Author Archives: The Voice

The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Jonathan Calder – Messy but meaningful

By The Voice | Thu 12th March 2009 - 11:25 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog, Liberal England’s Jonathan Calder argues ‘of course policy on faith schools is a compromise – that’s how social institutions are most often made to work’. Here’s an excerpt:

… if, in a surge of Jacobin purity, the party had voted for an outright ban on faith schools, it would have been only a gesture. Few Liberal Democrats would have campaigned on a policy that threatened to alienate every church and disrupt a third of the schools in the country.

Besides, it’s not faith schools that are the problem: it is the conventional state schools.

…

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The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable – Keep an eye on the dapper, shy man at the back

By The Voice | Tue 10th March 2009 - 8:54 pm

With apologies for missing this yesterday – that’ll teach me not to pay my daily homage to that fount of reactionary, fact-free unpleasantness, the Daily Mail website – but the Lib Dems’ deputy leader Vince Cable was performing the remarkable feat of inserting some common sense perspective into the paper, writing about the growing importance of China to the world’s financial affairs. Here’s an excerpt:

China now has the second biggest economy in the world, based on purchasing power, and India the fourth (Britain is battling it out for sixth place with France). This new industrial revolution is not a pretty

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The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: James Graham – Reasons for Lib Dems to be cheerful

By The Voice | Tue 10th March 2009 - 12:25 pm

Over at the Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog, Quaequam Blog!’s James Graham argues that the Lib Dems’ spring conference ‘revealed Nick Clegg’s sense of purpose as he delivered a message of hope amid the economic gloom’. Here’s an extract:

Nick Clegg’s early weakness for attention-grabbing gimmicks has been superceded by a new seriousness of purpose by a leader finally finding his voice. He has been rewarded by a small but perceptible shift in the polls. The talk a few months ago was of a Tory landslide and a Lib Dem wipeout, yet it has become increasingly apparent that Clegg may find

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The Voice

Exclusive: 94% of conference attendees took Winslet picture seriously

By The Voice | Mon 9th March 2009 - 1:03 pm

There was further embarrassment for the party this morning as it emerged that a vast majority of grassroots attendees had taken seriously the “evidence” of this picture of Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet in the conference brochure:

Kate Winslet

Over seven of the nine people quizzed by Lib Dem Voice’s roving reporters on Saturday morning in the exhibition hall at the Harrogate Conference Centre had taken the picture at face value, and assumed that Winslet had attended the Lib Dem Council Awards event held by the party

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The Voice

Simon Hughes in Harrogate

By The Voice | Sun 8th March 2009 - 10:21 am

Simon Hughes’s speech from yesterday morning is online to watch, and for your viewing convenience we present it here:

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The Voice

Vince warns against inflationary boom following recessionary bust

By The Voice | Fri 6th March 2009 - 9:33 am

Today’s Financial Times notes soothsayer and Deputy Lib Dem leader Vince Cable’s latest economic warning:

Vince Cable called the recession before it hit but now the Liberal Democrat has another worry preying on his mind: that Britain might find itself emerging quickly from the crisis and straight into a new era of rising inflation. On the day the Bank of England announced plans to pump £75bn into the economy, Mr Cable warned that this expansion could fuel a return to “old-style boom and bust” unless it were handled with extreme caution.

The Lib Dem Treasury spokesman is not known for his

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The Voice

A note of thanks from Nick and Miriam

By The Voice | Thu 5th March 2009 - 4:51 pm

Nick Clegg’s office has asked us to pass on the following message from Nick to Lib Dem Voice readers:

A big, big thank you from Miriam and myself to everyone who sent such generous messages to us when Miguel was born.

As he sleeps through each day, and keeps his parents wide awake by night, he seems blissfully unaware of all the goodwill from so many Liberal Democrats. But we’ll be sure to remind him when he’s old enough to appreciate it!

Many, many thanks again.

Nick and Miriam

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The Voice

Ros Scott’s Presidential report to party members

By The Voice | Tue 3rd March 2009 - 5:42 pm

We’re coming a bit belatedly to this, but in case LDV readers missed it, Lib Dem president Baroness Ros Scott blogger her February report to members over at Because Baronesses are people too. Here’s an excerpt:

My manifesto set out a number of areas where I wanted reform, but made it clear that there is no Presidential magic wand to make changes happen. I’m really pleased that progress is being made in many of these areas already, although it is still early days. The English Party are looking at selection rules for Westminster candidates and at the formal relationship between

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The Voice

Three Lib Dem councillors suspended

By The Voice | Tue 3rd March 2009 - 11:20 am

The Aberdeen Press and Journal reports,

Councillors who resigned from a local authority group have been suspended by their party and threatened with expulsion.

Paul Johnston, Sam Coull and Debra Storr quit the Aberdeenshire Council Liberal Democrat group, but remained members of the party, after a row over Donald Trump’s golf resort plans.

A spokesman said the Scottish Liberal Democrat executive committee voted to suspend the trio at a meeting on Saturday.

He added: “The party hope they will rejoin the Liberal Democrat group on the council, but the choice is now theirs.”

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The Voice

Forthcoming PPC selections

By The Voice | Sun 1st March 2009 - 2:40 pm

The Lib Dems 4 Parliament site brings news about a bumper set of selections closing in March:

GEDLING – PPC (28th Feb 2009).

HARWICH AND NORTH ESSEX – PPC (2nd Mar 2009).

CLACTON – PPC (2nd Mar 2009).

BECKENHAM – PPC (5th Mar 2009).

WELSH Region – PPC’s (6th Mar 2009).

WAKEFIELD – PPC (7th Mar 2009).

NORMANTON, PONTEFRACT AND CASTLEFORD – PPC (7th Mar 2009).

MORLEY AND OUTWOOD – PPC (7th Mar 2009).

HEMSWORTH – PPC (7th Mar 2009).

HARROW WEST AND HARROW EAST – PPC (13th Mar 2009).

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The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Nick Clegg – We need to clean up our act … now!

By The Voice | Mon 23rd February 2009 - 2:09 pm

Over at the Mirror’s website, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has an article (submitted, the Voice assumes, before his paternity leave started!) calling on politicians from all parties ‘to get together and give politics a proper Spring-clean.’ Here’s an excerpt:

Politicians are the least trusted people in the country, and restoring people’s faith will be a big task. So we can’t do it like a succession of governments have always wanted – bit by bit, issue by issue, crisis by crisis. We need to think big on the way politics works.

If we have flimsy rules for expenses, people will always

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The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable – Let’s make a virtue out of thrift again

By The Voice | Sun 22nd February 2009 - 12:47 pm

Over at the Mail on Sunday, Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable ponders the question he is asked every day: why are profligate borrowers being rewarded by lower interest rates while thrifty savers suffer? Here’s an excerpt:

Interest rate cuts were unavoidable, though they have reached their limit and other policies are now more important – especially getting credit flowing to sound companies. Of course, it is necessary for the economy that people should spend, sensibly, since this also creates production and employment for others. There is a danger that fear is leading many people, and companies, to hoard excessive cash

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The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable – Why our economy is trapped in a time warp of tribal politics

By The Voice | Sat 21st February 2009 - 11:30 am

Over at the Yorkshire Post, Lib Dem deputy leader and shadow chancellor Vince Cable marks the first anniversary of the nationalisation of Northern Rock with his account of ‘one of the most tumultuous years in the history of the financial sector and the British economy.’ Here’s an excerpt:

Eighteen months into the credit crunch and six months into a recession, the Conservatives and the Labour Party are still rehearsing the same arguments. The Conservatives have one message: “It’s all your fault, Gordon.” The Government, on the other hand, endlessly repeats its claim: “It’s nothing to do with us; it is a

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The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Norman Baker – It might be legal, but it’s not right

By The Voice | Fri 20th February 2009 - 6:22 pm

Over at the Mirror, crusading Lib Dem MP Norman Baker writes (briefly) about the damage that the ‘drip, drip, drip of stories about MPs’ expenses’ is doing to Parliament. Here’s an excerpt (actually, it’s pretty much the whole piece):

We can’t continue to have revelations that the public find so shocking. Jacqui Smith’s homes are a prime example. It’s not acceptable that she can claim her main home is her sister’s spare room. Saying it is within the rules is not good enough. House of Commons officials must be able to veto MPs’ declarations. They need to ask questions like where

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The Voice

Duwayne Brooks: “The smart young man with a clipboard in one hand and Liberal Democrat leaflets in the other”

By The Voice | Tue 17th February 2009 - 9:50 pm

Last month, LDV brought you the news that Duwayne Brooks, one of the best friends of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, will be fighting a council by-election for Lewisham Lib Dems on 19th February. Today’s Times carries a feature article about Duwayne:

Ten years ago Duwayne Brooks was known mainly for being the best friend of Stephen Lawrence. As a witness to the murderous attack on his friend, he found himself on a collision course with the police, the courts and even the Lawrence family. Now he is seeking a title that is decidedly more establishment-friendly: councillor.

This month marks not only

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The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Nick Clegg – There’s a job at home for out-of-work dads

By The Voice | Tue 17th February 2009 - 7:34 pm

Over at the The Times, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg suggests the recession is an opportunity to shake off our preconceptions about men’s and women’s roles. Here’s an excerpt:

As this recession bears down on thousands of communities and families we must again be open to reinventing ourselves. Many men will be forced to let go of their earlier identities and try something new – like the unemployed car worker in the West Midlands who explained on Newsnight last week that he was retraining to become a social worker. And many women may become the only family breadwinner for the first

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The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable – Bewildered for now, but there’s anger to come

By The Voice | Mon 16th February 2009 - 6:06 pm

Over at the Daily Mail, Lib Dem deputy leader and shadow chancellor Vince Cable writes about the ‘financial aristocracy’ of Sir James Crosby (‘affable, very bright and self-confident’) and Glen Moreno (‘a Gold Card member of Tax Dodgers Anonymous’). Here’s an excerpt:

Surely, now that the Government has taken over and rescued several big banks using taxpayers’ money, they must be run in the public interest, not as bolt holes for the financial aristocracy. By contrast, I see more and more ordinary people being ground down by the recession and by the banks. I was visited this week by a lady

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The Voice

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Tim Leunig – Co-ordinated inflation could bail us all out

By The Voice | Sun 15th February 2009 - 10:40 pm

Over at the Financial Times, Tim Leunig – occasional contributor to LDV, and reader in economics at the London School of Economics – considers the unusual financial origins of the current recession. Here’s an excerpt:

The global economy would benefit from a pre-announced, temporary, globally co-ordinated bout of moderate inflation. Since it takes about two years for central-bank policy fully to influence inflation, a sensible policy would be to target 4 per cent inflation for the five years from 2011, followed by 2 per cent thereafter. … An increase in inflation by an extra 2 percentage points for a period

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The Voice

And the moral of the story is…? Energy efficiency begins at home

By The Voice | Sun 15th February 2009 - 9:26 pm

From Friday’s Guardian, Lib Dems unveil plan for energy-efficient households:

Every UK home will be made energy-efficient within 10 years in a compulsory revamp of British housing stock equivalent to the “digital switchover”, the Liberal Democrats will promise today. … The party’s ambitious pledge increases pressure on the government, which will today announce its own plans to offer voluntary eco-makovers to one in four British homes. … It is estimated that carbon emissions from British homes account for a quarter of the country’s total. Under EU agreements, the government has 42 years to cut emissions by 80%. …

Announcing his party’s

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The Voice

Lamb criticises “MMR scaremongering”

By The Voice | Thu 12th February 2009 - 10:40 am

Norman Lamb has tabled Early Day Motion 754, “MMR vaccine and the media“.

This follows a public dispute between award-winning blogger Ben Goldacre and radio station LBC over a broadcast by Jeni Barnett that Goldacre describes as a “44 minute tirade against MMR”.

According the party’s press release, Norman said:

“Suggesting that the MMR vaccine is dangerous in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary is massively irresponsible and could put children’s lives at risk.

“This kind of scaremongering has had a serious impact on public health in the last decade.

“Cases of measles have risen dramatically in the

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The Voice

Brake: fears Olympics will turn into new Millennium Dome

By The Voice | Wed 11th February 2009 - 7:50 pm

The Times reports:

Taxpayers face a multimillion-pound maintenance bill at the Olympic Park after organisers admitted that they had failed to find a commercial operator to take over the main venue after 2012. … The Times has learnt that the Olympic stadium will cost at least £800,000 a year to keep open. Projected revenues from athletics events and a proposed sports academy will leave a big funding shortfall at the venue, where building costs have already spiralled from £282 million to £547 million. There are fears that the final bill could be much higher.

As Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrats’ Olympics …

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The Voice

Laws: schools focus on average pupils to ‘flatter league tables’

By The Voice | Wed 11th February 2009 - 6:26 pm

The Telegraph reports:

Schools are increasingly focusing on average pupils in an attempt to “flatter” official league tables, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. They are prioritising teenagers on the cusp of getting C grades – officially a good pass – at the expense of the very brightest, it is claimed. Figures show the number of pupils getting these grades in GCSEs has increased quicker over the last decade than in other areas. Focusing on so-called “borderline” candidates can dramatically improve schools’ positions in national rankings.

David Laws, the Lib Dems shadow secretary of state for schools and children, is …

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The Voice

Do you fancy being Vince’s voice to the press?

By The Voice | Tue 10th February 2009 - 1:49 pm

What more fun job could there be currently than to brief an agog media on the latest eminently quotable words of wisdom from the Lib Dems’ deputy leader and shadow chancellor, Vince Cable? If your answer to that is, ‘No job could be more fun’, then why not consider applying for the vacant post of Lib Dem Deputy Head of Media /
Press Officer for Shadow Chancellor:

This senior position strengthens our 24-hour media operation, supervises staff and their work rotas, promotes the Liberal Democrats as part of the duty rota cover team including acting as Press Officer for Shadow Chancellor on

…

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The Voice

Lembit reveals all to the Mail (Part II)

By The Voice | Mon 9th February 2009 - 1:46 pm

After a year of reading about himself in the press, Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik has decided to open up to the Daily Mail about last year’s annus horribilis by writing an exclusive two-part feature article. The first part focused on Lembit’s relationship with Gabriela Irimia; the second part recounts their split-up, his unsuccessful bid for the party presidency, and how the year ended with Lembit beginning to discover himself – here’s an excerpt:

As 2008 passed into 2009, everything went quiet. Work returned to its weekly rhythm. The photos of lost loves faded from the pages of the Press

…

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The Voice

Evan wins Secularist of the Year 2009

By The Voice | Sun 8th February 2009 - 6:46 pm

We may be only five weeks into 2009, but Lib Dem MP Evan Harris has already won an award – Secularist of the Year. The BBC reports:

The Liberal Democrat was named joint winner, with Lord Avebury, for their work in abolishing the blasphemy libel law in England and Wales. Dr Harris called the law “ancient, discriminatory and illiberal” as well as not compliant with human rights and against free speech. The offences of blasphemous libel and blasphemy were abolished last summer. …

Dr Harris has also campaigned to separate religion and the state claiming the current system has a number

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The Voice

The Indy asks The Big Question of Lib Dem class sizes proposal

By The Voice | Fri 6th February 2009 - 6:28 pm

Yesterday LDV reported on Nick Clegg’s announcement of the Lib Dems’ radical new education policies to fix inequalities in Britain’s ‘class-based education system’. In today’s Independent newspaper, there The Big Question feature has a very fair and balanced look at the issue, which you can read here – here’s an excerpt:

Why are we asking this now?

Because the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has announced that, if elected, his party would dramatically reduce class sizes for children aged five to seven – to just 15. it would be part of a £2bn cash injection into education spending.

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The Voice

Lembit reveals all to the Mail

By The Voice | Tue 3rd February 2009 - 1:20 pm

After a year of reading about himself in the press, Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik has decided to open up to the Daily Mail about last year’s annus horribilis by writing an exclusive two-part feature article. The first part focuses on his relationship with Gabriela Irimia – here’s an excerpt:

Frankly, I had no expectation of anything romantic happening between us, although I must admit that I was secretly hopeful. When, two months later, we became more than just friends, cynics derided our alliance. To them it just had to be a stunt, after all I was 41 and she was

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The Voice

The Future Shape of Capitalism – Vince Cable & Andrew Neil

By The Voice | Tue 3rd February 2009 - 11:00 am

21st Century Challenges is the flagship public engagement series at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Their next event, and one possibly of particular interest to our readers who are within reach of London, will be ‘The Future Shape of Capitalism’, on 17 March 2009, 7pm at the Society’s headquarters in South Kensington.

An expert panel, including Vince Cable MP, writer and broadcaster Andrew Neil, and John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist will discuss whether the current financial crisis and the downturn in the global economy will change the shape of capitalism as we know it today.

Tickets are £10 / £7 …

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The Voice

Forthcoming PPC selections

By The Voice | Sun 1st February 2009 - 9:10 am

The Lib Dems 4 Parliament site brings news that there are seven selections closing during February:

DURHAM NORTH – PPC (6th Feb 2009).

DURHAM NORTH WEST – PPC (6th Feb 2009).

TYNEMOUTH – PPC (14th Feb 2009).

NORTH TYNESIDE – PPC (14th Feb 2009).

BRENT NORTH – PPC (20th Feb 2009).

BLAYDON – PPC (21st Feb 2009).

BEACONSFIELD – PPC (27th Feb 2009).

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The Voice

Are there more ex-SDP members on the Tory front-bench than the Lib Dem front-bench?

By The Voice | Fri 30th January 2009 - 6:40 pm

Danny Finkelstein asks the question over at The Times’s Comment Central here. Scores on the doors (allegedly) so far show it to be a draw…

Tory shadow cabinet ex-SDPers: Greg Clark, Chris Grayling, Andrew Lansley and David Mundell.
Lib Dem shadow cabinet ex-SDPers: Vince Cable, Chris Huhne, Tom McNally and Paul Burstow

Or can LDV readers point out more…?

Posted in Humour and News | Tagged , , , , , , and | 13 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Anthony Acton
    I agree with Graham. The party has had two opportunities to get on equal terms with Labour and the Tories this century. The first, in 2010, was wrecked by the d...
  • cim
    @Peter Davies I'm not talking about young people in general, though - according to the polls, 10% of younger voters support the Lib Dems, same as any other age...
  • PM
    @Tom, You're not the only one who's suffered from writers block when it comes to describing the recent social unrest in France and other EU countries. No-one...
  • Kevin Hawkins
    Here is my usual monthly summary of the last fifty local by-elections. It does not include the by-election on the 5th November as I like to give summarise at m...
  • Peter Davies
    @cim You are massively over-generalising about young people. The proportion that believe we were wrong to declare war against Germany in 1939 is tiny. So is the...