Author Archives: Paul Walter

Paul Walter

‘Electing diverse MPs’ motion is comprehensive, balanced and sensible

By Paul Walter | Mon 7th March 2016 - 10:30 am

Reading through the “Electing diverse MPs” motion for the York conference, I was struck by how it comprehensively covers the necessary territory in a very measured and sensible way.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 34 Comments
Paul Walter

We have a moral duty to welcome people fleeing to Europe

By Paul Walter | Thu 3rd March 2016 - 5:25 pm

I’m catching up on telly. Last night I watched the first episode of Simon Reeve’s Greece series. It was a corker. You can see it on BBC iPlayer for a further 6 days.

I’m quite a fan of Simon Reeve. He’s evolved from being a sort of back-packing TV reporter into an intelligent and compassionate observer of the world. His programmes are part-light travelogue, part-incisive documentary.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 11 Comments
Paul Walter

Immigration: pride over our policy, the importance of words…and a mea culpa

By Paul Walter | Sat 27th February 2016 - 2:07 pm

A little while ago I was incensed with being bombarded day and night by media stories about Cameron and negotiations about benefits for EU migrants. This is a blog, at the end of the day (good blogging term there), so I blogged about it. What came out was a knee-jerk rant (“Migrants’ benefits debate is a proxy channel for xenophobia in some quarters” (the last three words being added after publication)). Some of the best blogging is based on knee-jerk rants. Not this time. On this occasion I should have been a little more careful with my words.

In the end, I raised the white flag in the ensuing debate and modified my article to emphasise that I was only talking about xenophobia “in some quarters” and that “I acknowledge that many have genuine and sincere concerns about this policy area for legitimate reasons.”

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 18 Comments
Paul Walter

George Osborne’s decisions are coming back to haunt him

By Paul Walter | Sat 27th February 2016 - 11:23 am

Commenting on George Osborne’s planned spending cuts, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Susan Kramer has said:

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 16 Comments
Paul Walter

The happiest photo of the week

By Paul Walter | Thu 25th February 2016 - 11:50 am

obamas mclaurin

Official White House photo by Lawrence Jackson.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet 106-Year-Old Virginia McLaurin during a photo line in the Blue Room of the White House prior to a reception celebrating African American History Month.

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Posted in Photo feature | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
Paul Walter

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By Paul Walter | Sun 21st February 2016 - 7:50 pm

7 bestMany thanks to the 48,294 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Report into the 2015 General Election by James Gurling. 66 comments.

Do you have questions about the Electing Diverse MPs motion? by Caron Lindsay. 82 comments.

Was Vince Cable proved right on austerity? by Nick Thornsby. 20 comments.

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Paul Walter

Tim Farron: ‘Boris has had more positions on Europe than the Kama Sutra’

By Paul Walter | Sun 21st February 2016 - 7:06 pm

Commenting on Boris Johnson’s announcement that he will campaign for a “leave” vote in the EU referendum, Tim Farron said:

This is a deeply cynical move from a deeply ambitious politician who is using an in-out referendum as a back door to Number 10. It is a selfish move to put personal ambition before the jobs, security and prosperity of every Londoner.

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 68 Comments
Paul Walter

“Leave” campaign must outline a cohesive and detailed vision for the UK outside of the EU

By Paul Walter | Sun 21st February 2016 - 12:56 pm

Andrew Rawnsley has an excellent column in the Observer today, entitled: “This can’t be left to the Tory party – it’s everyone’s country at stake”. He hits the nail on the head with this paragraph:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 44 Comments
Paul Walter

Has unleaded petrol reduced violent crime?

By Paul Walter | Sun 21st February 2016 - 11:05 am

I thoroughly recommend buying and reading the “Big Issue“. It carries a very attractive and eclectic range of articles. One of its features is “My Pitch”, where the story of a Big Issue seller is related. I find myself reading this feature first – it is always fascinating and heart-warming.

I’m now going to raise a topic which was mentioned in “Big Issue” this week in a curious way. Their “Focus” piece was a Q&A with Neil Dudgeon (any relation to Guy Dudgeon who produced “Space Oddity”?-ed).

Who is Neil Dudgeon? – I hear you cry.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Paul Walter

20th century support for eugenics by Churchill, Beveridge, Keynes etc – what to make of it?

By Paul Walter | Sun 21st February 2016 - 9:37 am

This week, a couple of LDV commenters mentioned the support of eugenics by Beveridge and Keynes in the 1930s and early 1940s. Such support was widely shared by members of the Fabian society and notables such as George Bernard Shaw, Marie Stopes, Harold Laski – even Winston Churchill (earlier in the 20th century).

Debate of this point was not possible on unrelated threads this week, so this article is posted to allow discussion of this interesting, and somewhat disturbing, historic phenomenon.

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Paul Walter

Paul’s Sunday Selection from today’s papers

By Paul Walter | Sun 21st February 2016 - 12:23 am

sundaypapsHere are a few articles that have caught my eye from the Sunday papers:

The Sunday Times (£) leads with “Cameron declares war on rebels”, starting:

DAVID CAMERON ignited a fresh Tory civil war over immigration last night, warning that those who wanted to leave the European Union were misleading the public by claiming that they could seal Britain’s borders.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, the prime minister said those who wanted to leave would be forced to accept the free movement of people if they wanted a free trade deal with the rest of the EU.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 4 Comments
Paul Walter

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By Paul Walter | Sat 20th February 2016 - 6:47 pm

The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that’s fine, we’re grateful for people taking the time to read the site.

You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are four simple ways:

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Posted in Site news | 11 Comments
Paul Walter

Farron: “Britain is better in Europe and Europe is better with Britain in it”

By Paul Walter | Sat 20th February 2016 - 1:25 pm
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Posted in News | 41 Comments
Paul Walter

++BREAKING NEWS: EU referendum to be held on June 23rd

By Paul Walter | Sat 20th February 2016 - 12:32 pm

From the Guardian:

Cameron confirms – as expected – that the referendum will take place on June 23.

The prime minister said that the question will be about whether the UK “will be safer stronger and better off working in a reformed Europe or out on our own.”

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Posted in News | 8 Comments
Paul Walter

Lib Dem peer takes part in World War Three

By Paul Walter | Mon 8th February 2016 - 3:50 pm

Kishwer Falkner has taken part in a gripping and chillingly realistic BBC Two TV programme.

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Posted in The Arts | Tagged , , , and | Comments Off on Lib Dem peer takes part in World War Three
Paul Walter

Is there a chance that the new Top Gear will be very entertaining but not (borderline) offensive?

By Paul Walter | Mon 8th February 2016 - 2:20 pm

The list of past Top Gear controversies is long. There have been allegations of homophobia and criticism of the mockery of Argentines, Mexicans, Germans and Romanians.

I have great respect for Jeremy Clarkson as a motoring and general writer. But he presents a persona to the public which teeters on the brink of controversy and often falls over the edge.

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Posted in Op-eds and The Arts | Tagged , , , and | 40 Comments
Paul Walter

What our busy peers will be up to this week

By Paul Walter | Mon 8th February 2016 - 11:21 am

Here are some of the things our team in the House of Lords will be doing this week:

Monday: Roger Roberts will be pushing the Government to take action to relieve the situation of unaccompanied refugee children. Tim Farron has been pushing the Government to accept 3,000 at risk refugee children but David Cameron has recently rejected the proposal. The Liberal Democrats will continue to fight to find a solution which does not leave these children vulnerable.

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Paul Walter

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #449

By Paul Walter | Sun 7th February 2016 - 7:30 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 449th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere (including for this week only a little glimpse of blogging beyond the LibDem universe)… Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (31st January – 7th February, 2016), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | 3 Comments
Paul Walter

Assange: From Townsville to Knightsbridge via Cloud Cuckoo Land

By Paul Walter | Sat 6th February 2016 - 10:50 am

In Evelyn Waugh’s “Handful of Dust”, the fortunate owner of a fantastic Gothic English country pile, Tony Last, has an idyllic life which is gradually brought crashing down by a series of unfortunate events including betrayal by his wife. He ends the book trapped as a prisoner in the Brazilian jungle – the plaything of an insane tribal chief – having to continually read Charles Dickens’ “Little Dorrit” to the inhabitants.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Paul Walter

Putting in a good word for Turkey and the Turks

By Paul Walter | Fri 5th February 2016 - 2:22 pm

I couldn’t believe the UKIP Party Political Broadcast (PPB) earlier this week. It really is a new low for a PPB to comprehensively denigrate an entire country and its people.

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

Migrants’ benefits debate is a proxy channel for xenophobia in some quarters

By Paul Walter | Wed 3rd February 2016 - 9:39 am

“EU referendum: David Cameron wins Theresa May’s backing” – reads the Guardian headline this morning.

Hello? Theresa May is the Home Secretary! It is incredible that her backing for Cameron on this is presented as some sort of surprise. What the Prime Minister does should automatically have the backing of the whole cabinet. Are we saying that there are cabinet ministers who do not support the Prime Minister on his referendum stance?

The cabinet’s support for the PM on a crucial national matter appears to be in question. This is quite an extraordinary state of affairs.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 134 Comments
Paul Walter

A 30 second video which sums up why Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States of America

By Paul Walter | Sat 30th January 2016 - 12:15 pm


This post carries the normal proviso that I don’t know what the heck I’m talking about so anything I predict is likely to be pure nonsense.

I’ve just done something which I very occasionally do. I last did it in February 2007. I put a modest little wager on who will be the next President of the USA. I put money on Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton.

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Posted in LDVUSA | Tagged , and | 28 Comments
Paul Walter

Does a perceived distrust of politicians justify redistributing an image meme that was discredited 14 months ago?

By Paul Walter | Tue 26th January 2016 - 4:40 pm

Meme debatesThe image meme above went the rounds of social media in November 2014. It was roundly and conclusively fisked by Isabel Hardman on the Spectator Coffee House blog. I noticed that the meme was getting re-distributed a week ago. I pointed out to the people sharing this meme that it had been thoroughly discredited well over a year ago. Interestingly, several replied saying that “most people” think that’s how parliament behaves so it’s not a problem distributing it.

My indignation hit about twelve on the Richter scale.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 21 Comments
Paul Walter

Book review: ‘This Boy’ by Alan Johnson

By Paul Walter | Thu 21st January 2016 - 11:55 am

this boyWhile this is a very late review, hopefully it will persuade anyone left in the political community, who has not read Alan Johnson’s “This Boy”, to read it.

I tend to read at a snail’s pace and also have a habit of (accidentally) reading volumes of memoirs back to front chronologically. I read both Alan Clark’s and Chris Mullin’s volumes backwards. I read and reviewed Alan Johnson’s later work “Please Mister Postman” last summer. Just before Christmas I was kindly loaned “This Boy”.

The book is a remarkably detailed, harrowing account of a one-parent (and then no-parent) family living in 1950s/60s London in grinding, distressing poverty as the parent suffers increasingly failing health. Abandoned by her husband, Johnson’s mother, Lily, works all the hours God sends, and struggles bravely to bring up her children, Linda and Alan. Living in appalling slum conditions, they manage to survive through various trials and hardships. Linda emerges as a great confidante of her mother and a strong pseudo-parent for Alan as she grows into a young adult.

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Posted in Books | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Paul Walter

Lib Dem pressure wins inquiry into UK extremist funding

By Paul Walter | Sun 17th January 2016 - 10:25 am

The image of Alistair Carmichael looms large on the Guardian’s website this morning. This is connection with his leading the campaign to launch an inquiry into the funding of jihadi and extremist groups operating in the UK.

The report states:

Political pressure on Cameron to investigate extremist revenue streams in the UK has come from the Liberal Democrats who requested the inquiry in exchange for supporting the extension into Syria of British airstrikes against Islamic State.

I think this is referring to the last sentence of the fifth of Tim Farron’s “tests” for supporting Syrian air strikes, which says:

We…call on (the government) to conduct an investigation into foreign funding and support of extremist and terrorist groups in the UK.

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Paul Walter

David Bowie – some memories

By Paul Walter | Tue 12th January 2016 - 1:30 pm

It’s a god-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair

So the beginning words of “Life on Mars” emerged from a slightly tinny, small record player in the fourth form common room of my school. A classmate from Plymouth had bought the single. It was about the only record we had between us. We played it almost continuously. We always left it on for the studio phone ringing and the bit of chat at the end.

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Posted in The Arts | 5 Comments
Paul Walter

Newbury by-pass – memories 20 years on

By Paul Walter | Mon 11th January 2016 - 9:54 am

In January 1996, protestors took to trees and tunnels just outside my home town of Newbury, trying to stop the building of the by-pass.

It was a bit of surprise to be at the centre of such national furore over our by-pass.

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

Is David Cameron mixing up cause and effect?

By Paul Walter | Sun 10th January 2016 - 10:30 am

David Cameron“Parents should take lessons in how to control children – PM” – runs the main headline in the Observer this morning.

Expansion of parenting classes is certainly something to be welcomed. When I was first a parent, I thought it was very strange that parents were offered classes on breathing techniques during pregnancy and pelvic floor exercises, plus inspection of changing areas and bottle procedures after birth, but not a word of guidance after that, until primary school “parent/school agreements”.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 19 Comments
Paul Walter

Flood protection or overseas aid? A false choice

By Paul Walter | Tue 5th January 2016 - 11:30 am

Help UK
Over the festive period, I saw the image on the right on a social media site, stating, against a backdrop of flooded housing:

It’s time to STOP sending money abroad and help people in the UK now. LIKE, COMMENT or SHARE if you agree?

A comment under the image mentioned:

…the 250 million we are giving to India to fund their Space Programme.

Oh dear. Where to start? Call me an old pedant, but I’m naturally suspicious of any entreaty which feels the need to include block capitals. But that’s just one of my little foibles.

My mind boggled at the idea that we are giving “250 million” to India to fund their Space Programme. It took just a quick Google to see where that came from. Our old friend the Daily Mail had a remarkably thoroughly, if one-sidedly, researched article on 15th February 2015 which was headlined as follows:

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Paul Walter

2016 prediction: Miriam for LibDem leader

By Paul Walter | Sat 2nd January 2016 - 4:30 pm

MiriamOK. An apology for bare-faced clickbait, as well as a whole slew of excuses for actually, physically, buying the Daily Mail, are necessary:

  1. I couldn’t find a copy of i or The Times at Nero’s, so I was reduced to reading their free copy of the Daily Mail in a sort of post-modern ironist sort of way.
  2. I saw this “story” and thought it would provide an innocent scintilla of amusement for an otherwise bored LDV reader.
  3. In an attempt at mobile-detox, I had left my mobile at home. I therefore didn’t have a camera to take a pic of the page (right).
  4. I guessed (wrongly) that this story wouldn’t be available online but, anyway, guessed (rightly) that the printed page would “big up” this story more than the online version.
  5. I think this is the first Daily Mail I have bought for several years.
  6. I was otherwise bored.
  7. I was only following orders.
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Posted in Humour | Tagged , , , and | 3 Comments
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