Author Archives: Nick Tyrone

Nick Tyrone

Opinon: The Liberal Reconfiguration. Thoughts inspired by the One Nation Labour conference

By Nick Tyrone | Wed 24th April 2013 - 12:23 pm

Last week, my job took me to the One Nation Labour conference at Queen Mary, University of London. There I saw a series of lectures followed by Q&A’s on what the future direction of the Labour party should and should not be. It was a fascinating day – the Lib Dem baiting they have gotten used to falling back on has (mostly) stopped and there seems to be an honest appraisal under way within Labour’s ranks about how they want to move forward. Of most interest to Lib Dems, and indeed liberals of all self-applied stripes, were ideas around …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 34 Comments
Nick Tyrone

New report from the ERS: Reviving the Health of Our Democracy

By Nick Tyrone | Fri 15th March 2013 - 11:51 am

After months of independent research, the Electoral Reform Society has now published a report on Reviving the Health of Our Democracy. On the plus side, we discovered that most people are as politically charged as ever, albeit mostly through individualistic modes of participation such as single issue campaigns. The downside, of course, is that they feel less and less like their political ideas and aspirations can be reached via traditional representative democracy. Turnout at most sets of local elections is now below forty percent. Even more alarmingly, last year’s Hansard Audit of Political Engagement discovered that the percentage of people …

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged | 8 Comments
Nick Tyrone

Opinion: Worst past the post? Debating electoral reform for local government

By Nick Tyrone | Wed 6th March 2013 - 1:56 pm

Last year in May, Scottish voters were given the chance to vote using the Single Transferable Vote to select their local councillors for the second time since the introduction of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act of 2004. The Bill owes its life to the Liberal Democrats; it was a key demand for us entering into the Lib-Lab coalition government in Scotland. Almost ten years on from when the Bill became law, STV has done what it says on the tin. It has produced almost proportional results (exact proportionality is pretty much impossible under any system), it has almost doubled the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 8 Comments
Nick Tyrone

Opinion: Clegg tourettes – the three party conferences

By Nick Tyrone | Thu 18th October 2012 - 9:50 am

My occupation took me to all three major conferences this year and I’d like to share my impressions with you.

First up, our lot. As usual, the press marched on us, expecting a revolt. Wanting to be there as Vince made his big move. As usual, nothing much really happened on that front. A few more grumbles about Nick than last year, that was all. The biggest complaint I have about my time in Brighton was the weather (particularly …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | 9 Comments
Nick Tyrone

Opinion: Why scrapping Lords Reform is ultimately a disaster for Cameron

By Nick Tyrone | Wed 8th August 2012 - 12:04 pm

Many of the more right-of-centre newspapers are declaring that the government calling time on Lords Reform is a victory for Cameron personally. Iain Martin’s piece summarises this thesis.

I would argue the precise opposite. I think the whole episode has been a disaster for Cameron and damaging to the Conservative party overall, albeit in a minor way, at least when you take the fact that their only even vaguely electable possible leader has been politically debased out of the equation.

A question that has hung around the neck of Cameron since the near miss of the 2010 election is this: would …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 15 Comments
Nick Tyrone

Opinion: Exploding the tuition fees polling myth

By Nick Tyrone | Tue 10th July 2012 - 12:03 pm

It is generally assumed knowledge – within the Liberal Democrats as well as in the wider political world – that our party’s poll numbers took a big nosedive right after the coalition government voted (excepting rebels) to change the way tuition works in England by raising the limit on what universities can charge students per year to £9,000.

For instance, a common answer I get when I ask fellow Lib Dems how many points they think we lost post tuition fees is “about 8%”.

What I want to do here is not to discuss the pros and cons of the 2010 Higher …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 35 Comments
Nick Tyrone

Opinion: Firm Friend and Equal Partner – Alex Salmond’s Lecture at the Scott Trust

By Nick Tyrone | Sat 28th January 2012 - 10:30 am

I attended Alex Salmond’s lecture at the Scott Trust this Tuesday. It will come as no surprise to most of you that it was a terrifyingly brilliant performance by Scotland’s First Minister. However, it is important to note that the man is an enviable position at the moment and is well aware of that fact.

For a start, he has the luxury of being both in government and opposition at the same time (government in Scotland while being able to dump on everyone in Westminster, including Labour). He proudly declared on Tuesday night that not only are the three main party …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 10 Comments
Nick Tyrone

Opinion: Theresa May’s cat – why we should be proud of our conference

By Nick Tyrone | Sat 8th October 2011 - 2:50 pm

The vast majority of Lib Dems who attended autumn conference would agree with me in saying that it was a success. The mood surrounding the ICC Birmingham was unmistakably positive. The feared factionalism that had been predicted by some never materialised. But what really makes our conference seem amazing, in retrospect, is just how badly the respective Labour and Conservative gatherings have played out.

Labour conference was up first. As the only major party of opposition this should have been a conference to remember for them. A year of riots, phone hacking and a poor economy gave them more ammunition than …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 11 Comments
Nick Tyrone

Opinion: Should I stay or should I go?

By Nick Tyrone | Mon 5th September 2011 - 5:16 pm

For those of you who don’t read the Daily Mail every day, there was a lead article last week all about how awful the Liberal Democrats are. No great surprise there, I hear you say. The reasons given this time were that the Lib Dems are looking to keep the 50p tax rate in place, uphold the Human Rights Act, and “frustrate every effort to cut immigration”. The party is also trying to promote too many green policies as well, ones that “threaten to cripple business”. Apparently, we are “reverting to type as the fringe party mouthpiece of Left-wing causes”.

Yet …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 43 Comments
Nick Tyrone

Opinion: It should be about more than Murdoch

By Nick Tyrone | Thu 7th July 2011 - 3:59 pm

The left of centre in Britain had better figure out what it stands for when it comes to free speech and the monopolisation of power in the media.

There is apparently a flash mob, due to take place in front of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, this afternoon. Well, at least if it isn’t still raining. Then the various protestors will probably head to the pub instead, if I know my protestors.

It’s been organised by several left leaning think tanks and pressure groups to try and achieve two things: 1. To put pressure on the government to delay …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 14 Comments



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    Dave, given that a higher proportion of Labour MPs voted for equal marriage than did Lib Dem MPs, it really is poor form for you...
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    why aren't more Tories joining us then..?
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