Author Archives: The Voice

Laws on the Sats’ fiasco: “The issue now is whether ministerial heads should be rolling”

By The Voice | Wed 22nd April 2009 - 12:03 pm

Ken Boston, former exam chief for England, has not minced his words when giving evidence to a committee of MPs on last summer’s Sats’ marking fiasco. The BBC reports:

Dr Boston, former head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, described ministers’ version of what happened as “fiction”. The marking of more than a million test papers taken by 11-year-olds was delayed for months when the company contracted to run the marking – ETS Europe – ran into problems. It later lost the contract. Results of the controversial tests are used to draw up the primary school league tables. Last year’s

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Posted in News | Tagged david laws and schools | Leave a comment

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable – My Budget to revive Britain’s ailing economy

By The Voice | Mon 20th April 2009 - 12:37 pm

Over at the Daily Mail, Lib Dem deputy leader and shadow chancellor Vince Cable oultines his plans to get the British economy back on track. Here’s an excerpt:

What can the Government do in the Budget to help avert an unemployment crisis? The panicky VAT cut, designed to get consumers spending again, was not a success and very expensive for the Government.

It would be better now to redirect the remaining £8.5billion set aside to public works projects which provide jobs and leave taxpayers with a useful asset at the end of it.

The obvious priority is affordable housing. Private house building has

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged budget 2009, recession and vince cable | 3 Comments

Huhne attacks RIPA snoopers’ charter: “the Government’s surveillance society has got out of hand”

By The Voice | Fri 17th April 2009 - 12:55 pm

Today’s Times reports:

Councils are to have their powers to snoop on the public severely curtailed. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, will signal government plans today to reverse the expansion of the surveillance society amid growing alarm at the extent of official spying.

And not before time, for as the paper reports elsewhere:

A survey by the Liberal Democrats found that 182 of the 475 local authorities in England and Wales had authorised the use of Ripa powers on 10,288 occasions in the past five years.

It found that 1,615 council staff have the power to authorise their use

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Posted in Big mad database, LDV campaigns and News | Tagged chris huhne, jacqui smith and ripa | 1 Comment

Vince calls for investigation into FSA’s “appallingly bad job”

By The Voice | Fri 17th April 2009 - 9:48 am

The Times reports:

The Financial Services Authority was accused last night by one of its former supervisors of complacency in its past regulation of building societies.

The unnamed whistleblower, who approached Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats Treasury spokesman, said that the FSA ignored a warning three years ago that risky self-certified loans had been packaged and sold to building societies that thought they were conventional loans.

Mr Cable has written to Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, the FSA chairman, asking him to investigate. “This man experienced first hand the appallingly bad job the FSA did of supervising the building societies,” Mr

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Posted in News | Tagged building societies, credit crunch, fsa and vince cable | 2 Comments

Huhne on Green arrest: “monumental shambles” by senior civil servants

By The Voice | Thu 16th April 2009 - 2:28 pm

Tory MP Damien Green will not face criminal charges for his alleged role in leaking confidential home office documents, the Crown Prosecutions Service has announced. Menawhile the home affairs parliamentary select committee has found that civil servants exaggerated the seriousness of the leaks, claiming they had caused ‘considerable damage to national security’.

Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne has not minced his words:

This is a monumental shambles. It is astonishing that ministers were not consulted, if the Home Affairs Select Committee is right, as they should have realised the political consequences of being seen to harass an

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Posted in News | Tagged chris huhne, damien green, home office and house of commons | 4 Comments

CommentIsLinked@LDV: David Howarth – Who are the police protecting?

By The Voice | Thu 16th April 2009 - 11:11 am

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free, Lib Dem shadow justice secretary David Howarth asks if police interference in the right to protest is designed only to protect the political and economic status quo. Here’s an excerpt:

The arrest of more than one hundred climate protesters alleged to have been planning to disrupt the operation of the Ratcliffe coal-fired power station is, I am glad to see, raising questions about undue interference in the right to protest. Prior restraint of protest, especially in the form of preventive arrest, is difficult to justify. Adding restrictive conditions to the protesters’ bail makes the

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged david howarth and policing | 1 Comment

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Jonathan Fryer – What Hope for the Middle East?

By The Voice | Wed 15th April 2009 - 6:30 pm

Over at Society Today, Lib Dem blogger and London candidate for the European Parliament Jonathan Fryer examines the prospects for peace in the troubled region. Here’s an excerpt:

… the prognosis for the future need not necessarily be as grim as the pessimists fear. First and foremost, the arrival of Barack Obama in the White House should provide a whole new dynamic to the Washington-Tel Aviv axis. In the past, US administrations – including that of George W Bush – have allowed Israel to get away with murder, literally and figuratively. That has included the ongoing expansion of Jewish settlements in

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Posted in Europe / International and LibLink | Tagged barack obama, european union, israel, jonathan fryer, middle east and palastine | Leave a comment

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Nick Clegg – A greater test is to come

By The Voice | Wed 15th April 2009 - 9:21 am

Over at The Guardian, Nick Clegg highlights that expense abuses are just one symptom of a bankrupt political culture, and argues that Britain deserves real change. Here’s an excerpt:

Britain’s MPs are facing a summer of reckoning. All 700,000 pages of their expense claims are going to be published in July. It’s an investigative journalist’s dream – reams of fodder to mock and hound the political establishment.

Many of the revelations will be relatively minor, but taken together they are significant. Last year I began publishing my expense claims voluntarily. People wrote to me asking questions about individual domestic items. Quite right

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged constitutional reform, mps expenses and nick clegg | 3 Comments

Ros Scott’s party president report, March 2009

By The Voice | Tue 14th April 2009 - 5:55 pm

Those of you wishing to find out what Lib Dem party president Baroness Ros Scott has been up to in the past month (or so) can sate your curiosity over at her Because Baronesses are people too blog. Here’s an excerpt to entice you:

March was dominated by my first Federal Conference as President and, whilst I didn’t have a setpiece speech to give – that will have to wait until September – I was still pretty busy. Opening and closing Conference, giving the Federal Executive Report, chairing Kirsty Williams’ speech (and wasn’t that a barnstormer?) plus handing out the

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Posted in Party Presidency | Tagged ros scott | 2 Comments

“Reform MPs’ pay once and for all, says Clegg”

By The Voice | Tue 14th April 2009 - 10:21 am

From today’s Independent,

The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg demanded yesterday that Gordon Brown swiftly set a date to discuss MPs’ expenses.

The Prime Minister said last week that the system of pay and perks must be sorted out “once and for all, adding that he was happy to discuss the issue with fellow party leaders.

But Mr Clegg said the email scandal engulfing No 10 had heightened the need for reforms. He said a meeting should be held “without delay to come up with a fair and open way of meeting MPs’ costs”.

He said: “As the events of the Easter weekend have

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Posted in Parliament | Tagged #MPexpenses and nick clegg | Leave a comment

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable – All aboard the 7.15 cattle truck to Westminster

By The Voice | Mon 13th April 2009 - 12:06 pm

Over at the Daily Mail, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable delivers his Easter message, examining the vexed issue of MPs’ expenses. Here’s an excerpt:

This may be a time of national economic peril, but the Home Secretary’s patio heater and the Transport Secretary’s three homes dominate the news. It is now essential that this running sore is dealt with. MPs have to move quickly and decisively to introduce a system that is clear and clean and gives taxpayers value for money.

I was pulled up short when I saw a newspaper headline ‘MPs: They’re all at it’. My first reaction was

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged mps expenses and vince cable | Leave a comment

Walk with Brian for equality

By The Voice | Sun 12th April 2009 - 3:06 pm

An email drops into The Voice’s inbox from Brighton & Hove Lib Dems, which we are very happy to share:

Liberal Democrats in Brighton and Hove are calling on colleagues from across the South East to join Brian Paddick as he leads the Stonewall Equality Walk. The annual 10km walk takes place on Sunday 3rd May from 1pm meeting at the Royal Pavilion grounds. Last year Lib Dem campaigners raised over £1,200 for Stonewall.

Lib Dem Council Group Leader Paul Elgood said: ‘Come to Brighton and help support Brian as he leads the Stonewall Equality Walk. It’ll be an enjoyable day for

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Posted in Events | Tagged brian paddick, paul elgood and stonewall | Leave a comment

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Brian Paddick – Police leaders must regain control of their subordinates

By The Voice | Sat 11th April 2009 - 12:25 pm

Over at The Independent, former Lib Dem London mayoral candidate Brian Paddick, former Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the Metroplitan Police, examines the force’s mounting problems. Here’s an excerpt:

Seeing the video of Ian Tomlinson being assaulted by a police officer during the G20 protests – an apparently innocent man being subjected to what appeared to be an unjustified assault by a police officer – provoked in me an immediate desire for the perpetrator to be suspended, tried and punished.

On the other hand, having been the victim of “trial by media” myself, I realised the need for an independent investigation, the outcome

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged brian paddick, ian tomlinson, paul stephenson and policing | 2 Comments

Liverpool Lib Dem loses election law breach appeal

By The Voice | Thu 9th April 2009 - 11:19 pm

The Liverpool Echo reports:

A LIVERPOOL councillor failed to have his conviction for breaching election law upheld . Lib Dem Steve Hurst was found guilty in December of delivering a leaflet entitled “Walton Scab”. It attacked sitting Labour councillor Pauline Walton and her firefighter husband in the May 2007 council elections.

But his appeal was dismissed after a three-day hearing at Liverpool Crown Court.

Judge Mark Brown said: “This sort of conduct brings considerable discredit on his party and local politicians in general, at a time when politicians are under the spotlight as never before. This was dirty tactics of the worst

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Posted in News | Tagged liverpool | Leave a comment

Clegg: make MPs sell second homes to benefit taxpayer

By The Voice | Thu 9th April 2009 - 12:01 am

The Times’s Sam Coates has the story:

MPs should be forced to sell their second homes and return most of the profits to the taxpayer, under plans to be put forward by the Liberal Democrat leader. Nick Clegg moves to outflank both Gordon Brown and David Cameron today with the toughest suggestions to date in the effort to end the damaging row over MPs’ perks and allowances.

Under Mr Clegg’s proposals, to be put forward at a meeting with the Labour and Conservative leaders, MPs would no longer be able to claim mortgage interest payments on expenses and would be compensated

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Posted in News | Tagged mps expenses and nick clegg | 1 Comment

Lib Dems demand criminal inquiry into Tomlinson death

By The Voice | Wed 8th April 2009 - 9:39 am

The BBC reports:

The Liberal Democrats are demanding a criminal inquiry after video footage of the G20 protest showed a police officer pushing over a man who later died.

Newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson, 47, who was walking home from work, suffered a heart attack afterwards outside the Bank of England in central London.

Lib Dem justice spokesman David Howarth said the footage showed a “sickening and unprovoked attack” by police.

The IPCC is investigating and said it would examine the footage.

Here’s Lib Dem shadow justice secretary David Howarth’s statement on the Guardian video showing a policeman attacking Mr Tomlinson shortly …

Posted in News | Tagged david howarth, ian tomlinson, ipcc and policing | 9 Comments

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable bumper catch-up edition

By The Voice | Tue 7th April 2009 - 9:52 am

If only The Voice more regularly perused the pages of the Daily Mail, we would not have missed Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable’s most recent two articles for the paper. (Then again, if The Voice more regularly perused the pages of the Daily Mail we would most likely end up supporting flogging for immigrants, worrying about Facebook giving us cancer, and cheering on the Blackshirts). Anyway, Vince has penned two articles for the paper examining the impact of the economic crisis. Excerpts below – clcik on the headline to read in full:

We’re not going bust, but Gordon has …

Posted in LibLink | Tagged recession and vince cable | 5 Comments

Miriam attacks stem cell waste

By The Voice | Mon 6th April 2009 - 1:12 pm

The Independent has the full story:

The wife of the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has criticised the financial and bureaucratic barriers that prevent British mothers from donating discarded umbilical cords to a national tissue bank.

Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, who married Mr Clegg in 2000, said she wanted to donate the cord blood cells of her third child, Miguel, to a national tissue bank but was told it was impossible.

Cord blood contains stem cells that can be used in transplant operations to treat a range of disorders relating to the blood and immune system, such as leukaemia and anaemia.

The Government has

…

Posted in News | Tagged miriam gonzalez durantez, NHS and stem cells | Leave a comment

Taking action on RIPA – what Oldham has done

By The Voice | Fri 3rd April 2009 - 9:20 am

From their press release:

STATEMENT RE: COUNCIL USE OF SURVEILLANCE LAWS

Councillor Howard Sykes, leader of Oldham Council said: “Following a recent review of the council’s use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, elected members are now consulted before the act is used in Oldham. This gives the council an additional level of oversight, something that most other council’s in the country do not do …

“During an inspection on 1 January 2009, by the Office of the Surveillance Commissioners, the government body appointed to oversee those allowed to commission surveillance, all of the council’s authorizations for surveillance were lawful.

“We will

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Posted in News | Tagged civil liberties, howard sykes, oldham council and ripa | 2 Comments

Exclusive: party research into effectiveness of bar charts leaked

By The Voice | Wed 1st April 2009 - 7:30 am

Courtesy of the traditional route of documents left on Parliamentary photocopiers, The Voice has seen the results of an in-depth piece of market research the party has carried out into the use of bar charts in Liberal Democrat leaflets and other literature.

The research, including focus groups and a national opinion poll, found that by a margin of 63% – 18% the public disagree with the statement, “We receive too many bar charts from the Liberal Democrats”.

This margin is likely to please many of the party’s most experienced campaigners, as is the finding that by 72% – 9% people agree with …

Posted in News | 7 Comments

“G20 summit is no time for playing politics” – Nick Clegg

By The Voice | Mon 30th March 2009 - 4:26 pm

The Press Association reports,

Radical measures must be decided at the G20 summit or it could become the “fateful moment” when the global recession lurches into an outright slump, Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, said today.

Clegg said the meeting of world leaders in London this week was one of “immense psychological importance” and warned that failure to agree on immediate action could lead to a “dangerous market stampede”.

Disunity could spark further panic among jittery markets, sending the world economy into “freefall” and raising the spectre of a 1930s-style depression.

More too on the party’s website.

Posted in News | Tagged g20 and nick clegg | 2 Comments

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Chris Huhne – Scalpel-sharp intelligence is needed to slash knife crime

By The Voice | Mon 30th March 2009 - 11:21 am

Over at The Times, Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne notes that a cosmetic surgeon helped to cut knife violence by 40 per cent in Cardiff, and asks: why isn’t his no-brainer idea being copied across Britain? Here’s an excerpt:

Nearly 50,000 people have been treated in hospital for knifings since the Government came to power. The toll of knife crime has rightly gripped the media, since there can be few more horrifying thoughts for any parent than to think of their child being attacked by knife- wielding thugs. …

Effective action is about stop-and- search, particularly working from intelligence.

…

Posted in LibLink | Tagged chris huhne and crime | 2 Comments

CommentIsLinked@LDV: David Steel – The night Labour self-destructed

By The Voice | Sat 28th March 2009 - 6:25 pm

Over at the Daily Mail, former Liberal party leader Lord (David) Steel recalls the dramatic evening of 28 March 1979, when the Labour Government lost a confidence motion by one vote, and the then Prime Minister James Callaghan was forced to call an early General Election. It was this election that swept Margaret Thatcher to victory. Here’s an excerpt:

The tension was palpable, politicians from all parties talking and arguing with one another, all speculating about what was going to happen next.

I had never seen the chamber so packed before. Not one of us had the slightest idea what the

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Posted in LibLink and Parliament | Tagged bbc parliament and david steel | 1 Comment

Tories the late starters in Islington two-horse race

By The Voice | Sat 28th March 2009 - 6:17 pm

A correspondent not unadjacent to Islington contacts The Voice to note:

Islington South and Finsbury Conservatives have selected their PPC, more than two years after the Liberal Democrats re-selected Bridget Fox to fight the seat.

The Tory hopeful, Antonia Cox, is an investment banker turned journalist who lives in Kensington. She has promised to move into Islington if elected – a pledge she is unlikely to be called on to fulfil. Ladbrokes have given the Conservatives (surprisingly generous) odds of 25/1 to win the seat. The borough has 0 (zero) Conservative councillors. Even the ConservativeHome post announcing her selection

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Posted in News and Selection news | Tagged bridget fox and islington south and finsbury | 1 Comment

Vince reviewed on tonight’s BBC2 Newsnight

By The Voice | Fri 27th March 2009 - 6:08 pm

A quick plug for a quick plug – in this week’s Newsnight Review (BBC2, 11pm Friday 27th March, and online), Kirsty Wark and the panel will be discussing Vince Cable’s book, The Storm: the world economic crisis and what it means:

Vince Cable’s book The Storm is one of many pieces of non-fiction about to be published which attempt to explain the roots of this economic crisis.

The Lib Dem Treasury spokesman has been called the “sage” of the credit crunch.

He warned years ago about the over-heating housing market, and advocated the nationalisation of Northern Rock months before the

…

Posted in Books and News | Tagged bbc newsnight, recession and vince cable | 1 Comment

Evan: Labour has dealt serious blow to reform of the monarchy

By The Voice | Fri 27th March 2009 - 3:57 pm

Even as the Prime Minister was, according to the headlines, proving his commmitment to ‘ending anomaly of royal ban on Catholics’, his Government was conspiring to ‘talk out’ Dr Evan Harris’s private member’s bill reforming the right of succession and the laws preventing the monarch marrying a Catholic. Evan was not amused:

Despite the spin from the Prime Minister about amending religious and sexual discrimination in our constitution being a higher priority, the Government has dealt a serious blow to the prospects of reform by talking out my Bill. Jack Straw was asked three times to provide either a timetable,

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged equalities, evan harris and royal family | 3 Comments

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Nick Clegg – We need to know why we went to war

By The Voice | Fri 27th March 2009 - 12:59 pm

Over at The Independent today, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg explains why an Iraq inquiry should examine every detail the Government would like ignored. Here’s an excerpt:

We had the whitewash Hutton inquiry, then the Butler inquiry, but the real truth about the political decision-making that led us into this war has never yet been exposed.

Labour and the Conservatives came together to drag our country into an illegal war: we need to know how that happened so that we make sure it never happens again. The government has finally accepted that it can no longer duck an inquiry. The question now

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged iraq and nick clegg | Leave a comment

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Norman Baker – Iraq war inquiry is essential

By The Voice | Wed 25th March 2009 - 6:41 pm

Lib Dem MP Norman Baker has a letter published in today’s Guardian demanding an immediate and full inquiry into the Iraq war, which the Government has said will happen ‘as soon as possible’ after 31st July:

It is welcome that Carne Ross reminds us (March 20) that intelligence available to the government before the invasion of Iraq made it “very clear” that Saddam was not a threat, but it’s hardly a revelation. The confidential Downing Street minute from 23 July 2002 records Jack Straw, then foreign secretary, telling the meeting of senior ministers and officials that the case for

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged ed davey, iraq, libya and norman baker | Leave a comment

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable – The Storm … how to survive it (and how to prevent its return)

By The Voice | Wed 25th March 2009 - 6:29 pm

Over at the Guardian today, there’s a lengthy extract from Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable’s about-to-be-published book, The Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What It Means. Here’s an excerpt of the excerpt:

Escaping this crisis will require a combination of approaches, and the mix will vary from country to country. In each case, however, the price for restoring stability will be a greatly increased role for the state in the banking sector. Beyond that, the challenge will be to build a regulatory regime that provides greater protection against systemic risk. After the calamities of the past year, few now

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged banking, recession and vince cable | Leave a comment

What’s in a name?

By The Voice | Tue 24th March 2009 - 7:03 pm

Question: When is a candidate for the Liberal Democrat Party not a candidate for the Liberal Democrats?

Answer: When he’s attempting to win a vacant parish council seat for the Bruche ward of Poulton-with-Fearnhead Parish Council in Warrington.

The local paper has the story, a nightmare familiar to election agents in all parties:

A CONTROVERSIAL by-election for a parish council seat will not go ahead after the Lib Dem party fluffed its paperwork.

Statements of intent to stand for the Bruche ward of Poulton-with-Fearnhead Parish Council had to be with the parish council clerk by noon on Friday.

But Lib Dem

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Posted in Local government and News | 9 Comments

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Fairness First: Why Wealth Taxes Are a Natural Fit for the Liberal Democrats (Tom Walker)
Starmer goes, and the uncertainty returns… (Mark Valladares)
Why did the Welsh Liberal Democrats underperform? (Elsie Jones)

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Author Archives: The Voice

Laws on the Sats’ fiasco: “The issue now is whether ministerial heads should be rolling”

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable – My Budget to revive Britain’s ailing economy

Huhne attacks RIPA snoopers’ charter: “the Government’s surveillance society has got out of hand”

Vince calls for investigation into FSA’s “appallingly bad job”

Huhne on Green arrest: “monumental shambles” by senior civil servants

CommentIsLinked@LDV: David Howarth – Who are the police protecting?

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Jonathan Fryer – What Hope for the Middle East?

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Nick Clegg – A greater test is to come

Ros Scott’s party president report, March 2009

“Reform MPs’ pay once and for all, says Clegg”

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable – All aboard the 7.15 cattle truck to Westminster

Walk with Brian for equality

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Brian Paddick – Police leaders must regain control of their subordinates

Liverpool Lib Dem loses election law breach appeal

Clegg: make MPs sell second homes to benefit taxpayer

Lib Dems demand criminal inquiry into Tomlinson death

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable bumper catch-up edition

Miriam attacks stem cell waste

Taking action on RIPA – what Oldham has done

Exclusive: party research into effectiveness of bar charts leaked

“G20 summit is no time for playing politics” – Nick Clegg

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Chris Huhne – Scalpel-sharp intelligence is needed to slash knife crime

CommentIsLinked@LDV: David Steel – The night Labour self-destructed

Tories the late starters in Islington two-horse race

Vince reviewed on tonight’s BBC2 Newsnight

Evan: Labour has dealt serious blow to reform of the monarchy

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Nick Clegg – We need to know why we went to war

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Norman Baker – Iraq war inquiry is essential

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable – The Storm … how to survive it (and how to prevent its return)

What’s in a name?

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Actually, this Summer of Strategy could be quite good…

Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy

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What’s going on with party strategy?

Author Archives: The Voice

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