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

Daily View 2×2: 24 July 2009

By Stephen Tall | Fri 24th July 2009 - 11:15 am

2 Big Stories

Norwich North by-election: result by lunchtime

Yes, it may not have been a late night for the candidates contesting Norwich North, but it was almost certainly a fairly sleepless one. Every party is spinning desperately to manage expectations. Sky News is reporting a likely Tory victory, with a scrap between the Lib Dems and Labour for the runners-up spot:

A party insider said: “The Conservatives are trying to play down what is happening but I think the reality is that Labour is in a fight with the Lib Dems for second place. The turnout has been poor in traditional

…

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Posted in Daily View | 3 Comments
Stephen Tall

Accio voters! Harry Potter star Dan Radcliffe backs the Lib Dems

By Stephen Tall | Fri 24th July 2009 - 10:15 am

The Sun reports an interview with Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who portrays Harry Potter in the film franchise, in which he gives his support to the Lib Dems – and dismisses Labour and the Tories:

The actor – who battles soul-sucking Dementors as the boy wizard and is currently starring in Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince – said he supports Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg because the other parties offer nothing to young people.

He said: “I rather like Nick Clegg. At the next election I will almost certainly vote Lib Dem. If all the people who liked them

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 42 Comments
Stephen Tall

Clegg: public has been “betrayed” by Parliament’s response to #mpsexpenses

By Stephen Tall | Thu 23rd July 2009 - 7:30 pm

Nick Clegg has been putting the quiet days of summer to good use, attracting considerable media coverage. Yesterday saw the launch of the party’s pre-manifesto A Fresh Start for Britain. Today Nick fired a broadside in the Telegraph against Labour for failing to address the real problems underpinning public anger over the MPs’ expenses scandals:

If you had said to me two months ago that we would go on a three-month recess and all we would have was this insipid Standards Bill, and that nothing substantial had been changed, I wouldn’t have believed it.

“The whole momentum for change was so great after what The Telegraph did; I think people are entitled to feel betrayed.

“This was a pledge that all political leaders made – to clean up our act. But all the signs are that it was hot air.

“The sum total of it is this little Bill which is a mouse compared to the real task. It is a baby step; it needs to be followed up by far, far more radical reform. If we don’t go further, the political scandals will be back in the future.

“I am so dismayed by the lack of progress of the last few weeks and so disappointed that Gordon Brown is trying to hype up this small measure as the be all and end all.”

“The Bill is fine as far as it goes, but the idea that Gordon Brown has that this has been done and dusted is patent nonsense. It is one piece of the jigsaw, but we need to change the rotten culture at Westminster for good.”

It’s worth remembering what could by now have been achieved if Labour had chosen to adopt Nick’s 100 Day Action Plan to Save Britain’s Democracy, announced almost two months ago. If Labour had the vision and courage we could by now be celebrating:

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Stephen Tall

Are the Tories set for Heathrow expansion U-turn?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 22nd July 2009 - 2:35 pm

Here’s what Tory frontbencher Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, shadow minister for trade and devlopment, has to say about the third runway at Heathrow:

This is a very difficult and controversial issue. Although I voted to oppose the third runway, I am fully aware of the potential damage this might do to Britain’s international air travel. … So I expect this is an issue that will need to be revisited after the election.”

Local Lib Dem MP for Richmond Susan Kramer – who stepped down from the party’s shadow cabninet to focus her energies on the campaign against Heathrow’s expansion – has been quick …

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Stephen Tall

A Fresh Start for Britain website goes live

By Stephen Tall | Wed 22nd July 2009 - 10:45 am

To chime with Nick Clegg’s launch today of the pre-manifesto ‘A Fresh Start for Britain’ document, there is a smart, fresh website: www.freshstart.nickclegg.com.

For those who prefer just text, the document is reproduced in its entirity, below:

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

Final push for votes in Norwich North

By Stephen Tall | Wed 22nd July 2009 - 10:30 am

Poor Labour. Not only do they face losing the Norwich North by-election, but their candidate Chris Ostrowski has gone down with suspected swine flu. (Genuine sympathies to him for a speedy recovery).

Today’s Eastern Daily Press assesses the currrent state of play HERE, including this snippet:

Private Lib Dem canvassing suggests that the party is lying second to the Tories, on 24pc. But other party canvassers report that the Greens are performing strongly in traditional Labour areas.

(Actually I’m not sure there’s necessarily a discrepancy between those two reports).

Vince is, as ever, ready with a quote:

We know support is crumbling

…

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Clegg’s Fresh Start for Britain: education, ‘green jobs’, political reform

By Stephen Tall | Wed 22nd July 2009 - 9:30 am

There’s an in-depth interview with Nick Clegg in today’s Independent trailing the launch later today of ‘A Fresh Start for Britain’, a document outlining the principles on which the Lib Dems will build our general election manifesto.

Here’s how the article starts:

Nick Clegg will today jettison many of the Liberal Democrats’ long-standing policy pledges in an attempt to convince voters they would make the deep spending cuts needed to fill the hole in the public finances.

In an interview with The Independent, Mr Clegg revealed that many of the promises cherished by his party will be downgraded from official policy to “aspirations” since there would be no money to fund them. They are expected to include flagship pledges to scrap university tuition fees, provide free personal care for the elderly, and bring in a higher basic state pension.

The Liberal Democrat leader will ask his party’s conference in September to make firm commitments in just three areas at the general election: a boost for education, the creation of “green jobs”, and constitutional reform.

Here are Nick’s quotes from the interview:

The circumstances are utterly different from anything in the last 15 years. Our shopping list of commitments will be far, far, far, far, far shorter. We will have to ask ourselves some immensely difficult questions about what we as a party can afford. A lot of cherished Lib Dem policies will have to go on the back burner. They will remain our aspirations. They will remain our policies. But we are not going to kid the British people into thinking we could deliver the full list of commitments we have put to them at the last three or four elections.

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Stephen Tall

Huhne on Coulson: “either complicit or incompetent”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 21st July 2009 - 7:30 pm

The BBC reports:

Conservative communications chief Andy Coulson has told MPs he did not “condone or use” phone hacking when he was editor of the News of the World. Mr Coulson quit as the editor after a reporter was jailed for hacking.

Although he said he had not known about it, he told the culture committee he regretted things going “badly wrong” and had taken responsibility by going.

Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne has not been won over by Mr Coulson’s performance today:

Andy Coulson’s defence is that he did not know what was going on despite the mounting evidence that

…

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dem Chris Davies sticks up for Ukip’s EU whistleblower

By Stephen Tall | Tue 21st July 2009 - 3:30 pm

The Telegraph reports:

Marta Andreason, the former Brussels whistle blower sacked by Lord Kinnock, has been blocked from taking a senior position at the European Parliament by MEPs fearful of future ‘scandal’.

Mrs Andreasen was blocked by Christian Democrat and Socialist MEPs from becoming vice-chairman of the European Parliament’s budgetary committee on Monday.

The centre-Right European People’s Party and the Socialists broke parliamentary convention on the allocation of committee posts by demanding a vote by secret ballot to block Mrs Andreasen, who was elected as a Ukip MEP for South East England last month.

Lib Dem MEP for the North-West Chris Davies is …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dems oppose ‘non-dom’ Ron Sandler as chairman of Lloyds

By Stephen Tall | Tue 21st July 2009 - 2:30 pm

So the Telegraph reports:

Ron Sandler should not be eligible for the job of chairman of Lloyds Banking Group because he is non-domiciled for tax purposes, the Liberal Democrats have declared. …

“The chairman of a nationalised, or part-nationalised, bank should not be a non-dom,” Lord Oakeshott, Lib Dem Treasury spokesman said. “Ron Sandler should not become chairman of Lloyds.”

The Lib Dems opposed the appointment at Northern Rock of Mr Sandler, a former boss of the Lloyds of London insurance market. He was initially paid £90,000 a month as executive chairman but his salary fell to £350,000 after appointing a

…

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Stephen Tall

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #126

By Stephen Tall | Mon 20th July 2009 - 7:15 pm

Welcome to the 126th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (12th – 18th July 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down. This week’s collection has a slight by-election flavour, you may notice…

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dem bloggers’ summer reading (Part II)

By Stephen Tall | Mon 20th July 2009 - 6:00 pm

To read Part I, published yesterday, click HERE.

For me, it’s the most difficult decision of the year – which books to take with me on holiday. So, I thought, what could be better than to pick the brains of my fellow Lib Dem bloggers, and ask them to select just two: one should be a political book – whether you want to re-read it, or try something new you’ve been recommended. The other should be your own choice of summer reading – the book you’re most looking forward to reading (again, could be something new or something old). Here’s what they said:

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Stephen Tall

Vince on reform of banking regulation

By Stephen Tall | Mon 20th July 2009 - 1:00 pm

Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable has been delivering a speech on reform of banking regulation to the London Stock Exchange, outlining the ways in which the current regulatory model could be improved. Here’s the skinny:

  • RBS and Lloyds to be broken up before they are returned to private ownership
  • Highly paid bankers to publish details of their remuneration and confirm they are resident and domiciled in the UK
  • The FSA to remain as a unitary regulator
  • A long-term role for state banking, rather than the quick sale of state-owned banks
  • The scrapping of the “woefully misconceived” Asset Protection Scheme

And here’s Vince’s customarily pithy sound-bite:

The Government has yet to grapple with the challenge posed by the Governor of the Bank of England: that if a bank is too big to fail it is too big. One approach is to make it easier for big institutions to fail.

“Some aspects of the financial services industry are simply too big for the British economy to manage safely. The large, failed, British banks are the financial equivalent of Chernobyl. Like the former Soviet Union, the UK became over reliant on dangerous financial reactors.

“Britain has the highest share of banking assets in GDP of any major country, four times as high as the US. To prevent Britain from becoming the next Iceland, radical safety measures, like ones I have set out, are required.

“My approach to the City is not one of hostility, or of obsequiousness. I recognise its importance. But it needs ‘tough love’, not the freedom to run amok.”

But for those who want to read Vince’s words of wisdom in greater detail, excerpts from the speech transcript follow:

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dem bloggers’ summer reading (Part I)

By Stephen Tall | Sun 19th July 2009 - 11:30 am

For me, it’s the most difficult decision of the year – which books to take with me on holiday. So, I thought, what could be better than to pick the brains of my fellow Lib Dem bloggers, and ask them to select just two: one should be a political book – whether you want to re-read it, or try something new you’ve been recommended. The other should be your own choice of summer reading – the book you’re most looking forward to reading (again, could be something new or something old). Here’s what they said:

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Stephen Tall

Shirley’s six of the best

By Stephen Tall | Sat 18th July 2009 - 7:45 pm

Over at the Express, Lib Dem peer Baroness (Shirley) Williams lists her six favourite books. And in case you’re wondering what they are, here goes…

  • Perkin the Pedlar by Eleanor Farjeon (Out of Print)
    I read this children’s book when I was seven, if not younger and it helped me learn the alphabet.
  • The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi (Out of print)
    An absolutely brilliant history book which tells the story of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, covering among other events the Industrial Revolution, the creation of nations and the birth of empires.
  • Testament of Youth by

…

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Stephen Tall

YouTube ‘cos we want to: comedy special

By Stephen Tall | Sat 18th July 2009 - 8:30 am

Welcome to the weekend edition of our new LDV feature rounding up some of the best/worst/most curious political videos doing the rounds. Or, as with this week, a trio of three politically-related comedy clips.

First up, let’s start with a classic: Peter Cook’s famous satiric ‘biased judge’ interpretation of the Jeremy Thorpe trial as performed at Amnesty’s Secret Policeman’s Ball. You don’t have to know the full background to the trial to enjoy the performance. (Though it does help, and if you want to know more, read this book).

Next up, it’s Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie enjoying the ‘Young Tory of the Year’ show – some things never change:

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dem not-so-good-news round-up #2

By Stephen Tall | Fri 17th July 2009 - 9:00 pm

Yes, it’s time for another ‘take out the trash’ posting…

Councillor banned over misconduct (BBC)

A hearing has found the former deputy council leader of Somerset County Council guilty of two counts of breaching codes of conduct. The two-year investigation looked into dozens of complaints about the behaviour of Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Buchanan. …

Speaking after the tribunal Mr Buchanan said he was “very disappointed” at the overall adjudication panel’s findings. He said: “I’m pleased my case that I clearly didn’t seek to intimidate Mr Jones was upheld. I’m disappointed the rest of the charges weren’t dropped and

…

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Stephen Tall

Farron leads demand for better public toilets

By Stephen Tall | Fri 17th July 2009 - 12:00 pm

Now, here’s a challenge – write an entire article about public lavatories without recourse to toilet humour. Here goes, courtesy of the BBC write-up…

Local authorities should have a “statutory duty” to provide public toilets, the government has been urged. Some 26 MPs have signed a House of Commons motion arguing that the closure of public lavatories in recent years has been damaging. … The MPs, led by the Lib Dem environment spokesman Tim Farron, are backing a campaign by the British Toilets Association (BTA) for better facilities.

Mr Farron said the fact councils were not compelled to provide toilets

…

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Posted in Local government, News and Parliament | Tagged and | 6 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem Michael Moore’s Tory opponent quits contest

By Stephen Tall | Fri 17th July 2009 - 11:00 am

As the local paper, the Southern Report, highlights:

In a shock move, Conservative candidate Chris Walker has quit the battle to take the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk Westminster seat from the Liberal Democrats. The constituency has been targeted by the Scottish Conservative Leader Annabel Goldie as winnable. … The seat is held for the Lib Dems by Michael Moore. He has a majority of 5,901 over the Tories.

Favourite to succeed Mr Walker is current Tory MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire John Lamont – however, he has made it clear he would, if elected, sit in both the Holyrood and Westminster …

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Posted in Scotland | Tagged and | 1 Comment
Stephen Tall

Daily View 2×2: 17 July 2009

By Stephen Tall | Fri 17th July 2009 - 9:15 am

2 Big Stories

Troops need more, says Dannett

The BBC has the interview and the story:

The head of the UK Army has said better equipment is needed to protect troops from roadside bombs in Afghanistan. General Sir Richard Dannatt told the BBC troops “needed more” and added that he would be compiling a shopping list of what was required. … The general’s comments will be seen as careful “parting shots”. …

In return for their service, he says more money needs to be spent on equipment for British forces in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, the general – on his last trip

…

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Stephen Tall

BBC Question Time – LDV open thread, 16 July 2009 #bbcqt

By Stephen Tall | Thu 16th July 2009 - 10:22 pm

It’s Thursday, it’s 10.35 pm … it’s BBC1’s Question Time.

The incorrigible Lembit Opik is the Lib Dem representative on tonight’s edition – fresh from helping launch today’s ‘Say No to Size Zero’ campaign with model Katie Green. The Lib Dem MP for Montgomeryshire has been the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the party’s spokesman on housing. However, his two attempts to win the party presidency have both ended in resounding defeat, to Simon Hughes, then to Ros Scott.

Joining Lembit on the panel will be Labour’s foreign office minister Chris Bryant, vice chairman of the Tory …

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Posted in Lib Dem TV | Tagged and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Stormin’ Norm: “One in seven MPs in luxurious Government cars”

By Stephen Tall | Thu 16th July 2009 - 9:00 pm

Here’s the innocuous-enough sounding press release from the Deprtment of Transport, ‘Cost of Ministerial Cars for 2008’. But look at the bottom-line – well, you could do if they’d published one. What the bottom-line would show is that the cost of ministerial cars has increased to more than £6m, with the number of ministers claiming for cars also increasing.

As you might expect, Lib Dem shadow transport secretary Norman Baker isn’t going to let this one lie:

There are now nearly one in seven MPs enjoying Government largesse at the public expense. Ministers are happy to pump carbon out of their

…

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Stephen Tall

Total Politics Best Blog Poll 2009: vote now!

By Stephen Tall | Thu 16th July 2009 - 3:00 pm

It’s that time of year again, when Total Politics asks blog-readers to vote for your Top 10 favourite blogs. This year the poll is being co-promoted/sponsored by Lib Dem Voice in conjunction with LabourList and Iain Dale’s Diary.

Click here to vote in the Total Politics Best Blogs Poll 2009

The rules are simple.

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and rank them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will …

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Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged , , and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

LDV readers say: almost half believe anonymous job applications “an unnecessary measure”

By Stephen Tall | Thu 16th July 2009 - 10:00 am

A couple of weeks ago, Lib Dem Voice highlighted Lynne Featherstone’s campaign to make it mandatory for all written job applications to be anonymous, in order to eliminate any subconscious discrimination employers might harbour when they (eg) see a name which suggests the applicant is foreign, old, etc. LDV posed readers the simple question: Do you support the idea of job applications being made anonymous?

Here’s what you told us:

  • 31% (79 votes) – Yes, it should be made mandatory for all businesses to remove all discrimination
  • 17% (44) – Yes, but it should be voluntary not mandatory for businesses
  • 48% (124) –

…

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Stephen Tall

Cameron new right-wing Euro group “backfiring on the Tories in spectacular fashion”

By Stephen Tall | Wed 15th July 2009 - 9:30 pm

Oh dear. How must David Cameron rue the day he caved into his party’s right-wing and promised to withdraw the Tories from the centre-right EPP in the European Parliament and establish a new anti-federalist right-wing grouping. At the time it was a last-gasp roll of the dice solely calaculated to pep up his then faltering leadership bid. Four years on, and something he might have been able quietly to drop – risking the wrath only of his most headbanging Europhobes – has become a running sore which reflects badly on Mr Cameron’s leadership abilities.

Three weeks ago, the Tories snuck …

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Posted in News | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Nick gets the Twitter-bug

By Stephen Tall | Wed 15th July 2009 - 8:55 pm

The Lib Dem leader is having, it appears, a tweet-tastic week. On Monday he reclaimed his @nick_clegg Twitter profile from a party supporter who had been sending messages on his behalf. Yesterday, Tuesday, was his #askclegg online ‘Town Hall’ Reuters meeting. And today, Wednesday, was his ‘Twinterview’ (not my neologism, I promise you) with the Indy, which m’colleague Helen Duffett highlighted here.

Well, the interview happened, through a combination of Twitter text, 12seconds videos and audioBoo podcasting – and the final results can be read, viewed and listened to over at the Indy’s site HERE.

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Stephen Tall

Second senior Greater Manchester Lib Dem defects to Labour

By Stephen Tall | Wed 15th July 2009 - 8:20 pm

It’s only a couple of weeks since Lib Dem Voice noted the defection of Denton and Reddish parliamentary candidate Paul Moss from the Lib Dems to Labour. Now comes news of a second defection, this time of Karen Wright, a former Lib Dem leader on Tameside council and a councillor for 12 years, until she stood down in 2008. The Manchester Evening News reports:

Explaining her decision to quit the Lib Dems, Ms Wright said: “The timing of my move was always going to be difficult but, the failure of the Lib Dems to put forward a candidate in

…

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem MP attempts to create devolved ‘Cornwall Assembly’

By Stephen Tall | Wed 15th July 2009 - 7:45 pm

A few months ago, Lib Dem Voice highlighted North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson’s attempts to create a new Cornish bank holiday on 5th March, St Piran’s Day. Well now he’s taken up cudgels again on behalf of the county, but this time with a more serious and far-reaching proposal – by introducing a new bill which would take power from Whitehall and unelected regional quangos and pass it to the new Cornwall Council, effectively transforming the new Council into an Assembly similar to that in Wales.

Dan’s Government of Cornwall Bill was presented in the House of Commons yesterday, …

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Stephen Tall

NEW POLL: should Radio 4’s Thought for the Day be opened up to secularists and humanists?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 14th July 2009 - 8:20 pm

Okay, so there are more important issues of the day to discuss, even in the quietest and slowest of July days – but, somehow, the totemic importance of the three-minute slot at 7.50 am on BBC Radio 4’s The Today Programme never fails to spark a heated debate.

For those of you who don’t tune in, this is the slot dedicated to religious messages: it’s mainly Christian speakers, but representatives from all faiths get their chance.

Radio 4’s controller Mark Damazar has set the cat among the pigeons by speculating there “may well be quite a strong argument for …

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Posted in Voice polls | 33 Comments
Stephen Tall

Tories lose senior MEP over new right-wing Euro grouping

By Stephen Tall | Tue 14th July 2009 - 7:15 pm

Three weeks after the Tories tried to sneak out the announcement that they had formed a new right-wing European parliamentary grouping made up of some of Europe’s more, erm, eccentric and extreme characters comes news of the first Tory casualty – ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie tweets:

Edward Macmillan-Scott MEP expelled from Cons Party for disobeying instructions from new EP grouping on elections for VP of Parliament

The news doesn’t come as a complete shock – on 25 June, Mr McMillan-Scott voiced “real concerns” about the Tories’ new Euro friends, commenting:

Despite what David Cameron has said there are already indications that some

…

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