You have to feel for Nick Clegg. He’s doing the media rounds this morning with some really good news. Primary schools are going to get an extra £400 in Pupil Premium, bringing the total per child per year to £1300. Impressive, surely?
It makes sense that the money is directed so that if a child is struggling in primary school, they get the help that they need then. Early intervention has to be the name of the game. The last thing you would ever want is for …
Yesterday the Lib Dems published The Trident Alternatives Review. According to Danny Alexander, “it is the most thorough review of nuclear systems and postures the UK has ever made public. It is ground-breaking – thanks to the Liberal Democrats and our insistence that Trident alternatives must be examined.” That may be: but this is a war the party will not win.
Here’s the party’s sound-bite version of the policy:
We oppose the like-for-like replacement of Trident. We believe there is a ‘nuclear ladder’ of capabilities. Alternative systems or postures could bring
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The Coalition are feeling mutual love at the moment. A love for public service mutuals that is. A multiplicity of support programmes, funds and policy initiatives have been initiated since 2010 (although the process was technically kickstarted under New Labour), in the hope that a ‘mutual revolution’ will envelope public services and unleash a wave of latent entrepreneurialism from frontline workers. Francis Maude has expressed the rather utopian aspiration that by 2015, 1 million public sector workers will be working in one of these new public service mutuals.
On the face of it, what’s not to like about a …
Nick Clegg, writing in Pink News, said:
We’re almost there. We’ve almost made it. With the Third Reading of the Equal Marriage Bill complete, we’re just a few final steps away from the equal right for gay couples to marry becoming law.
I know you’re saving the champagne for when it actually happens. And that’s right. But it’s also important for us to recognise how much your commitment to this cause has transformed people’s attitudes to equal marriage in this country.
“I still have serious reservations about it, but it’s a whole lot better than when Gove originally launched the consultation” – a headteacher friend summing up his feelings about the newly announced National Curriculum for schools. We know, behind the scenes, just how the Liberal Democrats in the Coalition have influenced some of the most significant changes. It’s time to let your teacher and parent friends know the difference the LibDems have made.
One big win is that this new curriculum is so much shorter than Labour’s (468 to 224 pages). The history curriculum has been rewritten to include local and world history, and to recognise diversity. Speaking and Listening are back in the English curriculum. Creativity is stressed in Art, Music and Drama, and Design has been rewritten to include a broader range of industrial applications.
Primary schools can now choose the foreign language they wish to teach – or even look at several languages. Climate change has been returned to the Geography curriculum. Biodiversity and seasonality of food and produce are added to the curriculum for the first time.
So what did we learn this weekend?
In several ways, the Social Liberal Forum conference in Manchester has been about celebration. Not only was the weather as glorious as it was when I left that great city as a student; but the work of the SLF in ensuring the delivery of social Liberal policies in Government has been worthwhile, should not be ignored and merits recognition for those who have played a part in it.
We were also – rightly – challenged by Norman Lamb when thinking about public services, …
Remember last week I told you that Liberal Youth were conducting co-options for certain positions? Well, the deadline for nominations has been extended to noon on 17th July – that’s tomorrow.
Here’s a reminder of what’s up for grabs and how to apply:
Regional Chairs are responsible for organising and assisting local Liberal Youth branches in their region and working directly with the Lib Dem regional executives.
We have positions open in the North East and South Central. For information on these positions please email Stuart Wheatcroft on [email protected].
To apply:
Please email the Returning
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At the excellent Social Liberal Forum Conference on Saturday, a group of eight bloggers spent the lunch break interviewing Liberal Democrat Pensions Minister Steve Webb just before he delivered the second Beveridge Memorial Lecture.
The thing about Steve Webb is that he might have Professor in front of his name and MP after it, but he’s in no way intimidating, though. He speaks with authority, but engagingly so, has no airs and graces and has a knack of explaining some complex concepts in language that even I can understand. He …
The House magazine features a smiling Danny Alexander on the cover, and a lengthy interview inside.
On the Comprehensive Spending Review:
Now that the dust has settled on the Spending Round, he has a rare moment to catch his breath and reflect on how it went. He says things went “more smoothly than many people outside this room thought when we started out on it”, but admits it was at times not easy.
“You are dealing with finding £11.5bn of savings. Of course those discussions are going to be difficult, they
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While some of us were melting in the Friends Meeting House in Manchester at the Social Liberal Forum conference on Saturday morning, Stephen Tall was telling us about the leadership’s motion on the economy to be discussed at our Glasgow Conference in two months’ time.
It’s to be noted that the biggest cheers of the day came when Vince Cable was talking about the need to differentiate from the Conservatives, calling George Osborne’s declaration that there should be no more tax rises in a new Conservative Government “cavalier and “ideological.”
Co-chair Gareth Epps was also applauded when he said that Liberal …
The Commons votes tonight on whether the government should exercise the impenetrably-named ‘EU Justice and Home Affairs mass opt-out’.
While it sounds dry and technical, this decision is hugely significant as EU ‘JHA measures’ have been crucial in securing justice for hundreds of British victims of crime. These instruments have been prominent in the extradition of attempted London bomber Hussain Osman from Italy under a European Arrest Warrant, in coordinating via Eurojust the investigation into the Annecy killings and in Europol’s EU-wide investigation, ‘Operation Veto’, into match-fixing and corruption in sport.
The mass opt-out is not an ingenious new attempt by the …
On my holidays earlier this year, I read “The Lost Continent” by Gavin Hewitt, the BBC News’s Europe Editor, about the causes, effects and response to the European financial crisis, with its outlying crises in Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain.
It was a great read and I heartily recommend it to any of you, especially those going on holiday as it both rewards in-depth attention and travel makes a good backdrop to its change of focus between different countries. I find …
Norman Lamb has announced that the Government will be gradually withdrawing the use of the Liverpool Care Pathway in the NHS in England. The controversial method was developed within the hospice movement but relatives had told of cases when their loved ones were distressed and suffering because of a denial of fluids or nutrition or that the dying had been put on the LCP without family knowledge or consent.
I have heard of cases where people who are still conscious have been denied fluid after being put on the LCP, becoming so thirsty that they are delirious and distressed. That should not happen. Not ever.
After concerns were aired in the media, Norman Lamb asked Rabbi Julia Neuberger to chair an independent review of how the Liverpool Care Pathway was used. It says:
Perfectly preventable problems of communication between clinicians, relatives and carers appear to account for a substantial part of the recent controversy and unhappiness surrounding the LCP.
And concludes:
Many of the problems in the care of the dying highlighted in this report are due to poor understanding among clinicians of existing guidance in care for the dying, and an unwillingness to discuss with patients, their relatives and carers the prospect of death and the clinical uncertainties that accompany it. The Government must therefore ensure that its arms-length bodies collaborate with the clinical professional bodies and other key players in the system, and inject considerable funding into the system, to ensure that guidance on care for the dying is properly understood and acted upon, and tick-box exercises are confined to the waste paper basket for ever.
The Review panel feels so strongly about this that it is going to continue to meet at its own expense and volition, to monitor closely what happens next in response to its recommendations.
“As a Liberal Democrat Minister I am completely focused on the need to deliver better care,” Norman Lamb told the BBC. He said that the LCP itself was a useful tool, but it had not been used properly in some hospitals. He added that the Government would replace it with individual end-of-life care plans within a year. You can see his interview below.
Today, the House of Lords should be voting ‘that this Bill do now pass’ to take the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill through one of its final steps to becoming law. Liberal Democrats can be very proud of the fact that it is only because of us that this is happening.
In the Lords, I have been proud to lead from the Lib Dem benches whilst Lib Dem Ministers, including Jim Wallace and Lindsay Northover, have been speaking from the Government frontbench. You can read and watch my opening contribution to the Second Reading …
The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, which completes its committee stage today (Monday), is set to join a growing list of parliamentary acts that are used in ways that were not intended by lawmakers. Many of the champions of the freedom to live and roam freely (and, alas, smoke) are raising concerns about the Antisocial Behaviour Bill, including Liberty (pdf), the Manifesto Club (pdf), and the Ramblers. For me the real danger in this bill lies in its …
Julian Huppert, Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge, has been named internet hero of the year by the Internet Service Providers’ Association for his work on the Communications Data Bill. As a further accolade he was described as “one of the few MPs to understand the internet.”
Julian explains why the bill could not be allowed to proceed here, and you can read much more about it here.
The Daily Mail is reporting Greg Mulholland’s call for a vote on EU membership without waiting for a treaty change.
Even the huge changes that have taken place in Europe over the years – we’ve moved from EEC to EC to EU – have not led to a public vote. And it is not a little ironic that at the times there was a significant and constitutional change – in 1984, 1986 and 1992 – the then Conservative governments did not give the British people a say. The same happened under
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In memory of Pratap Chitnis, we reproduce below Mark Pack’s tribute to an unjustly forgotten Liberal Hero. The Guardian’s obituary is here.
Pratap (later Lord) Chitnis was the post-war Liberal Party’s first grassroots campaigning mastermind, whose pioneering activities laid the groundwork for the later work of better known people such as Trevor Jones and Chris Rennard.
Born in 1936 to a family with a history of Liberal politics (his grandfather stood and lost in 1906), he was inspired by Jo Grimond to join the Liberal Party himself in 1958. Chitnis first worked in the National Liberal Club’s library and then …
Good on Sarah Teather. This weekend’s Guardian carries an excellent in-depth interview with the Lib Dem former children’s minister by Decca Aitkenhead in which she makes clear her deep unease not only with the Coalition’s immigration policy, but also the political consensus of the three party leaders that public concern about immigration means they must be seen to crack down on it, regardless of whether it’s the actual cause of the problems the public is concerned with.
Sarah begins by talking about the Tories’ perverse decision to heap more and more …
Many thanks to the 14,000 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…
Richard Grayson resigns from the party (127) by Mary Reid
Shirley seeks to amend same-sex marriage bill: “Equality is not the same as sameness” (61) by Stephen Tall
John Kampfner: “Clegg is set to be kingmaker again in 2015″ (43) by Stephen Tall
Income inequality at its lowest since 1986 – a good result for the Liberal Democrats in Government? (42) by
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The Lib Dem leadership — as I noted here yesterday — is determined to get on the front foot on the economy. This autumn will see a leadership-proposed motion backing further capital investment (“within the fiscal envelope”) while retaining the commitment to deficit reduction. Nick’s letter this week is coordinated with that message, and in particular the importance for growth throughout the regions of the UK. Here’s what he has to say…
On Thursday I visited the Toyota and Rolls Royce factories in Derbyshire to announce the
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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 trite-and-tested and formula, here’s …
Earlier this week, I set readers a quiz — The British public, eh? What do they know? — based on research undertaken by Ipsos MORI for the Royal Statistical Society and King’s College London showing the British public is often wrong about what we think we know on a range of current social issues. For instance, we (collectively) massively over-estimate the proportion of people in this country who are black or Asian, or who are Muslim, or who are over 65. We also think, again wrongly, that crime is rising, and that more is spent on overseas aid than …
LibDemVoice 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 10 days:
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Lynne Featherstone has been writing at the Huffington Post about her visit to Malawi. She talked about sitting with a father just after he found out he had HIV. She explores in the article how that man and others can be helped by intitiatives she is responsible for:
There was little hope in the eyes of the father I sat with shortly after he learnt he was living with HIV. Cradling his son in his arms, together they faced the agonising wait for the boy’s test results.
While 68,000 people die of AIDS-related illnesses here every year, HIV/AIDS no longer needs to
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If I have to be inside on a glorious Summer Saturday, I am glad it’s here at Social Liberal Forum Conference in Manchester.
Vince Cable has just done a highly informative session where he outlined key differences between us and the Tories on the economy. You can get the main points from following #slfconf on Twitter.
The whole speech deserves more attention than I can give it while half listening to another session, but I thought you would like to know that he confirmed that for last year’s Budget, he had a deal with Osborne to introduce a Mansion Tax if the …
If you’re an independent person involved in writing a report for Government, I offer some advice. Take a holiday for the week after the report’s published. Somewhere remote. Ideally without internet.
How else to avoid your blood-pressure shooting through the roof as the media – both social and traditional – ignore 99% of your work and misrepresent the rest?
For the latest example, look no further than the School Food Plan, a 149 page practical guide to improving the health and attainment of young people by improving their diet in …
David Allen recently wrote that supporting Stephen Gough, known as the Naked Rambler was a cause for “fundementalist liberals”. This isn’t a case of moderates versus fundementalists, it’s a case that all good liberals should support.
As liberals most of us will accept some degree of the Harm Principle, that people should roughly be able to do what they want as long as they don’t hurt others. Taking this basic principle into consideration there is no possible harm that anyone can do simply by the act of being nude within public. If we want to shed our clothes and our …
Be warned: we’re under starter’s orders for the general election. Today, the Lib Dem leadership sets out its plans on the economy for approval by the party conference this autumn, striking a neat balance between a strong defence of the Lib Dem record in government and a recognition that much still needs to be done to get the economy growing.
The motion to be debated in Glasgow in September can be found at the foot of this post. Tabled by …
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Tom Arms’ World Review (Tom Arms)
David Le Grice 
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Hywel 
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Fascism?