Author Archives: The Voice

On 27th August, LDV will be 10 years old. In that time, we’ve brought you over 24,000 posts and published over 337,000 comments. Over the Summer holidays, we’ll take you on a nostalgic meander through a decade of Liberal Democrat history, seen through the eyes of our editors and contributors. We hope you enjoy our choices.

Remember that wonderful day in 2009 when a Liberal Democrat motion to allow Gurkhas to settle in this country was won and the Labour Government was defeated.  Joanna Lumley had been at the forefront of the campaign and she and Nick Clegg and David Cameorn held a press conference after the vote.

The next week, Joanna Lunley had some robust exchanges with then Labour MP Phil Woolas ( remember him?).

It’s a huge pity that David Cameron seemed to forget this when he let down the Afghan interpreters who served our country and put themselves and their families at huge risk.

Anyway, here’s Alex Foster’s post rounding up the commentary on that historic day before the result of the vote was known.

On 27th August, LDV will be 10 years old. In that time, we’ve brought you over 24,000 posts and published over 337,000 comments. Over the Summer holidays, we’ll take you on a nostalgic meander through a decade of Liberal Democrat history, seen through the eyes of our editors and contributors. We hope you enjoy our choices.

April 15th 2010 is an auspicious date in Liberal Democrat history. It was the first Leaders’ Debate in a General Election at UK level ever.

Nick Clegg was adjudged the winner. Here’s Stephen Tall’s commentary on the night itself.

Within a few days, the world would have gone mad with Cleggmania. Given what’s happening in politics now, it seems tame but it was a Big Thing at the time. You knew it wasn’t really going to lead to anything, but it was a good feeling. 1983, when the Alliance was at one point ahead in the polls and finished with just 23 MPs always loomed large in my mind.  Anyway, over to Stephen:

On 27th August, LDV will be 10 years old. In that time, we’ve brought you over 24,000 posts and published over 337,000 comments. Over the Summer holidays, we’ll take you on a nostalgic meander through a decade of Liberal Democrat history, seen through the eyes of our editors and contributors. We hope you enjoy our choices.

LDV burst on to the scene on 27th August 2006 with a bold prediction about the forthcoming Party Presidential election. Incumbent Simon Hughes was “certain to be challenged.”

Word reaches the Voice that weeks before the position had been advertised in Lib Dem News, party officials in Cowley Street received a call requesting a copy of the nomination papers for party President – the caller was not acting on behalf of Simon Hughes.

Word also reaches us that one potential candidate is positioning himself to blitz Autumn Conference with an army of supporters bearing nomination papers, to seize the momentum.

A Presidential contest is no bad thing – though there is an argument that there are better ways to spend the money. The Voice has been told that a proposal is being put to the Federal Executive to double the campaign expenditure limit – to  £5000 per candidate.

So our crystal ball may have been a bit wonky.

It’s worth noting that our last prediction about a presidential election,  a members’ survey suggesting a Daisy Cooper win, was similarly affected by the LDV Presidential Curse.