Author Archives: 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 An investigation prompted by an anonymous e-mail, suggesting Mr Carr had wrongly withdrawn money from the bank account of The Needles Lodge of the Freemasons.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

…

Posted in News | Tagged bob blezzard, isle of wight and mike carr | 4 Comments

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

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

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 …

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

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 …

Posted in News and Scotland | Tagged devolution, Ming Campbell and willie rennie | 3 Comments

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 …

Posted in News | Tagged economy, jo ingold, linda jack, margaret phelps, nick rijke, richard grayson, ron beadle, ruth bright, simon hebditch, stephen haseler and stephen knight | 53 Comments

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:

Posted in London | Tagged boris johnson and heathrow | 3 Comments

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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | 2 Comments

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:

Posted in Best of the blogs | Leave a comment

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

…

Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged European referendum and martin horwood | 13 Comments

Murdoch faces rough ride from shareholders

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

So reports the BBC:

Posted in News | Tagged journalism and rupert murdoch | Leave a comment

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

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

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:

Posted in News | Tagged chris huhne, green deal and save money stay warm and go green | 4 Comments

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 ed miliband and lobbying | 14 Comments

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:

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

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

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

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Author Archives: The Voice

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

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