This is the fourth and final instalment of podcasts recorded at the Sheffield Local Solutions 2009 conference organised by ALDC. You can hear the earlier instalments here: Clegg and Scott; Scriven on Sheffield; Carbon Reduction Commitment.

In the final session of the day, the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Julia Goldsworthy MP joined Cllr Paul Scriven, the leader of Sheffield Council, to reflect on the day and discuss current state of play for local government.

Both talk about the Sustainable Communities Act, its potential and their disappointment in Labour’s implementation of it so far; of …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:28 — 55.4MB)

How fitting that while Ricky Gervais and Phil Jupitus share a birthday with Michel Tremblay, a Canadian writer I studied as part of my degree, the US should be celebrating National Catfish Day.

Two big stories

Another climbdown for Brown as the Government backs off plans to bolster MPs’ pensions. Just hours after Clegg took Brown to task at PMQs for being wrong about Gurkhas, wrong about expenses and the Iraq enquiry. Now he’s admitted to being wrong about MPs’ pensions too. A planned increase had been accepted by all parties in March but the government now …

This the second in our series of podcasts of recordings made at ALDC’s Local Solutions 2009 conference on Saturday in Sheffield. You can listen to Nick Clegg and Ros Scott in the first instalment.

For the second hour, the leader of Sheffield city council Cllr Paul Scriven gave delegates a detailed explanation of how the Lib Dems won Sheffield – and most importantly of all, what they did with the power once they had it. It’s an inspiring story of decentralisation and empowerment of the local citizenry and is well worth forwarding around any of your colleagues who …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:52 — 46.6MB)

A few very brief words from the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party as mediated by twitter:

PaulRowen Waiting to vote in the next round of the Speaker’s election, Beckett, Bercow, Haselhurst, Widdecombe and Young all still standing

joswinson Beckett, Beith, Bercow, Haselhurst, Widdecombe and Young all standing for next round #newspeaker

joswinson Bercow 179, Young 112, Beckett 74 – Shepherd, Cormack, Lord and sadly Dhanda all out #newspeaker

SandraGidley Pleased that J B won 1st round but how will it change after re allocation of votes. Not over til fat lady stops voting

SandraGidley Then we will have to wait for new papers

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For four mornings this week, LDV will be bringing you audio recordings of the proceedings at ALDC’s Local Solutions conference for Lib Dem councillors. One of the features of this event is to cram in as much as possible – including training sessions clashing with plenary sessions, which means many attendees themselves may not have heard the plenary. First up this morning is Saturday’s early morning session with party leader Nick Clegg MP and party president Baroness Ros Scott.

You can listen to …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:06 — 63.3MB)

Yesterday, I was at ALDC’s local government conference in the very heart of Sheffield, in a very contemporary new hotel right next door to the Town Hall. It was a smashing day with many useful lessons to learn, and just the event to spur Lib Dem campaigners onto greater heights when we return home.

The day included an interesting variety of main speakers, and simultaneous fringe meetings, so as a service both those who were there and couldn’t be in two places at once, and to those who couldn’t make it all, I will be podcasting sound recordings of all the …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:36 — 3.3MB)

LDV will be represented tomorrow at ALDC’s Local Solutions 2009 conference in Sheffield. It’ll be a first outing for the exciting new Lib Dem Voice banner.

We’ll be there to help raise the profile of the site, and to ask Lib Dem councillors to write their stories up for us. We’re always on the look out to beef up our local government coverage with stories the Lib Dems at the coalface who are actually running things. Could you write a piece about an exciting Lib Dem …

Thursday rolls around, so once again it’s time to join David Dimbleby and a glittering panel of political stars for Question Time. Batting for the Liberal Democrats this week is Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Chair of Campaigns and Communications Edward Davey. The panel will include Labour peer Lord Falconer (since every last member of the cabinet is apparently too frit), Conservative shadow secretary for business and regulatory reform Kenneth Clarke, political commentator Polly Toynbee, and journalist and campaigner Esther Rantzen will be there to explain why a lifetime of interesting shaped fruit …

Welcome to Daily View. Happy birthday to Delia Smith CBE. Today is also Autistic Pride Day.

2 Big Stories

And it’s good news for Burnley Liberal Democrats as sub-editors across the spectrum studiously avoid the headline “The Fall of the House of Ussher”

Miss Ussher said that she was leaving the Government “with the greatest regret” but would remain as MP for Burnley until the coming election, when she will stand down from Parliament “for family reasons”.

Burnley PPC Gordon Birtwhistle, who has steered the party through taking outright control of the borough council last year, and gaining five of the six …

As we discovered yesterday, Nick Clegg is the special guest on Radio 4’s You and Yours this morning and will be taking phone calls and emails from the public.

If you have thoughts on the matter and can’t get on air yourself, why not use the space below to alleviate your frustration?

Eagle-eared listeners will have just heard BBC Radio 4’s consumer whingefest magazine Your and Yours announce that tomorrow’s Call You and Yours will be an opportunity for the Radio 4 listenership to quiz the Lib Dem leader.

A reasonably fair introduction told us that the recent election results were OK but could have been better; and the worrying statistic that whilst people generally like Nick Clegg when they know him, up to 30% haven’t even heard of the name.

The programme will be 12-1pm tomorrow, Tuesday, and available afterwards as a Listen Again / iPlayer item. There are …

Thursday rolls around, so once again it’s time to join David Dimbleby and a glittering panel of political stars for Question Time. This week’s programme is aired from Birmingham and the panel will include Secretary of State for Wales Peter Hain, Conservative shadow communities secretary Caroline Spelman, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne, joint secretary general of Unite Derek Simpson, and director of Global Vision Ruth Lea.

If you’re tuning in, you can join the simultanous online Twitter debate here at #bbcqt, or the LDV debate in the thread below. Meanwhile Lib Dem blogger Mark Thompson will be liveblogging …

Ah, another day, another daily view. Suddenly in the blink of an eye, polling day is a whole week behind us. Lives are being lived, new councillors swearing the oath of office and new groups working out how to work with each other in future.

Two big stories

And unlike m’colleague Alix who could trumpet an end to expenses stories, sadly today they’re back with a vengeance, as the Telegraph digs into Shahid Malik.

But never fear – “the recession has ended” ! The Independent is so confident of its analysis that it feels the need to put …

Kudos to the Guardian which has obtained council-level euro results and munged them together into one giant spreadsheet with click-sort columns, over on its datablog.

The hook the Guardian are using is that it allows you see just how well the BNP did in your area, but anyone with a political hat will want to play with the data and slice it in numerous different ways.

Congratulations, then, to South Lakeland, for the highest Lib Dem Euro score anywhere in the country; commiserations to Barking and Dagenham where we polled under 5%… and ooh – is that a weak correlation …

News reaches the Voice of the Green Lib Dem’s annual conference, unfortunately just a little too late to promote it in time for the early registration rates:

SESSIONS INCLUDE: “The Great Nuclear Debate”; “Greening Your Council”; “Transition Towns”; “Eco Housing”; “Green Campaigning Workshop”

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: Simon Hughes MP; Chris Huhne MP; Heather Kidd PPC; Donnachadh McCarthy, Media Environmentalist; Lembit Opik MP

PRICES HELD AT 2008 RATES – BOOK NOW TO ENSURE A PLACE

Registrations received after 5th June

GLD members £22 (for both days) £14 (single day rate)

Non members £28 (for both days) £18 (single day rate)

Conference fees include lunch. A separate Saturday evening

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Interesting set of vote share results from the BBC based on the first few hundred council seat results, where they are giving the following numbers:

Lib Dem – 28% (2005: 28% 2008: 25% )
Tory – 38% (2005: 31% 2008: 44%)
Labour – 23% (2005: 33% 2008: 24%)

Labour’s result is one of the lowest they have ever seen.

The context of those old results is all important. Labour have plumetted 10% from the last time these seats were contested, with the loss of the general election day boost hitting them as hard as the political climate.

The Tory vote share has …

Today is polling day, which means scores of Lib Dems across the country will be having an exhausting day from Good Morning leaflets before dawn right through to election count verifications beyond midnight.

We’ll be reminding people of the all important facts about the electoral process:

• You do not need your polling card to vote (but it might speed things up a bit if you have it)
• Polls are open from 7am to 10pm
• If you had a postal vote, but haven’t returned it yet, don’t put it in the post, but take

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Former Sheffield Hallam MP Richard Allan explains why over on his blog:

The process of deciding law in the European Parliament is much more complex than in Westminster. In Westminster virtually every word of our laws is drafted by the Government with the odd amendment passed in the House of Lords where there is no Government majority. The scrutiny process can throw up errors and occasionally creates such controversy that a proposal is delayed or abandoned. But it does not generally offer individual MPs the opportunity to make substantial changes to the law.

In the European Parliament, individual MEPs with key places

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Question Time returns to its previous time slot of 2240 this evening, and the BBC website tells us the panel will be:

Europe Minister Caroline Flint, Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan, Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson Jo Swinson, Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, UKIP leader Nigel Farage, and French businessman Pierre-Yves Gerbeau.

In the last week before the European elections, the programme is billed as a Euro special from London.  If the politicos can avoid being booed off stage merely for being politicos, there are loads of interesting ways the debate can go.  Caroline vs Caroline; Greens vs Lib Dems on who has …