Tag Archives: youth contract

Caron Lindsay

In conversation with Michael Moore MP – on community action, jobs, referendum and F1

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 31st May 2012 - 6:55 pm

It’s Parliamentary recess so you might think that MPs and Government ministers (at least those not appearing at Leveson) would be chillaxing with their iPads in the sun. Not so for Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore, who is in the middle of a tour which is taking him all over Scotland. He phoned me as he was driving (or, more accurately, being driven) along the M8 between Edinburgh and Glasgow. He was practically passing my house – if we’d planned it better he could have come in for a cup of tea. As it happened, we did get …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
Andrew Stunell MP

Andrew Stunell MP writes… Launching the Liberal Democrats’ local election campaign

By Andrew Stunell MP | Tue 3rd April 2012 - 4:18 pm

Local Election Day is now exactly a month away for most of Metropolitan England as well as across the whole of Scotland and Wales. Nick Clegg was in my own area of Stockport earlier today to officially launch the Liberal Democrat local election campaign, visiting a local business and speaking with councillors, business owners and local people.

I’ve no doubt that many of you have been out on the doorstep over the last few months, talking to people and showing them what we are achieving both nationally and locally.

You will already have your big messages in place. Number one has got …

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Posted in Local government | Also tagged , , , , and | 8 Comments
Joe Bourke

Extending the LibDem youth contract to self-employment

By Joe Bourke | Mon 12th March 2012 - 10:54 am

Small and medium sized businesses account for 51% of turnover and 55% of employment (DTI figures). They primarily employ UK based staff and pay full UK tax on the value generated here.

Equipping young people with the training and skills for self-employment has the advantage of developing a more flexible and resilient workforce, better able to adjust to a fast changing economy, as well as enlarging the pool of entrepreneurs capable of starting and growing small business concerns.

An enhanced Liberal Democrat youth contract aimed at developing a base of budding entrepreneurs, would establish a core of upwardly mobile, aspirational self-starters, a …

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Posted in Op-eds | 7 Comments
The Voice

LDVideo: Jo Swinson’s Political Slot: The Liberal Democrats are in government on your side

By The Voice | Mon 5th March 2012 - 1:07 pm

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Posted in Lib Dem TV and News | Also tagged , , , and | 6 Comments
Joe Bourke

Opinion: guaranteed employment for young people

By Joe Bourke | Sun 26th February 2012 - 10:45 am

This is part two of a two-part post regarding policies to tackle youth unemployment – part one is here.

Welcome as the youth contract initiatives have been, I do not believe that they are yet comprehensive enough to adequately address what has been and remains a long-term endemic problem with youth employment in the UK.

For 16-24 year olds not in education, training or employment, we ultimately need to be able to offer a guarantee of paid work within a structured training program, albeit at minimum wage, even if this is in the public sector. The jobs and training would …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 5 Comments
Michael Moore

Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes 1 February 2012

By Michael Moore | Wed 1st February 2012 - 9:59 am

Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore MP writes a regular column for local newspapers in his constituency. Here’s this week’s edition.

Jobs

Economic recovery and jobs remain the most important issues for people here in the Borders and last week was tough in terms of unemployment news. There has sadly been an increase in unemployment since the summer and these figures are a reflection of problems in the Eurozone and the tough economic climate here at home and in the wider global economy.

Finding work for the unemployed is therefore top of the Government’s agenda, and we are taking action …

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Harry Matthews

Opinion: One year on from Tuition Fees: why I’m still a Liberal Democrat

By Harry Matthews | Fri 9th December 2011 - 12:51 pm

It’s one year on from the vote on Tuition Fees, so I thought I would lay out some reasons why I, as a student, am still a Liberal Democrat after our great ‘betrayal’.

Although our ministers are having to make tough choices, Liberal Democrats have won a major victory – having a tax cut for the low paid, rather than the very rich, as the Tories would have preferred. Raising the income tax threshold to £10,000 is a good way to correct the disaster Gordon Brown created when he scrapped the 10p tax band. Plus it is a tax cut …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 25 Comments
Harry Matthews

Opinion: Tackling the elephant in the room – youth unemployment

By Harry Matthews | Sat 26th November 2011 - 12:55 pm

For the past year or so, there has been an elephant in the room – youth unemployment. It had largely been ignored by the Coalition Government, not because of desire, but because no money was left to alleviate the problem. However, after last week’s news that youth unemployment rose to 1 million, it was clear something needed to be done.

I’m glad that the Government will now be investing a whopping £1billion in training and incentives for young people to get employed.

In a recession, those who don’t have experience and/or training (who tend to be young people) are those …

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Posted in Op-eds | 10 Comments
Nick Clegg MP

Nick Clegg MP writes: We won’t let a generation fall behind

By Nick Clegg MP | Fri 25th November 2011 - 9:53 am

Having risen steadily since 2004, the number of unemployed young people hit the one million mark this month.

One million. One in five 16-24 year olds not in education, training or work, not because they are lazy or feckless, but because of factors well beyond their control.

It’s not good enough. Youth unemployment is an economic waste and a slow-burn social disaster.

We can’t afford to leave our young men and women on the scrap heap. We need the next generation to help us build a new economy.

When we chose to form this Coalition Government, Liberal Democrats knew that we would have to …

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Posted in Op-eds | 11 Comments
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