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

Nick Clegg meets … Showing the Lib Dem fight against the Tories is alive and well

By Stephen Tall | Sat 24th July 2010 - 12:55 pm

In just over an hour’s time, at 2pm, the Lib Dem leader is holding the first of his ‘Nick Clegg meets …’ open question-and-answer sessions outside of his own constituency. This isn’t a party event: this is a chance for voters to question the Deputy Prime Minister, and will be broadcast live on TV.

It’s being billed as follows:

An opportunity to ask the Deputy Prime Minister anything you like…
– What will the coalition government’s programme mean for me?
– How will the current spending

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 46 Comments
Stephen Tall

Ah, so that’s what happened to David Davis

By Stephen Tall | Sat 24th July 2010 - 12:20 pm

The 10th July is an anniversary I forgot to mark here on Lib Dem Voice. For it was two years ago, on that day, that David Davis won the Haltemprice and Howden by-election he had himself forced as a self-declared referendum on civil liberties.

At the time, I was fairly sympathetic to the impact of Mr Davis’s stance, arguing “it would be churlish to deny that a significant number of folk chose to have their say”, and that this afforded the former Tory shadow home secretary “a commanding personal mandate”.

In truth, I was over-generous to Mr Davis: Jonathan …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 21 Comments
Stephen Tall

Tom Brake: ending of Yarl’s Wood child detention “a sign of Lib Dem influence in Government”

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st July 2010 - 7:30 pm

Tom Brake, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee for Home Affairs and Justice, has given a warm welcome to the announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today that the family unit at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre, where children are detained awaiting deportation, will be closed.

Tom commnets:

Locking up innocent children for months on end can lead to serious physical and psychological harm. It is a disgrace the Labour Government allowed this to take place in 21st century Britain. The Liberal Democrats have had a huge influence in Government and the closure of Yarl’s Wood family unit is a …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

How the Westminster Village media is still struggling with concept of coalition

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st July 2010 - 6:40 pm

It can be surprisingly easy to excite some journalists. Today is a case in point. Nick Clegg stood in for David Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions. During his exchanges with Jack Straw (who was standing in for Labour’s Harriet Harman), the Deputy Prime Minister referred to the invasion of Iraq as “illegal”.

To most people watching this is not a surprise. The Lib Dems’ opposition to the Iraq war, which was supported by both Labour and the Tories, is pretty well-documented, I think it’s fair to say. The fact that the Lib Dems and Conservatives have reached a coalition agreement does not alter the past, nor does it alter politicians’ individual views. Why should it?

And yet the response from some journalists has been to label this a “gaffe” – a term otherwise known as a politician saying something he believes which a journalist hopes to be able to spin into a story.

Indeed, it’s interesting to see how a story like this can develop.

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Posted in Op-eds and PMQs | Tagged , , , , , and | 56 Comments
Stephen Tall

The last word on the ‘first Liberal leader since the 1920s’ PMQs?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st July 2010 - 6:10 pm

Were the Lib Dems right to tweet earlier today that Nick Clegg would taoday become “the first Liberal leader since 1922 to lead PMQs”? That’s the question that’s been raging today.

My LDV Co-Editor Mark Pack believes he has the definitive answer, and has blogged it in his professional capacity here.

His conclusion: “strictly speaking Nick Clegg won’t be the first Liberal (Democrat) leader since 1922 to answer Prime Minster questions.” He is, however, the first Liberal to answer questions in place of the Prime Minister since 1922.

Dr Pack has spoken; surely there can be nothing left to add?

Posted in Parliament and PMQs | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

What the Lib Dems have achieved in the Coalition Government

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st July 2010 - 2:50 pm

The party has this morning issued the following briefing note on the achievements of the Lib Dems within the Coalition Government …

In just 10 weeks since the start of the Coalition Government, the Liberal Democrats have exerted a huge influence over its agenda.

Going into the election the Liberal Democrats made clear that they had four key priorities: fairer taxes; a fair start for children with extra funding for disadvantaged pupils; a comprehensive clean up of our politics, including a fairer voting system; and a green, sustainable economy.

Thanks to Lib Dem involvement, the Government will deliver on each of these.

…

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Posted in News | 52 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lloyd George and PMQs – Lib Dems defend their history knowledge

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st July 2010 - 11:28 am

There’s been discussion this morning – sparked by a tweet from Labour blogger Hopi Sen – about whether Lloyd George was indeed the last Liberal to face Prime Minister’s Questions.

Hopi questioned the Lib Dem claim that Nick Clegg, when he stands in for David Cameron today, will be the first Liberal leader since 1922 to lead PMQs – he commented:

Asquith last Liberal _leader_ to take Qs. Also PMQ’s began in ’61 so no-one did em in 22.

The Lib Dem press office have been quick to refute Hopi’s suggestion that the party is ignorant of its own history, …

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Posted in PMQs | 20 Comments
Stephen Tall

Where next for Lib-Lab cooperation?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 20th July 2010 - 12:35 pm

Two former Labour leadership possibles-never-contenders have talked in the past week about the future prospects for the Lib Dems and the Labour party forming a coalition at some point in the future. Their differing stances say a lot about the current state of British politics. But what they say about the future?

First up, John Denham, the shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, who made plain his anger at the Lib Dems last week, according to a report in The Independent:

Labour would demand the resignation of Nick Clegg before doing a deal with the Liberal Democrats in a future hung

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 85 Comments
Stephen Tall

Simon Hughes: Coalition Government will legislate to allow gay marriage

By Stephen Tall | Tue 20th July 2010 - 12:30 pm

Here’s how PinkNews reports it:

Simon Hughes, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, has said that the government will give gay couples the right to civil marriage. He predicted that the change would be made before the next general election. Mr Hughes said a consultation would take place in the coalition government on taking civil partnership to the next level.

Speaking in a video interview, he said: “It would be appropriate in Britain in 2010, 2011, for there to be the ability for civil marriage for straight people and gay people equally. That’s different of course from faith ceremonies which

…

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Posted in News | 37 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #178

By Stephen Tall | Mon 19th July 2010 - 8:15 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 177th 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 (11th – 17th July, 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

LDV weekend meme: what is the state of the Lib Dem blogosphere?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 18th July 2010 - 2:10 pm

When Iain Dale asked if Lib Dem Voice would once again co-sponsor Total Politics’ Best Blog Poll 2010, he also set me some homework: to write c.1,500 words on ‘the State of the LibDem blogosphere’ by the end of the month. As you will see from the date, my deadline is fast approaching.

I’ve got a few ideas of what I intend to write, but I’d greatly appreciate the assistence of Lib Dem Voice readers – as well as Lib Dem bloggers – to ensure my analysis is suitably rounded and informed. I’ve come up with seven questions I …

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Posted in LDV meme | Tagged , and | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

One from the archives … Chris Huhne slams the Alternative Vote

By Stephen Tall | Sat 17th July 2010 - 4:20 pm

Actually, I’ve not trawled back that far – just five months, February this year, when the Lib Dems’ Chris Huhne launched a salvo on The Guardian’s Comment is Free against the Alternative Vote as a means of electoral reform:

is very similar to first-past-the-post in two key respects. Because it is based on single constituencies – a virtue for its proponents, who say they prize the constituency link – the parties continue to select one candidate each, and the voters only have one choice for each party. …

Conservative opposition to electoral reform gives the lie to David Cameron’s pretence that

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

The LDV Saturday caption competition: “Mark Pack points at pothole” edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 17th July 2010 - 2:25 pm

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

Here’s Mark Pack, my Co-Editor at Lib Dem Voice, posing as a very un-glum councillor while out campaigning recently. What do you think he might have been saying or thinking?

The winner of our most recent caption competition, the “Ed Davey in fete worse than death” edition – according to The Voice’s judging panel of one – was this one by Nigel Bennett, with an honorary mention to

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Posted in Caption Comp | 31 Comments
Stephen Tall

Have you seen Zac Goldsmith’s Channel 4 News car-crash interview yet?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 16th July 2010 - 8:30 pm

Phew! I’ve just finished watching Channel 4 News’s Jon Snow attempt to interview Tory MP for Richmond Park Zac Goldsmith about suggestions that he has serious questions to answer about the accuracy of his election expenses.

It’s true car-crash telly, with Zac Goldsmith spending the first seven minutes of the interview ranting against Channel 4 News in a way that will have had Tory HQ cringeing with embarrassment. You can watch the full 13-minute broadcast here:

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 75 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem MP Simon Wright delivers his Mpinions

By Stephen Tall | Fri 16th July 2010 - 12:40 pm

Simon Wright, the Lib Dem MP for Norwich South who did the nation a service by vanquishing Charles Clarke, is the first of the newbie MPs to take part in a viral video campaign called ‘Mpinions’. Here’s the spiel from its creators:

Mpinions is allowing new MPs to properly introduce themselves to you and all in a few easily-digestible minutes! Consider it the speed dating of the political world! The video campaign itself will be running until the end of August and is being sponsored by The Electoral Reform Society and supported and promoted online by the Hansard Society, Operation

…

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Posted in Online politics and YouTube | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #177

By Stephen Tall | Thu 15th July 2010 - 9:55 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 176th 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 (4th – 10th July, 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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Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment
Stephen Tall

When is a rebellion not a rebellion?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 15th July 2010 - 7:30 pm

The Coalition decision to raise VAT was, by some measure, the most controversial aspect of the Government’s first budget. In our recent survey of party members, 42% opposed the move, though 48% endorsed it (however reluctantly) to deal with the deficit.

The party’s MPs have also been wrestling with the issue. The VAT increase was debated on Tuesday night in the Commons – in the end only Colchester’s Bob Russell from the Lib Dems voted against the Government, siding with a Labour amendment.

As Jim Pickard in the FT notes, St Ives MP Andrew George, and four other Lib …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged , , , and | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

Channel 4 News: Zac Goldsmith has “questions to answer” about election spending

By Stephen Tall | Thu 15th July 2010 - 6:40 pm

Channel 4 News will tonight broadcast the results of an investigation which it claims show Conservative MP for Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith, has serious questions to answer about the accuracy of his election expenses.

The total allowable expenses for the campaign for all candidates was £11,003. Zac’s official returns show he spent 98% of his limit, just £220 below the limit. Channel 4 News questions whether on three specific items – his spending on political signs, personalised jackets and campaign leaflets – Zac’s claims would have been higher if he had complied with both the letter and the spirit of …

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

Official: 4,500 new Lib Dem members have joined party since election and coalition agreement

By Stephen Tall | Thu 15th July 2010 - 12:20 pm

Lib Dem party membership is up a remarkable 14% this year, according to official figures released by the party in England. 4,500 new members have joined the party since the election and the coalition agreement was reached, and the party is having greater success in retaining current members than in previous years.

Lib Dem Voice reported last week the anecdotal evidence of one parliamentary candidate, Gareth Epps in Reading East, that Lib Dem membership has been on the increase, with a ratio of 10 new members for every one member leaving.

Well, it’s now clear that the experience in Reading is …

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , and | 80 Comments
Stephen Tall

What a difference three months makes #nickcleggsfault

By Stephen Tall | Thu 15th July 2010 - 11:20 am

Three months ago, Thursday, 15th April, witnessed the UK’s first televised debate between the main party leaders.

Here’s a reminder of the close of the first debate, which sparked ‘Cleggmania’ as well as the catchphrase “I agree with Nick”, and the subsequent Twitter hashtag craze #nickcleggsfault …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 16 Comments
Stephen Tall

Guardian: Labour’s involvement in illegal abduction and torture of British citizens

By Stephen Tall | Thu 15th July 2010 - 10:00 am

Today’s Guardian reports the involvement of senior Labour figures, including Tony Blair and Jack Straw, in the illegal abduction and torture of British citizens by the secret services:

The true extent of the Labour government’s involvement in the illegal abduction and torture of its own citizens after the al-Qaida attacks of September 2001 has been spelled out in stark detail with the disclosure during high court proceedings of a mass of highly classified documents.

Previously secret papers that have been disclosed include a number implicating Tony Blair’s office in many of the events that are to be the subject of the

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Robinson notes Lib Dems’ “important injection of democracy” into Coalition’s NHS plans

By Stephen Tall | Wed 14th July 2010 - 10:10 pm

Mark Pack yesterday noted Lib Dem health minister Paul Burstow’s hand at work in the NHS White Paper – it’s a theme also picked up today by the BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson, who comments on his blog:

The proposals for a re-organisation of the NHS included a fundamental and little-noticed change from those contained in either the Conservative manifesto or the coalition agreement. The government now plan to give councils a major new strategic health role, examining the purchasing decisions of GPs and fitting them together with their plans for public health and social care. For the Lib

…

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

Vince Cable set to propose graduate tax to replace tuition fees

By Stephen Tall | Wed 14th July 2010 - 8:05 pm

The BBC reports:

A graduate tax is to be proposed by the Business Secretary Vince Cable, in a keynote speech on the future funding of higher education. This would mean students in England would repay the costs of going to university through taxation once t hey began working. A review of tuition fees and student finance is due to report in the autumn.

Mr Cable, who has pledged to oppose raising fees, will suggest a graduate tax as an alternative system. This would mean students’ fees being paid by the government to universities – and graduates would then pay a higher

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , and | 60 Comments
Stephen Tall

How Clegg switched sides at half-time

By Stephen Tall | Wed 14th July 2010 - 6:58 pm

No, not more revelations from the memoirs of New Labour’s svengali, Lord (Peter) Mandelson – rather a diary piece by Hugh Muir in the Guardian.

LDV readers may recall Nick Clegg’s conflicted loyalties in deciding whether to support Holland or Spain in Sunday’s World Cup final. It appears he found out a way to resolve them:

… at a cross-party reception for the Lib Dem thinktank Centre Forum, the deputy prime minister admitted that while he began watching the World Cup final supporting Holland, as the Diary said he would, he switched sides halfway through and began rooting for

…

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

Miriam Gonzalez blows whistle on sexist media: “treat women for who they are and not simply for what their male partners do”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 13th July 2010 - 8:20 pm

Hat-tip to Lib Dem Welsh assembly member Peter Black for blogging the letter by Miriam Gonzalez (or Mrs Nick Clegg as she’s known to right-wing tabloids) published in today’s paywall-protected Times, in which she directs a well-aimed shot at the paper for its shabby treatment of a woman who happened to have fallen in love with a man in the public eye:

Sir, now that Spain has won the World Cup and Iker Casillas demonstrated on Sunday that he is an outstanding goalkeeper regardless of whether his girlfriend, Sara Carbonero, watches him from the touchline or not, it may be time for you to eat a bit of humble pie. Trying to blame Sara for Spain’s initial lacklustre performance while she was simply doing her job was not worthy of a newspaper that should treat women for who they are and not simply for what their male partners do.

Miriam Gonzalez
London SW15

You can read the background to the story, and The Times’s reaction to Miriam’s letter, in the Telegraph.

And for those who missed it, here is the rather touching video of Sr. Casillas meeting his girlfriend, Srta. Carbonero, for the first time after Spain’s World Cup triumph:

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

MPs’ budget bender (Or: Reckless by name …)

By Stephen Tall | Mon 12th July 2010 - 2:20 pm

Two new Tory MPs have been publicly named and shamed in today’s papers for getting so drunk that – allegedly – one fell to the floor of the House of Commons bar, while another was rude to a Commons official.

Mark Reckless (for it is he) has ‘fessed up to his own drunkenness, including being so paralytic he missed a Budget vote. The Mail reports:

Worst affected was Mark Reckless, who has been Tory MP for Rochester for just two months. The former banker, who has campaigned to save the ‘Great British pub’, fell to the floor of a Commons bar

…

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Posted in Parliament | Tagged , , and | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

What Nick told Gordon (according to Peter) when asking him to quit: “Please understand I have no personal animosity whatsoever.”

By Stephen Tall | Mon 12th July 2010 - 1:20 pm

The first of the post-New Labour memoirs, Lord (Peter) Mandelson’s The Third Man, begins its serialisation in The Times today.

Those who pay for the paper, in print or online, will have the joy of relishing its every detail. If like me you’re reliant on the Press Association’s fillet, it seems the big splash is what we knew already: that Nick Clegg told Gordon Brown he would have no option but to resign if there were to be any chance of Labour and the Liberal Democrats cutting a deal.

Unlike every other Labour MP except James Purnell, however, Nick did …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , and | 23 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV meme: “Those Liberal Democrat worries” according to The Independent

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th July 2010 - 2:25 pm

The Independent this week reported that Nick Clegg is holding an “away day” for all 57 Liberal Democrat MPs when he will urge them to hold their nerve and show discipline when faced with public anger over the coalition government’s austerity measures:

They have all been called to next Thursday’s away day at the Local Government Association headquarters in Westminster, where they will be joined by Liberal Democrat peers, council leaders and party officials.

Mr Clegg’s aim to reassure them the party is achieving concrete results from the power-sharing deal, citing the commitment to hold a referendum on electoral reform next

…

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Posted in LDV meme | 74 Comments
Stephen Tall

Spare a thought for conflicted Nick Clegg ahead of today’s World Cup final

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th July 2010 - 11:15 am

As the rest of us settle in front of the telly and choose freely which team to cheer – Spain or the Netherlands – spare a thought for Nick Clegg, biologically half-Dutch, and married to a Spaniard.

As The Independent reported his dilemma:

Tensions will run high in the Deputy Prime Minister’s house this Sunday evening when the Netherlands take on Spain in the World Cup final. Nick Clegg’s wife, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, who was born in the Spanish village of Olmedo, north-west of Madrid, will naturally be cheering on her homeland, along with her two football-mad eldest sons, Antonio, eight,

…

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Posted in News | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

The LDV Saturday caption competition: “Ed Davey in fete worse than death” edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 10th July 2010 - 2:35 pm

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


(Credit: Mark Garnish).

Here’s Ed Davey, Lib Dem Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (to give him his full title), in the stocks at a school fete last week. What do you think he might have been saying or thinking?

The winner of our most recent caption competition, the “Chris and Evan open the floodgates” edition – according to The Voice’s judging panel of one …

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Posted in Caption Comp | Tagged | 19 Comments
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