OPINION

Responding to the overwhelming vote which called for amendments to be made to the Health Bill going through Parliament to get rid of the marketization and enhance accountability, Dr Evan Harris, who drafted the amendment, said:

"It is now incumbent on Nick and his ministerial team to deliver the major changes to the Government’s Health Policy and the significant amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill

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Jon asks: The last serious survey on the subject, about 10 years ago, showed that graduates earn on average some £600,000 more than non-graduates over their working career. I don’t think there can be any debate about the fairness of students contributing about 3 to 4 per cent of the cost of their passport to greater riches. It would be regressive taxation for poorer taxpayers to have to shoulder the burden. The real issue is repayment, and when. It should be seen not as a discou

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Saturday 9.15 – F3 – Community Futures

At end of Motion F3 (line 85), insert: Conference believes that voluntary work is boosted more effectively by the concrete measures set out in these policies, and by adequate public funding for the charitable and not-for-profit sector when delivering public services, than by mere sloganeering and nebulous references to the “Big Society”.

Saturday 10.45 – F5 – Updating the NHS

Delete lines 6-15 Amend line 16 to read

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Action on banks and bonuses

Conference notes a) the importance of a healthy banking system to the future of Britain’s economy b) the regrettable failure of decades of ‘light-touch’ regulation that socialises risk and privatises extraordinary profits at the expense of sustainable investment and growth. c) that Liberal Democrats have long emphasised the need to tackle disproportionate rewards for risky financial behaviour and the concentration of power in the hands of a few in the City

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Conference Diary in brief

Day	Time	Event
Friday 11th	3pm	Inequality consultation
Friday 11th	8pm	Fringe meeting: Is the Health Bill toxic for the NHS and for the Lib Dems?
Saturday 12th	1pm	Fringe meeting: Q and A with Vince Cable
Saturday 12th	6.15pm	Fringe meeting: Distinct

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The ‘Project Merlin’ agreement reached yesterday between the government and the UK’s leading banks is to be cautiously welcomed as a necessary but insufficient step towards wholesale reform of the financial services sector. In particular, the SLF welcomes the 15% increase in funds available to small businesses and the small move towards greater transparency on executive remuneration – but t

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On Thursday February 3rd 2011 MPs will vote on a motion tabled by Stella Creasy MP (Lab, Walthamstow), on whether to introduce caps on lending rates charged for payday loans and other unsecured debt - the Social Liberal Forum supports the motion, as well as the wider campaign to end legal loa

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There is little doubt that it has been a difficult week for Liberal Democrats; our Parliamentary party faced the choice between backing a rise in university tuition fees that the majority of Lib Dem voters and members do not support, and causing a potentially damaging split within the Coalition. The decision to raise fees has been protested - vociferously, at times violently - and the Lib Dems' role in this policy has been subject to much Parliamentary and media scrutiny, without muc

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