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

The coalition cuts begin: £6.2bn savings identified

By Stephen Tall | Mon 24th May 2010 - 1:35 pm

The new coalition government – in the joint personage of Conservative Chancellor George Osborne and Lib Dem Treasury Chief Secretary David Laws – took its first steps today to begin bringing down the huge national deficit, announcing £6.2 billion public spending cuts for 2010-11.

The BBC has a brief summary of the proposals here:

    • £1.15bn in “discretionary” areas such as consultancy and travel costs

    • £95m through savings in IT spending

    • £1.7bn will be saved in delaying or stopping government contracts and projects

    • Reductions in property costs will save £170m

    • More than £120m expected to be found through a freeze

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 38 Comments
Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 24 May 2010

By Stephen Tall | Mon 24th May 2010 - 9:15 am

Happy Monday morning, everyone, and welcome to the second full week of Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government. Ironically, or not, today marks the 22nd anniversary of the Tories’ homophobic Section 28 being enacted as part of the 1988 Local Government Act … how far we’ve al come since then.

2 Big Stories 1 Big Story

Normally the Daily View features 2 Big Stories from the news – but today we can only afford one. Not even Lib Dem Voice is immune to the age of austerity. This isn’t a U-tun, by the way, we’re just responding to events.

The UK embarks …

Continue reading »
Posted in Daily View | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #170

By Stephen Tall | Sun 23rd May 2010 - 8:30 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 170th 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 (16th – 22nd May, 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can now 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:

Continue reading »
Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment
Stephen Tall

The LDV Saturday caption competition – the rather belated “Clegg & Cameron love-in” edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 22nd May 2010 - 5:45 pm

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

(Photo via EPA/ANDY RAIN).

Here’s David Cameron with his boss, the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg waving on the steps of Number 10 as they begin their task of leading the new coalition government. What do you reckon they might be thinking?

The winner of our most recent caption competition, the “Nick Clegg meets Tardis” edition – according to The Voice’s judging panel of one – …

Continue reading »
Posted in Caption Comp | 24 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Internet election?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 22nd May 2010 - 2:30 pm

Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat News:

“This will be the first real internet election,” was the oft-repeated claim made in the run up to 2010’s national poll. So how did that claim stack up against the reality?

Some will point to the hype surrounding the leaders’ debates as evidence that television remains the dominant force. Ten million tuned into ITV on 15 April, and ‘Cleggmania’ gripped the nation for the next fortnight. Meanwhile, the principal gaffe of the campaign – Gordon Brown’s ‘Bigotgate’ – was captured not by a citizen journalist, but was an old-fashioned ‘hot-mike’ incident caught by Sky News.

Does this …

Continue reading »
Posted in General Election, Online politics and Op-eds | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Daily Mail slowly catching up with realities of coalition government

By Stephen Tall | Sat 22nd May 2010 - 1:10 pm

To mock the Daily Mail is, however satisfying and amusing, to largely miss the point: it is its own best self-parody. Today’s a case in point, as it dawns on the paper that a coalition government actually does mean the Lib Dems have some power. Devoid of irony, the Mail explodes with outrage:

Yes, that’s right: quite outrageously the leader of the party which won 23% of the national vote is set to have more power than an unelected peer. What is the country coming to?

If you can …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

PollWatch: views of the coalition government and party leaders

By Stephen Tall | Fri 21st May 2010 - 3:30 pm

Two polls have been published this week offering some early sense of public perceptions of the Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government, and how they rate the party leaders.

Public views of the coalition government

Angus Reid discovered that, overall, 58% of the public strongly/moderately approve of the coalition, while 31% strongly/moderately disapprove – that’s a net +27% approval rating. Approval is, as you might expect, stronger in the south of England (+41%), weaker in the north of England (+14%) and marginally negative in Scotland (-2%).

This breaks down in party support as follows:

  • Conservative voters: 84% approve, 11% disapprove (net approval:

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Polls | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

What I’d do in Labour’s shoes

By Stephen Tall | Thu 20th May 2010 - 8:35 pm

There’s no reason for me to offer this advice; still less reason for Labour taking it. But here goes …

I wrote last week about the potential danger to Labour of adopting a tribally oppositional approach to the Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government, at least while it’s enjoying its honeymoon:

The public, generally speaking, likes to see politicians working together sensibly and rationally, rather than tearing each other to bits. The sheer novelty value of the coalition is going to intrigue voters, many of whom will be willing to give Clegg and Cameron a chance.

With a leadership contest to come,

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 61 Comments
Stephen Tall

The differing approaches of the Lib Dem and Tory leaderships

By Stephen Tall | Thu 20th May 2010 - 9:45 am

The Guardian reports an interesting, and revealing, distinction between the respective leadership styles of the Lib Dems’ Nick Clegg and the Conservatives’ David Cameron.

The two party leaders gave a taste of their different styles of leadership yesterday as they consulted their parties . Clegg and his fellow Lib Dem ministers presented the document to a meeting of their parliamentary party last night where MPs and peers were taken through the document page by page.

Cameron used a meeting of the Tory parliamentary party to announce an immediate ballot to limit the power of backbench Tory MPs. In a move

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

So. Farewell Then Labservative.com

By Stephen Tall | Tue 18th May 2010 - 12:25 pm

So. Farewell
Then
Labservative.com

Spoof Lib Dem website
Which introduced the
World to
Gorvid Camerown.

Yes. You are
The first victim of
The coalition cuts.

65 years of
Two-party rule
Was your catchphrase.

You just
Never said
Which two parties.

Now gone from the web
Twitter and YouTube.

But we shall
Always have
The memories.

Rest in
Taking the piss.

EJ Thribb (17½)

Posted in General Election and Humour | Tagged | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

Who’d be a Lib Dem press officer?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 17th May 2010 - 11:00 pm

The mood emerging from Sunday’s special conference – which overwhelmingly endorsed the Lib Dem leadership’s decision to enter into a coalition agreement with the Conservatives – appears to have been almost universally positive, with even doubters rallying at the prospect of the historic opportunity open to the party.

But we wouldn’t be liberals unless we found something to critique – and on this occasion it’s been the Lib Dem media office which has got it in the neck from some supporters. The Bracknell Blog puts it reasonably (many on Twitter have been a little more splenetic):

Why was this meeeting a

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Conference | 19 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #169

By Stephen Tall | Mon 17th May 2010 - 6:30 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 169th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (9th – 15th May, 2010), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can now 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:

Continue reading »
Posted in Best of the blogs | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

Labour’s Liam Byrne confesses all to David Laws: “I am afraid to tell you there is no money left”

By Stephen Tall | Mon 17th May 2010 - 12:50 pm

In the first Treasury press conference this morning of the coalition government, Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury David Laws revealed he’d received a letter from his Labour predecessor, Liam Byrne:

“When I arrived at my desk on the very first day as Chief Secretary, I found a letter from the previous chief secretary to give me some advice, I assumed, on how I conduct myself over the months ahead.

“Unfortunately, when I opened it, it was a one-sentence letter which simply said ’Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left’, which was honest but slightly

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged | 43 Comments
Stephen Tall

Arise, Lord Paddick? 95 new Lib Dem peers set to be created

By Stephen Tall | Mon 17th May 2010 - 10:50 am

The Times reports today that one of the first moves of the new Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government will be to create up to 172 new peers in the House of Lords to create political balance and “ensure that controversial legislation gets through Parliament”.

The current composition of the Lords is as follows:

    Labour 211 (30%)
    Conservative 188 (27%)
    Lib Dem 72 (10%)
    Ukip 2 (0%)
    Crossbenchers 182 (26%)
    Lords Spiritual 25 (4%)
    Other 24 (3%)
    Total 704

In total, then, the coalition government comprises just over one-third of peers, and could be blocked on its legislative agenda – including of course the replacement of the Lords itself with an wholly or mainly elected upper chamber on the basis of proportional representation, as stated in the coalition agreement:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 91 Comments
Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 17 May 2010 (with bonus ‘Prophet Steel’ video)

By Stephen Tall | Mon 17th May 2010 - 7:45 am

Happy Monday morning, everyone, and welcome to the first full week of Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government. Let’s get down to the news …

One Big Story

Lib Dem members give overwhelming thumbs-up to coalition government agreement

The Daily Telegraph has a fair-minded report proving that extraordinary things really can happen in the new politics (and in stark contrast to the snarkiness of the Grauniad):

… members voted “over-whelmingly” in support of the deal with no more than a dozen of the 2,000 delegates opposing the deal in a show of hands at the gathering in Birmingham. Speaking after the vote, Mr Clegg said: “It is a big step. There are lots of unknowns, there will be bumps and scrapes along the way”. He said the party’s special conference had taken a “very, very important decision” to approve the coalition “which is utterly new in modern British political history”. .. It is understood the while 100 members had quit the party since the deal was signed – a further 400 had joined.

The conference even earned plaudits from an unlikely source: ConservativeHome.com offered three cheers for the Lib Dems’ commitment to party democracy:

I take my hat off to the Liberal Democrats for the attempt to involve party members – the people who work so hard without expectation of office – in the decision to form a Coalition with the Conservatives. On a number of occasions Clegg met his MPs and party officers in a bid to hear their views and explain what he was doing. Today’s ratification of the deal will help bind the party into the fascinating Cameron-Clegg experiment. What a contrast with the Conservative Party where there has been next to no consultation of the party membership. Coming on top of Team Cameron’s various attempts to dilute Tory members’ role in membership selection it is all very disappointing.

Here’s how the BBC reported the day:

Continue reading »
Posted in Daily View | Tagged , , , and | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

LibLink: Charles Kennedy – Why I couldn’t support Clegg’s deal with the Tories

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th May 2010 - 8:20 pm

In The Observer today, former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy has highlighted his unease at the Lib-Con coalition government, and explains he would have preferred to explore the possibilities of an alliance with Labour:

… drive a strategic coach and horses through the long-nurtured “realignment of the centre-left” to which leaders in the Liberal tradition, this one included, have all subscribed since the Jo Grimond era. It is hardly surprising that, for some of us at least, our political compass currently feels confused. And that really encapsulates the reasons why I felt personally unable to vote for this outcome when

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | 24 Comments
Stephen Tall

+++ Lib Dem special conference overwhelmingly approves Lib Dem / Conservative coalition agreement

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th May 2010 - 5:20 pm

Just minutes ago, the Lib Dems’ special conference in Birmingham – convened by the party to give members the chance to give their views on the decision to enter into a government with the Conservatives – overwhelmingly approved the coalition agreement.

Estimates in the hall, where about 1,500 Lib Dem members debated the coalition, suggested that about 50 conference representatives voted against the motion endorsing the agreement: the rest of the hundreds eligible to vote were all in favour.

Here’s some of what Lib Dem Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, had to say immediately after the vote:

It is five

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Conference | 51 Comments
Stephen Tall

PollWatch: first post-election polls show Lib Dems at 21%

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th May 2010 - 12:25 pm

Two new polls out in today’s papers:

    ComRes, S.Indy/S.Mirror … CON 38%, LAB 34%, LIB DEM 21%
    ICM in the S.Telegraph … CON 38%, LAB 33%, LIB DEM 21%

Polls at this stage of the parliamentary cycle (apparently a full 5 years before the next election) are a little academic. Still, let’s give them their moment.

From a Lib Dem perspective, I’m moderately encouraged: our support is down, unsurprisingly, but it has not evaporated overnight. It’s at least arguable that our support might be lower still if Nick Clegg hadn’t struck a deal with the Conservatives: parties which have under-performed at an election tend to suffer in the immediate post-election polls.

There has also been more analysis of first reactions to the Lib-Con coalition government.

Continue reading »
Posted in Polls | 12 Comments
Stephen Tall

Eastbourne Lib Dem campaigner smeared by Telegraph cleared by police

By Stephen Tall | Sun 16th May 2010 - 11:30 am

Just a day before polls opened the Daily Telegraph splashed with the sensational headline, Senior Liberal Democrat arrested over ‘sabotage’:

A senior Liberal Democrat campaigner has been arrested for allegedly trying to sabotage the Conservatives’ campaign in a key marginal seat in Thursday’s general election. The official understood to have failed to present himself at a police station in the south east of England. He is closely involved in the battle in Eastbourne against the Tories, where the Liberal Democrats held a 775 majority at the last election.

Compare that smear-without-substance with this more sober headline in the Rye …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

+++ 91% of Lib Dem members back Lib-Con coalition agreement, says LDV poll

By Stephen Tall | Sat 15th May 2010 - 11:00 pm

Lib Dem Voice has been conducting a survey of party members registered on our members’ forum asking them for their views of the coalition government agreement between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. Over 600 have responded, and here’s what you told us …

LDV asked: If you were able to vote, would you choose to support the motion proposing the Lib Dems enter into a coalition government with the Conservatives?

91% – Yes, I would support the motion
9% – No, I would not support the motion
(excluding Don’t knows, 4%)

Our survey suggests there will be an overwhelming endorsement of Nick Clegg …

Continue reading »
Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged | 37 Comments
Stephen Tall

The 11 Lib Dem shadow cabinet members who didn’t make it (yet)

By Stephen Tall | Sat 15th May 2010 - 10:35 pm

Mark Pack has blogged here on LDV the 14 Lib Dems appointed to ministerial poisitions in the Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government, in addition to the five cabinet members, including Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister.

So who does that leave from the Lib Dem shadow cabinet who has yet to find a position within ministerial ranks? Well, by my reckoning there are 11 Lib Dem MPs who might have some cause to be disappointed, including two of our women MPs, Jenny Willott and Lorely Burt:


    Previously in Lib Dem shadow cabinet, so far without position (11):
    Simon Hughes MP

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

What Lib Dem members think about the coalition government: LDV poll results

By Stephen Tall | Sat 15th May 2010 - 12:30 pm

Lib Dem Voice has been conducting a survey today of party members registered on our members’ forum asking them for their views of the coalition government agreement betwen the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. Well over 550 have responded, and here’s part one of what you’ve told us …

LDV asked: How do you rate the perfomance of the Lib Dem negotiating team in reaching the agreement with the Conservatives?

59% – Very effective
36% – Effective
2% – Ineffective
1% – Very ineffective
2% – Don’t know

A whopping 95% of party members who responded to the survey, therefore, viewed the Lib Dem …

Continue reading »
Posted in LDV Members poll | 19 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Lib Dem / Conservative coalition government agreement: new LDV members’ survey now live

By Stephen Tall | Fri 14th May 2010 - 11:30 am

The new LDV members’ survey is now live – and it focuses, unsurprisingly, on the coalition government agreement between the Lib Dems and Conservatives. If you are a registered member 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 ahead of Sunday’s conference. Questions we are asking your opinion on include:

– would you choose to back the deal;
– how effective you think our negotiating team has been;
– what your view of the outcome is; and
– whether you will be …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

The upsides and downsides for Labour of the Lib-Con deal

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th May 2010 - 6:45 pm

The decision by many Labour MPs during Tuesday to kaibosh any kind of ‘progressive alliance’ deal with the Lib Dems was doubtless motivated by many reasons: some good, some bad.

I’m sure some Labour MPs genuinely felt that, after 13 years of government, and having crashed to their heaviest election defeat in a generation, their party requires a spell in opposition to re-group and refresh. That’s a perfectly understandable and respectable position to hold.

Equally, it’s clear there were those motivated by less pure instincts. For some – the tribal partisans who cleave to the view Labour is always right …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 45 Comments
Stephen Tall

The five Lib Dems who will sit in the Lib-Con cabinet

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th May 2010 - 1:40 pm

As at lunchtime, here’s what we know:

  • Deputy Prime Minister – Nick Clegg
  • Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills – Vince Cable
  • Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change – Chris Huhne
  • Secretary of State for Scotland – Danny Alexander
  • Chief Secretary to the Treasury – David Laws

No particular surprises here, all canny moves in one way or another.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 31 Comments
Stephen Tall

I disagreed with Nick. And I was wrong. Maybe.

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th May 2010 - 11:15 am

It’s two months since I wrote a post here on Lib Dem Voice with the self-explanatory title: 5 reasons Nick Clegg should rule out a coalition now. It’s interesting in the light of the last 24 hours to re-visit my reason number one: “A coalition is a non-starter, so let’s just rule it out now”.

So what’s changed?

The electorate have spoken

Well, the most obvious issue is the election result itself. The voters have spoken, and been quite clear that they don’t trust any one of the parties to govern the country alone. That in itself should give any …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 67 Comments
Stephen Tall

Deal between Lib Dems and Conservatives imminent

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th May 2010 - 5:50 pm

A quick round-up of where we seem to be at right now (with apologies for the slowness of the site loading: our servers are taking a bit of a battering right now!) …

Throughout the afternoon a succession of Labour figures ruled out any prospect of a Lib-Lab coalition deal. This morning people like John Reid, David Blunkett and Tom Harris dismissed the idea – this afternoon they were joined by serving ministers such as Andy Burnham, Jack Straw, Liam Byrne, Sadiq Khan, Diana Johnson and Peter Ainsworth. With the possibility of a Lib-Lab pact utterly dependent on unity within Labour …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 113 Comments
Stephen Tall

Coalition politics: why the public is the winner

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th May 2010 - 9:50 am

Amid all the chatter and speculation in the last few days, one point has been repeatedly uttered by those in the Labour and Tory parties opposed to electoral reform: that the fact that politicians have spent the past few days talking to each other to work out where they agree will mean the public will never vote for a proportional system which is likely to lead to regular coalition government.

I’m not too sure where they draw their conclusion from – most non-political friends I’ve talked to have been quite enjoying the spectacle, finding it all quite fascinating.

Now that might …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 47 Comments
Stephen Tall

What Lib Dem members think about talking to the Tories: LDV poll results

By Stephen Tall | Mon 10th May 2010 - 2:25 pm

Lib Dem Voice has been conducting a survey today of party members registered on our members’ forum asking them for their views of the discussions that have been taking place between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. Here’s what you’ve told us …

  • 89% support Nick Clegg’s decision to let the party with the most votes and most seats try and form a government;
  • 90% support Nick Clegg’s decision to enter into discussions with the Conservative party on that basis;
  • 80% say that significant progress on electoral reform is a deal-breaker;
  • 98% rate Nick Clegg’s performance during the campaign as effective or very effective, with Vince Cable scoring 85%.

Full results below:

Continue reading »
Posted in General Election and LDV Members poll | Tagged | 91 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dems in 1st or 2nd place in almost 300 seats across UK

By Stephen Tall | Mon 10th May 2010 - 10:45 am

One of the least known facts about the last parliament, and which deserved to be more widely publicised, was that the Lib Dems were either in first or second place in 250 constituencies across the UK – which made the media’s tired and almost exclusive concentration on Labour and the Tories for most of the last five years all the more irritating.

Well, for all the disappointment of last Thursday’s election results, the party has by one measure at least made a big stride forward, as Anthony Wells’ UK Polling Report makes clear:

The notional 2005 figures had the Lib Dems

…

Continue reading »
Posted in General Election and News | Tagged | 7 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • paul barker
    Nine By-elections since May 7th & Reform have only won one, perhaps a sign of hope....
  • George Thomas
    I think this article is well written, thank you. This past week has seen a reminder in two different ways of when the LGBTQ+ community supported the miners and ...
  • Nick Baird
    Ajax should of course have been cancelled years ago. Unfortunately due to the sunk costs the MOD and Government seem to be converging on a plan to spend another...
  • Peter Chambers
    > The standout project is Ajax, which should be immediately cancelled. Oh if only! Ben Wallace confided that "the money is spent" and that if the programme...
  • Tristan Ward
    It has been perfectly obvious since the start of trump's second term that UK defence spending must rise. The political difficulty is equally obvious given th...