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Paul Haydon

Opinion: Britain and the EU-Liberal Democrats need to help reduce the democratic deficit

By Paul Haydon | Published Tue 17th July 2012 - 4:14 pm

Following the launch of the Balance of Competences review of EU powers last week, the next major debate within the coalition looks set to be over Britain’s relationship with Europe. Nick Clegg has emphasised that the review should not be used as a way to exploit the eurozone crisis and carve out a special EU deal forBritain. However, many Tory eurosceptics will no doubt view it as a platform to push for a significant repatriation of powers, in the run-up to an eventual referendum on EU …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 36 Comments
The Liberator Collective

New edition of Liberator

By The Liberator Collective | Published Tue 17th July 2012 - 11:05 am

 

The latest issue of Liberator magazine (issue no.354 – July 2012) was mailed to subscribers last week. If by chance you have not yet got round to taking out a subscription, here’s a summary of the contents:

  • The editorial column Commentary calls for tougher bank regulation in the wake of the Barclays scandal. It also calls on the party’s Federal Finance and Administration Committee to produce the evidence for its decision to defy both the conference and the Federal Conference Committee and persist with police accreditation for conference representatives.
  • The insider

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

How Jeremy Thorpe (and then Nick Clegg) broke the electoral system

By Stephen Tall | Published Sun 15th July 2012 - 2:45 pm

Democratic Audit this week published its latest analysis, its depressing conclusions summed up by The Guardian’s headline British democracy in terminal decline.

A fascinating aspect of the Audit, even for those of us still scarred by the rejection of electoral reform in the 2011 referendum, is its detailed dissection of how the First-Past-The-Post system is failing democracy. And in particular the pinpointing of the year when FPTP started to go bad: 1974, and the Liberal insurgence under Jeremy Thorpe, when the party increased its support from 7.5% in 1970 to 19.3%.

This, say the Audit’s authors, marked a turning point in the UK’s electoral history, a moment when ended the dominance of the ‘Golden Age’ of FPTP (1950-70) and introduced instead its ‘Dysfunctional Age’ (1979-2005):

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , | 41 Comments
The Voice

LDVideo: Introducing the Land Value Tax

By The Voice | Published Sat 14th July 2012 - 3:05 pm

The Liberal Democrat campaign for Action on Land Tax and Economic reform has recently released a new video to explain the virtues of a Land Value Tax — described by ALTER as ‘making taxation more progressive and addressing the injustice of economic rent, it would encourage development and boost the economy. It’s the kind of measure that our country is in desperate need of right now.’

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , | 78 Comments
Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow MP writes… Radically reforming social care

By Paul Burstow | Published Wed 11th July 2012 - 12:55 pm

Most of you will have a friend or family member who needs some kind of care and support to help them get through the day.

In fact, more than 80% of us will need some form of care once we turn 65 – which is why getting social care right is so important.

It’s important because it touches upon some of the most essential things in life, like being healthy, happy and independent.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Published Sun 8th July 2012 - 9:25 am

Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email?

Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dems should back a judge-led inquiry into financial scandal

By Stephen Tall | Published Wed 4th July 2012 - 10:55 pm

I get why the Tories are opposed to a judge-led inquiry into the scandalous rate-rigging practices employed by Barclays and other banks: their experiences of the Leveson Inquiry show how scandals, even ones that blend across the red/blue parties, have a habit of rebounding on the government of the day.

I get why Labour are in favour of a judge-led inquiry: so complicit were Labour (and Ed Balls in particular) in the catastrophic financial mess of the last few years, of which the banks are just one part, that they are desperate to appear transparent in the hope the inquiry will rebound on the government of the day.

But I don’t get why the Lib Dems are lining up with the Tories to oppose a judge-led inquiry.

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Posted in News, Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , | 58 Comments
Caron Lindsay

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

By Caron Lindsay | Published 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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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments
Ewan Hoyle

Opinion: Changing demand without changing supply puts prostitutes at risk

By Ewan Hoyle | Published Wed 20th June 2012 - 11:57 am

It is with some concern that I read of proposals to criminalise paying for sex in Scotland.

Prostitution is a catch-all term that describes arrangements that should make the state very concerned indeed – trafficking of children for brutal sexual exploitation for example. There are also arrangements that the state has no business interfering in – the work of a self-employed, financially comfortable escort making very good money to supplement another income in an environment over which he or she has control.

Changing demand by criminalising the purchase of sex will have a number of unintended and undesirable consequences.

Firstly, we should consider …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments
Nick Clegg MP

Nick Clegg MP writes… Rio+20 should set the green agenda for the next 20 years

By Nick Clegg MP | Published Fri 15th June 2012 - 12:05 pm

Next week, representatives from 190 countries will meet to discuss how we build a green economy that reduces poverty without destroying the environment. These issues have been close to my heart since I wrote a postgraduate thesis on the “Deep Green” movement and humans’ effect on the environment over twenty years ago. But their importance for future generations has been brought home tenfold to me since becoming a father, and I am proud that I will be leading the UK delegation at the Rio Summit.

At the original Earth Summit in 1992, against the backdrop of Brazil’s disappearing Amazon …

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Posted in News | Tagged , | 4 Comments
Sara Bedford

Does mislaying your child really make you a bad parent?

By Sara Bedford | Published Tue 12th June 2012 - 11:55 am

As soon as Eric Pickles announced his ‘Back to Basics’ crackdown on ‘troubled’ families, it was odds on that a Conservative minister would oblige by executing his own family faux pas. How many would have placed their bets in the culprit being the Prime Minister himself, who with model mum Samantha appears to have chillaxed a little too much after Sunday lunch at the pub, leaving their daughter Nancy in the Ladies.

The uncomfortable end to Nancy’s comfort break apparently happened ‘a couple of months ago’, according to a Downing Street spokesman, but conveniently surfaced in the press as soon as …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , | 26 Comments
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Published Thu 7th June 2012 - 10:25 am

Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email?

Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

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Stephen Tall

Our political writers can pretend they know what makes us tick: a response to Matthew d’Ancona

By Stephen Tall | Published Wed 6th June 2012 - 8:25 pm

Here’s how Matthew d’Ancona could’ve started his article for today’s London Evening Standard, ‘Our political class can now work out what makes us tick’. But he didn’t.

So what was all that about? As the waves of media fervour subside to reveal the bleak promontories of Austerity Commentariat, let us pause and ask what this extraordinary four-day Jubilee told us about journalists, and their obsession with extrapolating about our national life and character.

There then follows some delicious cognitive dissonance. First, an acknowledgement of what is to follow:

The lazy reflex for political observers is to extract the lessons that suit them.

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib-Lab cooperation: there’s one easy way to find out if Labour are serious

By Stephen Tall | Published Wed 6th June 2012 - 5:55 pm

Today’s Guardian big-ups a call by Labour’s chief whip in the Lords, Lord Bassam, to his Lib Dem opposite number Lord Newby as a sign that ‘elements of the party are preparing the ground for a possible Lib-Lab coalition after the next election.’

I have to say on first reading the tenor of Lord Bassam’s note strikes me more as told-you-so than conciliatory, but maybe I’m being over-sensitive — judge for yourselves from this excerpt:

“The last couple of years have been a bit bruising for your colleagues in this house, and no doubt they will be looking forward to

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , | 28 Comments
Caron Lindsay

The day the Nationalists stole me

By Caron Lindsay | Published Wed 30th May 2012 - 6:28 pm

Last Friday saw the launch of Yes Scotland, the campaign for Scottish independence. I wrote at the time that it really amounted to some white blokes talking in a cinema.

It’s not been a good week for them because yesterday they were forced to change their website after I found out my photo was on it, among others, under the headline “Powered by people o’ independent mind”.  The clear implication was that I support their cause when I absolutely do not.

I also found out I had a profile on their site, and had been awarded 50 “political capital” points for …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments
Kavya Kaushik

The importance of community politics in a homogenous political scene

By Kavya Kaushik | Published Tue 29th May 2012 - 2:47 pm

When I first became aware of politics the world was looking towards Obama as a beacon of hope and change. As an 18 year old it was inspiring enough to want to change the world and campaign against inequality. However since I have gained further exposure, it has become apparent that politics attracts a disproportionate amount of young, careerist men. I refer to the likes of David Miliband, brought up in Hampstead yet representing the safe Labour seat of South Shields (which has a child poverty rate of 28%). When people say they don’t see a difference between the …

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Posted in News, Op-eds | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #275

By The Voice | Published Sun 27th May 2012 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 275th 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 (20-26 May, 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:

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The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 25 May 2012

By The Voice | Published Fri 25th May 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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Caron Lindsay

Five years in five posts – 2007-2011

By Caron Lindsay | Published Wed 16th May 2012 - 11:28 am

I was wondering how I could amuse readers on my own blog yesterday and I came up with this amazing idea of going back and finding out what I was writing about around this time in previous years. It was only later that I realised that Helen Duffett does this for Liberal Democrat Voice every Friday in the Friday Five . I hope she doesn’t mind me borrowing her idea and  adding in a little extra spot.

What was good about my post yesterday is that a few other Liberal Democrat bloggers got in on the act and I spent …

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Posted in Best of the blogs, News | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
NewsHound

‘Nick Clegg sets out plans to break private schools’ grip on establishment’

By NewsHound | Published Sat 12th May 2012 - 5:33 pm

Nick Clegg has long championed the pupil premium, new money allocated to schools to help boost the educational chances of children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. Today’s Guardian reports how he plans in a major speech on Monday to emphasise its importance in improving social mobility in the UK:

Nick Clegg will next week set out long-term plans to break the grip of private schools on the British establishment when he publishes proposals for a surge in social mobility based on the “pupil premium”. … Clegg, launching a two-week drive on social mobility, which he sees as one of the

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , | 42 Comments
Andy Atkins

The Independent View: Energy Bill – time for Lib Dems to show their true colours

By Andy Atkins | Published Fri 11th May 2012 - 3:32 pm

Our electricity system is broken – soaring fuel bills, an over-reliance on overseas fossil fuels and an urgent need to tackle climate change highlight the severe energy crisis the nation faces.

So the inclusion of an Energy Bill in this week’s Queen’s speech to overhaul the UK’s failing electricity market was long overdue.

The Bill is a once in a generation opportunity to secure our long-term opportunity to make our power system cleaner, more affordable and less reliant on increasingly imported fossil fuels.

Such a move would be popular, too. A recent YouGov poll Friends of the Earth published to mark the …

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Posted in News, The Independent View | Tagged , , | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

A five point plan to reform the media post-Leveson

By Mark Pack | Published Thu 10th May 2012 - 12:55 pm

As investigative theatre goes, the Leveson Inquiry has been top-notch. As a route to embarrassing individuals for their past performance, it has excelled. As a way of unearthing previously secret information, it has been gripping.

But as a route for reforming the media? That’s a rather different story.

Some things have already been achieved. The Press Complaints Commission has already been sent to the retirement home for failed regulators and politicians have already been shamed into distancing themselves from newspaper moguls. It will be a long time before Ed Miliband repeats this sort of photo op, for example.

There is, however, an awful lot left to do, especially as Lord Leveson has not been looking at the underlying causes. As I wrote much earlier in the proceedings:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments
Daisy Benson

NOW PLAYING: A post-election playlist

By Daisy Benson | Published Mon 7th May 2012 - 5:15 pm

Like a lot of Lib Dems this Bank Holiday weekend I’ve been recovering from months of hard slog otherwise known as election campaigning.

A diet of canvassing, leafleting, takeaways and late night phone calls isn’t healthy for an extended period of time, so if you’re feeling knackered – worry not – I have just the thing!

In between resting aching legs/reminding friends and family what I look like/feeding the cats/watching the mayoral election/watching the French Presidential elections/sleeping I have put together a post-election playlist.

I was partly inspired by the Obama 2012 …

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Posted in Humour | Tagged | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

How to get Lib Dem Voice by email

By Mark Pack | Published Mon 7th May 2012 - 4:25 pm

Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email?

Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there’s new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day’s posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want to take a read.

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Caron Lindsay

UKIP burn picture of Brian Paddick in Soho

By Caron Lindsay | Published Wed 2nd May 2012 - 7:48 pm

Pink News reports that UKIP supporters burnt a picture of Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Brian Paddick in Soho this afternoon.

How did they find out? Because UKIP press officer Gawain Towler tweeted the picture.

If you look at his Twitter feed, Towler’s attitude undergoes a significant shift.

From justifiying the photo at 3:46 pm

to saying it was all a big mistake and he hadn’t seen the lighter just 43 minutes later.

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments
Mary Reid

LibLink: Stephen Gilbert – This half-baked pasty tax is offensive

By Mary Reid | Published Fri 27th April 2012 - 3:31 pm

You really must follow the link to the Guardian to see what  Stephen Gilbert, MP for St Austell & Newquay, is eating.

The pasty industry is rising up and marching, it seems.

He writes:

It’s just over a month since George Osborne presented his budget to the House of Commons but the uproar over the proposed “pasty tax” hasn’t subsided. The VAT extension on hot food, which would include the Cornish pasty, is not only politically unpopular, it’s also unworkable, unfair and based on a flawed logic.

…

Today, I’m joining hundreds of people from the pasty industry to demonstrate

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , | 25 Comments
Stephen Tall

In other news… Michael Brown extradited, unpaid party internships, Jo Swinson for cabinet? & other stories

By Stephen Tall | Published Tue 24th April 2012 - 5:37 pm

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

Lib Dem donor Michael Brown to be extradited to UK (BBC News)

Convicted fraudster and former Lib Dem donor Michael Brown is facing a hearing in Spain for extradition to the UK. He was flown to Madrid on Saturday to be handed to UK officials after being arrested in the Dominican Republic. In 2008 Brown, who had gone on the run to the Dominican Republic from the UK, was jailed in his absence for seven years for stealing £36m from clients after posing

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Conference Accreditation Consultation – what Liberal Democrat bloggers are saying

By Caron Lindsay | Published Thu 19th April 2012 - 5:53 pm

Last Saturday, Federal Conference Committee chair Andrew Wiseman invited responses  in an article on Liberal Democrat Voice from members on the controversial issue of an accreditation system for Conference. Sussex Police had requested that party members would have to submit their identity details and past addresses so that they could be checked out by the Police to keep out people who might cause security issues.

Unsurprisingly, the Liberal Democrat blogosphere has been vocal in response. If there has been a post out there in favour of such a system, then I’ve not been able to find it.

At Liberal England, …

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Posted in Conference, News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments
Fiona Hall MEP

Fiona Hall MEP writes: Subsidies for nuclear energy go against Coalition agreement AND economic common sense

By Fiona Hall MEP | Published Wed 18th April 2012 - 4:51 pm

With the Government due to announce new measures to encourage investment in low carbon power generation as part of its Electricity Market Reform (EMR), it is time for Liberal Democrats to speak out against public subsidies for nuclear energy. Why? Because among the Government’s proposals is the so-called Feed-in Tariff with Contract for Difference (FiT CfD) which will offer a price guarantee and revenue certainty for investors in low-carbon electricity generation  – including nuclear.  Such a public subsidy to help build new nuclear power stations in the UK would go completely against the Coalition Government Agreement and prolong “the most expensive failure of post-war British policy-making” as

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , | 17 Comments
Paul Walter

Opinion: If rich philanthropists don’t like the idea of a tax exemption limit, they know what they can do

By Paul Walter | Published Mon 16th April 2012 - 1:54 pm

It is as if George Osborne has got a political death wish. First, there was the botched pensioners’ tax announcement. Then, there was the hilarious pasty tax. Now, the charitable donations tax ememption limit idea is attracting great opprobrium.

But hang on a minute.

There is something in that tax exemption threshold idea.

It is quite wrong that tax exemption is given for donations to “charities” beyond the remit of the Charities Commission. There is rather vague talk of unspecified East European “charities” being used. …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 18 Comments
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