Caron Lindsay

For International Women’s Day: These are not token women

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 8th March 2016 - 10:17 pm

One of the main factors in the defeat of a proposal for all-women shortlists in 2001 was a spirited campaign by the then youth organisation. Jo Swinson led the way wearing a pink t-shirt saying “I am not a token woman.” Jo has now, after many years of putting her heart and soul  into improving the party’s diversity, come to the conclusion that all-women shortlists are a short term necessary part of the mix.

There are many myths about all-women shortlists, but one in particular is the refrain you often hear – that we need to have the best person for the job. People seem to think that positive action of this sort means that you are somehow settling for second best. When you think about it, that’s quite insulting. Do we really think that of the 111  MPs we have elected, that only 19 women were actually good enough to make the grade? Do we think that the one time we managed to send a gender-balanced team of MEPs that the women were not as good as the men? Women like Liz Lynne who had already been an MP and Sarah Ludford, who was a member of the House of Lords and went on to be a massive voice for human rights and civil liberties?

I thought it might be good to celebrate some women from around the world who have had the chance to excel nationally and internationally because of specific measures to improve gender balance. I’ve had a lot of help from Flo Clucas who is the President of ALDE’s Gender Equality Network in preparing this, so thanks to her.

Let’s start at home with Labour.They are doing best on gender balance with 43% women on their Westminster benches and have commonly used all-women shortlists since 1997.

Stella Creasy

Elected as MP for Walthamstow in 2010, Stella Creasy has shown herself to be a powerful parliamentary performer and scourge of payday lenders. She stood for Deputy Leader last year.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Norman Lamb: Why we should regulate Cannabis

By NewsHound | Tue 8th March 2016 - 7:45 pm

Tim Farron has openly said that he smoked Cannabis as a youngster.

From today’s Mirror:

Lib Dem chief Tim Farron has becomes the first leader of a UK-wide political party to admit smoking cannabis.

The MP’s candid confession comes as he calls for the complete legalisation of the drug in a bid to generate up to £900million for public coffers.

Father-of-four Mr Farron, 46, told the Mirror: “I tried cannabis when I was younger, as did many other politicians.

“But sadly, too many other politicians want to continue forcing our police to waste resources chasing cannabis users when they should be able to take violent crime instead.

“It’s time that we had the courage to look at the evidence and make a decision that will help us to tackle the real criminals instead of the current failed approach.”

On the party website, Norman Lamb has urged members to support the motion calling for the legalisation of Cannabis. He wrote:

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems publish gender pay gap – or lack of it

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 8th March 2016 - 6:45 pm

For International Women’s Day, the party has published the gender pay gap for its employees. And it’s good news.

Liberal Democrats fought hard in coalition for large companies to publish the discrepancy between what they pay men and women to help close the gap of gender inequality in the workplace.

As of March 8th 2016 the annual gender pay gap for staff employed by Liberal Democrat HQ was 0.4%, with women earning more than men on average.

Liberal Democrats are working hard to encourage a better gender balance within the party and a motion on Electing Diverse MPs will be voted upon in its upcoming Spring Conference.

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The Voice

WATCH: Why we are #INtogether this International Women’s Day

By The Voice | Tue 8th March 2016 - 5:45 pm

Liberal Democrat women explain why women are better off in the EU

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The Voice

Alison McInnes’ speech in the Scottish diversity debate: Positive action is a realignment to break the mould that society has been using for too long

By The Voice | Tue 8th March 2016 - 4:45 pm

This is the speech that Alison McInnes gave to the Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference. It’s quite direct and points out our own failings, saying that we have to take action to resolve our lack of diversity.

I’ve been a member of our party for a quarter of a century.  One disappointing constant has been the gender imbalance in our parliamentary groups.

I have had plenty of opportunity to observe the dynamics of our party, locally and nationally, and to identify through the party’s own myriad actions what it actually values and honours.

Despite being the party that claims it cherishes equality and women’s rights, its actions often reveal a clear preference for adherence to a single, male patent pattern.  And that creates a feedback loop that means members when asked to choose are most  likely to opt for what they know the party values above all, and so it goes on.

There is a societal, ingrained implicit bias that leads us all, women and men, to value a particular set of attributes above others. There is no need to be outraged or defensive – no one is saying it is deliberate or malicious, but it is real.  

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Antony Hook

EURef: Campaigning on local EU funding

By Antony Hook | Tue 8th March 2016 - 3:30 pm

In speeches and conversations with party members in the South East, I have asked people to make Freedom of Information requests to their local council to ask what EU funding their area has received or applied for.

Several members have done this and one member who has done some really excellent work along these lines is James Moore of Reading.

James made a simple FOI request to his council:

Dear Reading Borough Council,

Please can you provide me with details on how much funding the
Council has received from the European Union since it’s inception
and what projects/building/services did the funding provide for?

Yours faithfully,

James Moore

He received …

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Janet Berridge

National Liberal Club Drops Joining Fee for Lib Dems

By Janet Berridge | Tue 8th March 2016 - 2:45 pm

For 134 years, the National Liberal Club has supported the Liberal cause. It was founded by Gladstone in 1882 to act as a “home from home” for Liberal activists and supporters – and it still does so today.

Something we’re constantly trying to do – while preserving the Liberal heritage of an extraordinary building, steeped in colourful history – is to keep membership costs down. And while we’re aware that the up-front membership fee is necessarily quite hefty, it is less than half of that found in other comparable London clubs, which is something we manage to combine with offering some of the very best facilities.

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Dee Doocey

Baroness Dee Doocey writes… Protecting tenants in estate regeneration schemes

By Dee Doocey | Tue 8th March 2016 - 1:45 pm

In January, the Prime Minister announced in The Sunday Times that he wanted to see 100 of Britain’s most run-down estates transformed.  His ambition is apparently ‘nothing short of social turnaround…with massive estate regeneration, tenants protected and land unlocked for new housing all over Britain.’

‘Together,’ he said, ‘we can tear down anything that stands in our way.’ What fighting talk! Yet what stands in the way is usually the fact that people actually live on these estates. Several generations of the same family may have done so.  People cannot and should not just be swept aside in these waves of prime ministerial purple prose.

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Caron Lindsay

Sad news: Former Glee Club host Ralph Bancroft has died

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 8th March 2016 - 1:28 pm

Last night, Ralph’s brother left a comment on our piece about former Glee Club pianist Liz Rorison’s death to say that her old friend and Glee Club host from the 90s had passed away on Saturday night.

Before we published this sad news, I wanted to make sure that his friends and colleagues in the party were all aware. Current Glee Club host Gareth Epps has written a tribute to him over on Liberator’s blog.

Based in Harrow for many years, Ralph was a Young Liberal and went to Sussex University before being employed in Parliament, in the heady days of there being 14 Liberal MPs.  He rose to work in the Whips’ Office during the 1977-8 Lib-Lab Pact.  He subsequently used his considerable political acumen to advise Liberals and Liberal Democrats in council administrations, and was particularly proud to become Head of Office of Andrew Wiseman’s administration in Harrow in the 1990s.  Ralph was also a champion on online engagement and of the cix online conferencing system that was an integral part of party activity at that time

Together with his good friend the late Liz Rorison, Ralph and his ever-present pipe were also for many years the linchpin of the Glee Club as it transformed from an informal gathering around a hotel piano to the unique event it is today.  He also appeared in many memorable sketches at the Liberal Revue.

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Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron MP: We must show the world we mean business on diversity

By Tim Farron MP | Tue 8th March 2016 - 11:45 am

It’s International Women’s Day, when we celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.  But, the IWD website reminds us, the latest estimate of the World Economic Forum is that, at the present rate of progress, full parity between genders will not be achieved till 2133.  Our record in Britain, while improving, is doing so painfully slowly.  The pay gap between genders has not closed in spite of legislation, and has remained relatively consistent for the past 20 years.  Britain elected more female MPs than ever in May 2015, but still sits at 48th in the world league table, behind many of our European neighbours, and behind some of the world’s poorest nations. Lindsay Northover is right to point out that had it been based on the Lib Dems, the UK would be bottom, grouped with Yemen and Qatar.

Why is that? Well, because we have no women MPs any more, just 26% of our approved parliamentary candidates are women, and women are under-represented on many of our internal party committees.  We are in a similar situation where BAME, LGBT+ and disabled members are concerned.  I don’t know about you, but I find that shaming for a party that holds equality as one of its fundamental commitments.  In our constitution, we say that we “oppose all forms of entrenched privilege and inequality.” It’s time to show that we practice what we preach. 

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Charity Pierce

Passing the diversity motion sends out a strong signal to women

By Charity Pierce | Tue 8th March 2016 - 10:15 am

This is the speech I made to last week’s debate on diversity at the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference.

I joined the Liberal Democrats in May and have never spoken at conference before. What I am going to say is going to be quite anecdotal and general, but makes an important point nonetheless.

I grew up in a family almost entirely made up of girls. I attended an all-girls school from the age of 11 where I saw girls reaching and exceeding their potential. I never used to see gender inequality as a hugely important issue because in my life, and the lives of the people I was surrounded by, being female never seemed to hold anyone back. The women I knew had amazing careers, and the girls I knew were confident and opinionated. They seemed to have all the same things as the men I knew did. 

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The Voice

Willie Rennie’s message for International Women’s Day: We will give women the same advantages that men have had for generations

By The Voice | Tue 8th March 2016 - 8:55 am

On International Women’s Day it is right that we celebrate the achievements of all those who have broken through the glass ceiling that still restricts opportunity.

We have made big strides towards gender parity in recent years. We have a female First Minister and I am in a minority of one as the only male leader of a larger Scottish political party. But the hard fact is that women are under-represented at the top level in business and politics alike. This needs to change. Scotland cannot be the best if the life chances of half of the population are restricted.

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Steve Walpole

All Women Shortlists – identify the problem before looking for the solution

By Steve Walpole | Tue 8th March 2016 - 7:30 am

There has been an increase in debate recently about the lack of diversity amongst some groups within the Liberal Democrat candidature, with the spectre of All Women Shortlists (AWS) once again rearing it’s head.

Whilst I am not at all in favour of AWS (or AWCS, ADS or ABAMES) I think we are getting ahead of ourselves and looking for a solution before we have identified the problem. Simply put, do we know the numbers of under-represented groups throughout the selection process? I suspect not, given that no-one has up to now used hard figures to point to the reasons behind our shortcomings. If we do – I’m sure I am about to be put right.

So I propose the party takes the time we have before the next general election to carry out a root and branch survey of the process, getting figures all the way: From the regional candidate recruitment team to the constituency committees in charge of selection. If we do not have the information then we need to start collating it in order to adequately change the process. Why should we do this? It would be rather silly bringing in an all-working class shortlist system if it turns out that only 1% of our candidate pool was from a working class background. It would be similarly silly if it turned out that we had a decent amount of working class candidates but we were failing to get them elected. So, in order to correctly identify where we are falling short Ipropose the following analysis (I will use women as an example only – I am not identifying them as more worthy than the working class or any other grouping).

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The Voice

Tim Farron is on the Agenda tonight

By The Voice | Mon 7th March 2016 - 5:40 pm

Tim Farron on HIGNFYWe know from Have I Got News for You and  Russell Howard’s Good News that Tim Farron can do very well on the telly.

Tonight at 10:30 (11 in Scotland), he’ll be on ITV’s The Agenda.

Enjoy.

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The Voice

Catherine Bearder: Europe has led to great strides forward for women

By The Voice | Mon 7th March 2016 - 4:31 pm

Liberal Democrat MEP Catherine Bearder, who sits on the European Parliament’s Gender Equality Committee, has spoken about the benefits of the EU for women ahead of International Women’s Day tomorrow,

She said:

Being in Europe has led to huge strides forward for women.

Together we have banned gender discrimination in the workplace, given mothers across Europe at least fourteen weeks maternity leave and ensured victims of domestic violence are protected when abroad in the EU.

UKIP and others who want to leave the EU have made it clear they want to scrap rules that protect pregnant women and prevent discrimination.

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Sally Hamwee

Baroness Sally Hamwee writes..How Liberal Democrat Lords are trying to make the Immigration Bill less bad

By Sally Hamwee | Mon 7th March 2016 - 3:12 pm

The current Immigration Bill presents many challenges: one is its complexity, and another is sheer fury at the mind-set that it demonstrates on the part of the Government.  But every time I get angry, I remind myself that we must, we really must, do all we can to make it even a little bit less bad.

That means more self-discipline than, for me, comes naturally.  We will have far too little time for report stage in the Lords, which starts this week.  So we will have to be very focused.  It’s not just a matter of what we choose to discuss – we have to try to reach votes at times when we have the best chance of winning.  To that end, Brian Paddick and I have had several discussions with the Labour front-bench to agree a strategy.  Our irritation and sometimes sheer bemusement when Labour support us in debate but sit on their hands when it comes to a vote is well-known, but of course we are prepared to work with them if it means winning votes, and indeed make concessions as to how we approach issues if that means our opposition to the government is united.  And we are united in wanting crossbench peers to lead on amendments where possible as they may gain more traction than those of us with a party badge.

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Jim Williams

What’s your vision for a truly Liberal Britain?

By Jim Williams | Mon 7th March 2016 - 1:52 pm

Your Liberal BritainWhat would a truly Liberal Britain look like, and what improvements would it bring to people’s lives? You can help shape the party’s vision by writing a post for Lib Dem Voice of around 500 words in response to that question.

We all know the Lib Dems exist to create a society based on liberalism and social democracy. We call it Liberal Britain for short. But what would it actually look like?

When I joined the Lib Dems last year, I knew that many of my friends didn’t know what the party stood for. Chatting with other newbies at Lib Dem Pint and at Conference in Bournemouth, we knew this was one of the reasons why last May was such a disaster. Talking together, we realised how hard it can be to explain liberalism: to really get it across to people. Liberalism and social democracy can seem abstract, philosophical.

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Alice Thomas

Women and minority candidates are good enough to be MPs already – it’s the party that needs the diversity motion

By Alice Thomas | Mon 7th March 2016 - 12:45 pm

I understand why people dislike targeted shortlists. I don’t like them, in principle. To me, liberalism is all about giving people the greatest personal choice, and in an ideal world I wouldn’t support them, which is what I said on the stage at autumn conference in 2014.

But we don’t live in an ideal world, and that’s why I’m supporting the diversity motion at this Spring Conference.

The classic arguments just don’t hang together any more. People say we need a level playing field. We do need it, but right now we don’t have it – and our diverse approved candidate list proves that’s not because underrepresented groups refuse to put themselves up for selection.

People think it will lead to tokenism, and god knows I don’t want to be treated as the token woman. I know I’m not a token, I know if I ran to be an MP it would be because I felt I was good enough to do it whoever I was up against, and I trust that any local party that had gone to the effort of selecting me would too, which is what really matters.

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Antony Hook

Unison consultation on EU referendum

By Antony Hook | Mon 7th March 2016 - 11:41 am

UNISON

The trade union Unison has launched a consultation with its members on the EU referendum.

Any Liberal Democrat supporters who are Unison members should please take part in the consultation and urge your union to speak up for jobs, the cost of living, social protection and the co-operative ethos of the European Union and campaign to keep us IN.

The consultation is here.

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Paul Walter

‘Electing diverse MPs’ motion is comprehensive, balanced and sensible

By Paul Walter | Mon 7th March 2016 - 10:30 am

Reading through the “Electing diverse MPs” motion for the York conference, I was struck by how it comprehensively covers the necessary territory in a very measured and sensible way.

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William Hobhouse

The alternatives to coal for electricity generation

By William Hobhouse | Mon 7th March 2016 - 8:55 am

For 2014-15, 26.7% of UK electricity was generated from coal, 29.7% from gas, 22.2% from nuclear,19.3% from renewables and 2.1% from other sources. Coal is the most prolific carbon emitter, so the argument goes that we should replace it. The question is with what?

Liberal Democrats, and particularly Scottish ones, are grappling with the question over whether to oppose fracking outright. Leaving aside new forms of energy (and leaving aside carbon capture), the decision on how to replace coal for electricity generation seems quite simple: gas, or nuclear, or renewables; or a combination of the three.

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Caron Lindsay

Those anonymous Lib Dem sources are at it again

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 6th March 2016 - 7:12 pm

Since she became Party President 14 months ago, Sal Brinton has clocked up thousands of miles travelling around the country going to various Liberal Democrat events and helping our candidates in election. I’ve been amazed at the number of times she’s been in Scotland – at our conference, to our Executive twice, campaigning during the General Election. In fact, in the short campaign last Spring, she covered 4000 miles in just 6 weeks. In the aftermath, she had to comfort a shocked party and play a high profile role as de facto leader for two months.

She’s also been involved in two massive pieces of work – the General Election and Governance Reviews – which have taken up huge amounts of time.  She’s doing her best to improve internal communications within the party, doing reports about what the Federal Executive’s work and blogging and setting up monthly webinars for party members.

She’s a great voice in the media for us. Last month she took apart UKIP’s Paul Nuttall on Question Time in great style. I look forward to her appearances on these things the same way I look forward to Shirley Williams’. 

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Antony Hook

Labour ex-MEP on trial for expenses fraud

By Antony Hook | Sun 6th March 2016 - 5:57 pm

Peter Skinner was a Labour MEP 1994-2014 for my region.  He is now on trial at Southwark, England’s specialist court for fraud cases, reports the Telegraph.

accused of using his expenses to pay £10,000 to his ex-wife.

Skinner, 56, is also alleged to have used some of the cash to repair the gearbox on his ex-wife Julie Skinner’s Land Rover Discovery and funded hotel stays, restaurants and jewellery by claiming a maximum £480,000 for support staff over five years.

One member of staff, Karen Forbes, was said to have invoiced the former MEP for the South East of England Region,

…

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The Voice

Which shaggy dog story made you laugh the most?

By The Voice | Sun 6th March 2016 - 1:20 pm

On Friday, we couldn’t resist boosting the signal of Ben Rathe’s hilarious post about how he ended up unknowingly arranging a visit at what by night is a notorious dogging site in Glasgow.

A fair chunk of the country’s press found Ben’s article worth reproducing, from The Sun, to the Herald, to the Metro, the Huffington Post, the Spectator and the Daily Record. Some of the accompanying photos of Nick are hilarious.

Again, there’s more reason to love our press team:

A spokesman for the Lib Dems said: “As media coverage of the event shows it was the perfect spot, being a well-known nature reserve, to launch our policy.”

He added: “Whatever people get up to in their own time, is up to them.”

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Graeme Cowie

Scottish Liberal Democrat fracking decision – setting the record straight

By Graeme Cowie | Sun 6th March 2016 - 11:50 am

Yesterday we published this post entitled: “Willie Rennie reaffirms Scottish Lib Dems’ opposition to fracking – despite Conference vote”. Beneath the article, Graeme Cowie posted a six part response. As per our comments policy, the length of comments is limited to encourage short and pithy debate. We do not allow multi-part comments. However, under the circumstances we decided to ask Graeme if he would like, instead, his comments to be published as a full article. Graeme assented, so here is his comment in full.

Correcting the Record

As the person who summated the amendment that received around 2/3 of the support of a very busy Conference Hall, I feel compelled to respond to the total double-speak over this issue. It is firstly misleading to imply that the debate was poorly attended; asides the Saturday debate on All Women Shortlists, it was the best attended debate of the entire Conference.

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Caron Lindsay

Caroline Pidgeon interview: The “ordinary Londoner” aspiring to be the city’s first female mayor.

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 6th March 2016 - 10:25 am

Caroline Pidgeon has been talking to the Ham and High about the qualities she would bring to the office of Mayor.

First and foremost, she uses local services so understands what they need:

Ms Pidgeon believes it is her “ordinary” quality which means she is ideally placed to become the city’s first female Mayor.

“I’m just an ordinary Londoner, I’m the one rushing to catch the tube in the morning and hoping it’s on time, and I’m the one taking my two-year-old to nursery,” she said.

She also highlights her long experience in London’s politics:

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Lindsay Northover

Baroness Lindsay Northover writes…As time goes by

By Lindsay Northover | Sun 6th March 2016 - 8:55 am

At the Spring conference we will debate a topic which has spanned my whole political lifetime.  We will be debating a motion on increasing the diversity among our future MPs.

In that election night in May 2015 we not only lost wonderful male MPs, we also lost all of our wonderful women MPs.

One of the things we must do as we rebuild our Party is to ensure that we have a more diverse group of MPs.  Like the other major parties in Britain.

I joined the SDP, new to politics, back in 1981.  I was excited by the new party, the realignment of politics – but especially its emphasis on women being as prominent in the party as men.  How could it not do so, with one leader being my beloved Shirley Williams?  Its equivalent of the Federal Executive was gender balanced – each region elected one man and one woman.  We were the first political party in the UK to insist that women must be included on parliamentary shortlists. I was selected from such a shortlist to fight Welwyn Hatfield in 1983 and 1987.  (The more winnable seats close by – Stevenage and St Albans – were of course fought by men.)

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ALDC

ALDC’s by-election report: 3 March 2016

By ALDC | Sat 5th March 2016 - 2:15 pm

ALDC Master Logo (for screen)Four principal council by-elections took place this week. In Rutland (UA), there was a comfortable Liberal Democrat hold in Whissendine. In the ward’s second by-election in 18 months, Kevin Thomas won the seat with 65.1% of the vote and a majority of 156 ahead of the Conservatives.

Liberal Democrat candidates also came agonisingly close to making gains from the Conservatives in Havant (BC) and East Dorset (DC). In the former contest, Lib Dem Catherine Billam fell just 20 votes short of the Tories in Bondfields, polling 27.3% with a 16% vote share increase from two years ago. In Alderholt ward in Dorset, Liberal Democrat candidate David Tooke finished just 8 votes behind the Conservatives with 46.5% of the vote, with no Lib Dem standing in the ward’s previous election last year.

Elsewhere, Labour made a comfortable hold in Blackpool (UA) in Bloomfield ward with 57.6% and a 300 vote majority. Lib Dem Neil Close finished in fifth place with 4%, with no Liberal Democrat being fielded last May.

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Martin Veart

Fracking and the Liberal Democrats

By Martin Veart | Sat 5th March 2016 - 12:44 pm

It seems that there is widespread misunderstanding among the federal party members as to why we here in Scotland decided to end the current moratorium we had on fracking and other non-conventional extraction of hydrocarbons.

Introduced in 2013, the Scottish moratorium on fracking was, as far as one understands it, based upon awaiting further evidence.  The following year, such evidence actually came to light in the form of the Scottish Government’s 2014 report: Independent Expert Scientific Panel – Unconventional Oil and Gas.   

The report is comprehensive: addressing as it does both the environmental and public concerns.  It comes to the conclusion that, with proper oversight, public consultation and tight planning restrictions, that it is possible to exploit the United Kingdom’s potential for future hydrocarbon exploitation.

It was upon the basis of this report that Ewan Hoyle of Glasgow put forward his amendment to end the moratorium on fracking.  At conference, I spoke in support of the amendment on the current state of the industry.  With the oil price currently around $36 a barrel, the North Sea offshore industry has already shed over 70,000 jobs, with the associated knock-on effects throughout the economy. 

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Antony Hook

EURef Roundup: “Shut out of single market”, Speak for England, Quiet Corbyn, Worried BMW, and the South West view…

By Antony Hook | Sat 5th March 2016 - 11:15 am

Germany’s finance minister says the UK would be shut out of the single market in the event of Brexit.

Investment warning from the experts

The world’s biggest fund management company, BlackRock, says Brexit offers “a lot of risk and little reward” and has explained how it could damage the financial services industry in Britain:

Under one of the potential scenarios analysed by the fund, Britain could be excluded from the “passport” framework , which would deal a significant blow to those looking to sell or advise on investment funds within the EU.

Should such a scenario come into place, investors looking to

…

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