OPINION

The Social Liberal Forum is committed to ensuring the Liberal Democrats fight the 2015 General Election as an independent party.  Given the necessity of agreeing Government spending plans and departmental budgets for the 2015-16 financial year, this will be challenging, and it is of particular importance that the Party develops and articulates policies addressing its approach to the deficit beyond 2016. In advance of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, Conservatives have repeatedly expressed the

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The Social Liberal Forum is committed to ensuring the Liberal Democrats fight the 2015 General Election as an independent party.  Given the necessity of agreeing Government spending plans and departmental budgets for the 2015-16 financial year, this will be challenging, and it is of particular importance that the Party develops and articulates policies addressing its approach to the deficit beyond 2016. In advance of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, Conservatives have repeatedly expressed the

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The country faces a crucial twelve months, and of course we need a government that shows coalition can work, a united government. The question is, for whom should government be made to work, the parties who constitute it or the people they serve? Behind which policies should we unite? The Tories clearly refuse to make it work for millions whose living standards have fallen and whose lives have become more insecure, as their refusal to tax wealth and insistence on further welfare cuts

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Liberal Democrats, who have already rejected such proposals, have limited tolerance for Conservatives who are increasingly ignoring the Coalition Agreement they signed up to. Retoxified already, a Conservative Party specifically targeting the most vulnerable as the scapegoats for deficit reduction is not a brand with which progressives should want to be associated. With Cameron having rejected numerous forms of wealth taxation and backed the one widely accepted cut that could be made

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www.libdemsagainstsecretcourts.org.uk - a campaign that unites the Liberal Democrats in opposition to secret justice. Liberal Reform and other party organisations are backing this campaign, please do so too.

Almost one month ago, Liberal Democrat members voted overwhelmingly at party Conference against Part II of the Justice and Security Bill. This makes provision for “secret courts” to be used in any ci

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By SLF Co-Chair Gareth Epps

It’s not just social Liberals and those Liberal Democrats least comfortable with the coalition that have expressed dismay at the proposal that has become known as ‘shares for rights’. This is for a number of reasons. First, the proposal didn't just come out of the blue; it came after a summer of positive mood music for that long-cherished Liberal goal of co-ownership, the passing of the first ever Liberal Democrat policy paper on the subject and the success

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Ballot papers and candidate manifestos for the crucial 2012 Federal Party Committee elections are in the post. Here is a list of some of the Social Liberal Forum members and supporters who are actively promoting our priorities and are standing for the various committees – Federal Policy Committee (FPC), Federal Conference Committee (FCC), and Federal Executive (FE) are the most important elections: Federal Conference Committee:

• Jon Ball
• Gareth Epps
• Richard Fagence

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Dispatches: Secrets of your Boss’s Pay, features Sir Mike Darrington, former chief executive of Greggs, investigating executive pay. Sir Mike was a panellist at the SLF’s Conference fringe meeting ‘Overcoming crisis: How to move towards a more ethical capitalism’, and part of the Dispatches programme was filmed during the fringe meeting and can be seen by following the link below: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od