Author Archives: The Voice

Duwayne Brooks to stand for Lib Dems in Lewisham

By The Voice | Fri 30th January 2009 - 1:50 pm

The Mirror today reports what visitors to Lewisham Lib Dems’ website knew last week – that Duwayne Brooks, one of the best friends of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence is fighting a council by-election for the Lib Dems:

Liberal Democrats have selected two people committed to working hard on behalf of Downham residents to fight the Council by-elections on February 19th, Duwayne Brooks and Jenni Clutten. They hope to join Cllr Julia Fletcher as the representatives for the area on Lewisham Council.

Duwayne, 33, is well known in Lewisham as a campaigner against knife crime and, if elected, will be working

…

Posted in Local government and News | Tagged chris maines, duwayne brooks, jenni clutten and lewisham council | 1 Comment

Lembit: “Time to talk to al-Qaeda”

By The Voice | Fri 30th January 2009 - 1:20 pm

The BBC reports on Lembit Opik’s plea for the West to speak to al-Qaeda:

It is time to talk to al-Qaeda. Having been through this in the past, I know this is right. Declaring war on terror does not deliver peace. The random killing of hundreds of civilians has obviously secured headlines from the perpetrators. As long as this cycle is repeated, we have relatively little chance of achieving closure on the terrorist methodology.

“For those people that want revenge, it’s hard. But then the crime will have created its own ricochet. That would distract from any chance of strategic solutions

…

Posted in Europe / International and News | Tagged al-qaeda, ed davey, lembit opik and terrorism | 6 Comments

Guest post: Peter Luff MP on an innovative online consultation

By The Voice | Thu 29th January 2009 - 3:38 pm

Peter Luff is the Conservative MP for Mid Worcestershire and Chairman of the Business and Enterprise Committee.

Politicians in the UK are often criticised for not using modern technology and communication methods effectively to engage with the public. This is a fair criticism – we should be doing so much better.

Sure, there are MPs who flirt with blogs and ministers who ‘twitter’, but there’s still an overwhelming sense that parliamentarians are using new media to be seen to be using new media, and that we actually still don’t know our dongles from our floppies.

In stark contrast to the US, we have …

Posted in The Independent View | Leave a comment

Norman Lamb and the ‘prince of grime’

By The Voice | Thu 29th January 2009 - 10:13 am

The Guardian’s Patrick Barkham has the story of the strange connection between Tinchy Stryder “a 22-year-old grime artist from east London, enjoying the highest new entry at No 3 in this week’s singles chart” and Norman Lamb “a middle-aged Liberal Democrat MP from Norfolk”:

Stryder’s tiny independent record label was created by Lamb’s son, Archie, when he was just 17, after his Lib Dem dad remortgaged their home to loan him £10,000. Archie and his friend Jack Foster dropped out of school after booking Stryder – then completely unknown – for their urban music nights in Norwich and persuading him to

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Posted in News | Tagged music and norman lamb | 1 Comment

Scottish Lib Dems offer to “get round the table” with SNP over budget

By The Voice | Thu 29th January 2009 - 9:49 am

Tavish Scott, Lib Dem leader of the Scottish Lib Dems, has offered to open discussions with the SNP government in Scotland to resolve the budget breakdown triggered by the Holyrood parliament’s rejection of the SNP’s budget for 2009-10.

Though the Tories fell in line with the SNP, the 16-strong Lib Dem group, together with Labour and the Greens, voted against – the budget was ultimately defeated on the casting vote of the presiding officer. But this morning the BBC reports:

The Liberal Democrats want discussions with the Scottish Government about what concessions might gain their support for a revised budget.

…

Posted in News and Scotland | Tagged scottish lib dems, snp and tavish scott | Leave a comment

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Chris Huhne – Cleaning up the house

By The Voice | Tue 27th January 2009 - 3:20 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne argues that the cash-for-influence scandal is evidence that the House of Lords requires major reform – and a police investigation. You can read it in full here, but here’s an excerpt:

There are no adequate safeguards within the House of Lords to bring the matter to justice, as there is no easy means of suspending or expelling peers. Unlike the Commons, which was cattle-prodded into reform by Tory sleaze in the 1990s, the Lords has never had a crisis. … That is an important reason

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Posted in LibLink | Tagged chris huhne, house of lords and sleaze | Leave a comment

More on the party’s technology plans: Lynne Featherstone interviewed

By The Voice | Mon 19th January 2009 - 5:43 pm

Lynne Featherstone has been interviewed by the Wardman Wire blog on the party’s plans for a new Technology Board, answering the questions:

1) What is the Technology Board for the Party for, and what is your remit as its Chair?

2) The Liberal Democratic Party is a federation of organisations. How does the Technology Board fit in locally and regionally?

3) How does your role compare to that played by Mark Pack?

4) What do you think needs to be done differently in the UK to Obama’s online campaign, and (briefly) why?

5) Would you list 3 specific things you would like to achieve during

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Posted in Online politics | Tagged lynne featherstone and technology advisory board | 2 Comments

The Tory reshuffle in full

By The Voice | Mon 19th January 2009 - 12:02 pm

Following the news this morning of Ken Clarke’s return to the Tory front-bench, PoliticsHome lists all the changes:

The Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

Mark Francois MP
Shadow Minister for Europe

Alan Duncan MP
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons

Chris Grayling MP
Shadow Home Secretary

The Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

Nick Herbert MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Shadow Minister for Women

Eric Pickles MP
Chairman

…

Posted in News | Tagged conservative party and reshuffle | 5 Comments

Lib Dem MP to put down motion against expenses cover-up

By The Voice | Sun 18th January 2009 - 1:32 pm

Yesterday David Heath said that both he and Nick Clegg opposed plans to exempt MPs from having to publish full details of their expenses. Now fellow Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson has said she will be putting down a Parliamentary motion supporting this opposition:

Jo Swinson, will on Monday table a parliamentary motion against the Government’s decision to exempt MPs from publishing full details of their expenses.

The motion criticises the “regressive effect” of the move on Parliamentary transparency.

Commenting, Jo Swinson said: “Ministers should not be cooking up plans to keep MPs’ expenses hidden from public view. With this

…

Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged #MPexpenses, david heath, freedom of information, Jo Swinson and nick clegg | 4 Comments

Clegg: only the Lib Dems “can truly change Britain for the better”

By The Voice | Sat 17th January 2009 - 12:29 pm

Speaking to the Lib Dems’ one-day policy conference in London today, Nick Clegg has highlighted the party’s policies to address the UK recession, and attacked the Labour/Tory “cosy consensus” for ignoring the needs of ordinary people and communities:

Our problems are systemic. Take a look at the problems in Britain today, from the economic crisis to the lack of social mobility, from disengagement with politics to our failure to get the best out of the European Union. The blame lies squarely at the feet of Labour and the Conservatives.

The Conservative adulation of the City of London, replicated by the Labour party: supplicants each in turn to the Square Mile’s masters of finance. That’s what’s made our economy so vulnerable to the global financial crisis. Both parties’ dependence on special interests, their centralising, micro-managing ways, that ignore the needs of ordinary people and local communities. That’s what’s sucked the life out of our politics.

The two old parties have been running Britain, turn and turn about, making the same mistakes, for longer than most people can remember. A cosy cabal, not wanting to change too much.

His speech concluded:

Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged nick clegg | 7 Comments

15th Lib Dem MP signs up to ‘Airplot’ battle against Heathrow expansion

By The Voice | Sat 17th January 2009 - 11:46 am

Yesterday LDV reported the Parliamentary speeches of Norman Baker and Susan Kramer opposing the Labour Government’s planned expansion of Heathrow airport.

And today we can note that Richard Younger-Ross has become the 15th Lib Dem MP to become a ‘beneficial owner’ of a plot of land on the site of the proposed third runway at Heathrow airport, a Greenpeace move aimed at holding up the scheme in planning red-tape. As Susan says on the Greenpeace website,

At every stage the Government has ignored public opinion and shamelessly ignored the grave environmental risk of expanding Heathrow. At every stage, residents

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Posted in News | Tagged heathrow, richard younger-ross and susan kramer | Leave a comment

Online trouble for the Conservatives

By The Voice | Thu 15th January 2009 - 8:41 pm

Via LabourList:

Just as Labour gets its new media act in order, cracks start to appear in the Tories cyber-strategy. The team that brought you Cameron’s Washing Up: The Movie is apparently under pressure and out of favour with the ‘old money’ at Tory HQ.

The Tories web guru is Rishi Saha and he’s trying to do some good stuff but from what I hear he’s not got the backing from the people internally who can make things happen.

Full post here.

Posted in Online politics | 4 Comments

Lamb reveals 50 Health civil servants earn £100k+

By The Voice | Tue 13th January 2009 - 1:40 pm

From today’s Telegraph:

The number of staff earning three-figure salaries at the Department of Health has shot up from just eight in 1997 when Labour came to power. Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat health spokesman who obtained the figures in response to a written Parliamentary question, said: “For too long the Government’s priority has been increasing the amount of bureaucracy in the NHS.

“The explosion in the number of managers, not just in the Department of Health but across the NHS in general, is crazy when front line services are under huge pressure. People will be shocked that so many civil

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Posted in News | Tagged civil service, NHS and norman lamb | 9 Comments

Congratulations to Brian

By The Voice | Tue 13th January 2009 - 11:50 am

Brian Paddick, the Lib Dems’ candidate for Mayor of London in 2008, married his partner Peter Belsvik in Norway this weekend. The Sun has the full story, revealing that guests included some of Brian’s fellow jungle contestants on I’m A Celebrity, including Simon Webbe, Nicola McLean and George Takei:

Brian, 50, was the sixth celebrity voted out of the reality show last year, after undergoing gruelling challenges such as sleeping in a cage full of rats and skydiving. After leaving the jungle, he said: “For a long time, in the police force, I’ve been doing serious stuff. It’s all bad

…

Posted in News | Tagged brian paddick | Leave a comment

Clegg on Harry

By The Voice | Sun 11th January 2009 - 11:28 am

Repsonding to the news of Prince Harry’s race row video – in which he refers to two army friends as a ‘Paki’ and ‘raghead’ – Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has made clear his dismay:

Mr Clegg added his voice to those criticising Prince Harry’s remarks, saying he would have sacked a member of his team for saying such things. Asked about Prince Harry’s comments, he said: “He should not have used those words, it would have cause considerable offence.” And asked if he would have had to sack a member of his team for using such language, he added:

…

Posted in Conference and News | 9 Comments

Final call for Lib Dem bloggers: Orwell Prize 2009 for blogs

By The Voice | Sat 10th January 2009 - 3:44 pm

It’s almost a month since we first alerted LDV readers to the following:

The deadline to enter the Orwell Prize, Britain’s pre-eminent prize for political writing, is fast approaching: 14th January 2009. Submissions are invited for work published between 1st January 2008 and 31st December 2008 (inclusive).

It won’t surprise you to know that, with the elapse of a month, the deadline is even faster approaching. Of special interest, perhaps, to Lib Dem bloggers is the new Blog Prize:

In the year that we have made George Orwell a blogger, the Orwell Prize is delighted to announce a Special Prize for

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Posted in News and Online politics | Tagged george orwell and orwell prize for blogs | 1 Comment

Lib Dems are top choice of voluntary sector workers

By The Voice | Sat 10th January 2009 - 1:50 pm

ThirdSector.co.uk brings us the news:

A survey has suggested that more voluntary sector campaigners support the Liberal Democrats than Labour, with a significant percentage supporting the Conservative Party. The survey was carried out by recruitment consultancy The Right Ethos, which finds campaigners jobs with charities.

It looked at all 550 people on its database and found that, of the 80 who mentioned an involvement with a political party on their CVs, 45 per cent had a link with the Liberal Democrats, 31 per cent with Labour and 19 per cent with the Conservatives. Only 5 per cent favoured the Green Party.

Brian

…

Posted in News | Tagged voluntary sector | 8 Comments

Nick Clegg’s reshuffle: how did the press pack do?

By The Voice | Fri 9th January 2009 - 9:53 am

Nick Clegg has “demoted” Steve Webb (The Independent) although he also “promoted” him (Daily Mail). Meanwhile, Chris Huhne was “stripped of some front-bench duties” (Daily Telegraph), although in fact giving those duties to David Howarth was actually just “rubber-stamping” the existing position (Daily Mail). For bonus points, whilst Lynne Featherstone is still Youth and Equalities spokesperson, that’s not the Daily Telegraph world where she has been “moved”.

Promoted, demoted; stripped, not stripped; moved, not moved. It’s all the same isn’t it?

Posted in News | Tagged chris huhne, david howarth, lynne featherstone, nick clegg and steve webb | Leave a comment

+++ Clegg reshuffles Shadow Cabinet

By The Voice | Thu 8th January 2009 - 12:39 pm

Highlights from the full story:

Simon Hughes: Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
Steve Webb: Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
David Heath: Shadow Leader of the House
Jenny Willott: Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
David Howarth: Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Susan Kramer: chosen to leave the shadow cabinet to take up a new role leading the party’s campaign against the expansion of Heathrow Airport
Lynne Featherstone: Chair of the New Technology Board

Reactions include:
Steve Webb on his blog
Lynne Featherstone on her blog
The Guardian

Posted in News | Tagged technology advisory board | 24 Comments

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable – Confiscating savings from the poor is both stupid and cruel

By The Voice | Thu 8th January 2009 - 7:53 am

The Independent today has an op-ed piece from Vince Cable. You can read it in full here, but here’s an excerpt:

As it became clear that we faced a serious recession we Liberal Democrats broke the taboo of the political and economic Establishment by calling on the Monetary Policy Committee to cut interest rates by 2 per cent initially. Our call was treated like a rude noise in church. But it has happened – and more – and we now have a two per cent base rate.

The danger now is of deepening recession mutating into deflation and a downward spiral

…

Posted in LibLink | Tagged economy and vince cable | 1 Comment

Key Lib Dem policy committee votes to keep party’s pledge to scrap student tuition fees

By The Voice | Wed 7th January 2009 - 4:03 pm

Antony Hook has the story over at his blog:

Last night the Federal Policy Committee voted 14 to 5 to keep our policy to scrap university tuition fees.

Posted in News | Tagged antony hook, education, federal policy committee, higher education, tuition fees and universities | 44 Comments

Is the ‘Curse of Lembit’ back?

By The Voice | Wed 7th January 2009 - 2:05 pm

A month ago it was announced that the Daily Sport had hired Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik to be the newspaper’s political columnist; today The Guardian notes under the headline, Daily Sport publisher in financial difficulties:

Daily Sport publisher Sport Media Group’s share price plummeted 40% in early trading today after the company revealed it had broken one of its banking covenants. SMG’s share price had fallen by 3.75p, almost 42%, to 5.25p at 11.30am today, a 52-week low.

The company, which is releasing both a trading update and preliminary results for the year to the end of July tomorrow,

…

Posted in News | Tagged jonathan calder, lembit opik and peter black | 2 Comments

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Brian Paddick – Equality in the police has improved

By The Voice | Wed 7th January 2009 - 1:39 pm

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog, Brian Paddick, former Lib Dem candidate for London mayor and former deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, explains how far the police force has come in its attitude to gay people. You can read it in full here, but here’s an excerpt:

When I joined the Metropolitan Police in 1976, homophobia was rife and overt. “Only girls and poofs wear gloves!” bawled the drill sergeant on the parade square at Hendon. Ten years later, a close colleague was beaten up by his police officer flatmate, simply for bringing his boyfriend

…

Posted in LibLink | 1 Comment

Happy 42nd birthday, Nick!

By The Voice | Wed 7th January 2009 - 9:44 am

Three weeks after celebrating his first anniversary as Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg today celebrates his 42nd birthday. The Times notes the occasion thus:

Nick Clegg has been the leader of the Liberal Democrats for more than a year. Recent speculation about a possible hung Parliament after the next election has brought him increased attention. Always ready with a soundbite, he described the Conservative tax plans as “fake giveaways” and says in his new year message that he believes a green investment programme will put the economy back on track. He and his wife Miriam are expecting their third child

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Posted in News | Tagged nick clegg | 2 Comments

Tory candidates put on watch

By The Voice | Tue 6th January 2009 - 7:25 pm

Via James Graham:

This is probably little more than pre-election nerves, but Michael Crick has been having fun with it:

The Conservative Party high command is so worried about some of David Cameron’s Parliamentary candidates that they’ve started holding meetings every two weeks to monitor what they call a “watch-list” of those “have the potential to embarrass the Party”.

The interesting thing about this is a) what does it say about CCHQ morale that the minutes got leaked in the first place and b) what do they mean by “potentially embarrassing”? Based purely on anecdote (and admittedly I am hardly unbiased), they do

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Posted in News | Tagged conservative party and michael crick | 3 Comments

Help make The Voice even bigger and better in 2009

By The Voice | Tue 6th January 2009 - 9:20 am

2008 has been a tremendously successful year for Liberal Democrat Voice, with more readers, more content and more comments than ever. But we want to be even bigger and better in 2009.

You’ll have seen some of our plans already, including the introduction of new regular features such as James Graham’s weekly Lib Dig Pig round-ups (covering the best of the internet beyond the Liberal Democrat blogosphere).

We also want to expand our online advertising and our presence at party events so that we can reach out to that wider pool of people who are interested in the sorts of stories we …

Posted in Site news | Leave a comment

Clegg: time for “big, permanent and fair tax cuts”, not Tories’ “fake giveaway”

By The Voice | Mon 5th January 2009 - 6:41 pm

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has again pushed the party’s proposals of tax cuts for the poorest to stimulate the economy, while attacking the Tories’ promises of tax cuts for savers. Speaking on BBC News, Nick commented:

This is a fake giveaway. It only amounts at today interest rates to an extra 40p a year for someone saving £100. What people need is much more money back in their pockets now. That’s why we have a plan to deliver big, permanent, fair tax cuts.” (Source: PoliticsHome.com)

Posted in News | Tagged economy, nick clegg and tax | 14 Comments

Forthcoming PPC selections

By The Voice | Thu 1st January 2009 - 4:23 pm

The Lib Dems 4 Parliament site brings news that there are six selections closing during January.

They are:

PPCs – EALING NORTH AND EALING SOUTHALL (3rd Jan 2009).

PPC- MANSFIELD (5th Jan 2009).

NORTH WEST LEICESTERSHIRE – PPC (9th Jan 2009).

SOUTH WEST SURREY – PPC (22nd Jan 2009).

BANBURY – PPC (29th Jan 2009).

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT ELECTION 2011- Proposed Constituency of Milngavie & Bishopbriggs (31st Jan 2009).

Posted in Selection news | Leave a comment

Whitehall prepares for policy talks with the Lib Dems

By The Voice | Thu 1st January 2009 - 11:12 am

So says today’s Guardian:

Britain’s most senior civil servants are to hold formal talks with the Liberal Democrats on their plans for government as Whitehall prepares for a hung parliament in which Nick Clegg could hold the balance of power after the next election.

In a departure from the Lib Dems’ practice at the last election, Clegg has agreed that members of his front bench will meet Whitehall’s permanent secretaries to discuss the party’s manifesto. The decision to hold the meetings, which are also being offered to the Tories, comes as the “golden triangle” at the top of Whitehall makes preparations for

…

Posted in News | Tagged david cameron and nick clegg | Leave a comment

Op-eds

ALDC by-election report – 5 November (Charles Quinn)
Tom Arms’ World Review (Tom Arms)
Observations of an Expat: Post Election Worries (Tom Arms)
How Liberal Democrats can ride Britain’s youth wave on the pro-EU shift (Rupinder Singh)
Just growth by lowering deadweight losses through tax (Tony Vickers)

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Chris Coghlan: put children with complex needs at centre of SEND reforms

SNP Govt defeated on Lib Dem motion

Vince Cable writes: A budget of small things

Chadwick launches leadership bid

Author Archives: The Voice

Duwayne Brooks to stand for Lib Dems in Lewisham

Lembit: “Time to talk to al-Qaeda”

Guest post: Peter Luff MP on an innovative online consultation

Norman Lamb and the ‘prince of grime’

Scottish Lib Dems offer to “get round the table” with SNP over budget

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Chris Huhne – Cleaning up the house

More on the party’s technology plans: Lynne Featherstone interviewed

The Tory reshuffle in full

Lib Dem MP to put down motion against expenses cover-up

Clegg: only the Lib Dems “can truly change Britain for the better”

15th Lib Dem MP signs up to ‘Airplot’ battle against Heathrow expansion

Online trouble for the Conservatives

Lamb reveals 50 Health civil servants earn £100k+

Congratulations to Brian

Clegg on Harry

Final call for Lib Dem bloggers: Orwell Prize 2009 for blogs

Lib Dems are top choice of voluntary sector workers

Nick Clegg’s reshuffle: how did the press pack do?

+++ Clegg reshuffles Shadow Cabinet

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Vince Cable – Confiscating savings from the poor is both stupid and cruel

Key Lib Dem policy committee votes to keep party’s pledge to scrap student tuition fees

Is the ‘Curse of Lembit’ back?

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Brian Paddick – Equality in the police has improved

Happy 42nd birthday, Nick!

Tory candidates put on watch

Help make The Voice even bigger and better in 2009

Clegg: time for “big, permanent and fair tax cuts”, not Tories’ “fake giveaway”

Forthcoming PPC selections

Whitehall prepares for policy talks with the Lib Dems

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Chris Coghlan: put children with complex needs at centre of SEND reforms

SNP Govt defeated on Lib Dem motion

Vince Cable writes: A budget of small things

Chadwick launches leadership bid

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