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Lib Dems to table “fatal motion” to halt planned cuts to tax credits

By The Voice | Wed 21st October 2015 - 8:12 pm

The Lib Dem team in the House of Lords has announced that it will table a so-called “fatal motion” to the government’s proposed tax credit reductions.

Zahida Manzoor, our work and pensions spokesperson, will table the motion, which would decline to approve the regulations. If passed, the government will have to come up with a revised version of its proposals.

The motion is additional to a motion by Labour peer, Baroness Hollis of Heigham, which would decline to approve the Tax Credit cut unless the Government puts in place transitional measures.

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Posted in News | Tagged tax credits | 42 Comments

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Tim Farron MP writes…Introducing my new Chief of Staff

By Tim Farron MP | Wed 21st October 2015 - 6:37 pm

I am delighted to announce that Ben Williams will be joining my Leader’s Office team as my permanent chief of staff. He joins my PA, the brilliant Christine, Sam who helps me with my correspondence and my press officer Paul to fully staff my office. Natasha sadly leaves us at the end of the week but will, I am in no doubt, go on to bigger things.

Ben was the standout candidate and brings a wealth of experience at all levels of the party from council campaigner to Head of Liberal Democrat Whips’ Office and latterly a Special Adviser. Everyone who has worked with him knows his skills and how brilliantly he works under pressure. There were many points over our years in government when I saw Ben, at first hand, make sure the government kept delivering liberal policies under tremendous pressures. He is exactly what our party needs – someone who can help me to help our party grow and thrive.

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Posted in News | Tagged ben williams and leader's office | 9 Comments

LibLink Special: Nick Clegg’s El Pais article: “We are losing the war on drugs”

By The Voice | Wed 21st October 2015 - 3:30 pm

Earlier this month, Nick Clegg wrote for Spanish newspaper El Pais about the need to totally change the way we deal with drug use. Liberal Youth Scotland co-president Hannah Bettsworth, a final year Spanish student, has kindly translated it for us.

On 19^th April next year, United Nations member states will hold a special session in New York to discuss the future of the world’s drugs policy. The starting pistol for government negotiations around the summit was fired last week, in a meeting at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna.

The last time an event of this importance was held, in 1998, the meeting was dominated by US Government strategy, which still consisted of the doomed ‘war on drugs’, thought up by Richard Nixon in 1971. (awkward sentence in English) The gathered member states, in a move we can today see as a false collective delusion, solemnly agreed to reach the goal of “a drug-free world in 2008.”

Of course, 2008 came around and nothing happened. Not only had production, supply and use of illicit drugs not been wiped from the Earth, trafficking continued to flourish and bring millions of dollars to organised crime. The well-intentioned efforts of law and order had had hardly any impact in the long term. Violence in origin and transit countries had skyrocketed (in Mexico alone, it is calculated that 100,000 people have died in the war on the cartels since 2006.) Around the world, millions of drug users are still hounded and incarcerated. This serves only to ruin lives – it has no deterrent effect.

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged drugs policy, el país and nick clegg | 17 Comments

What were your hopes for today?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 21st October 2015 - 1:55 pm

This is a post aimed at those of us who were around in the ’80s when the Back to the Future films first came out. Today, of course, is the day Marty McFly and Dr Emmett Brown arrived in the future. People are marking the occasion in all sorts of ways. One of my favourites was Ayrshire Police’s post this morning – although it was in fact 12 hours early, it was a savvy use of social media. They posted on Facebook:

About 0728 hours today, Wednesday 21st October 2015, police received reports of a suspicious vehicle causing concern in the car park of an Irvine supermarket.

Witnesses report the stainless steel DeLorean vehicle to have been damaged and two men to have been within the vehicle. One man is described as being around 17 years old, slim build with dark hair while the other is only described as being older with grey hair and wearing a white coat.

A spokesperson for Ayrshire Police Division commented “on arriving at the location the vehicle almost collided with two members of the public on hover boards. Luckily the hover board’ collision avoidance system prevented any injuries. We are keen to speak with the two men seen within the vehicle.”

#JustForFun #BackToTheFuture

My Facebook timeline was full of comments about hover boards, but my feelings were mostly mild discomfort. After all, a day that I had thought was a very long time away when the film first came out in 1989 is now here. I wonder if people who read 1984 when it was first published in 1949 felt when that date finally arrived.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged back to the future and nostalgia | 6 Comments

Farron and Davey attack Tories’ “systematic unravelling” of our commitment to tackle climate change

By The Voice | Wed 21st October 2015 - 12:55 pm

Tim Farron and Ed Davey have written to Davey’s Conservative successor as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd to challenge her on her record so far of undermining practically everything the Liberal Democrats brought to the table. They warn her that her actions jeopardise the UK’s chances of meeting legally binding climate change targets. Their full letter is published below:

We are writing to you regarding our concerns for the future of Britain’s renewable industries and our global leadership on climate change.

We are utterly appalled at the systematic unravelling of the renewables industries that is taking place under your leadership. We stand with business executives, trade associations and environmental NGOs and call for an end to this ideological assault on green energy which is economically nonsensical and is undermining Britain’s ability to push for a more ambitious global Climate Change Treaty at the UN in Paris this December.

Despite your statement in May this year that you planned to unleash a ‘solar revolution’, your department has enacted a series of devastating policies which make a mockery of this and will ultimately dismantle much of the work on green policy that the Liberal Democrats achieved in Government, costing thousands of jobs and jeopardising our economic future. Severe cuts to solar and wind subsidies, as well as ending the Green Deal and abolishing Zero Carbon Homes, together mean that progress towards tackling climate change is fundamentally undermined.

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Posted in News | Tagged climate change, ed davey and tim farron | 9 Comments

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Agenda 2020 essay #1: What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today

By Kirsten Johnson | Wed 21st October 2015 - 11:55 am

Editor’s Note: The party is currently running an essay competition for members of the Liberal Democrats, to submit 1000 words on the theme “What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today.” The deadline for contributions is 2nd November. If you would like us to publish your submission, send it to [email protected].

What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today, to me, is about fairness, equality and freedom. Freedom for all us to be who we wish to be and to develop our talents to the full. Equality that no matter who we are, our origins, our abilities or disabilities, we are given equal voice and valued equally in society. Fairness is about combatting structures in our society which promote the few over the many, so that all are enabled and empowered.

To be truly free is not a singularity. It happens in relationship. Being a Liberal Democrat is about being in relationship: we are stronger together than we are alone.

WE are the world. Not me. Not I. The rise of individualism, and the emphasis of individual freedoms without the context of relationship, has brought us to this point. The 21^st century is a self-serving society. What is best for me? What can I achieve? How much more money can I make? The emphasis on me, me, me is a losing ticket. Me can only win if WE are at the forefront of policy and decision making.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged agenda 2020 essay competition | 3 Comments

Reinforcements arrive for the Parliamentary Party in the Lords…

By The Voice | Wed 21st October 2015 - 8:55 am

Now that Parliament has returned after the summer recess, the process of introducing the new Peers has come. And, to allow LDV readers to keep up with the new intake, here is the list of new Peers and when they are to be introduced;

26 October – Shas Sheehan (Baroness Sheehan)
27 October – Jonny Oates (Lord Oates)
5 November – Sir Menzies Campbell (Lord Campbell of Pittenweem) and Don Foster (Lord Foster of Bath)
10 November – Lorely Burt (Baroness Burt of Solihull)
19 November – Sir Malcolm Bruce (Lord Bruce of Bennachie)
23 November – Sir Alan Beith (title yet to be confirmed)
26 November …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged house of lords | 38 Comments

Lib Dem Lords will try and kill off Tory tax credit cuts as Farron decries Osborne’s “Poll Tax”

By The Voice | Tue 20th October 2015 - 9:30 pm

George Osborne could be told to think again on tax credits by the House of Lords next week if a “regret motion” co-sponsored by Lib Dem peer Archy Kirkwood is successful.

Party leader Tim Farron has asked all Lib Dem peers to support it, making a government defeat possible.According to the Guardian, though, some Labour peers might get the collywobbles about challenging a government’s financial bill. According to the Guardian:

By custom and practice, the peers do not challenge financial measures, but Farron has been arguing that the specific tax credits measure was not in the Conservative party manifesto and was even specifically denied by David Cameron in a leaders’ TV election debate, after the Guardian revealed a document leaked by the Lib Dems showing that the government had been considering cuts to tax credits.

This has also attracted coverage in the Express and Star, Sky News and the Evening Standard.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged archy kirkwood, tax credits and tim faron | 23 Comments

Why are you a Liberal Democrat?

By Paul Walter | Tue 20th October 2015 - 8:38 pm

View image | gettyimages.com

That’s the question Tim Farron is asking this evening in the following mail to members:

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged #libdemfightback, featured and tim farron | 9 Comments

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By The Voice | Tue 20th October 2015 - 2:35 pm

Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email?

Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

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Posted in Site news | 1 Comment

+++Liberals sweep to power

By Joe Otten | Tue 20th October 2015 - 10:58 am

View image | gettyimages.com

The Liberal Party has swept to power, winning 184 seats out of 338, an overall majority of 30. The election platform included such policies as

Cutting income taxes for the middle-classes while increasing them for the wealthy

Running deficits for three years to pay for infrastructure spending

Doing more to address environmental concerns over the controversial Keystone oil pipeline

Taking more Syrian refugees; pulling out of bombing raids against Islamic State while bolstering training for Iraqi forces

Legalising marijuana

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Posted in News | Tagged canada, featured, Justin Trudeau and Liberal Party of Canada | 54 Comments

We need more blue collar Liberals

By David Warren | Tue 20th October 2015 - 9:50 am

View image | gettyimages.com

There is plenty of debate across the political spectrum about how unrepresentative of the overall population our elected politicians are.

Much of this discussion focuses on the lack of women and BAME people in the corridors of power.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged alan johnson, dennis skinner and featured | 43 Comments

Tom Brake MP: Why I’m fasting for Shaker Aamer

By Tom Brake | Mon 19th October 2015 - 6:55 pm

haker Aamer is the last British resident held in Guantanamo Bay, which still stands as an icon to the Iraq War, a war which only the Liberal Democrats, led by Charles Kennedy, were brave enough to stand up against. Shaker has been held for the last thirteen years without charge or trial. He has been cleared by two successive US Presidents and yet is still held captive.

Baroness Ludford correctly said in 2012 ‘the continued existence of Guantanamo is a stain on the record and reputation of President Obama’; it is truly depressing that Guantanamo continues to be used to incarcerate people and that there are many reports of abuse and violence within the prison.

On 25th September, Shaker learned that he would finally be freed, however as Congress has to be given 30 days’ notice before Shaker can be released, he is unlikely to be released before the 25^th October at the earliest.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged guantanamo bay, human rights and shaker aamer | 4 Comments

ALDE Congress – feedback needed before Thursday

By The Voice | Mon 19th October 2015 - 4:35 pm

Belinda Brooks-Gordon represents the East of England on the ALDE Congress. She’s asked us to share the report she gave out to members in her region. Please note the looming deadline of this Thursday for amendments to motions to be discussed at the Congress in November.

ALDE Report

The post of President and five, possibly six Vice-Presidents are to be voted on at the ALDE Congress in Budapest from 19^th – 21^st November. ALDE is now the fourth group in the European Parliament, and unable to do accomplish as much as it was able to do when it was the third party (don’t we just know how that feels in Westminster too). The new President certainly has their work cut out.

I was delighted at a briefing for the ALDE representatives and meet a candidate for ALDE Bureau President Hans van Baalen MEP as he laid out his vision. A prominent liberal, Hans spoke of the value of a joint action on sanctions to deal with international threats and of co-operation between liberal parties in the forthcoming referendum, Hans said he and his party VVD of the Netherlands would be helping with the LibDemFightback: “It is vital that we stick together to bring Liberalism together as a force.”

Baroness Ros Scott selected for VP of ALDE Bureau

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Posted in News | Tagged ALDE, ALDE congress and belinda brooks-gordon | 2 Comments

Ashdown’s speechwriter Max Atkinson to get an award from the Speechwriters’ Guild

By The Voice | Mon 19th October 2015 - 3:29 pm

We were very pleased to receive an email from Brian Jenner of the Speechwriters’ Guild telling us that Paddy Ashdown’s former speechwriter, Professor Max Atkinson, is to receive an award from them in just over a month’s time:

Dr Max Atkinson is to be awarded a ‘Lifetime Achievement’ award by the UK Speechwriters’ Guild.

The award is being made for his outstanding contribution to the theory and practice of speechwriting and public speaking over the past 35 years.

Dr Atkinson came to national prominence when he used his academic research into the speaking techniques of top politicians, and applied them to a speech delivered by a novice at a party political conference.

The speaker Ann Brennan went on to win a standing ovation at the SDP conference in Buxton in 1984.

The results were made into a ‘World in Action’ TV documentary, produced by Gus Macdonald, (now Baron Macdonald of Tradeston).

Dr Atkinson published the results of his research in a book called Our Masters’ Voices.

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Posted in News | Tagged max atkinson, paddy ashdown and speechwriters' guild | 2 Comments

Jo Swinson supports size 6 model who was told she was “too big” for her agency

By NewsHound | Mon 19th October 2015 - 1:50 pm

Last week model Charli Howard hit the headlines when she wrote an open letter to her modelling agency who had told her that at a mere size 6, she was too big to work. From the Independent:

“The more you force us to lose weight and be small, the more designers have to make clothes to fit our sizes, and the more young girls are being made ill. It’s no longer an image I choose to represent,” she wrote.

Howard’s letter made headlines globally and comes after a number of models have openly criticised the fashion industry for body-shaming by telling them they need to lose weight.

In yesterday’s Sunday Times (£) former Equalities Minister and Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson was quick to give Charli her support, telling the paper:

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Posted in News | Tagged equality and Jo Swinson | 7 Comments

We need to make internal selections affordable for all

By Zack Polanski | Mon 19th October 2015 - 11:55 am

What makes a great candidate? It can be an incredibly demanding job and I imagine it’s lots of things. A strong ability to communicate, to listen, to represent people effectively. To demonstrate generous leadership, to inspire and to continually learn. These are all what I’d consider the headlines.

What about fundraising? It’s certainly vital – but I’d argue that not only is it not the single *biggest* priority. It’s certainly not more important than the above qualities. It’s one of the skills that can most often be generated truly as a team effort whilst potentially being most successful when lead by the candidate themselves.

I learnt so much during the recent GLA London List Election. As a first timer I was clearly delighted with the result and I loved the opportunity to speak to literally thousands of members. Having phone canvassed for lots of candidates as part of the Team 2015 efforts in the General Election, it was a really interesting next step to be phoning and listening to people’s concerns as the potential candidate myself.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged diversity, featured, fundraising and internal selections | 30 Comments

Five posts from five years

By The Voice | Mon 19th October 2015 - 10:55 am

We thought it might be fun to take one of our occasional trips down Memory Lane to see what we were writing about on this day in 5 of the 9 years of our existence.

19th October 2006

Pre the Crash, leader Ming Campbell takes Labour to task on poverty and talks about, guess what, a fairer society. Who says we are inconsistent. Worth reading as much of it is relevant now.

I am determined to take the fight for a fairer Britain into the mainstream of British politics, and into the heartlands of the Labour Party.

I am determined to show that defeating poverty and increasing opportunity does not mean creating a state of dependency.

I am determined that Britain should not simply swap the days of calculated neglect under Mrs. Thatcher for years of benign neglect under Mr. Cameron.

I am determined to show that there is an alternative to the Dependency State of Gordon Brown.

I am determined to show that there is a sustainable way to remove the scourge of child poverty that does so much to undermine our social cohesion.

I am determined to show that way is the Liberal way.

The mainstream, not the centre, but essentially means the same thing.

19th October 2008

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Posted in News | Tagged nostalgia | 1 Comment

No, the Liberal Democrats do not owe Police Scotland £800,000 (or any other sum for that matter)

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 19th October 2015 - 8:55 am

Get into an argument with any cybernat and, sooner or later, when you’ve won the argument, you’ll have it thrown at you, a bit like a modern Godwin’s Law, that the Liberal Democrats should pay their £800,000 bill to Police Scotland.

This is all to do with the security arrangements for our conference in Glasgow in 2013. South of the Border, the Home Office picks up these costs. As policing is devolved, the Scottish Government had responsibility and refused to do so. That meant that, apart from a small contribution to cover the costs of accreditation from the UK Government, Police Scotland had to pick up the tab themselves. Nothing to do with us.

Every time I get this, I refer the cybernat in question to this response to a freedom of information request which comprehensively debunks the idea that we owe any money to Police Scotland at all. Read my lips,

By way of explanation, it has been reported in the media that there is an outstanding invoice of £800,000 for this conference; however, this is factually incorrect. No invoice for the policing costs of the conference was ever generated and the Liberal Democrats did not enter into any arrangement with Police Scotland to provide policing.

In case it wasn’t clear the first time:

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Posted in News | Tagged cybernats, home office, liberal democrats, police scotland and Scotland | 40 Comments

Thank you! 9,727 reasons getting naked on TV was well worth it

By Stephen Tall | Sun 18th October 2015 - 5:33 pm

As my LibDemVoice colleagues have been kind enough to highlight, I fulfilled my pledge* this week to run naked down Whitehall. My daft fault for claiming on live telly that’s what I’d do if the Lib Dems were reduced to 24 MPs. Never bet more than you can afford to lose, folks.

In any case, it was all in a good cause. I wasn’t going to go through with it for the lolz. But when Kelvin McKenzie challenged me on the Daily Politics — and said he’d back up the offer with £5,000 to the charity of my choice — I didn’t have to think twice. (My main regret now is I didn’t dare him to double it: as a professional fundraiser, I should know better than to accept the first offer made…)

I wanted the money to go to a charity working on the current refugee crisis. Having done a little research, I decided on Médecins Sans Frontières, aka Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian medical aid organisation providing medical aid where it is most needed, regardless of race, religion, politics or gender.

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Posted in News | Tagged featured | 4 Comments

More influential than the Liberal Democrat chief executive, 2 former cabinet ministers and a Council leader Really?

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 18th October 2015 - 12:09 pm

One of the biggest laughs I’ve had in a long time came during our Conference in Bournemouth when Iain Dale published his list of the top 50 influential Liberal Democrats. I’ve been meaning to write about it for ages but never quite got round to it.

I, believe it or not, am at number 30, up 11 places from last year. This puts me above Keith House, Leader of Eastleigh Council in charge of a budget of millions, 2 former Cabinet ministers, Ed Davey and Danny Alexander and the Chief Executive of the Party. You can perhaps see why I was laughing so much. Mr Dale clearly has his finger on the pulse of what’s going on in this party.

Iain’s list certainly reflected our departure from government, with Tim Farron and his key allies close to the top. There are 17 women and 33 men in a vaguely random order. He said himself:

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Posted in News | Tagged iain dale | 12 Comments

Scottish Conference Countdown: What’s on the agenda? And get writing your amendments today

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 18th October 2015 - 10:35 am

Scottish Liberal Democrats gather for their Autumn Conference in Dunfermline on Saturday 24th October. The agenda contains no fewer than 8 policy debates – not bad for an event that lasts for just 7 hours. There are keynote speeches from Willie Rennie and Tim Farron and the day ends with a tribute to Charles Kennedy.

The policy motions to be discussed are:

A penny on tax for the NHS: This one will be controversial. The MSPs will be very scared of it passing because it’s way more radical than they can cope with. Perhaps Conference needs to give them the confidence to say something bold. One of the great tragedies of the current constitutional debate in Scotland is that nobody seems to have any great ideas for using the powers we already have, which are pretty significant. Paisley and Renfrewshire local party have put the cat among the pigeons with this motion. Will it pass? Expect to see an amendment from the Policy Committee.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged Scottish liberal democrat conference | 10 Comments

The condescension of Camila

By Ruth Bright | Sun 18th October 2015 - 8:55 am

Two years ago I was in acting charge of a London day care setting for the elderly not a million miles away from the fabled Kids Company. My young colleague put together a craft afternoon for our clients. She sent off for £20 of glass beads on Ebay. A lot of elderly people with dementia had a lovely time making jewellery thanks to her. The £20 was authorised by my manager beforehand and accounted for afterwards. Of course it would have been nice to give handouts to our clients, many of them in great need, but we had to vouch for every penny spent.

It was therefore utterly bewildering to watch former head of Kids Company Camila Batmanghelidjh give evidence to a select committee yesterday and admit that large sums were handed to young people just because she and her colleagues deemed them vulnerable.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured, kids company and southwark | 17 Comments

What’s being debated in our members’ forum this week?

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 17th October 2015 - 11:41 am

LibDemVoice has two parallel sites. The first is our public blog, the thing you’re reading now. The second is our private members’ forum, which only current Lib Dem members can access.

If you’re a member and want to chat with fellow party members about any issue that’s on your mind, then why not sign up? In addition, you’ll be included in our regular surveys’ of party members’ views.

Here’s some of the most active discussions this past 10 days:

Blame it on the bookers

Ideas to help local parties create organisation and restructure

Should the UK replace Trident? How will you vote?

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Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

Scottish Conference Countdown: The values document (relevant to all Lib Dems, not just Scots)

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 17th October 2015 - 9:30 am

On Saturday October 24th, the Scottish Liberal Democrats hold their Autumn Conference in Dunfermline.

One of the items under discussion will be a Values document. This is an attempt to find that elusive melody, the narrative on which all our policies are based, a statement of who we are and what we’re for.

Have a look at it here.

A lot of this isn’t Scotland specific so even if you’re not Scottish, it’s worth taking a look. What do you think of it? Here’s a summary of the main principles:

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Posted in News | Tagged liberal democrat values | 9 Comments

LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League: how it stands after Week 8

By Stephen Tall | Sat 17th October 2015 - 7:55 am

Sergio Agüero’s haul of five goals finally rewarded those of us who’d stuck with him through his goal drought — and brought about a big change in our LDV Top 10. Congratulations to Christopher Buck, whose Moves Like Agger (476 points) lead the LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League after Week 8, just ahead of Paul Revell’s Sock Monsters (459) and Edward Douglas’s Use Your Ed (451).

Edward and Christopher has the week’s best performances. But let’s also hear it for two players outside the top 10: William Jones’ Slumdog Mignolet accumulated 112 points, as did Callum Morton’s RRN’s.

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Posted in Fantasy Football | Tagged fantasy football | Leave a comment

LibLink: Kath Pinnock: Lib Dems have stood up for the needs of very young children

By NewsHound | Fri 16th October 2015 - 4:24 pm

You can sense Kath Pinnock’s frustration about the Government’s Childcare Bill as she outlines how she and the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords tried to force the Government to add some detail into the proposals in an article for Politics Home. It was pretty basic stuff that needed fleshing out as well – like the level of funding available for councils to provide 15 hours of childcare a week. Quality and training standards weren’t outlined – and nor was there even a definition of who was eligible.

Liberal Democrats tabled several amendments to deal with these issues at both Committee stage when debate takes place on the details and at Report stage when the Government is held to account if it hasn’t listened to concerns and made changes. Time and again during detailed debate we challenged the Government Minister to declare the level of funding that would be available. Every time we were told to wait for the announcement from the Chancellor in his funding review in November. And every time, we responded that this was not good enough. We have a responsibility to very young children to make sure there was enough funding for quality childcare. We pushed that to the vote and, with Labour Peers, the Government was defeated.

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged childcare, childcare bill, house of lords, kath pinnock and liberal democrat lords | 3 Comments

Catherine Bearder MEP writes: Europe is about more than the economy, it’s about opportunity

By Catherine Bearder | Fri 16th October 2015 - 1:05 pm

At the official launch of the Stronger In Campaign on Monday it was great to see such a huge range of people, of all ages and from all walks of life, prepared to work together to secure Britain’s place in Europe. The board of the campaign represents all sections of society – students, the arts, business and trade unions – and almost half its members are women. This couldn’t contrast more with the male, pale and stale line-ups of the Vote Leave and Leave EU campaigns.

The challenge now for Stronger In will be to translate such a broad base of support into a coherent and positive message. We don’t just need to win over undecided voters, we need to make sure those who are broadly in favour of remaining in Europe turn up to cast their vote and play an active role in the campaign. Young people in particular are historically the least likely to vote, but the latest polls show 83% of them want to stay in the EU. They probably won’t get passionate about dry economic facts on the impact of Brexit on trade and investment. We need to develop a powerful and uplifting narrative about why Britain’s future in Europe matters to them and their everyday lives.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged eu, eu referendum, featured and young people | 32 Comments

What the 2015 Sex and Power report has to say about the Liberal Democrats

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 16th October 2015 - 10:25 am

The 2015 Sex and Power report published by the Counting Women In coalition came out this week. It looks in detail at the number of women candidates put forward by each party and the number of MPs elected.

It’s not fun to read if you’re a Liberal Democrat for obvious reasons. It’s not just that we have an all white middle aged male party in the Commons, it’s that we’re not making nearly enough progress to redress the imbalance. The proportion of women in our target seats should be much higher than 50/50 if we are serious about improving gender balance.

What’s particularly galling is a graph that shows that our number of women MPs elected peaked in 1987 and we’ve been going yo-yoing ever since at a much lower level.

This is what the report had to say about us:

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Posted in News | Tagged counting women in and gender balance | 38 Comments

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Op-eds

The liberalism we need: a platform for people to thrive and live their version of a best life (Josh Matthews)
Tom Arms’ World Review (Tom Arms)
Observations of an Expat: West Bank Settler Sanctions (Tom Arms)
Recollections of 9/11 (George Cunningham)
Why we need a Trade NATO (Dominic Sokalski)

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Recent Comments

John B Grout
Excellent piece, Josh. As for seeking others' thoughts on the pitch, here are mine: Labour and the Greens want to do things for you, the Conservatives and R...
David Evans
It's an interesting article, which gives us more to think about, but when it ends with "Government and politics can strive toward this platform ... giving ind...
Neil Sandison
This one of a series of articles recently published in the Liberal Democrat Voice that defines our social liberal values . Frequently the hot house of Westminst...
Pawel Urbanski
This is the right problem to be working on, and I think the answer may be less about the words than about the moments. In my experience people learn what we sta...
Simon Robinson
It's good to have an MP putting herself forward for this. The manifesto seems a bit vague though. All good thoughts and nothing you can really disagree with, b...