I’m a veteran Party bureaucrat, having joined the old Liberal Party at university. And, perhaps not entirely surprisingly, I’ve held a range of positions since then - everything from Secretary-General of the Young Liberals to being a member of the ALDE Party‘s Financial Advisory Committee. Returning Officer, Presidential consort, committee secretary, you name it, I’ve probably done it.
These days, I’m the Chair of the Parish Council for a (very) small rural village in Suffolk’s Gipping Valley, and a member of the East of England Regional Candidates Committee.
Yes, welcome to the frozen North, as today is brought to you from Leeds and Brighouse, the home of two prominent Liberal Democrat bloggers, Jennie Rigg and Mat Bowles.
However, as it is Good Friday, Liberal Democrat Voice doesn’t tend to work quite as intensively, so it will be a bit quieter than usual. We will be reporting on by-elections at Harwich West (Tendring District Council), Parson Drove (Fenland District Council) and Evelyn ward (London Borough of Lewisham).
We also bring you news from Europe, where Liberal Democrats continue to challenge excessive …
Lib Dem MEPs have welcomed the Coalition Government’s commitment to ensure that cuts to European funding from 2014 onwards will be shared in a fair manner across the UK.
The Coalition Government has announced that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be subjected to an equal percentage cut of around 5% compared to the current 2007-2017 EU funding levels.
MEPs and national governments are currently negotiating the next long-term EU budget for 2014-2020. Although a final deal has yet to be reached, the EU’s budget is expected to be cut in real-terms for the first time in its history.
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Last June, the idea of insisting that those wishing to bring a foreign spouse into the country should have a minimum level of income was mooted. It was bad enough that the Government adopted it, but it was the Labour response that was even more dubious. Here’s what Yvette Cooper asked at the time;
Will the Home Secretary explain why the Government ruled out consulting on a bond that could have been used to protect the taxpayer if someone needed public funds later on?
So, when Nick Clegg talks about introducing a security bond for visa applicants, it isn’t original and …
New Slovene government formed with a strong liberal presence
Following what has been described as a “constructive motion of no confidence” in the Slovene Parliament, President Borut Pahor has invited Positive Slovenia‘s leader, Alenka Bratušek, to form a new government. ALDE member party, Civic List, has joined the administration, with its leader, Gregor Virant, becoming Minister of the Interior. In addition, ALDE Treasurer, Roman Jakič, has become Minister of Defence. For any Liberal Youth reading this, he’s a former IFLRY Vice-President.
We wake up to two very good by-election gains in Adeyfield West ward on Dacorum Borough Council (think Hemel Hempstead) and Lodbourne ward on North Dorset District Council. First, Dacorum…
Adeyfield West, Hemel Hemstead by-election result: Lib Dem Ron Tindall 363, Lab 278, Con 229, UKIP 193, ED 51. Lib Dems go from 3rd to 1st!
To put the result in perspective, a Conservative majority of nearly 1,000 was overturned, with Liberal Democrats up from 16% to 34%. Congratulations to our successful candidate, Paul Wells, and all of the team in Aldwick East.
Elsewhere, Liberal Democrat proposals for press regulation have been published on the Party website. We’ll have more coverage of that over the weekend and early next week.
And finally, in keeping with my occasional attempts to bring culture to the masses, here’s a little something that I’d like to dedicate to our site’s resident Eurosceptic…
So, it has come to this. Apparently, the only hope left of stopping the Secret Courts element of the Justice and Security Bill is to persuade the Parliamentary Party in the Lords to either vote down Part II of the Bill, the bit with the Secret Courts elements in it, or to vote down the entire Bill. Easy, really. Or, perhaps, not. You see, this presumes that the Lords gets to vote on Part II or the entire …
Liberal Democrats want better deal for UK in EU’s long term budget
Liberal Democrat MEPs today voted to approve the size of the EU’s multi-annual financial framework deal reached by Member States last month. They also supported moves to renegotiate the shape of the budget by making it more flexible and focused on areas that will bring jobs and growth to the UK, such as investments in R&D, innovation and infrastructure.
Senior Liberal Democrat MEP George Lyon, Vice-President of …
Well, I must say that I’m feeling a bit better this week, having lost last weekend to the wretched lurgy that is doing the rounds.
So, what’s happened of interest? Overnight, there were six by-elections indicated by ALDC, with those in Keynsham and Wells probably most potentially winnable, although it will be interesting to see how we get on in Gospel Oak ward, Camden and Royton South ward, Oldham. We came third in both in 2010 but with decent shares of the vote.
Fridays are never terribly exciting at a Spring Conference. They’re all about consultative sessions and, lest we forget, the Rally, generally aimed at kick-starting the campaign towards whichever elections are less than two months away, this year the Counties. Media coverage is slight, if any, and past headlines have included Sarah Teather’s unexpectedly risque sense of humour and… well, you get the point. The media generally prefer to run their message of crisis in the ranks and challenges to the leadership. They may have it right this year.
Good morning to you all, especially those of you en route to Brighton for the start of Spring Conference. Sadly, through ill health, I won’t be joining you today, so this will be a remote control sort of day. It does mean that I’ll have a bit more time for the site today, so if you do have something to say, feel free (comments policy and common courtesy apply, naturally)…
Caron has already kicked off the day in fine style, and we’ll have the usual review of the week in …
European Liberals and Democrats to oppose the 2014-20 budget proposal but accept the global amount
In a statement on Wednesday, the ALDE Group in the European Parliament adopted its position ahead of negotiations on the new EU budget. Guy Verhofstadt, its Group Leader, called for a transfer of spending from farming and cohesion policy towards research, innovation, infrastructure and competitiveness, and condemned the EU’s growing deficit;
Nor can we countenance the creation of excessive deficits, building up outstanding commitments year on year to a potential debt of €300 billion by 2020, if all commitments are taken up.
Yes, we’re back, after this column’s regular late winter break to study comparisons between government systems in the Caribbean. And whilst the House of Lords and the Cuban leadership do have some similarities – having octogenarians in prominent positions, for example – you would probably want to see more of Eric Avebury than you would Fidel Castro…
So, here we are, a by-election in a Liberal Democrat held seat, only the fifth such contest fought by the Party or its predecessor since 1945. This will be our live thread for the early evening, and I start with what is, hopefully, a good omen…
Readers will no doubt be impressed that, this time, I have remembered that there was a Parliamentary by-election yesterday. And, as one might expect, most of our attention today will be on the result, the aftermath and what this means, if anything.
There will, I hope, be the usual reports on the past week in Europe, and a preview of events in the Lords, as the end of the Parliamentary session approaches and the business moves towards a series of crucial votes.
So, will Mike Thornton and the hundreds of Liberal Democrats who have worked so hard, on the ground, on the …
MEPs vote against discards and for sustainable fisheries across Europe
On Wednesday, MEPs voted for an ambitious reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) by 502 to 137 votes.
Chris Davies, who founded the cross-party MEP campaign group Fish For the Future, commented after the historic vote:
Today’s overwhelming support for EU fisheries reform from MEPs across all parties and nationalities puts us in a very strong negotiation position with Member States in the Council of Ministers. The Irish Presidency has made clear it wants to complete the reform by June.
It may only be February, but like schools, half-term is approaching fast (don’t forget, Easter is a bit earlier this year). And with the break starting on Friday, there’s still quite a bit of business to squeeze in. Curiously, there are no oral questions or debates initiated from the Liberal Democrat benches all week, but the agenda isn’t without interest.
On Monday most attention will be focussed on the Second Reading of the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill. Baroness Stowell of Beeston has the unenviable task of leading …
Congratulations to candidate David Hallam and all of our team in Ashfield on this gain from Labour.
Made slightly more complex by the fact that our beloved site crashed late yesterday evening, we’re another day closer to the Eastleigh by-election. Unfortunately, I can’t get to Eastleigh, but am giving money instead. And if, like me, you’d really like to help but can’t get to Hampshire, you can do so by visiting the …
Attempt to introduce the British model to European railways fails
Germany has succeeded in changing the content of a European Commission proposal on the liberalisation of railways before the proposal was even published. The intention, to introduce greater competition in rail passenger services by separating infrastructure owners from passenger service operators failed after stiff resistance from Deutsche Bahn and SNCF.
Ironically, SNCF is run as a separate entity already but it is intended to merge the two companies once more. Instead, vertically integrated rail companies will have to erect firewalls between their …
Strangely enough, in the absence of a Lords Reform Bill to debate (and who’s sorry now?), things are relatively quiet on the red benches. Quiet, but not exactly dead, I’m delighted to say. And now that Paddy Ashdown has hit Twitter, life is going to be a bit more exciting. And talking of Twitter, don’t forget that our Parliamentary Party in the Lords has its own Twitter feed. And yes, those are real Peers tweeting, in live time. So, what might they be covering next week?
Yes, it’s Friday once again, and whilst it’s a bit early for ‘Crackerjack’ (cultural reference for our older readers), there is some good news to start the day.
Swiss banks have paid HM Revenue & Customs £342 million in the first tranche of a ground-breaking agreement which will deliver around £5 billion of previously unpaid tax to the UK. Under the agreement between the UK and Switzerland, which came into force on 1 January, people with taxable assets in Switzerland have a choice of authorising their financial institution to disclose the …
It is hard to believe that it has been five years since Gordon Brown announced the abolition of the 10p rate band, and I am as surprised that it has taken until now for someone to suggest reintroducing it.
Restoring a 10p rate of income tax, between £9,205 and £12,000, would cost around £6 billion a year according to the House of Commons Library. This is significantly cheaper than raising the personal allowance to £12,500 (which could cost as much as £14.4 billion). It also has the advantage that it would benefit all workers,
Yes, just as late as has been the habit recently, here’s your heads up for events in the upper chamber this week… anyone would think that I didn’t have a day of my own…
It’s another long week for our Parliamentary Party, with a nod to the recent wintry weather, but Monday sees Day 2 of the Committee Stage of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill, where Tony Greaves will seek to remove attempts to place further limits on the power to require information with planning applications. Frankly, when I see …
Well, it can’t be said that it was a dull one, with David Ward (and me, to a rather lesser, but no less traumatic extent) trapped in a world of pain over his comments about Holocaust Memorial Day. And, if truth be told, his correction doesn’t address the primary objection, to my mind. It looks like I was wrong, for which I apologise.
Meanwhile, the proposed legislation on same sex marriage has been launched – whilst welcome, it isn’t perfect, as Sarah Brown notes;
There is NO PROVISION to reinstate the confiscated marriages. None whatsoever. It’s as if those of us affected by it simply don’t exist.
In by-election news, congratulations to Helen Groves, for her successful defence of the Highbridge and Burnham Marine ward on Sedgemoor District Council in Somerset.
On a very different note, it would be wrong of me not to highlight your chance to obtain inner peace, courtesy of HM Revenue & Customs;
I’ve started, so I’ll finish. Anyone who’s saved their online #taxreturn half-way through should complete it by 31 Jan bit.ly/etikIF
I’ll end with some music. John Dowland was not known for his political skills, quite the reverse, but he was a wonderful songsmith. Here’s Valeria Mignaco, soprano, with Alfonso Marin on lute, performing “Can she excuse my wrongs?”, for David Ward on this Friday evening…
Proposals for a revised Common Agricultural Policy met with mixed emotions
On Wednesday, the European Parliament’s Agricultural Committee (AGRI) voted on reform proposals to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). ALDE MEPs welcomed the votes in general as a major step towards a more sustainable European agricultural model. However, ALDE condemns the possible double payment for greening and agri-environmental measures and rejects a possible return to failed past policies of heavy market interventions.
Commenting after the votes, George Lyon MEP (UK, Liberal Democrat), ALDE team leader on the AGRI committee and shadow rapporteur on the direct payments report, said:
Gentle reader, I appear to have received some flak for writing this – quite possibly merited. So, I’ve tried to edit it for clarity…
A press release from the office of David Ward MP reached Liberal Democrat Voice yesterday;
“Bradford East MP, David Ward, has criticised Israel on the day he has signed a Book of Commitment in the House of Commons, in doing so pledging his commitment to Holocaust Memorial Day and honouring those who died during the Holocaust and in subsequent genocides.
Sunday January 27th will mark the 68th anniversary of the …
It would appear that these gentle introductions to Fridays have drawn some comment, and that not all of it is friendly. Ah well, c’est la vie…
Due to other commitments, and a very enjoyable dinner yesterday evening, of which more later, today is a little ‘seat of the pants’. So, what can you expect today (in no particular order)?
We intend to have a look at a possible gateway to drug policy reform, as Duncan Stott examines the position of khat. Naturally, with debate on our future in Europe is still bubbling away, Giles Goodall suggests that David Cameron might have done a little more research before raising Eurosceptic hopes, whilst David Thorpe suggests that we might like to turn our attention back to Ireland for some alternatives on economic policy.
Rachel Coleman Finch and her brother Jonny draw our attention to the effects of the 1% increase on some benefits, whilst my gallant colleague, Stephen Tall, has taken a look at Nick Clegg’s ‘mea culpa’ on capital spending.
There’ll also be more stuff on Europe, with bees on the agenda in Brussels, and we’ll be looking at what the Lords will be doing without Lords Reform to debate.
Finally, why the sea otter? We were accused, a few months ago, of having an attack dog and, having considered the matter, and rejected the idea of an attack koala (nasty creatures, in spite of their image), it was concluded that, as a representation of our comments policy, an attack sea otter was probably the best reflection of our philosophy as an editorial team.
And here’s a video for you to watch which might explain why… (skip the advert)
Yes, it’s Friday and we start with the news that, according to Animal Planet, sea otters are the cutest animals in the world (say those last three words as Jeremy Clarkson would, why don’t you?). Hat-tip to Stephen Tall, whose devotion to his Popbitch feed appears to be a thing of beauty (but not as cute as a sea otter, of course).
The overnight by-election news is… unknown as I write this. Hopefully, when daylight comes to Creeting St Peter, I’ll have more news…
Yes, I know that I had intended to write this on Friday, but it was never a pledge, right? But yes, as Liberal Democrat Peers gather from around the country to vote down a piece of Government business, now seems as good a time to publish this…
Yes, Monday will see the Parliamentary Party in the Lords vote in support of Amendment 28A to the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill, sponsored by Lords Hart of Chilton (Labour), Kerr of Kinlochard (Crossbenches), Rennard and Wigley (Plaid Cymru), which postpones the changes intended …
Simon Costain I'm guessing around a thousand high net worth individuals are resident on the Isle of Man for tax purposes, though others suggest up to 3,000
Low earners on ...
David Wright While Trump's "gift of the license to manufacture Patriot air defence missiles" is welcome, it won't stop a single Russian missile aimed at Ukraine this year or...
Matt Wardman Thanks for the piece, Tom.
I tend to disagree on the NATO summit. Listening to serious reports (my goto since February 2022 has been the Telegraph's Ukraine ...
theakes Considerable concern in Democratic circles that Trump will call the coming election rigged, cancel the States results won by the opposition and then impose mart...
Peter Martin @ Roland,
I'm not sure I understand your comment. Every company which is registered for VAT can reclaim VAT on purchased items. The question is whether VAT s...
Yes, just as late as has been the habit recently, here’s your heads up for events in the upper chamber this week… anyone would think that I didn’t have a day of my own…
A press release from the office of David Ward MP reached Liberal Democrat Voice yesterday;
We intend to have a look at a possible gateway to drug policy reform, as Duncan Stott examines the position of khat. Naturally, with debate on our future in Europe is still bubbling away, Giles Goodall suggests that David Cameron might have done a little more research before raising Eurosceptic hopes, whilst David Thorpe suggests that we might like to turn our attention back to Ireland for some alternatives on economic policy.
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The nearest beach to Leicestershire and Birmingham
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Convicted fraudster was introduced as Farage's chief of staff
Simon Costain 
David Wright 
Matt Wardman 
theakes 
Peter Martin 