Archive for Party policy and consultation
General election manifesto update
In the three months since I last blogged at length about the Liberal Democrat general election manifesto process, Danny Alexander (chair of the Manifesto Working Group) has won widespread praise for restoring a sense of peace, sense and order after the events around the party’s autumn conference.
On the two major flash points – mansion tax [...]
What to make of Nick Clegg’s four steps?
To recap, the four steps to a fairer Britain which Nick Clegg laid out yesterday were:
Fair taxes.
A new, fair start for all children at school.
A rebalanced, green economy.
And clean, open politics.
In terms of what’s there, no huge surprises. After the MPs’ expenses scandal, it’s no great shock (and very welcome to many members) to see [...]
Party’s policy committee agrees to axe tuition fees
From an email from Nick Clegg:
This week the Party’s federal policy committee agreed a way to deliver one of our most important policies, the scrapping of unfair tuition fees. We’ve developed a plan to phase out tuition fees over the course of the next six years, to ensure this vital policy is affordable even at [...]
Referendum: what’s going on?
As The Voice and others have covered this week, the Liberal Democrat policy on a Euro-referendum – or not – has been in the news. Understandably the media reports have caused some confusion over what the party’s current policy is – and on this occasion I don’t think the media is to blame.
The party’s policy [...]
Liberal Democrats back campaign to free our postcodes
Welcome news from the blog of Lynne Featherstone (who, apart from being a LibDem MP, is also chair of the party’s Technology Advisory Board):
We need postcodes to be owned by the public – not sold to the public. Postcodes are the basic pre-requisite for allowing services to be developed that support democratic accountability.
It’s an important [...]
The inside story of how the Lib Dem general election manifesto will be drawn up
The debates and disputes around the Liberal Democrats’ Bournemouth conference give a taste of what is likely to be a tricky process of drawing up the party’s manifesto for the next general election.
Formally, there is a three part process to that manifesto: the manifesto working group chaired by Danny Alexander will present work to the [...]
Less than 1 in 16 rapes result in a conviction
Another part of the party’s policy paper ‘Real Women’ has been released to the media today, highlighting the shocking news that the already dreadfully low rate of conviction for rapes has fallen even further:
Fewer than one in 16 rapes reported to the police results in a conviction in court, research by the Liberal Democrats has [...]
