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

The Labour Party. Remember them?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd March 2012 - 2:55 pm

There’s an excellent must-read post on the New Statesman site by Rafael Behr highlighting how Coalition politics is not only eclipsing the Labour party from the media spotlight, but also paralysing its leadership from engaging with internal debate.

First, he notes how both the Lib Dems and Tories are being given the freedom to differentiate their party’s policies from the Coalition’s programme:

The Conservative party does not like the 50p tax rate. That much is clear. It is just as clear that government policy is, for the time being, to retain the rate. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats support a “Mansion

…

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Stephen Tall

LibLink: Paddick – we are putting forward an innovative, radical Liberal Democrat agenda for Londoners

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd March 2012 - 8:25 am

The Lib Dems’ London mayoral candidate Brian Paddick was interviewed in The Guardian yesterday. It’s a revealing and candid piece in which Brian makes his pitch for the post the paper describes “an office whose holder enjoys the largest personal mandate in Europe – bar the French president”. Here are some highlights:

On the Lib Dems’ London campaign

“It’s quite obvious where I’m positioning myself and it’s to the left of the coalition,” he says in an interview with the Guardian. “What we are saying to Londoners is this has got nothing to do with national politics. We are putting forward an

…

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Stephen Tall

Paddick: some Met detectives adopt a “she wants it really” attitude to women alleging rape

By Stephen Tall | Fri 2nd March 2012 - 7:26 pm

The Lib Dems’ London mayoral candidate Brian Paddick is interviewed in today’s Guardian, and has some strong words for his former employers, the Metropolitan police:

Paddick warns that some detectives adopt a “she wants it really” attitude to women alleging rape and sometimes refuse to acknowledge that some types of men, such as licensed cab drivers, can be rapists.

The former deputy assistant commissioner is placing the Met’s mixed performance on dealing with rape at the heart of his campaign as the Liberal Democrat candidate in May’s London mayoral election. Paddick, who told the Leveson inquiry this week that he toned

…

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Nick Clegg – Workfare critics have a “messed up set of priorities”

By Stephen Tall | Fri 2nd March 2012 - 10:10 am

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg this week launched a passionate defence of the Coalition’s work experience initiatives, arguing that they help prepare jobless young people for employment. This follows the controversy about ‘workfare’, which some critics have labelled ‘slave labour’, an attitude Nick condemns here as displaying a “messed up set of priorities”:

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Stephen Tall

Jenny Tonge resigns Lib Dem whip over controversial “Beware Israel” remarks

By Stephen Tall | Wed 29th February 2012 - 6:08 pm

A quick follow-up to our story, Jenny Tonge resigns…

Baroness (Jenny) Tonge has this afternoon resigned the Lib Dem whip after coming under intense pressure following the widespread reporting of remarks she made last week declaring that Israel “will reap what they have sown” once the USA gets “sick of giving £70bn a year to Israel to support what I call America’s aircraft carrier in the Middle East”.

It is by no means the first time Baroness Tonge has landed herself in hot water for her out-spoken views on Israel:

  • She was sacked by then leader Charles Kennedy as the Lib

…

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Simon Hughes on the Coalition Budget, 50p tax rate and NHS reform bill

By Stephen Tall | Wed 29th February 2012 - 7:55 am

Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem deputy leader, was interviewed by the BBC’s Andrew Neil at the weekend on some of the key issues currently facing the party and the Coalition. These included the Lib Dem push for tax-cuts for the low-paid, maintaining the 50p tax-rate for those earning more than £150,000, and the NHS reform bill.

Here’s what he had to say:

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Stephen Tall

New poll finds 60% of public backs Lib Dem flagship policy of tax-cuts for low-paid funded by tax increases for wealthy

By Stephen Tall | Tue 28th February 2012 - 9:45 pm

It’s a month since Nick Clegg made a fresh bid to put the Lib Dems’ flagship 2010 manifesto policy once again front-and-centre: further tax-cuts for the lowest-paid to be funded by higher taxes for the wealthiest.

And today came news of what the public thinks of the Lib Dem approach to fairer taxes, with the Independent reporting the following ComRes poll results:

A majority of people want George Osborne to raise taxes for the rich in next month’s Budget in order to take more low paid workers out of tax, according to a ComRes survey for The Independent. Some

…

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Ming Campbell – House of Lords reform part of Lib Dem DNA

By Stephen Tall | Tue 28th February 2012 - 6:50 pm

Here’s a clip of former Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Menzies Campbell declaring reform of the unelected upper house — that century-old piece of ‘unfinished business’ — is an innate part of what defines Liberal Democrats:

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Stephen Tall

Is this the most biased opinion poll question ever asked?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 28th February 2012 - 12:27 pm

The Coalition for Marriage was launched last week. And as many groups do to try and drum up some publicity announce themselves to the world, they commissioned an opinion poll of public attitudes to equal marriage.

Which is fair enough. But then, it appears, a thought struck them. The UK is, by and large, a tolerant nation, with the vast majority now accepting of gay and lesbian relationships being respected and recognised. So… how to pose an opinion poll question that could produce the result they wanted?

Thankfully, ComRes (a member of the British Polling Council) did them proud. You can read …

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Stephen Tall

In other news… London PPBs, Clegg paint attack, Turing pardon latest, Darlington Lib Dem leader barred

By Stephen Tall | Sun 26th February 2012 - 5:35 pm

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

  • Lib Dems fight reduction of their party political broadcasts in London (Guardian)

    • Provisional plans being drawn up by the BBC suggest giving the Lib Dems two party political broadcasts for the elections – the same as the Green party – rather than the three the Lib Dems enjoyed alongside Labour and the Conservatives in 2008. … A party source said the Lib Dems were confident the decision would be overturned, given that they have seven MPs in the capital, 246 councillors, and

    …

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    Stephen Tall

    ‘Workfare’: the depressingly sterile ‘left/right’ debate is a challenge to liberals to sharpen our thinking

    By Stephen Tall | Sun 26th February 2012 - 8:50 am

    Deborah Orr has a must-read article in the Guardian highlighting the inverted absurdity of this week’s row about the Coalition’s workfare programme, The slanging match over workfare is getting us nowhere.

    She points out that the very essence of workfare is government intervention in the workings of the free market, the state urging private companies to offer work experience placements to the unemployed:

    For the right, such hapless, inefficient intervention by the state is anathema. When the private sector is left to make its own arrangements, neo-liberals never tire of pointing out, it functions better, to the advantage of all.

    …

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    Stephen Tall

    10 things you might not have known about party political funding over the last decade

    By Stephen Tall | Sat 25th February 2012 - 6:55 pm

    The Electoral Commission website is a data-mine of information for those interested in all aspects of party political funding.

    For those who’d rather not get their hands dirty doing the mining themselves, below you’ll find 10 interesting (in my opinion) facts I discovered there.

    But for those of you interested in excavating further, I’ve uploaded Google spreadsheets of the three main parties’ donations received between 2001 and 2011 (incl.):

    And here are those 10 interesting facts I promised you…

    1) In total, the Lib Dems raised £33,742,984 in donations from 2001-11. This compares with £173,742,956 for the Labour Party, and £182,418,146 for the Conservatives.

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    Stephen Tall

    LDV Caption Competition: Steve Webb & IDS “Supermarket (Chimney-) Sweep” Edition

    By Stephen Tall | Sat 25th February 2012 - 5:15 pm

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

    Here’s the Coalition’s Work & Pensions team — former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith and Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb — enjoying the sight of fully-stacked shelves at a supermarket. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about them?

    And the winner of our last caption comp is…

    Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Ed Miliband “Basking in The Sun” Edition.

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    Posted in Caption Comp | 13 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Lib Dem donation figures in full (Q4, 2011)

    By Stephen Tall | Fri 24th February 2012 - 11:45 am

    The Electoral Commission has this past week published the latest donation and borrowing figures for the political parties, showing that the Lib Dems raised £1,076,469 between October and December this year.

    (At the foot of this post is the full breakdown of donations (excluding public funds) received by quarter since 2005, and annually between 2001 and 2004.)

    By comparison, the party raised £1,724,842 in the fourth quarter of 2006 (the equivalent stage of the parliamentary cycle). This is the first time since I’ve been covering the Lib Dem donation figures I can recall the figure for donations received being lower …

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    Stephen Tall

    Labour’s new approach to education: ‘Evidence, evidence, evidence’. What can the Lib Dems learn from this?

    By Stephen Tall | Thu 23rd February 2012 - 9:15 am

    I’m going to do something now I haven’t had cause to do in a good few months: praise a Labour policy. Here’s why.

    On Tuesday night, I went along to listen to Stephen Twigg, Labour’s shadow education secretary, deliver a speech to a ProgressOnline debate on raising standards in education. (The event was in parliament’s Grimond Room, so I felt reasonably at home.) The theme was ‘Evidence, not dogma’, and Mr Twigg stayed true to the spirit of it, announcing a heavily-trailed proposal that Labour will establish an Office for Educational Improvement. You can read his speech here, and …

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    Stephen Tall

    LDVideo: Harris & Pugh on Murdoch’s new Sun on Sunday paper

    By Stephen Tall | Tue 21st February 2012 - 3:05 pm

    The News of the World is dead, long live the Sun on Sunday… starting from this Sunday. Here’s how two Lib Dems have responded to the announcement by News International…

    Evan Harris: I’ll buy SoS ‘to see what it’s like’

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    Stephen Tall

    How you can take part in LibDemVoice’s exclusive party member surveys

    By Stephen Tall | Tue 21st February 2012 - 7:45 am

    LibDemVoice’s surveys of party members signed-up to our discussion forum have been running for over three years now. (I posted yesterday the final set of figures from February’s poll.)

    Our surveys are a way of testing members’ views on a variety of hot topics. And as they’ve been running throughout the first 20 months of the Coalition they’re also an interesting record of changing views on how the Coalition is regarded within the party.

    If you would like to take part in the LibDemVoice surveys, there are simply two steps you need to follow:
    1) Be a current Lib Dem member, …

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    Stephen Tall

    What Lib Dem members think of the Coalition, its record, & the party’s electoral prospects

    By Stephen Tall | Mon 20th February 2012 - 7:50 am

    Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 570 party members responded, and we’ve been publishing the full results.

    84% of Lib Dem members support the Coalition

    Do you support or oppose the Lib Dems being in the Coalition Government with the Conservatives? (Comparison with December 2011’s figures)

      84% (81%) – Support
      13% (13%) – Oppose
      3% (5%) – Don’t know / No opinion

    Support for the Coalition remains as high as it has ever been, with 84% of party members continuing to …

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    Posted in LDV Members poll | 11 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Where I stand on the new Lib Dem groupings

    By Stephen Tall | Sun 19th February 2012 - 2:10 pm

    Time to out myself.

    In the last year, three new Lib Dem groups have been launched to an unsuspecting world and to an often-suspicious Lib Dem blogosphere. In chronological order, they are: Social Liberal Forum (SLF), Liberal Left, and Liberal Reform.

    They will add to the already thriving discussion base within the party which exists online (here on LibDemVoice and at Liberal Vision), in print (at Liberator), and in any of the party’s internal organisations.

    To take the new kids on the block in turn…

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    Stephen Tall

    “A shitty time to be a liberal”: The Economist’s must-read piece on the Clegg paradox (and 2 reasons why it’s wrong)

    By Stephen Tall | Sun 19th February 2012 - 9:55 am

    There’s a must-read column by The Economist’s Bagehot this week focusing on the Lib Dems’ dilemmas, titled The Clegg paradox. It’s a serious and weighty analysis, which asks some uncomfortable questions of the party’s strategy. Here’s it’s conclusion:

    At a recent meeting of the Lib Dem parliamentary party, Tim Farron, an ambitious left-winger and party president, reportedly cheered this anti-Tory success, but bemoaned the fact that unelected peers had led the charge against the NHS reforms and got the credit for it, rather than Lib Dem MPs who need votes. That drew a rebuke from Jeremy Browne, a foreign office

    …

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    Stephen Tall

    Labours of Letters: the Alex Hilton & Hopi Sen correspondence

    By Stephen Tall | Sat 18th February 2012 - 5:38 pm

    At the risk of intruding on private grief, I feel I should draw the attention of Voice readers to an excoriating broadside against Ed Miliband’s leadership published on LabourList last night.

    Entitled ‘Losing faith’, it is an open letter from Alex Hilton, twice a Labour parliamentary candidate and founder of the Labour Home website, to ‘Dear Ed’. It weighs in at 1,457 words — here are just a few of them:

    I no longer have any faith that the Labour Party will make a better society – or even

    …

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    Stephen Tall

    LDV Caption Competition: Ed Miliband “Basking in The Sun” Edition

    By Stephen Tall | Sat 18th February 2012 - 4:13 pm

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

    Ed Miliband The Sun

    Here’s Labour leader Ed Miliband proudly bathing in the reflected glory of The Sun (before Rupert Murdoch’s fall from grace, natch) — what do you think might be being said or thought by or about him?

    And the winner of our last caption comp is…

    Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Clegg, Cam & Lansley “You can hear the white coats flapping” Edition.

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    Posted in Caption Comp | Tagged , and | 13 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Who’s up, who’s down? How party members rate the performances of leading Lib Dems

    By Stephen Tall | Fri 17th February 2012 - 7:45 am

    Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 570 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

    Today we focus on the performances of the leading lights of the Liberal Democrats — those of our MPs in the cabinet, those occupying ministerial positions, and other leading Lib Dems.

    LDV asked: How would you rate the performances of the following leading Liberal Democrats and government ministers?

    Full results are published below, but here’s three key lists for those who want to cut to the chase… (with December 2011 ratings in brackets)

    Top 5 Lib Dem performers in the Government:

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    Posted in LDV Members poll | 4 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Revealed: What Lib Dem members think of Ed Miliband and David Cameron

    By Stephen Tall | Thu 16th February 2012 - 11:28 am

    Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 570 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

    Miliband slumps to -83% among Lib Dem members

    LDV asked: Do you think Ed Miliband is doing well or badly as leader of the Labour party?

      1% – Very well
      6% – Well
      Total well = 7%
      41% – Badly
      49% – Very badly
      Total badly = 90%
      3% – Don’t know / No opinion

    Well, I …

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    Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged and | 7 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    EXCLUSIVE: What Lib Dem members say about the party’s direction and Nick Clegg’s leadership

    By Stephen Tall | Wed 15th February 2012 - 7:50 am

    Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 570 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

    70% say Lib Dems on right course, highest figure since July 2010

    LDV asked: Do you think, as a whole, the Liberal Democrats are on the right course or on the wrong track? (Comparison with December’s figures.)

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    Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged and | 23 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    What The Spectator says: ‘Obama the Lib Dem’. (PS: It may even be a compliment.)

    By Stephen Tall | Tue 14th February 2012 - 8:12 pm

    Over at The Spectator, Jonathan Jones looks at the US and UK approaches to their forthcoming budgets — cutting the deficit, taming debt, etc — and his fourth and final point concludes:

    Obama the Lib Dem. It’s striking how similar Obama’s tax priorities are to those of the Liberal Democrats, even though the specifics differ either side of the Atlantic. Obama wants to extend the payroll tax cut for ‘160 million hardworking Americans’, which he says is worth ‘about $40 in every paycheck’ for ‘the typical family earning $50,000 a year’. The Lib Dems have been pushing to raise the

    …

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    Stephen Tall

    Lib Dem members back Vince’s ‘mansion tax’ – but views differ about whether on house values of £1m or £2m

    By Stephen Tall | Tue 14th February 2012 - 7:45 am

    Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 570 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

    81% yes to mansion tax – but pretty even split on £1m or £2m levy value

    LDV asked: The ‘mansion tax’ would levy a 1% annual charge on properties above a certain value. Would you support or oppose this new tax?

      7% – I support: for houses worth more than £5 million
      39% – I support: for houses worth more than £2 million
      35% –

    …

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    Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged and | 21 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    90% of Lib Dem members back 50p tax for highest earners & 73% increased taxes for wealthiest

    By Stephen Tall | Mon 13th February 2012 - 7:45 am

    Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 570 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

    90% of Lib Dem members back principle of 50p rate

    LDV asked: In 2009 a new top rate of income tax of 50p in the pound was introduced for earnings over £150,000. Previously the top rate of income tax had been 40p in the pound. At what income level do you think the Coalition Government should set the 50p top rate of income tax?

      2%

    …

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    Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged and | 13 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    In other news… Vince upsets Tories, Liverpool to choose mayor, Radcliffe hexes Clegg, and Hughes settles with Murdoch

    By Stephen Tall | Sun 12th February 2012 - 5:27 pm

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

  • Cable sticks by Les Ebdon as his choice of ‘university tsar’ – the Lib Dem business secretary is opening up a rift in the Coalition:

    Business Secretary Vince Cable is standing by his candidate to head the university fair access watchdog, despite a rejection by MPs. Les Ebdon had been put forward by ministers as their preference for director of the Office for Fair Access. But MPs on a select committee have voted to try to block the appointment. However ministers are not backing

    • …

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    Stephen Tall

    Four Tory councillors in storm over homophobic nickname targeting Lib Dem leader

    By Stephen Tall | Sun 12th February 2012 - 3:58 pm

    Here’s a story that shows politics in both its best and worst lights — the facts, as far as I’ve gleaned them from the local paper, the Thame Gazette, are as follows…

    Four Conservative councillors on Aylesbury Vale district council coined a nickname for the openly gay leader of the Lib Dem group, Stephen Lambert — they called him ‘Lily’ on at least four documented occasions, at the election count last May and at a number of group meetings. The homophobic slur came to light ‘when a member of the Conservative group approached with notes of the comments’.

    Here’s what …

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