OPINION

Labour is reported to be putting cooperative principles at the heart of its 2010 manifesto.  Anyone remember the third way? Nick Clegg is spelling out today how the Liberal Democrats propose to pay for its flagship 'pupil premium' policy for education. David Cam

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Sorry we've been quiet for the last few weeks - for reasons that will become apparent below.  We had a tremendously successful conference season and would like to welcome everyone who signed up to this newsletter at one or other of our fringe meetings. CONTINUITY AND CHANGE The Social Liberal Forum executive has undergone some significant changes over the past couple of months.  Sadly, Richard Grayson and Alison Goldsworthy have resigned from the executive.  Alison has had to

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As the Liberal Democrats move towards finalizing the party’s manifesto, The Social Liberal Forum sets out the key principles that we believe should be the basis for formulating tax policy and spending commitments:

• The party should commit itself to the goal of reducing income inequality over the next parliament. Proposals to reduce public spending should be assessed in terms of whether they further that objective.
• Tax increases for the richest members

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Belated congratulations to Centre Forum, and in particular Giles Wilkes, for winning Prospect Magazines' Think Tank Publication of the Year Award for A Balancing Act: Fair Solutions to the Modern Debt Crisis. One of the many things I meant to do this summer was to

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Guest article by Geoffrey G J Payne Soon after I joined the Liberal party in 1983 I discovered something that surprised me. Many of the best Liberals were not members of the party, and some were even members of other parties. This presented both a challenge and an opportunity. It was frustrating that these people were not in the party helping develop it's political position. Yet clearly the potential was there; a Liberal party that could reach out to people beyond it's current core sup

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Social Liberal Forum Secretary James Graham and Chair of Compass Neal Lawson have an article in Tuesday's Guardian calling for a "coalition of progressive ideas" between social liberals and liberal socialists within the Liberal Democrats, Labour and more widely.

Progressives in all these parties are committed to greater equality and dealing with the challenge of climate change, but the binding value is pluralism. We recognise the value o

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Hope you had a good summer.  With the conference season now in full sway, we just wanted to let you know about the Social Liberal Forum's own plans next week.  Please do come to our fringe meeting next Monday.

PARTY CONFERENCE

The Social Liberal Forum will be holding a joint fringe meeting with Compass on Monday 21 September at 20:15-21:15 in Connaught 1, the Connaught Hotel.  "Overcoming political barriers to equality" will fea

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I read The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better whilst watching the last two seasons of The Wire and so Chris Grayling's claims last week that parts of the UK were beginning to resemble the Baltimore portrayed in that TV series did cause me to smile wryly. Grayling's

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