Author Archives: The Voice

Opinion: Why I’m supporting Nick Clegg

What is the point of the Liberal Democrats? It’s a question leveled at party supporters, in some form or another, time and time again, over and over; one almost always delivered with lashings of self-satisfaction and smugness.

It’s also an odd sort of question. Because in asking it, you are asking: What is the point in the only mainstream political party to oppose the Iraq war and Israels actions in the Middle East? What is the point in the only mainstream political party to oppose tuition fees? The only mainstream political party to propose plans to tackle inequality with radical and …

Posted in Leadership Election and Op-eds | Tagged , and | 20 Comments

How important is Liberal Democrat Voice in the leadership election?

Of course, the team here at The Voice would like to think we’re essential. But in the spirit of scientific enquiry, we’ve got out our slide rules and graph paper and been analysing various statistics.

There are several different routes to take, but they all end up with us estimating that around 10-15% of people who vote in the leadership election will be readers of this site.

But is that a large number of readers? Or is that a small number of readers? And how many of our readers will talk to other voters and possibly influence them?

P.S. If you think it’s …

Posted in Leadership Election and Online politics | 5 Comments

Brian Paddick selected to be London Mayor candidate

Congratulations to Brian Paddick for being selected as the Liberal Democrat London Mayor candidate, winning 73% of the first preference votes. The party’s website has the story as does the BBC.

PS: The Wimbledon Guardian reports the story under the intriguing headline, ‘Former Gay Copper Picked For Lib Dems’. We knew Brian had retired from the police, but…

Posted in News | Tagged | 24 Comments

Exclusive Vince Cable news

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…

Posted in News | 22 Comments

Huhne and Clegg set out their views on coalition politics

Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne have given interviews to ePolitix which, amongst other matters, covered their views on how to handle a hung Parliament:

Asked about what their ‘red lines’ would be on forming a coalition with either the Conservatives or Labour, they set out differing approaches.

Whilst Huhne said electoral reform was the key to “partnership politics”, Clegg said singling out any conditions would be “extremely ill-advised”.

Huhne said: “If other parties want to talk about partnership politics, about going into a longer-term relationship, then they have to be on the wavelength that allows that to happen.

“If you look

…

Posted in Leadership Election | 9 Comments

BBC Question Time – open thread

Acting Lib Dem leader Vince Cable is one of the panellists on tonight’s edition of Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT).

He’ll be alongside Home Office minister Tony McNulty, former Tory deputy leader Lord Heseltine, the British-Egyptian novelist and political commentator Ahdaf Soueif, and the journalist and writer Douglas Murray.

If you’re watching, and want to sound-off, please feel free to use the comments thread.

Posted in Lib Dem TV | Tagged | 35 Comments

Online hustings with Chris Huhne: read the transcript

This morning PoliticalBetting.com held an online hustings with Chris Huhne, which you can read here.

(One with Nick Clegg is also scheduled).

Posted in Leadership Election | 7 Comments

Just thought we’d mention it

BBC’s Newsnight is running a poll asking (unscientifically) how the public might have voted had Gordon Brown made the decision to call a general election. Vote early, vote often…

Posted in News and Polls | 1 Comment

Next time Labour accuses the Lib Dems of…

… 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 …

Posted in News | 8 Comments

Labour MP ‘unwise’ to alter news release

(Hat-tips to Jonathan Calder and Andy Mayer.)

As the BBC reports, Parliament’s standards watchdog has said an MP who inserted a quote from herself into an Electoral Commission press release had been “unwise”.

Sir Philip Mawer revealed in his annual report the unnamed MP then e-mailed the doctored press release on to the media as if it were an official release.

The MP in question is Emily Thornberry, Labour MP for Islington South & Finsbury. The case arose after she inserted a quote into an Electoral Commission press release; the Commission was urging voters to register …

Posted in News | Tagged | 1 Comment

Ouch! – red faces at Team Clegg

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

…

Posted in Leadership Election | Tagged and | 18 Comments

General election news: what the Lib Dem bloggers say

…

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

Michael Meadowcroft joins Lib Dems

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

Have you got a ‘bird of freedom’ tattoo?

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

What are Saatchi and Saatchi up to?

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

Two Tory councillors switch to Liberal Democrats

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.

Posted in News | 7 Comments

Brown to call 1st Nov election tomorrow

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

Wild election rumour no.94: Zac Goldsmith defection

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

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

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 …

Posted in News | Tagged | 3 Comments

Gordon – will he or won’t he?

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 …

Posted in General Election | 7 Comments

LDV – the “establishment candidate”, apparently

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 …

Posted in Conference and News | 2 Comments

Environment Action Now

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

And the winner is…

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 - ...
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Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged | Leave a comment

New Liberal Democrat peers

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 …

Posted in News | 5 Comments

Labour councillor accused of lying to beat Lib Dem

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 …

Posted in News | 12 Comments

Labour hypocrisy alive and well in Islington

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.

Posted in News | Tagged | Leave a comment

Party moves up another gear in general election preparations

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

Serve a liberal helping

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.

Posted in News | Tagged | Leave a comment

It’s all happening in the private members’ forum

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

Liberal Democrat blog of the year: it’s back

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 …

    Posted in Best of the blogs | Tagged | 1 Comment
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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...