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Author Archives: Nick T

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An open letter to the BBC about tonight’s Lib-Dem-free Question Time

By Nick T | Thu 21st March 2013 - 8:56 am

Here’s an email I sent to the BBC’s acting Director of News, Fran Unsworth, last night. Hat-tip to Richard Morris for highlighting the issue.

Dear Fran,

On the front of the 2010 Liberal Democrat manifesto were four priorities. The first of these was a pledge to deliver “fairer taxes” by raising the threshold at which people begin to pay income tax to £10,000.

In his Budget speech this week, the chancellor stood up in the House of Commons and announced that next year the coalition will deliver this policy in full. It would not be an understatement to say, therefore, that this …

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Posted in News | Tagged bbc question time and featured | 30 Comments

The boom years were the dream. This is reality

By Nick T | Thu 14th March 2013 - 11:44 am

Pieces of writing can do lots of things: challenge, comfort, exasperate, inform, entertain. Occasionally, though, one reads a piece that, in prose far more clear, lucid and fluent than one’s jumbled thoughts, nonetheless perfectly describes those thoughts.

I’ve long been a fan of The Economist’s David Rennie, and have praised him here on the Voice before. Last summer he took over the paper’s Lexington column (in tragic circumstances), but before that he was for two years British political editor and author of the weekly Bagehot column.

In May last year he wrote one of those columns I describe …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged david rennie, economy, featured and the economist | 65 Comments

Dr Liam Fox’s economic prescription: kill or cure?

By Nick T | Mon 11th March 2013 - 8:22 pm

Economic jihad. That’s how Vince Cable described Dr Liam Fox’s speech to the IEA this morning. Dr Fox’s speech is worth reading, though, precisely for the parts of it that have not been covered in the wider media. For it sets out a clear – albeit deeply conservative – approach to how to reform our economy for the long-term. But while the proposed destination is well-articulated, the route is far from certain.

Let’s start with the positive. I agree, broadly, with Fox’s analysis of the causes of our current economic state. While I wouldn’t exactly phrase it thus, there is …

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Posted in News | Tagged liam fox | 9 Comments

Steve Webb’s speech to conference

By Nick T | Sat 9th March 2013 - 5:03 pm

Steve Webb, Lib Dem minister for pensions, delivered his speech to conference earlier today. The text of his speech is below.

As some of you know, I used to teach at Bath University. And I enjoyed nothing more than setting my students tough questions to get them thinking.

So when I was planning what I would say today, I thought – why not set all of you a tricky exam question instead. You may have thought that you had come to Brighton for a good time. But not while I’m on the platform!

And my exam question is this: “How do …

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Posted in News | Tagged #ldconf Steve Webb | 25 Comments

Nick Clegg’s speech to conference: what I’ll be looking out for

By Nick T | Sat 9th March 2013 - 10:17 am

Huhne, Pryce, Rennard, Eastleigh. A mass of events converge this weekend as Brighton once again becomes centre of the Lib Dem universe for a weekend.

These topics will inevitably dominate conversations in the conference bar. But when Nick Clegg stands up on Sunday lunchtime to make his speech he has to look beyond the short-term events that have dominated Liberal Democrat discourse for the last few weeks and months.

It’s often said of a speeches that they are “one of the most important X has made in the course of his leadership”. …

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Posted in Conference | Tagged #ldconf, 2013 brighton spring conference, featured, nick clegg and party strategy | 3 Comments

Vicky Pryce found guilty

By Nick T | Thu 7th March 2013 - 3:13 pm

The BBC reports:

The former wife of ex-cabinet minister Chris Huhne has been found guilty of perverting the course of justice by taking speeding points on his behalf.

Vicky Pryce, 60, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court of committing the offence over a speeding incident on the M11 in Essex in 2003.

She had denied the charge, saying Huhne had forced her to take the points.

Pryce has been bailed pending a sentencing hearing.

Posted in News | Tagged chris huhne and vicky pryce | 5 Comments

Lib Dems should lead the European push for a US trade deal

By Nick T | Thu 14th February 2013 - 10:23 am

President Obama’s public statement in favour of a US-EU trade agreement should be welcomed by all liberals. Free trade is a cause with a long and proud liberal history, and such a deal has the potential to increase prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic.

There will be some countries in the EU less keen on such a deal than others: our French neighbours being the most obvious example. Many countries in the EU have a vested interest in not creating a truly free market within the EU, never mind across the pond. Agriculture has long been a major impediment …

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Posted in News | Tagged free trade | 4 Comments

Notice: Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats’ AGM going ahead with new venue

By Nick T | Thu 14th February 2013 - 9:16 am

The following recently dropped into the Voice’s inbox, and may be of interest to readers:

The Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats are going ahead with their Annual General Meeting this Saturday (16th February) but have changed the venue to the party HQ at 8-10 Great George Street, Westminster, SW1P 3AE. The AGM will start at 11.15am sharp!

Afterwards members are encouraged to join us on a minibus to campaign in the Eastleigh byelection.

We postponed the EMLD / Social Liberal Forum conference on race equality – which was due to take place this Saturday – in order to prioritise Eastleigh.

For more information check the

…

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LibLink: David Laws – Incentive for UK schools to promote talent

By Nick T | Thu 7th February 2013 - 2:51 pm

Writing in today’s Financial Times, Lib Dem schools minister David Laws has the following to say about the Government’s announcements on reforms to the systems of examination:

We need all schools to teach all children well in all subjects. For that reason, we propose judging schools by the progress their pupils make in eight subjects. Two of those subjects will be English and maths; a further three will be any combination of sciences, history, geography and languages. The remaining three are open – they could be further sciences or languages, subjects such as art or music,

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged david laws and education | 3 Comments

Putting the party’s message in a distinctively liberal context – Part 3: a fairer society

By Nick T | Fri 1st February 2013 - 12:50 pm

This is the third of three posts looking at the party’s messaging. The introductory post was published here, and yesterday’s on the economic part of the message is here ; this last and final post concentrates on the second part of the message: social justice.

The second part of the party’s message is “building a fairer society”. Fairness was, of course, the theme of the party’s 2010 manifesto, linking the four key policy platforms on which we fought the election (fairer taxes, a fair start for every child, fairer politics and a fairer, more balanced economy).

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged fairer taxes, fairness and featured | 28 Comments

Putting the party’s message in a distinctively liberal context – Part 2: the economy

By Nick T | Thu 31st January 2013 - 12:37 pm

This is the second of three posts looking at the party’s messaging. The first was published here yesterday; the last and final post will appear tomorrow.

The first half of our message emphasises economic competence: bringing back (as David Laws once put it) Gladstonian Liberalism to the Treasury and setting us up to be competitive in a fast-changing, globalised economy.

So far, much of the focus has been on our willingness to take “tough decisions”. Here, for example, is David Laws speaking to the Independent recently: “in the past people have known we stood for a fairer society but have …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged doha trade talks, economy, featured, free trade and party strategy | 64 Comments

Baroness Kramer: Focus on small businesses to get the economy moving

By Nick T | Thu 31st January 2013 - 9:17 am

I have previously highlighted some of Baroness (Susan) Kramer’s excellent House of Lords speeches on the economy here on Lib Dem Voice. There follows, courtesy of Lords Hansard, an extract from another speech she gave on Tuesday to the House in a debate on economic growth, urging the government to focus on small and medium size businesses, by whom the vast majority of people are employed:

I would like to add something slightly different to this debate, because as a doer and deliverer I am going to ask him if he might

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Posted in News | Tagged susan kramer | Leave a comment

Putting the party’s message in a distinctively liberal context – Part 1

By Nick T | Wed 30th January 2013 - 11:24 am

In my New Year review of the party’s position, I emphasised the need to get the basics right; political competence before all else. I touched on the party’s messaging only perfunctorily, because my view was (and to an extent still is) that there are more pressing concerns than the message itself (we can have the best message in the world, but if we are failing when it comes to the basics of political strategy and tactics it is next to useless). Here’s is what I did say, in my concluding remarks:

There’s already been talk over the Christmas break of

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged party strategy | 10 Comments

Nick Clegg’s son’s schooling is none of your business

By Nick T | Sun 27th January 2013 - 11:58 am

Appearing on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, Nick Clegg was asked once again which secondary school he would send his eldest child too. He quite rightly dismissed the question as a personal one – he and Miriam have strived to keep their children out of the public eye, so why should they change that now?

As I tweeted at the time:

Anybody who thinks it’s any of their business which school Clegg’s children go to is one of the problems with our political culture.

— Nick Thornsby (@NickThornsby) January 27, 2013

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured and nick clegg | 138 Comments

Cameron fails to practise what he preaches over Europe

By Nick T | Thu 24th January 2013 - 8:56 am

There will be lots of ~~fascinating~~ analysis of the prime minister’s speech on Europe. However, this response from the deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, Katinka Barysch, over at Comment is Free caught my eye (emphasis added):

Germany, France and other EU countries have indicated that they want to accommodate Cameron to help Britain to stay in the union. What they simply cannot do is to allow Britain a pick-and-choose membership in response to the

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Posted in News | Tagged europe | 13 Comments

Where is the British Borgen?

By Nick T | Sun 20th January 2013 - 12:39 pm

Alastair Campbell asked an interesting (if not altogether original) question on Twitter this morning:

Success of Borgen (currently trending) and West Wing (which I have not seen) a sign of gap in market for essentially pro politics TV?

— Alastair Campbell (@campbellclaret) January 20, 2013

As a massive fan of The West Wing, and an avid viewer of Borgen, it is a question I have also thought about. Britain is the world leader in political satire, yet we must be close to bottom of the league when it comes to political drama.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged alastair campbell, Borgen, featured and west wing | 17 Comments

Clegg and Cable criticise Tory EU machinations

By Nick T | Thu 17th January 2013 - 10:02 am

First up, the Independent’s Andrew Grice reports Nick Clegg’s comments from yesterday’s Today Programme:

The battle lines over which powers should be returned from Brussels to Britain will be drawn today when Conservative Eurosceptics list their demands for the “new settlement” with the EU promised by David Cameron.

But Nick Clegg and a new all-party pro-European campaign, which includes Kenneth Clarke, poured cold water on the prospect of Britain winning a major repatriation of powers, accusing the Eurosceptics of making unrealistic demands.

Mr Cameron is expected to welcome the Fresh Start group’s “manifesto for change” ahead of his landmark speech on Europe on

…

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Posted in News | Tagged europe | 7 Comments

+++Reminder – Call Clegg starting now. Listen live here

By Nick T | Thu 17th January 2013 - 8:55 am

The second week of LBC’s Call Clegg is about to begin live on LBC. What will Clegg cover this week? You can find out by listening live here.

Posted in News | Leave a comment

Lib Dem success as Home Secretary confirms government to back amendment to Public Order Act

By Nick T | Tue 15th January 2013 - 9:51 am

The Guardian reports that, following a high-profile campaign, the government has agreed to retain an amendment to the Crime and Courts Bill going some way to implementing Lib Dem party policy (pdf) on the Public Order Act:

In a government climb down, the Public Order Act that covers speech and writing on signs and states: “A person is guilty of an offence if he uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour”, will be changed to remove the word insulting. The move follows a high-profile campaign which united Christian and secular groups and was spearheaded by the comedian Rowan Atkinson, the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell and the former shadow home secretary David Davis.

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Posted in News | Tagged public order act and reform section 5 | 2 Comments

Welfare: right policy, wrong reasons?

By Nick T | Thu 10th January 2013 - 10:34 am

Many column inches have been filled with comment over the government’s decision to restrict a number of benefits and tax credits to increases of 1% over the next couple of years.

This piece (£), however, by the FT’s economics editor, Chris Giles, warrants a special mention, not least because it is makes some interesting points that nobody else seems to have done.

Here’s a (fairly lengthy) extract:

In any case, good evidence exists on living standards to assess the merits of restricting benefit uprating. According to the most recent year of data, 2010-11, the crisis has caused real household net incomes around the

…

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Posted in News | Tagged chris giles and welfare reform | 16 Comments

2013 can be the year Lib Dems prove the cynics wrong, but we have to get smart

By Nick T | Wed 2nd January 2013 - 12:43 pm

One of the most interesting results in Lib Dem Voice’s most recent poll of party members was the answer to the following question: Do you support or oppose the Lib Dems being in the Coalition Government with the Conservatives?

After two-and-a-half years of difficult negotiations with our Conservative partners, deep spending cuts, unpopular tax rises, hundreds of council seats lost and a national poll rating now consistently in the single figures, still only 19% of Lib Dem

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged budget 2012, coalition, featured, party strategy and tuition fees | 36 Comments

Clegg celebrates the “astonishing triumph of politics over conflict” which is the EU

By Nick T | Thu 27th December 2012 - 10:38 am

In his acceptance speech – just over five years ago – after Nick Clegg had just been narrowly chosen as the next leader of the Liberal Democrats, he said that he is a “liberal by temperament, by instinct and by upbringing”. But if those influences make him a liberal, they also make him, arguably to a far greater extent, probably the most pro-European of Britain’s senior politicians. Europe is a subject on which Clegg can speak with the authority of someone who is at least as comfortable, if not more so, in Brussels as he is in Westminster.

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Posted in News | Tagged europe, featured and nick clegg | 14 Comments

Jeremy Browne on his upbringing, an unusual encounter with Michael Portillo and why he is staying put in the only liberal party

By Nick T | Thu 20th December 2012 - 4:34 pm

This month’s Total Politics magazine carries an interview with Jeremy Browne, Lib Dem MP for Taunton and home office minister, by the Conservative MP for Reading East, Rob Wilson. He talks, among other things, about his aspirations for the Liberal Democrats as a true party of government, about his unusual upbringing (he was schooled in both Iran and Zimbabwe) and about why the Liberal Democrats is the party for him.

Here are some excerpts, starting with his time at school and university:

Aged 10, Browne was now at school in Harare with what he described as

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Posted in News | Tagged jeremy browne and rob wilson | 4 Comments

Do US politicians have a mandate for big changes to gun control laws?

By Nick T | Thu 20th December 2012 - 10:56 am

This article, by the Economist’s Lexington correspondent, David Rennie, is one of the best I’ve read on the inevitable debate on gun control following the appalling shooting in Connecticut last week. His argument is essentially that the only change that might actually have an effect is stopping most people having guns, with the rest only allowed under a tough licensing regime.

But since I read the piece a couple of days ago, it is this penultimate paragraph that has had me thinking:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured | 15 Comments

Cable orders inquiry into Comet failure

By Nick T | Thu 20th December 2012 - 9:43 am

The Guardian reports:

The business secretary, Vince Cable, has ordered an inquiry into the collapse of high street electricals chain Comet after the government was left with a £50m bill in unpaid taxes and redundancy costs.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) confirmed that the Insolvency Service had begun a “fact-

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Posted in News | Tagged comet and vince cable | 3 Comments

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – Fighting climate change is moral, vital, and in our own interests

By Nick T | Thu 6th December 2012 - 2:54 pm

In the Independent, Paddy Ashdown shares his thoughts on the Doha climate change talks, currently ongoing and being attended by Lib Dem energy and climate change secretary Ed Davey.

Here’s an excerpt of what Paddy has to say:

Despite being in the midst of global recession, it is essential that governments in developed nations recognise that tackling climate change is not just a moral

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged climate change and paddy ashdown | 7 Comments

LDVideo: Mark Pack gets Paxo’d over the autumn statement

By Nick T | Thu 6th December 2012 - 1:53 pm

Voice co-editor Mark Pack made his debut on Newsnight’s political panel last night, discussing the politics of the autumn statement. You can watch his thoughts below, or on YouTube here.

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Posted in News | Tagged Autumn Statement 2012 | 7 Comments

Cable voices concern over faith school intake

By Nick T | Thu 29th November 2012 - 12:53 pm

The Guardian reports on what it (somewhat exaggeratedly) terms a “furious row” between business secretary Vince Cable and Michael Gove, the education secretary:

A row has broken out within the coalition over the expansion of faith-based schools, with the business secretary, Vince Cable, writing a furious letter to Michael Gove‘s education department accusing him of flouting the 2010 coalition deal.

Department for Education officials, acting on Gove’s direct orders, had undermined the Liberal Democrat/Conservative deal by intervening to ensure a pair of proposed Catholic schools

…

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Posted in News | Tagged education, michael gove and vince cable | 12 Comments

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