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The case for the 50p tax rate - John Leech writes
August 29, 2013 10:58 AM
As far as tax changes are concerned, the Liberal Democrats have a lot to be proud of. At the last election our manifesto commitment on tax was to take the poorest taxpayers out of paying tax altogether, so that nobody would pay income tax on earnings below £10,000. The Tories promised to raise the threshold for inheritance tax to £1 million. In Government we will deliver our pledge to raise the personal allowance to £10k, a year ahead of schedule. This is no mean achievement for a party -
Time for Change - Julian Huppert writes on the Cohabitation Motion
August 27, 2013 4:29 PM
A few months ago Liberal Democrats celebrated a landmark achievement for equalities, with the passage of the Same Sex Marriage Act. Starting with a motion three years ago at our conference, introduced and championed by Lynne Featherstone as Equalities Minister, bolstered by Nick throughout and supported by MPs and Peers alike, we proved that we were prepared to stand up for our core liberal values, and secure what I think will be seen as one of the great historical achievements of this Coalition -
Clegg’s Crimea
August 20, 2013 2:35 PM
an abridged version of an August 2013 Liberator Article A senior Liberal Democrat, when recently asked about their view of the prospects for the Party is rumoured to have replied, “The Valley of Death”, evoking thoughts of the Crimean War. That was an accurate assessment born out of the formation of the Coalition in 2010. The causalities, in terms of membership losses however, have been greatly in excess of the 800 British cavalrymen at the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854. Indeed, -
Glasgow’s education motion has too many good elements to be dominated by fees.
August 16, 2013 9:02 AM
One of the working groups submitting policy to Federal Conference in Glasgow next month will probably have a harder time than the other groups. The “14+ Education” policy which looks at school leavers, Further Education and Higher Education and presents its findings and policy ideas to be voted on (PDF of the full text is http://bit.ly/14yqTtH). I’m not going to argue here the pros or cons of the current system, old system, any new system or free-to-s -
How can we advance Nuclear Disarmament?
August 12, 2013 9:25 AM
Last week we heard the case for “Jumping off the Ladder” with regard to nuclear disarmament from George Potter. David Grace responded on LDV here. -
Education and “The Global Race”
August 12, 2013 9:03 AM
I think it is arguable that it is the education policy space that has seen more turmoil than any other policy area since the coalition began in 2010. The tide of ceaseless initiatives and new structures, conceived—seemingly at least--from Michael Gove’s view of how the world should operate mixed with his personal boyhood experiences of education, have left the education world reeling. The thunderbolt hurled down recently from the DfE, announced by Nick Clegg, that pupils at Year 6 should be cl -
Is it time to celebrate the UK’s economic recovery? QTWTAIN
August 06, 2013 1:31 PM
As a consistent crit -
All Born Equal?
August 06, 2013 8:28 AM
According to reports, the new Prince George of Cambridge is worth around £20million already, if you take the wealth of his parents into account. A stark contrast to other babies born on the same day as him last week. Whilst the media were focused on the birth of one boy-just because his Dad is the ‘heir to the heir to the throne’-hundreds of other babies, here in the UK, were born into poverty. Of course the baby can’t help who it was born to or, indeed, the life of privilege it will have and -
Trident - Time to "Jump off the Ladder"?
August 05, 2013 9:13 AM
Glasgow will give Liberal Democrats the opportunity to debate Trident, climb down the ladder or jump off altogether? George Potter makes the case for jumping off and we will hear from David Grace later this week on the case for "climbing down". The recently published Trident Alternatives Review must now force social liberals to climb off the fen
