Tag Archives: ryan bourne

Stephen Tall

10 Years on from The Orange Book: What should authentic liberalism look like?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 19th October 2014 - 8:55 am

Orange_Book“10 Years on from The Orange Book: what should authentic liberalism look like?” That was the title of a Lib Dem conference fringe meeting in Glasgow, organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), at which I was speaking alongside MPs Tim Farron and Jeremy Browne, Orange Book co-editor Paul Marshall, the IEA’s Ryan Bourne and ComRes pollster Tom Mludzinski. Here’s what I said…

I often describe myself as an Orange Booker. Like most labels it’s a short-hand. To me it simply means I’m a Lib Dem at ease with the role of a competitive market and who believes also in social justice. To many others in our party, though, Orange Booker is a term of abuse – Orange Bookers are thrusting, smart-suited, neoliberal Thatcherities, never happier than when mixing with red-blooded free-marketeers like the IEA.

What I want to do briefly is make a pitch for something that’s become quite unpopular among the party ranks: I’m going to make a pitch that the Lib Dems should be a party that’s unabashedly of the liberal centre.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , , , and | 75 Comments
Stephen Tall

To OBR or not to OBR? That’s the manifesto audit question

By Stephen Tall | Thu 26th June 2014 - 5:45 pm

libdemmanifesto 2010 wordleEd Balls wants it. Danny Alexander seems pretty keen on it, too. What is ‘it’? Asking the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to audit the manifestos of political parties.

On the face of it, that’s a good idea. Transparency’s a good thing and surely the public deserve to know as much as possible before we cast our once-in-five-years ballot which decides the next government? The case in favour is persuasively put by Giles Wilkes, until recently a special adviser to Vince Cable who has seen the …

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Rejoice! Labour has a policy. Even better it’s a Lib Dem policy.

By Stephen Tall | Thu 14th February 2013 - 11:35 am

Yesterday at PMQs Ed Miliband channelled Ronald Reagan. Today he’s channelling Vince Cable:

Here’s what Ed has just announced:

Let me tell you about one crucial choice we would make, which is different from this government. We would tax houses worth over £2 million. And we would use the money to cut taxes for working people. We would put right a mistake made by

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 31 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Tristan Ward
    For goodness sake?!? Can we PLEAsAE stop this stupid handwringing. “The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in ...
  • Jana
    “They must be expanded to legally mandate that any commercial multi-sport development or private facility built in the capital must allocate a fixed percentag...
  • Tim Rogers
    Slowly but surely the Conservatives are pulling themselves together. Badenoch seems to be all over the media while SirEd has slipped back into his vow of silenc...
  • Ynys Mon Man
    It is unacceptable for the party in Worcestershire to decline to put a candidate up in Hartlebury. This is exactly the sort of territory that should be good for...
  • Tim
    Hywel - I doubt Norwegian gas will be lower carbon than Jackdaw. It is the case (as that report showed) that the remnants of old UK gas fields are (slightly) hi...