Tag Archives: paddy ashdown

Gender balance amongst the Liberal Democrats: some evidence

By Mark Pack | Published 3rd October 2011 - 11:20 am

Over the weekend, Paul Head criticised the party’s Leadership Programme, saying,

While the Candidate Leadership Programme seems like a good idea, giving candidates from underrepresented groups the support and training they need to go on and, hopefully, become MPs, I believe it is destined to failure for the same reasons that shortlists are not the answer.

They both ignore the real problem.

Shortlists in particular are a quick-fix, tinkering round the edges, top-down attempt to create the façade that we are a party that is representative of the whole country. The truth is we aren’t. A quick look around the conference hall and

…

Posted in News | Also tagged diversity, equalities, leadership programme, paul head | 5 Comments

Opinion: “Too male and too pale” – Why shortlists and the Leadership Programme are not the answer

By Paul Head | Published 1st October 2011 - 11:21 am

The problem of our Parliamentary Party being “too male and too pale” was brought up again at conference and I couldn’t help leaving with the feeling that we are edging towards another fight over whether we should introduce more proactive methods to help combat the chronic under representation of women and ethnic minorities among our MPs.

I was most struck when Paddy Ashdown, during the Guardian debate, seemed to shift from his previously held position and advocate the introduction of shortlists or “zipping” if the current leadership programme failed to make any significant impact.

I am completely opposed to the introduction …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged diversity, equalities, leadership programme | 18 Comments

Opinion: Catching the Liberal Democrat conference bug

By Paul Childs | Published 25th September 2011 - 9:40 am

When I first decided to go to Liberal Democrat Conference last autumn, I have to admit I was a little swayed by it being in my home town, but being a Federal Conference First Timer I did have concerns about not knowing anyone. Luckily, a friend who is also a conference veteran (at both LibDem and Labour I must add) took me under his wing and even humored me when going to training sessions.

I also met up with some people in both Liverpool and Glasgow and managed to bend their ears about issues, as well as adding new and interesting …

Posted in Conference, Op-eds | Also tagged erica kemp, nick clegg, tim farron | 2 Comments

“All-Women Shortlists May Be Necessary, Senior Lib Dems Accept”

By Mark Pack | Published 19th September 2011 - 10:23 pm

So reports the Huffington Post:

Senior Liberal Democrats have accepted that the party may need to resort to all-female shortlists or other tough measures to increase the representation of women and minority groups among its MPs…

Tim Farron MP … said that he was “utterly embarrassed” that only seven of the party’s MPs were women.

He said:

“Over the years we’ve had several debates on the crushing lack of women in the House of Commons, and our zero lack of representation from black and ethnic minority communities, and the debates we’ve always had are about the practical way to create equality and the

…

Posted in Conference | Also tagged all-women shortlists, equalities, gender balance, tim farron | 20 Comments

LDVideo | Election archive special… 1997

By Stephen Tall | Published 28th August 2011 - 5:25 pm

Welcome to the fourth instalment of our scavenge through the video archives for footage from bygone elections. We’ve trawled the 1960-70s, 1980s, and 1992 — which can only mean that today’s the turn of the 1997 landslide general election…

That Lib Dem Punch & Judy show

(Available on YouTube here.)

Paddy Ashdown: the Movie

Posted in YouTube | Also tagged john cleese | Leave a comment

LDVideo | Election archive special… 1992

By Stephen Tall | Published 27th August 2011 - 6:15 pm

Last weekend — in a desperate attempt to offer our readers an alternative to The X-Factor — we highlighted some clips from elections of yesteryear: first, the 1960-70s, then the 1980s. Today, we’re scrolling forward to the video footage of the 1992 general election…

Paddy Ashdown on the campaign trail

(Available on YouTube here.)

Don Foster wins Bath from Chris Patten (from 3:05)

Posted in YouTube | Also tagged bath, charles kennedy, chris patten, don foster | 1 Comment

Lord Ashdown emails Lib Dem members in Horn of Africa appeal

By Helen Duffett | Published 2nd August 2011 - 4:13 pm

Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown has emailed Lib Dem members to appeal for urgent donations to help with the famine in the Horn of Africa:

As I write this, there is a crisis in the Horn of Africa that is claiming the lives of thousands of children. Famine has been declared. Millions face starvation. In Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia we are witnessing the worst humanitarian catastrophe in a generation.

It is a crisis that has unfolded slowly, so much so that the media has found little drama to force it to top of news bulletins – which have instead been dominated

…

Posted in News | Also tagged disasters emergency committee, unicef | Leave a comment

Opinion: Why David Cameron will not be Prime Minister in a year’s time

By Paul Walter | Published 23rd July 2011 - 12:33 pm

Bizarrely, I was watching dancing coal miners dressed in tutus when I heard the news of Sir Paul Stephenson’s resignation last Sunday evening. A little trigger went off in my mind. Suddenly, the unthinkable had become thinkable. “Cameron will be next” I thought.

OK. We’re now in the “long grass” of the parliamentary recess. Cameron put in a “Tory Trebles all round”, barn-storming performance at the dispatch box on Wednesday. He must have been thankful it was jet-lag proof Johannesburg he had come from (where he met a different type of Tutu) and not New York, with its jet-lag on the …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged andy coulson, david cameron, News Corp, news of the world, nick clegg, Phone hacking, the guardian | 21 Comments

LibLink | Paddy Ashdown: Somalia’s ‘children’s famine’ has been ignored

By Helen Duffett | Published 21st July 2011 - 6:53 pm

Paddy Ashdown writes today at Comment is Free on the urgent need to help famine-stricken Somalia – a situation which has been overshadowed in the news by more sensational events.

The problem when a child is dying from starvation is that they can’t wait. They can’t put their hunger on pause until the glare of the media decides to turn its spotlight on them and help spread the word that children are dying. Instead, they will slowly starve to death.

This is exactly what is happening to nearly 2 million children in Somalia right now. Nearly half of these children are

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged disasters emergency committee, famine, somalia | 1 Comment

PMQs: The tectonic plates shift

By Paul Walter | Published 13th July 2011 - 1:06 pm

Oh, what a joy to be Leader of the Opposition at times like these!

Prime Minister’s Questions today was certainly one of the most important this year. David Cameron has been in a sort of partial purdah for the last few days, no doubt preparing his answers. What we got was quite a substantial exposition of the response to what I’ll call, for the purposes of brevity, “Murdochgate”.

The exchange between Cameron and Miliband started with a large degree of agreement. Indeed, it was almost as if the PM had pulled the rug from under the Leader of the opposition by …

Posted in PMQs | Also tagged david cameron, ed miliband, news international, news of the world, nick clegg, Phone hacking, tim loughton | 12 Comments

The Lib Dems on ‘Hackgate’ and Murdoch: Ashdown, Huhne, Hughes, Farron, Oakeshott all join the fray

By Stephen Tall | Published 10th July 2011 - 4:25 pm

It’s been a frenzied week in British politics, with attention for once focused less on the mis-deeds of politicans than the criminality practised by many journalists, both at the News of the World and beyond. Here’s a brief round-up of what the Lib Dems have been saying…

BSkyB takeover: Lib Dems hint at backing Labour motion to delay deal (Guardian)

The Liberal Democrats have indicated they could back a Labour move in parliament to delay the Murdoch takeover of BSkyB until after the police investigations into phone hacking. …

[Simon] Hughes told Sky News: “We have to be careful and I would

…

Posted in News | Also tagged chris huhne, matthew oakeshott, media, news international, nick clegg, rupert murdoch, simon hughes, tim farron | 8 Comments

Chris White writes: Policies or personalities?

By Chris White | Published 5th July 2011 - 5:18 pm

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, described Pope Gregory IX as ‘a Pharisee seated on the chair of pestilence, anointed with the oil of wickedness’. The Pope replied that the Emperor was the forerunner of the Antichrist and the monster of the Apocalypse. (‘The Popes’, by John Julius Norwich, 2011).

Such was political debate in the 13th century, topped up by episodes of unspeakable violence.

At this distance it seems rather laughable that an Emperor and a Prelate (especially one considering himself the Vicar of Christ) should behave like that.

But while burning at the stake is now thankfully behind us, vitriol is not. …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged danny alexander, ed miliband, frederick II, michael foot, neil kinnock, pope gregory IX, william hague | Leave a comment

“It was a virtuoso performance” – Viscount Astor on Lord Ashdown on Lords reform

By Helen Duffett | Published 21st June 2011 - 11:17 pm

Reading tonight’s Lords Hansard at bedtime (as you do), I’ve just found Paddy Ashdown’s speech from this evening’s debate on the House of Lords Reform Draft Bill.

Viscount Astor (Conservative), who spoke next, said:

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Ashdown, has just given a speech that I am sure will be used by every Liberal Democrat candidate who wishes to stand at an election to this House in the future. It was a virtuoso performance. I am afraid that my contribution will be somewhat more modest.

If you do wish to stand at a future election to the House of Lords, I’m reproducing Paddy’s speech below so you can get memorising right away.

What did Baroness Boothroyd say that Paddy found so bloodcurdling? Why would he happily exchange wisdom for legitimacy? How would history have been affected if the House of Lords had been constructed differently?

Posted in News, Parliament | Also tagged constitutional reform, featured, hansard, house of lords, lords reform, william astor | 16 Comments

Lords reform: the Liberal Democrat trio announced

By Mark Pack | Published 6th June 2011 - 7:23 am

Over the weekend Mark Valladares blogged about the three Liberal Democrats being appointed to the Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament carrying out pre-legislative scrutiny committee on Lords reform:

From the Lords, representing the constitutional wonk tendency (in a good way), Lord Tyler is the first of the two nominees. Paul has been leading calls for a complete overhaul of the Second Chamber for a very long time and is one of the Party’s foremost constitutional experts…

From the Commons, that rather unusual beast, a former member of the House of Lords, John Thurso. As he has already been abolished once,

…

Posted in News | Also tagged constitutional reform, david steel, house of lords, john thurso, lords reform, mark valladares, paul tyler, paul walter, ros scott | 12 Comments

Rory Bremner does Paddy Ashdown with the aid of a little song and dance

By Mark Pack | Published 3rd June 2011 - 8:58 am

Courtesy of YouTube, a musical trip down memory lane:

Posted in Humour | Also tagged rory bremner | Leave a comment

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