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Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb MP writes…Another step forwards in achieving parity for mental health

By Norman Lamb MP | Wed 13th November 2013 - 4:40 pm

It’s a bit of a cliché to say that mental health is the Cinderella service of the NHS but it’s essentially true. There is a real institutional bias against mental health. It loses out financially when budgets are tight for local commissioners and significant advances on choice and access for patients introduced by the Labour Government left out mental health.

In the time I have available to me as Care Minister, I am determined to do everything I can to combat this and the update of the Government’s Mandate – which sets out the Government’s priorities from the NHS – published yesterday, …

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Caron Lindsay

Carmichael: 3 questions the SNP must answer on currency, pensions and costs after independence

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 13th November 2013 - 3:35 pm

Carmichael Inverness speech

In the beautiful surroundings of Bishop’s House in Inverness, Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael gave his first keynote speech. The whole thing is published below the cut, but here are the highlights:

  • The Highlands and Islands have never been better represented in Government – a boy from Colonsay and a boy from Orkney in the Cabinet.
  • How you vote in the referendum does not determine how Scottish you are – once you start mixing patriotism and politics, you quickly get into dangerous territory.
  • The UK’s greatest hits. He said it wasn’t a list of them, but it so was. And pretty compelling, too.
  • 3 questions for the SNP:
  • What’s your Plan B if we can’t have a currency union between Scotland and the rest of the UK?
  • How much more will pensions cost us if we leave the UK?
  • How much will independence cost?

I get the feeling these 3 are the start of many. Overall, it’s a strong speech delivered with humour, passion and sharpness. He’s put the Nationalists on notice that he’s going to be very specific with them. They won’t get away with squealing about who they want to debate, or how Scottish anyone is,

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Mary Reid

Ed Davey: Energy customers are not just cash cows

By Mary Reid | Tue 12th November 2013 - 12:39 pm

Ed Davey - Some rights reserved by Liberal DemocratsEd Davey’s speech to Energy UK today has been well trailed in the media. The headline features a much quoted soundbite: “Customers are not just cash cows to be squeezed in the pursuit of a higher return for shareholders”.

It was one of those occasions when the whole discussion took place ahead of the actual event, with Energy UK (which represents the energy industry) posting a ripost before the speech had been delivered.

Here is an extract from Ed’s speech:

We need our energy companies

…

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LibLink: Julian Huppert calls for greater public scrutiny of spying

By Andy Boddington | Sat 9th November 2013 - 9:02 am

Julian Huppert Sherlock HolmesWriting in the Guardian yesterday, Julian Huppert called for greater public scrutiny of national security. It was not just the work of the intelligence services that was scrutinised in parliament last Thursday, he says, but secretive intelligence and security committee which oversees the services.

This sort of public scrutiny is exactly what we need to restore confidence in our intelligence service, whose work keeps us safe. It does make you wonder why this should have been such a massive event: shouldn’t public scrutiny be at the heart of the way our intelligence and security service operates anyway?

Huppert says that he is not asking for details to be discussed, just principles.

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Clegg condemns sneering Paxman and tussles with terrorism prevention

By Andy Boddington | Fri 8th November 2013 - 9:02 am

Nick Clegg LBCThey are a way of dealing with a “dilemma”. That’s Nick Clegg’s view of TPIMs after the escape of Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed. He was being challenged on his weekly Call Clegg phone-in on LBC 97.3. He went on to blast Paxman as a taxpayer funded broadcaster who “sneers at politics.”

Clegg defended the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures as essential where people can’t be prosecuted or deported:

What do you do about people who you can’t get on a plane to deport them but you want to keep an eye on them? There is this dilemma.

He said that TPIMs are the toughest regime in the world he knows of for dealing with “this category of characters.” People absconded under old system of Control Orders, which were riddled with problems because they were “constantly being shredded by the courts.”

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NewsHound

LibLink: Tim Farron – Why has the plight of the overcrowded and the homeless not been prioritised?

By NewsHound | Wed 6th November 2013 - 11:45 am

In a hard-hitting article in today’s Guardian, Tim Farron hits out at David Cameron’s “lack of humanity in face of basic need” on housing while outlining what Liberal Democrats want to see done to make sure that there are enough affordable houses for people.

He outlines the scale of the problem first:

The real divide in modern Britain is not between strivers and shirkers, but between those who were lucky enough to buy homes before 1997 and those who were not. Unless we tackle the housing crisis, homelessness is going to become a mainstream problem. Working families can’t afford to buy, and

…

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Mary Reid

Study shows that UK benefits from immigration from European countries

By Mary Reid | Tue 5th November 2013 - 4:25 pm

UK-BordersLiberal Democrats celebrate the fact that immigrants make a substantial social contribution to UK society, and they have long suspected that immigrants make a net financial contribution as well.  That claim is now backed up by a recent study undertaken by University College London, and reported by the BBC.

In a paper for the Centre of Research and Analysis of Migration, authors Christian Dustmann and Tommaso Frattini conclude that:

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Daniel Henry

Opinion: In defence of consumption taxes

By Daniel Henry | Tue 5th November 2013 - 1:20 pm

MoneyWhenever the “cost of living” comes up as a topic, we often hear lists of consumption taxes that can be reduced to lower it. Most recently have been the green levies on energy bills; last year a big deal was made about fuel duty; the year before it was the top rate of VAT.  Some people even argue that taxes on cigarettes and alcohol hit the poorest and should be cut back.

I’m certain that there’s all sorts of taxes that we’d like to lower, but there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and any tax we lower requires us to raise another tax or cut spending elsewhere. Wealth taxes, and even a high rate of land value tax, would only raise so much, so if we’re to cut tax then we’re going to have prioritise.

My position is: whichever consumption tax you’d like to reduce, we’d be better off using the revenue to raise the Income Tax and Employee NI thresholds. This is for three reasons:

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Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb writes … The start of a revolution in joined-up care

By Norman Lamb MP | Tue 5th November 2013 - 11:52 am

Back in May, I wrote on Lib Dem Voice, about the launch of a programme of “Integration Pioneers” to drive forward the revolution in joined-up care that is desperately needed across the NHS and social care.

On Friday, I announced the final outcome of a rigorous process to select the very best leaders in integrated care. A panel of experts, including some of the global leaders in integrated care, scrutinised the bids. Now, 14 Pioneers spread across England covering rural and urban areas will lead a movement of change joining up a horribly fragmented system which too often let’s …

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Kirsty Williams and Danny Alexander

Kirsty Williams and Danny Alexander write… Wales offered tax raising powers

By Kirsty Williams and Danny Alexander | Fri 1st November 2013 - 12:02 pm

Welsh Dragon Swag BagToday, the Coalition Government has committed to reaching the next great milestone in Welsh devolution by taking forward the key recommendations of the Silk Commission.

As a party that believes in devolution and has campaigned for decades to deliver more power for Wales, this is a huge win for the Liberal Democrats. Can you imagine a Tory or Labour Government devolving these powers from London?

Currently the National Assembly of Wales is unique amongst the rest of the world. It can make laws, spend money, but it can’t control how much it raises through tax. For over a decade, Labour refused to let go of the purse strings. But where Labour failed, the Liberal Democrats have acted.

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Posted in News and Wales | Also tagged | 4 Comments

David Steel on the Scottish referendum and reforming the House of Lords

By Andy Boddington | Fri 1st November 2013 - 9:03 am

David Steel 200Yesterday evening, Lord David Steel delivered a lecture on Lords reform and the forthcoming Scottish referendum. He called for a wide constitutional overhaul, including reforming the House of Lords into an indirectly elected chamber.

Speaking earlier to Scotland Tonight, he called for a grown-up debate about whether Scotland wants to be a separate nation or not. He rejected David Cameron’s assertion that an independent Scotland would be more vulnerable to terrorist attacks and Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that fuel bills will come down, saying such comments obscured the real issues of the campaign.

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Sarah Brown

Opinion: Sexist Labour needs All Women Shortlists, the Liberal Democrats can change without them

By Sarah Brown | Wed 30th October 2013 - 6:57 pm

The Independent reported on Sunday that Nick Clegg 2ould consider imposing all women shortlists for the 2020 general election if the party did not select enough women in winnable seats.

I defected from Labour earlier this year and I want to share my experiences of a party that needs to use all women shortlists to select female candidates for parliament and councils.

Earlier this year, Mark Fergusonrightly pointed out on Labourlist  that no women had been selected in open shortlists since before the general election. It pointed out that when local labour parties had the choice between a man and …

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Newsmoggie

Kirsty Williams interview: “Scary” Paddy, women in the Cabinet and the reality of a Labour government

By Newsmoggie | Wed 30th October 2013 - 12:55 pm

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams has given a lively and often funny interview to Total Politics magazine in which she talks about everything from her success in persuading the minority  Labour government in Wales to implement the Pupil Premium.

What happened to the last person who said no to Paddy?

Anyone who knows Kirsty will know how down to earth she is and that comes across very much in the interview. She’s asked about whether she would move to Westminster and said that Paddy Ashdown has already asked that question:

Paddy says I should think about going to London,” Williams reveals. “He’s

…

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Paul Rowen

Opinion: The National Rail Conference and the strategic case for HS2

By Paul Rowen | Wed 30th October 2013 - 11:58 am

HS2The last few months have not been easy for supporters of HS2. Attending a meeting at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester in September I was taken aback at the rising level of opposition to this keynote Coalition Project.

The opportunity therefore to attend the National Rail Conference at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on the day that the Department for Transport published it Strategic Case for HS2 provided an opportunity to hear first-hand why this project was so important.

Though generally supportive for the principle of HS2 as “good for the north” …

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The Voice

EXCLUSIVE: Alistair Carmichael and Sheila Ritchie pitch for your Go Sober sponsorship

By The Voice | Tue 29th October 2013 - 12:00 pm

We have been following the often humorous progress of party legend Sheila Ritchie and Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael as they take part in Macmillan Cancer Support’s Go Sober for October challenge. At the time of writing, Sheila is the top fundraiser in the UK and Alistair is fifth. They have raised, between them, over £6,000. When we predicted that they might get to £5,000, we thought were being wildly optimistic. We’ve noticed that when we write about their quest on here, it leads to an upsurge in donations for them both. 

In order to encourage you to donate, and to choose whether you give your money to #TeamAlistair or #TeamSheila, the two old friends have written exclusively for you. The order in which the posts appear was decided by the toss of a coin. 

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Jack Williams

Opinion: Russell Brand – a turgid mess of a manifesto

By Jack Williams | Mon 28th October 2013 - 8:58 am

On Friday this week I was challenged by a friend to read Russell Brand’s article in the New Statesman, after I went on Facebook to casually eviscerate his interview with Jeremy Paxman. I cursed my friend for making this request, which seemed too reasonable to refuse yet to tiresome to enjoy. Below is an edited version of my response.

I have now read the piece and I think it is self-referential to the point of narcissism. Brand’s intellectual ambitions literally reach for the stars. But his self-congratulatory ignorance is exposed by his failure to provide evidence beyond …

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Stephen Tall

Ed Davey nails Labour’s energy price freeze: “Prices go up, small, independent competitors go out of business, the big six is created again. Well done, Mr Miliband!”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 26th October 2013 - 10:25 pm

Here’s Lib Dem energy secretary Ed Davey highlighting one of the many flaws in Ed Miliband’s promise to freeze energy prices in today’s Guardian interview:

ed davey energy prices

(Hat-tip: John Rentoul in The Independent: Quotation of the Day.)

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Stephen Tall

Full list of Lib Dems standing in our held seats and top 50 targets

By Stephen Tall | Sat 26th October 2013 - 9:00 am

We’re 18 months from the May 2015 election so I thought it’d be useful to keep a running check on how candidate selection is going in our held and key target seats…

Below is the list as I currently understand it. If I’ve missed re-selections of current MPs or selections in seats where our MPs are retiring or in our top 50 targets, do please say so in the comments and I’ll update the list.

Here’s the full list of the 57 MPs elected as Liberal Democrats in May 2010:

    Danny Alexander, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
    Norman Baker, Lewes
    Alan Beith, Berwick-upon-Tweed

…

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Tony Greaves

Lord Greaves writes… We must make the Lobbying Bill work

By Tony Greaves | Fri 25th October 2013 - 9:03 am

Big Ben Orange Blue 200It is rightly said that this Bill has had a disgraceful lack of scrutiny, and I agree with that. But we are where we are. The Government are not going to withdraw it, and it is not going to stop. If we can work together as a House and the Government can work with us, we can make a much better fist of this Bill than we have at the moment.

Tony Greaves writes on the Transparency of Lobbying, Third Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act, commonly known as the Lobbying Bill, drawing on his statements during the Second Reading on Tuesday. The committee stage begins on Tuesday 5th November, at which amendments will be tabled.

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Stephen Tall

Nick (finally) makes his education speech and launches the Coalition’s own ‘Champions League’

By Stephen Tall | Thu 24th October 2013 - 4:45 pm

Five days after it was pre-briefed, Nick Clegg finally made his speech on A Liberal Vision for Education at Morpeth School in Tower Hamlets.

(Morpeth is, by the way, a fantastic school. I visited it for my day-job 18 months ago, and was shown around by two of its pupils, Vanessa and Mahir: the transformational progress of London schools in the past decade is one of the modern wonders of Britain.)

There was little in the speech we didn’t already know. In fact, there was little that wasn’t known last March when Clegg’s “surprise U-turn on free schools” (© …

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Mark Valladares

Readers’ Editor – some thoughts from the first month or so

By Mark Valladares | Wed 23rd October 2013 - 11:28 am

OwlSo, I’ve been in post for a few weeks now, and I thought that I really ought to give you a taste of some of the issues that have arisen so far.

Is it fair to judge someone’s performance whilst they’re on maternity, paternity or long-term ill health leave?

This question did spur some slightly guilty reflection on my part. Childless by choice, and with little experience of the impact of either children of long term ill-health on one’s ability to function, it had never crossed my mind that, by including someone who …

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Newsmoggie

Stephen Gilbert’s quick thinking helps rescue woman from Thames

By Newsmoggie | Wed 23rd October 2013 - 9:47 am

Liberal Democrat MP for St Austell and Newquay Stephen Gilbert has been involved in the rescue of a woman from the Thames while he was attending an event on the House of Commons terrace last night.

Last night he tweeted:

steve gilbertThe BBC takes up the story:

The Liberal Democrat said: “What looked like a body

…

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David Laws

David Laws writes… Nick Clegg and I have always been clear that Free Schools must also be fair schools

By David Laws | Tue 22nd October 2013 - 8:51 pm

On Thursday this week, Nick Clegg will set out the Liberal Democrat approach to improving standards in schools.

He will set out what parents and pupils should expect from schools. This is an issue we have worked on together for some time, and which was debated and agreed at our party’s conference this Spring.

The Liberal Democrats are instinctive supporters of freedom, diversity and choice. We believe in giving schools more autonomy and teachers more freedom.

That’s why we have supported extra powers to innovate for free schools and academies and have taken steps in government to extend autonomy for all schools. We …

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Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron writes… A liberal win on ‘Go Home’ vans

By Tim Farron MP | Tue 22nd October 2013 - 6:39 pm

go home illegal immigrant posterSince I have been President I have worked hard to try and make sure members views are heard in the heart of government.  Banging on ministerial doors to try and make policy after policy better and more liberal.

Over the summer the ‘Go Home’ vans came onto our streets.  At the time I joined Sarah Teather and, oddly, Nigel Farage to oppose them. (Who says politics doesn’t give you strange bedfellows!)

My view was clear both then and now: The vans represented the worst kind of divisive politics and …

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Andrew Watson

The Independent View: The Lobbying Bill threatens grass-roots campaigning

By Andrew Watson | Tue 22nd October 2013 - 3:32 pm

 gagging law

Take a good look at this picture. This is what grass-roots political activism looks like – and you’ll be seeing a lot less of it if the coalition’s “Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill” becomes law.

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Issan Ghazni

Open letter to Lib Dem MPs: The Immigration Bill is illiberal

By Issan Ghazni | Mon 21st October 2013 - 5:51 pm

Dear Lib Dem MPs,

We Liberal Democrats have long been proud of our internationalism and compassionate stance towards refugees and immigration. Not an ‘open borders’ party, but a party which believes controlling our borders does not conflict with welcoming newcomers or upholding their human rights.

By contrast the Conservatives care little for rights, European or otherwise. Theresa May is engaged in creating a “hostile environment” made so unpleasant for “irregular migrants” will simply pack up and leave, and minority ethnic British citizens could end up being racially-profiled if they ‘look foreign.’ This approach is diametrically opposed to the values I …

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Ed Davey

Ed Davey MP writes… Hinkley Point C – a big step forward for energy decarbonisation

By Ed Davey | Mon 21st October 2013 - 11:59 am

Today I announced that we have reached an outline commercial agreement with EDF to build the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset.

I know this will cause a wide range of reactions within the party. Most will welcome this very significant step forward in our plans to decarbonise our energy sector. A substantial minority I know will be disappointed. Before outlining the terms of what I believe is a good deal for the British consumer let me repeat what I said at the Glasgow conference as to why I have changed my mind and now believe that nuclear has …

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Stephen Tall

Clegg on free schools and National Curriculum: no more, no less than party policy. And that’s for better and worse.

By Stephen Tall | Sun 20th October 2013 - 11:05 am

No-one should be that surprised by Nick Clegg’s decision to distance the Lib Dems from Michael Gove’s schools policies — specifically that every teacher should be qualified and that every school should teach the national curriculum. After all, what Nick is due to set out in a speech this week is the policy that was voted for overwhelmingly by the party’s conference in March this year.

Here’s what the adopted policy – Every Child Taught by an Excellent Teacher – says about teachers in all schools having qualifications:

All classroom teachers, including in academies and free schools and Further Education

…

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Giles Goodall

The palatable truth about EU migration: 5 reasons why it’s good for Britain

By Giles Goodall | Sun 20th October 2013 - 10:04 am

Telegraph MigrationThe Sunday Telegraph’s disingenuous claim last weekend that “600,000 unemployed EU migrants are living in Britain at a cost of £1.5 billion to the NHS” sparked a chorus of protests about so-called ‘benefit tourism’ from the Mail, Sun and Express. Conservatives and Ukippers gleefully joined the feeding frenzy, with hard-right Tory MP Douglas Carswell upping the rhetorical ante from “waves of migrants” to a “tsunami of economic refugees”.

Fortunately, the European Commission, the NIESR and others were on hand to point out some facts. The Sunday Telegraph wrongly included students, retired people, parents on leave and some schoolchildren in its definition of unemployed. In fact, the Department of Work & Pensions’ own estimates state that fewer than 38,000 people from the other 27 EU countries claim jobseekers allowance in the UK. This represents approximately 2.6% of all claimants and is just 6% of the Sunday Telegraph’s front page ‘EU unemployed’ figure.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 31 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Michael Moore “turned down chance to resign Cabinet post”

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 19th October 2013 - 10:45 am

A report in today’s Herald suggests that former Scottish Secretary Michael Moore was offered the chance to resign from the Cabinet rather than be sacked. A “spend more time with his family” scenario was apparently Nick Clegg’s first choice method of removal. Moore, though, was reportedly not having any of it:

In what might have been meant as a conciliatory gesture, Mr Clegg offered his Cabinet colleague the chance to resign. But friends of Mr Moore made clear the Borders MP rebuffed the offer immediately, telling his party leader: “If you are going to sack me, sack me. I won’t

…

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