There is a housing crisis in our country. The total level of new house building needed in the UK to meet demand is 380,000 per year, but we’re currently only building just over half of this! Furthermore, up to 17% of UK households are living in overcrowded conditions, and Black, Read more…
Welcome to Liberal Reform’s Briefing for the 2021 Liberal Democrat Spring Conference. Below you will find our views on all the motions up for debate this weekend, plus information on our fringe event on Sunday, and how you can get involved with Liberal Reform. You can download the briefing here.
I used to work at a University Law Clinic. One day two of us were deployed to assist with the defence of a group of Extinction Rebellion activists who had been arrested by the Police. During evidence, there was a fascinating video played, where the police warned protesters that they Read more…
It is important for Liberal Democrats to remember that Austerity is not just made up of public spending cuts, but also tax rises. That’s why Liberal Reform are disappointed to hear that the Liberal Democrats will be supporting Rishi Sunak’s move to raise corporation tax. It is deeply concerning to Read more…
Dear members and supporters, I officially became co-chair of LR in January and since then I’ve been pretty busy, so I thought it was about time to update you on a few of the things I’ve been getting up to! Firstly some housekeeping. The new board structure that was discussed Read more…
This is not a defence of Begum’s actions, joining a terrorist organisation has ramifications. But those ramifications should lie with her country, which must take partial responsibility for state failure in allowing the radicalisation of a 15-year-old child. It is however, an explainer of the state failures, abuse of power Read more…
Book: The Future of Social Democracy: Essays to Mark the 40th Anniversary of the Limehouse Declaration. Edited by Colin McDougall, George Kendall and Wendy Chamberlain. Available here. To mark the fortieth anniversary of the Limehouse Declaration a series of essays have been published by the Social Democrat Group in order Read more…
Welcome to the first of what will soon be regular updates directly from your co-chair team! Once our term properly starts in January I will try and get one of these out quarterly as a minimum, to ensure that our members are kept up to date with everything we’re doing Read more…
As we approach the final few days and weeks of 2020, our time in the Brexit transition period is coming to an end. Being a fully signed-up EU member has gone, and we now need to look to what our future is outside the European family. There is now a Read more…
For the supposed home of market economics, the Conservative party has shown very little knowledge of it during its response to the coronavirus pandemic. Almost every aspect of the Government’s efforts to “control the virus” that have ignored competitive market forces (i.e. most of them) have failed. On both track Read more…
Following the close of nominations, we are now in a position to announce the Liberal Reform board for the 2021-22 term. New to the board this time are Daniel Duggan, Emily Tester, Oliver Jones-Lyons and Julia Wright. Julia is a long time supporter of LR and will be known to Read more…
Last night Liberal Reform hosted a Question and Answer session with Ed Davey and Layla Moran, the two Lib Dem MPs battling it out to become the next leader of the Party. You can watch the Q&A back in its entirety at the bottom of this page. The evening was Read more…
Liberal Democrat leaders do not have much say in setting Party policy, but they have far more in setting the Party’s vision, strategy and priorities. With this in mind, and with the Liberal Democrat leadership election fast approaching, Liberal Reform have set out the themes we believe any successful Liberal Read more…
Michael Kitching @mwkitching I thought it would be helpful to update Liberal Reform Members and Supporters on a little personal quest. Since rejoining the party after the 2019 General Election, having left to try and help set up something new (not Change UK before you ask!) it has become a bit Read more…
Ruby Chow* (@doublereds) Yesterday I had the pleasure to summate a motion Liberal Reform put forward to the London Liberal Democrats conference on the urgent need for more house building and in support of an independent review of the Green Belt. Although the motion was heavily amended to the point Read more…
By Callum Robertson, @CRobertson_LD Many will have seen the proroguing of parliament by the Queen on the advice of Boris Johnson, but what does this mean in the micro-environment of these circumstances and what is the wider socio-legal consequence? Our constitution Our constitution is almost unique in its haphazard make-up. Read more…
By Robert Johnston @robertj55 In a recent piece for Liberal Democrat Voice I argued for the adoption of a Carbon Tax or other robust carbon pricing measure to tackle climate change. While referencing the strong case made by economists for this, the article stressed the challenges that would remain in Read more…
By Robert Johnston @robertj55 If one position unites the spectrum of opinion of the Liberal Democrats it is the need for a proportional representation election system with a special focus on the House of Commons. There are wider considerations for electoral reform; ranging across the House of Lords, devolved government Read more…
By Callum Robertson, @Callum4Clacton It seems evident that we will want to focus on keeping Britain within the EU and fighting for an “Exit from Brexit” in the EU elections that seem almost certain to take place. However, this cannot be the sole reason we fight these elections. The elections Read more…
It’s that time of year again; this weekend the Liberal Democrats head to York for Spring Conference. As Brexit continues to dominate the headlines, Conference presents an opportunity for the party to re-assert itself as the only credible UK-wide party in favour of a People’s Vote. As ever, Liberal Reform Read more…