Tag Archives: telegraph

Opinion: Economic liberalism and public service reform

Are the Liberal Democrats a party of untrammelled ideology – sorry,“principles” – or do ethics and evidence also play a role in thinking? This question struck me forcefully when reading David Cameron’s article on public service reform in the Telegraph. It appears that the imminent Open Public Services White Paper has been formulated with collaboration from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Nick Clegg is fully ‘on side’. We await the details, but if Cameron’s article gives us an accurate sense of what is to come then I think there is – or should be – a significant …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 61 Comments

Chris White writes: a chance meeting

I bumped into a young council official yesterday. I was wearing an ID tag so she could see who I was and knew that I was a Liberal Democrat.

It turned out that she had voted Lib Dem in the General Election and had in fact joined the Party under Charles Kennedy because of our clear and unbending stance on the Iraq War. She had recently resigned over tuition fees (quite a rare event but still disappointing). One of the benefits of leaving was that she no longer receives the centrally produced emails to party members justifying (for instance) the position …

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

  • Alex Macfie
    @Simon Robinson &c: Please stop pretending Nigel Farage is acting in good faith. He has just seized on one case of supposed "anti-white bias" by the police ...
  • William Wallace
    Simon: Please give us your 'What to do' proposals in a future post. Getting to those who have switched off from conventional politics is difficult - even mo...
  • Alex Macfie
    @Chloe: Well the time Bijan Ebrahimi was arrested instead of his future murderer was on video. It didn't lead to any rioting or "vitue signaling" from what I re...
  • Iain Donaldson
    Thank you to everyone who has engaged with the article. While there are legitimate questions about the details, I remain convinced that a federal structure base...
  • Iain Donaldson
    Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. What strikes me is that despite disagreements about the precise constitutional model, there is act...