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

BBC: Vince signals science funding cuts

By Stephen Tall | Wed 8th September 2010 - 10:10 am

The BBC reports:

Business Secretary Vince Cable is expected to signal a squeeze on public funding for scientific research. He will urge universities to do “more for less” and say taxpayers should only back research that has a commercial use or was academically outstanding.

Mr Cable’s London audience will be told the government “values” UK science and research and spends £4.3bn a year. Lord Rees, president of the Royal Society, said cutting science funding would be a false economy. Mr Cable’s speech comes ahead of next month’s Comprehensive Spending Review, which is likely to squeeze resources.

Well, these are the realities …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 29 Comments
Stephen Tall

Guardian verdict on voting reform: “Mr Clegg spoke for progress; Mr Straw for reaction.”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 7th September 2010 - 10:15 am

The Guardian has not always been kind to the Coalition since its formation; still less to the Lib Dems. But its stinging rebuke to Labour’s “opposition for opposition’s sake” — with its attempt last night cynically to torpedo the Lib/Con government’s electoral reform measures — might perhaps give the new party leader pause for thought.

In the topsy-turvy world of Coalition politics, two parties which do not support the alternative vote last night voted to endorse a referendum on it; while the party which pledged to introduce it in its manifesto decided to jettison that promise.

It was an irony …

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

Clegg on AV referendum bill: “We must make the system fair. We must put people back in charge.”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 7th September 2010 - 9:28 am

The BBC reports:

Plans to change the way MPs are elected have cleared the first Commons hurdle. A bill introducing a referendum on changing the voting system, changes to constituency boundaries and fewer MPs, was backed by 328 votes to 269.

Labour says the changes would affect Labour-supporting areas and said the bill was “political skulduggery”. Tory opponents of the referendum said it could cost £100m but deputy PM Nick Clegg said it would restore “people’s faith in the way they elect their MPs”.

Despite criticism, the bill passed with a majority of 59 and a Labour bid to kill it off

…

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged , , and | 21 Comments
Stephen Tall

What Lib Dems are saying (or not) about Andy Coulson

By Stephen Tall | Mon 6th September 2010 - 7:00 pm

The official Lib Dem line on Andy Coulson, David Cameron’s director of communications, could not have been clearer prior to the election: this Voice headline from July 2009 gives the flavour – Huhne on Coulson: “either complicit or incompetent”.

Yet the party leadership has been noticeably more reticent to comment on the most recent allegations, triggered by the New York Times’s typically thorough investigation.

(What does it say, by the way, about the quality of the British news media today that — with the honourable exception of The Guardian — it was left to a US newspaper to …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , and | 33 Comments
Stephen Tall

Total Politics Top 75 Lib Dem blogs list published

By Stephen Tall | Mon 6th September 2010 - 6:32 pm

It’s two months since Total Politics asked blog-readers to vote for their Top 10 favourite blogs in their annual survey promoted here on LDV, as well as at LabourList and Iain Dale’s Diary. More than 2,200 people voted, and here is the full list of the Top 75 Lib Dem blogs according to the voters of Total Politics:

…

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Posted in Best of the blogs and Online politics | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #185

By Stephen Tall | Sun 5th September 2010 - 7:28 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 185th 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 (29th August – 4th September, 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:

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Stephen Tall

Book review: Campaign 2010 by Nicholas Jones

By Stephen Tall | Sun 5th September 2010 - 3:45 pm

Anyone who has read Nicholas Jones’s previous books – especially Soundbites and Spin Doctors (1995) and Sultans of Spin (1999) – will look forward to a new tome from the BBC’s former political correspondent, who has proved himself to be an acute observer of the Westminster scene, and a fearless revealer of politicians’ trade secrets.

Campaign 2010, Mr Jones’s new work, is billed by publisher Biteback as “political theatre brought to a fresh level”. Can it live up to such hype? Sadly – and it genuinely pains me to say it, as I have high regard for …

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

LDV Saturday caption competition: “Andy Coulson’s a bit busy right now” edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 4th September 2010 - 2:05 pm

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


(Credit: The Independent.)

Here’s Tory spin chief, and David Cameron’s Director of Communications, Andy Coulson doing what he does best: getting up close and personal with a mobile phone – what do you think he might be saying, hearing, or thinking?

The winner of our most recent caption competition, the “It’s Sarah Teather by a head” edition – according to The Voice’s judging panel of one – was this one by …

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Posted in Caption Comp | Tagged | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Tributes pour in for Sir Cyril Smith

By Stephen Tall | Sat 4th September 2010 - 12:13 pm

Lib Dem Voice reported yesterday the sad passing of Sir Cyril Smith, one of the party’s best-known figures, who served as Rochdale’s MP for two decades.

Tributes have been pouring in as a mark of appreciation for Cyril’s life. Nick Clegg issued the following statement:

“Cyril Smith was a larger-than-life character and one of the most recognisable and likeable politicians of his day. I am deeply saddened to hear the news of his death today, and offer my sincere condolences to his family and friends.

“Everybody in Rochdale knew him not only as their MP but also as a friend. He

…

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

And so the media conference meme – Lib Dem leadership faces revolt – begins…

By Stephen Tall | Sat 4th September 2010 - 7:45 am

The Independent this morning reports:

Nick Clegg is facing a growing grassroots revolt as Liberal Democrat councillors quit the party in protest at the decision to form the Coalition with the Conservatives.

This follows the news that three Lib Dem councillors in Cheshire have resigned, apparently in protest at the cuts being introduced by the Coalition Government.

This brings to a grand total of eight (8) councillors who have defected from the Lib Dems since the special conference in Birmingham, where activists voted by an overwhelming margin to approve the Coalition deal. Or to put it another way, 99.8% of …

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Posted in Conference and News | Tagged | 22 Comments
Stephen Tall

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

By Stephen Tall | Fri 3rd September 2010 - 3:45 pm

… We’d say a big thank you to the 47,689 ‘absolute unique visitors’* who read Liberal Democrat Voice in August.

Though that’s a touch down on our July figure of c.50,000, it’s up some 143% on the equivalent figure for August ’09 of c.20,000.

This brings our absolute unique visitor readership for the last year to date (1 Sept 2009 – 31 August 2010) to 636,846, some 89% higher than the equivalent figure for 2008-09 of 336,902.

The 5 top-read stories during the month were:

  1. Knowsley Council pays Labour over £250,000 for conference appearances (11) by Mark Pack
  2. Coalition puts

…

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Stephen Tall

LDVideo: Tongue-tied politicians – schadenfreude special edition

By Stephen Tall | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 7:28 pm

We’ve all done it… whether at a party chatting someone up, or in a job interview, or at a major presentation. That moment when your mind goes blank, and you realise you have absolutely nothing coherent to say, but everyone’s still looking at you. Most of us at least have the comfort of knowing onyl a few have witnessed our mortification. Not so the politicians.

The latest victim is the Republicans’ Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, who — when given one minute to shine in front of an expectant nation — realised she had absolutely nothing to say. And seeing her squeeeeeze that nothing out for 60 seconds is pretty excruciating:


(Also available on YouTube here. Hat-top: Political Wire.)

For our second clip, let’s revert to the UK, and savour again that moment when then Tory Welsh secretary John Redwood realised he would be expected to sing the national anthem of the country he was governing:

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Stephen Tall

Daniel Radcliffe on Nick Clegg: he still has the magic touch

By Stephen Tall | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 1:45 pm

Harry Potter star, actor Daniel Radcliffe, was one of the Lib Dems’ star supporters in the lead-up to the election — and it seems he’s sticking by Nick Clegg and the party in government, according to the Voice’s favourite online political read, ShowbizSpy.com:

“I’m a very big fan… I don’t agree with everything he says, but of all the party leaders, he was the one I voted for,” Daniel said. “I thought he was a great speaker and very charismatic and very statesmanlike.

“I’m glad that he is still in a prominent position in British politics because I think he

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

EXCLUSIVE: How party members rate the performances of leading Lib Dems

By Stephen Tall | Thu 2nd September 2010 - 7:45 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:

How would you rate the performances of the …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 5 Comments
Stephen Tall

Half a defence of Paul Staines (aka @guidofawkes)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st September 2010 - 8:50 pm

My Voice colleague Iain Roberts has already blogged about this afternoon’s big political news that William Hague’s special advisor Christopher Myers has quit his post following allegations — vehemently denied by both — that they might be having an affair.

Iain writes: “We at Lib Dem Voice wish both the Hagues and Christopher Myers well,” and I agree 100%. However, there are two further points I’d make.

The questions were fair enough…

Paul Staines blogged about the issue on 24th August, using the Freedom of Information Act to ask three questions inquiring as to the suitability of Mr Myers acting …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 34 Comments
Stephen Tall

Tony Blair’s A Journey: 3 reasons I’m impressed without having read a single page

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st September 2010 - 4:25 pm

No, I haven’t read Tony Blair’s A Journey yet (though it should be waiting for me at home). I haven’t even had time to read more than a handful of the preview articles, such as The Guardian’s trailer. With that confesion of near-total ignorance of A Journey established, I think there are three points worth making…

1. It’s an Event.

The decision that Mr Blair’s book would not be serialised (apparently modelled on the strategy for Alastair Campbell’s diaries) has made publication day much more of an Event-with-a-capital-E, the political anoraks’ equivalent of a release of a new Harry …

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Posted in Books and Op-eds | Tagged | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV survey: What party members think of Lib Dem ambitions for government

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st September 2010 - 11:50 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’re currently publishing the full results of our survey.

Today we’re looking at a trio of questions relating to how the Lib Dems and the Coalition will govern in the next few years. First up, we asked:

Do you agree – yes or no – with the following statement: The Coalition is implementing a significant part of the Lib Dem manifesto.

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV survey: What Lib Dem members think are the biggest dangers to the party in the next 12 months

By Stephen Tall | Wed 1st September 2010 - 7:45 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’re currently publishing the full results of our survey.

Today we’re looking at what the Voice’s sample of party members consider to be the biggest dangers to the Lib Dems in the 12 months to come. We asked:

Which, if any, of the following factors are in your view the biggest danger to the Lib Dems in the next year? …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

EXCLUSIVE: 84% of Lib Dem members back Lib-Con Coalition – but 46% say it will be bad for party’s electoral fortunes

By Stephen Tall | Tue 31st August 2010 - 1:50 pm

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the Coalition Government’s budget, and what you make of the Lib Dems’ and Government’s performance to date. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results of our survey.

First, let’s take the temperature of the party membership regarding their view of the Lib-Con Coalition agreement, now some two months old:

Do you support or oppose the Lib Dems being in the Coalition Government with the Conservatives?

  • 84% – Support
  • 11% – Oppose
  • 5% – Don’t know / No

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV survey: How Lib Dem members rate the performances of Nick Clegg and the party

By Stephen Tall | Tue 31st August 2010 - 11:50 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the Coalition Government’s budget, and what you make of the Lib Dems’ and Government’s performance to date. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results of our survey.

Today we take a look at the performance of the Lib Dems and our leader. First we asked:

Do you think, as a whole, the Liberal Democrats are on the right course or on the wrong track?

  • 69% – The right course
  • 17% – The wrong track

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV survey: 96% of Lib Dem members back AV – but majority with “no real enthusiasm”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 31st August 2010 - 7:45 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’re currently publishing the full results of our survey.

Today we’re looking at the Alternative Vote, the measure of electoral reform the Conservatives conceded in their ‘final offer‘ to the Lib Dems to secure the Coalition agreement. A preferential system of voting (in which the public can, if they choose, rank the candidates in order), AV is not …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged , and | 15 Comments
Stephen Tall

Burstow: “New 111 service will be better than NHS Direct”

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th August 2010 - 4:15 pm

The news broke at the weekend that NHS Direct is to be scrapped by the Coalition Government, and replaced with a new service – 111 – a move anticipated in July’s Health White Paper, in which it was promised to:

Develop a coherent 24/7 urgent care service in every area of England that makes sense to patients when they have to make choices about their care. This will incorporate GP out-of-hours services and provide urgent medical care for people registered with a GP elsewhere. We will make care more accessible by introducing, informed by evaluation, a single telephone number

…

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Posted in Voice polls | Tagged and | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV survey: 84% reject idea of any electoral arrangement with the Conservatives

By Stephen Tall | Mon 30th August 2010 - 7:45 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’re currently publishing the full results of our survey.

The possibility of a non-aggression electoral pact between the Lib Dems and Conservatives has been proposed by some of the more credulous political journalists (for instance, Jim Pickard in the FT here) – so we thought we’d take the temperature of Lib Dem Voice-reading party members.

There have been …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 43 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #184

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th August 2010 - 6:45 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 184th 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 (22nd – 28th August, 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:

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Stephen Tall

Tax cuts vs Public spending: Danny Alexander’s comments flag up the Coalition arguments to come

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th August 2010 - 4:37 pm

I’ve been critical these past few weeks of the news media’s obsessional search to put a cigarette paper between Coalition politicians: mostly these have been the product of journalists’ desperation to fill space.

But today’s interview in the Observer with Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander is, I think, significant for the future of the Lib/Con partnership.

… Alexander makes clear that total tax revenue will have to remain at least at current levels throughout the parliament to put the nation’s finances back in order.

“I think the tax burden is necessary as a significant contribution to

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 21 Comments
Stephen Tall

History doesn’t repeat itself: why the Lib Dems won’t split

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th August 2010 - 2:55 pm

“A healthy pedestrian mowed down by a runaway omnibus” – Trevor Wilson’s metaphor to describe the fall of the Liberal Party between 1916 and 1931 is quoted approvingly by Professor John Shepherd, co-director of the Labour Research Unit at Anglia Ruskin University, in a fascinating article in the summer issue of the Journal of Liberal History.

One of the Coalition memes doing the rounds among some of the commentariat is that, by embarking on a partnership with the Conservatives, the Lib Dems have sealed their own fate, that a split is inevitable. After all, the argument goes, Lloyd George’s …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 86 Comments
Stephen Tall

Pollwatch – State of the Leaders: how Clegg and Cameron are rated by the public (Summer 2010)

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th August 2010 - 12:45 pm

Last week, Pollwatch looked at the state of the parties in July and August; today it’s the turn of the coalition government leaders.

As with all polls, what follows comes with caveats. Only two polling companies – YouGov and Mori – this past month asked questions specifically to find out the public’s views of the Lib Dem and Tory party leaders. (Harriet Harman’s performance as Labour leader is not being measured). And each asks variants on the basic question – do you think Clegg/Cameron are doing a good job – to come up with their figures, so comparison ain’t easy. …

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Posted in Polls | Tagged , and | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV survey: what party members think of the media reporting of Kennedy and the Coalition

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th August 2010 - 7:45 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’ll be publishing the full results of our survey in the next few days.

A week ago, the news media’s silly season alighted on a suggestion that Charles Kennedy was about to defect to Labour, and flogged the story for all it was worth.

LDV asked: The news media this past weekend was dominated by suggestions – …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

NEW POLL: Is the Coalition right to scrap NHS Direct?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 28th August 2010 - 5:25 pm

The BBC reports:

The government has confirmed it is planning to scrap the NHS Direct telephone service in England and replace it with a cheaper option. A new 111 helpline is already being piloted in the North East. It was previously reported that the new service may replace NHS Direct, but now the Department of Health has confirmed it will definitely do so. The move comes as the government curtails public spending, even though it has promised to protect the NHS.

NHS Direct is currently used by 27,000 people a day, and provides expert health advice and information to callers, as …

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Posted in News and Voice polls | 46 Comments
Stephen Tall

Dave reckons Mili-D’s the biggest threat: for the record, so do I

By Stephen Tall | Sat 28th August 2010 - 3:04 pm

David Cameron has ‘let it be known’ (ie, his press team briefed the Guardian) that shadow foreign secretary David Miliband “poses the greatest threat to the Conservative party of all the candidates in the Labour leadership contest”.

How to interpret this? Is Dave’s backing of David a cunning bluff: the Tory leader backing the most New Labour-identified candidate to put Labour members off backing him? Or could it be an even cunninger double bluff: the Tory leader, knowing his endorsement could be read as a bluff, backing the most media-awkward candidate in the hope Labour members will vote for …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , and | 18 Comments
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