Author Archives: The Voice

The Voice

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:

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

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

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

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

  1. 2015 : 124 seats
  2. The Keynes vs Hayek debate on radio 4 recently
  3. If there were only Republicans, which would you vote for?
  4. Imprints
  5. Uk IT/Engineering graduate unemployment c.f. Germany

5 from the LDV archive

(19th August, 2007-10)

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

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

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 and | 1 Comment
The Voice

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:

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

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

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

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

  1. Social media block for rioters?
  2. Is Dan Snow a Lib-Dem?
  3. Rubber bullet anecdote
  4. US debt settlement a catastrophe
  5. What counts as BAME?

5 from the LDV archive

(12 August, 2006-09)

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

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

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 …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | Leave a comment
The Voice

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:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 25 Comments
The Voice

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:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged | 17 Comments
The Voice

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:

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

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Online politics | Tagged and | Leave a comment
The Voice

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 …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
The Voice

How you can help Liberal Democrat Voice

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

Continue reading »
Posted in Site news | 1 Comment
The Voice

‘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

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 10 Comments
The Voice

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:

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 2 Comments
The Voice

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

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Council by-elections | Tagged , and | 4 Comments
The Voice

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.

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , , , and | 3 Comments
The Voice

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

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 12 Comments
The Voice

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:

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

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

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

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

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 29 Comments
The Voice

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 …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
The Voice

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:

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

Huhne ‘orders inquiry into fossil fuel lobby influence over Tory MEPs’

By The Voice | Sun 24th July 2011 - 1:20 pm

From the Guardian this week:

Chris Huhne has ordered a private inquiry into which fossil fuel lobbyists “got to” the Conservative MEPs who defied David Cameron and voted down an ambitious carbon emissions target in the European parliament on 5 July.

“I have asked for a full analysis of what happened,” said the energy and climate change minister, speaking at an event in parliament. “We thought the vote was going to be close, but it was not close. We want to see which lobby groups managed to get to the MEPs.”

New research by the Guardian and Greenpeace into lobby groups and

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , and | 7 Comments
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 22 July 2011

By The Voice | Fri 22nd 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

  1. LibLink | Vince Cable: I declared war on Murdoch… now everyone agrees with me (25 comments) by Helen Duffett
  2. Police and Crime Commissioners: Lib Dem candidates start here (17 comments) by Helen Duffett
  3. Opinion: David Laws takes another step on the road to redemption (26 comments) by Mark Valladares
  4. Opinion: Stephenson resignation – the bar just got lowered (22 comments) by Richard Morris
  5. Opinion: Cameron’s ten big mistakes – more please! (21 comments) by Paul Walter

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

  1. What’s your favourite Murdoch smear of the Lib Dems?
  2. The next battle after Murdoch?
  3. Materials for local campaigning – your views wanted!
  4. FOI requests er… request
  5. Elected Police Commissioners

5 from the LDV archive

(22nd July, 2007-10)

  1. An Interview with the Whips Office – comfy chairs will be provided… (0 comments) by Dominic Addington, from 2010
  2. Moving to an elected second chamber – a loss of expertise, or just privilege (9 comments) by Alex Runswick, from 2010
  3. Tall photographer stopped again by police (7 comments) by Helen Duffett, from 2009
  4. CommentIsLinked@LDV… Nick Clegg: MPs’ holiday betrayal (0 comments) by The Voice, from 2009
  5. Join us on Facebook! (1 comment) by Alex Foster, from 2008

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

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

Stephen Williams: Labour spent £38m taxpayer cash on News International advertising

By The Voice | Wed 20th July 2011 - 3:19 pm

From a party news release:

The Government spent nearly £38m on advertising in News International titles between 2005 and 2010, a Parliamentary answer to Co-chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Treasury Committee, Stephen Williams, has revealed.

The figures show:

  • More than £17m was spent advertising in The Sun, including £4.5m between April 2009 and March 2010.
  • More than £7m was spent advertising in the News of the World, including £1.8m between April 2009 and March 2010.
  • £877,153 was spent advertising in all News International titles between April 2010 and March 2011.

Commenting, Stephen Williams said:

Despite the dire state of public finances, the Labour Government continued

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged and | 10 Comments
The Voice

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #230

By The Voice | Sun 17th July 2011 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 230th 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 (10-16 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:

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

What made the Mail, the Express and the Telegraph keen to see Nick Clegg doing more of his job?

By The Voice | Sat 16th July 2011 - 2:47 pm

An odd set of messages this week from some of the right-wing press: the Mail, the Express and Telegraph all ran pieces criticising Nick Clegg for taking his children to school, while being essential to the smooth running of the country.

In a classic bit of pandering/flamebait (delete according to taste), they variously criticise Clegg for not working 24 hours a day before concluding that he is “powerful”, “Co-Prime Minister” and “the second most senior politician in the land”.

The Express’s Virginia Blackburn likes to think of Clegg as “a commanding figure, a statesman, a diplomat representing his …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 8 Comments
The Voice

The LDV Friday Five: 15 July 2011

By The Voice | Fri 15th 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

  1. Opinion: Nick Clegg didn’t suck up to Murdoch – that’s why his minions tried to destroy him (28 comments) by James Percival
  2. Stephen Gilbert MP writes: UK housing policy in crisis (22 comments) by Stephen Gilbert MP
  3. In Praise of Nick Davies, the British Bernstein & Woodward to Murdoch’s Nixon (8 comments) by Stephen Tall
  4. Opinion: Liberal Democrats didn’t just avoid Murdoch, we tried to cut him down to size (37 comments) by James Percival
  5. Brian Paddick writes: The Lib Dem Guide to phone hacking (10 comments) by Brian Paddick

5 sample LDV Members’ Forum threads

  1. That old time zone issue
  2. Switching to renewable energy
  3. Generation Y – the key to community politics?
  4. News Corporation – Vince was Right – Dare we say it?
  5. Someone should send this guy a membership form…

5 from the LDV archive

(14-15 July, 2007-10)

  1. What a difference three months makes #nickcleggsfault (16 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2010
  2. Opinion: With Liverpool in my mind (26 comments) by Ed Randall, from 2010
  3. CommentIsLinked@LDV: Chris Huhne – Fresh questions for the News of the World (0 comments) by the Voice, from 2009
  4. Channel 4 News: Zac Goldsmith has “questions to answer” about election spending (17 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2010
  5. Nick gets the Twitter-bug (0 comments) by Stephen Tall, from 2009

5 top reader search returns to get to LDV

(excluding Liberal Democrat Voice or its variants)

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

“Liberal Way Forward for the Press: Free, Accountable, Plural” – Nick Clegg’s speech in full

By The Voice | Thu 14th July 2011 - 3:15 pm

This morning Nick Clegg gave a speech on freedom, accountability and plurality of the media at the Institute for Government in London.

Here’s the full text:

This has been one of those weeks in which it really feels like something big has changed. Pillars of the British establishment have been put under the spotlight – the media, politicians, the police – with public confidence in each crumbling before us.

As the Prime Minister explained yesterday, the Government has set up an Inquiry into these events. A two-stage, judge-led Inquiry looking, without delay, at the culture, ethics and practices of the British

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Speeches | Tagged , and | 12 Comments
The Voice

“Yates must go” – Dee Doocey exposes News International and Met Police’s cosy relationship

By The Voice | Tue 12th July 2011 - 5:18 pm

A Freedom of Information Request has revealed that the then Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman and Assistant Commissioner John Yates had lunches and dinners with News of the World and executives of News International while investigating alleged criminal allegations against the News of the World.

Dee Doocey, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly policing spokesperson and member of the Metropolitan Police Authority said:

Such a cosy relationship between the News of the World, News International and senior Met police officers who were leading an inquiry into the News of the World phone hacking allegations goes to the very heart of the

…

Continue reading »
Posted in London and News | Tagged , , , , , and | 2 Comments
The Voice

Clegg urges Murdoch to reconsider BSkyB bid

By The Voice | Mon 11th July 2011 - 2:08 pm

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Tagged , , and | 16 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Martin
    I don't know who wrote the headline, but I'd just make the point that there aren't many windmills in the UK. There are still a few that mill ...
  • Chris Webb
    Very sensible recommendations. We may not like China, but this is one of the key sectors they already dominate, so we have to work with them to some extent. I...
  • Richard Dickson
    In the writing on the threats vs opportunities equation that politicians have to weigh up it's odd this article didn't mention that in March Vestas announced it...
  • David Le Grice
    One thing left out here is that we were overtaken by the Welsh greens for the first time ever. Even the coalition wasn't enough to cause that to happen in Wales...
  • nigel hunter
    Those new,young Welsh Libbers , MUST be supported by the Main party to build for the future....