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
… We’d say a big thank you to the 59,273 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in November.
That’s a notch down on our October figure of c.63,000, but double the equivalent figure for November ’09 of c.29,000.
https://www.libdemvoice.org/wp-admin/post-new.php
This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 Dec 2009 – 30 Nov 2010) to 733,459, getting on for double the equivalent figure for 2008-09 of 333,175.
The 5 top-read stories during the month were:
By Stephen Tall
| Sun 14th November 2010 - 10:45 am
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of a variety of key issues, and what you make of the Lib Dems’ and Government’s performance to date. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’ve been publishing the full results of our survey over the past few days.
Today, in the final part of our survey, 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:
By Stephen Tall
| Sat 13th November 2010 - 4:57 pm
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the contest for the party presidency, the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.
What Lib Dem members think about the party and its leadership
Do you think, as a whole, the Liberal Democrats are on the right course or on the wrong track? (Comparison with August’s figures.)
65% (69%) – The right course
23% (17%) – The wrong track
11% (15%) – Don’t know / No
Here’s newly elected Lib Dem president Tim Farron preparing to launch a paper aeroplane into the debate at the party conference, as an unimpressed-looking Ed Davey, minister for employment relations, consumer and postal affairs, looks on. What do you think they might be saying to, or thinking about, each other?
By Stephen Tall
| Sat 13th November 2010 - 11:15 am
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the contest for the party presidency, the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.
As today is the day the result of the contest to become party president is declared, here’s a Wordle illustrating what party members feel are the most important qualities whoever is successful should bring to the role (click on the image to enlarge)…
The story is clearly designed to make the reader believe that, even as Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems spoke out against tuition fees, it was secretly their plan to renege on the party’s manifesto pledge. Yet, if you read more carefully it becomes clear that the party was simply anticipating the likely hung parliament scenario — that faced with two parties, Labour and the Tories, committed to tuition fees …
By Stephen Tall
| Fri 12th November 2010 - 2:28 pm
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the contest for the party presidency, the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results over the next few days.
What Lib Dem members think of the Coalition’s economic policies
Which of these statements comes closest to your opinion about how the Coalition should go about reducing the deficit?
45% – It is important to cut spending quickly even if this means immediate job losses, because it will be better
By Stephen Tall
| Thu 11th November 2010 - 10:15 pm
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the contest for the party presidency, the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results over the next few days.
First, we asked what party members thought of the campaigns of the two presidential candidates, Tim Farron and Susan Kramer:
Regardless of how you intend to vote, which of the two candidates do you think has run the best campaign to become party president?
Last year, my Voice colleague, Iain Roberts, reported the efforts of Lib Dem Cheadle MP Mark Hunter to ‘Save the Cheque‘, due to be phased out by October 2018.
Now his fellow Lib Dem MP David Ward (Bradford East) has joined the fray, this week introducing a 10 Minute Rule in the House of Commons to introduce a bill to save the cheque. You ca read the full text of his Commons speech here, and a brief excerpt here:
What have the Federation of Small Businesses, Age Concern, Help the Aged, Unite, Which?, Royal National Institute of Blind
Stll deciding which way to vote in the contest for Lib Dem party president? As Mark Pack reminds us here, the deadline for returning your completed ballot paper is this coming Wednesday, 10th November.
To help those party members, who (like me) are finding it very hard to decide, here are links to all the posts published on Lib Dem Voice (starting with the most recent) in which the stalls of the two candidates, Tim Farron and Susan Kramer, are explored…
By Stephen Tall
| Fri 5th November 2010 - 11:57 am
At face value, the figures released by News International this week showing that The Times and Sunday Times had registered some 105,000 customer sales since its paywall was erected in July sounded like good news. As analysts attempted to decipher the company’s ‘fuzzy numbers‘, doubts began to creep in.
Understanding those paywall figures
The reality appears to be that roughly 50,000 individual users have subscribed to gain access to the newspapers’ content, whether online or through the iPad app or the Kindle edition. The other c.50,000 customer sales are for single-use or pay-as-you-go access to the website, and will …
By Stephen Tall
| Fri 5th November 2010 - 10:18 am
ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie has today published a run-down of what he sees as the key compromises and trade-offs on new policies that have been made within government by David Cameron and Nick Clegg since the Coalition Agreement was signed.
The graphic below sums up Tim’s view of the overall effect — that the Tories are being dragged to the liberal-centre as a result of pressure from the Liberal Democrats:
Tim lists 10 separate post-Agreement compromises settled, in his view, in the Lib Dems’ favour and which few Tories will like, including:
By Stephen Tall
| Thu 4th November 2010 - 11:58 am
The last few months has seen a curious coalition emerge, uniting media foes of right and left and non-aligned, ranging from the Daily Mail to the Guardian, Trinity Mirror to the Telegraph, the BBC and Channel 4. What has brought them together? Opposition to the bid by News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, for full control of BSkyB (the company currently owns a minority 38% stake).
Well, today Vince Cable offered them some cheer — he has referred News Corp’s bid to the media regulator, Ofcom. The BBC reports:
The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, has ordered Ofcom to investigate News
… We’d say a big thank you to the 62,745 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in October.
That’s a notch up on our September figure of c.61,000, and double the equivalent figure for October ’09 of c.30,000.
This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 Nov 2009 – 31 Oct 2010) to 651,902, getting on for double the equivalent figure for 2008-09 of 353,311.
The 5 top-read stories during the month were:
By Stephen Tall
| Wed 3rd November 2010 - 12:25 pm
It’s three weeks since Vince Cable announced in the House of Commons that he, on behalf of the Coalition Government, supported the broad thrust of The Browne Report’s recommendations — in particular, that tuition fees in England should be increased.
This Lib Dem policy U-turn sparked the biggest outcry among party members of the Coalition to date, with many members regarding opposition to tuition fees as fundamental to a belief in free education and to the party’s broader identity. (See the comments threads here, here and here, for example.)
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 193rd 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 (24th — 30th October, 2010), 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:
There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader…
Here are the Coalition leaders and their guys at the Treasury thrashing out the Comprehensive Spending Review — what do you think they might be saying to, or thinking about, each other?
By Stephen Tall
| Sat 23rd October 2010 - 12:57 pm
The latest YouGov poll showing the Lib Dems at 10%, one of the party’s worst ratings in years, has excited comment, especially and not surprisingly among those who are pleased to see the Lib Dems struggling. Less surprisingly still, YouGov’s fndings attract more publicity among our critics than ICM’s polls, which show the party consistently at or around the 18% mark.
Credit, therefore, to the New Statesman’s Sholto Byrnes for bringing a quality on scarce display in political commentary: a sense of perspective:
Ever since I entered journalism I have noticed how quick many, if not most, commentators and
A Guardian headline today reads, Unions focus on Lib Dem seats in battle to save jobs. The story makes clear how trade unions will mobilise their resources to fight the budget cuts unveiled this by George Osborne’s comprehensive spending review — and in particular focus on Lib Dems:
The campaign is expected to focus on constituencies held by Liberal Democrat MPs who, unions believe, will be vulnerable to local pressure as many of the people who supported them did not vote for cuts on the scale revealed this week.
Nowt wrong with unions mobilising to protect their members’ interests: that, after …
By Stephen Tall
| Wed 20th October 2010 - 11:10 pm
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 191st 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 (10th — 16th October, 2010), 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:
Julian Glover, writing for The Guardian’s Comment Is Free, puts forward a trenchantly pro-Coalition, pro-Clegg line — one that’s guaranteed to attract the ire both of Guardianistas, and of some Voice readers, too. This excerpt offers the substnance of his argument:
Loathe this government if you will, but at least acknowledge that neither side in it got all it wanted at the election and that neither has sold out all of its principles. The strangeness of co-operation exposes its component parts to the easiest of attacks: of promising one thing before an election and doing another after it. But as
For those who missed LibDemVoice.org’s coverage over the weekend, here’s a catch-up:
EXCLUSIVE: What Lib Dem members think about Browne and tuition fees… looking at ‘How would you prefer higher education is funded?’ and ‘Are there any changes to the plans announced to date which would make you more likely to support recommendations based on The Browne Report?’
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem party members think of the party’s reponse to The Browne Report into higher education funding and student finance in England. Some 567 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results of our survey this weekend.
First, we looked at how party members thought higher education should be funded, and whether there were any measures that might make the Browne Report acceptable. Then we looked at what members felt our MPs should do given the pledges they made not to increase tuition fees. Now …
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem party members think of the party’s reponse to The Browne Report into higher education funding and student finance in England. Some 567 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results of our survey this weekend.
In the first part of our survey, we reported how Lib Dem members think higher education should be funded, and what changes, if any, would make the Browne Report acceptable to them. Now let’s look at what party members think our MPs should do about that pledge…
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem party members think of the party’s reponse to The Browne Report into higher education funding and student finance in England. Some 567 party members have responded, and we’ll be publishing the full results of our survey this weekend.
How you want higher education to be funded
First, we asked: How would you prefer higher education is funded?
Here’s what you told us:
54% – Through general taxation (as was the case before 1998)
26% – Tuition fees paid by students after they have graduated according to their earnings
By Stephen Tall
| Fri 15th October 2010 - 10:07 am
Lib Dem Voice has been polling party members signed up to our discussion forum on the very live issue of the Lib Dems’ response to the Browne Report. Individual links to all signed-up party members have been emailed to the 1,200+ members of the Forum. So far, over 500 responses have been received.
If you have not received your email please do contact Ryan Cullen at [email protected] — and if you have yet to join the forums and wish to take part you can sign up here. The survey will remain live until 6pm today, so if you …
By Stephen Tall
| Thu 14th October 2010 - 12:01 am
Lib Dem Voice is polling party members signed up to our members’ forum on the very live issue of the Lib Dems’ response to the Browne Report. Individual links to all signed-up party members should by now have been emailed to the 1,200+ members of the Forum. At the time of typing, almost 200 responses have so far been received.
If you have not received your email please do contact Ryan Cullen at [email protected] and if you have yet to join the forums and wish to take part you can sign up here. The survey will remain live until …
By Stephen Tall
| Tue 12th October 2010 - 12:27 pm
Well, The Browne Report is now out there, and you can read it below. Vince Cable will make a statement this afternoon setting forward the Coalition’s initial response. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems’ deputy leader Simon Hughes has just issued his reponse, as follows:
“All Liberal Democrat MPs are very conscious of the positions we have taken on higher education and the policies we campaigned for at the last election. We all have a duty to read and consider fully Lord Browne’s proposals and the Government’s response. Today will not be the last word on policy for funding higher education in England.
“All MPs should now engage constructively in questions, answers and debate in Parliament. We must also listen to the considered responses of our constituents and the wider public before we come to take our final personal and collective decisions on the best way forward.
“The test of any new scheme for organising and funding education and training for those over 16 must be whether we improve quality, increase opportunity for young people of all backgrounds and ensure a fair and progressive way of meeting the costs. It is important that government policy on higher education funding moves this country on from the present unfair tuition fee system.
“Parliament should only support a progressive system which takes into account future earnings and makes sure that those who benefit most financially from a university education contribute the most. And we must never forget that high-quality apprenticeships and training for all those who choose not to go to university are equally important objectives for a successful 21st century Britain.”
For those who want to read The Browne Report, you can view the summary here:
By Stephen Tall
| Tue 12th October 2010 - 10:55 am
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 190th 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 (3rd — 9th October, 2010), 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:
One of the more cheering bits of Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour party conference was his pledge that the party under his leadership would once again take seriously the issue of civil liberties, of individual rights
My generation recognises too that government can itself become a vested interest when it comes to civil liberties. I believe in a society where individual freedom and liberty matter and should never be given away lightly. … we must always remember that British liberties were hard fought and hard won over hundreds of years. We should always take the greatest care in protecting them.
Gordon Lishman We broadly agree for once. I regard it as “stopped clock syndrome” - right once in 24 hours!
However, I prefer income tax....
Simon McGrath @David Raw - you think we should not change our minds about something after 16 years ?...
David Allen Thanks for being prepared to think outside an "Orange Book" box!
By contrast, however, broadly I believe that if we are to fix broken Britain - from the clim...
cim Agreed with Jonathan Brown here. The UK's defence spending is, in absolute terms, either 5th or 6th in the world depending on which source you go by - only behi...
Jonathan Brown "credibility requires us to propose something that would involve electoral risk and which would add to the pain felt by many people."
To be clear... this isn...
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