Tag Archives: left foot forward

LibLink: Mark Pack – What should happen to an MP who is voted out of office?

By Nick Thornsby | Published 1st June 2011 - 2:55 pm

Over on Left Foot Forward, The Voice’s Mark Pack has a piece highlighting the common, but outrageously undemocratic, practice of appointing defeated MPs to the House of Lords – just one of the many reasons that the second chamber needs thorough reform. And with those with a vested interest already lining up to oppose any changes, Mark makes the point that it is crucial that a grassroots group of reformers unite behind the finalised proposals, rather than making the mistake of opposing some reform because it is not total reform.

Here’s an excerpt:

I can go to a polling station, vote

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , , | 3 Comments

No2AV campaign left red-faced by list gaffes

By Stephen Tall | Published 5th January 2011 - 7:45 pm

Last week I posted to Lib Dem Voice what I thought to be an accurate list of the 100+ Labour MPs who had proudly announced they would be opposing electoral reform in the May referendum.

I assumed it must be accurate… after all, the list was taken directly from the No2AV campaign’s official website. Surely they would have checked with each MP before publishing their name, I thought. Not carefully enough, it turns out.

As Left Foot Forward has highlighted, five Labour MPs named by No2AV as opponents of electoral reform have been listed incorrectly — take a bow …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 31 Comments

A good analysis of conference so far…

By Mark Pack | Published 21st September 2010 - 11:39 pm

… is to be found over on Left Foot Forward: Party democracy alive and kicking at Lib Dem conference. I don’t agree with all of it – such as the use of “indefensible” :-) – but it’s a good post that shows an understanding of how parties work and makes good use of details of what has happened at conference.

Posted in Conference | 2 Comments

The Independent View: Labour and Lib Dems must show a willingness to work together

By Will Straw | Published 23rd July 2010 - 1:50 pm

As a long-term believer in the need for a more progressive politics, I take no great joy in the spate of polls showing the Liberal Democrats in free fall.

The latest projections from UK Polling Report show that a Lib Dem collapse to 15% in the polls would deliver a Conservative majority of 18 and the balance of power being held by the Tory right rather than the Lib Dem right. The Lib Dem concessions on inheritance tax, capital gains tax, and Europe – for which they should be praised – would go in a flash.

But the Lib Dems …

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Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Also tagged , | 42 Comments

Shouldn’t Labour MPs just nominate the candidate they think is best for the job?

By Stephen Tall | Published 5th June 2010 - 10:50 am

I’ve been intrigued these past couple of days to see the main Labour blogs fall over themselves to argue that the current three front-runners for the Labour leadership – now they have the MP nominations needed to be on the ballot – should urge their parliamentary colleagues to nominate one of the three also-ran contenders to ensure “the widest possible field of candidates in the leadership election”.

I can understand the principle behind the campaign, of course. Frankly, if I were in the shoes of a Labour member (as I was for a number of years), I …

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Posted in Op-eds, Opposition watch | Also tagged , , , , , | 21 Comments

LibLink: Danny Alexander on the party’s tax policies

By NewsHound | Published 29th March 2010 - 7:28 pm

A while back, Left Foot Forward ran a piece attacking the party’s tax policies for not being progressive. That results in many responses around the place defending the party’s policy and today Left Foot Forward runs a piece from Danny Alexander defending the party’s policy:

As the person responsible for drafting the Liberal Democrat manifesto I wanted to respond to the report on our proposal to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000 – paid for by closing loopholes that unfairly benefit the best off, a new mansion tax, a crack down on tax avoidance and

…

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Daily View 2×2: 16 March 2010

By Alex Foster | Published 16th March 2010 - 7:30 am

Good morning, and welcome to Daily View. I’m standing in for your usual Tuesday host because Sara was rushed into hospital yesterday. Get well soon, Sara.

March 16th in history saw the resignation of Harold Wilson in 1976; in 1995, Mississippi finally ratified the 13th Amendment and officially outlawed slavery in US.

Today is the birthday of Isabelle Huppert and Jimmy Nail.

2 Big Stories

Police investigate Labour MP Ashok Kumar’s death

Police and doctors are investigating the death of a Labour MP whose body was found at his home yesterday.

Dr Ashok Kumar, 53, had been working as normal, with major commitments as parliamentary private secretary to Hilary Benn, the environment secretary. He was also campaigning for Corus steelworkers’ jobs in his Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency. His body was found after anxious staff failed to rouse him by phone and called emergency services, who broke into his home.

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Evidence based, Left Foot Forward? Not if you’re ignoring the actual evidence

By Stephen Tall | Published 15th March 2010 - 5:55 pm

The Labour-supporting Left Foot Forward blog prides itself on being evidence-based. But not, it seems, when the evidence doesn’t support the conclusion they’ve already written.

That seems to be the only explanation for their slanted weekend posting that Lib Dem tax policy “fails the fairness test”, which appears to rest on two points: 1) that people who don’t pay tax won’t benefit from tax-cuts, and 2) ignoring completely the redistributive wealth tax rises that Vince Cable and the Lib Dems are proposing.

Perhaps the authors, Tim Horton and Howard Reed, hoped nobody would notice the sleight-of-hand; or at least that it …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

News updates: tax-dodging Germans and Andrew Rosindell

By Mark Pack | Published 1st March 2010 - 9:19 pm

In February I reported on the question facing various governments in Europe: should they buy stolen data which will help identify law breaking tax-dodgers? The German government did this in 2008 and the threat of a repeat was sufficient to cause a mini-sampede of people confessing their sins. Nearly 2,500 Germans have now agreed to pay up. That has not been enough to stop the German government though: it has not only purchased the data but is also now talking about making another purchase of an extra CD containing further Swiss data.

More recently, I also linked to a story …

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LDVideo: dodgy Tory stats, Nick’s online Q&A, and the Wallander-inspired Lib Dem PPB

By Stephen Tall | Published 27th February 2010 - 6:45 pm

Welcome to this latest LDVideo instalment, highlighting three political video clips from the past week.

First up, there’s Lies, damn lies and Conservative statistics courtesy Political Scrapbook (and with a nod towards this iconic Guinness advert):


(Hat-tip: Left Foot Forward. Available on YouTube here).

Secondly, here’s Nick Clegg responding to questions posted to Facebook (Facebook.com/nickclegg) and Twitter (@Nick_Clegg) in his latest online Q&A session with voters, and covering a variety of topics: support for carers, voter apathy, voting Lib Dem, military pay, the ‘Robin Hood Tax’, democratic accountability, Scottish independence; the hunger strikers and rights of children at Yarl’s Wood detention centre, and (forget biscuits) whether he prefers tea or coffee.

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Posted in YouTube | Also tagged , , | 1 Comment