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

CommentIsLinked@LDV… #ldconf special bumper edition

By Stephen Tall | Thu 24th September 2009 - 7:35 pm

Alix Mortimer of the LDV parish rounded up some of the best commentary on the Lib Dem conference here on Sunday – let me try and bring the story up-to-date …

First up, James Graham has had an active conference, popping up a couple of times at the Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog. One was penned jointly with Neal Lawson of Compass – A camp site not a big tent – and made an unabashed pitch for social liberals and liberal socialists – whether they count themselves as Lib Dems, Labour, Greens or even nationalists – to come together in a progressive alliance. Here’s the mission statement:

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

YouTube ‘cos we want to: bumper conference catch-up special edition

By Stephen Tall | Thu 24th September 2009 - 6:40 pm

Welcome to this very special bumper conference edition of our occasional LDV feature, YouTube ‘cos we want to, featuring some of the most memorable moments from the past week. For those Lib Dems who’ve been isolated inside the ‘Bournemouth bubble’, missing out on all the media coverage I hope this selection of clips gives you a sense of what you missed while you were, erm, there.

From Nick’s leader’s speech to Vince’s dust-up with Paxman on Newsnight, Chris Davies’s rant to the Huhne ‘n’ Pickles show on Radio 4 – it’s all collected here for your viewing/listening pleasure. Enjoy …

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Posted in Conference and YouTube | Tagged , , , , , , , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Lib Dems: ahead of the curve or missing the moment? #ldconf

By Stephen Tall | Thu 24th September 2009 - 10:25 am

The editorials of two newspapers today sum up the alternative ways in which this past week’s Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth has been regarded – both internally by party activists and externally by the media. (Who knows what those members of the non-politically obsessed public thought, if anything, of the whole thing?)

The Times is pretty scathing of the party’s week in its leader column, Missing the Liberal Moment:

This week has been an opportunity lost for the Liberal Democrats. As the week unfolded, the excitement dissipated. With an election on the near horizon, with the Labour Government’s lease on power coming to an end and the Tories not yet commanding enthusiasm, this week has been an object lesson in how not to seize the day. …

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

Event: Party conferences – who needs them?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 23rd September 2009 - 6:50 pm

I’m speaking tomorrow, Thursday, at a lunchtime lecture at the RSA with the timely title, Party conferences – who needs them?, alongside Stephen Pound MP, Iain Dale and Michael White. Here’s the blurb:

The annual party conferences attract hordes of the party faithful and mark the start of the political calendar for the Whitehall establishment. The news teams and cameras will be there poised to cover events. But what impact do the party conferences really have in Britain, or indeed the wider world?

Policy is no longer made here – arguably the party conference has become a triumph of stage management over

…

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Posted in Conference and Events | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s conference speech, the live-blog #ldconf

By Stephen Tall | Wed 23rd September 2009 - 2:25 pm

Update: the full text of Nick’s speech is available on the party’s website here.

There’s a lot of expectation heaped on Nick Clegg’s shoulders ahead of his speech to the Lib Dem autumn conference in Bournemouth this afternoon. The media coverage has been less-than-glowing, fuelled by murmurs of discontent among party activists following Nick’s talk of the need for “savage” cuts, the row over the de-prioritising of the abolition of tuition fees, and Vince’s surprise announcment of a ‘mansion tax’.

So Nick will be looking to unite the conference hall this afternoon with a passionate statement explaining why the Lib Dems deserve the votes of the British public at the next election. Nick is, of course, an accomplished – seemingly nerve-less – public speaker, always at ease on the conference podium, and I don’t expect this afternoon to be any different. I’ll be live-blogging the speech as it proceeds, as well as keeping an eye on any Twitter reactions at libdemvoice.org/tweets. Join me at 3pm …

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Stephen Tall

Your LDV #ldconf reader (reading the papers so you don’t have to)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 23rd September 2009 - 11:45 am

Coverage-a-plenty in today’s press – but not all of it will bring a smile to the face …

Conference row between Nick/Vince and MPs/activists
Vince Cable faces tax policy mutiny at Lib Dem Conference (Times)
Huhne backs Cable after attack (BBC)
MPs’ anger at Cable ‘mansion tax’ (BBC)
Lib Dems round on Nick Clegg and Vince Cable over ‘codswallop’ policy (Times)
Delegates lash out at leader over policy shifts (Independent)
Clegg faces frontbench dissent on cuts (Independent)
Clegg under fire from Lib Dems over move to downgrade spending commitments (Guardian)
Clegg faces mutinous party (Financial Times)
Ming Campbell rebukes Evan Harris …

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Posted in Conference | Tagged | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Leadership v. Activists – a personal reflection on Bournemouth ’09 #ldconf

By Stephen Tall | Wed 23rd September 2009 - 10:55 am

I’m not, by any means, a party conference veteran – Bournemouth ’09 was in fact only my fourth. But it has been distinctive for one thing in particular: it’s been the first year when the media coverage of conference has genuinely reflected what folk (at least those I’ve met) have been talking about at conference.

In previous years, we have been continually told that Lib Dem delegates were chattering about the fate of our leaders – when actually we were quite contentedly chewing the fat of meaty policy issues. This year, there has, as ever at a Lib Dem conference, been plenty of meaty policy debate, but there’s also been more than a little discussion, and not a little grumbling, about the style of the party leadership, both Nick and Vince. And it seems to me – as I blogged here yesterday – that these grumblings are fair.

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Stephen Tall

So, what do we make of #ldconf so far, then?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 22nd September 2009 - 3:53 pm

I’ve just come from speaking at the ippr fringe event, The end of politics as we know it?, alongside Ming Campbell, Shirley Williams and Charles Clarke.

In my introductory remarks, I looked at the two big crises of the last 12 months – the economic crisis of recession, and the political crisis of MPs’ expenses scandals – and their impact on the Lib Dems, with special reference to this week’s conference. I approached the topic as (I hope) a constructively critical friend; harsh but fair was the reaction I was (I guess) looking for. Here’s more or less what I said – see if you think I got the balance right …

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Stephen Tall

ippr fringe event: The end of politics as we know it? #ldconf

By Stephen Tall | Tue 22nd September 2009 - 12:25 pm

Over the last few days I’ve been uploading the results from Lib Dem Voice’s members’ survey, completed by c.250 party members – you can catch up on the results published to date by clicking here.

The survey was conducted in association with the Institute of Public Policy Research (ippr) in advance of today’s lunchtime fringe, The end of politics as we know it?. Full details here:

Liberal Democrats Conference: The end of politics as we know it?
22 September 2009 –

13.00-14.00
Dorchester One room, Marriott Highcliff Hotel

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

LDV members’ survey: is electoral reform a hung Parliament ‘deal-breaker’? And are Labour or Tories most likely to deliver it?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 22nd September 2009 - 9:55 am

A couple of weeks ago, Lib Dem Voice invited the members of our private forum (open to all Lib Dem members) 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 c.250 of you who completed it; we’ve been publishing the results on LDV over the last few days. You can catch up on the results of our exclusive LDV members’ surveys by clicking here.

Yesterday, we looked at how Lib Dem members would respond in the event of a hung Parliament, assuming electoral reform was on the agenda. Today we’re looking at just how important you think electoral reform is, and which of the other two main parties you think are most sympathetic to the idea of electoral reform.

LDV asked: In the event of a ‘hung parliament’, and if the Lib Dems were prepared to cooperate with Labour/Conservatives in some way, do you believe a referendum on electoral reform should be a ‘deal-breaker’?

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

Steve Webb over-rules Nick on universal child benefits

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st September 2009 - 5:15 pm

Evening Standard blogger Paul Waugh has the story:

Work and Pensions spokesman Steve Webb has indeed put his foot down to kill off Nick Clegg’s suggestion (floated in the Guardian on Saturday) that the party could means-test child benefit.

Webb made plain his feelings at a Fabian fringe event.

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Stephen Tall

Erm, Ed, “tea with the Taleban” – perhaps it’s time to get a new speech-writer?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st September 2009 - 4:57 pm

Reader, it pains me to write this – especially as it means I’m partially agreeing with Iain Dale – but it needs saying. This is what Ed Davey, our shadow foreign secretary said yesterday in his speech to conference:

… it’s time for tea with the Taleban – and tea with the multitude of local tribal Afghan insurgent leaders.

When I first saw it reported that Ed had called for “tea with the Taleban”, I assumed it was a paraphrase ad absurdum – a bit like David Cameron’s ‘hug a hoodie’, a phrase he never actually uttered. But, no, I’m …

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

LDV survey: What Lib Dem members actually think about a hung Parliament

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st September 2009 - 1:10 pm

Today’s BBC2 Daily Politics is touting a highly misleading poll by ComRes feigning to know which of the other two main parties – Labour or the Tories – Lib Dem members would wish to shack up with in the event of a hung Parliament where the party holds the balance of power. The Guardian reports it here:

Liberal Democrat activists would overwhelmingly prefer their party to enter a coalition government with Labour rather than the Tories, according to a poll published today. Fewer than one in five said that they would want to see Nick Clegg team up with

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

NEW POLL: Is Nick Clegg right to talk about the need for “savage” cuts?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st September 2009 - 10:25 am

For once, the media reporting of what party activists at conference are discussing is accurate – Nick Clegg’s decision to question the affordability of the Lib Dems’ long-held policy of abolishiong university tuition fees, and his talk of the need for the party to be “quite bold, or even savage, on current spending” is the talk of the town.

The Financial Times today quotes some high-level criticism of Nick’s approach:

One MP said Mr Clegg sounded “nastier than the Tories” and that he was “salivating” over the chance to cut the state. Others complained that Mr Clegg and Vince

…

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Posted in Voice polls | Tagged and | 21 Comments
Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 21 September 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 21st September 2009 - 9:00 am

Welcome to the start of this week’s LDV Daily Views, coming to you today, live, from a hotel room somewhere in Bournemouth …

2 Must-Read Stories

Lib Dem plan for £1m-property tax

As LDV’s Alix Mortimer hinted last night, today will see Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable announce plans to the party conference for a tax on owners of £1m-plus homes, using the proceeds to help low-paid workers. Here’s the BBC report:

Treasury spokesman Vince Cable will announce plans for a 0.5% annual levy on the most expensive homes, raising £1bn, at the party conference later. He told the BBC it would

…

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Posted in Daily View | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

LDV pre-conference members’ survey (3): how you rated the Lib Dem shadow cabinet

By Stephen Tall | Sun 20th September 2009 - 5:40 pm

Over the last week or so, 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 c.250 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.

Today, we turn our attention to the performance of the Liberal Democrat shadow cabinet, and a handful of other senior Lib Dems. Reproduced below, in alphabetical order, are the full results of our survey, which shows how effective each MP is felt by members to be, together with a net satisfaction rating (those who think they’re very/fairly effective minus those think they’re very/fairly ineffective).

The list is a long one, so here’s the skinny:

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Posted in LDV Members poll | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick’s conference Q&A, the live-blog

By Stephen Tall | Sun 20th September 2009 - 2:54 pm


Nick has rung the changes for this year’s traditional leader’s Q&A in front of the party conference – out goes the usual interview between Nick and a friendly lefty-liberal journo, and in comes the improvised ‘Town Hall’ format of audience questions.

First up, Nick’s asked if the Lib Dems will take part in political programmes if the BNP are invited to take part by the broadcasters. Yes, we will, he says: quite simply it’s too late to ignore the BNP. Look at what happened in Burnley, he notes – once forecast to be the first BNP council, now a prime Lib …

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Stephen Tall

The LDV Friday Five (ish): 18/9/09

By Stephen Tall | Fri 18th September 2009 - 5:00 pm

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

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

1. Parliamentary candidates can now keep their home addresses secret (8) by Mark Pack
2. Blog of the Year Awards 2009: The Shortlists (14) by Helen Duffett
3. Guardian asks Lib Dems, “When did you stop beating your wife?” (26) by Stephen Tall
4. Gavin Webb quits Lib Dems, joins Libertarian Party (138) by Stephen Tall
5. The MP conference fringe league table (2) by Mark Pack

5 recent #ldconf tweets

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Stephen Tall

The state of the Liberal Democrat blogosphere

By Stephen Tall | Fri 18th September 2009 - 2:45 pm

There is of course no such thing as ‘the Lib Dem blogosphere’. For sure there are hundreds of Lib Dems who write blogs, but any suggestion we can be neatly bundled together into one coherent entity is wide of the mark – we’d scarcely be liberals otherwise. Which is why if you visit the Lib Dem Blogs Aggregator – a site which collates the feeds of more than 220 active bloggers – you will find posts about potholes and proportional representation, pop-culture and Palestine, all nestling alongside each other. If anything defines ‘the Lib Dem blogosphere’ it is this eclecticism.

We can separate political blogs – whether Lib Dem, Labour or Tory – into two broad categories. First, there those bloggers who write primarily for (and are read primarily by) those already interested in politics. And then there are those bloggers – usually political campaigners – who are primarily writing for readers in their electoral patch.

In each case it’s true to say the Lib Dems punch well above our weight. You don’t have to take my word for it.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV pre-conference members’ survey (2): leading Lib Dems’ approval ratings

By Stephen Tall | Thu 17th September 2009 - 2:25 pm

Over the last week or so, 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 c.250 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.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the satsfaction ratings with the Lib Dem shadow cabinet; but today we’re going to focus on those leading Lib Dems beyond Westminster.

LDV asked, How would you rate the performances of the following leading Liberal Democrats? And here’s what you told us (with results from April – the last time LDV asked the question – in brackets):

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick Clegg’s The Liberal Moment: your blogosphere reader

By Stephen Tall | Thu 17th September 2009 - 9:55 am

Today saw the publication of Nick Clegg’s Demos pamphlet, The Liberal Moment, outlining his thoughts on progressive politics over the past century, moving forward to the future.

The party’s media office made the trusting (and canny) move to give a group of Lib Dem bloggers advance sight of the document, which means there’s already been a vigorous response around the blogosphere. In chronological order, here are the posts to date (we’ll add others as they appear):

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Stephen Tall

Nick pledges to seize the Liberal Moment

By Stephen Tall | Thu 17th September 2009 - 9:35 am

You can tell it’s a pre-conference week… on Monday, the Lib Dems’ deputy leader Vince Cable launched the party’s response to the fiscal crisis, while today Nick Clegg has published a major pamphlet with think-tank Demos outlining his thoughts on progressive politics. Titled The Liberal Moment it’s available for download as a PDF dcument here.

Nick also has an article in today’s Times setting out his ambiton for the Lib Dems to replace Labour as the progressive party at a national level. Here’s an excerpt:

Today I am publishing a pamphlet, The Liberal Moment, in which I make a simple argument: in the same way that Labour eclipsed a tired Liberal Party almost a century ago, the Liberal Democrats now offer a new rallying point for a resurgent progressive movement in Britain, replacing Labour as the dominant force of progressive politics.

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
Stephen Tall

Saint Vince, the canonisation continues …

By Stephen Tall | Wed 16th September 2009 - 8:15 pm

Yesterday saw the launch of Vince Cable’s and the Lib Dems’ plans for tackling the fiscal crisis, widely praised by commentators (though perhaps less so in Wales).

Today it’s not just the Guardian which is singing Vince’s praises, the Economist’s Bagehot is also writing In praise of Vince:

The real winner of today’s fiscal tussle, however, was Vince Cable.

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

LDV pre-conference members’ survey (1): Nick Clegg & Party approval ratings

By Stephen Tall | Wed 16th September 2009 - 2:40 pm

Over the last week or so, 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 c.250 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 April’s figures – the last time we asked this question – in brackets):

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

Mark Oaten on the scandal that ended his political career

By Stephen Tall | Tue 15th September 2009 - 7:20 pm

Today’s Independent carries an extensive excerpt from Lib Dem MP Mark Oaten’s soon-to-be-published autobiographical book, Screwing Up, published next week – you can order it from Amazon using this link (and earn the party some commission). Here’s the book blurb:

Mark Oaten is a politician of nearly 13 years standing, having famously won the seat of Winchester in 1997 with a majority of only two, though a by-election later returned him with a majority of 20,000. More famously, he hit the headlines in January 2006 when, shortly after announcing his withdrawal from the race to succeed Charles Kennedy as leader of the Lib Dems, Oaten was caught up in the biggest political scandal of the year as the News of the World published the story of his relations with a rent boy. His world collapsed. This is the story of a man obsessed by retaining his youth, fearful of turning 40 and feeling a complete failure. It s the story of coping with media scandal, and of how he and his wife Belinda managed to save their marriage, as well as his own recent decision to leave politics for the unknown.

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Posted in Books | 31 Comments
Stephen Tall

Vince launches new Lib Dem proposals, ‘Tackling the Fiscal Crisis’

By Stephen Tall | Tue 15th September 2009 - 10:12 am

Vince Cable has this morning launched a pamphlet published by the independent think tank Reform called ‘Tackling the Fiscal Crisis: A recovery plan for the UK’ setting out proposals for tackling the fiscal crisis. A PDF of the pamphlet can be downloaded here. Here’s what the Lib Dem website has to say:

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Posted in News | 26 Comments
Stephen Tall

Coming later today… Lib Dem Blog of the Year shortlists revealed

By Stephen Tall | Tue 15th September 2009 - 9:15 am

Yes, folks, this is a short, teaser post to let you know that the shortlists for this year’s Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year awards 2009 will be published this morning at 11.25 am.

The nine judges – Tom Brake MP, Ryan Cullen, Helen Duffett, Meral Ece OBE, Lynne Featherstone MP, Alix Mortimer, me, Cat Turner and Paul Waugh – have been poring over the entries for the following six categories:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 14 September 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 14th September 2009 - 9:32 am

2 Big Stories

Guardian: ‘executive pay keeps rising’

Today’s Guardian reports:

Executives at Britain’s top companies saw their basic salaries leap 10% last year, despite the onset of the worst global recession in decades, in which their companies lost almost a third of their value amid a record decline in the FTSE.

The Guardian’s annual survey of boardroom pay reveals that the full- and part-time directors of the FTSE 100, the premier league of British business, shared between them more than £1bn.

Bonus payouts were lower, but the basic salary hikes were more than three times the 3.1% average pay rise for ordinary workers in the private sector. The big rise in directors’ basic pay – more than double the rate of inflation last year – came as many of their companies were imposing pay freezes on staff and starting huge redundancy programmes to slash costs.

The paper quotes Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable:

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Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #134

By Stephen Tall | Sun 13th September 2009 - 5:45 pm

Welcome to the 134th 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 September 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

Davey: ministers seem prepared to have given Gaddafi anything he wanted

By Stephen Tall | Sun 13th September 2009 - 4:00 pm

Yesterday’s Times revealed that Jack Straw signed a secret deal with Libya three years ago guaranteeing the Libyan killer of a British policewoman will never be brought to justice in Britain:

The Libyan killer of a British policewoman will never be brought to justice in Britain after a secret deal approved by Jack Straw. The Foreign Office bowed to Libyan pressure and agreed that Britain would abandon any attempt to try the murderer of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, shot outside the Libyan embassy in London 25 years ago.

Anthony Layden, Britain’s former ambassador to Libya, said this weekend he had signed the agreement with the Libyan government three years ago, when Straw was foreign secretary. At the time Britain was negotiating trade deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds with Libya.

The deal followed a visit by Tony Blair, then prime minister, to meet Colonel Gadaffi in March 2004 after Libya announced that it was ending its nuclear weapons programme. The disclosure will provoke criticism of the government after the row over the early release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the terminally ill Lockerbie bomber.

Lib Dem shadow foreign secretary Ed Davey has condemned the move:

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