Mark Pack

Free schools: what should the party’s policy be in 2015?

By Mark Pack | Thu 12th April 2012 - 11:25 am

An empty classroomNews that the National Autistic Society is planning to set up a free school highlights an impending policy dilemma. Currently, the party’s policy is officially one of opposition to free schools. However if, by the time of the 2015 general election, free schools started by popular and worthy organisations such as the National Autistic Society are up and running, would it be either sensible education policy or practical politics simply to say, ‘we don’t like free schools; they have got to go’?

A different option would be …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 59 Comments
Advert
Stephen Tall

Telegraph smears Clegg. Again. (Y’know, I’ve a sneaky feeling they don’t like him.)

By Stephen Tall | Thu 12th April 2012 - 9:55 am

Here’s today’s comically skewed headline from the Torygraph:

Nick Clegg wants to let MPs keep family fortunes under wraps

Though you wouldn’t guess it from the headline or the story, what Nick Clegg was actually saying was simple enough: he thinks MPs as public servants should have to be transparent about their financial affairs, but he doesn’t think their family members, as private citizens, should have to publish details of their salaries and any other wealth. Which seems fair enough to me.

But then the Telegraph has a proven track record when it comes to having a pop at the Lib …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Sutton leader Sean Brennan retiring as leader next month

By Mark Pack | Thu 12th April 2012 - 8:55 am

Sutton Liberal Democrats have one of most impressive records of success anywhere in the UK – not only at winning and keeping control of Sutton Council (25th anniversary celebrated last year), not only at winning Parliamentary elections (two MPs in the borough, both Liberal Democrat) but also at pioneering many excellent environmental policies. Oh, and darn fine organisers of raffles too.

For the last decade Sean Brennan has been Leader of the Council, but this week he has announced that he will be standing down:

Coun Brennan, a former teacher first elected as a Sutton ward councillor in 1986

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Local government | Tagged , , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Labour’s not-so-very-local election broadcast shows how unimportant local decision-making is to Ed Miliband’s party

By Stephen Tall | Wed 11th April 2012 - 7:58 pm

Tonight’s Labour local election broadcast, starring telly’s very own Lord (Robert) Winston, climaxes with the rallying cry:

On Thursday May 3rd, vote NHS, vote Labour

Exactly how voting Labour then will help the NHS isn’t explored — not surprisingly, because it won’t. There’s a reason these elections are called local elections, after all.

Before highlighting Labour’s misleading tactics I thought I should first check out the Lib Dem record on fighting local elections. I have to say I was expecting to find comparable examples, times when the party leadership had called …

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

Nick Clegg’s e-mail to party members: The myth: green versus growth

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 11th April 2012 - 6:55 pm

Nick Clegg has been promoting his new deal with the six biggest energy companies which will mean that every consumer will receive a statement every year telling them if they’d be better off on a different tariff and how to change things. It’s part of what seems to be a strategy to debunk the idea put about by George Osborne and the Tory right that you can’t be green and have a growing economy at the same time. It makes sense that if we use our resources carefully, costs come down and that benefits everybody, business, consumer and the environment. …

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

Guardian hails Paddick proposals as “properly liberal”, progressive and bold

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 11th April 2012 - 2:54 pm

We’re not so used to the Guardian saying nice things about Liberal Democrats these days, but Dave Hill is full of praise for the London Liberal Democrat Manifesto for the Mayoral and Assembly elections which was launched yesterday, calling it liberal, progressive and bold. This is what he has to say about policing and transport proposals:

Mayor Paddick would give each London neighbourhood its own “plan for policing,” with local residents and businesses having input into policing priorities in their areas. His “Paddick patrols” of community groups and residents associations would act as the “eyes and ears” of the police on

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 8 Comments
Tom Smith

Opinion: Let’s talk about Corruption

By Tom Smith | Wed 11th April 2012 - 1:55 pm

The latest cash for access scandal may well have highlighted yet again the murky world of party financing and lobbying but overall the UK can pride itself on not being corrupt; Transparency International places it in the least 20 corrupt nations in the World.  How does this tally with opinion polls showing that almost three quarters of the British public think corruption is a serious problem in the UK that many consider has got worse in recent years?

Whether the public perception is wrong, there is a profound gap between public and expert definitions of corruption or if there really …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 3 Comments
Paul Walter

Opinion: In praise of French democracy

By Paul Walter | Wed 11th April 2012 - 12:24 pm

On board Eurostar, homeward bound after a Parisian Easter break, I am, as always, full of praise and affection for La France.

In the area where we were staying, activity on behalf of the Socialist candidate, for the forthcoming Presidential election, was omni-present. I collected a sheaf of leaflets and lettters politely profferred in markets on his behalf. I have little knowledge of French politics, but I can safely say that the 12th arrondissement of Paris is securely in the bag for François Hollande.

Yesterday’s …

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International | Tagged | 2 Comments
Joe Bourke

Opinion: Time for the Party to propose the Citizen’s Income

By Joe Bourke | Wed 11th April 2012 - 10:55 am

The Centre Forum paper Taxing Decisions discusses the pros and cons of tax credits and tax allowances. The report reviews tax options for tackling the income and wealth disparities which have become a feature of British society in recent decades.

Reducing the level of inequality benefits everyone in society, rich and poor alike. I would argue that in an inclusive and more equal society, all citizens should pay tax on their income. Means tested benefits have not delivered for us. Child poverty, and unemployment are entrenched with the resulting societal breakdown. The way out of poverty is work. The best …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 20 Comments
Mark Pack

Why election candidates shouldn’t have to publish their tax returns

By Mark Pack | Wed 11th April 2012 - 9:25 am

Remember all the stuff Liberal Democrats such as Vince Cable have been saying for years about how our tax system catches too much income and not enough wealth? You know what – I believe that, and I haven’t suddenly forgotten it in the last few days.

So the idea that somehow getting people to publish their tax returns really gives you a sense of how well-off they are is as flawed as the idea that the tax system those returns illustrate manages to catch how well-off you are. For the same reason that the tax system is out of kilter, so …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 9 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg: “Many will save £100 a year thanks to energy deal”

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 11th April 2012 - 8:46 am

Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has just been on BBC Breakfast talking about the deal that the Government has reached with energy companies which will save many households £100 a year on their bills. Under the plan, consumers would be written to annually and told if a different tariff would save them money.

Nick explained that seven out of ten households were paying too much because they were on the wrong tariff and this idea would save them money. He acknowledged that this alone would not solve all the problems in the energy market but he said …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

It’s not as if the presenter on a TV news program needs to do anything other than look pretty and be drooled over, is it?

By Mark Pack | Tue 10th April 2012 - 9:45 pm

Dear David Sexton,

Thank you for letting me know that the new presenter on the BBC breakfast show this morning was “near-sleeveless” in a “short” dress that was also “tightly-fitted”. “She’s a bit of a wriggler” was handy to know, and I’m glad to have been warned that “you’re aware of her bare arms all the time”. But not so aware as to mean that you missed her being “naturally great-looking”. Good of you also to let me know that she has mastered the look of “beatific happiness” and can also “nod sagely”. Reassuring to know too that at times …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged | 8 Comments
Mark Valladares

Tax news – no, don’t all look away at once…

By Mark Valladares | Tue 10th April 2012 - 3:46 pm

Osborne discovers that rich people dodge their taxes, bears seen looking for a quiet tree
 
In an interesting turn of events, following an instruction to HM Revenue & Customs, a review of a collection of anonymised personal tax returns reveals that the twenty biggest personal tax avoiders have reduced their liabilities by a pretty staggering £145 million (a prize to the first person to calculate the number of nurses/council houses/subsidised bus routes this would pay for).
 
And whilst the notion of a ‘tycoon tax’ was derided by many, including some Liberal Democrats, as a bit of a gimmick when Nick Clegg announced …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 12 Comments
Helen Flynn

Academisation: Is this the equivalent of the FE sector’s 1993 moment?

By Helen Flynn | Tue 10th April 2012 - 2:24 pm

Academies are opening at an exponential rate. But there’s nothing new under the sun, as the saying goes—we have been here before, if we would all but look. A useful lesson can be learned from the FE sector and begs the questions: how long before all our schools are classified as being in the private sector? And what should we as Liberal Democrats feel and do about that?

Under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 (which took effect in April 1993), colleges were “incorporated”, ie they were given full financial independence, together with full powers to own assets, employ staff, …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 9 Comments
Antony Hook

Opinion: Police Commissioner elections – the Lib Dem candidate won’t spy on you

By Antony Hook | Tue 10th April 2012 - 11:23 am

As a campaigner with a strong interest in the European Elections, I am really happy to see a number of counties moving towards selection of a Liberal Democrat candidate for the Police Commissioner elections in November.

This is because in the European Elections an important message for Liberal Democrats is that we are effective on crime. Crime crosses state borders within Europe. We need co-operation and integration to ensure that our police’s powers to bring criminals to justice, the rule of law, and important civil liberties cross borders too. The other parties won’t make the commitment that we will to tackle …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 24 Comments
Mark Valladares

Coming up in the Lords: 23-26 April

By Mark Valladares | Tue 10th April 2012 - 10:23 am

With the Lords having packed in so/too (delete as appropriate) much business before the Easter recess, the Commons will return a week earlier than their ermine-clad colleagues, so this is a shorter than usual report.

Ironically, the biggest event of the week will not take place in the Chamber, or even in the Committee corridors. It is, of course, the publication of the much-leaked report of the Joint Committee on the draft House of Lords Reform Bill. I don’t expect it to be particularly satisfactory to anyone, if the …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 1 Comment
Mark Pack

Does David Cameron take people’s privacy seriously? Here’s a test

By Mark Pack | Tue 10th April 2012 - 8:50 am

I’ve previously blogged about Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger’s decision to publish personal data about someone without their consent and despite them warning him about his behaviour:

The origin of the dispute rests with butterflies, with the MP having taken great exception to a local pro-butterfly organisation seeking public money. Christopher Foster emailed the MP to disagree, making a few pungent comments of his own. The MP responded by publishing Mr Foster’s email in full, including his personal email address.

Given that under data protection law people’s email addresses are personal data, for an MP to publish without consent someone’s contact details

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

In other news… Kemp4Liverpool, Duwayne4London, Tod4Winchester, Salmond4Inquiry, and more…

By Stephen Tall | Mon 9th April 2012 - 6:10 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past few days…

Liverpool elected mayor candidates announced (BBC News)

Twelve candidates have been nominated to stand as Liverpool’s first directly elected mayor. Nominations closed at midday and voters will go to the polls on 3 May. Among the 12 are four members of Liverpool City Council, including Labour leader Joe Anderson and Liberal Democrat Richard Kemp.

Duwayne Brooks announced as Lib Dem deputy mayor (BBC News)

A friend of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has been named as a deputy to Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick if

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

Campaign Corner: Good luck

By Mark Pack | Mon 9th April 2012 - 3:50 pm

Thank you to everyone who has read, commented on or contributed ideas for the Campaign Corner series over the last 25 weeks. With this final post, it’ll have been going for six months and now, with people in full flight campaigning for May’s elections, is a good moment to bring it to an end.

If you are putting some of that advice to the test in May, and especially if you’re a Liberal Democrat!, best of luck and I hope it helps.

(If you’re not a Liberal Democrat by all means do follow the main themes of the advice: the public hate …

Continue reading »
Posted in Campaign Corner | Tagged and | Leave a comment
Stephen Tall

Mary Ann Sieghart socks it to Quentin Letts for his “witheringly misogynistic” assault on Lynne Featherstone

By Stephen Tall | Mon 9th April 2012 - 1:55 pm

I try as hard as possible not to link to the Daily Mail — it’s my small and admittedly token gesture not to encourage them. And Quentin Letts is the Mail at its most unpleasantly execrable, slavering to stick his pen-knife into anyone he cares to disdain, especially if they’re female or have a funny accent or some other personal tic to pick on.

Last week, he laid into Lib Dem equalities minister Lynne Featherstone. It was classic play-the-woman-I’ve-got-no-balls Letts:

Though aged 60 (and counting), she teeters up to the Despatch Box in high heels, grinning girlishly at the Opposition benches before

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 21 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Pauline Pearce – After the riots, the Liberal Democrats stood by me

By NewsHound | Mon 9th April 2012 - 12:35 pm

As we reported last month, Pauline Pearce – the ‘Hackney Heroine’ – standing as Lib Dem candidate in May’s elections. And last week she explained to The Guardian exactly why she is standing for the party: “because I discovered their commitment to poor communities is genuine”. Here’s an excerpt from Pauline’s article:

I announced earlier this month that I am planning to stand for election as a Liberal Democrat councillor in Hackney, yet I’m still posed a common question by journalists and friends alike: why the Lib Dems? Following the riots, all the major political parties courted me. But when

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Remembering the 1992 general election, 20 years ago today

By Stephen Tall | Mon 9th April 2012 - 10:45 am

Thursday, 9th April, 1992 — the first election for the newly-formed Liberal Democrats, and the last election when the Tories won a parliamentary majority. Here’s a video trip down memory lane…

Andrew Marr on John Major’s biggest popular mandate in electoral history

Paddy Ashdown on the campaign trail

Continue reading »
Posted in YouTube | Tagged , , and | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #268

By Stephen Tall | Sun 8th April 2012 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 268th 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 (1-7 April, 2012), 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:

Continue reading »
Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment
Mary Reid

Demos: “Religious people are more likely to be politically progressive”

By Mary Reid | Sun 8th April 2012 - 3:55 pm

It seems appropriate on Easter Day to report the findings of the report entitled Faithful Citizens by the think tank Demos.

I have been embarrassed and saddened by the portrayal of “the church” as bigoted and homophobic recently, and this research helps to counterbalance that impression. Demos’ report implies that people of faith are more likely to share Liberal Democrat values than to hold the conservative fundamentalist views often described in the media.

13% of citizens claim to belong to a church or other religious organisation, so these findings refer to believers across all the faiths in the UK, although Christians are …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 25 Comments
Joe Bourke

Opinion: Good borrowing and bad borrowing

By Joe Bourke | Sun 8th April 2012 - 2:35 pm

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” So says Lord Polonius to his son Laertes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Good advice for young people starting out in life, but the modern economy of the 21st century depends on the constant circulation of money and credit. We all need to borrow to buy a house, for University etc. Firms need to borrow for investment in equipment and working capital. Government needs to borrow to finance infrastructure. That’s good borrowing.

If, however, debt is being racked up to buy imported tack or fund boozy nights out, we would think of that as bad borrowing.

There …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 25 Comments
Stephen Tall

Clegg: “no objection in principle” to publishing his tax return

By Stephen Tall | Sun 8th April 2012 - 11:45 am

Today’s Independent on Sunday reports:

Nick Clegg has “no objection in principle” to publishing his tax return, aides said yesterday, after senior politicians scrambled to respond to calls for greater US-style openness from public figures.

After the four main candidates for London’s mayoral elections revealed their personal tax affairs, the Chancellor, George Osborne, yesterday said he was “very happy” for his own details to be published. The disclosures from Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone, Brian Paddick and Jenny Jones were seen as a turning point, with some warning that they were succumbing to the “Americanisation” of British politics.

An aide to the Deputy

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Robbie Simpson

Opinion: Why parts of the government want to store your entire internet history

By Robbie Simpson | Sun 8th April 2012 - 9:50 am

On Monday I arrived back in the United Kingdom after a visit to Georgia – a beautiful country, but one with an authoritarian government. Imagine my surprise when I picked up a newspaper at Heathrow and read claims that the government was proposing to monitor and store all internet communications in the country.

We have since attempted to play down the scale of this proposal, but I am incredibly concerned that it would be far wider than is generally believed – and this is because of the technical difficulties of interception.

A key distinction that has been put forward is that these …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 20 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV Caption Competition: Tim Farron & Prince Charles “I want that hat” Edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 7th April 2012 - 5:15 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader…


(Picture reproduced here with thanks to Steven Barber.)

Here is Lib Dem party president Tim Farron meeting Prince Charles this week. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about them?

And the winners of our last caption comp is…

Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Clegg & Obama “Seoul Brothers” Edition.

Continue reading »
Posted in Caption Comp | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

Reading Labour Party leaflet’s “born and bred” racist innuendo: will Labour now apologise and withdraw it?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 7th April 2012 - 12:45 pm

This is the leaflet the Labour Party is delivering through letter-boxes in a ward where the sitting Conservative councillor — Cllr Azam Janjua, a Reading resident for half a century — is facing a Labour opponent, Eileen McElligott. See if you can notice the oh-so-subtle way in which Labour puts its lips together to dog-whistle:

You read that right:

“Eileen McElligott … was born and bred in Reading … She will fight for us here … because she is one of us.”

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 74 Comments
Mark Pack

Why RIPA is flawed

By Mark Pack | Sat 7th April 2012 - 11:15 am

Greg Callus’s excellent post dissects in documented detail some of the problems with the RIPA regulatory mechanism – and why therefore simply extending the range of data that can be accessed under RIPA would be extending the range of data that can be accessed without proper control.

In particular:

Sometimes, there isn’t time for a written request because of an imminent threat to life and limb, and so the Urgent Oral procedure kicks in – the SPoC will normally be rudely awoken by a police officer explaining they have (eg) an urgent terrorism/kidnapping situation, and they need a notification to be

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Michael BG
    John Kelly, At our Spring 2023 Conference my local party submitted an amendment to Standing Orders (https://www.libdems.org.uk/conference/motions/spring-2023...
  • Jana
    Fully agree. Perhaps we should submit a motion to Congress proposing changes….....
  • Candy Piercy
    Well said Roderick. We need a much more diverse membership at Conference and in our Local Parties. Conference at present is like a lovely house party. You s...
  • Adam
    It's worth remembering that a pensioner in Germany is paying between 12% and 15% of their pension for health insurance. A UK pensioner on the other hand is exem...
  • Peter Davies
    To expand a comment I made in another thread, the policy would make sense if we also rolled back Rishi Sunak's election giveaway (a four pence cut in NI). Ideal...