Tag Archives: featured

Adam Corlett

What they don’t tell you about TTIP

By Adam Corlett | Wed 14th October 2015 - 10:25 am

Countless articles, emails and campaigns have expressed anger about TTIP. This is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which would cover over 800 million people in the EU and US, as well as helping determine the shape of future agreements the world over. There are numerous concerns – some entirely misguided, some merely exaggerated – and from reading the literature of campaign groups like 38 Degrees it might be hard to know whether there are any benefits at all from this trade deal. So supporters of free trade need to straightforwardly spell out some of TTIP’s advantages.

In particular, lost among the scaremongering and obscure debates has been the very foundation of TTIP: an abolition of almost all the remaining import and export tariffs between the US and EU. It’s true, as both supporters and opponents of TTIP say, that tariffs are only a part of the deal: harmonising regulations (without lowering standards) is now often more important. But when the entire process is under attack, the scrapping of tariffs should not be glossed over. I hope it’s not too insulting to suggest that many of those attacking TTIP or signing petitions (not to mention those who haven’t heard of TTIP) may have no idea that it includes the scrapping of import and export tariffs.

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 69 Comments
Caron Lindsay

What do you reckon to the latest Tim Talks?

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 13th October 2015 - 9:01 pm

Have you missed Tim Farron’s regular #TimTalks videos from his leadership campaign? He did some crackers, on issues such as housing, foreign affairs and rebuilding the party

Well, someone has put him in front of a video camera and he’s been talking about the key issues in this week’s news: Labour, the fiscal mandate and  how Osborne’s ruse is a trap that has well and truly snookered Corbyn’s party, housing and the EU Referendum. He also mentioned the Liberal Democrats’ audacious by-election win from the SNP in Aird and Loch Ness. Here it is in full:

So what did you think? How could he expand this idea?

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 10 Comments
Tom Brake

Tom Brake writes: My trip to the Calais Jungle

By Tom Brake | Mon 12th October 2015 - 1:05 pm

 

I visited the Calais Jungle a week ago, where around 4,000 people live in terribly squalid conditions. My trip was organised by staff from Lib Dem HQ, who had collected donations so we were able to distribute water, food and sanitary products.

It was a shocking experience to see the dreadful conditions people are living in. The Jungle is worse than a shanty town, with very few facilities.

There was no sign of water being provided and the people we met clutched gratefully the bottles we had transported.  Shoes, clothes and dry foods were also in demand. Portable toilets are provided by aid organisations while the local authorities seem to turn a blind eye to the conditions in the camp, simply wishing it would go away. I was told the French authorities don’t provide any help apart from a Centre where mobile phones can be charged and a hot meal is available. If someone is badly injured the local hospital bandages them up.

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 17 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Sniggered at Stephen Tall’s naked run? You need to donate. Them’s the rules

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 9th October 2015 - 3:50 pm

You do wonder what was in Stephen Tall’s mind. He could so easily have said: If the Lib Dems only get 24 seats, I’ll bake everyone lemon drizzle cake. But, no, he said he’d run naked down Whitehall. It’s one thing to do it in the pub with a few mates, but he did it on live tv.

Yesterday, Stephen’s run hit the Sun. Not the yellow thing in the Sky, the Murdoch raggy thing in the newsagent.

A prominent Lib Dem will run half a mile down Whitehall semi-naked after losing a bet.

Before the general election Stephen Tall, the former deputy Lord Mayor of Oxford, bet the Daily Politics that if the Lib Dems were reduced to 24MPs or fewer he would do a naked dash.

The party was all but obliterated at the polls in May with just eight MPs returning to the Commons.

And now Mr Tall, a Lib Dem blogger, has pledged to jog naked from Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square – for the viewing pleasure of office workers from a string of government departments.

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 5 Comments
Caron Lindsay

+++Breaking: Lib Dem Jean Davis in stunning by-election win – from SNP #libdemfightback

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 9th October 2015 - 12:52 pm

Congrats Cllr Davis

It’s a while since there’s been good news for Liberal Democrats north of the border, but that has changed today. Jean Davis has just pulled off an audacious by-election victory in the Aird and Loch Ness by-election in the gorgeous Highlands. More to follow, but don’t let anyone tell you the SNP can’t be beaten.

The ward takes in the towns of Beauly, Drumnadrochit and Fort Augustus and covers some of the most utterly beautiful terrain in the whole country. It’s a massive ward, which now has two Liberal Democrat councillors representing it. Given that we came fourth in this ward in 2012, this result is stunning. It’s really embarrassing for the SNP as it’s the seat vacated by their new MP for Inverness, Badenoch and Strathspey who beat Danny Alexander in May.

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Posted in News | 28 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Tim Farron on Question Time: Open Thread

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 8th October 2015 - 10:30 pm

It’s time to gather together your Question Time survival kit – at least two of the following:

Popcorn

A nice up of tea

Gin on an intravenous drip

A nice glass of red

Chocolate

Pillow to hide behind or bite when Melanie Phillips  is on (although there is an argument we should be grateful it’s not Katie Hopkins, although a Hopkins vs Farron encounter would be deeply entertaining.

Tonight, though, at least we have Tim Farron on. He’s been on stonking form recently and he has made it very clear what he thinks of both Theresa May’s and David Cameron’s speeches this week.

Those lovely people in the Lib Dem Press Office have given us this to help us:

Do comment during the programme.

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Posted in News | 37 Comments
Merlene Emerson

Vince Cable’s “After the Storm – The World Economy & Britain’s Economic Future”

By Merlene Emerson | Mon 5th October 2015 - 9:00 am

after the stormWider in scope and more ambitious in its reach, “After the Storm” is the acclaimed sequel to “The Storm” published after the financial crisis of 2008.  Having spent the last 5 years as Business Secretary within the Coalition Government (2010-2015), Vince has the added clout of first-hand experience introducing economic policies that have steered us out of the storm, not least an industrial strategy.

His professed motivation for penning a sequel were to update readers on the state of Britain’s economy in “a climate of guarded optimism,” and to share his insights, no longer bound by collective responsibility as Secretary of State at the Department of Business Innovation and Science.  Whilst the US and UK are expected to record 3% growth this year, Vince’s previous analysis of the underlying weaknesses still apply, such as UK’s over reliance on the banking sector and on the housing market for recovery and growth.

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Posted in Books | Also tagged , and | 6 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Stephen Tall really is running naked down Whitehall – how you can help him raise money for charity

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 2nd October 2015 - 12:59 pm

Stephen Tall is making good on what turned out to be an ill-advised pledge in 2013 that he would run naked down Whitehall if the Liberal Democrats got 24 seats in this year’s General Election. He has decided that others should benefit from his immodesty and is raising money for Medecins Sans Frontieres. The charity will already be benefiting from £5000 promised by Kelvin Mackenzie, the former editor of the Sun, on live television last week. Stephen has set up a JustGiving page to augment that sum.

You can find out more about the amazing work that MSF does here on its website. I was particularly moved by this post where former MSF emergency co-ordinator wrote about the people she met while working on MSF’s search and rescue vessel. Here she tells the story of 17 year old Sako:

He had been in Libya for five years, and he had seen it fall into lawless anarchy and violence. His uncle who brought him there, died. His best friend died last year after a child soldier, about the same age as him, hit him in the head with a steel bar. He didn’t die immediately; it took a long time before he gave up. There are no hospitals.

“Child soldier my age.” Suddenly it struck me how young he looked. “17,” he said with a big smile. My mind spun again. So he was 11 when he arrived in Libya? He is still a minor, even though he has seen and survived more than any man I know has in a lifetime.

I explained how in Europe you are still a child until you are 18 and that if he wanted I will make sure he gets off together with all the other minors we had on board.

He nodded. Looked down. Suddenly he looked like a child after all.

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 11 Comments
Paul Walter

We’re all “Preamble Lib Dems”

By Paul Walter | Wed 30th September 2015 - 6:00 pm

There has been a very minor outbreak of people using the label “Preamble Lib Dem” to describe themselves.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 104 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Corbyn: No horses were scared during delivery of a speech full of Liberal Democrat policies

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 29th September 2015 - 10:32 pm

For the first time in a long time, I watched a Labour leader’s conference speech this afternoon and didn’t cringe with horror. To be fair, that’s because he kept name checking Liberal Democrat policies. He even said that the agreed with Paddy Ashdown over airstrikes on Syria.

Many people,including some in that Brighton hall, wanted him to fail terribly today. Indeed, the Blairites were desperate for that to happen. Labour spin doctor Lance Price was quick to condemn the speech as one of the worst he had ever heard. Was he listening to something else? For sure it wasn’t an example of oratorical excellence, with perfect construction, but Corbyn did what he had to do today. No horses were scared in the delivery of the speech. The entire nation wasn’t petrified by the thought of  revolution coming to a street near them any time soon as the more excitable of our friends in the press have made out.

He clearly wasn’t used to having an autocue, but that added to the sincerity of what he was saying. We would be very foolish to underestimate Corbyn. As Gareth Epps reminded us, we tried underestimating the SNP and look where that got us in Scotland.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 47 Comments
Nick T

TTIP update: A Liberal in charge, and a new investor dispute proposal

By Nick T | Mon 28th September 2015 - 5:01 pm

Container Ship tradeYou can catch up with my previous pieces on TTIP here:

A new face at the negotiating table

It’s a few months since I last wrote here about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a proposed trade and investment agreement currently being negotiated between the European Union and United States. It is Liberal Democrat party policy to support TTIP, so it is worth keeping up with developments in the negotiations.

Since my first post in July 2014, one of the most significant changes has been the replacement in November 2014 of Karel De Gucht as European Commissioner for Trade by Cecilia Malmström.

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 39 Comments
Jenny Randerson

The future of the railways – a Liberal view

By Jenny Randerson | Mon 28th September 2015 - 9:50 am

Jeremy Corbyn’s proposal for a People’s Railway has sparked interest and support, tinged with more than a little nostalgia for a past that really didn’t exist. Those who hanker after British Rail were clearly not there. It was the butt of national jokes about punctuality, cancellations, strikes and stale sandwiches. It was also serving a transport market very different from today. Rail journeys in Britain have doubled since 1997 and are set to continue rising rapidly. Freight traffic increases every year too. Our rail lines are the busiest and most intensively used in Europe if not the world. Britain has the only growing rail market in Europe. So when people adversely compare our structure with that in France or Germany it is worth remembering that they are declining businesses while every aspect of Brtish railways is growing fast and needs to do so, because of our growing population and if we are to have a successful economy.

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

Result – Lib Dem London Assembly list selection

By Paul Walter | Sat 26th September 2015 - 10:05 am

With a hat-tip to Mark Pack, here is the result of the internal Liberal Democrat party election to select the order of candidates for our London Assembly list:

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged and | 16 Comments
The Voice

LDVideo: Tim Farron’s first leaders’ speech

By The Voice | Thu 24th September 2015 - 7:50 am



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Posted in Conference | Also tagged | 2 Comments
Paul Walter

IN FULL: Tim Farron’s leader speech to conference today

By Paul Walter | Wed 23rd September 2015 - 1:36 pm

When I was growing up my school didn’t have a sixth form. I guess that’s because most of us didn’t do A levels. So I went to a separate sixth form college – Runshaw in Leyland – and, in my first week, I joined the Liberal Party.

I also joined a band.

I’m assuming you may have seen the photos.

The only good thing I can say is that because the photos are pre-digital they are so low resolution that you can’t make out the eye-liner.

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 14 Comments
Paul Walter

“Wow, that was the best leader’s speech I’ve heard in just under 50 Lib Dem conferences”

By Paul Walter | Wed 23rd September 2015 - 1:30 pm

So tweeted Dr Mark Pack, formerly of this parish:



Here’s some other reaction:


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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 43 Comments
Paul Walter

++Conference passes “One member one vote” for party elections and conference votes

By Paul Walter | Mon 21st September 2015 - 6:49 pm

Hallejujah!

We have got there! We have at last completed our arduous journey over mountain, through thick jungle and through crocodile infested waters. We have at last arrived in the Elysian Fields!

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 11 Comments
Paul Walter

“Scrapping Trident” debate – what conference voted for today

By Paul Walter | Mon 21st September 2015 - 6:46 pm

Here follows the text of the motion passed by conference this afternoon at the end of the debate entitled “Scrapping Trident” on the agenda.

I have shown the original motion in normal text with the original line numbers, and lines through the text which was deleted by conference. In italics I have shown the text inserted by virtue of conference voting for Amendment 1:

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 25 Comments
Paul Walter

VIDEO: Tim Farron’s very impressive debut Question & Answer session at conference in full

By Paul Walter | Mon 21st September 2015 - 2:00 pm

Please click below to see the whole of Tim Farron’s Question and Answer session at conference yesterday. Tim was in extremely impressive form for his first such session – which can be extremely demanding for a party leader. He was relaxed, confident, funny where necessary and very passionate.

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
Paul Walter

New “Policy Pitch” opportunity hits conference

By Paul Walter | Sun 20th September 2015 - 1:30 pm

imageA new format hit conference yesterday. At the end of Saturday’s session, we had a “Policy Pitch” section. This is a new idea whereby members submit ideas to the conference commitee and three of those ideas are accepted for discussion at the conference.

The chosen members gave a short speech outlining their policy proposal. Then they sat down in a comfy chair on stage with three “assessors”, who were: Julie Smith, Jeremy Hargreaves and Willie Rennie. There was then a little interviewing of each proposer from the three assessors.

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged | 1 Comment
Paul Walter

‘Going to the south coast once a year and putting your hand up should not be the only way to contribute to party policy making’

By Paul Walter | Sun 20th September 2015 - 12:00 pm

Autumn 2012 conference - Some rights reserved by Liberal Democrats
The quote above came from Lorna Dupré at the policy making process consultation

On Saturday morning, conference got off to a flying start with a consultative session on the party’s policy-making process. This followed the publication of this document.

The session was organised and led by the Federal Policy Committee, which is the leading body for policy making in the party. Tim Farron is the chair of this committee.

The session was chaired by Julie Smith, with Gareth Epps and Jeremy Hargreaves heavily involved in facilitating the discussion. Duncan Brack also spoke.

These “consultative sessions” are, I think, an exciting part of conference. They allow members to input ideas into the formation of processes and policy before working groups have started to write a formal motion for conference. So, it is an excellent way for members to influence things.

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
The Voice

Farron proposes start-up allowance for new business owners as he focuses on the party’s economic credibility

By The Voice | Sun 20th September 2015 - 6:00 am

Tim Farron is using the first full day of conference to announce plans for a so-called start-up allowance for entrepreneurs launching new small businesses. The allowance would be worth £2600 over the first six months (£100 a week) after they set up their new business. It comes as part of a leadership focus on building upon the economic credibility won by our five years spent in government.

Tim said:

Liberal Democrats believe that if you have a dream you should be supported to fulfil it.  Those who take the chance to set out on their own and create a business should be celebrated and supported.

Lib Dems recognise the courage of those who seek to create something new.

While Labour have said they now want to strip Government support for businesses and the Tories focus on giving tax cuts to giant corporations, we want to focus on entrepreneurs and small business seeking to grow.

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
Toby Fenwick

Trident renewal is not justified, but our policy must be coherent and multilateralist

By Toby Fenwick | Sat 19th September 2015 - 3:59 pm

Next spring, Parliament will debate and vote on whether to replace the UK’s ageing Trident submarines at a cost of approximately £30bn, in the so-called Main Gate investment decision. Operating the submarines and Trident through to the late 2050s will bring the total cost to more than £100bn.

I have consistently opposed the renewal of Trident, and was very disappointed with the current fudge we adopted in 2013. Indeed, at the time, I wondered whether it was the most strategically incoherent policy ever adopted?

Today, I continue to oppose Trident renewal for four reasons:

First, I favour progressive multilateral nuclear disarmament, and continuing with Trident does not represent the spirit of the UK’s obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty;

Second, the threat that the Soviet Union could mount a conventional attack through West Germany and that the USA may not respond (strategic decoupling) died with German reunification in NATO in 1990;

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged and | 13 Comments
Paul Walter

+++This is officially the biggest Liberal Democrat conference ever+++

By Paul Walter | Sat 19th September 2015 - 11:08 am

News came through via Gareth Epps at the morning consultation session that the number of member registrations at this Bournemouth conference have now passed the previous record for the party. So this is now the biggest Liberal Democrat party conference EVER!

The party said:

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged | 8 Comments
Paul Walter

Conference kicks off

By Paul Walter | Sat 19th September 2015 - 8:26 am

imageConference kicks off with an important consultative session on party policy making this morning at 10am in the Marriott Hotel.

The main conference centre opens at 12.30 for members.

I took this photo of Bournemouth pier at 8am today.

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged | 2 Comments

Obituary: Ruth Pentney, Councillor, agent and dedicated activist

By Nicholas Pentney | Wed 16th September 2015 - 9:55 am

Ruth Pentney“F*** off!” That was Ruth’s succinct response to those who requested her to back ‘Lib Dems 4 Change’ and their ill-fated attempt to oust Nick Clegg as leader in the summer of last year. That two worded response aptly illustrates the three worded summary of Ruth given by former Torbay MP Adrian Sanders, when he described her as: “tenacious, dependable and loyal.”

Attracted by the ‘self-help’ tradition that the party was closely associated with, Ruth joined the Liberals in the early 1970s. Having known what it means to be poor, she saw the hope that the  Liberals could inspire in deprived communities. She fiercely rejected the individualistic values of the Conservatives and the statism of Labour. Only the Liberals offered the vision of an equal society in which communities, once unburdened by the oppression of poverty, could stand on their own feet and strive for the good of all their members. Inspired by this vision she would go on to spend the next four decades passionately fighting to advance the cause of liberalism, and in the mid-nineties she would help turn Torbay yellow whereas before it had only ever been blue.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
Joe Otten

I disagree with Jeremy

By Joe Otten | Tue 15th September 2015 - 12:01 pm

Jeremy Corbyn photo by lewishamdreamer1Jeremy Corbyn strikes me as someone who is still fighting all the battles of the 1980s and has not thought much about anything since.

Re-open the coal mines! Of course – they were closed by the Tories, so they must reopen. But ban fracking – because that is getting carbon-based fuel out of the ground, which is wrong. Now I respect people who want a total ban on fracking out of concern for the local environment, or to keep the carbon in the ground. I happen to accept the evidence that it can be done safely, and that the gas has an important role in replacing dirtier coal, running standby plant for wind turbines and weakening Putin’s influence in the world.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 82 Comments
Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron MP writes…Liberal Democrats will not support like for like Trident replacement but Conference motion doesn’t answer key questions

By Tim Farron MP | Mon 14th September 2015 - 1:50 pm

Another Lib Dem conference and we find ourselves talking about our nuclear deterrent once more. This is a huge and timely issue as the Tory Government will be taking the decision to proceed with the Trident replacement programme next year. In fact, with the recent announcement of an additional £500m for Faslane they have already nailed their colours very firmly to the mast. So it’s absolutely right that conference should debate the issue, and I think members deserve to hear where I stand on it.

There are obviously strong views on both sides, but I do not support the existing motion. Judith Jolly has submitted a very sensible amendment which asks for the motion to be referred back to the Federal policy Committee. I want to see a full and open consultation on this issue so that we can consider the threats we face and be completely clear on the options, implications and costs of any decisions. We need a party working group to look at the questions of how best to allocate scare resources, guarantee security, and fulfil our international obligations while facing up to the type of threats and challenges Britain will face in the 21st Century. And we need Lib Dem answers.  

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 130 Comments
Mary Reid

I agree with Jeremy

By Mary Reid | Mon 14th September 2015 - 12:35 pm

 

Higher taxation for the wealthiest – tick

Greater public ownership – tick

An end to private involvement in the health service – tick

A national education service – tick

An agenda of “growth not austerity” – tick

Should I be embarrassed at finding that I agree with all of Jeremy Corbyn’s core beliefs?

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 272 Comments
Caron Lindsay

The one thing missing from Tim Farron’s Commons speech on the refugee crisis

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 10th September 2015 - 11:10 am

Yesterday Tim Farron spoke twice in the Commons. We covered his tribute to the Queen, but I want to look at his speech in the SNP’s Opposition Day debate on the humanitarian crisis on our doorstep.

Actually, the speech itself was very good and said all it needed to say. I’ve been pretty lucky this week. I’ve managed to switch on the tv twice and, by chance, catch two Liberal Democrat MPs speaking, Alistair in the emergency debate on Tuesday and Tim yesterday.

Tim spoke about his experience in Calais, about how the Government’s response to the crisis has damaged and continues to damage the UK’s standing in the world and he also had a go at them, reinforced by Tom Brake, for raiding the international development budget to pay for the refugees coming here.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 28 Comments
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