Author Archives: Paul Walter

Paul Walter

Does Parliament have the plushest waiting room in the world?

By Paul Walter | Sat 22nd April 2017 - 12:30 pm

St Stephen’s Hall, Houses of Parliament – some rights reserved by UK Parliament

Despite understandable security measures, it is still easy to visit the Houses of Parliament and watch the proceedings.

I went there this week. You basically present yourself at the Cromwell Green entrance, which is halfway along the building by the big statue of Oliver Cromwell. At the gate, they tend to ask you why you want to come in – but you just have to say “I want to go to the public gallery of the House of Commons (or Lords)” and they’ll let you in (having checked that the queues are not too long). You then get given a green card and are seen by a policeman who gives you a little briefing. You then go through the inevitable airport security check and you are in.

It’s worth noting that it is your right as a citizen to enter Parliament and ask to see your MP at the central lobby. You are advised to book an appointment with your MP for such a meeting, but you don’t have to. Of course, he or she might not be in Parliament if you turn up unannounced, but all UK residents have a right to walk into parliament for such a purpose or to watch proceedings.

Once you are in you do have a surprising amount of freedom to linger and wander through the place, without any “shooing along” from officials. There are officials and security guards around, but it is really quite surprising how free you are to “mooch about” and admire the various paintings, plaques, ceilings etc. You get to stroll through Westminster Hall, which is magnificent and the most historic part of the present Parliamentary buildings. Charles I was tried there.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 5 Comments
Paul Walter

Public funding for the arts should be cut during a recession, right?

By Paul Walter | Fri 21st April 2017 - 5:45 pm

Grant Wood - American Gothic - Google Art Project

Well, er, no. “America after the fall – Painting in the 1930s” is an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts which breathtakingly displays how public funding for the arts during a depression (let alone a recession) can work wonders. As part of President Roosevelt’s “New Deal”, the Federal Arts Project employed artists to create visual art works, which eventually included over a hundred thousand paintings as well as many sculptures and other works. Artists who benefited included Jackson Pollock. There were other New Deal art projects such as the Public Works of Art project, the Section of Painting and Sculpture and the Treasury Relief Art Project.

All these programmes helped to produce an extraordinary decade for American Art, which is reflected brilliantly in the Royal Academy exhibition, on until June 4th in Piccadilly, London.

What comes over is that the decade established a distinctive American Art world, which was finally free of reference to art elsewhere. There is an extraordinary variety of styles producing a most colourful and impactful exhibition, reflecting the profound changes going on in the USA at the time.

Continue reading »
Posted in The Arts | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
Paul Walter

Soft Brexit Tory MPs who sign up for a hard Brexit manifesto will be responsible for an historic mistake

By Paul Walter | Fri 21st April 2017 - 12:06 pm

In August 2016, unusually, I made an appointment to see my MP. I wanted to talk to him about Britain, after Brexit, being part of the EEA and EFTA – in other words “a soft Brexit”.

My Conservative MP unequivocally explained that he campaigned for “remain”, his constituency voted “remain” and he wanted to salvage a good deal for local companies from Brexit. He spoke about making sure there are no extra barriers for local businesses exporting abroad. He enthusiastically received a paper I gave him from the Adam Smith Institute advocating EEA/EFTA membership after Brexit.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 21 Comments
Paul Walter

There are now twice as many Lib Dem members as at the 2015 general election – and more than 5000 people joined today!

By Paul Walter | Tue 18th April 2017 - 9:55 pm

A very warm welcome to the 5000 new members who have joined us since Theresa May announced she would ask parliament to call a general election this  morning! What a breathtaking number!

The party has now more than doubled in size since the May 2015 general election.

Tim Farron commented:

This election is a chance to change the direction of our country and thousands are joining our fight.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 12 Comments
Paul Walter

General election – the right course of action for the country, but I have my suspicions as to the motives

By Paul Walter | Tue 18th April 2017 - 8:41 pm

Having a general election in June is absolutely the right course of action, for the good of the country.

We need it to clear the air and clarify the public’s view on Brexit.

The 23rd June 2016 referendum result was narrow, one dimensional and controversial.

We need a full general election to have a debate which clarifies the Brexit mandate.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 22 Comments
Paul Walter

LibLink: Tim Farron – Government can’t conduct Brexit talks like a hostage negotiation

By Paul Walter | Thu 13th April 2017 - 2:05 pm

Tim Farron is getting a lot of visibility on a range of subjects at the moment. In the Guardian he writes about foreign policy in respect of Boris Johnson in an article entitled “Boris Johnson has been humiliated – his circus show isn’t funny any more“:

And this is what Conservative Brexit ministers gloating and briefing against Johnson should realise: just as Johnson was humiliated at the G7, so Britain will be humiliated in Brexit negotiations if ministers go in firing off demands like a hostage negotiation. You simply can’t have a good deal while demanding a hard Brexit, especially if you leave the decisions to Johnson rather than trusting the British people with a say on the final deal, as Liberal Democrats demand.

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Tagged , , and | 14 Comments
Paul Walter

Paddy: Royal Marines paying the price of two floating white elephants

By Paul Walter | Wed 12th April 2017 - 11:10 am

In a typically passionate and knowledgeable intervention, ex-Royal Marine Paddy Ashdown has attacked cuts of 200 posts in his former fighting unit:

In an unpredictable age, we need forces that are fast, flexible and mobile. That’s what the Royal Marines do at a world-class level.

To cut their numbers to fill a Naval manpower black hole is not just poor reward for their service over the last years, but a folly which plays fast and loose with the nation’s defences.

The Royal Marines have carried the greatest burden in the defence of our country over the last decade – they have fought in more theatres and won more battles than any other British unit. They are also the crucial manpower pool from which we draw many of our Special Forces.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 10 Comments
Paul Walter

Susan Kramer: Brexit squeeze is hitting families with higher food prices

By Paul Walter | Wed 12th April 2017 - 9:40 am

Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Susan Kramer, has reacted to news from the Office for National Statistics that food prices saw the biggest increase for three years in the year to March:

The Brexit squeeze of a falling pound and rising import costs is hitting families across Britain, with higher prices in the shops denting incomes and leaving us all poorer.

This is deeply worrying news for our economy, which has been propped up by consumer spending.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 15 Comments
Paul Walter

Easter egg hunt furore – something of the ridiculous?

By Paul Walter | Wed 5th April 2017 - 9:56 am

Can you see the word “Easter” in the image above? The image is a screenshot of the National Trust website for its Easter activity.

Yet, Theresa May saw fit to interrupt her visit to Saudi Arabia to criticise Cadbury’s and the National Trust for calling the activity an “Egg Hunt” rather than a “Easter Egg Hunt” – even though Easter is emblazoned above the title.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 15 Comments
Paul Walter

Freddie Flintoff, Professor Green, Ruby Wax and others talk about their mental health issues

By Paul Walter | Sun 2nd April 2017 - 2:56 pm

Over the years, here at Liberal Democrat Voice, we have strongly publicised Time to Talk day. On the same theme, the charity campaign Heads Together are publishing a series of videos on YouTube where famous and not famous people talk about their mental health issues.

It really is good to see role models opening up about their problems. Below, you’ll find three of the videos. In the top one, Stephen Manderson (aka Professor Green) and Freddie Flintoff talk. Next down, Ruby Wax talks with her husband, TV producer Ed Bye.

Continue reading »
Posted in Something for the Weekend | Tagged and | Leave a comment
Paul Walter

Filmmaker shows the sinister and, sometimes, bizarre reality of life under dictators

By Paul Walter | Sat 1st April 2017 - 4:33 pm

I thoroughly recommend the TV series “Dictatorland”, which is going out on BBC Three at the moment. You can watch the episodes as they are published on BBC iPlayer. Young journalist and filmmaker Benjamin Zand travelled, at some risk to him and his crew, to a number of countries which still have dictatorships.

Continue reading »
Posted in TV and film | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Paul Walter

Despite fight by Lib Dems, government changes today deny up to 160,000 people suffering from mental health disabilities access to Personal Independence Mobility Component

By Paul Walter | Thu 16th March 2017 - 9:00 pm

As we reported less than a month ago, Liberal Democtrats in the Parliament have been fighting the government’s decision to deny disability benefits to 160,000 vulnerable people. The government have refused to listen and the new regulations came into force today.

Stephen Fry tweeted:

He links to this message from Mind, the mental health charity:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 19 Comments
Paul Walter

The New European provides an inspiring read

By Paul Walter | Sat 11th March 2017 - 6:40 pm



That front page persuaded me to buy a copy of The New European newspaper this week, for the first time. It’s almost Private Eye-like. Some of the small print at the bottom is hilarious. Godmother, the film, it states is:

  • Featuring “Nigel Farage as the horse’s arse”
  • Filmed on location in “La La Land”
  • Based on a half-baked idea by David Cameron
  • Directed by Unseen Forces
Continue reading »
Posted in Selection news | Tagged , , , , and | 2 Comments
Paul Walter

++Second government defeat – Lords vote for parliamentary veto on final Brexit deal

By Paul Walter | Tue 7th March 2017 - 7:35 pm

The BBC reports:

The government has suffered a second Brexit defeat in the House of Lords as peers backed, by 366 votes to 268, calls for a “meaningful” parliamentary vote on the final terms of withdrawal.
Backing the move, former deputy PM Lord Heseltine said Parliament must be the “custodian of national sovereignty”.

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged and | 53 Comments
Paul Walter

Meet Paul Tyler’s (almost) unused cooker…

By Paul Walter | Tue 7th March 2017 - 6:09 pm


Paul (Lord) Tyler shows the nation the oven he has only used once (to warm up a pizza that “was a bit flabby”).

The second episode of “Meet the Lords” aired last night and is available here on BBC iPlayer for the next 29 days. I mentioned, in my review of last week’s opening show, that our own dear Paul (Lord) Tyler was popping up in the programme. Well, this week I am delighted to say that the great Cornish Liberal is featured at some length. The film crew visit him in his little flat and follow him on his daily journey to the Lords.

Continue reading »
Posted in Parliament | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Paul Walter

Donald Trump is a dangerous and complete joke – but the joke is on the American people

By Paul Walter | Sun 5th March 2017 - 1:05 pm

I give you this series of early morning tweets from the President of the United States of America, as collated by Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire:

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 19 Comments
Paul Walter

Two reasons why the UK will take generations to recover from the shock of leaving the single market and customs union

By Paul Walter | Wed 1st March 2017 - 9:50 am

Regarding the UK’s post-EU prospects, Boris Johnson has been reaching new heights of pseudo-Churchillian grandiosity. But I was taken by this remark, reported by the Guardian:

Johnson says Liam Fox and his team cannot “ink in” trade deals with other countries now. But they can agree them in pencil.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 16 Comments
Paul Walter

Book review – “The Long and Winding Road” by Alan Johnson

By Paul Walter | Tue 28th February 2017 - 1:25 pm

“The Long and Winding Road” is the third in Alan Johnson’s trilogy of memoirs. The previous two books are: “This Boy“, about his harrowing childhood and “Please Mister Postman” about his days delivering the Royal Mail. (You’ll notice that all the books are titled after songs from Alan Johnson’s heroes – The Beatles).

I’ve reviewed both previous books here on LDV (see links above), and to a large extent it helps to read the whole series from the beginning. If you pick up “The Long and Winding Road”, the subject matter, the daily grind of a union leader, an MP and a jobbing minister, can strike one, at first, as rather uninteresting. However, if you’ve stuck with Alan Johnson as he described his appalling upbringing and the detail of his postal work, his “voice” tends to get inside one, and you tend to empathise as he forges on up into the heady heights of the political world.

Continue reading »
Posted in Books | Tagged | 2 Comments
Paul Walter

Meet the Lords – or at least two Lords and one Baroness….

By Paul Walter | Tue 28th February 2017 - 9:52 am

Manderston House 2005

BBC2 started a new series last night called “Meet the Lords”. In the style of last year’s documentary series about the House of Commons, the film crew wondered around the corridors of the House of Lords, and produced some interesting sights.

In fact, it centred on three peers:

Continue reading »
Posted in Parliament and The Arts | Tagged , , , and | 15 Comments
Paul Walter

++Copeland by-election – Lib Dems more than double vote share and move up to third place, beating UKIP

By Paul Walter | Fri 24th February 2017 - 3:50 am

Congratulations to Rebecca Hanson and the team for an excellent showing at the Copeland by-election, caused by the resignation of Labour’s Jamie Reed. Our vote share more than doubled from 3.5% at the 2015 general election to 7.25%. We moved up from fourth place to third – beating UKIP.

Dramatically, the Tories won the by-election in this normally rock-solid Labour seat. Psephologist John Curtice told the BBC that this was the biggest gain, in share of the vote, by a governing party in a byelection since the Hull North byelection in 1966.

Here is the result in full, plus some bar charts from the Press Association’s Ian Jones:

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Paul Walter

++Stoke on Trent by-election – Lib Dem vote share more than doubles

By Paul Walter | Fri 24th February 2017 - 3:37 am

Congratulations to Zulfiqar Ali and the team at Stoke-on-Trent for more than doubling our share of the vote at the by-election caused by Tristram Hunt’s resignation.

Labour held the seat.

After the result was announced, Liberal Democrat president Sal Brinton said from Stoke:

The Potteries decided there was no need to have UKIP’s official leader in parliament when UKIP’s unofficial leader is already in Number 10, pursuing a hard Brexit. We would have done even better but for many voters, drawn to the Lib Dems, who felt they just couldn’t risk being represented by a UKIP MP, so reluctantly backed Labour. Paul Nuttall called this seat Brexit Central but it turned out to be the end of the line for UKIP.

There is also little comfort for Labour, whose vote share has more than halved here in less than two decades. This is on top of an incredibly tough night for them in Copeland. It shows that if we are to turn out this divided and uncaring Conservative Brexit government, the Liberal Democrats will be the ones making the progressive case to keep Britain open, tolerant and united. We started from a low base here but our vote is picking up and this is yet another sign that the Lib Dem fight-back is on.

Here is the result in full plus some sexy bar charts tweeted by the Press Association’s Ian Jones:

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged and | 21 Comments
Paul Walter

Impressive free public access to our Supreme Court

By Paul Walter | Sat 11th February 2017 - 11:57 am

The main courtroom at the Supreme Court, from the perspective of the Presiding Judge.
This week I wanted to visit a court in London, to get a feel for the proceedings. I didn’t fancy the Old Bailey – its case list is a series of stabbings basically. Not nice. I was about to make the journey to the Royal Courts of Justice in The Strand when I remembered the more recently opened Supreme Court.

The United Kingdom Supreme Court resides just opposite Parliament in an impressive building previously occupied by Middlesex County Council and the Middlesex Courts.

When I visited, there were only a few people milling around inside. The staff were very friendly and helpful. I was whisked through the security scanner and then the receptionist explained what I could do in the building. The public are able to wonder around the three court rooms (when there are no cases ongoing) and take photographs. Then there is an interesting exhibition area about the history of the building, the Supreme Court, the Magna Carta and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. That latter entity is the final court of judgment for a number of territories overseas.

Continue reading »
Posted in London and Op-eds | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Paul Walter

The national treasure that is the British Library – all done in the best PAASSIBLE taste

By Paul Walter | Fri 10th February 2017 - 2:30 pm

A few years after broadcasting genius Kenny Everett died, I remember reading that he left his tape collection to the National Sound Archive. This sounded wonderful, but I didn’t envisage having the time to ever sample these tapes and I imagined that it would involve a trip to a chilly warehouse in Sutton Coldfield.

After a little Googling, I found that the National Sound Archive is part of the British Library. Their large building is just next to St Pancras Station in London, coincidentally just a stone’s throw from where Kenny Everett broadcast much of his work at Capital Radio’s studio in Euston Tower. (The British Library also have a place in Wetherby, West Yorkshire). After negotiating their essential processes, on Monday I proudly held my “Reader’s Ticket” and marched along to the Rare Music Books section of the British Library. There I listened for four hours to the most wondrous collection of Kenny Everett recordings.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds and The Arts | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Paul Walter

Jeremy Thorpe – ‘one of the bravest men in British politics’

By Paul Walter | Fri 10th February 2017 - 1:29 pm

On Monday night, the National Liberal Club was the august venue for the AGM of the Liberal Democrat History Group, followed by a talk by Ronald Porter entitled “Jeremy is innocent”.

The full title of the talk, which was presented personal views from Ronald Porter (who is an obituarist and food/wine writer for the Independent and other outlets) was:

The life and times of Jeremy (1929-2014) and Marion Thorpe (1926-2014) by Ronald Porter with some splendid help from Duncan Brack.

Michael Steed chaired the talk and Duncan Brack helped provide photographs for it.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 16 Comments
Paul Walter

The Trump story that takes the biscuit – until the next one that takes it…

By Paul Walter | Thu 9th February 2017 - 10:55 am

I’m going to sound callous but I do believe that perhaps the only plus point of a Trump Presidency is its comedy value. Viewing figures for the US late night shows are booming.

I thought we had reached the pinnacle of Trump comedy with the story of how he appeared, in front of a cross-party gathering of Congressional leaders at the White House, to base his call for an investigation into voter fraud on a conversation with German golfer Bernard Langer.

But yesterday there came a story which really takes the biscuit. At 3am one morning, local time, President Trump phoned his national security adviser to ask whether a strong or weak dollar was best for the American economy.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 31 Comments
Paul Walter

A couple of voices of sanity in the current maelstrom of insanity

By Paul Walter | Tue 7th February 2017 - 2:01 pm

The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, yesterday answered a question from an MP concerning whether Donald Trump would be invited to address MPs in Parliament if and when he pays his state visit in the UK.

A modicum of research reveals that Bercow gave the only reasonable answer he could: that he would be opposed to such an invitation (can you imagine many MPs turning up to meekly listen to The Donald?). He enlarged that answer with entirely proper reasoning. He emphasised that he spoke for the House of Commons only, that he was only one of three “key holders” of Westminster Hall and of the Royal Gallery. He said, quite rightly, that such an invite is an “earned honour” seldom accorded – not an automatic right. If you look at the list of people who have addressed parliament in Westminster Hall, it is very short. The list of people doing such addresses elsewhere in the Palace of Westminster is somewhat longer. However, I don’t see either George Bushes on the list, for example. Or John F Kennedy (though he was perhaps not President long enough). Not even Dwight D Eisenhower addressed Parliament during his two terms – and he was regarded with vast reverence in this country.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 10 Comments
Paul Walter

Kenneth Clarke’s speech in the Article 50 debate

By Paul Walter | Mon 6th February 2017 - 5:59 pm

Today, MPs began debating amendments to the Government’s White Paper entitled “The United Kingdom’s exit from and new partnership with the European Union” in the Committee stage. We publish this speech from Kenneth Clarke (from last week’s Article 50 Commons debate) in the hope of putting some “backbone” (Alistair Campbell‘s word) into MPs as they contemplate a national cordless bungee jump into a dark abyss.

We don’t normally publish speeches by Conservatives, but this one has a particularly good section about Alice in Wonderland, and an excellent ending, referring to Burke:

I am very fortunate to be called this early. I apologise to my right hon. Friend—my old friend—but 93 other Members are still waiting to be called, so if he will forgive me, I will not give way.

Continue reading »
Posted in Speeches | Tagged , , and | 40 Comments
Paul Walter

What happened to the lamp beside the golden door?

By Paul Walter | Sun 29th January 2017 - 10:17 am

The Telegraph reports:

Mr Trump signed an executive order closing US borders to all refugees for a period of at least four months and temporarily banning all travellers from half a dozen countries, regardless of whether they have already been issued visas…

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 9 Comments
Paul Walter

A tale of two Presidents

By Paul Walter | Mon 23rd January 2017 - 9:55 am

As we know, on Friday Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States. This was in a carefully choreographed handover of power, laid down by the Founding Fathers of the nation a couple of centuries ago. This is a country of 319 million people with a GDP per capita (PPP) of $53,750. Trump was elected in a process which took two years in total. Controversial but smooth.

Just a few hours before, election winner Adama Barrow was sworn in as President of The Gambia, one of Africa’s smallest states. It is smaller, in land area, than Yorkshire. It has 1.9 million people. The equivalent GDP figure here is 3% of that of the USA. This Presidential inauguration was rather different to the one in Washington DC.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
Paul Walter

Farron: May is leading the UK towards a hard Brexit that was never on the ballot paper

By Paul Walter | Tue 17th January 2017 - 12:52 pm

Reacting to Theresa May’s Brexit speech, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said:

Theresa May is leading the UK towards a hard Brexit that was never on the ballot paper. This is a theft of democracy, a presumption that the 51.9% of people who voted to leave meant the most extreme version of Brexit available.

The BBC reports further remarks from Tim:

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron says Mrs May has adopted “Nigel Farage’s Brexit plan” which is bad news for the UK, accusing the prime minister of “waving the white flag across the white cliffs of Dover” regarding single market exit.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 54 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Jana
    “ It is reasonable to ask whether new private housing, aimed mainly at people on relatively high incomes, will lower rents more generally” And, of course...
  • Hywel
    @Simon I don't think its a registered trademark or anything that might have such protection. That said: "LibDem Dating UK is for normal people across the U...
  • Katharine Pindar
    This is a good article with a good discussion following, it seems to me. Can I contribute three words which I think the public may sense and like about us? They...
  • Simon McGrath
    Should the Party name be used by a commercial firm presumably without permission?...
  • Peter Hirst
    To me the fundamental difference we offer is that we want to empower people so they take control of their lives. Thus we focus on the disadvantaged who generall...