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Opinion: Making the two-year-old programme work

By Cara Jenkinson | Mon 21st July 2014 - 10:54 am

I’m a governor at Seven Sisters Primary School and South Grove Children’s Centre in Tottenham, where we’ve been running a programme for two-year-olds from deprived backgrounds for the last three years. We’ve tracked the progress these children make, and it’s clear there are real benefits. This is a good Lib Dem policy, aiming to break down the barriers that hold back children from poorer families.

In September, the eligibility criteria for the programme will be widened, so that around 40% of two-year-olds become eligible. In Haringey, that means that …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged early years education | 4 Comments

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LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By The Voice | Sun 20th July 2014 - 4:45 pm

Many thanks to the 17,000 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

UPDATED: Sarah Yong stands down as Lib Dem candidate for marginal seat of Somerton and Frome (12 comments) by Stephen Tall

++ Breaking… Clegg: “We must axe Bedroom Tax” (72) by Caron Lindsay

Lessons must be learned from the Jo Swinson speculation (36) by Caron Lindsay

ICM poll: Tories edge ahead of Labour, while Ukip collapse to 4th behind Lib Dems (18) by Stephen Tall

Reshuffle: One Nation Toryism has

…

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Posted in Site news | 1 Comment

Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland becomes first MP to play rugby for GB

By The Voice | Sun 20th July 2014 - 3:47 pm

Greg Mulholland, Lib Dem MP for Leeds North, made a little bit of history last week:

On Saturday 12th July I had the huge honour of becoming the first MP to pull on the famous Great Britain white shirt with the red and blue ‘V’, and play for his country at rugby league. I was selected as part of the 20 man GB side who defeated Australia in the over 35s international in Warrington.

How did he get on? Well, you can find out over at the party’s Ad Lib …

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Posted in News | Tagged greg mulholland, leeds north west and rugby | 2 Comments

Clegg refused to speak to Gove “for months”, told Cameron “life is too short” to continue rowing

By The Voice | Sun 20th July 2014 - 2:00 pm

That’s the claim in today’s Independent:

Nick Clegg has refused to speak to Michael Gove “for months”, according to a source close to the Deputy Prime Minister, revealing the extent of the breakdown at the heart of the coalition.

Mr Clegg was involved in a number of vicious stand-offs with Mr Gove over his unpopular, reformist agenda before his shock demotion from Education Secretary to Chief Whip in last week’s reshuffle. The row escalated after the Lib Dems forced through a free school meals policy for five- and

…

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Posted in News | Tagged dominic cummings, michael gove and miriam gonzalez durantez | 10 Comments

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Jo Swinson launches Lib Dem campaign to deliver equal pay in the workplace

By The Voice | Sun 20th July 2014 - 12:00 pm

In an email to party members, Jo Swinson, Lib Dem Minister for Consumer Affairs & Equalities, has launched a new campaign to deliver equal pay in the workplace:

Shockingly, in 2012 women were paid nearly 20% less than their male colleagues. It is an unacceptable difference and one the Liberal Democrats are determined to tackle.

Today we’re announcing plans to require large companies to publish the difference in pay between male and female workers. This will create pressure from staff and customers to close any pay gap and

…

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Posted in News | Tagged equalities and Jo Swinson | 40 Comments

The Lib Dems’ ‘bedroom tax’ U-turn: new poll on what the voters think about it

By Stephen Tall | Sun 20th July 2014 - 11:15 am

The Lib Dems announced a few days ago the party’s 2015 manifesto would propose reform of the ‘bedroom tax’ / ‘spare room subsidy’, which would means no tenant would have any of their housing benefit withdrawn unless they had turned down an offer of a smaller property.

It was a long overdue climbdown – as I wrote in April 2013: “The principle of the ‘bedroom tax’, then — to try and maximise the availability of social housing and reduce the chronic waiting lists — is …

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Posted in News and Polls | Tagged bedroom tax, mike smithson, nick clegg and yougov | 15 Comments

My pick of 15 top books to read this summer

By Stephen Tall | Sun 20th July 2014 - 10:20 am

The newspapers are awash with summer best-reads at the moment, as well-known writers pick the books to relax with by the pool. You know the kind of thing: “It’s at this time of year I typically embark on re-reading Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu, translating it into Russian (which I’m learning to relax as I prepare for my Grade 8 piano exam) from our rustic cottage in Tuscany.” Or, alternatively: “Here’s a book written by my mate.”

Always eager to copy a …

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Posted in Books | Tagged featured | 4 Comments

Lib Dems need to stick their head above the parapet on immigration and asylum seekers #slfconf

By Paul Walter | Sat 19th July 2014 - 12:39 pm

Liberal Democrats for Seekers of Sanctuary held a thoughtful and impassioned break-out session at the Social Liberal Forum conference today.

Suzanne Fletcher gave some interesting updates from her key involvement in the recent policy working party on Immigration, Asylum and Social Cohesion. Suzanne stressed how important it is for policy-makers to get their terminology right. Illegal immigrants get mixed up with asylum seekers. Asylum seekers get confused with refugees. Deportation gets conflated with removal. It’s not just the Daily Mail …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged asylum seekers and immigration bill | 20 Comments

Catherine Bearder MEP writes…Working with the new European Commission

By Catherine Bearder | Sat 19th July 2014 - 12:30 pm

While the UK media has been focusing on Cameron’s cabinet reshuffle and what it means for the Tories’ 2015 election strategy, an even bigger shake-up has been taking place in the running of the European Union. A bit like during the Lib Dem European election campaign, the most frequently heard words this week in Brussels and Strasbourg have been “jobs, jobs, jobs”, and this time it is all about our own.

The last time we were in Strasbourg two weeks ago the Parliament sorted out who got what …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged eu, european commission and Jean-Claude Juncker | 4 Comments

Nick Clegg on Sunday Brunch this week

By The Voice | Sat 19th July 2014 - 11:56 am

According to Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, Nick Clegg will be appearing on their programme on Sunday at 10 am.

The programme tweeted about it today:

Sunday! @CherLloyd, @millsmackintosh, @nick_clegg, @Iwanrunner, @realmatbaynton, @ValentineWarner, Phil off Time Team! @timlovejoy @simonrim

— Sunday Brunch (@SundayBrunchC4) July 18, 2014

Our slight worry is that they generally ask the guests to cook on this programme and we know that, shall we say, cooking isn’t Nick’s strong point. Not only that, but one of the other guests, Millie Mackintosh, was on Celebrity Masterchef recently and, in the opinion of some, …

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Posted in News | Tagged nick clegg and sunday brunch | 3 Comments

Lord Roger Roberts writes… Exit checks and the Eurotunnel: A logistical nightmare

By Lord Roger Roberts | Sat 19th July 2014 - 9:46 am

The Coalition Agreement included a commitment to reintroduce exit checks by the end of this Parliament.

But any means of noting or recording who enters and who leaves the UK was removed in 1998 by Labour, who considered the checks, ‘an inefficient use of resources … contributing little to the integrity of the immigration control’. Clearly, today’s debate on immigration has moved on considerably.

Since the early ‘Noughties’, successive attempts have been made to restore some form of border records, principally through the introduction of technology-based checks for anyone departing the UK as part of a new ‘e-Borders’ programme. It …

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Posted in News | Tagged borders, eurotunnel, exit checks and immigration | 11 Comments

Review of 2014 European and Local Election Campaign

By James Gurling | Fri 18th July 2014 - 8:00 pm

After the elections in May, the Leader tasked a group with reviewing the elections, assessing what worked and what didn’t, and produce recommendations to improve our campaigning for the future.

On Monday, the Review Group presented our findings to the Leader and later to the Federal Executive. I am pleased to say that they endorsed both the report and its recommendations, and we will now set about putting them into practice well in advance of next year’s elections.

In what was the most-read Party email in some time, more than 700 …

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Posted in News | Tagged elections 2014, gurling review and james gurling | 69 Comments

Opinion: Lib Dem ‘hypocrisy’ on bedroom tax unfair

By Patrick McAuley | Fri 18th July 2014 - 5:56 pm

I have to defend accusations my party is being ‘hypocritical’ over its stance on the Bedroom Tax.

Thanks to Liberal Democrats being in control in Stockport we were able to introduce a local policy with our hardship fund that meant our residents would not have to pay retrospectively if there was nowhere to move into. Therefore according to Chris Bryant or Labour’s definition there is no bedroom tax in Stockport.

In Stockport the Lib Dem-led Council used the powers at its disposal …

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Posted in Op-eds | 33 Comments

By-election update: A very near miss

By ALDC | Fri 18th July 2014 - 4:04 pm

This week saw nine by-elections in principal authorities – Argyll & Bute, Cornwall, East Dorset, Harrogate, two in Herefordshire, Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, Oxford and Redditch.

In Harrogate Clare Skardon held Hookstone ward for the Liberal Democrats with 51.7% of the vote; an increase of 9.1%. Cllr Skardon successfully managed to squeeze all her opponents’ share of the vote: the Conservatives acquired 32.1% of the votes (-1.8%), UKIP were third with 12% (-4.3%) and Labour came last with 4.1% (-3%). Cllr Skardon puts her …

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Posted in News | Tagged aldc and by-election results | 7 Comments

Opinion: I’ve got the Orange Book blues

By Paul Reynolds | Fri 18th July 2014 - 2:39 pm

There have been many articles in LDV on the recent ‘Orange Book Two’ conference but I wanted to comment, by way of reflection a month later, on the sum of the more classical liberal ideas presented at the conference, particularly my slight feeling of, well, perhaps ‘emptiness’, as I left the conference for a flight at Heathrow.

The presentations and speeches were polished, interesting, stimulating, and full of fact-based insights especially on issues such as the dangers of an overbearing government and how the sheer volume of economic regulation …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged centre forum orange book 10 years on and orange book | 12 Comments

PSA: Advance rail tickets for Glasgow are now available

By Alisdair Calder McGregor | Fri 18th July 2014 - 12:58 pm

The cost of Conference, especially of travel, can be a burden on those of us attending conference, so it’s worth noting that Advance tickets to get to Glasgow on the 3rd & back on the 8th of October are now available on the national rail website.

Advance will be the cheapest available ticket type, but can be used on the booked train only – no open transfers, so choose carefully!

Furthermore, if you are planning to travel with a friend in both directions, it’s a good idea to …

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Posted in News | 7 Comments

Lower unemployment and more full time jobs

By Joe Otten | Fri 18th July 2014 - 11:44 am

Recently I wrote about challenging Labour’s narrative on unemployment with the facts. Since then, the points made in that article have been confirmed with even stronger jobs growth, lower unemployment, and a greater still proportion of full-time jobs.

Updates of those figures, and figures used in this article are summarised here drawn from data in here. The number of new, net, full-time jobs is now up to 1.3 million, and David Blunkett’s post-Soviet style meltdown more distant than ever.

I dealt in …

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Posted in News | 24 Comments

Opinion: How many all-male panels will there be at Autumn Conference?

By Daisy Cooper MP | Fri 18th July 2014 - 9:43 am

Personally, I’d like there to be none. And that’s why I have today written to Tim Gordon, CEO, and Tim Farron, party President, asking for a message to be sent to all internal and external organisations holding fringe events at Autumn conference, to remind them of the need for diverse panels, including gender balance. I’ve also asked that the same be done for all local parties who will soon be electing their Executives.

A while back, Mark Pack announced his decision to decline invitations to sit on …

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Posted in Op-eds | 7 Comments

Ed Davey MP writes…Investing in green energy

By Ed Davey | Thu 17th July 2014 - 9:15 pm

Today I published the Government’s first ever ‘Energy Investment Report’. It shows how Liberal Democrats in Government have delivered on jobs and investment in energy – particularly green energy – and shows the plan we now have for this to continue for decades to come.

Let me be clear – investment in the energy sector has not been a ‘nice to have’. We inherited a legacy of energy underinvestment from Labour and we’ve spent the last four years turning this around. The sheer scale of the investment has already …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged energy, featured and renewable energy | 34 Comments

The Independent View: Assisted Dying Bill – Open Letter to Liberal Democrat Peers

By Greg Judge | Thu 17th July 2014 - 8:18 pm

Tomorrow will see the Second Reading of Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill in the House of Lords and many Peers including Liberal Democrats have registered to speak on this issue of compassion and respect for choice at the end of life.

This Bill and its passage through your House will serve as one of the most important chapters of society’s story of compassion, we want you to know that your Party overwhelmingly supports you on legalising the choice of an assisted death for terminally ill dying people.

It has been reassuring …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged assisted dying bill, dignity in dying and featured | 11 Comments

Social Liberal Forum welcomes change of tack on “Bedroom Tax”

By Kelly-Marie Blundell | Thu 17th July 2014 - 4:46 pm

Following yesterday’s press release from Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander regarding the underoccupancy charge (known colloquially as “Bedroom Tax”) we’re delighted at the Social Liberal Forum.

The policy was introduced as a follow up to Labour’s introduction of the ‘Bedroom Tax’ for private tenants, and has left people with little housing options being penalised for being unable to move. Far from saving money, it simply created hostility in the social housing sector and brutally discriminated against those in poverty.

Members in the party have …

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Posted in News | 9 Comments

The Gender Agenda #2: Helping women climb the rungs of the activist ladder

By Alice Thomas | Thu 17th July 2014 - 3:10 pm

I think we all got into politics for one of three reasons: principle, policy or people. When it comes to joining a political party, most Liberal Democrats reading this will know which category they fall into. Maybe it was the idea that ‘no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity’; for some it was policies born from those principles, like electoral reform or fairer parental leave; and for others, it was the local councillor who took the time to get to know them and help when they needed …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged the gender agenda | 19 Comments

Opinion: Assisted suicide – why the Falconer Bill must be rejected

By Helen Tedcastle | Thu 17th July 2014 - 1:28 pm

The issue of assisted suicide and euthanasia has been presented in the media in a highly emotionally charged way in recent years, with several ‘hard cases’ of non-terminally ill people wanting to die. This has resulted in confusion over what exactly is at stake in the forthcoming Falconer Bill and of course, hard cases make bad law.

In the sad case of Tony Nicklinson, lawyers argued that he had Article 8 rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (respect for private life and family). In their view, …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged assisted suicide and lord falconer | 16 Comments

ICM poll: Tories edge ahead of Labour, while Ukip collapse to 4th behind Lib Dems

By Stephen Tall | Thu 17th July 2014 - 12:00 pm

Amidst all the reshuffle excitement, I didn’t get chance to report the latest ICM poll – regarded by pundits as the ‘gold standard’ – for The Guardian, published on Tuesday. It shows the Tories a nose ahead of Labour, 34% to 33%, with Ukip slumping to fourth place (9%) behind the Lib Dems on 12%.

The collapse of the Ukip vote is the most dramatic story in the poll – Nigel Farage’s party topped the nationwide Euro-elections just a few weeks ago. However, the pattern is a …

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Posted in Polls | Tagged icm and the guardian | 19 Comments

Opinion: Help stop lives being ruined by abusive practice of revenge pornography

By Hannah Thompson | Thu 17th July 2014 - 10:25 am

Next Monday, two amendments to criminalise revenge porn will go to the committee stage in the House of Lords.

For those who don’t know, revenge porn is non-consensual pornography. It’s where a person uploads an explicit image of somebody without their permission. Often the victim’s name and contact details are attached. Not only is it humiliating but it has the potential to reach out of the screen and destroy people’s lives.

The first amendment was submitted by a group of Liberal Democrats in the Lords. It states that ‘a person …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged revenge pornography | 12 Comments

LibLink: Danny Alexander: We want a fair housing benefit system for every tenant

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 17th July 2014 - 9:45 am

People wonder why Liberal Democrats supported the Bedroom Tax in the first place. Well, I spent 4 yesrs sitting beside a Liberal Democrat MP when maybe 5 families a week would come to us and say that they were stuck in a house that was way too small. Their kids had nowhere to study or play. That was what was foremost in their minds when they agreed the Bedroom Tax. They wanted to make it easier for those families. That was their motivation even though I think the …

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged bedroom tax, Danny Alexander, featured, the mirror and welfare reform | 31 Comments

Baroness Barker: Nicky Morgan’s appointment “disappointing”

By NewsHound | Thu 17th July 2014 - 9:09 am

The appointment of former treasury minister Nicky Morgan to the post of education secretary and minister for women and equalities has come under fire from Liberal Democrat peer Elizabeth Barker given Morgan’s recent opposition to same sex marriage (though it should be pointed out that the responsibility for the implementation of same sex marriage has been given to skills and enterprise minister Nick Boles).

Pink News has the story:

Speaking to PinkNews, Baroness Barker said: “It is good to see equalities firmly within education,

…

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Posted in News | Tagged baroness barker, nicky morgan and same sex marriage | 18 Comments

++Breaking…Clegg: “We must axe Bedroom Tax”

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 16th July 2014 - 10:36 pm

I got wind of this about an hour ago.

Here is tomorrow’s Daily Mirror front page.

More to follow. In the meantime, have a read of my post from earlier.

That’ll be number 22 on Stephen Tall’s list of policies that we share with Labour…

Update: 22:47.

This email has just been sent from Danny Alexander explaining the party’s thinking. We’re not going for abolition, but for a great reform which means that nobody would have to pay unless they had turned down an offer of a smaller property which ticks a lot more of …

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Posted in News | Tagged bedroom tax, featured, nick clegg and welfare reform | 73 Comments

Most Read

Op-eds

Are the men of violence back in British politics? (Chris Nelson)
London needs more social homes – and Liberal Democrat boroughs are determined to deliver (Gareth Roberts)
Andy Burnham’s devolution reforms go only half-way (Mark Corner)
Reform donations row shows how facts get trampled at Westminster (David Vigar)
The Independent View: Turning back the tide on free speech (Jack Coulson)

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