Author Archives: Stephen Tall

That’s the story Sky News is carrying this morning, with an interview from Saj himself.

Alex Wilcock notes here that he had just been re-selected as a Lib Dem candidate for the European Parliament in the north-west – he finished second to Chris Davies:

Mr Karim – far from declaring his new-found Conservative vision – was an enthusiastic contender in this all-member Liberal Democrat election. I believe he was elected relatively narrowly last time, and that the number of seats in that region (as in most others) is being reduced. With Liberal Democrat members voting for him to be in

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Ten years after his sensational 1997 election victory over Tory Gerry Malone was confirmed by a landslide by-election, Mark Oaten has said he might quit politics before the next election if a too-good-to-refuse job offer comes along.

Speaking to the Hampshire Chronicle, Mark is reported saying:

he did not intend to trigger a by-election but “couldn’t rule it out”. … if the “right job and the right move” came up for him and his wife, he would “give it serious consideration”. The father-of-two said: “I hope people understand. There is so much uncertainty over when an election will be, that I

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Acting Lib Dem leader Vince Cable has today been piling the pressure on Labour, launching a campaign to demand Gordon Brown tells the British taxpayer how much money has been loaned to Northern Rock, and when it will be paid back.

Writing in today’s Guardian, Vince argues the case for temporary nationalization of Northern Rock to protect the public interest:

neither the chancellor nor the prime minister have been able to give me an unequivocal assurance that the taxpayer’s money will be repaid in full, with interest, during this parliament. The likelihood is growing that billions may be lost. …

possibility

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Is there a Richter scale for cock-ups? If so, the Government has just been hit by at least a Factor 9:

Alistair Darling has blamed mistakes by junior officials at HM Revenue and Customs after details of 25 million child benefit recipients were lost. The Chancellor said information, including bank details of 7m families, had been sent on discs to the National Audit office by unrecorded delivery. Mr Darling said it was “an extremely serious failure”.

Of course mistakes happen: you cannot eliminate error, either human or machine. All you can do is minimize it. The Lib Dems have …

That’s the rather shameful story which Lib Dem overseas development spokeswoman Lynne Featherstone has uncovered – and, what’s worse, the Government has hidden this budget cut from view.

You can read Lynne’s blog article in full here, but here’s the nub:

axed around £1 billion from the UK aid budget (official development assistance) – and then tried to keep it secret. … having promised in 2004 that aid levels would be at 0.47% in 2007-8, they’ve now cut that figure to 0.37% – which is equal to around £1 billion.

As it was an international development debate in Parliament today,

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