Opinion: Happy birthday, 20 years on
It’s 20 years ago to the day since the Liberal Party and SDP formally became one party, the Social & Liberal Democrats. Liberal Democrat Voice invited Chris Rennard to take a trip down memory lane…...
View ArticleChris Rennard writes about the Henley result…
I am enjoying this debate and for the record: 1) I don’t always comment in detail on things read by our opponents – but I do welcome any constructive debate within the party on these issues –...
View ArticleThe 12 Op-Eds of Xmas (Day 12)
Throughout the festive season, LDV has offered our readers a load of repeats another chance to read the 12 most popular opinion articles which have appeared on the blog during 2008. The accolade for...
View ArticleChris Rennard writes… Liu Xiaobo needs to know people in Britain are appalled
I have succeeded in tabling a topical question for the House of Lords tomorrow: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, and if so how, they will raise concerns about the imprisonment of the Nobel...
View ArticleChris Rennard writes… The battle for electoral reform in the Lords
Battle has been joined in the House of Lords over the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill (generally referred to as the PVSC Bill). Having passed all stages in the Commons, it came to...
View ArticleLord Rennard writes… Lord Blackadder, Baldrick, by-elections and reform of...
The House of Lords debated (again) this week the second reading of David Steel’s Bill to make some very modest and minor reforms to the House of Lords. I compared the process of by-elections to elect...
View ArticleChris Rennard writes: The row over the AV referendum will bring forward major...
The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill has now had a longer Committee stage in the House of Lords than any legislation taken there since at least 1945. The Bill is not a particularly...
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Chris Rennard writes… So what was all the fuss in Parliament about?
Late on Wednesday night Nick Clegg was at the back of the House of Lords to see Royal Assent granted to the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill. His presence there emphasised his...
View ArticleChris Rennard writes… Why David Owen is wrong on the AV referendum
David Owen chose the weekend of the Lib Dem Conference to offer his advice for the AV referendum. Having attacked the ‘First Past the Post’ voting system so vociferously for many years, it may seem odd...
View ArticleChris Rennard writes… Can we tell what will happen in four years?
Four years ago, David Cameron was on the run. The Conservatives had ‘thrown the kitchen sink’ into winning the Ealing Southall by-election in the summer of 2007 and they had raised expectations of a...
View ArticleChris Rennard writes… How to keep people with diabetes out of hospital
On Tuesday, I helped to launch a report ‘Keeping People with Diabetes out of Hospital‘. As a person with diabetes, I know only too well the pressure that our diabetes care services are under. Whether...
View ArticleChris Rennard writes… Who will win the debate between Shirley Williams and...
I spent some of last Saturday morning in the briefing session at the Lib Dem Conference with the Lib Dem parliamentary health team sitting just in front of Andrew Sparrow and Patrick Wintour (both of...
View ArticleChris Rennard writes… 50 years after the Orpington by-election
Video also available on YouTube. On Sunday night, I joined Lord Avebury in a Westminster Hour programme in the week that marks the 50th anniversary of his dramatic victory in the Orpington by-election...
View ArticleChris Rennard writes: Dick Newby to be new Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in the...
Lord Newby (Dick Newby) has just been appointed as the new Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in the House of Lords. This appointment is made by Tom McNally (as our Leader in the House of Lords) and at the...
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Chris Rennard writes…The inspiration behind Alcoholics Anonymous
Last week I was asked to speak to a group of charity fundraisers in Geneva. You can see my speech below this article on YouTube. I was asked to inspire them based on work that I had done with the...
View ArticleChris Rennard writes… Restoring balance to the Coalition
Nick Clegg’s statement dropping Lords Reform in this Parliament should come as no surprise following David Cameron’s failure to persuade barely half of his backbench MPs to support the Government’s...
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Chris Rennard writes: How can we make sure that people can vote?
Just before the Summer recess, the House of Lords began formal consideration of the hugely significant Electoral Registration and Administration Bill. Among other things this introduces Individual...
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Chris Rennard writes… Liberal Democrat News RIP
In 1945 the Liberal News was a receipt for your weekly Liberal Party subscription. As a weekly newspaper, it outlasted Conservative and Labour Party rivals by some decades. Week by week party members,...
View ArticleChris Rennard writes… Marking the great Sutton and Cheam by-election victory...
Just over forty years ago, the Liberal Party was on 8.5% in the polls. The chair of the London Young Liberals, Graham Tope, was the party’s candidate for the Sutton and Cheam parliamentary by-election....
View ArticleLord Rennard writes… Individual Electoral Registration: a journey from Tory...
In 2003, the Electoral Commission recommended that Great Britain should follow the example of Northern Ireland and move to a system of Individual Electoral Registration (IER), where everyone fills in...
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