Tag Archives: diversity

Mark Valladares

Next week in the Lords: 8-11 January

By Mark Valladares | Fri 4th January 2013 - 5:51 pm

Whilst rumours of a list of new Peers swirls around the Palace of Westminster, the Lords returns to work on Tuesday, and a somewhat lop-sided week continues through to Friday in order to fit in the postponed debate on Leveson.
 
Never let it be said though that the Lords needs a gentle warm-up before asking the difficult questions. Tuesday sees oral questions on airport capacity in London, housebuilding in South East England and the effect of the ‘fiscal cliff’ solution on the UK economy, before the Growth and Infrastructure …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged , , and | 1 Comment
NewsHound

Positive action for women on Westminster shortlists

By NewsHound | Fri 7th December 2012 - 1:52 pm

The English Candidates Committee (ECC) has decided to retain positive action measures to address the under-representation of women in the Parliamentary Party.

Clause 24 in the Westminster Rules for Selection of Parliamentary Candidates stipulates that where the ECC has decided to adopt positive action arrangements which affect a shortlist, those arrangements shall be observed by the Returning Officer and shortlisting committee as if they were contained in this Rule.

The provision is that:

In strategic seats and aspiring strategic seats (those that have ‘opted up’ to the full selection process):

    a shortlist of three candidates must contain a minimum of one woman
    a shortlist of

…

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Posted in News, Party policy and internal matters and Selection news | Also tagged and | 35 Comments
Issan Ghazni

Opinion: the Government’s new integration strategy – when are we going to learn?

By Issan Ghazni | Tue 27th March 2012 - 2:52 pm

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) recently published and launched its new integration strategy – “Creating the Conditions for Integration”. Following discussions with many concerned Lib Dem party members and feedback from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community organisations involved in race equality work, I am now more convinced than ever that this document does little to address the persistent racial inequalities that exist across the nation. The Government for their part are trumpeting this publication as equivalent to a race equality strategy – although one which has diminishing credibility within BAME communities up and down the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Robin McGhee

Opinion: Lib Dem Cabinet Ministers – surely we can do better than this?

By Robin McGhee | Sun 5th February 2012 - 9:25 am

When the great British public look at their leaders, what do they think? In the unlikely event it’s anything other than ‘what have we done?’, it’s probably indifference or, occasionally, murder. The current crop of Lib Dem Cabinet Ministers do nothing to dispel these opinions. Chris Huhne’s sadly justified resignation provided an opportunity to change our public image for the better. This opportunity was not taken.

As has been pointed out, Ed Davey’s appointment as Huhne’s replacement has removed a ‘big beast’ from Cabinet: someone who can stand up for a broader range of party opinion. However, his appointment …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 58 Comments
Mark Pack

The fallout from Chris Huhne’s resignation

By Mark Pack | Sat 4th February 2012 - 6:10 pm

I’ve been busy with the media yesterday and today giving my take on Chris Huhne’s resignation, so here are the two main highlights if you missed them:

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 2 Comments
Lynne Featherstone

Lynne Featherstone MP writes… We do not just elect individuals, we elect people to be members of a team

By Lynne Featherstone | Wed 25th January 2012 - 11:55 am

Home Office minister Lynne Featherstone writes a monthly column for one of her local newspapers. Here is the latest edition, looking at Parliamentary representation.

Our Parliament has come a long way in recent years. In fact, watching ‘The Iron Lady’ with Margaret Thatcher sticking out like a blue female sore thumb amongst the total male greyness of the then chamber – it reminded me of how recently in history this establishment was nearly all male.

However, despite real progress, it is still nowhere near reflecting the percentage of women in the country – and that is without even starting to talk about …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 5 Comments
Layla Moran MP

The Lib Dem Candidates Leadership Programme – a participant’s view

By Layla Moran MP | Mon 16th January 2012 - 2:54 pm

Last weekend marked the official start of the Candidate Leadership Programme, with a residential training weekend in Greenwich. For many, this Programme marks an important shift in thinking to improve the diversity of our Parliamentary Party. I write this piece to give a participant’s point of view.

Despite efforts for years to get candidates from diverse backgrounds to become approved, sadly, and not without great effort on behalf of organisations such as the Campaign for Gender Balance (CGB), the result did not show in terms of elected Parliamentarians.

The Leadership Programme is designed to focus on the steps post-approval and selection, to …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 44 Comments
Mark Pack

The Leadership Programme: the first 11

By Mark Pack | Sat 29th October 2011 - 4:53 pm

The all-member Liberal Democrat News currently in the post to party members includes this update on the party’s Leadership Programme, designed to support candidates from under-represented groups:

Of the first 11 candidates, five are women, three from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, three have disabilities. There is one LGBT candidate and five of the 11 come from low socio-economic backgrounds … we have four candidates on the Programme so far who are under 30.

The scheme is due to expand to support at least 30 people.

You can get a subscription to receive each weekly edition of Liberal Democrat News here.

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Opinion: Tackling the myths about that Scottish Diversity motion

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 18th October 2011 - 2:25 pm

I’ve seen a few comments online over the past few days insinuating that the Scottish Liberal Democrats don’t care about improving diversity in the wake of a motion passed at the recent Scottish Conference after a passionate debate and a protracted and complex series of votes.

I want to correct some myths about what happened. Scottish Women Liberal Democrats (SWLD) put forward a motion containing a wide ranging series of measures. Most of these were uncontroversial. Who can argue with making sure that the concerns of women are hardwired into the policy process?

The first main points of contention were over the …

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Posted in Op-eds and Scotland | Also tagged , , , , and | 9 Comments

Opinion: Why the Lib Dems need all-women shortlists

By Nat Jester | Fri 14th October 2011 - 2:48 pm

In his Lib Dem Voice piece “Too male and too pale” – Why shortlists and the Leadership Programme are not the answer, Paul Head states that he is totally opposed to all-women shortlists (AWS) because they ‘ignore the real problem’ that this reflects in the party as a whole; and that we need to engage more with women and BAME people on a grassroots level and change from below.

This is a sensible argument, and is something that we should strive for. However, I believe that there is a place for AWS in the Liberal Democrats, despite the fact that …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 48 Comments

The Independent View: Evidence that candidates make a difference

By Jo Silvester | Fri 14th October 2011 - 10:23 am

The Liberal Democrats in England took an important step in 2007 when they decided to review the approval process for parliamentary candidates. The aim was to develop a modern system capable of identifying, supporting and developing the best possible political talent in order to ensure the Party could field candidates with the qualities, skills and values needed to build public support and win seats.

Although change can take a long time in politics, four years on it is hard not to be impressed at what the Party has achieved.

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters and The Independent View | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Can you guess who said what?

By Mark Pack | Tue 11th October 2011 - 7:10 pm

Take two people: one a successful female businesswoman and one a male Tory MP.

Then take two public statements: one calling female Cabinet members “an ugly bunch” and “I could not look at them”; the other calling for companies to be better at ending the male dominance of the boardroom.

Who do you think would have said which…?

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

Gender balance amongst the Liberal Democrats: some evidence

By Mark Pack | Mon 3rd October 2011 - 11:20 am

Over the weekend, Paul Head criticised the party’s Leadership Programme, saying,

While the Candidate Leadership Programme seems like a good idea, giving candidates from underrepresented groups the support and training they need to go on and, hopefully, become MPs, I believe it is destined to failure for the same reasons that shortlists are not the answer.

They both ignore the real problem.

Shortlists in particular are a quick-fix, tinkering round the edges, top-down attempt to create the façade that we are a party that is representative of the whole country. The truth is we aren’t. A quick look around the conference hall and

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 5 Comments
Paul Head

Opinion: “Too male and too pale” – Why shortlists and the Leadership Programme are not the answer

By Paul Head | Sat 1st October 2011 - 11:21 am

The problem of our Parliamentary Party being “too male and too pale” was brought up again at conference and I couldn’t help leaving with the feeling that we are edging towards another fight over whether we should introduce more proactive methods to help combat the chronic under representation of women and ethnic minorities among our MPs.

I was most struck when Paddy Ashdown, during the Guardian debate, seemed to shift from his previously held position and advocate the introduction of shortlists or “zipping” if the current leadership programme failed to make any significant impact.

I am completely opposed to the introduction …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 18 Comments
Charlotte Henry

Project: Lib Dems coming together, to make politics better

By Charlotte Henry | Thu 15th September 2011 - 2:23 pm

Everyone in politics likes to talk about change, none more so than the Lib Dems (who can forget that fabulous piece of election music…) but do we really practise what we preach? In areas such as diversity, campaigning, and our overall political role, we are frequently found to be behind the times. Our party can still say one thing at one end of a road, and another thing at the other end. Shamefully, we also still have woefully few female MPs, and not a single BME MP.

It’s all well and good discussing our failings, but it is much more …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Two Conservative MPs call for mandatory gender quotas for company boards

By Mark Pack | Tue 6th September 2011 - 10:25 am

As the Daily Telegraph reports of the much touted book by Matthew Hancock and Nadhim Zahawi:

Sanctions are also suggested against non-executive directors of failed companies. The authors also oppose non-executives at systemically-important banks having other board roles and also want the law changed so directors of financial institutions that require recourse to public funds to prevent bankruptcy are legally barred from joining the board at other companies. They also want to tackle the cult of the CEO by encouraging the City to appoint co-chief executives.

“There’s this idea that the CEO is so revered that it’s very difficult ever for

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 1 Comment
Sal Brinton

Baroness Brinton writes: Towards a more diverse Parliamentary Party

By Sal Brinton | Wed 15th June 2011 - 12:21 pm

Last year, Ros Scott, Nick Clegg and the Federal Executive (FE) asked me to conduct a review of issues relating to the role of Parliamentary candidates. Key to this review was how the Party will increase the diversity of its candidates standing in the 2015 General Election, and getting them elected.

The first point to make is that we made some real steps forward in selecting more women and BAME candidates in the last electoral cycle despite the disappointing results – the number of our seats went backwards, so making any progress in terms of representation was very difficult. The intense work by many in the party over the last few years has meant that there was significant progress in the lead up to the 2010 election: 50% of new candidates in held seats were women, and only just slightly lower in priority seats. Some excellent BAME candidates were selected (the highest number over the three main parties), but again, without electoral success. Although the fact that there no ‘safe’ seats in the Liberal Democrats (unlike Labour and the Conservatives) means that we cannot use some of the mechanisms used by the other Parties, we should absolutely not be complacent – we will have to work even harder, and invest more time, energy and resources than we have in recent years to make sure that our parliamentary parties reflect Britain in the future.

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , and | Leave a comment
Mark Valladares

You! Yes, you! Ever thought about being a Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate?

By Mark Valladares | Sun 29th May 2011 - 1:57 pm

At March’s Federal Conference, a motion was passed setting up the new Candidate Leadership Programme, designed specifically to identify and develop candidates from currently under-represented groups (i.e. everyone other than white men).

Candidates will be given structured support, development and training all the way through to the General Election, and it is particularly aimed at those wanting to take part in competitive seat selections. Further information and application packs will be available from late June.

So, what’s the hurry, I hear you ask? The catch is, you’ve got to be an approved candidate to get a place, and if you aren’t …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters and Selection news | Also tagged | 26 Comments
Mark Pack

It’s not only in Parliament where diversity is hotly debated

By Mark Pack | Tue 15th March 2011 - 8:55 am

Understandably the question of diversity amongst Parliamentarians gets a lot of attention in political parties, with it being the subject of another conference debate at Sheffield, but it’s by no means the only the area subject to such debate.

Diversity in Britain’s boardrooms may not have moved very far up the political agenda yet, but it is the subject of regular debate in business circles – with the Financial Times and Evening Standard in particular both regularly running pieces from contributors concerned about the topic.

It’s a subject the Evening Standard columnist Chris Blackhurst turned to this week. Here’s what …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
Alex Foster

PODCAST: Diversity debate in full

By Alex Foster | Sun 13th March 2011 - 2:51 pm

Following overwhelming demand from our twitter colleagues, we are now publishing in full the debate we had yesterday on diversifying our elected representatives.

You can find my written review of the debate here.

Posted in Conference and Podcasts | Also tagged and | Leave a comment
Alex Foster

Diversity motion passes

By Alex Foster | Sat 12th March 2011 - 6:37 pm

Welcome news from the conference floor this afternoon as the party finally votes for a diversity motion without referring it back or dithering further.

There were only a handful of people opposing the motion, led by Sophie Bridger, a candidate in the general election for Glasgow. She said what was proposed was against key Lib Dem values. It would entrench unfair advantage and tokenism. It would undermine the status quo where everyone gets a fair shot. It would even, she said, make a mockery of the selection process.

It sounded familiar to me – and Alistair Carmichael put his finger on …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 11 Comments
Dinti Batstone

Dinti Batstone writes: diversity opportunity at #ldconf

By Dinti Batstone | Thu 10th March 2011 - 6:30 pm

This weekend in Sheffield, Liberal Democrats will be debating important internal steps to ensure that by 2015 our parliamentary party in the House of Commons better reflects the diversity of modern Britain.

In the coming months, with the Draft Bill on House of Lords reform, Liberal Democrats will also have a key external opportunity to kickstart culture change at Westminster.

Here’s why we need to grasp that opportunity:

§ Diversity is part of the solution to our broken politics. Diversity is good not just for under-represented groups and parties who want their …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 9 Comments
Martin Shapland

Opinion: Its time for a well informed response on Diversity

By Martin Shapland | Wed 9th March 2011 - 11:41 am

Conference is almost upon us once again, and glancing my eye over the agenda I am pleased to see a motion based on Baroness Sal Brinton’s report on party diversity.

You may remember this came up at the last conference. The speech I made at Liverpool was my maiden at a federal conference; the amendment I co-sponsored helped pave the way for the motion on improving diversity we will debate this coming Saturday.

It was also one of the most depressing experiences I’ve witnessed as a party member. Friends who supported the amendment were treated appallingly by supporters of the motion. I …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 13 Comments
Mark Pack

‘Last chance’ to promote women to top jobs in the UK

By Mark Pack | Sun 27th February 2011 - 8:55 am

The Financial Times reports,

Britain’s boardrooms are “in crisis” over their failure to increase the number of women in their ranks and will face quotas if they do not embrace new voluntary targets to double the female representation on boards within four years.

Lord Davies, who has been leading a government inquiry on the issue of women in the boardroom, has recommended that FTSE 100 companies aim for at least a quarter of their boards to be made up of women by 2015, while FTSE 350 companies should clearly outline the percentage of women they expect to see on their boards

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 6 Comments
Ramis Cizer

Opinion: Why the Diversity Motion caused a stir at Conference

By Ramis Cizer | Thu 30th September 2010 - 12:23 pm

I not a massive fan of the term “Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME)” and in an ideal political world it probably wouldn’t exist. But we don’t live in an ideal world and the term is required to designate certain segments of population in order to address inequalities – an uncontroversial statement in my opinion – so why does it cause such heated discussion? Too complex to answer here so I will leave it to someone else but I have some ideas on why the Diversity Motion caused a stir at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference.

Liberalism to me is a …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Joe Jordan

Opinion: a way forward on Lib Dem diversity

By Joe Jordan | Mon 27th September 2010 - 3:23 pm

The Liberal Democrats have an image problem. We are predominantly a party of middle class members, which I know because I’ve met a lot of members and they nearly all talk like me.

Because of the depressingly predictable socio-economic data, this also means that, since our members are better off, they are more likely to be male, white, and able bodied than your average Briton. The only conventional diversity stream that is not underrepresented purely by means of the economic correlations is LBGT, and this group is well represented in the party which hopefully also has something to do with Liberal …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 28 Comments
Meral Ece

Opinion: The last chance saloon on diversity?

By Meral Ece | Fri 24th September 2010 - 3:24 pm

I went to conference expecting something entirely different, perhaps influenced by the daily articles and news reports, that this conference was going to be like no other. That there was much unrest, and even anger amongst the Party’s ranks. Instead I found myself amongst many Lib Dem party members and friends who were upbeat and positive.

I didn’t speak to anyone – nor as far as I can gather did the media – who was vehemently opposed to the Coalition Government. Yes, this conference was like no other. It was the largest conference we’ve ever had, and our Leader is …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , , , and | 21 Comments
Davina Kirwan

Opinion: Liberal Youth amendments ripped the heart out of the diversity motion

By Davina Kirwan | Thu 23rd September 2010 - 5:21 pm

The Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats’ (EMLD) motion containing positive action measures to practically address the diversity of Lib Dem elected representatives was ripped to not much more than a review by amendments mostly from Liberal Youth, with the requirement to have at least one BME candidate on shortlists where a Lib Dem MP has resigned, or within a by-election, being lost.

Goodness me. I think the Liberal Democrats are the new Conservatives. Deciding not to act because doing so would be hypocritical? Is this not the worse kind of irony that has seen the ill-representative nature of the party prevail? WAKE-UP! …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 162 Comments
The Voice

Lib Dems pass motions on Trident and diversity

By The Voice | Wed 22nd September 2010 - 3:27 pm

News of two motions passed by Lib Dem conference today…

Diversity: Hughes to propose “radical changes” to promote candidate diversity

Simon Hughes, the party’s deputy leader, commented:

“I am glad that Conference agreed today that there will be a full set of proposals for candidate diversity and that we will have the chance to take decisions to change the face and mix of the Liberal Democrats.

“I will be presenting a paper to the Party’s Federal Executive next month which will propose radical changes in the way we select our candidates.

“This proposal will include the aim that half our candidates will be women …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Lynne Featherstone

Lynne Featherstone’s speech to conference

By Lynne Featherstone | Wed 22nd September 2010 - 11:56 am

Liberal Democrats.

I look around and I see the faces of so many friends, colleagues, Cabinet Members. Yes – I did just say that – Liberal Democrat members of the Cabinet.

Now conference, I was pretty clear at the time as to just what I thought of having an all male all pale team sent to negotiate on our behalves in May. Often for some of us women we get frustrated when we see mediocrity promoted above us.

But in this case, they weren’t mediocre – our negotiating team did one hell of a job and I thank them all …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
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