Tag Archives: david cameron

Duncan Hames MP writes… Must we continue to use food for fuel?

By Duncan Hames MP | Fri 17th May 2013 - 8:25 am

The European Union is currently committed to ensuring that 10% of each Member State’s transport energy will come from biofuels by 2020. This originated as a well-intentioned attempt to combat climate change, but time has shown that using food for fuel can have devastating impacts on hunger and the environment. I’ve come to accept that it is time for a re-think.

In addition to concerns over their green credentials, biofuels are now recognised to be a key cause of hunger, affecting millions of people in developing countries. The World Bank, OECD, WTO, IFPRI, IMF, and five other UN agencies recommended …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged actionaid, biofuels, climate change, edward davey, european union, food for fuel, justine greening, lynne featherstone, malcolm bruce, nick clegg, norman baker and oxfam | 15 Comments

That EU vote: 6 thoughts on what it means for the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour

By Stephen Tall | Thu 16th May 2013 - 8:40 am

116 Tory MPs last night backed an amendment to the Queen’s Speech and called for an EU referendum bill. Here’s six thoughts from me on what it all means…

This wasn’t about Europe (much): this was about Cameron’s leadership

The Tory outers/Eurosceptics had already won: David Cameron capitulated in January, conceding an in/out referendum he’d tried hard to dodge. But that wasn’t enough for them. So they forced the Tory leader to capitulate again this week, forcing him to rush out a draft Bill legislating for just such a …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged European referendum and featured | 17 Comments

“We cannot afford it” – Cameron on raising income tax threshold to £10k. In 2010.

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st May 2013 - 7:05 pm

With a hat-tip to Ed Stradling, here’s a reminder of what David Cameron told Nick Clegg about raising the income tax threshold in the first leaders’ debate:

Cameron 2010: “I would love to take everyone out of their first £10,000 of income tax, Nick…We cannot afford it” youtube.com/watch?v=rk5HvJ…

— Lib Dem Press Office (@LibDemPress) May 1, 2013

(Watch it on YouTube here.)

I think it’s fair to say the Tories have since had a change of heart. Apparently it was their idea all the time:

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Posted in News | Also tagged income tax, leaders tv debate, nick clegg and tax cuts (Lib Dem) | 11 Comments

While David Cameron and Owen Jones unite in favour of universal benefits, I want us to get explicit about why redistribution matters to society

By Stephen Tall | Tue 30th April 2013 - 8:30 am

It’s an odd coalition: left-wing commentator Owen Jones and Tory leader David Cameron united as one. Yet that unlikely alliance was formed yesterday, as both defended universal benefits for wealthy pensioners and both fought shy of asserting the importance of redistribution.

David Cameron’s defence was in response to Iain Duncan Smith’s rather odd suggestion that the answer to millionaires getting a fuel allowance is that they should voluntarily hand it back to the government. Those trusty ‘sources close to the Prime Minister’ briefed journalists that IDS was on …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged owen jones and universal benefits | 28 Comments

Tory marriage tax break back on the table, says Cameron

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 27th April 2013 - 11:20 am

From the Telegraph:

The Prime Minister categorically said he will recognise marriage in the UK tax system within the next two years after receiving heavy criticism for his failure to assist traditional British families.

Speaking in Carlisle, where he was answering questions from workers at a Pirelli factory, Mr Cameron piled pressure on the Liberal Democrats to allow the policy to pass through Parliament.

Asked whether he still has plans to recognise marriage in the tax system the Prime Minister said: “Yes I do, we set them out at the last election in the Conservative manifesto. The Coalition agreement specifically said that

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged marriage tax break and telegraph | 38 Comments

Clegg threat to block any further welfare cuts unless Cameron agrees to tax wealthy pensioners’ benefits

By Stephen Tall | Thu 25th April 2013 - 8:35 pm

It’s 18 months since Nick Clegg first publicly aired the idea that some universal benefits given to better-off pensioners should be means-tested — an idea that’s found favour with two-thirds of Lib Dem members.

There have always been three problems with the idea.

The first problem is that means-testing is bureaucratic and potentially expensive. However, there is an easy way around that: treat their cash value as income, and tax this income at the appropriate marginal rate, as proposed by CentreForum last year. Pensioners with annual incomes below the personal tax threshold would be wholly unaffected; those …

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Posted in News | Also tagged benefits, nick clegg and pensioners | 44 Comments

Times: ‘Cameron is told to drop snooping on web users’

By Stephen Tall | Mon 22nd April 2013 - 8:05 am

Today’s Times front page is dominated by the news that nine cyber-security experts and academics have issued a stark warning to David Cameron to halt ‘sweeping plans to hand the security services the power to snoop on emails, website visits and social media sites’: “they remain as naive and technically dangerous as when they were floated by the last government,” they warn.

The paper notes the opposition both of Nick Clegg — who highlighted his disagreement with the draft Bill last December — and of Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert, who points out: “Where we lead, other countries would follow, snooping on their citizens’ legal activities. … The case for these proposals is massively out-weighed by the cost and the harm to privacy, here and overseas.”

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Posted in News | Also tagged angela sasse, draft communications data bill, featured, ian brown, julian huppert, nick clegg, ross anderson, the times and theresa may | 4 Comments

How Thatcherite are you?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 20th April 2013 - 7:30 pm

“We are all Thatcherites now,” declared David Cameron on the morning of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral. Not so, said Nick Clegg:

“He’s the leader of the Conservative Party he’s perfectly entitled to say that. I certainly wouldn’t call myself a Thatcherite. I’m a Liberal, she wasn’t a Liberal. I’ve always called myself a Liberal, I always will.”

Do you think you’re a Thatcherite? Well, the Daily Telegraph has devised a test to help you find out: you’re 10 questions away from finding out on how much you and The Lady (dis)agreed.

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Posted in News | Also tagged daily telegraph, margaret thatcher and nick clegg | 27 Comments

How Labour saw Clegg before the 2010 election TV debates

By Stephen Tall | Tue 16th April 2013 - 12:15 pm

There have been a couple of fascinating posts this week by election expert Philip Cowley, a politics professor at Nottingham University. They reveal for the first time the internal briefing prepared for Labour dissecting the debating skills of each of the three party leaders — Clegg, Brown and Cameron — ahead of the 2010 leaders’ debate.

Yesterday’s focused on David Cameron. Today the spotlight of hindsight is shone on Nick Clegg and Gordon Brown. Below is the assessment of the Lib Dem leader — and what’s perhaps most interesting …

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Posted in News | Also tagged gordon brown, leaders tv debate, nick clegg, philip cowley and theo bottram | 14 Comments

58% of Lib Dem members against pledging in/out EU referendum in 2015 manifesto

By Stephen Tall | Mon 1st April 2013 - 12:45 pm

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 650 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

David Cameron has said the next Conservative election manifesto will include a pledge to hold an in/out referendum on the UK’s continuing membership of the European Union. Do you think the next Liberal Democrat manifesto should include the same pledge?

34%

58% – No, it

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged European referendum and european union | 12 Comments

Revealed: What Lib Dem members think of Ed Miliband and David Cameron

By Stephen Tall | Fri 29th March 2013 - 9:30 am

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 650 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

Miliband edges ahead of Cameron among Lib Dems (though ratings of both decline)

We’ve been asking this question for 18 months, and over the past year there has been quite a reversal in fortunes for the two party leaders, as this graph illustrates:

Here’s the detail from this month’s survey…

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Posted in LDV Members poll and News | Also tagged ed miliband | 12 Comments

Opinion: Freedom to travel and work is the essence of the EU and we should embrace it

By Giles Goodall | Wed 27th March 2013 - 1:20 pm

Another week, another attack on EU citizens living and working in the UK. This time it didn’t come from that familiar old grouch Nigel Farage, but from the Prime Minister himself. In a speech which was clearly playing catch-up with UKIP after the Eastleigh by-election, David Cameron ratcheted up the rhetoric, calling for new curbs on the rights of EU migrants to claim British benefits and social housing. He wants to stop our benefit system being a ‘soft touch’ and end the ‘something for nothing culture’, in language which could have been copy-pasted from any front page of …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged eu migration and immigration | 22 Comments

Nick Clegg on Leveson: “I want a free and fair press”

By The Voice | Thu 14th March 2013 - 3:00 pm

Nick Clegg has emailed Lib Dem members today to set out his view on David Cameron’s decision to pull the plug on cross-party talks seeking to find an agreed way forward on the Leveson Report’s recommendations for self-regulation of the press underpinned by statute:

As you may have seen this morning the Prime Minister has decided to call off the cross-party talks on implementing the Leveson proposals on press regulation.

Throughout the talks I have sought to defend a free press while making sure ordinary people can be protected

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged leveson inquiry and nick clegg | 11 Comments

Eastleigh Tory candidate “running scared” from hustings

By Helen Duffett | Thu 21st February 2013 - 9:52 am

The Conservative candidate has pulled out of the BBC Radio 5 Live hustings this morning, and is facing accusations of running scared of voters.

From The Guardian:

There is growing concern within the party that with a week to go before polling day her no-nonsense and frequently off-message approach is damaging its chances of seizing the seat from the Liberal Democrats.

Candidates from the other major parties were attending the debate – chaired by Victoria Derbyshire – on Thursday morning for 5 Live, a major set-piece of the week. But Conservative

…

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Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged eastleigh by-election, empty chair, featured, Maria Hutchings, mike thornton and tim farron | 8 Comments

Stephen Williams MP writes… Making tax taxing again – 2013 is the Year of Tax Justice

By Stephen Williams MP | Fri 15th February 2013 - 2:50 pm

“I do believe that as leaders, we all have a common interest in being able to tell our taxpayers who work hard and pay their fair share of taxes, that we will make sure others do the same…But to achieve this will require strong political leadership…I hope we can be ambitious.”
(David Cameron, Prime Minister’s Letter to G8 Leaders, 2 January 2013)

This year the UK holds the Presidency of the G8, with the world’s top leaders coming to Lough Erne in Northern Ireland in June. This is a momentous and perfectly timed opportunity to turn public anger, evident around the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged action aid, fairer tax, G8 and starbucks | 1 Comment

The PM and the EU: Cameron’s zen art of compromise maintenance

By Stephen Tall | Sat 9th February 2013 - 10:25 am

Credit where it’s due. If David Cameron had returned to Britain empty-handed or walked out of the EU budget talks in a fit of pique he’d have been pilloried. Plenty of his opponents were hoping he’d do just that.

As it is, he’s able to boast (not without justification) that he’s successfully negotiated a 3% real-terms cut in the EU budget — to a cumulative €960bn (2014-20) — and protected the British rebate. Nick Clegg, who’s been a particular critic of …

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Posted in Europe / International | Also tagged angela merkel, eu budget, european union, featured, james kirkup and the economist | 13 Comments

Project Cameron RIP: more Tory MPs vote AGAINST than vote for equal marriage

By Stephen Tall | Tue 5th February 2013 - 7:55 pm

David Cameron deserves a lot of credit for the stance he’s taken on equal marriage. But in addition to the principle, there was also calculation: he wanted to project an image of a modern Tory party, at ease with the the society it seeks to represent.

Unfortunately for him he didn’t quite reckon on his party’s entrenched opposition to equality for minorities, with today’s Commons vote splitting his party. In the end, more Tory MPs voted against equal marriage than voted in favour of it:

Sky Sources: estimate of 132 Conservatives have voted for gay marriage, 139 against and 30 abstained #equalmarriage

— Sky News Newsdesk (@SkyNewsBreak) February 5, 2013

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Posted in News | Also tagged equal marriage | 26 Comments

Why Cameron is now the ‘Yes to the EU’ campaign’s best hope

By Stephen Tall | Thu 24th January 2013 - 2:30 pm

There are two very good reasons David Cameron didn’t want the Tories endlessly to bang on about Europe. First, because most of the public just aren’t that interested. Secondly, because the Tories are irreconcilably split on the issue and not even a referendum will settle matters.

That’s why for seven years as Tory leader Cameron tried to quell discussion, and then when that failed sought to steer a mid-course with gestures of Euroscepticism, such as December 2011′s faux-veto. In the end, he couldn’t hold out any longer. The …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged ed miliband, eu referendum, featured and nick clegg | 27 Comments

The Independent View: Cameron’s European vision and the Liberal Democrat opportunity

By Daniel Wright | Wed 23rd January 2013 - 2:55 pm

Not sallying forth to Amsterdam, but in the more functional surroundings of Bloomberg Europe in London, David Cameron has finally given forth his vision for the future of the UK’s relationship with the EU. Despite the context of the speech as a necessary manoeuvre to shore up support for Cameron from his hardline eurosceptic backbenchers and head off a UKIP challenge, the prime minister clearly made a great effort to ensure he sounded reasonable and moderate. Who could disagree with a vision of a more efficient, effective and accountable EU?

In this, Cameron made an astute address, in terms of his …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged eu referendum | 13 Comments

Nick Clegg: Renegotiating EU membership is not in the national interest

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 23rd January 2013 - 11:06 am

The BBC reports Nick Clegg’s reaction to David Cameron’s speech on the EU. The Liberal Democrat leader made it clear that he thought it was not in the national interest to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s EU membership. He said that the biggest challenge facing Britain was a fragile economy and that the Liberal Democrat priority was to build a strong economy in fair society. Yes, that phrase again. Something tells me we’d better get used to hearing it.

He added that it was up to David Cameron what went in the Tory manifesto, but that his priorities were reforming …

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Posted in News | Also tagged eu referendum and nick clegg | 15 Comments

5 initial thoughts on David Cameron’s Europe speech

By Stephen Tall | Wed 23rd January 2013 - 10:53 am

David Cameron delivered his long, long-awaited speech on Europe this morning (text here). Caron’s rounding up the reactions from Lib Dems here – but here are my five initial thoughts…

This is the speech Cameron didn’t want ever to have to give.

Let’s be clear, David Cameron is making this speech now to try and keep the Conservatives together. The threat from Ukip and the party’s right has proved too powerful to withstand. Offering a referendum was no longer …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged eu referendum, featured, liam fox, lord ashcroft and tim montgomerie | 37 Comments

The speech that never was

By Joe Otten | Sat 19th January 2013 - 10:00 am

David Cameron - License Some rights reserved by Statsministerens kontor While David Cameron’s much hyped speech on Europe has been postponed, it is not clear that this makes much difference. The key points were briefed to the press in advance so we can see the point.

Full marks for not wasting good copy already written go to the Economist which draws four conclusions, including this one:

The prime minister is trying to Europeanise Euroscepticism. The British often assume they are the

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged brexit, europe and featured | 4 Comments

LibLink: Guy Verhofstadt thinks that David Cameron would be wrong to leave the EU…

By NewsHound | Fri 18th January 2013 - 3:51 pm

In a piece for the Huffington Post entitled “The UK Is Sleepwalking to the EU Exit. It Is Time to Wake Up”, Guy Verhofstadt, Leader of the Alliance of Liberal and Democrats in Europe (ALDE) Group in the European Parliament, gives a glimpse of the difficulties facing David Cameron in seeking to renegotiate the United Kingdom’s relationship with the European Union. He warns;

Cameron will not succeed if he attempts to hold his European partners to ransom, exchanging acquiescence to EU treaty change over the eurozone for a unilateral repatriation of powers.

and notes, in language that Liberal Democrats would …

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Posted in Europe / International, LibLink and News | Also tagged ALDE, european union and guy verhofstadt | 18 Comments

Lib Dem MEP Graham Watson apologises for ‘insensitive’ tweet

By Stephen Tall | Thu 17th January 2013 - 10:30 pm

A swift retraction by Lib Dem MEP Graham Watson of this tweet, reacting to the news David Cameron has cancelled his landmark speech on Europe as a result of the hostage crisis in Algeria:

Immediately condemned as ‘clearly sick and offensive’ by Nick Clegg’s spokesman, Graham has now issued this apology:

I wish to apologise profusely for the insensitive tweet I issued earlier. I have taken it down.

— Graham Watson MEP (@grahamwatsonmep) January 17, 2013

Posted in News | Also tagged algeria, graham watson and twitter | 20 Comments

Coalition review – fine words, but any parsnips buttered?

By Paul Walter | Mon 7th January 2013 - 3:23 pm

clegg cameron rose garden David Cameron and Nick Clegg have just presented their mid-term coalition review. You can read the full document here. As a taster, here are the ending words of the foreword:

Today, at the half-way point in this Parliament, we are taking stock of the progress we have made in implementing the Coalition Agreement that we signed in May 2010. But we are also initiating a new set of reforms, building on those already under way, to secure

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Posted in News | Also tagged coalition, featured and nick clegg | 10 Comments

Independent View: how should Lib Dems respond to Cameron’s Europe speech?

By Pawel Swidlicki | Fri 4th January 2013 - 3:21 pm

cameron-europe The Westminster village might still be in post-holiday slumber mode, but a significant political event is due to take place only in a couple of weeks – David Cameron’s long awaited, ‘tantric’ speech on Europe. While the exact details remain unclear, Cameron could well argue that the UK’s terms of EU membership require revision, and that this should include the repatriation of some powers, after which the new package will be put to a referendum. So how should the Liberal Democrats respond?

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Posted in Europe / International, News and The Independent View | Also tagged europe and nick clegg | 50 Comments

Revealed: What Lib Dem members think of Ed Miliband and David Cameron

By Stephen Tall | Wed 2nd January 2013 - 6:35 pm

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 550 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

Cameron ends the year a nose ahead of Miliband among Lib Dems

We’ve been asking this question for 15 months, and over the past year there has been quite a reversal in fortunes for the two party leaders, as this graph illustrates:

Here’s the detail from this month’s survey…

Do you think David Cameron is doing well or badly as Prime Minister?

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged ed miliband | 5 Comments

‘Please give generously’: Tories mail-shot supporters asking for donations to fight Lib Dem mansion tax

By Stephen Tall | Sun 9th December 2012 - 10:05 am

That’s the story in the Guardian this weekend:

The Conservative party privately sent letters to Tory donors and wealthy homeowners promising to defeat Liberal Democrat plans for a mansion tax at the same time as their coalition partners thought they were negotiating on a version of the proposal ahead of the autumn statement, it emerged on Friday. … The letters were sent by the Conservative treasurers Lord Fink and Michael Farmer in November, when Lib Dem cabinet ministers privately believed there was hope that the Conservatives would agree to two extra higher-rate council tax bands as a way of raising

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged ConservativeHome, george osborne, mansion tax, nick clegg, tax and vince cable | 5 Comments

It’s not just this Government that’s unpopular: it’s the idea of Coalition. Here’s what Lib Dems need to do about that.

By Stephen Tall | Fri 7th December 2012 - 8:15 am

There are many arguments the Lib Dems are winning in government. But there is one very big debate we’re currently on the losing side of with the public: that coalition government is capable of working. And it’s not surprising that voters are unpersuaded given we Lib Dems look a whole lot less than convinced by the experience.

The known knowns of Coalition

Let’s get two pieces of mitigation out of the way:
1) Coalition government is always tougher on the junior party: we lack the democratic mandate and …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged coalition, ed miliband, featured, john kampfner and populus | 62 Comments

John Leech MP writes… Remembering the reasons for Leveson

By John Leech MP | Tue 27th November 2012 - 1:25 pm

The Manchester Evening News has a regular slot in the paper where they get a number of MPs to write an opinion column on topical issues of their choice. This week just happened to be my turn, so I thought that I would comment on the eagerly awaited Leveson report, due out on Thursday.

For those of you who don’t know, the MEN is owned by Trinity Mirror, and along with other major newspaper groups, are totally opposed to independent regulation of the press. They claim that regulation will be the end of freedom of expression. How ironic then, that the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged andy coulson, chris huhne, gordon brown, independent police complaints commission, leveson inquiry, milly dowler, nick clegg, rebekah brooks, rupert murdoch and tony blair | 8 Comments