Tag Archives: helen duffett

Can’t host the Olympics? Host Liberal Youth Conference instead!

By Harry Matthews | Published 2nd December 2011 - 10:25 am

It’s an exciting time for political activists. The Eurozone is melting down, the economy is stagnating and people are getting angry about pensions. Well, that last one perhaps doesn’t affect Liberal Youth members as much, but Liberal Youth Conference is a chance for young people to meet up, discuss policy and (perhaps most importantly) have fun along the way!

Hosting Liberal Youth Conference is a great opportunity for your local party: 30, or even more, willing young activists to get out there and help you on a delivery round (at the last Liberal Youth Conference in Colchester, delegates delivered 2000 …

Join the Liberal Youth invasion

By Harry Matthews | Published 30th September 2011 - 12:26 pm

After a very successful Federal Conference earlier this month, Liberal Youth will hold its Autumn Conference on 22nd & 23rd October. It’s in the Roman town of Colchester* (home to the UK’s oldest market on record).

Conference, as all Liberal Democrats know, is a fantastic opportunity for party members to shape policies and hold elected officers to account – and Liberal Youth is no different.

Along with all the usual reports from officers (and the odd constitutional amendment), there will be policy debates on the Arab Spring, MMR jabs, Women’s Rights & Bank Shares. As we have seen from this year’s conference with the Employment and Support Allowance motion, Liberal Youth policy can become federal policy – and might now even become Government policy. This is a brilliant opportunity for young Liberal Democrats to get involved with policy making and gain experience in public speaking!

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged bob russell, colchester, evan harris, graham watson, liam burns, liberal youth | 1 Comment

Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2011 – nominations now open

By Helen Duffett | Published 19th August 2011 - 1:26 pm

The Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year Awards, run by Lib Dem Voice, are back for their sixth year. As usual, they’ll be awarded in a ~~budget~~ lavish ceremony at the party’s autumn conference in Birmingham.

Click on the following links to see last year’s Shortlist and the Winners.

This year’s awards are as follows:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Also tagged blog of the year awards, david allen green, katie razzall, martin tod, olly grender, richard flowers, stephen tall | Comments Off

Blog of the Year Awards: The movie

By Helen Duffett | Published 27th September 2010 - 12:08 pm

The BOTYs were quite simply the glitteringest event of the whole Liberal Democrat conference last week, and Lib Dem councillor and blogger Jonathan Wallace was there to film them.

If you look carefully, you might just spot the tail feathers of the last flamingo, as it was startled away by popping flashbulbs. Alas, the heat of said flashbulbs also melted the ice sculptures before Jonathan could film those too, but the video’s well worth watching for the great speeches from winners and presenters alike:

Video also …

Posted in Best of the blogs, Conference | Also tagged alex folkes, andrew hickey, blog of the year awards, charlotte gore, iain roberts, jo swinson, jonathan wallace, mark pack, millennium elephant, nick barlow, nick thornsby, richard flowers, sara bedford, stephen tall, sue garden, will howells | 1 Comment

So how was it for you……..the highlights and lowlights?

By Linda Jack | Published 24th September 2010 - 8:00 pm

As I mentioned earlier, conference is always a mixture of emotions, but none more so than this year. I thought it would be fun if we could do a meme in the comments thread and answer the following questions:

The funniest moment

The saddest moment

The most embarrassing moment (OK, so I know its only me has them!)

The most challenging moment

The moment I will remember most

And please feel free to add to the list.

My answers? You’ll have to wait until the end of the day for those!

And to start with I’m tagging Helen Duffett

Posted in Conference, LDV meme | Also tagged guest editor, linda jack | 9 Comments

Lessons from the disappearing phone boxes for the internet and politics

By Mark Pack | Published 10th August 2010 - 3:20 pm

A new report about the internet and the 2010 general election (not headlined some variant on “was it an internet election?” thank goodness) has just been published by the Hansard Society. It contains some excellent contributions from across the political spectrum and, er…, one by myself.

A phone box Will Straw from Left Foot Forward has blogged about his own contribution here and The Voice’s very own Helen Duffett was one of the speakers at the launch event.

My own piece looked at ‘Lessons from the …

Posted in Online politics | Also tagged featured, hansard society, will straw | Leave a comment

Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2010 – nominations now open

By Helen Duffett | Published 26th July 2010 - 10:20 am

The Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year Awards, run by Lib Dem Voice, are back for their fifth year. As usual, they’ll be awarded in a ~~budget~~ lavish ceremony at the party’s autumn conference in Liverpool. (There’s further information on the event over at the Lib Dems’ Flock Together site). Click on the following links to see last year’s Shortlist and the Winners.

This year’s awards are as follows:

Posted in Best of the blogs, Conference | Also tagged andy williamson, blog of the year awards, costigan quist, featured, jo swinson, jonathan calder, lee chalmers, mary reid, prateek buch, ros taylor, ryan cullen | 1 Comment

Havering Council flirts with breaking election law

By Mark Pack | Published 21st April 2010 - 12:20 pm

Until yesterday, Havering Council was telling residents that it would reject any rolling registration applications that were not made on the council’s own form – despite the fact that such rejections would be a breach of the law. In a bizarre twist, it also meant that Havering Council was telling people who had filled in an electoral registration form via the Electoral Commission’s heavily advertised website, AboutMyVote.co.uk, that those applications were invalid.

As one resident who used the Electoral Commission’s site reported, he received a letter from the council saying,

We do not accept internet forms.

and warning that unless a second …

Posted in Election law | Also tagged electoral commission, electoral registration, havering council, romford | Leave a comment

Make authoritarian MPs pay at the ballot box

By Mark Pack | Published 10th March 2010 - 10:03 pm

There’s only one place to be at 8pm on Friday. It’s in Hall 8b at the Birmingham ICC for the latest in the legendary series of Lib Dem Voice fringe meetings*:

Many MPs have a record of repeatedly voting for authoritarian measures in Parliament. But will they suffer for that at the ballot box?

Come and hear how we can make authoritarian votes in Parliament a vote loser for MPs on general election day – and see the new Liberal Democrat Voice website which will help do just that.

Speakers:
Paul Burstow MP (Chief Whip)
Bridget Fox (PPC Islington South and Finsbury)
Mark Pack (Co-editor, Lib Dem Voice)
Alex Wilcock (Former Vice-Chair, Federal Policy Committee)

Chair: Helen Duffett (PPC Romford, Lib Dem Voice Contributing Editor)

Posted in Conference | Also tagged alex wilcock, bridget fox, paul burstow | 6 Comments

Daily View 2×2: Wednesday 10 February

By Iain Roberts | Published 10th February 2010 - 7:41 am

Pick up a newspaper or turn on the radio and TV this morning and there’s only one story filling up the front pages and the airwaves…

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged alex dingwall, barack obama, bertha joseph, homophobia | 4 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 2 February 2010

By Sara Bedford | Published 2nd February 2010 - 9:38 am

Today is Groundhog Day, but I’ve resisted the temptation to simply give you yesterday’s Daily View again. It’s also the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc, which symbolises the turning point of winter towards spring.

Twenty years ago today President FW de Klerk began to dismantle apartheid in South Africa, announcing that he had lifted the 30-year ban on the African National Congress, the Pan African Congress and the South African Communist Party. De Klerk also committed to release jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela, who was freed nine days later. Commenting on the news, Nobel Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: “He has taken …

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged alternative vote, austin mitchell, chris huhne, david cameron, desmond tutu, economy, electoral reform, fw de klerk, gina ford, gordon brown, groundhog day, imbolc, nelson mandela, plymouth, stuart bonar, twitter | 1 Comment

#ldconf podcast: The BOTY recording

By Alex Foster | Published 21st September 2009 - 7:45 pm

Whilst the LDV team is out tonight enjoying, in our various abstemious ways, the Liberal Drinks event at Bournemouth’s Goat and Tricycle tonight, we thought we’d bring you the tape of last night’s BOTY ceremony.

Sadly the audio version can not to justice to the range of visual feasts the evening provided. Stephen’s milliner will be most disappointed; the ice sculptors know their art is fleeting; and we have really only just rounded up all the flamingoes.

jgraham

But it was a striking evening for a number of reasons, as we hope the …

Posted in Conference, Podcasts | Also tagged alan window, blog of the year awards, bournemouth 2009 conference, brian robson, charlotte gore wuz robbed, costigan quist, james graham, jo swinson, mark pack, mark thompson, mary reid, pachyderms4justice, slugger o'toole, stephen tall, sue garden, tom brake | 3 Comments

Sweetly misguided he may be, but…

By Alix Mortimer | Published 20th September 2009 - 3:29 pm

…top marks for Sunder Katwala of the Fabians for this, reported by James Graham:

When Cameron claims you can’t put a cigarette paper between the Tories and LDs, it makes you wonder what he’s smoking.

Meanwhile, twittery excitement is growing about this afternoon’s debate on civil libs. Richard Dawkins is speaking to his amendment in about half an hour:

@bengoldacre #ldconf there’s also dawkins doing amendment on libel in civil liberties session at 4pm, main hall, we’re going thru his speech now

But never mind the mere intellectual giants and dishy sci-geeks of our age. What could possibly be …

Posted in News | Also tagged bournemouth 2009 conference | Leave a comment

Conference: fringe guide available #ldconf

By Alex Foster | Published 6th September 2009 - 4:41 pm

Just a quick reminder that all the main documents relating to Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth – now less than fortnight away – are now available directly from the party’s website.

These include the main hall agenda, the policy papers to be debated and fringe and training guides.

Find them all at this handy link.

It’s also worth noting and commending that the information is available in a variety of formats, from the printed books, the PDFs of those, and also simply as plain text – which is good and accessible for those with disabilities and also very handy for PDAs, phones …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged accessibility, contribute, fringe, fringe guide, jo swinson, party website, real women | Leave a comment

LDV Weekend Meme: your favourite blog-posts

By Stephen Tall | Published 8th August 2009 - 10:30 am

The Lib Dem blog awards are with us again – and one of the categories is ‘Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st September 2008)’. This is actually my favourite award for the simple reason that it recognises writing talent, pure and simple. By which I don’t mean that the prose has to be worthy of a Booker nomination; rather that the article has to attract, engage and provoke readers – elevate our thinking, if you like.

All of which musing prompted me to ask my LDV colleagues – and myself – to self-nominate the favourite articles we’ve posted here on the site. Here’s what we said:

Posted in LDV meme | Also tagged alex foster, blog of the year awards, featured, Lib Dem Blogs, mark pack, stephen tall | 11 Comments

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