Author Archives: The Voice

Follow @libdemvoice

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

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

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

The LDV Friday Five: 26 August 2011

By The Voice | Fri 26th August 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

Opinion: Time to give inheritance tax the chop (75 comments) by Rebecca Tidy
Chris Rennard writes… Can we tell what will happen in four years? (16 comments) by Chris Rennard
At his best and his worst: 5 thoughts on Tony Blair’s analysis of the UK riots (15 comments) by Stephen Tall
Opinion: the battle for the Electoral Reform Society (40 comments) by Simon McGrath
5 posts to read before casting your Electoral Reform Society council vote (10 comments) by Stephen Tall

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

5 from the LDV archive

(26th August, 2006-10)

NEW POLL: what’s the main point of the Lib Dem party conference? (12 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2008
Those Lib Dem donation figures in full (Q2, 2009) (4 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2009
Julia Goldsworthy condemns Grayling’s ‘The Wire’ comparison (13 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2009
The Independent View: are the Lib Dems being Con-ned over electoral reform? (44 comments) by J. Lee, from 2010
Liblink: Nick Clegg on fairness, the Budget and the IFS report (40 comments) by Newshound, 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 #235

By The Voice | Sun 21st August 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 235th 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 (14-20 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

The LDV Friday Five: 19 August 2011

By The Voice | Fri 19th August 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

Opinion: UK riots – the mystery of the David Willetts’ rule of post-war baby boom peaks (25 comments) by Stuart Bonar
Opinion: Our flawed drug laws are at heart of riots (41 comments) by Ewan Hoyle
Searching for the cause of the riots is asking the wrong question (61 comments) by Iain Roberts
Tim Leunig writes: Riots, Justice and Reconciliation (67 comments) by Tim Leunig
Opinion: the battle for the Electoral Reform Society (25 comments) by Simon McGrath

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

5 from the LDV archive

(19th August, 2007-10)

Opinion: Community politics has had its day – time to move on (27 comments) by Ed Maxfield, from 2010
Opinion: it’s about more than A-levels (18 comments) by Alan Belmore, from 2010
Ming in the Psychiatrist’s Chair (0 comments) by Helen Duffett, from 2009
Not quite “making it happen” (63 comments) by David Allen, from 2009
Everybody say “Aww…” (5 comments) by Richard Huzzey, 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

Voting closes on Friday….

By The Voice | Thu 18th August 2011 - 9:25 am

A quick plug for ourselves: voting closes on Friday in the Total Politics Blog Awards 2011. You can cast your votes here and if you would be so kind as to remember both The Voice and the blogs run by the various contributors to this site, that would be most spiffing. Thank you!

Posted in Online politics | Tagged blogging and total politics | 1 Comment

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #234

By The Voice | Sun 14th August 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 234th 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 (7-13 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

The LDV Friday Five: 12 August 2011

By The Voice | Fri 12th August 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

Opinion: Leading Labour figures guilty of the worst kind of opportunism (63 comments) by David Parkes
Opinion: Don’t make Guido’s day (30 comments) by Simon McGrath
What caused the riots? It’s more than just the economy, stupid. (41 comments) by Stephen Tall
David Laws set for ministerial return in autumn? (31 comments) by Stephen Tall
Brian Paddick writes: Lessons from the Tottenham riots (10 comments) by Brian Paddick

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

5 from the LDV archive

(12 August, 2006-09)

LibLink: THE shock of election night (29 comments) by NewsHound, from 2010
Opinion: there’s no pleasure in saying ‘I told you so’ – but does it need saying? (58 comments) by Alex Marsh, from 2010
Smaller Commons ‘would hit Lib Dems’ (33 comments) by Sara Bedford, from 2010
Clegg impresses MoneySavingExpert.com (4 comments) by Alex Foster, from 2009
Activate – reviewed by a participant (5 comments) by Mark Whiley, from 2009

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

Posted in Friday Five | Leave a comment

Media reform: the debates elsewhere

By The Voice | Fri 12th August 2011 - 11:54 am

As we said on Monday, Lib Dem Voice over the next few weeks is taking part in a cross-blog debate on some of the most pressing issues regarding the UK media.

Earlier this week here on The Voice Mark took a look at what the Liberal Democrats have historically said on the topic and why the flaws in Ed Miliband’s policy are no cause for rejoicing.

Elsewhere on the blogosphere, David Elstein looked at those Ed Miliband policies in detail and Dan Hind put the case for ensuring greater plurality of ownership.

Next week we will be looking …

Posted in News | Tagged dan hind, david elstein, journalism and Mark Pack | Leave a comment

Clegg: “You simply cannot go around breaking the law”

By The Voice | Thu 11th August 2011 - 3:15 pm

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has again emphasised the critical importance of retsoring law and order to the streets of Britain after the widespread rioting of the past few days. However, he also noted that — once calm is fully restored — there will be a need for a proper debate about ensuring young people in deprived areas feel they have a much greater stake in their own communities. Here’s what Nick said on the BBC this morning:

Posted in News | Tagged #ukriots and nick clegg | 25 Comments

Nick Clegg on the UK riots: “We’ve all got to work together to make sure this doesn’t happen again”

By The Voice | Wed 10th August 2011 - 8:00 am

The Deputy Prime Minister, speaking on a visit to Birmingham, pledged tough action to bring an end to the riots which have spread from London to other cities. Nick Clegg warned those who had taken part that, when caught, they would face serious consequences for their actions:

Posted in News | Tagged nick clegg | 17 Comments

Total Politics Blog Awards: voting is now open

By The Voice | Tue 9th August 2011 - 3:48 pm

It’s that time of the year again, the Total Politics blog awards, in which people very kindly voted The Voice number one Liberal Democrat blog last year.

This year the voting rules are slightly different both to remove the old system of sending in emails and also to reflect that some people blog in several different places, so you can now vote for bloggers as well as blogs:

Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. The higher you rank a blog

…

Posted in Online politics | Tagged blogging and total politics | Leave a comment

Media reform in the UK

By The Voice | Mon 8th August 2011 - 10:00 am

Anthony Barnett (Our Kingdom), Sunny Hundal (Liberal Conspiracy), Mark Pack (Lib Dem Voice) & Will Straw (IPPR) write…

July 2011 will be remembered as one of those rare moments where the nation came together in shared outrage and disgust. The hacking of Milly Dowler shocked the country and led to a series of unprecedented events which would have seemed inconceivable just weeks before. The drama culminated in the resignation and arrest of several News International executives and senior police officers; the termination of a 168-year old national newspaper; and the appearance of a humbled Rupert Murdoch before a public hearing.

The various …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged journalism, milly dowler and Phone hacking | 4 Comments

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

By The Voice | Mon 8th August 2011 - 9:23 am

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

Posted in Site news | 1 Comment

‘Nick Clegg is chasing women’, says the Indy

By The Voice | Sun 7th August 2011 - 11:05 am

Under this deliberately playful headline comes news that the Deputy Prime Minister is determined to improve his image with female voters:

… the Deputy Prime Minister is to embark on a campaign to woo female voters – and the Liberal Democrats have hired a new PR guru to help him. … on a breakneck tour of town hall Q&As and private meetings with party members … His team stresses that these are “party” events. … In the first sign of the fightback, Mr Clegg will tomorrow use a speech to debunk the suggestion that women are getting a raw

…

Posted in News | Tagged collette dunkley and nick clegg | 10 Comments

Vince: This isn’t a banking crisis, this is a debt crisis

By The Voice | Sat 6th August 2011 - 1:45 pm

Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable has sought to reassure the British public that the financial crisis currently destabilising the markets is substantially different to the 2008 crash which sparked the ‘credit crunch’ and recession.

While the Lehmans-triggered crash left the British economy reeling because of the knock-on effect on our banking-reliant financial services sector, notes Vince, this current crisis is the result of the markets’ failure to be convinced by the US and Eurozone efforts to curb sovereign debt — whereas the Coalition’s austerity measures to cut the deficit have the confidence of the markets.

Here is Vince speaking on the BBC today:

Posted in News | Tagged economy and vince cable | 2 Comments

Lib Dems gain council seat in David Laws’s constituency

By The Voice | Fri 5th August 2011 - 11:21 pm

The Press Association reports:

Liberal Democrats gained from Tories in this week’s only reported council by-election amid signs of revival in some areas following the hacking scandal.

Candidate Michael Maxwell won Somerset County Council’s South Petherton division on a big swing.

It is covered by the Yeovil constituency of the party’s former Cabinet minister David Laws.

The result comes after it defied Labour at Warrington last week by winning in a marginal ward where it had lost another seat in May’s main contests.

This suggests that Lib Dems could be benefiting from their lack of high level links to the Murdoch empire.

RESULT

Somerset County – South

…

Posted in Council by-elections | Tagged david laws, michael maxwell and somerset county council | 4 Comments

New comms team in place at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

By The Voice | Thu 4th August 2011 - 10:35 am

PR Week reports:

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has completed the process of building a nine-strong comms team for Nick Clegg, with the appointment of a Home Office senior press officer.

Helen Cook will move across from her role at the Home Office, which she has held for a year-and-a-half, later this month.

Cook will report to the chief press officer Peter Graham, and takes her place as the final link in Clegg’s comms armoury.

Sorene told PRWeek: ‘The appointment is the end of a process that started last year with the restructure of Cabinet Office and Number 10 comms.

…

Posted in News | Tagged helen cook, james sorene, nick clegg, peter graham, PR Week and robert honey | 3 Comments

Councillor Warren Swaine apologises for offensive tweet

By The Voice | Thu 4th August 2011 - 7:53 am

Reading Councillor Warren Swaine has issued an apology for his actions on 27 January.

I would like to take this opportunity apologise for making derogatory comments during the BBC Question Time programme on the 27th January especially those relating to Chuka Umunna MP. I made a lot of comments that were insulting that night and I regret that.

In respect of one particular tweet, no offense was meant but I absolutely acknowledge that it was recklessly worded and liable to an interpretation that was never intended. For that I would like to offer my sincere apologies to Mr Umunna and

…

Posted in News | Tagged chuka umunna, reading council, twitter and warren swaine | 12 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #232

By The Voice | Sun 31st July 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 232nd 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 (24-30 July, 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: 29 July 2011

By The Voice | Fri 29th July 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

Councillor Warren Swaine reinstated after Twitter race row

By The Voice | Fri 29th July 2011 - 3:46 pm

Reading Councillor Warren Swaine has had his Liberal Democrat membership restored after being accused of making a racist remark about a Labour MP in February – but will have to complete diversity training if he wishes to be an officer for the Liberal Democrat council group.

The Reading Chronicle reports:

The Lib Dems’ South Central office announced today that Reading borough councillor, Warren Swaine, who represents Katesgrove ward, will have to undergo diversity training if he wants to be a spokesman for the group in the next two years.

The decision comes more than five months after Cllr Swaine was suspended

…

Posted in News | Tagged chuka umunna, twitter and warren swaine | 29 Comments

Chris Huhne cleared over election expense claims

By The Voice | Thu 28th July 2011 - 8:44 pm

As Mark Pack reported over on his blog, for the second time allegations over Chris Huhne’s election expenses that were strongly backed by Paul Staines and Harry Cole have collapsed after the Electoral Commission investigated them:

The review concluded that one item had been under-reported by £10.15 (sic) but that otherwise the expenditure in the short and long campaign had been properly recorded and declared.

Regularly readers may recall how stridently both of them attacked people who disagreed with their claims over Huhne’s election expenses (such as in this thread, which includes Paul Staines daring anyone to bet that Chris …

Posted in News | Tagged electoral commission, harry cole, Mark Pack and paul staines | 8 Comments

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #231

By The Voice | Sun 24th July 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 231st 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 (17-23 July, 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

Op-eds

Mathew on Monday: It’s time to take big money out of British politics (Mathew Hulbert)
The liberalism we need: a platform for people to thrive and live their version of a best life (Josh Matthews)
Tom Arms’ World Review (Tom Arms)
Observations of an Expat: West Bank Settler Sanctions (Tom Arms)
Recollections of 9/11 (George Cunningham)

Advert

Sarah Olney bids to become candidate for Mayor of London

Going for four in a row in Scotland

Observations of an Expat: Canada

Happy Birthday to us!

Author Archives: The Voice

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

5 from the LDV archive

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

5 from the LDV archive

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

5 from the LDV archive

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

5 from the LDV archive

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

5 most-read stories on LDV this week

Subscribe

Most Read

Search

Op-eds

Recent Comments