The Public Bodies Bill has been proposed by the Coalition to allow ministers to abolish almost 200 public bodies including the Audit Commission and the Film Council.
It would also give ministers extensive new legal powers to order changes to another 150 public bodies using secondary legislation, meaning they could be abolished without further parliamentary approval.
Such powers are often called “Henry VIII” powers in reference to the Tudor monarch’s autocratic rule.
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 210th 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 (20th – 26th February, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.
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Today’s Times (£) features an interview with Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, which touches on Coalition cuts, the Budget, banks, Nick Clegg, electoral pact rumours – and even red squirrels.
Here’s a taster:
“One of the things about a coalition is it’s two different parties, with different policies and different thinking. The only way you can deal with things is through discussion based on evidence and it does mean that you have a bit more formality about the processes of government than perhaps existed before.”
When he took over at the Treasury, his predecessor left him a note saying
The BBC reports from Southampton Magistrates Court:
A Liberal Democrat MP has described allegations he was a paedophile as “absolutely untrue and offensive”.
Mike Hancock told Southampton Magistrates’ Court he was “horrified” by a leaflet published during last year’s general election.
The court heard Les Cummings, who was standing against the MP, had written: “Mike Hancock is a paedophile”.
He denies making a false statement with the purpose of affecting the result of the election in Portsmouth South.
Mr Cummings, 66, from Portsmouth, is accused of publishing the leaflet last April, while he was standing against Mr Hancock as an independent for the Justice
Nick Clegg’s visit to Sheffield yesterday included the first in a new series of town hall meetings – this one in partnership with local newspaper the Sheffield Star:
THEY say the best form of defence is attack, which is exactly what Sheffield Hallam MP and the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg decided to do by launching a new wave of meet the people sessions, here in his home city.
Mr Clegg is the first to admit he is under fire at the moment. He faces a barrage of criticism about his decision to renege on his promise not to vote for
In today’s Times (£) Paddy Ashdown argues that the Ministry of Defence is “no longer fit for purpose.”
Ashdown says that the current government are not making enough progress with addressing the Ministry’s problems: the large annual deficit, bureaucratic blunders and project overruns and puts them down to a lack of political direction.
Here’s an excerpt:
The dust is now settling on the Strategic Defence and Security Review, published last October. And what it reveals is that the deeply painful cuts already announced are not going to be enough to balance the books. There will have to be more — there may
Diary details released by the Metropolitan Police show that senior police officers met personally with senior editorial staff from the News of the World eight times in the last two years alone and a further five times in the previous three years. The tally excludes any general crime briefings or encounters at social events put on by third parties.
Dee Doocey, Liberal Democrat London Assembly Policing Spokesperson, has reacted to this revelation saying,
I find it quite extraordinary that when allegations about illegal phone hacking relating to the News of the World were still unresolved that the Met Commissioner thought it
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 209th 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 (13th-19th February, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.
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Liberal Democrats celebrated a gain in the latest council by-elections from Tories who, however, defended two other marginal seats and control of South Cambridgeshire District.
Andrew Bannerman triumphed for Lib Dems at Quarry and Coton Hill, Shropshire despite a strong intervention by Labour which did not fight last time.
The result in Quarry and Coton Hill:
LD Andrew Bannerman 356 (41.8; +5.7)
Con 268 (31.5; -12.1)
Lab 197 (23.1; +23.1)
Ind 30 (3.5; -2.3)
Labour councils are cutting far more jobs than their Conservative and Liberal Democrat neighbours – on average 50% more than Tory councils, according to figures revealed by the Guardian:
Labour authorities have issued on average 745 job “at-risk” notifications, compared with 498 and 414 respectively from Tory and Lib Dem councils.
The figures are the first to confirm that Labour councils are making bigger cuts and appear to bolster claims by David Cameron and Nick Clegg that Labour councils are cutting and then blaming the coalition for “politically motivated” reasons.
However, the Guardian’s analysis also reveals that Labour authorities are suffering the
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 208th 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 (6th-12th February, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.
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Peers who are currently trying to block a referendum on the use of the Alternative Vote in General Elections are about to use AV to replace one of their own members in the House of Lords.
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.
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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 …
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 207th 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 (30th January -5th February, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.
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As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:
An email, forwarded on behalf of Ed Miliband’s director of strategy, Tom Baldwin, to all shadow cabinet teams warns Labour spokespeople to avoid linking hacking with the BSkyB bid, to accept ministerial assurances that meetings with Rupert Murdoch are not influencing that process, and to ensure that complaints about tapping are made in a personal, not shadow ministerial, capacity…
It goes on: “Downing Street says that Cameron’s dinners with Murdoch will not affect Hunt’s judgement. We have to take them at their word.” …
The guidance concludes with the warning, “We must guard against anything which appears
A “lost” hoard of emails sent by senior executives in Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire at the height of the phone-hacking scandal has been found, The Independent has learnt.
Detectives from the Metropolitan Police are now expected to examine the database of emails in their renewed search for News of the World journalists who may have hacked into mobile phone messages or hired private detectives to do so in breach of privacy laws…
The claim that emails had been lost was made by the News of the World’s Scotland editor Bob Bird during the perjury trial of the former Scottish
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 206th 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 (23rd -29th January, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed.
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Today’s Financial Times carries an interview with Nick Clegg in which he signals the Coalition is shifting its attention towards promoting growth after the last eight months’ focus on cuts:
The deputy prime minister admitted the 0.5 per cent fall in economic output at the end of last year was “very disappointing” but said that rebuilding the public finances was an essential plank of restoring growth.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Mr Clegg said he would tell world financial leaders at Davos that the coalition would not be deflected by increasingly strong Labour attacks on its economic policy. “We will maintain
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 205th 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 (16th-22nd January, 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:
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 204th 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 (9th-15th January, 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:
Comment away… and whilst we await the result there is new of a likely third Parliamentary by-election in 2011 in addition to the one expected in Barnsley Central. This one is Leicester South.
2am update –
The result of the Oldham East and Saddleworth Parliamentary by-election:
Labour 14,718
LD Elwyn Watkins 11,160
Conservatives 4,481
UKIP 2,029
BNP 1,560
Green 530
Monster Raving Loony 145
English Democrats 144
Bus Pass Elvis 67
Pirate 96
48.06% turnout
Labour HOLD.
Debbie Abrahams is the new MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth.
Following today’s story on Sky News alleging that Dr Vincent McKee has committed fraud,
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said:
With the support of the Federal party, the regional party launched an immediate investigation.
Mr McKee has been suspended from the party, pending the outcome of further investigations. The party will work with all other authorities involved in this matter.
Nick Clegg used a prime-time slot on this morning’s Today Programme to make clear his view that the public will take a “more rounded view” of the Lib Dems’ achievements in government by the next election. As BBC News reports:
said the effect of the spending cuts would be “difficult”, adding: “But I think at the same time there are signs that the repair job we are doing on the government finances and the general creation of greater confidence in the economy might also start showing itself as well.
“I think it will be a crucial year – a crucial year, yes, of some very challenging circumstances for millions of people in this country, but I hope the beginning of a real turnaround as we move forward and as we successfully implement the repair job on the economy.” …
Asked whether the Lib Dems had been unsuccessful in implementing their manifesto commitments since forming the coalition, he replied that they had gone into the arrangement with the Conservatives “with our eyes wide open”. He said policies such as electoral reform, raising the point at which people pay basic-rate income tax and introducing a “pupil premium” to help children from the worst-off families had been largely due to his party’s efforts. Mr Clegg added: “I think this shows a clear liberal direction to this government, on the whole.”
He said: “These are the big benefits in British life which I acknowledge in a sense don’t present themselves immediately to people. Over the course of this parliament I believe people will take a more rounded view of what this government is doing.”
You can listen to a brief excerpt from Nick’s interview here:
Jana We don’t need a cap on donations - we need a cap on total spending by each political party, both on routine running costs each year and on specific election c...
Mohammed Amin I have just read the full story on PoliticsHome. It is sobering to be reminded how quickly things can change.
I congratulate Anna Sabine on being open about ...
David Vigar Good thinking. And close to the fundamental beliefs of Paddy Ashdown, with whom I worked in the 1990s. His thinking was that if every citizen could fulfil their...
Peter Martin It's really nothing new that politics is dominated by "big money". It's not all about donations to political parties. We've seen the effects that Murdoch's news...
Chloe "Are you suggesting their ‘super-rich supporters’ are doing it out of pure altruism, Jana, or do you think they want to get something out of it"...
If you ...
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Focus delivery, Mexican style
Mixed messages from Plaid Cymru
Patrick Stillman announced as Liberal Democrat candidate for Holborn and St Pancras by-election
Mother Damnable and the curse of Camden Town tube station
"Change the locks on the Penny Lane Community Centre," urges local councillor Richard Kemp
Jana 
Mohammed Amin 
David Vigar 
Peter Martin 
Chloe 