Author Archives: The Voice

The Voice

Tim Farron on last night’s results: “When we get knocked down, we refuse to get knocked out”

By The Voice | Fri 6th May 2016 - 10:42 am

Tim Farron's q and a at Newcastle Uni
Tim Farron has just sent the following email to party members:

12 months ago we suffered the worst defeat in our party’s history, yet in this election we have shown that when we get knocked down, we refuse to get knocked out.

I’m incredibly proud of all our candidates and grateful for their hard work and the commitment.

We are starting to see the result of our hard work and determination, and recognition of an unwavering commitment to the communities we wish to represent. These elections are starting to show that Liberal Democrats are in a position to grow.

In Scotland, Willie Rennie and Alex Cole-Hamilton gained seats – against the odds – from the SNP. And despite the full onslaught of the SNP machine we increased our share of the vote in both Orkney and Shetland.

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The Voice

Catherine Bearder wins Green Ribbon award for championing air quality

By The Voice | Thu 5th May 2016 - 12:06 pm

News reaches LDV that Catherine Bearder has won the Green Ribbon Political Award recognising her outstanding environmental achievements.

Catherine was awarded in the “MEP of the Year” category for her work fighting for stronger European targets to tackle air pollution. The judges commended Catherine for generating public awareness of the issue and championing EU action to improve air quality, often in the face of opposition from the UK government.

Catherine is currently a lead negotiator on the EU’s 2030 air pollution limits and has helped ensure that the European Parliament prioritises improving air quality ahead of the vested interests of individual industries …

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The Voice

Kirsty Williams: Vote Lib Dem to make more nurses and smaller class sizes a reality

By The Voice | Wed 4th May 2016 - 4:55 pm

Kirsty Williams has made her final pitch for Lib Dem votes in Montgomeryshire, supporting candidate Jane Dodds, where she will say that the Welsh Liberal Democrats are the only party to consistently work to achieve results and put narrow party-political interest aside, their leader Kirsty Williams has said today on the eve of the Assembly election.

Tomorrow’s vote is your chance to make a difference for your community. Before you cast it, I want you to ask yourself: who has delivered the most for you and your family?

More often than not, the people I talk to across Wales aren’t interested in the cheap party-political point-scoring. What they always ask me is, ‘What have you done to make my life better?’ As a Welsh Liberal Democrat, I always have a long list of things to tell them about.

When Labour wanted to cut the numbers of apprenticeships in Wales, we used our influence to stop them. When rural councils were getting a raw funding deal, it was us who secured more money. When our poorest pupils were consistently underachieving in our schools, it was us who stepped in and gave them that extra support.

Unlike the other parties, we’re not content with whinging from the sidelines. Welsh Liberal Democrats always roll up our sleeves and get things done for our communities, and for the people of Wales.

If our record over the last five years shows anything, it’s that a vote for the Welsh Liberal Democrats is a vote for our policies being put into action. Tomorrow will be no different – your vote could help make our ideas a reality.

If you support smaller class sizes, if you want more nurses on hospital wards, if you want an Opportunity Economy that enables people to get on life, then you have to vote for it – you have to vote Welsh Liberal Democrat. Only then can we begin to deliver a Wales that works for you.

The last few days of her campaign have been a whirlwind of campaigning that has seen her everywhere from Ceredigion to Cardiff to North Wales to her home patch of Brecon and Radnorshire.

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The Voice

Five ideas to fight for

By The Voice | Tue 3rd May 2016 - 5:06 pm

Five ideasAnthony Lester, the Liberal Democrat peer, lawyer and “the most eminent human rights lawyer in Britain” has been interviewed by the Huffington Post.  He highlights how, as a Jew, he was exposed to prejudice and discrimination from a young age, starting with the loss of relatives in the Holocaust, and later in the army when he was barred from attending a dance in the officer’s mess to “prevent miscegenation”.

As a barrister he devoted a large amount of his life to combating discrimination, and he also worked with Roy Jenkins, then Labour Home Secretary, on developing laws against race and sex discrimination. Later he fought for the Human Rights Act.

Anthony’s new book Five Ideas To Fight For will be published this week. He focuses on the ‘big ideas’ of human rights, equality, free speech, privacy and rule of law. He is very worried about the future of the Human Rights Act, which the current government is planning to repeal and replace with a British Bill of Rights.

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The Voice

WATCH: Tim Farron on the Sunday Politics: Progressive, centre left voters are turning to us

By The Voice | Sun 1st May 2016 - 6:15 pm

Farron on Sunday Politics

 

Tim Farron was interviewed on the Sunday Politics today ahead of the local elections. Andrew Neil gave him a hard time, as you would expect, but he came out of it quite well.

You can watch the whole thing here.

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The Voice

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By The Voice | Sun 1st May 2016 - 1:30 pm

7 bestMany thanks to the 11,400  visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Inquest verdict: the 96 were unlawfully killed (73 comments) by Joe Otten

Could Trumpland reach Britain? (35 comments) by Lord William Wallace

Poll boosts for Kirsty Williams and Eluned Parrott in Wales (5 comments) by Caron Lindsay

WSTCH: Tim Farron on the Andrew Marr Show (8 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Missing the civility of coalition (27 comments) by Nick Thornsby

We shouldn’t just be the party of remain, we should be the party of reform (30 comments) by Alex H

Farron makes plea to centre left voters (3 comments) by Caron Lindsay

 

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The Voice

Katy Gordon challenges SNP minister on housing and homelessness failures

By The Voice | Sun 1st May 2016 - 11:30 am

Scotland 2016 held its final election debate, on housing, earlier this week. West of Scotland lead candidate Katy Gordon represented the Liberal Democrats. She put forward the Lib Dems’ plan, which takes in mental health, addiction and prison services as well and confronted SNP Housing Minister Alex Neil on his government’s failure to keep its promises and deal with a very real housing crisis in Scotland. As always, Katy was full of practical detail and put in a very thoughtful and engaging performance. You can watch her here.

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You can see the whole …

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The Voice

Rennie: Sturgeon must shred China deal after human rights warning

By The Voice | Sat 30th April 2016 - 9:11 pm

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie today said that the SNP risks dragging Scotland’s reputation through the mud following reports that a Chinese firm at the heart of a controversial £10bn deal with the Scottish Government is tied to human rights abuses.

It was reported in today’s Herald that Amnesty International named China Railway Group Ltd (CRG) and subsidiaries it controls in a report exposing human rights abuses related to the mining industry in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It had previously emerged that CRG had been blacklisted for investment by Norway’s oil fund over fears that the construction giant was involved in gross corruption.

Willie said:

The last thing that the First Minister did before the election started was sign a £10bn deal with a business directly tied to allegations of corruption.

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The Voice

WATCH: Richard Younger-Ross’s pitch to be Devon & Cornwall’s Police and Crime Commissioner

By The Voice | Sat 30th April 2016 - 1:55 pm

Here is former Teignbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross being interviewed as candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner. Find out what he had to say about why he thought he was the best person for the job, what his priorities would be and how he tackled the “why should people vote for you when you don’t think the role should exist?” question.

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The Voice

WATCH: Norman Baker’s Reform Club’s hard-hitting song “Give War a Chance”

By The Voice | Fri 29th April 2016 - 11:48 am

Norman Baker’s band, The Reform Club has a new album, Never Yesterday, out. Today, they release a very professional looking video.

Watch the hard-hitting song Give War a Chance which satirises the activities of a “peace envoy” and is published ahead of the Chilcott Report which we are sure will be published at some point this millennium. Norman plays the role of the envoy to absolute perfection. And there are tanks. Real tanks.

Of the song, Norman says:

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The Voice

LibLink: David Laws – The road to student retention

By The Voice | Thu 28th April 2016 - 12:12 pm

David Laws has been writing for Times Higher Education focussing on the worrying number of disadvantaged students dropping out of higher education:

The UK government’s target to double the number of disadvantaged young people going to university by 2020 is laudable. Access to higher education offers a platform for young people to succeed and is central to establishing a meritocratic society.

Nevertheless, while access provides the foundations, it doesn’t build the house. If we’re really serious about meritocracy, we have to be ever vigilant about what happens to young people once they are at university too.

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The Voice

Jenny Randerson urges Welsh Labour voters to support the Lib Dems to stop Ukip

By The Voice | Thu 28th April 2016 - 10:56 am

WalesOnline reports some interesting comments from Jenny Randerson ahead of next week’s Welsh assembly elections. Jenny said:

The truth is that Labour voters can stop Ukip gaining large numbers of Assembly Members. The power, so to speak, is in their hands.

Even Labour insiders know, in their heart of hearts, that it’s unlikely that they will pick up regional Assembly Members. Therefore, Labour voters must consider lending their regional vote to the Welsh Liberal Democrats to stop Ukip.

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The Voice

Can you help the London Liberal Democrats beat UKIP and win a third Assembly seat?

By The Voice | Wed 27th April 2016 - 5:04 pm

London Liberal Democrats are making a push for funds to help them run the best possible final flourish to the campaign and get out the vote operation.

A You Gov poll indicated that if we can just get one more percentage point, we could beat UKIP and get Merlene Emerson elected as our third assembly member.

Caroline Pidgeon says on the London Liberal Democrats’ website:

Polls show that a handful of votes could separate UKIP and the Lib Dems on 5th May.

Those votes will either elect Merlene Emerson to join me on the Assembly, a British-Chinese liberal, or a prejudiced UKIP voice.

For every additional £500 we can contact 93,000 people with Facebook advertising to run alongside our targeted literature and canvassing. We’re aiming to raise £10,000 in the next few days so we can contact our target voters three times each on Facebook to maximise our chances of getting our vote out.

Four years ago we pushed the BNP off the London Assembly. And, by just a few votes, kept out UKIP as well. Help me make sure we do it again.

Thanks again for your support!

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The Voice

Tim Farron: SNP taking Scotland for granted

By The Voice | Wed 27th April 2016 - 2:20 pm

Tim Farron went to Aberdeenshire East to join candidate Christine Jardine on the campaign trail yesterday.

He had this to say about the SNP’s record and how the Liberal Democrats would improve things:

This is the first Scottish election when people are really starting to judge the SNP on their record. And the further you get from the central belt in Scotland, the more you get a sense that people don’t believe the SNP cares about rural communities.

We’ve seen the terrible way they’ve handled farm payments. Farmers should have been paid what they are owed months ago. We’re now nearly into May and the delays have led to a huge black hole in the rural economy.

Liberal Democrats stand up for the communities for they represent. There is real Liberal Democrat strength in Scotland, our MSPs punched well above our weight at Holyrood and voters know that people like Christine won’t take rural Scotland for granted.

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The Voice

David Steel on Northern Ireland abortion law

By The Voice | Tue 26th April 2016 - 7:37 pm

David Steel

We’ve just caught up with an interview with David Steel on the BBC Northern Ireland political show The View. (The interview starts 17:58 minutes in)

David was responsible for introducing the Abortion Act in 1967, which made abortion legal up to 28 weeks, later reduced to 24 weeks. But the law was never extended to Northern Ireland where the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861 still applies. Under that law a woman who procures her own abortion is guilty of a felony and can be given a prison sentence of life, or for up to two years ‘with or without hard labour, and with or without solitary confinement’. Current regulations permit termination only if the woman’s life is at risk or if continuing the pregnancy would put her long-term health at risk.

David says:

I think they’ve got to face up to the fact that the law in Northern Ireland is simply ridiculous – 1861 – and it is time they came up at least to 1967, if not 2016.

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The Voice

Welsh Lib Dems say AM pay rises must be linked to public sector pay

By The Voice | Tue 26th April 2016 - 6:33 pm

Kirsty Williams on Radio WalesFrom May, AMs in the Welsh Assembly will get a whopping 18% pay rise, awarded by an independent pay review body. Only the Welsh Liberal Democrats voted against that and they have said that it must never happen again.

From the BBC:

Kirsty Williams has promised to peg AMs’ pay to general rises in the public sector.

AMs will get a salary of £64,000 from 5 May, up from £54,000, following an independent remuneration board decision.

The Lib Dems pledge would apply to the Senedd term after the 2021 election.

Ms Williams said: “It’s outrageous that, at a time when public sector workers have had their salaries either frozen or rise only slightly, politicians are getting a salary hike of 18%.

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The Voice

Congratulations to Suzanne Fletcher for winning ALDE’s Lifetime Achievement Award!

By The Voice | Mon 25th April 2016 - 4:38 pm

Suzanne Fletcher

In a ceremony earlier today Suzanne Fletcher was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).

Suzanne is known nationally amongst Liberal Democrats for her tireless campaigns in support of refugees and asylum seekers, and in particular for setting up Liberal Democrats for Seekers of Sanctuary (LD4SOS).

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The Voice

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By The Voice | Sun 24th April 2016 - 12:26 pm

7 bestMany thanks to the 11,000  visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Paddy has Brexit campaigners floundering on Question Time (21 comments) by Caron Lindsay

How the Scottish Liberal Democrats are winning the campaign (26 comments) by Caron Lindsay

In conversation with David Laws (21 comments) by York Membery

Review: Coalition, by David Laws (19 comments) by Nick Thornsby

Who makes the decisions in the EU? (26 comments) by Liz Lynne

Undeclared Conservative election expenses unearthed by Channel 4 News (18 comments) by The Voice

Is liberalism dead? (37 comments) by Andrew Venning

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The Voice

What’s being debated in our members’ forum this week?

By The Voice | Sat 23rd April 2016 - 1:54 pm

members forum wordleLibDemVoice has two parallel sites. The first is our public blog, the thing you’re reading now. The second is our private members’ forum, which only current Lib Dem members can access.

If you’re a member and want to chat with fellow party members about any issue that’s on your mind, then why not sign up? In addition, you’ll be included in our regular surveys’ of party members’ views.

Here’s some of the most active discussions this past 10 days:

TTIP

Local election results to watch

What is our …

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The Voice

Undeclared Conservative election expenses unearthed by Channel 4 News

By The Voice | Thu 21st April 2016 - 6:04 pm

Michael Crick, Channel 4 News’s political correspondent, has spent months investigating the Conservative Party’s election expenses from last year’s general election, focussing on the party’s “battle buses”, which moved activists around the country, and the associated costs incurred (e.g. hotels).

Last night’s programme featured another report, this time looking at the use of the buses in the South-West, where the Conservatives successfully targeted every one of the 14 seats held by the Lib Dems:

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The Voice

And the new Lib Dem peer is…

By The Voice | Tue 19th April 2016 - 5:28 pm

John Thurso…Despite failing to submit a manifesto
…Despite one of his opponents submitting a manifesto with the word “cupidity” in it
…the new Lib Dem peer is the old Lib Dem Peer and former MP John Thurso.

He won the strangest by-election ever, the election of another Liberal Democrat hereditary peer to replace Eric Avebury who sadly died in February.

There was an electorate of 3 to choose between a field of 7.

We don’t need the full STV rundown because all 3 of the electors voted for Lord Thurso.

The BBC has more information:

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The Voice

LibLink: Miriam Gonzáles says free trade has won: adapt or die is the only option left to us

By The Voice | Mon 18th April 2016 - 10:53 am

Writing on the Tata steel crisis in the Guardian, Miriam Gonzáles, who is a partner at the global specialist law firm, Dechert LLP, specialising in international trade, writes:

The Tata Steel sale has revived the battle between protectionists and free traders, a debate that became particularly acute in the run-up to the creation of the World Trade Organisation in 1995, which marked the success of “free traders” all around the world.

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The Voice

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By The Voice | Sun 17th April 2016 - 2:25 pm

7 bestMany thanks to the 12,800 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Baroness Lynne Featherstone writes…The State killed my nephew (4 comments) by Lynne Featherstone.

UKIP’s ongoing collapse – ducking a by-election in Farage’s “top target” (10 comments) by Antony Hook

Why, after a year of being involved with the Lib Dems, I’ll be renewing my membership (27 comments) by Benjamin Sims

Offshore 101, or can we please stop asking David Cameron to resign? (47 comments) by Alice Thomas

Breaking… A duo of by-election wins – one strong hold, one great gain (20 comments) by Caron Lindsay

The Bearing Group, helping to build a more liberal UK (25 comments) by Tristan Gray

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The Voice

Nick Clegg chairs meeting on educational inequality in Sheffield

By The Voice | Sat 16th April 2016 - 10:25 am

Back in January, the Social Market Foundation, a think tank, established its cross-party Commission on Inequality in Education. It wants to tackle the disparity of attainment and break down barriers it identified relating to where you live, your family’s income and your ethnicity.

Yesterday, Nick chaired a meeting  of the Commission at Sheffield Hallam University.

Nick said:

On launching the commission, our research showed that where young people live now has more impact on their performance at school than used to be the case.

It is not just the relative wealth of parents that holds lots of bright kids back: it is postcode inequality too. What part of the country a child grows up in has a real impact on their life chances.

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The Voice

Farron: Rise in UK deaths related to hunger a “national scandal”

By The Voice | Fri 15th April 2016 - 1:30 pm

The Huffington Post reports a rise in the number of deaths in which hunger is a factor in the UK. It’s up from 255 in 2005 to 375 in 2014. In 2013, that figure was even higher at 392.

Tim Farron was horrified to hear this, saying:

This shouldn’t be happening in 21st century Britain and the Government’s response is hopelessly complacent.

We seem to be creating ‘Breadline Britain’ for some of the most vulnerable people in society.

People are living under greater pressure and hearing thousands of people have died, in part, due to malnutrition is a national scandal.

We wonder if there …

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The Voice

Welsh Lib Dems launch manifesto – A Wales that works for you

By The Voice | Thu 14th April 2016 - 10:03 pm

At a Penarth health centre, Kirsty Williams launched the Welsh Liberal Democrats’ manifesto:

Kirsty talked about its “relentless focus” on public services:

People want good schools, good hospitals and a vibrant economy – a strong future for Wales. After 17 years in office, people recognise that the Labour Government still fails to get the basics right.

We are launching our vision today in a GP surgery to send a clear message: we are relentlessly focused on better public services.

Our manifesto is a roadmap for an ambitious, optimistic and pioneering Wales, based on our values and our nation’s needs. Our priorities are the people of Wales’ priorities: more nurses on hospital wards, smaller class sizes for our children, and an Opportunity Economy so that people can get on in life.

It’s time Wales had a government that actually listened to people – this is a manifesto that will deliver a Wales that works for you.

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The Voice

LibLink: Vince Cable makes the case for TTIP and free trade

By The Voice | Thu 14th April 2016 - 9:36 am

Vince Cable, who was involved in negotiations over the proposed EU-US trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, in his role as business secretary, has been writing about the issue, and that of free trade more generally.

Vince first summarises the rationale for TTIP:

The European Commission has prioritised a bilateral agreement with the USA: TTIP, which is proving a source of unexpected controversy, although negotiations are still at an early stage. The underlying objective is to apply, on a transatlantic basis, the same approach that helped to create the EU Single Market. Since, as within the EU, tariffs and quotas are no longer a major issue the emphasis has been on preventing differences in standards, mainly technical, acting as a barrier to trade. There are, for example, different specifications for seatbelt design and testing that make it difficult to export in both directions. In effect, a different production line is required to sell into the USA, which can be prohibitive, especially for low volume manufacturers.

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The Voice

Tim Farron launches blueprint for UK to take 3000 unaccompanied refugee children

By The Voice | Wed 13th April 2016 - 5:22 pm

Tim Farron has this afternoon published his blueprint for how the UK could take 3000 unaccompanied refugee children.

Earlier he spoke to the Daily Politics about the plan and his visit to Northern Greece yesterday.

The plan has been drawn up in consultation with the charities and NGOs who attended his recent summit on the issue. The main recommendations are as follows:

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The Voice

Welsh Lib Dems plan £20 million boost for hill farmers

By The Voice | Tue 12th April 2016 - 9:35 pm

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have announced plans to help hill farmers, recognising the difficulties they face in farming challenging terrain.

They include £20 million package for hill farmers and plans to enable farmers to be able to improve their resilience and competitiveness.

They say they are passionate about protecting Wales’ proud farming tradition and that farmers in Wales produce some of the greatest produce in the world, but too often they are not getting the support they need from an out of touch Labour Government.

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The Voice

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By The Voice | Sun 10th April 2016 - 1:33 pm

7 bestMany thanks to the 10,000  visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

It’s time for the Lib Dems to set some external goals, strategy and tactics (70 comments) by Antony Hook

Is it Game Over for David Cameron? (29 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Laws on Osborne v Duncan Smith (24 comments) by Joe Otten

Book Review: Charles Kennedy: A tragic flaw by Greg Hurst (8 comments) by Paul Walter

Ethnic minority pupils outclass white British pupils (41 comments) by Mary Reid

What Cameron and Osborne said bout Vince Cable’s proposals on corporate transparency (26 comments) by Nick Thornsby

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