Author Archives: The Voice

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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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:

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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

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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 …

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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:

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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:

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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
The Voice

Murdoch faces rough ride from shareholders

By The Voice | Fri 21st October 2011 - 8:17 pm

So reports the BBC:

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The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 21 October 2011

By The Voice | Fri 21st October 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

WATCH: Chris Huhne – Save Money, Stay Warm, Go Green

By The Voice | Tue 18th October 2011 - 3:53 pm

Via YouTube here is Chris Huhne on the action he is taking over energy prices:

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

Ed Miliband: against lobbying reform before he was for it

By The Voice | Mon 17th October 2011 - 5:51 pm

Via Paul Wild and Jason Hunter:

It should be noted that 100% of Conservative MPs who took part in the lobbying reform vote also opposed lobbying reform, though that was only one MP.

Posted in News | Tagged and | 14 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #243

By The Voice | Sun 16th October 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 243rd 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 (9-15 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:

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Posted in Best of the blogs | 11 Comments
The Voice

Midnight Sunday: your last chance to win in our competition

By The Voice | Sat 15th October 2011 - 3:50 pm

A quick reminder about our competition, with prizes from MOO. It closes at midnight on Sunday – so don’t forget to enter before then.

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The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 14 October 2011

By The Voice | Fri 14th October 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

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #242

By The Voice | Sun 9th October 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 242nd 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 ( 2nd-8th 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

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Wed 5th October 2011 - 4:50 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

Liberal Democrats in Birmingham take up Chris Huhne’s energy challenge

By The Voice | Wed 5th October 2011 - 9:50 am

From the Birmingham Mail:

BIRMINGHAM City Council is hoping to slash gas and electric bills for householders and businesses by setting up its own energy supply business.

The local authority wants to use its clout as a wholesale energy buyer and solar power generator to offer gas and electric to the city’s 440,000 homes and 50,000 businesses at a cheaper rate…

The council wants to capitalise on a freeing up of the energy market announced by energy secretary Chris Huhne at last week’s Liberal Democrat Conference in Birmingham…

The city council’s deputy leader Paul Tilsley is taking up the initiative with a scheme to

…

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The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #241

By The Voice | Mon 3rd October 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 241st 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 (25 September-1 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 »
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The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 30 September 2011

By The Voice | Fri 30th September 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

A Radical Activist Grandma writes… Lib Dems must make their voice heard on mental health and disability issues

By The Voice | Thu 29th September 2011 - 12:15 pm

Suzanne Fletcher had an experience many Lib Dems have experienced at the party’s conference: she’d prepared a speech but there was not time to call her during the debate. However, Lib Dem Voice is delighted, with Suzanne’s permission, to share her thoughts with our readers…

The speech I didn’t make at Lib Dem conference on the Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) and Work Capability Assessments
First of all congratulations to the Disability Consortium for their well-run campaign to get people to come and vote in this debate, although I was certainly going to be here anyway, along with my colleagues from Stockton, …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , and | 7 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #240

By The Voice | Sun 25th September 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 240th 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 (18-24 September, 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 | 2 Comments
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 23 September 2011

By The Voice | Fri 23rd September 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

  1. Blog of the Year Awards 2011: The Shortlists (11 comments) by Helen Duffett
  2. What Lib Dem bloggers and tweeters have said about Nick’s speech (14 comments) by Stephen Tall
  3. EXCLUSIVE: 84% of Lib Dem members continue to back Lib/Con Coalition (19 comments) by Stephen Tall
  4. Opinion: Never Mention “STV” Again (29 comments) by Alex Wilcock
  5. Nick Clegg’s speech to LibDem Conference (15 comments) by Mark Pack

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

  1. Attendance at conference
  2. Ed Miliband plans to “rip up the rule book”
  3. Facing the Future
  4. Cambridge University Chancellorship Election
  5. Ed Davey made my jaw drop

5 from the LDV archive

(23rd September, 2006-10)

  1. Labour party tries to shoot the Elephant in the room (12 comments) by The Founding Editor, from 2006
  2. Opinion: Bring back the suppressed blogs (5 comments) by Mary Reid, from 2007
  3. But will the party still love him in the morning? (17 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2008
  4. Leadership v. Activists – a personal reflection on Bournemouth ’09 #ldconf (13 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2009
  5. Jo Swinson new Deputy Leader of Scottish Liberal Democrats (0 comments) by Helen Duffett, from 2010

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

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