Author Archives: Mark Valladares

Well, I don’t know about you, but it seems as though it has been ages since we were last together, and much turkey has been eaten since then, I guess. Admittedly, not by me, as you’d be amazed at how difficult getting a turkey is when you’re a sea otter.

However, on with the medley, I say… so now that we’ve found love, what are we going to do?…

As usual on a Friday, we’ve got a fair bit about Europe, with a video looking back over last year in the European Parliament, a preview of coming events there in 2013, and …

Yes, it’s the end of the week again, and time once again for the attack sea otter to turn from the mysteries of double entry bookkeeping to the drama of what to publish on our humble website. So, what do we have…

Firstly, just in case you missed it, this week saw a Wednesday by-election, for the Sunbury Common ward of Spelthorne District Council, on the London fringes, where the sitting Liberal Democrat councillor had stood down due to ill health. And, despite the intervention of a UKIP candidate, Brian Spoor successfully …

Today’s an unusual day in this corner of LDV Towers. Away from the site, it’s my final day in a job I’ve been doing for more than eleven years – I start a new job on Monday. So, do forgive me if I’m not entirely on top of my game in terms of comment review…

We awake to news of another by-election gain, from the Conservatives, in Bilton ward, Harrogate, plus the news that Nick Clegg has declared the war on drugs to be lost

I made the mistake last week of suggesting that it would be a quiet day. Which, I suppose it was, at least until I was reminded that we’d had three pretty poor by-election results overnight and felt obliged to write something about them. It seems that there are still comments being posted…

I’ve checked this week, and there are no parliamentary by-elections to report. There have been six by-elections on principal authorities, however, and the results have been excellent so far, with gains in Vale of White Horse, Brentwood and …

“It’s fairly quiet today…”

Alright, that turned out to be as accurate as a Greek government’s balance sheet, didn’t it? Ah well, as we say in the editorial game, you can’t get them all right, can you?

As I write these words, we’re at ninety comments on what was, I felt, a fairly honest appraisal of some fairly rotten by-election results. And, obviously someone beyond those interested in the death/future (delete as appropriate) of the Liberal Democrats was reading it, as I received an unexpected telephone call asking me if I’d go onto a Russian radio show to discuss the …

It’s fairly quiet today, and I assume that you’re all still on page 273 of the Leveson report. Me, I’m waiting for it to come out on Kindle, preferably with clams…

However, we’ve got an early response to Leveson, just to give you an opportunity to vent, applaud, or even kibitz (in the nicest way), as well as a Danish perspective on press regulation, and doubtless there’ll be more during the day.

Otherwise, take a break, and drop in from time to time today for everything from rural policy to Europe, …

One of the things that I have discovered since moving from inner London to a small, rural village in a quiet corner of the English shires is that much that I took for granted about politics doesn’t apply terribly well once you escape the major conurbations. You might now expect me to grumble about the unfairness of it all, and you would be right. But not for the reasons you might expect…

William Langland wrote of “a fair field, full of folk”, and whilst the modern countryside would be unrecognisable to him, he would

Today’s events kicked off with the twice-annual meeting of ELDR Council.

The first item of business was the endorsement of the new Secretary General of ELDR, Jacob Moroza-Rasmussen, who took up his duties in September, coming to the organisation from a background of private enterprise and politics.

Next came new applications for membership from the Free Democrats of Georgia, the Civic List from Slovenia and, from the Czech Republic, LIDEM. The Georgians and the Czechs were approved enthusiastically, following some fairly gentle questioning. However, liberal forces are somewhat …

So, what will we be discussing today, here in Dublin?

There will be two working groups, one focused on the theme resolution, the other looking at a gamut of short(ish) resolutions on everything from tax policy to the preservation of birds. For now though, I’ll stick to the theme resolution.

The resolution, “Energy Transition: a liberal perspective”, opens with a tour de horizon of the current energy scenario, taking in existing targets (reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 20%, increasing the share of renewables in the EU’s energy mix to 20%, …

Welcome to Dublin!

Today, for the first time, Liberal Democrat Voice comes to you live(ish) from the Annual Congress of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR) and, although we haven’t got a full team here to cover the event – the budget doesn’t stretch that far, I fear – I am hoping to provide updates throughout the day.

Highlights will include a speech from Nick Clegg, reports from the ELDR Council, the English Council equivalent of our European umbrella group, and a major policy debate on energy and the European dimension.

So, drop in throughout the day, and feel free to watch the live …

It would be fair to say that this week’s preview is, how should I put it, rather provisional, as a large chunk of next week’s scheduled business is… ummmm… no longer scheduled. That may have something to do with this week’s developments over the Election Registration and Administration Bill…

Election registration bill withdrawn from Lords business as Tories facing defeat over cancelling boundary review.They still won’t succeed.

— Chris Rennard (@LordRennard) November 1, 2012

However, here’s what we’re expecting…

It’s fair to say that Monday’s business has been gutted, following the temporary withdrawal of the Election …