Tag Archives: the spectator

4 graphs on Thatcher’s legacy: a richer but more unequal nation.

By Stephen Tall | Thu 11th April 2013 - 8:15 am

A generation on, the Thatcher legacy continues to provoke and divide. One of the questions it poses for liberals is one this government is still wrestling with: does inequality matter if everyone’s getting richer?

Margaret Thatcher’s answer was that it did not — as she famously illustrated in one of her last Commons performances in response to a question from Simon Hughes:

Posted in News | Also tagged channel 4 factcheck, gdp, inequality, john van reenen, jonathan jones, lse politics & policy blog and margaret thatcher | 6 Comments

Reasons for Lib Dem cheer — as told by Labour and Tory supporters

By Stephen Tall | Sat 24th November 2012 - 3:15 pm

Just two things from me:

1) Anyone trying to forecast how the Lib Dems will do in 2015 based on extrapolating mid-term opinion polls on the basis of uniform national swing is likely to be as wrong as they would have been at every general election in modern history.

2) My confident forecast for 2015 is the Lib Dems will a) do less well than I’d like and b) do better than our fiercest critics would like.

Posted in News | Also tagged don paskini, featured, Liberal Conspiracy and tim wigmore | 41 Comments

What The Spectator says: ‘Obama the Lib Dem’. (PS: It may even be a compliment.)

By Stephen Tall | Tue 14th February 2012 - 8:12 pm

Over at The Spectator, Jonathan Jones looks at the US and UK approaches to their forthcoming budgets — cutting the deficit, taming debt, etc — and his fourth and final point concludes:

Obama the Lib Dem. It’s striking how similar Obama’s tax priorities are to those of the Liberal Democrats, even though the specifics differ either side of the Atlantic. Obama wants to extend the payroll tax cut for ‘160 million hardworking Americans’, which he says is worth ‘about $40 in every paycheck’ for ‘the typical family earning $50,000 a year’. The Lib Dems have been pushing to raise the

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Posted in News | Also tagged barack obama, daniel radcliffe, jonathan jones and tax cuts (Lib Dem) | 6 Comments

Nick Clegg wins Spectator’s Politician of the Year

By Helen Duffett | Thu 18th November 2010 - 12:09 pm

The Spectator’s annual Parliamentarian of the Year Awards ceremony took place last night.

Nick Clegg was named as the magazine’s Politician of the Year, while Danny Alexander and George Osborne were awarded Best Double Act.

The Mail has the photos, and Standard diarist Olivia Cole reports David Cameron’s topical joke:

Best was his line on the “spectacular” coupling. “I can’t believe,” he said, “that someone middle class, from the Home Counties, could get together with someone so wealthy whose family own a string of mansions.”

Not Kate … he was talking about his beautiful relationship with Nick Clegg. Touché.

You can read …

Posted in News | Also tagged Danny Alexander, david cameron, george osborne, kate middleton, nick clegg and olivia cole | 15 Comments

Two Lib Dem MPs rebel over VAT

By Mark Pack | Tue 29th June 2010 - 7:37 am

The Guardian:

The coalition faced its first rebellion last night when two Liberal Democrat MPs voted against a budget proposal to increase VAT to 20%.

Bob Russell and Mike Hancock voted with Labour to oppose the increase, which has alarmed many Lib Dems who warned during the election of a Tory VAT “bombshell”.

To shouts of “shame” from the Labour benches, the 2.5% increase in VAT from January was backed by 346 to 270, majority 76. Russell, MP for Colchester, and Hancock, MP for Porstmouth South, had earlier supported a backbench Lib Dem motion demanding a Treasury investigation into the impact on the

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Posted in News | Also tagged bob russell, mike hancock, the guardian and vat | 90 Comments

Social mobility: is the Coalition doing enough to encourage it?

Stephen Tall asks: "Did Nate Silver write in vain?"

Nick Clegg: "Of course the EU has to change"

"Mad, swivel-eyed loons": a top Tory on the Tories

Tag Archives: the spectator

4 graphs on Thatcher’s legacy: a richer but more unequal nation.

Reasons for Lib Dem cheer — as told by Labour and Tory supporters

What The Spectator says: ‘Obama the Lib Dem’. (PS: It may even be a compliment.)

Nick Clegg wins Spectator’s Politician of the Year

Two Lib Dem MPs rebel over VAT

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Social mobility: is the Coalition doing enough to encourage it?

Stephen Tall asks: "Did Nate Silver write in vain?"

Nick Clegg: "Of course the EU has to change"

"Mad, swivel-eyed loons": a top Tory on the Tories

Tag Archives: the spectator

4 graphs on Thatcher’s legacy: a richer but more unequal nation.

Reasons for Lib Dem cheer — as told by Labour and Tory supporters

What The Spectator says: ‘Obama the Lib Dem’. (PS: It may even be a compliment.)

Nick Clegg wins Spectator’s Politician of the Year

Two Lib Dem MPs rebel over VAT

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