The avalanche of cuts that are due to be announced later this month could decide the fate of the government, perhaps even of the country. Most Liberal Democrats I know are extremely nervous about, and they are right to be.
But beyond the arguments about the deficit and the national debt, there are other reasons why some cuts – the right cuts – might be a welcome opportunity. I believe this, I suppose, because of William Cobbett.
Cobbett was the great radical campaigner, as much of an influence on the future Liberal Party as Cobden or Bright, and he used …
Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, has tonight written to all Lib Dem members in anticipation of the publication next week of the report of the Browne Review (‘The Independent Review of Higher Education & Student Finance in the UK’ to give it its official title).
Here’s what Vince has to say:
Dear Friend,
As you know, one of the most urgent tasks facing the Coalition Government is to reform the funding of Higher Education. Our objectives are clear: high-quality university teaching and research; fair access for all, regardless of background; and a progressive funding structure.
Today’s Telegraph has an in-depth interview with the Lib Dems’ climate change and energy secretary Chris Huhne, in which he expertly steers the tightrope of punchily sticking up for party policy while sticking well within collective responsibility.
Somewhat bizarrely, both the BBC and the Torygraph are leading on the least contentious part of the interview, in which Chris points out that the Coalition will adjust economic policy according to circumstances and forecasts:
“I’ve never known one Treasury Red Book to be exactly like the last one. There is always a change. It is a bit like setting sail. If the
The Government believes that strong and stable families of all kinds are the bedrock of a strong and stable society.
So says the Coalition Agreement, but has the Government’s approach to reducing the deficit actually demonstrated the opposite?
The furore over the proposed removal of Child Benefit from higher rate tax payers has raised hackles in the middle classes – and aspiring middle classes. But the cuts to Child Benefit are further evidence of a worrying trend since the election.
Whether there are arguments for the cuts or not, the list since May does not smack of a Government committed to “strong and …
All of us at Lib Dem Voice join in wishing our colleague, Alex Foster, the very best on his wedding day. May it be everything you both want, and more, Alex.
Alex is one of the founding members of the Voice collective: you can read his first post on his love-hate relationship with Lib Dem conferences (from September 2006) here; and all his other posts for the Voice here.
And if you want to be uplifted while shedding a tear, can I recommend the post he published this week over …
One of the most revered figures for British Liberal is Lord Beveridge, whose famous report laid the foundations for the welfare state as it was initially implemented by the 1945 Labour government. This report laid down the five “giant evils” which afflicted British society at that time, these were squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease.
As Lib Dems now contemplate the latest ream of announcements from George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith concerning reform of the welfare state, many of us, and particularly those who may identify with the ‘Beveridge’ Group within the party are concerned that the work of generations …
Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…
An easy question to ask, a rather harder one to answer. The news during the week about plans to change child benefit has seen many stories in the media about people on well above average income who are described as “middle class” rather than, say, “rich”.
Does this matter? Does “middle class” imply “not rich”? And is it not about money anyway (a point Millennium Elephant forcefully made earlier in the week)?
Birmingham, the city that this week played host to the Conservative party conference, has also been hosting a grass roots battle for Liberty.
This battle takes the form of a campaign run by residents against Project Champion. This project involved the police installing automated number plate recognition cameras (ANPR) in a Muslim area of the city.
It has now been shown that the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) provided the project’s funding as part of an anti-terror grant. This raises the questions as to why people were mislead by senior officers into believing the cameras were installed for crime prevention …
Lord Ashcroft has spent some the money he acquired through not paying his taxes on a fascinating poll of former Labour voters.
The poll looks at 2091 people who voted Labour in 2005 but for other parties in 2010, 47% of them voted Lib Dem. It provides a wealth of information on the attitude of these voters who it is crucial we retain in 2015, and how they differ from ex Labour voters who choose to vote for other parties.
The first issue looked at is why did they leave Labour. They are asked to rate a number of reasons …
It’s been a heady week for British science in the wake of the Nobel prize announcements.
British reproductive biologist Robert Edwards was awarded the prize for medicine for his role in developing the in-vitro fertilisation techniques that led to the world’s first “test-tube baby”. In the same awards, the prize for physics was given to a pair of Russian-born scientists, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who we are lucky enough to have currently working at Manchester University. Incidentally, Geim is also an Ig Nobel laureate for developing an experiment in which he levitated a live frog using magnetic fields acting …
Oh dear. Ed Miliband makes one speech in which he mentions Beveridge and doesn’t overtly attack us, and everyone thinks he’s making overtures to us and looking to form a Progressive Coalition after the next General Election.
Wake up everyone. The complete opposite is true. When Ed Miliband said he wanted ‘to eliminate the Liberal Democrats from British Politics’, he meant it. And he’s going about it in an ingenious – and invidious – way.
Partly of course he’s playing the old card of the other two parties – …
Pitched primarily at a business audience, Stever Robbins’s new book 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More is also highly applicable to political activists and public officials.
Stever Robbins’s book covers familiar ground for personal improvement and business books – how to do more and do it better in less time. Its light touch and emphasis on detailed practical advice raise it above the field – as long as you like the distinctive humour peppered with references to zombies, cats and tall tales about himself.
“Enough of the cuts already!”. We should be shouting. Not because of some ostrich-like desire to deny we’re part of a coalition that’s taking a scythe to public spending, but because the message is wrong. It’s not the cuts stupid, it’s not even the economy stupid. It’s the vision thing, clever.
Businesses are not in business to cut costs. Of course, they need to be efficient to compete (which includes not burdening themselves with debt that they can’t cope with). But their purpose, the reason someone set them up in the first place, is to make something or sell a service. …
Lib Dem Voice can reveal that the rare Election Petition Court which was held in Uppermill for the constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth earlier in September will be delayed in giving its verdict.
Mr Justice Nigel Teale, one of the two High Court judges hearing the case, originally indicated that they would give their verdict sometime in mid-October.
Helen Mountfield QC asked whether there was a likelihood of a verdict at the end of the week of giving evidence, but Mr Justice Teale made plain in the politest and firmest way that neither he nor Mr Justice Griffith Williams, the other …
A low point in William Hague’s otherwise excellent conference speech on Sunday was his cheap shot at the Alternative Vote system and its role in the outcome of the Labour leadership election. The result, he implied, was some sort of mathematical anomaly; somehow unfair. But there’s nothing unfair about the election of Ed Miliband. If the election were repeated tomorrow using the first-past-the-post system, with only the two Milibands standing, the result would be the same. What the AV system showed was that a majority of the Labour party electorate preferred Ed over David. …
Well here we are, in the cockpit of history. The Today programme yesterday reported that David Willetts had been yanked back from the Conservative Party conference to negotiate with Vince Cable over student fees, looking for a deal before the Browne Review delivers its report.
What kind of deal is possible? This is a crucial question not just for Liberal Democrats but for the whole country because Nick Clegg holds a powerful hand and the way he plays his cards may shape the future our universities and the role they play in this country for a generation.
I’ve not yet had time to fully digest all 176 pages of John Hutton’s interim report on the future of public sector pensions, but here are some parts which have stood out so far and look to be the key issues for the future:
I have been struck both by the enormous complexity of the subject matter, as well as by the degree of misunderstandings and confusions that surround any debate about it. My report tries to dispel some of these myths. It is mistaken to talk about ‘gold-plated’ pensions as being the norm across the public sector. In the most part, the pensions that are paid out to public service employees when they retire are fairly modest by any standard, although in part these reflect part-career or part-time working. For some people these modest pensions now look over generous because of the changes that have taken place in the private sector over the last 30 years or so, where pensions have become generally much less valuable than they used to be. Fewer people in the private sector are also contributing to a pension. I hope these negative trends can be reversed and I fully support efforts to do so.
This downward drift in pension provision in the private sector does not however provide sufficient support or justification in my view for the argument that pensions in the public sector must therefore automatically follow the same course … I have therefore rejected a race to the bottom as the only answer…
Final salary schemes, which are the norm across much of the public sector, primarily reward high earners who progress rapidly through the salary scales…
All these past reforms , the current pay freeze and planned workforce reductions will reduce the future cost of pensions. The gross cost of paying unfunded public service pensions is expected to fall from 1.9 per cent of GDP in 2010-11 to 1.4 per cent of GDP by 2060 …
However, these measures will take many decades to fully affect the costs of pensions in payment, which are heavily influenced by existing pensioners, the vast majority of whom are still in pre-reform schemes. The Commission estimates that gross expenditure on unfunded public service pensions will remain close to current levels as a proportion of GDP over the next decade…
The increase in longevity also means that these pensions are now likely to be paid out for longer, increasing the overall costs. These extra costs, despite recent reforms, have not been equally split between employer and employees…
The most effective way to make short-term savings is to increase member contributions and there is also a clear rationale for doing so…
Evidence to the Commission has also made it clear that current pension structures, combined with the requirement to provide comparable pensions (‘Fair Deal’), are a barrier to non-public service providers, potentially reducing the efficiencies and innovation in public service delivery that could be achieved.
The lack of long term cost increases (as a proportion of GDP), the way the schemes particularly benefit those who end up in the best paid jobs and the view that decreasing private sector pension schemes is no reason for the public sector to follow suit all look towards a final report that may recommend many changes of detail but will not propose radical reductions in overall public sector pension provision.
Here is the report in full – and do post up a comment if you spot something significant somewhere in the details:
Asylum is a human rights issue. Given the tone of public debate in the last few years, you could be forgiven for not realising that, or having forgotten it. Asylum policy is about ensuring that people who have suffered appalling persecution are given the protection they’re entitled to. That’s not mentioned very often either. So it was heartening to see a room full of people at the Lib Dem conference in Liverpool for a discussion organised by the Refugee Council and UNHCR on ‘Asylum Policy: Honouring Our Refugee Protection Commitments’.
The meeting brought together Tom Brake MP, Roland Schilling (UNHCR UK …
The possibilities of better use of technology to improve government have often come up on this site, so readers may find of interest what the Cabinet Office’s Draft Structural Reform Plan (a set of priorities for each department) says on the matter:
3.1 Increase powers of CIO to drive the integration and improve value for money of ICT infrastructure
i. Set up infrastructure for new CIO office and increase central CIO powers
ii. Start the roll out cross-departmental asset register on a common ICT infrastructure
iii.
Labour had been considering it for months before the General Election. The Coalition decided it was necessary after they’d seen the books – much to the discomfort of many Lib Dems. It’s the VAT rise – to 20% on 1st January 2011.
Many people have said that it’s a regressive tax and we should have increased basic rate income tax instead, suggesting that would be fairer.
Is that really true? Partly, but in reality the case is less clear cut.
We don’t pay VAT on food, children’s clothes, books, newspapers, magazines or sporting activities nor will the VAT rise affect …
Ed Miliband’s campaign chief breached House of Commons rules by sending a Parliamentary letter to voters during the general election campaign, anti-sleaze watchdogs have found…
Mr Khan was reported to the watchdog after it emerged that he had sent a mailshot using Commons notepaper and pre-paid envelopes to inform voters that he could no longer deal with constituency cases during the dissolution of Parliament…
Mr Lyon said that although it was clear Mr Khan had tried to keep constituents informed, one effect of the letter was to appear to be canvassing “support for his
Now that Ed Miliband has apparently embraced the Liberal Democrat agenda (voting reform, civil liberties, fairer taxation, condemnation of the Iraq war, cleaning up ‘the city’, the need for ‘fiscal credibility’ etc.,) he raises an intriguing question. Could Labour form a coalition government before the term of the present one expires?
The maths is intriguing. Labour currently hold 258 seats. Since Sinn Fein refuse to take up their five seats in Parliament the ‘magic number’ for a majority is an attainable 323. Were Labour to win three by-elections by taking seats from the Scottish Nationalists or Plaid Cymru, and were …
When it comes to party conferences, all parties complain that the media get it wrong.
If you’re in the Green Party, UKIP, Plaid, the SNP or another smaller party you’ll be frustrated about the way the national media ignore you. All those great policies and speeches to the party faithful, but you end up with a small paragraph in the Times. If you’re lucky.
The Lib Dems were finding out this year what it’s like not to be ignored. Tabloid hacks arriving for the first time from the Sun , Express, Mirror and Mail may have been as bemused by the disappointing …
“As part of a package of measures, we will introduce a carefully managed and science-led policy of badger control in areas with high and persistent levels of Bovine Tuberculosis” – The Coalition: Our programme for Government (page 18)
The Government is now consulting on its proposal to introduce badger culling as part of its approach to tackle Bovine TB. This part of the Government’s policy is bound to generate both controversy and impassioned debate.
Last year the Government slaughtered over 25,000 cattle because of TB. The control programme costs £63 million. Yet the situation is getting worse.
A Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman has called for a new tax on bonuses to be placed on banks. Lord Oakeshott’s call came after the Royal Bank of Scotland’s chairman claimed that regulation was the only way to restrain the annual bonus bonanza in the financial services industry. Sir Philip Hampton admitted that the bank was “paying a lot of people who aren’t worth it” and concluded that, whilst RBS had made changes to the structure of bonus deals to avoid rewards for failure, “My own view is it can probably only be decisively solved through regulation”.
One of the major achievements in the Coalition Agreement is the commitment of the Conservatives to support not merely a “wholly or mainly” elected Upper House but also one elected by proportional representation no less.
The timetable has started to slip, from the original agreement’s decision to “come forward with a draft motions by December 2010” to talk about draft legislation in January and then, slipped in near the end of Nick Clegg’s conference speech, the intention that the first elections will not be held until the latest possible moment while still keeping the commitment to act in this Parliament – …
expats Chris Bowers...Where is that ‘Yesss’ moment going to come from?
It looks like 'from Andy Burnham'.....
Peter Davies Housing is unlikely to be an election winner. Parties for decades have put forward targets for masses of new houses and schemes for bringing existing houses int...
Nick Baird @Jana - so your argument is that the UK shouldn't take *any* refugees, and the burden should fall entirely on countries that happen to neighbour those suffering...
Peter Wrigley Surely our defining issue must be the the preservation, improvement and extension of Liberal Democracy in this country and beyond. By all means support it with...
Chris Cory Community politics should not be a technique for winning elections. It should be about the redistribution of power to local people. It is not about all the thi...
3.1 Increase powers of CIO to drive the integration and improve value for money of ICT infrastructure
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