Charles Kennedy MP has emailed Liberal Democrat members and supporters with a “get out and vote” (and “get out the vote”) message, ahead of tomorrow’s elections and referendum:
Tomorrow you have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to have your say on how we elect our MPs to Westminster. Important elections are also taking place across the country for the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament & local councils. Thursday is Decision Day.
When I was first elected in 1983, the idea of changing our voting system for Westminster elections seemed important, but the chance seemed remote. When the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly were established, neither
Phil Willis (Lord Willis of Knaresborough) asked Her Majesty’s Government “what they estimate will be the costs of a general election held under the alternative vote system”.
Lord McNally replied that the costs of a general election under AV would be broadly the same as under the existing system. Any extra costs incurred by the …
Here’s a preview of the Yes campaign’s second broadcast which will be shown tonight – it’s on at the following times:
17.55 – BBC 2
18.25 – ITV 1
18.55 – BBC 1
19.25 – Five
19.50 – Channel 4
Dan Snow presents a demonstration of how AV is “a common-sense solution to find out the result that the majority are happy with”, illustrated by a bunch of friends deciding where to go for a night out. It’s a new version of Dan’s previous – and very successful – video along the same lines, highlighting the point that First Past the Post is suited to binary choices, and doesn’t work for multiple choices:
As long as there are only two choices – the coffee shop and the pub – the old voting system works fine. But the trouble starts when there are more than two choices.
There will be a great sense of relief today that Osama Bin Laden, a man who wrought so much destruction and who spread such a vile, hate filled ideology, can no longer do so.
This successful US operation is a major step forward and a serious blow to Al Qaeda but it does not mean that the struggle against terrorism is over. We will all need to continue to be as vigilant
When you’re out campaigning this weekend for the elections and Fairer Votes referendum, make sure you let your friends on Facebook and Twitter know what you’ve been up to.
Hundreds of people are already using Lib Dem Voice’s new Facebook app to do just this. It’s a great way of building up a buzz around our campaigning – and the more someone sees their friends have been campaigning, the more likely they are to join in.
You get a list of actions – select one and publish it to your …
A deaf councillor is being forced to spend a lot of his own money on sign language interpreters in order to fulfil his duties to his constituents.
Lib Dem Councillor David Buxton, who is believed to be the only deaf councillor in the UK using interpreters, says that he pays up to £300 a month for their services, despite only getting £160 a month in expenses from the council.
Epsom and Ewell council’s website recommends that councillors meet with “key local stakeholders” and “deal with all residents enquiries.”
It pays for interpreters for all council meetings, working groups, civic occasions and formal ward surgeries – but is refusing to pick up the bill for other events Coun Buxton attends such as non-official residents meetings.
However the council says that it has contacted the Disability Rights Commission and is fulfilling its obligations under equalities legislation.
Coun Buxton, who represents Court Ward, and is the chief executive of the British Deaf Association which raises awareness of deaf issues , said: “It is very difficult to manage as a councillor with a disability.
“I want to represent my community and campaign, but it is costing me a lot of money to do so.
“The council should do more to help, especially at local resident’s group meetings. The council feels these groups should pay for signers, but they don’t have any funding at all and are voluntary.
“All I want to do is have a full communication with my residents as their local councillor and at the moment I don’t feel this is the case.”
Lib Dem leader Julie Morris said that the money available to Coun Buxton is simply not enough to perform his role as an active councillor as set out on the council’s “how to be a councillor” section of the website.
She said: “The reality is that if he wants to be a good and active councillor he is going to have to fund it himself.
“It is difficult because he is having to pay a lot of money to do his role – far more than any other councillor.”
Back in September, Councillor Buxton spoke in the diversity debate at Liberal Democrat Conference, highlighting the difficulties he faces as a Deaf politician. His speech, which was translated from British Sign Language to English, was featured on BBC’s See Hear, a magazine show for the Deaf community.
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
Although he could have been allowed to keep the money under current rules, the Hallam MP and Lib Dem leader said he wanted to “lead by example” and that he hoped other MPs follow suit as they are forced to sell second homes and rent properties instead.
Lib Dem Voice have launched a new Facebook app to make it easy for you to let your friends on Facebook and Twitter know what campaigning you’ve been doing.
This is a great way of building up a buzz around our campaigning – and the more someone sees their friends have been campaigning, the more likely they are to join in.
You get a list of actions – select one and publish it to your newsfeed.
Some actions are of the simple “I have done” variety whilst others have the …
Did you know that most of us have an MP that we voted against?
That our elections are decided by a small number of voters in marginal seats? That the worst expenses scandals occurred in safe seats, many of which hadn’t changed party since the Second World War?
Our current voting system, first-past-the- post, isn’t fit for purpose anymore and is failing us.
It means that most people’s votes don’t count; it’s created
Nick Clegg’s article in the Indy today is a spare, evidential piece, as neatly sliced and lacking in rhetoric as an appointment diary.
But what a diary. Flip back a year, and Gordon was driving to the Palace to call the General Election, as the Liberal Democrats prepared to launch their manifesto.
Now, Nick writes,
…something is happening that, for the Liberal Democrats, is a new experience: the policies we championed during the election are becoming reality. I don’t mean that consultations are being announced, votes held, or papers published. Over the next few days, lives will be changed for
We are campaigning for better politics and as part of that we have decided to declare who is funding our campaign in a spirit of openness and honesty. In doing so, we are giving more details than required by law and we are giving these details far earlier than required.
We are doing this because if people are going to re-connect with politics, then the people seeking their votes must be open and honest. We will update
In a comment on Lib Dem Voice this morning, Dominic Carman has said that he no longer intends to put his name forward as Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor.
Given other commitments, I have reached the conclusion that I cannot financially afford to run an effective campaign as the Lib Dem candidate for Mayor. Regrettably, I will therefore not be putting my name forward when the selection procedure formally restarts in May. Having spoken
Yesterday, Labour held a seat in the London Borough of Lewisham and gained one from the Independent in Pontypool, Torfaen.
Lewisham LBC, Bellingham
Lab 1100 (51.4; +8.3)
Con 340 (15.9; -3.1)
LD Jenni Steele 334 (15.6; -11.1)
Others (12.3; +6.6) Socialist Alternative – Lewisham People Before Profit 264
Green 100 (4.7; -0.8)
Majority 760
Turnout 22%
Lab hold
Percentage change is since May 2010.
(In May 2010 “Others” was an Independent who got 5.8% of the vote)
Torfaen UA, Pontypool
Lab 178 (30.9; +0.3)
Others (57.3; -12.1) Ind 161, Ind 80, Ind 46, Ind 25, Ind 12
PC 50 (8.7; +8.7)
Con 18 (3.1; +3.1)
Majority 17
Turnout 39.5%
Lab gain from Ind
Percentage change is since May 2008.
Liberal Democrat candidate for the forthcoming Leicester South by-election, Parmjit Singh Gill, has announced he is to stand down. He will be replaced by Zuffar Haq.
Commenting, Parmjit Singh Gill said:
Given much reflection and after talking with my family, it is with regret that I have decided to stand down as a candidate for the by-election.
I remain committed to the people of Leicester and am proud to represent the Liberal Democrats, but I have a very young family and I fear the toll that fighting the by-election with all the commitment and dedication it deserves would be too much.
At the start of Budget week, Danny Alexander writes at Comment is Free that the coalition government is about more than balancing the books, but about enacting reform with a foundation of economic recovery.
Leicester South Liberal Democrats last night selected Parmjit Singh Gill as their candidate for the Leicester South by-election, at a hustings in the constituency.
Gill was previously the MP for Leicester South from 2004 to 2005, having gained the seat from Labour in the 2004 by-election.
Current MP Sir Peter Soulsby (Labour) is resigning so that he can stand to be Leicester’s first elected mayor.
Commenting on his selection Parmjit Singh Gill said,
It’s an honour and privilege to be selected to fight Leicester South for the Liberal Democrats. Only last May the Labour MP convinced constituents that he was committed to
The Liberal Democrats have gained a seat from the Conservatives on Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in yesterday’s Pembridge by-election, with a swing of more than 13%.
The result in full:
LD Claire Brown 578 (43.3; +2.7)
Con 460 (34.5; -24.9)
UKIP 296 (22.2; +22.2)
Majority 118
Turnout 35.41%
LD gain from Con
Percentage change is since May 2010.
New Liberal Democrat councillor Claire Brown said,
I am delighted and honoured to win this seat in Pembury and serve the village. I am a local mother of three young children who runs my own business. We fought an excellent campaign against the Tories who put up a candidate from outside the
Along with Floella Benjamin, Simon Hughes MP, John Leech MP, Gordon Birtwistle MP and Liberal Youth’s Sarah Harding, Tim spoke of the importance of winning the referendum, calling it “a momentous opportunity” and welcoming Labour leader Ed Miliband to the Yes campaign.
Here’s Tim’s speech in full:
We have a medieval voting system that has failed. It’s failed to give most people the MP they voted for, its failed to hold MPs to account, its failed even to do the one thing it was
Lynne Featherstone, Minister for Equalities, has launched Charter for Action – a set of principles to help stamp out homophobia and transphobia in sport and make sport a welcoming environment for LGBT people.
A groundbreaking gay sports charter which will invite national governing bodies of sports to commit to tackling homophobia was launched yesterday.
The announcement was made by Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone as she attended the Sheffield Eagles rugby league game – a match against Widnes Vikings which saw players take a stand against homophobia by wearing specially made kits bearing the slogan ‘Homophobia: Tackle
In the Financial Times, Paddy Ashdown (former High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina and former Leader of the Liberal Democrats) calls for a no-fly zone in Libya:
It is difficult not to feel a wearisome sense of déjà vu watching European leaders on Friday saying something needed to be done in Libya, but failing completely to say what.
Libya is not our backyard. But what happens there and in the other countries of the Maghreb matters to us Europeans very much. If those who have overturned dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt (and hopefully Libya) in this “Arab spring” can create effective,
Yesterday, Labour gained a seat from the Lib Dems in Burnley and held a seat in the London Borough of Southwark.
Burnley BC, Rosegrove with Lowerhouse:
Lab 521 (43.1; +11.8)
BNP 288 (23.8; +5.5)
LD Kate Mottershead 261 (21.6; -11.8)
Con 81 (6.7; -10.2)
Ind 58 (4.8; +4.8)
Majority 233
Turnout 25%
Lab gain from LD
Percentage change is since May 2010
Southwark LBC, Brunswick Park:
Lab 1981 (65.1; +13.3)
LD Kate Heywood 630 (20.7; -2.0)
Green 231 (7.6; -6.9)
Con 129 (4.2; -6.7)
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition 70 (2.3; +2.3)
Majority 1351
Turnout 34.2%
Lab hold
Percentage change is since May 2010
See the ALDC website for full by-election results and commentary.
For example, the ID card database was publicly destroyed on 11th February 2011 and Project Merlin has ensured that the UK has the most transparent banking pay disclosure scheme in the world.
Sarah Teather’s SEN Green Paper has proposed key reforms to the way Special Education Needs are diagnosed and the support that children and parents receive.
The National Curriculum is under review, with the aim of replacing the current system with a slimmed-down and more competitive version.
The Government are backing Lord Clement-Jones’ Live Music Bill, which aims to cut red tape for putting on live music, as set out on page 46 of the Lib Dem Manifesto.
The cross-party Committee, which I chair, has been considering proposals for a wholly or mainly elected second Chamber. The Government will publish a draft Bill shortly, which will then be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny. The Government hope that that will be carried out by a Joint Committee of both Houses.
David Allen A clear, credible, principled strategy from the Yorkists! Makes a welcome change.
Sadly, followed by twenty below-the-line posts, providing nearly twenty ve...
Simon McGrath so we get a permanant increase in costs for these subsidies based on ( alleged ) windfall profits. Its another big increase in spending -how is it to be paid ...
Peter Davies @Kira CollinsThat assumes we want to help people more with their energy bills than with all the other bills they may be struggling with. There is no reason why ...
Rob Heale Agree that we need to focus on strategy and have clearer messaging:-
1. We MUST prioritise membership recruitment in all we do, including PPB's, most leaflets...
Kira Collins Disappointed. The most obvious means of reducing energy bills is to remove VAT. Relatively straightforward to do and does not adversely impact on the attractive...
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The pine martens of Shropshire
The shame of Liverpool Labour councillors taking their allowances but not turning up to do the work
Should Labour reconsider the Brexit red lines?
David Allen 
Simon McGrath 
Peter Davies 
Rob Heale 
Kira Collins 