Author Archives: Paul Walter

The beauty of the US electoral vote certification process

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As a fan of US Congressional language, I was pleased to hear Vice-President Pence going through the electoral college certification process this morning.

Each state is taken in turn. Their envelope has been opened. Their certificate has been checked by the clerks to check that it is all in order – right date, right signature, right text – that sort of thing, I suppose.

Over and over again, for each state, VP Pence repeats the same officialese:

This certificate from State X, the Parliamentarians advise me, is the only certificated vote from the state, it purports to be a return from the state and is annexed to a certificate of authority from the state according to a point of ascertained electors.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 23 Comments

Tragic end to Trump’s deceit

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The National Statuary Hall.

It’s not a name that trips readily off the tongue. It’s a big hall with about a hundred statues in it, in the US Capitol building in Washington DC. Each state is allowed to choose two statues, which they can replace if wanted.

When I was shown round it in 2019, I noticed Rosa Parks. Her statue was not chosen by her home state, Alabama. In an exception to the rule, she was placed there by unanimous vote of both chambers of the Congress. That speaks volumes.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 25 Comments

Georgia on my mind – is it too early to do cartwheels?

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Political Wire’s Taegan Goodard wrote a few hours ago:

It Appears Democrats Have Won Control of the Senate

As of this post, there is still no official projection in either U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia, but the New York Times’s needle is very confident that both Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff will win.

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

How on earth does this man still have access to a nuclear weapons trigger?

It is worth listening to this tape at length.

It ought to send a shiver down the spine of anyone who believes in democracy.

What staggers me is that this sort of call is happening well into January, rather than on November 4th last year.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 9 Comments

Perhaps the best TV series the BBC has ever produced – and what it tells us about our society

Apologies for an England-centric article.

I’ve recently been catching up on my TV viewing. I have finally watched most of the episodes of Michael Wood’s “Story of England”.

This series follows the history of England from the Romans to the present day, through the prism of one village – Kibworth in Leicestershire.

It really is an amateur historian’s dream – because it focuses not on wars and kings, but instead uses basic digging by present-day villagers, and original documents (some of which haven’t been touched for over 500 years). Thereby, it focuses on history from the roots of our society. It dwells on the history of actual families through the centuries.

Two themes emerge which caught my eye.

Posted in TV and film | Tagged and | 3 Comments

Is it safe to come out now?

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With the certification of Michigan’s 16 electoral votes yesterday, Donald Trump finally bowed to the inevitable and signalled his administration to co-operate with the incoming transitional team of Joe Biden.

No concession though, you’ll note.

John T Bennett, Washington Bureau chief of the Independent writes today:

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 6 Comments

A stunning speech from Joe Biden

Posted in LDVUSA | Tagged | 9 Comments

Biden on course to win

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On your behalf, I have been carefully watching the US results as they come in.

It seems highly likely that Joe Biden will be the 46th President of the United States of America.

He’s already flipped Arizona, the Nebraskan 2nd District and Wisconsin.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 12 Comments

Trump’s claim of electoral fraud – “historic and historically awful”

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I’ve managed to get a good bit of sleep.

There are hopeful signs that Joe Biden has a path to win the US election, but we’ll have to be patient while the votes are counted. There are already hopeful signs from Arizona and Nebraska’s second district. I have also seen results from Wisconsin’s Dane County which are encouraging.

Just a few minutes ago I witnessed one of the most insane and disgraceful events in American political history.

Posted in News | 24 Comments

OPEN THREAD: Discussion of US election results as they come in

Paul writes..

 

Please use the comments thread below to discuss the US election results as they come in.

Here are a few links which may help you get your head round what to expect and when to expect it:

FiveThirtyEight has an excellent guide to the timings of the vote counts. Bear in mind that there are vastly more postal votes than usual this time. So results in some key states will not be available on election night.

Posted in LDVUSA | Tagged | 30 Comments

A few pointers for tonight’s American fun

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We’ll be maintaining an open thread for discussion of the US Election results tonight. It will open at 11pm tonight.

Here are a few links which may help you get your head round what to expect and when to expect it:

FiveThirtyEight has an excellent guide to the timings of the vote counts. Bear in mind that there are vastly more postal votes than usual this time. So results in some key states will not be available on election night.

Posted in LDVUSA | Tagged | 7 Comments

Election USA: Brace yourself for delay, frustration and confusion

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Those of a nervous disposition look away now.

TRUMP DECLARES VICTORY AS EARLY VOTE COUNTS FAVOUR HIM

-That could well be the headline you wake up to on Wednesday morning.

Donald Trump is preparing a podium to walk up to and say that he has won the US Presidential election, after a few votes are counted in swing states.

And he may well have some evidence to support him, to a small extent.

The way the votes are being cast in the USA, and the ways in which they will be counted, verified and challenged, is like no other American election.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 8 Comments

Firms overlook the importance of nurturing young staff in the office at their peril

It was encouraging to read this report from the Guardian. A survey has shown that COVID-19 has changed attitudes to home working for the long term.

This is very good news. A healthy element of home working is good for the mental health of workers, saves on carbon emissions and reduces transport snafus.

But I am glad that the Guardian report has put the emphasis on a blended approach. That is, a mixture of home and office working.

Posted in Op-eds | 19 Comments

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

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:

Posted in Site news | 4 Comments

Reflections on the Internal Market Bill and Boris Johnson’s cooking skills

The genesis of the “law breaking” part of the Internal Market Bill can be traced back to Theresa May’s actions as PM. The following words were said to Theresa May at the time by Sir Ivan Rogers, former British Ambassador to the EU. He reported his statement to her to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons:

You have made three commitments in good faith to different audiences, but they are not really compatible with each other.

You have said to the Irish… under no circumstances will a hard border be erected across the island of Ireland.

You have said to the Democratic Unionist community that under no circumstances will there be divergence from the rest of Great Britain.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 51 Comments

Ed gets his listening tour off to a great start by dishing out fish and chips

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Paddy did a listening tour back in the early 1990s. Because it was Paddy, it was very sleeves-rolled-up, get-stuck-in. And, of course, typical Paddy as well, he wrote a book about it.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 11 Comments

Dawn Butler incident – hopefully this will lead to review and change in the Met Police

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I have been very impressed by the calm and fair way that Dawn Butler MP has dealt with the police stop incident on Sunday. She has been very specific about the particular behaviour she is criticising.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 8 Comments

Leadership election ballots hit doormats and inboxes

Leadership email and paper ballots have been going out over the last 24 hours.

Party members have until 1pm on Wednesday 26th August to place “1” or “2” or “blank” against the names of (listed alphabetically) Ed Davey and Layla Moran, or to abstain.

I received my email this morning from Alan Masters, the returning officer. The email included a unique number which I should use to place my vote.

It included the following links for those who are yet to decide:

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | Leave a comment

Register now for our first online conference!

Members are just receiving an invitation to register for the first Liberal Democrat online Autumn Conference, being held from 25th-28th September 2020.

The email from Geoff Payne, chair of the Conference Committee is as follows, minus my membership number (if you’ll forgive me!):

It’s official: Registration is now open for our first-ever online conference!

You’ll need your membership number.

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 2 Comments

100% face masks in English shops on Friday? They’re having a laugh…..

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We’re sailing breezily towards Friday when, suddenly, everybody is meant to be wearing face masks in shops.

It’s not going to happen.

I see hardly any face masks being worn out at the moment.

To expect a sudden pivot on Friday is just ridiculous.

The police aren’t going to enforce the rule to any significant extent.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 130 Comments

Every so often, it’s worth having a look at this table…

OK, I know that countries have very different ways of reporting deaths from Covid-19.

But this table, from Worldometer (excluding a couple of micro-states), gives us some idea how the UK is doing in terms of Covid-19 deaths per million of population.

Badly.

We are second in the world for the rate of deaths, after Belgium.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 68 Comments

I went to the pub…light the blue touchpaper and stand well back

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I figured that last weekend would be a bit crowded in pubs, so I reserved time in my (not-so)busy diary to visit the pub yesterday. Monday is the new Saturday.

All went well. The pub I visited seem to have lots of measures in place, and well-trained staff.

I enjoyed an excellent couple of pints of a local brew (Loddon Brewery’s Citra-Quad, since you ask). I had a meal which was obviously well-familiar with the inside of a microwave but still, as they used to say, “filled a hole”.

So far, so uncontroversial.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 32 Comments

+++Wera Hobhouse pulls out of party leadership race

This was tweeted by Wera Hobhouse a few minutes ago:

Posted in News | Tagged and | 42 Comments

My heart leapt for joy when I saw that statue chucked into Bristol harbour

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Sunday’s event in Bristol was exceptional.

I am not going to be mealy-mouthed about it.

My heart leapt for joy when I saw that damned statue unceremoniously chucked into the harbour.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 69 Comments

If we, as a nation, do not now properly fund the NHS, all our clapping will look like deep hypocrisy


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I’m an enthusiastic Thursday 8pm clapper. The NHS and key workers deserve it. And its good to see our neighbours more than usual.

But there comes a point when one has to ask: Well, do we keep on clapping every Thursday or actually show our support for the NHS and Care Homes where it counts – through our bank accounts?

Time and time again, over the last seventy years, the public have rejected greater public spending including for the NHS. Just a whisper of an income tax rise has been enough, in most cases, to ring the death knell on the chances of a party coming to power. Time and time again, governments have kicked the ball of proper public funding of elderly care into the long grass.

Posted in News | 83 Comments

“An accident waiting to happen” – comprehensive, astute and blunt panel report on the 2019 elections


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Over the weekend, I have been thoroughly reading, and inwardly digesting, the 61 page panel report on the 2019 elections.

I started making notes of passages which would make good quotes for this article. But my list was soon very long. Pulling out pithy quotes turned out to be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 56 Comments

+++Output from General Election review expected on Friday


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It is understood that output from the party’s General Election 2019 Review panel will be published this coming Friday.

Posted in News | 39 Comments

On pandemics and health, we need to look to South Korea – Phil Hammond “MD” in Private Eye


Dr Phil Hammond
Dr Phil Hammond

Throughout the Coronavirus crisis, the “MD” column, written by Dr Phil Hammond, in Private Eye has provided a refreshingly astute and wise commentary on the crisis.

The latest issue of Private Eye is out now. I have recently subscribed to it, so I receive my copy without leaving home. Sheer luxury! (As an aside, someone once asked me to name the thing or service which I had bought or used for the longest period in my life. I came up with Lloyds Bank and Private Eye, of both of which I have been a customer since I was 17 years old. Some 43 years. Crikey – that makes me feel old.)

MD’s latest commentary covers two pages and is very interesting, as always.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 7 Comments

Covid-19 five tests: By sleight of hand, the government seems to be trying to remove the spotlight from testing and PPE issues


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You would have thought that the government’s five tests for moderating the lockdown have stayed the same, wouldn’t you?

Well, think again.

Comparing Dominic Raab’s reading of the five tests on Tuesday with his original announcement of them on April 16th, there is at least one significant difference:

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 12 Comments

Should we be taking population density into account when comparing countries on Covid-19?

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May I first offer my sincere sympathy to all those who have been directly affected by Covid-19 through their own illness or through loss or illness of loved ones. This is a truly terrible illness and my heart goes out to all those who have suffered, as well as the many NHS, care and key workers who have put their life on the line to help others.

One of the horrible sides of the pandemic is that it is often reduced to slides of statistics. When reducing thousands of individual tragedies of people’s lives cut cruelly short to graphs, it is terribly superficial. So I apologise for writing a post about the numbers. Behind every fatality there is the story of a beloved human being leaving behind grieving loved ones.

I suspect it will be many years before the full picture of this pandemic and our (human beings’) handling of it becomes clear.

When comparing countries, it seems now that poor old Belgium is top of the list of Covid-19 death rates. (Originally it was the USA, based on sheer absolute figures, which was a bit bonkers given the size of the country).

However, even though it is many moons ago, I remember the odd school geography lesson telling us that the Low Countries have a very high population density. So, surely the disease is bound to spread more quickly when the population is much closer to each other.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 17 Comments
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