Tag Archives: jonathan calder

Lib Dem Bloggers’ Christmas stocking fillers… Part IV

By Stephen Tall | Published 30th November 2011 - 5:55 pm

What presents are you looking forward to giving or receiving this year? That’s the question LDV posed to a group of Lib Dem bloggers. All this week we’re revealing what they told us, with link-throughs to Amazon for your shopping convenience (and ‘cos the referral fees help support LibDemVoice: so get clicking and ordering). Part I is available here; Part II here; and Part III here. In part three, our fourth trio of bloggers – Jonathan Calder, Caron Lindsay, and Mark Pack – give us the low-down on their Xmas faves…

Jonathan Calder

It is impossible to dislike

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Posted in News | Also tagged caron lindsay, christmas, mark pack | Leave a comment

“We need to up our game.” As a Liberal Democrat, I endorse this message.

By Stephen Tall | Published 7th November 2011 - 7:55 am

The Independent this weekend carried a brief article reporting that Nick Clegg’s aides are urging the party’s ministers to be more ‘out and proud’ of the Lib Dems’ successes:

Nick Clegg’s ministers have been told to go on TV and declare proudly “I’m a Liberal Democrat” in an effort to improve the party’s poll ratings. Party strategists are demanding better “messaging” from politicians. It includes using the phrase “as a Liberal Democrat …” at every opportunity, and regularly uttering the word “coalition”, which research finds is popular with voters.

Aides to the Deputy Prime Minister fear too many low-profile Lib Dems

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Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg | 25 Comments

Tim Farron: good speech, but wrong message

By Mark Pack | Published 27th October 2011 - 8:54 am

Sometimes the toughest speaking gigs for MPs is when they are talking to a friendly audience – but something interesting is happening behind them. So it was a few months ago with Julian Huppert talking to Putney Liberal Democrats. Very thoughtful speech, well received by the members and supporters present – but Julian had to struggle to avoid being upstaged by the cute, preening, attention-seeking cat paddling back and forth behind him.

When Tim Farron came to speak to Haringey Liberal Democrats last night, there was no cat to distract – but instead the minor drama of the stalwart member who …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged caron lindsay, danny alexander, featured, julian huppert, nick clegg, tim farron | 21 Comments

I want to hear a speech from Tim Farron that I disagree with

By Mark Pack | Published 27th September 2011 - 5:55 pm

Over on his blog Jonathan Calder makes a good point about the speech-making abilities of Liberal Democrat President Tim Farron:

My impression of Tim is that he is very good at saying things people agree with. So in Cumbria he is against second homes and in favour of farming subsidies and Kendal mint cake…

Now that Tim Farron is being spoken of as a possible party leader, he needs to risk the odd unpopular speech. Someone in that class cannot always be telling people what they want to hear.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged tim farron | 19 Comments

Total Politics: top blogs and bloggers

By Mark Pack | Published 21st September 2011 - 6:50 pm

Following its list of top Liberal Democrat blogs and bloggers, Total Politics has now also published its overall list of top blogs and bloggers – two lists in which many Liberal Democrats feature.

In the top 50 of the blogs list, Lib Dem Voice is in at number 12 (up from 27 last year), Caron Lindsay at 25, Jonathan Calder at 38 and Andrew Reeves at 44.

In the top 50 of the bloggers list, I’m in at number 20, Caron Lindsay at 29, Andrew Reeves at 43 and Jonathan Calder at 49.

Thank you to everyone for your votes …

Posted in News, Online politics | Also tagged andrew reeves, blogging, caron lindsay, total politics | Leave a comment

How Great Ormond Street’s Jane Collins escaped investigation last year

By Mark Pack | Published 13th June 2011 - 8:32 am

Jane Collins, the Chief Executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital, is facing calls to resign after it was revealed that critical details about the hospital’s role in the death of Baby Peter were withheld from one inquiry into the tragedy and, despite the hospital’s subsequent claims, were also not supplied to the second inquiry.

However, what has been less commented on in the coverage in the last few days is the way Jane Collins escaped being investigated by the General Medical Council last year:

The chief executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital has escaped investigation over the Baby P scandal …

Posted in News | Also tagged baby p, dan falchikov, great ormond street hospital, jane collins, kim holt, lynne featherstone, richard morris | Leave a comment

Learning the lessons from last week #5: You can’t be distinctive with someone else’s vocabulary

By Mark Pack | Published 13th May 2011 - 8:58 am

A favourite pastime of cynical journalists with space to fill is to take select phrases from the speeches of different party leaders, remove the names of the authors, jumble up the order and then ask the reader to guess which leader said which. Even with the wondrous variety of the English language, it’s no surprise that words and phrases often overlap, even between politicians with radically different views of the world. There is, even so, sometimes a deeper truth in this parlour game for cynics.

It’s a truth that the words of Liberal Democrats in the run up to last Thursday’s …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged community politics, mark valladares | 5 Comments

In other news… speed cameras and does online campaigning work?

By Mark Pack | Published 4th April 2011 - 10:28 am

Jonathan Calder reports how Cornish councillor Jeremy Rowe is finding Twitter useful as a way to communicate with residents in his area who are hard to reach through traditional politics. Cllr Rowe’s local experience compliments the message that Google search data gives about people wanting to find politicians on Twitter. (If you are a councillor or local candidate and wondering how to build-up your own local following, see The secret to getting 1,000 ward residents to follow you on Twitter.)

Paul Walter reports …

Posted in News, Online politics | Also tagged 38 degrees, getup!, jeremy rowe, paul walter, speed cameras, twitter | Leave a comment

In other news… Son of mansion tax, Tory councillor switches to Lib Dems and more

By Mark Pack | Published 28th March 2011 - 10:02 pm

Nick Clegg has been telling the Financial Times how he would like to see taxes introduced for the most expensive properties as part of any removal of the temporary 50p top rate of income tax. Son of Mansion Tax here we come…

Jonathan Calder reports on the latest goings on in the lively world of Leicester politics, including Conservative Councillor Nigel Porter resigning from his party and deciding to fight his ward for the Liberal Democrats in May’s elections.

The Yes to Fairer Votes campaign has published details of its donors and challenged the No campaign to show the …

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum, leicester city council, mansion tax, nick clegg, nigel porter, welfare reform | 13 Comments

Meet the Lib Dem bloggers: Jonathan Calder

By Mark Pack | Published 28th February 2011 - 10:25 am

Welcome to the latest in our series giving the human face behind some of the blogs you can find on the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator.

Today it is Jonathan Calder, who blogs at Liberal England.

1. What’s your formative political memory?

I can remember JFK being assassinated and being taught to say that Alec Douglas Home was Prime Minister, but really my Liberalism dates from the early 1970s when my father left us (an experience that taught me I was not a Tory) and the Liberals were winning by-elections.

I realised that I was not a Socialist a couple of years before that …

Posted in Online politics | Also tagged blogging, featured, lib dem bloggers | 1 Comment

LibLink: Jonathan Calder – Larry the cat is no true blue

By Nick Thornsby | Published 17th February 2011 - 3:13 pm

Over on the Guardian’s Comment is Free site, Liberal Democrat blogger-in-chief, Jonathan Calder, turns his attention to one of this week’s most important political stories: the arrival of Larry, Downing Street’s newest resident (who also happens to be a cat). It was, of course, Downing Street’s rodent problem (no, actual rats, thank you Harriet) that necessitated Larry’s presence, and Jonathan even has time for a brief history of Westminster’s rodential (yes, that really is a word) residents, as well as its feline ones.

Here’s an extract:

You could argue that his arrival marks a much-needed victory for Nick Clegg. True, Larry is

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged larry the cat | Leave a comment

Andy Coulson finally goes

By Mark Pack | Published 22nd January 2011 - 9:25 am

Over the years we’ve covered Andy Coulson many times on this blog, over both his extremely high salary when working for the Tories (much higher than salaries levels Tories were criticising others for having) and also – more importantly – the phone hacking allegations.

Although yesterday he resigned, he is unlikely to depart the political stage quickly or quietly as the long queue of people at various stage of taking legal action over allegations of phone hacking mean the details of who did what and with whose knowledge will continue to be newsworthy for a good while yet.

The official Liberal …

Posted in News | Also tagged andy coulson | 18 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Democrats should stop using the word ‘progressive’

By Tom Paul | Published 12th January 2011 - 2:18 pm

The decline of Labour as a coherent intellectual force is one of the defining features of recent British politics. No doubt the next few years will see a healthy process within Labour to seek to heal the wounds and to re-focus. I suggest that under the banner of ‘progressivism’ this process has started.

2010 saw commentators for the first time in the UK judging political propositions on the basis of whether they are ‘progressive’ or not. Ed Miliband’s own analysis is that in government Labour “…lost that sense of progressive mission.” But what on earth does progressive mean? What kind of …

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

The Liberal Democrat challenges for 2011: defining and explaining economic fairness

By Mark Pack | Published 26th December 2010 - 10:25 am

This is the final piece in a series of posts on the main Liberal Democrat challenges for 2011. You can find all the posts in the series here.

Having started this series with the economy and then moving on to more internal issue in latter posts, it seems fitting to return to economic issues for the final post in this series.

Getting the substance on economic fairness right is and should continue to be a top priority for the party. In addition, getting the messaging right will help differentiate not only the Liberal Democrat contribution to the coalition from that of …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged alex wilcock, lib dem challenges 2011, nick clegg, paddy ashdown, richard grayson, social mobility | 6 Comments

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