Author Archives: Iain Roberts

Both the Lib Dems and Conservatives proposed a reduction in the number of MPs in their manifestos.  The Lib Dems proposed cutting the number of MPs to around 500 as part of a move to PR, whilst the Conservatives want to keep the current voting system, reduce the number of MPs to around 600 and radically redraw constituency boundaries to equalise the number of voters in each.

So over the next five years we are likely to be fighting:

• a general election in which almost every constituency in the country will be larger than today with different boundaries.
• European elections fought under the

…

After the excitement of Cleggmania and the eventual disappointment of the election result, polling evidence suggests the Lib Dem vote was a good deal softer than the Conservative and Labour votes.

Overall turnout for the election, although higher than in 2005, was a few percent lower than predicted, and it seems likely that a big chunk of that were people who said they’d vote Lib Dem and then didn’t make it down to the polling station.

Though disappointing, it’s hardly surprising.  The 29% that Labour got can reasonably be described as their core vote – barely higher than they achieved in 1983.  …

Labour politicians and activists have spent the last few days merrily confusing motions of no confidence and dissolution, as I discussed on Thursday.

Many have stuck to the  easily disproven claim that the coalition government proposes a 55% threshold for a vote of no confidence.  It doesn’t: a vote of no confidence requires 50%+1 MP now and will continue to do so.

The other line of attack has been to suggest that 50% of MPs can currently vote to dissolve parliament.

Those who’ve taken the trouble to check their facts at least don’t claim that MPs can actually vote to dissolve parliament.  …

One of the joys of being in government is being hated. Thatcher and Blair were both attacked daily by large numbers of people when they were in power (at times I was one of them) – though of course neither ever lost a General Election.

In contrast, being in opposition tends to be easier – people may disagree with you, but it’s not you making the hard decisions, from which there are inevitably losers as well as winners.

For the Lib Dems it’s going to take some getting used to. Our fate has more often to be ignored than hated. …

The Lib Dems have always argued that the country should elect MPs using a fair voting system – a form of proportional representation. Hopefully this hasn’t passed too many of our activists by. Certainly, in the 22 years I’ve been a party member I don’t recall meeting many Lib Dem activists who were under the illusion the party favoured First Past the Post.

Fair voting systems normally lead to balanced, or hung, parliaments and frequently to coalition governments. We’re used to them in Scotland and Wales, not to mention in the majority of successful western nations.

So I would …

News International announced this morning that, from June, we punters will have to cough up £2 a week to read the Times and Sunday Times online – a cool £104 a year.

The sound you hear is bloggers choking on their breakfast cereal.

The move makes a lot of sense for News International.  True, their online readership will plummet.  But, unlike most bloggers, Murdoch’s willy-waving is based on the size of his bank balance, not his number of unique visitors.  Online advertising, for everyone except Google, hasn’t proved to be the magical money-making machine we were promised, and there’s only so much …

We are pleased that the committee recognises our commitment to human rights, which are at the heart of our counter- terrorism legislation.

That’s the Home Office response to a cross-party parliamentary committee which has criticised the Government’s terror legislation and the nearly-nine-year public emergency we are still in.  Who said satire was dead?

The question is, and has always been, how best to balance the need to keep society safe against the human rights of those who, whether innocent or guilty, may be caught up in those efforts.

The Lib Dem view, and now the view of the joint committee …