Author Archives: Helen Duffett

Six Rochdale Lib Dem councillors resign over leadership

By Helen Duffett | Fri 19th November 2010 - 3:05 pm

Six Liberal Democrat councillors in Rochdale have resigned from the party in protest over its leadership nationally and locally.

Pat and Ted Flynn, Peter Davison, Doreen Brophy Lee, Barbara Todd and Naim Mahmood will sit as independents.

Councillor Pat Flynn said the party was “doing too many U-turns”.

Councillor Dale Mulgrew, deputy leader of Rochdale Lib Dems, said the resignations were part of a dispute over the party’s selection process.

Two of the councillors had been deselected by the party ahead of next year’s local elections.

Rochdale Council is led by a coalition of Liberal Democrats and Conservatives.

Read the full story …

Posted in News | Tagged defections and rochdale | 34 Comments

Fifteen new Liberal Democrat Peers appointed

By Helen Duffett | Fri 19th November 2010 - 11:33 am

Fifteen new Liberal Democrat working peers have just been announced…

Dr Sarah (Sal) Brinton – Executive Director of the Association of Universities in the East of England

Dee Doocey OBE – Chair of the London Assembly

Qurban Hussain – Deputy Group Leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Luton Borough Council

Judith Jolly – Chair of Executive Committee of Liberal Democrats in Devon and Cornwall

Susan Kramer – former Liberal Democrat MP

Raj Loomba – businessman and campaigner for widows’ rights

Jonathan Marks – commercial and family law QC with specialist interest in human rights and constitutional reform

Monroe Palmer OBE – Liberal

…

Posted in Parliament | Tagged ben stoneham, claire tyler, dee doocey, featured, house of lords, interim peers panel, jenny randerson, john sharkey, jonathan marks, judith jolly, mike storey, monroe palmer, nicol stephen, paul strasburger, qurban hussain, raj loomba, sal brinton and susan kramer | 77 Comments

Charles Kennedy MP responds to tuition fees open letter

By Helen Duffett | Thu 18th November 2010 - 1:05 pm

Chris Mills has blogged Charles Kennedy’s reply to the open letter organised by Sophie Bertrand asking all MPs to honour their pledge on tuition fees.

Former Liberal Youth Executive member Sophie Bertrand wrote last month on Lib Dem Voice:

We all know that the review is merely a suggestion for how the government should approach this situation. Yet the fact that Nick and Vince seem to be jumping on the Browne bandwagon leads me to expect the worst. It would seem that they need reminding of the slogan we fought with during this year’s General Election

…

Posted in News | Tagged browne report, charles kennedy, chris mills, higher education, liberal youth, sophie bertrand, tuition fees and universities | 57 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 | Tagged Danny Alexander, david cameron, george osborne, kate middleton, nick clegg, olivia cole and the spectator | 15 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #195

By Helen Duffett | Wed 17th November 2010 - 8:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 195th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (7th-14th November, 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

Posted in Best of the blogs | 4 Comments

LDVideo: “Come to Oldham” edition

By Helen Duffett | Wed 17th November 2010 - 5:35 pm

A twin travelogue treat to tempt Lib Dems to go and help in the Oldham East and Saddleworth election rerun:

If you choose your delivery round carefully, you can see some pretty scenery in the constituency – Chris Davies MEP gives us a glimpse of the countryside while urging us to turn up soon:

Video also available on Youtube here.

Next, Lib Dem President-elect Tim Farron takes us behind the scenes at Campaign HQ – those leaflets won’t deliver themselves…

Posted in Lib Dem TV and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged chris davies, oldham east and saddleworth and tim farron | 9 Comments

Lib Dem leader of Sheffield Council wins top European honour

By Helen Duffett | Tue 16th November 2010 - 11:18 am

Paul Scriven, the Leader of Sheffield City Council, has won a Europe-wide award for the work he and his Liberal Democrat colleagues have done to put power into the hands of Sheffield people.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe held their Leader Awards last night, “recognising the work of outstanding local and regional liberal and democrat politicians.”

Cllr Scriven received the Achievement in Local Government Award. Others up for award included local politicians from France, Croatia and Holland.

Since Paul became the Liberal Democrat Leader of the Council in 2008 Sheffield has seen a raft of new ideas to devolve …

Posted in News | Tagged ALDE, community politics, paul scriven and sheffield | 3 Comments

David Laws: 22 Days in May

By Helen Duffett | Mon 15th November 2010 - 4:18 pm

David Laws’ account of the negotiations that led to the Coalition agreement is due out next Monday.

According to the publishers:

The Liberal Democrats’ and Conservatives’ decision to form a Coalition government has changed the face of British politics. This book sets out the inside story of how this momentous event unfolded, and how – together – the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have started to address the challenge of a massive government budget deficit.

22 Days in May is the first detailed Liberal Democrat insider account of the negotiations which led to the formation of the Lib Dem/Conservative coalition government in May 2010,

…

Posted in Books | Tagged coalition agreement and david laws | 17 Comments

A day in the life of Stephen Lloyd MP

By Helen Duffett | Sun 14th November 2010 - 4:18 pm

There’s an interesting short video from the BBC’s Politics Show South East, featuring the new Liberal Democrat MP for Eastbourne, Stephen Lloyd.

“Every single decision I take goes through the prism of Eastbourne,” says Stephen, as he shares his thoughts on coalition government and tuition fees.

You can also read about a typical Westminster work day for Stephen:

His Wednesday starts at 9 am with a two-hour long Work and Pensions select committee.

He goes straight from there to Prime Minister’s Questions and the big topic of debate is the government’s decision to allow universities to charge tuition fees of up to £9,000.

…

Posted in Parliament | Tagged coalition, higher education, stephen lloyd, tuition fees and universities | 3 Comments

Have-a-go Hames

By Helen Duffett | Sat 13th November 2010 - 9:27 pm

Duncan Hames, the new Liberal Democrat MP for Chippenham, has spoken of chasing after a man who snatched a woman’s bag in his constituency.

From the BBC:

Liberal Democrat Duncan Hames said he had been sitting in his car at traffic lights on Friday when he saw the theft.

He pulled over, spoke to the woman to make sure she was unhurt and chased after the thief through Monkton Park.

He said a cyclist who also saw what happened managed to retrieve the bag. Mr

…

Posted in News | Tagged chippenham and duncan hames | 1 Comment

More results: party committees and interim peers panel

By Helen Duffett | Sat 13th November 2010 - 1:20 pm

Liberal Democrat Federal Conference representatives have voted for members of party committees for 2011-2012 and members of the panel from which future Liberal Democrat nominees for the House of Lords will be drawn.

The results are as follows:

Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged eldr council delegation, featured, federal conference committee, federal executive, federal policy committee, interim peers panel and international relations committee | 6 Comments

Lib Dem Presidential Contest: Result

By Helen Duffett | Sat 13th November 2010 - 12:19 pm

Posted in News and Party Presidency | Tagged featured, susan kramer and tim farron | 26 Comments

Peers call for end of child detention in immigration centres

By Helen Duffett | Fri 12th November 2010 - 7:02 pm

Following the Home Office’s decision to postpone until March the end of child detention in immigration removal centres, a group of peers has written to the Guardian calling for the government to honour their commitment to end the practice.

The group of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Crossbench peers includes Roger Roberts and Navnit Dholakia, as well as Sue Miller, who told Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning that the equivalent of four or five primary schools per year are being locked up:

We are really tired of waiting for the end of child detention… We need not to lock

…

Posted in News | Tagged child detention, navnit dholakia, roger roberts and sue miller | 6 Comments

The LDV Friday Five: 12 November 2010

By Helen Duffett | Fri 12th November 2010 - 5:00 pm

It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

Forced to work without pay…Labour got there first, says FT (173 comments) by Iain Roberts.
Phil Woolas loses court case over his election (133 comments) by The Voice.
Jeremy Browne MP writes… I’m no Tory: I’m a radical, authentic liberal (70 comments) by Jeremy Browne MP.
A new member writes… Why I’ve decided to join the Liberal Democrats now (60 comments) by Tony Butcher.
Setting the Independent straight on candidate’s defection (41 comments) by Helen Duffett.

This week’s 5 most active Liberal Democrat online campaigns

5 from the LDV archive

(from this week in 2006-09)

A photo-shoot too far for Cameron? (8 comments) by Iain Roberts, from 2009.
Doing the Database Rag (1 comment) by Helen Duffett, from 2008.
Brian Paddick to enter I’m A Celebrity (26 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2008.
Anyone know what the Tory party’s policy on Europe is today? (4 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2007.
South East Lib Dems call for change in party policy on the Lords (6 comments) by The Voice, from 2006.

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

LibLink: Tim Farron – Tuition fees are the poll tax of our generation

By Helen Duffett | Fri 12th November 2010 - 9:43 am

Over at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, Tim Farron MP reiterates his pledge to vote against tuition fees, calling them “the poll tax of our generation” – a reference to the angry scenes at Wednesday’s demonstration.

In his article, Tim makes the distinction between the NUS pledge against tuition fees, signed by Parliamentary candidates before the General Election (which he intends to abide by), the Liberal Democrat manifesto (which became a negotiating document) and the Coalition Agreement (which contains 65% of the Liberal Democrat manifesto).

Posted in LibLink | Tagged coalition agreement, general election manifesto, higher education, poll tax, tuition fees and universities | 34 Comments

English Party election results 2010

By Helen Duffett | Thu 11th November 2010 - 4:08 pm

Yesterday the counts took place for the English party elections.

The Acting Returning Officer, David Allworthy, reported the results as follows:

At the close of nominations on 29 September 2010 the following were declared duly elected, unopposed:

Chair of English Party:
Jonathan Davies

Chair of English Candidates’ Committee:
Margaret Joachim

English representative to Federal Conference Committee (1 place):
Geoff Payne

English Candidates Committee (5 places):
Dawn Davidson
Sal Jarvis
Brian Orrell

The following were elected:

English representative to Federal Executive:
Brian Orrell: 46
Michael Wheatley: 32

English representative to Federal Policy Committee:
Dirk Hazell: 10
Geoff Payne: 68

English Executive Committee (12 places):
Nigel Ashton
Stan Collins
Dawn Davidson
Kay Friend
Anders Hanson
Sean Hooker
Sal Jarvis
Steve Jarvis
Brian Orrell
Geoff Payne
Neil Walton
Mike Wheatley

The turnout was 65.5% (higher …

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | 5 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #194

By Helen Duffett | Wed 10th November 2010 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 194th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (31st October — 6th November, 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

Three former Labour MPs face criminal trial over expenses

By Helen Duffett | Wed 10th November 2010 - 10:26 am

The Supreme Court has ruled this morning that three former Labour MPs should face criminal trials over their expenses claims.

Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine, charged with theft by false accounting, had previously argued at the Court of Appeal that only Parliament could hear their case.

The three have now exhausted their challenge to an original ruling which rejected their claims to Parliamentary privilege, a 300-year-old immunity from legal proceedings arising from actions within Parliament; however the judge ruled in June that individual expense claims are “not covered by parliamentary privilege and… triable in Crown Court”.

From the

Posted in News | Tagged david chaytor, elliot morley, jim devine and mps expenses | 10 Comments

Last chance to vote in Party Committee Elections 2010 (online voting closes noon today)

By Helen Duffett | Wed 10th November 2010 - 6:53 am

Online voting in this year’s Liberal Democrat Committee elections closes at NOON today, so if you’re a Federal Conference Rep who hasn’t yet returned your vote, there’s still time to get online and do so.

To vote by internet, go to:

www.votebyinternet.com/partycommittee2010 and follow the online instructions.

You’ll need to enter your security code, which is printed on your ballot paper.

The counts for the Party Committee and Presidential elections will take place this Saturday, 13th November.

To get the results keep an eye on this site – I’ll be at Cowley Street, to bring you the results as soon as they are announced.

Posted in Party policy and internal matters and Party Presidency | 3 Comments

Setting the Independent straight on candidate’s defection

By Helen Duffett | Mon 8th November 2010 - 6:48 am

The Independent’s Andrew Grice has spiced up the story of a Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate’s defection to Labour with the help of some figures – which turn out to be incorrect.

Andrew Lewin, who stood in Hertford and Stortford in May, has switched to Labour “in protest at his leader’s acceptance of Conservative policies and abandonment of key elements of his party’s programme.”

The article refers to Lewin:

at 23 the youngest Lib Dem candidate in England at the May election

when in fact the youngest Liberal Democrat candidate was Alan Belmore, who was aged 20 on polling day, when he …

Posted in News | Tagged alan belmore, andrew grice and andrew lewin | 44 Comments

The LDV Friday Five: 5 November 2010

By Helen Duffett | Fri 5th November 2010 - 5:00 pm

It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

1. Jo Swinson MP writes on tuition fees (123 comments) by Jo Swinson
2. The same policy can be good or evil – depends who thought of it (70 comments) by Iain Roberts
3. Labour’s manifesto pledge to cap Housing Benefit (74 comments) by Iain Roberts
4. Opinion: Are there no workhouses? Our skewed housing benefit debate (62 comments) by Dominic Curran
5. Nick Clegg talks of dog mess coming through his door and being spat at in the street (13 comments) by Newshound

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

Yes to Fair Votes website up and running
Independent reckons there may be an electoral pact
Julian Glover: Ten tips for the LibDems
Alcohol and Anti social behaviour
Exciting new Focus template ideas wanted

5 from the LDV archive

(5th November, 2006-09)

1. Clegg welcomes Obama’s election (0 comments) by The Voice, from 2008
2. Opinion: Food Chains (11 comments) by Paul Walter, from 2007
3. Laws exposes ‘sharp fall’ in language GCSEs (0 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2007
4. Video: Chris Huhne and the Liberal Democrats on the Climate Change march (0 comments) by The Founding Editor, from 2006
5. Peers panel result (10 comments) by Will Howells, from 2006

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

Posted in Friday Five | 2 Comments

Nick Clegg’s speech on European growth

By Helen Duffett | Thu 4th November 2010 - 6:53 pm

This morning Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg gave a speech at the Government Leaders’ Forum Europe 2010 in London.

He called for a united response to “a financial crisis that has changed the world” and proposed “four levers for durable, lasting prosperity”:

Openness in trade; more flexible labour markets; greater investment in infrastructure; and a workforce equipped to thrive in the green, digital economy of the future.

Towards the end, he touched on UK university tuition fees and outlined the proposed reforms:

The UK is already blessed with a world-class university sector. But we need to secure it for the future…

Read on:

Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged higher education, nick clegg, tuition fees and universities | 6 Comments

Nick Clegg and Simon Hughes ask: Are you registered to vote?

By Helen Duffett | Mon 1st November 2010 - 8:50 pm

In the light of today’s news that 3.5 million voters are missing from the electoral register, and in view of the forthcoming boundary changes based on the number of voters on the electoral roll as it stands next month, a timely email reminder today to Liberal Democrat members from Nick Clegg and Simon Hughes:

I’m sure you will agree that we as Liberal Democrats need to play our part in helping to ensure that everybody who should have the right to vote is in a position to exercise that right come next May.

Tomorrow we will be debating the third reading

…

Posted in Election law and News | Tagged nick clegg, parliamentary boundary review, Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill and simon hughes | 4 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #192

By Helen Duffett | Sun 31st October 2010 - 5:22 pm

Welcome to a catchup of the Golden Dozen’s 192nd weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (17th — 23rd October 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

The LDV Friday Five: 29 October 2010

By Helen Duffett | Fri 29th October 2010 - 5:00 pm

It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

Posted in Friday Five | 1 Comment

This week’s by-election results: holds all round

By Helen Duffett | Fri 29th October 2010 - 4:50 pm

Camden LBC, Kentish Town
Lab 1411 (53.0; +17.7)
LD Nick Russell 715 (26.9; -3.6)
Green 349 (13.1; -4.7)
Con 186 (7.0; -5.1)

Majority 696
Turnout 26.02%
Lab HOLD
Percentage change is since May 2010

South Lanarkshire UA, East Kilbride West
Lab 847 (41.4; +0.8)
SNP 571 (27.9; -2.4)
Con 403 (19.7; +5.7)
Green 82 (4.0; +0.2)
East Kilbride Alliance 71 (3.5; -0.7)
LD Gordon Smith 70 (3.4; -3.7)
Turnout 17.44%
Labour HOLD
Percentage change is since May 2007

See here for the breakdown of votes for each stage of the count.

Cheltenham BC, Springbank
LD Chris Coleman 722 (66.4; -2.9)
Con 188 (17.3; -13.4)
Lab 142 (13.1; +13.1)
Green 35 (3.2; +3.2)
Majority 534
Turnout not known
LD HOLD
Percentage change is since May 2010

See the …

Posted in Council by-elections | Tagged chris coleman, east kilbride west, gordon smith, great aycliffe, janine mawson, kentish town and nick russell | 13 Comments

Tom Brake writes to David Cameron on control orders‏

By Helen Duffett | Thu 28th October 2010 - 5:25 pm

Tom Brake MP wrote to the Prime Minister yesterday, to push for the scrapping of Control Orders, and for a reduction in the pre-charge detention period. The letter is co-signed by the other Liberal Democrat Co-Chairs of the Home Affairs, Justice and Equalities Parliamentary Party Committee: Baroness Sally Hamwee and Lord Martin Thomas.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

We believe we represent the broad view of the Liberal Democrat membership, both from past policy statements agreed at Conference and set out in the Lib Dem Manifesto, and from current soundings within the Party.

We have been delighted by the

…

Posted in News | Tagged control orders, martin thomas, pre-charge detention, sally hamwee and tom brake | 3 Comments

Making short political videos: three top tips

By Helen Duffett | Tue 26th October 2010 - 12:18 pm

Candidates and councillors find videos a real complement to their other campaign methods and, done well, they can be a powerful way for voters to get to know issues and personalities. They’re especially useful in internal party elections where candidates may not be able to meet all of their large electorate in person. They’re also great for campaigners at a local level, where there’s usually a lack of good quality information on hyperlocal matters.

Recently I’ve noticed a surge of interest from people who are keen to try it themselves, so here are my top tips for making your own short political videos, and they all begin with “V”.

Posted in Online politics | Tagged archibald sinclair, featured and YouTube | 1 Comment

LibLink: David Laws – Why I’m proud of the pupil premium

By Helen Duffett | Mon 25th October 2010 - 6:35 pm

Over at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, David Laws writes of the importance of delivering the Pupil Premium – a key Liberal Democrat election pledge.

He corrects two misconceptions. First, that the pupil premium is not additional money:

This is nonsense. Without the pupil premium, I suspect that the budget for schools would have been based on a per pupil cash freeze for the period up to 2015. That would have meant a real cut in schools funding over the next few years. Instead, schools funding will rise by 0.1% (above inflation) each year until 2015.

The second misconception:

It would, however, be

…

Posted in LibLink | Tagged david laws and pupil premium | 34 Comments

Kerry McCarthy MP cautioned for illegally revealing postal vote results on Twitter

By Helen Duffett | Mon 25th October 2010 - 3:52 pm

Kerry McCarthy, the Labour MP who illegally revealed postal vote results on Twitter in April, has been given a police caution.

Labour’s “Twitter Tsar” and a qualified solicitor, has avoided a fine or a six month prison sentence for the offence. She deleted her original post after a few minutes, but not before it had been spread around the internet.

From the Guardian:

She boasted to thousands of followers that an early batch showed Labour receiving far more support in her constituency than the Conservatives

…

Posted in Election law and News | Tagged kerry mccarthy and twitter | 2 Comments

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Author Archives: Helen Duffett

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

This week’s 5 most active Liberal Democrat online campaigns

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5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

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5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

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