When people in wheelchairs meet one another, disabled travel experiences are a frequent topic of conversation. Rail, buses or taxi we have often encountered brilliant helpful staff, but frankly, sometimes appalling service.
My train commuter run to Parliament from Watford Junction to Euston is usually very smooth, with unfailingly helpful London Midland and National Rail assistance staff, but both stations are staffed for as long as trains are running. Unstaffed stations can be really patchy.
15 million tonnes of food wasted in the UK each year.
122 million tonnes wasted in the industrialised world (which makes the British contribution of an eye-wateringly high proportion).
The latter figure is equal to the entire food production of sub-Saharan Africa.
It’s a far cry from the days when we were growing up. Any waste at all horrified my Granny. She went to the shops every day and bought what she needed for that day and no more. Most of what she bought was relatively locally produced, unprocessed and fresh.
Here is the Nigel Farage paradox: the more that Ukip’s media profile, poll rating and party membership has grown over the last two years, the more that support for the party’s core mission – that Britain should leave the European Union – seems to have shrunk.
Sunder Katwala, director of British Future (New Statesman, 3 April 2014)
This year, George Osborne delivered his Budget against a backdrop of better than expected growth, higher than expected employment, and a deficit reduction plan that exceeded previous OBR forecasts.
His speech, unsurprisingly, made much of the success of the “long-term economic plan delivered by a coalition Government and a Conservative Chancellor”. Yet the fact that our cities still lack the powers they need to fulfil their economic potential, and drive growth locally, will constrain future growth for large parts of the UK economy.
This weekend, Welsh Liberal Democats have held their conference in Newport. One of these years, I must try and get there because it sounds great fun.
Kirsty Williams closed Conference this afternoon with her leader’s speech. A few weeks ago, I linked to an article she wrote for St David’s Day which expressed her pride in her nation with such positivity that I suggested that those in the pro-UK campaign in Scotland should take note. She was every bit as proud and passionate today. She outlined the Labour governments …
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 370th 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 (30 March – 5 April, 2014), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, 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:
Norman Lamb has told the Guardian that he will do all he can to eradicate referral to gay conversion therapy in NHS England:
Gay conversion therapy is abhorrent and has no place in a modern society, according to the health minister Norman Lamb, who has asked for assurances from NHS England that GPs do not make any referrals for such treatment.
Many thanks to the 14911 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…
Nick v Nigel: the polls call it for Farage. Disappointing, but don’t panic! Here’s 3 reasons why you shouldn’t… (56 comments) by Stephen Tall
Nick v Nigel Round 2, My second thoughts (39 comments) by Stephen Tall
UKIP’s success masks its existential crisis (40 comments) by Caspian Conran
We’re little more than a year from the May 2015 election so here’s my latest running check on how candidate selection is going in our held and key target seats…
I published a first draft of this list at the start of October, and asked readers to help me update it. Many thanks to those of you who have helped me keep it updated, including the party’s Candidates Services Office. Here’s the latest version of the list of (re-)selections in our held seats and the top 50 targets for the party.
It’s a snapshot of how the party’s doing in getting people in place in the battleground seats that will determine the extent of Lib Dem influence in the next parliament:
Readers may recall the rather brief tenure of Emma Gilpin-Jacobs as Nick Clegg’s Director of Communications – she left after a few weeks in the job “because my strategic global, corporate-focused communications experience will be better utilised in a less day-to day-political operational role”.
Her replacement has now been appointed. Here’s how Nick’s chief of staff, Jonny Oates, announced the news:
1st April 2014 marked the 1st anniversary of Police Scotland, a single national police force that replaced our 8 regional forces.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats were the only group in the Scottish Parliament to oppose the national force from the outset.
One of the key strengths of Scotland’s policing up until then had been its local foundations. Funded by local councils, managed by local officers and officials, accountable to locally elected representatives, responsive to local needs.
I am sure that many of you will remember the stories about the Winterbourne View scandal a couple of years ago. Vulnerable residents with autism and learning difficulties were subjected to shocking abuse from those who should have been protecting and caring for them. The review that was carried out into the scandal highlighted the widespread and inappropriate use of physical restraint, including dangerous face-down restraint, at the hospital.
As a Liberal Democrat I am committed to tackling poor quality care, and ensuring that everyone in …
Boy, has this been a tough week. This week I suffered some homophobia. This is tough to write.
It came in the form of an e-mail from someone who should know better, but sadly doesn’t.
Someone who believes their faith gives them the right to put pen to paper (or fingers to keypad) and accuse me of being immoral.
I’ve been lucky since I came out as a gay man, in 2011, in that I’ve faced very little homophobia (at least that …
The Immigration Bill is currently going through its final stages in the House of Lords. On Thursday, Liberal Democrat peers, led by Roger Roberts, tried to amend it by inserting a clause which would have entitled asylum seekers to work after 6 months.
Roger told me that he was not able to press the amendment to a vote because it received no support from either Labour or Conservative front benches. This, he felt, was grossly unfair given George Osborne’s desire for full employment and Labour’s …
The Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd are in recess next week, but Westminster is still sitting.
The Commons is still dealing with the Finance Bill, implementing the measures in the Budget. There, is however, a Justice and Home Affairs debate on Monday.
Communities & Local Government, Foreign Office, the Department of International Development (therefore Lynne Featherstene) and Business, Innovation and Skills face questions.
Some Liberal Democrats, and other pro-Europeans, seem to be rather down about the outcome of the Nick v Nigel debate. Certainly it is depressing to see your fellow citizens support a man who professes admiration for Vladimir Putin. But Nick Clegg really was up against first-class populism on Wednesday night. Farage dropped every conceivable fear or concern about the modern world at the door of the European Union. Would you like an end to war, waste, politicians, people speaking foreign on the train and every problem the outside world bothers …
Another week, another success for Lib Dems in the European Parliament. This week it was hammering the final nails into the coffin of mobile roaming charges in Europe. From the end of next year, the extra fees for using your mobile phone in another EU country – already reduced significantly in recent years – will be scrapped entirely.
It’s another practical, common sense measure which means good news for consumers – despite resistance from the telecoms sector.
It’s been announced tonight that Baroness Sal Brinton is stepping down as Chair of the Diversity Engagement Group. Nick Clegg paid tribute to her work in the role:
Her hard work and dedication have clearly demonstrated the commitment of the party to becoming more representative of British society, and ensuring that the targets set for increased diversity are met. The Leadership Programme is a significant and important part of that dynamic, giving outstanding candidates from under-represented groups the skills that they will need to win seats in
…
There won’t be a dry eye anywhere in Scottish politics this afternoon. Margo MacDonald, the spirited, warm-hearted, funny, plain-speaking, independent minded MSP for Lothians died this lunchtime.
Margo shot to prominence after winning the Govan by-election in 1973. Although she lost her seat in the General Election 2 months later, she made an impact on Scottish politics. She never returned to Westminster, but has been one of the real stars of the Scottish Parliament over the last 15 years. She …
As a Liberal Democrat one is appalled by the heavy handed way that Russia has moved into Crimea with an apology for a referendum. It may be the wish of the majority but this invasion is totally against international law and indeed tears up the post-Soviet treaty between Russia and Ukraine. The criticism of Russia is led by the USA and strongly supported by the rest of Europe. Many in Europe and the Middle East are wondering why the same critics have been so mute in the face of not dissimilar aggression and occupation of Palestine by …
It is simply not true – as our critics on the left pretend – that we are slashing and burning the state. By the end of this Parliament, public spending will still be 42% of GDP. That’s higher than at any time between 1995 and when the banks crashed, in 2008.
Nick Clegg, 10th March 2013
It’s a soothing line from Nick Clegg, designed to reassure Lib Dems that the Coalition’s austerity programme is simply curbing the spending excess of the Blair/Brown years.
Where is the development of Lib Dem welfare policy? It’s hard to see any. Even the recent living standards policy paper (pdf) said “we do not believe that this paper is the appropriate place to determine a Liberal Democrat approach to welfare reform. this is an area that needs further debate within the Party.”
We all want a society in which technology, employment, education, high pay, low inequality, progressive taxation and cheap homes reduce the need for means-tested benefits, but this long-term …
For many of our voters the Lib Dems have always been a party to the left of British politics. A party who has more in common with Labour than the Tories, and who sees their chief enemy as the Conservatives. However, our survival now rests on winning over the very people who many of us once wrote off as true blue Tories.
The fracture on the right of British politics gives a significant opportunity to unite around a fiscally conservative but socially liberal banner: the same banner which is being …
Liberal Democrats have long championed ease of communication and information exchange, and been alert to threats to online freedoms. Both at Westminster and in the European Parliament, we have fought aspects of measures to combat child sexual exploitation or copyright infringement which could infringe on internet access rights.
At our recent party conference in York we adopted a call for a Digital Bill of Rights, noting that ‘the internet has the power to liberate, to educate, to bring people closer together, and to boost our economy’. The threat in our sights …
Ever wondered how party policy is made? I was on the “Immigration, Asylum and Identity” Policy Working Group, and the process has taken a whole year. Living in the north east, I daren’t begin to add up the cost of the fares, and food on the move, for meetings every 10 days on an evening in London, but it was an opportunity to get some good and Liberal policies for the Party for those asylum seekers who seek sanctuary in the UK.
Between March and …
If only we were Switzerland, eh? That’s the dream of the Better Off Out brigade, who long for its freedom as part of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). And it’s a tempting offer: all the benefits of free trade with EU member states, and (if you believe Nigel Farage, Dan Hannan et al) none of the risks.
Except it’s not quite that easy, as The Economist highlighted when it investigated Britain’s options.
Well, there’s a surprise. After last week’s largely positive stories, the headlines aren’t so good this week. It’s interesting to see that those who called for Nick to be more passionate and to go less on the detail weren’t satisfied when he did just that. I wonder if last week’s coverage prompted too much of a strategic rethink to an approach that was working fine. In my opinion, the only thing that needed changing from the LBC debate was a stronger answer on the referendum question, especially as it …
We are constantly told that we “need” a referendum on Britain’s continued membership of the European Union. Here’s the thing: we don’t. We don’t actually need a referendum on anything just now. Referenda are, in general, actually a bad idea.
They are vital every once in a while: the vote happening in Scotland on September 18th of this year is a good example. The government of Scotland is made up of nationalists who want to make Scotland an independent country. To legislate directly for this would be unthinkable, so …
It is a tradition for LDV to bring its readers copies of our new MPs’ and Peers’ first words in Parliament, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. On 6 March, Lord Palumbo made his maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate on the contribution of women to economic life. His words are reproduced below.
Lord Palumbo of Southwark (LD): My Lords, I thank my …
We know that the Obama campaign made great use of micro-fundraising during its two successful campaigns. If you are signed up to the emails, you’ll know the kind of thing. You get an email asking you to donate $5 before midnight to get a chance to have dinner with Obama or some (other) celebrity.
The Liberal Democrats have been experimenting a lot with that sort of thing. During the Eastleigh by-election I had a whole host of emails, with increasingly emotional appeals, designed to get me in my …
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
A different story of hope for Liberalism in the 21st Century (Steve Mason)
Victoria Collins MP writes.. The ask that changes everything (Victoria Collins MP)
The Independent View: To get Britain growing again, we must cut the cost of doing business (Shevaun Haviland CBE)
Can Britain build a sovereign military AI? (Christian de Vartavan)
Are the men of violence back in British politics? (Chris Nelson)
The Joy of Six 1578
Latest voting intention and leadership ratings opinion polls
A Week in Politics #6
Fifty years
Is "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet" good advice or not?
Why Liberals must take power away from the media billionaires
Lord Bonkers' Diary: Meeting Count Binface in Westminster
Greens lose two seats in council by-elections
The abuse that threatens democracy
Tim 
David Raw 
Richard Cripps 
Jana 
paul barker 
