Tag Archives: brexit

Kev Walsh

We already have a solution to the Brexit conundrum

By Kev Walsh | Fri 11th November 2016 - 2:15 pm

As a party we seem to be in a bit of a puzzled place at the moment with regards to Brexit now there’s a chance our MPs will have a vote on Article 50. Should we reject any attempts to invoke Article 50 and risk being labeled as anti-democratic – potentially putting many of our current MPs seats at risk? Should we put some red lines down in the hope of getting a decent “soft-Brexit” deal and drive away many thousands of new members? It really is a Catch 22 situation.

Or is it? Is there not an alternative that will allow us to vote against invoking Article 50 whilst allowing the Brexiters a real and fair chance of getting what they want? I believe there is. And we have been campaigning on it solidly for three decades!

Let’s be honest, referendums are the very worst form of democracy. They merely take a snapshot of a moment in time based on public feeling at a certain point and allow populism to run rough shot over evidence based, considered policy. More often than not they don’t give an answer to the actual question asked or provide solutions, they merely create more issues. This is exactly what happened in June.

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 24 Comments
Nick Hopkinson

Why oppose Brexit?

By Nick Hopkinson | Fri 11th November 2016 - 11:41 am

I was asked recently to come up with some points which might be helpful when campaigning against Brexit. I wrestle constantly with finding a compelling narrative which cuts through a mind set which seems to trap half the population. I hope nevertheless some of the following (probably familiar) wording why Brexit is bad for Britain may be of use:

To preserve and promote British prosperity: The pound’s 15% collapse since the referendum is forecast to result in 3-4% inflation next year affecting our living standards.

To preserve and promote British exports: Outside the EU, our access to our major export market will be impaired by tariff and non-tariff barriers. Foreign investment (and jobs) will gradually decline as profit margins are eroded. As part of the EU, we have the best trade deal. The Nissan ‘sweetheart deal’ must be extended to all firms. Alone the UK, now the world’s seventh largest economy with 2% of global GDP, will have less weight in international trade negotiations with our far larger partners.

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Posted in Europe / International | 36 Comments
Chris White

Tim Farron: ‘Unless the government agrees to a referendum on the final Brexit deal, the party will vote against Article 50’

By Chris White | Fri 11th November 2016 - 9:39 am

Tim farron photo by liberal democrats dave radcliffe

This morning, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has laid out a red line on Article 50 and said unless the government agrees to a referendum on the final Brexit deal, the party will vote against Article 50 in the House of Commons.

Tim Farron said:

Millions of people are deeply worried by the government’s handling of Brexit.

So my position is very clear: the Liberal Democrats believe that the people are sovereign.

They must decide whether or not they agree with the deal that the government reaches with Brussels, which means

…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged and | 64 Comments
Matthew Campbell

Electoral reform, Donald Trump … and Theresa May

By Matthew Campbell | Thu 10th November 2016 - 5:30 pm

 

For years, it was said that there was a threat to western democracies from far-right parties with extremist or populist opinions. The BNP were, in the 2000s, supposed to be ‘our’ version of this phenomenon, before they collapsed and – arguably – their vote went elsewhere.

But, still, the possibility of a small extremist nationalist party gaining undue influence was held to be a convincing argument against electoral reform. I think it may now be possible to say with great certainty that this was either a fallacy or a lie.

Why? Because there are two countries where, this year, populist/nationalist agendas have upset the existing political order: Firstly, the USA (in the person of Mr Trump); and secondly, this country (in the shape of Brexit). That is to say, two countries with plurality voting, who have historically rejected voting reform and proportionality as alien to their political culture.

And why might this have come to pass?

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 10 Comments
Paul Carroll

“What part of ‘Leave’ don’t you understand?”

By Paul Carroll | Thu 10th November 2016 - 1:25 pm

gina-miller-on-andrew-marr

When Nigel Farage asked this of Gina Miller on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday she was far too polite and politically unseasoned to respond in kind to this patronising and arrogant question.

Well, Mr Farage, I would like to ask you what part of ‘Advisory’, ‘Parliamentary Democracy’ and ‘Independent Judiciary’, don’t you understand. Moreover I think your question should be directed more at the people who you persuaded to vote Leave in the referendum.

To the old man in the queue in front of me, the day before the referendum who said he “was voting leave because we were going to get a new hospital every week”. Don’t you understand that you were being lied to?  In fact there is probably going to be less money for the NHS as the economy ails.

To the pensioners: the government is already making noises about abandoning the triple lock in favour of linking pensions to earning only.  With inflation predicted at 2.7% next year and rising in following years. What you  don’t understand is that your pension could be worth 10% less in real terms in four years time.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 51 Comments
Mark Argent

Opinion: the shock from across the Atlantic – the bigger picture

By Mark Argent | Wed 9th November 2016 - 1:30 pm

A few days ago Trump was describing the prospect of being “like Brexit but more”. That catches my sense of shock today — though I wouldn’t want to take the parallel as far as he does. I’ve just been exchanging emails and Facebook messages with shocked friends in the US.

Perhaps the system will right itself. Perhaps he won’t be as bad as I fear. Perhaps he will be as bad as I fear, and be forced from office (he faces a civil case arising from alleged child rape on 16 December).

People are right to say that the American political system …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 23 Comments
NewsHound

ALDE MEP Charles Goerens proposes EU citizenship for members of former Member States

By NewsHound | Wed 9th November 2016 - 8:47 am

It looks as if it isn’t just the Liberal Democrats who are keen to remain within the European Union. Charles Goerens, a member of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament from Luxembourg, has suggested that there might be scope for those British citizens who wish to be part of the Union to obtain associate citizenship.

He has submitted an amendment to a draft report from Guy Verhofstadt on “Possible evolutions of and adjustments to the current institutional set-up of the European Union”, which reads;

Advocates to insert in the Treaties a European associate citizenship for those who feel and wish to

…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged and | 20 Comments
Sarah Noble

Urgent questions to our MPs regarding Article 50

By Sarah Noble | Mon 7th November 2016 - 4:31 pm

 

There was rather worrying news from the regional conferences this weekend in which several parliamentarians, including Chief Whip Tom Brake, implied that the party would not vote against an Act of Parliament triggering Article 50 and/or repealing the European Communities Act 1972.

I and many other members are increasingly concerned about this turn of events. Less than two months ago, we passed a policy at Conference that committed the party to remain inside the European Union. Our reputation for many years has been that of a Europhile party, and nearly all of our votes are aware of this fact. So too are the thousands of new members who joined after the referendum. To not vote against would not only be betraying party members, it would be betraying our voters too. After a bruising period in coalition in which we lost the trust of many of our members, I fear that retreating from our pro-European principles poses an existential threat to the party.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 77 Comments
Rob Parsons

I want to stay in the EU

By Rob Parsons | Mon 7th November 2016 - 12:20 pm

 

There has been a bit of a sea change in British politics in the last couple of weeks.

Since June 23rd Remainers have had to put up with their lot, accept the referendum result as if it were a binding expression of democratic will and start preparing for a post Brexit world, or face howls of outrage. I guess that is still the likely outcome, despite today’s court ruling.

But it has become more possible than it has at any time since the referendum to say publicly that I want to stay in the EU, and I hope very much that we find a way to get out of the fix that the vote for Brexit has put us in. Partly it is a matter of courage. Any expression of dismay with the result has been met with a explosive mixture of nastiness, aggression, scorn and abuse ever since. The level has not abated but I have begun to summon up the courage to take it on. Partly that comes from having worked out more firmly the reasons why I stand where I stand:

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Posted in Op-eds | 59 Comments
Chris White

Just when you thought it couldn’t get more complicated

By Chris White | Fri 4th November 2016 - 12:16 pm

Yesterday I posted a tongue in cheek tweet:

Leavers will obviously be happy with the outcome, because it restores sovereignty to Parliament, which is what they campaigned for.

It is never a good idea to use irony in social media, especially as it now appears that Stephen Phillips, a Leaver, is leaving Parliament to protest about the Government’s approach to the concept of Parliamentary sovereignty.

If this is correct then it shows that he is a principled Leaver and that he understands that the issue of Parliamentary sovereignty covers all issues – not just Brexit.

I would like to have been able to post …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 14 Comments
Chris White

The new revolutionaries threaten our constitution

By Chris White | Fri 4th November 2016 - 8:18 am

Yesterday evening I gave an interview to BBC local radio about the High Court judgement. It emerged that the station had been receiving emails from listeners saying it was time to take to the streets to protest.

It would have been easy to dismiss the emails as hysteria from a few right wing extremists but this morning’s tabloids clearly show that the British constitution is under attack from much of the traditional right.

The Daily Mail never ceases, of course, to push the boundaries of the unacceptable, as it has consistently since the 1930s. Today’s headline has the three judges (wigged, of course, but that it how they like to be photographed) over the headline ‘Enemies of the People’.

The Sun attacks the plaintiff as part of a ‘loaded foreign elite’. The Telegraph, which can know better, has ‘The Judges versus the people’.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 71 Comments
NewsHound

European liberals to debate what comes after Brexit

By NewsHound | Wed 2nd November 2016 - 10:39 am

alde-congress-2016Yesterday, members of the Party’s delegation to next month’s ALDE Party Congress in Warsaw, Poland, met to discuss the draft resolutions as submitted from liberal parties across the European Union and beyond.

Naturally, there will be much discussion on the future of the European Union post-Brexit, and resolutions on the subject have been submitted not only by the Liberal Democrats, but by our sister parties in Germany, the Czech Republic and Sweden, amongst others. It is noteworthy that Liberalerna (Sweden) call for;

a balanced deal for both the EU and the UK… which does

…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
Paul Walter

Clegg: People don’t vote for economic self-harm

By Paul Walter | Sun 30th October 2016 - 3:45 pm

Nick Clegg talked this morning with Robert Peston about Brexit and the Richmond Park by-election. Here’s a transcript of the interview:

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 27 Comments
Katharine Pindar

Oppose Brexit – it’s bad for the country

By Katharine Pindar | Sat 29th October 2016 - 11:45 am

Why do we accept that leaving the EU is going to happen, when we believe that doing so is harmful to our country? Why do we pussy-foot about, saying that we want a referendum on the terms of our leaving, when we could say, if the people who want to stay in are perceived to be becoming a majority, then there should be another referendum? And there are plenty of reasons to suggest that sufficient leave voters could change their minds in the next few months.

We know that misleading and untruthful information was knowingly peddled by Leave leaders, such as the claim that much of the money currently paid by Britain to the EU could go to the NHS if we leave. In fact, those funds are being promised widely elsewhere now.

We know that Scotland and Northern Ireland had majorities for Remain, and their leaders along with the Welsh are demanding a say in the terms of leaving. Nicola Sturgeon insists that Scotland must keep access to the EU’s single market.

We know that the country’s economic prosperity is threatened by leaving, that Theresa May herself saw the dangers of doing so and the advantages of staying, and that price rises which will hit the poorest first can be expected soon. Staying in the single market seems vital for our economy.

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Posted in Op-eds | 87 Comments
Paul Walter

Nissan announcement – did May promise any cash for Qashqais?

By Paul Walter | Fri 28th October 2016 - 1:55 pm

At the end of the day, we’re all Brits together. I rejoice that Nissan have announced the production of the new Qashqai and X-Trails at Sunderland.

Tim Farron has commented:

The commitment to Sunderland by Nissan is obviously very welcome. Ensuring that jobs are protected at the plant is vital for Sunderland and our economy.

However, it is utterly ridiculous that Theresa May is having to give special assurances to key manufacturers in order to deal with the Brexit fallout her government is creating.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 31 Comments
Phil Aisthorpe

Brexit is a war already lost

By Phil Aisthorpe | Thu 27th October 2016 - 1:23 pm

Is she or isn’t she? Since her accession, the public has been puzzled by Theresa May’s stance on Brexit. Was her lukewarm support for Remain merely self-preservation, just wanting to keep out of the fray? Was she a closet Leaver? Well now we know. The Guardian suggests that she is indeed a Remainer, but not just any old Remainer, but a Tory Remainer and so quite happy to switch sides. Paddy Ashdown summed it up in this Tweet.


But what does this tell us about the Tory mind? Well it tells me that the Conservatives are a party unencumbered by the constraints of values and principles, a party where politics is merely a game to be won or lost. Not for the Tory are there any of the questions of morality or conscience that exercise the minds of other parties. The Tory has become Nietzsche’s Übermensch, the self-mastered individual contemptuous of namby-pamby liberalism.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 62 Comments
NewsHound

May is ‘blithely ignoring her own dire warnings” about hard Brexit – Tim Farron

By NewsHound | Wed 26th October 2016 - 4:07 pm

Revelations that Theresa May secretly warned about the economic effects of Brexit produced this sharp reaction from Tim Farron.

It is disappointing that Theresa May lacked the political courage to warn the British public as she did a group of bankers in private about the devastating economic effects of Brexit.

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 32 Comments
Paul Carroll

It beggars belief that Brexit has escaped basic parliamentary democracy

By Paul Carroll | Wed 26th October 2016 - 2:37 pm

I thought that in the UK, we had a parliamentary democracy. We elect representatives to tackle, understand, debate and ultimately enact legislation in order to build a cohesive, fair and prosperous society.

OK, our politicians have seen fit on a few occasions, to gauge the mood of the country and seek ‘advice’ from the electorate on a singular matter of importance, via a referendum. Surely, under these circumstances, that received advice should then be subject to the normal process of parliamentary understanding , debate and action as parliament sees fit. In this way the factors of cohesion, fairness and prosperity are woven into our democratic process.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 48 Comments
NewsHound

Collapse of EU-Canada trade pact a “stark warning” against hard Brexit – Tom Brake MP

By NewsHound | Tue 25th October 2016 - 10:37 am

Commenting on the blocking of the EU-Canada CETA trade deal by the Wallonia region of Belgium, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Tom Brake said:

This is a stark warning against a hard Brexit that takes us out of the Single Market.

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 22 Comments
Paul Walter

In full – Tim Farron’s speech on post-Brexit racism

By Paul Walter | Tue 25th October 2016 - 9:15 am

Here is the full text of Tim Farron’s speech last night on combating post-Brexit racism, which he delivered at Queen Mary University at an event organised with The Runnymede Trust:

Patriotism has too often been seen as the preserve of the right. And I resent that. I’m a patriot. I love my country, but not to the exclusion of others. That’s the difference between a patriot and a nationalist.

I want others to look at Britain as a beacon of hope, independent spirited, community minded, strong, maybe stubborn, but decent and compassionate.

And so, the rise in racist and xenophobic attacks following the referendum, fills me with shame. Those attacks are heartbreaking, they make me fear that my country has been stolen from me, because this is not the Britain I know, the Britain I love, because the Britain I know and love is better than that.

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Posted in News and Speeches | Also tagged , and | 5 Comments
NewsHound

‘Theresa May is making the UK a nastier, more divided and more resentful country’ – Tim Farron

By NewsHound | Mon 24th October 2016 - 10:51 am

This evening at Queen Mary University, London, Tim Farron will be speaking at an event with The Runnymede Trust addressing the issue of post-Brexit hate crime and rising xenophobia. This occasion is part of “Black History Month”. Other speakers are Dr Omar Khan of the Runnymede Trust, Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece, the Lib Dem Equalities Spokesperson and Sunder Katwala of British Future.

Here’s a sneak preview of some of the things Tim will say:

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 29 Comments
Mark Argent

Witney could be a turning point for the Lib Dems

By Mark Argent | Mon 24th October 2016 - 9:33 am

The result in the Witney by-election was a substantial swing to the LibDems, jumping from fourth place on 6.8% to second place on 30.2%. Liz Leffman and her team did an outstanding job, and the party was clearly ready to rally to the cause.

Over the next few days there were speculations about what that would mean if replicated at a General Election, with estimates of the number of seats likely to switch from Tory to LibDem put between 26 and 51. The statistician in me is wary of those extrapolations: there are lots of unknowns at by-elections, and British politics is especially turbulent at the moment.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 19 Comments
Paul Walter

Canada-EU non-deal – dramatic collapse of the shining example for a post-Brexit future held up by the leavers

By Paul Walter | Sat 22nd October 2016 - 12:04 pm

Business Insider UK reports:

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 114 Comments
NewsHound

Tim Farron: Theresa May is putting views of hardline Brexiteers first

By NewsHound | Fri 21st October 2016 - 2:57 pm

Commenting on Theresa May’s first European Council summit, where her short statement on Brexit was reportedly met with silence from other EU leaders, Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron said:

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 33 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Why would Alex Salmond nominate a key Brexiteer for Commons Brexit Committee chair?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th October 2016 - 10:59 am

This afternoon, we’ll find out who will be leading the Parliamentary scrutiny of Brexit as MPs vote for the chairs of the new select committee on Brexit.

It’s a race between Labour’s Hilary Benn, who campaigned for Remain, and Brexiteer Kate Hoey who does not think that membership of the single market is an achievable outcome.

From the Herald:

Labour’s Hilary Benn, the former shadow foreign secretary, is tipped to become chairman of the committee, which will have 21 members, including 10 Tories and MPs from six opposition parties; the average committee normally has 11 members.

But Ms Hoey, who represents Vauxhall in London, has also thrown her hat in the ring and, among those nominating her, is the former SNP leader. The onetime sports minister has said she wants Britain to have the fullest possible access to the single market but argues that taking back full control of immigration is incompatible with membership.

It is quite bizarre that Alex Salmond has chosen to nominate Kate Hoey given that the SNP has (rightly) been very vocal about the importance of continuing membership of the single market for the whole UK and for Scotland in particular. Why on earth would be support someone who doesn’t support that outcome?

Lib Dem Peer Jeremy Purvis had this to say on the matter:

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
The Voice

Nick Clegg on the impact of Brexit on food prices

By The Voice | Mon 17th October 2016 - 5:54 pm

Nick Clegg has given a speech at the National Liberal Club today to launch his third report in the Brexit Challenge series. In this one he looks at the impact of hard Brexit on food prices. Here is his speech in full:

Nearly 4 months on from the vote to leave the European Union, we are finally starting to understand the early consequences of Brexit.

In the last week we have seen the government on the back foot, pressed by Conservative MPs to give parliament a say ahead of the triggering of article 50.

We have seen Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, issue the hardest statement yet against giving the UK a sweetheart deal.

And we saw the strongest ripples yet in the currency markets and in business. According to the Financial Times the pound’s effective exchange rate, weighted to reflect the UK’s trade flows, fell to a 168-year low last Tuesday – weaker than the lowest point in the recent financial crisis, weaker than when Britain was ejected from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, weaker even than when we left the Gold Standard in the 1930s.

Perhaps most significantly, the markets seem to have woken up to the looming danger of Hard Brexit, and investors are using their money to punish the government for every perceived misstep, while rewarding decisions that raise the chances of a better deal.

The markets are a powerful new player in this story. They are becoming increasing sensitive to relatively small policy changes. Hence the pound rallied sharply last week as soon as the Prime Minister announced there would after all be a debate ahead of the negotiations, but slipped back again when David Davis put in another Commons performance devoid of any meaningful content.

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 48 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg shows why he is such a credible, authoritative leader of the opposition to May’s “hard brexit”

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 16th October 2016 - 12:19 pm

A year ago, Nick Clegg’s career appeared to be pretty much over. Some even wondered if he night have been upset to have clung on to his Sheffield Hallam seat.

Now, former critics are starting to be glad that he is there. He is by far the most experienced politician in the country on both international trade and how the European Union works.

This week has seen the latest in a fairly long line of articles, which started with the Mystic Clegg stuff in June, suggesting that Nick Clegg’s star is in the ascendancy again. The New Statesman, of all things, was even nice about him.

Clegg has previously voiced the hope that a botched attempt at hard Brexit might trigger a desire for an alternative to Tory rule among the British people. For him personally, Brexit is the perfect issue upon which to position himself as a voice of reason. He has the experience, the gravitas and the passion to help win back some of the political credibility he lost during the dark days of the coalition and the tuition fees debacle. Whether he can ever fully lose the traitor tag remains to be seen, but his intervention on Brexit will be welcome among the 16.1 million people who didn’t vote for any kind of Brexit, let alone a hard one.

Over at the Huffington Post, Beth Leslie suggests that Brexit means that it is time to forgive the Liberal Democrats.

Four million UKIP voters in 2015 elected just one MP, but they snowballed an idea that made Brexit a reality. Why couldn’t we centrists do the same? And with the money, resources and national recognition of an established party, the Liberal Democrats are the best-placed vehicle for us to try to do so.

Tim Farron and Nick Clegg have both been brilliant on Brexit all the way through. Tim’s PMQ got the PM to admit she doesn’t give two hoots about the nearly half the country who voted to remain and Clegg continues to work with others to fight the parliamentary campaign against a hard brexit that nobody voted for.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 66 Comments
Paul Walter

Boris’s pro-EU article highlights the stupidity of Theresa May’s hard Brexit approach

By Paul Walter | Sun 16th October 2016 - 9:29 am

We’ve known for a while that Boris Johnson wrote two articles for the Telegraph, for and against Brexit, two days before declaring himself as a “leaver”. Only the leave article was published, leaving the remain article under wraps. Via a book and the Sunday Times, the second article has now been revealed.

It contains such corkers from Boris as these:

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 36 Comments
Caron Lindsay

ICYMI: Tim Farron at PMQs: When will she put the interests of hard-working British people ahead of an extremist protectionism that absolutely nobody voted for?

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 14th October 2016 - 2:40 pm

Courtesy of Channel 4 News:

A strong question from Tim:

The Prime Minister appears to have made a choice, and that choice is to side with the protectionists and nationalists who have taken over her party, as surely as Momentum has taken over the Labour party. She has chosen a hard Brexit that was never on anybody’s ballot paper and she has chosen to turn her back on British business in the process. As a result, petrol and food retailers have warned of huge price rises at the pumps and on the supermarket shelves in the coming days. When will she put the interests of hard-working British people ahead of an extremist protectionism that absolutely nobody voted for?

May’s answer showed that she thinks she doesn’t have to bother at all about the almost half the country who don’t want us to hurtle towards the disaster of a hard Brexit.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 25 Comments
Mark Valladares

Is sovereignty just another source of likely disappointment for the Brexiteers?

By Mark Valladares | Fri 14th October 2016 - 11:55 am

Whilst there is a suspicion amongst the more ardent Remain supporter that Brexit was simply about immigration, there were those who claimed that, by voting to leave the European Union, we could reclaim our sovereignty, taking back control, as they put it.

Now, I’m in a sense relaxed about that, in that if that was their genuine wish, then it is at least philosophically consistent. Yes, the question of cost was never really discussed – like the Scottish independence campaign, the supposed benefits were in the headlines, the price in minuscule type, if it was ever mentioned at all. Fair enough, one might suppose – there is yet to be the political salesman that raises the relative drawbacks of their product.

But the problem is that sovereignty is a concept that, in a complex, inter-related world, is becoming increasingly blurred. Do nation states have the ability to “take back control” any more?

In his recent Ditchley Lecture, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer spoke of the increasingly complex nature of jurisdiction, noting that the United States has signed more than 800 international agreements, most of which defer supervision of some element of our lives to transnational, unelected, unaccountable bodies – the internet being the most universal of its type – yet which go virtually unnoticed by the general public.

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged | 39 Comments
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