Author Archives: The Voice

Sunday’s Observer brings an amusing tirade from Jasper Gerard, directed at Simon Jenkins – or rather Simon’s tendency to get rather worked up about the Liberal Democrats. As Gerard writes:

I enjoy a glow of familiarity whenever I read an article by Simon Jenkins on the Liberal Democrats. So last week, he dismissed Nick Clegg, their new leader, much as he had dismissed Ming Campbell and, for all anyone can remember, Archibald Sinclair and Lloyd George…

In all its essentials, the article is the same every year, explaining why Lib Dems are not worth writing about. Sometimes, it proves necessary to

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Posted on their behalf:

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The Liberal Democrat History Group is looking for a volunteer to help with editorial work on the group’s web site.

The Group promotes the discussion and research of the histories of the Liberal Democrats, Liberal Party and SDP, and of Liberalism. We do this through meetings, our quarterly Journal of Liberal History, occasional books and our web site.

Originally established to carry news about our activities, the website has since grown substantially through the ongoing Liberal History Online project. As far as we aware, nothing anywhere else on the web makes available such a wide range of …

It’s happened in the London Borough of Sutton:

A Cheam councillor has been disqualified for a year after being found guilty of breaching the councillors’ code of conduct.

Eleanor Pinfold was stripped of her title today after a councillors’ watchdog found she had used brash and offensive language when communicating with council officers and Sutton Police.

She was also found to have brought the council into disrepute by claiming its planning department was corrupt…

Supt Shadbolt made a complaint about her after she had also accused him of being politically biased towards the Liberal Democrats and of skewing crime figures.

(Read full local …

Hilary Stephenson, the party’s Director of Campaigns and Elections has been in touch with The Voice to express her satisfaction with the way the party has been welcoming its new leader.

I’m delighted that we have got Nick Clegg’s leadership off to a flying
start. Party campaigners across the country seem to have been eager to get their hands on the latest campaign materials to promote Nick’s leadership – even in the midst of the Christmas preparations.

Yesterday and today Lib Dems have been busy across the country handing out fliers introducing our new leader Nick Clegg. The first went out just a

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We’re nearly halfway through Advent, which means we’re nearly halfway through our Labour Party Christmas Cheer Advent Calendar.

It feels like we have Labour donation scandals coming out of our ears and we have a pile of stories still to cover, but if you’ve got any other good examples of Labour calamity you think we should highlight in the run-up to Christmas, do let us know in the comments.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse…

A man registered as a Labour donor in 2004 claims he never gave them a penny, and fears he is the victim of a Labour-supporting identity thief. If the Labour party *do* find the missing HMRC disc, could those on it be at even greater risk of identity theft?

David Cameron’s attempts to show the Tory party has really, really changed would be slightly more credible if it weren’t 100% clear the Tories are still just the same as they ever were.

Further evidence of the Tories’ unchanging attitudes emerges courtesy of Richard Willis, a Tory councillor in Reading and their parliamentary candidate for Sutton & Cheam in 2005. Commenting on the website PoliticalBetting.com on the recent death of Ian Smith and his white-minority-rule UDI government in Rhodesia, Mr Willis gives a ringing endorsement of Smith’s approach:

I am very sorry to hear of the death of Ian Smith (former

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The Voice will be publishing an exclusive piece from acting party leader Vince Cable at 10:30am on Sunday. From the whispers we hear, it will contain some exciting news that will get many people debating…

… saying one thing in one place and another somewhere else, it might be worth referring to this:

“When people describe the nature of a place they are often describing the nature of its people and their behaviour as well as how it looks and feels. This gives us a real opportunity to develop a series of ‘local’ Labour brands and values. We can’t have a position where Labour has the same approaches everywhere. Greater devolution within government and the party is essential.”

– Steve Houghton, Labour leader of Barnsley Council, in a new publication, ‘Labour, Leadership and Locality: Distinctive Approaches to …