The Gainsborough Standard reports:
Iain Duncan Smith has defended plans to get the sick and disabled back to work amid allegations that he is “punishing” society’s most vulnerable.
The Work and Pensions Secretary insisted being employed was like a “health treatment” and could help make people better.
He also denied that he had a target of taking a million disabled people off benefits, arguing it was sensible to ask whether individuals could do some work rather than writing them off altogether.
Here’s the third in our series of Tim Farron’s TimTalks.
In this one, he talks about how we rebuild the party. A festival of ideas, diversity, PAWAWI, being an accessible leader. “Under Tim Farron’s leadership, there will be no cabal and no bunker.”
A lot of fellow Liberals, and indeed those from right across the political spectrum, will share my view that the current Labour Party leadership election has descended into farce.
The question is how and why did they come up with such a basket case of an electoral system.
Why not use a simple one member one vote system?
For the answer you have to go back more than thirty years to 1980 when the Labour leader was elected by the parliamentary party alone.
Following the disastrous Callaghan administration, the big unions wanted their say in choosing the Labour leader. At a conference in which they had 90% of the votes, they made sure they got it.
An electoral college was introduced with 40% of the vote reserved for unions which could be cast as block votes for their preferred candidate.
Over time this method came under pressure from both a hostile media and a New Labour leadership, determined to reduce union influence, but still get their much needed cash.
On Thursday the ASI published an article I wrote about the Labour leadership election and the concept of Expressive Voting. This theory, developed by Geoffrey Brennan and Loren Lomasky in their book Democracy and Decision: the pure theory of electoral preference, offers a new explanation for the “paradox of voting”, the rationality-defying fact that people vote despite the improbability that their vote will make a difference.
Brennan and Lomasky suggest that individuals do not vote primarily to affect the outcome (which they know they cannot) but to express a preference; indeed, to express themselves. Much as we might shout at a football match on television or curse out loud when on our own, there is something inherent in the human psyche that wishes to express its opinion. What is more, the way in which we express ourselves helps define who we are, and enables us to feel good about ourselves.
As I explained in my article:
The crucial point here is that there is absolutely zero cost to expressing oneself any way one pleases at the ballot box, because one’s vote is hardly likely to matter. For the same reason, the only tangible benefit one is likely to reap from voting is that feeling one gets for choosing “the right” candidate. Vote Labour and you are a caring person; vote Conservative and you are a responsible person; vote UKIP and you are a proud patriot; vote Green and you want to save our planet…
What struck me as I wrote those words was that I could not give a simple reason why people vote Liberal Democrat.
In the run-up to Autumn Conference in Bournemouth, we’ll be looking ahead to examine the highlights in the debating hall, the fringe and training rooms. You can find the papers here. You can find all the posts in the series here.
The first policy debate of tho year’s Conference is on Creating safe and legal routes for refugees. It will be proposed by Suzanne Fletcher who is one of the founder members of Liberal Democrats for Seekers of Sanctuary.
The motion is unlikely to be controversial and is particularly relevant at the moment. It is very consistent with the sorts of things that Tim Farron has been saying, especially since he visited the refugees in Calais himself.
However, if there are any developments, amendments can be submitted until 7th September.
We had a very productive Everyday Sexism Open Mic event in Edinburgh on Saturday. Most of the content, rightly, should not be discussed on here but I have Sal Brinton’s permission to share with you something she told us about her efforts to make sure that female students were not harassed when construction work took place at Lucy Cavendish College in Cambridge where she was bursar.
From her Facebook:
Yesterday at the Scottish Lib Dem Women Anti Sexism Open Mike session I referred to having the first considerate behaviour contract with builders in 1994 when I was Bursar at Lucy Cavendish College (an all women’s college in Cambridge), which was grabbed by the press as ‘a ban on wolf whistling’. It was August, and the story went viral and I was doing TV and radio interviews around the world (Canada, Thailand, Europe).
I’m delighted that most major construction companies now use Considerate Contractor undertakings, and here’s a clip from the Daily Mail in 2008, when they did an update on the story on how behaviour affects women house buyers.
Sadly, it is very clear that wolf whistling and its modern equivalent, trolling,still persist. Women often feel they daren’t say anything as it may make things worse, and we need help from witnesses (male and female) to point out such behaviour is unwanted and unacceptable.
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 428th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (16 – 22 August, 2015), together with a hand-picked quintet, 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:
Many thanks to the 10,700 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…
David Laws peerage “blocked” – plus new Liberal Democrat House of Lords members speculation (83 comments) by Paul Walter
How to beat the SNP (49 comments) by Joanne Ferguson
The No campaign’s grim blueprint for a Britain out of Europe (55 comments) by Stuart Bonar
Willie Rennie has announced that he supports the use of all women shortlists and quotas to improve the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ appalling record on gender balance. He is to lead a group which will draw up specific proposals for the 2019 European, 2020 Westminster and 2021 Holyrood elections.
The Scottish Party looked on in shock when members in the North East did not place highly effective Justice Spokesperson at the top of the list when it was selected at the end of last year. Since then, and particularly following the General Election, there have been strong calls for much stronger action on gender balance. Willie has consulted widely within the party and he announced his plans at the Scottish Party’s and Scottish Liberal Democrat Women’s Everyday Sexism Open Mic event in Edinburgh yesterday.
The Working Group to be led by Willie will consider all options including:
• All women shortlists
• Making gender a part of the party’s electoral strategy
• Quota systems
Willie said:
I have lost patience with the current system and its inability to ensure proper representation of women. It is now time to take the necessary action to deliver change.
A fresh start for the Liberal Democrats requires us to change. We need to be more reflective of the people we seek to represent and to perform at our best we need to deploy our best people to make the case for our cause.
Despite an abundance of talented women the party has been unable to put enough in positions to get elected. It is difficult to make the case for opportunity for everyone when only one of our parliamentarians is a woman.
Twenty years ago my party agreed in the Constitutional Convention to work towards a gender balance in our Scottish Parliamentary representation. Yet since the Scottish Parliament was created we have elected no more than two women at the four elections to Holyrood. I determined to finally deliver the commitment made to the Constitutional Convention.
Encouragement and organisational support is simply insufficient to overcome the barriers to electing women.
That is why I will lead a working group to finalise proposals to put to the Spring Conference of the Scottish Liberal Democrats that will break down those barriers and increase the representation of women Liberal Democrats in Parliament.
It is my intention that the new arrangements will be in place for the European Election in 2019 and will also apply to the 2020 General Election and 2021 Scottish Parliamentary Election.
This week we are re-running new leader Tim Farron’s series of TimTalks from the leadership campaign so that those of you who don’t know him well can see what makes him tick.
Today, it’s Foreign Affairs. Now we have a caption, a soundtrack (which is, to be honest, a bit annoying) and a proper introduction at the beginning:
In the run-up to Autumn Conference in Bournemouth, we’ll be looking ahead to examine the highlights in the debating hall, the fringe and training rooms. You can find the papers here. You can find all the posts in the series here.
The reality of our new circumstances hit when the Conference Directory landed on my doorstep the other day. The Directory lists all the fringe and exhibition activity going on over the five days in Bournemouth. While there is still a huge amount to do and people will still be struggling to choose which meeting they would like to go to in every slot, it’s noticeable that the fringe is a good deal smaller than it was last year. Mine is a good deal smaller still after my puppy, Hazel, got hold of it and decided to rip it to shreds.
By way of comparison, there were 10 pages of exhibitors last year and only 6 this year, and the balance has shifted so that there is a higher proportion of party stands than we have become used to.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Tim Farron raises prospect of a repeat of Labour’s disastrous 1981 split. He pitches for the LibDems to replace Labour as the only credible opposition to the Tories:
With just 20 days before Labour chooses its new leader, many who believe Britain needs a strong Opposition are holding their heads in their hands.
So, I was watching the 10 o’clock News last night and saw our Stephen Tall flaunting his Labour leadership ballot paper.
As he explains, he wasn’t out to do a Toby Young and vote for Jeremy Corbyn:
I was ambivalent whether I would actually exercise my vote, but decided that, if I did, it wouldn’t be to troll Labour by choosing Jeremy Corbyn: I would vote for the candidate the other parties would least like to face.
Assuming, that is, Labour gave me a vote. After all, the party assures us they have “rigorous due diligence” processes in place to weed out infiltrators from other parties. Having stood for election against Labour a few weeks ago, I half-assumed they’d (quite legitimately) disenfranchise me.
But then yesterday morning I received my online ballot paper…
Stephen decided to register as a supporter to see how their leadership process worked as an interested observer. By rights, any decent verification process would have spotted him and got rid of him. Instead, it seems to be getting rid of long term Labour supporters whose social media profiles were a bit too lefty for them. In fact, it plays into the hands of lefty conspiracy theorists that someone who would, if he’d voted at all, have voted for Liz Kendall, received a ballot and they didn’t.
During the leadership campaign, Tim Farron made a number of videos. They mostly involved him sitting down and just talking about the issues closest to his heart. We thought we would repeat them here so people outside the party could see what makes this man tick.
Housing is one of his key priorities. He famously got into politics after watching the heartbreaking Cathy Come Home. Here he is talking about the importance of building more houses and opposing the Tories’ plans to give Housing Association tenants the right to buy.
In the run-up to Autumn Conference in Bournemouth, we’ll be looking ahead to examine the highlights in the debating hall, the fringe and training rooms. You can find the papers here. You can find all the posts in the series here.
For those of you who haven’t been to Conference before, I thought it might be useful to run through how Conference debates work.
Local parties, groups of Conference representatives and organisations (SAOs) like Liberal Youth and Lib Dem Women can submit motions to Conference. They are then circulated and are open to amendment. This year’s deadline for amendments is 1pm on Monday 7th September, so if you want to amend any of the motions, persuade 10 Conference representatives, or persuade your local party or an SAO to submit it for you. You can submit amendments online here and until next Tuesday at 1pm, you can even get drafting advice from expert motion writers here.
It’s Friday, so it must be time to read Civil Service World, which sounds like one of those publications they feature at the end of “Have I got news for you?”. (Baroness) Lindsay Northover tells the magazine about her experiences of working with civil servants, while serving as a whip in the coalition government. Lindsay is very complimentary, in the main, about civil servants. She tells of one of the challenges of coalition government:
In just four weeks’ time, Liberal Democrats will be flocking to Bourmemouth for our annual Autumn Conference. I’m so looking forward to it because I have never been there.
Every day between now and then, we’ll be previewing the debates, the fringe, the training and telling you everything you could possibly want to know about the event.
As it’s Friday afternoon, we’ll keep today’s preview lighthearted. Many of you will be delighted to see that the #libdemdisco is back. Last year, the event, run by Cambridge Liberal Democrats, was a huge hit. I was lucky enough to be one of the DJs, competing against Tim Farron, Alistair Carmichael and Don Foster. I was pretty surprised to come second in that illustrious field to Alistair Carmichael. Now it’s time to dust off the glitter balls for this year’s event.
So said the email from one of last year’s organisers. I was determined that as we were in Glasgow, we should do something Scottish. And it went remarkably well, as Paul Walter’s video shows:
I’ve long said that ALDC (the Association of Lib Dem Councillors and Campaigners) is pretty much essential for anyone involved in Liberal Democrat campaigns. Of course, I would say that, because I’ve been a member of the organisation for a long time. But even with that interest declared, I’m sure most people would agree that they have loads of practical advice and campaign ideas and will be a vital part of ensuring that activists have the skills to fight future campaigns.
Today the Autumn edition of their Local Campaigner magazine arrived with members. It’s full of really interesting articles including:
One of the most positive aspects of the #LibDemFightback since May has been the enthusiasm among our influx of new members to fight for a Yes vote in the forthcoming EU referendum. A recent survey found this was their number one reason (quoted by 84%) for joining the party. With the government gearing up for a vote as early as June next year, there is no doubt that Liberal Democrats must play a central role, both in the campaign and – crucially – the passage of the Referendum Bill, which defines the question, timetable, and franchise.
Incredibly though, the government looks set on excluding from the referendum the very people whose lives will be most directly affected by the result. Britain is now home to around 2.4 million citizens from other EU countries – who are, incidentally, among those who contribute most to our economy and society. Meanwhile, an estimated 2.2 million British citizens live in other EU countries. Both groups owe their residence to the free movement rights which stem directly from EU citizenship – yet under current plans, neither will have an automatic say in the referendum which will determine where they are allowed to live and work.
Charles Kennedy represented his highland constituency for 32 years, and his constituency office was based in Dingwall. Next Monday evening, there will be a memorial service for Charles in the town:
We are hosting a public service in memory of Charles Kennedy on Aug 24th, 6pm at St Clement’s Church, Dingwall. A warm invitation to all.
— Highland Lib Dems (@HighlandLibDems) August 18, 2015
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie will give a tribute to Charles and the service will feature music composed by Charles’ father, Ian Kennedy, who also died earlier this year.
This summer, the global news media was not at all rocked to its foundations by news of New Zealand’s forthcoming referendum on a national flag. The centre-right National Party led by John Key is in the middle of a (possibly misjudged) bid for centre-ground opinion by pursuing a symbolic rebranding of the nation. In a country with a complex colonial legacy, this is arguably opening a can of worms – but maybe a necessary one.
I’m in no position to assess the relative merits of the many flag proposals, but I am intrigued by the process. A long-list will be …
The SNP is currently choosing its candidates for the Scottish Parliament. Like the Liberal Democrats, they allow challenges of sitting parliamentarians. Two MSPs have been deselected so far. Of greatest interest to Liberal Democrat fortunes is the deselection of Colin Keir in Edinburgh Western. The seat will now be fought by Toni Giulani who had the backing of former SNP leader and first minister Alex Salmond. In our party it would simply not be permitted for a senior, powerful party figure to take such an influential public stance in a selection.
SNP parliamentarians already have a fairly draconian disciplinary code to obey. They are not allowed to publicly criticise any decisions of the group and have had very few rebels in parliamentary votes. Their MSPs are, on the whole, pretty compliant. When two of them voted against the party’s new position on NATO in a vote at their conference, they resigned from the party. It now seems that if their faces don’t fit, key players will contribute to your demise.
Alex Cole-Hamilton is our candidate in Edinburgh Western. He also tops the party’s Lothian regional list. Although we lost Mike Crockart in Edinburgh West in May, the SNP’s margin of victory was comparatively small, our West campaign organisation is pretty strong and the SNP have given up any benefits of incumbency.
With only one week left to go, ALDC are still looking for nominations for the best Liberal Democrat campaigners to be recognised at our Awards event in September.
It’s a great opportunity for ALDC to highlight the best campaigning teams in our party and give them the recognition they deserve. Last year’s overall winners were Kirklees whose campaign for 2014 started as soon as the results were announced in 2012.
Each year, ALDC recognises the outstanding work of local Focus teams through our Campaigner Awards. This year, our categories are:
To submit your nomination with relevant examples of artwork and photos, please fill in the linked form and send any supporting material to [email protected].
It may not have done Labour much good, but Ed Miliband’s biggest achievement of the whole election in my mind came when he managed to secure an endorsement from Russell Brand. Not that I’m saying having Russell Brand back you is that great, but it’s an achievement. Why? Because he is a figure that many young people look up to and pay attention to and – regardless of whether we think that’s a good idea or not – we have to respect that.
The BBC news website reported the other day that vloggers (Video Bloggers) had been given advertising guidelines. This increase is due to the fact that “YouTube celebrities” are now effectively plain old “celebrities”, with figures such as the writer and one half of the vlogging duo “Vlogbrothers” John Green celebrating the release of the film “Paper Towns”, one of his own novels. As the article states “Nearly a quarter of 11 to 19-year-old girls (24%) view well-known fashion and beauty vlogger Zoella as a role model”, hardly a small audience.
This is a realm of influence as yet mostly untapped by the other parties. I remember a few years ago the vlogger/comedian Humza Arshad made a video endorsing Ken Livingston for the Mayoral election, again I hear you say it may not have changed much but the influence is there. Humza now works with police to counter extremism in young people further demonstrating the influence these YouTube have with younger audiences.
ITV News reports that Duwayne Brooks “has pulled out of the race to be London’s next mayor”. The report continues:
Brooks, a former Lewisham councillor, was named today as one of two Lib Dems on the party’s shortlist along with London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon.
But the Liberal Democrats then revealed he was no longer taking part in the contest because of his role in a review of stop and search by police in Northamptonshire.
“Unfortunately Duwayne Brooks has since withdrawn from the Mayoral selection owing to a new professional commitment with a Police Authority which prevents him from going forward.”
– Liberal Democrat statement
Tim Farron has written to Theresa May to ask her to help the refugees in Calais. He visited the port earlier this month and saw for himself the conditions people had to live in and also heard some of their stories. Here is his letter in full:
Dear Theresa,
I am writing to you about the humanitarian crisis in Calais ahead of your meeting with French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve later this week.
I welcome the measures the Government has already taken to improve the security situation at the Eurotunnel and reduce the disruption which has been caused for British businesses and holidaymakers, but am writing to ask that the UK do more to ensure that the humanitarian crisis in Calais is properly recognised and addressed.
Having visited the Jules Ferry migrant support centre in Calais and met with organisations working on the ground, it is clear that many of those living in “the jungle” are refugees fleeing war and persecution. The organisations who are currently working to support these very vulnerable people are under extreme pressure. The conditions in Calais fall far short of international standards on the treatment and welfare of refugees. Water and sanitation are all in short supply and medical support stretched beyond capacity. Many are being forced to subsist on the one meal a day that the centre is able to provide. More funding and better coordination are urgently needed, and the UK needs to do more. It is absolutely right that we work together with the French to fund improvements in security at the Eurotunnel and action on people trafficking, but the humanitarian support that is so desperately needed must also be adequately funded.
Liberal Democrat MSP Jim Hume has been writing on the Scottish Liberal Democrat website about the crisis in mental health care in Scotland, where they haven’t had a Norman Lamb in power transforming mental health provision.
In Scotland during the last 5 years, over 4000 people were treated outside their own health board. Jim says that’s not good enough:
Despite the number of patients being discharged from psychiatric hospitals in Scotland falling dramatically in the past decade, hundreds of patients are still facing being treated away from their families and communities.
There will always be some patients who need to be sent to specialist clinics outside of their health board for treatment. But it is clear that mental health units across the country are struggling to cope with demand on their services.
We know that sending patients out of area can isolate them from their support networks, including friends, families and their community care team.
The life-changing nature of such a move means it could also have implications for the civil liberties of an indidividual – which must be considered under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003.
It can be detrimental to a persons recovery.
About a year and a half ago, I wrote an article about how the behaviour of some men was driving women out of politics. I said:
I’ve seen good women driven away from active politics out of sheer exasperation at the way powerful men exclude and demean them. Participation in politics should not require putting up with such behaviour and politics itself is better when it more accurately reflects the society we live in.
A start would be for us all to be much more aware of our behaviour and that of others. Men in powerful positions, have a look at your own behaviour. Do you exclude women, do you behave aggressively towards them in a way that you would never do to a man? If so, change your behaviour. Decide that you won’t do that in future. It’s not difficult.
The rest of us need to look out for women who are being treated like this and challenge disrespectful behaviour. Even if we don’t agree with what they say, we should always support their right to be heard and treated with dignity. Let’s tackle our everyday sexism.
The comments thread that followed was dominated by men, some more helpful than others, but, behind the scenes, so many women contacted me privately to share their experiences of sexism not just in our party but in others. I don’t for a minute think that our party is any more sexist than society or other political parties, but that’s not to say that we should just put up with it. This party needs to show that it is a welcoming place for everybody.
On 16th September, it’ll be 17 years since I last had a cigarette. I was one of those smokers who never really wanted to give up, who really enjoyed a cigarette. However, my consumption was a bit worrying – at least a pack of 20 a day.
It was pregnancy which forced my hand. From the moment I saw the positive test, I have not had another cigarette. That doesn’t mean that I never want one. Even after all this time, the smell can (especially after a few wines) set off all the old cravings. Giving up just like that was far from easy and I doubt I would ever have managed it if I hadn’t had that overwhelming incentive to do so. I daren’t have even one or I think that road back to a pack a day would be very short.
I had no choice but to just give up without any help other than the daily “I really want a cigarette, talk to me until the craving goes away” phone calls to various people. They were remarkably effective, by the way. In the same circumstances, that would be the same today. I wouldn’t be able to use e-cigarettes. Evidence suggests, however, that they are 95% less harmful than ordinary cigarettes and can help people give up smoking for good.
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