Archive for David Howarth
The Green Book: New Directions for Liberals in Government
The contents pages of this book are highly revealing. A quick flick through the chapter titles shows that, as indeed the blurb on the back promises, this is a book about how green policies can foster economic growth: “The Green Book argues cogently that a low-carbon economy and environmental investments are the best way to [...]
David Lloyd George: the legacy
From the Liberal Democrat History Group’s spring conference meeting: Also on YouTube here.
NEW POSTER/INFOGRAPHIC: What the Liberal Democrats believe
Last year I published an infographic on what the Liberal Democrats are achieving in government, which proved a big hit. Now I’m publishing a companion piece to go with it, on what the Liberal Democrats believe and the roots of those beliefs. I’ve long felt there is a big gap in what is available on [...]
David Howarth: liberals should increase indirect taxes
Martin Tod recently drew my attention to a short publication from David Howarth published over the summer about levels of public spending: Spending and Growth – a response to David Laws. As the title suggests, it is primarily a response to someone else’s views on appropriate levels of public spending: Laws’ assertion that public spending [...]
Lords signals its intent to change controversial section of Public Bodies Bill
Last week I wrote about the Public Bodies Bill and the power grab it makes to let the government change the law in future without proper Parliamentary control, similar though on a smaller scale to what Labour proposed previously with the so-called Abolition of Parliament Bill. David Howarth echoed these concerns at the weekend: The [...]
Abolition of Parliament: it was wrong then and it’s wrong now
Back when Tony Blair was Prime Minister Labour tried to get through Parliament sweeping powers to change the law without requiring full Parliamentary scrutiny. Then Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth was one of those who led the charge against this, writing in The Times: The Government proposed an extraordinary Bill that will drastically reduce parliamentary [...]
First four ‘political’ Electoral Commissioners appointed
Former Conservative MP Angela Browning, former Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth, former SNP MP and MSP George Reid and ex-Labour HQ staffer Roy Kennedy have been appointed as Electoral Commissioners by Parliament.
Why vote Liberal Democrat? Book review
If you go to Amazon searching for “Why vote Liberal Democrat?”, edited by Danny Alexander and just published by Biteback, you may be surprised to find yourself being presented instead with a book of the same title from 1997, written by William Wallace. The new book is misfiled by Amazon under the title “Why vote [...]
Hear David Howarth give lecture on Parliamentary reform
As party of the Parliamentary Reform Lecture Series organised by the Hansard Society, David Howarth MP (Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Solicitor General) will give a talk examining the Liberal Democrat’s priorities for reform of Parliament.
It’s at 6pm on March 15th. It’s being held at the Houses of Parliament and is open [...]
