Caron Lindsay

Call Clegg 26 June: Tories can talk all they like about snoopers’ charter, it won’t happen as long as I’m in government

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 26th June 2014 - 10:35 am

call clegg Clegg started in robust mood this morning, vowing that Theresa May will not get her way on increased surveillance powers while he’s in Government. He’s done well to stand firm against this for more than two years now. It’s certainly true that he had to be persuaded into this robust stance initially, but it’s to his credit that he listened to the points made to his office by a group of angry bloggers in April 2012 and has held firm ever since.

There seemed to be a clear theme throughout the half hour of Liberal Democrats standing up for people in the face of abuse of power by both state and private companies. Abuse of zero hours contracts is to end thanks to Liberal Democrats and the exorbitant interest rates charged by payday lenders is to be capped, among a whole raft of regulations brought in by Liberal Democrat minister Jo Swinson.

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Monroe Palmer

Lord Monroe Palmer writes…Armed Forces Bill is a step towards a fairer society

By Monroe Palmer | Wed 25th June 2014 - 4:15 pm

090103-M-6058R-012This week saw the Second Reading in The Lords of a Bill welcomed by the Liberal Democrats. It bears the unattractive title ‘Armed Forces (Service Complaints and Financial Assistance) Bill’ but builds towards our manifesto pledge to create a fair deal for our service personnel. A promise that has particular significance ahead of Armed Forces Day on Saturday.

The Bill deals with three matters: the creation of a Service Complaints Ombudsman; the reform of the service complaints system; and ensuring financial assistance to charities and other organisations which support the Armed Forces …

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Rebecca Hanson

Opinion: How the world has changed since the Orange Book was published

By Rebecca Hanson | Wed 25th June 2014 - 2:45 pm

Earth Day 2007 - Atlantic ReflectionIt’s so commonplace for politicians to publish their thoughts on policy for public debate now that it’s hard to understand the furore which prevented the Orange Book having a public launch when it was first published in 2004.

Yesterday’s Orange Book – 10 years on  conference finally celebrated the way in which contributors to the Orange Book raised the standard of debate about liberalism by exposing their views to rigorous scrutiny and by doing so challenging others to do the same. Amongst a very tempting variety of …

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The Voice

Vince Cable scraps exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts

By The Voice | Wed 25th June 2014 - 1:13 pm

Vince Cable, Business Secretary at the launch of the joint government and UK automotive industry's automotive strategyVince Cable has introduced a Bill which will ban zero hours contracts that prevent people from looking for other work. These “exclusivity” contracts are particularly unjust. It’s one thing to not offer work in a particular week. It’s quite another to prevent an employee doing another job to supplement their income.

He spoke about this and other things that he had done to encourage fairness in the workplace in this video including increasing the Minimum Wage, enforcing it and curbing high executive pay, which is also available

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Andrew Chamberlain

Opinion: “Orange Bookers” are the boldest thinkers in the party. They need also to be the most progressive

By Andrew Chamberlain | Wed 25th June 2014 - 11:44 am

David Laws speaking at Lib Dem Spring conference, Liverpool 2008“No return to soggy socialism” was the message that David Laws chose to end his keynote address to Centre Forum’s Orange Book Ten Years On conference yesterday.

It’s a message that is bound to antagonise people in the party who define themselves in opposition to the Orange Book and its endorsement of liberal economics. However much Laws and his co-editor Paul Marshall emphasised that their support for economic liberalism was predicated on the belief that it would promote progressive ends there will still …

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George Potter

Fairer Society part 3: Making hard choices to end poverty

By George Potter | Wed 25th June 2014 - 10:15 am

Christian Aid's Poverty can be eradicated posterThis is the third and final article in my series on why and how Liberal Democrats can claim the social justice agenda which has been abandoned by both Labour and the Conservatives. The first part is here and the second here. I argued we should abandon the notion of helping only the “deserving” poor, which defines our current welfare system, in favour of two new principles to define our approach to welfare:

  1. The role of the welfare state is to guarantee for every person

…

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Baroness Dee Doocey and Lord Monroe Palmer pay tribute to Lord Anthony Jacobs

By Dee Doocey and Monroe Palmer | Wed 25th June 2014 - 8:55 am

Screen Shot 2014-06-24 at 21.30.52Many long standing members of the party will be very sad to hear of the death of Anthony (Lord) Jacobs last Saturday.

Anthony was a lifelong supporter of the party and served in many roles including Economics and Taxation Advisor from 1973 to 1978.  He twice fought the Parliamentary Constituency of Watford increasing the Liberal share of the vote from 6% to 24%. In 1984, he was elected Joint Treasurer of the Party and was returned unopposed each year until he stepped down in 1987. He was a …

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Stephen Tall

The Orange Book, 10 years on: 5 thoughts on its legacy

By Stephen Tall | Tue 24th June 2014 - 9:50 pm

Orange_BookToday saw what its co-editor Paul Marshall called the belated launch party for The Orange Book – such was the controversy surrounding its publication 10 years ago that the original event was cancelled. I was only able to attend one of the sessions (on public service reform) so here are five more general observations on its legacy…

1) The Orange Book remains much misunderstood, sometimes deliberately by those who enjoy internal warring, more often by those who’ve not read it (whisper it, some sections are pretty turgid) but know its reputation and assume it’s a right-wing, Thatcherite manual for destroying this country’s social contract. As Paul Marshall re-affirmed today, the aim of The Orange Book was to show how socially liberal aims could best be achieved through economically liberal means, recognising that in the real world both markets and governments fail. Two of its leading contributors are currently the most popular Lib Dem ministers in government: Vince Cable and Steve Webb. That said, it was (for both Marshall and David Laws at any rate) also a very deliberate statement of intent in 2004 that the Lib Dems needed to do more than simply out-Labour Labour by proposing new money and extra staff in every area of public service and argue that was liberalism (which is largely what the party’s 2005 manifesto did).

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Newsmoggie

Maybe tinned tomatoes are cheaper in Legoland…

By Newsmoggie | Tue 24th June 2014 - 8:50 pm

Lego ProstituteOh Danny!

From the Telegraph, a full month before the silly season, an amusingly cringeworthy non-story:

As Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander is supposed to ensure that Britain does not spend beyond its means as he helps implement the Coalition’s austerity plan.

But the senior Liberal Democrat was left embarrassed when he found himself unable to balance the books when he joined in a children’s shopping challenge.

Pupils from Cauldeen Primary School in Inverness all passed the test for buying food for one person for a week within a £10 budget.
However,

…

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The Voice

Kirsty Williams calls for anti-extremism strategy for Wales

By The Voice | Tue 24th June 2014 - 4:46 pm

Kirsty WilliamsKirsty Williams, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, has spoken in the National Assembly today calling for an anti-extremism strategy for Wales. This was in response to the news that two men from Cardiff had appeared in a video designed for recruiting jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

She said:

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Jonathan Pile

Opinion: Why changing leader now  WILL save the party in 2015 and beyond.

By Jonathan Pile | Tue 24th June 2014 - 4:09 pm

Libby - Some rghts reserved by David SpenderA debate is still raging in the party 5 weeks after  the disastrous Local, Euro and Newark byelection results which saw the party slump to 6.9% and to 2.6% at Newark. Numerous opinion polls also point to a historic disaster facing the party on May 7th 2015.

In my own local party Wakefield just this week a letter went out to party members to ask the question about Nick Clegg’s continuing leadership. Across the party it is reported that some 30 local parties have tabled …

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Matt McLaren

Opinion: What’s going on in Brussels? Nominations to the European Commission

By Matt McLaren | Tue 24th June 2014 - 3:00 pm

Charlemagne is back in EuropeFollowing on from my post last week on post-election developments in Brussels, here’s the second of two updates. Whilst yesterday’s focused on developments concerning the formation of political groups in the Parliament itself, today’s will address issues regarding nominations to the European Commission.

It now looks likely that at its meeting later this week (from 26th to 27th June), the European Council (made up of the Heads of Government from all 28 EU countries) will nominate the Parliament’s preferred candidate for the …

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Stephen Tall

Phone hacking trial: Coulson found guilty, Cameron apologises

By Stephen Tall | Tue 24th June 2014 - 2:15 pm

andy-coulsonThe long-awaited trial of David Cameron’s former director of communications, Andy Coulson, concluded today, with the jury finding him guilty of a charge of conspiracy to intercept voicemails as part of the phone-hacking scandal. All Coulson’s co-defendants, including former Sun and News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, were all found not guilty of various conspiracy charges.

It’s just over 7 years since Cameron appointed Coulson as the Conservatives’ communications director – we noted in May 2007 his connection to what became known as the phone hacking scandal but which back …

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Mary Reid

David Cameron should make Nick Clegg end the Coalition, say Tory MPs

By Mary Reid | Tue 24th June 2014 - 10:44 am

Nick Clegg and David CameronThat is the headline over at Huffington Post, and it certainly makes for fascinating reading. How about this:

Tory MP John Redwood said Cameron should deliberately antagonise his Liberal Democrat partners into leaving, and warned the prime minister that terminating the coalition early may not be ‘”wise” as he had “given his word” and “it’ll not look good if the leader of the main party was to end the coalition”.

“What should happen now is the Conservative majority in the government should start to press very strongly for two or three distinctively conservative policies, and if the Liberals really don’t like it, they could push to leave on the grounds that they wish to impede from the benches of opposition,” he said.

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Mary Reid

Steve Webb: Pensions minister with the future of millions in his hands

By Mary Reid | Tue 24th June 2014 - 9:05 am

webb 01In a profile in the FT, Pensions Minister Steve Webb is described as “one of the Coalition’s most hyperactive lieutenants”.

Now Steve is highly efficient and has achieved a huge amount since he took on the role four years ago, but he is also unflappable and “hyperactive” is not a term I would normally use about him. And whilst the term “lieutenant” usually refers to someone who is second in command, which is technically correct for a Junior Minister, no-one in Government beats his deep knowledge of his subject.

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Caron Lindsay

Jenny Willott on action to get more girls into science and technology based careers

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 23rd June 2014 - 3:45 pm

Teen scientist Alexa Dantzler in the labToday is the first National Women in Engineering Day. This BBC story tells of both the success of apprenticeships (the expansion of which was personally championed by Nick Clegg, and how women are establishing successful engineering careers. Earlier this month, Equalities Minister Jenny Willott launched a project, Opening Doors, aimed at getting more girls into science based careers. The aim is to get women with successful careers into schools to inspire girls to take science subjects and follow them through into university and, …

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Matt McLaren

Opinion: What’s going on in Brussels? Political groupings in the European Parliament

By Matt McLaren | Mon 23rd June 2014 - 2:12 pm

European Parliament chamber, StrasbourgFollowing on from my post last week on post-election developments in Brussels, here’s the first of two updates. Today’s will focus on developments concerning the formation of political groups in the Parliament itself whilst tomorrow’s will address issues regarding nominations to the European Commission.

Political parties have until tomorrow, June 24th to form their European Parliamentary groups. In order to qualify as a group, you not only need at least 25 MEPs but these must be drawn from at least 7 EU countries represented in the Parliament.

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Adrian Sanders

Adrian Sanders MP writes…New global parliamentary Diabetes network will ensure vital action is taken across the world

By Adrian Sanders | Mon 23rd June 2014 - 12:59 pm

World Diabetes DayOn 2nd December 2013 at the first Parliamentary Diabetes Global Network (PDGN) meeting in Melbourne, Australia, attended by invited parliamentarians representing 50 countries, a declaration on Diabetes was agreed and signed.

Meeting in the Victoria State Parliament building MPs from across the globe reported on the state of Diabetes care in their countries, discussed how to raise the profile of the condition and agreed a declaration calling for urgent action to address the diabetes pandemic, committing the signatories to work across parliaments to help prevent the incidence of diabetes, ensure …

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George Potter

Fairer Society Part 2: Goodbye Mr Beveridge

By George Potter | Mon 23rd June 2014 - 11:12 am

William BeveridgeIn my article on Saturday, I talked about how Ed Miliband’s ‘youth tax’ shows that Labour have abandoned any claim they ever had to be a party that cared about social justice or a fairer society. And the Conservatives have never even cared about a fairer society as they are ably demonstrating with their plan to cut £20 billion from the £79 billion (e.g. not including pensions) welfare budget if they are in government in the next parliament.

Therefore the Liberal Democrats, the party of Beveridge, are now the only …

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The Voice

What’s on in our Parliaments this week?

By The Voice | Mon 23rd June 2014 - 9:15 am

Scottish Parliament 3What are our MPs, MSPs and AM’s going to be talking about this coming week?

Holyrood

It’s the last week of term for the Scottish Parliament this week until an earlier than usual return, on 3 August. MSPs will sit for 3 weeks before taking a further 4 week break for the Referendum.

One of the last items to be discussed in the Chamber this session will be a motion from Liberal Democrat MSP Alison McInnes, not on her usual justice portfolio, but on the BMA’s Your GP cares campaign. Her motion …

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Caron Lindsay

Lord Storey on Nick Clegg: Not popular, nice guy, principled. What do the headlines report? “Toxic”

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 22nd June 2014 - 8:41 pm

Lord Storey photo by Keith EdkinsWhen I first heard that Nick Clegg  had been described by former Liverpool City Council leader Mike Storey as “toxic”, I expected to see some sort of angry denunciation. Actually, Mike Storey’s comments were much more considered and balanced. What he said was what every single Liberal Democrat knows, that if you speak to lots of voters, you know that Nick Clegg is not a popular person. He said “some might use the word toxic.” He then went on to add that he found that very …

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Caron Lindsay

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #380

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 22nd June 2014 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 380th 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:

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The Voice

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

By The Voice | Sun 22nd June 2014 - 1:25 pm

7 ver 4 fullMany thanks to the 13,300 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Why a Lib Dem leadership election doesn’t look likely (131 comments) by Stephen Tall

Ashcroft battlegrounds poll: both Tories and Lib Dems down on 2010 but it’s the Tories who’d make gains (62 comments) by Stephen Tall

Sad news in the Liberal Democrat family (11 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Yes Scotland are a bit late to realise that Wings over Scotland is bad news (10 comments) by Caron Lindsay

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NewsHound

LibLink: Maajid Nawaz on the rise of ISIS and what the UK should do about it

By NewsHound | Sun 22nd June 2014 - 11:25 am

Maajid Nawaz,Some rights reserved by RossFrenettHampstead and Kilburn PPC Maajid Nawaz has been writing for the Daily Mail in his day job role as Chair of the Quilliam Foundation. He looks at the rise of ISIS, the potential dangers for the UK and how we should respond.

The greatest challenge is how  to tackle the growing crisis.

First of all, direct Western military intervention would be extremely unwise in the current climate. That would be the greatest possible clarion call to unite jihadists under the ISIS banner.

Britain has up to 500 citizens

…

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Caron Lindsay

Caron’s Sunday Selection: Must-read articles from the Sunday papers

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 22nd June 2014 - 9:22 am

sundaypapsHere is my selection of articles to inform, inspire and infuriate from this week’s Sunday newspapers.

First of all, the Observer reports on a Mumsnet survey which finds that most women who responded think that Parliament is sexist, out of date and masculine. 97% think the political culture is sexist. The site’s founder, Justine Roberts,  said:

People are so fed up. We know that the reason there is a lack of female representation in parliament isn’t just down to sexism at the point of selection; there just aren’t enough women prepared to put themselves forward. This is confirmation of how they feel and how strongly they feel. Things like the long hours and being ‘on show’ is rolled into the idea that it’s all a bit male and shouty, but even male MPs have complained about the hours. The hours seem to revolve more around 50-year-old men who want to socialise than even among thirtysomething men who are dads and might like to have a family life.

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Caron Lindsay

Charles Kennedy: I miss being Rector of Glasgow University more than I missed being Leader of the Liberal Democrats

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 21st June 2014 - 4:55 pm

Charles KennedyLast week, Charles Kennedy spoke in Liverpool as part of the Liverpool John Moore University’s Roscoe series of lectures. His subject was the ongoing debate on Scottish independence and his comments were, as you would expect,  enlightening, in fact one of the most enlightening moments of the debate so far. The bar isn’t that high, but Charles’ lecture is actually very good. Here are some of the highlights.

He started off by referring to his 6 years as Rector of Glasgow University, saying that he misses it more than he missed being leader of the Liberal Democrats. He also remembered being told off by a Professor in his own university days for that typical student politico offence of not actually going to any lectures. Discussing career options, the academic said to Charles:

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Caron Lindsay

Book Review: The Cruel Victory: The French Resistance, D-Day and the Battle for the Vercors 1944 by Paddy Ashdown

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 21st June 2014 - 1:20 pm

paddy book 2It is not like me to read books about wars and battles, but after being so moved and angered by Paddy Ashdown’s excellent portrayal of the inaugural mission of the Special Boat Service, A Brilliant Little Operation, I knew that I had to buy his next book.

The Cruel Victory tells the story of the brave Resistance fighters who briefly controlled the Vercors plateau in south-east France in the Summer of 1944. The original plan was for the Vercors to be secured to help an Allied invasion from the south, but for various reasons, the support that the fighters on the ground needed was not forthcoming. If people had been smarter in their decision making, at least some of it could have been and lives could have been saved.

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George Potter

Fairer Society Part 1: Only the Liberal Democrats are left to stand up for fairness

By George Potter | Sat 21st June 2014 - 9:55 am

Benefits-welfareOn Thursday we saw Ed Miliband deliver his big policy speech on welfare, introducing his ‘youth tax’ in an attempt to be tougher on the Tories than welfare. In the process he proved that Labour, not content with failing to manage the economy properly in their last time in government, have given up on any idea of fairness or social justice for their next time in government.

Interestingly, the policy he announced had been reported on twice already by newspapers, the Sun and the Telegraph, over the course of the past year …

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The Voice

Former Lib Dem MP Jackie Ballard to join Alcohol Concern as CEO

By The Voice | Sat 21st June 2014 - 8:30 am

License Some rights reserved by NCVOJackie Ballard was Lib Dem MP for Taunton from 1997 to 2001, winning her seat from the Tories before losing it after a single term – a defeat often attributed to her passionate opposition to blood sports, a controversial stand in the constituency. (Jeremy Browne re-gained Taunton in 2005.)

Jackie stood for the party leadership when Paddy Ashdown stood down in 1999, but came fourth out of five candidates. She didn’t look back after leaving parliament, and soon began a career in the charity sector, with …

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Barry Holliday

Opinion: We need unqualified teachers and assistants to become qualified

By Barry Holliday | Fri 20th June 2014 - 3:33 pm

Teacher In ClassroomWe’ve just launched our parent guarantee about ensuring that all state funded schools should only use qualified teaching staff. A great idea, of course we want all teachers to hold a subject related degree and their post-grad certificate in education (PGCE) and their QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). But what about those unqualified teachers already in a teaching role? What about the other staff which support and help educate our children?

I personally work in a secondary Academy (years 7-11) which has some non-QTS staff. Most are excellent educators of children …

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