It’s very common to see local councils advertising in local newspapers, and they are often one of the main sources of advertising revenue for the local press. That can cause conflicts over whether there is improper influence at work and also over whether councils should shift money elsewhere, risking plunging the local press into enforced cutbacks in its news coverage as income shrinks.
But there is another question, which is whether many of the adverts are any good – especially those which are text heavy and laden with legal terms required by law. That’s the case that Bristol Council’s Peter Holt …
I’ve talked before about how slow and steady progress is usually the way to successful online politics (as in The secret to getting 1,000 ward residents to follow you on Twitter), but slow and steady progress often runs into a problem: where do you get the content from?
Whether it’s building up an email list, getting a decent readership for your blog or accumulating a good network of residents on Facebook, as you steadily build up towards large audiences you need a regular supply of content, and all the more so once you have got your large audience. Being seen …
It’s hardly surprising that Charles Kennedy and Ed Miliband would be appearing together to promote electoral reform. Kennedy has long been a supporter of electoral reform and by virtue of not being in government is seen by many in Labour as an easier figure to campaign alongside (even though one of Kennedy’s first acts on becoming party leader was to end the party’s then work in government with Labour). Ed Milband in turn is the author of Labour’s general election manifesto which not only pledged a referendum but also called for a change in the electoral system to follow from …
The Electoral Commission has just published copies of the booklets it will be distributing to every household in the UK as part of its public information campaign for May’s AV referendum.
In addition to the England, Scotland and Wales booklets below, there are also versions for Northern Ireland and in Welsh. Both of these, along with details of the research the Electoral Commission carried out in putting the booklets together, are on the Electoral Commission website.
Over the last few months, I’ve read (and mostly reviewed on this site) all the books I’ve found published so far about the 2010 general election and the subsequent coalition negotiations, not to mention a fair number about the political events leading up to the general election over the preceding years.
I’ve yet to read a book that is really bad, although many do have very similar content to each other. A few gems either have original content or present that common ground in particularly strong ways. So based on that here are my top four recommended books about the British …
Sometimes a blog post that is nearly all just a long list of village names can be extremely effective, as Paul Walter demonstrated.
Gary Hunt has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of Leicester…
… and former Liberal Democrat candidate Vincent McKee, who has been at the centre of allegations of fraud, has been required to repay £1,000 according to the Coventry Telegraph.
Earlier today, the government published its draft Libel Reform Bill. It’s an issue that Liberal Democrats, along with many others, have been campaigning on for a few years now and one on which Lib Dem minister at the Ministry of Justice Tom McNally has said his reputation should be judged on.
So it is good news for both our freedoms and Tom’s reputation that the Bill published today proposes major reforms and has met with a warm response, including:
Major changes to Britain’s antiquated defamation laws will be outlined by ministers today with the publication of a bill to provide greater
We reported back in December how UNISON was facing a fine for breaking election law. The trade union had completely failed to submit details of their general election expenditure within the legal deadline.
UNISON has now submitted its spending declaration several months late, but in a quirky twist of the law has not yet been fined by the Electoral Commission – because its return is still missing the signature of the ‘responsible person’. Assuming UNISON manage to get the piece of paper finally signed before 5 May (six months after the 5 November deadline), the fine required by law is …
Continuing my occasional series on how election leaflets used to look, this one is a Labour freepost election address from the 1955 general election in Clapham constituency.
The front of the leaflet is a design unlikely to be used today:
Dated too is the right-hand side of the inside, with its appeal from the candidate’s wife to female voters – a common tactic at the time. Despite the old-fashioned typography, the layout is clear and easy to read …
Understandably the question of diversity amongst Parliamentarians gets a lot of attention in political parties, with it being the subject of another conference debate at Sheffield, but it’s by no means the only the area subject to such debate.
Diversity in Britain’s boardrooms may not have moved very far up the political agenda yet, but it is the subject of regular debate in business circles – with the Financial Times and Evening Standard in particular both regularly running pieces from contributors concerned about the topic.
It’s a subject the Evening Standard columnist Chris Blackhurst turned to this week. Here’s what …
Lib Dems thwart Tory hopes of human rights convention withdrawal
Decision will infuriate Tory rightwingers unhappy at what they believe is Strasbourg judges’ interference in UK rights
Those seeking a fairer voting system may be rather more dismayed if the Guardian is correct that there are difficulties getting Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg working together in support of the referendum. Political rivalry over other issues should not prevent all supporters of reform from campaigning for a cause on which they agree. Lessons should be learned from the Scottish referendum in 1997
1. What’s your formative political memory?
My first memory was a mock election at my primary school during the 1979 general election when I was one of about four people to vote Liberal. My most abiding memory is of David Penhaligon driving me home after a party fundraising event in about 1983. I only lived about 100 yards from the venue but he insisted on driving a group of youngsters to their various homes and dropped me off last. During the half hour or so that it took we had a great chat about all things political and he became my political hero.
2. When did you start blogging?
I had a couple of abortive attempts but started properly in February 2008.
3. Why did you start blogging?
I wanted to write about a combination of local and national politics as well as my own interests of football, rugby and horse racing. I also thought it would be a good way of getting across to a range of people who don’t read leaflets pushed through their doors and I had it in mind to stand for election to Cornwall Council (the election took place in June 2009). Since then the local politics has taken over and it’s regrettably rare I write about much else.
4. What five words would you use to describe your blog?
Robust, local, argumentative, frequent, did I mention local?
5. What five words would you use to describe your political views?
See above.
6. Which post have you most liked writing in the last year (and why)?
Probably the one about our council leader drinking in Downing Street on a Monday evening and then saying he had flu the next day when we had a full council. All brought about because I spotted him in the background of a photo on ConHome.
7. Which post have you most liked reading in the last year (and why)?
I’m terrible about not reading very many other blogs, particularly those by fellow Lib Dems. But I like reading a good rant – particularly if it’s one attacking Ryanair.
Any voter can apply for a postal (or proxy) vote in the usual way for May’s elections, including the AV referendum. However, people who have previously applied for a permanent postal vote may also be entitled to one without having to re-apply.
There are three categories:
1. People who have a permanent postal vote for a UK Parliamentary election – they will get a referendum postal vote too.
2. People who have a permanent postal vote for a local election and are on the register for somewhere that is holding an election in May – they will get a referendum postal vote too …
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, wearing a Yes To Fairer Votes badge, closed the party’s Sheffield conference with a return to his theme of Alarm Clock Britain:
We’re on the side of the people I call Alarm Clock Britain. On the side of everyone who wants to get up and get on. People who, unlike the wealthy, have no choice but to work hard to make ends meet. People who are proud to support themselves but are only ever one pay cheque from their overdraft. People who believe in self-reliance but who don’t want to live in a dog-eat-dog world.
Note: If you’re catching up with this post after it was published, read it from the bottom up.
Final result – both amendment and motion passed overwhelmingly. The overall tenor of the debate was more good natured than might have been expected – people did not take the opportunity to express any unhappiness in strident tones, and the party being in coalition with the Tories until 2015 was accepted and expected, explicitly or implicitly, by all speakers. Tuition fees and NHS got mentions, but brief ones. Norman Lamb’s comments about the health debate (see below), however, were unexpected and welcome.
Sunday morning’s emergency motion debate was on banking, moved by sometime Lib Dem Voice contributor Prateek Buch. The motion called for “banks supported by the taxpayer to be broken up into smaller, safer entities” alongside criticising banker remuneration and the Merlin project which is called “weak” and “insufficient”. Investment and retail banking should also be separated according to the motion.
The motion also called for Liberal Democrats to “ensure that the recommendations of the Vickers Commission are carried out in full”. As the commission has yet to report, that is a rather risky proposition – but with the general …
Conservative Party member and Telegraph journalist Ed West reports,
My local constituency, Hornsey and Wood Green, certainly is closed to new members – it was recently wound up altogether, and I’ve heard that other party organisations in north London are in trouble (admittedly not Tory heartlands). All I get for my party membership are bulk emails from “David Cameron”, “William Hague” and “Baroness Warsi”, all of which now go straight in the junk filter with emails from Nigerian fraudsters.
1. Being introduced at a meeting or in a debate as a “Minister” is still a plus point, often triggering a round of applause. People at conference like the fact that the party is in government.
2. The Social Liberal Forum (SLF) is growing quickly in influence in the party, partly thanks to a smartly organised set of fringe meetings, amendments and motions. However, the SLF is very keen to repeatedly stress that it is not anti-coalition.
3. The NHS debate was a decision delayed. All sides are happy with the idea that a conference debate is used to set out or …
Robert Peston’s analysis of the proposed public sector pension reforms from John Hutton contains this key calculation:
The estimate – made by the analyst John Ralfe – that the switch would save just £2bn a year, out of the estimated total annual cost of state pensions (much of which is hidden) of £30bn.
That £30bn is Ralfe’s estimate of the annual cost. It is double the official estimate, with the disparity due to a disagreement on the appropriate discount rate for valuing future liabilities.
A reduction in the value of retirement benefits of 1/15th would of course be unpleasant. But compared
There’s a common theme to the party’s official reactions to both the Disability Living Allowance (Mobility Component) and health reform motions being passed at conference today. That is to welcome the party staking out its own views on the issues, even where they clearly contradict those of Conservative ministers, and for two reasons.
First, it more clearly sets out where the coalition partners disagree on policy. As having a relaxed, adult approach to admitting in public that people in government don’t always agree on everything is something I’ve talked about in the past, this is certainly good to see – and …
Richard Kemp summates on motion, asking people also to back both amendments; i.e. cooperation rather confrontation to improve bill. Some MPs vote for amendment 1, some abstain. Amendment overwhelmingly carried. As is amendment 2. Lines 6-15 deleted from motion, amended motion carried. All MPs can spot voted for.
Evan Harris summates on amendment 1. “It is unusual for me to summate on a debate where there have been no speeches against my amendment”. Says government ministers must work hard to change the bill radically. Amendment 1 lays out how it should be improved – and Liberal Democrats in government “should follow …
David Tredinnick: The cancer drugs fund is available only for pharmaceutical drugs, but can it be used for wider support services, such as healers, aromatherapists, those using therapeutic touch and other such practitioners?
Andrew Lansley: We are finalising the design of the future cancer drugs fund from April, and we will publish shortly. The interim cancer drugs fund is designed to support new effective medicines, …
A FORMER parliamentary candidate from Kidderminster was locked up for bludgeoning the family cat to death with a walking stick in a fit of rage.
Michael Dixon was sentenced to four months in prison with a lifetime ban on keeping animals, after he lost his temper and battered the pet, leaving her to die in a pool of blood, before calmly telling his family: “I’ve killed the cat.”
The horrific attack happened at the former LibDem candidate’s home in Warbler Place on May 14 last year, after five-year-old Tipsy scratched his grandson.
With the Liberal Democrat spring federal conference in Sheffield about to kick-off, here’s a quick reminder of some of our advanced coverage, with tips on which debates to watch out for, the best of the fringes and a taster of some of the arguments:
If you are tweeting at conference, the hashtag is #ldconf.
Further information about the Liberal Democrat federal conference is available in the Party Conference section on the main party website and the official Lib Dem conference Twitter account is @LibDemConf.
When I last made a broad-brush comment about how many conference strategy motions pass without leaving much of a trace behind, Tony Greaves pointed out the major exception to that: the Community Politics strategy motion of 1970. When it comes to details mattering, the triple lock mechanism from the No Glass Ceilings strategy paper also turned out to be important, as we saw last year.
The prime author of this year’s strategy paper is one of the founding fathers of Community Politics and the author of the triple lock, Gordon Lishman. The related motion being debated on Sunday morning at the Liberal Democrat spring conference may be lengthy but is unlikely to have the same impact of either of those two other texts. It can be summarised as, “We’re an independent party and we don’t want any pre-election deals”.
The motion rules out pre-election pacts or any preferences for post-election partners and sets out a five point list for how the party should decide who to make any future post-election deal with. Unlike the triple lock, this list is likely to have little lasting value as the political and media pressures to have a simple, clear one sentence answer to such questions means the list will be stripped down to a much shorter position as the next election nears – and it’s the debate over that which is what will really matter.
Tempting though it is to find reason to object to the motion calling for the party to win elections … I suspect the motion itself will not be controversial (unless there is an amendment submitted which kicks off a dispute). Rather, it will give people the opportunity to talk on a wide range of matters and it is the tone and balance of those contributions which will be the more revealing and, possibly, the more influential.
An overwhelming vote for a motion that says no to pre-election pacts and no to picking a preferred post-election partner may also be useful in both quieting some of the more fanciful speculation in the Conservatives and the media, and also in reminding one or two Liberal Democrats what the party overall thinks.
The full text of the strategy motion (F16) is in the conference agenda and directory embedded below.
Sir Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland who became a focal point for anger over the financial crisis, has obtained a super-injunction banning the media from identifying him as a banker.
The existence of the super-injunction was revealed today by John Hemming, a back-bench Liberal Democrat MP who tabled a question in Parliament about the gagging order.
Normally the media is forbidden from even reporting that a super-injunction exists but Parliamentary privilege allows MPs to speak on the floor of the House of Commons without risk of prosecution.
This is the chapter I contributed during the last Parliament to ALDC’s Community Politics Today publication. The John Pardoe quote applies all the more now the party is in coalition government and the general advice to local campaigners is in my view even more important now than it was then:
It’s a common complaint – that modern Liberal Democrat election campaigns have lost the original campaigning and ideological spirit of community politics. Instead, so the critics say, campaigns have become a dumbed-down recitation of techniques, campaigning by numbers, where the only objective is votes and only the ballot box …
Peter Martin @ Kira,
The words you quoted were from Peter Davies'. Not me. I wouldn't agree with raising VAT on energy to 15% right now. I'd leave it as is.
The point ...
Peter Martin “‘why can’t social care and NHS spending be treated as ‘investment’’. Of course, that wont wash”.
I'd agree if were talking about re...
Peter Martin There's really only two fiscal rules that make any sense:
1) If inflation caused by an overheating economy is the main issue, then governments should tax mor...
Peter Davies @Kira Collins You seem to have missed the bit about raising tax allowances. That primarily helps those on low wages....
David Wright According to this well-argued article (by Lib Dem councillor Mark Ellis), a simple wealth tax wouldn't work, but tax on TRANSFER of wealth could, if current tax...
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Martin Wainwright's Guardian obituary of Michael Meadowcroft
Evaluating different electoral systems for the House of Commons
Brexit and summer holidays
Peter Martin 
Peter Davies 
David Wright 