Author Archives: Paul Walter

Paul Walter

Clegg apology – the view from the man on the Brisbane omnibus

By Paul Walter | Tue 25th September 2012 - 12:23 pm

Last night I took an evening off from Liberal Democracy, to enjoy a pie and a pint in one of Hove’s finest hostelries.

At the bar I got chatting to a man who flew, with his family, from Brisbane into the UK last Sunday. I heard his accent and mentioned to him that I had recently been “Down Under”.

He then asked me what I was doing in Brighton and Hove, and I told him.

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Posted in Humour | Tagged | 3 Comments
Paul Walter

Media coverage of Nick Clegg Says I’m Sorry (the Autotune Remix)

By Paul Walter | Tue 25th September 2012 - 8:53 am

The guys at The Poke, staggering into the office after celebrating all their Christmasses coming at once, have put together this compilation of the media coverage of Nick Clegg Says I’m Sorry (the Autotune Remix).

Meanwhile, we understand that in the Lib Dem communications office there has been a reenactment of that scene from “When Harry Met Sally”.

Posted in Humour | Tagged | 1 Comment
Paul Walter

Conference gossip: “May I stroke you sir?”

By Paul Walter | Mon 24th September 2012 - 9:23 pm

From our “ooh missus” correspondent

There is a bizarre aspect of the Procedure adopted by the excellent and friendly security team in Brighton.

Hopefully I am not giving away any state secrets…

When you go through security they have to stroke your photo – three times.

They take your badge and stroke the photo with their finger. Literally.

At the risk of imploding the “ooh missus” connotations of this post, they do it to check whether someone has stuck a second photo over the top of the original …

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Posted in Conference and Humour | Tagged | 1 Comment
Paul Walter

Conference now and then

By Paul Walter | Mon 24th September 2012 - 12:23 pm

Due to family commmitments, it’s a few years since I’ve had a full-on five day blast of conference. I did the odd day here or there during Menzies Campbell’s leadership. But I think my last proper conference saturation was during the Charlie Kennedy days.

Before that, my wife and I came regularly, often putting our daughter in the creche.

But time moves on, so this year I had a window of opportunity to “pig out” on Liberal Democracy, acting, very proudly, as a conference steward – something I have done periodically in the past.

My absence has allowed me to clearly compare the …

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Posted in Conference and News | Tagged | 2 Comments
Paul Walter

Random conference observations from a (new) old grouch

By Paul Walter | Mon 24th September 2012 - 9:53 am

I used to lap up all the conference speeches with unalloyed joy and naive belief.

But, returning to conference after a bit of a break, something has happened to me.

I think I may have seen and heard a lot more these days.

It takes a lot to please me.

So far, here’s some of my random observations.

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Paul Walter

Hurricane Miriam is in the Pacific

By Paul Walter | Mon 24th September 2012 - 6:50 am

How can she be? She arrived in Brighton yesterday.

Boom! Boom! (as Basil Brush would say).

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Paul Walter

EXCLUSIVE: Lib Dem conference surveillance of members’ most intimate moments

By Paul Walter | Sat 22nd September 2012 - 1:45 pm

LDV was given an EXCLUSIVE tour of the Brighton confence centre this morning, as final preparations were being….er….finalised.

Here, we can EXCLUSIVELY reveal evidence of secret last minute behind the scenes preparations to wire the Gents loo (of the East Bar at the conference centre) for not only sound, but vision also

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Posted in Humour | Tagged | 6 Comments
Paul Walter

Nick Clegg’s debut single goes live on iTunes

By Paul Walter | Fri 21st September 2012 - 11:22 pm

As at 9pm tonight, Nick Clegg’s debut single “Nick Clegg says I’m sorry (the Autotune remix)” has gone live on iTunes. It will go live on Amazon and other outlets in the next 24 hours. The Poke has the full story of their success with this brilliant adaptation of the DPM’s apology by Alex Ross.

You can download the single at iTunes here.

All proceeds from the sale of the single will go the Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, at the request of Nick Clegg, via Twitter.

Posted in Humour | Tagged and | 7 Comments
Paul Walter

Time now to prepare for a progressive centre-left coalition in 2015

By Paul Walter | Fri 21st September 2012 - 12:17 pm

Compass chair Neal Lawson has a must-read letter to the Lib Dems in this week’s New Statesman. In it, he argues that the centre left bungled a governmental opportunity in 2010 due to unpreparedness. He encourages us to start the ground work now for a potential centre left progressive coalition in 2015, rather than leaving it to the likes of David Laws and Michael Gove to “stitch it up again”.

That’s why we have to build relationships now – through policy, ideas debates and campaigns. We

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 43 Comments
Paul Walter

What on earth is the Mail up to?

By Paul Walter | Mon 17th September 2012 - 8:54 am

Defence Minister: Clegg axed me because I won’t support attack on Iran – was the headline of a Mail story yesterday, which began:

A Liberal Democrat Defence Minister has claimed he was sacked to avoid a damaging Coalition split over a pre-emptive strike on Iran.

Former Armed Forces Minister Sir Nick Harvey told friends that he was fired in the reshuffle to allow Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to sign Britain up to

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 26 Comments
Paul Walter

A postcard from… Australia

By Paul Walter | Wed 5th September 2012 - 1:47 pm

From reading The Australian during an antipodean holiday over the last three weeks, a few national Australian issues stand out:

The state of the Australian government

There are great paralells with the UK here in terms of the actual form of the government. Both countries had elections in 2010 where no party had an overall majority. Despite her many faults, Julia Gillard has been remarkably successful in holding together her government, some might saying “clinging on by her fingernails”, relying on a handful of independent MPs and

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Posted in Europe / International | Tagged and | 5 Comments
Paul Walter

Menzies Campbell in celebration of Olympians in Parliament

By Paul Walter | Thu 2nd August 2012 - 10:54 am

BBC Parliament has shown a documentary, “First past the post”, which celebrates parliamentarians who are Olympians. Needless to say, our own Sir Menzies Campbell, once one of the fastest men on the planet, is featured liberally in the programme.

Menzies reveals the exotic mixture which his mother used to feed him on race days, and shows viewers his old team blazer. He tells us he can still get into it, but the buttons don’t do up.

Until the end of …

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Paul Walter

Opinion: Stop the national carpathon – we should be proud to offer free seats to service personnel, local school children and Games Makers

By Paul Walter | Mon 30th July 2012 - 1:23 pm

“Locog calls in the army (again)” goes the headline of the Guardian report saying that Olympics seats left empty by the “Olympic family” are being offered to the military and, potentially, to local school children.

So yet another cock-up and we fall back on drafting in the army, goes the story.

I take the opposite view.

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

Video: Weird political ad #547 – Politicians get down and dirty with pigs

By Paul Walter | Tue 24th July 2012 - 3:35 pm

There are plenty of contenders for the strangest political ad of all times. Carly Fiorina’s “Demon Sheep” ad is widely considered to be high on the list.

This one is weird, but, yet, strangely artful. It features “politicians” getting down on their hands and knees with pigs, slinging mud at each other and, even, apparently, eating mud (or is it whatever the pigs are eating?).

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Posted in Humour | Tagged | 1 Comment
Paul Walter

Fantasy leadership scenarios – the silly season has arrived

By Paul Walter | Mon 23rd July 2012 - 4:53 pm

There currently seems to be a cottage industry of Tories writing off Nick Clegg. This article by Iain Martin in the Telegraph is typical:

The reality is that if Labour is the largest party after the next election and the Lib Dems want to talk, then a pre-condition is going to be the absence of Clegg.

This ignores two points:

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 26 Comments
Paul Walter

Opinion: Vince Cable’s leadership comments are unwelcome

By Paul Walter | Mon 23rd July 2012 - 8:54 am

A few months ago we received advice from Tim Montgomerie:

… you need to change party leader. Not now. Not, I suggest, until 2014. But you can’t go into the next election with Nick Clegg at the top of your ticket.

OK, on that occasion, the advice was asked for in the form of an invitation to write for this esteemed website.

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Posted in News | 47 Comments
Paul Walter

Cable: “Murdoch war claim improved my reputation”

By Paul Walter | Thu 19th July 2012 - 8:54 am

If you missed it, it’s worth listening to yesterday’s PM from Radio Four. It includes an interview with Vince Cable over lunch (stuffed aubergine and jelly for afters, since you asked). In the discussion, Vince says that his reputation has been improved in the long run by his “I’ve declared war on Rupert Murdoch” comment, caught on tape by under-cover Telegraph reporters. He also says that you need to avoid using irony in government.

The interview is available on BBC iPlayer here under the “18/7/2012” edition.

BBC online have a news …

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Posted in News | 2 Comments
Paul Walter

LibLink: Proof that politics is for young people

By Paul Walter | Tue 17th July 2012 - 2:23 pm

Well done to Councillor Victor Chamberlain who has had an article published in the Manchester Evening News entitled “I’m proof that politics IS for young people” with the byline “Manchester’s youngest councillor aged 22”. Here is a taster:

Many friends think I was mad to get involved in politics at a young age, but in fact it was inevitable after the Iraq War. I felt strongly that the action being taken in my name was completely immoral, and I wanted to find a way to voice my opposition. In Manchester, effective opposition came only from the Liberal Democrats. When I joined

…

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Paul Walter

Opinion: Hollow Crown – Is this what the BBC is for?

By Paul Walter | Mon 16th July 2012 - 5:23 pm

I’ll immediately rubbish my own title. Of course, the BBC does thousands of things. Its beauty is that hundreds of thousands of people can point to be one thing and say “That is what the BBC is for” – be it “Strictly”, Greg James or BBC Radio Ulster.

For me, if I was to identify one programme series which summarises all that is great about the BBC, it would be “Hollow Crown“, a quartet of Shakespeare kingly history plays currently showing on BBC2.

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

PMQs: Balls! Balls! Balls! Balls!

By Paul Walter | Thu 12th July 2012 - 10:53 am

By golly by gosh, I think Ed Miliband has finally got in the swing of this Prime Minister’s Questions thing. While Cameron reeled from his Tuesday night beating by a right Jesse, the leader of the opposition appeared poised, relaxed and skilful. He’s learnt the knack of brevity and humour, as his first question demonstrated:

At this last Question Time before the recess, may I remind the

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Posted in PMQs | Tagged , , , , and | 6 Comments
Paul Walter

Baroness Betty Boothroyd blusters on the BBC

By Paul Walter | Mon 9th July 2012 - 8:23 am

Betty Bothroyd is furious. So furious that this morning, on Today, she could hardly speak coherently at one point. Spitting feathers, she was.

She is livid about the “reckless” plans to make the House of Lords mainly elected. She spoke of her outrage at the idea that “millions of people” will be able to vote for House of Lords members, giving them some sort of democratic authenticity. This will create “chaos” she said.

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 43 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQs: My honourable friend makes an important point

By Paul Walter | Thu 5th July 2012 - 9:23 am

I think David Cameron broke his own record this week:

(To Nicolas Soames) My right honourable Friend makes an important point.

(To Julian Brazier) My honourable Friend makes two very important points.

(To Duncan Hames) My honourable Friend raises an important point.

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Posted in PMQs | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
Paul Walter

PMQs: Coalition comrades and Kettering cabinets

By Paul Walter | Thu 14th June 2012 - 12:15 pm

David Cameron rather wiped the floor with Ed Miliband yesterday. He did so with the very simple device of producing a letter from Sir Alex Allan, regarding the Hunt BSkyB imbroglio, which stated:

The fact that there is an on-going judicial inquiry probing and taking evidence under oath means that I do not believe I could usefully add to the facts in this case.

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Posted in PMQs | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Paul Walter

Video: Lords Ashdown and Phillips clash over second chamber reform

By Paul Walter | Mon 11th June 2012 - 5:54 pm

This was already covered by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice last month, but, in case you haven’t seen it, it is worth viewing this good-humoured but impassioned clash in the House of Lords between Paddy Ashdown and Andrew Phillips. Most entertaining.

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Paul Walter

LDV poll mention in Express

By Paul Walter | Mon 11th June 2012 - 1:06 pm

In today’s Daily Express, Hickey reports the LDV poll which said 59% of members surveyed said Ken Clarke was their favourite Tory.

Mischievously, a quote has somehow made it’s way into the paper from “a senior Lib Dem MP” who says, ‘chuckling’:

If only Nick Clegg was that popular among his own party members these days…

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Paul Walter

Opinion: Theresa May enters a reading contest with the judges

By Paul Walter | Mon 11th June 2012 - 9:53 am

This is Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights:

1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.

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

MPs’ glass ceiling shatters – literally

By Paul Walter | Mon 28th May 2012 - 7:33 pm

The BBC reports:

A glass roof panel has cracked in the atrium at Portcullis House – a £235m annexe to the House of Commons in Westminster.

Therese Coffey, Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal, tweeted: “Great deal of excitement in Portcullis Atrium as a roof panel shatters.”

Security guards have cleared the area beneath the panel in case it comes down.

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Paul Walter

VIDEO: Stomping off in the middle of a debate is never a good look…

By Paul Walter | Mon 28th May 2012 - 6:48 pm

The Twittyblogsphere is abuzz with this one. Number Ten Communications director, Craig Oliver is allegedly “caught on camera” berating the BBC’s Norman Smith about a News at Six report. Oliver says he was “genuinely shocked” by the report and that it was based on “opinion rather than impartial reporting of the facts”. He also says he has complained to Smith’s boss about the report. He seems most upset by the “spider’s web” graphic which featured with the report.

Then at the end he stomps off, leaving a rather bemused Smith.

It’s a calm, even boring discussion. But, it is all very redolent of the “hairdryer” school of Campbell/Mandelson.

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 19 Comments
Paul Walter

Government meets student tuition fee protests with ‘the rule of the truncheon’

By Paul Walter | Mon 28th May 2012 - 2:23 pm

Student protests against tuition fee increases have been going on for weeks. In response, the government has introduced emergency legislation, legally curtailing demonstrations, hiking penalties and suspending classes at 25 colleges.

Close to home?

Actually, Quebec.

Posted in News | Tagged | 1 Comment
Paul Walter

Clegg: Gay marriage vote not a matter of conscience

By Paul Walter | Mon 28th May 2012 - 7:32 am

Nick Clegg “lit the blue touchpaper” yesterday by putting forward a forthright position on gay marriage on The Andrew Marr Show:

We are not asking any person with religious convictions to sacrifice anything. We are simply saying those who want to show a lifelong commitment to each other should be able to do so.

…In the same way the civil partnerships legislation which was introduced under Labour was a whipped vote, I personally don’t think this is something which should be subject to a great free

…

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Posted in News | Tagged | 36 Comments
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