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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.
Follow @stephentall

Hmmm, Guido – forgotten to declare your interest?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th January 2011 - 7:55 pm

It’s rare for Paul Staines, the founder of the Guido Fawkes blog, to express warm and positive views — yet today’s an exception, with the launch of the No2AV campaign’s website winning his plaudits:

Promising stuff from the No2AV campaign as their website goes live today, plenty more to come too apparently.

Indeed, so excited was Paul that he completely omitted to declare his own interest in No2AV’s website. Instead we have to turn to The Guardian to find out that it was designed by MessageSpace, whose majority shareholder — the company’s website tells us — is “Global and …

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Posted in News | Tagged guido fawkes, no2av and paul staines | 25 Comments

LDV survey: The new Lib Dem MPs who’ve impressed party members the most

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th January 2011 - 7:18 pm

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. Over 660 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.

LDV asked: Which of the newly elected Lib Dem MPs has genuinely impressed you to date?

Our sample of party members could tick as many (or few) of the 10 ‘newbie’ MPs as they liked. Here are the top five:

45% – Julian Huppert, Cambridge
17% – Tessa Munt, Wells
17% – Duncan Hames, Chippenham

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged duncan hames, julian huppert, stephen gilbert, stephen lloyd and tessa munt | 7 Comments

Tuition fees: what Lib Dem members think now (3 of 3)

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th January 2011 - 4:58 pm

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. Over 660 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results over the next few days.

It’s almost three months since Lib Dem Voice last asked party members what they thought about tuition fees. So we asked three questions to gauge members’ views now the dust has settled … a little.

Part I: Demonstrations against the fee rises
Part II: 51% to 49% backing for Coalition’s policy on tuition …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 20 Comments

Tuition fees: what Lib Dem members think now (2 of 3)

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th January 2011 - 12:28 pm

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. Over 660 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results over the next few days.

It’s almost three months since Lib Dem Voice last asked party members what they thought about tuition fees. So we asked three questions to gauge members’ views now the dust has settled … a little.

Part I: Demonstrations against the fee rises

Part II: 51% to 49% backing for Coalition’s policy on tuition fees

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 21 Comments

Tuition fees: what Lib Dem members think now (1 of 3)

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th January 2011 - 8:25 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. Over 660 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results over the next few days.

It’s almost three months since Lib Dem Voice last asked party members what they thought about tuition fees. So we asked three questions to gauge members’ views now the dust has settled … a little.

Part I: Demonstrations against the fee rises

Lib Dem Voice asked our sample of party members: In the last few …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 2 Comments

LDV survey: 86% of Lib Dem members oppose any electoral pact with Tories

By Stephen Tall | Mon 10th January 2011 - 3:28 pm

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. Over 660 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results over the next few days.

Overwhelming ‘No!’ to Lib Dem-Tory electoral arrangement

LDV askd: There have been some suggestions that, if the Coalition holds until 2015, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats should consider some form of electoral arrangement: perhaps the Conservatives might not stand against all Lib Dems and vice versa, or there could even be joint ‘Coalition candidates’. What …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 33 Comments

LDV readers vote Aung San Suu Kyi your Liberal Voice of the Year

By Stephen Tall | Mon 10th January 2011 - 12:28 pm

Congratulations to Aung San Suu Kyi, who has won Liberal Democrat Voice’s fourth annual Liberal Voice of the Year award – an award which publicly acknowledges the campaigning work of non-Liberal Democrats in promoting liberal values.

She gained a plurality of votes, with 22%; the runner-up was Prime Minister David Cameron (assisted by some right-wing push-tweets), with 20%, followed by fellow Tory Ken Clarke, with 12%.

22% (238 votes): Aung San Suu Kyi – for her courageous stand against political abuse in Burma
20% (216): David Cameron – for his commitment to forming the Liberal-Conservative Coalition Government

…

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Posted in LDV Awards | Tagged Aung San Suu Kyi and liberal voice 2010 | 11 Comments

What Lib Dem members think about an elected House of Lords and directly-elected mayors

By Stephen Tall | Mon 10th January 2011 - 8:45 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. Over 660 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results over the next few days.

An 80% elected House of Lords

LDV asked: The Coalition Agreement committed the Government to “a wholly or mainly elected upper chamber on the basis of proportional representation”. It is reported that Nick Clegg will present plans for 80% of the new house to be elected under the Single Transferable Vote. Would you be happy …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged featured, house of lords and mayoral referendum | 11 Comments

Those Oldham East and Saddleworth polls: what do they mean?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 9th January 2011 - 2:15 pm

We reported last night the results of the three opinion polls published ahead of the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election this Thursday. Let’s take a look now at the only two questions that matter when reading these polls…

1. Will the opinion polls prove accurate?

Opinion polls in by-elections have a notoriously patchy record — unsurprisingly, as the pollsters are unable to refine their techniques over time and measure their snapshots against actual results as they are able to with their general election predictions. For example, pre-by-election polls in Glasgow East (2008) and Blaenau Gwent (2006) showed the wrong winners.

They …

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections and Polls | Tagged featured and oldham east and saddleworth | 94 Comments

The Yes! to Fairer Votes campaign asks: Where does your MP stand on the Alternative Vote?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 7th January 2011 - 2:28 pm

Earlier this week, Lib Dem Voice highlighted the No2AV campaign’s embarrassing failure to check whether all the Labour MPs they said were opposed to reforming the UK’s unfair electoral system actually are opposed. It turns out that five of the 114 named were listed wrongly.

As a result of the No camp’s confusion, the Yes! to Fairer Votes campaign is asking the public to help make sure all MPs come clean about which side of the debate they support:

What really matters in this referendum is what the people want, not politicians. But since they are meant to represent us,

…

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Posted in News | Tagged alternative vote, electoral reform and featured | 10 Comments

Labour members attack party’s “Daily Mail view of the world”

By Stephen Tall | Fri 7th January 2011 - 7:25 am

Another day, another nail in the coffin of liberalism in the Labour Party. Sadiq Khan, the party’s shadow justice secretary, today amped-up the debate on votes for prisoners by condemnIng the Coalition’s proposals as — POPULIST CLICHE ALERT — “a slap in the face for victims of crime”.

But his pandering to the forces of authoritarian conservatism hasn’t gone down well with all Labour members. Over at LabourList, Kevin Peel has an excellent post criticising Mr Khan’s outburst, pointing out that no matter what you think of the decision the UK was under a legal obligation following a …

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Posted in News | Tagged daily mail, featured, LabourList, sadiq khan and votes for prisoners | 22 Comments

The Times’ advice to voters in Oldham: “They should vote Lib Dem.”

By Stephen Tall | Thu 6th January 2011 - 9:10 pm

Well, here’s a bit of a turn-up… While the Lib Dems’ erstwhile friends, the Guardian and Independent, take delight in stilettoing the party, The Times has come out in support of the Lib Dems’ Elwyn Watkins in next week’s Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election.

No link, I’m afraid — blame the paper’s paywall — but here’s an excerpt the final line of which I imagine will find its way onto a few Lib Dem leaflets over the next seven days:

A Labour victory in Oldham might lead the party, quite wrongly, to think itself on the right course when, in fact,

…

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Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged elwyn watkins, oldham east and saddleworth and the times | 43 Comments

No2AV campaign left red-faced by list gaffes

By Stephen Tall | Wed 5th January 2011 - 7:45 pm

Last week I posted to Lib Dem Voice what I thought to be an accurate list of the 100+ Labour MPs who had proudly announced they would be opposing electoral reform in the May referendum.

I assumed it must be accurate… after all, the list was taken directly from the No2AV campaign’s official website. Surely they would have checked with each MP before publishing their name, I thought. Not carefully enough, it turns out.

As Left Foot Forward has highlighted, five Labour MPs named by No2AV as opponents of electoral reform have been listed incorrectly — take a bow …

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Posted in News | Tagged alternative vote and left foot forward | 31 Comments

For the Lib Dems, Paddy Power means something entirely different

By Stephen Tall | Wed 5th January 2011 - 3:50 pm

There were only 103 votes in it back in May, a statistic the voters of Oldham East and Saddleworth may have noticed one or twice on Elwyn Watkins‘ Lib Dem by-election campaign literature.

But, according to bookmakers Paddy Power, the race is over. As The Guardian’s Andrew Sparrow acerbically notes on his essential daily live-blog, “I’m normally reluctant to quote bookies, because their press releases are cheap bids for free publicity which normally don’t tell us anything very new” — before breaking his own rule to quote a press release from Paddy Power (also received by the Voice):

“Victory

…

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Posted in News | Tagged elwyn watkins, oldham east and saddleworth, paddy ashdown and paddy power | 16 Comments

The Independent. It isn’t.

By Stephen Tall | Wed 5th January 2011 - 2:15 pm

‘Lib Dem support hits all-time low’ shouts the front page of the Independent today. It’s a bit of a rum story for two reasons.

First, because it’s not true — though I recognise that’s rarely a reason for a newspaper not to run a story. Those who doubt my word can read Anthony Wells’ UK Polling Blog post, pithily titled: Lib Dem support NOT at all-time low.

And, secondly, because even if it were true it’s not really news — we all know Lib Dem poll ratings have taken a battering. We also all know how fickle have been the opinion polls over the past 12 months. A year ago, many were writing off the Lib Dems’ chances because we were regularly polling below our 2005 general election figure. The came ‘Cleggmania’, and our ratings rocketed — only to subside by polling day itself. And since then they’ve been on a downward trend.

What will be the position by May 2011? No-one really knows. Our opponents and pessimistic supporters will assume we should get used to low ratings; those who are optimists among our ranks will look forward to our ratings increasing.

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Posted in News and Polls | Tagged the independent | 46 Comments

The VAT rise: a refresher course for Labour

By Stephen Tall | Tue 4th January 2011 - 1:58 pm

Today’s increase in VAT from 17.5% to 20% — announced in the Coalition’s emergency budget last year — has triggered a fresh burst of ~~opportunism~~ criticism from Labour. The “wrong tax at the wrong time” claims their leader Ed Miliband.

How Labour’s last Chancellor backed a VAT rise

I suspect there’s a Labour MP we won’t be hearing from today, though: Alistair Darling*, Chancellor until the party’s defeat in May. As Mark Pack noted here last July, Mr Darling was a strong advocate of increasing the rate of VAT in order to tackle the UK’s massive deficit, with The …

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Posted in News | Tagged mark valladares, michael gladwell, nick hollinmghurst, vat and vince cable | 89 Comments

New LDV members survey now live: your views on political reform, tuition fees, and the Coalition

By Stephen Tall | Mon 3rd January 2011 - 7:19 pm

The new LDV members’ survey is now live. So if you are one of the 1,000+ registered members of the Liberal Democrat Voice forum – and any paid-up party member is welcome to join – then you now have the opportunity to make your views known.

Questions we’re asking this month include:

what you think of proposals for an elected House of Lords and directly-elected mayors;
whether you think the Lib Dems and Conservatives should agree to any form of electoral pact;
asking if you agree or disagree that much of the Lib Dem manifesto is being implemented;
your

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 6 Comments

Why Cameron’s a credible candidate for 2010’s Liberal Voice award

By Stephen Tall | Mon 3rd January 2011 - 3:15 pm

Lib Dem Voice is currently running our fourth annual Liberal Voice of the Year poll. The purpose of this award since we launched it in 2006 has been to find a liberal from beyond the ranks of the Lib Dems — a Good Thing for a party committed to pluralism.

Equally traditionally, this has attracted some flak. Last year, it was Peter Tatchell’s inclusion which sparked strong views from those irate that the Voice should have recognised one of the Green Party’s leading lights. This year it’s the inclusion of two Tories — Ken Clarke and David Cameron — which …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged david cameron and liberal voice 2010 | 62 Comments

LDV doesn’t do statporn, but if we did (December ’10)

By Stephen Tall | Sun 2nd January 2011 - 5:58 pm

… We’d say a big thank you to the 51,153 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in December.

That’s a notch down on our November figure of c.59,000, but almost double the equivalent figure for December ’09 of c.27,000.

Incidentally, if you’re wondering why we publish our readership figures — is it show-off vanity, or pedantic statophilia — I came up with a few reasons at the start of last year. The arguments still stack up, I think.

The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

Opinion: Richard Huzzey – “I resign” (225) by Richard Huzzey
Probably the

…

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Posted in Site news | Tagged statporn | 6 Comments

LDV Sunday caption competition: “At last, it’s the the Nick & Tim show” edition

By Stephen Tall | Sun 2nd January 2011 - 4:15 pm

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

(Image by Alex Folkes/Fishnik Photography via Lib Dem Flickr photostream.)

Here’s the new Lib Dem party president Tim Farron side-by-side with Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg. What do you think they might be saying to, or thinking about, each other?

The winner of our most recent caption competition, the “Tim Farron goes out on a wing” edition – according to The Voice’s judging panel of one – was

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Posted in Caption Comp | Tagged nick clegg and tim farron | 23 Comments

10 key Lib Dem questions for 2011

By Stephen Tall | Sun 2nd January 2011 - 2:25 pm

In what is fast becoming a pre-New Year tradition as eagerly anticipated as ‘the biggest ever DFS sale’, Lib Dem Voice is publishing its list of 10 key questions, the answers to which we think might well help shape 2011 for the party. You can read last year’s list here; and our answers to those questions here (Part I) and here (Part II).

Here below, then, are my top 10 questions for the coming year in Lib Demmery:

1. The biggest question of all: will the Lib Dem / Conservative Coalition Government last the year?
Plenty have predicted its …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured | 14 Comments

NEW POLL: Who is your Liberal Voice of the Year?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 1st January 2011 - 7:45 pm

Earlier this week, in the dying days of the last decade, we launched our search for the Liberal Voice of 2010, to find the individual or group which has had the biggest impact on liberalism in the past 12 months. And as is our tradition, we’re looking beyond the ranks of the Lib Dems to find the greatest liberal who’s not a member of our party.

Our thanks to all who put forward nominations — here is the short-list of 12 (in alphabetical order):

Bob Ainsworth, former Labour secretary of state for defence, for his controversial public call

…

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Posted in LDV Awards | Tagged liberal voice 2010 | 34 Comments

Our starters for 2010 – how did we do? (Part II)

By Stephen Tall | Sat 1st January 2011 - 10:55 am

A year ago, Lib Dem Voice posed 10 questions, the answers to which we believed might shape the Lib Dem year – time to revisit them, wethinks. You can read Part I of our round-up here.

6. Will any of the party’s senior figures – within or without the Lib Dem shadow cabinet – take an official position offered by whoever forms the next government?

When I posed this question I rather had in mind Gordon Brown’s GOAT appointments — such as Lib Dem MP-turned-peer Lord (Matthew) Taylor’s housing review, or Baroness (Shirley) Williams’ advice on nuclear proliferation. …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured | 4 Comments

Our starters for 2010 – how did we do? (Part I)

By Stephen Tall | Fri 31st December 2010 - 8:30 am

A year ago, Lib Dem Voice posed 10 questions, the answers to which we believed might shape the Lib Dem year – time to revisit them, wethinks.

1. In the 2010 general election, how many Lib Dem MPs will be elected? Will we increase our number from the current total of 63; or will we fall back? Will we increase our vote percentage compared with 2005, when we polled 22% of the popular vote? Or could we do, as we did in 1997, see our popular vote drop, but our Parliamentary strength grow?

My prediction at the start of 2010 was …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged featured | 6 Comments

The 100-plus Labour MPs publicly opposing electoral reform

By Stephen Tall | Thu 30th December 2010 - 7:45 pm

Poor Ed Miliband. In his first speech to the Labour party conference he tried his valiant best to show that Labour had changed, that it was a party which could re-claim the progressive liberalism it so happily junked in the Blair/Brown years.

No more ID cards, detention without trial, control orders etc — so said Ed. And yes to electoral reform in the shape of the alternative vote — so said Ed.

Unfortunately for Ed, not many of his MPs are listening to him. Today, the No2AV campaign proudly announced that over 100 of Labour’s 257 MPs would be opposing …

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Posted in News | Tagged alternative vote, av referendum, ed miliband, electoral reform and labour party | 57 Comments

What will happen in the May 2011 local elections?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 28th December 2010 - 4:25 pm

The Guardian takes a look today at the Lib Dems’ prospects in next year’s local elections, focusing on England rather than the national assembly and parliament elections due in Wales and Scotland.

Not surprisingly, they come to the conclusion that Nick Clegg’s party is likely to be most vulnerable in those areas where the Lib Dems face a strong Labour opposition — and most likely safer in areas where the local fight is with the Tories.

Here’s their assessment:

In England, the Liberal Democrats will be defending 1,830 seats, Labour 1,600 and the Conservatives just over 5,000. In the equivalent

…

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Posted in News | 24 Comments

LDVideo ‘Sleb Special: Cyril, Scriven & Steel

By Stephen Tall | Mon 27th December 2010 - 5:45 pm

A festive edition of the Voice’s occasional round-up of political videos, with three Lib Dem politicians showing, erm, quirkier sides of their personalities.

M’colleague Helen Duffett has already brought you the delights of Vince’s turn on the Strictly Come Dancing floor. But he’s by no means the first Liberal politician to hit the mainstream — here’s Sir Cyril ‘Nice One’ Smith’s famous Access ad from the 1980s:

(Also on YouTube here.)

Meanwhile, Lib Dem leader of Sheffield City Council Paul Scriven shows off his ‘Perfect’ singing skills in the service of a hotel’s internal training video. It’s attracted the ire of critics, but Paul is unrepentant:

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Posted in YouTube | 2 Comments

Diffindo! Has Daniel Radcliffe hexed the Lib Dems?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 26th December 2010 - 5:55 pm

Daniel Radcliffe has declared himself to be “underwhelmed” by the Lib Dems in the wake of the tuition fees controversy, according to a report in the Daily Mail:

A source inside the party said: ‘Daniel does not in any way support the violence of the rioters, but to say he is underwhelmed by his party is an understatement. Like millions of others he was under the impression that the Liberal Democrats had no plans to increase the cost of studying.

‘While Daniel will never have to worry about his finances again, a tuition fee hike is a serious issue which

…

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Posted in News | Tagged celebrity culture, colin firth, daniel radcliffe and harry potter | 12 Comments

Who’s your Liberal Voice of 2010?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 26th December 2010 - 4:45 pm

LDV wants to find out who our readers think merits the title Liberal Voice of the Year 2010, and we’ll be running a New Year poll to find the individual or group which has most inspired you in the last year. But, as is our traditional little twist, we want to look outside the Liberal Democrats – and find the greatest liberal who’s not a member of our party.

So, who would you pick? It could be a member of another political party, or one of the majority of Britons who belong to no party; or a group of people, or …

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Posted in LDV Awards | Tagged featured | 28 Comments

Flight cancelled or delayed? Reasons to be thankful for EU Regulation 261/2004

By Stephen Tall | Wed 22nd December 2010 - 10:15 am

While the Westminster Village is fixated by the Telegraph-hyped furore that Lib Dem ministers don’t always agree with every aspect of Coalition policy (shock, horror etc), the rest of the country is focused on a British obsession bigger even than the media’s predeliction for attaching the suffix ‘-gate’ to a noun: the weather.

Newspaper and TV pictures have been dominated by images of those hoping for a holiday getaway having their hopes dashed and their tempers frayed by the endless queues and chaos at Heathrow and for the Eurostar. …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged consumer rights, european union, heathrow and transport | 7 Comments