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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.
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What should Gordon do – go now, or hold on?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 19th November 2008 - 2:22 pm

Imagine you’re the Prime Minister. In your first three months you were hailed as a Colossus. Then you flunked your first really big decision: whether to call a general election. Since when your poll ratings dropped so low your government was in open revolt. But then the world economy imploded, and you grabbed, belatedly, your final opportunity to make good. Since when your poll ratings have recovered, a little.

So now what do you do if you are Gordon Brown? Prepare to call a general election in early 2009?

Easy enough to imagine the statement: “These are difficult times for …

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Tagged gordon brown | 12 Comments

LDV readers say: keep the BBC licence fee

By Stephen Tall | Mon 17th November 2008 - 8:20 pm

Last month, just as ‘BrandRossGate’ was snowballing into the greatest catastrophe to hit the BBC since they hired Jeremy Vine to be the new Peter Snow on election-nights, Lib Dem Voice asked our readers the timely question: how do you think the BBC should be funded?

We presented four options (which, as ever, didn’t suit all commenters) to choose from – here’s what you told us:

• As at present, through the BBC licence fee – 216 (40%)
• Scrap the licence fee, but pay for the BBC through general taxation – 110 (20%)
• Scrap the licence fee,

…

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Posted in Voice polls | 16 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #91

By Stephen Tall | Mon 17th November 2008 - 7:10 pm

Welcome to the 91st of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (9th-15th November), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

How about starting with the most popular blog-posting, and we work our way down? Here goes…

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Posted in Best of the blogs | 4 Comments

NEW POLL: is presumed consent the right way to boost organ donations?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 17th November 2008 - 2:20 pm

The figures are stark. Here’s The Guardian:

An estimated 8,000 people in the UK need an organ transplant but only 3,000 operations are carried out each year. About 1,000 people in the UK die every year while waiting for a transplant.

The question is more difficult: should we move away from the current organ donor opt-in system towards a system of ‘presumed consent’, which would mean that unless people opted out of the register or family members objected, hospitals would be allowed to use their organs for transplants.

Lib Dem MP Dr Evan Harris, chair of All-Party Kidney Group and member of …

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Posted in Voice polls | Tagged evan harris and rendition | 18 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #90

By Stephen Tall | Sat 15th November 2008 - 8:49 pm

We’re still playing catch-up here at LDV, so apologies for belatedness…

Welcome to the 90th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (2nd-8th November), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

How about starting with the most popular blog-posting, and we work our way down? Here goes…

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Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Bridget Fox – ‘Labour is ditching its policies through panic not principle’

By Stephen Tall | Fri 14th November 2008 - 6:38 pm

The latest blog of Bridget Fox, Lib Dem PPC for Islington South and Finsbury, is now live over at The Guardian’s website, with thoughts on Remembrance Sunday and Government climbdowns. Read it in full here, but here’s a powerful section on the pernicious ID cards scheme:

In a particularly nasty move, the government is starting compulsory ID cards with the most marginal members of society – migrants from outside the European Union. This is unlikely to put off the desperate, the ignorant and those with nothing to lose. But it will lose us the skills and goodwill of a generation

…

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged bridget fox | 1 Comment

Sky: Credit to Lynne over Baby P case

By Stephen Tall | Fri 14th November 2008 - 11:35 am

Here’s Jon Craig on Sky’s Boulton & Co blog:

Only one person emerges from the Baby P tragedy with credit: the Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone. Throughout this tawdry affair, in which the conduct of Haringey Council – Labour-run since 1971 – has been scandalous and the Government’s response sluggish until after the Brown-Cameron clash, she has campaigned with dignity and determination.

Just moments after that ill-tempered Commons bust-up between David Cameron and Gordon Brown, the Hornsey and Wood Green MP asked the Prime Minister a question in a measured but forthright tone.

As she pointed out, she was leader of the

…

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Posted in News | Tagged baby p, david cameron, haringey council and lynne featherstone | 1 Comment

BBC Question Time: open thread

By Stephen Tall | Thu 13th November 2008 - 10:17 pm

‘Our Shirl’, Baroness Williams of Crosby, is the Lib Dem representative on tonight’s BBC Question Time (BBC1 and online, 10.35 pm GMT), – a perpetual favourite of the QT producers, and always guaranteed to give a virtuoso performance.

Shirley will be appearing alongside Labour’s Housing Minister Margaret Beckett (still there, after all these years), the Conservative shadow secretary for culture, media and sport (and rhyming slang) Jeremy Hunt, TV commentator, Sun wine columnist (yes, really) and former England rugby player Brian Moore, and associate editor of the Telegraph Simon Heffer (who vies with Peter Hitchens for the title …

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Posted in Lib Dem TV | Tagged bbc question time | 16 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Golden Dozen #89

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th November 2008 - 9:26 pm

Gentle reader, I crave your indulgence. Last week, I forgot all about the Golden Dozen, … something to do with an historic US election put it clean out of my mind. Fortunately, no-one yet seems to have noticed, and I think I may just have got away with it. So anyway…

Welcome to the very belated 89th of our weekly ( 😳 ish) round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (26th-October – 1st November), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

How about starting with the most popular blog-posting, and we work our way down? Here goes…

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Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

Lib Dem tax policy: the media’s starting to listen, so now will the public get to hear about it?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th November 2008 - 3:20 pm

Earlier today, Lib Dem Voice published this extract from Nick Clegg’s speech to the Royal Commonwealth Society summarising the Lib Dems’ policy of tax cuts for low- and middle-income households:

Real tax cuts – big, permanent and fair – for the people who need them. Funded by making the wealthy pay their fair share, ending the special exemptions and loopholes they’ve profited from for so long. Liberal Democrats would reduce basic rate income tax by 4p in the pound. That would give nearly £1000 back to a worker on £30,000 a year. Funded by four changes.

One: ending upper rate pensions

…

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Posted in Op-eds and Polls | Tagged andrew rawnsley and peter mandelson | 8 Comments

FT: Tories to ditch Osborne in favour of Hague?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th November 2008 - 12:43 pm

A month ago Lib Dem Voice’s Alix Mortimer suggested it was high-time the Tories considered ditching their under-whelming shadow chancellor, George Osborne:

My guess is that Cameron is wincing his way through the current crisis, burying his head in a cushion every time George goes on TV, and he’s planning the reshuffle. He hasn’t spent all this time and effort decontaminating the Tory brand to have his plans trashed by some oily twerp who hides his weekly treasury briefings down the back of the sofa, old mate or not. He can’t afford to go into a General Election side-by-side

…

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Posted in News | Tagged david cameron, george osborne and william hague | 10 Comments

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Jonathan Calder – ‘Tory MP: Ferry political prisoner’

By Stephen Tall | Wed 12th November 2008 - 12:02 am

Over at the New Statesman’s blog, Jonathan Calder looks at ~~Bryan~~ Otis Ferry’s position as a ‘political prisoner’, while looking at Lembit’s long-term ambitions:

Will we see more of him? I hope so. Lembit has a Westminster seat to defend and could no doubt return to the Lib Dem front bench if he chose.

Besides, the alternative for him is too dreadful to contemplate. I caught a glimpse of it from behind the sofa on Saturday evening when Neil and Christine Hamilton appeared on Hole in the Wall.

Posted in LibLink | Tagged jonathan calder | 3 Comments

Brian Paddick to enter I’m A Celebrity

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th November 2008 - 6:26 pm

Lib Dem London mayoral candidate Brian Paddick has been revealed as one of the contestants on the next series of ITV’s I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. The News of the World says of Brian:

Count on former Met copper Brian to stir things up in the jungle this year. Outspoken Brian – who ran for London mayor – is no stranger to controversy and no stranger to speaking his mind. You have been warned, celebs.

Brian will be appearing alongside:

Joe Swash
Simon Webbe
Esther Rantzen
Carly Zucker
Nicola McLean
Martina Navratilova
Robert Kilroy-Silk
Dani Behr
George Takei

And if you’ve never heard of half of them, the …

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Posted in News | Tagged brian paddick | 26 Comments

CommentIsLinked@LDV: James Graham – ”Change’ in the valleys’

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th November 2008 - 6:10 pm

Lib Dem Voice has mentioned before the distinct lack of liberal commentary in the mainstream media; but we do of course have many Lib Dems who contribute with varying degrees of regularity to national newspapers and magazines. Whenever these appear, LDV is delighted to link to them: simply drop us a line at [email protected].

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog, James Graham takes a look back at the race for the Lib Dem presidency, and looks forward to the contest for leader of the Welsh Lib Dems. Read it in full here, but here’s a teaser:

The

…

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Posted in LibLink | Leave a comment

Beith: church disestablishment “not necessary”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th November 2008 - 10:55 am

The Religious Intelligence website has the story:

A DISESTABLISHED Church is not part of a truly liberal society, the British MP Sir Alan Beith has said.

Speaking at the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum’s inaugural Gladstone Lecture , Sir Alan told members of the Liberal Democrat party that “disestablishment is not a necessary feature of a diverse and multi-cultural society.”

He said: “I know of no evidence that significant numbers of Muslims, Jews, Hindus or Sikhs are at all interested in getting the Church of England disestablished, and it is no longer a popular view with nonconformists or Catholics as it

…

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Posted in News | 58 Comments

Lib Dem MP urges charity fines for mobile phone menace MPs

By Stephen Tall | Tue 11th November 2008 - 10:45 am

Greg Mulholland, Lib Dem MP for Leeds North West, has urged House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin to introduce fines whenever an MP’s phone rings in the chamber. His proposal came after Culture Secretary Andy Burnham was repeatedly interrupted by Tory MP John Whittingdale’s Blackberry (he was, apparently, unaware how to switch it off).

BBC.co.uk takes up the story:

Calling a point of order minutes later, Mr Mulholland, a former Leeds city councillor raised the subject of the interruption. He said: “Whilst accepting that we’re all fallible in terms of the potential to leave our mobile phones on, may I recommend

…

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Posted in Parliament | 2 Comments

Michael Brown goes on trial

By Stephen Tall | Mon 10th November 2008 - 1:59 pm

The Press Association reports:

One of the Liberal Democrats’ biggest donors is due to stand trial accused of fraud. Michael Brown, 42, who gave £2.4m to the party in the run-up to the 2005 General Election, faces 16 offences.

Apart from fraud-related allegations, the Glasgow-born businessman is charged with money laundering, theft and perverting the course of justice. The case will be heard at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

As Lib Dem Voice never tires of reminding readers – to even up the fact that the rest of the media can’t be bothered to report all the facts – this was the verdict …

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Posted in News | Tagged electoral commission | 6 Comments

Never mind about Parliament, Hazel: what about actually giving real power to real people?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 9th November 2008 - 12:20 pm

Forget Hazel Blears’ ill-considered assault on ‘nihilistic’ blogging, in her speech to the Hansard Society this week: let’s consider instead her attack on politicians who live on ‘Planet Politics’:

… there is a trend towards politics being seen as a career move rather than call to public service. Increasingly we have seen a ‘transmission belt’ from university activist, MPs’ researcher, think-tank staffer, Special Adviser, to Member of Parliament, and ultimately to the front bench. Now, there’s nothing wrong with any of those jobs, but it is deeply unhealthy for our political class to be drawn from narrowing social base and

…

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Posted in Op-eds | 6 Comments

What next for Lembit?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 8th November 2008 - 5:10 pm

That’s the question after Ros Scott’s landslide victory in the race to become party president. Lembit is, without doubt, one of the party’s stars: he has charisma, a sense of humour, a strong liberal streak, and is a terrific speaker.

And yet somehow all that talent, all that energy, seems to be channelled in an unfocused campaign to become … well, who knows what? Lembit resigned from the Lib Dem shadow cabinet to stand as President, and so, for the moment at least, he has no official role within the party. He said it was the role he had always …

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Posted in Party Presidency | 20 Comments

LDV party president polls – not so very far off

By Stephen Tall | Sat 8th November 2008 - 3:51 pm

Well, I’m not going to pretend that the Lib Dem Voice members’ surveys predicted the outcome of the party presidential race within a statistical margin of error. But it is interesting to see – in the first test of the surveys in an internal election – that they were reflective of how the wider membership actually voted.

October survey:
Chandila Fernando – 3%
Lembit Opik 10%
Ros Scott – 61%
I don’t know yet, but will definitely vote 23%
I won’t be voting – 3%

There is one measure on which the LDV members’ surveys are certainly unrepresentative of the membership (sadly): while in …

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Posted in LDV Members poll, News and Party Presidency | Tagged lembit opik and ros scott | 4 Comments

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Bridget Fox – ‘Barack Obama lit up my bonfire night’

By Stephen Tall | Sat 8th November 2008 - 11:22 am

Lib Dem Voice has mentioned before the distinct lack of liberal commentary in the mainstream media; but we do of course have many Lib Dems who contribute with varying degrees of regularity to national newspapers and magazines. Whenever these appear, LDV is delighted to link to them: simply drop us a line at [email protected].

The latest blog of Bridget Fox, Lib Dem PPC for Islington South and Finsbury, is now live over at The Guardian’s website, discussing the drama of the US presidential election, and Lib Dem Islington council’s moves to create more affordable family housing. Read it in …

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged barack obama and bridget fox | Leave a comment

Telegraph: Obama’s victory speech co-written by Lib Dem

By Stephen Tall | Fri 7th November 2008 - 5:36 pm

The Telegraph has the rather surprising story of Jacob Rigg’s something-to-tell-the-grandkids-about claim to fame:

The US President-elect’s speech to hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago on Tuesday was one of the most widely-watched and repeated political addresses in recent history.

It was also partly written in a flat in Notting Hill, West London.

Parts of the speech were crafted by Jacob Rigg, a volunteer advisor to the Obama campaign.

Mr Rigg works for The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, which lobbies and advises on tax issues, including the rules that apply to non-domiciled foreigners living in the UK.

He also

…

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Posted in LDVUSA | 13 Comments

What does Glenrothes mean for the Lib Dems?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 7th November 2008 - 10:05 am

In the scheme of things, it seems unlikely that this week will be best remembered by history for a by-election in Scotland; but, still, the Glenrothes was (as politicians under the kosh of bad polls are prone to note) about real votes in a real election.

And the Lib Dems tanked. The party’s vote dropped by 10%, our meagre 947 votes failing to save our deposit, with the added ignominy of finishing behind the Tories. None of which can be any reflection on our candidate, Harry Wills. But it must cause the rest of us to reflect. In a

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged glenrothes by-election | 29 Comments

BBC Question Time: open thread

By Stephen Tall | Thu 6th November 2008 - 10:15 pm

Well, there may be no Lib Dem parliamentarian on tonight’s BBC Question Time (BBC1 and online, 10.35 pm GMT), but there is a well-known supporter, musician Brian Eno, formerly of Roxy Music star and an adviser to Nick Clegg.

Brian will be appearing on the panel alongside the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw, Conservative shadow security minister Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, the leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage, and playwright and critic Bonnie Greer.

They will, doubtless be discussing the implications of this week’s historic US election vote, and doubtless picking over the entrails of …

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Posted in Lib Dem TV | Tagged bbc question time | 14 Comments

1.5% bank rate cut; Vince vindicated, again

By Stephen Tall | Thu 6th November 2008 - 4:41 pm

In a surprise move, the Bank of England today cut the official base rate of interest by 1.5% to 3%, the lowest level in half a century. The move’s been welcomed by Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable – not surprisingly, as he has consistently called for deep interest rate cuts in the last few weeks. Take, for instance, his appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions, standing in for leader Nick Clegg, on 15th October:

I sense that the Minister does not realise that there is a very real emergency. Given that there is that very real emergency,

…

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Posted in News | Tagged vince cable | 2 Comments

Blears on blogging: bad timing and bad analysis?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 6th November 2008 - 9:48 am

Hazel Blears’ speech to the Hansard Society is attracting a fair amount of attention in the blogosphere today, perhaps not surprisingly given the inclusion of this paragraph:

This brings me to the role of political bloggers. Perhaps because of the nature of the technology, there is a tendency for political blogs to have a Samizdat style. The most popular blogs are rightwing, ranging from the considered Tory views of Iain Dale, to the vicious nihilism of Guido Fawkes. Perhaps this is simply anti-establishment. Blogs have only existed under a Labour government. Perhaps if there was a Tory government, all the

…

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Posted in News | Tagged guido fawkes, iain dale and Liberal Conspiracy | 9 Comments

Is the SNP a shoo-in for Glenrothes? (Or is Labour lowering expectations?)

By Stephen Tall | Thu 6th November 2008 - 9:38 am

The Daily Mail’s Ben Brogan at least is convinced that Labour are down-and-out in today’s Scottish by-election:

Labour word is that Glenrothes is a lost cause. The SNP will take it by 1500, give or take 500. I don’t detect a Brown Central attempt to prepare a “shock” win. Instead they say that had they had a few days more it might have made a difference, and that without Gordon and Sarah Brown’s personal intervention the result would be far worse. So the good news is that defeat will be masked by the Obama euphoria.

Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged glenrothes by-election | 9 Comments

LDVUSA: Presidential Prediction competition results (unofficial)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 5th November 2008 - 6:07 pm

Well, the outcome’s in no doubt, but the actual result is – which means we can’t yet officially announce a winner of our Lib Dem Voice Presidential Prediction competition.

As it stands, we’re still pending the official confirmation of who has gained North Carolina’s 15 electoral college votes. At the moment, it’s narrowly in the Obama fold, in which case the final electoral college vote will be: Obama 364, McCain 174.

If that’s eventually confirmed it will mean Joe (the) Taylor, Lib Dem blogger and councillor, and US electoral expert, will have duly triumphed, with an on-the-nose prediction. In which case, we won’t need to use our tie-breaker, the popular vote, where the current projection is Obama 52%, McCain 46%.

In fact a number of competition entrants came pretty damn close in the end. Here they are in descending order of closeness (assuming that North Carolina vote holds true for Obama):

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Posted in LDVUSA | 13 Comments

Obama’s acceptance speech

By Stephen Tall | Wed 5th November 2008 - 9:29 am

If you weren’t up to watch it live at 5am GMT (as the hard-core of LDV readers were), then do take 18 minutes out of your day today to watch President-elect Obama’s acceptance speech, delivered shortly after his stunning election victory over Senator John McCain was confirmed.

The rhetoric is, as ever, dazzlingly revivalist – in many ways I’m an Obama-sceptic, but I defy anyone not to be bestirred by his words. Note, too, the perfect poise of this guy; the immense calm, stillness and assurance he projects. Who knows what kind of President he will make? But it’s hard to imagine a more impressive Presidential candidate.

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Posted in LDVUSA | 7 Comments

Congratulations President-elect Obama

By Stephen Tall | Wed 5th November 2008 - 4:46 am

Well, who imagined we could ever use that headline? No matter how many times it’s repeated – to the point the cliche becomes stale – this is a truly historic moment, both for President-elect Barack Obama, and for the American people. We at Lib Dem Voice salute you.

If you want to re-live the night through the LDV live-blog, click here. And if you want to see what folk were prepared to predict the result would be before the election, then click here.

Feel free to continue the morning-after-the-night-before discussions here…

Posted in LDVUSA | 15 Comments