Author Archives: The Voice

The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #252

By The Voice | Sun 18th December 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 252nd weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (11-17 December, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 16 December 2011

By The Voice | Fri 16th December 2011 - 5:00 pm

It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

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The Voice

Election results thread

By The Voice | Thu 15th December 2011 - 11:15 pm

Most eyes will be on the Feltham & Heston Parliamentary by-election, but there are also a handful of council by-elections being held including a double-header in near-by Kingston, where the Liberal Democrats are trying to take two seats off the Conservatives.

We will update the site in due course with the results and party reaction, but for the time being here is a discussion thread…

UPDATE:

Sky News reports turnout in Feltham & Heston at 31%. Very low, but also in typical Sky ‘never wrong for long’ style, wrong. Turnout turns out to be even lower: 28.8%. It was 59.9% at the general …

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged and | 24 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #251

By The Voice | Sun 11th December 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 251st weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (4-10 December, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can 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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The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 9 December 2011

By The Voice | Fri 9th December 2011 - 5:00 pm

It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

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Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment
The Voice

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Tue 6th December 2011 - 4:44 pm

The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that’s fine, we’re grateful for people taking the time to read the site.

You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are four simple ways:

1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there’s something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you’re an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or you’ve seen …

Continue reading »
Posted in Site news | Leave a comment
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #250

By The Voice | Sun 4th December 2011 - 10:17 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 250th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (27 November – 3 December, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can 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:

Continue reading »
Posted in Best of the blogs | 1 Comment
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 2 December 2011

By The Voice | Fri 2nd December 2011 - 5:00 pm

It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

Continue reading »
Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment
The Voice

Pack & Tall Debate… What’s the Lib Dem economic narrative now?

By The Voice | Fri 2nd December 2011 - 8:15 am

In the week of the Chancellor’s autumn statement, LibDemVoice co-editors Mark Pack and Stephen Tall debate what it all means for the Lib Dems…

Stephen Tall: So we now all know the painful financial reality. With growth forecasts revised down by the Chancellor in his autumn statement, austerity is here to stay.

Both Lib Dems and Tories had hoped and expected that three years of painful cutbacks would be followed by a year or two of pre-election giveaways — the Lib Dems would press for a balanced mix of increased public spending …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 30 Comments
The Voice

Danny Alexander on the Autumn Statement

By The Voice | Tue 29th November 2011 - 1:50 pm

Here’s the email from Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, on the Autumn Statement:

Today’s Autumn Statement has been delivered in incredibly difficult and uncertain economic times. But as Liberal Democrats, Nick, myself and the Ministerial team have worked hard to ensure the Autumn Statement as a package of measures remains true to our party’s values and to the commitment we made to the British people when the coalition was founded. Every decision has been informed by our desire to help to people working hard to make ends meet in difficult times and to put the economy on the …

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Posted in News | Tagged and | 15 Comments
The Voice

Tim Gordon appointed new Liberal Democrat Chief Executive

By The Voice | Mon 28th November 2011 - 1:01 pm

Here’s the news from the party:

Tim Gordon brings to the role a lifetime of commitment to the Party, as a volunteer, campaigner and candidate, but also a strong commercial background and clearly demonstrated leadership qualities.

Tim Gordon has been a Party activist since his teens, when he first volunteered for the SDP “Yes to Unity” campaign, and has since campaigned in every major election. He stood as parliamentary candidate in Rotherham in 2005. He worked as a researcher for David Steel when he was Foreign Affairs spokesperson, and has been a member of several policy working groups over the years. He …

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged , , and | 11 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #249

By The Voice | Sun 27th November 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 249th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (20-26 November, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can 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:

Continue reading »
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The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #248

By The Voice | Sun 20th November 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 248th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (13-19 November, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can 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:

Continue reading »
Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment
The Voice

Lynne Featherstone to propose stalking – in person or online – to be made an offence

By The Voice | Mon 14th November 2011 - 10:45 am

Lib Dem equalities minister Lynne Featherstone is in the news for examining proposals to make the specific offence of stalking a criminal offence. The Independent reports:

Stalkers are to face jail under government plans to create a new criminal offence after prosecutors admitted it was hard to bring cases to court.

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat Home Office minister, on a visit to Manchester, unveil proposals to introduce a specific offence of stalking, potentially also covering cyber-stalking. A three-month consultation will also look at the use of restraining orders and police attitudes to stalking cases, following concern that the treatment

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
The Voice

Rennie challenges SNP to set fair access test for Scottish universities

By The Voice | Mon 14th November 2011 - 8:12 am

The Press Association reports:

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called on the Scottish Government to put a fair access policy in place, or extend the remit of the the Office of Fair Access north of the border. He said this would not only address the fair access gap for poorer students from England and Wales, but also improve the chances of Scottish students deciding to go to university.

Mr Rennie said: “With Scottish universities now able to set fees of up to £9,000 a year, and Edinburgh and St Andrews universities now the most expensive place to study in the

…

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Posted in News and Scotland | Tagged , , and | Leave a comment
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #247

By The Voice | Sun 13th November 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 247th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (6-12 November, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can 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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The Voice

Clegg and Teather announce free childcare places set to rise

By The Voice | Sat 12th November 2011 - 7:55 pm

Here’s a party press release worth sharing…

140,000 disadvantaged two-year-olds to benefit from free early education

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Liberal Democrat children’s minister Sarah Teather have published proposals to give 140,000 disadvantaged toddlers 15 hours of free early years education.

This is a key Liberal Democrat policy delivered by the Coalition Government. It builds upon our achievement of extending free childcare to 15 hours a week for all three and four-year-olds.

Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said:

“Giving children a fair start in life is at the heart of what I and the Liberal Democrats are about. It

…

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The Voice

Calling all Lib Dem bloggers… Orwell Prize 2012 open to entries

By The Voice | Fri 11th November 2011 - 3:53 pm

A short public service announcement for the benefit of all Lib Dem bloggers follows:

Entries for the Orwell Prize 2012 are now open, for political writing first published in 2011. Entries will remain open until Wednesday 18 January 2012. Full details of the launch, including this year’s judges, are available on our website, www.theorwellprize.co.uk.

Online forms for the Journalism Prize, Blog Prize and Book Prize are now available (along with PDF versions of the Journalism and Book Prize forms), along with the rules and values of the Prize, at http://theorwellprize.co.uk/the-orwell-prize/how-to-enter/. Entry for all three Prizes is completely FREE.

As

…

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged | Leave a comment
The Voice

That’s the way to do it! How Liberal Democrats made the running on the Localism Bill

By The Voice | Wed 9th November 2011 - 10:15 am

Annette Brooke MP and Lord (Graham) Tope are the Lib Dem Co-Chairs of the Parliamentary Policy Committee on Communities and Local Government, and led the Lib Dem response to the Localism Bill. Here they outline what they, working with colleagues in the party and many beyond, helped achieve.

Last night the Localism Bill completed its final stage in Parliament and is set to become law when it achieves Royal Assent next week.

As Co-Chairs of the Parliamentary Policy Committee on Communities and Local Government, it has been our job over the last ten months to lead on the Bill for the party. We’ve helped shepherd it through both Houses of Parliament, and have led a Lib Dem team that in many ways has made the running on the Bill.

We’ve had strong engagement with Coalition ministers, who engaged with us constructively, particularly Greg Clark, Baroness Hanham and our very own Andrew Stunell, who was very helpful and willing to work together with us to improve the Bill considerably.

Colleagues in local government were also a constant source of help and good ideas, which never ceased to better inform our Bill team as the process went on.

Where we started from: “a good bill in theory, with several flaws in practice”

When it was first introduced, I think many Liberal Democrats would agree that it was a good bill in theory, with several flaws in practice.

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and | 13 Comments
The Voice

Pugh: we must we must be able to guarantee safety before we start fracking

By The Voice | Tue 8th November 2011 - 8:43 am

The Press Association reports:

If Britain is to benefit from a controversial drilling technique to extract gas from the ground “we must be able to guarantee safety at every stage”, a Liberal Democrat MP has said. Dr John Pugh (Southport) said without appropriate and effective monitoring of the process, public support would not be achieved.

Fracking, which involves hydraulic fracturing of shale rock using high pressure liquid, led to the tremors which hit Lancashire earlier this year. Environmental campaigners and local residents have called for an immediate halt to the exploration work, which could lead to vast untapped gas reserves. Energy firm

…

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Posted in Parliament | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #246

By The Voice | Sun 6th November 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 246th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (30 Oct-4 November, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can 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:

Continue reading »
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The Voice

Isle of Wight Lib Dems withdraw support from council candidate over masonic bank account allegations

By The Voice | Sun 6th November 2011 - 6:35 pm

The Isle of Wight County Press online reports:

MIKE Carr, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the West Wight Isle of Wight Council by-election, has been de-selected by the party days before the poll. An investigation prompted by an anonymous e-mail, suggesting Mr Carr had wrongly withdrawn money from the bank account of The Needles Lodge of the Freemasons. The money is now being paid back.
…

In a statement, Mr Carr’s election agent, Bob Blezzard, said when Mr Carr was adopted the party had been unaware of the situation that had come to light. “As a result of this information, the Liberal

…

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 4 November 2011

By The Voice | Fri 4th November 2011 - 5:00 pm

It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week:

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

Continue reading »
Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment
The Voice

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Fri 4th November 2011 - 1:56 pm

The Voice is only a success because of the interest and support from our readers. For many people just lurking and reading the site is all they want to do – and that’s fine, we’re grateful for people taking the time to read the site.

You can though help us continue to produce interesting content for a growing audience. Here are four simple ways:

1. Let us have your tips for stories. Perhaps there’s something outrageous going on in your local council? Or you’re an expert in a particular area and have spotted a story other people have missed? Or you’ve seen …

Continue reading »
Posted in Site news | Leave a comment
The Voice

Ming to head up Scottish Lib Dems’ Home Rule Commission

By The Voice | Wed 2nd November 2011 - 7:06 am

As the Scottish Lib Dems’ website announces:

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie MSP has announced that former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell MP will chair the Home Rule Commission, set up to develop a blueprint for Home Rule in Scotland. The party’s Scottish conference in Dunfermline last month voted to establish a Commission to look at a settled distribution of powers between London, Edinburgh and local councils. Sir Menzies will join other Liberal Democrats to set out a long-term vision for a strong Scotland within the UK and powerful local communities in every part of Scotland.

Here’s what …

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Posted in News and Scotland | Tagged , and | 3 Comments
The Voice

10 Lib Dems call for emergency recovery programme

By The Voice | Tue 1st November 2011 - 12:19 pm

From today’s Guardian:

We write to express broad support for the Compass Plan B proposals reported in the Observer (30 October). We are Liberal Democrat members who have campaigned hard for decades in national and local elections. We have also engaged in our party’s policymaking. For both reasons, we take seriously the policies on which we fought the last general election, in particular the belief that the Conservatives’ economic proposals would have dire consequences.

In May 2010, our party signed up, through the coalition agreement, to a series of policies against which it had recently campaigned. But out of responsibility to the …

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Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , and | 53 Comments
The Voice

What next for London’s airports?

By The Voice | Mon 31st October 2011 - 11:54 am

One of the first acts of the Coalition was to scrap plans for a third runway at Heathrow, whilst Boris Johnson’s plans for a new airport on an artifical island in the Thames Estuary have not been going anywhere much. So what next for the region’s airports?

This is what the BBC had to report:

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Posted in London | Tagged and | 3 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #245

By The Voice | Sun 30th October 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 245th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (23-29 October, 2011), together with five hand-picked posts, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can 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:

Continue reading »
Posted in Best of the blogs | 2 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #244

By The Voice | Sun 23rd October 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 244th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (16-22 October, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can 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:

Continue reading »
Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment
The Voice

Martin Horwood: the real issue facing Europe today is an unprecedented economic crisis

By The Voice | Sat 22nd October 2011 - 7:26 pm

Earlier today, we ran a guest post calling on the Liberal Democrats to back the forthcoming Parliamentary vote on a European referendum. Here is the press statement issued today by the party’s International Spokesman, Martin Horwood MP:

The Conservative right and UKIP seem hell bent in stoking a row which will threaten our stability.

The real issue facing Europe today is an unprecedented economic crisis. For Britain to start a constitutional argument at this critical moment would be fantastically irresponsible and could damage Britian’s ability to influence.

Billions of pounds of European investment in Britain is at stake as we watch an

…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged and | 13 Comments
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