Tag Archives: stephen williams

Blog of the Year Awards 2011: The Winners #LDBOTY

By Helen Duffett | Published 17th September 2011 - 10:35 pm

What’s loosely termed the awards “ceremony” for the 2011 Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year Awards has just drawn to a glittering close. As the last firework fades in Birmingham’s night sky, I’m delighted to announce the winners:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Also tagged alex wilcock, blog of the year awards, julian huppert, mike smithson, nick thornsby, richard morris | 1 Comment

Stephen Williams: Labour spent £38m taxpayer cash on News International advertising

By The Voice | Published 20th July 2011 - 3:19 pm

From a party news release:

The Government spent nearly £38m on advertising in News International titles between 2005 and 2010, a Parliamentary answer to Co-chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Treasury Committee, Stephen Williams, has revealed.

The figures show:

More than £17m was spent advertising in The Sun, including £4.5m between April 2009 and March 2010.
More than £7m was spent advertising in the News of the World, including £1.8m between April 2009 and March 2010.
£877,153 was spent advertising in all News International titles between April 2010 and March 2011.

Commenting, Stephen Williams said:

Despite the dire state of public finances, the Labour Government continued

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Posted in News | Also tagged news international | 10 Comments

Opinion: Stephen Williams is right to support the criminalisation of squatting

By Tom Papworth | Published 27th June 2011 - 12:57 pm

It’s always a pleasure to see a Liberal Democrat MP standing up for our core liberal values. And among the core principles of liberalism, private ownership of property is of huge importance.

So it’s truly gratifying to see that Stephen Williams, MP for Bristol West, is taking a stand to protect owners of property from being dispossessed. Stephen has given his support to legislation, to be brought before parliament by the government, to criminalise squatting.

This is highly welcome and long overdue. Squatting has for too long been portrayed as a victimless crime, a Robin Hood grab …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged housing, squatting | 34 Comments

Clegg’s bailed-out banks’ shares give-away proposal triggers national debate

By Stephen Tall | Published 25th June 2011 - 3:25 pm

Nick Clegg’s very public call for the British public to be given shares in the bailed-out banks — creating 46 million shareholders and allowing collective ownership of banks — has garnered acres of coverage the past couple of days.

It’s three months since Lib Dem MP Stephen Williams first proposed the privatisation of its 83% stake in RBS and 41% in Lloyds by distributing shares to the public. Here’s what my co-editor Mark Pack said about the idea at the time:

Giving everyone shares in the banks: Stephen Williams’s proposals examined (7th March, 2011)
Stephen Williams’s plan is to give shares

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Posted in News | Also tagged banking, john redwood, mark pack, nick clegg, toby fenwick | 7 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Youth promote intergenerational fairness for Bank Shares

By Tom Wood | Published 23rd June 2011 - 3:52 pm

Nick Clegg’s innovative proposal to give the public shares in Lloyds and RBS is enthusiastically welcomed by Liberal Youth: but we believe that these reforms can go even further. Young people are bearing the brunt of the recession caused by the banks both in a lack of jobs and lost funding for education, and because it is the next generation that will be paying off the government’s debt for years to come. It is only right the government should give something back to them.

While Nick’s proposal represents exactly the kind of fairness that Liberal Democrats seek to bring to …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged banking, liberal youth, nick clegg | 22 Comments

The Budget: the Liberal Democrat influence

By Mark Pack | Published 23rd March 2011 - 7:43 pm

Earlier today the Liberal Democrat Press Office’s Phil Reilly tweeted, “Income Tax cut – from the front page of the @libdems manifesto to the pockets of 25m taxpayers”.

Certainly better to pick from the front page than the back page, as announcing a barcode would have been lacking a little in interest (except, perhaps, to one of my former economics lecturers, who once tried to persuade us that the checksums on barcodes matched up with a warning from the Bible and predicted an imminent Second Coming).

That however wasn’t the only major policy was a distinct Liberal Democrat flavour to it. …

Posted in News | Also tagged budget 2011, chris huhne, danny alexander, featured, george osborne, green investment bank, nick clegg, paul waugh, phil reilly, vince cable | 23 Comments

The Independent View: How the Stephen Williams plans for the banks would work

By Toby Fenwick | Published 11th March 2011 - 3:54 pm

Portman Capital, an independent corporate advisory firm, has been asked to comment upon the technical issues raised by Mark Pack’s column on Stephen Williams’ proposal to privatise RBS and Lloyds by distributing the shares to the public. Portman Capital is not politically aligned and its comments are intended to explain the technical feasibility of the proposal rather than its political aspects.

The proposal to distribute the shares to the UK people is innovative, and as the British people will participate without having to provide cash up front, it has fairness at its core. Over time, the scheme is likely to …

Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Also tagged banking | 3 Comments

Giving everyone shares in the banks: Stephen Williams’s proposals examined

By Mark Pack | Published 7th March 2011 - 11:51 pm

This morning saw the launch of a plan for giving away bank shares from Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Williams. Laid out in a pamphlet published by CentreForum, Stephen Williams’s plan is to give shares owned by the government in the banks to everyone on the electoral register. A floor would be set so the shares could not be sold until they had passed the price paid by the government and individuals would only keep any gains made above that floor price. In other words, as the shares rise in price and get sold the government gets back the funds it put …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged banking, electoral registration | 24 Comments

Clegg points to “clear liberal direction” of government, as Lib Dems highlight Labour’s economic woes

By The Voice | Published 10th January 2011 - 8:27 pm

Nick Clegg used a prime-time slot on this morning’s Today Programme to make clear his view that the public will take a “more rounded view” of the Lib Dems’ achievements in government by the next election. As BBC News reports:

[Mr Clegg] said the effect of the spending cuts would be “difficult”, adding: “But I think at the same time there are signs that the repair job we are doing on the government finances and the general creation of greater confidence in the economy might also start showing itself as well.

“I think it will be a crucial year – a

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Posted in News | Also tagged alan johnson, ed miliband, lorely burt, nick clegg | 21 Comments

Wlliams: RBS must use profits to help struggling businesses

By The Voice | Published 7th August 2010 - 12:55 pm

RBS is the latest British bank to return to profit, with the 84% state-owned bank reporting a first-half pre-tax profit of £1.14bn yesterday. This prompted Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Treasury Policy Committee, Stephen Williams, to make call for RBS to make greater efforts to assist UK firms:

RBS is almost entirely owned by the taxpayer, so these huge profits must be used for the national interest and not just to pay massive bonuses to senior staff. There is no excuse for RBS not to loan to good British companies that are struggling to get credit. We cannot simply allow

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Posted in News | Also tagged banking, rbs | Leave a comment

Mandelson forcing universities to offer less choice and lower standards, says Stephen Williams

By The Voice | Published 24th December 2009 - 5:20 pm

As early Christmas presents go, Lord (Peter) Mandelson’s announcement of swingeing cuts to university budgets lacked something of the festive spirit – the BBC reports:

The government is to cut university funding in England by a total of £398m for 2010-11 compared with this year, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said. In a letter to the Higher Education Funding Council For England (Hefce), he also asks universities to protect quality and access to higher education. His letter confirms efficiency savings of £180m and £83m – and makes a further £135m budget reduction.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Universities Secretary, Stephen Williams, is none too …

Posted in News | Also tagged education, peter mandelson, universities | 6 Comments

Stephen Williams condemns Bristol Tories’ attack on anti-homophobia charity

By Stephen Tall | Published 28th August 2009 - 2:30 pm

Pink News has the story:

A Liberal Democrat MP has accused both the Tories on Bristol council and one of the city’s newspapers of misrepresenting a National Lottery grant to a gay group. The Bristol Evening Post ran a story yesterday on Educational Action Challenging Homophobia (EACH). The highly-respected group has been awarded £391,668 by the Big Lottery Fund for a project reaching out to LGBT young people.

EACH said on its website:

“Throughout the next five years this will be spent upon EACH’s ground-breaking project, REACH: supporting lesbian, gay or bisexual young people develop a sense of pride in their identity and help their peers and adults in young people’s settings challenge homophobic bullying.”

The leader of the Conservative group on Bristol City Council, Councillor Richard Eddy, told the paper the grant was “mistaken and misguided” and “an outrageous waste of money.”

Posted in News | Also tagged bristol council, conservative party, homophobia, richard eddy, roger helmer | 1 Comment

Can you help save Bletchley Park for the nation?

By The Voice | Published 21st July 2009 - 6:45 pm

Lib Dem councillor and blogger Mary Reid has issued the following plea, which The Voice is delighted to advertise further:

Lib Dem MP Phil Willis has put down EDM 1935 as follows:

FUNDING FOR BLETCHLEY PARK (20.07.2009)
Willis, Phil

That this House recognises the signficance of Bletchley Park, historic site of secret British code-breaking activities during the Second World War and birthplace of the modern computer; acknowledges that the use of the intelligence gained at Bletchley Park and subsequent related actions of the Allies is said to have shortened the Second World War by two years, saving countless lives; and calls on

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Posted in News | Also tagged bletchley park, bob russell, mary reid, phil willis | 3 Comments

Conference: Higher education paper

By Alix Mortimer | Published 7th March 2009 - 12:01 pm

Breaking news! The Lib Dem Voice cupboard has a WINDOW! Yes, it’s a slightly unnerving black smoked glass internal window which reflects us as well as revealing the outside world, but it’s a window!

I missed Simon Hughes’ speech this morning, which is a shame as I am extremely hopeful about his capacity to advance the environmental agenda – we’ll bring you that video as soon as we’ve established that it exists.

Listening now to the motion on the Investing in Talent, Building the Economy paper (Adult, Further and Higher Education policy paper).

I’ve missed the movement from Stephen Williams, and come …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged david howarth, education, higher education, paula keaveney, simon hughes, tuition fees, twitter, universities | Leave a comment

Stephen Williams speaks out on Lib Dem tuition fees policy

By Stephen Tall | Published 7th October 2008 - 2:35 pm

A recent Lib Dem Voice article which attracted a great deal of comment from LDV readers posed the question, Lib Dems to drop Tuition Fees pledge? Stephen Williams, Lib Dem MP for Bristol West, and the party’s shadow secretary of state for Innovation, Universities and Skills, has just posted this comment to the thread, setting out his views:

Let’s get some facts on the record. In the 2001 and 2005 elections in Bristol West I stated quite clearly that I opposed students paying fees. I stand by those comments completely and emphatically.

The policy review I am leading is to

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Posted in News, Party policy and internal matters | 19 Comments

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