Lord Roger Roberts

Lord Roger Roberts writes…Our asylum system is crying out for reform

By Lord Roger Roberts | Fri 21st June 2013 - 11:58 am

A few months ago I met Stephen, who had just been granted refugee status having waited five years for a decision on his case.

He fled persecution in Uganda for being gay, and since his arrival in the UK, he had not been able to seek work despite holding a master’s degree in psychology.  For five years, he was  dependent on a meagre handout (which is currently £36.62 a week). His distress and frustration were palpable; but sadly, he is but one of many.

Stephen’s case exemplifies the nonsensical nature of Government policy on asylum seekers. At present, taxpayers’ money …

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Caron Lindsay

Adrian Sanders vs Miss England

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 21st June 2013 - 10:35 am

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders has come under fire after complaining about the area’s hosting of the Miss England finals. This is Plymouth has the story:

A row has erupted between Miss England organisers and a Devon MP who claimed the staging of the contest finals in Torbay sent out the wrong message about the area.

Adrian Sanders, Liberal Democrat MP for Torbay, has come under fire after telling the BBC the event was “an own goal”.

Mr Sanders said: “There are fantastic events happening in this area. Cycling events, art exhibitions, it’s all there, but this one is such an own goal.

“It’s

…

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Stephen Tall

Tory rebels launch their own alternative Queen’s Speech as helpful reminder of why Lib Dems vital to Cameron

By Stephen Tall | Fri 21st June 2013 - 9:05 am

It’s enough to make you feel sorry for David Cameron. The Telegraph report gives the highlights:

Conservative MPs launch attempt to bring back death penalty, privatise the BBC and ban burka

Conservative MPs have drawn up an “Alternative Queen’s Speech” with radical policies such as bringing back the death penalty, privatising the BBC and banning the burka in public spaces.
The 42 bills also include legislation to scrap wind farm subsidies, end the ringfence for foreign aid spending and rename the late August Bank Holiday “Margaret Thatcher Day”. Britain’s relationship with Europe features prominently in the action plan, with draft laws setting

…

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Caron Lindsay

Vote up, share of vote up and up to 3rd place – good result for Team Christine in Aberdeen Donside

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 21st June 2013 - 9:02 am

aberdeen donside hqChristine Jardine and her team delivered an excellent result for the Liberal Democrats in the Aberdeen Donside Scottish Parliament by-election. Bearing in mind that we had come 4th in the seat 2 years ago, many pundits thought we would lose our deposit and might even come behind UKIP. In the end, we leapfrogged the Tories to grab 3rd place, with a vote share up from 6% to 8.3%. All that on a fraction of the budget enjoyed by Labour and the SNP.

The seat was won by the SNP’s Mark …

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The Voice

Farron on alleged CQC Morecambe Bay NHS Trust cover-up: “Justice must now take its course”

By The Voice | Thu 20th June 2013 - 5:00 pm

Tim FarronHere’s the question Tim Farron — in whose Cumbrian constituency Morecambe Bay NHS Trust falls — asked of Health secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday, after it was reported that senior staff at the NHS regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), sought to cover-up a critical review of their conduct following a series of baby deaths at Furness General Hospital:

Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD): My constituents can be forgiven for wondering whether, when the watchdog chooses to muzzle itself, it is time to put it to sleep. The report shows that

…

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Caron Lindsay

Are we seriously going to lock up the Naked Rambler for the rest of his life?

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 20th June 2013 - 3:56 pm

I read with despair the BBC’s report about Stephen Gough,  known as the Naked Rambler, embarking on yet another prison sentence.  He was sentenced to 11 months in Hampshire yesterday, having spent six years in prison in Scotland as well. His crime? Refusing to wear clothes in public. He’s not harming anyone. He’s just walking.

I also thought that people were remanded in custody before trial only for the most serious offences, if they were likely to jump bail or be a danger to the public.

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Nick T

The Syrian civil war is a humanitarian disaster: the time has come to intervene

By Nick T | Thu 20th June 2013 - 2:57 pm

There are few things about which we can be certain in the Syrian crisis, but there are some. We can be sure that brutal, unspeakable and unimaginable things are happening on a daily basis, particularly and most distressingly of all to the country’s children. We can also be sure that somehow, someday the war will end.

When it will end is anybody’s guess. How it will do so is a slightly easier to guess at. We know that Bashar al-Assad is militarily strong, thanks to the supply of weapons from Iran and Russia, and soldiers from Lebanon’s Hezbollah. We know that …

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Nick T

Obama to Clegg: “It’s good to see the better looking half of the coalition”

By Nick T | Thu 20th June 2013 - 1:25 pm

Clegg ObamaNot content with insulting the chancellor by calling him Jeffrey on three occasions at the G8 summit, President Obama also dealt a blow to the prime minister’s vanity, via his deputy. The Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn reports:

In a second diplomatic gaffe on the same day, Mr Obama said Nick Clegg was more attractive than David Cameron. He told the Deputy PM: “It’s good to see the better looking half of the Coalition.”

Ouch.

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The Voice

Nick Clegg: “I completely condemn all forms of domestic violence”

By The Voice | Thu 20th June 2013 - 1:06 pm

Stephen Tall has just written a post on Nick Clegg’s LBC comments about Charles Saatchi grabbing Nigella Lawson’s throat while they were having dinner, an incident  for which Saatchi accepted a Police caution.

Nick Clegg has now issued a statement clarifying his remarks:

I completely condemn all forms of domestic violence.

As I said on the radio, my instinct would always be to try and protect the weaker person, to try and protect the person who otherwise would be hurt.

But I was asked a very specific question about how I would have reacted to a specific incident which I did not see.

I

…

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Stephen Tall

Nick on Nigella / Saatchi. His LBC comments were incoherent and ill thought out. But let’s keep some proportion

By Stephen Tall | Thu 20th June 2013 - 12:50 pm

It was ‘Call Clegg’ this morning, and Nick’s comments on the Nigella Lawson/ Charles Saatchi photographs — which show him allegedly assaulting her outside a restaurant — have sparked controversy. He was asked to put himself in the position of those near-by and to say what he would have done if he’d witnessed the situation. Here’s the encounter:

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Kate Parminter

Baroness Kate Parminter writes…We need more research and public engagement before agreeing to GM crops

By Kate Parminter | Thu 20th June 2013 - 10:39 am

The speech today by Owen Paterson, Secretary of State for the Environment makes it clear that he is intent on promoting the use of GM crops in Britain – and to do so by acting as a cheerleader for an industry which has consistently promised much over the last twenty years and yet failed to deliver.   It follows hard on the heels of that of the Science Minister, David Willetts, as the latest attempt by the Tories to go beyond the Coalition Government’s agreed policy on GM crops.

Liberal Democrats are not in principle opposed to GM, but we believe no …

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Nick T

“I refute these allegations” – no, you don’t

By Nick T | Thu 20th June 2013 - 10:03 am

I blame the lawyers. It seems to be standard practice for those in the public eye accused of wrongdoing, or their lawyers, to make public statements asserting that they “refute” whatever allegations are being made.

But while they might deny them, or reject them, or dispute them, they do not “refute” them.

Here is the definition of that word:

Verb

  1. Prove (a statement or theory) to be wrong or false; disprove.
  2. Prove that (someone) is wrong.

As the lawyers that make these statements know, denying something is not the same as proving it to be wrong. So I urge my fellow lawyers: stop this assault …

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Caron Lindsay

Tim Farron says: “Help get the vote out for Christine Jardine”

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 20th June 2013 - 9:30 am

For the last month, Team Christine has done a power of work in the Holyrood by-election in Aberdeen Donside. They have delivered an incredibly good campaign which has gone down very well on the doorsteps in Bridge of Don, Dyce, Danestone and Kingswells for our energetic, warm and generally wonderful candidate Christine Jardine.

Today is polling day and, for the occasion, Tim Farron has recorded a video. He has been doing some phoning for Christine, which has been very much appreciated. His spies have obviously told him how fabulous Liberal Youth Scotland have been, with many of them putting their lives on hold to be part of the campaign team.

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NewsHound

Lynne Featherstone live webchat on Mumsnet today at 1pm

By NewsHound | Thu 20th June 2013 - 8:45 am

Spotted earlier this week on Twitter:

Listen in live, or catch up here later.

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Caron Lindsay

Jo Swinson announces consultation on streamlining businesses’ appeal process

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th June 2013 - 8:46 pm

From The Guardian:

The ability of big business to deploy armies of lawyers to prevent regulators from introducing consumer-friendly measures will be curbed under proposals published by the government on Wednesday.

The Business minister, Jo Swinson, is proposing a streamlined appeals system for challenging decisions by the UK’s economic regulators, which include Ofcom, the Competition Commission, Ofwat and the Office of the Rail Regulator.

Over the last five years there have been more than 50 appeals of regulatory and competition decisions.Legal challenges have caused delays to the

…

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The Voice

Michael Moore’s BBC webcast on Scottish Independence

By The Voice | Wed 19th June 2013 - 2:53 pm

Mike Moore BBC webcastSecretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore has done a special half hour webcast to make the case for Scotland staying in the UK. He was asked, among other things, about why the UK Government weren’t pre-negotiating the terms of independence:

I don’t want to see independence so I’m not in the best frame of mind for sitting down and working out what independence would look like. I understand that people want to have a flavour of the issues that are at stake and that is being answered by

…

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The Voice

Labour play games on Robin Hood Tax

By The Voice | Wed 19th June 2013 - 1:28 pm

Labour’s attempt to force a vote on a financial transaction tax, outlined in yesterday’s Guardian, appears to be more of a ruse to embarrass the Liberal Democrats than a serious attempt to develop a consensus on the issue. The SNP used to habitually put forward motions in the Scottish Parliament aimed at splitting the Labour/Liberal Democrat Government. It’s just something that happens.

The reality is that things change on this over time, by painstaking negotiation, not by a mischief making motion in Parliament. We know that the idea of such a tax sits well with Liberal Democrats. Vince Cable has …

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Caron Lindsay

Pensions, the triple lock and Scottish independence

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th June 2013 - 11:55 am

Steve Webb has come under a bit of fire for comments that his triple lock, which guarantees a state pension rise by the higher of earnings, inflation or 2.5% can’t be guaranteed after the election. Let’s look at what he actually said to the Financial Times.

My view is it should be triple lock; to be absolutely clear, I would want to see that continue. But we, as a party, will have to thrash that one out.

He made clear that this would be something that all parties would have go deal with.

This is pretty much a statement of the obvious. …

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Caron Lindsay

EDMWatch #3 No more page 3, sense on the nursery and transparency in English football

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th June 2013 - 10:56 am

We take  a regular look at the Early Day Motions tabled by MPs. These are basically House of Commons petition and are used to raise awareness of an issue. One of the biggest elements of an MP’s postbag or inbox is a pile of requests from supporters of a particular organisation or charity to sign a particular EDM. As a rule, ministers don’t sign EDMs.

At the time of writing, 108 new motions had appeared since EDMWatch #2, bringing the total to 263.

Most popular

Greg Mulholland’s EDM 57 on a fair deal for your local pub has gone …

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Caron Lindsay

LibLink…Tavish Scott: Courting election woe with party first

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th June 2013 - 9:53 am

Nobody ever goes near a court without there being severe stress involved. Whether it’s for a criminal matter, because you’re in debt or going through a horrendous family situation, being able to access the justice system easily is critical. The SNP Government in Scotland seeks to centralise court proceedings, meaning long journeys and increased pressure on already over capacity city courts. Last week a Holyrood committee, with a majority of SNP MSPs, backed the Government’s approach. What was striking was that they all spoke up for their own local facilities before voting to close them.

Tavish Scott used his Scotsman column …

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NewsHound

Winchester Liberal Democrats select Jackie Porter as PPC for 2015 election

By NewsHound | Wed 19th June 2013 - 8:04 am

Jackie PorterFrom the Winchester Liberal Democrats website:

Winchester Liberal Democrats have elected popular Hampshire County Councillor Jackie Porter to be their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) to fight the next General Election.

Jackie was re-elected to the County Council in May when she received more than half the votes cast in her seat.

Jackie Porter said: “I am delighted to have this opportunity. I’ve lived in Winchester, Kings Worthy and then Itchen Abbas for more than 30 years. My children were born and went to school here. I’ve been very grateful for the chance

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Mary Reid

David Laws on the Liberal Democrat agenda for tackling low pay

By Mary Reid | Tue 18th June 2013 - 5:05 pm

David LawsLast Wednesday David Laws gave a speech at the Resolution Foundation on the Liberal Democrat agenda for tackling low pay.

He began by reflecting on the job market.

Many of us vividly remember the recession of the early 1980s, which destroyed so many jobs. There are still communities in our country which have failed to recover from that economic heart-attack. In contrast, the recent recession and the unusually slow recovery from it have been characterised by much better than expected employment outcomes. Instead of losing millions of jobs, we have been

…

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Mary Reid

Nick Clegg and Julian Huppert are Internet heroes

By Mary Reid | Tue 18th June 2013 - 1:47 pm

The Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) has shortlisted both Nick Clegg and Julian Huppert  for it’s Internet Hero award for 2013.

And why? – for the role they both played in preventing the communications data bill from reaching the statute books.

The other two nominees are Edward Snowdon, who was the whistleblower on the PRISM project, and Spamhaus, an IT security organisation who fought off  a major denial of service attack earlier this year.

ISPA Secretary-General Nicholas Lansman noted that the Internet Hero award is “one of the most anticipated categories” at the ISPAs.

Given what has happened in the last year, it is no surprise

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Mark Pack

Opinion: The best government team you’ve not heard of

By Mark Pack | Tue 18th June 2013 - 11:58 am

Switch_off_internet_in_case_of_political_dissentThe best performing team in government is also one you’ve probably not heard of. It’s the Government Digital Service, who have been revolutionising central government’s use of the internet – providing the sort of excellent and reliable new systems that have countries round the world scrambling to copy them, whilst managing to hit timescales, keep to budgets and avoid bugs in a way that puts most government IT projects to shame. Better services and lower costs – it’s a winning combination that whoever is in power after 2015 will need to …

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Caron Lindsay

Liberal Democrat Spring Conference to be held in York in 2014

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 18th June 2013 - 11:30 am

From The Press:

YORK is to host the Liberal Democrats’ Spring Conference next year.

The three-day conference, to be held at York Barbican Centre in March, is expected to attract more than 1,000 delegates.

The Novotel Hotel will also be the party conference headquarters for the duration of the event.

Nick Clegg is quoted as saying:

I’m delighted that the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference will be held in York for the first time next year.

We’re helping to create new jobs all around the country and York is not only a beautiful city, but it’s also a great place to do business. I’m sure all

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The Liberator Collective

New edition of Liberator

By The Liberator Collective | Tue 18th June 2013 - 10:33 am

The latest edition of Liberator magazine (issue no.359 – June 2013) is being delivered to subscribers this week.

Here’s a summary of the new magazine’s contents:

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Simon Hebditch

Opinion: Creating a new Alliance

By Simon Hebditch | Tue 18th June 2013 - 9:02 am

There has always been a need to blend parliamentary, representative politics with the social activism of extra parliamentary movements. Recent examples of informal action outside the confines of the parliamentary system include UK Uncut on companies avoiding corporation tax and the Occupy movement. Liberal Democrats and their antecedents have an honourable history of involvement in single issue campaigns and community movements.

Indeed, it can be argued that “community politics” grew out of the widespread social campaigning movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Given this history you would expect Liberal Democrats to be at the forefront of such campaigning today but we …

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NewsHound

Clegg: Welfare for wealthy must be cut first

By NewsHound | Mon 17th June 2013 - 5:52 pm

The BBC is reporting that Nick Clegg is insisting that any further welfare reform must start with high earners.

The fact that we’re asking people on low incomes to pay through their taxes to basically pay the fuel bills of people who don’t need to heat their homes because they live in sunny parts of Europe and maybe didn’t even work here before they retired, I think that lifts the lid on a wider problem in our welfare system.

I don’t think you can have a debate about welfare that is provided to people at the bottom, if you’re not

…

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore MP writes…Scotland has a role in overseas aid

By Michael Moore | Mon 17th June 2013 - 11:58 am
photoAmidst the fever of the independence referendum debate in Scotland on issues such as currency, financial services and pensions, Lynne Featherstone and I took part in a series of engagements in Glasgow recently which reinforced with me what would be lost in terms of international development if Scotland voted to leave the Union.
 
As a former International Development spokesperson for the Party I am still passionate about this issue. I’m proud that the issues we as Lib Dems have long campaigned for have become a reality

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NewsHound

Nick Clegg’s speech at tax and transparency G8 event

By NewsHound | Mon 17th June 2013 - 10:20 am

Nick Clegg took part in  an “Open for Growth on Trade, Tax and Transparency” G8 event on Saturday. The event was attended by African leaders and the likes of Kofi Annan and the Managing Director of the World Bank Caroline Anstey. Nick hosted the sessionon extractives transparency and chaired the final panel of the day.

He said at the event:

We know why we’re here. People across the world want and expect us – governments, businesses and NGOs – to work together to deliver strong economies and fairer societies.

These issues affect those in both the developed and developing world. And we know

…

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Recent Comments

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