Katharine Pindar

Now we must stand firm, and proclaim our own powerful vision.

By Katharine Pindar | Mon 13th March 2017 - 11:25 am

So we come to the crunch. We have voted against triggering Article 50 in both the Commons and the Lords. We are being attacked, as Tim Farron was on Radio 4’s Any Questions last Friday night, for being anti-democratic.

I have read this accusation many times here on Liberal Democrat Voice. I have occasionally heard it on Copeland doorsteps too, during the recent by-election. No amount of pointing out, as Tim did again that night, that the people who voted Leave in the Referendum had not voted to leave the EU Single Market has cut much ice with those voters who simply demand, ‘We voted to leave – get on with it!’  Theresa May’s government will shortly obey them.

Were we wrong in what we insisted on? And if so, are our electoral chances being harmed by that public perception? Maybe the latest Tory wins in local elections, maybe the commanding Tory lead in the opinion polls, maybe the too-few votes for us in the recent by-elections – perhaps they all had some small connection with public disagreement over our known stance. Could that be the case?

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Advert
The Liberator Collective

New issue of Liberator out

By The Liberator Collective | Mon 13th March 2017 - 10:25 am

Issue 383 of Liberator is on its way to subscribers.

This issue’s free sample online content is from Tony Greaves on what ‘taking back control’ really means, and from Dave Raval on why the much-vaunted post-Brexit trade deals will bring more problems.

Elsewhere in the issue there is:

On the Fence With A Part-Time Submarine

Liberal Democrats look set to yet again show they lack the guts to scrap the waste of money that is Trident, says David Grace

A Vote for A Delusion

Leave voters who think they have made Britain a global player again are in for a shock, says Paul Hindley

The Tinkerbell Approach to Politics

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged | Leave a comment
Tom Arms

Don’t get mad, get even: Join the Lib Dems

By Tom Arms | Mon 13th March 2017 - 8:55 am

Just received an email from Tim Farron.

“Incredible news , “he reported, “moments ago, our membership reached 85,002.”

I wrote back: “Not enough.”

We are still in fourth place. Labour stands at 515,000. The conservatives are 150,000 and the SNP is 120,000.

The United Kingdom is a tribal nation and its politics reflect the tribes that divide it.

The Liberal Democrats are a unifying force. That is one of the main reasons I joined it. But to succeed it must break the tribal lock that has bedevilled British politics for nearly 200 years.

The only way to be certain of success is to have MORE members than any other political party. It sounds like a tall order. It is. But it is a necessary one.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 19 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #472

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 12th March 2017 - 9:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 472nd 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 (5 – 11 March, 2017), together with a hand-picked seven you might otherwise have missed.

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:

Continue reading »
Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment
The Voice

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By The Voice | Sun 12th March 2017 - 4:47 pm

7 bestMany thanks to the 19.500  visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

 Donald Trump is dangerous and a complete joke – but the joke is on the American people (15 comments) by Paul Walter

From UKIP to social democrat in the Lib Dems (53 comments) by Alexander Balkan

The other side of Brexit – what about the leavers? (65 comments) by Mark Argent

++Breaking: Jackie Pearcey will fight Manchester Gorton for the Lib Dems (23 comments) by Caron Lindsay

This is our time now, a time for assertiveness and for anger (75 comments) by Katharine Pindar

Yet another Lib Dem GAIN from the Conservatives (18 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Continue reading »
Posted in Site news | Leave a comment
Advert
Caron Lindsay

Rennie’s independence referendum risk: why it may well be a good thing

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 12th March 2017 - 1:35 pm

There’s a phrase that goes “Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.” I have sometimes said to Willie Rennie that I think he’s being too safe and that he needs to take more risks. He’s taken a pretty big one this morning by saying in no uncertain terms that Liberal Democrat MPs at Westminster will vote against a Section 3o order, the mechanism that would allow the SNP to hold another Scottish independence referendum. Certainly, the Tories will no longer be able to say, as they have been falsely alleging for the past year or so, that we have gone soft on independence.  Showing Scots that they have a progressive pro UK party prepared to stick by its word is a good thing.

So why is this a risk? Well, there’s nothing more likely to get Scottish backs up than being told by Westminster that they can’t do something. If that actually happened, it might drive people to support having another referendum, even if they didn’t want to leave the UK. At the moment, though, every poll suggests an increasing number of Scots who don’t want to go through the divisive trauma of 2014 all over again. Willie’s announcement is very much in keeping with both our principles and public opinion. That’s actually a point that the didn’t make in his Sunday Politics Scotland interview, but worth pointing out.

Our party is and always has been a pro UK and pro EU party.  We are against leaving the UK  for all the same reasons that we are against leaving the EU – we believe in partnership and collaboration and see nationalism and isolationism as a recipe for disaster. We explicitly ruled out supporting another referendum on independence in our Holyrood manifesto last year and there is no way we could go back on that. Reneging on key manifesto promises has not gone so well for us before. It’s therefore entirely logical and consistent that we would oppose independence at every opportunity to do so.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 60 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Jo Swinson: if we lose focus, progress on gender equality can easily be lost

By NewsHound | Sun 12th March 2017 - 11:15 am

Jo Swinson has written a piece for the Huffington Post as part of their “All women everywhere” series in which she warns that progress on gender equality is under threat.

The chairman of Tesco’s board may feel that white men making up three quarters of his board constitutes being an “endangered species” but Jo sees the progress she made as a minister being eroded:

With the efforts of Vince Cable, Lord Davies, Helena Morrissey and many others we drove women’s representation in FTSE boardrooms up to record levels, yet Egon Zehnder found that the proportion of women appointed to Boards in 2016 actually decreased. The Equality & Human Rights Commission finding last year that 54,000 women a year lose their jobs due to pregnancy and maternity discrimination is shocking in itself, but even more so when you consider that this figure has almost doubled since 2005.

In all the metrics about how many years it will take to achieve gender equality in any given field we are used to depressingly distant dates like 2067 or 2095. For women in technology the answer to when equality will be achieved if current trends continue is never.

Some men, she remarks, see a tiny number of women in power as a threat. She wrote this before the Tesco Chairman’s comments so clearly proved her point but she cited the usual social media whinging about International Women’s Day:

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 1 Comment
The Voice

WATCH: Willie Rennie’s speech to Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference

By The Voice | Sun 12th March 2017 - 10:08 am

It was a speech full of warmth, positivity and passion. Willie Rennie knows that a second referendum on Scottish independence needs the positive, emotionally resonant pro UK argument that was so lacking in 2014. He planted the Lib Dem flag in the progressive pro UK/pro EU space in Scotland, saying that we represented the views of the Scottish people. The challenge for the party is to turn that into votes. Watch his full speech here.

The text is below:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 5 Comments
The Voice

Today at Welsh Conference

By The Voice | Sun 12th March 2017 - 8:00 am

Welsh Conference continues this morning. There are more spokespeople Q and A sessions along with a debate on future relations with the EU. They will also be discussing their Governance Review with a call to establish an 8 member task force to take this forward. Here’s the full agenda.

9:30 Party Spokespeople
Bob Griffin: Economy and Infrastructure
Cadan ap Tomos: Young People, Equalities and the Welsh Language

9:50 PM5: Future Relationship with the European Union

Having regard to:

  1. 1  the narrow majority for ‘Leave’ in the EU referendum;
  2. 2  the need to respect that majority and the views which led up to it;
  3. 3  the multiplicity of beneficial outcomes from Brexit then suggested to the electorate;
  4. 4  the limited two-year negotiating period after Article 50 is triggered.

Notes with concern that:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Paul Walter

The New European provides an inspiring read

By Paul Walter | Sat 11th March 2017 - 6:40 pm



That front page persuaded me to buy a copy of The New European newspaper this week, for the first time. It’s almost Private Eye-like. Some of the small print at the bottom is hilarious. Godmother, the film, it states is:

  • Featuring “Nigel Farage as the horse’s arse”
  • Filmed on location in “La La Land”
  • Based on a half-baked idea by David Cameron
  • Directed by Unseen Forces
Continue reading »
Posted in Selection news | Tagged , , , , and | 2 Comments
The Voice

WATCH: Willie Rennie’s Facebook Live interview

By The Voice | Sat 11th March 2017 - 10:46 am

Here is the Facebook Live interview that Willie Rennie did for the BBC yesterday:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 8 Comments
Rob May

Lynne Featherstone interview part 3: Same sex marriage and life as a Minister

By Rob May | Sat 11th March 2017 - 8:46 am

In the hours following the icy gales of Storm Doris, I caught up with Lynne at Taunton’s most distinguished hotel, The Castle. This is the final instalment of our chat. You can read the others here.

You were and still are a campaigner against important issues such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), child abuse and violence against women. However, perhaps your greatest achievement is being the originator and architect of the equal marriage act, which was passed into law in 2013. No party had equal marriage in their 2010 manifestos nor was it part of the coalition agreement. Why did you take this issue on and why is it important to you?

When we entered into coalition, 20 ministerial posts had to be filled. After two days, I received a call from Nick Clegg offering me the post of Equalities Minister. In fact, I ended up with three-quarters of me as a Home Office minister and one-quarter as Equalities Minister. So I’m a minister in the coalition, we have Liberal Democrats in government, and I’m thinking to myself ‘I’ve got to do something to make sure everyone knows that there are Liberals in this government’. It never crossed my mind that it wasn’t in the manifestos or portfolio because to me it was an obvious piece of equalities work that needed doing. Labour were great with civil partnerships, but I thought they were a kind of apartheid – one rule for gay people and one rule for straight people. My view is that you should have marriage and civil partnerships for both gay and straight, both for both. The state’s job is to facilitate that union, not to judge if one is good or one is bad.

We were all new Liberal Democrat ministers and didn’t have a clue what we were doing, so the Institute for Government put on a morning instruction for newbie Liberal ministers. They invited Michael Heseltine and Andrew Adonis to advise us. Heseltine said ‘you are going to be really busy. You do not understand the tsunami of work that will hit you when you become a minister. You will have debates, orals, speeches, correspondence and endless other things. Your diary will be full from morning to night. If you do not ruthlessly prioritise one or two things you want to get done in your time in the sun, you will not achieve it. You will be a very good minister doing very important things but you won’t have done anything you went into politics for’. Adonis encouraged us to trust our civil servants. He said it wasn’t like The Thick of It or Yes Minister, although, I have to say, I thought it was quite like Yes Minister! He told us  ‘If you don’t direct your civil servants, they will fill your diary from first thing in the morning until midnight, all with very worthy things but you’ll just be executing what they want you to do. If you trust your civil servants, you have to direct them. They will go to the ends of the earth for you’. As I walked back from the Institute for Government to the Home Office, it just crystallised in my brain that I wanted to do same sex marriage because it was a piece of equalities legislation that needed doing. I came back into my office and said to one of my assistant private secretaries ‘I want to do same sex marriage, what do I do?’ That is literally how it started.

If I hadn’t had that morning, we would not have same sex marriage. It’s really strange how things happen.

Can you explain the process? What did you have to do?

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 8 Comments
The Voice

Today at Welsh Conference

By The Voice | Sat 11th March 2017 - 8:00 am

Welsh Liberal Democrats gather in Swansea this weekend for their first Spring Conference since the disastrous election last year which saw them lose four of their five AMs. The party has had to pick itself up from that heartbreaking and thoroughly undeserved defeat. It has re-organised its resources and is ready to fight the Council elections in May. They also have the only Liberal Democrat Minister standing, in Kirsty Williams, who is doing a great job as Wales’ Education Secretary. Below is their agenda for the day.

They are having discussion sessions with their party spokespeople, motions on students and the community, ending the right to buy and community banking and  a long debate on their council elections manifesto. The details are below.

Morning session

09:15 Opening of Conference
9:40 Party Spokespeople: Cllr Peter Black: Finance, Local Government, Heritage, & Housing Jane Dodds: Communities & Social Justice

10:00 Topical/Emergency Motion

10:20 PM1: Students and the Local Community

Conference notes:

  1. The positive impact of students and universities on the local economy
  2. The transient nature of student communities
  3. The tensions that can arise between long-term residents and the changing studentpopulation

Conference believes:

  1. Collaboration between groups leads to the most effective and sustainable solutions to the issues and challenges transient communities face
  2. That it is the responsibility of students, landlords, and local authorities to keep the local areas tidy
  3. More can and should be done to improve community relations between long-term and student residents

Conference calls for:

7. Local authorities to work with students unions and universities on a variety of projects including:

  1. Creating an information pack for students and landlords detailing what resources are available to them within the community. This can include material and adverts from local businesses and groups, guidance on contacting the council, guidance around bin collection and local events.
  2. Informing students of their rights as renters through online materials and workshops
  3. Run community building projects such as Cardiff Digs and Love Bangor
  4. Promote and work with Communities 1st and similar groups
  5. To recognise work done by students in the local community through the useof Higher Education Achievement Report or other award schemes

10:50 PM2: Standing up for our Local Communities

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | Leave a comment
The Voice

Today at Scottish Conference

By The Voice | Sat 11th March 2017 - 7:33 am

After yesterday’s  keynote speeches by Alistair Carmichael and Nick Clegg, and debate on consumer advocacy, education and printing drug-related deaths, Scottish Conference will hear speeches from Sal Brinton and Willie Rennie and debate Brexit, maternal mental health and run a consultation session on housing.

Here’s the full agenda.

09.30-12.00 Morning session

Party AGM

Speech by Sal Brinton

SC5: Fighting for our place in the UK and Europe

EM2: Emergency motion

14:40-17.00 Afternoon session

SC6: Maternal mental health

Speech by Willie Rennie

Consultative session on housing

Party awards

On the fringe, RNIB Scotland  will be talking about their manifesto for the local elections, the Educational Institute of

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged | 7 Comments
Chris Carubia

Lib Dem councillors on a fact-finding trip to Brussels

By Chris Carubia | Fri 10th March 2017 - 5:34 pm

On the 2nd March at 7.50 am I boarded a Ryanair flight from Manchester to Charleroi in Belgium. It is an hour and a half train journey from Charleroi to Brussels and the first thing that you notice is the friendliness of the people and the matter of fact way they switch from one language to another without pause. The next thing is the extent of the industrialisation of the landscape as it flashes by.

I was travelling to join Catherine Bearder at the EU Parliament in Brussels on the European Information Program in the hope of finding out how Brexit will be affecting us here in the Wirral. I was not surprised in the least to find that Brussels knows as little about Brexit as we do here in the UK.

The visit lasted two packed days and I found it very informative during the conversations I had with colleagues, from across the UK, and the question and answer sessions with MEP’s.

I found out, for instance, that the only country to have left the EU so far is Greenland who had only one treaty to negotiate (fish).  It took over seven years to complete their single negotiation, whilst here in the UK we have over four hundred agreements to unravel.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Mary Reid

Lib Dems on Surrey County Council call on Tory leader to resign over ‘sweetheart deal’

By Mary Reid | Fri 10th March 2017 - 3:30 pm

Some of you from outside the area may have missed the story that has been rumbling along about the communications and connections between the Government and Surrey County Council.

Back in January Conservative-led Surrey announced that they were planning a 15% increase on Council tax this year.  They could only implement that by holding a referendum, which they would hold on the same day as the county council elections.

Then in February, David Hodge, the Leader of Surrey County Council, stated, to some bemusement, that they would not be holding the referendum after all. All became clear when Jeremy Corbyn asked the PM whether a special deal had been done for Surrey. She replied that the matter was entirely up to the Council. Corbyn then read out leaked texts from Hodge to a civil servant in the Department of Communities and Local Government.

I am advised that DCLG officials have been working on a solution. You will be contacting me to agree a memorandum of understanding.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 5 Comments
Tom Arms

Observations of an Expat: The Brexit elephant

By Tom Arms | Fri 10th March 2017 - 1:27 pm

 

There was a massive elephant in the British House of Commons on Wednesday. It was rampaging back and forth across the chamber, overturning tables, loudly trumpeting and waving his trunk from side to side.

Its name was Brexit.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond did his level best to ignore the distinctly unfriendly pachyderm. In fact, he did not utter the B-word once during his 45-minute budget speech.  But the Brexit elephant was as plain to see as the chancellor’s traditional red box.

Growth forecasts for 2017, said the Chancellor, have been upgraded from 1.4 to 2 percent.  Employment forecasts are rosy, and predictions for government borrowing are down, down, down. The pound remains at rock bottom levels against the dollar, but the economy has not fallen off the cliff as some pro-European campaigners said it would do on the 24th of June.

But then Britain is still in the phoney war period. Article 50 has not been invoked. Details of the government’s negotiating position remain shrouded in mystery. Details of the European Commission negotiating position are a total enigma.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Rob May

Lynne Featherstone interview Part 2: The future

By Rob May | Fri 10th March 2017 - 11:55 am

In the hours following the icy gales of Storm Doris, I caught up with Lynne at Taunton’s most distinguished hotel, The Castle. This is the second instalment of our chat. You can read the others here. A more detailed discussion of the path to same sex marriage will appear tomorrow.

Of your achievements in politics, where would you put the equal marriage bill? 

Oh, right at the top. It is the most public. It is the most clear cut and obvious. But it shares with others. Clearly the FGM campaign wouldn’t have happened. I am incredibly proud of it because I find it extraordinary that we allow a practice such as this to go on in this country and around the world. I always say that if they were chopping off half a boy’s willy, this practice would not have lasted four seconds let alone four thousand years. This is because we don’t rate women and girls.

The one that people don’t know about is the disability in the developing world campaign, which I’m incredibly proud of. I changed the structure on how we give money. I refused to give any money to any educational charity working in the developing world unless they had totally accessible schools. That made a huge difference.

That is the thrill of politics – you can use it to try to make the world a better place. It sounds terribly naive, but that’s what I went into politics for. I was one of the very few lucky people who managed to do some big things. I got a lot of satisfaction at every level, but there’s nothing like being a minister.

Along with many other Lib Dem MPs, you lost your seat in 2015. What are you up to now?

Yes, I did lose my seat. For the first two weeks, I laid on the sofa eating chocolate and drinking alcohol while watching every episode of 24 and all the Harry Potter films. That was an excellent start to my new life!

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 2 Comments

CANZUK: The next big thing?

By Eddie from Edinburgh | Fri 10th March 2017 - 10:25 am

As the UK continues to drift away from the EU it becomes increasingly important to seek out new geopolitical alliances and trading partners. The Tories have pivoted towards the US to fill this role. However, with its scepticism of globalisation and lack of credibility the Trump administration is hardly an ideal ally. Instead we should turn towards Canada, Australia and New Zealand and form a “CANZUK Union”.

The CANZUK Union would be led by a Council of Prime Ministers and built on three pillars: free trade, freedom of movement and intergovernmental cooperation. A trade deal would strike down tariffs and regulatory barriers but not create a customs union. This would allow each member to pursue its own regional trade deals. The existing travel agreement between Australia and New Zealand (1) would be extended to involve Canada and the UK. Building on Five Eyes and NATO arrangement committees of government ministers would cooperate on areas such as defence, security and foreign policy.

This new union is not intended to replace EU membership. Over 50% of our imports come from the EU, compared to 3% from Canada, Australia and New Zealand combined. Of our exports, over 40% go to the EU compared to 3% to the CANZ countries (4). Geography determines who we trade with most, and we can’t just move Britain to the Pacific. 

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 42 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Today at Scottish Conference -“Turning back the tide of division”

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 10th March 2017 - 8:48 am

Scottish Liberal Democrats gather in Perth today for our Spring Conference. Some of us gathered last night and enjoyed a delicious meal in a French restaurant. Sorry if I breathe garlic fumes on everybody I meet today.

We meet just seven weeks before every council seat in Scotland is up for election. A better than expected result in last year’s Holyrood elections, with solid parliamentary work on mental health, education and justice since has heartened the party but the national opinion polls are yet to show any significant movement in our favour.  The political environment up here is very different from south of the border where we have the advantage of being the only party standing up against the Tory and Labour compete with each other to get to the Brexit cliff first.

Up here, the SNP are making a great deal out of the fact that Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain. Of course they are going to use it to call for independence although even a former nationalist leader said this week that they were being forced into it at the worst possible time.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | Leave a comment
Caron Lindsay

Yet another Lib Dem GAIN from the Conservatives

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 10th March 2017 - 7:47 am

Good news – coming to you a little later than usual due to me drinking wine with my friends in the bar at the Scottish Conference hotel – from Oxfordshire.

Well done to Kieran Mullins and his team for that amazing swing.

The rest of the by-elections were a clean sweep for the Tories – but there were some healthy vote share increases for us.

Philip Vial was our candidate here.

Joanna Burrows fought the Exton Ward in Rutland:

Derwent ward in Derby was a Conservative gain from UKIP so I suspect that tactical voting was in play here, affecting our Simon Ferrigno’s vote.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged | 19 Comments
Stephen Tall

LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League: manager of the month for February

By Stephen Tall | Thu 9th March 2017 - 4:55 pm

Our seventh update from the LDV Fantasy Football League. Congratulations to Nick Davies, our Manager of the Month for February.

His Wenger’s 2nd XI showed themselves more effective than Wenger’s first 11, topping our league with an impressive 217 points, a little ahead of Andrew Hydon’s the treble c’s (209) and Michael Brown’s Mike’s Dream Team (208).

In the overall league table, Alain Desmier’s Mountgrove Maulers (1564 points) continue to dominate, some way ahead of nearest rival Richard Campbell’s Dick Dastardly FC (1504).

Continue reading »
Posted in Fantasy Football | Tagged | 5 Comments
Rob May

Lynne Featherstone interview Part 1: Early life and influences

By Rob May | Thu 9th March 2017 - 2:55 pm

As Minister for Equalities in the recent coalition government, Lynne Featherstone was the originator and architect of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. She has received various accolades and awards for her work on equalities. In his book Gay Shorts (2015), the former Conservative Party politician turned broadcaster and member of the LGBT community, Iain Dale said that:

Same-sex marriage will be associated with Lynne Featherstone in the same way that we associate David Steel with the 1967 Abortion Act and Roy Jenkins with the legalisation of homosexuality.

In the hours following the icy gales of Storm Doris, I caught up with Lynne at Taunton’s most distinguished hotel, The Castle. The previous evening, she spoke at a party fundraiser in East Devon. After our interview, she was heading off to another commitment,as the guest speaker at the Bridgwater and West Somerset Liberal Democrats annual dinner. She is certainly a woman in demand! Among the bustling crowd of Saturday night revellers, who were making good use of the historic hotel’s bar and restaurant, Lynne and I managed to find a table and a couple of chairs, tucked away in a reasonably quiet corner.

In the hour that I had with the Lib Dem peer, I wanted to cover a lot of ground. Obviously, the subject of her new book Equal Ever After was going to dominate much of the conversation. Besides the same sex marriage bill, I wanted to find out more about the former MP and her life before  and after her time as Minister.

You are a north London girl, could you tell me a bit about your childhood?

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Edward Crabtree

The amber kickstart

By Edward Crabtree | Thu 9th March 2017 - 1:30 pm

The slough of despond which we find ourselves in comprises not just being severed from 49 parliamentary seats two years ago, but the backdrop to this: one where social democratic and liberal endeavours are losing their credibility throughout Western Europe. A well-timed response to the cultural aspect of this was posted last February calling for a `counter-narrative` of our own `myths and stories`. Here are some of my pointers at not letting the devil have all the best tunes.

To get some visceral appeal some have proposed that we embrace some kind of English patriotism, others that the call for `Freedom` should be our watchword. Richard Dawkins has opined that we rebrand ourselves as the` European party`. All of these ideas – as interesting as they are – strike me as a search for shortcuts. Yet, as Roland Barthes said  `The key to the treasure is the treasure`.

We only need to enhance what we are – a newish party with a left but non-authoritarian ethos  –and to do so with style.

Being non-conformist and rationalist type people, Liberal Democrats tend to spurn style as being pomp and circumstance. Thus along have come the trendy neo-righties – the Bo Jos and the Farages – who have been able to portray themselves as human and anti-pomposity. The liberal love of thinking aloud, of diversity and informality is just not coming across. Somehow we have to prove that being popular need not involve being populist.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 18 Comments
George Osborn

Get in the game – why the Liberal Democrats must be champions for the video games industry

By George Osborn | Thu 9th March 2017 - 11:53 am

The government should be celebrating the success of the British video games industry.  With the British market valued at £4.2bn in 2016, making it the biggest market in the entire creative sector, the video games industry achieves the double whammy of being both lucrative and a shining light for other growth sectors.

The games industry is spread across the country, with over a dozen thriving clusters popping up in places like Bristol, Liverpool and Dundee.  The success of the industry has drawn in the biggest names from gaming, with EA, Sony, Bethesda and Nintendo just some of the companies setting up shop in London. It’s companies also think globally, with British games selling brilliantly across the world.

However, the success story is being ignored government circles because of an uncomfortable truth: it’s dead set against Brexit.

In a survey carried out prior to the referendum, 80.6% of businesses came out in favour of remain compared to just 3.2% for leave.  And in a new report commissioned by UKIE, which drew on survey responses and research conducted in nationwide roundtables (one of which I attended), the industry has revealed that it favours the softest exit possible.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Edwin Moriarty

Are we spending enough on our military?

By Edwin Moriarty | Thu 9th March 2017 - 10:25 am

I recently attended a seminar led by a specialist in international relations, and one of those attending asked “How likely do you think it is that the UK will fight a conventional war in the next ten years?”. Without any hesitation the reply came: “Almost certain.”

It’s hard to avoid noticing the changing political environment we find ourselves, both at home and abroad. For the first time in decades, the prospect of large-scale non-nuclear war seems plausible (though President Trump seems keen on removing “non-nuclear” from that equation). Russia’s aggressive actions can’t be written off as isolated incidents, and the situation in the Middle East is even worse than it was a decade ago.

It’s very likely that, due to aggression against us or our allies we will be at war again in the not too distant future. As someone who has always fancied themselves a pacifist, this is all a bit depressing, but it would be naive to think that my wishes have any impact on reality. It seems important, therefore, that we continue to meet our spending commitments to NATO, however many reservations we have about the use of military force.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 11 Comments
Mark Argent

The other side of Brexit: What about the Leavers?

By Mark Argent | Thu 9th March 2017 - 8:55 am

I’m increasingly conscious that one really important group has become invisible in the storm around Brexit: the people who actually voted for it.

Canvassing recently my ear was firmly bent by someone who voted Leave and is worried about the NHS. The promise of £350 million per week might have evaporated on the morning after the referendum, but her concerns have not. She’s not angry at the lie: for her this is just one more in the chain of politicians’ lies. The worry is real.

One of the memorable moments in  Laura  Kuenssberg’s documentary on the referendum had  Leave voters  in Sunderland saying “now people in London have got to listen to us”.

Instead we have a prime minister saying “Brexit means Brexit” and talking of the “will of the people”, but who reacted to being reigned in by the courts by bring a bill before parliament to give her huge powers in the Brexit process. This sounds like a land grab from No.10 rather than an attempt at listening.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 69 Comments
The Voice

Inspiring women: Sarah Olney MP

By The Voice | Wed 8th March 2017 - 10:00 pm

How brilliant was it at 3 whatever it was in the morning of 1st December when Sarah Olney was declared the MP for Richmond Park? She certainly deserves to be acclaimed as one of this year’s inspiring Lib Dem women. Her speech at the count, full of liberal principle, got many of us in the gut.

Last week, she spoke for the party in the International Women’s Day Debate in the Commons. Here is her speech in full:

May I say how pleased I am to represent the Liberal Democrats in this debate on International Women’s Day, as the 454th female MP? I am proud to say, in contrast to some previous Members’ contributions, that I am not the first, nor even the second, woman to have held my seat. I am, in fact, the third Liberal Democrat woman to represent Richmond Park, and I am extremely proud of that.

One of the advantages of being a London MP is that I get to go home to my family every evening and spend time with them every morning. As the mother of young children, this is a particular blessing to me, but it does mean that I live a life of contrasts. Yesterday, for example, I spent the first part of the morning trying to get my son to clean his teeth and my daughter to brush her hair. I then travelled into Westminster and challenged the Prime Minister in the Chamber about her spending priorities for education. Of the two things, the latter was more remarked upon—it was heard by Members here, recorded in Hansard and shared on Twitter—but getting my son to clean his teeth was the greater achievement in many ways. It took more ingenuity, effort and emotional commitment, but nobody noticed, cared or applauded me for it.

It often sounds ironic or self-deprecating to refer to the tasks of motherhood as being more taxing than tasks carried out in the professional sphere, but in this case, I am not being ironic; it is precisely true. We are so used to underplaying the work we do as mothers and in the home that we do not think anyone will take us seriously if we talk seriously about it. So today, in the spirit of the motion to recognise the achievements of women, I want to celebrate the everyday, unacknowledged, unrewarded and unnoticed achievements of women.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Real women

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 8th March 2017 - 8:45 pm

One of the things I really wanted to say on this International Women’s Day is that it’s a day to celebrate all women, to think about the various barriers that women face across the world. Women have all sorts of different experiences and it’s important that they are listened to because it’s by understanding what needs to change that we make the world a better place. Quite a simple concept. It’s also, for me, a simple concept that International Women’s Day is for everyone who identifies as a woman. No exceptions.

I say that because Women’s Hour presenter Jenni Murray wrote one of those “I’m not transphobic but” articles in the Sunday Times this week. She questioned the right of transgender women to identify as “real women.” She justified her argument by talking about transgender women saying things she didn’t agree with. One was a vicar who had talked about clothes and the other had said that women should wear high heels and shave their body hair. Apparently they were “playing into the stereotype – a man’s idea of what a woman should be.”

I would suggest that this was nothing to do with being transgender. I’ve heard cis women express similar views.  It was only in the last decade of her working life that my mother felt able to wear trousers to work. I might utterly disagree with their opinion, but I’m not going to question anyone’s identity.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 1 Comment
Caron Lindsay

Inspiring Lib Dem Women: Jennie Rigg

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 8th March 2017 - 7:58 pm

Jennie Rigg is one of my favourite people on the planet. The former Chair of Calderdale Lib Dems is a plain-speaking, hilarious Yorkshire woman who has lit up the Lib Dem end of the blogosphere for getting on for a decade. She is one of these people who can express really complicated concepts that tie some up in knots in a way that the reader can really relate to. She comments regularly on here and is very good at explaining the barriers that women and people of colour and other marginalised groups face.

She made a brilliant speech at Conference in the social security debate last year blowing apart the arguments for the maintenance of some sort of sanctions regime.

I really have to think about it when I disagree with her because her instincts are liberal to her core. We have had some fairly robust arguments on these comparatively few issues but can go down the pub for a pint afterwards. Apart from lib demmy stuff, we both share a passion for our doggies, Doctor Who and gin.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 6 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Jason Connor
    What evidence do you have from both those parties individually that they would join a coalition? I haven't seen any and I wouldn't believe everything you read i...
  • Tristan Ward
    More good news as a former Green Councillor defects to the Lib Dems in Wealden: https://www.markpack.org.uk/177636/christina-coleman-joins-lib-dem-from-th...
  • Roland
    @Cim - ”Though someone on £100K … should not be in any way short on money” Trouble is people like to “live it up”… Talking to friend who h...
  • Jeff
    Keith Creswell 29th Oct '26 - 10:15am: Although I would add that Territories that remain linked with UK should have representation in the UK Parliame...
  • theakes
    Where is the money for defence. It is an abdication of responsibility. Will the Government and some in this party face up to reality of the present time, gun...