Sally Hamwee

“Annoying” behaviour – Baroness Sally Hamwee responds

By Sally Hamwee | Fri 10th January 2014 - 3:46 pm

On Wednesday the House of Lords debated the first part of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill. As has been reported , the main issue discussed concerned the definition that will be used in the new ‘Injunction to prevent anti-social behaviour’ of IPNAs that will replace ASBOs. The Government was proposing the IPNAs can be issued against behaviour that can reasonably be expected to cause ‘nuisance or annoyance’.

However, an amendment by Lord Dear proposed changing this test (except when it comes to social housing) likely to cause ‘harassment, alarm and distress’.

I know many Lib Dem Voice readers feel a …

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The Voice

Liberal Democrat Voice Roll of Honour 2013 – Part 5

By The Voice | Fri 10th January 2014 - 2:30 pm

We wanted to honour those Liberal Democrats that our readers felt were true stars of 2013. We sought out  nominations and now have a rather impressive list that we’ve been publishing in instalments during this week. Here is the penultimate part. Their names come with the comments made about the contribution they have made. Some are parliamentarians, some are councillors, most are grassroots activists. Let’s celebrate them and the many others who are fighting for Liberal Democrat values and victory. These are our Liberal Democrat stars of 2013.

You can read part 1 here, part 2 here part 3 here and part 4 here.

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Richard Washington

Opinion: Postcard from a British immigrant in Poland

By Richard Washington | Fri 10th January 2014 - 1:17 pm

As a Briton living and working in Poland I am ashamed of the small-mindedness David Cameron is encouraging in Britain by attacking Polish immigrants and insinuating that they are nothing but benefit scroungers. It is doing great damage to our image here and cutting deep into the trust and respect between our peoples.

I am a guest in this country, an economic migrant if you will. Since coming here to Warsaw in 2010 no one has ever uttered even the mildest criticism of my taking up the opportunity to work here (at an international college of European studies). Far from it …

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Sarah Brown

Opinion: There is a place for Liberal Democrats within the trade union movement

By Sarah Brown | Fri 10th January 2014 - 11:49 am

On leaving the Labour Party last year (which I have written about here), I was asked if I was going to be leaving my trade union UNISON. I didn’t and no don’t intend to. The question confused me. I was a trade union activist in the Labour Party more than I was ever a Labour Party activist who happened to be in a trade union.

As a trade unionist I see the purpose of my membership is to be supported at work and to have the union collectively bargain on my behalf for better pay, terms and conditions at work. …

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Caron Lindsay

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #360

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 10th January 2014 - 10:24 am

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our late running 360th 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 (29 December 2013– 4 January, 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:

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Richard Carr

The Independent View: Lobbying Bill protects multinational corporate interests at expense of charity campaigns

By Richard Carr | Fri 10th January 2014 - 8:55 am

The Robin Hood Tax campaign is facing a tough opponent – not just from the usual source of the financial sector and their allies, but from legislation currently going through the House of Lords.

The Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill is due to go to its report stage next week. The Robin Hood Tax campaign cannot support it for a number of reasons, and we urge peers of all political colours not to rush the bill through just to get it passed in time for the 2015 election. The legislation would hamper our campaigning abilities whilst empowering …

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Jennie Kermode

The Independent View: Non-gender-specific passports – why the EDM matters

By Jennie Kermode | Thu 9th January 2014 - 5:59 pm

This week has seen the submission, by Julian Huppert, of EDM 907, LEGAL RECOGNITION FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT ASSOCIATE WITH A PARTICULAR GENDER. If it sounds familiar, that’s because a similar EDM was introduced by Simon Hughes last month but had to be withdrawn when he became a minister. The subject, of course, will be unfamiliar to most of those who come across it, and that’s why it’s so important to explain how deeply it impacts those affected.

I work for a charity called Trans Media Watch which aims to improve media understanding, and thereby social understanding, or transgender and intersex people. As it happens, I’m currently processing results from a survey about people who don’t identify as male or female (generally described as non-binary people, though personal definitions vary). The survey relates to perceptions of the media, but two things come through clearly in it that seem relevant to this situation too. The first is that this is a group of people who feel very poorly understood. The second is that they experience a great deal of distress because of that lack of understanding.

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Bill le Breton

Opinion: Son of Plan A – why are we supporting?

By Bill le Breton | Thu 9th January 2014 - 3:56 pm

Economic policy is always a mixture of fiscal, monetary and political policy.

“Nick, George has come up with another of his jolly good wheezes. You remember that Plan A malarkey ..?”

Well, dear reader, you do remember Plan A, don’t you?

Eliminate the deficit by 2015; keep fingers crossed Expansionary Fiscal Contraction (EFC) works; use a 20:80 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts; provide monetary stimulus; flush out the Labour Party, and keep Vince and the ‘SDPers’ in their box.

Well, it put a spanner in the recovery-works and, with no sign of EFC or King’s stimulus working, it was pretty soon shelved …

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The Voice

Liberal Democrat Voice Roll of Honour 2013 – Part 4

By The Voice | Thu 9th January 2014 - 2:27 pm

We wanted to honour those Liberal Democrats that our readers felt were true stars of 2013. We sought out  nominations and  have a rather impressive list that we’ve been publishing in instalments during this week. Here is the fourth part. Their names come with the comments made about the contribution they have made. Some are parliamentarians, some are councillors, most are grassroots activists. Let’s celebrate them and the many others who are fighting for Liberal Democrat values and victory. These are our Liberal Democrat stars of 2013.

You can read part 1 here, part 2 here and part 3 here.

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NewsHound

Farron and Huppert submit Lib Dem Conference motion to curb surveillance

By NewsHound | Thu 9th January 2014 - 1:28 pm

Today’s Guardian reports that Tim Farron and Julian Huppert are behind a move to get Liberal Democrat conference to adopt policy which would stop intrusive mass surveillance of personal data.

Judicial oversight of state surveillance and a regular release of the number of data requests made by the security services should be among the issues examined by a government “commission of experts” into all the recent allegations raised by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, theLiberal Democrats are to propose.

They will also call

…

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Lord Roger Roberts

Lord Roger Roberts writes…Focussing attention on the humanitarian cost of the Syrian civil war

By Lord Roger Roberts | Thu 9th January 2014 - 12:32 pm

This afternoon, the House of Lords will discuss the tragedy of the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Syria. Lord Roberts secured the debate, and here he sets out his views exclusively for LDV.

The crisis in Syria, which the UN has described as ‘the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of modern times’ is now reaching overwhelming levels. The total number of Syrian refugees is now estimated to be 2.3 million, of whom 0.5% – around 12,000 souls – are spread across the whole continent of Europe. Bulgaria, the EU’s poorest country, is bearing the brunt of this: an estimated 100 Syrians enter Bulgaria daily, many of them illegally. The country simply cannot cope.

The United Nations and its non-governmental organisation and local government partners in the region face many pressures. These organisations are fighting to ensure social stability. In Lebanon, in light of extraordinary population growth, essential resources, space, and labour are all causes of significant social tension. In East Lebanon, a makeshift refugee camp providing shelter for hundreds was burnt down last month, and the Lebanese town of Tripoli saw bloodshed mirroring the Syrian conflict in the latter months of 2013. Alarmingly, car bombs in Beirut are once again headline news. The spread of violence will continue, threatening to destabilise the whole region, unless practical and immediate measures are taken to relieve the pressure on Syria’s generous but inundated neighbours.

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Caron Lindsay

Should MPs be allowed to take their babies into the voting lobby?

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 9th January 2014 - 11:28 am

There’s been a bit of controversy over the issue of breastfeeding in the House of Commons and taking babies into the voting lobby sparked by comments by Jo Swinson, who gave birth to her son Andrew on 22 December. The argument goes that you can take a sword into the Commons voting lobby, but not a baby. On face value, it sounds like yet another way in which Westminster needs to be dragged into the 21st century.

Jo said to the Guardian:

“I think it’s been lovely the way people have been really supportive in parliament of my pregnancy,” she said. ” I think some of the structures of the institutions of the House of Commons probably don’t make it as easy as it could be, in particular that you don’t get maternity cover. As a minister, I get cover for my work … but nobody else will be being the MP for East Dunbartonshire.”

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Paul Reynolds

Opinion: 1914, 1973 and the lessons for an EU exit?

By Paul Reynolds | Thu 9th January 2014 - 10:13 am

1973The hundredth anniversary of the start of World War One has led to historians tortuously drawing parallels with the global rivalries of today. For Britain, the useful lessons from WW1 lie in European policy – and the rather lame campaign to stay in the EU.

After decades of anti-EU vignettes in UK newspapers, often with scant basis in fact, much of the British public have become emotionally negative towards ‘Europe’. There is receptiveness to the EU being blamed for all manner of problems; from perceived ‘illegal immigration’ to bureaucratic over-regulation.

The anti-EU camp has achieved an astonishing supplementary victory – confining the debate about the negative consequences of EU exit to a few ‘economic technicalities’. Investment curtailed? A million jobs lost? Claim and counter-claim fudge public perceptions on the possible economic downsides of EU exit.

What is surprising is that the in/out debate is conducted as if we were Iceland or Liechtenstein weighing up joining EFTA or the EU. It is also conducted as if it was still 1973 (when the UK joined), there were only 6 members, and we have 14 days to cancel.

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Caron Lindsay

“Annoying” behaviour – how did Liberal Democrat peers vote?

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 9th January 2014 - 9:03 am

The first really controversial parliamentary vote happened last night, on the Anti Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, which I wrote about yesterday.

The Government suffered a pretty comprehensive defeat, by 306 votes to 178 on their Clause 1. However, the amendment on which they voted wasn’t much better as it kept the “capable of causing annoyance” threshold for housing situations. Now, given that the people most likely to fall foul of this are the most vulnerable people with addictions and conditions which affect their behaviour, there is  a high chance that incidents will happen at or near their home. Making them homeless helps how, exactly?

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Caron Lindsay

Don Foster MP to stand down in 2015

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 8th January 2014 - 8:59 pm

One of the highlights of a dismal and disappointing election in 1992 was undoubtedly Don Foster’s election in Bath. He won the seat from then Tory party chairman Chris Patten.

Don has tonight announced that he won’t be standing in next year’s general election, it was in fact Jonathan Calder tweeted the news first, which led to me staking out Don’s Twitter and website looking for an announcement. When it came, it was on the Bath and North East Somerset website. Don Foster

After what will have been 23 wonderful years, this has been a very difficult decision to

…

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Caron Lindsay

What’s with the Nick Clegg/Ed Balls love-in?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 8th January 2014 - 7:07 pm

This is an article I didn’t expect to be writing.

Ed Balls is not a man known for his particular liking of Liberal Democrats in general and most especially not Nick Clegg. You could generally have assumed that there was not a lot of love lost. In fact “Ed Balls’ prawn cocktail charm offensive” is a fairly standard Clegg bingo drinking game item. Both had insinuated that the other would not be welcome in any future coalition cabinet.

But strange things have been happening over the past wee while.

During the Call Clegg Christmas Special, Nick was asked how he persuaded people. …

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Newsmoggie

Alistair Carmichael reselected for Orkney and Shetland

By Newsmoggie | Wed 8th January 2014 - 3:50 pm

AlistairCarmichaelIn news that will surprise nobody, but is worth recording anyway, the Orcadian reports Alistair Carmichael’s unanimous reselection to fight Orkney and Shetland in next year’s General Election:

I am delighted to be reselected as the Liberal Democrat candidate to stand as MP for 2015. I expect it to be a lively contest and I do not take continued support for granted.

I have been an MP for 12 and a half years and in that time the Northern Isles has truly become home. My wife and I have raised our family here and we have many roots in the community here in Orkney.

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The Voice

Liberal Democrat Voice Roll of Honour 2013 – Part 3

By The Voice | Wed 8th January 2014 - 2:24 pm

We wanted to honour those Liberal Democrats that our readers felt were true stars of 2013. We sought out  nominations and now have a rather impressive list that we’ve been  publishing in instalments during this week. Here is the third part. Their names come with the comments made about the contribution they have made. Some are parliamentarians, some are councillors, most are grassroots activists. Let’s celebrate them and the many others who are fighting for Liberal Democrat values and victory. These are our Liberal Democrat stars of 2013.

You can read part 1 here, and Part 2 here.

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Caron Lindsay

Three reasons why criminalising “annoying behaviour” makes me really uneasy

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 8th January 2014 - 1:25 pm

This afternoon, the House of Lords will debate amendments to the Government’s Anti Social, Crime and Policing Bill. Clause 1, which currently states that the new Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance (IPNAs) can be granted if:

the court is satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the respondent has engaged or threatens to engage in conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to any person (“anti-social behaviour”)

is one of the main points of concern.

These provisions should make any liberal feel extremely uncomfortable. Campaigners, including the National Secular Society, the Evangelical Alliance and the Christian Institute have joined the usual suspect like Liberty and Big Brother Watch  in mounting vociferous opposition to this clause. George Monbiot, in the Guardian today, takes a very dim view of the legislation:

These laws will be used to stamp out plurality and difference, to douse the exuberance of youth, to pursue children for the crime of being young and together in a public place, to help turn this nation into a money-making monoculture, controlled, homogenised, lifeless, strifeless and bland. For a government which represents the old and the rich, that must sound like paradise.

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NewsHound

LDVideo: BBC’s report on the Liberal Democrats’ secret weapon, featuring Stephen Tall

By NewsHound | Wed 8th January 2014 - 12:30 pm

The BBC has been looking ahead to the Liberal Democrats’ prospects in next year’s General Election. Contributing to the report are retiring MP David Heath and our own Stephen Tall.

I should point out that our secret weapon is not Stephen’s famous pledge to run naked down Whitehall if the party is reduced to 24 seats next May.

You can watch the whole thing here.

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Austin Rathe

Liberal Democrats end year with historic membership growth – but we must keep up the good work

By Austin Rathe | Wed 8th January 2014 - 11:29 am

The Liberal Democrats ended 2013 with 43,451 members, nearly 1000 more than we had at the start of the year.

This is historic for two reasons. Firstly, we’re the only party in recent history to increase their membership during a year in Government. Secondly, the party’s membership has dropped every year for the last decade (excluding a couple of bumps before general elections), so getting back to a position of growth in the middle of the electoral cycle is a significant achievement.

Underlying this headline is some more good news. The party’s retention of members is now just under 90%, which is …

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Iain Roberts

Opinion: Foodbanks: Are there more hungry people than a decade ago?

By Iain Roberts | Wed 8th January 2014 - 10:13 am

There are far more foodbanks, and foodbank users, than a decade ago. Many people have assumed that if more people are using foodbanks it must mean there are more hungry people in need – more having to choose between heating and eating – than there were.

But is that true? Does the evidence support it?

If a charity opened new refuges for abused women, we wouldn’t automatically take it as proof that domestic violence was shooting up. Similarly we can’t take the increase in foodbanks in itself as evidence of increased need.

There are three possibilities:

  • more people are in need than before
  • the increase

…

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Stuart Bonar

Opinion: Farage: The Nostradamus of Politics

By Stuart Bonar | Wed 8th January 2014 - 8:44 am

Fear is a powerful motivator. Take, for example, its use in two political campaigns, one from each side of the Atlantic: the Daisy Girl ad, used in the re-election campaign of US president Lyndon Johnson in 1964; and the Labour tax bombshell broadcast, from our own Conservatives in 1992.

One made American voters ask, “Do I really want Barry Goldwater – a man who joked about lobbing a nuclear bomb at the Kremlin – to have his finger hovering over the red button?” The other made British voters ask, “Do I really want Labour to …

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Caron Lindsay

Willie Rennie: “In 20 years, they’ll be glad they had nursery education at an early stage because it might just change their life chances”

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 7th January 2014 - 7:50 pm

There were extraordinary scenes in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon. First of all, the Scottish Liberal Democrats didn’t even vote for their amendment, and nor did anyone else. They didn’t have to, because the Scottish Government had taken a big step to doing what they wanted.

For months, Willie Rennie has got up at virtually every First Minister’s Questions session and doggedly asked, pleaded, cajoled with Salmond to extend nursery places to 40% of 2 year olds from its current figure of 3%, just like Nick Clegg had done south of the Border.  And every time, Alex Salmond replied with varying …

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The Voice

+++ Lorely Burt to stand for Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader

By The Voice | Tue 7th January 2014 - 5:59 pm

lorely-outside-parliament-1Solihull MP Lorely Burt has announced that she is to stand for the Deputy Leadership of the Liberal Democrats. The post became vacant when previous incumbent Simon Hughes became a Minister last month.

Lorely has secured the nominations of 24 of the required 29 MPs.

Lorely has a background in business and is described as having broken many glass ceilings during her career, including being the first women to chair the Liberal Democrats’ Parliamentary Party.

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David Allen

Opinion: The Immigration Trap

By David Allen | Tue 7th January 2014 - 5:33 pm

For liberal fundamentalists, open-door immigration policy exerts a fatal attraction.  Right-wing economic liberals advocate the freedom to recruit cheap labour on the global market and make British business more profitable and competitive.  Traditional centre-left liberals advocate anti-racism and individual freedom to migrate.  Thus, immigration is one of those special issues which can be claimed to bring Left and Right together, and thereby supersede these “outdated” political concepts with an all-conquering philosophy of Liberalism.

Joe Public will have none of this.  Joe believes it is bonkers to import shiploads of foreign labour while millions of natives

…

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Paul Stocker

Opinion: Politicians should keep out of history debates

By Paul Stocker | Tue 7th January 2014 - 4:03 pm

Michael GoveMichael Gove’s intervention into the complex historical debate over the First World War was as bizarre as it was ignorant. Gove attacked ‘left wing historians’ for promoting the Blackadder (a satirical sitcom, not, unless I am mistaken, a documentary) viewpoint that thousands of young Brits were consigned to an early grave by an out of touch elite. The issue with Gove’s comments weren’t his interpretation of history, which is certainly arguable, but the idea that history and commemoration should be used to score political points.

It is the diversity of opinions and interpretations within historical scholarship which makes it such an interesting and enriching subject. One does not have to be a Marxist politically to appreciate the contribution Marxist historians have made to historical study, rather, these historians make up a small part of a multiplicity of opinions based on rigorous historical research.

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The Voice

Nick Clegg: Nothing I look forward to more on my birthday than DPMQs

By The Voice | Tue 7th January 2014 - 1:49 pm

DPMQBob Russell wished Nick Clegg “Happy Birthday” at his monthly Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions today, hence the quote in the headline.

Nick dealt robustly with a wide range of questions, from regional airports, food banks, the triple lock on pensions to Syrian asylum seekers. He managed to get in a reference to his disagreement with George Osbourne over the fiscal methods that should be used to reduce the deficit after 2015, claiming a sincerely held difference of view. He advocated a mix of public spending constraints, welfare savings and fair taxes on those with the broadest shoulders.

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Mary Reid

Nick Clegg lambasts George Osborne’s “monumental mistake”

By Mary Reid | Tue 7th January 2014 - 11:31 am

Clegg on OsbourneThe media are full of stories and commentary about  George Osborne’s announcement yesterday on the need to make a further £25 billion cuts after the next election, the bulk of which would come from welfare benefits.  Even the Telegraph refers to him as a “prophet of gloom“.

There is also much coverage of Nick Clegg’s response at his monthly press conference in which he said the Tories were making a “monumental mistake”.

You’ve got a Conservative party now who are driven, it seems to me, by two very clear ideological impulses. One is to remorselessly pare back the state – for ideological reasons just cut back the state.

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Cat Hobbs

The Independent View: The Public Service Users Bill is an opportunity for Lib Dems to show whose side they’re on

By Cat Hobbs | Tue 7th January 2014 - 10:46 am

weownitIn 2011, Nick Clegg strongly backed the government’s ‘open public services’ agenda. In practice, this was used as a figleaf for outsourcing everything from prisons, probation and the NHS to council services. Corporations like G4S, Serco, Atos and Capita have won billions of pounds in contracts yet they are hugely unpopular with the public and the scandals keep coming.

Clegg also promised to ‘take a hard line against the kind of blanket privatisation which was pursued by governments in the past’. Yet the coalition has sold off the Royal Mail, …

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged and | 10 Comments
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