Humphrey Hawksley

High, positive impact for a hard-fighting political machine.

By Humphrey Hawksley | Fri 14th July 2017 - 1:25 pm

The Liberal Democrats are preparing for new leadership at a time when a gaping vacuum continues across the British political spectrum. Our strong and motivating voice is needed more than ever. The challenge is how to make it heard.

I wrote earlier advocating broad brush changes to the party (Get clever, get brave and reform to win,). I now follow up with four examples of initiatives that could give us high, positive impact with minimal paperwork.

First, investigate bad practice. In March, the party brilliantly uncovered EU nurses quitting the NHS through a Freedom of Information request. There needs to be a stream of such reports. Within our membership is an array of skilled investigators from the security services, lawyers, journalists and others. Investigative units could uncover bad and illegal practice in housing, the environment, the health service and so on with results fed through our MPs and peers to hold government to account.  This would require an element of top-down management, but if handled effectively, one stunning investigation after another could have the public on the edge of their seats, expectantly waiting to see what appalling misdeeds the Liberal Democrats uncover next. 

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Dick Taverne

Dick Taverne writes…Three reasons the Brexit vote is reversible

By Dick Taverne | Fri 14th July 2017 - 11:55 am

Vince Cable has boldly challenged the received Westminster wisdom that the referendum vote is irreversible.  Here are three good reasons why he is right.

Leavers did not vote for Brexit to make us poorer..

A very thorough YouGov inquiry carried out on the eve of the referendum into what motivated Leavers found that very few “expect, or would tolerate, a hit to their living standards …. They were almost unanimous in believing Brexit was a cost-free option.”   There was no evidence of any willingness to make economic sacrifices to achieve such aims as reducing immigration or regaining sovereignty.

Brexit is making us poorer.

The evidence for this is growing stronger every day.  Living standards are declining because of rising inflation while wages stagnate.  More and more companies plan to emigrate, with thousands of probable job losses.  Our economic growth is now the slowest in the G7 – and depends on unsustainable levels of household debt.  There is a growing shortage of key EU workers in vital public industries and services, such as the building trade, the tourist industry and fruit farming; and most ominous of all, thdere is a decline  of over 90 per cent in EU nurses and carers applying to work in Britain.

And worse is still to come.  A recent report commissioned by Mayor Sadiq Khan predicts Brexit could cost 70.000 jobs in the City of London alone, which would have a devastating effect on our national economy.  Indeed the overwhelming majority of economists predict a bleak  future after Brexit.

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Theo Knott

No silver bullet for our Lib Dem doldrums

By Theo Knott | Fri 14th July 2017 - 10:25 am

While picking over the bones of our, what could charitably be called, ‘middling’, general election campaign, many Lib Dems have called on the party to develop a new identity of some kind. A single issue that we can define ourselves with. I respectfully think that such an approach is unlikely to lead to the electoral promised-land that some have hoped for.

I am yet to be convinced that there is such an issue, but even assuming one exists that the public likes, there is an underlying paucity at heart of the party in terms of councillors, vote share, seats and public trust. A new identity may help to address some of these, but realistically, much of our resurrection is only going to be based upon time, rebuilding our local base and effort.

We have constructed our parliamentary success historically upon the bedrock of strong and local campaigns.  Boiling down from national context to seat-by-seat contests, often with victories instigated at council level and then translated upwards. Not only did it help to breach out credibility gap with the public (the idea that we couldn’t win somewhere), but it also compensated for our relative lack of party profile and money, as compared to Labour and the Conservatives. 

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | 53 Comments
Tom Arms

Observations of an ex pat…The law

By Tom Arms | Fri 14th July 2017 - 8:55 am

The British like to think they invented the law. It is true that thanks to empire and successful European wars, British law is the foundation of many of the world’s legal systems.

It is certainly the cornerstone of the American judicial system and  the old imperial countries. British lawyers rewrote the law books in Germany following World War Two and contributed heavily to the European Court of Justice with which they are currently having so many problems.

Actually, the principle that the rule of law MUST underwrite civilized societies dates back to at least ancient Egypt. It is there  where we find the first allegorical representation of the Goddess Justice holding the scales in which the rights and wrongs of a case were impartially weighed.  The Egyptians called her Anubis.

The Greeks called her Dike, and added the sword to represent the finality of legal decisions.  The Romans provided the moniker Justitia, or Justice, and the Swiss added the blindfold in the 16h century.

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Catherine Bearder

Catherine Bearder MEP writes…EURATOM: The wedge dividing the Tories’ ideological Brexit

By Catherine Bearder | Thu 13th July 2017 - 1:55 pm

The Tories’ division on Europe is widening. Nothing demonstrates this more than on one simple issue: EURATOM.

In Theresa May’s letter invoking Article 50 she confirmed that Brexit would mean more than Brexit as the UK would also withdraw from the European Atomic Community, a separate legal entity from the EU.

The UK, a country dependant on nuclear energy, relies heavily on EURATOM; our electricity generation, healthcare provision, scientific development, and nuclear safety are all closely intertwined with EURATOM’s regulatory regime.

Withdrawal could restrict the movement of nuclear materials, damaging scientific research and innovation (particularly in the development of future fusion power plants), and threatening the UK’s nuclear power supply.

What many won’t realise is that this could also restrict supply of key materials for radioactive cancer treatment. Dr Nicola Strickland, president of the Royal College of Radiologists, has already warned of the damage this could do to over 10,000 cancer patients being directly treated by imported radioactive isotopes and the increased cost burden this would place on an NHS already stretched for resources.

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Nick T

What now for moderate politics and discourse?

By Nick T | Thu 13th July 2017 - 12:34 pm

“Emily Thornberry just took down the entire Tory party in 45 seconds” says the caption. Below is a video of Emily Thornberry at the despatch box at yesterday’s prime minister’s questions performing, it has to be said, very well.

It is the sort of thing we all see dozens of times every day, scrolling through our social media feeds whilst we wait for out train, lie in bed or pretend to listen to a friend’s anecdote.

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The Voice

LibLink: Nick Clegg – Nick Clegg: We were the world’s leaders in democracy. Now it’s Germany

By The Voice | Thu 13th July 2017 - 9:18 am

Nick Clegg has the following to say in his regular column for Inews:

The more you lose your grip, the more you hold on to what you know. It is a sure sign that an institution is in steady decline when it fixates on past glories. A belief in the traditions of the past often masks discomfort about the challenges of the present.

And so John Hayes, a jovial mid-ranking Conservative Minister with reliably anti European, traditional views, revealed more than he probably intended when he recently declared in the House of Commons, “I will not be taking interventions by anyone who is not wearing a tie, on whatever side of the house they sit.”

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Matt Dolman

The new standard bearer for science and innovation is… Norman Lamb

By Matt Dolman | Wed 12th July 2017 - 7:42 pm

Congratulations to Norman Lamb, the newly-elected Chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, who overcame competition from fellow Lib Dem Jo Swinson.

In seeking the role, Norman pledged to offer “sound guidance, leadership and authority” to the Committee and ensure that science and technology are “fully considered in Brexit negotiations”, all while emphasising the importance of science for the UK’s future prosperity.

The new role gives Norman a great opportunity to hold this Government to account on a whole range of issues covering science, technology, research and innovation.

This is especially important in today’s political landscape, because Parliament’s Select Committees have become increasingly powerful in the last couple of years – and they can only get stronger with a weakened Government in place.

(To see what I’m talking about, it’s worth reading a recent paper by the Institute for Government that talks about how Select Committees can exert their influence during a hung-parliament). 

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NewsHound

Another civil liberties victory for the Scottish Lib Dems

By NewsHound | Wed 12th July 2017 - 12:55 pm

Over the years, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have been responsible for a number of changes in policing and civil liberties policies in Scotland. After we led the opposition, the Scottish Government had to abandon plans for a super ID database that would have made Labour’s look like a champion of civil liberties. Alison McInnes, when she was Justice Spokesperson in the last Parliament, successfully fought both routine arming of the Police and indiscriminate stop and search.

That record continues as the Lib Dems have now ensured that Police Scotland has deleted records of half a billion numberplates captured under numberplate recognition.

From Scotland on Sunday:

The climbdown comes after a Lib Dem Freedom of Information request last year revealed that 852,507,524 number plate records captured by automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras across the country were held in a Police Scotland database, with data available from as far back as 2009. Data retention laws require that any such information is only kept for crimes, while all other data must be deleted. The Lib Dems had expressed concern that the retention of so much information relating to innocent individuals was infringing on people’s civil liberties. The number of records deleted was revealed by the police in response to another Freedom of Information request submitted by the Lib Dems. Information provided by the police showed 547,459,904 number plate records had been disposed of.

Scottish Lib Dem Justice Spokesperson Liam McArthur said:

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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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