Business Secretary Vince Cable writes for Comment is Free following the ‘Merlin’ agreement between the Government and the banks.

Britain will take years to recover from the near-collapse of the banking system and its rescue by the state. This government acted swiftly – setting up the banking commission; imposing a bank levy; cracking down on banks’ tax avoidance; and signing up to tougher international rules on capital, liquidity and remuneration. But some policy issues have yet to be confronted, especially the structural questions being addressed by the banking commission and its chairman, Sir John Vickers: how to deal with banks that are “too big to fail”.

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There will be complaints that the government’s failure to put leading bankers before a firing squad, let alone tolerate bonuses, is an abject surrender. On the other side there will be sniping from the City at the banking commission: complaints that tougher disclosure rules and tax will drive bankers from our shores.

I shall keep fighting for British business and British taxpayers. But now we have a ceasefire, and I have decided to decommission my stockpile of banker jokes and hide them in a hole in the country. We still have plenty of weapons to deploy. And in less than nine months the government has done more to put banking right than 13 years of failed laissez faire under Labour. And our work is not yet done.

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Lib Dem Party President Tim Farron has written for Comment is Free following the the announcement of reforms to Britain’s counter-terrorism laws.

“With details of reform of counter-terrorism laws unveiled in the House of Commons, today is a proud day for those who cherish the freedoms that we in Britain have enjoyed for centuries and that our ancestors fought and died for. These civil liberties have been chipped away at over recent years, with the fundamental principle of innocent until proven guilty abandoned and the increasing power of the state to spy on its citizens.

There will always be a fine balance to be struck between freedom and security, but the proposals detailed today mark a decisive move away from the paranoid, authoritarian state presided over by Labour. No longer will people who have had no charge brought against them be locked up for 28 days or placed under de facto house arrest. No longer will police be able to indiscriminately stop and search British citizens on a whim. No longer will councils be able to use anti-terrorism powers to snoop on the contents of your bins. And no longer will trainspotters be treated like terrorists for photographing the 13.32 from York to Darlington.

The ridiculous, heavy handed and easily abused powers brought in by the last Labour regime trampled over centuries of British tradition and liberty. That’s why the Liberal Democrats and other civil liberties campaigners fought to prevent them and railed against them once they were imposed. And that’s why we should all be proud of the steps taken by the coalition government today.

These measures will not weaken our country’s defences against the threat of terrorism, quite the opposite in fact. Time and time again Labour’s measures were proven ineffective and counter-productive, antagonising the very communities we need to support in order to tackle the problems of extremism in the UK.

These are not the first measures the government has taken to restore our civil liberties and they won’t be the last. I was proud when Nick Clegg announced an end to the disgraceful and cruel practice of locking up innocent children during the immigration removal process. Under Labour, more than 7,000 children were detained – hundreds for weeks and months on end. In far too many cases this inflicted serious physical and psychological damage.

Ending this horrendous practice was a key Lib Dem manifesto commitment and one that no other party was prepared to make. And when the government unveils its freedom bill, the brainchild of Chris Huhne when he was Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson, we will see huge swaths of Labour’s unnecessary and intrusive lawmaking repealed.

Labour brought in more than 4,300 new laws during its 13 years in power, creating a new offence for virtually every day it spent in power. This government is often judged solely through the prism of the measures it is taking to deal with the deficit and clear up the financial mess Britain found itself in, but it is doing so much more than that. When the next general election rolls round in 2015, Britain will be a more liberal country. These measures are a crucial part of how we get there.”

Read the original article at Comment is Free
Find out more about proposed changes to counter-terror powers
Read Lib Dem peer Lord MacDonald’s review of counter-terror laws

“Control orders are gone, 28 days detention without charge is gone, indiscriminate stop and search is gone and the abuse of anti-terror powers by councils to pursue petty offences is over.”

Commenting on the Home Secretary’s statement following the Counter-Terrorism and Security review, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs and Justice, Tom Brake said:

“Sanity and justice have been restored to British life.

“Today is a victory for those who have campaigned to restore the historic freedoms that Labour spent 13 years destroying.

“Control orders are gone, 28 days detention without charge is gone, indiscriminate stop and search is gone and the abuse of anti-terror powers by councils to pursue petty offences is over.

“There will always be a balance to be struck between freedom and security and these proposals protect British citizens while upholding their centuries-old values.”

“The decision to appoint Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor shows that the Labour Party is now determined to carry on with the Gordon Brown economic plan that caused so much trouble for this country.”

Commenting on the appointment of Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Treasury Committee, Stephen Williams, said:

“I wish Alan Johnson good luck for the future.

“The decision to appoint Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor shows that the Labour Party is now determined to carry on with the Gordon Brown economic plan that caused so much trouble for this country.

“Ed Balls isn’t just a deficit denier, he’s a deficit enthusiast.”