursday.

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James Moore

Obituary: Annette Hendry

By James Moore | Wed 5th July 2017 - 11:55 am

Veteran Liberal Democrat campaigner and former Councillor, Annette Hendry sadly passed away on Wednesday 31st May after a long battle with cancer, at the age of 74.

It’s very sad that my first ever article for Lib Dem Voice should be this, but I wanted to celebrate Annette’s life and all she achieved. Annette was one of my local liberal heroes.

She met her husband Alan while she was reading English at University College London and the couple eventually moved to Reading for Alan’s job. Annette started her long service to the community in Reading by teaching English as a foreign language to the new arrivals from the sub-continent. They later had three children, Douglas, Anne and Neill.

Her passion for helping people led her to take on a second degree in Social Work at Oxford Brookes University, which meant she was able to become a social worker at what is now Bracknell Forest Council, where she worked with with troubled teenagers, dysfunctional families and children in care, which she found incredibly rewarding and life enhancing.

Annette was active in the Liberal Party, then the Liberal Democrats, and was a tenacious campaigner for the Party in the 1970s, 80s and 90s until finally becoming Councillor for Peppard ward on Reading Borough Council in 1999, a role she held until 2007. She was also a long-standing Chair of the Caversham Branch of the Greater Reading Local Party.

As well as being a Councillor she was a school governor and strong advocate for the Reading Citizens Advice Bureau which she became a trustee of.

I only joined the Liberal Democrats in late 2011, but Annette was one of the first people I met and we were soon friends. Ever cheerful, she simply got stuff done, both as a Councillor and as a general campaigner. I always knew I could rely on her to help organise an event or campaigning session. She was a liberal to her core. One particular moment will always stick in my mind when she took umbrage with another Liberal Democrat who was expressing some not so-Liberal views – I’ve never seen anyone go so white. Behind her cheery disposition was a very strong core liberal belief when things were wrong they should be fixed and addressed.

I asked some Local Party members to describe Annette:

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Bill le Breton

Here’s to the crazy 7.4%

By Bill le Breton | Wed 5th July 2017 - 10:25 am

In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple having been ‘ousted’ a decade before.  In that time the famous ‘Mac’ hadn’t progressed.  Microsoft’s Windows had caught up and overtaken it.  Sales were down 30% year-on-year. It was haemorrhaging cash and talent. There were no new products in the pipeline. Speaking to staff Jobs explained, “There are a lot of great people at Apple, but they’re doing the wrong things because the plan has been wrong.”

“I think you still have to think differently to buy an Apple computer. The people who buy them do think different. They are the creative spirits in this world, and they’re out to change the world. We make tools for these kinds of people.”

Isn’t he describing the 2.35 million who voted Lib Dem in 2017 and how they feel about themselves?  So here’s his advice to us, “We too are going to think differently and serve the people who have been buying our products from the beginning. Because a lot of people think they’re crazy, but in that craziness we see genius.”

We’ve all met them haven’t we? The people who voice support for us in their communities, in their workplaces, in the pub, among their friends, on line. Their endorsement makes us smile with a quiet satisfaction because we have done and said those things too. We too have been lone voices – crazy ones.

We too make tools for these kinds of people; information and campaigns for those who want to take and use power in their communities.  Who want to change the world. Tools that help them achieve things they didn’t know they could achieve or even knew that they needed to achieve.

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Joe Bourke

A progressive alliance round Land Value Taxation?

By Joe Bourke | Wed 5th July 2017 - 8:55 am

The Grenfell Tower fire has focused attention on the extent of the crisis in the UK social housing system.

Reverend Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty comments:

There are rows of empty “investments” in London, and the four big builders have 600,000 unused plots in their land banks.

The Liberal Democrat 2017 Manifesto included genuinely progressive housing proposals

  • a new national Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank,
  • increasing housebuilding to 300,000 homes a year
  • allowing councils to end the right to buy, lifting the borrowing cap and targeting “buy to leave” empty homes with a 200% council tax.
  • penalising land-banking with with a penalty on failure to build after three years of winning planning permission.
  •  a “community right of appeal” in cases where planning decisions go against the approved local plan.
  • a “rent to buy” model, where rental payments give tenants an increasing stake in the property, leading to outright ownership after 30 years.

However, the manifesto incorporated only a single sentence with respect to LVT. “We will also consider the implementation of Land Value Taxation.”

Labour’s manifesto went a little further with respect to describing its LVT intentions promising:

 We will initiate a review into reforming council tax and business rates and consider new options such as a land value tax, to ensure local government has sustainable funding for the long term.

The Greens promised “Action on empty homes to bring them back into use and a trial of a Land Value Tax to encourage the use of vacant land and reduce speculation.

The SNP have previously included LVT proposals in their manifesto and at their spring conference this year adopted a resolution “must include exploring all fiscal options including ways of taxing the value of undeveloped land” in its gradual land reform programme.  Other parties like Plaid and the Alliance Party have incorporated LVT proposals in the past.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 67 Comments
Sal Brinton

Sal Brinton writes…Party Awards 2017 – nominate your hero!

By Sal Brinton | Tue 4th July 2017 - 7:13 pm

It is Awards season again!

At our Autumn Conference the party presents awards to members who have gone above and beyond the call of duty and have given the party outstanding service and commitment.

We need you to tell us who should be considered for these prestigious awards. Nominations need to be completed by an officer of a local party, or of a regional or state executive.

Nominations must reach my office by 7 August and the judging panels will make their decision in time for Conference. The nomination form and submission details are on the party website.

This year there are four awards.

The President’s Award is open to any party member elected to public office and who has demonstrated excellence and commitment.

The Harriet Smith Liberal Democrat distinguished service Award is open to any member never elected to public office

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Joe Otten

Rumours of talks with the Conservatives put to bed

By Joe Otten | Tue 4th July 2017 - 12:39 pm

The Times is reporting discussions between Conservative and Liberal Democrat chiefs of staff.

Before we get all breathless about ‘deals’ being struck it is worth noting that Times is no suggesting that so much as

The Conservatives confirmed that they had spoken about working together on areas on which they agree. The two parties have a number of shared priorities, such as mental health …

And the Press …

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Joe Otten

LibLink: Nick Clegg – a deal can be done on freedom of movement

By Joe Otten | Tue 4th July 2017 - 10:41 am

Writing in the Financial Times, Nick Clegg shows how, as on many other issues, British politicians are wrongly blaming the EU for the consequences of decisions taken in Britain affecting immigration from EU member states.

Crucially, there is far more latitude for member states to apply restrictions to freedom of movement than is commonly appreciated. The Belgian authorities aggressively deport EU citizens who do not work and cannot support themselves. Under EU law, the UK authorities could do the same for EU citizens who have failed to find work after six months. Access to Spanish healthcare requires registering with

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged | 29 Comments
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