Tag Archives: hung parliament

Hung parliament – 63% of Lib Dem members back equidistance from Labour and Tories

By Stephen Tall | Published 12th February 2010 - 11:45 am

Ah, the question the media loves, and Lib Dems hate: just who would the party back if there were a hung parliament?

Now we’ve asked this question before in an attempt to get the media to understand the position of Lib Dem members (despite the wilful attempts of BBC2′s The Daily Politics to mislead viewers with flawed polls). But we’re going to try it again to see if this time the media will listen to what LDV’s sample of Lib Dem members actually think about what the party should do in the event of a hung parliament.

Some 200 members …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 11 Comments

LibLink: Lembit Öpik – Notes on a progressive decision

By NewsHound | Published 5th February 2010 - 3:30 pm

Lib Dem MP Lembit Öpik has written an article for the Progressive London blog based on his speech to their recent conference on the topic, The Tories are not Progressive. Lembit reveals himself to be a “left-leaning libertarian” with deep scepticism that the Tories under David Cameron have actually changed. There’s lots of eminently quotable material, but here’s just a few excerpts:

I’m a practical kind of person. I don’t like the high levels of dogma which seems to attach itself to party politics and elections. There are good people in every political party, and no major grouping is

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Is this the laziest piece of political journalism ever?

By Stephen Tall | Published 5th January 2010 - 8:05 pm

Well, no, it’s probably not. But it must at least qualify for the laziest piece of journalism this decade. I refer to today’s Independent article, ‘Clegg faces party backlash over Tory alliance’, by Nigel Morris and Michael Savage. Oh, go on, then, here’s a link if you must; though I begrudge handing them the traffic. The opening para gives a flavour of the kite-flying, unsourced speculation:

Nick Clegg faces a backlash from grassroots Liberal Democrats if he moves his party too close to the Conservatives in a hung parliament.

Well, yes, he probably would. Which is why he won’t. Unless the …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

LibLink … Nick Clegg: The Liberal Democrats are not for sale

By Stephen Tall | Published 4th January 2010 - 11:50 pm

Over at The Times, Nick Clegg has penned an article setting out, perhaps in the clearest detail yet, exactly how the Lib Dems will respond in the event of a ‘hung Parliament’. He begins by noting the heat-without-light debate that the new year has brought:

Much of what we have heard so far is unsurprising: absurd pledges on spending, vitriolic attacks on cuts. But one development is new: both the old parties now claim to be almost identical to the Liberal Democrats. David Cameron and Gordon Brown are ostentatiously flirting with Liberal Democrat voters, clumsily trying to woo them —

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , | 7 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 1 January 2010

By Helen Duffett | Published 1st January 2010 - 1:40 pm

Happy New (General Election) Year!

On this day in 1973, the UK joined the European Community, along with Denmark and the Republic of Ireland. On January 1, 2002, Euro coins and banknotes became legal tender in twelve of the European Union’s member states.

It’s a quarter of a century since Britain’s first mobile phone call was made. In a seemingly random intersection of the Fates, comedian Ernie Wise was calling from St Katherine’s Dock to a room above a Newbury curry house – the then office of a little company called Vodafone.

2 Interesting Stories

Is a Labour-Tory coalition unthinkable? Only until you think about it
Martin Kettle muses in the Guardian on a hung Parliament:

It seems innocent to assume that either Labour or the Tories would automatically turn first to the Liberal Democrats in those circumstances – or that the Lib Dems would necessarily deliver. The big parties could calculate that they would be better off in a marriage of convenience with a historic enemy they respected, from which they could withdraw with dignity when the moment was right, rather than to embark on a more permanent entanglement with a Lib Dem party which at bottom they each despise.

The more one looks at the evolutionary dynamics of British politics, the more serious the grand coalition option may one day become. Is a Labour-Conservative deal really unthinkable? Only until you start thinking about it.

At least the next government won’t be decided on the toss of a coin… or will it?

Coin tossing through the ages

The Telegraph has an interesting history, including this:

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Posted in Daily View, Europe / International | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Lib Dems and Labour neck-and-neck on 28%, says voting study

By Stephen Tall | Published 27th December 2009 - 11:05 am

Today’s Times publishes a study by Professor Colin Rallings and Professor Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University based on actual votes cast in the dozens of by-elections that take place for council seats each month. Here are the headline findings:

It shows that although David Cameron’s Conservatives have a 10-point lead over Labour as the year draws to a close, the gap has been narrowing since the summer. The by-election model, which has been reworked to take account of different patterns of competition between the parties, has the Tories on 38%, with both Labour and the Liberal Democrats on 28%.

The calculations

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Posted in Polls | Also tagged , , | 13 Comments

LibLink … James Graham: Lib-Con pact, or just a Marr moment?

By NewsHound | Published 26th November 2009 - 9:27 am

Rather belatedly* The Voice is delighted to highlight an article by Lib Dem blogger James Graham over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free site, the subtitle of which is a neat, Tweet paraphrase of his argument: ‘The idea that the Lib Dems want to jump into bed with Cameron is a fantasy. But multiparty politics is likely to be the new norm’. But as ever with James the article is well worth reading in full. Here’s an excerpt:

There is no enthusiasm within the party for co-operation with the Conservative party, but working with Labour is almost as unenticing a prospect.

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 1 Comment

Since when is something debated in public, in front of journalists called “hidden”?

By Mark Pack | Published 26th November 2009 - 9:20 am

Since yesterday, in fact. Because in an otherwise thoughtful piece on hung Parliaments in The Independent, Steve Richards made this comment:

If there is a hung parliament there will almost certainly be no formal coalition government, even if Nick Clegg and Vince Cable would like to join one. Clegg is trapped by what is known as his party’s “triple lock”, a hidden rule that might become of vital relevance. Before entering a coalition he is bound to secure the agreement of his MPs, other national representatives and the membership.

Credit to Steve Richards for knowing about this rule. But “hidden”? It …

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Lib Dem HQ: read what Nick said, not what the press reported!

By Stephen Tall | Published 23rd November 2009 - 10:25 am

An email pings into LDV’s email inbox from the Lib Dems’ director of election communications, Jonny Oates, stating categorically that Nick Clegg did not express a preference for dealing with the Tories over Labour.

Now it has been known, just occasionally, for Nick to speak a little faster than he thinks. But, as I posted here, yesterday Nick really was crystal clear about how he would approach the vexed question of a ‘hung Parliament’ – and still the media managed to distort his remarks! In rebutting today’s inaccurate press reports, all Jonny had had to do is reproduce the …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , | 69 Comments

Clegg asserts Lib Dems’ ‘hung parliament’ equidistance. (The headline you won’t read in today’s papers).

By Stephen Tall | Published 23rd November 2009 - 10:10 am

It’s a long time since LDV has carried a ‘Media Moron Watch’ feature … but if we were still running it, the spoils today would be shared by pretty much every newspaper. Here are the headlines from the so-called quality press today:

From which headlines a disinterested reader would conclude the following: Nick Clegg has categorically ruled out doing a deal …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , | 30 Comments

David Owen: Lib Dems should “campaign for a role in a government of national unity”

By Stephen Tall | Published 16th October 2009 - 9:55 am

To be a fair, a former Labour minister, ex-SDP leader and Tory voter is probably the natural person to advocate a national unity government – and that’s exactly what David Owen has done today in an article in The Times:

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, and his deputy, Vince Cable, need to position themselves as ready to shoulder the burden of responsibility for hard economic choices, and help to provide, with one of the big parties, the principled, practical government that the country so sorely needs. That means talking to voters about participating in a government of national unity.

The

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , | 6 Comments

LDV members’ survey: is electoral reform a hung Parliament ‘deal-breaker’? And are Labour or Tories most likely to deliver it?

By Stephen Tall | Published 22nd September 2009 - 9:55 am

A couple of weeks ago, Lib Dem Voice invited the members of our private forum (open to all Lib Dem members) to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the c.250 of you who completed it; we’ve been publishing the results on LDV over the last few days. You can catch up on the results of our exclusive LDV members’ surveys by clicking here.

Yesterday, we looked at how Lib Dem members would respond in the event of a hung Parliament, assuming electoral reform was on the agenda. Today we’re looking at just how important you think electoral reform is, and which of the other two main parties you think are most sympathetic to the idea of electoral reform.

LDV asked: In the event of a ‘hung parliament’, and if the Lib Dems were prepared to cooperate with Labour/Conservatives in some way, do you believe a referendum on electoral reform should be a ‘deal-breaker’?

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged | 1 Comment

LDV survey: What Lib Dem members actually think about a hung Parliament

By Stephen Tall | Published 21st September 2009 - 1:10 pm

Today’s BBC2 Daily Politics is touting a highly misleading poll by ComRes feigning to know which of the other two main parties – Labour or the Tories – Lib Dem members would wish to shack up with in the event of a hung Parliament where the party holds the balance of power. The Guardian reports it here:

Liberal Democrat activists would overwhelmingly prefer their party to enter a coalition government with Labour rather than the Tories, according to a poll published today. Fewer than one in five said that they would want to see Nick Clegg team up with

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 6 Comments

Opinion: How the Prospect of a Hung Parliament could bolster a Liberal Democrat Election Campaign

By Andrew Lewin | Published 25th April 2009 - 5:20 pm

Discussion surrounding “Hung Parliaments”, prospective coalition deals and the Liberal Democrats are as familiar to supporters of our party as any issue of policy or leadership.

In an attempt to add something new to this longstanding debate, this article outlines a strategy for how the party could tackle the question of how it would act in a Hung Parliament in the next General Election campaign. I am convinced that, if managed correctly, drawing attention to the prospect of the Liberal Democrats holding the balance of power could prove to be an electoral asset, as opposed to an …

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Posted in Op-eds | 28 Comments

LDV readers say: mixed response to Hung Parliament scenarios

By Stephen Tall | Published 11th April 2009 - 2:20 pm

A couple of weeks ago, LDV started a new poll based on a Hung Parliament scenario floated by PoliticalBetting.com’s Mike Smithson – that the next election might result in the Tories winning the popular vote, and Labour winning the most seats. What, he asked, would the Lib Dems do in such a situation? We turned the question over to our readers, and asked: In the event of a Hung Parliament, should the Lib Dems allow the seat winners or the popular vote winners to form a government?

Here’s what you told us:

>> 38% (97 votes) – The winner of the

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Posted in Op-eds, Voice polls | 10 Comments