National Liberal Democrat News - East Riding Liberal Democrats

People didn't vote Labour thinking Labour would lose

One of the pieces of rapidly established conventional wisdom about the 2017 general election is that Labour did so well because people weren't expecting Labour to win. People had big doubts over Labour as a government or Jeremy Corbyn as a Prime Minister, but people were expecting a Conservative victory people and therefore, the argument goes, voted Labour despite these concerns in order to give the Conservatives a bloody nose and clip their wings. But is this true? In short - no.

10 Aug 2017

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Latest Social Liberal Forum publication: Universal Basic Income as a tool for tax and benefit reform

At the recent SLF Annual Conference in July, a well-attended fringe session discussed the benefits and drawbacks of Basic Income. My contention, as Chair of this session, was that we now need to be looking more closely at Basic Income, given increasing robotisation and technological change that will massively shake up conventional work, and given that our welfare system is creaking and needs modernisation. Basic Income is a policy that seems fundamentally socially liberal, and so it seems to naturally deserve attention from the SLF and all who are socially liberal.

by Helen Flynn

10 Aug 2017

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Chris Davies writes…Brexit: .not a roar but a quack

VInce Cable set the ball rolling a month ago with a simple remark: "I'm beginning to think that Brexit may never happen." It brought into focus the reality that our deeply divided government is failing to progress the Brexit negotiations and doesn't even know what it wants to achieve as an outcome. (Nor, for that matter, does the Labour opposition). Within a fortnight the talk was all of the need for a 'transitional arrangement'. Even Brexiteers who once told us that Britain's separation from the EU could be achieved within six months now appear happy to endorse Philip Hammond's suggestion that it will take till 2022.

by Chris Davies

10 Aug 2017

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