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

Davey: Brown should face Iraq inquiry music

By Stephen Tall | Thu 24th December 2009 - 4:55 pm

Hopes have never been high that Sir John Chilcott’s inquiry into the Iraq war would provide a real sense of closure: it’s come too late, and opinions are fixed. Opponents of Tony Blair’s decision will forever believe that he knowingly mislead Parliament into voting for a war he believed was essential; those who defend his actions will forever believe it was right to topple Saddam Hussein with or without the UN’s sanction.

But those initial hopes for Sir John’s inquiry are receding still further thanks to his decision to excuse Gordon Brown, David Miliband and Douglas Alexander from appearing before the …

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Stephen Tall

John Hutton was right: Gordon has been ‘a fucking disaster’. But who else was there?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 23rd December 2009 - 10:50 pm

At long last, what was widely known in Westminster Village circles has rippled out beyond: John Hutton was the cabinet minister who told the BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson in 2006 that Gordon Brown would be ‘a fucking disaster’ in the role of prime minister. Well done to BBC Radio 4’s Eddie Mair for wringing the admission from a reluctant Mr Hutton.

But it prompts two questions.

First, if this was Mr Hutton’s view – albeit one from which he has subsequently resiled, in public at any rate – why did he choose to become one of the 308 Labour …

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Stephen Tall

Official: Lib Dems the winners in 2009 local by-elections

By Stephen Tall | Wed 23rd December 2009 - 3:45 pm

There’s been a fair degree of criticism of the Lib Dems’ parliamentary by-election performances in the last couple of years: the 2006 ‘glory days’ of beating Labour in Dunfermline, and coming oh-so-close against the Tories in Bromley have seemed an increasingly distant memory. So, let’s celebrate an arena where the party is doing well: local government by-elections. And not merely doing well: in fact, doing better than the other two major parties.

(Hat-tips to John’s Liberal Revolution blog and to middle englander on the Vote 2007 website).

Here are the summary results of the 280 by-elections held during 2009:

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Posted in Local government and Polls | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Vince: the accountants’ choice as Chancellor

By Stephen Tall | Wed 23rd December 2009 - 10:20 am

My favourite bedside reading, Aaccountancy Age, has the story:

Vince Cable has emerged as the accountants’ choice for the next Chancellor following the pre-Budget report. In a poll of around 600 readers conducted by Accountancyage.com both before and after the pre-Budget report, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader and shadow chancellor proved popular with members of the profession, with 44% and 45% of voters wanting him as next chancellor rather than political rivals Alistair Darling and George Osborne.

Here are the results in full:

Pre PBR

George Osborne 45%
Vince Cable 44%
Alistair Darling 10%

Post PBR

Vince Cable 45%
George Osborne 38%
Alistair Darling 17%

As …

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

Why I’m sticking up for the Taxpayers’ Alliance. Sort of.

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st December 2009 - 2:35 pm

Today’s Guardian is full of righteous indignation about the allegation that the Taxpayers’ Alliance has set up a charitable arm to claim Gift Aid on donations from wealthy backers, Tory tax allies ‘subsidised’ by the taxpayer:

A campaign group which claims to represent the interests of ordinary taxpayers is using a charitable arm which gives it access to tax relief on donations from wealthy backers, the Guardian has learned.

The Conservative-linked Taxpayers’ Alliance, which campaigns against the misuse of public funds, has set up a charity under a different name which can secure subsidies from the taxman worth up to 40%

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

Now even the Telegraph calls on Tories to make Lord Ashcroft “come clean” over tax status

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st December 2009 - 12:30 pm

The decision of the Tory party to turn a blind eye to the mysterious tax status of their deputy chairman – and the man who funds their marginal seats campaign – has come under close media scrutiny in the last few weeks, with Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable last week raising the issue at (Deputy) Prime Minister’s Questions, and labelling Lord (Michael) Ashcroft a “non-dom”.

A week ago, Lib Dem treasury spokesman Lord (Matthew) Oakeshott wrote to his fellow peer to put the the simple question – “Are you a non-dom or not?” – to him directly: …

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Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 21 December 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st December 2009 - 10:15 am

Morning, all, and welcome to the 355th day of the year, a date which marks the 21st anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing, and the 47th anniversary of the British decision to buy nuclear missiles from the US. Today is also, you may like to know, the birthday of Thomas Becket, Jane Fonda and Tina Brown.

2 Must-Read Blog-Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:


And a very Merry Christmas to you too Eurostar & BA … (Lisa Harding)

So, to the people that run and work

…

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Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #148

By Stephen Tall | Sun 20th December 2009 - 2:00 pm

Welcome to the 148th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (13th – 19th December 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, usually courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget, by the way, 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:

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Stephen Tall

The LDV Saturday caption competition – ‘Pretty in Pink’ edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 19th December 2009 - 3:45 pm

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

Here’s Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, with Manchester Withington MP John Leech, visiting business leaders in Chorlton – – what do you think they might be saying to each other, or thinking about each other?

(Image courtesy of Paul Ankers blog).

The winner of the most recent caption competition, the ‘never work with children’ edition, (according to The Voice’s judging panel of one) – was Painfully Liberal.

Posted in News | 15 Comments
Stephen Tall

The LDV Friday Five (ish): 18/12/09

By Stephen Tall | Fri 18th December 2009 - 8:05 pm

What could be simpler: five categories, each with five links. And it’s Friday.

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

1. A good reason for Gordon Brown not to have an early general election (14) by Mark Pack
2. By-election roundup for 10 December 2009 (9) by Helen Duffett
3. Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith accused of avoiding £5.8m tax as non-dom (74) by Mark Pack
4. Derby North: hung parliament territory? (11) by Peter Welch
5. Tory councillor in Cheltenham defects to Lib Dems (6) by The Voice

5 active LDV Members’ Forum threads

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Stephen Tall

Times backs Jeremy Browne’s expenses appeal

By Stephen Tall | Fri 18th December 2009 - 11:15 am

As LDV reported yesterday, Lib Dem MP for ultra-marginal Taunton is appealing against Sir Thomas Legg’s request for repayment of almost £18,000 in expenses which Sir Thomas says were against the rules.

Today’s Times carries a leader column backing Jeremy’s appeal – here’s an excerpt:

Take Jeremy Browne, the Liberal Democrat and the first MP to confirm that he would appeal. Upon entering Parliament, Mr Browne removed equity from a London home that he owned before he was elected and used it to buy a property in his constituency. He then claimed against his allowance for the (now larger)

…

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dem MP Jeremy Browne appeals against decision which would have stopped him buying Taunton home

By Stephen Tall | Thu 17th December 2009 - 10:20 am

Here’s the statement on Jeremy’s website:

Taunton constituency MP Jeremy Browne is appealing against a decision by the House of Commons ACA Review Team that would have prevented him from buying a home in Taunton with his own money. Instead Sir Thomas Legg’s House of Commons ACA Review Team has requested a repayment of £17,894 in mortgage interest payments, dating from the initial arrangements Jeremy Browne made when he was elected in 2005. The appeal, conducted by Sir Paul Kennedy, will be considered and published, along with the full ACA Review Team report, in January 2010.

Jeremy Browne said:

“When I was

…

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

Vince labels Lord Ashcroft a non-dom at PMQs

By Stephen Tall | Wed 16th December 2009 - 6:35 pm

Forgive me if I tread carefully here, for while the Lib Dem deputy leader is protected by the cloak of Parliamentary privilege your humble scribe has no wish to tangle with a billionaire. So I’ll let The Times tell the story of today’s (Deputy) Prime Minister’s Questions:

A senior Liberal Democrat today referred to Lord Ashcroft, the Tory deputy chairman, as a “non-dom” in the Commons. It is the first time the Conservative peer, whose tax status is unknown, has been described in a such a way on the floor of the House.

Vince Cable, Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, used

…

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Posted in PMQs | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Oakeshott asks Ashcroft the simple question: “Are you a non dom or not?”

By Stephen Tall | Mon 14th December 2009 - 9:15 pm

David Cameron, yesterday, on Sky News:

I think it time to pass a law that says that if you want to be in the Houses of Parliament, if you want to be a legislator, you need to be or be treated as a full UK taxpayer.”

And quite right, too. But what has prompted the Tories’ Damascene conversion? After all, they had the opportunity earlier this year to vote for exactly what Mr Cameron is now, belatedly and under media pressure, calling for.

Lord (Matthew) Oakeshott’s House of Lords (Members’ Taxation Status) Bill had its second reading on 23 January 2009, …

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Stephen Tall

Daily View: 14 December 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 14th December 2009 - 9:30 am

Mornin’ all, welcome to Monday, and to the beginning of the last full working week before Christmas. What other things happened on this day in history, you ask? Well, 54 years ago, Hugh Gaitskell was elected leader of the Labour party, succeeding Clement Attlee, and six years ago Saddam Hussein was captured. But enough of the past, and on to the present …

2 Must-Read Blog-Posts

A couple of weeks ago, Iain Dale was casually dismissing the revelations that trustafarian Tory millionaire candidate Zac Goldsmith has been avoiding tax by registering for non-dom status: “lots of sanctimonious guff,” he told …

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Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #147

By Stephen Tall | Sun 13th December 2009 - 5:30 pm

Welcome to the 146th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (6th – 12th December 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, usually courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget, by the way, 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:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDVideo … Nick’s PMQs, ‘Unparliamentary language’ and Jon Stewart’s take on ‘Climategate’

By Stephen Tall | Sat 12th December 2009 - 10:05 am

Welcome to the latest LDVideo instalment, featuring three of the most memorable video clips doing the rounds on the blogosphere.

I missed covering this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, so here to make up for it is Nick Clegg’s contribution – taking to task (with some passion) Gordon Brown for Labour’s failures to put fairness at the heart of their policies:

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

The LDV Saturday caption competition – the ‘never work with children’ edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 12th December 2009 - 9:05 am

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

nick clegg-baby-bournemouth
(Photograph: Martin Argles, The Guardian).

Here’s Nick meeting a future Lib Dem voter at the 2008 Bournemouth party conference – what do you think they might be saying to each other, or thinking about each other?

The winner of last week’s caption competition, The Nick ‘n’ Vince show, (according to The Voice’s judging panel of one) – was Sesenco.

Posted in Caption Comp | Tagged | 14 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem Bloggers Christmas stocking fillers … Part III

By Stephen Tall | Fri 11th December 2009 - 10:30 am

If you could choose up to three items for your Christmas stocking, what would they be? That was the question LDV posed to a group of Lib Dem bloggers. All this week we’re revealing what they told us, with all their choices added to the Amazon carousel widget featured on our home-page, referral fees from which will help support Lib Dem Voice: so get clicking and ordering. You can read Part I here and Part II here. In the final part, three more bloggers – Mark Thompson, Mark Valladares, Linda Jack and, erm, me – give …

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dem Bloggers Christmas stocking fillers … Part II

By Stephen Tall | Thu 10th December 2009 - 8:10 pm

If you could choose up to three items for your Christmas stocking, what would they be? That was the question LDV posed to a group of Lib Dem bloggers. All this week we’re revealing what they told us, with all their choices added to the Amazon carousel widget featured on our home-page, referral fees from which will help support Lib Dem Voice: so get clicking and ordering. You can read Part I here. In part two, four more bloggers – Jonathan Calder, James Graham, Alix Mortimer and Paul Walter – give us the low-down on their Xmas faves.

Jonathan

…

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Stephen Tall

Book review: Total Politics Guide to the 2010 General Election

By Stephen Tall | Tue 8th December 2009 - 12:20 pm

One of the first publications from Iain Dale’s new Biteback publishing imprint dedicated to political books, The Total Politics Guide to the 2010 General Election (Eds, Greg Callus and Iain Dale) weighs in at just under 300 pages divided into two (unequal) sections: the first is a series of 14 articles examining different aspects of the coming election; the second non-half comprises over 200 pages of regional and constuency profiles. As you might guess, this is a for-geeks-only book. But, then, if you’re reading this review that label probably applies.

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Posted in Books and General Election | Tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Times: Tories “give up” on Cheadle with Lib Dems digging in for victory

By Stephen Tall | Mon 7th December 2009 - 10:15 am

Mark Hunter, Lib Dem MP for the  Cheshire seat of Cheadle since 2005, could be forgiven for smiling like his county’s proverbial cat this morning.

Today’s Times reports that the Tories are scaling back their expectations of election victory in the light of a slew of polls showing the party’s support dipping:

The Conservatives are digging in for a six-week election campaign and are quietly withdrawing resources from some “landslide” seats to maximise David Cameron’s chances of winning a workable majority.

The well-sourced article highlights just one example of a constituency where the Tories are giving up the fight:

Cheadle, currently held by

…

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

Daily View 2×2: 7 December 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 7th December 2009 - 9:25 am

Welcome to the 341st day of the year, folks, a day which has witnessed in past years the births of great thinkers like Noam Chomsky and Stan Boardman.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

  • Why the Conservatives have been making class an issue (James Graham)

    • … the one party still obsessed with class in this country are the Conservatives. Frankly, it would be nice if there were a bit more class consciousness within the other two main parties.

  • Four Years

    • …

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    Stephen Tall

    Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #146

    By Stephen Tall | Sun 6th December 2009 - 7:30 pm

    Welcome to the 146th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (29th November – 5th December 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, usually courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

    Don’t forget, by the way, 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:

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

    Lib Dem Bloggers Christmas stocking fillers … Part I

    By Stephen Tall | Sun 6th December 2009 - 2:00 pm

    If you could choose up to three items for your Christmas stocking, what would they be? That was the question LDV posed to a group of Lib Dem bloggers. And over the next two days we’ll reveal what they told us, with all their choices added to the Amazon carousel widget featured on our home-page, referral fees from which will help support Lib Dem Voice: so get clicking and ordering. In part one, four bloggers – Jennie Rigg, Millennium Elephant, Mark Pack and Alex Foster – give us the low-down on their Xmas faves.

    Jennie Rigg

    1) The Very Sexy …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , and | 5 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    The LDV Friday Five (ish): 4/12/09

    By Stephen Tall | Fri 4th December 2009 - 6:40 pm

    What could be simpler: five categories, each with five links. And it’s Friday.

    5 most-read stories on LDV this week

    1. Spelman drops Conservative pledges to abolish RDAs (6) by Mark Pack
    2. Probably the most inappropriate Christmas card ever sent … (1) by Stephen Tall
    3. Liberal Democrat victory in St Austell Bay by-election (8) by Helen Duffett
    4. Prime Minister removes all Christmas imagery from official Christmas cards (11) by Mark Pack
    5. Zac Goldsmith’s non-dom tax status: your LDV reader (15) by Stephen Tall

    5 active LDV Members’ Forum threads

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    Stephen Tall

    A look back at the polls: November ’09

    By Stephen Tall | Fri 4th December 2009 - 1:20 pm

    After two months of poll fluctuations triggered by the ups-and-downs of party conference-dominated media coverage, November gives us an opportunity to look at the parties’ popularity, as measured by the polls, for the first time since early September.

    Here, in chronological order, are the results of the 10 polls published in November:

    Tories 41.0, Labour 27.0, Lib Dems 17.0 (6 Nov, YouGov)
    Tories 38.0, Labour 24.0, Lib Dems 20.0 (6 Nov, Angus RS)

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    Posted in Op-eds and Polls | 3 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    Oh God … It’s Don’s “there’s too many repeats on telly” rant again

    By Stephen Tall | Thu 3rd December 2009 - 8:05 pm

    In what has become a tradition almost as eagerly anticipated as the Queen’s Speech, Lib Dem shadow culture secretary Don Foster has unleashed his annual broadside against telly bosses for broadcasting too many repeats. The Telegraph dusts off the same-old, same-old:

    Nearly 600 hours of repeats will be shown on Britain’s four main television channels over the festive period according to schedules released by broadcasters. It is thought to be the highest ever number of Christmas repeats to be shown during the two week holiday period. … Over the four main terrestrial channels some 580 hours will consist of repeated

    …

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

    What does £10,000 mean to you? To Zac Goldsmith it’s a “very marginal tax benefit”

    By Stephen Tall | Thu 3rd December 2009 - 12:20 pm

    Under pressure from a deeply unhappy David Cameron, the Tories’ ‘trustafarian millionaire’ candidate for Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith, has at long last pledged to end his non-dom status with immediate effect – his original plan, before the row sparked by the original Sunday Times revelations, was to become a full UK taxpayer next year.

    But you’ve got to love this ‘man of the people’ quote from his spokesman, who, when asked how much the change in tax status would cost Mr Goldsmith, replied:

    The benefits were very marginal. I don’t know if it is £10 or £10,000.”

    Hat-tip: the Evening Standard’s …

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

    Cameron: more Hague than Blair? How the Tory leader has lost sight of his strategy

    By Stephen Tall | Wed 2nd December 2009 - 11:20 pm

    That’s the question the Indy’s Steve Richards asks in a persuasively argued column today:

    David Cameron’s leadership of his party is often compared with Tony Blair’s during the period up to the 1997 election. … The comparison is one of the most misleading in British politics. … for the election leading a party that proposes tax cuts for the well-off and married couples, massive spending cuts whether or not Britain is out of recession, withdrawal from the social chapter and a renegotiation of the Lisbon Treaty. … The trajectory of Cameron’s leadership is much closer to another former leader. He might have tried to learn from the New Labour guidebooks on how to win elections, but inadvertently he has followed more closely the course adopted by one of his own recent predecessors. …

    Both Hague and Cameron are outstanding parliamentary performers, witty and quick to exploit the weaknesses of political opponents. Both are calm under fire. Both started to shift their positions when they appointed press secretaries to advise them on the media. Amanda Platell urged Hague to adopt more right-wing and populist policies. Andy Coulson has sometimes advised Cameron to do the same on issues such as immigration, crime and tax cuts.

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    Posted in News | Tagged , , , , and | 26 Comments
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