Tag Archives: total politics

Caron Lindsay

Total Politics makes Stephen Williams MP of the month for votes at 16 campaign

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 3rd April 2013 - 8:55 am

Stephen Williams MPLiberal Democrat MP for Bristol West Stephen Williams is Total Politics magazine’s MP of the month for April persuading the Commons to pass his motion calling on the Government to make progress towards lowering the voting age to 16. We brought you the story earlier this year.

Total Politics wrote about Stephen’s work:

The MP’s care for young people’s representation is self-evident, as he has also served on the children, schools and families committee and education and skills committee. In 2006, he organised the latter committee’s first inquiry into

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Stephen Tall

“Liberalism shouldn’t be about the safe option, it should always be a risky thing to take on.” Alistair Carmichael on life in the Coalition as Lib Dem chief whip

By Stephen Tall | Tue 30th October 2012 - 2:15 pm

There’s a terrific interview with Lib Dem chief whip Alistair Carmichael in this month’s Total Politics magazine, in which he gives a typically candid view on what life is like as within the Coalition — and how the Lib Dem whipping operation differs from Labour’s and the Tories’. Here’s a few excerpts:

“I would say the difference between us and the other two parties in this place is that we can get to a position of unity. In fact, it’s much more important to be able to persuade a liberal,

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The Voice

Lib Link: Stephen Gilbert MP applauds Government for seeing sense on the “Pasty Tax”

By The Voice | Wed 30th May 2012 - 10:25 am

A delighted St Austell and Newquay MP Stephen Gilbert writes for the Total Politics website about the repeal of the so called “pasty tax” which had attracted huge opposition in Cornwall.

But despite the inevitable inclination to baton-down the hatches the government did engage with the industry and understood the clear constituency interest of its own MPs. The alternative actually delivers the bulk of what the government intended without any of the negative impacts: all the upside with none of the economic downside.

There’s no doubt that caravans and pasties were unforced errors.  Hindsight is a great thing and nobody claims a

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 16 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: what to look out for at Lib Dem Spring Conference

By NewsHound | Sat 11th February 2012 - 12:00 pm

The Voice’s Mark Pack has a post over at Total Politics, discussing the issues likely to dominate the upcoming Lib Dem Spring Conference in Gateshead.

The first thing to note, says Mark, is that some of the most contentious political issues of recent weeks such as the reforms to the NHS and to the welfare system don’t appear on the conference agenda as it was drawn up some time ago:

There is a slot for emergency and topical issues to cover this eventuality, but with only time for one motion, not all of the controversies can be aired. Unless a

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Mark Pack

Total Politics: top blogs and bloggers

By Mark Pack | Wed 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 …

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Mark Pack

Total Politics: top Liberal Democrat blogs and bloggers

By Mark Pack | Sat 17th September 2011 - 9:45 am

Out with a little less fanfare than usual this week have been various categories in the Total Politics Blogger League Tables, including the top Liberal Democrat blogs:

1 Lib Dem Voice

2 Caron’s Musings

3 Liberal England

4 Andrew Reeves’ Running Blog

5 Stephen’s Liberal Journal

6 Mark Pack

=7 Liberal Vision

=7 A Scottish Liberal

9 Cllr Fraser Macpherson

10 Mark Reckons

And the top Liberal Democrat bloggers:

1 Mark Pack

2 Caron Lindsay

3 Andrew Reeves

4 Jonathan Calder

5 Stephen Glenn

6 Olly Grender

7 Mark Thompson

8 Julian Astle

9 Stephen Tall

10 Fraser Macpherson

Lovely and fitting to see Andrew appear so highly in both …

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The Voice

Voting closes on Friday….

By The Voice | Thu 18th August 2011 - 9:25 am

A quick plug for ourselves: voting closes on Friday in the Total Politics Blog Awards 2011. You can cast your votes here and if you would be so kind as to remember both The Voice and the blogs run by the various contributors to this site, that would be most spiffing. Thank you!

Posted in Online politics | Also tagged | 1 Comment
The Voice

Total Politics Blog Awards: voting is now open

By The Voice | Tue 9th August 2011 - 3:48 pm

It’s that time of the year again, the Total Politics blog awards, in which people very kindly voted The Voice number one Liberal Democrat blog last year.

This year the voting rules are slightly different both to remove the old system of sending in emails and also to reflect that some people blog in several different places, so you can now vote for bloggers as well as blogs:

  1. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. The higher you rank a blog

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Nick Thornsby

LibLink: Mark Pack – The secret concessions behind the 1911 Parliament Act

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 7th July 2011 - 5:53 pm

Before he departed for his blogging holiday, The Voice’s Mark Pack had an interesting piece on the Total Politics site looking at the 100-year history of the 1911 Parliament Act.

Here’s an extract from Mark’s piece:

The 1911 Act had its immediate cause in the 1909 People’s Budget from Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, which raised taxes for the richest to pay for military armaments and social works. As he put it:

“This is a war Budget. It is for raising money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and squalidness.”

The sums now seem modest – including the equivalent in today’s

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Helen Duffett

Chris Rennard profiled in Total Politics: “Think about the swings and roundabouts over the years”

By Helen Duffett | Mon 13th June 2011 - 6:48 pm

Over at Total Politics Iain Dale interviews former Lib Dem Chief Executive Lord Rennard about his views on the local elections, The AV referendum and Coalition government.

Here’s a flavour:

Bernard Jenkin said you could imagine a Lib Dem enclave within the Conservative Party at some point. It’s happened before, hasn’t it? Do you think that that’s at all possible or likely?

I think that’s just trouble-making by someone who is very anti-coalition. I don’t think in the 21st century things will go back to the way they were in the 1920s or 1930s.

Don’t you think this time it just feels a

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Nick Thornsby

LibLink: Mark Pack – Lords reform: three tests for three party leaders

By Nick Thornsby | Sun 12th June 2011 - 8:57 am

Over on the Total Politics website, Mark Pack has a piece looking at what the coalition’s plans for reforming the House of Lords means for each of the three party leaders:

For each of them Lords reform offers both an opportunity and a threat. For David Cameron the opportunity is to push on with his mission to change the Conservative Party, modernising it in a continuing effort to shed the problems that have resulted in nearly 20 years passing since it last won an overall majority. Many in the Conservative Party, especially in the Lords, are opposed to the introduction of

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Nick Thornsby

Nick Harvey profiled in Total Politics

By Nick Thornsby | Tue 31st May 2011 - 1:27 pm

Last month’s Total Politics magazine featured a profile of Liberal Democrat Armed Forces Minister, Nick Harvey. The piece looks at Nick’s life before politics, his time as a pre-coalition MP, and the various issues that now end up on his desk as a minister in the Department of Defence.

Here’s a sample:

“This is a difficult and challenging time for the Ministry of Defence and it’s vital that we meet the needs of our service personnel,” said Nick Harvey following his appointment as Minister for the Armed Forces in May 2010. At a time of unprecedented budgetary constraints it promises to be

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Helen Duffett

LibLink | Lynne Featherstone: “Cross-departmental nagging is my strong point”

By Helen Duffett | Mon 30th May 2011 - 1:43 pm

The June issue of Total Politics has a profile of Lynne Featherstone MP in which interviewer Ben Duckworth looks at how Lynne thinks as a minister and how she is regarded.

Here’s a flavour:

On ministerial visits, she will arrive to discover that people have confused her with her Conservative colleague Maria Miller: “I go somewhere and someone thinks I’m the disabilities minister. I’m taking a look at how that can be communicated better.” This does seem to be down to her vague title, as Featherstone admits. “People think, because my nomenclature is minister for equalities, I cover race, discrimination, age

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Stephen Tall

The Saturday Debate: Can a progressive alliance between the Lib Dems and Labour work?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 23rd April 2011 - 8:45 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our Saturday slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

‘Can a progressive alliance between the Lib Dems and Labour work?’ That is the question asked in this month’s issues of Total Politics magazine, debated by Neal Lawson of the left-leaning Compass pressure group (who argues Yes) and Labour MP Michael Dugher (who says No).

Neal’s is a thoughtful piece, which recognises the ebbs and flows of history — but does not view them as inevitable. After al, it was only 13 years prior to the Coalition being formed that Paddy Ashdown …

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Helen Duffett

LibLink: Jo Swinson – “You just don’t need voting machines for AV”

By Helen Duffett | Tue 19th April 2011 - 5:47 pm

The TotalPolitics blog has an interview this week with Jo Swinson MP, in which she gets down to some mythbusting about the referendum on the voting system for the UK Parliament. Here’s an excerpt:

The only voting machines that I’ve been aware of were for counting the local council elections. I mean you just don’t need voting machines for AV. Have they ever managed to answer that question as to why they think it would? I’ll give you an example right, in my constituency, in the last two years we’ve had two by-elections in the council. Now when

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Stephen Tall

Total Politics Top 75 Lib Dem blogs list published

By Stephen Tall | Mon 6th September 2010 - 6:32 pm

It’s two months since Total Politics asked blog-readers to vote for their Top 10 favourite blogs in their annual survey promoted here on LDV, as well as at LabourList and Iain Dale’s Diary. More than 2,200 people voted, and here is the full list of the Top 75 Lib Dem blogs according to the voters of Total Politics:

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Posted in Best of the blogs and Online politics | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

The Miliband campaigning house parties

By Mark Pack | Wed 18th August 2010 - 11:12 pm

Over on the Total Politics website they’ve been poking fun at the ‘house party’ instructions issued by the David Miliband campaign. On reading the piece at first I thought it was being a little harsh, because house parties (where you invite electors – Labour members in this case – to a small event to discuss things face-to-face) have a great role in campaigning. And yes, the instructions are a bit detailed at points – but then many people will be hosting this sort of event for the first time ever.

Then, however, I got to this part:

Read your guests a

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The Voice

Total Politics best blog poll 2010: voting ends tomorrow!

By The Voice | Fri 30th July 2010 - 1:51 pm

A final reminder that time is running out: voting ends tomorrow in the Total Politics Blog Award… We hope readers may be inclined to list Lib Dem Voice somewhere, alongside many of the other fabulous Lib Dem blogging talent listed on Ryan Cullen’s Aggregator.

It’s that time of year again, when Total Politics asks you to vote for your Top 10 favourite blogs. This is the fifth year of the poll. The votes will be compiled and included in the forthcoming book, the Total Politics Guide to Blogging 2010-11, which will be published in September. For the second year running, …

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The Voice

Total Politics Best Blog Poll 2010: last week to vote!

By The Voice | Mon 26th July 2010 - 7:45 am

A gentle reminder to our readers of the fast-approaching deadline … We hope readers may be inclined to list Lib Dem Voice somewhere, alongside many of the other fabulous Lib Dem blogging talent listed on Ryan Cullen’s Aggregator.

It’s that time of year again, when Total Politics asks you to vote for your Top 10 favourite blogs. This is the fifth year of the poll. The votes will be compiled and included in the forthcoming book, the Total Politics Guide to Blogging 2010-11, which will be published in September. For the second year running, the poll is being promoted/sponsored by …

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Stephen Tall

LDV weekend meme: what is the state of the Lib Dem blogosphere?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 18th July 2010 - 2:10 pm

When Iain Dale asked if Lib Dem Voice would once again co-sponsor Total Politics’ Best Blog Poll 2010, he also set me some homework: to write c.1,500 words on ‘the State of the LibDem blogosphere’ by the end of the month. As you will see from the date, my deadline is fast approaching.

I’ve got a few ideas of what I intend to write, but I’d greatly appreciate the assistence of Lib Dem Voice readers – as well as Lib Dem bloggers – to ensure my analysis is suitably rounded and informed. I’ve come up with seven questions I …

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Posted in LDV meme | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
Helen Duffett

Total Politics Best Blog Poll 2010: vote now!

By Helen Duffett | Mon 5th July 2010 - 1:20 pm

It’s that time of year again, when Total Politics asks you to vote for your Top 10 favourite blogs. This is the fifth year of the poll. The votes will be compiled and included in the forthcoming book, the Total Politics Guide to Blogging 2010-11, which will be published in September. For the second year running, the poll is being promoted/sponsored by LabourList, LibDemVoice and Iain Dale’s Diary.

Click here to vote in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll 2010

The rules are simple.

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks …

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NewsHound

LibLink: Cllr Richard Kemp on the Lib Dem Local Government conference

By NewsHound | Mon 21st June 2010 - 1:07 pm

Lib Dem councillors had their annual conference this week within the confines of Local Government House in Smith Square, London. Co-hosted by ALDC and the Lib Dem LGA group, the conference pulls together colleagues from across the country with our parliamentary team. This year, of course, our parliamentary colleagues have joined many thousands of Lib Dem councillors in actually being in charge of running things. Normally our councillors are more experienced at holding the reins of power than our MPs.

Cllr Richard Kemp has written a review for Total Politics:

Nick pulled no punches in telling us how difficult the decisions

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NewsHound

LibLink: Mark Pack – TV leaders’ debates: the dos and don’ts

By NewsHound | Thu 15th April 2010 - 7:15 pm

Over at the Total Politics website, LDV Co-Editor Mark Pack has penned an open letter to the party leaders ahead of tonight’s televised debate. Mark offers six pieces of advice, ranging from the obvious (or you’d think they’d be obvious), such as “Behave” to the more oblique, “Be ready for the worms”. Here’s an excerpt:

“Drunkard”, “useful idiot” and “dickheads” – all terms from one of the 2006 Italian debates between Prodi and Berlusconi – are best avoided, as is this quote from a 2004 Czech debate: “You’re lying as you always have. That’s you all over – a liar from

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Mark Pack

Total Politics: Dominic Carman responds to the Nick Griffin interview

By Mark Pack | Sun 28th March 2010 - 12:50 pm

Following Total Politics’s controversial decision to interview Nick Griffin, the magazine’s website is also running responses to it, including one from Dominic Carman (Lib Dem candidate for the same Barking constituency as Nick Griffin):

Take three of Griffin’s answers from the Total Politics interview and contrast them with what he told me privately:

On Afghanistan: “The only way you could win there is if you nuked it, which can’t be done.” He told me: “We should send (British) troops in to Afghanistan…and we should obliterate as many cities as it takes.”

On VAT: “We’ve never said we’re increasing VAT.” He told me: “Income

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NewsHound

Vince talks to Iain Dale

By NewsHound | Sat 21st November 2009 - 8:16 pm

The Lib Dems’ deputy leader Vince Cable is the cover star of the December issue of Total Politics, trailing a feature interview with the Tory blogger we all love to name-check, Iain Dale. Here’s a taster:

Do you see the Liberal Democrats as a centre-left party?

No, I don’t use that description. I know some of my colleagues have in the past. There are some areas where we are, to use the jargon, centre-left progressive. A redistributive approach to taxation is obviously one of them, but there are other respects in which we are genuinely liberal, which puts us on the other

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Stephen Tall

The state of the Liberal Democrat blogosphere

By Stephen Tall | Fri 18th September 2009 - 2:45 pm

There is of course no such thing as ‘the Lib Dem blogosphere’. For sure there are hundreds of Lib Dems who write blogs, but any suggestion we can be neatly bundled together into one coherent entity is wide of the mark – we’d scarcely be liberals otherwise. Which is why if you visit the Lib Dem Blogs Aggregator – a site which collates the feeds of more than 220 active bloggers – you will find posts about potholes and proportional representation, pop-culture and Palestine, all nestling alongside each other. If anything defines ‘the Lib Dem blogosphere’ it is this eclecticism.

We can separate political blogs – whether Lib Dem, Labour or Tory – into two broad categories. First, there those bloggers who write primarily for (and are read primarily by) those already interested in politics. And then there are those bloggers – usually political campaigners – who are primarily writing for readers in their electoral patch.

In each case it’s true to say the Lib Dems punch well above our weight. You don’t have to take my word for it.

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Stephen Tall

Top 75 Lib Dem blogs: the Total Politics List

By Stephen Tall | Tue 1st September 2009 - 9:00 am

It’s six weeks since Total Politics asked blog-readers to vote for their Top 10 favourite blogs in their annual survey promoted here on LDV, as well as at LabourList and Iain Dale’s Diary. More than 1,500 people voted, and here is the full list of the Top 75 Lib Dem blogs in the Total Politics list:

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Mark Pack

Tim Farron’s book likes and dislikes: CS Lewis and Richard Dawkins

By Mark Pack | Sat 8th August 2009 - 5:38 pm

Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron features in the ‘Brought to book’ column in the current edition of Total Politics, answering questions such as:

What is your least favourite book?

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I’m a Christian, but I don’t object to people criticising my faith or even trying to ‘disprove’ it. However, I do object to bright people like Dawkins writing uncritical and abysmally researched polemic and then parading it as a respectable work.

What was the most inspiring book you have ever read and why?

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Stephen Tall

48 hours left to vote in the Total Politics top blogs poll

By Stephen Tall | Wed 29th July 2009 - 10:00 pm
Click here to vote in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll 2009

Yes, that’s right folks, you have until midnight this Friday to cast your votes in the Total Politics poll of Top 10 favourite blogs. This year, the poll is being co-promoted by Lib Dem Voice, LabourList and Iain Dale’s Diary.

For full details and rules, please see our previous LDV posting. Then email your Top Ten Favourite Blogs to [email protected]

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Stephen Tall

LDV weekend meme: what is the state of the Lib Dem blogosphere?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 25th July 2009 - 4:30 pm

When Iain Dale asked if Lib Dem Voice would this year co-sponsor Total Politics’ Best Blog Poll 2009, he also set me some homework: to write c.1,000 words on ‘the State of the LibDem blogosphere’ by the end of the month? As you will see from the date, my deadline is fast approaching.

I’ve got a few ideas of what I intend to write, but I’d greatly appreciate the insistence of Lib Dem Voice readers – as well as Lib Dem bloggers – to ensure my analysis is suitably rounded and informed. I’ve come up with five questions I …

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Posted in LDV meme | Also tagged , and | 15 Comments



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