Tag Archives: featured

The Voice

A longer read for the weekend: Lord (Paul) Strasburger’s submission to the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament

By The Voice | Sat 8th February 2014 - 3:00 pm

The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament recently issued the following call for papers:

On 17 October 2013, the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) announced that it would be broadening its inquiry into the laws which govern the intelligence agencies’ ability to intercept private communications. In addition to considering whether the current statutory framework governing access to private communications remains adequate, the Committee is also considering the appropriate balance between our individual right to privacy and our collective right to security. The ISC is now inviting written submissions from those who wish to contribute to the inquiry.

Lib Dem peer Paul Strasburger has sent us his submission, which we’re printing in full…

Submission to ISC Inquiry

paul strasburgerby Lord Strasburger

1. In January 2014 President Obama said to his country and the world “Our system of government is built on the premise that our liberty cannot depend on the good intentions of those in power. It depends on the law to constrain those in power.”
2. In the UK, the Snowden disclosures have confirmed that the legislation intended to constrain intrusive surveillance of its citizens by the State is not fit for purpose. In addition, scrutiny of the security and intelligence agencies which is supposed to protect the privacy and liberty of the British people has comprehensively failed.

The difference between watching anybody and watching everybody

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged , and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo EXCLUSIVE: “The Lost Liberal Democrat Votes”

By Stephen Tall | Fri 7th February 2014 - 3:15 pm

Here’s a fascinating 7-minute video from documentary producer Ed Stradling looking at “The lost Liberal Democrat Votes” – and what the party can do to win them back by 2015. Ed’s not a Lib Dem member, so when I asked him what had prompted him to make this short film, here’s what he told me:

I’m not a party member, in fact I’ve never even voted for the Lib Dems, although I may have done had they ever stood a chance in any of my constituencies. However, I do think the Lib Dems have done a fantastic job in Government, and come 2015 I would certainly favour a Lib-Con coalition over an outright Tory Government, just as I’d favour a Lib-Lab coalition over an outright Labour Government. I think the political consequences of joining the Coalition have been terribly unfair on the Lib Dems and I guess that is the main motivation for the video – it’s always struck me as crazy that the Lib Dems should be punished by the left-sided voters for taking a decision which is clearly better for them, than the almost certain alternative of a Tory majority in a second 2010 election.

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Posted in News and YouTube | Also tagged | 63 Comments
Stephen Tall

Fraser Nelson’s must-read guide to utterly and completely misunderstanding the Lib Dems’ Coalition strategy

By Stephen Tall | Fri 7th February 2014 - 2:15 pm

Fraser Nelson has written a must-read guide to utterly and completely misunderstanding the Lib Dems’ Coalition strategy today. My guess is he’s reliant on Tory intelligence, which in this case is an oxymoron.

Much of it is the usual half-fair/half-unfair admixture of insults regularly thrown at the Lib Dems by the right-wing media. We are, says Fraser, “a hodge-podge of a party defined by its lack of definition”, “conservative in Somerset and socialist in Solihull” (has he met Lorely Burt?). Unlike the Conservatives, of course, where the small-l-liberal outlook of Ken Clarke and Nick Boles dovetails perfectly with the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 12 Comments
Mary Reid

Lib Dems amongst the top ten peers’ peers

By Mary Reid | Fri 7th February 2014 - 9:09 am

House of LordsEd Lowther at the BBC has identified the ‘top ten peers’ peers of 2013‘, defined as backbenchers in the House of Lords who were name-checked most frequently by their colleagues in the chamber. As he says: “This approach may not measure popularity or power, but it gives an impression of impact. ”

And are any of those lordly sociometric stars Lib Dem, by any chance? Of course they are.

At number 4 – drumroll, please – is ….

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

It’s #timetotalk about mental health at Liberal Democrat Voice

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 6th February 2014 - 10:02 am

Time to talk dayLiberal Democrat Voice is always “Our place to talk” but today, we are talking about mental health. Time to Change is having a national #timetotalk day. Why?

Thursday 6 February is the first ever Time to Talk Day: 24 hours in which to start conversations about mental health, raise awareness and share the message that mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, neither is talking about it.

Sometimes it’s the little things we do that make a big difference – like having a chat over a cuppa, sending a text or inviting someone out. And on Time to Talk Day we’re encouraging people to do just that. In fact, we’re hoping to spark a million conversations, and we want your help to do that.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 14 Comments
Mary Reid

YouGov asks: What is it about Lib Dems and Sci-Fi?

By Mary Reid | Tue 4th February 2014 - 4:59 pm

TARDISYouGov has the hard evidence for something that a lot of us have suspected for a long time – that “There is a strange correlation between supporting the Liberal Democrats and being a fan of Science Fiction“.

YouGov regularly polls its panel of 400,000 people (including me, as it happens) so has built up some rich data. The survey last year on Doctor Who showed that while 31% of the population are interested in the programme, that jumps to 41% for Lib Dem supporters. (Nick Barlow blogged about the survey at the time)

Time and time again the Liberal Democrats appeared as the most correlated political party for Sci-Fi related topics. Movies like The Matrix, Blade Runner, Alien, The Fifth Element, Stargate, Back to the Future and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and sci fi classic books like Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, Dune and I Robot – ALL show positive correlations to support for the Lib Dems.

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 29 Comments
Alexandra Jones

The Independent View: London – a magnet for talent

By Alexandra Jones | Mon 3rd February 2014 - 9:55 am

london by Harshil ShahVince Cable recently accused London of acting like a giant machine that sucks in all of the talent from the rest of the country. Our new report, Cities Outlook 2014, shows that London is indeed a magnet for young people from across the country. But the big question is: why does this happen, and what does it mean for policy?

First, let’s look at the key stats. Somewhat counterintuitively, overall London loses population to the rest of the country. But this is overwhelmingly to the Greater South …

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Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged , and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Gove and Laws scrap it out on front pages over sacking of Ofsted head. Here’s what the row is all about.

By Stephen Tall | Sun 2nd February 2014 - 11:22 am

Today’s newspaper front pages are full of the scrap taking place at the heart of the Department for Education between Conservative secretary of state Michael Gove and Lib Dem schools minister David Laws:

gove laws - papers

  • Ofsted row: Lib Dems furious at Conservative plan to ‘politicise’ classrooms (Independent on Sunday)
  • Lib Dems savage Gove over sacked schools boss (The Sunday Times, £)
  • Angry Lib Dems accuse Michael Gove of bid to politicise education (Observer)

    • Why is there a row?

    On Friday night, The Independent broke the news that Baroness (Sally) Morgan, the Labour

    …

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    Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 28 Comments
    Caron Lindsay

    Sarah Yong selected as Liberal Democrat candidate for Somerton and Frome

    By Caron Lindsay | Sat 1st February 2014 - 8:06 pm

    Sarah Yong has received a very special 30th birthday present – selection as Liberal Democrat candidate for Somerton and
    Frome. She hopes to replace David Heath MP who is standing down.

    So, who is Sarah? Well, her Leadership Programme profile tells us:

    Sarah was born in Edinburgh to a Scottish mother and a Chinese Malaysian father, and her family moved to Somerset when she was three years old. Sarah attended local state schools before graduating with a BA in Politics and History.

    Upon leaving university, Sarah embarked on a military career and attended The Royal Military Leadership Academy for Officer training in 2007.

    …

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    Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 13 Comments
    Caron Lindsay

    The Malcolm Bruce interview, Part 1 on the Liberal Democrats’ achievements in Government and how the SNP’s promises are undeliverable

    By Caron Lindsay | Wed 29th January 2014 - 8:43 pm

    malcolm-bruce-2This morning I dropped an email to our new Deputy Leader, Sir Malcolm Bruce MP, asking him if I could have a chat with him so that our readers could get to know him. He called me this afternoon and we chatted for nearly half an hour. We talked about how he sees his new role, how to get more women into Parliament, the European elections, his role as chair of the Select Committee on International Development and the Scottish Independence referendum taking place later this year.

    Malcolm Bruce was elected as …

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    Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 8 Comments
    Alex Smethurst

    Opinion: More money in your pocket from April

    By Alex Smethurst | Wed 29th January 2014 - 8:28 am

    MoneyAt the last election, Liberal Democrats up and down the country campaigned hard to cut taxes for working people and put money back in your pocket. It was our top priority – taken from the front page of our manifesto – to increase the amount you can earn before paying tax to £10,000. This has made a real difference to taxpayers up and down the country.

    Since 2003, middle wages have failed to rise with growth. When we came into government, someone working full time on the minimum wage would lose …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 24 Comments
    Nick Clegg MP

    Nick Clegg MP writes…The recovery would not be happening without us

    By Nick Clegg MP | Tue 28th January 2014 - 4:25 pm

    This morning we’ve seen yet more proof that the economy is firmly on the path to recovery. Growth is returning, with today’s figures showing the longest period of growth since 2007. We’ve also had good news on jobs – with youth unemployment down, jobs outside of London up and a surge in new full time jobs.

    In Government we’re clearing up Labour’s mess. Here are four reasons why it would not be happening without the Liberal Democrats.

    1. Our decision to go into coalition gave Britain the stable government needed to get the country through these difficult times. Despite the endless clamour …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 14 Comments
    Paul Head

    Opinion: Football, Freedom of Speech and the Y-word

    By Paul Head | Sun 26th January 2014 - 10:20 am

    spurs yid armyIn the last few days, the Crown Prosecution Service has taken the decision to charge three Tottenham Hotspur supporters with “using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour”. The charges relate to the use of the word “Yid” by the fans.

    The decision to charge the fans should be a cause of major concern to anyone who values freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

    For those unaware of the history and context behind the use of the word by Spurs fans, it’s worth a quick …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 26 Comments
    David Boyle

    Opinion: The demise of the middle classes

    By David Boyle | Wed 22nd January 2014 - 8:55 am

    I was on a policy panel recently, when I heard somebody dismissing the idea of ‘choice’ in public services as a sop for the middle classes.

    Now, there are two rather odd aspects of this.

    The first is that, depending on what you mean by choice – and every political party has its own distinct meaning – it isn’t actually true.

    The polling I carried out during the Barriers to Choice Review showed that nearly 90 per cent want ‘choice’.  It is just that they are often muddled about what that actually means.

    The second is that I hear this kind of sentence in …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 27 Comments
    Antony Hook

    Opinion: Why I am against Grayling over Criminal Legal Aid

    By Antony Hook | Tue 21st January 2014 - 5:16 pm

    As a candidate for the European Parliament my focus is on EU-related issues: trade, climate change and cross-border crime. But some national issues are, in my view, so pressing that I cannot ignore them.  Among these are Chris Grayling’s proposed cuts to criminal legal aid, so severe they threaten whether defendants will have proper representation at all.

    On 6 January, I was in Oxford to support a protest against these cuts.  Concurrent protests happened at courts all over England & Wales. The campaign aims to raise public awareness and persuade parliament to say ‘no’ to Grayling, as Parliament did over Price …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 14 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    We should support Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Maajid Nawaz in the face of death threats

    By Stephen Tall | Tue 21st January 2014 - 2:00 pm

    On 12th January, Maajid Nawaz, the Lib Dems’ parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn, tweeted the following message:

     

    He did so following his appearance on BBC1’s The Big Questions, which debated “whether human rights should always outweigh religious right”. Two audience members had worn the image on their T-shirts, with the BBC choosing not to show the image – which was the same as that worn by …

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    Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 134 Comments

    Opinion: Step forward true liberals

    By Anonymous Liberal | Tue 21st January 2014 - 12:10 pm

    Males

    True liberalism is hard. Sometimes we don’t understand this. Lacking an urgent, reformist edge, we let others define us. Our milder critics used to style us sandal-wearing fruitarians who knitted their own CND badges. Hostile tabloids called us dangerous deviants.

    Oddly, we were comforted by these perceptions. Underlying them was a sense that Liberals are relaxed and open to all-comers. But this vision of our tolerant Party has two problems.  Tolerance can degenerate into shoulder-shrugging passivity and turning a blind eye. And we’re not that open anyway.

    We’re a Party of ageing, white males. Just like we used to be.

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 49 Comments
    David Howarth

    Opinion: What does ‘bringing the party into disrepute’ mean?

    By David Howarth | Tue 21st January 2014 - 9:00 am

    The suspension and threatened expulsion from the party of Chris Rennard for ‘failure to apologise’ takes the Rennard affair into a new and much darker place. Even those of us who think Chris should apologise should stop and think about where this is taking us.

    Alistair Webster’s statement seemed to me to be entirely sensible, but there was one issue Alistair should have said more about, namely what can count as ‘bringing the party into disrepute’. That issue is crucial because on it depends the rights of minorities in the party to stay within it. If, for example, disagreeing with the …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 116 Comments
    David Boyle

    Opinion: Why local banks need Lib Dems to act

    By David Boyle | Fri 17th January 2014 - 8:15 am

    It hardly seems worth Ed Miliband’s time to actually make the speech on economics today, because it has been previewed, leaked and debated – almost sentence by sentence – all week.

    There was a debate about the middle classes on Tuesday.  Then there was the important commitment to competition in the banking sector, where he flagged the idea of a market cap, an important idea – but there are three practical problems with it.

    First, there is a danger that it will lead to the big banks dumping poorer customers – though equally, there will be more banks available for them to …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
    Nick Harvey

    Nick Harvey MP writes… Robert Gates poses stark defence question to UK: Do we want to be a real military partner or a nuclear power and nothing else?

    By Nick Harvey | Thu 16th January 2014 - 1:58 pm

    Former US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning decrying the UK’s defence cuts. He said the squeeze meant the UK could no longer be a ‘full spectrum’ military partner of the US, acknowledging that our relationship with the US has been fundamentally altered.

    A sceptic would quickly dismiss the comments of a man currently promoting his memoirs, but Gates makes a wider point about what exactly we want to be doing with a smaller defence capability.

    Both Labour and the Tories continue to cling to the idea that we should maintain a full-scale Cold War …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 31 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    And the winner of our Liberal Voice of the Year award is… Edward Snowden

    By Stephen Tall | Wed 15th January 2014 - 10:39 am
    liberal-voice

    It's a fortnight since we launched our search for the Liberal Voice of the Year with the aim of finding the individual or group which has had the biggest liberal impact in the past 12 months. This is LibDemVoice's seventh such annual award, and as is our tradition, we looked beyond the ranks of the Lib Dems to find the liberal who’s most impressed our readers and is NOT a member of our party.

    We unveiled the shortlist here on New Year's Day. In total, 363 readers cast a vote in the past two weeks using a preferential voting system. The final (13th) round of voting gave the following result:

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    Posted in News and Polls | Also tagged | 30 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Hollande’s affair – do you care? *Gallic shrug*

    By Stephen Tall | Tue 14th January 2014 - 8:10 pm

    The President of France, Francois Hollande, held a a long-planned news conference today to launch policies to help France’s struggling economy. Along with cuts to government spending, he plans a ‘responsibility pact’ to incentivise firms to hire workers, and… oh, I’m sorry, am I boring you? You’re only interested in his liaisons dangereuses, the reported affair he’s having with the actress who is not his First Lady? If so, then you’ve a lot in common with UK journalists…

    …

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    Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 47 Comments
    Helen Flynn

    Opinion: UKIP – let’s have a debate about low skills

    By Helen Flynn | Tue 14th January 2014 - 5:04 pm

    strawberriesThere has been an inconsistency between two highly prominent policy areas that has been niggling away at the back of my mind for quite some time now.  UKIP needs to take note.

    So, take two policy areas and also take into account the temperature (at least according to the Daily Mail, etc) of the voters.

    The first area is education.  Schools that do not match up to the floor levels at Key Stage 2 and at GCSE are pounced upon by Ofsted.  They require improvement or are put into special measures.  All children must get 5 good GCSEs.  They must progress and they must aspire.  Think of the slogans that populate the UK and US education policy discourse: “no child must be left behind; “every child matters”; and social mobility is regarded and upheld as a kind of rebalancing panacea to address all social ills and help narrow the gap.

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 26 Comments
    Caron Lindsay

    The three dimensions to Alistair Carmichael’s speech: positive vision of UK, incoherent nationalist ideas and future powers

    By Caron Lindsay | Mon 13th January 2014 - 4:54 pm

    Alistair Carmichael speech Jan 2014Alistair Carmichael’s keynote speech and subsequent question and answer session in Stirling today touched three different dimensions of the constitutional debate, the last of which should cheer any Liberal Democrat heart. Up until now, roughly, the nationalist campaign has been all about painting a pretty picture of how all our problems would disappear if we controlled our own destiny, and in dismissing all searching for detail and questioning as scaremongering. The pro UK campaign has been about robust analysis of the SNP positions, but it hasn’t even made my heart sing and I’m voting for them. It’s been all head and fact and evidence based and worthy,  but it’s not appealed to the emotions.  The parts of Carmichael’s speech trailed overnight heavily emphasised what Scotland gains as being part of the UK, though. Were we about to see a change of emphasis?

    The positive vision for the UK

    It’s not just about money, said Alistair. It’s about what the 4 nations of the UK have built together. He said Scotland gets more out than it puts in which will no doubt have the nationalists in a tailspin of indignation – but the same is the case for all the countries which make up the UK, greater than the sum of their parts.

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 5 Comments
    Danny Alexander MP

    Danny Alexander MP writes: We shouldn’t fritter away our EU influence when we can lead drive for jobs and growth

    By Danny Alexander MP | Fri 10th January 2014 - 7:57 pm

    As the House of Lords debates the EU Referendum Bill, you may be forgiven for thinking that the Coalition Government has already legislated for a referendum. In fact we did – in 2011 Parliament passed the EU Act which holds that there will be a referendum if there is a transfer of powers from the UK to the EU. This is a sensible approach which means that the British people will get their say in a referendum when our terms of membership change.

    At the time, Conservative Ministers strongly supported the EU Act and rejected attempts by their own backbenchers to …

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    Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 22 Comments
    Lord Roger Roberts

    Lord Roger Roberts writes…Focussing attention on the humanitarian cost of the Syrian civil war

    By Lord Roger Roberts | Thu 9th January 2014 - 12:32 pm

    This afternoon, the House of Lords will discuss the tragedy of the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Syria. Lord Roberts secured the debate, and here he sets out his views exclusively for LDV.

    The crisis in Syria, which the UN has described as ‘the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of modern times’ is now reaching overwhelming levels. The total number of Syrian refugees is now estimated to be 2.3 million, of whom 0.5% – around 12,000 souls – are spread across the whole continent of Europe. Bulgaria, the EU’s poorest country, is bearing the brunt of this: an estimated 100 Syrians enter Bulgaria daily, many of them illegally. The country simply cannot cope.

    The United Nations and its non-governmental organisation and local government partners in the region face many pressures. These organisations are fighting to ensure social stability. In Lebanon, in light of extraordinary population growth, essential resources, space, and labour are all causes of significant social tension. In East Lebanon, a makeshift refugee camp providing shelter for hundreds was burnt down last month, and the Lebanese town of Tripoli saw bloodshed mirroring the Syrian conflict in the latter months of 2013. Alarmingly, car bombs in Beirut are once again headline news. The spread of violence will continue, threatening to destabilise the whole region, unless practical and immediate measures are taken to relieve the pressure on Syria’s generous but inundated neighbours.

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
    Caron Lindsay

    Should MPs be allowed to take their babies into the voting lobby?

    By Caron Lindsay | Thu 9th January 2014 - 11:28 am

    There’s been a bit of controversy over the issue of breastfeeding in the House of Commons and taking babies into the voting lobby sparked by comments by Jo Swinson, who gave birth to her son Andrew on 22 December. The argument goes that you can take a sword into the Commons voting lobby, but not a baby. On face value, it sounds like yet another way in which Westminster needs to be dragged into the 21st century.

    Jo said to the Guardian:

    “I think it’s been lovely the way people have been really supportive in parliament of my pregnancy,” she said. ” I think some of the structures of the institutions of the House of Commons probably don’t make it as easy as it could be, in particular that you don’t get maternity cover. As a minister, I get cover for my work … but nobody else will be being the MP for East Dunbartonshire.”

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 29 Comments
    Mary Reid

    Nick Clegg lambasts George Osborne’s “monumental mistake”

    By Mary Reid | Tue 7th January 2014 - 11:31 am

    Clegg on OsbourneThe media are full of stories and commentary about  George Osborne’s announcement yesterday on the need to make a further £25 billion cuts after the next election, the bulk of which would come from welfare benefits.  Even the Telegraph refers to him as a “prophet of gloom“.

    There is also much coverage of Nick Clegg’s response at his monthly press conference in which he said the Tories were making a “monumental mistake”.

    You’ve got a Conservative party now who are driven, it seems to me, by two very clear ideological impulses. One is to remorselessly pare back the state – for ideological reasons just cut back the state.

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    Posted in News | 14 Comments
    Julian Huppert

    Julian Huppert writes… an end to the chilling effects of libel action on free speech

    By Julian Huppert | Mon 6th January 2014 - 12:03 pm

    libel-reform-campaign-logoAs we start a New Year, we always tend to look back on the past, as well as think to the future – and we do have a bad tendency to focus on the problems, not the successes.

    But for a change, let’s celebrate another achievement – another manifesto commitment delivered, as the Defamation Act 2013 came into effect on New Year’s Day. This will hopefully mark an end to libel tourism, an end to the abuse of libel law by companies, and an end to the chilling effect threats of libel …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Immigration: 87% of Lib Dem members back free movement of EU people; but 65% also support benefit restrictions for EU migrants

    By Stephen Tall | Mon 6th January 2014 - 10:45 am

    Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum  to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 750 party members responded – thank you – and we’re publishing the full results.

    87% of Lib Dems support the free movement of EU citizens

    Overall, do you support or oppose the right of people in EU countries to live and work wherever they want?

      87% – Support
      6% – Oppose
      1% – Don’t know
      5% – Other

    An overwhelming proportion (87%) of Lib Dem members support the right of …

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    Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged and | 23 Comments
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