Iain Dale asks "Where are the LibDems?" Putting aside the fact that some of our spokespeople have been pretty busy, e.g Vince Cable and Norman Lamb, this question would appear to assume that it is a good idea to hand over control of your party to someone like John Redwood for a month in the summer.
Martin Kettle gives a fair summary of the Redwood Commission proposals.
It is amazing that, according to a Tory shadow cabinet insider, Redwoods proposals were "significantly debugged" over several weeks prior to publication.
And yet, still "turning left at red lights" and "putting rubber wheels on trains" still survive in the package. One wonders what was taken out in the "debugging" process?
Of course, some of the proposals are serious, but one is left, as the Guardian leader comments, with the inescapable conclusion that Cameron has retreated from his "let sunshine win the day/family friendly" thrust and allowed the Vulcans to take over the Tory asylum.
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Did anyone pay attention to the comment of David Lindsay? Though he doesn't seem to appreaciate the benefits of (economic) liberalisation, he reminds us of the often neglected point, that Institute of Economic Affairs has many roots in the Liberal Party, the strongest link obviously being Arthur Seldon, onde of the founders of IEA and a life-long Liberal. Oliver Smedley, once vice-president of the Liberal Party, was also instrumental in the early stage of the IEA. But also Jo Grimond contributed to several IEA publications.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if these old links between Liberal Democrats,the successor of the Liberal Party, and IEA could be revived? I'm sure the benefit could be mutual.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThe IEA is religiously apolitical (they have a healthy disdain for us all). But I have seen inter alia David Laws there from time to time.
As a lowly Lid Dem, I also read their regular publications. I like their brand of non-interventionist economics and think we could learn a lot from some of the work they publish (they also religiously avoid taking a corporate view).
Paul,
ReplyDeleteI've alwayse been quite intrigued by the idea that one could 'jump' a red light if turning left, as long as no traffic were coming from the right.
I believe that this is the practice in the USA. I would be interested to know whether there is any evidence that this has increased road accidents. If not, why not keep things moving?