Author Archives: Iain Roberts

Iain Roberts

Were the Lib Dems the conference media winners?

By Iain Roberts | Wed 6th October 2010 - 1:44 pm

When it comes to party conferences, all parties complain that the media get it wrong.

If you’re in the Green Party, UKIP, Plaid, the SNP or another smaller party you’ll be frustrated about the way the national media ignore you.  All those great policies and speeches to the party faithful, but you end up with a small paragraph in the Times.  If you’re lucky.

The Lib Dems were finding out this year what it’s like not to be ignored. Tabloid hacks arriving for the first time from the Sun , Express, Mirror and Mail may have been as bemused by the disappointing …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | 7 Comments
Iain Roberts

83% support child benefit cut

By Iain Roberts | Wed 6th October 2010 - 7:55 am

A YouGov poll in The Sun this morning has 83% supporting the plans to scrap child benefit for high-rate taxpayers, with only 15% opposing the idea and an astonishingly small 2% who don’t have an opinion.

Whether that will calm Cameron’s nerves when faced with the full fury of the Daily Mail remains to be seen.

Posted in News | Tagged , and | 23 Comments
Iain Roberts

Capping total benefit entitlements – right or wrong?

By Iain Roberts | Tue 5th October 2010 - 12:40 pm

Alongside the widely publicised lopping of child benefits for higher-rate taxpayers, George Osborne has also announced plans for a cap on how much any one non-working family can get from the State.

The maximum will be set at £26,000 and starts in 2013. It’s likely to affect larger families, particularly those put into private rented accomodation by their local authority.

This capping seems to be pretty much impossible to do with the system as it is right now. There’s a host of different benefits and credits, all administered by different people and, in some cases, totally different tiers of government. …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 142 Comments
Iain Roberts

Child benefit: the cutting debate

By Iain Roberts | Tue 5th October 2010 - 8:11 am

George Osborne has announced that the Coalition Government plans to scrap child benefit payments for families where one or both parents is a higher rate taxpayer.

Child benefit is currently paid to families (normally to the mother) where any children are under 18. It isn’t a means tested benefit: you have to apply and show you’ve got children, but there are no long, complicated forms to fill out where you give details of your financial situation.

So is the change a good idea? From my staw polling, most – but certainly not all – Lib Dems seem to think this …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 127 Comments
Iain Roberts

“Shocking 37% rape increase in London”…or is it?

By Iain Roberts | Fri 1st October 2010 - 8:11 am

Marie Claire (and where else would I go for my news) reports

Shocking 37% rape increase in London

As the article later explains, all may not quite be what it seems. The 37% increase is in reports of rapes in London over the last 12 months.

Is that terrible, or is it a good news story? From that statistic alone we just don’t know. It could be that there have been 37% more rapes in London over that time – that would be a shocking increase over any period, even more so in just one year.

But it could equally …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Iain Roberts

Labour need to decide whether their “Save the Deficit” campaign should continue

By Iain Roberts | Mon 27th September 2010 - 9:10 am

There are two different economic debates to be had with Labour politicians these days.

One of them is a sensible debate about how fast, and how far, cuts should go. Alistair Darling, just a few months ago, told us that Labour wanted to cut deeper and longer than Thatcher did in the 1980s, with talk of a 25% cut in public spending over seven years and hefty tax rises.

The Coalition Government takes the view that the pain of cuts should be slightly shorter and sharper than Labour had planned – still 25%, but spread over five years rather than …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 44 Comments
Iain Roberts

Mail on Sunday’s shocking Ed Miliband revelations

By Iain Roberts | Sun 26th September 2010 - 8:45 am

Ed Miliband has a big job ahead of him, to bring the Labour Party back to power following their second worst general election result since the second world war.

I wish him well and congratulate him on his victory. Whatever concerns people may have about the way he came second among both MPs and party members, he’s won fair and square by the rules the Labour Party set for the contest.

Personally, I would have problems being in a party that thought that particular setup was a fair and democratic way to run elections, but I’m not in that party and …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 44 Comments
Iain Roberts

Top Trump politicos – who’s the most fanciable of them all?

By Iain Roberts | Tue 21st September 2010 - 10:53 am

Politicos Top Trumps Specials – conference 2010 – are here. The chance to do top-trumpy battle with MPs well known and not so well known from across the political spectrum.

And alongside the fairly cut-and-dried majority and years in parliament categories, there are three that may cause a little more disagreement amongst the onlookers, not to mention the all-important write-ups of each member.

“Millionaire environmentalist” Zac Goldsmith may have the top fanciability – a storming 100 – but may be a little disappointed to be given a potential of just 3/10.

Even Eric Pickles might find it hard to …

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Posted in Conference and Humour | 2 Comments
Iain Roberts

An email from Nick

By Iain Roberts | Mon 20th September 2010 - 5:48 pm

You know what it’s like at airports. You’ve been round WH Smith and Sock Shop, you’ve had a coffee and an apple danish and all you can do is wait. It seems Nick has at least got a wireless signal as he’s dashed off a quick email to party members.

Imagine you’re asking a friend or neighbour to vote Liberal Democrat in the 2015 General Election.

Imagine how it will feel to say that in Government, the Liberal Democrats scrapped ID cards. To say we cut crime while stopping Labour’s mass incarceration of children. That finally we have a fair

…

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Posted in Conference | 5 Comments
Iain Roberts

Jason Zadrozny pulls out, gets behind Kramer

By Iain Roberts | Mon 20th September 2010 - 5:05 pm

Hours after making his case to be Lib Dem party President, Jason Zadrozny has whipped his hat back out of the ring and thrown his political weight behind Susan Kramer.

Jason has sent out this email:

I wanted you to be one of the first people to know that I have today decided to withdraw from my campaign to become President of the Liberal Democrats and have thrown my weight behind efforts to elect Susan Kramer.

I think the role of Party President is vital for the future of our party. I firmly believe that whoever holds the position should consider the party’s

…

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Posted in Party Presidency | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Iain Roberts

Tavish gives conference a postal guarantee

By Iain Roberts | Sun 19th September 2010 - 10:50 am

Tavish Scott, leader of the Lib Dems in Scotland, bravely took the stage on a wet Sunday morning at Liberal Demcrat conference, and gave a cast iron guarantee from Vince Cable on the Royal Mail and Post Office, following from the recent Government announcement that the Lib Dem policy to privatise Royal Mail whilst keeping the Post Offices in public ownership .

The reason behind privatising Royal Mail (the letter-delivering part) is to give it the ability to raise funds from private sources to modernise and improve, to challenge its private competitors.

The commitment from  from Vince Cable is:

1. Universal service obligation …

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Posted in Conference | Tagged , , and | 12 Comments
Iain Roberts

By-elections have projected Lib Dem vote at 25%

By Iain Roberts | Fri 17th September 2010 - 12:42 pm

The Local Government Chronicle has today published research on how the Lib Dems (and others) have fared in local by-elections since May.

It’s useful to note as there’s been some disagreement. Lib Dems have been pointing to victories and holds as evidence that, where the party campaigns, its vote is holding up very well. Opponents have disagreed (not least in comments on this site) and suggested evidence is being cherry-picked and the Lib Dems vote is actually falling.

Here’s what the research says (as reported by Paul Waugh in the Evening Standard since the LGC site …

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Posted in Council by-elections | 44 Comments
Iain Roberts

Nick Clegg writes on welfare in the Times

By Iain Roberts | Thu 16th September 2010 - 10:57 am

Nick Clegg has written an article on welfare in The Times (£) , which the fine organ is keen to portray as putting him “on a collision course with his party by championing radical benefit cuts and arguing that the state must not compensate the poor for their predicament”.

Having read the article, I don’t believe many Lib Dems will find themselves disagreeing with much of what Nick has to say.

Instead of turning the system from a “safety net” into a “trampoline” as Labour promised, people have been stuck on benefits, year in, year out. One and a half

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 90 Comments
Iain Roberts

Royal Mail privatisation – another Lib Dem policy delivered

By Iain Roberts | Sun 12th September 2010 - 12:04 pm

Among the Stricty Come Dancing banter on Twitter yesterday evening, I picked up some Labour activists attacking the Lib Dems. Nothing new there, you might think.

The attack was that the Lib Dems had betrayed our principles, done a u-turn and were privitising the Post Office.

I think we’re all familiar enough with Labour attacks by now to check those facts before jumping to any conclusions. And it turns out that the attack is wrong in every single respect.

The Government is not proposing to privatise the Post Office. And what’s being proposed, far from being a u-turn, is Lib …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 70 Comments
Iain Roberts

A good night for Labour in Norwich

By Iain Roberts | Fri 10th September 2010 - 2:50 pm

Labour were the party with most to be happy about after the 13 Norwich by-elections (or delayed elections) that took place yesterday.

The Lib Dems lost one of their two seats to Labour, with the Conservatives losing both of theirs. The Greens, who had hoped for a breakthrough, held five seats but failed to make any gains.

The Lib Dems held Eaton ward with an increased share of the vote.

Compared to the last time the seats were fought in 2008:

Labour finished up three on seven seats
The Greens won five seats, the same as in 2008
The Lib Dems were down one …

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Posted in Council by-elections | Tagged | 26 Comments
Iain Roberts

Disaster for Labour as one in five desert the party

By Iain Roberts | Tue 7th September 2010 - 2:25 pm

The anti-Lib Dem meme of choice on the opinion polls has been of voters deserting the party. Our opinion poll ratings are down compared to 6th May and it must be a disaster for the party which would, if many Labour activists’ fevered fantasies were to come true, disappear for good.

Except that idea’s looking more and more stretched.

The Independent runs a ComRes poll today showing the party’s poll rating up two percent to a very respectable 18%. If the poll is accurate, hundreds of thousands of voters have switched from the other parties to the Lib Dems …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 47 Comments
Iain Roberts

Naughty, naughty, Guido – let’s check that poll again, shall we

By Iain Roberts | Tue 7th September 2010 - 1:24 pm

Paul Staines, who blogs as Guido Fawkes, seems very keen indeed to persuade his readers that the public’s right behind him on his pursuit of William Hague over the allegation of improper activities with his former special advisor.

Keen enough, it appears, to take a rather inventive approach when it comes to interpreting the opinion polls.

When you ask a question in a poll and the result comes back as 46% yes, 12% no, most of us would take that as an indication that the public’s in the “yes” camp.

Not Staines.  He’s taken all the “don’t knows” – many of whom may …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 15 Comments
Iain Roberts

A letter to the Daily Mirror regarding MPs whose former partners now work as prostitutes

By Iain Roberts | Sun 5th September 2010 - 9:40 am

Dear Will Payne at the Daily Mirror,

If you’re going to run a big exposé about how an MP’s wife is working as a prostitute, do you think it might be worth mentioning before the very last line of the article that the couple separated in February (before the MP in question had even entered Parliament)?

I realise that, had you made it clearer, it would have been obvious that you only ran the story in a cheap and rather sad  attack on the Tories, and to have the excuse to print pictures of the woman in question in her underwear.

I …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 38 Comments
Iain Roberts

I is an Irishman who climbs up the walls

By Iain Roberts | Sat 4th September 2010 - 10:15 am

You know those children’s alphabet posters: a for apple, b for banana, that sort of thing? I recently came across an old Victorian example which, amongst some entries that would seem a little odd today (“V is for vulcan”) had the charming

I is an Irishman who climbs up the walls

Have we really moved on from the days when young children could be taught that an entire nation could be judged by a particular stereotypical activity, and not in an especially nasty way, but just as a …

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Posted in Op-eds | 10 Comments
Iain Roberts

Has Phil Woolas declared himself unfit to be an MP?

By Iain Roberts | Fri 3rd September 2010 - 6:19 pm

These photographs have clearly been altered. This is wrong. This man is clearly unfit to be a member of parliament. When you send out an election address it has to be right – his is not.

So said Phil Woolas in 2005 when he accused the Lib Dem Tony Dawson of doctoring an election photo, an accusation Dawson strongly denied.

Odd, then, that Mr Woolas should have put out a newspaper in the 2010 general election campaign which appears to use a clearly photoshopped picture to imply that his Lib Dem opponent Elwyn Watkins was having his collar …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 11 Comments
Iain Roberts

Nigel Farage to stand for UKIP leadership (again)

By Iain Roberts | Fri 3rd September 2010 - 1:49 pm

According to the BBC, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage is to throw his hat into the ring and attempt to get his old job back.

The position became vacant last month when Lord Pearson stood down, admitting with surprising honesty that he wasn’t up to the job. Farage’s decision may have been prompted by suspicions that none of the other likely candidates are up to the job either.

Farage, an MEP, failed in his attempt to unseat the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, at the General Election, finishing a disappointing third. An election day aircrash had left him injured and …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Iain Roberts

Paul Staines, William Hague and questions for bloggers

By Iain Roberts | Wed 1st September 2010 - 7:44 pm

Allegations have recently been posted on Paul Staines’ blog Order Order (where he blogs under the pseudonym Guido Fawkes) about a relationship between William Hague and one of his special advisors, Christopher Myers.

These allegations have led to Myers resigning from his post and to the Hague’s releasing a full and frank statement which include revalations they would, I’m sure, have rather remained private about the problems they’ve had in their attempts to start a family.  The allegations have been categorically denied by William Hague.

We at Lib Dem Voice wish both the Hagues and Christopher Myers well.

Claims are often made for …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 36 Comments
Iain Roberts

Can councils rise to the Open Source challenge? Should they?

By Iain Roberts | Wed 1st September 2010 - 3:33 pm

There was an interesting little piece in the Guardian few days ago suggesting that local authorities could save £51 million by moving some council employees to Open Office* and ODF**, and away from Microsoft Office and their document format, with the total savings rocketing to £200 million if every council employee in the country moved over.

This sensible proposal came from Cllr Liam Maxwell who’s reponsible for IT in the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, and I’m sure Cllr Maxwell would be the first to acknowledge it’s not a new suggestion. The office suite – as a commodity …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 10 Comments
Iain Roberts

Labour aren’t being hypocritical on NHS Direct

By Iain Roberts | Tue 31st August 2010 - 3:12 pm

Within milliseconds of the Coalition announcement of the plan to replace NHS Direct with a new non-emergency NHS service, Labour politicians were up in arms.

Because this plan from the Coalition obviously bears absolutely no relation to Labour’s plan, as spelt out on page 35 of the party’s 2010 manifesto.

A new national 111 telephone number will make nonemergency services far easier for people to access and book.

This, we need to understand, is totally different to replacing NHS Direct. What Labour had in mind, as they planned their £44 billion savings, must have been to keep NHS Direct just as …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged and | 19 Comments
Iain Roberts

Sheffield slaughter? Not this week

By Iain Roberts | Fri 27th August 2010 - 7:10 am

Labour pundits were eagerly predicting the Lib Dems would be slaughtered in a Sheffield local by-election yesterday, and would simply be hoping to avoid coming last.  The reality was a little different.

Labour comfortably held on to their safe Woodhouse seat, with both them and UKIP taking votes from the Conservatives, who were pushed into fourth place, just a few votes ahead of the BNP.

The Lib Dems came a clear second place, with the party’s vote down just 0.5% on the May result, and well up on every other election in the last few years, as Labour struggled to …

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Posted in Council by-elections | Tagged | 32 Comments
Iain Roberts

Coalition puts up strong defence on IFS report

By Iain Roberts | Wed 25th August 2010 - 10:33 am

There’s a standard approach people take to reports. If the report happens to back up our position, it’s right – and we certainly don’t need to go as far as reading or critically appraising it to figure it out. If it goes against our view, there’s probably something dodgy about it. Human nature – can’t beat it.

And so it is with today’s report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). Depending on how you read it, or which claims you want to pluck out, the report says that the 2010-11 budget is regressive, or perhaps slightly …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 85 Comments
Iain Roberts

LibLink: every key Westminster model country is hung

By Iain Roberts | Mon 23rd August 2010 - 6:06 pm

A blog post from Prof Patrick Dunleavy at the LSE on the Australian election results points out that, for the first time in history, every key Westminster Model country – the UK, India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – has a hung parliament.

For the first time in history, the Australian outcome means that every key ‘Westminster model’ country in the world now has a hung Parliament. These are the former British empire countries that according to decades of political science orthodoxy are supposed to produce strong, single party government. Following Duverger’s Law their allegedly ‘majoritarian’ electoral systems (first past

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
Iain Roberts

Lab ex-MP plans to write to LDs asking them to defect. Yes, that really is the story.

By Iain Roberts | Mon 23rd August 2010 - 4:15 pm

Are we in for a couple of weeks of random Labour people trying to get media coverage merely by suggesting that Lib Dems might like to join the party of the Iraq war, ID cards, state-authorised torture and enormous deficits?

If the inciteful journalism down Gloucester way is anything to go by, it seems we may.

Former Labour MP Parmjit Dhanda has managed to wangle the headline “Could Gloucester Lib Dems defect to Labour?” merely by telling a journalist he’s planning to write to Lib Dem councillors inviting them to join the Labour Party. No talks, no defectors in the …

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Posted in News | 52 Comments
Iain Roberts

Iain Dale’s voting system confusion

By Iain Roberts | Mon 23rd August 2010 - 8:33 am

Iain Dale yesterday posted a piece attacking the Alternative Vote system which doesn’t bode well for a well informed campaign.

That’s a shame because there’s a sensible debate to be had – with Lib Dems being the first to admit that the Alternative Vote system isn’t the best of all possible options, though most would rate it as a great improvement on what we have now.

Dale writes

There’s a reason only one other country in the world uses AV. It’s a half way house. It tries to be a PR equivalent of the First Past the Post system, but in reality

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 27 Comments
Iain Roberts

Charles Kennedy: I’ll go to my grave with my Lib Dem membership card in my pocket

By Iain Roberts | Sun 22nd August 2010 - 7:25 am

Charles Kennedy has set the record straight over rumours of his defection which kept the political tweeters and bloggers buzzing yesterday whilst everyone else sensibly got on with their Saturday. As Scotland on Sunday reports, he made the comments after a meeting with constituents in Dingwall.

It is absolute rubbish, I am not joining the Labour Party and have not had any discussions about it with anyone from the Labour Party.

I will go out of this world feet first with my Lib Dem membership card in my pocket.

Ed Miliband has also agreed that no talks have …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 22 Comments
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