The party’s manifesto for the European elections is also available as an iPhone app. If you have access to an iPhone or iPod touch you can view it. Go to apps store and search for Liberal Democrats. The app is free.
And don’t forget, you can also get the party’s TV broadcasts (PPBs) using our iTunes feed.
There’s been a flurry of news about other parties today, so to balance things up a bit, here’s a reminder that you can find our case for voting Liberal Democrat in the European elections in a handy five minutes or so summary over on our European manifesto site. It starts:
The Liberal Democrats will work through the European Union to ensure:
- A stronger economy, more jobs and more opportunity for businesses
- More action to stop climate change and protect the environment.
- More criminals are caught, such as terrorists, gangsters and paedophile networks, and our civil liberties are upheld.
Britain’s Liberal Democrat MEPs play a
…
Another one to file in the “how not to handle the media” file, via the Echo:
MP DAVID Amess ran from the Echo to avoid questions after his expenses showed he claimed the maximum of £400 for food every month for the past four years.
The Tory MP sought refuge in a hairdressers’ as he tried to duck the issue.
He eventually made his escape when a car arrived at the salon in Westcliff and drove him away, with Mr Amess hiding his face behind a leaflet.
The Southend West MP’s extraordinary actions came after it emerged he claimed the maximum £19,000 on
…
From The Register:
A supposedly massive denial of service attack against the British National Party website has been exposed as a gross exaggeration.
The assault, which began on Friday, was described by the party in an email appeal for funds as the “largest cyber attack in recorded history” and comparable only to a 2001 assault against Microsoft. Nick Griffin, leader of the controversial far-right political party, asked the party’s supporters to stump up the £5,000 urgently needed to purchase hardware and servers supposedly needed to keep the site up and running …
A technically knowledgeable person at the hosting firm managing the
…
Perhaps the most basic requirement for a local election ballot paper is to the list all the candidates up for election. A bit of a problem then that ballot papers have been going out in several parts of Cornwall with the bottom candidate missing – because the paper was cut in the wrong place by the printers.
As a result, for example, one resident reported that they had binned their ballot paper because they wanted to vote Liberal Democrat, hadn’t found a candidate of ours on the ballot paper and so decided they didn’t want to vote.
The authorities are reacting in …
From the Oxford Mail:
A ROYAL Marine seriously wounded in Iraq collared Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg in Oxford today to applaud him for pledging action to clean up Parliament…
Mr Johnstone, of Salter Close, Grandpont, told Mr Clegg: “This is the first time I’m going to be voting for you.”
The 46-year-old suffered severe shrapnel wounds to his right leg when a roadside bomb exploded as his unit patrolled close to Basra Airport in August 2003.
He told the Oxford Mail: “What’s impressed me is he’s been on TV and he said he’s asking that every MP across the political divide
…
The Eastbourne Herald has the news:
A TORY candidate in next week’s county council elections is today exposed as a former bigamist.
The Herald has uncovered documents showing Reg Jenkins, who is standing for the Conservatives in Devonshire, married his current wife, Huang Qi, in Shanghai, China, in February 1992 while he was still married to his first wife, Eleanor…
is an offence under Section 57 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and carries a maximum prison sentence on conviction of seven years. Mr Jenkins, 66, who runs a guest house in Cambridge Road, said yesterday he did not
…
Sarah Teather and the Liberal Democrats have been taking legal action against Brent Central Labour Party following the appearance of a leaflet that falsely accused Sarah of receiving funding from questionable sources. When asked about the leaflet by one of the local newspapers, Labour MP Dawn Butler stood by its contents.
But in the face of the legal action, Labour have now admitted their story was false and agreed to pay our legal costs. Result 🙂
All things considered, not the wisest of choices by the new Wiltshire Council to send out examples of how to complete your ballot paper which show someone voting Conservative:
A particularly odd decision given how common instructions are which show dummy party and candidate names.
Another one for the “how not to handle the media” file courtesy of Brent Labour MP Dawn Butler (she of the unhappy letter and the disappearing statement, not to mention the numerous expense issues):
AN ELEVENTH hour climb down saw one of the borough’s MPs back out of a face-to-face parliamentary briefing to explain expenses claims.
Dawn Butler MP for Brent South cancelled crisis talks with the Times at Portcullis House in Westminster by text message just as a reporter arrived at the Houses of Parliament for the scheduled meeting on May 21.
Ms Butler claims a
…
Shades of John McCain’s political blunder in this Times piece:
So how many properties do you own? “I own a house in North Kensington which you’ve been to and my house in the constituency in Oxfordshire and that is, as far as I know, all I have.”
A house in Cornwall? “No, that is, Samantha used to have a timeshare in South Devon but she doesn’t any more.” And there isn’t a fourth? “I don’t think so – not that I can think of.” Please don’t say, “Not that I can think of.” “You might
…
It’s all go on the political reform front today. Apart from Nick Clegg’s op-ed in The Guardian, front page newspaper coverage, detailed policy proposals and new campaign website, there’s also the little matter of today’s party political broadcast, also on the same theme. It’s appearing on TV screens this evening, but you can watch it now:
It had become a quarterly habit of mine, pointing out how the Electoral Commission’s quarterly reports mixed up actual loans taken out by political parties with unused credit facilities, providing an inaccurate impression of parties being much more in debt than they really are.
Last quarter I noted that the reporting was clearer, and it’s good to see that with this quarter’s figures and news release the two different issues have been fully separated out, with only the actual borrowing in the headline debt figures the media are reporting. Success at last 🙂
From Dizzy Thinks:
David Boothroyd has had to resign from the “Wikipedia Supreme Court”. David Boothroyd is a Labour councillor in Westminster who comments on a number of right wing blogs including this one. He has an anally retentive insistent on this blog of referring to me by my full name for some reason.
I mentioned this simply because he’s had to resign after admitting to have multiple identities on Wikipedia and spending most of his time editing David Cameron’s page. He also used his multiple identities to get himself elected to the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee it seems.
With more detail in …
From today’s Corrections and Clarifications column in the Guardian:
A further correction to our graphic surveying the expenses of certain MPs: In the category Cheapest claims, we stated without qualification that cosmetics were included in receipts submitted by Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire (23 May, page 6). Jo Swinson has denied claiming for these makeup items, telling the Telegraph, which originally reproduced one of her receipts, that the cosmetics appeared on a Boots receipt for other items she was claiming.
(More on this story in James Graham’s weekend post – including his request that you send an …
From the Liverpool Daily Post:
A RIFT among a Merseyside Labour group last night led to a shock defection to the Liberal Democrats.
Cllr Paul Larkin, who represents Bootle’s Derby ward, crossed the divide after claiming Sefton’s Labour leadership is “deaf” to the concerns of voters.
Iain Dale has the story of Ralph Buckle, the chair of University of York Conservatives until he called for people to vote UKIP. He’s now an ex-chair and ex-member.
votewise.co.uk – the independent website which lists forthcoming by-elections and candidates (and which I blogged about here) – has recently started displaying page view figures on the biography pages for each by-election candidate. The numbers (even allowing for being page views rather than absolute unique visitors) are generally impressive, with a candidate’s page being typically viewed several hundred times.
Given the number of votes it takes to win or lose an election, and the likelihood that a high proportion of those views are from (potential) voters, that’s not a number to be sniffed …
Thus writes The Sun:
A TORY Euro MP paid her husband £22,500 to help her write a 15-page leaflet on waste management, The Sun can reveal.
Caroline Jackson, 62, initially failed to declare the payment.
She then disguised the size of the payout to hubby Robert by splitting it into three and listing each part as between £0 and £10,000”.
Full story here.
From France 24:
A high profile trial against the Church of Scientology opens in Paris Monday amid questions about whether the latest legal battle could threaten Scientology’s operations in France.
This time, the organisation faces a fine of up to 5 million euros and even the prospect of dissolution.
The latest case centres on a complaint made by a 43-year-old Parisian woman, who claims the organisation persuaded her to spend at least 20,000 euros for various fraudulent cases including medication for “self-purification”, books and an “electrometer”, a device used to measure galvanic skin response in patients…
The Church of Scientology says money can
…
Following up my piece on what they said about the Speaker in the nineteenth century, here’s what the Quarterly Review wrote in 1830:
There is something in the very atmosphere of the House unfavourable to bold and uncompromising conduct. It is, de facto, a sort of overgrown club. This is the worst part of the business. Things are every day admitted in private among the members, which are studiously denied or concealed in the speeches reported from the gallery. (January 1830, p.271-2)
I’m all for MPs spending money on websites* and, just because you can set something up for free in five minutes, that doesn’t mean an MP can’t sensibly spend a reasonable chunk of money on a website. Good MP websites contain a wealth of content, design and functionality for which it is reasonable to pay something.
But the news that Conservative MP Angela Browning’s spent £9,635 for a pretty basic website plus 30 months hosting/support does look very odd. From what I’ve seen, I can’t see how that price is justified: it is substantially more than a range of …
From the Sunday Mirror:
A Tory activist has been expelled from the party for posting a picture of himself with a Hitler moustache on Facebook … And beside it, in the “My Favourite Quotes” section, he allegedly made racist and sexist comments, including one saying: “I don’t hate everyone, I just hate women …
A spokesman said: “These comments are disgusting. He has no place in the party. He is being expelled immediately.”
Daniel O’Docherty had been chair of the Birmingham University Conservatives until a few weeks ago.
Social Media Affairs has just released a report looking at the political social media landscape in the UK (with, ahem, myself being one of the four people contributing introductory remarks about politics and social media).
Any report like this has to deal with all sorts of issues of definition and categorisation but there are some striking broad trends they’ve found.
7% of Liberal Democrat councillors are bloggers (a number boosted significantly by the ALDC MyCouncillor system), compared to 2% of Labour councillors and 1% of Conservative councillors.
This keenness to blog also has a significant …
Welcome to the Sunday outing for The Voice’s new daily post series highlighting two big stories from the media and two “must read” blog posts from Liberal Democrats. As it’s a Sunday, there’s also a bonus extra supplement. If you spot anything for future posts, do let us know on [email protected]
MPs’ expenses
Heading into its third week, the MPs’ expense story shows no sign of abating. The latest scalp is that of Andrew MacKay, again. The story has been running for so long that not only was he one of its first victims (losing his Conservative Party job) but …
Spotted in Brentwood, where David Kendall is standing for the Liberal Democrats in the local elections.
One of his leaflets has stuck on a resident’s door with “I’m voting for you Davey baby” and “Get these idiots out” written on it.
On the door next to it, a piece of paper which says:
I’d rather remove my nipples with a rusty tin opener than vote Labour or Conservative. I will only open my door to Dave Kendall’s crew.
All in all, it’s probably quite a good thing David got his nomination …
A quick quiz for you. One of the Haringey local newspapers, The Hornsey Journal, had this story on 14 May:
Under fire councillors opt to take pay freeze
The recession is about to hit councillors in the pocket, after both Haringey Labour and Liberal Democrat parties decided NOT to take a pay rise …Councillor Claire Kober, Leader of the Labour-controlled council, said, “… This move will mean any savings can go straight into providing essential services for the people of Haringey.”
So, do you think that Labour voted through changes that resulted in the council’s allowances bill:
a) Staying the same, or
b) Increasing by £44,751 (7%)?
I’ll …
Last week Kuwait’s 50-seat Parliament was up for election and, for the first time, the victors include women. Four of the sixteen female candidates who stood were elected, including Massouma al-Mubarak who has been the path-breaking female politician of Kuwait.
Back in 2005, when women were given the right to vote and to stand for Parliament, she didn’t become a Member of Parliament herself, but did become the first female Cabinet minister. She served in the Cabinet in more than one role, resigned as health minister after a hospital fire in 2005 killed two people, accepting ‘political and moral’ responsibility even …
The Liberal History Group’s committee had an extended debate via email a few months ago over the number of days for which Lloyd George was an MP. We’d set this as a quiz question before discovering that we didn’t all agree on the answer. Leap years weren’t the problem. It was the question of when do you start becoming an MP: on declaration of the result or on taking your seat?
But here’s a tougher one. For how many days was Joseph Ormond Andrews (1872-1909) an MP? Andrews won a by-election at Barkston Ash in October 1905, gaining the seat from …
Just a thought, but I wonder if Labour MPs should be giving this a read:
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Don’t slam the brakes on Britain’s EV revolution (Mark Hofman)
“How will you pay for it?” – The reply I’d love to hear Ed Davey give (Jamie Dalzell)
The Lib Dems created the triple lock – we should be the ones to set the terms for its end (Adam Shaw)
We are being held hostage by the Tory voters who have lent us their vote (Theo Rodwell)
Dear United Kingdom: Anti-white racism and the attack of diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI) (Michael Bukola)
Reform inadvertently lose their majority
The Major Oak is dead and Phil Harding has discovered another ancient site near Stonehenge
Reform own goals
Following the course of the River Leen through Nottingham
Joe Jackson: It's Different for Girls
Trumps' White House thuggery appals the world including most Americans
The Joy of Six 1534
The toxic legacy of Brexit
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Mick Taylor 
