Tag Archives: chris davies

Chris Davies MEP writes… Assisted dying is a liberal issue

By Chris Davies MEP | Published 5th January 2012 - 12:27 pm

It was a Liberal Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt (now the leader of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament) who ensured that legislation to permit medically assisted dying was brought forward in Belgium a decade ago.  Publication of the report by the independent commission on assisted dying, chaired by Lord Falconer, should be a reminder to our Liberal Democrat leadership of our own very similar party policy on the subject.

Medically assisted dying (the patient self-administering) or euthanasia (the doctor providing direct assistance) are very definitely liberal matters.  They are about respect for individual wishes when the frailty or immobility of the individual …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , | 15 Comments

Opinion: “The Pope…seceded with all his followers from the Church of England”

By Chris White | Published 11th December 2011 - 8:43 am

So says 1066 and All That (Sellar and Yateman – a prewar forerunner of ‘Horrible Histories’) when summarising the Reformation.

It’s a good line and we can smile at the vanities of sixteenth century isolationism, knowing that today’s politicians, and people, are much more sophisticated. Nor do we regard the continent as cut off if there is fog in the English Channel.

During the early hours of 9th December (mark that date) David Cameron, we are told, played a blinder and ensured that 26 out of 27 countries in the EU were rescued from their fiscal and financial folly by …

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Posted in Europe / International, Op-eds | Also tagged , , | 22 Comments

Europe: what Liberal Democrats have been saying today

By Mark Pack | Published 9th December 2011 - 7:02 pm

Nick Clegg:

I have said for months that it would be best to avoid arcane debates about treaty change altogether and if we had to proceed down that road, it would be best to do so in a way that did not create divisions in Europe.

The demands Britain made for safeguards, on which the Coalition Government was united, were modest and reasonable. They were safeguards for the single market, not just the UK.

There were no demands of repatriation of powers from the EU to Britain and no demands for a unilateral carve-out of UK financial services.

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Posted in Europe / International, News | Also tagged , , , , | 101 Comments

Huhne ‘orders inquiry into fossil fuel lobby influence over Tory MEPs’

By The Voice | Published 24th July 2011 - 1:20 pm

From the Guardian this week:

Chris Huhne has ordered a private inquiry into which fossil fuel lobbyists “got to” the Conservative MEPs who defied David Cameron and voted down an ambitious carbon emissions target in the European parliament on 5 July.

“I have asked for a full analysis of what happened,” said the energy and climate change minister, speaking at an event in parliament. “We thought the vote was going to be close, but it was not close. We want to see which lobby groups managed to get to the MEPs.”

New research by the Guardian and Greenpeace into lobby groups and

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , | 7 Comments

LibLink: Chris Davies – Be angry, be proud – and campaign hard

By Nick Thornsby | Published 12th April 2011 - 7:25 pm

Over on his blog, North West Lib Dem MEP, Chris Davies, expresses his astonishment at the reluctance of some Liberal Democrats to shout our government successes from the rooftops (or, alternatively, on a FOCUS leaflet). His blog is particularly timely given the frankly extraordinary email sent to Liberal Democrat MPs by the former Leader of Liverpool City Council, Warren Bradley, calling on the Liberal Democrats to pull out of the coalition.

It’s an excellent piece, and the whole thing’s worth a read, but here’s an extract:

“We should never have gone into a Coalition with the Tories,” say some, but do

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 41 Comments

LDVideo: “Come to Oldham” edition

By Helen Duffett | Published 17th November 2010 - 5:35 pm

A twin travelogue treat to tempt Lib Dems to go and help in the Oldham East and Saddleworth election rerun:

If you choose your delivery round carefully, you can see some pretty scenery in the constituency – Chris Davies MEP gives us a glimpse of the countryside while urging us to turn up soon:

Video also available on Youtube here.

Next, Lib Dem President-elect Tim Farron takes us behind the scenes at Campaign HQ – those leaflets won’t deliver themselves…

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Posted in Lib Dem TV, Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged , | 9 Comments

+++ EXCLUSIVE: The MEP, the erotic award, the picture

By The Voice | Published 25th September 2010 - 10:14 am

Lib Dem Voice is proud to have the first picture of North West MEP Chris Davies and his flying golden penis.

Davies won the trophy when he was named as Politician of the Year at the Erotic Awards 2010, for his work to give sex workers a voice at last year’s party conference and defending them from the prohibitionist policies of the previous government.

The award, proudly on show in Chris’s Stockport office, was previously held by another Lib Dem, Baroness Miller, and could be found in the office Sue Miller shared with Lord Lee of Trafford and Lib Dem party

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , | 22 Comments

The Saturday Debate: Time for British troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan

By Stephen Tall | Published 3rd July 2010 - 8:45 am

Here’s your starter for ten as we continue our Saturday slot posing a view for debate:

Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has recently written to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg renewing his call for British troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan:

It is very difficult to justify our continued engagement when the reasons for it so often appear contradictory and open to challenge. I suspect one reason why 77% of people in this country tell pollsters that they want our troops out of Afghanistan is because they either do not know what are the objectives for their presence or do not

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , | 23 Comments

The Saturday Debate: The last thing we need is politicians who emote

By Stephen Tall | Published 5th June 2010 - 8:45 am

After an extended election break, we’re reviving our Saturday slot posing a view for debate:

The election campaign of 2010 will, above all, be remembered for the transformative effect of the television debates, and the breakthrough of Nick Clegg. They were, in the main, substantive discussions in which real policies – and real political differences – were openly debated. But they also re-inforced the impression that British politics is, above all, about personality; and in particular, that the quality politicians need above all is empathy, an ability to connect with the voters they seek to represent.

Empathy is a vital quality of …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , | 5 Comments

What’s up with Nick Griffin’s expense claims?

By Mark Pack | Published 31st March 2010 - 10:50 am

Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has spotted some rather odd entries in Nick Griffin’s expense claims from the European Parliament. Nick Griffin had previously stalled on publishing his expenses but now he’s given in to the pressure there are some distinct oddities:

a) Nick Griffin claims to have donated £5,575.91 to a fund that has only declared income of £4560.65.

b) Nick Griffin has previously said he employs three members of staff, one of whom is shared with another MEP. However the expense claims list eight people, give no names and only one of their job titles matches previous public statements about …

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Posted in Opposition watch | Also tagged , , | 2 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 26 March 2010

By Helen Duffett | Published 26th March 2010 - 10:52 am

Time flies – Friday already! And is it really 29 years to the day that the Gang of Four launched a new political party: the Social Democrats?

Roy Jenkins said at the launch:

We want to get away from the politics of our dated dogmatism and class confrontation. We want to release the energies of people who are fed up with the old slanging match.

Watch the video of the launch here.

2 Big Stories

Digital economy bill to be pushed through parliament next month

The controversial digital economy bill will be pushed through in the “wash-up” leading up to an election, after the government confirmed that it will receive its second reading in the Commons on 6 April – the same day that Gordon Brown is expected to seek Parliament’s dissolution.

Harriet Harman, the leader of the house, said today that the bill will get its second reading. But when questioned by Labour MPs Neil Gerrard and Tom Watson about the lack of time given to debate over controversial issues in the bill, she said only that “ministers are aware” of the strong feelings that the proposed legislation has engendered. [Guardian]

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Posted in Daily View | Also tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

+++ Exclusive: MEP has change of heart – now happy to have penis

By The Voice | Published 14th March 2010 - 4:33 pm

News reaches us in LDV Towers that Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has had a change of heart and will be allowing his name to go forward for the Flying Golden Penis trophy for Politician of the Year at the Erotic Awards 2010.

Last month, as we reported, Chris Davies wrote:

It’s an honour to be considered but it’s not justified. I organised a fringe meeting to give sex workers a voice at last year’s party conference, and more recently I put out a press release defending sex workers from prohibitionist government policies. But it’s not enough

Whether Chris has been …

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Posted in Europe / International, News | Also tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Parliamentary Parties report back to conference

By Mark Pack | Published 13th March 2010 - 2:47 pm

Party business sessions are usually fairly thinly attended at party conference, except back in the days of disaster and near bankrupcy immiediately after the merger which formed the Liberal Democrats.

They can however play an important role, particularly where well chosen questions tease out information or get commitments on the record. James Graham’s question this morning about the Digital Economy Bill was a good example of this (and would have been even more cruicial has the emergency motions ballot not decided to debate the topic on Sunday morning).

And so, here I am back in the conference hall for part two of …

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Lib Dem MEP spurns Golden Penis

By The Voice | Published 24th February 2010 - 6:16 pm

North West Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has blogged about how he’s rejected a nomination as Politician of the Year for the 2010 Erotic Awards.  The Flying Golden Penis award will, it would seem, be flying elsewhere this year.

It’s an honour to be considered but it’s not justified. I organised a fringe meeting to give sex workers a voice at last year’s party conference, and more recently I put out a press release defending sex workers from prohibitionist government policies. But it’s not enough.

Whether this spurs Chris to even greater heights to be worthy …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , | 4 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 17 February 2010

By Iain Roberts | Published 17th February 2010 - 8:20 am

It’s Wednesday 17th February and for me, like so many other Lib Dem activists, another day of delivering leaflets and knocking on doors (plus a Council meeting in the evening).

On this day in 1933 prohibition ended in the United States, and in 2003 London got a new congestion charge. There, wasn’t that interesting.

2 Lib Dem-related Stories

Lib Dem voters are the kinkiest

Thanks to Sara Scarlett for spotting this report in the Telegraph. There’s lots there on the sex lives of supporters of the three main parties, including:

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Posted in Daily View | Also tagged , , | 1 Comment