Kirsty Williams came out fighting in a BBC Wales pre-election interview at around 15 minutes in.
The introduction contained a very gloomy forecast from an academic. Kirsty pointed out that they same forecasts had been made about our performance 5 years ago in the early days of the Westminster coalition.
At around 50 minutes to the 11th hour, the Government finally agreed to Tim Farron’s request that they apply for EU funding to help with the aftermath of the flooding that hit Cumbria and other areas of Northern England as a result of Storm Desmond on 5 December. The EU Solidarity Fund is there to help out when natural disaster strikes.
Accountancy firm KPMG has estimated the total cost of the flood damage at £5bn, which means that the UK could be eligible for up to £125 million of, of which 10% would be made available immediately. In 2008, the UKreceived £134 million from the fund to help deal with the aftermath of major floods the previous year.
In order to qualify the Government must apply within 12 weeks of when the natural disaster first hit. As Storm Desmond struck Northern England on 5th December, the deadline to apply is Saturday 27th February.
A week ago, Tim Farron handed over a petition signed by 2063 constituents calling for a grant for the EU Solidarity Fund to MEPs from the Regional Committee, which would have to approve any application.
And today, the Government has finally agreed to apply for the money.
Tim said:
Seriously, what is the world coming to when in the Mother of Parliaments, the most powerful politician in the country invokes his own mother to castigate the Leader of the Opposition.
Here’s their exchange:
The Prime Minister: I am very proud of the NHS in Oxfordshire and everyone who works in it. Having met the head of the Oxford Radcliffe trust recently, I know that he supports the move towards more seven-day services. That is absolutely vital.
Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab): Ask your mother!
The Prime Minister: Ask my mother? I know what my mother would say. She would look across the Dispatch Box and say, “Put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem.”
Jeremy Corbyn: If we are talking of motherly advice, my late mother would have said, “Stand up for the principle of a health service free at the point of use for everybody.” That is what she dedicated her life to, as did many of her generation.
Corbyn comes out of this with some credit, but this rather personal criticism comes from the Prime Minister comes just two days after the Commons collapsed in hilarity over a Tory MP’s jibe.
Corbyn heckled during EU debate“Who are you?”A Conservative MP berates Jeremy Corbyn in the House of Commons during EU debate.
Posted by Channel 4 News on Monday, 22 February 2016
Labour MPs are more than capable of being just as rowdy. Remember what they used to do to Julian Huppert every time he got up to speak. I’ll never forget the time when Willie Rennie was called a “Scottish Git” by Tory MPs while a Labour frontbencher smirked. He was introducing a bill enabling driving instructors to be suspended from the national register and explaining how he’d been motivated to do so by his constituent’s experience of being sexually assaulted by her driving instructor.
Former Lib Dem MEP Edward McMillan-Scott has written for the Yorkshire Post, unsurprisingly on the subject of the forthcoming EU Referendum.
He compares and contrasts this referendum with the last one in 1975:
Today’s media will play a decisive role in shaping the debate but is far more diverse both in attitudes and structure than in 1975. Then there were a handful of radio and TV channels whereas now there are hundreds; then only the Morning Star and the Spectator opposed Britain remaining in, but now the print media are much more evenly split. The role of social media has exploded in recent years and knows no constraint, political or personal.
Today, largely thanks to the EU, low cost airlines carry Britons routinely to airports which have sprung up in every corner of the continent and its islands. There we have learned new cuisines and cultures.
However, the most fundamental difference in Europe between 1975 and today is the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 and the subsequent enlargement of the EU to embrace its emerging democracies. Our generation has had the happy task of creating the world’s largest Single Market within a democratic framework.
The roles of Nato and the EU in the fall of the Berlin Wall are often discussed, but their close relationship was foreseen in their earliest years. Today, they are stronger not just because they are both located in Brussels, but also because there is a plethora of working arrangements between them, such as a shared 24-hour situation room.
The new Scottish Party Political Broadcast is going out right now. It’s focused on the idea of putting a penny on tax for education and features parents from across Scotland talking about their experience of parenting, the challenges they face and their hopes for their children’s futures. Enjoy!
You really couldn’t make it up.
A senior Tory Cabinet member has bemoaned a local Council for making cuts to its Youth Service.
Iain Duncan Smith, yes the Work and Pensions Secretary, who according to reports believes people with debilitating and life-limiting illnesses can still work, has told a local newspaper that the “vitally important” provision must be saved. Read the story here.
I think the nail has finally been hammered in to irony’s coffin and it is being lowered into the ground.
Tim Talks – The European Referendum
In the latest Tim Talks, Tim Farron focusses on Britain's place in Europe following his meeting in Brussels with other liberal leaders and Prime Ministers from across Europe. Join the fight to keep us #INtogether now: www.libdems.org.uk/europe
Posted by Liberal Democrats on Monday, 22 February 2016
Junior doctors are to hold three more one-day strikes. The British Medical Association, which represents the doctors, has also announced that it is seeking a judicial review into the imposition of the new contract because the government failed to carry out an equalities impact study.
Norman Lamb has added his voice to the debate:
Clark Reynolds, 3 years old, greeted by President Obama, Feb 18 2016 at the White House. (Pete Souza/Washington Post)
We have been struggling with the representation issue for years. Our party leaders strongly believe in broadening the look and feel of our MPs. Our members instinctively seek parity between men, women and other backgrounds: a desire to open up opportunity should be in our blood. But we aren’t quite sure how to achieve that and so far, as Josh Dixon sets out, our success has not been much to write home about. The Elect Diverse MPs motion to be debated at Spring Conference gives us a critical chance to retake the initiative.
Taking charge of the Stay in the EU campaign, David Cameron was accused of using the politics of fear: claiming Britain will have greater security staying in, while leaving would expose us to unknown hazards. It’s ironic, though, that his actions caused an astonishing split even in his own Cabinet. Are the British people expected to feel safe and secure while seeing our Government and the ruling Party split from top to bottom? How much effective business can such a Government enact in the next fraught few months?
Meantime our own Party has had its share of turmoil and trauma in the past five years. Internally, the comprehensive 2015 Election Review from the Campaigns and Communications Committee shows that a fatal dislocation arose between our Party in Government and the Party in the country. Externally, strong negative emotions against us were simultaneously roused in the British public. Anger among many that we joined with the Tories in the Coalition at all became disgust and even hatred when our Government Ministers broke the Manifesto pledge on abolishing tuition fees, and went on to back austerity measures to reduce the Deficit. As the Review reminds us, our Poll ratings dropped like a stone, our activists departed and our councillors fell from power. While the Lib Dem Ministers achieved much good and prevented some harm, there was little recognition of this in the country.
During the build-up to the Election, the Review points out the inadequate ‘messaging’ from our Centre: ‘Stronger economy, fairer society’ was a slogan not distinctive for us. Then came ‘Look right, look left, then cross’. This though more specific was surely worse, for it suggested the truth that we were willing to enter another coalition with either Tories or Labour. That could be seen as opportunistic and unprincipled, the Lib Dems out for a bit more power and ministerial salaries. Cue renewed hatred from sections of the public, especially if we looked likely to ‘let in’ a candidate from the Party they most detested.
“Why are the Tories writing to us?” groaned my husband as he brought the post through this morning. Getting to the doormat before the dog is a daily challenge in our house.
Remember how, before the General Election, the Tories carpet bombed their target constituencies with direct mail creating fear of a pact between Ed Miliband and the SNP? You almost expected them to say that they had evidence that Ed and Eck had done a deal with the Loch Ness Monster to crash the stock exchange after relocating Trident to a lake in David Cameron’s constituency. It was all preposterous and neither Liberal Democrats nor Labour showed it up for the nonsense it so clearly was. There was never going to be a pact between the SNP and Labour. Why on earth would they want to show they could be part of a stable UK Government that worked?
Well, they are at it again in Scotland ahead of the Holyrood elections in just two and a half months’ time. That letter from the Tories was from Ruth Davidson herself. She’s standing as a list candidate in my region. It’s certainly the only time in the 16 years I’ve lived here that I can remember getting direct mail this far out from polling day from the Tories if at all. They are clearly well funded, but one of the things that they say in their letter is simply not true:
Some important centenaries are marked in 2016 but for Liberals perhaps the most intriguing centenary of all is the one that marks the start of Lloyd George’s term as Prime Minister.
But Lloyd George’s legacy is in danger because the Welsh museum dedicated to him might soon have to close.
Gwynedd Lib Dem Cllr Steve Churchman and his colleagues have been valiantly fighting the closure due to a loss of grant of a mere £27,000. They point out what would be an incalculable loss to their community. We should surely all support their bid to save a precious slice of Liberal history.
As Cllr Churchman explains:
The museum comprises the dedicated museum building, Lloyd George’s uncles workshop, his childhood house and garden, the museum garden and car park and the riverside grave and memorial. It physically cannot be relocated. Many of the treasures are on long-term loan from family members. If the museum is closed then these artefacts will be splashed to the four winds and lost from public sight forever. We also lose an educational facility used by many of the county’s schools.
On a bleak windswept desolate morning in mid February, I walked through puddles of mud whilst alongside me a community of refugees, desperate to re-start their lives, remain near the French /UK border hoping to escape the situation and get to the UK, or some other place of sanctuary. I visited along with my Lib Dem colleague Councillor David Chalmers. I’m left wondering what will become to all those that I met this weekend.
I believe in showing humanity, care and love for our fellow citizens wherever they come from in the world, especially those escaping from lives of persecution, violence and discrimination. We, as a country, should be utterly ashamed of ourselves, as should the French authorities, for allowing a situation to develop only 20-25 minutes by travel from our shore, where a group of harmless, fear stricken people are left looking for sanctuary.
2015 was a tale of two leadership elections, with the Liberal Democrat debate between Tim Farron and Norman Lamb overshadowed by the seismic shift in the Labour Party. But while Jeremy Corbyn winning the Labour leadership has led to a fundamental debate on the future of the Labour Party, the victory of Tim Farron may prove the more important – particularly if the time comes for the Liberal Democrats to seize back the liberal mantle in British politics.
The Liberal Democrats, like the Liberals before them, have always held a useful counter-balancing position, able to simultaneously attack Labour for their illiberal and statist economic policies – which Jeremy Corbyn has exacerbated – and the Tories for their big-state social policy and genuflection to the security and surveillance services. Should Momentum get too much for Labour and cause splits, and should the Tories finally be split asunder over Europe (or both cast out their ideological non-believers in an orgy of blood-letting that would do la Terreur proud), the Liberal Democrats must be placed to pick up voters from both.
So, what are the Liberal Democrats for? Has the party done enough to take up the torch of liberalism? Is the party still the party of Gladstone, or has it become reconciled to playing a bit part in the great debates?
More economic news supporting IN
The possibility of Brexit, and Boris Johnson’s self-serving jump to OUT, has led the pound to a 6 year low against the dollar.
FTSE 100 company leaders have signed a letter in support of IN, reports The Independent.
Bosses at more than a third of the companies in the FTSE 100 have signed a letter declaring that Britain is better in the European Union, saying a Brexit would threaten investment in the UK and lead to potential job losses.
The letter is being co-ordinated by 10 Downing Street and is expected to be released on Tuesday, but
…
When I mention to friends that I have recently visited a Jobcentre, Citizens Advice Bureau, and interviewed the homeless it tends to raise a few eyebrows. However, all these visits and interviews have been fieldwork for the Liberal Democrat Working-age Social Security Working Group which recently published its consultation paper. Chaired by Jenny Willott, and comprised of a cross-section of LD members, our FPC remit has been clear: ‘The group will take evidence and consult widely from both within and outside the party’.
Fieldwork has proven enormously helpful to us in terms of understanding the nuances of the benefits system. For example, interviews with homeless people reveal the difficulties associated with applying for Universal Credit without the benefit of a bank account (needs a permanent address). These problems are not insurmountable but they do introduce additional difficulties which need to be considered when formulating policy.
Amnesty International has published a report today with the lengthy title “Obstacle Course: How the UK’s National Contact Point handles human rights complaints under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises“.
It claims that some UK companies may be getting away with human rights abuses in other countries, and it suggests that G4S and BT may be implicated amongst others. The problem lies with the UK’s National Contact Point, based in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which is supposed to hold companies to account on a range of matters including human rights, the environment and corruption.
It seems that in the last five years 60% of all the human rights complaints to the National Contact Point have been rejected without investigation. A further 12% have been referred to National Contact Points in other countries.
The EU is in the news and is likely to stay there for many months to come.
My relationship with Europe as a political issue started way back when I was 11 years old. It was 1975 and my school organised a debate on the referendum to decide the future of Britain’s membership of what was then called the Common Market. I spoke for the NO campaign.
After reading my carefully prepared speech, my Father said he would turn me into a politician. I supposed he succeeded.
More than 40 years later we approach another referendum and I have to say I am undecided. It’s been a bit of a journey though!
One point of agreement between the more radical of Post Keynesian economic thought and the mainstream is that there should be little or no intervention in the exchange rate and that the pound should be allowed to float freely. However, whilst many Post Keynesian economists would argue this way, they would also not be in favour of being quite so concerned about the budget deficit which is behind the austerity drive favoured by the mainstream.
An exchange rate policy need not be in the form of an old fashioned peg between the pound and the dollar, or even a basket of currencies, at any one particular rate, but it could be that government tries to ensure that imports and exports are always close to being in balance and always is prepared to nudge the exchange rate either way to try to achieve that. At present the imbalance is approximately 4% of GDP which puts the UK as a whole into debt. Either the government or the private sector has to cover that. There’s no point there being a squabble over just who that has to be. But that is where we are now in our economic thinking.
In May last year I stood before a busy church hall in Lytham St Annes and stated my support for fracking. I was the Lib Dem candidate for Fylde, a constituency on the fracking front line. It was a lonely position to take, but I felt I’d struck the right balance between the need for secure domestic energy, and the need to protect the natural environment. Only the incumbent Tory MP agreed with me.
However, my support for fracking was conditional. On that day, I promised voters, that if elected, I would fight for regulation with real teeth, and work hard for a massive investment in renewables. I told voters that, ”If elected, and robust regulation is not forthcoming, I will not hesitate to vote in favour of ban”.
Many thanks to the 48,294 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…
Report into the 2015 General Election by James Gurling. 66 comments.
Do you have questions about the Electing Diverse MPs motion? by Caron Lindsay. 82 comments.
Was Vince Cable proved right on austerity? by Nick Thornsby. 20 comments.
Commenting on Boris Johnson’s announcement that he will campaign for a “leave” vote in the EU referendum, Tim Farron said:
This is a deeply cynical move from a deeply ambitious politician who is using an in-out referendum as a back door to Number 10. It is a selfish move to put personal ambition before the jobs, security and prosperity of every Londoner.
Andrew Rawnsley has an excellent column in the Observer today, entitled: “This can’t be left to the Tory party – it’s everyone’s country at stake”. He hits the nail on the head with this paragraph:
I thoroughly recommend buying and reading the “Big Issue“. It carries a very attractive and eclectic range of articles. One of its features is “My Pitch”, where the story of a Big Issue seller is related. I find myself reading this feature first – it is always fascinating and heart-warming.
I’m now going to raise a topic which was mentioned in “Big Issue” this week in a curious way. Their “Focus” piece was a Q&A with Neil Dudgeon (any relation to Guy Dudgeon who produced “Space Oddity”?-ed).
Who is Neil Dudgeon? – I hear you cry.
This week, a couple of LDV commenters mentioned the support of eugenics by Beveridge and Keynes in the 1930s and early 1940s. Such support was widely shared by members of the Fabian society and notables such as George Bernard Shaw, Marie Stopes, Harold Laski – even Winston Churchill (earlier in the 20th century).
Debate of this point was not possible on unrelated threads this week, so this article is posted to allow discussion of this interesting, and somewhat disturbing, historic phenomenon.
Here are a few articles that have caught my eye from the Sunday papers:
The Sunday Times (£) leads with “Cameron declares war on rebels”, starting:
DAVID CAMERON ignited a fresh Tory civil war over immigration last night, warning that those who wanted to leave the European Union were misleading the public by claiming that they could seal Britain’s borders.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the prime minister said those who wanted to leave would be forced to accept the free movement of people if they wanted a free trade deal with the rest of the EU.
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Recollections of 9/11 (George Cunningham)
Why we need a Trade NATO (Dominic Sokalski)
‘I Fear a Target on My Back’ — A Liberal Democrat’s fight for Hong Kong’s freedom (Alan Dai)
Making the most of the Government’s belated action on illegal Israeli settlements (Jonathan Brown)
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expats 
