Author Archives: Stephen Tall

Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall. He writes a fortnightly column for ConservativeHome and 'The Underdog' column for Total Politics magazine. He edited the 2013 publication, The Coalition and Beyond: Liberal Reforms for the Decade Ahead, and is a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum. He was awarded the inaugural Lib Dem ‘Blogger of the Year’ prize in 2006, was a councillor for eight years in Oxford, including a year as Deputy Lord Mayor, and appears frequently in the media in person, in print and online. Stephen combines his political interests with his professional life as Development Director for the Education Endowment Foundation, though writes here in a personal capacity.
Stephen Tall

Lib Dems push Coalition to abandon ‘Moscow criterion’ in latest anti-Trident move

By Stephen Tall | Sun 20th May 2012 - 8:55 am

Writing in the Financial Times, former Lib Dem leader Ming Campbell has urged Britain to drop the so-called ‘Moscow criterion’ — which commits us to maintaining an independent nuclear deterrent capable of obliterating the Russian capital — in order to open up the possibilities of a more targeted, and cheaper, nuclear alternative to the renewal of Trident:

Nuclear weapons have no intrinsic merit. Their significance is in deterrence. If you ever have to use them it can only be because they have failed in their primary purpose. But nuclear policy ought always to be assessed in its political context. It is

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Leveson, The Musical

By Stephen Tall | Sat 19th May 2012 - 7:45 pm

Perhaps some less serious points made here about the Leveson Inquiry into media regulation than were made by my Co-Editor Mark Pack here — but enjoy nonetheless…

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem Patrick Streeter to stand for City of London election uncontested for 100 years

By Stephen Tall | Sat 19th May 2012 - 6:15 pm

Just a few weeks after the fierce battle for the London mayoralty concluded, a very different election is due to take place — an election which hasn’t even been contested for more than a century. But now London Lib Dem member Patrick Streeter is standing for the post of City Auditor, and promising to ask some tough questions, according to an email received by the Voice this week:

Patrick Streeter of Tower Hamlets Liberal Democrats is contesting an interesting election on June 25. Each year the City of London Corporation elects its auditors, although the position has not been contested

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Posted in London and News | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

LDV Caption Competition: Nick & Dave “Can you feel the love?” Edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 19th May 2012 - 3:45 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader…

Remember the Rose Garden? It must all seem such a long time ago to Tory leader David Cameron pictured here giving Nick Clegg the evils. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about them?

And the winners of our last caption comp is…

Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Boris & Dave “Happily ever after” Edition.

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Posted in Caption Comp | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

Were you a 2012 election candidate? Then don’t forget to fill in The Election Centre’s questionnaire

By Stephen Tall | Sat 19th May 2012 - 1:55 pm

If, like me, you were one of the 12,000 people who was a candidate in 2012’s local elections you may have received a letter recently from Plymouth University’s Elections Centre, run by Professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, inviting you to take part in an online questionnaire:

This year the centre has ran its seventh annual candidate survey for the Local elections. Over 12,000 candidates stood for election to local government this year and we are lucky enough to have sampled 6,450 of them (i.e. sent a letter inviting them to participate in the survey). We do this to collate information

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Stephen Tall

In other news… (In which defectors & rebellions loom large)

By Stephen Tall | Sun 13th May 2012 - 6:15 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past few days…

Lord Owen attacks coalition over Lords reform ‘farce’ (Telegraph)

Lord Owen was one of 43 of the peers polled who said the Upper House needs to be reformed, even though he disagreed with the changes devised by Nick Clegg and other senior Liberal Democrats. “There does need to be change,” said Lord Owen. “You look around the chamber and you can see the person who is a friend of George Osborne. You can see the person who was a big donor. And you

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Posted in News | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

Another Mail headline to savour… Lynne ‘slaps down’ Tory minister for opposing Coalition support for equal marriage

By Stephen Tall | Sun 13th May 2012 - 2:15 pm

At this rate the Daily Mail will soon become Lib Dems’ favourite reading… A few days after its front page proclaiming David Cameron’s lament ‘I’d govern like a true Tory if it wasn’t for the Lib Dems’, the paper reports:

Tory Minister is slapped down by Lib Dems after criticising gay marriage

Two Ministers in the Coalition clashed last night over David Cameron’s plan to allow gay marriages.
Tim Loughton, Tory Minister for Children and Families, came under fire from Liberal Democrat partners after he said he was totally opposed to same-sex marriage and that the Prime Minister would do better

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 17 Comments
Stephen Tall

When did the Tories stop supporting Lords reform?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 9th May 2012 - 8:45 am

From all the debate and angst within the Tory party over the issue of House of Lords reform you’d imagine the plan to inject an element of democracy into the UK parliament had been foisted on David Cameron by sneakily obsessive Liberal Democrats.

Yet the reality is somewhat different. The Coalition Government’s pledge to overhaul the revising chamber (after Labour’s successive, botched failures) built on Tory promises to the electorate over a decade or more — recognising perhaps that such reform is in fact in their own interests.

Here’s what the Tory manifesto said as far back as 2001:

In

…

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Stephen Tall

Is this the day the Coalition admitted reality and buried its claim to be a radical government?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 8th May 2012 - 9:50 pm

One of the iconic images of the early days of the Coalition — in the midst of the summer haze of the leggeron rose garden bromance — was The Economist’s front cover depicting the Prime Minister as a punk, representing the Coalition’s self-appointed claim to be one of the most radical governments in history.

Economically (a cuts agenda intended to rebalance the economy between the private/public sectors), socially (from free schools to gay marriage) and politically (police commissioners to Lords reform) — this ‘liberal conservative government’ was supposed …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 27 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: From the archives – ‘How Members of Parliament Are Elected (1945)’

By Stephen Tall | Mon 7th May 2012 - 6:24 pm

There now follows a public information film… During the 1940s, the British Council produced more than 120 short films ‘designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played’. They’re now available online, and here’s the Pathe-style feature on the 1945 electoral race in Kettering — or, as it’s described in the British Council Film Department Catalogue:

‘The film shows how the candidates, after completing the necessary formalities, plan their election campaigns with the help of their Agents and go round the district addressing the voters. What happens on Polling Day, how people vote, the precautions for secrecy, the counting of the votes and the declaration of the result are shown in detail. The film was made at Kettering in Northamptonshire during the 1945 election.’

The candidates featured are Labour’s Gilbert Mitchison, ‘Independent Christian’ John Dempsey and incumbent Conservative MP John Profumo, and it’s interesting to see the importance attached to public meetings, and the warnings — even after six years of war — of the danger of ‘apathy’.

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: From the archives – ‘The Work of Local Authorities (1943)’

By Stephen Tall | Sun 6th May 2012 - 11:40 am

There now follows a public information film… During the 1940s, the British Council produced more than 120 short films ‘designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played’. They’re now available online, and here’s the wonderfully of-its-time feature on local government — or, as it’s described in the British Council Film Department Catalogue:

‘A simple description of English Local Government, showing the areas into which England is divided, the system of election and finance, and the many services administered by the local authorities.’

Hark back to a time when local authorities had power over all manner of local services — from public health and education, to the fire authorities and water boards — when councillors were invited to stand for election from every walk of life (“for instance, this businessman or even his wife”), and a little boy would utter the deadpan phrase “I’m going to be a councillor when I grow up, daddy”.

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV Caption Competition: Boris & Dave “Happily ever after” Edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 5th May 2012 - 4:25 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader…

Here is re-elected London mayor Boris Johnson with his fellow Etonian, Tory leader David Cameron. After this week’s local election results, what do you think might be being said or thought by or about them?

And the winners of our last caption comp is…

Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, David Cameron & Jeremy Hunt “Human shield” Edition.

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Posted in Caption Comp | Tagged , and | 18 Comments
Stephen Tall

Elections 2012: It’s another bruising night for the Lib Dems

By Stephen Tall | Fri 4th May 2012 - 8:00 am

Results are still coming in, but the overall picture of this year’s local elections is clear: this has been a second successive disappointing result for the Lib Dems. Here’s a topline summary:

National vote share: The projected currently projected share of the national Lib Dem vote is 16%, with Labour on 39% and the Tories on 31%. This is the same share of the vote for the party as in 2011. So while the anger on the doorstep against the party may have lessened compared to 12 months ago, we’ve fallen a long way short of translating that into enthusiasm to vote Lib Dem. If last year’s elections were a anti-Lib Dem protest, this year’s are an anti-Coalition protest. Though I guess that’s a little fairer — both governing parties sharing the blame for voter discontent — it’s still no help to the party, even if we are now all in it together.

Number of councillors: The party’s total number of councillors across the UK will dip below 3,000 after these elections (as I write Lib Dem losses stand at 125 on the night) — that’s half Labour’s total number of councillors, and a third of the Tories’. For a community politics-based party which prides itself on its record of action in local government, this hollowing-out of our activist base is worrying.

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 88 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: What are your memories of 15 years ago today, 1st May 1997?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 1st May 2012 - 8:50 pm

It’s exactly 15 years ago today that Tony Blair led New Labour to a landslide general election victory over John Major’s Tories, and Paddy Ashdown saw the Lib Dems secure the largest third party representation in the House of Commons since 1929. Here are three videos to remind you of a quite extraordinary night…

The exit poll predicts Labour’s landslide

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , , , and | 31 Comments
Stephen Tall

‘Brand Clegg’ continues to out-poll ‘Brand Miliband’: what it means for the Lib Dems

By Stephen Tall | Tue 1st May 2012 - 9:15 am

It’s a harsh reality that ‘Nick Clegg’ has become an easy punchline for many comedians. Nick can perhaps draw some comfort from the truth universally acknowledged that it’s better to be joked about than never to be joked about at all.

But he can draw greater comfort from some of the polling evidence showing him doing better than Ed Miliband, even though the Lib Dems’ ratings significantly trail Labour’s. The Independent’s Matt Chorley noticed this little-noticed phenomenon last week:

Most, though not all, months the Independent on Sunday/Sunday Mirror/ComRes poll has asked voters whether they agreed or disagreed with these statements

…

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Posted in Op-eds and Polls | Tagged , , and | 42 Comments
Stephen Tall

David Cameron’s jibe at Dennis Skinner: forget the ageism, it was just badly done.

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th April 2012 - 6:55 pm

David Cameron, it became clear today, was not impressed by Commons Speaker John Bercow’s decision to grant Labour leader Ed Miliband an urgent question on the subject of Jeremy Hunt’s hanging-by-a-thread career as culture secretary. His not-impressedness manifested itself as indignant anger — it was “spectacularly ill-judged” according to the Telegraph’s Iain Martin:

From the off Cameron’s approach was wince-inducingly ill-judged. He rushed his statement and sounded steadily more touchy as he got deeper into it, lashing out and even shouting at one point about Charlie Whelan. It wasn’t very Prime Ministerial.

Mr Cameron has faced particular stick for his dismissive suggestion to veteran Labour backbencher Dennis Skinner that it was time he took his pension:

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged , , , and | 25 Comments
Stephen Tall

In other news… Lib Dems close no libraries, Paddick pledges 360,000 homes, & Newby is new Lords whip

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th April 2012 - 5:15 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past few days…

Tim Farron: No library closed under Lib Dem leadership (LibDems.org.uk)

Last year, more than 40 libraries were closed by Conservative and Labour councils. In stark contrast, for the second year in a row, no Liberal Democrat-controlled council in England and Wales closed any library. Liberal Democrat-controlled Cardiff is opening five new libraries and Portsmouth and Bristol are also opening new libraries.

Tim Farron said: “Cutting services like Labour and Tory councils are doing will do long-term damage. Liberal Democrats are doing the right

…

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Stephen Tall

LDV Caption Competition: David Cameron & Jeremy Hunt “Human shield” Edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 28th April 2012 - 4:50 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader…

Here is Conservative leader David Cameron with his culture secretary Jeremy Hunt. After this week’s Leveson Inquiry revelations, what do you think might be being said or thought by or about them?

And the winners of our last caption comp is…

Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Nick Clegg & Kirsty Williams “Spooning Here” Edition.

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Posted in Caption Comp | 25 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Clegg – we don’t need Hunt inquiry. Hughes – we need Hunt inquiry

By Stephen Tall | Sat 28th April 2012 - 2:55 pm

Here’s Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg saying that the Leveson Inquiry is the best place for culture secretary Jeremy Hunt to give evidence about his role in the BSkyB takeover bid…

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , , , , and | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Weekend Debate: Who’d get your 2nd preference after Brian in the race for London Mayor?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 28th April 2012 - 8:45 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

This Thursday, millions of voters will go to the polls to cast their votes in local elections. And although London is only one of those elections, its electoral size and the colourful prominence of its candidates means it has got the lion’s share of the media coverage.

For the Lib Dems, Brian Paddick has fought a terrific campaign. The former Metropolitan police chief only narrowly squeaked ahead of Mike Tuffrey for the party’s nomination following what Brian himself has acknowledged was a tricky first outing as a Lib Dem candidate in 2008.

This time round, however, he has more than held his own in the televised debates, while his advertising, social media and online presence has achieved real impact. As I reported last month, the Lib Dems’ London fundraising has been a huge success, allowing the party actively to compete at this election in a way that’s not previously been possible.

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Stephen Tall

Simon Hughes calls for independent inquiry into Jeremy Hunt

By Stephen Tall | Fri 27th April 2012 - 8:48 am

As the BBC News reports here, Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes last night called for the independent advisor on the ministerial code to investigate whether the allegations that Conservative culture secretary Jeremy Hunt was too friendly to the Murdochs are accurate:

Deputy leader Simon Hughes has become the first senior Liberal Democrat to join calls for an inquiry into whether Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt breached the ministerial code of conduct. Downing Street says there are no plans to investigate the contact between News Corp and Mr Hunt’s ex-special adviser. Mr Hughes said he could not understand why the issue

…

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Stephen Tall

The 3 Lib Dem mayoral candidates profiled

By Stephen Tall | Thu 26th April 2012 - 11:55 am

Three mayoral elections will take place a week today. Though the media has fixated on London’s Boris/Brian/Ken campaign, there are contests also to elect the first-ever mayors of Liverpool and Salford. In addition the following cities will hold ballots on 3 May on whether to adopt the elected mayor system: Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Wakefield.

Here, in alphabetical order, are the Lib Dem standard-bearers to become mayors of their cities next week…

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Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg on the double-dip recession: “our answers are the right ones to repair the damage done”

By Stephen Tall | Wed 25th April 2012 - 1:45 pm

Nick Clegg spoke this morning to the Institute of Directors, shortly after the announcement that the Office of National Statistics estimates that the economy contracted by 0.2% in the first three months of 2012 — a second quarter of shrinkage that officially means the UK is once again in recession. Here’s what he had to say:

As you may have heard, the first set of GDP figures for this year have just been released. And so, if I may, I would like to start by addressing what is disappointing news. The ONS’s preliminary estimate for Q1 GDP has

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 63 Comments
Stephen Tall

In other news… Michael Brown extradited, unpaid party internships, Jo Swinson for cabinet? & other stories

By Stephen Tall | Tue 24th April 2012 - 5:37 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past few days…

Lib Dem donor Michael Brown to be extradited to UK (BBC News)

Convicted fraudster and former Lib Dem donor Michael Brown is facing a hearing in Spain for extradition to the UK. He was flown to Madrid on Saturday to be handed to UK officials after being arrested in the Dominican Republic. In 2008 Brown, who had gone on the run to the Dominican Republic from the UK, was jailed in his absence for seven years for stealing £36m from clients after posing

…

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Stephen Tall

I would have sacked Vince Cable for standing up to Murdoch – what Ed Miliband said 16 months ago

By Stephen Tall | Tue 24th April 2012 - 3:53 pm

Ed Miliband The SunJeremy Hunt is in hot water today following the revelations at the Leveson Inquiry of the closeness of his relationship with the Murdochs during their attempted takeover of BSkyB.

The culture secretary was handed quasi-judicial responsibility for handling the deal after Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable was snared by the Telegraph declaring war on the Murdoch empire before it became fashionable.

According to the Guardian, the Labour party ‘is likely to demand an urgent Commons statement from Hunt to set out the nature of …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , and | 47 Comments
Stephen Tall

Psst! Whatever you do, don’t tell the Tories democratic reform is in their own best interests

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd April 2012 - 10:45 am

A few weeks ago I wrote an article for Conservative Home offering some unsolicited advice to David Cameron’s party. I argued that a party that had achieved electoral success in the 1980s by appealing to the classless entrepreneurialism of aspirant ‘Middle England’ had once again become established in the electorate’s eyes as the party of established wealth and privilege. If the Tories want to regain the voters they have lost, they need to take drastic action to counter that view.

Reform of the House of Lords was one policy area I said the Tories should seek to make their …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , and | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Nick Clegg on House of Lords reform, Budget taxes and Michael Brown

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd April 2012 - 8:05 am

Nick Clegg faced Andrew Neil on the Sunday Politics, and set out his views on a range of issues — including the row over some Tory MPs’ wish to ditch their Coalition Agreement pledge on Lords reform, George Osborne’s controversial budget, Cornish Lib Dems’ ‘pasty tax’-opposing leaflet, and that Michael Brown donation. Here’s the full 15-minute interview:

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

The past month shows this Government urgently needs a Coalition 2.0 Agreement

By Stephen Tall | Sun 22nd April 2012 - 2:10 pm

We’re fast approaching the two-year mark of this first post-war Coalition Government, and I think it’s fair to say the strains are starting to show. It is inevitable there will be tensions when two parties — with different traditions, values, expectations — come together to try and govern a country at a time of economic torpor.

Until now, a lid has more or less been kept on the inter-party warfare, not least thanks to the determinedly tight-knit fastness of the dual leadership of Messrs Clegg and Cameron. But that lid is now starting to shake as the pressure builds within and between both parties.

Coalition: making friends of enemies, and enemies of friends

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 30 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV Caption Competition: Nick Clegg & Kirsty Williams “Spooning Here” Edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 21st April 2012 - 6:03 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader…

Here is Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg cooking up a treat with Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about them?

And the winners of our last caption comp is…

Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Osborne, Clegg & Alexander “Three Musketeers” Edition.

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Posted in Caption Comp | Tagged and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: David Laws – “I am very happy to be a backbench supporter of Coalition”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 21st April 2012 - 11:40 am

Former Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury David Laws was asked about his future career prospects on the BBC’s Daily Politics this week. Here’s what he said:

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged | 12 Comments
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