Author Archives: The Voice

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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | 11 Comments

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.

Posted in News | Leave a comment

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

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

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 …

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

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

…

Posted in News | Tagged birmingham council, chris huhne, energy and paul tilsley | Leave a comment

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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

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

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

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, …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged ATOS, disabilities, employment and support allowance, mental health, suzanne fletcher and work capability assessment | 7 Comments

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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | 2 Comments

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

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

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

5 from the LDV archive

(23rd September, 2006-10)

Labour party tries to shoot the Elephant in the room (12 comments) by The Founding Editor, from 2006
Opinion: Bring back the suppressed blogs (5 comments) by Mary Reid, from 2007
But will the party still love him in the morning? (17 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2008
Leadership v. Activists – a personal reflection on Bournemouth ’09 #ldconf (13 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2009
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)

Posted in Friday Five | Tagged blogging | Leave a comment

The Independent View: Sorry ActionAid – it’s time to put people in charge of their own development

By The Voice | Tue 20th September 2011 - 11:27 am

This is a response article to ‘The Independent View: Centre Forum is wrong about aid – UK aid makes a difference’ by Centre Forum’s Pauline Dixon and Paul Marshall

Failure to allocate international aid more effectively on a rising budget will lead to a rapid decline in public support for it. This is what the CentreForum paper ‘International aid and educating the poorest’ seeks to address, and this is why ActionAid’s concerns about our paper, set out last week on Lib Dem Voice, are misplaced.

We are not opposed to international aid (ActionAid comes close to implying we are). Nor do we oppose …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged actionaid, international development, paul marshall and pauline dixon | 2 Comments

LibDem Conference passes drugs motion

By The Voice | Mon 19th September 2011 - 10:15 am

From a party press release:

Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference passed Protecting Individuals and Communities from Drug Harms, which calls for an independent panel to review current drug laws.

Commenting, Co-Chair of the Home Affairs Parliamentary Party Committee, Tom Brake MP said:

“Drugs can have a devastating impact on individuals and families and can fuel organised crime. Evidence shows that our current drug policy is costly, ineffective and it is the poor and marginalised who suffer most.

“Today, Liberal Democrats reaffirmed our support for an evidenced based drugs policy, calling for an independent panel to review current drug laws.

“We want to ensure the Government …

Posted in Conference and News | Tagged drugs and tom brake | 6 Comments

Did you miss Tim Farron’s speech? Catch up with it (and the reaction) here…

By The Voice | Mon 19th September 2011 - 9:55 am

Lib Dem party president Tim Farron’s conference speeches have quickly established themselves as must-see events: bluntly honest and genuinely funny, Tim always gets a reaction. And not just from Lib Dem conference-goers if the media reaction is anything to go by…

Coalition divorce inevitable, says Lib Dem Tim Farron (BBC)
Tim Farron lining up as post-election nuclear wasteland candidate (Guardian)
Lib Dem president Tim Farron calls for Nick Clegg to pull plug on coalition with Tories (Mirror)
Farron brings the hall to its feet (Spectator)

If you missed Tim’s speech you can catch up with it here. Full text follows…

Posted in Conference | Tagged birmingham 2011 conference and tim farron | 7 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #239

By The Voice | Sun 18th September 2011 - 7:59 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 239th 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 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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | 1 Comment

The LDV Friday Five: 16 September 2011

By The Voice | Fri 16th 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

Danny Alexander suggests £12,500 income tax threshold (25 comments) by NewsHound
The 7 Lib Dem MPs unaffected by the Boundary Commission proposals (23 comments) by Stephen Tall
MP conference fringe league table 2011: Vince is the new Simon, Simon is the new Vince (5 comments) by Mark Pack
The most exciting part of the Parliamentary Boundary review proposals (14 comments) by Mark Pack
Opinion: Time to face reality on conference security (51 comments) by Simon McGrath

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

5 from the LDV archive

(16th September, 2006-10)

Campaigning in Wales (1 comment) by Alison Goldsworthy, from 2006
Sarah Ludford: my first party conference memories (0 comments) by Sarah Ludford MEP, from 2007
An embarrassment of riches (2 comments) by Alex Foster, from 2008
Adam Boulton writes… Lib Dems should back a Leaders’ Debate (15 comments) by Adam Boulton, from 2009
Tim Farron: I’ll be a distinctive voice as President (25 comments) by Tim Farron MP, from 2010

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #238

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

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 238th 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 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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | 1 Comment

The LDV Friday Five: 9 September 2011

By The Voice | Fri 9th 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

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

Lib Dems get police commissioner elections delayed

By The Voice | Thu 8th September 2011 - 9:47 pm

Via the BBC:

The Lib Dems urged elections for police commissioners to be delayed partly to help the electoral prospects of their local councillors, the BBC understands.

The elections were due to take place on 3 May 2012, the same day as council polls across England and Wales, but are set to be put back until November.

A senior Lib Dem spokesman told BBC News their councillors wanted to “depoliticise” the vote.

Labour, which is against elected police chiefs, claims the move will cost £25m.

The issue was the subject of a spat at Prime Minister’s Questions, with opposition leader Ed Miliband saying

…

Posted in News | Tagged elected police commissioners and policing | 12 Comments

Forget airports, sort the road works – message from London business leaders

By The Voice | Tue 6th September 2011 - 6:55 pm

An opinion poll of 760 London business leaders carried out by ComRes for the new LondonLovesBusiness website found an overwhelming preference for the next Mayor of London to concentrate on sorting out roadworks rather than trying to get a new airport runway built.

Only 14% support a new Heathrow runway or a new Thames Estuary airport, but 57% want the next Mayor of London to focus on tackling roadworks disruption. Public transport is central to the business leaders’ concerns with improving public transport and transport links the most popular selection as the “single most important thing the mayor could do …

Posted in London | Leave a comment

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #237

By The Voice | Sun 4th September 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 237th 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 (28 August – 3 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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Sun 4th September 2011 - 9:25 am

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

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

The LDV Friday Five: 2 September 2011

By The Voice | Fri 2nd 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

Ken Livingstone: mine won’t be a grassroots funded campaign (23 comments) by Mark Pack
Opinion: Why millionaire graduates should stop whingeing about fees (77 comments) by Jonathan Hunt
Alex Wilcock writes… Tory boy throws toys out of pram: not exactly Man Bites Dog (19 comments) by Alex Wilcock
Liberal Democrats moving HQ : the future’s bright (11 comments) by Helen Duffett
Chris White writes: It’s nice to be hated again (19 comments) by Chris White

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

5 from the LDV archive

(2nd September, 2007-10)

Andy Coulson accused of knowing about widespread phone hacking (2 comments) by The Voice, from 2010
Nick says yes to Sky’s televised debate (7 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2009
Nick and Ming speak out on Megrahi (5 comments) by The Voice, from 2009
Smithson’s view: How can the Lib Dems exploit the Tory “Thatcher tendency”? (27 comments) by Mike Smithson, from 2008
Challenge to German’s Welsh leadership likely (4 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2007

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

The countdown to Connect has begun

By The Voice | Tue 30th August 2011 - 4:13 pm

News from Lib Dem HQ of the Liberal Democrats’ new campaign software:

Campaigning across the party is set to get a major boost when Connect comes online later this year. Connect is the UK version of the world’s leading campaign software that’s being built for the party by Voter Activation Network (VAN).

It is based on the tried and tested technology successfully used by Barack Obama and the Democrats in the US and in several other countries around the world. Connect combines high level security and stability, powerful campaigning tools …

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Tagged barack obama, connect, ed davey, jake holland and VAN | 18 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #236

By The Voice | Sun 28th August 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 236th 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 (21-27 August, 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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment