Caron Lindsay

Andy Myles announces support for Scottish independence

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 25th March 2014 - 8:18 pm

I was not even remotely surprised to wake up this morning to this headline.

Andy Myles joins Yes

 

Andy was Chief Executive of the Scottish Party from 1992-1997. He was then a special adviser to Nicol Stephen during the second term of the Liberal Democrat/Labour coalition. Sadly, he’s no longer a member of the party, which is a great shame. We shouldn’t be losing good liberals like him. I hope that at some point in the future he’ll feel able to join us again.

It’s been clear from his always thoughtful and considerate posts …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 23 Comments
Advert
Kate Parminter

Kate Parminter writes … Jumping in at the deep end: Lib Dem successes on the Water Bill

By Kate Parminter | Tue 25th March 2014 - 5:08 pm

Water pumpToday marks the first day of Report Stage of the Water Bill in the House of Lords.  As the Party’s Co-Chair on Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs I have been leading for the Lib Dem Group on the Bill.  I wanted to share with you some of the work our team has been doing.

I should start by saying that there are a great many aspects of this Bill which are thoroughly Liberal Democrat.  The Bill’s main focus is on aiming to meet our increasing needs for water, against a backdrop of limited water resources.  The Bill also introduces a new system of flood reinsurance, or ‘Flood Re’, that will help people in high flood risk areas get affordable insurance.  It will also ensure that we are better able to encourage adaptations and preventative measures to try and limit the kind of horrendous floods so many people experienced over recent months.

While the Bill was in the Commons, our Minister, Dan Rogerson, strengthened even further a welcome new primary duty on Ofwat to ensure water resilience.  At a time when water resources are becoming more and more scarce this is a vital step towards the sustainable system Lib Dems want to see.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Mary Reid

Fewer workless households

By Mary Reid | Tue 25th March 2014 - 3:59 pm

welfare-vs-workfare.s600x600Lib Dem HQ tells us that the number of workless households is falling.

Over the last four years, under the Coalition, the number of households in which no-one works has dropped by 450,000, with a substantial drop of 137,000 in the last year alone.

This outcome appears to validate the campaign to make work pay, so that people will always be better off in work than on benefits.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 10 Comments
Caron Lindsay

In which Beaker agrees with Kermit that we’re Better Together

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 25th March 2014 - 2:16 pm

Kermit de FrogI know I had a bit of a go at Danny Alexander over the independence referendum yesterday, but one thing he can never be accused of is not having a sense of humour.

We saw it when Harriet Harman called him a ginger rodent. The world got a new beer out of that one.

He laughed his head off at a song which suggested that he be fed to the pandas at Edinburgh Zoo.

Yesterday, Kermit the Frog did an interview for the Big Issue in which he …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 4 Comments
Joe Otten

Most of the benefits of an annuity at a fraction of the cost?

By Joe Otten | Tue 25th March 2014 - 12:20 pm

AnnuityAn annuity is a reasonable solution to an obvious problem. You don’t know how long you will live in retirement, but an annuity provider can estimate this, take a risk, and sell you an income that lasts the rest of your life. In practise this hasn’t represented good value for money, so I welcomed the budget announcement to give retirees more choice in investing or disposing of their own money. Yesterday Janice Turner argued for the Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 30 Comments
Advert
Pawel Swidlicki

The Independent View: Clegg can’t just take on Farage – he also needs to spell out his own vision for EU reform

By Pawel Swidlicki | Tue 25th March 2014 - 10:52 am

Like all political obsessives up and down the country I’ve stocked up on popcorn ahead of Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage’s upcoming duels over Europe in anticipation of some captivating political theatre. However, from my more sober perspective as a political analyst, such a binary, ‘all-or-nothing’ debate over Europe is fundamentally flawed as it does not speak to where the majority of the British public are at. Polls have consistently shown that when respondents are offered options beyond staying in on the current terms or leaving altogether, the option of staying in a reformed/slimmed down EU proves the most popular across the political spectrum.

People hold different views about how they would like to see the European Union develop. Which of these statements comes closest to your view?

Graph

Continue reading »
Posted in The Independent View | Tagged and | 25 Comments
David Gray

Opinion: In every conflict, there is always more than one side to the story

By David Gray | Tue 25th March 2014 - 9:24 am

Protests in UkraineIt is always tempting to view the world in black and white. When Good is pitted against Evil, who in their right minds would want Evil to succeed? We can all happily unite behind Good and therefore feel Good about that ourselves.

Sadly, the world isn’t like this. This may seem like an outrageously obvious statement, but it is not intended to be patronising. Reactions from various politicians to recent events have given the impression that many political conflicts are indeed black and white.

When the Arab Spring began over 3 …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 6 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Should prisoners have unlimited access to books?

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 24th March 2014 - 8:55 pm

Books to PrisonersThe bees are buzzing around my bonnet today. Earlier I had a bit of a go at Danny Alexander for falling in with the Better Together dourness in the Scottish Referendum campaign. Now, I have Chris Grayling in my sights. The Justice Secretary, under the guise of making the prisoners’ incentive scheme more “effective” has banned a number of things. The issue being given most prominence is that prisoners can no longer be sent books. The Howard League for Penal Reform’s Chief Executive Frances Crook condemned the …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 32 Comments
Stephen Tall

Jeremy Browne joins Twitter. In unrelated news, his new book’s out next month

By Stephen Tall | Mon 24th March 2014 - 8:13 pm

I published the complete and utter list of Lib Dem MPs’ first tweets last week, so it seems only fitting to include the latest first tweet – from Taunton MP Jeremy Browne (updating David Penhaligon‘s famous injunction):

jeremy browne_Reform_Race_plan_coverWe can expect to hear a lot more from Jeremy in the coming weeks. He’ll shortly be publishing a book, Race Plan An …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
Janice Turner

Opinion: Pensions move could negate the whole point of pensions saving

By Janice Turner | Mon 24th March 2014 - 4:26 pm

George Osborne’s announcement that people with  defined contribution (money purchase) pensions could take the lot as a lump sum on retirement kills several birds with one stone. First, it most definitely attracts the grey vote because the idea of getting your hands on your whole pension pot on retirement is very appealing.

But this also looks like a reaction to mounting evidence, including from the Financial Conduct Authority no less, that annuities are not good value for money. Defined Contribution schemes allow retirees to buy an annuity (your pension) on the open market, but the schemes provide a default annuity which …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 29 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone: A long road ahead to stop gender based violence, but we are on the right track

By NewsHound | Mon 24th March 2014 - 3:50 pm

Lynne Featherstone has been writing for local paper in her constituency about her trip to New York for the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the works she’s doing in Government aimed at dealing with the global problem of violence against women and girls:

Over the last year, I have spearheaded a new multi-million pound programme to tackle one of the most extreme manifestations of gender-based violence – female genital mutilation (FGM). And because of this solid foundation of work and momentum, this July the prime minister will host a major summit to tackle FGM as well as early …

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
The Voice

Former Tory Council leader joins Liberal Democrats in Lewes

By The Voice | Mon 24th March 2014 - 2:23 pm

Lewes James Page Catherine Bearder Norman BakerJames Page, Tory leader of Lewes District Council until last month, has left the Conservatives and joined the Liberal Democrats. The council now has 19 Conservatives, 19 Lib Dems, 2 Ukip, and an Independent.

Cllr Page says:

I have become very disillusioned with the Conservative party, and impressed with the approach of the local Lib Dems. The Tory ideology of small state seems to have translated locally to small minds, small ideas and a blind obedience to doctrine and party message. By contrast, the Lib Dems have shown that they are genuinely interested in helping people, improving the district and where appropriate transcending politics to that end.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Leave a comment
Caron Lindsay

Danny, please listen to Charles Kennedy before you write about the Independence Referendum again

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 24th March 2014 - 1:16 pm

st Andrews flag saltire scotland Some rights reserved by Fulla TDanny Alexander’s article on the Independence Referendum in yesterday’s Sunday Times (£) was, for me, a frustrating read. If I’m honest, it was actually like nails being dragged down a blackboard.  Full of language like damaging, devastating and divorce, t is absolutely not what we need at this stage of the campaign. He even brought in the spectre of not being able to sustain the NHS in an independent Scotland. 

A poll published in yesterday’s Scotland on Sunday …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 15 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Vince Cable: Smell the coffee, Boris. The Mansion Tax has slipped in already

By NewsHound | Mon 24th March 2014 - 11:55 am

Mansion Only - Some rights reserved by Gerg1967This story appears under the byline of a “Daily Mail Reporter” which is a bit odd, because I don’t think they’ve let any of them into the Cabinet yet, and certainly not any who oppose the Tories. The reference to “my Cabinet colleagues’ kind of gives the game away that it’s our Vince who has taken on Boris over the Mansion Tax. Now, there’s another debate I’d like to see alongside Nick vs Nigel. Vince vs Boris. One day, maybe..

Anyway,  Vince started by pointing out that action was taken in the Budget to tax corporate property buying:

One less publicised move was a crackdown on people using high-value property to make easy capital gains from property inflation and then dodge tax, hiding behind a corporate façade.

At a time when families are desperate for housing, thousands of luxury flats sit empty in tower blocks along the Thames. The Government is stopping this abuse by charging a penal rate of stamp duty and a charge on the property value – a mansion tax.

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Michael Moore reselected for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 24th March 2014 - 10:35 am

Michael Moore MP with apprentices Cameron Collins and Mark Tully at Mainetti 30 08 1349 years ago today, the Liberal Party created a political earthquake in the Borders when David Steel won the Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles by-election as the Liberal Democrat History Group remembers:

In the winter of 1963-64 a vacancy arose for a Liberal candidate in the much more winnable Scottish Border seat of Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, whose Conservative incumbent, C. E. M. Donaldson, was elderly and ailing. Steel jumped at the chance to move and in January 1964 was adopted as the Liberal candidate. He failed to win the seat from the Conservatives at the general election of that year, but nonetheless moved his home to the Borders and took a short-lived job in television with the BBC. The death of Donaldson in December 1964 gave him his opportunity. Steel won the byelection in March of the following year with a handsome majority. He held the constituency (subsequently re-drawn and re-named Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) at the eight general elections from 1966 to 1992 before bequeathing the seat in 1997 to Michael Moore (q.v.) after more than thirty years in Parliament.

Twenty years after the by-election, David Steel announced he was stepping down as MP and Michael Moore was selected to fight the seat which he won in 1997.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | Leave a comment
Caron Lindsay

Five stories from five years – March 24th

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 24th March 2014 - 9:17 am

Time, I think, to revive that part of the old Friday Five where we looked at what we were writing about on this day in previous years. Here are five posts from March 24th.

First up, a little Boris related schadenfreude from 2013: Boris has a right Mair in live BBC interview.

For most of the 10 minutes — and perhaps for the first time ever — Boris looked as if he would rather be anywhere else than beneath the glare of the TV lights. This was his reckoning, and he looked winded, lumbering like a past-his-prime former heavyweight champion. Only

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Andrew Warren

Opinion: European Commission is right to demand Ed Davey and the Coalition re-thinks on nuclear power

By Andrew Warren | Sun 23rd March 2014 - 2:30 pm

Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant - Some rights reserved by John O DyerIn October 2013, Lib Dem energy secretary Ed Davey set out his arguments for reversing his long-held antipathy to nuclear power. On behalf of the Coalition, he is applying to the European Commission to ensure that the measures he is promoting – to ensure construction of the first new nuclear power station in the UK for a generation – are compatible with the Single Market.

But now the Competition Directorate of the European Commission has sent a 70-page rebuttal to the UK Government, completely rejecting its arguments for subsidising the building of the Hinckley B nuclear power station in Somerset.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 41 Comments
NewsHound

Independent: “Lib Dems fall out over who should take on George Osborne in election debate”

By NewsHound | Sun 23rd March 2014 - 1:05 pm

Cable alexander clegg some rights reserved by liberal democratsStephen Tall’s article here yesterday – Without a shadow of a doubt: Vince Cable should be the Lib Dems’ Shadow Chancellor at the 2015 election – has been picked up by today’s Independent:

As the minority coalition partner, the Lib Dems do not have a shadow chancellor. Nick Clegg must choose between the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, and the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, who represented the Lib Dems in the 2010 debate.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
The Voice

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

By The Voice | Sun 23rd March 2014 - 11:52 am

7 ver 4 fullMany thanks to the 14,400 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Continue reading »
Posted in Site news | Leave a comment
Maria Pretzler

Opinion: The new tuition fees argument – having your cake and eating it

By Maria Pretzler | Sun 23rd March 2014 - 8:50 am

tuition fees voteOn Friday, the Guardian published an article pointing out that a lot more public money than expected will have to be contributed to tuition fees loans.

This has been greeted with a certain amount of glee by the usual suspects. On some level, I can understand the excitement, but nevertheless, it looks like a case of trying hard to have this particular cake and keep eating it.

People who used to shout about fees are now upset that after all, the state is putting more money into the system than …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 117 Comments
The Voice

LDVideo: Vince responds to the budget (and takes on Labour “hubris” in the process)

By The Voice | Sat 22nd March 2014 - 6:17 pm

Business secretary Vince Cable was on his feet in the Commons on Thursday, providing his response to budget. His speech has already proved something of a hit, not least for his deft responses to point-scoring interventions by Labour MPs, including with the Voice’s Stephen Tall.

You can watch (and read) Vince in action below.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
The Voice

What’s being debated in our members’ forum this week?

By The Voice | Sat 22nd March 2014 - 3:30 pm

forum1LibDemVoice 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:

Continue reading »
Posted in Site news | Leave a comment
Stephen Tall

Without a shadow of a doubt: Vince Cable should be the Lib Dems’ Shadow Chancellor at the 2015 election

By Stephen Tall | Sat 22nd March 2014 - 12:50 pm

Vincent CableOne of the quirks of being in coalition is the Lib Dems no longer have a shadow chancellor. But we shall need one in time for the 2015 general election – not least for the traditional televised ‘Ask the Chancellors’ debate.

There have been newspaper reports that there’s some jockeying for this position, with the Financial Times reporting that “Senior Lib Dems say the high-profile job is very likely to go to Danny Alexander, the Treasury chief secretary”.

Meanwhile, over at the New Statesman, Lib Dem blogger Richard Morris …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , , , and | 45 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Liberals need to stand up against hate speech and prejudice. If we don’t, we condone it.

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 22nd March 2014 - 11:06 am

Over the last couple of weeks, several events have proved, as if we needed it to be proved, that hate speech and prejudice is alive and well in 21st century Britain.

Last week, Pink News reported  a disturbing, angry and hate-filled transphobic rant by Julie Burchill which appeared as a comment on an article by Paris Lees. Paris had written of her delight in being catcalled and wolf-whistled while on holiday in Ibiza and asked if that made her a bad feminist. Burchill’s reply seemed to be trying to make out that she was a bad human being.

I don’t …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 23 Comments
Newsmoggie

Independent: Liberal Democrats’ “major and under-rated contribution” to Budget success

By Newsmoggie | Sat 22nd March 2014 - 9:20 am

Budget 2010 photocallYesterday’s Independent editorial had some very complimentary things to say about the Liberal Democrats’ influence on the Budget:

It is widely said that George Osborne had a decent Budget this week, aided in no small part by Ed Miliband’s curiously weak response. But the Liberal Democrats, as has frequently been the case during this parliament, made a major and underrated contribution to its success.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 5 Comments
Caron Lindsay

First tweets: the Liberal Democrat Voice team

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 22nd March 2014 - 8:35 am

License Some rights reserved by shareskiThis is a blatant rip-off of my co-editor Stephen Tall’s piece yesterday giving all our MPs’ first tweets. It must have taken him ages to embed them all. I’ve seen the list described as “adorable” and it is a really useful trip down Memory Lane.

I have much less to do in my shameless copy, but I thought it would be interesting to see what first utterings came from the Liberal Democrat Voice team. The first thing I noticed is that we were all pretty early adopters. It was the much missed Andrew Reeves who got me into it way back when you did it by text message.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 4 Comments
ALDC

ALDC’s by-election report – 20 March 2014

By ALDC | Fri 21st March 2014 - 7:35 pm

ALDC Master Logo (for screen)Four principal by-elections took place yesterday. In Wroxham ward of Broadland Council, the local Liberal Democrats continued their by-election winning streak having first taken a council seat in the ward five years ago. Ben McGilvray came from fourth place in 2009 to become one of the country’s youngest councillors but after moving out of the area a by-election was called. Alex Cassam increased the Liberal Democrat vote to take 48.3% and retain the seat for the party. The Conservatives came second on 34.2%, UKIP (who did not stand last time) took third with 11.2% and Labour finished fourth with 6.3%. The winning team put their victory down to running a high momentum campaign where they put out at least two leaflets for every one of their competitors’. Voters reacted badly to a negative Conservative campaign.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 5 Comments
David Boyle

Opinion: The key economic shift we need next time

By David Boyle | Fri 21st March 2014 - 5:04 pm

Lloyds Bank, Leighton Buzzard - Some rights reserved by dlanor smadaIt is a lovely spring morning in 2015 and you are on someone’s doorstep. There is a delightful breeze and you clutch your canvas cards to make sure they don’t blow away.

The lady on the other side of the front door gives you a big smile and asks you about jobs – she recognises that the coalition has made important strides towards making us all a little less reliant on the City of London.

“But how are you going …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 8 Comments
Nick Tyrone

Opinion: The hole in the “35 percent strategy” – the Lib Dem vote

By Nick Tyrone | Fri 21st March 2014 - 3:22 pm

TUC demonstration York 2014It was Lib Dem spring conference, 2012. Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. The crucial vote that weekend was on the NHS Bill. The pause was set to un-pause once more – if, that is, the Lib Dem membership voted it through. The mood was tense on both sides of the debate within the party. Just outside the secure zone, there was a gaggle of Labour supporters trying to convince Lib Dem members to vote the Bill down. Doing a very, very, very bad job of this, I hasten to add. Actually, if their aim was to get the members to vote for the Bill, they could not have done a more cracking job.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 27 Comments
Issan Ghazni

Opinion: The East Midlands would suffer without Europe

By Issan Ghazni | Fri 21st March 2014 - 1:45 pm

Vince Cable speaking York Europe Jobs Some rights reserved by Liberal DemocratsIf we needed reminding how vital Europe is to British jobs in regions like the East Midlands, the bosses of car giants Hyundai and Toyota spelt it out.

As a European candidate in May’s elections I was alarmed to read that Hyundai, who have a base in Corby, warned against leaving the EU saying that if the UK were no longer in the single market it would throw up ‘barriers’ to doing business. There was a similar message from …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 5 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Tim
    I think, although I may be wrong, that you are calling for higher taxes now, so that we leave less debt to the next generation. That might be less financial deb...
  • David Raw
    @ Gwyn Williams, Gwyn, you write, "The urgent issues of change in Westminster such as PR"............. Sorry, Gwyn, but I would have thought that a 26.4% inc...
  • Richard Cripps
    Having been "attacked" on social media for my political and social views (I am normally a LD voter) from time to time - with the attacks being personal rather t...
  • Jana
    @Tim Roger’s “ Jana. Please do not assume that everybody in the party is pro trans. Just oppose violence towards them.” I know you are correct on this...
  • paul barker
    Reform continue their slow decline in the Polls, where they stand a second time their Vote share mostly falls, they are losing Councillors steadily. Even the mo...