Author Archives: The Voice

The Voice

Ouch! – red faces at Team Clegg

By The Voice | Wed 24th October 2007 - 7:55 pm

Many Lib Dem members – and The Voice was among them – might have been a tad surprised today to discover an email from ‘teamclegg’ signing them up to Nick Clegg’s e-mail list. Perhaps compulsory e-mail conscription is a first step towards moving the party out of its comfort zone, we might have thought.

The truth turns out to be much simpler, and a little more embarrassing. A red-faced and self-flagellating e-mail swiftly followed from Richard Allan, Nick’s leadership campaign director, and his predecessor as MP for Sheffield Hallam:

Sorry. I’m afraid that I have made something of a cock-up today

…

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Posted in Leadership Election | Tagged and | 18 Comments
The Voice

General election news: what the Lib Dem bloggers say

By The Voice | Sat 6th October 2007 - 5:15 pm

…

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Posted in General Election and News | Tagged , , , and | 2 Comments
The Voice

Michael Meadowcroft joins Lib Dems

By The Voice | Fri 5th October 2007 - 2:24 pm

Well-placed sources inform The Voice that Michael Meadowcroft, who (re-)founded the continuing Liberal Party in 1989 following the Liberal/SDP merger, has now joined the Liberal Democrats.

And it’s now on his Wikipedia entry, too, so it must be true.

Welcome aboard, Michael.

UPDATE: Nigel Ashton has the full story.

Posted in News | 37 Comments
The Voice

Have you got a ‘bird of freedom’ tattoo?

By The Voice | Thu 4th October 2007 - 7:45 am

For reasons as yet unclear to The Voice, it appears the Liberal Democrat party is keen to discover if any LDV reader has, or knows of anyone who has, a tattoo of the party logo, the ‘bird of liberty’, somewhere upon their personage. I’m not sure the location of the tattoo matters.

It may, of course, simply be the party’s latest cunning ploy to persuade The Grauniad to use the correct bloody logo.

If you can assist, please e-mail LDV at [email protected]

Wethankyou.

Posted in News | 9 Comments
The Voice

What are Saatchi and Saatchi up to?

By The Voice | Wed 3rd October 2007 - 8:58 pm

Voice is hearing on the grapevine from a friend of a friend of a friend, that the team who work on the Labour Party account at Saatchi And Saatchi have been pulling a whole load of all-nighters in a row this week. Apparently there is a new campaign about to be unleashed!

Posted in General Election | 1 Comment
The Voice

Two Tory councillors switch to Liberal Democrats

By The Voice | Wed 3rd October 2007 - 2:31 pm

Party news release:

As David Cameron prepares to speak at the party’s conference, father and daughter Councillors Gordon and Lynn Murray, who represent the neighbouring wards of Dalton South and Dalton North on Barrow Borough Council, are today leaving the Conservatives to become the first ever Liberal Democrat Councillors on Barrow Council.

Councillor Lynn Murray said:

“We are joining the Liberal Democrats because they are an open, modern and welcoming party where we will be encouraged to speak out for the residents of our area and where we can be fully involved in forming and deciding party policies at all levels. A growing team of Liberal Democrats are out there fighting for local issues, for local people and for local communities. We join that growing team.

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Posted in News | 7 Comments
The Voice

Brown to call 1st Nov election tomorrow

By The Voice | Tue 2nd October 2007 - 10:41 am

Well, that’s the top tip The Voice has just received from ‘sources in the know’.

Remember, you read it here first if it happens. (Just forget about it if it doesn’t.)

Posted in General Election and News | 27 Comments
The Voice

Wild election rumour no.94: Zac Goldsmith defection

By The Voice | Sun 30th September 2007 - 4:24 pm

From UK Daily Pundit:

Rumours are rife that Tory toff, Zac Goldsmith, is about to defect to the Lib Dems.

Posted in News | 22 Comments
The Voice

What did you do in the 40s, Mr Purnell?

By The Voice | Fri 28th September 2007 - 7:30 pm

The Voice had a good chuckle earlier at this story about an NHS Trust faking a photograph so that Culture Secretary James Purnell could appear with three other MPs after he turned up late for a photo op visit.

Mr Purnell has made it clear it wasn’t his fault:

“I didn’t think a faked photo would be produced and indeed I didn’t see this photo before it went out and if I had done it wouldn’t have agreed to it.”

We believe you, James, so fulsome are you in your denial. But hunting through our image archive, we notice you may …

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Posted in News | Tagged | 3 Comments
The Voice

Gordon – will he or won’t he?

By The Voice | Wed 26th September 2007 - 10:09 pm

News reaches The Voice from our network of spies at Labour conference that there are unusual levels of activity.

The big donors are very much in evidence and every effort is being driven towards manic fundraising.

All the usual suspects like agents, PPCs and sitting MPs are being whisked off for readiness training.

Printing companies are taking firm bookings on election material.

The frenzy of activity is such that some highups on the political journalist stage are humming and hahing about whether they should even bother making the journey to Blackpool for the Conservative conference when they should be hovering near the Palace waiting …

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Posted in General Election | 7 Comments
The Voice

LDV – the “establishment candidate”, apparently

By The Voice | Fri 21st September 2007 - 1:43 pm

The Guardian Backbencher has been distributing her Lib Dem conference awards, including:

Best Blog
Postings have been rather fewer than the Backbencher would have liked – though it may be down to a laudable reluctance to drink’n’blog. So the winner has to be the establishment candidate, Lib Dem Voice, for its interviews with Ming. Special commendations to James Graham of Quauequam Blog! for his firm treatment of mayoral contender Fiyaz Mughal, and Don Liberali for a nice dissection of the Huhne v Clegg saga.

Always nice to receive a plug (a link would be even nicer), but some mixed …

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Posted in Conference and News | 2 Comments
The Voice

Environment Action Now

By The Voice | Wed 19th September 2007 - 5:33 pm

On the telly this evening you can watch the Liberal Democrats’ party political broadcast for conference week. Liberal Democrat Voice, ahead of the game as always, can give you a sneak preview right now.

It’s themed on climate change, the thread running through this week’s conference in Brighton.

If you’d like to watch it in the traditional, old media way, you’ll find it on BBC Two at 5.55pm, and on BBC One and ITV1 at 6.55pm.

Posted in Conference, Lib Dem TV and News | 4 Comments
The Voice

And the winner is…

By The Voice | Mon 17th September 2007 - 12:23 am

The judges have judged and the prizes have been presented in this year’s Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year awards. James has the full story.*

* Other than the bit about the stuffed horse’s head delivered to the event that is.

Updated: Here the full list of winners (the full shortlist is <strike>not here any more</strike> so try here)…

Best new Liberal Democrat blog:
Winner - Best New LibDem Blog Winner – Hug a Hoodie (Jonny Wright)

Best blog from a Liberal Democrat elected to public office:
Winner - ... </p> <div class=Continue reading »

Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged | Leave a comment
The Voice

New Liberal Democrat peers

By The Voice | Thu 13th September 2007 - 1:02 pm

Two new Liberal Democrat members of the House of Lords have been appointed today by the Government.

Sue Garden is the widow of Lord Tim Garden, who died last month. An active Liberal Democrat in her own right, she is a member of the party’s Federal Conference Committee and was the parliamentary candidate for Golders Green in 2005. A former secondary school teacher, she worked from 1988 for City & Guilds, developing and promoting vocational education and qualifications, including NVQs, and since 2000 she has been a consultant for the highest award of Fellowship, FCGI.

Jim Wallace, the former Deputy First Minister …

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Posted in News | 5 Comments
The Voice

Labour councillor accused of lying to beat Lib Dem

By The Voice | Thu 13th September 2007 - 10:52 am

The jury trying a Labour member of Waltham Forest Borough Council has been told by prosecutors that she spread lies about her Lib Dem opponent in order to win election by just 28 votes in 2006.

It is alleged that she told voters that her opponent – a gay Lib Dem councillor in a long-term relationship with a 39-year-old Malaysian – ‘was living with a 16-year-old Thai boy’ and that he ‘slept around with boys under the age of 15’. Local residents have taken to the stand to testify to such doorstep slurs of paedophilia. The Lib Dem councillor, who …

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Posted in News | 12 Comments
The Voice

Labour hypocrisy alive and well in Islington

By The Voice | Tue 11th September 2007 - 1:54 pm

Islington South & Finsbury Labour MP Emily Thornberry – who was just 484 votes ahead of the Lib Dems’ Bridget Fox at the last General Election – is used to being in the papers talking about the need for action on affordable housing.

Islington is one of many London boroughs where the rise in property prices combined with decades of ‘right to buy’ and ‘buy to rent’ has priced swathes of people out of being able to buy or even rent a home. Islington has an estimated 13,000 households on the housing waiting list and Ms Thornberry has not been slow to exploit their situation for votes.

Now she’s been exposed taking a rather different kind of action to that expected by her constituents.

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The Voice

Party moves up another gear in general election preparations

By The Voice | Thu 23rd August 2007 - 3:55 pm

Liberal Democrat Voice has learnt that the party’s planning for an early general election stepped up another gear this week with the return to Cowley Street of Alastair Reed as General Election Planning Manager.  Alastair worked for Chris Rennard in the 2005 campaign and after a year off studying in Leiden, he was seconded to Scotland for the May 2007 election.  

William Hill recently cut the odds on an October poll from 16:1 to 3:1.

Posted in News | Tagged | 3 Comments
The Voice

Serve a liberal helping

By The Voice | Wed 22nd August 2007 - 2:55 pm

What does Charles Kennedy like for breakfast? What does Lembit Opik do whilst watching Question Time? What has Navnit Dholakia never told his family? The answer to all these and many other questions you’ve never asked yourself are in Serve a Liberal Helping, the cookbook about to be published by Camden Liberal Democrats.

Ordering details are over on the Camden website.

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The Voice

It’s all happening in the private members’ forum

By The Voice | Tue 21st August 2007 - 9:09 am

If you haven’t been to Lib Dem Voice’s private forums much recently, you may be missing out.

Recent posts include

All this available exclusively to party members in our members’ forum.

If you’re not already signed up for the forum, you can register here.

Posted in Site news | 8 Comments
The Voice

Liberal Democrat blog of the year: it’s back

By The Voice | Fri 17th August 2007 - 7:16 pm

Bigger and better than ever – that’s the Liberal Democrat blog of the year awards, being run this year by the party in conjunction with Liberal Democrat Voice.

This time there are several categories up for grabs:

  • Liberal Democrat blog of the year
  • Best blog from a Liberal Democrat elected to public office
  • Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1st October 2006)
  • Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st October 2006)
  • Most humorous Liberal Democrat blog
  • Best designed Liberal Democrat blog

    • Further details are over on the party’s main website.

    Don’t forget to get your nominations in! The deadline is 31st August and you …

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    Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged | 1 Comment
    The Voice

    Tim Garden

    By The Voice | Mon 13th August 2007 - 7:45 pm

    Lord (Tim) Garden, a former Air Marshal and the party’s defence spokesman in the Lords, has sadly died. There’s an obituary in today’s Telegraph and also a tribute on the party’s website.

    UPDATE: The Guardian has now published an obituary by Jonathan Fryer.

    Posted in News | 12 Comments
    The Voice

    European and London Mayor selections

    By The Voice | Mon 13th August 2007 - 2:05 pm

    As the party’s selection process for both our 2009 European and 2008 London Mayor candidates is now kicking off, Liberal Democrat Voice is introducing a slight change in our comment moderation policy for the duration of the selections.

    Although this isn’t an official party site, we’re happy to abide with the spirit of the party’s selection rules. Therefore as the agreed rules for both contests ban endorsements, any comments that would infringe these rules will be withdrawn (e.g. a comment saying “I’ll be voting for Herbie Asquith” or “Don’t vote for Bill Gladstone; he supports chopping down trees”).

    Any coverage of the

    …

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    Posted in Selection news and Site news | 9 Comments
    The Voice

    Brian Paddick tops our online poll

    By The Voice | Thu 9th August 2007 - 2:44 pm

    The mouse clicks are in, the votes have been counted – and Brian Paddick has been the pick of Liberal Democrat Voice’s readers to be the party’s London Mayor candidate.

    The results were:

    30% Brian Paddick
    18% Lynne Featherstone MP
    10% Greg Dyke
    9% Lord Navnit Dholakia
    8% Lembit Opik MP
    8% Sarah Teather MP
    3% Paul Burstow MP
    3% Simon Hughes MP (the party’s 2004 candidate)
    2% Susan Kramer MP (the party’s 2000 candidate)
    10% A N Other

    Lynne Featherstone was running top of the poll until she ruled herself out.

    Posted in News and Voice polls | Tagged | 5 Comments
    The Voice

    Top Tory’s property firm is focus of planning probe

    By The Voice | Thu 9th August 2007 - 12:14 am

    That’s the headline in the Edinburgh Evening News.

    Posted in News | Leave a comment
    The Voice

    Is this what Ming meant by being more spikey?

    By The Voice | Mon 6th August 2007 - 7:08 pm

    The language in this party news release is rather more lively than most. A sign of things to come?

    Posted in News | 4 Comments
    The Voice

    Daily Mail: Paddick wants to be Lib Dems’ London Mayor candidate

    By The Voice | Fri 3rd August 2007 - 11:56 pm

    The policeman who pioneered the “softly-softly” approach to cannabis use is being lined up as the Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor. Brian Paddick, 49, has held talks with the party about standing against Labour’s Ken Livingstone and the Tories’ Boris Johnson.

    Full story here, which echoes an earlier story in Pink News.

    Brian Paddick is currently running second in our online poll, behind Lynne Featherstone, who has ruled herself out of the running.

    (Hat-tip: Duncan Borrowman.)

    UPDATE: The Times has more on the story along with some authoratitive looking quotes from a party spokesperson.

    UPDATE 2: and now …

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    Posted in News | Tagged and | 18 Comments
    The Voice

    Just two cheeky

    By The Voice | Mon 30th July 2007 - 9:31 am

    According to digital spy, Lib Dem MP Lembit Öpik has welcomed twin sisters Gabriela and Monica Irmia (aka the Cheeky Girls) into his Montgomeryshire cottage:

    The politician was thrilled when fiancée Gabriela agreed to move in to his country cottage in Montgomeryshire, Wales. However, her mother Margit became concerned that Gabriela’s sister Monica would be lonely without her – so Lembit has now decorated the spare room so that both Cheeky Girls can stay with him.

    Apparently the spare room is decorated in Monica’s favourite colours. All together now: aaahh.

    Posted in News | 7 Comments
    The Voice

    Sky exclusive: Tony Lit, Tony Blair and the £50,000 cheque

    By The Voice | Sat 14th July 2007 - 9:01 pm

    Sky is just about to break a story about Tony Lit being photographed giving a £50,000 £4,800 cheque to Tony Blair at a Labour fundraiser. Let’s hope this story is more accurate than the PA’s poll reporting attempts earlier this evening…

    UPDATE: The Telegraph has more about Tony Lit and the donation.

    UPDATE 2: The party’s official reaction is up on the Ealing Southall by-election site.

    Posted in News and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged | 17 Comments
    The Voice

    Five Labour councillors switch to the Tories in Ealing

    By The Voice | Mon 9th July 2007 - 10:18 am

    ConservativeHome has the news.

    Posted in News | Tagged | 56 Comments
    The Voice

    The Battle of Trimdon Green (or “Labour yobs attack lawful Lib Dem campaigners”)

    By The Voice | Sun 8th July 2007 - 12:34 pm

    Thanks to Lib Dem Jonathan Wallace, we have video evidence of Labour party councillors and activists attempting to distrupt the launch of the Lib Dem campaign in Sedgefield by Andrew Stunnell MP. While Lib Dem challenger Greg Stone explained his policies to attending media, the Labour campaign team heckled and forcibly distrupted the event as you can see on YouTube.

    The group mocking Greg for being from Newcastle included a Labour councillor from… erm, Newcastle.

    Lib Dem Voice has already noted the unorthodox poster techniques apparently used in this campaign, and also the local newspaper’s verdict that Labour …

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    Posted in Lib Dem TV and Parliamentary by-elections | Tagged | 10 Comments
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