This week Alex Salmond signalled his intention to give Scots the chance to vote on independence in Autumn 2014. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. What it means in practice is that we will have to wait almost three years which is positive in the sense that it allows more than sufficient time for a reasonable debate, [...]
Persuade Lib Dem Lords to vote against ESA time limits
One of the great things about this party is that ordinary members can get involved in policy making. Look at what Ewan Hoyle’s achieved in getting through an evidence based drugs policy as an example. Our raising of the tax threshold policy was the brainchild of WLD member Lizzie Jewkes. Our Conference is the sovereign body of [...]
Europe – 10 things I think happened last week
I do not yet know what to make of what happened in Brussels last week and what the consequences will be for the UK as a result My feelings are these: 1. I think the EU has failed to reach an agreement that will solve the current financial crisis. I think this agreement will fail [...]
Edinburgh, London, Paris, Munich – everyone talk about – the Euro!
Today Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy met for make or break talks to save the Euro. If they implement what they have agreed the Eurozone will become essentially both a monetary and a fiscal union. If they fail, the enormous debt mountains threaten to bury the currency, along with several countries and with it perhaps [...]
“Scotland’s nature is to be Liberal” – Tim Farron
by Tim Farron, President of the Liberal Democrats Scotland punches massively above its weight in the UK. It has often been punished for having the audacity to be progressive by UK governments that are not – especially in the 80s and 90s – but it has also suffered at the hands of governments that have [...]
Happy St Andrew’s Day
So it is St Andrew’s Day and some of us on the centre and centre-left of Scottish politics wanted to launch a blog to discuss politics and more. St Andrew’s Day falls in the most turbulent times this year. Today is the day of a massive public sector strike – nominally over pensions but probably [...]
It’s ok to cut fire-fighters if there are no fires to fight…
…And it’s ok to cut cleaners if there is no mess to clean. So it should be ok to cut police when there are no criminals to catch, and it should be ok to cut doctors and nurses when there are no patients for them to treat. And this is how we should approach government [...]
Liberal Democrats: Still Saying No to Trident.
The current state of play with Britain’s nuclear weapons is one of flux. As a party, the Liberal Democrats official policy is to look at the requirements of nuclear deterrence and examine the current cost of Trident and the Successor submarine project with are to replace the Vanguard boats, comparing these with other nuclear alternatives. [...]
We need to develop policies for lifelong learning
The whole university fees issue continues to be a hot issue as they take shape. Recently the Scottish universities have been announcing what fees they will charge students from the rest of the UK and non EU foreign students. This has of course put into focus the absurd situation where we are charging students from [...]