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

Unemployment: Lib Dems on the bleak national picture

By Stephen Tall | Thu 15th October 2009 - 6:50 pm

Three separate Lib Dem press releases ping into the Voice’s inbox, each of them them telling a depressing story about the human impact of the recession.

First up, Lib Dem shadow work and pensions secretary Steve Webb on the doubling of long-term unemployment in the last year alone:

Ministers try to spin the slower rise in headline figures as progress, but long-term unemployment has doubled in a year and if it is not tackled now it will be a devastating legacy of this recession.

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Posted in Scotland and Wales | Tagged , , , and | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Lib Dem Legg letters – the missing 30

By Stephen Tall | Thu 15th October 2009 - 10:30 am

On Tuesday, LDV began compiling a full list of the findings of Sir Thomas Legg’s inquiries into MPs’ expenses as they related to the Lib Dems’ 63 MPs. We are adding to this list as information is received by us or published elsewhere.

We understand the party’s whips office has recommended all Lib Dem MPs publish a statement on their website. As of Thursday, we have information on just over one-half of the Parliamentary party, 33 MPs – but this leaves 30 MPs whose Legg letters we don’t know about. Can LDV readers help crowd-source this information on ‘the missing 30’, by letting us know about those who have published statements we’ve missed, or if local papers have published articles?

Naturally MPs or their staff can contact us direct to help us establish an accurate and transparent record: please leave a comment in the thread to update us, or alternatively email us at [email protected].

As of Thursday, here’s the scores on the doors:

Clean bill of health letter received from Sir Thomas Legg:

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

Vince’s 5-point spending cuts plan

By Stephen Tall | Wed 14th October 2009 - 11:50 am

In today’s Guardian, Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable asnwers five questions that outline the party’s approach to implementing the spending cuts which will be necessary in the next few years while protecting frontline public services. Here are the filletted highlights:

On restoring professional autonomy …

One key step to getting the NHS and education working better is to motivate those who work there. Top-down, command-and-control management has done great damage. Staff have much to contribute but are currently treated as a cost rather than as a resource.

On cutting bureaucracy …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

#Trafigura – the Hansard transcript

By Stephen Tall | Wed 14th October 2009 - 10:15 am

Astute readers may have noticed one or two mentions on the site yesterday concerning Trafigura, its lawyers Carter Ruck, and their attempts to impose a gagging junction on The Guardian preventing the reporting of Parliamentary proceedings.

Not only was the issue promptly picked up by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, but two of the party’s MPs, David Heath and Paul Burstow, were also quick off the mark in pledging to ask questions in the House of Commons – an action which, as Alix Mortimer has remarked, was perhaps decisive in forcing Trafigura to back down.

So here for your delectation is the Hansard transcript of the Commons’ exchanges which took place yestrday afternoon, starting with the Labour MP whose question sparked the whole farrago:

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

Lib Dem MPs’ Legg letters: scores on the doors

By Stephen Tall | Wed 14th October 2009 - 9:30 am

Yesterday, LDV began compiling a full list of the findings of Sir Thomas Legg’s inquiries into MPs’ expenses as they related to the Lib Dems’ 63 MPs. We will be adding to this ist as information is received by us or published elsewhere: please leave a comment in the thread to update us, or alternatively email us at [email protected].

As of Wednesday, we have information on almost one-half of the Parliamentary party, 29 MPs – here’s the scores on the doors:

Update: by Thursday, we have information on half of all Lib Dem MPs …

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

Let’s all say “Thank you” to #Trafigura with a postcard

By Stephen Tall | Tue 13th October 2009 - 6:58 pm

As Helen Duffett already blogged earlier today on Lib Dem Voice, a combination of the Guardian’s legal team and Twitter users worldwide combined today to restore some element of common-sense to the law – allowing the media to report a Parliamentary question tabled by Paul Farrelly asking about the publication of the Minton Report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura.

LDV trafigura TYIn one sense, Trafigura and its lawyers Carter Ruck behaved shamefully in attempting to gag newspapers from reporting on Parliamentary proceedings. But in another, more profound, sense we should be grateful. As a result of their cack-handed attempts to silence The Guardian, hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of people now know about the serious allegations against Trafigura. Quite simply, this would not have been possible without the active role played by Trafigura and Carter Ruck.

It seems entirely appropriate, therefore, to say thank you to Trafigura for its role in exposing the company to far greater reputational risk than could have ever been achieved by one article published in a single newspaper.

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dem MPs: what the Legg letters said

By Stephen Tall | Tue 13th October 2009 - 6:25 pm

On this page, which LDV will update as we receive information, we will publish the details of Sir Thomas Legg’s findings as they relate to the Lib Dems’ 63 MPs. Please email [email protected] to let us know anything we’ve missed:

* Danny Alexander, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, 2005 – present … Repaid £125 claimed for financial advice on his mortgage and has also been asked to submit further copies of domestic utility bills. Paid back in full.
* Norman Baker, Lewes, 1997 – present … Clean bill of health.

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

Heath and Burstow table urgent Commons questions about Guardian injunction #Trafigura #CarterRuck

By Stephen Tall | Tue 13th October 2009 - 11:48 am

The Lib Dem press office has just issued the following news release:

In light of the injunction against the Guardian featured on its front page today, the Lib Dems have this morning requested an Urgent Question and debate on the reporting of parliamentary proceedings. My understanding is the Speaker will decide after midday today if he is happy to allow these to proceed. If this were to happen, the question would be asked this afternoon and the debate would take place tomorrow.

UQ – David Heath
I would be grateful if you would give consideration to the following Urgent Question to

…

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Stephen Tall

Vince attacks Gordon’s public debt “car boot sale”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 13th October 2009 - 10:15 am

Yesterday, Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable tabled an innocuous sounding emergency question in the Commons: “To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the proposed sale of Government assets announced today.”

But that’s not the Vince soundbite which has featured in virtually every headline in today’s newspapers reporting on Labour’s decision to sell up to £16 billion of assets to help fund the national debt. Here’s Vince’s statement in full:

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Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg tweets about #trafigura (and #CarterRuck)

By Stephen Tall | Tue 13th October 2009 - 10:10 am

Nick Clegg (or at least his office) has just tweeted the following:

Very interested concerned about this #trafigura / Guardian story the @LibDems are planning to take action on this

If you’re not on Twitter – where #trafigura is now the top-trending topic – then this post from Rob Fenwick will give you the astonishing background: namely that libel law specialists Carter-Ruck have succeeded in slapping an injunction on the Guardian preventing the newspaper from reporting the following question tabled in Parliament:

Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made

…

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Stephen Tall

Vince Cable, the free redical, and his “primitive five-grade relationship metric”

By Stephen Tall | Mon 12th October 2009 - 9:35 pm

Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable’s hotly-anticipated autobiography Free Radical is published next month – you can pre-order a copy from Amazon here – and is currently being serialised in the Mail.

Excerpts published so far deal principally with Vince’s childhood growing up in York, ranging from the personal (his mother’s breakdown) to his occasional delinquency (terrorising neighbourhood cats and dogs with an air rifle) to his mixed emotions when his parents died (“I felt a vague sense of sadness and guilt that there was nothing more: no tears.”).

There’s also an intriguing diversion into Vince’s initiation into early …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Are MPs being treated fairly?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 12th October 2009 - 8:40 pm

It seems only fair to ask. I’ve been struck today by the cross-party consensus – noted here on Left Foot Forward – that the Blogosphere is united in disgust at MPs:

Bloggers of left, right and centre were united today in disgust over reports in today’s papers that some MPs will refuse to pay back expenses that they claimed erroneously.

The argument put forward is logical enough, and best summed up by Lib Dem blogger Mark Thompson’s exasperated question, “Do they honestly think that the public are going to stand for them rejecting the report, whatever the grounds?”

True …

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

Nick to pay back £910 #mpsexpenses

By Stephen Tall | Mon 12th October 2009 - 4:32 pm

The party has just released the text of the letter from Nick Clegg to Sir Thomas Legg confirming that the Lib Dem leader will – as recommended by Sir Thomas – re-pay £910 of taxpayers’ money claimed as expenses for gardening costs associated with Nick’s second home. Here’s the text of the letter:

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Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 12 October 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 12th October 2009 - 9:45 am

2 Big Stories

MPs’ expenses row re-ignites as MPs question findings of independent inquiry

In case you thought the row had blown itself out, here comes the sequel:

Gordon Brown has urged MPs to repay expenses claimed up to five years ago if asked to do so following an audit ordered after the furore. There are reports that some MPs plan to defy calls to repay money and may challenge the request in the courts.

The PM is among hundreds of MPs expected to be asked to repay sums following a review of all claims by former civil servant Sir Thomas Legg. …

The BBC understands he has set retrospective limits for some items and annual limits on what he believes they should have claimed. These are £1,000 a year for gardening, and £2,000 a year for cleaning. It is believed to have angered some MPs who say they will not repay the money.

Saturday’s Telegraph reported the following snippet:

Last night, the Lib Dems, who are confident that they avoided the worst excesses, stepped up pressure on the Conservatives

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Stephen Tall

Time for a Citizens’ Convention

By Stephen Tall | Mon 12th October 2009 - 9:20 am

I’m one of some 30 signatories to a letter submitted to the Guardian, and published today, calling on the Prime Minister to take immediate action to reform democracy in the wake of the public collapse in confidence sparked by the MPs’ expenses row. Gordon Brown signalled some half-hearted recognition of the need for change in his conference speech by advocating a referendum to introduce the alternative vote electoral system some time in the next Parliament – it’s a typical Brown demi-measure, falling far, far short of even the minimum required.

no expenses sparedThere’s something rather bizarre at seeing on display the Telegraph’s book of this year’s scandal, No Expenses Spared – it’s the subtitle, The inside story of the scoop which changed the face of British politics. Bizarre for this reason: it’s hard to see how the face of British politics actually has been changed. For sure, some of the faces within British politics will have changed, with many of those MPs who were implicated standing down, voluntarily or under pressure.

But in every other significant respect, British politics is – six months on from flipping, duck island etc – entirely unchanged.

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Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #138

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th October 2009 - 6:30 pm

Welcome to the 138th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (4th October – 10th October 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, partly 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

LDV post-conference members’ survey (3): what you thought of the Lib Dem conference

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th October 2009 - 4:30 pm

Over the last week, Lib Dem Voice has invited the members of our private forum (open to all Lib Dem members) inviting them to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the 200+ of you who completed it; we’ve been publishing the results on LDV over the past few days. You can catch up on the results of all our exclusive LDV members’ surveys by clicking here.

First up, we asked how many of you had actually …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged , , , , , , and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Stephen Gately RIP: New beginning, sad ending

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th October 2009 - 12:05 pm

RIP Stephen Gately, the singer who rose to fame thanks to Boyzone, and who has died aged just 33. His solo career was not the soaring success he might have hoped when the Irish band split up – though three Top 20 singles is more than most of the rest of us will manage.

Indeed, it’s likely that Lib Dems will be among those most familiar with his work, for his debut solo track, New beginning, was adopted by the party as its theme tune for the 2001 general election (and used subsequently at many party conferences).

Lib Dem blogger Stephen Glenn pays fuller tribute here. Below is the TOTP video of New beginning:

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Posted in Obituaries | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV post-conference members’ survey (2): ‘savage’ cuts, tuition fees, ‘mansion tax’ and the leadership

By Stephen Tall | Wed 7th October 2009 - 6:35 pm

Over the weekend, Lib Dem Voice invited the members of our private forum (open to all Lib Dem members) inviting them to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the 200+ of you who completed it; we’re publishing the results on LDV over the next few days. You can catch up on the results of all our exclusive LDV members’ surveys by clicking here.

First up, LDV asked: In a media interview before the party conference, Nick Clegg spoke of the need for the Lib Dems to be “quite bold, or even savage, on current spending”. Do you agree with Nick’s assessment?

Here’s what you told us:

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged , , , , , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #137

By Stephen Tall | Tue 6th October 2009 - 8:30 pm

Welcome to the 137th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (27th September – 3rd October 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, partly 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

Vince – Osborne’s policies are “Lib Dem Lite”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 6th October 2009 - 7:10 pm

Today saw the Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne deliver his conference speech to the party faithful in Manchester, including setting out a number of spending cuts:

>> Public sector pay freeze in 2011 – except frontline military or people on less than £18,000
>> Keep 50p top tax rate for now
>> End Child Trust Funds for all but the poorest families
>> No tax credits for families earning over £50,000.

His Lib Dem opposite number Vince Cable is distinctly underwhelmed:

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV post-conference members’ survey (1): Nick Clegg approval ratings

By Stephen Tall | Tue 6th October 2009 - 4:45 pm

Over the weekend, Lib Dem Voice invited the members of our private forum (open to all Lib Dem members) inviting them to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the 200+ of you who completed it; we’re publishing the results on LDV over the next few days. You can catch up on the results of our exclusive LDV members’ surveys by clicking here.

First up, LDV asked: What is your view of Nick Clegg’s performance as Lib Dem leader?

Here’s what you told us (with September’s pre-conference figures in brackets):

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Foster on online pay-per-view for England World Cup match: football’s “making a fast buck” at fans’ expense

By Stephen Tall | Tue 6th October 2009 - 3:30 pm

Well, the good news for Lib Dems is that it should be safe to go knocking on doors on Saturday afternoon knowing you’re not going to interrupt an England World Cup qualifier on the telly. The bad news – if you’re a football supporter without home access to the Internet – is that you can’t watch England take on Ukraine.

The BBC explains:

England’s World Cup qualifier in Ukraine on Saturday will be shown exclusively live to subscribers on the internet who will pay at least £4.99. All previously broadcast England matches have been available on TV.

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Twice as many Sun readers vote Lib Dem than Guardian readers

By Stephen Tall | Mon 5th October 2009 - 8:20 pm

The decision of The Sun to switch its political allegiance from Labour to the Tories generated a fair few headlines last week, and a vigorous discussion here on LDV. It prompted me to undertake a quick calculation to find out approximately how many Sun readers are Lib Dem voters. And thanks to today’s Media Guardian, which publishes the voting intentions of newspapers’ readers at each of the last four general elections, I’m returning to the fray to give you two tables.

The first, below, shows the voting intentions of readers of the main national dailies, sorted in descending order of likelihood to vote Lib Dem at the 2005 general election. No real surprises here: the Indy and Grauniad top the table, the Sun and Star (despite Lembit’s best efforts) prop it up.

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Posted in News | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dems choose Dawn to take on Dave in Witney

By Stephen Tall | Mon 5th October 2009 - 6:15 pm

David Cameron’s local paper, the Witney Gazette, has the story:

THE Liberal Democrat candidate to take on Witney MP David Cameron in the next General Election has been announced. Dawn Barnes will stand for Witney against the Conservative leader in May or June next year. …

Miss Barnes, 32, said: “I was really happy, and a little surprised, to be confirmed as the Liberal Democrat candidate to stand against a man who is widely-tipped to be the next Prime Minister.

“However, it’s a real honour, and I’ll be working hard with the local party and friends and family in West Oxfordshire

…

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Posted in Selection news | Tagged , and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

CommentIsLinked@LDV … An Evan Harris double-bill: embryon research and BNP teacher ban

By Stephen Tall | Mon 5th October 2009 - 5:40 pm

It’s not only Vince Cable who’s been all over the papers – the Lib Dems’ science spokesman Evan Harris also has his say today on two very different issues.

First up, in today’s Independent, animal-human hybrid embryo research which, says Evan equires three things to prosper: legal permission, good scientists and more funding. Here’s an excerpt from his article:

Those of us involved in campaigning for human-animal embryo research to be legal during the passage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill always knew that this was a controversial area of research. But we also knew it was a

…

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Stephen Tall

CommentIsLinked@LDV … A Vince double-bill – ‘Osbornomics’ and single mothers

By Stephen Tall | Mon 5th October 2009 - 1:25 pm

Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable’s path has gone beyond mere sainthood – to his financial omniscience we can now add his media omnipresence. In today’s Independent, he delivers a withering attack on what he terms ‘Osbornomics’ in, erm, honour of the Tories’ shadow chancellor.

First, Vince tries to pin down Boy George’s guiding economic philosophy:

The last Conservative government was led by people who had a clear sense of ideological direction and conviction. Mrs Thatcher was clearly influenced, directly or indirectly, by the ideas of Hayek – rolling back “the serfdom of the state”. Sir Geoffrey Howe and rising stars like Nigel Lawson had developed a response to the inflationary 1970s through the monetarist ideas of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School. It is very difficult to see any clear or consistent thread this time round.

However, he acknowledges Mr Osborne has publicly lauded one philosopher, one Adam Smith:

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Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 5 October 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 5th October 2009 - 9:50 am

2 Big Stories


Tory conference opens, and it’s time to party like it’s 1994

A few thousand Tories are converging on Manchester today, with two issues dominating discussion: Europe and welfare cuts. Ah, and there we were thinking The Major Years were but a distant memory.

On a more positive note, the Tories will be singing today from the localism song-book, with Caroline Spelman championing the party’s conversion to local control of local services – an interesting about-turn for an MP who opposed Scottish and Welsh devolution, and believes central government should impose council tax freezes from Whitehall.

Ministerial …

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Stephen Tall

Cameron tested by the choppy waters of welfare, Lisbon and Marr

By Stephen Tall | Sun 4th October 2009 - 3:45 pm

At the start of his party’s conference in Manchester, Tory leader David Cameron has announced plans “to get Britain working again” – but his comments have drawn a sharp response from the Lib Dems’ shadow work and pensions secretary Steve Webb:

This is yet more Tory posturing. Much of what David Cameron is proposing – such as reviewing people on incapacity benefit – is happening already.

“But the central assumption – that unemployment is simply about the workshy not applying for jobs – is ridiculous in the middle of a global recession. There are parts of the country now where there are already 100 people applying for every vacancy. So forcing more single parents and people with health problems to apply for the same jobs is far more about posturing than about tackling unemployment.”

Mr Cameron is having a tough 24 hours. First, he is having to defend his party’s precarious position on Europe, refusing to say what the party’s policy will be when the Lisbon treaty is ratified (other than he “will not let matters rest”, whatever that means).

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #135

By Stephen Tall | Sat 3rd October 2009 - 10:02 pm

Welcome to the 135th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (13-19th September 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, partly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. (And, yes, the Golden Dozen has kinda got a bit out-of-synch as a result of the party conference – #136 is here. Sorry about that.)

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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