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| The Liberal Democrat struggle to find a way forward | The Liberal Democrat struggle to find a way forward |
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| The key sentence in your leader (Vince Cable has a plan to motivate moderates, but not a clear enough purpose, 14 September) is: “To protest against New Labour governments from a liberal-left position, only to then join forces with the Conservatives, was too violent a lurch for many of the party’s natural supporters.” One could rehearse again the extreme danger of every option available to the Liberal Democrats after the indecisive 2010 election, but the simple fact is that survival for the party in any coalition requires a proportional representation system at the following election, and Nick Clegg failed to deliver this. | The key sentence in your leader (Vince Cable has a plan to motivate moderates, but not a clear enough purpose, 14 September) is: “To protest against New Labour governments from a liberal-left position, only to then join forces with the Conservatives, was too violent a lurch for many of the party’s natural supporters.” One could rehearse again the extreme danger of every option available to the Liberal Democrats after the indecisive 2010 election, but the simple fact is that survival for the party in any coalition requires a proportional representation system at the following election, and Nick Clegg failed to deliver this. |
| You also refer to Vince Cable’s “movement for moderates”, but this is another chimera. I have been a member of the Liberal party, then the Liberal Democrats, for over 60 years, and never have my Liberal colleagues and I conceived of ourselves as “moderates”. No Liberal is moderate about poverty, civil liberties or a united Europe. The party certainly was not moderate in opposing the Iraq invasion. The political gap today is very different. It is for a confident progressive, radical and internationalist party that also espouses public service, devolution and pluralism – which is exactly where the Liberal Democrats need to be.Michael MeadowcroftLiberal MP, Leeds West, 1983-87 | You also refer to Vince Cable’s “movement for moderates”, but this is another chimera. I have been a member of the Liberal party, then the Liberal Democrats, for over 60 years, and never have my Liberal colleagues and I conceived of ourselves as “moderates”. No Liberal is moderate about poverty, civil liberties or a united Europe. The party certainly was not moderate in opposing the Iraq invasion. The political gap today is very different. It is for a confident progressive, radical and internationalist party that also espouses public service, devolution and pluralism – which is exactly where the Liberal Democrats need to be.Michael MeadowcroftLiberal MP, Leeds West, 1983-87 |
| • The Guardian’s critique of Vince Cable was justified, but it might have spared him the omission of his knighthood in the five references to him as “Mr Cable”.Jeremy BeechamLabour, House of Lords | • The Guardian’s critique of Vince Cable was justified, but it might have spared him the omission of his knighthood in the five references to him as “Mr Cable”.Jeremy BeechamLabour, House of Lords |
| • It is good to see that Jo Swinson, deputy leader of the Lib Dems, has recognised her party’s role in enabling the penalising of the poor during the coalition government (Lib Dems must ‘own the failures’ of coalition, says deputy leader, 17 September). However, her pride in having pushed to “raise the personal allowance, and take the lowest paid out of income tax completely” seems misplaced. | • It is good to see that Jo Swinson, deputy leader of the Lib Dems, has recognised her party’s role in enabling the penalising of the poor during the coalition government (Lib Dems must ‘own the failures’ of coalition, says deputy leader, 17 September). However, her pride in having pushed to “raise the personal allowance, and take the lowest paid out of income tax completely” seems misplaced. |
| The Equality Trust comments that “as analysis after analysis has shown, increasing the personal tax allowance does not help families on the lowest incomes at all and helps those on higher incomes more than those in the bottom half”. It reported that, in 2015, the regressive personal allowance increase to £12,500 would give £18 a year to households in the bottom 10%, and more than 10 times as much (£203) to households in the top 10% – and nothing to those whose income fell below £12,500. | The Equality Trust comments that “as analysis after analysis has shown, increasing the personal tax allowance does not help families on the lowest incomes at all and helps those on higher incomes more than those in the bottom half”. It reported that, in 2015, the regressive personal allowance increase to £12,500 would give £18 a year to households in the bottom 10%, and more than 10 times as much (£203) to households in the top 10% – and nothing to those whose income fell below £12,500. |
| If the Lib Dems want to raise the incomes of the poorest, rather than giving more to the already well-off, a much more efficient measure is, as the Equality Trust suggests, to reduce the rate of withdrawal of universal credit (assuming it can be made to work efficiently) or to increase how much people can earn before benefits start to be withdrawn, both costing less and increasing incentives to work.Elizabeth YorkNorthampton | If the Lib Dems want to raise the incomes of the poorest, rather than giving more to the already well-off, a much more efficient measure is, as the Equality Trust suggests, to reduce the rate of withdrawal of universal credit (assuming it can be made to work efficiently) or to increase how much people can earn before benefits start to be withdrawn, both costing less and increasing incentives to work.Elizabeth YorkNorthampton |
| • Nick Clegg’s demand that the Lib Dems should stop apologising for the coalition (Clegg: stop saying sorry for coalition, 18 September) may not be his response to my recent letter (Centre-ground politics too often misdefined, 29 August), but his continuing justification of the coalition’s falsehoods about the cause of the 2008 recession, the state of the economy in 2010 and the assault on the wellbeing of the poor, which started under the government of which he was a senior member, is astonishing. They did not stop the Tories introducing more divisive measures and, had they stood aside, it would have been possible to turn the Cameron government out when its bungling became serious – say, at the time of the “omnishambles”. | • Nick Clegg’s demand that the Lib Dems should stop apologising for the coalition (Clegg: stop saying sorry for coalition, 18 September) may not be his response to my recent letter (Centre-ground politics too often misdefined, 29 August), but his continuing justification of the coalition’s falsehoods about the cause of the 2008 recession, the state of the economy in 2010 and the assault on the wellbeing of the poor, which started under the government of which he was a senior member, is astonishing. They did not stop the Tories introducing more divisive measures and, had they stood aside, it would have been possible to turn the Cameron government out when its bungling became serious – say, at the time of the “omnishambles”. |
| Clearly, if the Lib Dems wish to restore the support they once enjoyed, they should not only apologise for the coalition, but also for Mr Clegg; he is an albatross around their necks and the quicker they realise that, the better the fortunes of the party will be.Les SummersKidlington, Oxfordshire | Clearly, if the Lib Dems wish to restore the support they once enjoyed, they should not only apologise for the coalition, but also for Mr Clegg; he is an albatross around their necks and the quicker they realise that, the better the fortunes of the party will be.Les SummersKidlington, Oxfordshire |
| • Nick Clegg wants the Lib Dems to stop saying sorry. The problem is that the impact of £9,000-a-year university tuition fees will last for a long while. Clegg is a bit like the Black Death – he has a legacy.Terry WardWickford, Essex | • Nick Clegg wants the Lib Dems to stop saying sorry. The problem is that the impact of £9,000-a-year university tuition fees will last for a long while. Clegg is a bit like the Black Death – he has a legacy.Terry WardWickford, Essex |
| • If Nick Clegg hoped that the Lib Dems would emerge from the coalition “as some kind of stabilising agent in British politics” (Liberalism has to be rebuilt. Just not by the Lib Dems, Journal, 18 September), he needed to strike a much better deal with David Cameron than a referendum on an alternative voting system. This lost referendum lost us the chance of electoral reform that many voters hoped for when they elected a hung parliament in 2010. | • If Nick Clegg hoped that the Lib Dems would emerge from the coalition “as some kind of stabilising agent in British politics” (Liberalism has to be rebuilt. Just not by the Lib Dems, Journal, 18 September), he needed to strike a much better deal with David Cameron than a referendum on an alternative voting system. This lost referendum lost us the chance of electoral reform that many voters hoped for when they elected a hung parliament in 2010. |
| In place of reform he swallowed George Osborne’s false argument for austerity cuts, resulting in the destruction of local government in our most disadvantaged towns. Consequent rising levels of poverty and homelessness fuelled the leave vote. Many voted for the first time in the EU referendum because they wanted to have a voice denied them in our first-past-the-post system, whereby a few thousand floating voters can determine the result of a general election.Margaret PhelpsLib Dem candidate in Witham, 2010 | In place of reform he swallowed George Osborne’s false argument for austerity cuts, resulting in the destruction of local government in our most disadvantaged towns. Consequent rising levels of poverty and homelessness fuelled the leave vote. Many voted for the first time in the EU referendum because they wanted to have a voice denied them in our first-past-the-post system, whereby a few thousand floating voters can determine the result of a general election.Margaret PhelpsLib Dem candidate in Witham, 2010 |
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