Author Archives: Stephen Tall

It’s hard to believe, but Ed Balls was once credited with being a champion of ‘new localism’ within this Labour Government. This was what Mr Balls said back in 2002, before he was elected an MP, and was Gordon Brown’s right-hand at the Treasury:

In today’s complex world, it is simply not possible to run economic policy or deliver strong public services using the old, top-down, one-size fits all solutions. Excessive centralisation saps morale at local level. It destroys innovation and experimentation. It fails to allow different policy areas that must in fact be interconnected to be joined up”.

How true. …

Which Lib Dem MPs received the most media mentions between 1st March and 31st May, 2008? To find out I trawled Lexis-Nexis’s online database of all UK national newspapers (and a huge number of regional ones), feeding in the names of each of our MPs in turn, and seeing how many returns were generated.

To qualify, the MP must have been mentioned either as a Liberal Democrat or Lib Dem. This will disadvantage those MPs who are working their regional media hard, but whose names do not appear under the party’s banners. Sorry, but them’s the rules.

Anyway, here’s the list in descending order of media mentions (with their Dec ‘07-Feb ‘08 positions in brackets):

Robert Winnett at The Daily Telegraph’s Three Line Whip blog gives us the low-down, and Sam Coates at The Times’ Red Box blog has this to say:

Jon Oates, the party’s director of policy and communications, is returning to the world of lobbying, and (re-)joining Bell Pottinger. Jon has been a steadying influence on the party through difficult times, and is widely recognised as one of the most talented and friendly people in the party. Although he is sorry to go without fighting an election (he was a Ming appointment) he couldn’t hang on until 2010. His loss will

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The Lib Dems’ new transport policies – and in particular the party’s support for road pricing compensated by cuts in VED and fuel duties – have certainly attracted a lot of comment on LDV.

And, as it stands, our poll to find out whether readers (who of course may or may not be Lib Dems) agree with the policy shows an exactly even divide: 50% are for, 50% against. So, if you’ve not yet had the chance to vote, don’t forget to look in the right-hand column, and make your choice.

In all the excitement of reading Fast Track …

Former Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten writes in today’s Guardian about the ever-present question: when does ‘scandal’ in an individual’s private life prevent them from undertaking public duties? Describing privacy as “a fluid concept”, Mark suggests

we can apply a simple three-point test.

1) Has the person broken the law? If this has happened, a person’s position is untenable.

2) Is the individual guilty of hypocrisy? If someone preaches against a certain act or way of life, and is caught doing the same thing, it’s hard to have much sympathy. Look at Eliot Spitzer, the former New York

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Michael Brown – as Lib Dem Voice readers won’t need reminding – gave the party £2.4m before the 2005 general election. His subsequent downfall amid fraud allegations has prompted many an innuendo that the Lib Dems were somehow dishonest in accepting the gift.

The news today that a date has been set (8th September) for Mr Brown’s trial on 16 separate charges is bound to attract the usual Labour and Tory smears, and media half-truths. So, for the nth time, can we take the opportunity to quote the verdict of the independent Electoral Commission on the Lib …

The party has today launched its new transport programme, Fast Track Britain: Building a Transport System for the 21st Century, promising to “significantly increase long-term rail investment, introduce road user pricing to tackle pollution and congestion and hand control of buses back to local authorities have been launched today by the Liberal Democrats.”

You can find the full news release on the Lib Dem website here, and the full document is available in PDF format here.

There’s a raft of proposals – building a high speed rail network; introducing rolling contracts for train operating companies to increase long-term investment and improve services; giving power to control local bus services back to local authorities; and introducing a new fund for rural transport – but there’s no doubt what will attract most attention… The BBC website gives a clue:

Clegg unveils road charging plan

(The full details of the Lib Dem proposals for road pricing are copied below.)

Party policy has generally been in favour of road pricing – though we’ve been a bit quiet about it in the past couple of years – with most concerns centring on the privacy issues of the state collecting data on citizens’ movements.

Personally, I’ve never seen the problem (with reasonable safeguards in place). It is one thing to have to carry an ID card simply to prove to the state you exist – that’s bad; but quite another to enjoy the privilege of using a less-congested road system. The fact remains that the market is the most efficient – and certainly most effective – way of pricing road use according to the value we place upon it.

But that’s my view: what’s yours? Choose now in our new Lib Dem Voice poll asking: Do you support Lib Dem plans to introduce road pricing in return for the abolition of vehicle excise duty and cutting fuel duty?

You know the drill: simple yes / no / don’t know options are located in the right-hand column. (And of course feel free – I know you will – to use the comments thread to pick apart the question).

Sensible or suicide? Intelligent or insane? I am, of course, referring to this morning’s Telegraph story which states that Nick Clegg would tacitly support the Tories if they end up as the largest single party at the next general election, but lack a majority. (Although, interestingly, many LDV readers expect the Tories to secure enough MPs to gain a working majority at the next election, according to our current poll.)

The Telegraph story states:

In consultations with senior members of the party, he said he was prepared to take the necessary steps that would enable the Tories to form a minority

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