Mark Pack

Tuition fees: new IFS publication says new system “substantially more progressive”

By Mark Pack | Sat 30th June 2012 - 9:25 am

News from the IFS confirms what others, including Money Saving Expert’s Martin Lewis and of course Nick Clegg, have previously argued:

The government’s decision to raise maximum tuition fees to £9,000 will create a system that is “substantially more progressive” than the previous system. That is because the 30% of graduates with the lowest lifetime earnings will be better off under the new arrangements.

And no cynical comments please about just how far down The Guardian’s story this paragraph was placed 🙂

 

P.S. As it’s the weekend and people may have other things to do, in order to save time I’ve …

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Mark Pack

Guardian investigation finds sexual predators in police abusing powers

By Mark Pack | Sat 30th June 2012 - 8:55 am

The Guardian reports:

Sexual predators in the police are abusing their power to target victims of crime they are supposed to be helping, as well as fellow officers and female staff, the Guardian can reveal.

An investigation into the scale and extent of the problem suggests sexual misconduct could be more widespread than previously believed.

The situation raises questions about the efficacy of the police complaints system, the police’s internal whistleblowing procedures, the vetting of officers and a failure to monitor disciplinary offences.

Meanwhile, in other news Theresa May wants to give the police more powers to spy on the public, without requiring any judicial authorisation.

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NewsHound

Cable: The City is a massive cesspit

By NewsHound | Sat 30th June 2012 - 8:26 am

The Independent reports:

The Government was under growing pressure last night to call a public inquiry into the behaviour of Britain’s bankers as the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, admitted the sector was a “massive cesspit” that needed cleaning up.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 13 Comments
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 29 June 2012

By The Voice | Fri 29th June 2012 - 5:00 pm

It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

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Mark Valladares

Coming up in the Lords: 2 – 5 July

By Mark Valladares | Fri 29th June 2012 - 2:55 pm

It never ceases to amaze me how much members of the House of Lords get done in the ten minutes that Tim Farron suggests they put in each day, and next week is no exception. So, moving swiftly along…

The Crime and Courts Bill continues through its Committee stage, and Days 5 and 6 take place on Monday and Wednesday next week. Regulation of bailiffs, consideration of financial circumstances when levying fines, and the immigration appeals regime will all be debated, with Eric Avebury having indicated his intention …

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Sara Bedford

Double wins for Lib Dems in Chelmsford

By Sara Bedford | Fri 29th June 2012 - 1:55 pm

Chelmsford Liberal Democrats are celebrating two big by-election wins this morning, after double vacancies caused by the death of Tom Smith-Hughes.

Paul Bentham became the new councillor for the Patching Hall ward of Chelmsford City Council, whilst Stephen Robinson was elected in the Chelmsford North division of Essex County Council.

The results were as follows:

PATCHING HALL
Lib Dem 842 (42%)
Con 488 (25%)
Lab 309 (16%)
UKIP 263 (13%)
Green 84 (4%)

CHELMSFORD NORTH
Lib Dem 1614 (42%)
Con 941 (25%)
Lab 711 (19%)
UKIP 435 (11%)
Green 128 (3%)

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Posted in Council by-elections and News | Tagged and | 7 Comments
The Voice

From today’s Lib Dem News

By The Voice | Fri 29th June 2012 - 1:02 pm

By Howard of Lib Dem News

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NewsHound

Vince ahead of the game – again

By NewsHound | Fri 29th June 2012 - 11:43 am

Yesterday the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer made an attempt to appear in tune with public outrage over the behaviour of Barclays’ bankers and the failure of the bank’s Chief Executive to take full responsibility for the market manipulation practised by his staff.

However it seems that once again Vince Cable was ahead of us all.

Hat tip: Richard Morris

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Antony Hook

Opinion: Scrap the tax on e-books

By Antony Hook | Fri 29th June 2012 - 10:08 am

A liberal success over many decades has been to protect the tax-free status of books and newspapers. A tax on books would be abhorrent as it would be a tax on free speech.

A democratic, civilised society requires the free exchange of ideas, information and art in books. Books are vital for people, young and old, who wish to educate themselves and improve their prospects.

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Sara Bedford

RIP Nikki Thomson

By Sara Bedford | Fri 29th June 2012 - 8:55 am

I first met Nikki Thomson at the inaugural party conference of the Social and Liberal Democrats, back in September 1988. You couldn’t miss Nikki: she exuded energy and determination.

A liberal to the core, she had had her misgivings about the merger of the two Alliance parties, but once she had decided to join, she threw herself into the new party with the vigour and passion that was her trademark.

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Posted in News and Obituaries | Tagged , and | 14 Comments
Nick T

LibLink: Jeremy Browne and Edward McMillan-Scott – The EU can amplify our human rights pledge

By Nick T | Thu 28th June 2012 - 6:56 pm

Jeremy Browne, Lib Dem Foreign Office minister, and Edward McMillan-Scott MEP have a joint article in today’s Independent on how the European Union is helping to uphold the human rights if people around the world.

Here’s a sample:

Human rights, poverty reduction and the upholding of international law are essential to – and indivisible from – both EU and UK foreign policy objectives. We cannot achieve long term security and prosperity unless we uphold our values, and recognise that unchecked human rights abuses represent a threat to our own national security.

Although we must promote our values with conviction and determination, it must

…

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Mark Pack

Three ideological things to do with your members and helpers this summer

By Mark Pack | Thu 28th June 2012 - 4:50 pm

You have a pothole in your road. You suffer from a council like mine and fixing it becomes a long-running saga. You involve a local Liberal Democrat campaigner. They get it sorted. You like them and as a result end up joining the party.

That sort of sequence is pretty common, especially amongst those who then end up being local activists and councillors. But if this is the route you’ve taken, how do you end up finding out what the party actually believes and why?

You get a membership card with part of our constitution’s preamble, a new member pack including …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 2 Comments
Stephen Gilbert MP

Stephen Gilbert MP writes… Welcome news for park home residents

By Stephen Gilbert MP | Thu 28th June 2012 - 3:23 pm

We all deserve a safe and secure place to live. But all too often for the 160,000 people living in park homes up and down the country the reality fails to live up to the utopian dream offered in the marketing brochure.

For those readers not familiar with the term, a ‘park home’ is a static caravan. Usually found grouped together in modestly sized communities (2,000 of them in all) often by the coast or in areas of natural beauty. This ‘peaceful’ life primarily attracts the retired, the elderly and the infirm – often seeking more peaceful surroundings to live out …

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Andy Strange

Reporting back from the English Council

By Andy Strange | Thu 28th June 2012 - 1:58 pm

The English Council, the governing body of the Liberal Democrats in England, meets twice a year to consider matters of importance to the English Party. The first of its meetings for 2012 took place at University College London last Saturday.

The meeting was brisk and business like — it ran a little over time but not unreasonably so — and had something of a studious atmosphere. This might have had something to do with the impressive environment of the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre.

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Adam Corlett

Opinion: Ritual slaughter – One law for all

By Adam Corlett | Thu 28th June 2012 - 12:25 pm

Ritual slaughter has had a reasonably low profile in the UK, despite vigorous debate abroad, in the European parliament, and now in the Commons. David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Sarah Ludford MEP (FT) have expressed some level of support for the practice, but I must disagree.

The law requires that animals be stunned before slaughter, for their welfare, but there is an exemption for Muslim and Jewish food production.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 27 Comments
Nick T

LDVideo: Clegg takes to his soapbox on Lords reform

By Nick T | Thu 28th June 2012 - 10:54 am

To mark yesterday’s publication of the House of Lords Reform Bill, Nick Clegg delivered a “soapbox” speech in Victoria Tower Gardens, behind the Palace of Westminster, to urge legislators to get on and pass the Bill, which, he says “comes down to a very simple principle: democracy”. Here’s the video:

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Mark Pack

Lords reform, Labour and the three key tests

By Mark Pack | Thu 28th June 2012 - 9:25 am

Ed Miliband’s decision to insist on Labour backing House of Lords reform at the Second Reading vote in the House of Commons is an important and welcome one. That it was opposed by senior Labour figures such as David Blunkett probably reinforces the views of many Liberal Democrats of Blunkett and co, but it should also remind us that Miliband’s decision and leadership on this is not trivial. It is something House of Lords reformers in all parties should welcome.

More cynical people may wonder if Labour support on the Second Reading will be a distraction tactic from them trying to sink Lords reform at a later date, whether with or without Miliband’s implicit backing. There are three main opportunities for that.

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Stephen Tall

Is 75% of the Coalition Agreement drawn from the Lib Dem manifesto? Alas, no…

By Stephen Tall | Thu 28th June 2012 - 9:02 am

One of the key justifications for Lib Dem involvement in the Coalition — one which has comforted many party members through the first two difficult years of being the junior partner in government with the Conservatives — has been the finding that 75% of the Lib Dem manifesto appeared in the Programme for Government (commonly known as the Coalition Agreement). This assessment was based on research by UCL’s Constitution Unit, and published a year ago in their interim report on ‘How Coalition Government Works’ (PDF).

However, UCL has …

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Posted in News and What do the academics say? | Tagged , , , , and | 29 Comments

Social liberal values and the tyranny of spin doctors – the Social Liberal Forum (Scotland) Conference

By Norman Fraser | Wed 27th June 2012 - 7:58 pm

Partick Burgh Halls in Glasgow was the venue for the Social Liberal Forum’s first Scottish Conference last weekend. Members came from as far away as England to participate in what turned out to be a lively and stimulating meeting.

The highlights of the event were:

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Caron Lindsay

Jo Swinson MP says “Let’s Fix Parliament”

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th June 2012 - 6:56 pm

Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire Jo Swinson has today sent out an e-mail to Liberal Democrat members and supporters asking them to spread the word about the need for Lords Reform on the day the Bill was published. This is what she had to say:

Did you know that only the UK and Lesotho allow people to inherit seats in Parliament? In the 21st century, that’s simply embarrassing, and it has to end.

We can only do this with your help. Today, the Bill for an elected House of Lords has been published. Over the coming weeks I’ll be asking you

…

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Kathryn Parminter

Baroness Parminter writes… Food for thought

By Kathryn Parminter | Wed 27th June 2012 - 4:21 pm

Defra has today launched its Hospitality and Food Service Agreement. This is a new voluntary UK-wide agreement with caterers, pubs, hotels and restaurants to reduce food and packaging waste by 5% and to increase the rate of recycling, composting or anaerobic digestion to 70% (it’s currently around 47%). While we as Liberal Democrats should welcome this and recognise the positive environmental impact it will have, the Government could and should be going much further on food.

Food production and consumption play a key role in public health, the UK economy, and in enhancing natural capital. Everyone should have access to …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 12 Comments
Michael Moore

Michael Moore’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore | Wed 27th June 2012 - 2:50 pm

Every week, Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland writes a column for newspapers in his Borders constituency. Here’s this week’s edition.

Energy prices

Rising energy continue to be a huge for concern for Borderers and I was pleased to meet with the Lib Dem Energy Secretary Ed Davey last week to discuss the Government’s plans to help people reduce their energy bills through the Green Deal, the most ambitious home insulation programme the UK has ever seen.

With the Green Deal, Borderers will be able to pay for some or all of the insulation work done with the savings they make on …

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Norman Baker MP

Norman Baker MP writes… A virtuous circle for cycling

By Norman Baker MP | Wed 27th June 2012 - 1:53 pm

Many of you will know that I don’t need to be asked twice to wax lyrical about the benefits of cycling. Cycling isn’t just about getting from A to B. Quite often it’s the quickest way of getting around, not to mention the healthiest, most environmentally friendly and the most predictable. It’s wallet-friendly, for those of us with an eye on rising fuel prices, and it’s space friendly, at a time when parking spaces in town and city centres are both at a premium and becoming increasingly expensive to use. Each car parking space could fit up to 20 bikes, …

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

Better Together, the pro UK campaign launches in Edinburgh

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th June 2012 - 12:28 pm

The campaign to keep Scotland within the UK launched on Monday in Edinburgh. Led by former Chancellor, Alistair Darling, it aims to “promote the view that Scotland is a better and stronger country as part of the United Kingdom”. The name of the campaign, Better Together, is positive and deliberately does not include the word “no”.

There were keynote speeches from Darling and a finale by Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie, but the stage was mainly given over to a selection of ordinary people who took to the stage to explain why they wanted Scotland to stay in the Union. Some of them are in this video, the Best of Both Worlds, also available here on You Tube.

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Mark Pack

How leaflets used to look: Sutton, 1972 – no bar chart but a darn good skull

By Mark Pack | Wed 27th June 2012 - 10:25 am

Welcome to another leaflet from the archives, this time courtesy of Sutton Council leader Ruth Dombey who has kindly provided a copy of the first Focus leaflet put out in Sutton back in 1972. It kicked off the winning Parliamentary by-election campaign for Graham Tope and was put together by Liverpool’s Trevor “Jones the Vote” who pioneered many of the campaign tactics now taken for granted.

Some of the issues may feel rather familiar and given its pioneering nature I think we can forgive the missing apostrophes and question marks… Interesting too both the level of personal detail about Graham and the inclusion of a story about what the Liberal Party believed in.

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Caron Lindsay

LibLink: Tim Leunig – David Cameron should know better than this Housing Benefit gimmick

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th June 2012 - 9:27 am

I wrote the other day that I wanted to see our party in general and Nick Clegg in particular come out and roundly condemn David Cameron’s ridiculous plan to stop under 25s from claiming Housing Benefit. Centre Forum director Tim Leunig did just that in an article for the Guardian on Monday.

His calm and forensic evisceration of Cameron’s argument put me in mind of the way Nick Clegg took apart the Tory Marriage Tax Break plan ahead of the 2010 election. This, of course, has been kicked into the long grass because of the Liberal Democrats. I’m also reminded of …

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Mark Pack

Housing: the IPPR’s answer

By Mark Pack | Wed 27th June 2012 - 8:25 am

Over the last week I’ve highlighted how the Britain’s love of home ownership is not based on any evidence that high home ownership brings economic success (if anything, the opposite is true), that the proportion of people living in private rented accommodation is on a long-term rise and that changes in property prices in Britain are widening rather than narrowing the huge geographic imbalances. Add to all that the increasing importance that Vince Cable and Nick Clegg, in particular, are giving to the housing market for boosting economic growth, and it is a sector clearly in need of action.

But what action?

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The Voice

LDVideo: Chloe Smith’s car-crash fuel duty Newsnight interview

By The Voice | Wed 27th June 2012 - 8:05 am

Yesterday saw George Osborne execute his latest U-turn, postponing from August until January next year the 3p-a-litre rise in fuel duty. Here is that U-turn, by the way:

Last night, Conservative Treasury minister did a tour of the media studios to defend the decision. Unfortunately for her, that included facing Jeremy Paxman live on BBC2’s Newsnight. You can watch the fairly excruciating result below (from approx. 6m:15s in):

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , , , , and | 26 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lords reform: did we really expect any better of either the Tories or Labour?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 26th June 2012 - 9:10 pm

All three main political parties fought the 2010 election promising the electorate that, if elected, they would reform the House of Lords. All three promised the same in 2005, too. And 2001. Yet in 2012 only one party is staying true to that promise: the Lib Dems. The Tories and Labour, in contrast, are happily indulging in party politics to block progress in advancing legislative democracy.

The Conservatives living up to their anti-reform name…

The Conservative Party has fought the last three elections promising to introduce a mainly/wholly elected second chamber to replace the current House of Patronage. They signed up …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , , , , and | 25 Comments
Mary Reid

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – Silver Linings to the Storm Clouds of Rio

By Mary Reid | Tue 26th June 2012 - 6:06 pm

Last week we linked to an article by former party leader Paddy Ashdown headed “Rio+20 is a chance to secure our children’s future“.

Over on Huffington Post he has now given his assessment of the summit.

 … as the summit reached its conclusion on Friday criticism from environment groups, charities working on poverty issues and the mainstream media over the strength of the agreement was becoming louder.

And yet the news coming from Rio has not been all bad. Indeed, some positive outcomes have emerged from

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 5 Comments
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