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

Remembering the human tragedy of 9/11: exactly 10 years ago today

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th September 2011 - 1:46 pm

At 8:46 am (1:46 pm in the UK) on Tuesday, 11th September, 2001 American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north face of the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

2,996 people died, including the 19 hijackers of the planes. 67 of these were British nationals. In total, 20 countries mourned the loss of citizens that day.

Since 9/11, more than a hundred thousand military and civilians have died as a result of military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The scale of death inflicted is vast, incomprehensible. It is not, though, the numbers that tell the real story.

It is the memory of the planes piercing the bright blue city skyline, excoceting their targets: their “glint was the worldflash of a coming future,” said Martin Amis.

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Posted in News | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Tim Farron tells it straight: a disappointing, distressing, devastating first year… but Lib Dems remain determined

By Stephen Tall | Sat 10th September 2011 - 3:55 pm

It’s not often that forewords to the Lib Dem conference directory by the party president make media headlines. But Tim Farron’s honest appriasal of the past 500 days of the Lib Dems in Coalition has done just that — ‘Naive’ Liberal Democrats have suffered a loss of identity, says Tim Farron in The Guardian.

The article is very Tim: blunt, honest… but also optimistic. Here’s his unspun assessment:

The last 12 months has been a bit of a roller coaster for the party, with some fantastic highs reached as we entered into government, followed by some extreme lows in the wake of the disappointments in May. … But let’s be realistic. The consequences of being in power and of not getting our messages across to the public at large have been particularly distressing.

… it’s how you pick yourself up and move forward in the wake of great disappointment that defines you, and I fully believe that the best way to answer these losses is to use this conference as an opportunity to come back together, and address the issues and the problems we are facing together. …

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Posted in Conference | Tagged and | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

Update on Lib Dem conference accreditation: 5,617 approved, 138 in progress, 150 pending. One person refused.

By Stephen Tall | Sat 10th September 2011 - 12:31 pm

Jon Ball has just updated live from the Lib Dems’ Federal Conference Committee with the latest on the party’s conference accreditation which has provoked such internal controversy in recent weeks:

Lib Dem conference accreditation update from FCC. 5,617 people have been approved. 138 applications are in progress. There are issues with 150 applications in various categories including photos missing or unsuitable and some people (almost all non-members) being asked to provide passports at conference. These are technical issues that are very unlikely to lead to refusal. However, one person has been refused accreditation by the Chair of FCC, the President

…

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Posted in Conference and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo | George Osborne’s GQ award embarrassment: when political jokes go bad (and when they go right)

By Stephen Tall | Sat 10th September 2011 - 8:45 am

The Chancellor George Osborne has been left red-faced by his controversially potty-mouthed acceptance speech at the GQ awards when picking up a gong.

His references to the magazine’s adult content, and use of the word ‘wankers’, has attracted widespread criticism for crudeness, and conduct unbecoming the dignity of his office — even his usual supporters in the Tory party, such as ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie, have turned on Mr O. See what you think here:

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , , , and | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo | Party political broadcasts from the 1960s: Bonham Carter, Thorpe, Grimond & friends

By Stephen Tall | Sun 4th September 2011 - 5:25 pm

Round 2 of our trip down PPB memory lane. Yesterday we trawled the 1950s, and today it’s time for the 1960s to take centre-stage…

Liberal Party election broadcast 1964 (with Frank Byers, Mark Bonham Carter, Jeremy Thorpe and Margaret Wingfield — alas, with some sound issues)

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , , , , , , , , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

LDVideo | Party political broadcasts from the 1950s: Samuel, Arlott and Grimond

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd September 2011 - 6:15 pm

The party political broadcast (PPB for short) divides the anoraks from the average. Here at Voice Towers we try to cater to both, but this post’s most likely to pique the inerest of the former, as we rewind more than half a century, and recall some of the PPBs of yesteryear…

1951: Viscount Samuel (alas, this one’s brief and with poor sound quality)

(Available on YouTube here.)

The Liberal Answer (1955) with Frank Bowers & John Arlott, who found greater fame as a cricket commentator

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo | Election archive special… 1997

By Stephen Tall | Sun 28th August 2011 - 5:25 pm

Welcome to the fourth instalment of our scavenge through the video archives for footage from bygone elections. We’ve trawled the 1960-70s, 1980s, and 1992 — which can only mean that today’s the turn of the 1997 landslide general election…

That Lib Dem Punch & Judy show

(Available on YouTube here.)

Paddy Ashdown: the Movie

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo | Election archive special… 1992

By Stephen Tall | Sat 27th August 2011 - 6:15 pm

Last weekend — in a desperate attempt to offer our readers an alternative to The X-Factor — we highlighted some clips from elections of yesteryear: first, the 1960-70s, then the 1980s. Today, we’re scrolling forward to the video footage of the 1992 general election…

Paddy Ashdown on the campaign trail

(Available on YouTube here.)

Don Foster wins Bath from Chris Patten (from 3:05)

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , , , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

LDVideo | Election archive special… the 1980s

By Stephen Tall | Sun 21st August 2011 - 5:25 pm

Yesterday was the 1960-70s, today we fast-forward to the 1980s…

1982 Liberal Party political broadcast

(Available on YouTube here.)

1983 election: Party leaders on the campaign trail (incuding Roy Jenkins at 1:05)

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

At his best and his worst: 5 thoughts on Tony Blair’s analysis of the UK riots

By Stephen Tall | Sun 21st August 2011 - 10:23 am

It’s only been four years since Tony Blair resigned as Prime Minister (somehow it seems longer) — and he’s back today with an opinion piece for The Observer on the underlying causes of the riots, ‘Blaming a moral decline for the riots makes good headlines but bad policy’. Here are 5 thoughts on his article:

1) Mr Blair remains the ultimate triangularist

Witness the oxymoronic opening line: ‘Both David Cameron and Ed Miliband made excellent speeches last week and there was much to agree with in what they said.’ First, no they didn’t; neither speech rose to the occasion. Nick Clegg’s under-reported speech was a much weightier contribution than either the Tory or Labour leaders mustered. Secondly, to agree simultaneously with directly opposing arguments suggest that Mr Blair retains his crown as the past-master of intellectual flexibility.

2) Mr Blair remains at heart an authoritarian

As evidenced by his line, ‘my experience with the police is they need 100% backing’. Like all other professionals the police deserve respect and understanding for the immensely difficult job that they do.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 15 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo | Election archive special… the 1960-70s

By Stephen Tall | Sat 20th August 2011 - 6:15 pm

It’s Saturday night, but forget the X-Factor… Enjoy instead some classic election clips from the archives…

Jo Grimond campaigns in the 1966 general election

(Available on YouTube here.)

Election Campaign, Feb. 1974 (including a rare clip of Jeremy Thorpe at 2:20).

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

5 posts to read before casting your Electoral Reform Society council vote

By Stephen Tall | Sat 20th August 2011 - 3:55 pm

If like me you’re a member of the Electoral Reform Society, you’ll have recently received a thick wad of paperwork through your letterbox. The reason? It’s time for the election to the Council of the ERS. The deadline for voting is this Friday, 26th August, so time’s not on your side to wade through the 53 manifestos of those standing for election.

Simon McGrath wrote about the elections here on Lib Dem Voice this week, sparking an interesting discussion thread. But here’s a further five posts (in no particular order) I’d personally recommend reading before deciding how to …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

Mike Hancock welcomes Ugandan gay deportation case deferral

By Stephen Tall | Sat 20th August 2011 - 11:00 am

Richard Flowers reported here on Lib Dem Voice last week Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock’s grave concerns for a Portsmouth constituent facing deportation back to Uganda — Robert Segwanyi is gay, and argues he was imprisoned and tortured in his home country, where homosexuality is illegal. (Michael Andrewes, Mr Hancock’s constituency researcher offered further background in the Voice’s comments thread here.)

For those who supported Mr Hancock’s campaign on behalf of Mr Segwanyi there is some welcome news courtesy of the BBC website:

‘Gay’ Ugandan asylum seeker’s deportation deferred

A Ugandan man living in Portsmouth who says he will be

…

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Stephen Tall

The rightward shift of British and European politics

By Stephen Tall | Sat 13th August 2011 - 5:55 pm

The two biggest issues politicians have to grapple with — the economy and law and order — have dominated the headlines in the past fortnight. First, we saw the collapse of market confidence, triggered by recognition that the US and Eurozone debt crises could cripple economic growth for years to come. Then we saw the collapse of social confidence, as rioters took to the streets for days on end with seeming impunity.

This should be fertile territory for the Labour party. The Coalition Government has looked if not weak, then certainly not in full control. David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Boris …

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Posted in Op-eds | 28 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dems win council seat from the Tories in… Eton

By Stephen Tall | Fri 12th August 2011 - 7:35 pm

As Helen Duffett’s Lib Dem Voice council election results round-up highlighted, the Lib Dems last night gained a seat from the Conservatives — in a seat that might have been thought to be True Blue territory, Eton and Castle ward in the Berkshire borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

Congratulations to George Fussey! Here’s how the BBC reported it:

Mr Fussey won on Thursday night with 208 votes, beating Tory candidate Adam Demeter who had 182 votes. … Mr Fussey has lived in Eton for 25 years and is also a governor at Windsor Girls’ School. He is the second

…

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Posted in Council by-elections | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

What caused the riots? It’s more than just the economy, stupid.

By Stephen Tall | Thu 11th August 2011 - 8:57 am

Aditya Chakrabortty has a pretty compelling article in today’s Guardian scrutinising the political responses to the past few days’ rioting under the concise headline, UK riots: political classes see what they want to see. He summarises the binary analysis that has dominated:

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 55 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #233

By Stephen Tall | Sun 7th August 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 232nd weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (31 July — 6th August, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Understanding how opinion polls work, Yes Minister-style

By Stephen Tall | Sun 7th August 2011 - 5:55 pm

Are for the re-introduction of national service, or against it? In this clip Yes Minister explains how you can hold both views simultaneously…

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Stephen Tall

LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (July 2011)

By Stephen Tall | Sun 7th August 2011 - 1:00 pm

… We’d say a big thank you to the 34,668 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in July. This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 July 2010 – 30 June 2011) to 509,455.


The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

  1. Opinion: Nick Clegg didn’t suck up to Murdoch – that’s why his minions tried to destroy him (28) by James Percival
  2. Opinion: Verdict from the first Mayoral Hustings – it’s a two horse race (40) by Simon McGrath
  3. What does the Inverclyde result mean for the Scottish Liberal Democrats?

…

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Posted in Site news | Tagged | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

News in Brief: Ming savages Danny, ‘Parenting Matters’, and Don Foster on “rodents with wings”

By Stephen Tall | Sat 6th August 2011 - 6:55 pm

Former party leader Ming Campbell is apparently furious with fellow Scottish Lib Dem, Danny Alexander, according to the Telegraph.

The two MPs are, it appears, at each others’ metaphorical throats over the handing over to the British army of RAF Leuchars in Fife (Ming’s patch), while RAF Lossiemouth in Moray (Danny’s neighbouring patch) — though it should be noted that RAF Kinloss, also close to Danny’s own consituency, will suffer the same fate as Leuchars.

The Telegraph quotes Ming implying with scarcely veiled fury that Danny’s intervention in the defence …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

The LDV Friday Five (Late Edition): 6 August 2011

By Stephen Tall | Sat 6th August 2011 - 5:00 pm

It’s Friday. Okay, it isn’t. But at least it’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week in our belated Friday Five:

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

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Posted in Friday Five | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

David Laws set for ministerial return in autumn?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 6th August 2011 - 3:53 pm

So says The Sun, oracle of all political prophesy, and (as we now know) superbly connected to the occupant of Number 10:

OUTED Treasury chief David Laws is lined up for a surprise return to Government in the autumn, The Sun can reveal. PM David Cameron plans to hand the expenses scandal MP a new role – probably in the Cabinet Office. … Mr Cameron and Deputy PM Nick Clegg believe his peace-making skills within the Coalition will outweigh any backlash about his frontline return. Mr Cameron told a confidant: “Nick and I want David back. September or October is

…

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Posted in News | 34 Comments
Stephen Tall

Decriminalising drug possession: an idea whose time has come?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 6th August 2011 - 11:25 am

Drug reform has long been the third rail of British politics. Nine years ago, a newly-elected Tory MP was able to write in The Guardian from the safety of backbench obscurity: ‘I am an instinctive libertarian who abhors state prohibitions and tends to be sceptical of most government action, whether targeted against drug use or anything else.’ It’s hard to imagine David Cameron daring to repeat those words now he occupies Number 10.

Yet the Lib Dems are preparing to move the debate centre-stage by recommending at this year’s autumn federal conference the setting up of an independent inquiry into …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 15 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top 10 tweeting MPs: congratulations to Lib Dem @julianhuppert in at No. 6!

By Stephen Tall | Sun 31st July 2011 - 2:20 pm

Who are the top 10 Twitterers in the House of Commons? That’s the question the Mail on Sunday answers today, following a survey by Westminster Public Affairs.

The list looks not at number of followers, but at the volume of tweets each MP has sent out. Heading the list is Labour’s Kerry McCarthy with well over 27,000 tweets. Cambridge’s Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert — elected to Parliament just last year — comes in at number six, having sent over 10,000 tweets, and now with over 4,000 followers.

My Co-Editor Mark Pack has compiled a …

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo: The West Wing explains the US debt ceiling in under 60 seconds

By Stephen Tall | Sun 31st July 2011 - 11:35 am

Everything you needed to know about the current ‘epiphenomenal imbroglio’ ((C) Will Self at 0:48 here) engulfing the US economy, courtesy series 6 of The West Wing:

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Posted in LDVUSA and YouTube | Tagged | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

Who are the Lib Dems ‘unconventional men (or women) whose mad ideas make us think’?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 31st July 2011 - 9:55 am

Andrew Rawnsley, writing in today’s Observer under the surprisingly un-PC title In praise of unconventional men who make us think, sticks up for those iconoclastic thinkers who challenge their parties’ conventional thinking, citing as paragons the Tories’ Steve ‘Big Society’ Hilton and Maurice ‘Blue Labour’ Glasman:

Conventional is not a description you could apply to either of these eclectic thinkers. … There are many big differences between these two men and their philosophies, but something interestingly common to them is anti-statism, a deep antagonism to bureaucracy and managerialism. … It would be a shame if either were to be silenced.

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 34 Comments
Stephen Tall

‘The Hughes Report’: Lib Dem MP’s 33 recommendations to improve access to higher education

By Stephen Tall | Sun 24th July 2011 - 3:25 pm

Last week saw the publication by Simon Hughes, the Government’s advocate for higher education access, of his report for the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister on how more young people can be encouraged to apply for university. It’s received little attention, perhaps understandably given the current frenetic news cycles — but it’s a shame because the report is a serious piece of work.

Though 45 pages long in total, it presents clearly, readably and concisely 33 recommendations designed to ensure that everyone, from young to old, has the chance to experience higher education. You can read the report in full below, but there are five aspects which struck me as worth highlighting:

  • Importance of early years: the report recommends that, from primary age onwards, ‘schools can play an important role in motivating children to think about their future career and start working towards achieving their dreams’. These range from work experience opportunities to, in particular, ensuring proper advice is available at age 13-14 ‘when a young person starts to make the choices of courses influenced by the qualifications they hope for and the careers they plan.’
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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 22 Comments
Stephen Tall

News International tried to bully the Lib Dems, says Observer. It didn’t work.

By Stephen Tall | Sun 24th July 2011 - 11:25 am

News International ‘bullied Liberal Democrats over BSkyB bid’ is the headline in today’s Observer, with the paper reporting:

Rupert Murdoch’s News International launched a campaign of bullying against senior Liberal Democrats in an attempt to force through the company’s bid for BSkyB, high-level sources have told the Observer.

Lib Dem insiders say NI officials took their lobbying campaign well beyond acceptable limits and even threatened, last autumn, to persecute the party if Vince Cable, the business secretary, did not advance its case.

According to one account from a senior party figure, a cabinet minister was told that, if the government did not

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , and | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

Update on the latest twists and turns in the contest to become the Lib Dem candidate for Mayor of London

By Stephen Tall | Sat 23rd July 2011 - 8:15 pm

It’s been a fascinating — and characteristicaly bizarre — last 48 hours in the contest to become the Lib Dems’ London mayoral candidate.

There was the first hustings, reported here on LDV by Simon McGrath, which attracted comments from Brian Paddick, and some robust thoughts from Lembit Opik’s campaign manager Ed Joyce.

Further controversy was sparked by Peter Black’s blog-post yesterday, Lembit Öpik and the rewriting of history, highlighting a paragraph in Lembit’s manifesto which attributes his defeat in Montgomeryshire ‘to the incident in which Mick Bates drunkenly assaulted a paramedic in January 2010, which became …

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Posted in London | Tagged , , , , , , , and | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

News International’s William Lewis, BBC’s Robert Peston, and the alleged act of theft which aimed to bring down Vince Cable

By Stephen Tall | Sat 23rd July 2011 - 4:27 pm

Rewind to December 2010, and you will recall the furore which greeted the revelation by the BBC’s Robert Peston that Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable had been secretly taped by undercover Telegraph hacks “declaring war” on Rupert Murdoch and his bid for BSkyB.

Vince was almost forced to resign, responsibility for handling the bid was handed over to a Murdoch-friendly Tory, and the Telegraph was embarrassed by the implication that they had censored the story in order to avoid assisting media rival News International.

A report in today’s New York Times sheds a new and extraordinary light on that sequence of events, and suggests that:

  • The Telegraph was not sitting on the Cable/BSkyB scoop, but was all set to run it as a follow-up to the paper’s initial story focusing on Vince’s forthright views on the Coalition;
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