There’s been an almighty row in the Coalition over which Private Members Bills should be given government support.
The Liberal Democrats had offered the Tories a deal which would have given both Bob Neill’s Bill on an EU referendum and Andrew George’s on the Bedroom Tax a fair chance of becoming law. In return, the Tories offered the Liberal Democrats a deal under which only the EU Bill would have stood a chance. We’d have been daft to have let them away with it.
Today in the House of Lords, Baroness Joan Walmsley and the Lib Dems secured an agreement from the Government on the Serious Crime Bill, for a major consultation on introducing rules on mandatory reporting of child abuse.
At our recent Federal Conference in Glasgow, Liberal Democrats passed new Party policy in support of requiring those who work with children and vulnerable adults to be required by law to report to the authorities if they have any suspicion that abuse is taking place. However, despite debates on this and other amendments concerning child abuse being debates, Ukip members of the House of Lords failed again to participate in this work.
Ukip’s hypocrisy is breath-taking. They issue a photograph of a girl with the headline ‘There are 1400 reasons why you should not trust Labour again’ in Rotherham, but their record on tackling serious child abuse issue is disgraceful.
There’s a by-election taking place this Thursday. The good news is the Lib Dems won’t lose our deposit.
The reason is the party’s not standing a candidate in the Police and Crime Commissioner by-election triggered by the resignation of former PCC Shaun Wright over the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal.
Here’s how Nick Clegg explained the decision to the BBC earlier this month:
“Having looked at the experiment of police and crime commissioners, I’ve come to the conclusion it just doesn’t work. Look what happened in South Yorkshire and across the whole of the north of England; it’s all re-hashed, re-tread Labour politicians and, guess what, the public don’t like it and they don’t bother to vote for it at all.”
The BBC reports on this year’s Gender Gap report published by the World Economic Forum which shows a narrowing of the gender gap worldwide. 105 companies have seen improvements and Rwanda becomes African’s newest entry, right in at number 7, reflective of its high female participation in the workforce.
It’s worth having a look at the full report and individual country profiles.
Rwanda finds itself a whole 19 places above the UK. While we do ok on health and education, our gender pay gap is not good, and neither is our female participation in politics. We also get extra points because we have a female head of state which, if things continue as they are at present, will not be the case within, most likely, the next decade and a half.
Sarah Teather has been writing for the Guardian about the problems created by so-called revenge eviction and how her Private Members’ Bill will tackle it. First she gave an example of what had happened to her constituent:
Last month, a constituent came to my office in Brent for help after his landlord served him with an eviction notice. His property suffered from severe cold and a cockroach infestation, and following an environmental health inspection the council served notice on the landlord to fix the property. The landlord decided to evict my constituent and re-let the flat instead.
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams emailed Welsh members yesterday about the current war of words over the Welsh NHS. Here’s what she said:
“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
This is the third in the series about Alice and her experience of ‘the system’ and covers her life as a young adult. The first article, introducing the series, can be found here and the second, on her adoption and early life, here.
It’s taken me longer to write this article than I thought it would. Things have been difficult for Alice over the past few months; she has recently come off her meds and we’re dealing with the fallout (my contribution is largely indirect, trying to support my mum), and I haven’t had the heart to bring myself to write about it. David Cameron’s “family test” fired me up again though.
The government’s support for HS2, despite the critics, has shown a real commitment to providing adequate transport links to sustain the UK and give the North a fairer deal as we head into the mid 21st century. We Lib Dems can be proud to be some of the program’s most enthusiastic and enduring supporters. The announcement yesterday of the creation of Transport for the North and the government’s support for HS3 means the North may finally start to enjoy the benefits of transport investment equivalent to the £17bn Crossrail and £6bn Thameslink that benefit London.This is a project worthy of our support, but there are a few questions to be answered.
If you are a party member, you might want to head to this thread on our Members’ Forum to see the lists of people standing for the Party Committees. The ballot will be conducted predominantly online with links to the ballot being provided to those Conference Representatives for whom the party has an email address. Those emails will be being despatched imminently. Ballots will be sent by post to those for whom there is no email address. The postie will be struggling up the path with the weight of the mailing – there are over 100 candidates for the 42 places on the three committees.
Yesterday, Alistair Carmichael spoke at a Green investment conference in Edinburgh, which is, of course, home to the Green Investment Bank.
It was a strong pitch to persuade those attending that the Liberal Democrats are delivering in Government on policies that are both green and pro-businesss. Here are some of the highlights.
Being Scotland, there had to be a bit on the constitution, though, and the Smith Commission:
Elle magazine is doing a big push for feminism at the moment. It attempted to get the three main party leaders south of the border to wear their “This is what a feminist looks like” t-shirt.
Ed Miliband was happy to do it and so was Nick Clegg, who said:
I support equality and choice – so yes, I’m a feminist. How on earth in this day and age can you not be? As a wiser person than me once said: “Men who actually treat women as equals are the ones with more cojones.”
That wiser person is, of course, is his wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, who made the comment in relation to childcare earlier this year, much to the consternation of the Daily Fail.
David Cameron decided not to risk the wrath of the right wing tabloids by daring to wear a t-shirt with the F word on it. Elle magazine aren’t wildly chuffed about that. Editor-in-chief Lorraine Candy said:
We asked the Prime Minister five times if he would wear the Fawcett Society’s iconic This Is What A Feminist Looks Like slogan T-shirt and send us a snapshot (it would only take 10 minutes). Five times, he declined. This is a shame on so many levels, especially given he knew Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband had agreed without hesitation, alongside many other influential men who were more than happy to call themselves feminists. It seems the Prime Minister still has an issue with the word “feminist”.
I was personally disappointed that we couldn’t feature Mr Cameron in our Feminism Issue because it is ELLE’s aim to engage with men in the fight for equality: because of parliament’s current gender imbalance, it is men who have the power to make changes in every area of British women’s lives. When the man in charge doesn’t engage, it doesn’t bode well. Given the huge international male support for UN Women’s #HeForShe campaign, it does rather make our Prime Minister look like the odd one out.’
Interviewed in the Sunday Telgraph, Ed Davey, the Energy Secretary, said that he had asked the energy regulators for extra contingency measures to cut consumption in event of a cold winter or more power station failures.
Emergency plans will be announced tomorrow in which hotels will be paid to turn down refrigerators and factories paid to make staff work overnight to cut energy consumption and prevent blackouts this winter.
Let’s bankrupt Britain’s businesses and, once we’re done, burn the buildings to the ground.
This is what you might have thought I’d said last week, if you saw some of the reaction to my plans to increase fathers’ rights when it comes to shared parental leave.
Nick Clegg was writing on Mumsnet at the weekend, dealing with some of the misleading and downright misogynistic claims made in the media about the scheme. As he made clear:
The next 5 years will be amongst the most important for the Liberal Democrats, for Britain and for the European Union.
Liberal Democrats face three important European challenges, to:
These challenges are all important. All the people we care about in our communities will be affected by these three events. None of these three challenges will be easy to meet. Nor can we wait.
We all know that electoral reform to both houses is important to us a party, quite rightly so. The current system is appalling, First Past The Post for the Commons does not bring fair votes for the electorate and at best only around 40% of voters voted for any government of the day (meaning of course 60% didn’t). The House of Lords is even worse, un-democratic and reeking of an old boys’ network.
However, that’s not to say that we shouldn’t have a two house system – of course we should. The scrutiny of a second chamber of government is vital to well thought out and properly debated laws and policy. But how do we get to the utopia of two proportionally elected chambers?
The answer is, I think, remarkably simple: piecemeal.
Scandals such as those around MP’s expenses led to calls for legislation to allow MPs who had behaved badly to be recalled, so that their electorate could have a prompt chance to give a verdict on the wrongdoing. To this end, we promised in our manifesto to allow for recalls for MPs who had committed ‘serious misconduct’. The Tories promised the same, and Labour offered recall for ‘financial misconduct’.
I believe that that is the right thing to do, and is the reasoning for the Recall of MPs Bill, currently before the House of Commons. It passed its second reading unanimously last week, and the details are being debated in a Committee of the Whole House today.
Firstly, I must admit that I have an interest in this subject; not only as Lead Member for Adult Social Care, and as Chair of our local Health & Wellbeing Board, but as a registered, practising social worker. This week NHS England set out an ambitious vision for the NHS over the coming five years. A vision which breaks down the barriers between GP’s and hospital care, which moves more healthcare back into the communities which desperately need it and places public health front and centre in a bid to create a Health Service fit for the 21st century.
Local government is mentioned numerous times in this visionary document. Our recently returned responsibility for Public Health will become even more significant over the next 5 years. The roles and responsibilities of Health and Wellbeing Boards are discussed as possible conduits for local commissioning and decision making. All welcome and in line with our Liberal Democratic view of the world. In this field of policy we as a party have made huge strides in the Department of Health through Paul Burstow and Norman Lamb; integrating budgets, mental health waiting times, carers’ rights and, fundamentally, the Care Act.
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 395th 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 (-, 2014), 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:
The more time I spend with him (Carswell), the more bewildered I am. Why on earth did he join Ukip? Well, he says, he could hardly have moved over to Clegg’s lot. “If the Liberal Democrats hadn’t made 20 years of errors, yes. But they have made it very clear that they’re not liberal and that they’re on the side of the elites, not the people.” If Gladstone was such a hero, why didn’t he stand as an independent one-man Liberal party candidate? He laughs. “Well I toyed with the idea…
Interview with Douglas Carswell, The Guardian, 19th October 2014
28th August 2014
Before a packed room of journalists, all looking around eagerly for suspected impresario Nigel Farage to emerge, Douglas Carswell finally stepped out onto the stage, alone, having called a press conference only hours beforehand. He announced that, after a long struggle with his conscience, he had come to a decision:
“The main parties are not serious about real change. It’s above all the failure to deliver on the promise of political reform that has driven me to be here today. Europe’s the one continent on the globe that is not growing … yet who in Westminster, who among our so-called leaders, is prepared to envisage real change? The call for an independent, reformist, libertarian voice is a demand I feel I can no longer ignore.”
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 7 days:
If you have half an hour today, make sure you listen to the Week in Westminster, available here on iPlayer.
In it, Tom Brake debates the merits of fixed term Parliaments. The Tory argument against them seems to be more based in self interest and “we are sick fed up of the coalition and these pesky Liberal Democrats” than anything that actually matters.
Sal Brinton is also on talking about revenge porn which was made illegal in moves driven by Liberal Democrats including Sal, Olly Grender, Jonathan Marks and Liz Barker. Presenter Helen Lewis had initially said that the move was part of Chris Grayling’s move to combat internet abuse. Sal put her right, explaining that the impetus actually came from Liberal Democrats on the back of Hannah Thompson’s campaign. She was very diplomatic about the process of getting Government support for the move. You’ll have to listen to see how, in the last few minutes of the programme.
Many thanks to the 15,700 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…
Confused Britain (60 comments) by Scott Stables
Linda Jack drops out of race for party president (58 comments) by Mary Reid
Is this the front page of the next Lib Dem manifesto? (88 comments) by Stephen Tall
10 years on from the Orange Book, what should authentic liberalism look like? (78 comments) by Stephen Tall
“Duraàntezmania: that has legs” and other compliments for Miriam (74 comments) by The Voice
I had planned to be in Stockport this afternoon. A bit of a health scare for my poor husband means that I can’t make it but my heart is there with my friends Alex Wilcock and Richard Flowers. It’s twenty years today since they first got together and they are celebrating by getting married. It’s the Wedding of the Year for the Liberal Democrat Blogosphere
Both have been star Liberal Democrat bloggers for some time. Richard won our Blog of the Year in 2010 for his Very Fluffy Diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant. Alex is constantly challenging us to be better at articulating our liberal values on Love and Liberty. Both of these blogs are proper food for the Liberal Democrat soul.
Here’s my pick of today’s Sunday papers. Please add your favourite stories in the comments.
First up, an article in the Independent reports criticism of Nick Clegg’s failure to put a woman in the Cabinet from Alice Thomas (citing her article on here) and from Presidential candidate Daisy Cooper.
Hannah Summers reports in the Sunday Times (£) on the casting for a new drama about the formation of the Coalition. Doctor Who and Sherlock writer Mark Gatiss, who also plays the shadowy Mycoft Holmes in the latter, has been cast as Peter Mandelson. Writer James Graham is interviewed
The pivotal part of the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg has gone to Bertie Carvel, who won an Olivier award in 2012 for his performance as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical.
“It’s the texting, the calls, the clandestine meetings between the three leaders, but primarily it focuses on Clegg,” Graham said of the drama.
“He went from being this harmless outsider and figure of fun to facing this incredible rollercoaster and essentially becoming a kingmaker . . . Nobody had experience of building a coalition. They were bluffing their way through, which brings an endearing, farcical feel to it.”
Well, you thought we were all about constitutions and Focus leaflets, didn’t you? Well, the Mirror reports that, apparently, Liberal Democrat supporters have the most adventurous sex lives of all political supporters. This all comes from a book to be published next week called Sex, lies and the ballot box: 50 things you need to know about British elections by Philip Cowley and Robert Ford. That’ll be winging its way to my Kindle on Tuesday. I’ll let you know what I think of it in due course.
I’m sorry if this is too delicate a subject for this time in the morning and if you have choked on your Corn Flakes, I hope you got your breath back quickly.
There has been a flurry of interest in cities and the economic regeneration of the North from all sides of the political spectrum over the past few months, so it was not surprising to see them feature strongly during party conference season.
Over the three weeks, we created a platform for each of the parties to debate and explore how their parties could turn the rhetoric into reality, and win the hearts and minds of Britain’s cities at the 2015 Election. It was fascinating to see representatives of Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems argue that their party alone possessed an unrivalled philosophical affinity with urban voters.
(Pictured is the Centre for Cities fringe meeting, co-hosted with LibDemVoice – “Urban battlegrounds: how can the Liberal Democrats win in cities in 2015?” – with Stephen Williams MP, Cllr Wendy Taylor (Newcastle) and Lord (Ben) Stoneham.)
The Scottish Labour Party has been thrown into turmoil by the sudden resignation of its leader, Johann Lamont. Her decision effectively sets Labour’s Holyrood and Westminster camps in open warfare against each other.
Lamont threw in the towel after discovering that Scottish Labour’s General Secretary Ian Price had been removed from office without her even being consulted. I have to say that I am beyond furious about the way Ian has been treated. He is a friend of mine and an opponent who is worthy of respect. The problems faced by the Labour Party are primarily to do with their sense of entitlement to power and their predilection towards factionalism, personality cults and in-fighting, not a pragmatic, sensible general secretary who could actually have been part of the solution if he’d been allowed. I do not like seeing my friends being treated badly.
Here’s the full list of selection contests in the coming month available for Lib Dems on the approved parliamentary candidates’ list, together with the closing date for applications. They include Taunton Deane, Jeremy Browne’s seat since 2005, and which he held at the last election with a majority of 3,993 (6.9%) over the Conservatves.
The following seats have selections in progress and are currently advertising for candidates:
Lord (Paddy) Ashdown, former international High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006, led this week’s House of Lords debate on the situation in the country following its recent election. Here’s what he had to say…
Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon (LD): My Lords, a few months before the last election in the last months of 2009, my right honourable friend William Hague and I—well, at least he was not my right honourable friend then, but he is today; he was then the shadow Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs—wrote a joint article for the British and foreign press on Bosnia and Herzegovina. We complained bitterly that Bosnia was stuck, that the progress that we had made during the previous 10 years had gone backwards, that the tone of nationalistic rhetoric had risen, that this was dangerous and that Bosnia remained stuck in a mire of dysfunctionality and corruption.
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Reform donations row shows how facts get trampled at Westminster (David Vigar)
The Independent View: Turning back the tide on free speech (Jack Coulson)
Britain has too much government and too little democratic power (James Dennison)
Foreign interference in British politics: How the Liberal Democrats man meet the challenge (Larry Ngan)
Mathew on Monday: It’s time to take big money out of British politics (Mathew Hulbert)
Government must do more to help people onto the housing ladder
The foxes who visited London Zoo with deadly intent
9 tips for speaking at a Liberal Democrat conference
Coyote vs. Acme: "A warm and witty and weirdly moving film"
The Joy of Six 1577
How to fix the problem of money in our politics
Is Reform UK self-destructing in Wales?
Jason Connor 
Tim 
George Thomas 
Chloe 
Jana 
